And so to the idealist - Vera Pragnell. Up until her fathers' death, Vera had worked to support him in his civic duties while acting as the Stores Secretary at a large military hospital in Lewisham. According to her daughter, Sir George was 'a stimulus and a challenge to almost all with whom he came into contact'. His passing, and the death on the battlefields of Flanders of her only sibling George (Junior) shortly thereafter, came as a shock to Vera and some years later she expressed her feelings in the opening paragraph of her autobiography (The Story of the Sanctuary, Vine Press, 1929). 'Freed from the undoubted tyranny of his love and bereft of its beautiful, satisfying support I was set feverishly seeking for something great enough to take its place'. Vera's search at first took her into the poorest parts of East London where she undertook charitable work. This seems to have provoked a fundamental questioning of her beliefs and after a period of living in solitude Vera resolved to forego the life of luxury gifted to her via Sir George's legacy and live her life in accordance with her own interpretation of Christian principles.
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| Vera Pragnell |
Again, her own words encapsulate her approach perfectly. 'Most of us have to many walls around us, too many clothes upon us, and too much food inside us. And as we dig down to the roots for the cause of such an effect we come upon - too much money. Now money may not be intrinsically bad but, by our false placing of it, rendering it a thing of undeniable danger, we have proved ourselves unfit to handle it'. Having come to this conclusion Vera resolved to give up her wealth in 'an act of voluntary poverty'. What followed was a bold experiment that ended in scandal and disillusionment.
The mechanics of how Vera's bold experiment started are laid out in an article entitled 'How to find Utopia' in Country Life magazine (28 June 2023). 'Guided by a literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount', Vera used her inheritance to buy 50 acres of land, which she divided into small plots and distributed, free of charge, to those she thought deserving'. Vera named this 'new Eden' as 'The Sanctuary' and declared that it represented a 'challenge to Capitalism'. The plots were distributed to a mixture of homeless people, artists and eccentrics - and over time simple dwellings were established and community life established. Many of the inhabitants practised traditional arts and crafts. After work they would recite poetry, sing folk songs and discuss politics and philosophy.
The Sanctuary attracted an eclectic mix of people. The writer Laurie Lee lived on the site in a caravan. There were Royal Academy trained artists like William Heaton Cooper and Dennis Earle (Vera married the latter in July 1927). The occultist Victor Neuburg (an associate of Alastier Crowley) lived there - reputedly attracted by rumours of drug use and what was described as a libertine lifestyle. Other visitors included H.G. Wells and in later years, Jomo Kenyatta, the first post-independence president of Kenya.
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| Vera Pragnell of The Sanctuary |
The 'goings-on' at The Sanctuary began to attract media attention and in September 1926 an investigative reporter published his impressions under the heading of 'How rich woman founded a downland city of huts with bobbed beauties and wayfarers as guests'. The author of the article observed that the place had attracted 'a lot of cranks'. He had nothing against tramps in general, he opined, but The Sanctuary doesn't get the best sort of tramps. Vera Pragnell was a 'very charming lady though'. She shared her delight in mixing with so many different types of people. 'We have a fierce communist, and an equally fierce fascist' she said, before reminding the journalist that she offered the land for free and didn't attempt to 'pick and choose'. 'When I inherited my wealth, I couldn't bear the thought of keeping it all to myself' she said.
So what went wrong? Well Clive Webb, Professor of Modern American History at Sussex University described the circumstances in History Today magazine (Jan 2023, Vol 73, Issue 1). 'After a decade the utopian dream dissolved. The Sanctuary had long been a source of gossip because of the unconventional activities of its bohemian residents. There were stories of nudity and free love and a public scandal in March 1929, when John Bull magazine published a story about a young woman allegedly led astray into a life of petty crime under the corrupting influence of Pragnell'. I suspect that Vera took much of this in her stride, and she appeared philosophical about what had happened.
In her own words - 'And you will learn over the passage of time, that other people are not puppets; that they have THEIR visions too: that they do not necessarily want what you want: may see mud where you see stars - and vice versa. And so a certain elasticity creeps in. All tendency to setness steals away.' Too many inaugurators of communes have used the well-worn banner of philanthropy to cover up their own passion for power'. It seems to me that Vera had a sense that this might have begun to apply to her and that she, true to her principles, acquiesced to the dissolution of what she had built as a result.
Vera's final thoughts? 'Yesterday someone called our 'Sanctuary' a little paradise. Heaven knows it is not that. Rather it is a little world of dreams and disappointments and disillusion and difficulties of all kinds. And through these the individual may emerge - presently. Who knows? The individual ......'.
Note: Vera lived until 1968 and she and her husband Dennis Earle had two children - Deidre and Jeremy. Im indebted to the latter for some of the information used in this post.
