Biography > All

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 […]

Albert Redden (‘A. R.’) Alexander (1874-1947), teacher of the Alexander Technique and F. M. Alexander’s younger brother.   Life After service in the Boer War he joined F. M. Alexander’s teaching practice in 1901 in Melbourne which he continued after F. M. moved to London in 1904. A. R. joined F. M. in London in […]

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 […]

Alan Murray (1897–1975), Australian teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Alan Murray studied acting and music and worked with a theatre company in Melbourne. After a tour of America in the 1920s Alan Murray settled for some time in New York where he was involved in acting, stage production and dramatic teaching. He started […]

Alan Rowlands (1930?–2012), pianist and teacher of the Technique.   Alan Rowlands learned the piano at the Royal College of Music, and later became a Professor of piano at the RCM. He had lessons with Marjory Barlow, and later trained as a teacher of the Technique with the Barlows in the early 1970s.[1]   Obituary […]

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 […]

Alma (Mae Magoon) Frank (1898–1953), US teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Frank received an M.A. from Teachers’ College of Columbia University. She heard about the Technique from Margaret Naumburg while teaching at Naumburg’s nursery school at Walden – one of the first progressive educational schools in the US. (Naumburg, who founded the Walden […]

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 […]

Anthony Spawforth (1919-2003), British teacher of the Alexander Technique, who started his training with F. M. Alexander.   Life Anthony Spawforth started training with F. M. Alexander in February 1951, and was qualified by Walter Carrington in 1955.   He worked as an assistant at Ashley Place and also taught part-time in Copenhagen, Denmark, from […]

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 […]

Carol McCullough (1957-2003), US teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Carol McCullough taught violin at Illinois Wesleyan University before she trained in the Alexander Technique. She was a Doctor of Musical Arts and lived in Minneapolis.[1]   Writings She self-published her paper, ‘The Alexander Technique and the Pedagogy of Paul Rolland’ (1996).[2] It was […]

Countess Wielopolska, née Catherine (‘Kitty’) Merrick (1900-1988), US teacher of the Technique.   Life Wielopolska had a degree as a nurse-midwife and worked in a Maternity Center. She was a friend of Lulie Westfeldt and both joined Alexander’s first training course in 1931. Wielopolska battled with schizophrenia for most of her life. She was due […]

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 […]

Charles Alexander Neil (1916–58), British teacher of the Technique, who developed his own version of the Alexander Technique and started the Isobel Cripps Centre (1948-1958).   Biography Charles Neil suffered from severe asthmatic attacks which the Technique alleviated to a great extent. He trained 1933–36 and left Ashley Place in 1937 to teach on his […]

Christopher (‘Chris’) Stevens (1943-2003), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Chris Stevens was a yoga teacher, and was the British Wheel of Yoga’s first National Organiser in October 1971. He was instrumental in introducing other yoga teachers – such as Ken Thompson and Ray Evans – to the Alexander Technique.[1]   Stevens and […]

This section only covers criticisms of Alexander’s character, his personality traits. For other criticisms see below.   Criticism of personality   Leonard Wolff wrote in his diary that ‘he [Alexander] was a quack but an honest and inspired quack.’[1]   Ludovici in his Religions for Infidels (1961) reported on his first impression of Alexander:   […]

Dr David Garlick (1933–2002), Australian scientist and teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Dr David Garlick was a physiologist and medical research scientist at the University of New South Wales. He trained as a teacher of the Technique with Kri (Christine) Ackers and he later attended her course once a week. Garlick was instrumental in […]

Deborah Caplan (†2000), US physical therapist and teacher of the Alexander Technique who pioneered the Alexander Technique specifically for back problems.   Life Deborah Caplan was the daughter of the novelist and essayist Waldo Frank and of Alexander Technique teacher Alma Frank, who trained with F. M. Alexander. Around the age of 9 or 10 […]

Several first-generation teachers wrote and spoke about F. M. Alexander, in particular Lulie Westfeldt, Erika Whittaker, Marjory Barlow,[1] [2] Walter Carrington, F. P. Jones and Elisabeth Walker. See individual biography for details of their writings.   Descriptions of F. M. Alexander frequently contain a mixture of descriptions of Alexander’s character and his teaching.   Descriptions […]

Dilys M. G. Carrington (1915–2009), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Dilys Carrington was the Co-Director of the Constructive Teaching Centre and made important contributions to the development of the teacher training programme.   Life Dilys Jones was born in 1915 in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, she was educated at Kings’ High School for Girls, Warwick, […]

Don Burton (1943–1996), UK teacher of the Alexander Technique and HoT.   Life Don Burton trained as physiotherapist and then as a teacher of the Technique around 1970–73 at the Constructive Teaching Centre (CTC).   Don Burton and other teachers started a group for pupils who wanted intensive work in the Alexander Technique without joining […]

Dr Dorothy S. R. (neé Drew) Morrison (1908-88) was a British surgeon and gynaecologist, teacher of the Technique and practitioner of alternative medicine.   Life Morrison gained her MD in 1934 and was later awarded a Gold Medal in Gynaecology. In 1935 she married Leonard David Morrison, an architect. She was a friend of Anthony […]

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 […]

Elisabeth Walker (1914-2013), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life She trained as a radiographer in 1935 at Middlesex Hospital and became assistant to Graham Hodgson. His practice in Upper Brook Street, London, served many royalty and celebrities of the day (Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Mrs Simpson (the Duchess of Windsor) […]

Elizabeth (‘Liz’, ‘Lizzie’) Atkinson (†2011), British teacher of the Alexander Technique and Head of Training.   Life Elizabeth Atkinson trained as an actor and had lessons with Elisabeth and Dick Walker at the New College of Speech and Drama. She went on to train at the Constructive Teaching Centre with the Carringtons, 1972–75. She lived […]

Elizabeth (‘Betty’) Langford (1929–2009), UK teacher of the Alexander Technique, author of several books on the Technique, and Head of Training.   Life Elizabeth Langford was born in London. In 1952 she married the Hungarian musician Tamas Rajna. She studied violin with Max Rostal. She became the second concertmaster of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. […]

Eric de Peyer (1906–90), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Biography After graduating in English from Oxford he studied archaeology for a short time before joining Alexander’s training course (1936-39). He married Jean in 1938 and they had four sons. He worked with Charles Neal at the Re-Education Centre (of which de Peyer was […]

Erika Whittaker, née Schumann (1911-2004), German-born British teacher of the Technique.   Life Erika was the daughter of Elsie Webb (of the Mappin & Webb silversmith company) and Hans Schumann. Whittaker started having lessons at the age of eight from her aunt, Ethel Webb, and started having lessons with F. M. Alexander in 1929. Between […]

Ethel (‘Pip’) Mary Webb (1866–1952), English pianist, teacher of the Alexander Technique and assistant to F. M. Alexander.   Life Webb was a daughter of George Webb, of the Mappin and Webb silversmith family business. She studied piano in the 1890s in Berlin and became a fine pianist but did not have the strength to […]

Life Frederick Matthias Alexander was born in Tasmania in 1869. He started to evolve his now world-famous technique in the early 1890s. It was initially developed to solve the frequent loss of voice he suffered working as a reciter. A successful reciter and teacher of elocution he toured Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. He first […]

Fran Robinson (†2010), UK teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Fran Robinson obtained a BA degree from the University of Manchester in 1971. She qualified as a teacher of the Alexander Technique with Peter Scott in London in 1975.   In 1984 she received a certificate in Basic Training from the Centre for Transpersonal Psychology. […]

Frank Ottiwell (1929–2015), prominent US teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Frank Ottiwell studied acting at the Canadian Art Theatre School and at the Vera Soloviova Acting School in New York City. He started taking lessons with Judy Leibowitz in September 1954, and started on her teachers training course in September 1956. He graduated […]

Frank Pierce Jones (1905–1975), US professor of Classics and a teacher and researcher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Jones was an instructor in Greek and Latin at Brown University 1937–41. In 1938 he started having lessons with A. R. and subsequently trained as teacher (1941–44), first with F. M. and later with A. R. He started teaching […]

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 […]

Goddard Binkley (1920-1987), US teacher of the Technique, who is known for his diary of his lessons with F. M. Alexander, published as The Expanding Self.   Life Goddard Binkley was born in 1920 in Chicago. During his studies towards a Ph.D. in Sociology at the New School for Social Research, New York, he started […]

Grethe Laub (1911–1996), Danish teacher of the Alexander Technique whose special interest was working with children.   Life Grethe Laub trained as a nursery school teacher at the Froebel Institute in Copenhagen between 1933-35. In 1949 she travelled to London and had a number of lessons with F. M. Alexander as well as some with […]

Gurney MacInnes, teacher of the Technique, who trained on Alexander’s first training course.   Life MacInnes came into contact with Alexander in 1927 through A. G. Pite who shortly afterwards became Headmaster of Weymouth College, a boys’ preparatory school. MacInnes taught at the Junior School at Weymouth for two terms before joining Alexander’s training course […]

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 […]

Influences on early writings The First 43 Years of the Life of F. Matthias Alexander, volumes 1–2, by Jeroen Staring (1996) covers predominantly possible influences on Alexander and his technique until 1912 by comparing Alexander’s writings with contemporary people’s writings.[1]   Influence on voice and breathing In his 1894–95 writings F. M. Alexander mentions or […]

Janet Irene Stewart (1906–1990), Scottish teacher of the Technique.   Life Irene Stewart was a District Commissioner of the Girl Guide Movement but, suffering from asthma, she moved to London after hearing about the Technique from Margaret Goldie. She trained 1931–34 and subsequently taught at Ashley Place. Together with Alexander, Ethel Webb, Margaret Goldie and […]

Irene Tasker (1887–1977), British teacher of the Alexander Technique who started the ‘Little School’ and was the first teacher of the Alexander Technique in South Africa.   Life Irene Tasker was the daughter of Rev. John Greenwood Tasker, a Wesleyan minister and one time Principal of the Theological College at Handsworth in Birmingham. She went […]

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 […]

Jan Pullman (1951–2012), German teacher of the Alexander Technique and Head of Training in Hamburg.   Life Jan Pullman studied classical saxophone and piano in Cologne and continued his studies at Trinity College of Music, London, 1978–81. Here he started having lessons in the Technique. Greatly helped by the Technique he trained as a teacher […]

Jeanne Day, British teacher of the Alexander Technique and Head of Training.   Life Jeanne Day was born in 1918. She trained for the certificate of Horse Exam, was a nanny, and during WWII joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service, worked as a farm worker, worked in the Royal Women’s Voluntary Service. After the war […]

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 Brown (1950–2008), UK teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life John Brown was born in Bagor, Country Down, Northern Ireland. Following university he worked as a social worker and later as a youth worker in West Belfast. He had his first lesson in Belfast, and decided to train with Chris Stevens in Denmark in […]

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 Gray, British teacher of the Alexander Technique, actor, and author of Your guide to the Alexander Technique.   Life John Gray joined the RAF in 1957 as his National Service. Afterwards he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and began acting professionally in the early 1960s. A car crash caused him […]

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 […]

John Skinner (1912–92), Australian-born British teacher of the Technique.   Skinner served in the Royal Australian Air Force, and was a POW under the Japanese. He had read of Alexander’s work in Aldous Huxley’s Ends and Means and wrote immediately after the war to Alexander who responded encouragingly. Skinner arrived in London in December 1945, […]

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 […]

Joyce Roberts (1905–1996), South African teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Joyce Roberts assisted Irene Tasker for several years in a way which amounted to an apprenticeship training. As Irene Tasker had no authority from F. M. Alexander to train teachers she did not qualify her, and would not for many years acknowledge Robert’s training. […]

Judith Leibowitz (1920–1990), US teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Judith Leibowitz was 14 when she was paralysed from the waist down with polio. After many months of immobilization she undertook an intensive regime of physical therapy and could then walk again with braces and crutches. She graduated from Brooklyn College with a major […]

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 […]

Lena Frederick (1944-1997), US teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Lena was born in Zurich, grew up in Switzerland, Lebanon and the US. She graduated with honours from Harvard University, followed by an MFA degree in theatre directing from the Yale School of Drama. She married Michael D. Frederick. They trained together at the […]

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 […]

Lulie Westfeldt (1898–1965), U. S. teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life At the age of seven she had poliomyelitis, the scars of which caused her some disability. On the advice of a friend she went in 1929 to London where she had lessons with Alexander. She joined the first teachers training course in February […]

Ellen A. M. Goldie (1905-1997), British teacher of the Technique and assistant to F. M. Alexander   Margaret Goldie qualified as a teacher of the Technique in 1934 and worked for Alexander until his death in 1955.   Life Goldie first started having lessons in 1927 due to poor health (‘insomnia, spinal curvature, a bad […]

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 […]

Marjorie (‘Marj’) Barstow (1899–1995), US teacher of the Technique who pioneered a new way of teaching the Alexander Technique in a group setting.   Life Barstow was born in 1899 in Ord, Nebraska, the youngest of four children. After graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1921 she taught ballet and ballroom dancing. She came […]

Marjorie (‘Chile’) Eagar, née Gray (1915–2008), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Marjorie Eagar lived in South America until the age of 16 when the family moved to Yorkshire. She trained as a Montessori teacher in 1932–34. After a series of lessons from Marjory Barlow she trained with Alexander 1946–48. Gray has been working […]

Marjory Barlow (née Mechin), (1915–2006), Alexander Technique teacher, and niece to F. M. Alexander.   Life F. M. Alexander’s sister, Amy, moved to London in 1911 and joined Alexander as his assistant. Amy married George Mechin in 1914 and their first child was Marjory. Being of weak health she moved in her teens into her […]

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 […]

Maxwell (‘Max’) Alexander (1916-1997), British teacher of the Technique and nephew to F. M. Alexander.   Life At the suggestion of his father, A. R. Alexander, Max Alexander trained with Alexander (1934–37). Afterwards he moved to join his father, A. R. Alexander, in Boston, where they both taught the Technique. He returned to the UK […]

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 […]

Patrick (‘Pat’) John Macdonald (1910-1991), prominent British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Patrick Macdonald was born in York in 1910, the son of Peter Macdonald and Agnes Julia Rowntree. Peter Macdonald was an outspoken supporter of Alexander who had lessons in the Technique for many years. Patrick Macdonald began to receive lessons from […]

Paul Collins (1926-1995) was a violinist, runner, and Alexander Technique teacher, and Head of Training.   Life Paul Collins was born in London and raised in Canada. He was educated at Acadia University, but being a a violin prodigy from an early age, he attended the Julliard Graduate School, and Yale music school. He returned […]

Peggy Williams (1916-2003), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Peggy Williams, born Goldstone, in Manchester. In 1938 she married Louis Nixon and moved to London. She started having lessons with F. M. Alexander and started his teachers’ training course in September 1947. She graduated in February 1955, and she stayed on to assist on […]

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 & […]

Peter Scott (1918-1978), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Peter Scott went to Stockport Grammar School, Cheshire, where he gained a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford. As a child he developed a lifelong passion for music in general and the piano in particular. He studied piano under Edward Isaacs and continued his musical […]

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 […]

Rachel Zahn (1943-2017), US teacher of the Alexander Technique who promoted Francisco Varela’s approach of how mental experience could be studied scientifically.   Education Rachel Zahn first received theatre training at the University of Maryland and Catholic University. She received a study grant from the American Conservatory Theatre and trained as a teacher of the […]

Ray Evans (1929-2005), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Ray Evans worked in the Royal Navy as an engineering officer. He went on to work for Vickers and the Atomic Energy Authority. While lecturing in engineering design at Aylesbury College he became a yoga teacher. Through contacts with other yoga teachers he got […]

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 […]

Richard Gummere   Richard (‘Buzz’) Mott Gummere Jr. (1912–2007), US trained teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Gummere served as Director of Admissions at Bard College and taught at Columbia University Teachers College.   At the age of 28 he felt ‘vague but deep misery, but mental and physical’.[1] He had interviews with psychiatrists […]

Richard (‘Dick’) Walker (1911–1992), UK teacher of the Alexander Technique and Head of Training.   Life Richard Walker read philosophy at Oxford and was especially interested in Eastern spiritual thought. He was a keen and successful amateur golf player. He had won the Northen Open twice and had been highly placed in the German Open […]

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 […]

Ron Murdoch (1941–2018), Canadian classical singer and teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Ron Murdoch grew up in Nova Scotia. He studied music at Mount Allison University and through a grant went on to study singing in Montreal. He came to Europe at the age of 27 to study with Frederick Husler in Switzerland. (He […]

Shmuel Nelken (1930–2015), first Israeli teacher of the Alexander Technique and Head of Training.   Life Shmuel Nelken was born in Berlin in 1930 and in 1933 came with his parents to Palestine. In his teens he studied piano and cello. He then studied agriculture, and became a founder member of a kibbutz. Realising agricultural […]

Shoshana Kaminitz, Israeli born teacher of the Alexander Technique, who assisted Patrick Macdonald and continued his teacher training course.   Life Shoshana Kaminitz was born in Israel. She trained with Patrick Macdonald 1960–63 and became de facto his Assistant Director on his teacher training course. When Macdonald stopped training around 1987 due to ill health, […]

Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857–1952), English neurophysiologist and supporter of the Alexander Technique.   Life Sherrington became a doctor in 1886 and immediately started to specialize in physiology. He worked at the universities of London (1891–95), Liverpool (1895–1912) and Oxford (1913–35). He was knighted in 1922 and shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine […]

Sir George Lowthian Trevelyan 4th Baronet (1906 –1996) was a British teacher of the Alexander Technique who went on to become a founding father of the New Age movement.   Life The Trevelyans were an aristocratic family who claimed descent from Sir Trevillian, one of King Arthur’s knights. Trevelyan studied at Sidcot School, a Quaker […]

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 […]

Sydney Holland (†1989), British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Sydney Holland was a manager in W. & T. Avery Ltd. (manufacturer of weighing machines), and he started having lessons with F. M. Alexander in 1939. Sydney joined Alexander’s teacher training course in 1945 while continuing to work for Avery’s. He qualified in 1949 […]

Tasha Miller (1954–2015), Indian born British teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Tasha Miller was born in Sutna, India. The family moved in Swindon, England, in the late 1960s. She studied Fine Art at St. Martin’s in London before moving to study dance and drama at Dartington College of Arts in Devon. She started […]

Troup H. Mathews (1916-2002), US teacher of the Alexander Technique and Head of Training in New York.   Life Troup Mathews was born in Le Havre, France, and came to the US in 1935. He enlisted in the US Army in January 1941 and was stationed in North Africa. He was wounded in El Guettar, […]

Vera Cavling (1920–2011), Danish teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Life Vera Cavling, née Kjær, was very frail in her early youth, suffering from fatigue, insomnia and chronic headaches. She and her sister, Else Kjær, went to London in 1948 and had lessons from F. M. Alexander as well as several other teachers at Ashley […]

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 […]

Walter H. M. Carrington (1915–2005), British teacher of the Alexander Technique. Walter Carrington was an inspirational teacher, founder of the Constructive Teaching Centre, and an influential writer on the Alexander Techniqu   Life Walter Hadrian Marshall Carrington was born in Selby, Yorkshire, in 1915, the only child of the Rev Walter Marshall Carrington. In 1917 […]

Wilfred (‘Bill’) Barlow (1915–91), British doctor and teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Wilfred Barlow was the first teacher to conduct research into the Technique, and author of the bestselling The Alexander Principle (1973).   Life Wilfred Barlow trained with Alexander 1938-45. In 1940 he married Marjory Mechin, Alexander’s niece. Barlow qualified as a doctor […]

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 […]

Yvonne Becker (1942?–2018), South African teacher of the Alexander Technique.   Yvonne Becker worked as a school teacher and librarian before training in the Alexander Technique. She trained as an Alexander Technique Teacher in Cape Town with Joyce Roberts and qualified in 1983. She then assisted Joyce Roberts in training teachers until 1987.   She […]