Sir Richard Paget, 2nd Baronet
Sir Richard Paget, 2nd Baronet | |
---|---|
Born | Richard Arthur Surtees Paget 13 January 1869 Cranmore, Somerset, England |
Died | 23 October 1955 Knightsbridge, London, England | (aged 86)
Occupation(s) | Barrister, amateur scientist |
Known for | Paget Gorman Sign System |
Spouse(s) | Lady Muriel Finch-Hatton (1897–1938; her death) Grace Hartley Glover (1939–1955; his death) |
Parent(s) | Sir Richard Paget, 1st Baronet and Caroline Surtees |
Sir Richard Arthur Surtees Paget, 2nd Baronet (13 January 1869 – 23 October 1955) was a British barrister and amateur scientific investigator, who specialised in speech science and the origin of speech. Following the publication of his book on these topics, Human Speech, in 1930, Paget worked for the remaining decades of his life on a new type of signing system for the deaf, which became the Paget Gorman Sign System.
Early life and education
Paget was born in 1869 at Cranmore Hall, Somerset. His father was Sir Richard Paget, 1st Baronet, a Conservative member of parliament; his mother was Caroline Isabel Surtees, the daughter of Henry Surtees, another MP, of County Durham. He was educated at Eton College, and then at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he received a third-class degree in chemistry. He succeeded his father as Paget Baronet in 1908.[1]
Legal career
Paget was
Amateur scientist
Educated as a chemist and having worked as a physicist, Paget held a deep interest in various fields of science. He was also well-versed in music and the arts (and had written several songs as well as constructed his own musical instruments), but his reputation was that of an "eccentric amateur" scientist.[3]
Sir Richard's daughter,
Speech and sign language
Sir Richard's most enduring legacy was his research into the nature of human speech and communication. While he made contributions to several branches of the field from phonetics and vocalisation to linguistics and vocabulary, it was his theories on the origin of speech and the "pantomimic action" of the lips and tongue being related to the speaker's senses and emotions that led to his central thesis that hand signs and gestures were the original form of human communication, and that humans had evolved to communicate vocally as their "hands [were] full".[6] His book on these ideas, Human Speech, was published in 1930, and was re-issued in 1964 due to its connections with later developments in communication engineering.[1] The Irish author James Joyce was a close follower of Paget's research, and his works and those of Marcel Jousse were influential in Joyce's study and use of language.[7]
In the 1930s, Sir Richard began developing a
Marriage and children
Paget was married twice. His first marriage was to Lady Muriel Evelyn Vernon Finch-Hatton (daughter of Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea) on 31 May 1897; they had three daughters and two sons (one of whom died as an infant). His youngest child, John Starr Paget (1914–1992), succeeded him in the Paget Baronetcy as the 3rd Baronet.[10]
Lady Muriel died in 1938 of cancer and exhaustion. On 22 July 1939, Sir Richard married Grace Hartley Glover; they had no children.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d Harry Lowery, ‘Paget, Sir Richard Arthur Surtees, second baronet (1869–1955)’, rev. John Bosnell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008, accessed 5 January 2014.
- ISBN 978-1563681189.
- ^ a b Postlethwaite, Ken (28 June 1989). "Obituaries-English style". The Nevada Daily Mail. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ^ Chancellor, Alexander (25 May 2013). "Long life: How to fall off a moving bus backwards and land safely". The Spectator. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ISBN 978-1841621722.
- ^ Peterson, Joseph: Human Speech: Some Observations, Experiments, and Conclusions as to the Nature, Origin, Purpose and Possible Improvement of Human Speech by Richard Paget, The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Oct. 1931), pp. 710–712.
- ^ Supplementing Babel: Paget in VI.B.32’, in James Joyce: The Study of Languages, ed. Dirk Van Hulle (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2002) (p. 75-89.)
- ISBN 978-1446254325.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Paget Gorman Signed Speech – Our History, Paget Gorman Signed Speech.
- ^ Sybil Oldfield, ‘Paget , Lady Muriel Evelyn Vernon (1876–1938)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 5 January 2014.