Charles Vickery Drysdale & Bessie Drysdale — the League-to-Eugenics-Society crossing
player
The last president of a birth-control league and his wife walked straight into the Eugenics Society.
Who they are
Charles Vickery Drysdale and Bessie Drysdale[1].
What they do
They are the documented bridge between the Malthusian League and British eugenics.
How it works
He took over the League in 1921 from his mother. A historian of the period writes that several League officers, 'including its last president, Charles Vickery Drysdale, and his wife, Bessie, were early if troublesome recruits' to the Eugenics Society. In 1912 he published a pamphlet titled 'Neo-Malthusianism and eugenics'.
Why it matters
This is how the two movements actually overlapped: through the same people, not a merger.
The engine's record — word for word
[
Report #196] **In plain terms:** the last president of the Malthusian League and his wife, both of whom joined the Eugenics Society — the documented personnel bridge between the two movements.
C. V. Drysdale became League president on 21 February 1921 (Benn 1992 p. 209; Sanger Papers: 'In 1921, when his mother resigned, Drysdale took over as president of the League') and was still listed as president during its nominal survival. His 1912 pamphlet is titled 'Neo-Malthusianism and eugenics' (Wellcome). He was instrumental in founding the National Birth Control Council in 1930. Richard Soloway (Albion, 1978): 'Several officers of the old Malthusian League, including its last president, Charles Vickery Drysdale, and his wife, Bessie, were early if troublesome recruits to the Society.' The Society is the one huxley_julian later presided over (1959–62). Held; person-edges, not a single controller.
Follow the trail
Walk this on the live map →