NEALE, EDWARD VANSITTART Eng lish co-operator and Christian Socialist, was born at Bath on April 2,1810, the son of a Buckinghamshire clergyman. He stud ied at Oriel college, Oxford, was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1837, became a member of the Christian Socialists in 185o and also joined the council of the Society for Promoting Working Men's Associations. He founded the first co-operative store in London, and advanced the capital for two builders' associations, both of which failed. In 1851, though strongly opposed by other members of the promoting "Council," he started on his own initiative the Central Co-operative Agency, similar in many re spects to the Co-operative Wholesale Society of a later day. The failure of this scheme, together with that of the operatives' cause in the engineering lock-out of 1852 is said to have cost him He was closely associated with the movement which resulted in the Industrial and Provident Societies Act of 1876, and the passing of the Consolidation Act of 1862 was almost en tirely due to his efforts. Besides publishing pamphlets on co
operation he served on the executive committee which afterwards developed into the Central Co-operative Board, and took an active part in the formation of the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Society in 1863. One of the founders of the Cobden mills in 1866, and the Agricultural and Horticultural Association in 1867, he also promoted the annual co-operative congress. He was also a director of the Co-operative Insurance Company and a member of the Co-operative Newspaper Society. He visited America in 1875 with a deputation whose object was to open up a direct trade between farmers of the western States and English co-operative stores. He died on Sept. 16, 1892.