Author:
E. G. A. Holmes [Edmond Gore Alexander Holmes] (1850-1936), educationalist and poet; Admiral Sir Reginald Neville Custance (1847-1935), Royal Navy officer; Lt-Col. John Glas Sandeman (d.1922)
Publication details:
ONE (Custance to Sandeman): 8 August 1911; on letterhead of 42 Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, W. [London] TWO (Holmes to Sandeman): 19 August [1911]; 'c/o Messrs Constable & Co / 10 Orange Street / Leicester Square / W. C. [London]'.
See the entries for Custance and Holmes in the Oxford DNB. According to the latter: ‘On his retirement in November 1910, Holmes published What is and What Might Be (1911), a condemnation of the existing education system, which stressed competition rather than co-operation, emphasized visible results, and demanded the mechanical obedience of the child. The book attracted wide public attention. [...] Shortly before his retirement, he became involved in the furore over the so-called 'Holmes–Morant circular', a highly confidential memorandum which he had issued in January 1910 to inspectors’.
