In This Section
LEONARD KNIGHT ELMHIRST PAPERS
Record Series in the Leonard Elmhirst Papers include: Africa (Dartington Africa Trust); Browne; Cornell; Devon; Development Commission; Education; Festival of Britain; Fitness; General; India; Middle East Supply Centre; National Parks; North Devon; Overseas; Political and Economic Planning; South West Regional Board for Industry; Tagore; Theatre; USA; and the Withymead Centre.
The Leonard Knight Elmhirst papers record his involvement as a founding trustee at Dartington Hall, and also his work as an agricultural economist interested in rural regeneration.
Leonard held key posts with a variety of research institutes, and chaired important enquiries into aspects of rural life and industry in Britain in the inter war period. Leonard served with the YMCA in Iraq and as an agricultural advisor in India between 1915 and 1919.
After World War I, he attended Cornell University in New York, studying what were then new scientific methods of farming, and received a degree in Agricultural Economics. He married Dorothy Whitney Straight in 1925. Leonard’s experience with the American system of agricultural experiment stations and co-operative extension services influenced the laboratory role of Dartington agriculture and forestry in Devon. After Cornell, Leonard Elmhirst directed Rabindranath Tagore's Institute of Rural Reconstruction in Bengal, India. His association with Tagore, India, and the Middle East continued through World War II and this is reflected in extensive correspondence and other records among his papers. He was also closely involved with the independent Political and Economic Planning group, serving as a chairman and member of the PEP Executive between 1931 and 1972.
The Dartington Hall Trust is a registered charity no. 279756. Company no. 1485560
Registered Office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL United Kingdom.
Telephone 01803 847000; Fax 01803 847007;