The Coefficients was a
dining club founded in 1902 at a dinner given by the
Fabian campaigners
Sidney and
Beatrice Webb. It was a forum for the meeting of British socialist reformers and
imperialists of the
Edwardian era. The group met monthly.
The club's membership included:
- Leopold Stennett Amery, statesman and Conservative politician.
- Richard Burdon Haldane, Liberal politician, lawyer, and philosopher.
- Halford John Mackinder, geographer and geopolitician.
- Leopold Maxse, editor, National Review
- Alfred Milner, statesman and colonial administrator
- Henry Newbolt, author and poet.
- Carlyon Bellairs, naval commander and M.P.
- James Louis Garvin, journalist and editor
- William Pember Reeves, New Zealand statesman, historian and poet
- Bertrand Russell, philosopher, and mathematician
- Sir Clinton Edward Dawkins, businessman and civil servant.
- Sir Edward Grey, Liberal politician
- H. G. Wells, novelist
In 1903 Russell resigned from the club after a disagreement on the policy of Entente, promoted in a speech by Edward Grey. Russell claimed Entente would lead to war.
The club existed until 1909. Printed minutes of its meetings are held by the British Library of Political and Economic Science.
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