George Edmondson (educationalist)
George Edmondson (1798–1863) was an English educationalist. Life Edmondson, born in Lancaster, Lancashire 8 September 1798 of Quaker parents, spent his early years entirely among Quakers, and always belonged to the Society of Friends. He shared a gift for mechanical invention with his brother Thomas. They were both educated at Ackworth School, Yorkshire, of which John Fothergill was the principal supporter. At age of 14 Edmondson left; he wished to be a teacher, and was apprenticed to William Singleton, the reading master of Ackworth School, who had set up a boarding-school in a large house at Broomhall, near Sheffield. There Edmondson learned bookbinding, and Daniel Wheeler taught him agriculture. In 1814 Alexander I of Russia visited England. He was impressed by the Quakers, and in 1817 invited Wheeler to superintend some agricultural institutions in Russia. Edmondson, on the suggestion of Singleton, joined the party as tutor to Wheeler's children and assistant in the work. He lived in Russia until 1820, when he returned to England to marry Anne Singleton, daughter of the schoolmaster. He returned with his wife to Okhta, near St. Petersburg, where they were living during the flooding in 1824. In the course of the following year the