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John Eliot Howard (1807-1883), quinologist, was born on 11 December 1807 at Plaistow, Essex, the youngest of three children of Luke Howard (1772-1864), meteorologist and chemist, and his wife, Mariabella, née Eliot (1769-1852). Both parents were members of the Society of Friends. With the exception of two years at Josiah Forster's school, Howard was educated at home. Apprenticed to his father's chemical business at Stratford in 1823, he was made a partner of the firm in 1828. In 1830 he married Maria (1807-1892), daughter of William D. Crewdson of Kendal. The couple moved into a substantial house in Tottenham, Middlesex, where they had five daughters and four sons.

As early as 1827 Howard showed interest in what would prove to be his life's work: the extraction of the anti-malaria drug quinine from the bark of the Cinchona (cinchonaceae) genus of South American tree. His first paper, a report on the collection of cinchona in the British Museum made by the Spanish botanist José Pavón (1754-1840), was published in 1852. In the following year Howard joined the Pharmaceutical Society, and in 1857 the Linnean Society. In 1858 he purchased Pavón's manuscript 'Nueva Quinologia' and his specimens of cinchona. Howard employed a botanical artist and published the well-received Illustrations of the 'Nueva Quinologia' of Pavon and Observations on the Barks Described in 1862. Howard's second major work, The Quinology of the East Indian Plantations (1869-76), was the result of his examination of the bark of all the forms of cinchona introduced into India from the Andes by Clements Markham, Richard Spruce, and Robert Mackenzie Cross. For this Howard received the thanks of her majesty's government in 1873. In 1874 his citation for election as a fellow of the Royal Society recognized the importance of his work: 'the name of Mr Howard is inseparably connected with his lifelong investigation respecting the identification and chemistry of the cinchona' (Kirkwood and Lloyd, 1).

Howard took considerable interest in gardening, and especially in hybridization as bearing upon cultivated cinchonas, and he was the author of numerous scientific papers, chiefly on quinine. He also gave addresses on both science and revelation at the Victoria Institute, of which he was a vice-president. Howard and his wife were both deeply religious and had been raised as Quakers. In 1836 they resigned from the Society of Friends and became Baptists. Howard published several religious tracts and was instrumental in establishing the Brook Street Chapel, Tottenham. He died at his house, Lord's Meade, Tottenham, on 22 November 1883, and was buried in Tottenham cemetery. The genus Howardia of the Cinchonaceae was posthumously dedicated to him.

Kerr was born on 7 Feb 1877 at Kinlough, County Leitrim, Ireland. His father was Dr Elias William Kerr (1849-1920) of Cerne Abbas and South Lodge, Dorchester. He was educated at Dorchester Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin where he was awarded a 1st Class Honours BA Degree in Botany in 1897. In 1901 he obtained a medical degree and obtained his first medical post on board a sailing ship bound for Australia. In 1902, he was assigned to Siam (Thailand) as assistant to Dr Hugh Campbell Highet (1866-1929) and later became physician to the British Legation in Bangkok. In 1903 he was appointed Medical Officer of Health in Chiengmai; during his time in this province, he began collecting and drawing orchids. In August 1903 he married Daisy Muriel Judd, Dr Highet's sister in law whom he had met on his journey to Siam, together they had four daughters.

During the period 1904 to 1914 he was Principal Officer of Health to the Siamese Government. In 1908, whilst on leave in Europe, he came to Kew and visited Sir David Prain, the then Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, and Dr. Otto Stapf, Keeper of the Herbarium. They urged him to collect a wide variety of plants from Siam for Kew and gave him the necessary equipment. In the 1910s, the flora of Siam had never been recorded, Sian being a practically unexplored country, never having been part of the British Empire. On his return to Siam, after his visit to Kew, he combined his tasks of medical officer, which took him to various parts of the country, with his botanical pursuits.

From 1915 to 1918 he served as a temporary captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France, being based at the Stationary Hospital in Marseilles, while his family lived in Hyères. He became unfit due to ill health and went to live with his family for a while in the South of France. On 13 March 1919 he arrived back in Bangkok via Hong Kong, having served as a surgeon on a troop ship. After this period, there was a decline in Kerr's medical duties, until he finally resigned and went into private practice, whilst negotiations for his appointment as Government Botanist were taking place.

On the 1 Sep 1920 Kerr was appointed Director of the Botanical Section of the Ministry of Commerce of Siam a post he held until 1932; in November 1920; he returned to his old residence in Chiengmai. Each year from 1920 until 1929 he went on botanical tours beginning in the north of Siam and working his way southwards, concentrating particularly on the collection of plants of economic importance. On 13 Oct 1921 his wife died of malaria. Later on in the same month, he and his brother decided to take his daughters back to England where they were taken care of by an aunt; he then returned to Chiengmai alone on 11 March 1922. Towards the end of 1922, he left Chiengmai for good and the Botanical Section moved to Bangkok. However, he continued his plant collecting activities, travelling by various means throughout the country, carrying with him a considerable amount of equipment. He recorded in his journals everything he observed such as vegetation, the merchants encountered and the goods they sold, the crops cultivated, the number of pigs in villages as well as local industries and mines.

The official reports of these 'Tours' were published in 'The Record' a quarterly issue by the Ministry of Commerce in Bangkok, which mainly recorded financial information. However, Kerr gave in these a sketchy report narrative of his tours (1920-1933) with maps, recording his observations on the way; he made 17 tours altogether. These have been reprinted in the Miscellaneous Reports Series held by the Archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Kerr was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London on 13 Dec 1923; on 23 June 1932 he sailed from Penang returning to live in England. In Jan-April 1933 he undertook a trip to South Africa and Madeira. He also spent time at the Kew Herbarium, working on the Florae Siamensis Enumeraito with Professor William Grant Craig. During World War Two the Admiralty became interested in his knowledge of Siam. He began working for the Air Ministry who asked him for copies of maps which he had drawn during his expeditions in Siam. However, he became too weak to continue this work and died on 21 Jan 1942 at The Street House, Hayes, Bromley, Kent, England. His remains were cremated and his name was added to the tombstone of the family grave at Ceme Abbas, Dorset.

Augustus Lovell Reeve (1814–1865), conchologist and publisher, was born at Ludgate Hill, London, on 19 April 1814, the son of Thomas Reeve, draper and mercer, and his wife, Fanny Lovell. After attending school at Stockwell he was apprenticed at the age of thirteen to a Mr Graham, a grocer of Ludgate Hill. The chance visit of a sailor to the family shop with a calico handkerchief full of cowry shells, which he purchased for a few pence, led to Reeve's becoming a lifelong student of conchology. In 1833 he attended the meeting of the British Association at Cambridge where he acted as conchologist to the natural history section on its excursion into the fens between Cambridge and Ely.

His apprenticeship over, Reeve visited Paris where he read a paper on the classification of the Mollusca before the French Academy of Sciences. He returned to London and began work on his first book, Conchologia systematica (2 vols, 1841–1842). The publication costs, however, used up all the moneys left to him by his father and compelled him to make a fresh start in life. An opportunity to make some money came from his purchase, at Rotterdam, of a large collection of shells amassed by the Dutch governor-general of the Moluccas, General Ryder. Its profitable sale enabled Reeve to open a shop in King William Street, Strand, where he established himself as a dealer in natural objects and as a publisher specializing in natural history books.

About 1848 Reeve moved his business to 5 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, the address which also became his home from 1864. As a publisher he dealt with eminent scientists such as the botanist William Jackson Hooker, the geologist Charles Lyell, and the traveller–naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace. He was considered the leading Natural History publisher of his time ‘one of the most eminent scientific publishers this country has produced’ said the Bookseller in Dec 1865. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society (1846) and of the Geological Society (1853), but, despite being sponsored by Charles Darwin, was unsuccessful in his attempt (1849) to become a fellow of the Royal Society. He married, on 12 October 1837, Eliza Baker, a relative of his former master, Mr Graham; after her death he married, on 9 January 1854, Martha Reeve (possibly the author of Edible British Molluscs (1867) under the pen name M. S. Lovell).

In 1845, as William Hooker and Samuel Curtis launched the Third Series of the Botanical Magazine, Lovell Reeve considered purchasing the publication. The magazine had a new sub-title which defined its limits ‘The plants of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew, and of other botanical establishment in Great Britain’. When Lovell Reeve finally acquired the magazine, he had a new vignette of the Palm House cut, designed by its Architect Decimus Burton, to emphasize the importance of its links with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; he also asked William Hooker, who had by then become the first official Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to write an advertisement to launch its new publication. In 1852, financial difficulties compelled Reeve to cut down on the colouring of illustration plates, which became only partly coloured. In May 1860, Reeve undertook to publish a new magazine, to run alongside the Botanical Magazine, the Floral Magazine, which was announced for publication in May 1860. The Botanical Magazine under Sir William Hooker, would continue ‘to represent the scientific department of Garden Botany’ whereas the Floral Magazine would be devoted ‘chiefly to meritorious varieties of such introduced plants only are as of popular character, and likely to become established favourites in the Garden, Hothouse or Conservatory’. The Floral Magazine ceased publication in 1881 and 14 years later the firm of Lovell Reeve was still trying to dispose of stocks of loose plates related to the magazine, offering them at 6d. or 1s., ‘for screens, scrap-books, studies in flower-paintings etc..’. However, this did not affect the Botanical Magazine, who pursued its traditional policy of reviewing new interesting species. The plants described by Sir William Hooker in the magazine, reflected the fruits of botanical exploration but also his own personal interest.

Reeve was a competent photographer and edited and published the Stereoscopic Magazine from 1858. He also issued several sets of stereoscopic pictures. The Stereoscopic Magazine came out monthly at a cost of 2 shillings and sixpence containing 3 stereo photos, with descriptive letterpress. The Stereoscopic Magazine was only published for seven years as Lovell Reeve died in 1865. Reeve died at his home in Henrietta Street on 18 November 1865. His wife, Martha, survived him.

When Lovell Reeve died, the management of the firm passed on to his partner, Francis Lesiter Soper, the editorship of the Botanical Magazine to Joseph Hooker, after his father’s death in Aug 1865. In the early 1900s, Joseph Hooker’s resigned, and his son in law, Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, who was also the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, took over the editorship of the magazine. A few years later, the post went to Sir David Prain, Curator of the Herbarium and Library at Kew. When Francis Soper died in the early 1910s, his son succeeded him, but the magazine was then running into trouble, because of the First World War, but also because of the lack of flair and imagination which the Hookers had brought in. The War brought on a shortage of staff and the magazine went from a monthly publication to a quarterly one.

In the 1920s, the magazine was running at a loss and Soper sought a new owner. In 1921, the magazine was finally bought by the Royal Horticultural Society, who also acquired the Company’s old stock. The tradition of Directors of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew being appointed as Editor was continued, with Sir Arthur Hill succeeding David Prain when the latter retired in 1922. The new owners of the Magazine formed a committee to decide on the format the magazine was going to take, choosing in the process scientific publishers H.F and G Witherby to publish it for three years. Lillian Snelling was appointed as Artist, succeeding the previous one, Matilda Smith who had retired in 1921. Despite the quality of the editorship and the excellence of the drawings, the Magazine was not breaking even nor making a profit and the Royal Horticultural Society had to commit £500 as annual subsidy. In the 1930s, another crisis faced the Magazine, as hand colouring, which had traditionally been used up to this date, was proving by then to be very expensive. As a result, the Royal Horticultural Society decided to cut down on the number of colour plates and also to make extra colour plates available in the form of a colour supplement for those wishing to pay extra.

The Second World War brought on its own set of problems, with the evacuation of the Library and Herbarium specimen rendering the taxonomic research needed for the Magazine impossible, as well a shortage of hand colourists. Hand colouring was abandoned in the late 1940s, and was changed, first to a system of half-tone plates, and later to photogravure; the content was also changed so that more plants likely to be of interest to the average Gardener and available through nurseries were included. In the 1950s, the publication was spread over two years, with only two volumes published per year. Lilian Snelling retired and Stella Ross-Craig was joined by Anne Webster and Margaret Stones as regular Artists. In 1966, Sir George Taylor, Director of the Gardens at Kew and Editor, succeeded in obtaining financial assistance for the magazine, from the Bentham-Moxon Trustees and in 1966 the Trustees helped with artists’ fees. In 1970, the copyright was transferred from the Royal Horticultural Society to the Bentham-Moxon Trust. In the later years of the Magazine, there was little change in style or content and in 1984, it was finally decided that it had to appeal to a wider audience as it had always been criticised as being ‘written by botanists for botanists’. It was therefore decided to incorporate it within the Kew Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1984 ‘Kew Magazine, incorporating Curtis’s Botanical Magazine’, subscribers being sought amongst botanists, ecologists, conservationists, gardeners and admirers of botanical art.

Born 14th August 1898 died May 1972. Robinson began his career in horticulture at 15 as an apprentice in Cumberland at Brackenburgh Towers, Calthwaite, Carlisle. Following military service in WW1, Robinson gained experience of construction and landscaping whilst working for the War Graves Commission in France and Belgium from 1920 to 1922 as sub-foreman gardener. He studied for a Kew Certificate between 1922 and 1924, working in the Palm House and later as sub-foreman of the T-Range.

Robinson then travelled to Chile where he worked for the late Chilean Minister in London, laying out an estate for him near Valparaiso, cultivating temperate and sub tropical plants between 1924 and 1929. Robinson worked a Head Gardener to Dowager Marchioness of Linlithgow (1929) and Head Gardener to London Electric Railways (1930-1).
He then returned to Kew as Assistant Curator in the January 1931, before becoming Curator at the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1937. Robinson later became Curator at the old University Botanic Garden in Oxford in 1942. He continued to live there until ill health forced him to take early retirement in 1963, upon which he moved to Coventry. During his time at Oxford he was awarded an honorary MA degree, the Victoria Medal for Horticulture (V.M.H.) and the Associate Honour of the Royal Horticultural Society (A.H.R.H.S.) in 1946 and became an Associate of the Linnean Society (A.L.S.) in 1952. Robinson was also President of the Kew Guild from 1957-1958.

Reginald Rose-Innes was born in South Africa in 1915. His interest in botany led him to complete a Masters in Ecology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. He went on to study in Austin at the University of Texas and also spent time studying in California from 1939 under the American Ecologist, Frederick E Clements. During this time Rose-Innes travelled extensively in America and a large part of the photographs in the collection are from this period.

In the 1940s Rose-Innes briefly served in the South African Navy, before undertaking employment at the University of Witwatersrand under the directorship of Professor John F V Phillips. During this time he carried out research into plague in Namibia and the Kalahari Desert.

In 1954 Rose-Innes became a research lecturer at the University College of the Gold Coast alongside Professor Phillips who had become Professor of Agriculture at the institution. The University became known as the University of Ghana following the independence of the Gold Coast in 1957. Rose-Innes continued to work in Ghana until the late 1960s and during this time sent many grass specimens to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew also hold specimens sent from Somalia in October 1982. The South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, hold specimens sent from Ghana in October 1957, and The Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium at Florida State University hold specimen collected in Texas.

In the late 1960s Rose-Innes became employed by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) under the United Nations. He remained in Ghana, and was based in Tamale, where he was able to continue his detailed research into grassland ecology.

After several years with the FAO Rose-Innes worked for the Ministry of Overseas Surveys based in Tolworth in the UK. During this time Rose-Innes carried out research assignments in Nigeria, Belize, Bangladesh and Somalia.

Professor Francis K Fianu, a former student of Rose-Innes at the University of Ghana, and later a Professor of the same department, attempted to establish a Grassland Herbarium at the University in the name of Reginald Rose-Innes in the 1980s and 1990s. Sadly there were insufficient funds to make this possible. However, Fianu remembers Rose-Innes as a remarkably thorough scientist whose 'knowledge of Ghana Grasses was beyond compare'.

Richard Spruce, born 10 September 1817; died 28 December 1893.

Richard Spruce was born on 10 September 1817 in the village of Ganthorpe, Yorkshire. Spruce's father (also named Richard) was the schoolmaster at Ganthorpe and his mother, Ann, was one of the Etty family, a relative of the painter William Etty. His mother died while he was young, and when he was about fourteen his father married again, and had a family of eight daughters, only two of whom survived their half-brother.

Spruce appears to have developed a love of nature from an early age and, at the age of sixteen, had drawn up an alphabetical list of all the plants (403 species) that he had found around Ganthorpe. Three years later he had drawn up a List of the Flora of the Malton District, containing 485 species of flowering plants. Several of Spruce's localities for the rarer plants are given in Baines's Flora of Yorkshire, published in 1840. It is clear that he also studied plants carefully and this is illustrated by the fact that in 1841 he discovered, and identified as a new British plant, the very rare sedge Carex paradoxa. He had also now begun the study of mosses, since in the same year he found a moss new to Britain, Leskea fulvinata, previously known only from Lapland.

Spruce was educated by his father who initially helped him to follow his own profession. He learnt Latin and Greek and appears to have had a natural aptitude for languages, since he not only taught himself to read and write French fairly well, but later learnt Portuguese and Spanish as well as gaining some knowledge of three different Indian languages - the Lingoa Geral, Barré, and Quichua. At 20, he left home to become tutor in a school at Haxby and, at the end of 1839, he obtained the post of mathematical master at the Collegiate School at York, which he retained until the school closed in 1844. During this time he suffered frequent bouts of the ill health from which he was to suffer for the rest of his life.

In 1841, a monthly magazine, The Phytologist, was started for British Botany, and Spruce contributed to it numerous accounts of his botanical excursions and notes on rare plants. His paper on the Musci and Hepaticae of Teesdale showed him to be one of the most observant discoverers of rare species. In Baines's Flora of Yorkshire (1840) only four mosses were recorded from Teesdale, though no doubt many more had been collected. Spruce at once raised the number to 167 mosses and 41 hepaticae, of which six mosses and one Jungermannia were new to Britain. In April 1845 he published in the London Journal of Botany descriptions of twenty-three new British mosses, of which about half were discovered by himself and the remainder by William Borrer and other botanists. In the same year he published, in The Phytologist, his List of the Musci and Hepaticae of Yorkshire, in which he recorded no less than 48 mosses new to the English Flora and 33 others new to that of Yorkshire.

In the latter part of 1844, with the loss of his teaching post, Spruce's future was very unsettled. A plant agency in London and the curatorship of a colonial botanical garden were rejected as either unsuitable or uncertain of attainment. Plant-collecting in Spain was suggested but, at that time, considered too dangerous. Eventually, in December 1844, an expedition to the Pyrenees was agreed and he set out in April 1845. He reached Pau early in May, and stayed there until the following March, collecting and studying the flowers and mosses of the region. He returned to England in April 1846, and spent the remainder of the year naming, arranging and distributing his Pyrenean collections.

Over the next two years, he worked on The Musci and Hepaticae of the Pyrenees, which was published in the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh after his departure for South America. It gives the names of all the species carefully identified, describes fully all that were new or doubtful, and gives particulars of the local and geographical distribution of each. A general account of his whole excursion was published in the London Journal of Botany for 1846, under the title Notes on the Botany of the Pyrenees. When in London in September 1848, Spruce decided to undertake the botanical exploration of the Amazon valley and he sailed on June 7, 1849. George Bentham agreed to receive all his botanical collections, name and sort them, send them to the various subscribers in Great Britain, as well as in different parts of Europe, to collect the subscriptions and keep all accounts, in return for which invaluable services he was to receive the first (complete) set of the plants collected.

On July 12th 1849, Spruce's ship, The BRITANNIA, docked at Para and Spruce began his South American exploration which would last for fifteen years. From Para, Spruce sailed on 10th October up the Amazon to Santarem, a journey of 17 days. He remained here for almost a year, exploring and collecting in extremely adverse conditions. His journeys continued - in October 1850 he travelled to Manaos, then up the Rio Negro to Sao Gabriel on the Orinoco between November 1851 and March 1852 followed by a collecting expedition in the forest around the river Vaupes. In March 1853, he left for San Carlos in Venezuela where he remained for five months. In the small settlement of San Fernando, Spruce suffered from a long and serious bout of fever which left him exhausted and, on the way back to Manaos, he successfully foiled an attempt by his boatmen to murder him and steal his possessions. Once back in Manaos, he planned a trip to Peru, travelling up the Amazon and Huallaga rivers to Tarapoto in the Andes of Maynas where he remained from June 1855 to March 1857. During his time at Tarapoto, Spruce collected over 1000 specimens of flowering plants in addition to hundreds of specimens of mosses and hepaticae.

His next journey was to Banos in Ecuador, a journey of 100 days by river and on foot. He explored this volcanic area for six months and then moved on to make his base at Ambato for two and a half years. It was here, in April 1860, that he suffered a physical breakdown, suffering paralysis and pain in his back and legs. Nevertheless, he set out six weeks later to collect seed from Cinchona trees which became the foundation of the plantations in India and Ceylon which produced quinine, bringing relief to thousands of malaria sufferers. Spruce's last expedition in South America was to Payta in northern Peru. From here he was carried by litter to Piura where he remained from January 1863 to May 1864 when he embarked for Europe.

After his return from South America in June 1864, Spruce continued to be plagued by ill health which affected his ability to work, the cause of which was not discovered until four years after his return by which time a cure was impossible. Despite this, he succeeded in producing a great deal of botanical work, including the study of the Palms of the Amazon valley and of equatorial South America, which resulted in a paper in the Journal of the Linnean Society.

But his greatest work, which has established his reputation among the botanists of the world, is his massive volume on the Hepaticae of the Amazon and the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. This appeared in 1885, as a volume of the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. It contains very full descriptions of more than 700 species and varieties distributed in 43 genera and a large number of new sub-genera, all precisely characterised and defined. Of these 700 species nearly 500 were collected by him and of these more than 400 were quite new to the science of botany.

The whole of Spruce's Mosses were placed in the hands of William Mitten for classification, description of new species and distribution; and were all included in this botanist's great work on South American Mosses, published by the Linnean Society in 1867. Spruce's work on the Hepaticae brought him a large correspondence from every part of the world, and for the remainder of his life he was sufficiently occupied with this, with the determination of specimens sent him, and with a few special papers, among which were the description of a new hepatic from Killarney in the Journal of Botany in 1887 and a paper in the Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club on a collection made in the Andes of Bolivia. After Spruce's work on the Hepaticae was published, he was occupied in the task of sorting out and preparing his immense collection of South American Hepaticae into sets of species for distribution which was completed and twenty five sets sent off before the end of 1892.

Richard Spruce died on 28 December 1893 after an attack of influenza. He was buried at Terrington beside his father and mother, in accordance with his own directions.

Norman Douglas Simpson was born in Carlton Miniott, near Thirsk in the North Riding of Yorkshire on the 23rd September 1890, the son of a vicar, Reverend James Douglas Simpson (d. 1936) and Elizabeth Saunders of Airy Hill, Whitby, Yorkshire, who was the daughter of a wealthy landowner, Charles Saunders. Simpson was encouraged by his father who had an interest in botany and began to form his Herbarium of British plants in 1903, aged 12. He attended Aysgarth School in Yorkshire and became friends with the Foggitt family who were also keen botanists and it was William Foggitt (c.1835-1917) and others who founded the Botanical Exchange Club which later became the Botanical Society of the British Isles of which Simpson became a life-long member.

In 1904, Simpson attended Clifton College, Bristol and in 1908 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge (his father’s college) and read Botany and Zoology graduating BA with a third in Natural Sciences Tripos in 1911. By this time Simpson had a Herbarium of over 1,400 species and varieties and he had become an expert Microscopist and was made Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society in 1912. He remained a member until his death. He was keen to take a position at Kew Herbarium but they had no post to offer him. However, Assistant Director A W Hill suggested he might undertake the identification of specimens collected the previous year in North-Western Mongolia and Chinese Dzungaria by Morgan Philips Price (c.1885-1973). In November 1911 Morgan agreed to pay Simpson 30/- a week for six months to identify and list his plants with a view to publication. Simpson worked on this with the help of Otto Stapf (c.1857-1933) until 1912 and it also led him into studying the genus Astragalus. Simpson’s resulting enumeration was submitted to the Linnean Society by Stapf and was published in October 1913 and included new species.

He returned to college and gained a Cambridge Diploma in Agricultural Studies in 1914. Simpson was a keen mechanic, motorcyclist and motorist and in 1915 he joined the Red Cross as a motorcyclist and was sent to the Hospital at Poperinghe in Belgium. In November 1915 he enlisted in the Army Transport Corps and rose through the ranks being promoted to Captain and served until 1920 when he was discharged.

After the war, Simpson went to live with his father at ‘Maesbury’ in Bournemouth, who had retired in 1916 and moved to Bournemouth from Yorkshire as he had family there and after his father’s death Simpson lived at ‘Maesbury’ until his death. Simpson would have liked a post at Kew but there were none available. In February 1921, he joined the staff at the Cotton Research Board’s Station at El Giza, Egypt where he became an Economic Botanist. In the November of 1921, he started the Botanical Section’s Herbarium and when he left Egypt in 1930 it had grown to 8,450 specimens and many were duplicated in his own Herbarium. His Cotton (Gossypium) collection was presented to Sir George Watt (c.1851-1930) which is now at Edinburgh and another set was presented to Kew. In 1926, Simpson moved to the Irrigation Services, Ministry of Public Works, Egypt and was partly employed in the Sudan where he became knowledgeable in water plants. His contract expired in 1930 and was not renewed and he returned to England via travelling through Europe. In September 1930, the Colonial Office offered him a job as Systematic Botanist in the Agricultural Department at the Peradeniya Botanic Garden, Ceylon on a wage of £720 per annum and a pension. He bought his beloved car, the Alvis 12/50 for £395 which he took to Ceylon and was still driving this car until his death in 1973. The position ended abruptly in 1932 as they abolished his post and he returned to England in September 1932 via the Far East, Japan and the United States of America.

Simpson then settled at ‘Maesbury’ and as his family were wealthy, he never sought paid work again. He spent his time collecting, indexing and arranging his Herbarium. He travelling much in order to collect specimens and map the flora of various countries, such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia (Simpson had a knowledge of Arabic), Ireland (where he botanised Ireland with various others) and Jordan – all in his Alvis car which had a plant press in the boot. Simpson added many new species to his Herbarium. He also spent much of his retirement collecting books and assembled a large and comprehensive botanical library. He also collected works by Richard Burton, John Buchan, T E Lawrence and books relating to North Africa and the Near East which sold at auction after his death for £13,077. Simpson published little himself, but in 1960, he published at his own cost of £2,000 ‘A Bibliographical Index of the British Flora’ which started to be compiled in 1941. This provided an invaluable compilation of classified referencing to books and articles in periodicals relating to the flora of the British Isles.

Simpson died on the 29th August 1974 just short of his 84th birthday from a heart condition. On his death his Herbarium included 5,800 sheets from Egypt, 1,580 from the Sudan, 400 from Jordan, 600 from Morocco, 800 from Algeria, 500 from Tunisia, 600 from Cirenaica, 18,100 of British and Irish plants and 1,300 of Continental European plants which he collected from 1903-1973. The Sudan, Egypt and Jordan collections were deposited to The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the rest to the Natural History Museum. His main collections of botanical books were presented to the Botany School at Cambridge, The Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Reading University.

William Griffith was born in Ham Common, near Petersham, Surrey, on 4 March 1810. He was apprenticed to a surgeon in the West End of London, and completed his medical studies at University College, London, where he attended classes in botany by J Lindley. He continued his studies in anatomy under Charles Mirbel in Paris and in medical botany at the Chelsea Physic Garden. In 1832 he was appointed as an assistant surgeon with the East India Company and left for Madras.

Griffith was first based on the coast of Tenasserim, but in 1835 he was transferred to the Bengal presidency and served as botanist in an expedition exploring Assam. Between 1835 and 1841, he made many adventurous and dangerous journeys across the Company's territories and collected many specimens. He explored the Indian territory from Sadiya to Ava, then from Assam to Ava and Rangoon. In 1837 he was appointed surgeon to the embassy to Bhutan. In 1839 he was in Quetta, attached to the army of the Indus and penetrated into the eastern part of Afghanistan.

Griffith was appointed to Malacca as civil assistant surgeon in 1841, but recalled to Calcutta the following year to act as superintendent for the Royal Botanic Garden. He seized this opportunity to introduce his own concepts of a botanical garden and rearranged the plants according to a natural classification. At the end of 1844 the superintendent resumed his post and Griffith left Calcutta for Malacca. Shortly after his arrival, in January 1845, he contracted hepatitis and died on 9 February 1845. He was buried in Malacca. In September 1844 he had married Miss Emily Henderson. He was a friend of Sir W J Hooker and regularly sent specimens to Kew Gardens.

Griffith published very little in his lifetime, as he preferred to gather data for what he intended to be a comprehensive account of the Indian flora on a geographical basis. After his death, Griffiths' papers, which were not in a fit state for publication, were edited by his friend J McClelland, a geologist, and published by the East India Company.

William John Burchell was born in Fulham on 23 July 1781 to Matthew Burchell. He was educated at Raleigh House Academy in Surrey and worked at Kew Gardens, becoming a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1803. In 1805 he arrived on St Helena, 1,200 miles (1,950km) from the south-west coast of Africa. In September 1806 he became the island's schoolmaster and in November of the same year he was also appointed superintendent of the botanic garden. He experimented with seeds and plants from South America, Africa and the Far East brought by ships to the island and he also studied the island's botany and geology. In 1808 gave up the job of schoolmaster after he was appointed the role of naturalist on the island and it became his responsibility to survey the island's natural resources.

Burchell was invited to become a botanist in Cape Colony in South Africa and in November 1810 he arrived in Cape Town and travelled locally for seven months. In June 1811 he set off on a major exhibition into Cape Colony and Bechuanaland which lasted four years and covered 4500 miles. He arrived back in England on 11 November 1815.

Burchell brought to England some 63,000 specimens of plants, seeds, insects, fish and animal skins and skeletons, which he had collected on his travels. This has been described as the largest collection made by one man ever to leave Africa. He had also made 500 field sketches and botanical, zoological and ethnographic drawings and kept detailed notes of his travels and observations of natural history. Between 1815 and 1819 he classified his specimens and cultivated the seeds and bulbs he had collected. In 1819 he began to work on his Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa. The two volumes published (1822 and 1824) cover his journeys to August 1812, but a projected third volume never appeared.

In 1825 Burchell joined a British diplomatic mission to Brazil. Travelling via Lisbon, Madeira and the Canary Islands he arrived in Rio de Janeiro in July. He spent thirteen months collecting botanical, zoological and geological specimens in the vicinity of the city, Serra dos Órgãos, and in southern Minas Gerais. In September 1826 he sailed to Santos and collected in the Cubatão area, before moving to São Paulo in January 1827. In July 1827 he travelled north across São Paulo province and the Triangûlo Mineiro into Goiás, claiming to be the first Englishman to visit it. He spent nine months in the town of Goiás and then, between August and November 1828, journeyed to Pôrto Real where he waited five months until water conditions allowed him to sail 690 miles down the River Tocantins to the Amazon. He arrived in Belém on 10 June 1829 and only then did he learn that his father had died in July 1828. Burchell remained in Belém until February 1830 and arrived back in England on 24 March of that year.

Burchell spent the remaining three decades of his life in the labour of cataloguing his enormous collections. He has been described as a sensitive perfectionist, and his meticulousness meant that, working alone, this was a slow process. His material from Brazil, which totalled over 52,000 specimens, was not catalogued until 1860. Burchell received little public recognition for his work. However he was appointed to the council of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1832, and awarded an honorary DCL by Oxford University in May 1834. A number of St Helena and South African plants, animals and birds are named after him.

Burchell progressively withdrew from his scientific friends and on 23 March 1863 he committed suicide at the family home in Fulham.

Peter Peri was born in 1899 in Budapest and was originally named Laszlo Weisz. He left grammar school at 15 but attended evening classes in art. He was a strong supporter of the Bela Kun regime. When the regime fell, he was marked as a dangerous subversive and left to live in Paris in 1920. He was soon expelled from Paris for revolutionary activities, and moved to Berlin, where he became one of a group of Hungarian avant-garde artists. Peri became known as a leading constructivist, and in 1922 had his first exhibition of 'space constructions' with Moholy-Nagy.

During the mid 1920s Peri gave up sculpture for architecture, but lack of success made him return to sculpture. At this time, Peri decided that he wanted to make art that reflected the life around him. His work took on a kind of realism within his strong sense of form and structure. Between 1927 and 1933, he concentrated on small figures made of bronze. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Peri left Germany for England, with his second wife, British music student, Mary McNaughton. The bulk of his work was left behind and destroyed by the concierge of his flat. In London, Peri soon became a leading member of the Artists International Association. As bronze was too expensive, he began to use concrete as his medium. Peri used concrete for the rest of his life, as felt that concrete was not only aesthetic and practical, but reflected the political concerns of his work. Many of his sculptures commented on the human situation. In 1938, he had an important one man show 'London Life in Concrete'. During the war Peri turned to making original prints, including lino-cuts, etchings, aquatints and engravings. From 1948, Peri continued with his small figurative works and received many commissions for outdoor sculptures. During this time Peri felt a need for a spiritual dimension to his life and became a Quaker. In 1966 he married his third wife, Heather Hall. Peter Peri died in 1967.

Alfred Wolmark was born in Warsaw, Poland, and moved to England as a child in 1883. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools, where he won a silver medal for drawing, between 1895 and 1897. His first one-man show was at the Bruton Galleries in London in 1905. In 1911, he produced designs for Serge Diaghilev's ballets. He married Bessie Tapper in 1911 and they had two sons and a daughter. In 1915 Wolmark was one of the founders of the Ben Uri Art Society, where a memorial exhibition was held in 1961. Wolmark was influenced by the Post-Impressionists and knew Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (who modelled a bust of him). He died in London in 1961. Biographical information is included in the exhibition catalogues, 'Alfred Wolmark, 1877-1961: Memorial Exhibition of Paintings' (Ben Uri Art Gallery, 1961) and 'Alfred Wolmark' (Fine Art Society, 1970).

Christopher 'Kit' Wood was born in 1901. He was educated at Marlborough College and studied architecture at Liverpool University. In 1921 he enrolled at the Academie Julian in Paris, then at the Grande Chaumire. He met a number of European artists, including Jean Cocteau (with whom he shared a studio) and Picasso, whilst in Paris and during visits to Europe and north Africa. In 1926 he met Ben and Winifred Nicholson in London and stayed with them in Cornwall, where he and Ben Nicholson discovered the work of the naive painter Alfred Wallis (in 1928). A member of the Seven and Five Society, he also exhibited with the London Group. His best work was completed in Brittany in the final two years of his life. He was killed by a train at Salisbury railway station in 1930. Frosca Munster, a Russian emigre, met Wood in Paris in 1928. They began a relationship and she stayed with him and the Nicholsons in Cornwall.

The first monograph on Wood was Eric Newton's Christopher Wood, 1901-30 (1938). The most recent biography is Richard Ingleby's Christopher Wood: An English Painter (1995).

Alfred Yockney (1878-1963) aka A Y, was primarily associated with West End picture galleries and art publishers throughout his career. However, in July 1916, he joined Wellington House and moved to the British War Memorials Committee as Secretary in February 1918. When the BMC was dissolved he was transferred to the Imperial War Museum on 1 January 1919 'to carry the erstwhile Museum of Information art memorial scheme to its conclusion'; his work being the supervision of the official artists and the organisation of the collection of works of art. He was appointed to the Museum's Art Sub-committee on 31 December 1919. However, Yockney soon tired of the endless battles with the Services committees at the Museum, and after successfully organising the National War Art Exhibition at the Royal Academy in December 1920, he resigned. Following his stint at the Museum, he returned to the commercial world first to Colnaghi's and then to Dunthorne's of Vigo Street; the print and etching gallery. As well as curating, writing articles for art periodicals and editing 'Art Journal', Yockney was also one of the directors of the Art Exhibitions Bureau; a precursor to CEMA and the Arts Council.

Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) was born in Cookham, Berkshire, where he spent much of his life. He attended the Slade School under Tonks, 1908-12; returning in 1923, where he concentrated on drawing. His contemporaries at the Slade included Nevinson, Bomberg, Roberts, Gertler, Wadsworth, Carrington, Allinson, Jacque & Gwen Raverat, Lightfoot and Ihlee; the latter four being his closest friends. In 1912, Spencer exhibited in the 2nd Post-Impressionist exhibition, organised by Roger Fry, and in 1913 he met Edward Marsh who, with fellow artist Henry Lamb, supported his work. Between 1915 and 1918 he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps where he saw action in Salonika. In 1918 he was commissioned for an official war picture: 'Travoys with Wounded Soldiers' (Imperial War Museum). In 1919 Spencer met Hilda Carline (sister to Richard and Sydney), and they married in 1925. They had two children, Shirin, born 1925 and Unity, born in 1930. A member of the New English Art Club, 1919-27, his first solo exhibition was at the Goupil Gallery in 1927, where he exhibited 'The Resurrection, Cookham', 1924-26 (Tate). Between 1927 and 1932 he worked on the decorations for the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere, and he subsequently exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1928, 1930, 1932 and 1938, and at the Tooth, Leger and Zwemmer Galleries in London. Elected Associate Royal Academician in 1932 (resigned 1935) he was re-elected Royal Academician in 1950. In 1937 Hilda divorced Stanley so he could marry Patricia Preece. His second marriage only lasted two years and Spencer remained in love, and close contact, with Hilda until her death in 1950. From the 1930s he worked on a series of paintings for his Church-House scheme and in 1940 he was commissioned by the WAAC to paint shipbuilding subjects at Port Glasgow (Imerpial War Museum). 'The Resurrection, Port Glasgow' (Tate) was one of nine pictures of the Resurrection painted between 1945 and 1950. He received his CBE in 1950 and was knighted in 1959. In 1954 he visited China as part of a cultural delegation, and in 1955 the Tate held a retrospective exhibition of his work. His painting gives an autobiographical, visionary interpretation of secular and religious subjects, often depicting biblical scenes in the contemporary environment of Cookham. Influenced by early Italian painting and work by his contemporaries at the Slade, he used distortions of scale, perspective and anatomy, heightened realistic detail, cool, earthy colour and rhythmical forms to produce work of great imaginative intensity. In the 1920s and 1930s he painted urban, domestic subjects, sometimes with an erotic content. His sharply defined work was based on drawn preparation and painted in a methodical manner which rarely altered or overpainted images. In December 1958 Spencer was diagnosed with cancer and taken into hospital for a colostomy operation. The operation was a success, but Spencer's recovery was slow and painful. During 1959 Spencer limited his social engagements to allow more time for his painting. He also moved back into 'Fernlea', Cookham, his childhood home. Stanley Spencer died at the Canadian War Memorial Hospital, Cliveden, on 14th December 1959.

The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers was founded by Francis Howard on 23rd December 1897, and inaugurated in May 1898. Known as the 'International Society', it acted as a forum for independent artists from Europe and the USA who were invited to send work to, and support, international exhibitions in London and abroad. In the early years work from Royal Academicians was discouraged. In 1904, the Society was registered as a company under the Companies Act. The first President of the Society was Whistler, followed by Rodin. The first council included among others, John Lavery (Chairman), E.A. Walton, Sauter, Joseph Pennell and Gilbert. The Society organised its own exhibitions at various London galleries, including eventually the Royal Academy. In all, it held twenty-nine London exhibitions, between 1898 and 1925. The Council of the Society voted to wind up its Public Regulated Company in 1937, however the Society itself was to continue, and support exhibitions and purchase works of art until its existing funding ran out.

Paul Nash was born in London on 11 May 1889, son of William Harry Nash, late Recorder of Abingdon. He was educated at St. Paul's School, and originally was going to join the Navy. His earliest artistic training was at the Chelsea Polytechnic and the L.C.C. school, he then went to the Slade School of Art. In 1914, shortly after marrying Margaret Theodosia Odeh, he enlisted in The Artists Rifles, where he received a commission in the Hampshire Regiment. Though he had exhibited drawings in 1911, Nash first came into prominence in June 1917, when during convalescence from a broken rib received in the trenches he showed at the Goupil Gallery a collection of landscape drawings made in the Ypres Salient. They made a huge impact, and when Nash returned to France it was as an official war artist.After that Nash developed rapidly with changes of style and medium, but always retaining the same general attitude to nature from simplified forms, through geometrical shapes to surrealist images. Nash also acted as a designer for industry using a wide range of crafts and materials - textiles, wood, glass, china, book production, posters and stage design and costumes. His ideas on modernity in design were put into practice with the foundation in 1933 of 'Unit One'; a group of painters, sculptors, and architects pledged to the expression of the contemporary spirit in their work. For a time Nash was a member of of the New English Art Club, the London Group, the London Artists' Association, the Modern English Watercolour Society, and the International Society of Wood-engravers, but when 'Unit One' was formed he resigend from all other groups and societies. In 1933, he was elected a member of the Council for Art and Industry, having been president of the Society of Industrial Artists in the previous year. He was also visiting instructor to the School of Design at the Royal College of Art. In 1940 Nash was appointed an official war artist to the Air Ministry, and in 1941 to the Ministry of Information. Paul Nash died on 11 July 1946.

Edward Burra was born in 1905 and was privately educated. He took to art in his teenage years after the beginning of the ill health which was to last the rest of his life, but never impeded him. He studied at Chelsea Polytechnic in 1921-1923, and at the Royal College of Art in 1923-1925. During this time he met the core group of friends whom he kept for the rest of his life, including William 'Billy' Chappell, Paul Nash, Barbara Key-Seymer, John Banting, Frederick Ashton, Beatrice Dawson, Gerald Corcoran and Conrad Aiken. After college he lived much of the rest of his life at his parent's house near Rye, Sussex. Burra travelled widely and as often as possible. He visited France, Spain, America and Mexico, and spent much of his time in low bars, nightclubs, dance-halls and cinemas from which he drew inspiration. His first solo show was at the Leicester Galleries in 1929. He exhibited with 'Art Now' and 'Unit One' at the Mayor Gallery in 1933 and 1934, and in the International Surrealist Exhibition of 1936. Burra also produced illustrations and designed sets and costumes for six ballets, an opera and a musical comedy. From 1952 he exhibited at the Lefevre Gallery focusing on still-life and landscape subjects. In 1958 the Hayward Gallery held a retrospective of his work. Burra avoided artistic groups and institutions, only involving himself with 'Unit One' and refusing an Associate Royal Academician in 1963. He died in 1976.

Christopher Wood was born in Knowsley, near Liverpool on 7 April 1901, the son of Mrs Clare and Dr Lucius Wood, a GP. At fourteen, Wood began to draw during recuperation from septicaemia, and went on to study architecture briefly at Liverpool University, 1919-20. In London in 1920, the French collector Alphonse Kahn invited him to Paris, where Wood studied painting at the Academie Julian in 1921. He entered effortlessly into artistic circles, meeting Augustus John and the Chilean diplomat Antonio de Gandarillas, with whom he began to live. As well as providing financial support, Gandarillas introduced Wood to Picasso, Georges Auric and Jean Cocteau, and to the use of opium. Wood became a member of the London Group in 1926 and the Seven and Five Society between 1926-30. He exhibited with Ben and Winifred Nicholson at the Beaux Arts Gallery during April-May 1927, and became close to them personally and artistically. Winifred in particular was supportive in the aftermath of his failed elopement with the painter and heiress Meraud Guinness (subsequently Meraud Guevara). He painted with the Nicholsons at their home 'Banks Head' in Cumberland and in Cornwall in 1928. On a trip to St Ives, he and Ben Nicholson encountered the fisherman painter Alfred Wallis, whose work answered a shared interest in 'primitive' expression and helped Wood to establish a personal style. By this time he was in a close personal relationship with the Russian emigre, Frosca Munster, who accompanied him on his subsequent painting trips to Brittany.His solo exhibition at Tooth's Gallery in April 1929, was followed by an exhibition with Nicholson at the Galerie Bernheim in Paris, May 1930, in which Wood showed paintings made in Brittany in 1929. The results of a second stay in Brittany during June-July 1930, were intended to be shown at the Wertheim Gallery, London in October. Travelling with his paintings, Wood met his mother in Salisbury on 21 August 1930. Possibly believing himself pursued (an effect of withdrawal from opium), he threw himself under the London train and was killed.

Dora Carrington, fourth child of a family of five, was born at Hereford in 1893. In 1903, the family moved to Bedford where Dora Carrington attended Bedford School for Girls excelling at art. Encouraged by the headmistress, Carrington was successful in gaining a place at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1910. Her contemporaries included Mark Gertler, C.R.W. Nevinson, Dorothy Brett, Barbara Bagenal, Stanley Spencer, David Bomberg, and the Nash brothers. Dora Carrington won a number of prizes at the Slade for figure composition, figure painting and painting from the cast. 1914 was a year of upheaval as Dora Carrington left the Slade and the family moved to Ibthorpe House, Hurstbourne Tarrant, near Andover. During the following year, Dora Carrington became a frequent visitor to Garsington Manor, the home of Lady Ottoline and Philip Morrell and in December, met Lytton Strachey at Leonard and Virginia Woolf's house in Sussex. Through a legacy of £20 from a family friend, Dr Roberts, Dora Carrington was able to take a studio at 16 Yeoman's Row, London SW3 in the Spring of 1916; moving again in September to the 'Ark', 3 Gower Street, London W1. However, after a holiday with Lytton Strachey, Barbara Hiles and her fiancee Nicholas Bagenal in Wales over the summer, Dora Carrington started looking for a house for herself and Lytton. In October of that year, 'Mendel' a book by Gilbert Cannan was published which gave an account of Carrington and Gertler's relationship; their affair ended after Gertler attacked Lytton in the street in February 1918. Prior to this and after much searching, Dora Carrington and Lytton found a house, in November 1917, at Tidmarsh Mill, near Pangbourne, Berkshire.

In the summer of 1918, John Hope Johnstone introduced Dora Carrington to Ralph Partridge who soon became a frequent visitor to Tidmarsh Mill. Carrington was able to retain a certain amount of financial independence through a small legacy that her father, who died in December 1918, left her in his will. Lytton had quickly established his reputation and financial security with the publication, in May, of 'Eminent Victorians'. After a walking tour of Spain with her brother Noel and Ralph, during Easter 1919, Carrington and Ralph became lovers. In May, Carrington met Gerald Brenan, Ralph's best friend and they began to correspond. Carrington visited Gerald Brenan in Yegen, Granada in April 1920 with Ralph and Lytton. Later that month, Ralph and Carrington took on the first floor flat in James Strachey's house at 41 Gordon Square, for a trial period, with weekends at Tidmarsh. On 21 May 1921 Dora Carrington and Ralph married followed by a honeymoon in Venice; joined by Lytton for a second week of touring. In July, Gerald visited Tidmarsh and an intimacy with Dora Carrington began. In November, 'Chrome Yellow' a satire on Garsington by Aldous Huxley was published. In 1922 Ralph met Frances Marshall for the first time at the Birrell & Garnett bookshop. By March 1922, Ralph had begun an affair with Valentine Dobree, whilst Carrington's unconsummated affair with Gerald became public in May. Following Gerald's return to Spain, Carrington was forbidden by Ralph to contact him again until November. Dora Carrington continued to spend time abroad with Lytton and friends, travelling to Tunis, Marseilles, Vermenton and in 1923 Paris, where she visited the Louvre. This year also saw Carrington begin her tinselled paintings on glass. By October, Carrington, Lytton and Ralph had found another house, Ham Spray in Wiltshire, which the latter two purchased in January 1924. In the preceeding month, there was a reconciliation in Spain between Ralph, Gerald and Carrington. On their way back through France, Frances Marshall fell in love with Ralph; Dora Carrington acted as chaperone. Lytton's play 'The Son of Heaven' (1912), with costume designs by Carrington, was performed at the Scala Theatre, London in July 1925. By the following year Frances Marshall had moved into 41 Gordon Square so that Ralph could join her there; Lytton was to rent a ground-floor room in 1927. Dora Carrington started the decoration of George Ryland's room at King's College, Cambridge in January 1928. This year saw the end of her affair with Gerald and the beginning of her friendship with Beakus Penrose. Dora Carrington continued her trips abroad over this period visiting France and the Netherlands with Lytton, Ralph and Sebastian Sprott. In November 1929 Dora Carrington discovered that she was pregnant by Beakus Penrose and had an abortion. Dora Carrington painted her last work, a trompe l'oeil window for Bryan and Diana Guiness in October 1931. By November, Lytton had become gravely ill, dying on 21 January 1932, aged 52. Carrington had attempted suicide a few hours earlier. At the age of 38, Dora Carrington shot herself on 11 March 1932.

Scottish sculptor, graphic artist and poet. Brought up in Scotland, he briefly attended Glasgow School of Art and first made his reputation as a writer, publishing short stories and plays in the 1950s. In 1961 he founded the Wild Hawthorn Press with Jessie McGuffie and within a few years had established himself internationally as Britain's foremost concrete poet. His publications also played an important role in the initial dissemination of his work as a visual artist. As a sculptor, he has worked collaboratively in a wide range of materials, having his designs executed as stone-carvings, as constructed objects and even in the form of neon lighting.

In 1966 Finlay and his wife, Sue, moved to the hillside farm of Stonypath, south-west of Edinburgh, and began to transform the surrounding acres into a unique garden, which he named Little Sparta. He revived the traditional notion of the poet's garden, arranging ponds, trees and vegetation to provide a responsive environment for sundials, inscriptions, columns and garden temples. As the proponent of a rigorous classicism and as the defender of Little Sparta against the intrusions of local bureaucracy, he insisted on the role of the artist as a moralist who comments sharply on cultural affairs. The esteem won by Finlay's artistic stance and style is attested by many important large-scale projects undertaken throughout the world. The ‘Sacred Grove', created between 1980 and 1982 at the heart of the Kröller-Müller Sculpture Park, Otterlo, is one of the most outstanding examples of Finlay's work outside Little Sparta.

Born 1931; joined Army as National Serviceman, 1951; commissioned, Duke of Wellington's Regt, 1951; played Rugby Union for Scotland, 1952; 2nd Lt, 1 Bn, Duke of Wellington's Regt, 1 Commonwealth Div, Korea, 1952-1953; awarded MC for service during Battle of 'The Hook', Korea, May 1953; served with 1 Bn, Duke of Wellington's Regt, Cyprus, 1956; joined 22 Bn, Special Air Service (SAS), 1961; Commander, 22 Bn SAS Mountain Training Centre, Bavaria, Germany, 1965; retired from Army, 1969; head of management training, H P Bulmer, cider producer, 1969-1975; founded and ran management training company, Leadership Trust, 1975- 1993; died, 2003.

Publications include: Winning hearts and minds (Pen Press Publishers Ltd, London 2003).

Born 1900; RN Cadet, Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight, 1913-1914; Midshipman, battleship HMS BELLEROPHON, Grand Fleet, Scapa Flow, 1916; battle of Jutland, 1916; witnessed scuttling of captured German Fleet, Scapa Flow, 1919; Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 1919-1920; Lt, HMS VENOMOUS, 1920-1921; Flinders Naval Depot, Australia, 1922-1924; HMS FROBISHER, 1924-1926; trained as observer, Fleet Air Arm, 1926; HMS FURIOUS, 1926-1928; Ground Instructor, RAF Leuchars, Scotland, 1928-1929; HMS HERMES, Hong Kong, 1929-1931; HMS FURIOUS, 1931-1934; HMS COURAGEOUS, 1934-1935; Staff Officer, Operations, to Adm Noel Frank Laurence, HMS GLORIOUS, 1936; Director of Training and Staff Duties, Air Ministry, 1936-1938; Second in Command, HMS NEWCASTLE, 1939-1941; Air Ministry, 1941-1942; commanded HMS OWL, Fearn, Scotland, 1942-1944; Deputy Director (Naval), Combined Operations Headquarters, 1944-1945; commanded HMS AJAX, 1946-1948; Deputy Director, Department of Naval Equipment, Admiralty 1948-1951; retired, 1951

Born 1913; Lt, Royal Scots Greys, 1939; service in Middle East and Italy, World War Two; in charge of Directorate for re-education and repatriation of German POWs, under Foreign Office Political Intelligence Department, 1946; Capt, A Sqn, Royal Scots Greys, Germany, 1948; service with Army, Navy and Air Force Intelligence Centre, Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire, 1950-1952; Military Attache, British Embassy, Rangoon, Burma, 1954-1957; retired from Army, 1960; service in Joint Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of Defence, 1964-1971; Director of Overseas Defence Relations, Ministry of Defence, 1971-1980; retired, 1980.

Born, 1923; studied Mathematics, King's College London, 1946-1949, awarded 1st class honours; Chief Mathematician, Hawker Aircraft Ltd, Kingston-on-Thames, 1950-1954; Deputy Chief Designer, Vickers Armstrong Ltd, Weybridge, 1954-1961, designing guided missiles and in charge of specification group for TSR2 tactical strike and reconnaissance aircraft; Divisional Manager, Elliott Flight Automation, Borehamwood, 1961-1965, founding and managing Airborne Computing Division; Divisional Manager, Plessey Company Ltd, Poole, 1965-1968, founding and managing Traffic Division; Managing Director, Revenue Systems Ltd, 1968-1973, working in electronic money; General Manager, Communication Ltd, Kaduna, Nigeria, 1974-1975; General Manager, Communications Associates of Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria, 1975-1978; engineering consultant, 1978-1980; teacher, 1981-1988; died, 2000.

Born 1907; educated at Wimbledon School and Merton College, Oxford; Assistant Director, Archaeological Survey of Nubia, 1929-1934; Field Director, Oxford University expeditions to Sudan, 1934-1937; exploratory journeys in eastern Sudan and Aden Protectorate, 1938-1939; service in Intelligence Corps, Territorial Army Reserve of Officers, 1939-1957; service on Joint Staff, Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence, 1942-1945; acting Lt Col, 1943; attended QUADRANT Conference, Quebec, Canada, Aug 1943; released from active military service with honorary rank of Lt Col, 1945; Director and Secretary, Royal Geographical Society, 1945-1975; editor, Geographical Journal, 1945-1978; President, British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1961-1981; President, British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1961-1962; on United Nations register of fact-finding experts, 1968; honorary Vice President, Royal Geographical Society, 1981-1999.

The US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee was the principal US inter-service body which, together with the British Chiefs of Staff, formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, the supreme Anglo- American military strategic and operational authority, 1942-1945. With the formation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) in Dec 1941 it became necessary to form an American agency with comparable decision making structure to that of the British Chiefs of Staff (COS). This was formally inaugurated in Feb 1942 as the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee, its first members being Gen George Catlett Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff, Adm Harold Raynsford Stark and Adm Ernest Joseph King, US Navy, and Lt Gen Henry H 'Hap' Arnold, US Army Air Forces. In Jul 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Adm William D Leahy as his political and military representative and Chief of Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee. Unlike the British Chiefs of Staff (COS), which was integrated into the British Cabinet system, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was responsible primarily to the President of the United States as Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces. Under Leahy's leadership, the Joint Chiefs of Staff became the centre of the US executive command structure during World War Two and was responsible for operational strategy in the Pacific, the co-ordination of US military operations in the Far East, and the planning and co-ordination of US operational strategy elsewhere. In addition, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the British Chiefs of Staff functioned together under the auspices of the Combined Chiefs of Staff to plan Allied strategic and operational efforts in Europe, North Africa, and the Far East.

Born Würzburg, Germany, 30 Jun 1884; entered 3 Royal Bavarian Field Artillery Regt, 1902; Second Lt, 1904; attended Artillery School, Munich, Germany, 1906-1907; attended Bavarian Staff College, 1911-1912; promoted to Lt, 1912; Ordnance Officer, 3 (Bavarian) Infantry Corps Headquarters, 1914; General Staff Officer, 6 (Bavarian) Div, 1915; Capt, 1915; Staff Officer, German 2 Army Headquarters, 1917; General Staff Officer, German 4 Army, 1917; General Staff Officer, Bavarian Cavalry Div, 1917; General Staff Officer, Supreme Commander, East, 1917; Staff Officer, German 15 Reserve Corps Headquarters, 1917; Staff Officer, Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht, West, 1917; Adjutant, Bavarian General Staff, 1918; Training Branch, Reichswehr Ministry, 1919; Tactics Instructor, Staff Courses, Munich, Germany, 1921; Officer Commanding 4 Mountain Battery, 7 Artillery Regt; Maj, 1923; Director of General Staff Training, Munich, 1927-1929; Lt Col, 1929; Chief of Staff, Wehrkreis, the Divisional Military District of the German Army, Westphalia, 1931; Col, 1931; Maj Gen, 1934; General Officer Commanding, German 7 Div, 1935; Lt Gen, 1936; Commander, German Army Manoeuvres Staff, 1936; Head, Training Branch, General Staff of the Army, 1936; General of the Artillery, 1938; Chief of the General Staff, Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), Supreme Command of the German Army, 1938; awarded Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, 1939; suffered nervous collapse, having been forced to alter plans at the last moment for a German winter offensive in the West, 1940; Col Gen, 1940; instructed staff to formulate plans for an Eastern offensive, 1940; removed from office following the failure of German advances in the East, 1942; arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of complicity in the Jul assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler's life, 1944; dismissed from the German Army, 1945; imprisoned at Flossenburg and Dachau concentration camps, 1945; prisoner of war, United States, 1945-1947; released, 1947; Head, Historical Liaison Group, Historical Division, US Army, 1948-1961; awarded Meritorious Civilian Service Award of the USA, 1961; died 2 Apr 1972; Halder's journal first published in translated form, 1950.

The collection consists of meeting minutes, memoranda, and semi-official correspondence relating to US foreign policy with respect to Korea, 1945-1953. During this period, Korea went from Japanese occupation, to civil war between communist forces led by Kim Il-Jong and republican forces led by President Syngman Rhee, to partition under terms imposed by the United Nations.

The British Chiefs of Staff (COS) and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, the supreme Anglo-American military strategic and operational authority during World War Two. The committee advised the governments of Britain and the US on matters of strategy, and also implemented the strategic decisions taken by them. In its highest capacity, the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee controlled operational strategy in the Mediterranean and European theatres, and during the Battle of the Atlantic, and held jurisdiction over grand strategic policy in all other areas where operational strategy was controlled by the COS or the JCS. The Combined Chiefs of Staff committee issued directives to its supreme commanders by acting through the chiefs of staff of the country that provided the commander. The decision to form the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) came in Dec 1941 at the ARCADIA Conference in Washington, DC, where the British Joint Staff Mission headed by Gen (later FM) Sir John Greer Dill developed with American representatives a combined office, secretariat, and planning staff. Eventually, a number of sub-committees were constituted as the war progressed, the most important of which were the Combined Intelligence Committee and the Combined Planning Staff. With the emergence of the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, it became necessary in the United States to form an American agency with comparable decision making structure to that of the British Chiefs of Staff (COS). This was formally inaugurated in Feb 1942 as the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee, its first members being Gen George Catlett Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff , Adm Harold Raynsford Stark and Adm Ernest Joseph King, US Navy, and Lt Gen Henry H 'Hap' Arnold, US Army Air Forces.

In Apr 1968 political and military representatives from the United States, South Vietnam and North Vietnam began negotiations in Paris, France, to end the Vietnam War. Two months later, the talks were stalled over the inclusion of representatives from the Vietnamese National Liberation Front (Viet Cong), considered by the US an illegitimate political entity. In 1969, US Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (later US Secretary of State), Dr Henry Alfred Kissinger, once again began conversations with North Vietnamese officials. Backed by intensive US bombing of North Vietnam, and particularly its capital city Hanoi, Kissinger eventually persuaded North Vietnamese officials to negotiate the terms of a cease-fire. Throughout the lengthy negotiations, representatives from all sides sought what they considered an precipitous escape from the war. Finally, in 1972 Deputy Assistant to the President, Gen Alexander Meigs Haig Jr, met with South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu to discuss the final terms of 'Vietnamization', the process by which the American military presence in South Vietnam would be replaced with troops from the Republic of Vietnam. Also, the Viet Cong military adviser, Le Duc Tho, completed talks with Kissinger relating to the terms of a general cease-fire. On 27 Jan 1973, five years after the commencement of negotiations, a permanent cease-fire was signed between representatives from North Vietnam, the Viet Cong, South Vietnam, and the United States. Transcripts and Files of the Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam, 1968-1973 are the official transcripts of the Paris Peace Talks between political and military officials from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Viet Cong and the United States, 31 Mar 1968-26 Feb 1973.

Born 1909; Squadron Leader, Royal Air Force; 1 Lincoln Regiment, Dover, 1928; Gibraltar, 1930; non-commissioned officer, Royal Army Service Corps; served in Palestine, 1938-1939; Chief Clerk of the General Staff, HQ Western Desert, 1940-1941; Staff Officer, London 1941; school teacher; died 2005.

Roberts served as confidential clerk under Gen Sir Richard O'Connor, 1937-1941 during the periods when O'Connor was Commander of 7 Infantry Division and Military Governor in Palestine, 1938-1939; Commander of the Western Desert Force in Egypt, 1940 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, British Troops in Egypt, 1941, until O'Connor's capture on 6 Apr 1941.

Born 1921; educated Beckenham Grammar School; joined the Queen's Westminsters, 1 Battalion, Territorial Army, 1938; Lance Corporal, 1939; commissioned into Loyal (Lancashire) Regiment, Dec 1940; volunteered for Indian Army, Nov 1941; posted to 6 Battalion, 11 Sikh Regiment as Adjutant; joined 152 Indian Parachute Regiment, 1945; Captain, York and Lancaster Regiment, British Army on the Rhine, 1946; interpreter and intelligence duties, 1948-1953; regimental postings, Sudan, Egypt and Cyprus, 1953-1956; Major, 1955; took part in Suez conflict, 1956; training officer, Battalion Headquarters, Sheffield, 1957-1961; Naval, Air and Military Attaché, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1961-1962; General Staff Officer, Intelligence Division, SHAPE, 1962-1964; Lieutenant Colonel, 1964; Commander, Yorkshire Training Brigade, 1964-1967; General Staff Officer, Allied Forces Central Europe, Holland, 1967-1969; British Liaison Officer, Germany, 1969-1974; retired 1974, Admin Officer, 2 Battalion, Wessex Regiment, Territorial Army, Reading; died 2001.

Born 1914; read Engineering at Cambridge University; emergency commission as 2 Lieutenant, African Colonial Forces, 1941; Lieutenant, Royal Corps of Signals, Regular Army Reserve of Officers, 1952; transferred to Royal Engineers; retired as Lieutenant Colonel, 1956; worked as chemical engineer, petroleum industry; died 2003.

Born 1897; educated at Methodist College, Belfast and Royal College of Science, Dublin; worked as a geologist for Burmah Oil Company Limited in Burma and India, 1920-1937; joined Burma Auxiliary Force and served as Trooper, 1920-1921; 2nd Lt, 1927; Lt, 1930; Capt, 1932; Maj, 1933; Lt Col, 1933; commanded Upper Burma Bn, Burma Auxiliary Force, 1933-1938; honorary Col, 1937; resigned, 1938; enrolled in Army Officer's Emergency Reserve and affiliated to 1 Bn, The Rangers, The King's Royal Rifle Corps, 1938; rejoined Army as 2nd Lt, Corps of Royal Engineers, 1940; attended Staff College, Senior Wing, Minley Manor, 1940; posted to War Office as Staff Capt, 1940; served in World War Two in Greece, Middle East, Burma, Tunisia and Sicily, 1939-1945; served on Staff of Gen Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, 1941; awarded CBE, 1942; served in India and Burma, 1943-1945; Controller General of Military Economy, India, 1945; re-employed by Burmah Oil Company Limited, 1945; retired as Managing Director of Burma Oil Company Limited, 1955; Lay Member of Restrictive Practices Court, 1961-1970; National Chairman, Burma Star Association, 1962-1977; member of British Transport Consultative Committee; knighted, 1977; elected life Vice President of the Burma Star Association, 1977; died 1980. Publications: Time off for war: the recollections of a wartime Staff Officer [1982].

Born 1928; educated Eton; enlisted Scots Guards, 1946; 2 Lieutenant, 1948; Lieutenant, 1950; Captain, 1954; Equerry to HRH the Duke of Gloucester, 1957-59; Staff College, 1959; Major, 1961; Brigade Major, 4 Guards Armoured Brigade, 1964-1966; Lieutenant Colonel, 1967; Commanding Officer 2 Battalion Scots Guards, 1968-71; Chief of General Staff, Armament Supply Department, Ministry of Defence, 1972-1974; Brigadier, 1975; Brigadier General Staff, Ministry of Defence, 1975; Commander Land Forces and Deputy Commander British Forces, Cyprus, 1976-1978; General Officer Commanding South West District, 1978-1981; Commander, Commonwealth Monitoring Force and Military Adviser to the Governor, Southern Rhodesia [Zimbabwe], 1979-1980; retired 1981; died 2006.

Born in 1885; educated at Eton College and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; served in France, Flanders and Italy, World War One, 1914-1918; General Staff Officer Grade 1, Staff College, Camberley, 1932-1935; General Staff Officer Grade 1, War Office, 1935-1936; Deputy Director of Military Operations, War Office, 1936; Commander, Royal Artillery, 1 Div, 1936-1937; Commandant of Staff College, Camberley, 1937; Deputy Chief of Imperial General Staff, 1938-1939; Commanding 3 Army Corps, 1939- 1940; General Officer Commander-in-Chief, Northern Command, 1940-1941; Col Commandant of Royal Artillery and Army Educational Corps, 1940-1950; Adjutant General to the Forces, 1941-1946; Gen, 1942; Col Commandant, Royal Army Dental Corps, 1945-1951; retired, 1946; President of Marylebone Cricket Club, 1946- 1947, Library Association, 1949, National Institute of Adult Education, 1949-1964; National Institute of Industrial Psychology, 1947-1952; member of Council, Institute of Education, London University, 1948-1967; member of Miners Welfare Commission, 1946-1952; Chairman and Director General, British Council, 1946-1954; Executive Board, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 1950-1954 and Chairman, 1952-1954; Principal of Working Men's College, 1956-1961; died in 1982.

Commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) as Surgeon Sub Lt, 1931; served with Tyne Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), HMS CALLIOPE, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, 1931-1935; commissioned into the Royal Navy as Surgeon Lt, 1935; HMS GLORIOUS, Mediterranean Fleet, 1935-1937; HMS SHARPSHOOTER and HMS HEBE, 1 Minesweeping Flotilla, Devonport, 1937-1938; Assistant Medical Officer, HMS DOLPHIN, Fort Blockhouse, Gosport, Hampshire, 1938-1939; medically examined two of the four survivors from HM Submarine THETIS, lost with ninety nine crew members, Liverpool Bay, Jun 1939; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; Medical Officer, HMS KELLY, 5 Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, 1939-1940; Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Portsmouth, 1940-[1941]; Surgeon Lt Cdr, 1941; served in the Royal Naval Hospital, Malta, 1945-1947; acting Surgeon Cdr, 1947; Instructor, HMS ROYAL ARTHUR, Training Establishment, Corsham, Wiltshire, 1947-1949; Surgeon Cdr, 1949; Royal Naval Sick Quarters, HMS TERROR, Singapore, 1950-1952; HMS VICTORY, Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth, 1952-1955; HMS DAEDALUS, Royal Naval Barracks, Royal Naval Air Station, Lee on Solent, Hampshire, 1955-1958; Surgeon Capt, 1958; Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Portsmouth, 1958-1961; HMS GANGES, Royal Naval Junior Training Establishment, Shotley Gate, Ipswich, Suffolk, 1961-1965; retired 1965, died 1980.Publications: The parish register of Bowes, 1670-1837. Bishop's transcripts, 1615-1700, transcribed by the Reverend William Oliver and edited by Alderson (Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Parish Register Section, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, 1964); The parish register of Rokeby, Yorkshire, Vols I-VII, 1598-1837, transcribed by the Reverend William Oliver and edited by Alderson (Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Parish Register Section, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, 1965).

Born 1911; educated at Sedbergh School, Yorkshire and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 1931; service with 1 Bn, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 1931-1938; Lt, 1934; Capt, 1939; Instructor, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1939-1940; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; service in North Africa, Italy, India, Burma and North West Europe, 1939-1945; temporary Maj, 1940-1941; Bde Maj, 1941-1942; General Staff Officer 2, Combined Operations Headquarters, 1942; General Staff Officer 2 (Staff Duties), Allied Forces Headquarters, 1942-1943; War Substantive Maj, 1943; awarded MBE, 1943; temporary Lt Col, 1943-1944; Commanding Officer, 2 Bn, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), Italy, 1944; War Substantive Lt Col, 1944; Col, Operations Staff of Maj Gen Orde Charles Wingate for second Chindit expedition, Operation THURSDAY, Burma, 1944; acting Brig, 1944; awarded OBE, 1945; General Staff Officer 1, 1945-1946; Maj, 1946; Chief Instructor, School of Combined Operations, 1946-1947; General Staff Officer 1 (Operations), Hong Kong, 1948-1950; General Staff Officer 1 (Directing Staff), Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1950-1952; Brevet Lt Col, 1951; Lt Col, 1953; Col, 1954; Commanding Officer, 1 Bn, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 1954-1955; commanded 26 Gurkha Infantry Bde, 1955-1957; temporary Brig, 1955-1958; awarded DSO, 1957; Senior Instructor, Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1958; Brig, 1959; Brig General Staff, Department of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, War Office, 1959; Imperial Defence College, 1959; awarded CBE, 1960; Chief of Defence Staff, Ghana, 1960-1961; commanded Ghanian contingent, UN Forces, Belgian Congo, 1960-1961; awarded CB, 1961; Chief of Staff, Northern Command Headquarters, York, 1962-1965; retired, 1965; British Observer, International Observer Team on Genocide, Nigeria, 1968; Col, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 1969-1974; died 1977. Publications: African tightrope. My two years as Nkrumah's Chief of Staff (Pall Mall Press, London, 1965).

Born in 1933; educated at Rugby School and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into Royal Engineers, 1953; Lt, 1955; assisted in preparation of nuclear tests on Christmas Island [1957-1958]; Capt, 1959; Maj, 1964; Military Assistant to the Chief of General Staff, 1965-1966; Lt Col, 1970; Col, 1974; served on General Staff of UK Land Forces 1974-1976; Deputy Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies 1977-1986; died in 1986.

Born, Edinburgh, 1826; educated at Glasgow University; commissioned into 72 Foot, 1846; Lieutenant, 72 Foot Headquarters, Barbados, 1849; Nova Scotia, Canada, 1851; Captain, 1853; Crimea, Russia, May 1855; service with Highland brigade, Sevastopol (Sebastopol), Russia, Jun 1855; Major, 1856; Military Secretary to Lt Gen Sir Colin Campbell (later General Sir Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde), Commander in Chief, Indian Mutiny expedition, 1857; wounded, losing his left arm at second relief of Lucknow Garrison, India, 1857; Lieutenant Colonel, 1861; Assistant Adjutant General in office of Inspector General of Infantry, 1862-1864; Assistant Adjutant General, South Western District, 1864-1867; Colonel, 1867; succeeded father as Baronet, 1867; Assistant Adjutant General, Aldershot, 1870; Commander, British troops, second Anglo-Asante War, Ghana, 1873-1874; battle of Amoaful (Amoafo), capture of Bequah (Bekwai) and capture of Kumasi, Ghana, 1873-1874; Deputy Adjutant General, Ireland, 1874; Major General, 1877; Commandant, Staff College Camberley and Deputy Quartermaster General, Intelligence, 1882; Commander, British troops, Suez Canal, Egypt, 1882; Lieutenant General, 1882; Commander, British Force in Egypt, 1882-1883; Commander, Aldershot Division, 1883-1888; General, 1889; retired, 1893; died, London, 1907.

Born in 1861; educated at Haileybury College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into 6 Inniskilling Dragoons, 1882; served in Bechuanaland Expedition, 1884-1885, and in Zululand, 1888; Adjutant, Inniskilling Dragoons, 1889-1893; served in UK, 1890-1896; Staff College, Camberley, 1896-1897; Maj, 1897; Bde Maj, 3 Cavalry Bde, Ireland, 1898; served in South Africa, 1899-1902; commanded 5 Royal Irish Lancers, 1902-1905, and 4 Cavalry Brigade, Eastern Command, 1905-1910; Inspector of Cavalry, 1910-1914; served on Western Front, 1914-1917; Commander, Cavalry Div (later Cavalry Corps), BEF, 1914; Commander, 5 Army Corps, 1915; Commander, 3 Army, 1915-1917; Commander-in-Chief, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Palestine and Egypt, 1917-1919; FM, 1919; High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan, 1919-1925; died in 1936. Placed

Born in 1895; educated at Royal Naval College, Dartmouth; joined Royal Artillery, Aug 1914; served in World War One, 1914-1918; Capt, 1917; Brevet Maj, 1931; served in Northern Kurdistan, 1932; Maj, 1933; Brevet Lt Col, 1935; Col, 1939; commander of 43 Div, North Africa, 1941-1942; acting Lt Gen, 1942; commanded 5 Corps, North Africa and Italy, 1942-1944; Maj Gen and temporary Lt Gen, 1943; General Officer Commanding British Troops in Egypt, 1944-1948; Lt Gen, 1946; Col Commandant, Royal Artillery, 1947-1957; retired in 1948; Col Commandant, Royal Horse Artillery, 1948-1957; died in 1964.

Born 1918; joined RAF as Apprentice Clerk, Ruislip, Middlesex, 1935; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; trained as Pilot, Florida, USA, 1941; commissioned as Pilot Officer, 1942; Flying Instructor, Florida, USA, 1942; service with Bomber Command and piloted Avro Lancasters on bombing raids over Germany, 1943-1944; awarded DFC [1943]; service in RAF Tebrau, Malaya, 1945; Flight Lt, 1946; served in Australia and Singapore; retired as Sqn Ldr, 1952; died 1998.

Born in 1919; educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford; war correspondent in Spanish Civil War, 1938-1939; Attaché, HM Legation, Belgrade, and on special missions in Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania and Middle East, 1939-1940; Sgt, RAF, 1940-1941; commissioned and transferred to Army, 1941; served in Egypt, Palestine and the Adriatic, 1941-1942; liaison officer to Albanian resistance movement, 1944; served on staff of Lt Gen Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, special military representative with Gen Chiang Kai-shek, 1945; contested Preston in Conservative interest, Jul 1945; Conservative MP for Preston North, 1950-1966, and Brighton Pavilion, 1969-1992; delegate to Consultative Assembly of Council of Europe, 1950-1953 and 1956; member of Round Table Conference on Malta, 1955; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Financial Secretary, War Office, 1957-1958; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Colonial Office, 1958-1960; Secretary of State for Air, 1960-1962; Minister of Aviation, 1962-1964; Minister of Public Building and Works, 1970; Minister for Housing and Construction, Department of the Environment, 1970-1972; Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1972-1974; died 1997. Publications: Sons of the eagle (Macmillan and Co, London, 1948); vols 4, 5 and 6 of James Louis Garvin's The life of Joseph Chamberlain (Macmillan and Co, London, 1932-1969); Approach march: a venture in autobiography (Hutchinson, London, 1973); died 3 Sep 1996.

Born [1910]; acquired Civil Pilot's Licence, 1933; commissioned into the RAF, 1935; converted to RAF Service Flying at 4 Flying Training School, Abu Sueir, Egypt, [1935]; posted to 6 Sqn RAF at Ismailia, Egypt, and was engaged in operations in Palestine, where he was awarded the DFC for gallantry in the air, 1936-1938; appointed RAF Flying Instructor at RAF College Cranwell and then Chief Flying Instructor at 21 RAF Flying School at Kumalo, Rhodesia, [1939-1941]; commanded 27 RAF Elementary Flying School at Induna, Rhodesia, [1941]; commanded RAF Station, Cardington, taught at RAF Staff College, Hampshire, and was posted to Organisation Planning at the Air Ministry, [1942-1946]; commanded 1 Group, Royal Pakistan Air Force, and was responsible for supply dropping operations in Kashmir, [1947-1948]; assumed position of Chief of Staff, Royal Pakistan Air Force, during the absence of Commander in Chief AVM Richard Llewellyn Roger Atcherley in Australia, 1949; Director of Air Training, Air Ministry, [1951]; awarded CBE, 1951; died Mar 1979.

Born 1900; Indian Army, 1919; Adjutant and Quarter Master, Small Arms School India, 1930-1931; second in command of 1 Battalion, 14 Punjab Regiment, 12 Dec 1941-9 Jan 1942; killed in Malaya, 1942.

Born 1902; educated at Ermysted's School, Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire and St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London; commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1927; Capt, 1929; service on North West Frontier, India, 1930-1931; Maj, 1936; served in World War Two in Tunisia and Italy, 1939-1945; temporary Lt Col, 1940; temporary Col, 1943; awarded OBE, 1944; Lt Col, 1945; Assistant Director of Medical Services, 1 Div, Italy, 1945; Col, 1949; Deputy Director of Medical Services, Hong Kong, 1950; served in Korean War, 1950-1953; retired 1952; Commandant, Star and Garter Home for Disabled Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen, Richmond, Surrey, 1953-1967; died 1981.

Born in 1908; educated at Harrow School and Magdalene College, Cambridge; 2nd Lt, Royal Scots Greys, 1929; Lt, 1932; Adjutant, 1936-1939; served in Palestine 1936-1939; Capt, 1938; Staff Capt, 49 West Riding Div, York, 1939; served in Norway, 1940, and the Middle East, 1941-1942; Officer Commanding, Military Operations Section No 5, War Office, 1943-1944; Deputy Director of Military Operations, War Office, 1944-1947; Maj, 1946; honorary Brig, 1947; retired, 1947; died in 1985.

Born in Liverpool in 1911; ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, 1935; curate at St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, 1935-1940; served as Army Chaplain, 1940-1945; POW, 1943; appointed to Monks Kirby, Warwickshire, 1946-1959, Hethe, Oxfordshire, 1959-1961 and Haunton, Staffordshire, 1961-1983; died in 1983.

John Archer, often known as Jack, was born 1871; enlisted with Rifle Brigade, 1889; joined 2 Battalion, Rifle Brigade; stationed in Ireland, 1890-1895; Sergeant, 1894; appointed Armourer Sergeant, Mounted Infantry, 1896; posted to Mashonaland, 1896-97; returned to 2 Battalion, Rifle Brigade and posted to Malta, Egypt, the Sudan and Crete, 1897-1899; fought in the Battle of Omdurman, 1898; Colour Sergeant, 1899; fought in the Second Boer War, South Africa, 1899-1902, including Siege of Ladysmith; posted to Egypt, the Sudan and India, 1902-1908; appointed Regimental Sergeant Major, 1 Battalion, King's African Rifles, 1908; posted to Nyasaland (Malawi) and Somaliland, 1908-1914; Sergeant Major, A Company, 1 Battalion Rifle Brigade, British Expeditionary Force, 1914; wounded and captured at Battle of Cambrai, Aug 1914; POW, Merseburg Camp, Germany and Scheveningen Camp, Holland, 1914-1918; retired from Army, 1919; worked for the prison service, Nyasaland (Malawi), 1919-1939; commissioned as 2 Lieutenant, East African Army Service Corps, 1939; worked in training and recruitment; retired with rank of Honorary Captain, 1947; died 1954.