Richard Lodge and the Edinburgh Branch of the Workers’ Educational Association

Abstract

In 2008 the members of the ‘WEA in Edinburgh – What a History Group’ produced a pamphlet entitled The Story of the Workers’ Educational Association in Edinburgh since 1912.   The first person mentioned in their story is Albert Mansbridge who had helped to found the Workers’ Educational Association.  The success of this new organisation was underlined by the fact that in October 1912 over two hundred people attended a meeting, in the Free Gardener’s Hall, Picardy Place, Edinburgh to hear about its work.  Here, with Professor Richard Lodge presiding, they heard Mansbridge give an account of the Association and explain how working men and women had been able to call on the assistance of universities in England, Wales and the British Empire.