F. Matthias Alexander - London

London

Alexander arrived London in June 1904, and quickly acquired a fine wardrobe, a manservant, and a smart address at the Army & Navy Mansions in Victoria Street. As he later said "In those days, you just couldn't get on here unless you appeared to be the right sort." Armed with letters of recommendation from Dr. McKay and others Australian doctors, he quickly gained important supporters in the London medical community. A key contact and mentor was the ENT surgeon R.H. Scanes Spicer, who took lessons and promoted Alexander's method and referred him pupils. Given Alexander's love of the theatre, he was particularly delighted when Spicer asked him to see the actress Lily Brayton, who had lost her voice. Alexander's successful treatment led to introductions to other theatrical luminaries including Brayton's husband Oscar Asche, Henry Irving, Herbert Beerbohm Tree and George Alexander. The first three were supportive, but having taken a lesson George Alexander accused his teacher of "practising extortion" when given the bill. Nevertheless, after two years, Alexander's practice was booming, and with a rate of 4 guineas an hour, Alexander was doing well financially. He likely remitted some of his earnings to Australia to help support his mothers and sisters, and to repay his debts, but he was also able to live well. He developed a taste for the finer things in life, including food, wine and cigars, and was a regular patron of London's best restaurants. He rode his horse daily, fox-hunted periodically, and pursued his lifelong interest in horse racing.

Alexander produced a series of pamphlets in order to explain his discoveries about respiration and the voice and describe his successful cases. Alexander was not a good or clear writer, but these works show the development of Alexander's theories and the first mentions in print of such important concepts in the Alexander Technique as "conscious control", "antagonistic action", the whispered "ah", the unreliability of self-perceptions and sensations, "inhibition" and the "means whereby". Edith Young travelled to England soon after, arriving in September 1904. Letters from her ailing husband Robert suggest that he encouraged her to follow Alexander, and urged Alexander to take care of and be faithful to her. Alexander had hoped that Edith would help him with his teaching, but she was interested in a stage career, and was scornful of his work. Motivated by concerns about respectability and perhaps about what she might reveal about his past, Alexander installed her at a distance in the suburb of Streatham. Michael Bloch, Alexander's biographer, speculates that "for some years she may have been the one person before whom he never had to pretend, with whom he was able to reminisce about his old life and friends in Australia, and who offered him intimate comforts." Throughout his life, Alexander was a private man who enjoyed social company, but he was not a party-goer and did not join clubs or societies. Instead of close friendships, he tended to have disciples and supporters. In 1909, as also happened frequently throughout his life, Alexander fell out a friend and supporter, in this case Dr. Spicer. In a series of papers, Spicer, who clearly believed that Alexander lacked medical knowledge, claimed corrections of posture and respiration for the medical profession rather "untrained amateurs and ignorant quacks". Alexander responded with pamphlets accusing Spicer of plagiarism and distortion. As a consequence of this dispute, Alexander finally produced a long-contemplated book, which appeared in three parts: Man's Supreme Inheritance (October 1910), an Addenda (March 1911), and Conscious Control (October 1912). These were combined into one volume in 1918.

In 1911 Alexander's mother and his sister Amy arrived for a visit and moved into his rooms at the Army and Navy Mansions, while Alexander lived and practiced at the nearby 16 Ashley Place. Amy began to teach some of Alexander's female pupils, and before the end of 1911 it appears to have been decided that the visitors would remain permanently, and that other members of the Alexander family would come to join them. Over the next few years, four of Alexander's siblings moved to London. His father and other brothers did not make the move. Estranged from her husband, Betsy Alexander claimed to be a widow. Alexander's brother A.R. joined the growing practice, which included pupils such as the politician Reginald McKenna, the businessman Waldorf Astor, and Edith, Viscountess Castlereagh. Alexander also engaged Ethel Webb, a former pupil, as a teacher, the first from outside his family. She connected Alexander to two other women who would be important to his work, Irene Tasker and Margaret Naumburg. The latter, an American, offered to help him fulfill a long held desire: to introduce the approach in the United States. On August 10, 1914, before a month his departure, he married Edith Young at a registry office wedding. Her husband, Robert had died in September 1910, and Alexander had supported her since that time. The couple were, however, to spend much of the years that followed apart.