Sir George Trevelyan, 4th Baronet

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Sir George Lowthian Trevelyan 4th Baronet, 1906 - 1996, was a New Age thinker, and the son of Sir Charles Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet.

Sir George was proud of this ancestry which linked him to Sir Trevillian, one of King Arthur's knights, who swam ashore on horseback when Lyonesse finally sank. Legend says that Sir Trevillian emerged with a mighty effort from the waves and landed safely on the dry land of Cornwall.

Sir George grew up in his family's Northumberland home, Wallington Hall, which his father gave to the National Trust, effectively disinheriting George.

Sir George read history at Cambridge University. Whilst there he began his 42-year long association with the famous 'Trevelyan Man Hunt', an extraordinary annual event which involved a chase on foot over the wild Lakeland fells, with human 'hunters' hunting after human 'hares'. This exciting and highly taxing event was started in 1898 by George's historian uncle G. M. Trevelyan and the Wynthrop Youngs, and still continues today (hide and seek game without guns!).

After leaving Cambridge, George went on to teach at Gordonstoun, which at that time was a school pioneering a radical education. Later, he became involved as a teacher of the Alexander Technique for postural integration, and apprenticed himself to a furniture designer and master craftsman in wood, Peter Waals, working at Waals' workshop in the Cotswold hills. Sir George himself made many fine pieces of furniture, including a bed in which he finally died, as he wished.

In 1942, after hearing a lecture given by Dr Walter Stein, a student of Rudolf Steiner, Trevelyan discovered a spiritual world-view. During his lifetime he explored beliefs in angels, the calming effects of crystals and the power of ley lines, alongside organic farming and communal living.

On retirement from the army, in 1948 he was appointed Warden and Principal of Attingham Park, an adult training college in Shropshire, where he carried out his pioneering work in the teaching of spiritual knowledge as adult education. The courses ranged from chamber music and drama to esoteric subjects such as 'Finding the Inner Teacher' and 'Holistic Vision', the latter attracting large numbers of participants, many of them from other countries as well as Britain. The college was jointly sponsored by the local authority and the University of Birmingham, both of whom looked askance at Sir George's attraction towards the mystical; and so it took immense moral courage, for instance, for him to present a course on 'Death and Becoming', a subject that was in those days virtually taboo.

He was involved in the establishment of the Findhorn Foundation, the Gatekeeper Trust, and the Lamplighter Movement.

In 1971 he set up the Wrekin Trust to promote spiritual education and knowledge

In 1982 he was a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the 'alternative Nobel Prize'.

[edit] Bibliography

The Pattern of Initiation in the Evolution of Human Consciousness (written with Peter Dawkins). FBRT, UK. 1981.
Exploration into God (first published in 1991 by Gateway Books, now available online only)
Magic Casements - The Use of Poetry in the Expanding of Consciousness (published in 1980 by Coventure and in 1996 by Gateway Books, now available online only)
The Active Eye in Architecture(first published in 1977 by The Wrekin Trust, now available online only)
A Vision of the Aquarian Age (first published in 1977 by Coventure UK and in 1984 by Stillpoint USA, now available online only)