Sir William Fothergill Cooke was born in Ealing in 1806. He was educated at Durham and Edinburgh Unviersity and then served in the Indian Army 1826-1831. Resumed his studies at Paris and Heidelberg, where he saw Professor Moncke's demonstration of the electric telegraph. He returned to England and began experiments on its application to alarm systems and railway signalling in 1836. His electrical knowledge was, however, lacking and he had almost given up his ideas on the telegraph when he met Charles Wheatstone, who had the necessary scientific knowledge and skill. The two men entered into partnership and took out a joint patent for an alarm system in May 1837. Cooke persuaded the London and Birmingham Railway Company and the Great Western Railway company to sanction experiments along their lines and he and Wheatstone further developed their telegraph, Wheatstone providing the technical expertise and Cooke the business prowess and practical knowledge. The partnership was however, an uneasy one. The issue of priority of invention came to dominate their relationship and was taken to arbitration in 1841 before Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and Professor John Frederic Daniell, who decided that Cooke and Wheatstone were equally and jointly responsible for it. However, the dispute resurfaced in 1845 and in 1846 Cooke formed the Electric Telegraph Company which bought their joint patents. Cooke was knighted in 1868, and died at Farnham, Surrey on 25 June 1879.
Nursing Notes Ltd was set up in 1929 by Dame Rosalind to produce the journal Nursing Notes, more recently called Midwives, which she had begun in 1887 for nurses and midwives. She personally funded the publication and was involved in its administration and production. Other members of the Paget family subsequently became involved, notably Kathleen and Guy Paget. The offices of the journal served as the focal point for the administration of the journal, and also a Trust Fund which Dame Rosalind established in 1919. She was a trained nurse and midwife and a prominent member in the movement to raise the status of midwives and nurses, and to improve the standards in these professions. The records in this collection reflect just a part of her activities, which also included the development of the Midwives Institute, now the Royal College of Midwives, and she also helped set up the Queen's Nursing Institute. She was also an active member of the Chartered Society of Massage and Medical Gymnastics which became the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
Not given.
Tyler Dispensing Chemists were based in Abingdon Road, London W12.
Jaques Frederic Alexandre Schupbach was born in London on 11 July 1906, the son of Alexandre Schupbach, a Swiss working for the Credit Lyonnais in London, and Marguerite nee Ulliac, a member of a Breton family removed to Neuchatel. He was educated at Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire, a vegetarian establishment. In the 1930s he worked for various government organisations. The stages in the development of his medical interests and practice are unknown. He was a member of the Astrological Lodge, the Theosophical Society, the British Phrenological Society, the British Dowsing Society, and the Fraternite Blanche Universalle. He was a member of several orchestras in which he played the violin and the viola. He lived in Church Road, Barnes, from the 1940s to his death in June 1989. At his death, his large library of books on social psychology, occult sciences etc was dispersed: the bulk of the medical books are now in the Wellcome Library. These papers form a small selection, made virtually at random, from a vast collection of letters, notes, etc, of which the remainder were destroyed. Some of the case-notes revealed that he had treated certain patients over many years.
Sir Arthur Salusbury MacNalty, KCB, MD, FRCP, FRCS born 1880; long career in public health: Medical Inspector HM Local Government Board 1913-1919; Medical Officer and Senior Medical Officer Ministry of Health 1919-1935; Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health 1935-1941. Secretary of the Tuberculosis Committee of the Medical Research Council 1920-1932. Editor in Chief for the Official Medical History of the Last War since 1941. A medical historian, author of several books on history of state medicine, diseases of the central nervous system and Tudor Kings and Queens. Died 1969. There is a brief biographical note at GC/119/B.4.
KGK Syndicate was the name of the partnership between Peter Maurice Koch de Gooreynd and Arthur Kingston, under a deed of partnership dated 20 March 1934, joined by Alexander Koch Worsthone under a further deed, dated 31 December 1936. This partnership was dissolved in Febraury 1938, and in August 1944 Kingston's solicitors were disputing claims made in a BBC radio broadcast and in a special overseas edition of 'The British Optician' that Koch de Gooreynd was the inventor of the plastic optical lens manufactured by Combined Optical Industries, Ltd.
John Simons, OBE, MRCS, LRCP, JP (1900-1971) studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, London, after being invalided out of the Regular Army during the First World War. He qualified in 1925 and spent several years in the Sudan Medical Service,during which time he was Chief Medical Officer, Kordofan Province, retiring in 1931. His subsequent career as an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon, first at the London ENT Hospital and from 1936 at Crowborough Hospital in Kent, was interrupted by distinguished service in the Second World War, with the Phantom reconnaissance unit and later as senior medical officer, 1 Tank Brigade, and Commanding Officer, 220 Field Ambulance, in North Africa, Italy and Germany. Died 1971.
Adrian Durham Stokes (1902-1972), painter and writer, was analysed by Melanie Klein for seven years during the 1930s and again for a brief period 1946-1947. He applied her psychoanalytic ideas to aesthetic theory in a number of influential works published during the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1988 Geoffrey Hosking, Professor of Russian History at SSEES became interested in newly emerging independent political movements in the Soviet Union. With Peter Duncan, lecturer in Contemporary Russian Politics and Society at SSEES he submitted a research proposal to the Leverhulme trust in order to make a study of this topic. The proposal was accepted and a joint project ran at SSEES during 1990-1991 with Jonathan Aves as Leverhulme research fellow. Aves later became lecturer in Russian Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The Anglo-Russian Literary Society was founded in London in 1893 by Edward A Cazalet with its work being conducted from the Imperial Institute, London. It was one of the earliest British organisations to promote cultural relations with Russia. Membership was open to both Britons and Russians. The Society's objects were promoting the study of Russian language and literature, the formation of a library of Russian books and periodicals, the holding of monthly meetings and the promotion of friendly relations between Britain and Russia. The Society's monthly lectures were published in the Proceedings of the Society which appeared quarterly. Tsar Nicholas II became a patron of the Society in 1894 and Tsarina Alexandra in 1897. After 1917 the Society lost many of its Russian members and its imperial patronage.
At the end of 1922 the Society moved from the Imperial Institute to the School of Slavonic Studies, King's College (later SSEES), its library of some 1,500 volumes was transferred to the School and the School's Director, Sir Bernard Pares became secretary of the Society. In September 1930 the Society was renamed the Anglo-Russian Society. It is not clear when the Society was wound up. It was probably in 1934 as the last membership subscription records are from that year although the last records date to 1936.
Miniature replica of Czech Crown Jewels:
The crown is named after the patron Saint Wenceslas I of the Premyslids dynasty, who reigned in Bohemia between the 9th century up to the year 1306. The original crown was made from gold and precious stones and weighs 2.475kg. It was made for King Charles IV in 1346. The royal orb dates back to the era of Rudolph II; the scepter dates from the late 16th century. The original jewels are exhibited only to mark special occasions:
Marie Curie University: commemorative tea set:
Lublin University was named in honour of Marie Curie-Skłodowska (1867-1934), a physicist and chemist of Polish origin; pioneer in the field of radioactivity who discovered Polonium along with her husband Pierre Curie in 1898. She became the first person honoured with two Nobel Prizes, and the first female professor at the University of Paris.
Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham (1757-1831) was an engineer and naval architect and was an official in the Russian Navy (1780-1791) and in the British Navy (1795-1831). He was the brother of the reformer and philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).
Josef Beran (1888-1969) was Archbishop of Prague and was later made a Cardinal. Beran was put under house arrest by the new Communist government in 1949. He was released in 1963 and in 1965 was allowed to leave Czechoslovakia for the Vatican City.
Lucjan Blit (?-1978) was born in Warsaw but left Poland during the Second World War and after 1943 lived in Britain. He worked as a journalist and later as a lecturer becoming lecturer in East European political institutions at SSEES 1973-1977 and the London School of Economics and Political Science 1970-1977.
Countess Brasova (1888-1952) was born Natalia Sergeevna Cheremtevskaia, the daughter of a Moscow lawyer. Before she was twenty she had married twice, to Sergei Manmontoff, with whom she had a daughter and after their divorce to Liolucha Wulfurt, an army captain. Shortly after her marriage to Wulfurt, Chermemtevskaia met and began an affair with the Colonel in Chief of her husband's regiment, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, the younger brother of Tsar Nicholas II. In 1910 their son was born, Cheremtevskaia later obtained a divorce from Wulfurt and in 1911 she married the Grand Duke. As a result of their morganatic marriage the couple were banished from Russia by the Tsar and. spent two years in exile. They lived in England and travelled around Europe before the First World War began and the couple were allowed to return to Russia.
Eventually the Tsar recognised their marriage and gave Cheremtevskaia the title of Countess Brasova. As she was not of royal blood Countess Brasova was not entitled to hold any imperial title. In March 1917 as the Russian Revolution began, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in favour of Grand Duke Michael. The Grand Duke held the throne for only two days before he too abdicated, ending imperial rule in Russia. The Grand Duke and Countess Brasova were imprisoned by the new Bolshevik Government. Countess Brasova was released and left Russia with her children in 1919. Grand Duke Michael disappeared, later it was learnt that he had been executed in June 1918. Countess Brasova settled first in England and later in Paris where she lived in increasing poverty until her death in 1952.
Pavel Vasilievich Chichagov (1767-1848) was the son of a Russian admiral and arctic explorer, Vasili Yakovevich Chichagov and his British wife. He entered the Russian navy at the age of 15, became rear-admiral in 1796 and Minister of Marine in 1802. In 1812 he took command of the army in Turkey and the Government of the Danube Principalities. He was recalled from this post with his army to cut off the retreat of the French army led by Napoleon. This aim was achived with a great victory at Beretsina in November 1812. After Beretsina, Chichagov retired and spent the remainder of his life in England and France.
During late 1989 Communist rule in Czechoslovakia was ended, Civic Forum became the first legal opposition movement for 40 years and Václav Havel was elected president.
Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich (1890-1954), politician and diplomat, served as War Minister 1935-1937 and First Lord of the Admiralty 1937-1938. He resigned from the latter post in protest at the Munich Agreement. The album in this collection was presented to Duff Cooper in 1938 by a Czechoslovak school, Prof. Drtina Kralov, Girls' Seondary School as a gesture of thanks for his support of Czechoslovakia. After the outbreak of the Second World War he re-entered government, serving as Minister of Information 1940-1941, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1941-1943, representative to the French Committee of National Liberation 1943-1944 and Ambassador to France 1944-1947.
Margaret Evans (?1851-1893) was born Margaret Freeman, the daughter of a historian, E A Freeman. In 1878 she married the archaelogist and journalist Arthur Evans. She took an active interest in his work which specialised in the Balkans. After their marriage they lived in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), Croatia until 1882 when her husband was expelled from the country as a result of his journalistic activities. In 1883 she accompanied her husband on a trip to Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria. On this visit Arthur Evans was able to complete his study of an ancient site at Scupi (later Üskub, now Skopje in Macedonia. Margaret Evans lived in Oxford for the remainder of her life as her husband became keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 1884.
Michael Glenny (1927-1990) spent ten years in the army. He then took an MA in Modern Languages followed by postgraduate study in Soviet studies at Oxford University. He became a well known translator of Russian literature, having translated works by Gogol, Dostoevskii, Gorky, Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn. He was also a lecturer in Russian language, literature and history at Birmingham University 1969-1975, Southern Illinois University 1975-1977 and Bristol University 1977-1984. He was the author of several works on Russian literature as well as co-author of "The other Russia", a study on Russian emigres.
Sergius Hessen (1887-1950), philosopher and educationalist, was born in Ust Sysol'sk, Northern Russia. He studied at German universities before returning to Russia to became a lecturer at St Petersburg and Tomsk Universities. In 1922 Hessen left Russia to live first in Czechoslovakia and after 1935 in Poland where he lectured on education at Warsaw University. During the Second World War he was one of the professors who established a clandestine university during German occupation. After 1945 he was Professor of Education at Lodz University. Ref: "Slavonic and East European Review" vol 29, no 72, 1950, pp 296-298
Joseph Christopher William Horne worked for many years in the British Museum Library and was well known as a translator of Hungarian poetry.
Kenneth Johnstone b. 1902; educated at Eton College and Balliol College Oxford; entered Diplomatic Service, 1926; served in Warsaw, 1928, Oslo, 1930, Sofia, 1931 and London; seconded to British Council, 1936; resigned to join Welsh Guards, 1939; served war of 1939-1945 in France, 1940, North Africa, 1942, Middle East and Greece, 1943-1945; rejoined Foreign Office, 1945; CMG 1949; Deputy Director-General British Council, 1953-1962; CB 1962; Chairman of Council, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1965-1976
Martti Julkinen is Director of the Centre for Extension Studies, University of Turku, Finland.
Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic (1787-1864), Serbian language reformer, was born in Trsic, Serbia, then under Turkish rule. In 1813 after a brief period of independence, Serbia was reconquered by the Ottoman Empire and Karadzic was one of many refugees to flee to Vienna. It was here that he met Jernej Kopitar who became an influence on his thinking. Kopitar was a Slovene working as the Austrian Imperial consor of Slavonic subjects. Karadzic's goal became to make the Serb language spoken by peasants under Turkish rule the literary norm in place of the classical style. He also wanted to establish a uniform orthography with a revised and simplified alphabet. In 1815 Prince Milos Obrenovic succeeded in overthowing Turkish rule. From 1829 to 1832 Karadzic served the newly independent state in various ways.
In 1832 Karadzic returned to Vienna after his newly published alphabet was banned by Obrenovic as a result of opposition from the Orthodox Church. Karadzic protested at Obrenovic's policy in his published letter "Letter to Milos Obrenovic". A copy of the original letter (now probably in the National Library of Slovenia) is part of this collection, For much of the period 1832-1859, Karadzic was barred from Serbia (from 1842 to 1859 the Obrenovic family were also in exile). He continued his battle against the old Serb alphabet and for the use of popular language. Karadzic also wrote works on Serbian history and the life and customs of Serbian peasants and published collections of folk songs. He died having largely succeeded in his linguistic aims.
James Klugmann (1912-1977) joined the Communist Party in 1933 while at Cambridge University. In 1935 he gave up an academic career to become Secretary of the World Student Association and travelled widely. During World War Two he rose to the rank of major and became deputy director of the Yugoslav section in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), based in Cairo and later in Bari, Italy. After the war he was attached to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Yugoslavia. It was during his service in Yugoslavia with the SOE and UNRRA that Klugmann collected the material for this collection. Returning to Britain in 1946 he spent the rest of his life working for the Communist Party. From 1957-1977 he was also editor of "Marxism Today".
George Luckyj and Jaroslav Rudnykj are both Canadian academics with Ukrainian family backgrounds. Luckyj is professor emeritus, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto. He is the author, translator and editor of more than 30 books on Ukrainian language and literature.
Dr Bertha Malnick was Reader in Russian Studies at SSEES from 1946 to 1966.
William Kleesmann Matthews (1901-1958) was born in Narva, Estonia of an Estonian mother and an English father. The family came to live in Blackpool, Britain in 1914. After graduating from Manchester University, he gained a PhD from SSEES in 1926. His interests at that time were in Slavonic literature rather than linguistics. However since there were few suitable career opportunities for him in Britain at that time, Matthews went to live in Latvia where he worked as a lecturer in English at the State Institute of English, Riga and later at Latvia University. During this time he wrote several books, numerous articles on linguistic and literary subjects and also translated Latvian poetry.
After the incorporation of Latvia into the Soviet Union in 1940, Matthews was evacuated as a British citizen via Moscow to Australia. He spent the rest of World War One in Brisbane serving as a military censor, interpreter and German teacher to the Australian and U.S. Armed Forces. During this time he also studied Australasian languages. He returned to Britain in June 1945 and was employed once more by SSEES. From 1946-1948 he was lecturer in Russian and in 1948 became Professor in Russian Literature and Language. In 1950 he was appointed head of the Department of Language and Literature and also editor of "The Slavonic and East European Review". In addition to publishing several books on linguistics, Matthews wrote many articles on linguistics and literature and translations of Latvian, Estonian and Slovenian poetry.
Ref: "Slavonic and East European Review" vol 37, no 88, 1958, pp 1-16
Professor William Richard Mead (1915-) was Professor of Geography at University College London 1966-1981. He is now Professor Emeritus. He was chairman of SSEES Council 1978-1980. He has had a life long interest in Scandinavian countries, Finland in particular. He has written an number of books on Finland and on other Scandinavian countries. He has been chairman of the Anglo-Finnish Society since 1966.
Aleksei Semenovich Musin-Pushkin was Russian ambassador in London 1769-1778.
Gjenco Demetre Naçi (1907-1992) was born in Turkey to parents of Albanian descent. Albania was at that time still part of the Ottoman Empire. His family later moved to Greece and he grew up in Paxos and Corfu. There is little information in the collection on the events of his early adult life although it is clear that he qualified as a lawyer, moved to Albania and at some time in the early 1930s, married Jeanne Rogge-Vancappel (1911-c.1992), a Belgian. When Albania was invaded by Italy in April 1939, Naçi and his wife left the country. It was at this time that he became private secretary to King Zog (1896-1961). King Zog had became president in 1925 and king in 1928. Naçi and his wife probably fled the country along with the king, his family and other staff.
King Zog and his party, now including the Naçis stayed briefly in Greece and Turkey before making their way to France in August 1939. After the fall of France in June 1940, they settled in Britain. At first they made their home at the Ritz Hotel, London but in May 1941 Zog and his party moved to Sunningdale before settling at Parmoor, a country house near Henley-on Thames. The group totalling around forty, was comprised of King Zog, his wife Queen Geraldine, their young son Leka, other members of King Zog's family, Sohir Martini who served as court minister during this period of exile and staff members including Naçi and his wife.
In February 1946 the king, his family and most of his party left Britain to live in Egypt. He never returned to Albania, which became a communist state and was declared a republic. Naçi and his wife remained in Britain and settled in London. He probably made his living as a journalist and translator. In 1949 the Naçis' only child Alexander Leonidha Peter (1949-1995) was born. The following year Naçi took up a post as Albanian monitor for the BBC monitoring service, based at Reading and the family moved there. Naçi always retained an interest in Albanian affairs, particularly after his retirement when he wrote several unpublished books on the subject.
Alexander Naçi obtained a degree in modern languages from Queens College, Oxford and worked as a journalist and lecturer. In 1973 he changed his surname by deed poll to Nash. On his death, he bequeathed his estate to SSEES to enable the setting up of a Centre for Albanian Studies.
G A Pavlovsky was a PhD student at SSEES in the 1920s.
Edmund W Richardson edited "The Picture Postcard", a magazine published in London 1900-1907.
Vivian Dering Vandeleur Robinson (in adult life he only used Vandeleur Robinson) (1902-1990) was the son of an army colonel and was briefly a military cadet himself before leaving to study history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was active during the inter war period within the League of Nations Union and possibly spent some time living in Czechoslovakia. He was the author of several books on the Balkans as well as a number of plays. He became a captain in the army during the Second World War and was probably involved in political intelligence work.
Michael Joseph Rura was a postgraduate student at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
The Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (SCONUL) became an incorporated body in 1978. The Slavonic and East European Group (SEEG), at that time a special interest group of SCONUL became an advisory committee, the Advisory Committee on Slavonic and East European Materials (ACOSEEM). These papers are the gift of Dr J E O Screen, the Librarian of the University of London School of Slavonic and East European Studies (1972-1998). He was Chairman of SEEG/ACOSEEM 1975-1980 and was also a committee member.
Dr Milos Sekulich (1900-1986) was born in Valjevo, Serbia and trained as a physician at Belgrade University. He became a specialist in internal diseases and tuberculosis and from 1935 was head of the Belgrade Municipal Hospital. In 1941 he fled the German occupation of Yugoslavia to come to Britain, bringing messages and accounts of atrocities from General Mihailovich and the Serbian Peasant Party to the British Government. In exile in Britain he was medical adviser to the Yugoslav Ministry of Health in exile, a member of the Medical Council of the Yugoslav War Ministry in exile, executive committee member of the Yugoslav Red Cross and Yugoslav Representative to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, 1941-1945. After World War Two, he remained in Britain, an opponent to the new communist government of Yugoslavia. He continued to practice medicine. From 1945-1948 he did research on the classification of tuberculosis, later he worked as a GP in the National Health Service and in various chest clinics. He published many medical works. Sekulich was much involved in Serbian emigre affairs publishing several pamphlets and books through the emigre press. He was editor of the Serbian emigre publications "Peasant Yugoslavia" and from 1964 "Voice of the Serbian Community".
Robert William Seton-Watson (1879-1951) arrived at Vienna University in 1905. It was the beginning of a life-long interest in the history and politics of Central and South East Europe, much of which was then unified under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Seton-Watson travelled widely in Austria-Hungary prior to World War One and published a number of books on the national conflicts that existed within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the war, recognised as an expert on the area, and with many personal contacts, he was able to exercise influence as a member of the Intelligence Bureau of the War Cabinet (1917) and the Enemy Propaganda Department (1918) where he was largely responsible for the British propaganda that was disseminated to the Austro-Hungarian people. Seton-Watson also published a weekly periodical "The New Europe" (1916-1920) which was prominent in informing a wider public of the situation in the region. He travelled widely in the immediate aftermath of the war, attending the Paris Peace Conference and visiting the new states that had been created as a result of the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
After the First World War Seton-Watson played a lesser role in influencing policy and his academic committments grew. He played a prominent role in establishing a School of Slavonic Studies at Kings College London in 1915 (later SSEES). Seton-Watson was appointed the first holder of the Masaryk chair in Central European history in 1922, a post he held until 1945. During this time he founded and edited "The Slavonic Review" with Sir Bernard Pares. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Seton-Watson once again held posts in Government service, at the Foreign Research and Press Service (1939-1940) and Political Intelligence Bureau of the Foreign Office (1940-1942). However in contrast to his work during the First World War, he was unable to influence policy partly because he did not have access to decision makers and also because he was not allowed to publish his writings. In 1945 he was appointed to the new chair of Czechoslovak Studies at Oxford University, a post he held until his retirement in 1949. He had three children with his wife, May Stack. His sons Hugh (George Hugh Nicholas) and Christopher also became historians.
Dr David Soskice (1869-1943), Russian émigré and writer, was at one time secretary to Alexander Kerensky.
Magdolna Kallay (?-1989) came to Britain from Hungary in 1947. She married Miles Tomalin and used the forename Madeleine.