Sarah Madeleine Martineau (1872-1972) was a successful Arts and Crafts jeweller. She was born in Clapham, London on 2 May 1872, to Utilitarians David and Sarah Martineau. Sarah, known as Lena, and her two unmarried sisters probably remained together in the family home until the 1940s, living near or with each other in South London until their deaths. Lena began her education boarding at Roedean School in Sussex. She initially attended Clapham Art School, and subsequently attended Westminster School of Art with her sister Lucy and Sophie Pemberton, a Canadian artist. By autumn 1897 Lena and Lucy had found a studio to rent and in 1899 and 1900 Lena concentrated on submitting pictures to the Royal Academy, all of which were rejected. Later that year she sat a modelling design exam, passing first class, and a life exam which was awarded a book prize in the National Competition run by the Science and Art Department of the Committee of the Council on Education and entered by thousands of art students. In 1902 she decided to commit to metal work, buying a muffle furnace and a year later studying metal work at Sir John Cass Technical Institute in Whitechapel. She was also a member of the Sir John Cass Arts and Crafts Society. By 1904 she was an established jewellery maker, and in 1906 she had had two pendants accepted for the Arts and Crafts Exhibition at the Granfton Galleries. By 1909 she was showing her jewellery at various galleries and exhibitions, including the Society of Women Artists and was featured in 'Studio' magazine for various achievements. By the 1916 Arts and Crafts Exhibition her work was not exhibited suggesting she no longer actively participated in the arts and crafts scene. She died in 1972.
Sybil W Hart was born in 1887, the daughter of William Herbert Hart and Ellen Louisa Barritt, both of whom were Quakers. Sybil was educated in London and at the Friends school in Saffron Walden from the age of 11. In 1913 Sybil married Andrew EC White and moved to Kilmarnock, both of them were ardent pacifists and Sybil also supported anti-vivisection societies. During the First World War, Sybil served on the Friends Emergency Committee and the War Victims Relief Committee. She died in 1985.
Ursula Roberts (1887-1971) was born in 1887 at Meerut in India, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel R J H Wyllie and Emily Titcomb. She married the Rev. William Corbett Roberts in 1909 and from this point both became increasingly concerned with female suffrage and the role and position of women in the church. She was the author of 'The Cause of Purity and Women's Suffrage' published by the Church League for Women's Suffrage as well as the Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Press Secretary of the East Midland Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Both before and after the First World War, her main interest was women in the Church of England. She was a member of the Church League for Women's Suffrage, which was established in 1909 as a non-party, non-militant organisation by the Rev. Claude Hinscliffe and his wife, renamed League of the Church Militant after 1918. Roberts subsequently became one of the key members of the Anglican Group for the Ordination of Women after a call for evidence on women and the ministry went out in the run up to the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops in 1930. She was also a member of the interdenominational Society for the Ministry of Women in the Church, which led her to correspond with Dr Emil Oberholzer and Dr Maude Royden. She died in 1971.
Vera Louise Holme (1881-1969) was born in Lancashire in 1881, the daughter of Richard Holme, a timber merchant, and his wife Mary Louisa Crowe. Holme was sent away from home as a young girl to be educated at a convent school in Belgium. As a young woman she was based in London, and began performing with touring acting companies, often as a male impersonator. She adopted a masculine style of dress, short hair and took on the nickname Jack or Jacko. She became a member of the D'Olyly Carte Opera company around 1906, performing in productions of Gilbert and Sullivan at the Savoy Opera House. By 1908 she was a member of the Actresses' Franchise League. She joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1908 and was active in suffrage propaganda work such as greeting released prisoners from Holloway Prison in Mar 1909; working as a mounted marshal at a demonstration in Jun 1909 and acting the role of 'Hannah Snell' in Cicely Hamilton's 'Pageant of Great Women' in 1909. She was close to the centre of WSPU activity and social circles, staying with the Blathwayt family at Eagle's House in 1909, becoming the chauffeur for the Pankhursts and Pethick-Lawrences, and was a member of the 'Young Hot Bloods' group alongside Jessie Kenney and Elsie Howie. She was imprisoned in Holloway Prison in 1911 for stone-throwing. From 1914-1920 she was an acting member of the Pioneer Players. At the outbreak of the First World War, Holme joined the Women's Volunteer Reserve, and then enlisted in the transport unit of the Scottish Women's Hospital, based in Serbia and Russia, where she was responsible for horses and trucks. In Oct 1917 she delivered a report on the situation of the Serbian army on the Romanian Front to Lord Robert Cecil of the Foreign Office. She spent the remainder of the war giving lecture tours to publicise the work of the Scottish Women's Hospital Unit. In 1918 she became the administrator of the Haverfield Fund for Serbian Children - an orphanage set up by Evelina Haverfield, her companion from 1911 until her death in 1920. She continued to be involved in relief work for Serbia in various capacities throughout the 1920s -1930s, and remained interested in political issues in Yugoslavia throughout her life, returning to visit in 1934. She subsequently moved to Scotland where she lived with Margaret Greenless and Margaret Ker, friends from her suffrage days and also previously of the Scottish Women's Hospitals Unit. She became involved in the artistic scene centred around Kirkcudbright, led by Jessie M King. She was a lifelong friend of Edith Craig, participating in performances staged in the Barn Theatre, Kent. She was close to her brother Richard (known as Dick or Gordon) Holme throughout her life, and her niece and nephew were named Vera and Jack after her. She was also active in the Women's Rural Institute from the early 1920s until her death in Scotland in 1969.
Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) was born in 1898 at Rudston House, the daughter of David Holtby, a Yorkshire farmer and Alice Winn, the first alderwoman in Yorkshire. In 1917 Holtby passed the entrance exam for Somerville College but volunteered first in a London nursing home and then for the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps in France in early 1918. In 1919 she took up her place at Somerville where she met Vera Brittain and where she graduated in Modern History. Despite being offered a position as a history tutor at St Hugh's College, Holtby moved to London with Brittain in 1921. At the same time as lecturing for the Six Point Group as well as the League of Nations Union and becoming the London County Council manager for schools in Bethnal Green, Holtby completed her first book, Anderby Wold, which was published in 1923. This was followed by The Crowded Street in 1924 and The Land of Green Ginger in 1927. Additionally, she worked as a journalist throughout the 1920s and 1930s, writing articles for Time and Tide, the Manchester Guardian and a regular weekly article for the trade union magazine, The Schoolmistress as well as a critical study of Virginia Woolf. Holtby was by this time a pacifist and travelled throughout Europe in the post-war period, attending the League of Nations assemblies as a writer and speaker every year from 1923 to 1930. She was also involved in the campaign for equality for women and from 1925 was a member of the executive committee of the Six Point Group for whom she wrote the 'New Voter's Guide to Party Programmes' in 1929. She was also a member of the Labour Party, working as an activist in constituencies during elections and writing articles for the left-wing journal The New Leader. In 1926 she visited South Africa, establishing a branch of the League of Nations Union in Ladysmith, helping set up a black transport workers' union in Johannesburg and studying conditions and problems of the black population and the effects of discrimination. There she met and began to work with William Ballinger, a Scotsman working to improve conditions for whom she would become involved in fundraising activities with the aim of providing education, grants and sponsorships. In 1931 the writer became ill and during the Labour Party General Election campaign of 1932 Holtby's health began to deteriorate rapidly. Returning to Yorkshire, she appeared to recover, returned to London, attended the majority of the parliamentary Joint Select Committees on Closer Union in South Africa, advised the International Labour Organisation on the issue of forced labour there and published another novel in 1933, The Astonishing Island as well as editing Time and Tide. However, a second collapse revealed kidney disease and she was given two years to live, a diagnosis which intensive treatment extended by an extra eighteen months, during which she completed a book of short stories, Truth is not Sober and Women and a Changing Society. She completed her last work, South Riding, a month before she died in Sep 1935. Her last two books were published by Vera Brittain, her literary executor, after her death.
The movement to gain the vote for women was a mass movement that evolved most fully in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was not, however, the only area of activity with the aim of improving the social and political situation of women in Britain. Earlier in the century, the idea of the 'sacred' protective duty of women gave them a 'high' ideological status in society that far outstripped their legal status. The social work that was undertaken by women's groups in the areas of housing and nursing led to changes regarding national laws on the poor, education and the treatment of the infirm. However, despite these achievements, the women who were responsible for them still found themselves legally impotent. This was also a time when the proportion of women compared with men in the country was increasing and the number of unmarried women without the expected financial support of a husband was growing as a consequence. Reformers therefore began to focus on the most immediate ways of improving the status and economic position of women, focusing on improvements to female education and the employment opportunities available to them. Schemes in the 1860s such as Emily Faithfull's Victoria Press and the plethora of female emigration societies that sprang up at the time and directed by individuals such as Maria Rye were designed to give women who were reasonably educated the means of supporting themselves. These developments were followed by activities centred on women's legal status regarding property and their ability to stand for election at the local level. None of the strands of activity was independent from the other as attitudes towards one affected perceptions of the others, and those who were active in one area such as women's employment also worked with colleagues more commonly associated with others such as education.
Louisa Maria Hubbard (1836-1906), promoter of employment for women and journal editor, was born in St Petersburg in 1836, the eldest daughter of an English merchant, William Egerton Hubbard, who returned to Britain in 1843. The family lived in Leonardslee near Horsham, Sussex, where she was educated at home. She began her public life in the 'deaconess movement', an organisation she supported between 1864-1874. From 1869, Louisa was editor of the Englishwoman's Yearbook. This publication provided a list of all the institutions and societies which existed for the benefit of women and children. In 1873, Louisa was responsible for establishing Bishop Otter College in Chichester. It was a training college for ladies wishing to work as elementary teachers. In 1875 Louisa founded the Woman's Gazette. This paper became known as Work and Leisure from Jan 1880. She was the editor of these papers from 1875-1893. From 1884-1885, she was involved with the United Englishwoman's Emigration Association whose aim was to emigrate women of good character, to ensure their safety during and after their travel and to keep in touch with them for some time after their arrival. In Nov 1885, Ellen Joyce and Mrs Adelaide Ross replaced Louisa Hubbard at the head of the organisation. She was also involved with the United British Women's Emigration Association. Louisa Hubbard died 25 Nov 1906.
Hannah More (1745-1833) was born in Stapleton in 1745. When in her teens she wrote her first significant work, a play for schoolgirls entitled The Search after Happiness, published in Bristol in 1762. After a brief engagement she devoted herself to writing. She became particularly close to David Garrick and his wife who drew her into writing for the theatre. She wrote such plays as 'The Inflexible Captive' in 1774 and 'Percy' in 1778 until Garrick's death the following year. When this occurred, she retired to Hampton with his widow and continued her writing career in the form of didactic plays and poems. Her politics became increasingly reactionary with the outbreak of the French Revolution but she continued her use of popular forms such as ballads and in 1795-8 she published The Cheap Repository Tracts for the poor. In 1799, she published 'Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education', which called women to be worthy of holding superior moral value in the world while accepting women's inferior social status. Throughout the 1790s she and her sister Martha became involved in a project to teach the children of the poor in the Mendip Hills area. The children were taught to read, though famously not to write, with the purpose of Bible study. They were also taught the skills for trades such as weaving and sewing. She spent the rest of her life engaged in theological and moral reformatory work which found an outlet in texts such as 'Christian Morals' (1813) and 'Moral Sketches' (1819). In 1802, she built Barley Wood where her retired sisters joined her and where she lived until her move to Clifton. She died there 1833.
During the campaigns for women's franchise which had been conducted during the later nineteenth century, the focus of the groups taking part had been on influencing members of Parliament and their parties so that reform could be introduced from within Parliament. However, a series of bills to introduce a vote for women had been defeated as members of the Liberal Party, to which so many suffragists were attached, proved hostile to their cause. Additionally, by the turn of the century the media's interest had been diverted to the Boer War, meaning that publicity for the suffrage movement was rare. In this situation, a new organisation was established in 1903. Emmeline Pankhurst had been a supporter of women's suffrage for many years, but resigned from the Manchester branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in this year and formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Initially, the group's purpose was to recruit more working class women to the movement, but by 1905, when the new Liberal government began to withdraw active support for women's suffrage, they began to use different 'militant' methods to gain publicity that were soon adopted as a new campaign strategy and would be reused by others both in and outside of their own group. At a meeting on 13 Oct 1905, at which the government minister Sir Edward Grey spoke, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney disrupted the event by shouting, then refused to leave before becoming involved in a struggle. This resulted in their arrest on the charge of assault, they were fined five shillings each, and were sent to prison for refusing to pay. Their methods were in direct contrast to the constitutional methods of other groups such as the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and attracted a number of early adherents such as Charlotte Despard and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. During 1906, the WSPU also began to increase the level of violence used, breaking the windows of government buildings and attacking Asquith's house with stones on the 30 Jun. However, not all agreed with the escalation of militancy or the Pankhurst style of leadership. A number of members left the group in 1907 with Charlotte Despard, Edith How Martyn, Teresa Billington-Greig, Octavia Lewin, and Caroline Hodgeson, to form another militant, but this time non-violent, organisation: the Women's Freedom League, which engaged in acts of civil disobedience. The impact of WSPU arrests increased when, in Jul 1909, hunger strikes began. The prison authorities feared public opinion would turn against them but were unwilling to release the increasing number of suffragettes who adopted this tactic. Consequently, women on hunger strike were force-fed. The violence escalated even further in 1913 when abortive arson attacks on the homes of two anti-suffrage MPs took place, followed by the burning of a series of other buildings. Some members of the WSPU disagreed with this arson campaign and, like Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence in 1912, were expelled or themselves left the group. However, the number of hunger-striking women rose even further and the government introduced the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act, known as the 'Cat and Mouse Act', by which ill suffragettes were released to be re-arrested on their recovery and sent back to prison to complete their sentence. However, the WSPU's situation changed on 4 Aug 1914 when the First World War broke out. Suffrage organisations across the spectrum of opinion suspended their political activities and transferred their efforts to war work, while the WSPU began negotiating with the government to end their militant activity and begin war work in return for the release of current suffragette prisoners. This occurred and the group began to organise demonstrations in support of the war and encouraging women to replace men in the workplace, bringing the militant stage of the campaign for the vote to an end.
Lydia Becker (1827-1890) was born in the Manchester area in Feb 1827 the eldest of 15 children the surviving siblings being Mary, Esther, Edward, Wilfred, Arthur, John and Charles. Her father, Hannibal Leigh Becker (1803-1877) was the son of Ernest Hannibal Becker (1771-1852) a German immigrant who had settled in England and become a naturalised citizen. Hannibal married Mary Duncroft and became the proprietor of first a calico-printing works at Reddish and then a chemical works at Altham in Lancashire. The couple had fifteen children. Her early life was conventional her main interests were in astronomy and botany, and she wrote one book on each subject. In 1865, the family moved to central Manchester where Becker founded the Manchester Ladies' Literary Society, which was a centre for scientific interests and at the first meeting a paper written by Darwin for the event was read. The previous year she had attended a Social Science Association meeting and heard Barbara Bodichon lecture on women's emancipation. Bodichon encouraged her to contact Emily Davis. Through these individuals, Becker became involved with local suffrage groups. In Feb 1867, she was named honorary secretary of the Manchester Committee for Women's Suffrage and was instrumental in rewriting its constitution as the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage. In 1868 she became treasurer of the Married Women's Property Committee. She travelled about the country organising meetings and support for the issue throughout the 1860s and was involved in the campaign to have women ratepayers included on the electoral register. She worked alongside Jacob Bright as the parliamentary agent of the National Society for Women's Suffrage to have the amendment to the Municipal Franchise Bill passed in 1869 so that this could be achieved at a local, if not a national, level. However, her efforts were not restricted to suffrage. In 1870, she was the first woman to be elected to the Manchester School Board, she was also the founder-editor of the 'Woman's Suffrage Journal' in 1870. In the 1870s she was active in the campaign to have the Contagious Diseases Acts repealed and worked beside Josephine Butler and Elizabeth Wolstenholme in the Vigilance Association for the Defence of Personal Rights. She organised a significant repeal meeting in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 1870 with JB, Elizabeth Wolstenholme and James Stuart. She also served on the LNA Executive Committee between 1872-1873. She introduced the first motion against Bruce's Bill at the Conference of Repeal Organisations, 29 Feb 1872. However, parliamentary developments in 1874 led many to believe that the vote might be granted to single though not married women. Becker pragmatically supported this as an interim measure, leading to criticism from the Pankhursts, the Brights and Wolstenholme Elmy. In the later part of that decade she was secretary to the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage and remained with it when the London societies divided over opposition to the CD Acts in 1888. However, her health began to deteriorate and she withdrew from active work in 1889 and travelled to Aix-les-Bains to recuperate. On the 21 Jul 1890 she died in Geneva, Switzerland having contracted diphtheria.
Myra Eleanor Sadd Brown (1872-1938) was born in Maldon, Essex on 3 Oct 1872. Her parents were John Granger Sadd and Mary Ann Price and she was the tenth of eleven children. The family operated a firm of timber merchants and processors in the hometown of Maldon. Myra Sadd received a private education at a school in Colchester. She met Ernest Brown through her interest in cycling; they were married in 1896. The couple moved to Finsbury Park in London, and then to Hampstead. Myra and Ernest had three daughters and one son. Due to the commercial success of her husband's business Myra was provided with independent means. Myra was raised within a Congregationalist environment; later becoming a Christian Scientist. She was interested in artistic pursuits and avidly enjoyed Shaw's plays. Myra is particularly renowned for being a feminist. It is believed that prior to her marriage she purchased a small property giving her, as a ratepayer, the right to vote. In Hackney, Myra served as a Poor Law Guardian. Furthermore, she was a committed supporter of the women's suffrage movement; being a member of the Women's Social and Political Union. In 1912, Myra was arrested and imprisoned; she went on hunger strike and endured forcible feeding. Myra wrote a great deal on behalf of the suffrage cause; the 'Christian Commonwealth' being one such periodical which published her letters. Later, she became associated with Sylvia Pankhurst's East London Federation of Suffragettes, inviting East London women, travelling by bus, to visit her home near Maldon. Following WWI, Myra became an active member of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (later known as the International Alliance of Women). She travelled widely throughout Europe attending conferences. This activity allowed her to indulge her interest in other cultures and countries, as did her periods of wintering in Italy and Egypt with her husband Ernest. Although Myra herself did not speak a foreign language, she insisted that her children should study French and German. The emerging Commonwealth became another area of interest to Myra. From 1923 she had been involved in meetings, which culminated in the formation of the British Commonwealth League (later the Commonwealth Countries League) in 1925. It was a feminist organisation devoted to the upholding of women's rights in the Commonwealth of which Myra became its Treasurer. In 1931 Ernest died of rheumatic heart disease. In 1937 Myra visited South-East Asia where she was present for the birth of her second grandchild. She then extended the tour to visit Angkor Wat and the Malaysian islands. Myra continued her journey to Hong Kong, planning to return via the Trans-Siberian railway. However, she suffered a stroke and died in Hong Kong on 13 Apr 1938. The British Commonwealth League established the Sadd Brown Library of material on women in the Commonwealth as a memorial to her. It was placed in the Women's Service Library, now The Women's Library. Myra's interest in the Commonwealth Countries League, and the International Alliance of Women, has been continued first by her daughter Myra Stedman, and subsequently by Lady Diana Dollery, her granddaughter, both of whom have been closely involved in the development of the Sadd Brown Library.
The Royal College of Art was founded in 1837 as the Government School of Design. In 1853 the School moved to South Kensington where it became the much enlarged National Art Training School, part of the development of the area by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. The title Royal College of Art was conferred in 1896 with the emphasis on art and design practice. In the mid-20th century the College began the teaching of product design and the provision of specialised professional instruction including graphic and industrial design. The 1960s were a time of physical expansion and a Royal Charter in 1967 gave the College independent university status with the ability to award its own degrees.
Born 18 Oct 1858, West Norwood, London, the daughter of August Manns, conductor; educated in Sydenham and Wandsworth, 1864-1874; educated in Stuttgart, Germany, 1874-1876, commenced studies at Stuttgart Conservatoire, 1876; abandoned professional musical studies due to ill-health, 1879; married Frederick Bönten, 1881; lived in London, with numerous visits to Germany; daughter Louise born, 1890; moved to live with her father following the death of her mother, 1893; moved to Bournemouth in 1914, her husband being obliged to move to London due to wartime security restrictions; her husband's business wound up by the Board of Trade, 1917; moved to London, 1919; husband died, 1924; died 8 Jun 1930.
Sir Henry Walford Davies, born, Oswestry, Shropshire, 6 Sep 1869; trained in choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor, and was was pupil assistant to Walter Parratt; entered Royal College of Music under a composition scholarship, 1890; studied with Charles Parry and Charles Stanford; became teacher of counterpoint, RCM, 1895-1918; organist at St George's Kensington, St Anne's, Soho, and Christ Church, Hampstead; organist and choirmaster at the Temple Church, 1898-1919; conductor of the Bach Choir, 1903-1907; appointed director of music to the Royal Air Force, 1918; professor of music, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1919-1926; chairman of the Welsh National Council of Music; knighted, 1922; appointed Gresham Professor of Music in the University of London, 1926; made his first radio broadcast to schools, 1924; his popular radio series 'Music and the Ordinary Listener' commenced, 1926; records for His Master's Voice Melody Lectures (HMV C 1063 to 1701) and Twelve Talks on Melody (HMV C 1759 to 1767); organist, St George's Chapel, Windsor, 1927-1932; music advisor at the BBC, 1927-1939; appointed Master of the King's Musick, 1934; died, Wrington, Somerset, 11 Mar 1941. Publications and music (a selection): Rhythm in Church (London, 1913); The Pursuit of Music (London, 1935); Symphony in D, 1894; Overture in D minor, 1897; Welshmen in London, 1897; folksong cantata Three Jovial Huntsmen, 1902; oratorio Everyman, 1904; Symphony, in G, 1911; cantata Song of St Francis, 1912; anthem, `Let us Now Praise Famous Men'; Solemn Melody; RAF March Past.
The Junior Department of the RCM was begun in 1897 with 16 pupils, following an aborted scheme of 1895 which had proposed to divide the College into 'Upper' and 'Lower' divisions, though admittedly based on musical experience and ability rather than age. In 1926 a new Junior Department was established on the advice of Angela Bull (the Director's Appointment's Secretary and subsequently General Supervisor of the Junior Department) and Percy Buck, then a Professor at the RCM, which consisted of 36 Junior Exhibitioners from London County Council schools who were taught at the RCM by 36 members of the Teachers' Training Class. By 1966 the Junior Department had grown to 345 pupils of whom 226 were exhibitioners, and a teaching staff of over 100.
The Kirkmans were an English family of harpsichord and piano makers of Alsatian origin. Jacob Kirkman (b Bischweiler, 4 Mar 1710; d Greenwich, buried 9 Jun 1792) came to England in the early 1730s, and worked for Herman Tabel, whose widow he married in 1738. He took British citizenship on 25 Apr 1755, and in 1772 went into partnership with his nephew, Abraham Kirkman (b Bischweiler, 1737; d Hammersmith, buried 16 Apr 1794). Abraham Kirkman in turn took into partnership his son, Joseph Kirkman (i) (dates of birth and death unknown), whose son, Joseph Kirkman (ii) (c1790-1877), worked with his father on their last harpsichord in 1809. The firm continued as piano makers until absorbed by Collard in 1896.
Christian Burkard, one of the signatories of both documents (1) and (2) was a harpsichord builder living in Swallow Street, London and a cousin of Jacob Kirkman.
The action documented in (3) in 1771 by Jacob Kirkman against Robert Falkener was for Falkener's alleged attempts to sell harpsichords made by another maker as Kirkman instruments. Kirkman claimed £500 damages, though the outcome of the suit is not known.
The composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was appointed Vice Kapellmeister to the Esterházy court at Eisenstadt, Austria, in 1761, and became Ober-Kapellmeister in 1766. Anton Richter (1802-1854) was an organist and choirmaster at Eisenstadt and father of Hans Richter (1843-1916) the Austro-Hungarian conductor. Anton Prinster and his brother Michael were horn players in Haydn's orchestra at the Esterházy court. Their niece, Fanny Elssler, was the daughter of Johann Florian Elssler (1769-1843), music copyist to Haydn.
In 1813 the health of Beethoven's brother Kaspar Anton Karl began to seriously deteriorate through tuberculosis and on 12 April 1813 he signed a declaration appointing Ludwig guardian of his son Karl, then aged six, in the event of his death. Kaspar died on 15 Nov 1815. In his will dated the previous day, Kaspar had assigned guardianship of his son Karl both to his wife Johanna and to Ludwig, in order to encourage Johanna and Ludwig to forego their previous antipathy. The arrangement was not a success, as Ludwig was convinced of Johanna's moral unsuitability to act as guardian, and wished to take charge of all responsibilities for Karl's uprising as a surrogate father. On 9 Jan 1816 Beethoven was appointed by the Imperial and Royal Landrechte of Lower Austria sole guardian of Karl, overturning their decision of the previous November to appoint Johanna and Ludwig as joint guardians and Beethoven 'co-guardian'. Beethoven took Karl away from his mother and placed him in the boarding school in Vienna run by Kajetan Giannatasio del Rio in 1816 where he stayed until the end of January 1818. During this period the court permitted Ludwig to allow Johanna to visit Karl only at certain times sanctioned by Ludwig. Giannatasio del Rio had two daughters, Fanny and Anna (Nanni), who both became close friends of Beethoven. Beethoven composed a piece (MS 4222) for Nanni's marriage in 1819.
Charles Herbert Kitson, born, Leyburn, Yorkshire, 13 Nov 1874; took his arts degrees at Cambridge where he was organ scholar of Selwyn College, and his music degrees at Oxford as an external student; first major post was organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, 1913-1920; while there, was appointed Professor of Music, University College, Dublin, 1915; returned to England and joined the staff of the Royal College of Music, 1920; appointed Professor of Music, Trinity College, Dublin (then a non-resident post), 1920; retired, 1935; died London, 13 May 1944. Selected publications: The Art of Counterpoint, and its Application as a Decorative Principle (Oxford, 1907, 2nd edition, 1924); The Evolution of Harmony (Oxford, 1914, 2nd edition, 1924); Elementary Harmony (Oxford, 1920-1926, 2nd edition 1941).
Born Cambridge, Massachussetts, 8 Nov 1906, the eldest son of (Eugène) Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940) a pioneer in the revival of the performance of early music and the building of renaissance and baroque instruments. The family moved to France and then settled in Haslemere, Surrey, in 1914. He was an early and talented player of the harpsichord and viol, and assisted his father in arranging music for the annual festivals of early music in Haslemere. He also formed an orchestra while a teenager of local residents. In 1929 he married Millicent Wheaton, a local school teacher, and also his viola da gamba pupil. The couple gave numerous recitals and recordings of early music during the 1930s. He was the first of the family to show an interest in modern music, both as composer and conductor and broke the family tradition of early music by studying conducting at the Royal College of Music under Constant Lambert and Sir Adrian Boult. He joined the Royal Artillery as a gunner in 1940, and his career was cut short tragically when he was lost at sea on board the liner Ceramic, torpedoed on 7 Dec 1942. His works include the Symphony in D minor (1932); Sinfonietta (1933); Ground and Caprice for orchestra (1934); Concerto for Clarinet, Harp and Orchestra (1939); Concertino for Viola da Gamba and Small Orchestra (1941); Violin Concerto (1942).
Carl Engel was born in Hanover in 1818 and after being taught the piano and organ there moved to Manchester in 1846, and then to London in 1850. He began to establish an exceptional library and instrument collection. He became organological adviser to the Victoria and Albert Museum and produced a formidable Descriptive Catalogue. Many of his other publications were devoted to European folk music. He died in London in 1882. His publications include The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, particularly of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Hebrews (London, 1864); An Introduction to the Study of National Music (London, 1866); A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1870, revised 1874); Musical Myths and Facts (London, 1876); 'The Literature of National Music', articles in Musical Times, 1878-1879; 'Music of the Gypsies', Musical Times, 1880; 'Aeolian Music', Musical Times 1882.
Lucy Jane Gibbons, of Gosport, Hants, was born on 14 Aug 1887 and was a student at the Royal College of Music, 1908-1909, studying the organ and piano.
Doris M Armitage (died Feb 1974) was a friend and student of the pianist Fanny Davies and an acquaintance of the singer Helen Henschel.
Katharine Goodson, born Watford, 18 Jun 1872; entered Royal Academy of Music at age of 12 to study piano; studied under Oscar Beringer, 1886-1892; studied with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna for four years; made her London debut, 1897; subsequently played throughout Europe; mader her American debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1907; made a total of seven tours of the USA; following several years of retirement, made a public reappeappearance, 1946; also broadcast on television; died London, 14 Apr 1958. Goodson was married to the composer Arthur Hinton. He was born in Beckenham, Kent, 20 Nov 1869; educated, Shrewsbury School; entered RAM and studied violin and composition; appointed Sub-Professor, RAM; studied composition under Joseph Rheinberger in Munich; appointed Professor of Composition, RAM, and an examiner to the Associated Board; died Rottingdean, Sussex, 11 Aug 1941. His works, include 2 symphonies, an opera Tamara', 2 operettas, chamber music, a suiteEndymion', piano music and songs. His Concerto in D minor for piano and orchestra was frequently performed by his wife.
Sir Charles Santley, born Liverpool, 28 Feb 1834, son of William Santley, a music teacher; sang as a chorister and an amateur singer; studied with Gaetano Nava, Milan, 1855; made his debut at Pavia in 1857 as Dr Grenvil in La traviata; made his first professional English appearance at St Martin's Hall, London, singing Adam in Haydn's Creation, 16 November 1857; thereafter enjoyed a successful career as a baritone, appearing in major opera productions in England, Italy, Spain and the USA; after 1877 he was heard only in concert and oratorio; made Commander of St Gregory by Pope Leo XIII, 1887; celebrated his golden jubilee as a singer at the Royal Albert Hall, 1 May 1907; knighted, 1907; made his farewell appearance at Covent Garden, 23 May 1911; emerged from retirement to sing at the Mansion House, London, in a concert in aid of Belgian refugees, 1915; died London, 22 Sept 1922. Publications: Method of Instruction for a Baritone Voice, edited by G Nava (London, c1872); Student and Singer (London, 1892, 1893); Santley's Singing Master (London, c1895); The Art of Singing and Vocal Declamation (London, 1908); Reminiscences of my Life (London, 1909). Santley wrote a number of religious works for the Roman Catholic Church, and also composed several songs under the pseudonym of Ralph Betterton.
Sir Hubert Parry, born Bournemouth, 27 Feb 1848; educated Twyford School, near Winchester, Eton College; B Mus, 1866; read law and modern history, Exeter College, Oxford; studied in Stuttgart with Henry Hugo Pierson, 1867; worked at Lloyd's of London as an underwriter; took lessons with William Sterndale Bennett and Edward Dannreuther; composed works for piano for concerts at Dannreuther's home during the 1870s; engaged by George Grove as sub-editor for the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, to which Parry contributed more than 100 articles; appointed by Grove as Professor of Musical History, Royal College of Music (RCM), 1883; during the 1880s created four symphonies and a symphonic suite and an unsuccessful attempt at opera; the success of his ode 'Blest Pair of Sirens' brought commissions from provincial festivals for choral music, including 'Judith' (1888), 'Ode on St Cecilia's Day' (1889), 'L'Allegro ed Il Pensieroso' (1890), 'The Lotos-Eaters', (1892), 'Job' (1892) and 'King Saul' (1894); worked with Robert Bridges for the Purcell bicentenary on the ode 'Invocation to Music', 1895; composed a setting of the Magnificat in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, 1897; succeeded Grove as Director of the RCM, 1895; knighted, 1897; collaborated with Bridges on 'A Song of Darkness and Light' (1898); appointed Heather Professor of Music, Oxford, 1900 (held until 1908); created a baronet, 1902; composed 'ethical oratorios' 'Voces clamantium' (1903), 'The Love that Casteth out Fear' (1904), 'The Soul's Ransom' (1906), 'The Vision of Life' (1907); composed settings for Dunbar's 'Ode on the Nativity' (1912) and Bridges' 'The Chivalry of the Sea' (1916), and the motets 'Songs of Farewell' (1914-1915); died Rustington, Sussex, 7 October, 1918. Publications: these include, as well as his numerous articles for journals and for the Grove Dictionary, Studies of Great Composers (London, 1886); The Art of Music (London, 1893; enlarged as The Evolution of the Art of Music, London, 1896); Summary of the History and Development of Mediaeval and Modern European Music (London, 1893); Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (New York and London, 1909); Style in Musical Art (London, 1911) [collected Oxford lectures].
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.
Jekaterina Vaitsenberg-Schwetje was a postgraduate student at Georg-August University, Göttingen, 1995.
Johannes Wilde (1891-1970) was a Hungarian émigré to Britain and art historian. He became Professor of the History of Art, University of London, 1950-1958 and Deputy Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, 1948-1961. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1951.
Born Maximilian Schmitthoff in Berlin, 1903; classical education at the Friedrichsgymnasium, Berlin; read law at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and later at the University of Berlin; doctorate in law at Berlin, 1927; joined his father's flourishing law practice and became a successful advocate in the Berlin Kammergericht (court of appeal); forced to leave Germany for England, 1933 where he assumed the name Clive Macmillan; obtained an LLM degree at the London School of Economics, 1936; called to the bar in Gray's Inn, becoming a tenant in the chambers of Valentine Holmes, where he had served his pupillage; part-time lecturer in German at the City of London College (later the City of London Polytechnic); wrote books on commercial German and German poetry and prose; married Ilse, daughter of leading Frankfurt lawyer, Ernst Moritz Auerbach, 1940; wartime service in the Pioneer Corps and Canadian Engineers as a warrant officer; naturalised, 1946; returned to City of London College, initially in the language department but later becoming a lecturer in law in the Department of Professional Studies, lecturer 1948-1958, senior lecturer 1958-1963, principal lecturer 1963-1971; retired, 1971; Gresham chair in law at City University, London, 1976-1986; became joint vice-chairman of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary College, University of London, 1985, where he introduced and co-taught an LLM course on international trade law, at the same time establishing and organising a series of annual conferences on international commercial law; died, 1990.
SKEEL , CAROLINE ANNE JAMES ( 1872 - 1951 ) was born on the 9 Feb. 1872 in She was the sixth of the seven children of William James Skeel (1822 - 1899) and Anne James (1831 - 1895). Her father, the son of Henry Skeel (d. 1847 ), a farmer, was born at Castle Hill in the parish of Haycastle, Pembrokeshire, and became a successful London merchant with offices in Finsbury Chambers in the city and a director of the South Australian Land Mortgage and Agency Co. Ltd . Her mother was a first cousin of her husband; the daughter of Thomas and Martha James of Clarbeston, Pembrokeshire.
Educated at Notting Hill High School (1887-90), she attended Girton College, Cambridge (1891-95). She was a St. Dunstan's Exhibitioner and took a double first in classics in 1894 and then took a first in the historical tripos, in 1895. Skeel joined Westfield in 1896 as a visiting lecturer in classics, and in 1901 enrolled as a postgraduate student at the London School of receiving the London DLitt in 1903. The onset in 1907 of severe and lasting depression removed Skeel temporarily from the academic scene, to which she eventually returned on her reappointment to Westfield in 1911.She was promoted in 1919 to a university readership and in 1925; she was advanced to a professorship, the first to be held at Westfield. But within a year symptoms of depression reappeared and in 1929 she took early retirement.
She lived quietly in Hendon until her death, following a stroke on 25 February 1951. She had inherited the large fortunes left by her father and brother, the total of which amounted at her death to some £270,000 (gross). She bequeathed the bulk of it to Westfield, already the beneficiary of gifts made anonymously during her lifetime. After her death it was revealed that she had anonymously given away in her lifetime about £30,000 to poor families and charities.
East London Papers was a journal of history, social studies and the arts edited by members of Queen Mary College staff, 1958-1973. Edited by Stanley Bindoff (1908-1980) and published at University House, it represented a forum for the study of local history in East London, and expression of views on the social and artistic life of the community.
Ernst Sondheimer, Mathematician, Lecturer Westfield College, husband of Janet Sondheimer, Historian.
Born, Dublin, 1856; attended a Weslyan school, but was largely self educated through visits to the National Gallery of Ireland and wide reading; worked as a cashier, 1872-1876; moved to London in 1876 to join his mother and sister; wrote but failed to publish five novels, 1878-1883; strongly influenced by Karl Marx's Das Kapital; joined and became a leading member of the Fabian Society, 1884, and edited Fabian Essays in Socialism, 1889; worked as a book, drama and music critic for the Pall Mall Gazette, 1885-1888, the World, 1886-1889, the Star, 1888-1890, and the Saturday Review, 1895-1898; published The quintessence of Ibsenism, 1891; wrote Widowers' Houses for performance by Independent Theatre, 1892, attacking slum landlords and allying Shaw with a realistic and political movement in the theatre; this was followed by The Philanderer (1893), Mrs Warren's Profession (1893, concerning prostitution and banned until 1902), Arms and the Man (1894), Candida (1897) and You Never Can Tell (1899); obtained first successful production of a play with The Devil's Disciple, New York, 1897; married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, 1898; wrote Captain Brassbound's Conversion for Ellen Terry, 1900; completed Caesar and Cleopatra, 1899, which was produced by Mrs Patrick Campbell in 1901; established as a playwright of international importance, with the completion and performance of Man and Superman (1901-1903), John Bull's Other Island (1904), Major Barbara (1905) and The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), which were produced by Harley Granville-Barker for the Royal Court Theatre; wrote his most popular play, Pygmalion, in 1913 (he later adapted it for the screen, winning an Academy Award in the process); during World War One, made numerous anti-war speeches; his postwar plays include Heartbreak House (1920), Back to Methuselah (1922), and St Joan (1923); won the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1925, but refused the award; established the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation for the translation of Swedish literature into English; wrote extensively on social, economic and political issues, notably The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928), and Everybody's Political What's What? (1944); his later plays, produced at the Malvern Festivals, included The Apple Cart (1929), Too True to be Good (1932) and Geneva (1939); retired, 1943; left residue of his estate to institute a British alphabet of at least 40 letters; died 1950.
Publications: include: The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (Constable & Co, London, 1928); The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God (Constable and Co, London, 1932); Everybody's Political What's What? (Constable & Co, London, 1944).
The present College was formed in 1989 by the merger of Queen Mary and Westfield Colleges by Act of Parliament. In the same year pre-clinical students from St. Bartholomew's Medical College and The London Hospital Medical College were taught for the first time. In 1995 the creation of St. Bartholomew's and The Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry brought clinical medical teaching to the College. The nucleus of the College site is that of the People's Palace, predecessor of Queen Mary College, which has been extensively developed especially following the merger in 1989. The present day Queen Mary is the fourth largest college in the University of London.
Professor R S [Dicky] Clymo. Member of Botany Department at Westfield College 1961-1983, moved to Queen Mary College 1983, remained with Queen Mary and Westfield College after the merger and became, Dean of Faculty 1988-1991 and Head of School 1991-1995.
Taught Chemistry at Queen Mary College from 1948 to 1981.
Born in Mainz, 1873; confined to an orphanage in Mainz, 1883; transferred to a reformatory; bookbinder's apprentice; joined the Fachverein für Buchbinder and was inducted into the local German Social Democratic Party (SPD), 1890; became a member of the young left-wing oppositionists, the Jungen, and with them, was expelled from the SPD, 1891; joined the underground movement led by the German anarchist Johann Most; German police discovered that Rocker had been smuggling illegal propaganda into Germany and he escaped into France, 1892; increased anti-anarchist police operations in Paris forced Rocker to return to London, 1895; librarian of the first section of the Communist Workers Educational Union; led East End Jews against sweatshops in the London clothing trade; editor of the Yiddish political journal, the new Arbeter Fraint, 1898-1915; helped set up the Jubilee Street Club, 1906; interned as an 'enemy alien', 1914-1918; after a short stay in Holland, settled in Berlin; activist and writer involved in a marginalised syndicalist group; contributed many articles to the Syndikalist, 1920s; fled the Nazis and emigrated to New York, 1933; embarked on a final career both as a writer and coast-to-coast lecturer across the USA and Canada, addressing vast audiences on the dangers of racialism and especially of political authoritarianism; died, 1958.
Publications: Nationalism and Culture (1937).
The Westfield College Association was founded in 1900 to provide a means for Westfield College alumni to maintain contact with the College and each other as well as to raise the profile of and assist the College. The Association held regular meetings and also maintained a Benevolent Fund for its members. In 1952 the Association agreed to take the major part of the responsibility for the publication of Hermes, the College Newsletter for current and former students of Westfield College. The final meeting of the Association took place on 14 Sep 1991, after which the Association merged with Queen Mary College to form the Queen Mary and Westfield College Association.
Presidents of the Westfield College Association: 1900-1920 Lady Chapman 1921-1927 Anne Richardson 1928-1931 Frances Gray 1931-1933 Lady Chapman 1934-1936 Eleanor Lodge 1937-1941 Constance Parker 1942-1945 Dorothy Chapman 1946-1949 Lilian James (also Hon. Secretary 1900-1939) 1950-1955 Ellen Delf-Smith 1956-1958 Helen Ralph 1959-1964 Gertrude Stanley 1964-1970 Kathleen Walpole 1971-1974 Kathleen Chesney 1974-1977 Eleanor Carus Wilson 1977-1991 Rosalind Hill
The Advisory Service for Squatters is a non-profit collective of volunteer workers who provide practical advice and legal support for squatters and homeless people. Established in 1975, the organisation grew out of an earlier group called the Family Squatters Advisory Service (founded in the late 1960s).
Since 1976 ASS has published The Squatters Handbook, the 13th edition of which was published in 2009. Over 150,000 copies have been sold since 1976. The Handbook offers advice on how to find property to squat in, what to do in confrontations with the police, how to maintain the property and set up temporary plumbing, and generally how to survive while squatting. According to the Advisory Service website, the Squatters' Handbook is in high demand, which speaks to the rising number of squatters in this current [2014 at the time of writing] period of global recession.
ASS also has links with squatters' rights organisations worldwide.
After having a base at 2 St Paul's Road in Islington for many years, ASS moved to premises at Angel Alley (84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX), in the same building as Freedom Press.
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Born, 1922, educated at the Sir George Monoux Grammar School in Walthamstow; grew up in the East End of London, descended from a long line of blacksmiths, although his father was a horse fodder dealer; served with the Royal Air Force, World War Two; for many years a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. He has had various careers and has been a professional boxer, a labourer, a strip cartoonist, a schoolteacher and a sign-painter. Barltrop has also published widely and his books include: The Monument: Story of the Socialist Party of Great Britain (1975), Jack London: The Man, the Writer, the Rebel (1977), Muvver Tongue with Jim Wolveridge (1980) and A funny age (Growing up in North East London between the Wars) (1985).
Michael Barnes was born in September 1932, the son of Major C.H.R. Barnes OBE and Katherine Louise (nee Kennedy). After studying at Malvern and Corpus Christi, Oxford, he entered National Service, becoming a Second Lieutenant in the Wiltshire Regiment and serving in Hong Kong, 1952-1953. After unsuccessfully standing in Wycombe in 1964, Barnes was elected as Labour MP for Brentford and Chiswick in 1966. He served as Opposition spokesman on food and food prices (1970-1971), Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party Social Security Group (1969-1970), served on the ASTMS Parliamentary Committee (1970-1971) and was also a long serving member of the Public Accounts Committee (1967-1974). After losing the seat of Brentford and Isleworth in 1974, Barnes helped later in establishing the SDP, although rejoined the Labour Party between 1983 and 2001. Aside from politics, he was Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales (1991-1997), Director of the United Kingdon Immigrants Advisory Service (UKIAS) (1984-1990), member of the Council of Management of War on Want (1972-1977), Vice Chairman of the Bangabandhu Society (1980-1990) and has served in a variety of other official positions.
Noreen Branson was born Noreen Browne, a granddaughter of the 8th Marquess of Sligo. Her mother died of tuberculosis in August 1918. Her father, Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Alfred Browne, was killed in action just 11 days later, so she was left an orphan at the age of eight. Thereafter she and her siblings were brought up by her maternal grandmother at her house in Berkeley Square, London. At 18 she was presented at court. She was passionate about music and insisted on being allowed to study in London. She joined the Bach Choir, through which in 1931 she met her husband, Clive Branson. The son of an Indian Army officer, he was in a similar revolt against privilege. They met at a charity concert in the East End of London and were married in June 1931.
The young couple left the West End and set up home in Battersea. There they were able to use their private incomes to throw themselves into alleviating the wants of the poor of that area. Noreen Branson joining the Independent Labour Party and campaigned for Poor Law reform.
Meeting the veteran socialist leader Harry Pollitt, general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain, she spent a number of years in the 1930s taking messages between the British party and other communist parties overseas. During her husband's absence overseas with the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War she also began working for the Labour Research Department. Soon she was publishing articles on social issues in its magazine Labour Research, to which she continued to contribute for the next 60 years.
When the Second World War came, her husband joined the Army and was posted to the Far East. She continued writing for Labour Research, concentrating especially on the problems of the children of workers. Clive Branson was killed in action in Arakan in 1944, and she later published his letters under the title Letters of a British Soldier in India. In 1945 she became editor of Labour Research, continuing to write prolifically for almost every issue, covering the wide range of problems thrown up by the working of the welfare state in those early years of its existence. Her first book, Room at the Bottom, published in 1960 under the nom de plume Katherine Hood, was an analysis of its shortcomings as she perceived them. Britain in the Nineteen Thirties, written with Margot Heinemann and published in 1971 as part of E.J.Hobsbawm's History of British Society series, was a bleak analysis of, as the authors saw it, the failure of the Left to halt the slide to war in that decade.
Branson retired from the editorship of Labour Research in 1972, but continued writing for it and published further works on social history. Britain in the Nineteen Twenties (1976) was another volume in the History of British Society series. Poplarism, 1919-1925 (1979) was an account of the rates rebellion in the poverty-stricken East London borough of Poplar, led by its Labour Mayor, George Lansbury. Branson also contributed to the History of the Communist Party of Great Britain (1985), writing volume three, which covered 1927-1941 and Volume four (1997), covering 1941-1951. She continued as a reviewer until her death in 2003.