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W. G. S. Adams
William George Stewart Adams (8 November 1874 – 30 January 1966) was a Scottish political scientist and public servant who became principal of an Oxford College and a leader in the fields of voluntary service and rural regeneration.
George Adams was born in Auchingramont Road, Hamilton, the younger son of John and Margaret (née Stewart) Adams, by whom he was given "an intellectual and somewhat evangelistic upbringing". His father was Rector (headmaster) of St John's Grammar School and had founded Gilbertfield House School, both in Hamilton. His mother came from a Glasgow mercantile family and was a niece of the social activist John Murray.
Educated at St John's (where he was School Dux in 1891), Adams proceeded to Glasgow University with a Dundonald Bursary in Philosophy. At Glasgow he was Blackstone medallist in Latin and Sandford scholar in Greek and obtained a first-class degree in Classics (1897). He afterwards went up to Balliol College, Oxford, with a Snell Exhibition, and gained Firsts in Greats (1900) and Modern History (1901), taking political philosophy and political economy as his special subjects. He was president of the Arnold Society and rowed for his college.
Following a year as a tutor at Borough Road Teacher Training College, Isleworth, Adams briefly lectured on Finance and Colonial Policy in the University of Chicago's Department of Political Economy (1902) and afterwards spent three months in the United States and Canada studying the work of governmental and educational institutions. Returning to Britain in 1903, he became Lecturer in Economics at Victoria University of Manchester, where he was also secretary of the university's educational outreach initiative.
In 1904 he accepted Sir Horace Plunkett's offer of the position of Head of Statistics and Intelligence at the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, of which Plunkett had charge. He remained in post for five years, obtaining close insight into both the workings of the civil service and matters of central and local government administration and becoming both the "right-hand man" and close personal friend of Plunkett, who inspired in him a lifelong concern for rural welfare. The annual reports Adams issued while in Ireland were "more than mere statistical tables ... each was a valuable economic treatise on the trade of the country", and in 1909 it was suggested that his work on the Irish economy during the previous five years "has done more to stimulate practical patriotism than all the political speeches of the last decade".
In 1911 he was appointed to the Irish Financial Committee, which was established, under the chairmanship of Sir Henry Primrose, to examine financial relations between Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom and to consider how revenues should be allocated in the event of Ireland being granted home rule. Adams's belief that a federalist approach was key to resolving the Irish Question was reflected in the committee's recommendation that a future Irish Government should have full control over Irish revenues, but H. H. Asquith's administration declined to adopt this approach in the Third Home Rule Bill.
By the time of his membership of the Primrose Committee, Adams had resumed an academic career. The Oxford University Endowment Fund had financed a three-years Lectureship in Political Theory and Institutions to which Adams was appointed in early 1910. The Warden of All Souls College, Sir William Anson, intervened to procure conversion of the Lecturership into a Chichele Readership further endowed by a Fellowship of All Souls, to which Adams was elected on 15 June 1911. It has been suggested that Anson knew little about Adams and wrongly assumed his appointment would serve the Unionist cause in Ireland, but the selection was generally well-received and Adams proved an able lecturer and effective organiser.
In 1912 his Readership was, with the benefit of further endowment by the Committee for a National Memorial to W. E. Gladstone, upgraded to the Gladstone Professorship of Political Theory and Institutions, and Adams became a member of the university's Hebdomadal Council.
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W. G. S. Adams
William George Stewart Adams (8 November 1874 – 30 January 1966) was a Scottish political scientist and public servant who became principal of an Oxford College and a leader in the fields of voluntary service and rural regeneration.
George Adams was born in Auchingramont Road, Hamilton, the younger son of John and Margaret (née Stewart) Adams, by whom he was given "an intellectual and somewhat evangelistic upbringing". His father was Rector (headmaster) of St John's Grammar School and had founded Gilbertfield House School, both in Hamilton. His mother came from a Glasgow mercantile family and was a niece of the social activist John Murray.
Educated at St John's (where he was School Dux in 1891), Adams proceeded to Glasgow University with a Dundonald Bursary in Philosophy. At Glasgow he was Blackstone medallist in Latin and Sandford scholar in Greek and obtained a first-class degree in Classics (1897). He afterwards went up to Balliol College, Oxford, with a Snell Exhibition, and gained Firsts in Greats (1900) and Modern History (1901), taking political philosophy and political economy as his special subjects. He was president of the Arnold Society and rowed for his college.
Following a year as a tutor at Borough Road Teacher Training College, Isleworth, Adams briefly lectured on Finance and Colonial Policy in the University of Chicago's Department of Political Economy (1902) and afterwards spent three months in the United States and Canada studying the work of governmental and educational institutions. Returning to Britain in 1903, he became Lecturer in Economics at Victoria University of Manchester, where he was also secretary of the university's educational outreach initiative.
In 1904 he accepted Sir Horace Plunkett's offer of the position of Head of Statistics and Intelligence at the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, of which Plunkett had charge. He remained in post for five years, obtaining close insight into both the workings of the civil service and matters of central and local government administration and becoming both the "right-hand man" and close personal friend of Plunkett, who inspired in him a lifelong concern for rural welfare. The annual reports Adams issued while in Ireland were "more than mere statistical tables ... each was a valuable economic treatise on the trade of the country", and in 1909 it was suggested that his work on the Irish economy during the previous five years "has done more to stimulate practical patriotism than all the political speeches of the last decade".
In 1911 he was appointed to the Irish Financial Committee, which was established, under the chairmanship of Sir Henry Primrose, to examine financial relations between Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom and to consider how revenues should be allocated in the event of Ireland being granted home rule. Adams's belief that a federalist approach was key to resolving the Irish Question was reflected in the committee's recommendation that a future Irish Government should have full control over Irish revenues, but H. H. Asquith's administration declined to adopt this approach in the Third Home Rule Bill.
By the time of his membership of the Primrose Committee, Adams had resumed an academic career. The Oxford University Endowment Fund had financed a three-years Lectureship in Political Theory and Institutions to which Adams was appointed in early 1910. The Warden of All Souls College, Sir William Anson, intervened to procure conversion of the Lecturership into a Chichele Readership further endowed by a Fellowship of All Souls, to which Adams was elected on 15 June 1911. It has been suggested that Anson knew little about Adams and wrongly assumed his appointment would serve the Unionist cause in Ireland, but the selection was generally well-received and Adams proved an able lecturer and effective organiser.
In 1912 his Readership was, with the benefit of further endowment by the Committee for a National Memorial to W. E. Gladstone, upgraded to the Gladstone Professorship of Political Theory and Institutions, and Adams became a member of the university's Hebdomadal Council.