Alexander Faulkner Shand

Alexander Faulkner Shand was born in Bayswater, London.[3] he was the son of Hugh Morton Shand, a Scot (grandson of William Shand, 2nd Laird of Craigellie), and his wife Edrica Faulkner, the Italian-born daughter of Joshua Wilson Faulkner of Kent.[3] Shand is said to have been briefly engaged to Irish author Constance Lloyd, who went on to marry Oscar Wilde.[2] Shand later married Augusta Mary Coates.[3]

Edwardes Place in 2018, no.1 at left

He was a founding member of the British Psychological Society in 1901 and was awarded with honorary membership in 1934.[1] He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).[1]

In Charles & Camilla, Gyles Brandreth describes Shand as:

a man who wanted to push boundaries, both intellectually and in terms of his personal conduct. His intellectual legacy is probably his work as a pioneer in the field of social psychology.[2]

Of Shand's best known work, The Foundations of Character, Brandreth writes that its central theme was "the balance between instinct, sentiment and emotion on one hand and the pressures of society on the other."[2] The Times described the book - first published in 1914 - as doing much "to create a science of character", and as "a valuable contribution to philosophical literature".[3]

For most of his life, Shand lived at 1 Edwardes Place, Kensington, London.[4][1] He died on 6 January 1936, aged 77.[3]

• "Alexander Faulkner Shand (1858–1936)*". John Kenna's 'Biographical Notes on the Ten Founding Members'. The British Psychological Society. 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
• 'SHAND, Alexander Faulkner', Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 30 Jan 2012