Sindhu at 23:33, 20 August 2025

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{{Short description|British philanthropist and agronomist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Leonard Knight Elmhirst
|honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRSA}}
| image = Leonard K. Elmhirst NO-NB BLDSA GM2a167n (cropped).jpg
| caption=Elmhirst in 1924
| alt = 
| office1 = Chairman of the [[Dartington Hall|Dartington Trust]]
| term_start1 = 1931
| term_end1 = 1972
| successor1 = [[Maurice Ash]]
| office2 = [[Devon County Council|Devon County Councillor]] for [[Harberton]]
| term_start2 = 1937
| term_end2 = 1952
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1893|6|6}}
| birth_place = [[Worsbrough]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], [[United Kingdom]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1974|4|16|1893|6|6}}
| death_place =
| nationality = [[United Kingdom|British subject]]
| alma_mater = {{Plainlist}}
* [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]
* [[Cornell University]]
{{Endplainlist}}
| occupation = [[Philanthropy|Philanthropist]] and [[agronomy|agronomist]]
| known_for = {{Plainlist}}
* [[Dartington Hall]] project in progressive education and rural reconstruction
* Founded Institute of Rural Reconstruction, [[Sriniketan]]
* Introduced [[artificial insemination of cattle]] to the UK
* President, [[Royal Forestry Society]]
* Member, [[Education in India#Rural education|Indian Rural Education Committee]]
{{Endplainlist}}
| spouse = {{Plainlist}}
* {{marriage|[[Dorothy Payne Whitney]]<br/>|1925|1968|reason=died}}
* {{marriage|Susanna Isaacs<br/>|1973}}
{{Endplainlist}}
| children = 2
| module =
| allegiance = {{flagicon|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland}} [[United Kingdom]]
| branch = {{army|United Kingdom|name=British Army}}
| serviceyears = 1918–1919
| rank =
| unit =
}}
'''Leonard Knight Elmhirst''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSA}} (6 June 1893 – 16 April 1974) was a British philanthropist and agronomist who worked extensively in [[India]]. He co-founded with his wife, [[Dorothy Payne Whitney|Dorothy]], the [[Dartington Hall]] project in progressive education and rural reconstruction.

==Biography==
Leonard Elmhirst was born into a [[landed gentry]] family in [[Worsbrough]] (now part of [[Barnsley]], [[Yorkshire]]), where the family seat is [[Houndhill]]. He was the second of nine siblings (eight boys and one girl). His elder brother, Captain William Elmhirst, was killed on 13 November 1916, aged 24, while serving with the 8th Battalion [[East Yorkshire Regiment]] during the [[Battle of the Somme]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/593481/elmhirst,-/|title=ELMHIRST, W.|website=cwgc.org}}</ref> and the third son, Second Lieutenant Ernest Christopher Elmhirst, was killed on 7 August 1915, aged 20, while serving with the 8th Bn. [[Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)]] during the [[Gallipoli Campaign]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/695747/elmhirst,-ernest-christopher/|title=ELMHIRST, ERNEST CHRISTOPHER|website=cwgc.org}}</ref> both during [[World War I]]. The fourth son, Thomas became Air Marshal Sir [[Thomas Elmhirst]] (KBE, CB, AFC, DL, RAF).

In 1912 Leonard Elmhirst went up to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], to study history and theology, intending to follow his father into the Church. In 1914, he was deemed unfit for military service and volunteered for overseas service in the [[YMCA]]. His experience of the problems of rural India was to fundamentally change the direction of his career. After one year's service in the army he was demobilised in 1919 and entered [[Cornell University]] in [[Ithaca, New York]] to study agriculture. Arriving almost penniless, he completed a four-year degree course in two years.<ref name="elmhirst">Leonard Knight Elmhirst, ''The Straight and Its Origin'', 1975, OCLC 2046429 originally serialized in ''Cornell Alumni News'', 1974–75</ref>
In 1920 he was elected president of Cornell's Cosmopolitan Club, which was mostly for foreign students, and found that it had large debts and depended on the philanthropy of its alumni and others. Money-raising activities brought him in contact with [[Dorothy Payne Whitney|Dorothy Straight]], who was to become his wife.

In America he also met the 1913 Nobel Laureate for Literature, [[Rabindranath Tagore]], and in November 1921 returned to India as Tagore's secretary. In 1922, in the village of [[Surul]] (of which [[Sriniketan]] is a part) adjacent to Santiniketan, [[West Bengal]], he set up for Tagore an Institute of Rural Reconstruction. Between 1923 and 1925, Leonard travelled twice around the globe, lecturing and supporting Rabindranath Tagore's missions to Europe, Asia and South America.<ref name="elmhirst"/>

The influence of Tagore, and the interests and money of his wife to be, led Elmhirst to undertake an experiment in rural reconstruction at [[Dartington Hall]] in [[Devon]]. It is said that Tagore had become familiar with Dartington during his travels in England and influenced Elmhirst in his selection of the estate, which was purchased in a series of transactions in 1925. Elmhirst also assisted in the re-acquisition of his ancient family seat, [[Houndhill]], a couple of miles from his birthplace.

==Works==
In 1931, when the [[Dartington Hall]] experiment was established they set up a trust to manage its affairs so they could undertake other work worldwide. Leonard's work included:

* Work for [[Exeter University]], Devon County Council and local organisations
* 1929: launched the [[International Conference of Agricultural Economists]]
* 1931: helped to found the policy think tank [[Political and Economic Planning]]<ref name="oxford dnb">{{Cite ODNB|title = Elmhirst, Leonard Knight |author = Anthea Williams|url = https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-31072| year=2004 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31072 | isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |accessdate = 18 February 2022}}</ref>
* 1932: brought [[artificial insemination of cattle]] from Russia to Devon
* President of the [[Royal Forestry Society]]
* War-time public service during [[World War II]] including agricultural missions to the Middle East and India
* Irrigation and hydroelectricity in the [[Damodar Valley]], India
* 1954: Member, Indian Rural Education Committee

==Personal life==
Leonard married [[Dorothy Payne Whitney]] in September 1925. They had two children. He was the stepfather of racing driver and aviator [[Whitney Straight]] (1912–1979), actress [[Beatrice Straight]] (1914–2001) and writer and KGB spy [[Michael Whitney Straight]] (1916–2004). Their daughter Ruth married the environmentalist [[Maurice Ash]]. On the occasion of the 25th wedding anniversary of Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst in 1950, Benjamin Britten composed ''[[Five Flower Songs]]'', a cycle of part songs premiered in the open air at Dartington, conducted by [[Imogen Holst]]. After Dorothy died, Leonard married Susanna Isaacs-Elmhirst<ref>{{cite journal|title=Obituary: Susanna Isaacs-Elmhirst|journal=British Medical Journal|date=2010|volume=340|page=2809|doi=10.1136/bmj.c2809|s2cid=72856153}}</ref> in 1973 in Worsborough, Yorkshire.

==Honours==

In 1946 he refused the offer of a [[baron|barony]] from [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Clement Attlee]]. In a letter to Attlee he replied that "My own work, however, as you know, has lain in the main among country people...in India, the USA and in Devonshire...acceptance would neither be easy for me to explain nor easy for my friends to comprehend".<ref>The Elmhirsts of Dartington, ''The Creation of a Utopian Community'', 344. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982</ref> In 1972, he declined another honour from [[Ted Heath]].<ref name="Devon Archives">{{Cite web|title = Papers of Leonard Knight Elmhirst, 1890–1973|author = |url = https://devon-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/LKE|newspaper = [[South West Heritage Trust]]|date = |accessdate = 18 February 2022|archive-date = 18 February 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220218154459/https://devon-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/LKE|url-status = dead}}</ref>

He received honorary doctorates from Freiburg (D.Pol.Sci.), Visva-Bharati (D.Litt.), the University of Durham (D.C.L.), the University of Oxford (D.C.L.), and the University of Exeter (D.C.L.). He was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Arts]] in 1926 and a fellow of the American Farm Economic Association in 1960.<ref name="Devon Archives"/>

He was elected Honorary President of the [[Devonshire Association]] in 1959.<ref name="Devon Assc">{{Cite web|title = Presidents |author = |url = https://devonassoc.org.uk/organisation/presidents/|newspaper = [[Devonshire Association]]|date = |accessdate = 18 February 2022}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category}}
*[[Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington|Michael Young]], ''The Elmhirsts of Dartington, The Creation of a Utopian Community'', Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elmhirst, Leonard Knight}}
[[Category:English philanthropists]]
[[Category:English educational theorists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Military personnel from South Yorkshire]]
[[Category:British Army officers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Whitney family]]
[[Category:1893 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:People associated with Santiniketan]]
[[Category:People from Barnsley]]
[[Category:20th-century British philanthropists]]

Leonard Knight Elmhirst - Revision history

Sindhu at 23:33, 20 August 2025