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    The Naked Truth About Nudism
    The Naked Truth About Nudism
    The Naked Truth About Nudism
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    The Naked Truth About Nudism

    By William Welby, Brian Curragh and Stephen Glass

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    About this ebook

    1930s Britain was a hotbed of utopian ideals in which William Welby, an advertising manager, was drawn to the burgeoning nudist movement.

    Welby's quest for understanding culminated in the landmark publication Naked and Unashamed, a groundbreaking exploration of nudism by a British author, the success of which encouraged him to wri

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWolfbait
    Release dateAug 12, 2024
    ISBN9781917298056
    The Naked Truth About Nudism

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      Book preview

      The Naked Truth About Nudism - William Welby

      Illustrations by Stephen Glass

      Having a Ball

      Sun-kissed

      Bright Horizon

      Countryside Charm

      By Rock and Pool

      Between Friends

      Shared Moments

      Perched at the Poolside

      Meadow Muse

      Image No. 2

      Sun-kissed.

      Foreword

      WHO WAS WILLIAM WELBY? Actually, let’s step back briefly and deal with who he wasn’t. He wasn’t Rex Wellbye, as some had considered a possibility.

      Rex Wellbye—or to give him his birth name, Reginald Wellbye—is a well-known figure in the history of naturism in Great Britain. Together with Harold Booth and Mark Sorensen, he founded the English Gymnosophy Society in 1922 and was an original member of the mysterious Moonella Group, which practised sunbathing in a field near Wickford, Essex, over the summers of 1924 and 1925. All members of the group used club names to protect their identity—Rex Wellbye’s was Zex. In 1927, Wellbye acquired some land which became the Fouracres Club; it continues today as the Fiveacres Country Club, making it the oldest surviving naturist club in the UK. Outside of naturism, Wellbye earned a living by writing topographical touring guides to England for the motorist and cyclist.

      So, when the phonetically identical William Welby published three books on nudism between 1934 and 1937, the suspicion arose that he and Wellbye were one and the same person. However, a review of the UK Births, Marriages and Death registers, alongside census returns, reveals that Reginald Wellbye was born on the 6th April 1873 in Marylebone, London, to parents Henry Read Wellbeloved/Wellbye and Helen Brooks, while William Welby arrived almost ten years later, on 1st April 1883 in Canterbury, Kent, to parents George Welby and his second wife, Mary Jane Durant. The two men can be tracked down through the years until William Welby’s death, aged 68, on 14th May 1951 at his home on Hainault Road, Chigwell, Essex. Reginald Wellbye lived on to the age of 89, dying in the first quarter of 1963, reportedly at the Fiveacres Club he had founded.

      So, these were two different men who both played important roles in enabling the practice of naturism in Great Britain.

      While Rex Wellbye’s contribution was towards the physical creation of naturist clubs, William Welby’s three books were among the first to bring the concepts behind nudism/naturism to the attention of the wider British public.

      Having worked initially as an auctioneer’s clerk in London and then as an advertising copywriter, by 1921 Welby was employed as the advertising manager for Achille Serre Ltd, the company which introduced dry cleaning to the UK, and was working at their head office in Hackney Wick. By 1929, he had become an associate director and publicity manager there.

      What exactly happened in Welby’s life over the next five years is lost to history, but we do know that in July 1934 he wrote his first book on nudism: Naked and Unashamed: Nudism from Six Points of View. It is quite possible that Naked and Unashamed was the second book published in England on nudism after Rev. C.E. Norwood’s 1933 Nudism in England. The book is an introduction to nudism seen from six points of view, and covers the history of nudism, the moral, health and psychological aspects of the practice, the aesthetic considerations, and the Commonsense Point of View. What is clear from the first edition is that Welby was an external observer of nudism as it rapidly developed in Britain in the 1930s. His motives may well have been commercial, in a manner similar to George Ryley Scott’s The Commonsense of Nudism, also published in 1934.

      The following year, 1935, Welby wrote this volume, The Naked Truth about Nudism, and while the Author’s Preface initially sheds little further light on Welby’s personal experiences, by Chapter V, he admits that following the remarkable success of Naked and Unashamed, he had received invitations to visit various Nudist clubs, and after my first real experience, I became an enthusiastic Nudist myself.

      What this means is that The Naked Truth is written from a much more personal point of view and conviction. It suggests that Welby was rather more than the detached observer he portrayed himself as in Naked and Unashamed. He admits that before writing the first volume, he had studied the subject very closely from all angles. I read practically everything that was printed about the subject and supplemented my reading with personal enquiries wherever and whenever possible. The publication of Naked and Unashamed brought him the opportunity to visit some of the early British nudist clubs and this experience enabled him to fill his second book with many personal, albeit anonymous, accounts directly from the members of those clubs, thereby making this a fascinating historical review of nudism in Britain in the 1930s.

      Image No. 3

      Bright Horizon.

      The Naked Truth about Nudism assumes that the reader may not be familiar with the practice, so it introduces it and looks at the health benefits and the social opportunities it can bring before dealing with the thorny issue of nudity and sex. In a chapter entitled Subordination of Sex Welby sets out his reasoning that:

      … the practice of nudism is beneficial. Mere physical attributes partially revealed will cease to excite curiosity, and a train of thought leading to eroticism once the whole of the body has become familiar by sight. For these reasons Nudism does subordinate sex without in any sense repressing it, and by so doing is favourable to health, psychologically as well as physically.

      The following two chapters explore why people became nudists, through interviews with several club members, and then offer an excellent account of Welby’s visits to many of the early clubs, including the New Forest Club, the Lotus League of North Finchley, Yew Tree Camp and the White House, before Mr & Mrs Welby and family became members of a nudist club in their home county of Essex. Welby also sets out the ideal operating practices that anyone considering opening a nudist club should follow.

      Welby brings the book to a conclusion by looking at Artificial Sunlight and Indoor Nudism before setting out his expectations for the future of nudism. He expresses regret for the many adherents of Nudism who, for professional and material reasons, are reluctant to make their opinions public and states that personally, he has not the least objection to anyone knowing I am a Nudist and that I and my wife and family enjoy healthy exercise and interesting companionship at a Nudist camp. I have often felt that the future of Nudism is very much dependent upon its frank acknowledgment.

      Welby’s final paragraph sets out a hope that will be familiar to many naturists today:

      The future of Nudism, then, depends largely upon Nudists themselves. The leaders have it in their hands to build upon rock rather than sand, and if the existing fraternity and co-operation can be broadened, Nudism can hope for a prosperous future. Once the general public learn of the improved health and mental outlook which comes from Nudism, it may become almost universal.

      This reprint of William Welby’s The Naked Truth About Nudism is a valuable addition to the historiography of nudism and naturism, and I hope that you will enjoy reading Welby’s thoughts and experiences, many of which remain relevant today.

      Brian Curragh, MA

      Archivist, British Naturism

      Author’s Preface

      SINCE

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