Raymond Radclyffe

Born: Unknown.

Died: Unknown.

Raymond Radclyffe hailed from an old and distinguished family, beginning as a financial journalist and editor at St. Stephen’s Review, where his partner, William Allison, called him “a singularly able man.” As a signatory on the paper’s parent company, Radclyffe was named in a libel suit against St. Stephen’s Review; although protesting innocence, the lawsuit and other financial troubles doomed the paper. He personally suffered financially, appearing in court to account for over £5,000 in unpaid debt. He recovered and continued to write, contributing to London’s Financial Times and publishing his memoir, Wealth and Cats, in 1898. During the 1910s he would go on to be financial editor for the New Witness, regular financial commentator for The English Review, and author of The War and Finance; he became so influential that his word could bolster how the public perceived the integrity of any new company or undertaking.

According to Crowley, Radclyffe, “though utterly indifferent to Magick, was passionately fond of poetry and thought mine first-class, and unrivalled in my generation.” Theirs was a deep friendship, Crowley writing appreciatively of him, “he was one of the very best that ever lived; a City Editor straight as Euclid before Einstein attacked him, and one of the best literary critics and friends in the world.” This explained his presence at the Rite of Artemis, and AC appreciated the good review, inscribing a copy of Clouds without Water to “Raymond Radclyffe from his grateful friend Aleister Crowley.”

Radclyffe’s positive review encouraged Crowley to compose and perform an entire series of rites. Although J.F.C. Fuller and his friends urged Crowley to leave well enough alone, Crowley stubbornly rented a room at Westminster’s Caxton Hall. To this respectable venue accustomed to whist drives, subscription dances, and meetings of the fledgling suffragettes, Crowley planned to introduce incense, music, chanting, and dancing for the ritual of all rituals.