We were very sad to hear of the death of Alec Leggatt, one of the main founders of Farnham Humanists, on 18th September 2024. David Brittain, founding editor of Humanistically Speaking, interviewed Alec for our August 2020 issue. We thought it would be a fitting tribute to Alec to reprint it here.
Alec Leggatt was born on 20th June 1928, less than a decade after the 1918-19 pandemic. Al Capone still ran Chicago and, after a period of post-war prosperity, the Wall Street Crash and Great Depression were just a few months ahead. “1928 was also the year when Mickey Mouse emerged!” chuckled Alec. But putting world-famous mice aside for one moment, whether you see parallels between that time and now is a matter of personal opinion. But one thing’s for sure – it was an awfully long time ago!
The son of a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy, Alec’s childhood was spent in Portsmouth, so his memories of that time, and the World War that came soon after, were vivid. Alec’s earliest memories relating to religion begin with the church parades that were required of service personnel at the time. The Leggatt family attended these parades of course, but neither of his parents were regular church-goers, and he describes his religious upbringing as "pretty ordinary really". He was, however, considered to have a good singing voice, and he joined Portsmouth Cathedral’s choir as a boy treble – a singing aptitude (and a broad love of music) that continued throughout his life right up to his mid eighties.
Alec entered the world of civil engineering when he left school, and thus far his life was on course for a settled middle-class existence, but his road to Damascus really began when he fell in love with, and married, Valerie in 1950 when he was just 22 years old. He describes Valerie as a quasi-humanist at that time. Her father was a strict atheist, and that was the way she had been brought up, but she respected other beliefs, and in fact they both joined the local Presbyterian church. Alec recalls the minister at the time as a delightful, charming and a liberal individual whom he and Valerie both held in regard and with affection.
“We don’t really believe” Alec confessed to him once, but that changed nothing. The young reverend was clearly wise and open-minded enough to welcome them on the basis that the local church was there to serve all the community, irrespective of faith, and Alec still has fond memories of his friendship with him. So it came as a real tragedy for everyone when he suddenly and unexpectedly died of a heart attack. His replacement was quite different, however. Alec described the new minister as a fundamentalist, and the turning point came at a sermon he delivered when he said “If you don’t believe that Jesus was the son of God, you are not a Christian”.
This marked the beginning of Alec’s transformation. He found that he actually agreed with the new vicar’s remarks. He didn’t believe that Jesus was the son of God, and the lever that began to prise Alec away from Christianity started a kind of domino effect that ultimately led him to the realisation that he hadn’t been honest with himself. He had described himself as Christian but, in truth, he wasn’t. After saying that, Alec reminded me of an inscription that he thought he saw onstage at Conway Hall in London which said "Be True to Thyself". It was clearly very important to him.
So Alec was no longer a Christian, but at the time he hadn’t heard of humanism. By this time his civil engineering career was going well, and he was soon achieving considerable eminence, publishing several papers and a book. In fact, he ended up chairing a London consultancy, and he became involved with many projects at home and abroad. He had a close friend, a former boss, who was a firm atheist and humanist. When he died, Alec attended the funeral, of course, and it would be another eye-opener for him. It was the first humanist ceremony he had ever attended, and he was immediately struck by its uplifting warmth and honest sincerity. It was this experience that finally caused Alec to begin to explore humanism, and would lead to his joining the then British Humanist Association. And some years later, after he retired in 1988, Alec decided to train to become a humanist celebrant.
The 90s were the beginning of a time of rapid growth for organised humanism, and somewhere along the line Alec joined Guildford Humanists where he became acquainted with David Savage, who would later become the architect of Humanists UK’s Pastoral Care initiative. David and Alec became good friends; they both wanted to be more engaged with the local community, and they felt that Guildford Humanists was a bit too "armchair" for their liking. They wanted to be more proactive and involved, so they decided to establish a new humanist group that was nearer to where they lived in Farnham, and that process began in 2005.
When I asked Alec what help they received from Humanists UK to establish a group, he told me that they agreed to send invitation letters (yes … they sent Royal Mail letters even then!) from their main office in London to every member who lived near Farnham. About 50% responded and Farnham took off with a bang – and it is still going strong today.
“So what direction do you think humanism should take in future?” I asked. “Humanists UK are doing some excellent work, but they should press the limits beyond a narrow perspective. We should become much more engaged with the environment, and I don’t just mean the human environment but the natural world also… Humans are just a vertebrate species with relatively advanced intelligence” he said. “This facility has led to gross misuse of the planet and other life forms. We have a moral responsibility to make amends for our misuse… And we should stop worrying so much about God. We should leave stuff like bishops in the House of Lords and Thought for the Day to the National Secular Society, that’s what they do.” He went on to say that “Humanism should work more in the direction of encouraging the world to deal with issues like poverty, population control and climate change. We should no longer think of ourselves as a group of individual nations, but as one species on one planet dealing with planetary issues.”
On a final note, we briefly discussed what a man who was born in 1928 might reflect on his eventual demise. I saw a little twinkle in his eyes and he smiled. “I’m not worried about dying …” he said. “But I am optimistic about the future, and I would love to know what happens next.” He laughed when he added “In the extraordinarily unlikely event that I found myself at the Pearly Gates, and St. Peter asked me if there was anything I wanted, I’d simply ask for a front seat to see the rest of the show!”
I closed the interview by thanking him for his honesty and candour. A fascinating interview with a very special humanist. Thank you, Alec.
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