Biography > Pupils of F. M. Alexander

Arthur Goodhart ‘Poggea’ Pite (1896-1938) was headmaster of Weymouth College, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Arthur Goodhart Pite served in the RAF during World War I and later gained a First Class in Modern History Tripos at Cambridge. He married Muriel Tasker, Irene Tasker’s sister. Two of their children attended the […]

Aaron Sussman (1903–1991), Russian-born US journalist, author, advertising executive, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Aaron Sussman studied chemical engineering at The City College of New York and journalism at New York University. He started his writing career as a reporter on the Brooklyn Eagle and the New York Daily News, and contributed […]

Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951), US chemist, businessman, art collector, writer, educator, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Barnes came from a poor working-class area in Philadelphia. He attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, qualifying in 1892. He did not go into practice but trained as a chemist as applied to medicine. […]

Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894–1963), English essayist and novelist; pupil of Alexander.   Life Aldous Huxley was a prominent man of letters and author of more than 38 books. His early novels (Crome Yellow, 1921, Antic Hay, 1923) were satires on the pretensions of the intellectual elite of his day, exposing the impotence of academic knowledge. […]

Alexander Leeper (1848–1934), principal of Trinity College, Melbourne University, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Alexander Leeper was born in Belfast and completed his education at Trinity College, Dublin, and St. John’s College, Oxford. He took up an appointment in 1876 as principal of Trinity College at Melbourne University. (The title ‘principal’ was […]

Andrew Rugg-Gunn (1884–1972), Scottish eye surgeon, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Rugg-Gunn graduated in medicine in 1907 from Edinburgh University and went into general practice. During WW1 he served in both Italy and India. After the War he settled in London (he had a clinic in Harley Street) and became senior ophthalmic […]

Anthony Mario Ludovici (1882–1971), English translator and author, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Ludovici began as an artist and illustrator of books and was at one point secretary to Auguste Rodin. Ludovici translated six volumes of Nietzsche’s philosophy, on which he also lectured. He served in WWI and became Captain in the […]

Arthur J. Busch (c. 1900–66), aka Michael March, was a US journalist, photographer, and a pupil of Alexander.   Life Arthur J. Busch was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was a drama critic for The Brooklyn Times and features editor of The Jacksonville Journal before he became city editor of The Brooklyn Citizen. Later […]

William (‘Billy’) Morris Hughes (1862–1952), Australian politician, Prime Minister of Australia (1915–1923), and pupil of Alexander.   Connection with Alexander In 1909 Alexander Leeper presented his ‘The Report on Physical Culture in the United Kingdom and the Continent of Europe’ to the Victorian Teachers and Schools Registration Board. The report recommends Alexander’s method:   That […]

Dr Charles Bage (1859–1930), Australian doctor who was Alexander’s doctor in the early 1890s.   Life Dr Charles Bage (1859–1930). He obtained his medical degree in 1881 and became doctor of medicine in 1884. He ran a private practice in South Yarra, Melbourne, until 1923 and retired in 1925. Dr Bage was a founding member […]

Dr Andrew Murdoch (1862?–1943), Scottish doctor and pupil and supporter of F. M. Alexander.   Life Dr Andrew Murdoch gained his MD in Glasgow in 1884 but settled soon afterwards in Bexhill-on-Sea where he remained in private practice until his retirement. In 1936 his practice was one of the first in the area to build […]

Edward H. Owen (1919 – 2000), UK journalist, pupil of F. M. Alexander, and first editor of the Alexander Journal.   Edward Owen was a journalist who lived for many years in Guernsey. In 1965 he formed an agency specialising in travel and financial matters in Guernsey, and was the Financial Times offical correspondent for […]

Frederick (‘Fred’) C. Chatto Watts (1896–1953), British publisher, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life He was the son of the founder of the Rationalist Press Association, Charles Albert Watts (1858–1946), which was established in 1885 for the purpose of publishing secular books, and for the promotion of humanism and free thinking. F. C. […]

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was an Irish playwright, critic and polemicist, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life George Bernard Shaw was born in Ireland but moved to London in 1873 where he lived for most of his life. He wrote more than sixty plays, including Arms and the Man (1894), Man and […]

Coghill, George Ellett (1872–1941), US professor of anatomy and researcher into the development of reflexes of movement in vertebrates. Coghill wrote an appreciation for The Universal Constant in Living, and Alexander and his supporters used Coghill’s discoveries as a scientific support for the Alexander Technique.   Life Coghill started his biology studies in 1897, became […]

Gerald Stanley Lee (1862–1944), US clergyman, author of popular books, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Gerald Stanley Lee was an American Congregational clergyman of puritan background. He was a preacher in several churches in New England and Minnesota before resigning from the pulpit in 1896 to dedicate himself to writing. He […]

Henry Brodribb Irving (1870–1919), English actor and manager, elder son of Sir Henry Irving. He started acting in 1891 and revived many of his father’s famous parts both in England and in America. He also ran his own company, and was manager of several London theatres.[1]   Writings in support of the Alexander Technique Following […]

Sir Henry Irving (1838–1905), born John Henry Brodribb, English actor, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Irving started acting in 1856 and made his London début ten years later. It was his success in The Bells in London (1871) which secured his reputation. (Note, that Alexander saw Walter Bentley in the lead role […]

Horace M. Kallen (1882–1974), Professor of social philosophy, educator, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Horace Kallen was born in Austrian Silesia (now part of Poland), and his family moved to the US in 1887. He studied philosophy at Harvard University and at Oxford University. He taught at Princeton University, Harvard University (until […]

James E. R. McDonagh (1881–1965), English surgeon, Alexander’s doctor and friend, and a pupil of Alexander.   Life In 1909 McDonagh became Fellow of the Royal College of Surgery, and in 1916 he was elected Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. His research into venereal diseases, the common cold, influenza and corresponding infections […]

James Harvey Robinson (1863–1936), U. S. historian and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Robinson specialised in European history about which he wrote several works. He obtained his Ph.D. at Freiburg in 1890, and was Professor of History at Columbia University 1895–1919 and a founding member of the New School for Social Research in […]

Jennette Barbour Perry Lee (1861? 67?–1951), teacher, author and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Jennette Barbour Perry Lee studied at Smith College 1883–86 after which she taught Philosophy, Rhetoric and Composition at the Grant Collegiate Institute in Chicago. Later she taught at the Wheaton Academy, Vassar, and Western Reserve. In 1886, she […]

John Dewey (1859–1952), American philosopher of education and pupil and supporter of F. M. Alexander.   Life John Dewey studied at the University of Vermont and at Johns Hopkins University. After two years as a high-school teacher he decided he was unsuited for teaching in primary or secondary education. He received his Ph.D. School of […]

John Duncan Dunn (1872–1951?), British golfer, golf course designer and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Duncan Dunn was a nephew of William Dunn, Jr. (1864–1952), who was also a well-known golfer and designer of golf courses in the US.   Duncan Dunn sold his own design of clubs and was a golf course architect.[1] […]

John Hilton (1880–1942), English journalist, lecturer, sociologist, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Hilton started as an apprentice mechanic, but soon became works manager and later the manager at a firm of loom makers. When he was 28 a severe sciatica attack forced him to give up work. He started contributing articles […]

Joseph Rowntree (1836–1925), English cocoa and confectionery manufacturer and philanthropist. A pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Joseph Rowntree and his brother, Henry Isaac, acquired a small cocoa manufacturing business in York in 1862, and Joseph Rowntree became the sole owner in 1883. At Rowntree’s retirement in 1923, the factory employed 7,000 people under […]

Lawrence (Larry) Kelso Frank (1890–1968), US educator and child-development expert, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Frank received a B.A. in economics in 1912 and worked as a systems analyst. In 1923 he became an executive for the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial foundation. He also worked for the General Education Board and […]

Leonard Sidney Woolf (1880–1969), man of letters, political worker, author, publisher, husband of author Virginia Woolf, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Woolf worked in the Ceylon Civil Service (1904-11). He resigned in 1912 and married Virginia Stephen the same year. He turned to writing and published his first novel in 1913. […]

Lily Brayton (1876–1953), British actress and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Lily Brayton made her first appearance in 1896 and became famous for her performance in the rôle of Viola in Twelfth Night in 1901 and as Yo-San in The Darling of the Gods in 1903 or 1904. In 1898 she married the […]

Victor Alexander G. R. Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton (1876 –1947), was a British politician and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Lytton worked in the Admiralty 1916–20, before being appointed Under-Secretary of State for India 1920–22. He was Governor of Bengal 1922–27 and in 1926 served briefly as Viceroy (a post his father […]

Margaret Naumburg (1890–1983), US educator, author and founder of dynamically oriented art therapy, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life While a student at Barnard College, Naumburg shared rooms with Evelyn Dewey (daughter of John Dewey). Naumburg studied with John Dewey at Columbia University and did further studies at the London School of […]

Marie Ney (neé Fix) (1895–1981) was an English actress and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life As a young child, Ney went with her family to live in New Zealand. She began her acting career in that country, and continued it in Australia. After several years she moved back to Britain, where she acted […]

Mary Louisa Beatrice Olcott (1864–1962), US suffragette, world traveller and author,[1] and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Mary Olcott was born in Brooklyn, New York. She received her education at private schools and under the guidance of tutors. She was of a colonial family which had settled in the US in the 17th […]

Lucy Mary Silcox (1862–1947), teacher and headmistress, and pupil of F. M. Alexander   Life Silcox took an M.A. in London and the Classical Tripos at Newnham College, Cambridge. She was Headmistress of East Liverpool High School in 1901 and of Dulwich High School from 1901 to 1908. In 1909 she became Headmistress of St. […]

Matheson Lang (1879–1948) was a British actor, actor-manager and playwright, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Matheson Lang began his career in 1897, and first played in London in 1900. He became well-known for his Shakespearen roles, playing Othello, Hamlet and Romeo, among others. He worked with Sir Frank Benson, Lillie Langtry, […]

Maurice Baring (1874–1945), dramatist, poet, novelist, essayist, travel writer and war correspondent. He was a pupil of Alexander.   Life He started out as a diplomat, serving in Paris, Copenhagen and Rome, but he resigned from the Foreign Office to cover the Russo-Japanese war for the Morning Post in 1904. At the start of World […]

Maurice Burton (1898 –1992), a British zoologist and popular science author, and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Maurice Burton read Zoology at London University. He worked at the British Museum of Natural History from 1927 to 1958. He was the Science Editor for the Illustrated London News and Nature Correspondent for the […]

Dr Mungo Douglas, Scottish doctor, who was an ardent supporter of Alexander and the Technique.   Life He became a doctor in 1921 and practised in Bolton for most of his life. He became a pupil of Alexander’s in about 1928 or 1929. His wife, Sydney, also had lessons and they became friends of Alexander’s.[1] […]

Philip Boswood Ballard (1865–1950), Scottish headmaster, author and Inspector of Schools, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Philip Boswood Ballard, British Inspector of Schools, Doctor of Literature and author. Boswood was Headmaster of Pupil Teachers’ School, Tondu, Glamorgan, 1898–1903, before he became an Inspector of Schools: in Glamorgan 1903–05, and then with the […]

Percy Hugh Boomer (1885-1949), golfer and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Percy Boomer and his brother Aubrey Boomer (b.1897) were professional British golfers and won several championships in the 1920s. According to Wikipedia: ‘Boomer was one of the top teachers of golf in Europe and spent the majority of his professional career at […]

Peter Macdonald (1870–1960), surgeon and eye specialist, a pupil of F. M. Alexander, who wrote several articles on the Alexander Technique for the medical profession.   Life Peter Macdonald was born in Scotland and was a Scottish surgeon and eye specialist. He settled in York where in 1904 he became medical officer to Rowntree & […]

Dr Robert Henry Scanes Spicer (1856–1925), doctor and specialist of the throat, and a pupil of Alexander.   Life Dr Robert Henry Scanes Spicer (sometimes referred to as Scanes-Spicer) gained his M.D. in 1885. He studied in throat clinics in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, and was one of the founding members of the Laryngological Society […]

Raymond Arthur Dart (1893–1988), Australian-born anatomist and anthropologist. He was the originator of what is now known as the Dart procedures.   Life Dart, Raymond Arthur (1893–1988) was an Australian-born South African anatomist and anthropologist. He graduated in medicine at Sydney in 1917, and became Professor of Anatomy in Johannesburg in 1923. He achieved international […]

Robert Dudley Best (1892-1984), British businessman and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Best inherited his family brass founder business, Best & Lloyd, known for their lamps and chandeliers (they invented the ‘Surprise’ pendant in 1893 which was the forerunner of today’s angle-poise lamp). Best wrote a biography of his father, R. H. Best […]

Friedrich Robert Donat (1905–58), English actor and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Donat made his first stage appearance in 1921, at the age of 16. From 1930 Robert Donat acted in London’s West End Theatres where he also worked briefly as a manager. He is known for several leading film roles, among […]

Ron George Brown (1911–55), British journalist, editor and pupil of F. M. Alexander. Ron Brown wrote an important summary of F. M. Alexander’s four books.   Life Ron Brown worked for Reuters, the Times diary, the Evening Standard ‘Londoner’s Diary’ and Associated Press. He also worked for the embryo United Nations in 1944. He was […]

Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (1889–1952), British politician, pupil and supporter of F. M. Alexander.   A lawyer, Cripps entered Parliament in 1931 as a left-wing Labour MP, antiwar and pro-Soviet. He served as Ambassador to Moscow (1940–42) and later served in Winston Churchill’s wartime cabinet. He helped to coax Stalin into joining the Allied war […]

Viola Tree (1884–1938), English actress, singer, playwright, and pupil of F. M. Alexander.   Life Tree was born in London, the eldest of three daughters of Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his wife, the actress Helen Maud Tree. Her aunt was author Constance Beerbohm and an uncle was Max Beerbohm.   Tree made a successful London […]

Waldo David Frank (1889–1967), American novelist, travel writer and essayist, a pupil of F. M. Alexander, and who was first married to Margaret Naumburg and later Alma Frank.   Life Waldo Frank grew up in New York City, attended a college preparatory boarding school in Switzerland, earned a bachelor’s degree at Yale University, and then […]

William Temple (1881–1944), Archbishop of Canterbury and a pupil of F. M. Alexander.   William Temple was a British churchman and Archbishop of Canterbury (1942-44). He was a conservative Christian but politically of socialist orientation. His broad-minded idealism is expressed in Nature, Man and God (1934) and Christianity and Social Order (1942). He started having […]