Quotes:Kingsland, William
Zirkoff, Boris
Kingsland, William. English engineer, scientist and author, b. at Devizes in Wiltshire, May 5, 1855, at 8:40 a.m. His father, a Congregational Minister at Devizes, came from Kent, and died of rapid consumption when 49. His mother, however, lived to be 93. In 1862, the family moved to Bradford in Yorkshire, where William, his sister (later Mrs. Mary Higgs, M.A., well known for her social work) and his brother were brought up, first by their parents, and later in Bradford High School, where William entered when 14. As he has remarked himself, “not having any intellectual qualifications for any profession, it was decided that I should go into the Bradford trade.” Accordingly, at the age of 16, he went to the firm of A. & S. Henry & Co., as office boy at 5 shillings per week, to sweep and dust out the office every morning. About a year later, he was transferred to the warehouse for similar duties.
At about this time a profound psychological change took place in him, and he woke up to the deeper issues of life. He began to study and educate himself, attending evening classes and reading scientific works. His work became to him a soul-killing drudgery; he had no desire to become wealthy, but he wanted to know and to experience, and describes himself as an idealist, “deeply responsive to the call of the beauties of nature, to music, and to art.” For a while longer he endured the “purgatory” of the warehouse, but at 22 he took a job in a music shop. For some time past, he had studied music and some recitals by the great Rubinstein had fired him to study and practice with redoubled vigour; he soon realized, however, that he had begun too late in life to develop the necessary technique.
His attention had been called to a prospectus of the School of Submarine Telegraphy in London which offered training and a future position. He decided to take the course, his mother helping him with the expenses. He entered the School August 23, 1879, and the following March passed his final examinations with honours in operative signalling and electrical testing. At about the same time, he became an Associate of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, later the Institution of Electrical Engineers, of which he became a full member in 1896.
420 Instead of entering the Submarine Cable Service, as he had intended at first, he was offered an appointment with the Telephone Company, then just establishing the first London Telephone Exchange in Coleman Street, E.C. There were only 12 subscribers at the time. Soon after, he was sent to Manchester and then to Glasgow and Edinburgh in connection with the establishment of Exchanges there.
In March, 1881, he left Glasgow and went to London to take up an appointment with the Brush Electric Light Company, and until 1884 superintended various installations of electric light in different parts of the country, such as Scarborough, Chesterfield, Exhibitions at the Crystal Palace, the Dome at Brighton, etc. In 1884 he returned to London and took up some experimental work with Desmond D. Fitzgerald on a new form of secondary battery plates, subsequently marketed under the name of Lithanode. He remained with the firm until about 1888.
On Feb. 4, 1885, William Kingsland married at St. Giles, Edinburgh, Phoebe Edmonstone, daughter of Dr. Robert Chambers of the well-known publishing firm of that city. After 41 years of married life, during which his wife shared with him many vicissitudes, she passed away April 11, 1926.
It was in 1888 that William Kingsland established his first contact with the Theosophical Movement. He writes:
“.....I must now refer to an event which took place on the 2nd of June of that year, and which proved to be the turning point of my whole life. That event was a first visit to Madame H. P. Blavatsky, who was then living in London and gathering round her an earnest group of eager students of her teachings. I had previously read some of her writings, as also those of Mr. A. P. Sinnett expounding the teachings of the Tibetan Masters or Mahatmas, and they had made a very strong appeal both to my intellect and to my intuition; in fact I might say that they appealed to me with a strange familiarity, as of something previously known but put away or forgotten. I think this can only be accounted for on the theory of reincarnation and acquaintance with the teachings in a previous life. . . .”[1]
He threw himself with great zeal into the study and work which was then going on in the Theosophical Society in London and soon became a very important worker in it; he was only 33 at the time. In January, 1889, he was elected President of the Blavatsky Lodge, to be succeeded by Annie Besant on September 30, 1890. He was also a member of H. P. B.’s Inner Group.
In 1891, Kingsland published his first works: The Mystic Quest. A Tale of Two Incarnations (London: Allen & Unwin. 215 pp.), and the First part of The Esoteric Basis of Christianity (London:
421
Theos. Publ. Society. 38 pp.), which appeared in April of that year. This was originally a paper read before the Blavatsky Lodge, and was followed in 1893 by the Second Part, treating mainly of Genesis (51 pp.). In 1895, the same Publishers issued another edition which combined both Parts of this essay (195 pp.).
In 1892, after the passing of H. P. B., Kingsland went to North Wales, on account of his wife’s health, and settled down at Llandudno as an electrical contractor on his own. He remained there until 1899, when, having taken some patents for a system of electric tramway working, he removed to London. He formed a Company for that purpose and was actively engaged in this type of activity until 1904. The Company, however, was not a commercial success, although the system itself became rather widely known under the title of The Kingsland Mechanical Surface Contact System of Electric Traction. A successful trial section was installed at Dresden, but various difficulties ensued, and the Company was finally dissolved. During this period the Kings- lands resided mainly in the Midlands.
At the time of the so-called “Judge Case,” in 1894-95, Kingsland had sided with Col. Olcott and Annie Besant, though without any bitterness; but in 1909, he resigned his membership in The Theosophical Society along with many other prominent members, being in strong disagreement with the attitude and policies adopted at the time by Annie Besant who had succeeded Col. Olcott as President of the T.S.
From 1905, Kingsland gave himself up entirely to literary work, and commenced writing what he considered to be his most important work to date, Scientific Idealism, which was published in 1909 (London: Robman Ltd. 427 pp.). The year before, he had written a small booklet entitled A Child's Story of Atlantis (London: Theos. Publ. Soc., 84 pp.), embodying certain information about the sunken continent and its civilization given by a child in a peculiar state of psychic receptivity.
In 1910 Kingsland published his work on The Physics of the Secret Doctrine (London: Theos. Publ. Soc., 152 pp; reviewed in The Theos., Vol. XXX, Aug., 1910, p. 1475). This work, while somewhat out of date now, is still valuable as a succinct presentation of the relation which exists between modern science and the bases of the Esoteric Philosophy.
The following year Kingsland once more took up electrical work and joined The Leitner Electrical Co., doing extensive business in train and car lighting. He stayed with this firm until the outbreak of World War I. In January, 1915, he joined the Middlesex Volunteer Regiment to place his knowledge of signalling at the service of the country, and worked his way up from a private to the Company Commander in twelve months. In December, 1916, the Volunteers having been incorporated with the Territorial Forces, he was given a commission as Lieutenant.
422 In June, 1917, he obtained an appointment with the Metropolitan Munitions Committee, and was responsible for the inspection and checking of defective material in shells and fuses in various stages of production. He continued this work until March, 1919.
After this interlude, Kingsland once more resumed his literary activity, more particularly the writing of his Rational Mysticism which was published in 1924 (London: George Allen & Unwin. 431 pp.).
In 1921, Kingsland moved for permanent residence to Ryde, in the Isle cf Wight, and immersed himself completely in writing. As time went on, Kingsland became interested in the work of Mrs. Alice Leighton Cleather in defence of H. P. B. and her teachings, through the publication of her three books, and various articles appearing at the time. The “Back to Blavatsky ” movement was strong at the time, and it was natural that Mrs. Cleather and William Kingsland should be drawn together after years of independent work with the same object in view. After much correspondence, they agreed to form the Blavatsky Association to perpetuate the memory of H. P. B. and defend her name and work whenever possible. The Association was formally organized in London by thirty persons, November 13, 1923. In the absence of Mrs. Cleather in India, Kingsland and the Hon. Iona Davey drew up the Rules and Constitution and submitted them to Mrs. Cleather. Mrs. Davey remained Hon. Secretary until she died in 1946; it is at her home at 26 Bedford Gardens, London, that the Association held its meetings and had a valuable library available to students. The weekly classes consisted chiefly of the study of H. P. B.’s writings and of The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett. The “H. P. B. Defence Committee” of the Association published a number of defences against the slanders of the Society for Psychical Research, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others. There was a good membership drawn from people who were either new to the teachings or those who had become sickened by existing conflicts within the Theosophical Organizations, and were looking for the genuine teachings of the Ancient Wisdom. The Blavatsky Association ceased to exist in 1945.
From the time he removed to Ryde, to the end of Kingsland’s life, appeared the following works from his pen: Our Infinite Life (London: Allen & Unwin, 1922. 200 pp.); An Anthology of Mysticism (London: Methuen & Co., 1927. 305 pp.); The Real H. P. Blavatsky, A Study in Theosophy, and a Memoir of a Great Soul (London: John M. Watkins, 1928. 322 pp.). This is by far the best survey of H. P. B.’s life and work, written sympathetically by one of her personal pupils. It includes as an Appendix “A Critical Analysis of the 1885 Report of the Society for Psychical Research,” first published in October, 1927, as a separate pamphlet of The Blavatsky Association, under the title of Was She a Charlatan? Then came Christos, The Religion of the Future (London: John M. Watkins, 1929. 423 123 pp.) and Part I of The Great Pyramid in Fact and in Theory (London: Rider & Co., 1932. 125 pp., ill.), Part II being published in 1935 (140 pp., ill.). This work was the outcome of a three months’ visit to Egypt at the beginning of 1931, and is one of the best surveys of the mathematical problems and the theoretical and philosophical implications in connection with the Great Pyramid, against the background of the Esoteric Philosophy. The last work of Kingsland to appear in his life-time was The Art of Life and How to Conquer Old Age (London: The C. W. Daniel Co., 1934. 102 pp.). This little booklet includes an autobiographical Appendix.
At the end of the year 1935 Kingsland concluded his Manuscript on the Gnosis in Christian Scriptures, which was published posthumously in 1937 under the title: The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom in the Christian Scriptures, or The Wisdom in a Mystery (London: Geo. Allen & Unwin. 230 pp.; second impression, 1954; fifth impr, 1962.)
In addition to his larger works, Kingsland issued a number of valuable pamphlets which were published in the Theosophical Siftings between 1888-95. Among them should be mentioned: The Higher Science; Theosophy and Orthodoxy; Theosophy and Dogma; The Mission of Theosophy; Freewill and Karma. At a much later date, he engaged in a lively controversy with Dr. G. de Purucker, then Leader of the Point Loma Theosophical Society, on the subject of the basic principles of Theosophy and issued two pamphlets entitled: Essentials and Non-Essentials of a Theosophical Organization (24 pp.), and Work of a Theosophical Organization (32 pp.).
William Kingsland passed away at Ryde, on Feb. 6, 1936, at 6 p.m., after a two months’ illness, in his eighty-first year.
The range of William Kingsland’s writings was very wide, but among the many subjects of which he treated, the chief one was the synthesizing of the discoveries of modern science with the teachings of the Ancient Wisdom and the experiences of genuine mystics. His works have been widely read and constitute a most valuable addition to the rapidly growing body of occult literature.
“While Mr. Kingsland’s influence, both in—and outside—the Movement was deep and widespread, his personality was always kept in the background, and was known to few beyond a small circle of friends and associates. He never attempted to impose himself on others nor to recruit a following. He spoke little, but always to the point, and never talked about himself. In appearance he was inconspicuous—small and slightly-built, though muscular and athletic. He had enormous capacity for work; and, during his eighth decade, when most men are fit only to rest, his literary output was immense. His best books were written when over seventy. Even as lately as the Summer of 1935, when turned eighty, he played tennis, practised gymnastics, drove a car, and ran a mile every day before breakfast. In a word, he had discovered the secret of an ordered life, in which spiritual, intellectual, and physical activities were perfectly balanced.
424 “In the Theosophical Movement, as in the world outside it, there are mystics, intellectuals, and good people of both sexes; but only a tiny minority combine intellect, mystical insight and ethical practice in clear focus and right proportion. Of this minority William Kingsland was one.”[2]
Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 10, pp. 419-424