Cecil Harwood

Alfred Cecil Harwood (5 January 1898 – 22 December 1975) was an English lecturer, Waldorf teacher, writer, editor and anthroposophist.

Early life

He was born on 5 January 1898 in Eckington, Derbyshire, the son of the Rev. William Hardy Harwood (1856–1924); his mother was Mary née Wells.[1][2][3] His father, a Congregational minister, succeeded Henry Allon at the Union Chapel, Islington. R. Tudur Jones wrote that he "was one of the leading Nonconformists in London in the early years of the century."[4]

Cecil Harwood attended Highgate School with Owen Barfield.[5] In 1916 he won a classical scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, at the same time as Barfield was awarded one at Wadham College.[6] Harwood then joined the army, serving in World War I as an infantry officer, a 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.[7][8]

Harwood, invalided out of the army, entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1918 (in other sources 1919).[9][10] Barfield completed a B.A. degree in 1921, and for a time lived at Bee Cottage, Beckley, Oxfordshire while studying for a BLitt degree;[11] Harwood, also a post-graduate, shared with him, and then moved to Pimlico in London with a job in publishing, sharing lodgings with Eric Beckett.[9]

Steiner follower

In the summer of 1920 Harwood and Barfield, who had both joined the English Folk Dance Society while at Oxford, went to Cornwall to join a dance concert party at St Anthony in Roseland, something they repeated in following years.[12][13] In 1922 they were reported as members of the Roseland Concerts party that visited London in March. The members included Maud(e) Douie, Barfield's future wife, and the Radford sisters (Maisie, Evelyn and Marion).[14] In 1923, according to Barfield, the teacher Daphne Olivier joined the group, as a violinist.[12] The Radford sisters and the Olivier sisters, daughters of Sydney Olivier, had been on friendly terms since before the war, when the eldest, Margery Olivier (1886–1974), knew Evelyn Radford from Newnham College and the Fabian Society.[15][16]

Daphne Olivier and Cecil Harwood met in Cornwall in 1922.[17] She admired Rudolf Steiner, and married Harwood three years later. Harwood founded the first Waldorf school in England, the so-called "New School" that later became Michael Hall.[18] He worked on it with Daphne Olivier and three other colleagues. He remained connected to the school for the rest his life.[19]

Later life

In 1948, a Swedish-English anthroposophist Marguerite Lundgren began teaching eurythmy in England, and met Owen Barfield and Harwood. She and Harwood married in 1953, She performed, and went on international tours. They founded the London School of Eurythmy, and with Marjorie Raffé wrote Eurythmy and the Impulse of Dance.[20]

Harwood went blind while lecturing in 1975, and died not long afterwards in South Harbour, the house he and Marguerite had shared in Forest Row.[21]

Anthroposophical Society

Harwood joined the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain shortly after meeting Rudolf Steiner for the first time in 1924. In 1937 he became its General Secretary. He was its Chairman from 1942 to 1968.[22] Harwood was instrumental not just in developing the work in the United Kingdom but also in re-establishing the international relationships within the Anthroposophical Society as a whole after the internal difficulties of the 1930s and 1940s. This implied a certain amount of travel, which he undertook not just on behalf of the Society but also in assisting the growth and development of Waldorf education worldwide and in particular, in the United States.[21]

Associations

Harwood's friendships with Barfield and C. S. Lewis are documented in their biographies.[23][24]

Published works

  • The Recovery of Man in Childhood: A Study of the Educational Work of Rudolf Steiner by Cecil Harwood, Hodder & Stoughton (1959) ASIN B001DHY9CY
  • Centenary Essays on the Work and Thought of Rudolf Steiner, 1861-1925 Edited by A.C. Harwood. Hodder and Stoughton. 1961 ASIN B00109TGNW
  • Shakespeare's prophetic mind by Cecil Harwood. Rudolf Steiner Press 1964 ASIN B005OWGHF6

Harwood was founder and for many years editor of Child and Man, the journal of the Waldorf Steiner schools in Great Britain, as well as writing one of the definitive works on Waldorf Education for the English-speaking world: The Recovery of Man in Childhood. Besides this, he translated into English certain central works of Anthroposophical life from Rudolf Steiner's original formulations. These were the Calendar of the Soul, a cycle of meditations through the changing seasons of the year; the Services of The Christian Community and the three texts of the Oberuferer Weihenachtsspiele, traditional Christmas plays from the village of Oberufer in today's Slovakia.

Family

Harwood married, firstly in 1925, Daphne Olivier (died 1950).[25] They had five children. He married secondly, in 1953, Marguerite Lundgren.

References

  1. ^ Lewis, Clive Staples (2000). Collected Letters: Family letters, 1905-1931. HarperCollins. p. 998. ISBN 978-0-00-628145-0.
  2. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  3. ^ "Distinguished Eckington Minister: Death of the Rev. Hardy Harwood". Derbyshire Times. 2 August 1924. p. 2.
  4. ^ Jones, Robert Tudur (1962). Congregationalism in England, 1662-1962. Independent Press. p. 327.
  5. ^ Zaleski, Philip; Zaleski, Carol (2 June 2015). The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-374-71379-9.
  6. ^ "University Intelligence". Morning Post. 14 December 1916. p. 9.
  7. ^ Barfield, Owen (1999). A Barfield Reader: Selections from the Writings of Owen Barfield. Wesleyan University Press. p. xvi. ISBN 978-0-8195-6361-3.
  8. ^ Poe, Harry Lee (26 May 2009). C. S. Lewis Remembered: Collected Reflections of Students, Friends and Colleagues. Zondervan. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-310-55989-4.
  9. ^ a b Lange, Simon Blaxland-de (28 April 2021). Sun King's Counsellor, Cecil Harwood: A Documentary Biography. Temple Lodge Publishing. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-1-912230-71-6.
  10. ^ Lewis, Clive Staples (1993). Letters of C. S. Lewis. Harcourt Brace. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-15-650871-1.
  11. ^ Lange, Simon Blaxland-de (28 April 2021). Owen Barfield, Romanticism Come of Age: A Biography. Temple Lodge Publishing. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-912230-72-3.
  12. ^ a b Diener, Astrid (22 July 2013). The Role of Imagination in Culture and Society: Owen Barfield's Early Work. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-62564-130-4.
  13. ^ Lange, Simon Blaxland-de (28 April 2021). Sun King's Counsellor, Cecil Harwood: A Documentary Biography. Temple Lodge Publishing. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-912230-71-6.
  14. ^ "The Roseland Concerts". The Era. 1 March 1922. p. 6.
  15. ^ Delany, Paul (1988). The Neo-Pagans: friendship and love in the Rupert Brooke circle. London: Hamilton. p. 56. ISBN 0241125669.
  16. ^ Watling, Sarah (2019). The Olivier Sisters: A Biography. Oxford University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-19-086739-3.
  17. ^ Harwood, Laurence (2007). C.S. Lewis, My Godfather: Letters, Photos, and Recollections. InterVarsity Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-8308-3498-3.
  18. ^ Lachman, Gary (19 October 2017). Lost Knowledge of the Imagination. Floris Books. p. 69 note 14. ISBN 978-1-78250-457-3.
  19. ^ New book details the history of a remarkable Sussex School
  20. ^ Eurythmy and the Impulse of Dance by Marjorie Raffé, Cecil Harwood, Marguerite Lundgren. Illustrations by Rudolf Steiner, Rudolf Steiner Press 1975 ISBN 0854402780, 9780854402786
  21. ^ a b Cecil Harwood - Biographischer Eintrag in der Online-Dokumentation der anthroposophischen Forschungsstelle Kulturimpuls
  22. ^ Villeneuve, Crispian (14 September 2009). Rudolf Steiner in Britain: A Documentation of His Ten Visits, 1902-25. Temple Lodge Publishing. p. 1229 note 60. ISBN 978-1-906999-03-2.
  23. ^ C. S. Lewis, My Godfather: Letters, Photos and Recollections Laurence Harwood, IVP Books (2007) ISBN 0830834982, ISBN 978-0830834983
  24. ^ Owen Barfield: Romanticism Comes of Age – a Biography by Simon Blaxland De Lange, Temple Lodge Pub 2006 • ISBN 1902636775, ISBN 978-1902636771
  25. ^ A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage, and Companionage. 1934. p. 1822.
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