ABSTRACT
Robert Laurence Stuart was born in Edinburgh in 1900 to George Malcolm and Elizabeth Stuart. George was a lawyer of considerable standing, but Robert did not at first follow him into this profession. Aged 12, he joined the Royal Navy and trained at Dartmouth; in 1916 he became a midshipman, serving in HMS Valiant, and was present that year at the Battle of Jutland. This chapter supplements the material from Robert Stuart's archive with information provided by his children and by Christopher Badenoch; and further material drawn from Soil Association publications. Together, these sources provide a portrait of someone whose decades of commitment to the organic cause mark him out as practical exponent of its principles. The chapter focuses on the following areas of his activities: the Scottish Soil and Health Group and Health and the Soil; the Hopes Compost Club and the farm composting service; Chirnside Soil Association Weeks; and, as a coda, the success of his Countryhouse Hotel.
