Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, was a British socialist, economist and reformer, who co-founded the London School of Economics. He was an early member of the Fabian Society in 1884, joining, like George Bernard Shaw, three months after its inception. Along with his wife Beatrice Webb and with Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, Edward R. Pease, Hubert Bland and Sydney Olivier, Shaw and Webb turned the Fabian Society into the pre-eminent politico-intellectual society in Edwardian England. He wrote the original, pro-nationalisation Clause IV for the British Labour Party.

Birkbeck, University of London, is a research university located in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institute by its founder Sir George Birkbeck and its supporters- Jeremy Bentham, J. C. Hobhouse and Henry Brougham- Birkbeck is one of the few universities to specialise in evening higher education in the United Kingdom.