A Mysterious Death: Maud Davies, Pioneering Sociologist
Jane Howells raises some intriguing questions about the tragic death of pioneering sociologist, Maud Davies, in 1913. Life in an English Village was published in 1909. Subtitled An Economic and Historical Survey of the Parish of Corsley in Wiltshire, this pioneering study was written by Maud Frances Davies, inspired by Sidney and Beatrice Webb when she was a student at the London School of Economics. John Chandler of the Hobnob Press had long planned to produce a reprint of Maud’s book, and invited me to write a substantial new introduction about Maud. [1] This was published in 2013, on the centenary of the author's death. Maud was born in London in 1876. In 1897 the family bought Corsley House, west of Warminster in Wiltshire. Her father, Byam Davies, became an inspector of Poor Law schools for the Local Government Board. Children in workhouses increasingly attended local elementary schools, an improvement Davies had recommended from some of his earliest reports. It is very ...
