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Hodder, M. H. (Matthew Henry), 1830-1911
Son of a Dorset chemist (pharmacist), M.H. Hodder was born in Uxbridge, Middlessex. He started in the publishing business at age 14, working for Jackson & Walford, the official publisher for the Congrgational Union. His name was added to the company’s name in 1861. When Messrs. Jackson and Walford retired in 1868 he took over the firm; he then joined with Thomas Wilberforce Stoughton, who was an evangelical dissenter like himself, to form the well-known firm of Hodder & Stoughton, now owned by Hachette. In the 1880s and 1890s, Hodder & Stoughton published many of Sir John William Dawson’s books, including those which dealt with the relationship between science and religion, a controversial topic at the time. Hodder was a lifelong friend of Sir George Williams, the founder of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and he gave a speech to the 1869 meeting of the organization in Portland, Maine.
Hodder and Stoughton is a British publishing company within Hachette UK. It was founded by Matthew Henry Hodder (1830-1911) and Thomas Wilberforce Stoughton (1840–1917) in 1868 in London. Hodder & Stoughton published both religious and secular works and they were also the originators of the Teach Yourself line of self-instruction books, which are still published through Hodder Headline's educational division. In 1993, Headline acquired Hodder & Stoughton and, the company became Hodder Headline Ltd. In 2002, Hodder Headline Ltd. acquired John Murray, and in 2004, the company was bought by Hachette Livre. Hodder Headline Ltd. was restructured, and a single Hodder & Stoughton publishing division was created. It publishes a wide range of fiction and non-fiction titles and is renowned for passion, quality, and delivering bestselling books in many different formats.
Hobbes, R. G. (Robert George), 1821?-1899
Robert George Hobbes was born around 1821 in Bath, Somerset, England.
He was a civil servant, accountant (M.B.A.), and author. He spent forty years first as a clerk and later a Principal Officer of H.M.'s Dockyard at Sheerness and Chatham where he witnessed transformation and revision of Dockyard organization. He worked in the several departments of Cash, Naval Stores, and Accounts. He was a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He published sketches of his holiday travels and his work experiences "Reminiscences and Notes of Seventy Years' Life, Travel, and Adventure; Military and Civil; Scientific and Literary" (2 vols., 1895).
In 1844, he married Jane Cartland (1817–1894). He died in March 1899, in London, Surrey, England.
Rev. William Kirk Hobart was born c. 1832.
He was a clergyman and author. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1860; L.L.D., 1872) and was ordained in 1861. He served as a curate of Derry and Raphoe diocese in Londonderry and a rector of Killanny in Ireland. He was a recognized expert in Greek medical literature. He wrote a treatise, "The Medical Language of St. Luke" (1882), dedicated to the Archbishop of Dublin.
In 1872, he married Annie E. Millar (1836–1913). He died on August 24, 1902, in Dundalk, Louth, Ireland.
Sir Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood, was born on February 24, 1880, in London, England.
He was a British Conservative politician and author. He was educated at Harrow School and New College, Oxford (B.A., 1903; M.A., 1910) and entered Parliament for Chelsea in 1910, retaining the constituency until 1944. During World War I, Hoare was a military officer, serving in missions to Russia (1916–1917) and Italy (1917–1918). After the war, in 1922, he became Secretary of State, holding the post until 1929 and helping to build Britain’s Royal Air Force. Hoare and Lady Maud travelled by air whenever possible, including the first civilian flight to India in 1927. By 1929, there were regular scheduled routes to India and Cape Town. From 1931 to 1935, as Secretary of State for India, he had the immense task of developing a parliamentary pilot of the bill, which gave India limited home rule and became the Government of India Act 1935. In 1935, he became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. After the outbreak of the Italo–Ethiopian War, he developed with Pierre Laval of France the so-called Hoare–Laval Plan for the partition of Ethiopian land between Italy and Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). The proposal drew immediate and widespread denunciation, forcing Hoare’s resignation on December 18, 1935. In 1936, he returned to the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty, then served as Home Secretary from 1937 to 1939 and was again briefly Secretary of State for Air in 1940. He was part of the inner council that developed the Munich Pact in 1938 and became one of its staunchest defenders, further marking him as an appeaser, to the ultimate damage of his reputation. He also served as British ambassador to Spain from 1940 to 1944. On his retirement in 1944, he was made Viscount Templewood of Chelsea. He held several foreign honours, e.g., Grand Cross of the Order of the White Lion of Czechoslovakia, Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star of Sweden, Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog of Denmark, and Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands. He authored several books, e.g., "India by Air" (1927), “The Fourth Seal” (1930), “Ambassador on Special Mission” (1946), “The Unbroken Thread” (1949), “The Shadow of the Gallows” (1951), “Nine Troubled Years” (1954), and “Empire of the Air” (1957).
In 1909, he married Lady Maud Lygon (1882–1962). He died on May 7, 1959, in London, England.