George Binney Dibblee

Father: Frederick Lewis Dibblee (1837-1888)
Mother: Emily Binney (1837-1899)

Dates: 1868-1952

Married: 1904 - Laura Sterling Thomson (?-1951)

George Binney Dibblee was born in Trichinopoly. He was usually known as Binney. He collected the papers and photos that make up much of this website.

Some of the letters from his father describe how Binney tried to pass the exams for the Indian Civil Sevice, but failed. Then a master at his school, (Haileybury) lent him money to study at Balliol, Oxford. This teacher was Mr Milford. L.S.Milford wrote "Haileybury College, Past and Present", published 1909. There are some references to Binney in this book, as an "old boy":
(page 87) "C.H.Simpkinson, H.Morse Stephens (Cornell University), G.B.Dibblee and F.H.Trench (both Fellows of All Soulds) and E.H.McDougall (Bombay University) are among those who got First in History... It is rather strange that we have done better in Science and in History at Oxford than at Cambridge."
(page 96) "G.B.Dibblee has been Chairman of the Association of Journalists."

Binney matriculated (started his course) 15 October 1887. From The Guardian, November 6, 1890. "Mr G. B. Dibblee, Scholar of Balliol, has been elected to a History Fellowship at All Souls... Mr. Dibblee obtained a first class in Modern History in the summer." Who's Who in Oxford Economics says G.B. Dibblee was bursar and dean of All Souls College (1920 to 1924).

Books written by G.B.Dibblee:

• The Laws of Supply and Demand, with Special Reference to Their Influence on Over Production and Unemployment (1912)
• The Newspaper (1915)
• The Psychological Theory of Value (1924)
• Instinct and Intuition. A Study in Mental Duality (1929)

According to various censuses:
In 1889, aged 12, George Binney was described as a scholar, a boarder at 12 & 13 Chesham Place, Brighton, Sussex.
In 1901, aged 32, he was in Didsbury, Chorlton, Lancashire, with his siblings Bessie and Tom as part of his household. Their mother had died in 1899.
In 1911, aged 42, he was in Guildford, Surrey.

While in France (see left), George Binney Dibblee and his wife met James Joyce (the writer) in France. Apparently, George Binney Dibblee got on well with James Joyce, but his wife didn't really like Joyce's wife!

From Review of 'Visions of the Press in Britain, 1850-1950'
Of these, one of the most interesting is George Binney Dibblee, journalist, business manager of the Manchester Guardian, and subsequently an academic. Dibblee is presented as a member of the educational school because he believed in the value of opinion. He considered that the press had lost its golden age during the Boer War, after which virtually all the quality papers were politically Conservative, leading to distortion of the truth. But Dibblee had been a man of business and therefore accepted the facts of journalism in practice. So he placed news first in his list of priorities, followed by opinion and then advertising. He also, unlike the traditional educational thinker, did not see facts as the raw material of opinion, but as a kind of opinion in themselves. In this he was unusual for that time, but not unique.

Encyclopedia article about The Newspaper by George Binney Dibblee.