Charles Hubert Oldham
Charles Hubert Oldham was an Irish economics professor.
Early life
Born in Monkstown, Dublin, Oldham was educated at Kingstown Grammar School, and then studied at Trinity College Dublin. His sisters were Edith Best and Alice Oldham. His elder brother Eldred was a painter.
Career
Oldham was the first professor of National Economics at University College Dublin. Prior to that, he had been professor of commerce. Oldham was a prominent member of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, for whom he was Barrington Lecturer and President from 1924 to 1926.
Politics
In his Dictionary of Irish Biography entry, Oldham is described as a "Gladstonian liberal", but also holding strong Irish nationalist sympathies as an admirer of the writings of Young Irelander Thomas Osborne Davis. A close friend of Oldham was Irish separatist and Fenian John O'Leary. Oldham managed the southern branch of the Irish Protestant Home Rule Association which he had founded in 1886.
Personal life
Oldham was friends with analytical chemist Arthur Cranwill, and encouraged his daughter, the future designer and metal artist Mia Cranwill to study Irish history and mythology during her visits to Dublin. Oldham married German painter Katharina in the mid-1880s. They had no children, and she survived him following his death on 20 February 1926.