Quick Facts
Biography
Quintin Hogg (14 February 1845 – 17 January 1903) was an English philanthropist, remembered primarily as a benefactor of the Royal Polytechnic institution at Regent Street, London, now the University of Westminster.
Early life
Hogg, the seventh son of Sir James Hogg, 1st Baronet, was born and spent most of his life in London. He was educated at Eton College, where he was known as "Piggy Hogg". Hogg was an accomplished sportsman and along with many Etonians he was a pioneer of Association Football. Whilst at Eton, he won the Eton Fives, was keeper of fives and in the shooting XI, and was a member of the Wall and Field football XIs. He showed strong religious convictions and held prayer meetings; he was also a prominent rifle volunteer.
He made 31 appearances for Wanderers F.C. (winners of the first F.A. Cup) between the 1865–66 and the 1870–71 seasons. He twice represented Scotland versus England in the unofficial internationals of 1870 and 1871. He captained the Old Etonians for seven years, during which he was never on the losing side.
He became involved in trade, particularly the commodities of tea and sugar. As a senior partner in a firm of tea merchants, he modernised sugar production in Demerara. While in Demerara he played two first-class cricket matches for the colony.
Educational reform
Having made his fortune, he became concerned with Christian-motivated philanthropy. London at the time suffered from social conditions now summarised in the word "Dickensian". Hogg turned his energy to educational reform: in 1864 he founded York Place Ragged School. With Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird (1847–1923, later 11th Baron Kinnaird) and Thomas Henry William Pelham (1847–1916), he rented rooms in York Place (formerly Alley), off The Strand in central London, for a boys' school, initially a day school, later open in the evenings. In 1882, he founded the Young Men's Christian Institute, which was renamed the Regent Street Polytechnic (incorporating the Royal Polytechnic Institution). The polytechnic was later part of Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) and is now the University of Westminster. It is the largest provider of adult education in London, and its headquarters are still at the same location on Regent Street.
Family
He married Alice Anna Graham, daughter of William Graham, on 16 May 1871, in the St George Hanover Square parish. They had three sons and two daughters:
- Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham (1872–1950), the father of Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone
- Elsie Florence Hogg (1873–?), married Vincent Robertson Hoare (1873–1915)
- Ian Graham Hogg (1875–1914), lieutenant colonel, died September 1914 of wounds.
- Ethel Mary Hogg (1876–1970), married Herbert Frederick Wood. She wrote a biography of her father, as Ethel M. Wood;
- Malcolm Nicholson Hogg (1883–1948)
Principal source
- (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
