Harry Hardy Peach was born in Toronto, Canada in 1874. His family settled in Oadby, Leicester when he was three years old. His father, who came from a Nottinghamshire drapery family, decided to return to his Midlands roots. Peach went to Wyggeston Boys Grammar School and then to Oakham Public School in Rutland. After a brief period working as an estate agent with his father he set up as a bookseller at 37 Belvoir Street, Leicester specialising in manuscripts and early printed books. His love of literature and appreciation of good quality printing lasted throughout his life. He also realised that good quality printing was an effective tool both for his business and other interests.
He and his first wife, Marina – known as May, were involved in politics and social reform. They were members of the Independent Labour Party; May Peach was a committed suffragette and campaigner for improved health care for working class women. Peach was involved in organising an exhibition on the sweated trades during Ramsey McDonald’s 1906 election campaign in Leicester. This imaginatively presented exhibition, which illustrated the grim conditions of work through actual demonstrations as well as photographs and factual information, was Peach’s first experience of the impact of the medium. May Peach died in 1913; Peach, who had five children, remarried in 1915 to Mabel Walton.
Benjamin Fletcher, head of Leicester School of Art from 1900, became a close friend. He introduced Peach to the writings of William Morris and William Lethaby which brought home to him the links between politics and design reform. When Peach was forced to give up bookselling in 1906 because of his deteriorating eyesight, it was Fletcher who worked with him to establish the first Dryad enterprise – cane furniture. This was followed in 1912 by Dryad Metal Works and in 1918 by Dryad Handicrafts. During the First World War Peach had become involved in the Design and Industries Association, known as the DIA, in its attempt to raise the standard of design of everyday goods. He also extended his approach to design reform by campaigning on environmental issues. As always his focus was Leicester and the surrounding countryside but the impact of the work was much wider.
