Basil Henriques

From a prominent Sephardic Jewish family, Henriques was educated at Lockers Park School in Hertfordshire and Harrow. He studied Modern History at University College, Oxford, and graduated with a third class honours in 1913.{{Cite news|title=Oxford University Honours: Modern History|date=1 August 1913|work=The Manchester Guardian|page=5}}

Henriques served in the Tank Corps during World War I, taking part in the Battle of Flers where his tank, C22, was ordered to clear the Quadrilateral to the north east of Ginchy. During this operation his tank mistakenly engaged soldiers from The Norfolk Regiment, resulting in several fatalities.[http://www.firsttankcrews.com/tankcrewsc19c24.htm The First Tank Crews]

File:Southcote.jpg

In addition to writing reforms to religious Jewish ceremonies, Henriques set up boys' clubs for deprived Jewish children. In 1914, Henriques founded the Oxford and St George's Club; this later developed into the Bernhard Baron St George's Jewish Settlement.{{Cite news|title=Sir Basil Henriques dies, aged 71|last=Blom-Cooper|first=Louis|date=3 December 1961|work=The Observer|page=2}} The boys received education, vocational training, recreation and holidays in the country.

From 1923 until 1950, he would frequently send deprived, sick or merely tired children to his country home, Southcote Cottage, at Southcote, Linslade in Buckinghamshire for rest and recuperation. The cottage, in reality a large house, was loaned to him by his friend and fellow Jew Anthony Gustav de Rothschild, Southcourt being part of Rothschild’s Ascott Estate.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

In 1923 Henriques became a magistrate, and was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1948 Birthday Honours.{{London Gazette|issue=38311|date=10 June 1948|page=3374}} He was knighted in 1955. He served as chairman of the East London Juvenile Court for 19 years, and served as a magistrate for 32 years. He retired from the Bench in 1956.{{Cite news|title=Death of Sir Basil Henriques|date=4 December 1961|work=The Guardian|page=1}}

The former Berner Street in Whitechapel was renamed Henriques Street in his honour.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

During his time as a magistrate, Henriques criticised the work of the NSPCC on a number occasions.{{Cite news|title=Magistrate's Criticism of NSPCC|date=31 August 1954|work=The Times|page=2}} As part of his 1950 book The Indiscretions of a Magistrate, Henriques argued that legal supervision by a probation officer was more effective than voluntary supervision by an officer of the NSPCC.{{Cite news|title=Magistrate tells NSPCC 'You have failed'|date=2 January 1951|work=Daily Mirror|page=7}}

In 1950, during the annual conference of the Magistrates' Association, Henriques spoke in favour of a motion which condemned 'women who go out to work and prefer the privileges of marriage to its responsibilities'. Henriques argued that

Women seem to think themselves rivals and equals to men in all things, but they are only superior in some things such as washing the baby and washing up. The proper place for the mother is in her home, and there is no greater cause of juvenile delinquency than when the relationship between mother and child has been cast away.

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Basil Henriques was the author of several books, mostly concerned with the care of youth, including:

• (1933) Club Leadership.
• (1937) The Indiscretions of a Warden.
• (1945) What is Judaism.
• (1950) The Indiscretions of a Magistrate.
• (1951) Fratres: Club Boys in Uniform, an Anthology.
• (1955) The Home-menders: the Prevention of Unhappiness in Children.

In his role as a children's court magistrate, he also wrote the foreword to the Enid Blyton novel, The Six Bad Boys (1951), which relates the bad consequences of family breakdown for six boys, culminating in their appearing in a children's court for theft. Henriques, in his foreword, praises Blyton for her treatment of this subject, and stresses the negative effects of broken homes on children – one of the major themes of this novel.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

Henriques married Rose Loewe in 1916, and they worked together throughout their marriage. His sister was married to the well known angler Reginald Beddington, and their son was the artist and writer Roy Beddington.{{cite work|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-roy-beddington-1585163.html|title=OBITUARY:Roy Beddington|work=The Independent|date=5 June 1995|author=James Fergusson}}

Henriques died on 2 December 1961, aged 71. In 1966, Rose, Lady Henriques published a biography of her husband, entitled Years in Stepney.

• Henriques family

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.exploringeastlondon.co.uk/stepney/settlement/ostg.htm Oxford and St George Clubs]
• [http://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/cataloguedatabases/webguidemss132.html Henriques papers, 1854, 1894-1970s]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050404043832/http://olamgadol.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/settlement.html#settlement Recollections of Basil Henriques]
• {{NPG name|id=102735}}

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Category:1890 births

Category:1961 deaths

Category:Jewish British writers

Category:English people of Portuguese-Jewish descent

Category:Henriques family

Category:People educated at Harrow School

Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford

Category:British Army personnel of World War I

Category:Royal Tank Regiment officers

Category:English Sephardi Jews

Category:Burials at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Knights Bachelor

Category:20th-century British philanthropists

Category:English people of Portuguese descent