Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield PC (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947) was a British socialist, economist and reformer who is typically mentioned in the same breath as his wife, Beatrice Webb. He was one of the early members of the Fabian Society in 1884, along with G. Bernard Shaw (they joined three months after its inception). Along with Beatrice, Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, Edward R. Pease, Hubert Bland, and Sidney Olivier, Shaw and Webb ...
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Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield PC (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947) was a British socialist, economist and reformer who is typically mentioned in the same breath as his wife, Beatrice Webb. He was one of the early members of the Fabian Society in 1884, along with G. Bernard Shaw (they joined three months after its inception). Along with Beatrice, Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, Edward R. Pease, Hubert Bland, and Sidney Olivier, Shaw and Webb turned the Fabian Society into the pre-eminent political-intellectual society of England in the Edwardian era and beyond. He wrote the original Clause IV for the British Labour Party.
Webb was born in London to a professional family. He studied law at the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution for a degree of the University of London in his spare time, while holding down an office job. He also studied at King's College London, prior to being called to the Bar in 1885.
In 1895 he helped to establish the London School of Economics, using a...
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