Born in Frankfurt in 1867, which at the time was part of Prussia, George Cecil Ives was an early campaigner for homosexual law reform.
He was the illegitimate son of an English army officer Gordon Maynard Ives, and Jane Violet Tyler. He was raised in England by his paternal grandmother Emma Ives, who was the daughter of the 3rd Vicount Maynard.
As a young man he had an interest in cricket, and he went on to become a first class cricket player. He also played for a cricket club that was made up of authors, but he resigned from the club after he heard fellow players making violent and prejudicial comments about homosexuals.
He was a member of The Humanitarian League which was seen as a radical advocacy group, and began to speak about the oppression of people who were homosexual.
He met Oscar Wilde in 1892, but was disappointed when Wilde declined to become involved in advocacy. The following year he had a brief affair with Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas who was also Wilde’s lover.
In 1897 Ives founded the Order of Chaeronea, a secret society of homosexuals that would meet and discuss law reform and injustices. No records of the member of the society exist, but it is believed that more than 300 people were members, mostly men but some lesbians too.
In 1914, alongside Edward Carpenter, Magnus Hirschfeld, Lawrence Housman and others he formed the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology.
During his lifetime Ives wrote many books on penal mehtods through the ages, and travelled widely in his study of prisons and law reform.
Ives died in London in 1950 aged 82. He left behind a large archive of work, and his papers were bought in 1977 by the Harry Ranson Research Center at The University of Texas.
