First name/s: George H
Last name: Melhuish
Known names / nicknames:
Date of birth:
Year of birth: 1873

Life before Ruskin

Date and place of birth: 1873, Exeter

Family: Father’s occupation, Tailor

Work: Grocer’s clerk  (1891 census)

Politics/Trade union activity: Member of Social Democratic Federation, active in Plymouth branch.

Trade Union membership (at time of entry to Ruskin)

Life at Ruskin

Dates at Ruskin: January-December 1900

Source of funding: Not known

Campaigns/political activity: Active in Ruskin Hall Movement.

Subjects studied at Ruskin: standard curriculum (Industrial History, History, Sociology, Economics)

Dissertation: N/A

Qualification: N/A

Life after Ruskin

Education: unknown

Work: unknown

Politics/trade union activity: Worked in Ruskin Hall Movement, helped set up a Plymouth Ruskin Hall in 1901 (with Teddy Traynor), while also organising SDF educational activity in Plymouth.  Supporter of Plebs League at time of 1909 strike, and was still active in 1930s when he was Treasurer of the London Division of the Plebs League.

Family:  Wife, Ida Vernon Melhuish (census 1911)

Place & date of death:  Not known

Date of death:
Year of death: 0

Achievements / Publications

Publications by George Melhuish:

‘May Day’, Young Oxford, vol 1.9, June 1900, p 18.

‘How the World Looks. By a Late Resident of Ruskin Hall’, Young Oxford, vol 2.19, April 1901, 238-9.

‘The Early Days at Ruskin’, The Plebs, 2 February 1935, 29-30.

Material in archives or already published articles

Melhuish had a reputation as an orator, and is frequently mentioned in the Ruskin Hall Fraternal League News (Young Oxford, Sept 1900-Aug 1902).  He occasionally writes to, or is mentioned in. the SDF newspaper Justice (4 March 1899; 24 March 1900) .

Image

Notes on Image/s

Comment of contributor/s and sources

Sources, Young Oxford, Justice and The Plebs.

Census material 1891 and 1901 confirmed by home address given in Ruskin Hall Fraternal League News, and moderate confidence for the 1911 census (giving his wife’s name).

Author/s

Janet Vaux