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Charitable education trust

The Guild of St George is a charitable Education Trust, based in England but with a worldwide membership, which tries to uphold the values and put into practice the ideas of its founder, John Ruskin (1819–1900).

Ruskin, a Victorian polymath, established the Guild in the 1870s. Founded as St George's Company in 1871, it adopted its current name and constitution in 1878. Ruskin, an art critic, had turned increasingly to social concerns from the 1850s. His critique of Victorian political economy, Unto This Last, was serialised in 1860, and published with an additional preface in book form in 1862. In lectures, letters and other published writings, he denounced modern, industrial capitalism, and the theorists and politicians who served it. He considered that the ugliness, pollution and poverty it caused were undermining the nation. His conviction that human society and the natural environment had been corrupted and ruptured motivated him to seek practical means of redemption, reform and reconstruction. Through the Guild, which married medieval (i. e. pre industrial) values and a progressive belief in social improvement, Ruskin hoped to establish communities to challenge the profit motive driving modern industry, and to provide alternatives to mass production. He drew inspiration from medieval craft guilds, and was influenced by his particular interest in the cultural history of Venice. His utopian ideal was to stimulate greater happiness and improved health by promoting sound and responsible personal conduct, and by reconnecting society with the ennobling beauty of nature. By means of his "Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain", Fors Clavigera (1871–1884), he sought to recruit "Companions" (the name he gave to members of the Guild) to join him in an effort to establish "a National Store instead of a National Debt". As the Guild’s Master, Ruskin endowed it with a tithe, or personal donation, of £7000. He set about acquiring land which could be cultivated sustainably, as far as possible using traditional methods (hand labour, wind and water power), and assembling an educational collection of beautiful and precious books, art works and other objects. In principle, Ruskin worked out different grades of "Companion" for his hierarchical Guild. He also wrote codes of practice, described styles of dress and even designed the Guild’s own coins. He also wished to establish St George’s Schools, and published various volumes to aid its teaching (his Bibliotheca Pastorum or Shepherd’s Library), but the schools, like the dress and coins, never materialised. In part, this is because soon after Ruskin started the Guild he began to show signs of emotional disturbance and in 1878 suffered the first of a series of mental breakdowns that increasingly limited his activity. In reality, the Guild has always operated on a modest scale, its activities being suggestive rather than transformational, but always dynamic, adapting to changing circumstances and needs. Since 1871, some of the Guild's Companions have included: Lord Courtauld Thomson, W. G. Collingwood, Sir Emery Walker, Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith, Sir Evelyn Wrench, Emily Warren, William Lethaby, Alfred Hoare Powell, Almyra Gray, Katharine Harris Bradley, J. Howard Whitehouse, John Henry Chamberlain, Frances Colenso, Benjamin Creswick, Frederick Leach, William Monk, Sydney Morse, William Smart, Fanny Talbot, T. Edmund Harvey and Victor Branford.

In Sheffield, in 1875, Ruskin established St George's Museum for the working men of that city and surrounding areas (and particularly for Sheffield’s iron workers whom he much admired). Originally situated on high ground on Bell Hagg Road, in Walkley, north west Sheffield, at the cottage occupied by its first curator (until 1889) Henry Swan, the museum, which was free to enter, was open until 9pm, on Sunday afternoons and by appointment to maximise its accessibility for working people. It housed the increasingly bountiful collection of artworks (pencil sketches, architectural drawings, watercolours, copies of Old Masters and so on), minerals, geological specimens, casts of sculpture, manuscripts (most of them medieval in origin), books (many of them rare) and a multitude of other beautiful and precious items. Through the Museum, Ruskin aimed to bring to the working man many of the sights and experiences otherwise confined to the wealthy who could afford to travel through Europe. (The original Museum has been recreated "virtually" online.) In 1890, the newly styled Ruskin Museum relocated to Meersbrook Park, and remained there until 1950. After a period of great uncertainty, the Guild collection was kept in the library at Reading University from 1964. However, the collection returned to Sheffield in 1981, and was displayed at the Ruskin Gallery situated in the former Hayes Wine Store on Norfolk Street from 1985 to 2001.

In 2001, the Guild’s collection moved to the Ruskin Gallery in Sheffield’s new Millennium Galleries. In 2011, the gallery was re named the Ruskin Collection. The Guild strives to maintain Ruskin’s principles and achieve his aims in the twenty first century. It is funding a nine year cycle of Triennial Exhibitions there. The Guild still manages and lets its properties at Westmill in line with Ruskin’s notions of care and justice (charging fair rents and diligently maintaining the properties). One hundred acres of ancient woodland and two smallholdings near Bewdley are sympathetically cultivated. A rebuilt barn, called the "Ruskin Studio", acts as a base for the Wyre Community Land Trust, which engages with a wide range of local projects, promoting rural crafts and skills, hosting events and receiving educational visits. The Guild funded the national Campaign for Drawing and is still associated with it; arts and crafts and rural economy are fostered; scholarships and awards are sometimes granted; and symposia are held to discuss issues of contemporary concern and debate. The Guild is run by a Board of Directors, a secretary, and a Master who meet several times a year. Every autumn, Companions attend an Annual General Meeting, which hosts the Ruskin Lecture which is usually published by the Guild, like its journal, The Companion. The Guild's current Companions include Ewan Anderson, Chris Baines, David Ogilvy Barrie, Dinah Birch, Sir Quentin Blake, Peter Burman, Suzanne Fagence Cooper, Peter Day, Frank Field, Lord Field of Birkenhead, Julian Perry, Dame Fiona Reynolds, Jeffrey Richards, Julian Spalding, Stephen Wildman, and Clive Wilmer. In April 2021 the Isle of Man post office issued a set of six Ruskin commemorative stamps to mark the 150th anniversary of the Guild.