Victor Branford was a central figure in the institutional development of British sociology in the first thirty years of the twentieth century. He is, however, a neglected figure and little is known about his life and his work in sociology. This article presents a biographical account of Victor Branford and outlines his sociological ideas. Particular attention is given to the part played by Branford and his second wife, Sybella Gurney, in the establishment of the Sociological Society and The Sociological Review. Writing between 1903 and 1930, he set out a distinctive view of the nature of sociology and an account of modernity, which he saw as underpinning a conception of a third way in politics that goes beyond capitalism and socialism. He tied this view, set out in the years after the First World War, to a conception of the public role of sociology in which the sociologist was to be a leading element in the building of social citizenship through social reconstruction.Despite his centrality in the history of British sociology, Victor Branford is a neglected figure. 1 He is known -if at all -only as one of the rather nebulous figures involved in the early days of British Sociology. Though he had no formal university position (he had applied for Chairs at Birmingham and at Manchester), he was central to the building of the key institutions that sustained sociology in Britain for the first thirty tears of the twentieth century. He set up the first Sociological Society, was the founder, editor, and prime mover of The Sociological Review, furthered its scientific activities through the formation of study groups, and ensured that the Society had premises from which to work. He was involved in sociological work at all levels, including the Board of Sociological Studies at the London School of Economics, the principal centre for the teaching of sociology in Britain throughout the period. Despite producing numerous publications (see, for example, Branford, 1914Branford, , 1923Branford, , 1924, his intellectual impact was marginal. Nevertheless, his reflections on the public role of sociology were of pivotal significance in the early organisation of British sociology.There are few discussions of Branford's life or ideas, and none of any length. 2 Those discussions of the history of sociology that mention him, do so only in passing and give only the barest details of his life. Using data from civil The Sociological Review, 55:3 (2007)