E. T. Sturdy
E. T. Sturdy, whom Colonel OLCOTT referred to as the “Father of Theosophy in New Zealand,” joined the Society in 1885 while living at Woodville in Hawkes Bay. After traveling overseas and meeting Col. Olcott, H. P. BLAVATSKY, and W. Q. JUDGE, he returned to New Zealand and settled in Wellington. Gathering a group of students around himself, he started the Wellington Lodge, which was chartered in 1888. Among its members were Sir Harry Albert ATKINSON, Prime Minister of New Zealand; his wife Anne E. Atkinson; their son, E. Tudor Atkinson; M. van Staveren, a Jewish rabbi; H. M. Stowell (Hare Hongi), a Maori tohunga (priest); and Edward Tregear, a poet and Maori scholar, who wrote a book about the similarities of the Hindu and Maori languages. The Wellington Lodge ceased to exist when Sturdy returned to England, where he became a student in HPB’s “inner group”; however they regrouped in 1894 and continue to the present.
Mr. Sturdy was a member of the Esoteric Section one of the "E.S.T. Council" appointed by H.P.B.
He was part of the European Advisory Council formed in July, 1890 to assist HPB in her new function as the Presidential authority of the Theosophical Society in Europe. The other members of the Council were Annie Besant, W. Kingsland, Herbert Burrows, A. P. Sinnett, H. A. W. Coryn, and G. R. S. Mead.(CW 12, 264)
When HPB formed the Inner Group in August 1890, Mr. Sturdy was a member of it.
On April, 1891, ill and few weeks before dying, HPB was concerned that Mr. Sturdy had also been taken ill with influenza. When it was suggested that Mr. Mead should bring him to be nursed at Headquarters, she was much pleased and insisted on his being sent for at once. How She Left Us by Laura M. Cooper
Mr. Sturdy was present at the meeting at 19 Avenue Road on May 27, 1891, when the E.S. was reorganized immediately after the death of H.P.B.
In 1893 Mr. Sturdy wrote an article on Gurus and Chelas. The latter induced Annie Besant to write another article published in Lucifer for October, 1893, taking a stand against the spirit behind his article.
Online resources
Articles and pamphlets
by E.T. Sturdy and a reply by Annie Besant