20 Facts About Stephen Hobhouse

Stephen Henry Hobhouse was an English peace activist, prison reformer, and religious writer.

Stephen Hobhouse was the eldest son of Henry Hobhouse, a wealthy landowner and Liberal Party MP from 1885 to 1906, and Margaret Heyworth Potter.

Stephen Hobhouse was brought up as a member of the Church of England.

Stephen Hobhouse was educated at Eton, where he won prizes in both academics and sports, and at Balliol College, Oxford.

Stephen Hobhouse originally supported the war but his views were soon challenged by his cousin Emily.

Stephen Hobhouse worked as a civil servant for seven years in the Board of Education.

Stephen Hobhouse met her at a dinner party for Christian activists.

Stephen Hobhouse was an activist, and spent three months in jail for distributing pacifist pamphlets.

Stephen Hobhouse ignored a notice to report to barracks, was arrested by the civil police, brought before a magistrates' court, and handed over to the military.

Stephen Hobhouse refused to put on military uniform, was court-martialled and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour.

Stephen Hobhouse was then placed in solitary confinement because he refused to obey the "Rule of Silence" forbidding prisoners to speak to one another.

Stephen Hobhouse wrote to his wife: "The spirit of love requires that I should speak to my fellow-prisoners, the spirit of truth that I should speak to them openly" By mid-1917, after 112 days in jail, followed by a second jail sentence, his health was declining rapidly.

Stephen Hobhouse's health had always been frail: he had previously suffered nervous breakdowns and scarlet fever.

Stephen Hobhouse's wife was angry about his treatment in prison and some said that he never recovered his health entirely.

Stephen Hobhouse is continually, of course, under lock and key, ignored except as an object for spying.

Stephen Hobhouse's mother, Margaret, was a supporter of the First World War, in which three of her four sons served: the youngest Paul Edward was killed in March 1918.

Stephen Hobhouse was determined to save her eldest son Stephen's life and to draw attention to the predicament of 1,350 war resisters then being held in prison.

Stephen Hobhouse maintained that "absolutists" like Stephen should either receive a King's Pardon or be released into civilian life.

In prison Stephen Hobhouse met Fenner Brockway, a "fiery socialist" and fellow anti-war activist.

Stephen Hobhouse wrote many books on prison reform, Quakerism, and religion.