Henry Polak (1882-1959) was originally from Dover, England. He first came to South Africa in 1903, and worked as a journalist on the editorial staff of The Transvaal Critic newspaper. Polak met Gandhi at a gathering of a vegetarian society in Johannesburg in March of 1904. Shortly after meeting Gandhi, Polak also began to work as a freelance writer for Gandhi’s newspaper, Indian Opinion, and grew increasingly involved in the “Indian Question” – the question of Indian civil rights in South Africa. Gandhi also persuaded Polak to study law, and then hired him to work in his law firm in Johannesburg.

In September 1904, Gandhi needed to make a trip from Johannesburg to Durban, where Indian Opinion was published, in order to deal with some financial affairs for the newspaper. As Gandhi boarded the overnight train for this trip, Polak gave him a copy of John Ruskin’s essay “Unto This Last” to read, suggesting that Gandhi might also find it interesting. Reading this essay was a transformative moment in Gandhi’s life, and sparked the idea for establishing his first intentional community, Phoenix Settlement, later that same year.

Polak married Millie Graham Polak (nee Downs), in 1905, with Gandhi serving as Polak’s best man during the wedding ceremony. Initially after their marriage, Henry lived half time at Phoenix Settlement with Gandhi and the other press workers, and travelled back and forth regularly between Phoenix Settlement and Johannesburg, while Millie remained in Johannesburg where she lived with Gandhi’s wife and children and became their teacher. In 1906, Millie moved to Phoenix Settlement to join Henry there, though she decided to return to Johannesburg after just two months. Henry, on the other hand, continued to split his time between Johannesburg and Phoenix Settlement for over a decade, working both on the Indian Opinion newspaper while at Phoenix Settlement, and also in his legal capacity out of Gandhi’s Johannesburg law office. After Gandhi had departed South Africa to return to India (in 1914), Henry and Millie Polak elected to go to India and lived briefly with him at Sabarmati Ashram, before returning to England.