Maurice Reckitt


Maurice Benington Reckitt was a leading English Anglo-Catholic and Christian socialist writer. He edited Christendom: A Journal of Christian Sociology from 1931 to 1950. He founded the charity Christendom Trust.

Life

Reckitt was born on 19 June 1888 in Beverley, Yorkshire, to Arthur Benington Reckitt and Helen Annie Thomas. His background was wealthy, with the family business Reckitt's of Hull manufacturing a well-known brand of bluing. His sister was Eva Collet Reckitt, founder of Collet's, the London bookshop. He graduated from St John's College, Oxford in 1911 with a second-class honours degree in history. At Oxford, and elsewhere throughout his life, he studied under Sir Ernest Barker, H. A. L. Fisher, G. K. Chesterton, A. R. Orage, John Neville Figgis, P. E. T. Widdrington, and V. A. Demant.
Early in life, Reckitt was a supporter of guild socialism and a founder of the National Guilds League. He presented the Scott Holland Memorial Lectures in 1946.
Reckitt was a leading player and croquet administrator winning the Men's Championship twice. Reckitt was on the Council of the Croquet Association between 1929 and 1975, serving as Chairman, Vice President and President.
He died at the age of 91 on 11 January 1980 in Roehampton, London.

Works