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Cornelius Humphreys, was the son of David Humphreys, of Llanelli, Camarthen. He matriculated at Jesus College Oxford, 1743, aged 32. In 1752, he was appointed Rector of St Mary, Somerset, London. It is thought that he was Chaplain at on of the Chapels of the Tower of London. A transcript of his burial monument states that he was a minister of this (unidentified) chapel for thirty years, [1740-1770]. He married Agnes, who died 1789 aged 69.

The Tower of London was originally constructed in the 11th century as a fortress and has remained in periodic use particularly during times of civil disorder, as well as being a royal residence.

The Tower served several important administrative functions, housing the Privy Wardrobe, one of the departments of the Royal Household, until the mid 15th century; the Royal Mint until 1812; and the Public Record Office until the 1850s. It had an important military function, not only was it the most important arsenal in the kingdom, but also the home of the Board of Ordnance, the government department responsible for the supply of munitions and equipment to the army and navy, until its abolition in 1855.

The Tower was also used as a state prison up until the mid 17th century, and then again during the First and Second World Wars. It is particularly well known as the place of execution of two Queens of England, Anne Boleyn (1535) and Catherine Howard (1542). It was also the original home of the Royal Observatory (before it moved to Greenwich), and the King's Menagerie (the last of the animals were relocated to London Zoo in 1834). It is currently the repository of the Crown Jewels.

At its height the Tower was a thriving community under the control of the Constable and his Lieutenant. It had a large temporary population made up of the officers and workers of the Board of Ordnance and the Royal Mint, but also a significant permanent population, including the military garrison and the yeomen warders, and their families. The Tower also had its own doctor, hospital, and chapel.

The Tower was first opened to the public in 1660, but its development as a visitor attraction dates to the mid 19th century. It was then that the first official guidebooks appeared, the Jewel House was opened to visitors, and the displays of the Tower Armouries (now the Royal Armouries), where placed on a more academic basis.

The collection was collated by Colin McArthur during the course of business of Half-Brick Images, his commercial picture business. McArthur was born in 1934, and was formerly Head of Distribution at the British Film Institute. Now a freelance teacher and writer, especially on Hollywood cinema, British television and Scottish culture, he is also a lecturer in the Visual and Cultural Media Department of Middlesex University.

Collected by Art and Design Learning Resources, Middlesex Polytechnic.

The Society of Radiographers was founded in 1920 at the instigation of radiologists Albert Forder, and Dr Robert Knox, of King's College Hospital. Forder, Knox along with Dr Walmsley and Mr Blackhall formed a sub-committee to draft the rules for the admission of members. Membership was open to applicants who had been actively and continually employed for not less than ten years in the electro-therapeutic department or the X-ray department of a hospital or institution approve by the Council. In 1921, examinations were introduced for entry to membership, and a syllabus developed. There were 67 members in 1921, which rose to 164 by 1923.

In 1930, a branch of the Society was formed in South Africa, and established a pattern of branch formation with local committee management that was propagated in the UK during the 1930s.The Scottish Radiographic Society was formed in 1927 became a branch of the Society in 1936, the South West Branch in 1937, the North West in 1942, the Midland and the North East in 1943. The first Annual Conference of the Society was held in Bath 1947.

The society was active in the area of training for members in the context of a move towards national registration of auxiliary medical professions. In 1932 a number of hospitals were inspected and officially recognised a training schools - including Guy's, King's College, The Royal Northern and the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in London, to which were added the Royal Infirmary and the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, the Middlesex Hospital, London, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, and the General Infirmary, Johannesburg, were added in 1934. The Board of Medical Auxiliaries was established for professional registration purposes in 1937. The Society's professional journal began in 1935, a Benevolent Fund was set up in 1936, and the first Fellowship examinations were held in 1937. It was also concerned with the employment conditions for radiographers, and in the late 1930s surveyed 35 county councils concerning salaries and terms of employment for radiographers.

During World War 2, the Society's Office was moved to Staplehurst, Kent, and the Society was asked to provide training for the Emergency Medical Service and a scheme to train assistants to qualified radiographers was devised. Radiography was designated a reserved occupation in 1940 due to the staff shortage. Training and the status of the radiographer continued to be an issue during and after the War, but their main energies were directed to the formation of the National Health Service, was launched in 1948. In 1951, the Cope Report was published, which recommended the setting up of a statutory council to maintain registers of medical auxiliaries qualified for employment in the NHS. Statutory Registration took effect under the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act, 1960, and was implemented in 1962 for radiographers.

During the 1970s, the Society concentrated its energies on education and industrial relations, as well as consolidating its financial position. The extension of training for radiographers from two to three years was raised, as was the incorporation of the developing area of nuclear medicine the in to the syllabus. The system of payment for radiographers for emergency work was addressed, and the serious concerns about the loss of members from the profession. There were over 6,500 members in 1970.

The 1970s also was increased branch activity and a number were restructured - the Wessex Sub-branch was granted full Branch status, the North-East sub-branch became the Northumbrian Branch, and new branches were formed - East Mercia, and Devon and Cornwall.
In 1976, it was proposed that the Society become registered as a trade union. This required some restructuring within the Society to form a new charitable company to hold the Society's assets and de-register the Society as a charity. This led to the formation of the College of Radiographers, Jan 1977 to take over the educational and professional responsibilities. In 1990, the Society became affiliated with the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

Membership of the Society reached 10,000 in 1982, and by 1995 stood at 13,500. In 1999, the structure of the Society was revised, and the branches abolished and replaced by eight new regions and national councils for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

Society initially occupied premises at the headquarters of the British Institute of Radiology, Seymour Place, before moving in 1926 to the headquarters of the British Institute of Radiology at 32 Welbeck St. In 1968, the Society relocated to its own premises at 14 Upper Wimpole St, then as space demands increased purchased No 13 Upper Wimpole St where it moved in 1986. It has since occupied premises at Eversholt St, and is currently located in Mill Street, London.

The materials held here cover a wide variety of popular movements and issues in recent Latin American history from both internal (in the form of publications by local pressure groups, oppositional parties and governments) and external perspectives (through the reports and bulletins of NGOs, international conferences and foreign political parties). Inevitably (given the military governments, revolutionary movements and increasingly dominant neo-liberal economic policies which have marked this era in the continent's history) major topics include human rights, poverty, economic sovereignty and the condition of indigenous peoples, whilst the role of the United States in the hemisphere is also considered. Another aspect unique to Latin America is the large amount of material originating from Christian groups, many seeking to "exercise an option in favour of the poor" as promulgated by the II Vatican Council (1962-1965).

Following the CIA-backed military coup which removed the reformist government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 Guatemala endured thirty years of military rule, characterised by a tragic spiral of human rights abuses and the growth of guerilla insurgencies, both reinforcing the other. By 1982 the revolutionary groups had merged into the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) and it was with this organisation that the civilian government elected in 1984 began negotiations in 1987. Despite various peace agreements and elections violence, abuse and poverty have remained endemic in Guatemala, with army leaders such as General Efrain Rios Montt still not having been brought to face trial. The majority of the materials held here date from the era of military rule and reflect the concerns of NGOs and local groups regarding human rights, poverty, the indigenous peoples, and the need for development. In addition there are materials from guerilla organisations and from Church groups, though the amount of actual party political material is limited.

Most of the materials held in this collection at present date from period surrounding the 1979 revolution, dealing with the decline and fall of the Somoza dynasty and the progress of the Sandinista government which replaced it. Thus there are reports from NGOs concerned with human rights abuses and economic and social conditions under the old regime alongside publications by and about opposition groups of both gradualist and revolutionary persuasions. Post-revolutionary materials detail the struggle against the US-backed Contra forces, the controversial elections of 1984 and the progress of the Central American Peace Plan. A large proportion of these are authored either by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) themselves or by organisations expressing solidarity with them, including some Church groups despite the antipathy of the Catholic heirerchy to the revolution. It must be noted that the overwhelming majority of the items held here are can be judged to be sympathetic towards the Sandinistas, reflecting inevitably the priorities of those who collected and housed the material.

Colombia has a long tradition of both democracy and political violence, and this remains true for the period covered by the bulk of this collection. Prior to 1974 the country had been ruled for sixteen years by a National Front which allowed for the alternation in power of the two main parties, the Partido Conservador Colombiano (Colombian Conservative Party, PCC) and the Partido Liberal Colombiano (Colombian Liberal Party, PLC). This period also saw the emergence of a variety of leftist guerrilla groups, most prominently the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia--FARC), the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional--ELN), the Popular Liberation Army (Ejército Popular de Liberación--EPL) and the 19th of April Movement (Movimiento 19 de Abril--M-19). The transition to open competition between the Liberals and Conservatives in 1974 failed to end the insurgency, which was further complicated by the increasing involvement in the fighting of drugs cartels and right-wing paramilitary organisations, the latter with suspected links to both the cartels and the government. The 1970s and 1980s bore witness to a cycle of repression, violence, human rights abuses and failed peace talks. Of the parties actually involved in this conflict only the M-19 are represented here, along with other small radical socialist groups. However the causes and the consequences of the civil war, especially Colombia's gross economic inequalities and the catalogue of disappearances and human rights abuses, dominate the agendas of the NGOs, pressure groups, trade unions, Church bodies and international organisations whose publications are held here. As the country remains volatile it is likely that these issues will continue to predominate in any new material that is collected..

In 1968 the government of Fernando Belaúnde Terry and his Acción Popular party was deposed by a leftist military coup following a currency crisis and a continuing guerrilla war in the countryside. For the next twelve years a revolutionary' military government ran the country, although this period can be divided into two distinct phases. From 1968 to 1975 the new president, Juan Velasco Alvarado, instituted a programme of land reform, industrialisation and nationalisation which sought to end United States dominance over Peru as well as reduce the country's reliance on exports. However, once Velasco was replaced by Francisco Morales Bermudez Cerruti thesecond phase' of the revolution took the form of a move back towards the free market and the increasing embrace of new neo-liberal economic ideas. Civilian rule returned to the country in 1980, but economic problems continued and the emergence of new armed movements such as Sendero Luminoso and Tupac Amuru led to the escalation of the so-called dirty war' and a consequent increase in accusations of human rights infractions. This collection holds materials published by the military government of the 1970s, many on land reform, as well of others from left-wing groups like the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) and the Vanguardia Revolucionaria. Also represented are peasant organisations and trades union federations, as well as independent studies of the Peruvian economic situation in the 1970s. As thedirty war' worsened in the 1980s an increasing number of publications, from both local political parties, church groups (such as the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America) and NGOs like Amnesty, are concerned with human rights in the country, while other items concentrate on the increasing problem of inflation. The majority of materials currently held in the collection date from the period between the 1968 coup and the election of Fujimori in 1992.

The majority of the materials held here date from the period between 1964 and 1982 when Bolivia, barring a brief period at the end of the 1970s, was under military rule. Despite the expansion of the mining sector and a period of economic growth lasting to the mid-1970s a succession of military leaders continued to use repressive tactics against opposition parties and unions, and following an economic downturn the human rights situation worsened, culminating in the cocaine cartel-financed presidency of General Luis García Meza (1980-1982) in which both paramilitary groups and tactics of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture were used to cow the opposition. This collection includes materials from unions (and union federations such as the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB)), political parties and internal and external human rights pressure groups, as well as government proclamations and pronouncements (mostly regarding the mining industry). There are also reports from groups working with indigenous peoples, as well as material produced by the Roman Catholic Church. The reaction of these organisations to the transition to civilian rule after 1982 and the country's consequent economic problems are also represented in the collection.

The majority of the materials held in this collection at present originate from the 1970s and 1980s, during which time Paraguay was effectively a military dictatorship under the rule of President Alfredo Stroessner. In the 1970s the country enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth, significantly fuelled by its joint participation with Brazil in the Itaipú hydroelectric plant, but this growth was to evaporate following the completion of the project in the 1980s, and the Stronato was eventually overthrown in a February 1989 coup. The limits of the aforementioned economic boom can be seen in the fact that the most prominent organisation represented here is the Misión de Amistad, the church group which through its various projects sought to alleviate poverty and faciliate rural development amongst Paraguay's peasantry and indigenous peoples. Furthermore the price paid by the country for its political stability was a record of repression which helped produce the growing international isolation that preceded Stroessner's deposition, and which is reflected here in a number of items issued by human rights organisations based abroad in Argentina and elsewhere.

Sir Shridrath Ramphal, born 1928; Career: Crown Counsel, British Guiana 1953-54; Asst to Attorney-Gen. 1954-56; Legal Draftsman 1956-58; Solicitor-Gen. 1959-61; Legal Draftsman, West Indies 1958-59; Asst Attorney-Gen., West Indies 1961-62; Attorney- Gen., Guyana 1965-73; member Nat. Assembly 1965-75; Minister of State for External Affairs 1967-72, Minister of Foreign Affairs 1972-75, of Justice 1973-75; Commonwealth Sec.-Gen. 1975-90; Chancellor Univ. of Guyana 1988-92, Univ. of Warwick 1989-2001, Univ. of West Indies 1989-; Queen's Counsel 1965 and Sr Counsel, Guyana 1966; member Int. Commission of Jurists, Ind. Commission on Int. Devt Issues, Ind. Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues, Ind. Commission on Int. Humanitarian Issues, World Commission on Environment and Devt, South Commission, Carnegie Commission on Deadly Conflict, Bd of Governor Int. Devt Research Center, Canada, Exec. Cttee of Int. Inst. for Environment and Devt, Council of Int. Negotiation Network Carter Center, Georgia, USA 1991-97; Patron One World Broadcasting Trust; Chair. UN Cttee for Devt Planning 1984-87, West Indian Commission 1990-92, Bd Int. Inst. for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) 1995-2001, Advisory Cttee Future Generations Alliance Foundation 1995-97; Pres. World Conservation Union-IUCN 1990-93; Int. Steering Cttee Leadership for Environment and Devt Program Rockefeller Foundation 1991-98; Co-Chair. Commission on Global Governance 1992-2000; Adviser to Sec. -Gen. of United Nations Council for Education and Development 1992; Chief Negotiator on Int. Econ. Issues for the Caribbean Region 1997-2001; Facilitator Belize-Guatemala Dispute 2000-02; John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship 1962; Hon. Bencher of Gray's Inn 1981; Fellow, King's Coll., London 1975, LSE 1979, RSA 1981, Magdalen Coll., Oxford 1982.

Honours and awards: Order of the Republic (Egypt) 1973; Grand Cross, Order of the Sun (Peru) 1974; Grand Cross, Order of Merit (Ecuador) 1974, Order of Nishaan Izzuddeen (Maldives) 1989, Grand Commdr, Order of Niger 1990, Grand Commdr, Order of the Companion of Freedom (Zambia) 1990, Nishan-e-Quaid-i-Azam (Pakistan) 1990, Order of the Caribbean Community 1991, Commdr Order of the Golden Ark 1994; Hon. LLD (Panjab Univ.) 1975, (Southampton) 1976, (Univ. of The West Indies) 1978, (St Francis Xavier Univ., Halifax, Canada) 1978, (Aberdeen) 1979, (Cape Coast, Ghana) 1980, (London) 1981, (Benin, Nigeria) 1982, (Hull) 1983, (Yale) 1985, (Cambridge) 1985, (Warwick) 1988, (York Univ. , Ont., Canada) 1988, (Malta) 1989, (Otago, New Zealand) 1990; Hon. DHL (Simmons Coll., Boston) 1982; Hon. DCL (Oxon.) 1982, (East Anglia) 1983, (Durham) 1985; Dr hc (Surrey) 1979, (Essex) 1980; Hon. DHumLitt (Duke Univ., USA) 1985; Hon. DLitt (Bradford) 1985, (Indira Gandhi Nat. Open Univ.) 1989; Hon. DSc (Cranfield Inst. of Tech.) 1987; Arden and Atkin Prize, Gray's Inn 1952, Int. Educ. Award (Richmond Coll., London) 1988, RSA Albert Medal 1988, Medal of Friendship, Cuba 2001, Pravasi Bharata Samman Award 2003.

Publications: One World to Share: Selected Speeches of the Commonwealth Secretary-General 1975-79, Nkrumah and the Eighties (1980 Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lectures), Sovereignty and Solidarity (1981 Callander Memorial Lectures), Some in Light and Some in Darkness: The Long Shadow of Slavery (Wilberforce Lecture) 1983, The Message not the Messenger (STC Communication Lecture) 1985, The Trampling of the Grass (Econ. Commission for Africa Silver Jubilee Lecture) 1985, For the South, a Time to Think 1986, Making Human Society a Civilized State (Corbishley Memorial Lecture) 1987, Inseparable Humanity: An Anthology of Reflections of Shridath Ramphal 1988, An End to Otherness (six speeches) 1990, Our Country, The Planet 1992, No Island is an Island and contributions to journals of legal, political and int. affairs, including International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Caribbean Quarterly, Public Law, Guyana Journal, The Round Table, Royal Society of Arts Journal, Foreign Policy, Third World Quarterly, International Affairs.

London College of Communication, London College of Printing until a name change in 2004, is the largest College of University of the Arts London [formerly London Institute, founded 1985, name change 2004] with around 9000 students. It has formed over a number of years, from its inception in 1893 until the present day, through developments of curriculum, name changes and mergers: St Bride Foundation Printing School [founded 1883], became London School of Printing and Kindred Trades in 1922; Bolt Court Technical School, formerly the Guild and Technical School, Clerkenwell [founded 1894, name change 1895, merged 1949]; College for Distributive Trades [merged 1990]; Westminster Day Continuation School [founded 1921, renamed the School of Retail Distribution 1929]; and the Printing Department of the North Western Polytechnic [founded 1883, opened 1929, merged 1969].

In 1949 Bolt Court and the College of Printing and Kindred Trades merged to form the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts, renamed London College of Printing in 1962 when it took up its current site at Elephant and Castle, South London. The building was officially opened in 1964 by Sir Isaac Hayward. On the merger with College for Distributive Trades the College changed its name again to reflect the new disciplines offered to the London College of Printing and Distributive Trades, then in 1996 to London College of Printing.
Both St Brides and North Western were established by the City of London Parochial Charities Act and thus have always been rooted in London and its communities. When St Brides opened the doors, in 1894, of its first evening courses 124 students attended. Until 1912 there was no full time principal, then Mr J. R. Riddell was appointed. His appointment lead teaching from textbook based lessons to practical lessons. The first full time courses soon followed, 1919. Thus, from the first the College has specialised in and developed course in all aspects of printing and communication, from photography to graphic design.

Today the College is made up of four Schools: School of Graphic Design; The School of Creative Enterprise; School of Media; School of Printing and Publishing.

The Independent Force was established by the Royal Air Force on 6 June 1918 to conduct a strategic bombing campaign against Germany, concentrating on strategic industries, communications and the morale of the civilian population. The Independent Force was formed out of the Royal Flying Corp's Forty-First Wing which commenced operations in October 1917. This initiative was partly in response to German airship and aeroplane raids on England but it also built upon earlier, small scale attempts at strategic bombing by the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps. As its name implied, it operated independently from the land battle and struck at targets in central Germany including Cologne, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Bonn, and Mannheim. It was also intended to operate independently of the control of the Allied Supreme Commander, Marshal Foch, although this was later changed.

The Independent Force was commanded, reluctantly at first, by Major-General Hugh Trenchard who was gradually converted to the idea of strategic bombing by the operations of the Independent Force. The squadrons were based on airfields in the Nancy region, well to the south of the British sector of the Front Line. Although the effort appears miniscule compared to later bombing campaigns, four day and five night bomber squadrons dropped just 550 tons of bombs during 239 raids between 6 June and 10 November 1918, the effect on the German war effort was remarkable. The main targets were railways, blast furnaces, chemical factories that produced poison gas, other factories, and barracks to which had to be added airfields in an effort to reduce attrition from enemy fighter aircraft.

The effect on morale was out of all proportion to the size of the bomber force or the material damage caused and the air raids resulted in the movement of German air defence units away from the Front Line. Trenchard ordered statistics and records to be kept to demonstrate the work of the Independent Force and the role of strategic bombing in modern war.

Gilbert Blount was an English Catholic architect born in 1819 and active from about 1840-70. He received his earliest training as a civil engineer under Isambard Kingdom Brunel (c 1825-28) for whom he worked as a superintendent of the Thames Tunnel works. After a period in the office of Sydney Smirke, Blount was appointed as architect to Cardinal Wiseman, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster.

Blount's mature work coincided with the resurgence of Catholic church building in England. His activity as an architect was largely in service of the need for new churches and related ecclesiastical institutions.

Documents accumulated during the work of Brunel University Library, documenting meetings and reports.

The Transport History Collection consists largely of two substantial bequests relating to British railway history, namely the Clinker collection and the Garnett collection. Charles Ralph Clinker was born at Rugby in 1906 and joined the Great Western Railway from school in 1923 as a passenger train runner. By the time of the outbreak of World War Two he had risen to become liaison officer for the four major railway companies with Southern Command HQ, and as such was involved in the planning and execution of the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 and the D-Day Landings in 1944. He left railway service in 1946 and devoted the rest of his life to research and lecturing on railway history, a taste which he had acquired when seconded to assist E. T. MacDermot in the preparation of his History of the Great Western Railway (London, 1964), and which Clinker subsequently revised for publication in 1982. Clinker wrote numerous books and pamphlets on railway history; his Clinker's Register of closed passenger stations and goods depots in England, Scotland and Wales, 1830-1977 (1963, revised 1978) is widely regarded as his magnum opus. He died in 1983.

David Garnett was born near Warrington in 1909 and as young man qualified as a chartered electrical engineer, soon afterwards completing his training at the Brush works in Loughborough. He then worked at the lift manufacturer Waygood-Otis, and during World War Two served with the National Fire Service, then at the Admiralty. In the 1950s he began to build a collection of railway and other maps which at the time of his death in 1984 was one of the finest such collections in the country.

Chris Wookey was born on 2 Aug 1957 and was a student at Brunel University, 1975-1979, obtaining an honours degree in Applied Biochemistry. He was a keen railway photographer and Chairman of the Brunel University Railway Society for two years. After leaving Brunel he taught Chemistry for almost ten years at Ryden's School in Walton-on-Thames. He died in 1989.

The first rules of the Society, dating from 1808, called for an annual general meeting at the end of June, at which officers were to be elected, accounts presented and a subscription raised. In 1811 it was agreed that an anniversary dinner should be held on the day following the AGM. By 1818 the AGM and Anniversary Dinner were being held in February but are now held in June. A presidential address was first read by W H Fitton in 1828, and from 1835 the AGM included the presentation of medals and other awards.

Up until the late 1990s, the Elected Officers (ie Treasurer, Foreign Secretary, Honorary Secretaries, etc) were far more involved in the day to day running of the Geological Society. Depending on their office and interest, each would act as chair on particular committees.

The Library of the Geological Society is considered to have been founded in 1809, when on 3 March of that year it was noted that 'presents have been made of some works on Geology and Mineralogy'. Much of the initial collection came through donations from Members and authors or exchanges with other organisations, and from the earliest period users could borrow material.

When the Society moved to Somerset House in 1828 the modest 1,000 or so volumes of the Library were housed in a single room. The Museum collections, on the other hand, were spread around the apartments, eventually taking up the entire second floor and part of the third as well as being displayed along the staircases and hall. However by the 1860s, the Library collection had multiplied at a far greater rate than the Museum, with books having to be housed in the Assistant Secretary's room, Meeting Room, Tea-Room and Council Room. Indeed by then, the Fellows considered the Library collections as being more important than the Museum. In 1869 (in preparation for the Society's move to Burlington House in 1874), the Museum collection was slimmed down and restricted to only those specimens which directly related to a published paper, however it still took up the majority of the second floor of the new apartments. As its use by Fellows gradually decreased, it was decided at the end of the 19th century that the Museum should be disposed of and the space be used instead to house the Library. Referred to as the 'Upper Library' (as opposed to the original 'Lower Library'), from 1911 it has been the main Library space for readers, housing the most heavily used material. Nowadays the Library collection consists of around 300,000 volumes of monographs, periodicals and textbooks.

The first 'Librarian' was Thomas Webster, who oversaw the Library alongside his duties as Keeper of the Museum, secretary, Journal editor, etc. His successor William Lonsdale was appointed in 1829, and the first extensive catalogues date from his tenure. On Lonsdale's final retirement in 1842, Edward Forbes took over the duties as Librarian and Curator, succeeded in 1844 by David Thomas Ansted. When Ansted's duties were revised, becoming Vice-Secretary, James de Carle Sowerby became Curator and Librarian between 1846-1848. There followed: James Nicol (1847-1850); Thomas Rupert Jones (1850-1862); Henry Michael Jenkins (1862-1868); William Sweetland Dallas (1869-1890); Louis Belinfante (1890-1916); C P Chatwin (1916-1919); Arthur Greig (1919-?1939); Emelyn Eastwood (1939-1946); Pamela Robinson (1946-1947); Miss A Barber (1947-1960); Mrs C E Nash (1960); Miss Ann M Paddick (1960-1962); Mrs J L Green (1962-1965); Mrs A M Tyler (1965-1970); Mrs Edeltraud Nutt (1970-1987).

The Geological Society was founded on 13 November 1807 for the purpose of 'making Geologists acquainted with each other, of stimulating their zeal, of inducing them to adopt one nomenclature, of facilitating the communication of new facts, and of ascertaining what is known in their science, and what yet remains to be discovered'. (GSL/OM/1/1, p1) This would be primarily achieved by holding regular meetings where members, later Fellows, could read papers or communications, show specimens and maps or donate material to the burgeoning Museum and Library. These 'Ordinary' meetings were initially held at the Freemason's Tavern until the Society acquired its own premises in 1809.

In its early days, all business concerning the running of the Society was discussed at the Ordinary Meetings, including the proposal and election of new Fellows. However, much of the overall responsibility for the management of the Society's affairs was taken over by Council which was first appointed on 1 June 1810.

By 1810, Ordinary Meetings were being held twice a month from November to June [the summer being a period when field trips would be undertaken], and overseen by the President of the Society. Non members could attend as long as they were introduced by a Fellow, however women were not admitted until the turn of the next century. There was a two year period during Leonard Horner's presidency (1860-1862) in which women were reportedly allowed as guests, but this attempt was seen as relatively unsuccessful as it was mainly Horner's daughters who came. Although the issue was raised on a frequent basis, it was not until 1901 when Archibald Geikie introduced two women to an Ordinary Meeting that the matter was settled. Women were finally be allowed to become full Fellows in 1919.

The Ordinary Meeting format had changed by the 1970s, the meetings being themed around a specific topic and hence developing into the special scientific meetings which are now held. However the bye-laws of the Society stipulate that only certain business, such as the election of new members and calls for Special General Meetings, can be held at Ordinary General Meetings. As the meetings calendar gradually moved away from the traditional Ordinary Meetings, the procedures of the OGM were inserted into other meeting events, especially during the 1990s. OGMs are now held five times a year after each meeting of Council, the only business essentially now conducted is the admission of new members.

Note: as Ordinary Meetings were, for the most part, held in the evening they are sometimes referred to as 'Evening Meetings' in the archival record.

Sir Jethro Justinian Harris Teall was born on 5 January 1849, the only child of Jethro Teall, at Northleach, Gloucestershire. He attended Berkeley Villa School followed by St John's College Cambridge, where he turned from mathematics to geology and was taught by Thomas Bonney and Adam Sedgwick. He was the first recipient of the Sedgwick prize for geology in 1874, after which he became a fellow (1875) and taught under the university extension scheme, as well as carrying out petrographic research.

He was particularly interested in metamorphic minerals and the crystallization of magmas, leading him to produce his celebrated work 'British Petrography' (1888), which was partially illustrated by his wife Harriet. In 1888 he joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain, becoming its director from 1901 to 1914, when he retired. During this time he extended the Survey's activities and enhanced its utility and educational value.

Teall was elected Fellow of the Geological Society in 1873, and spent time as secretary (1893-1897) and president (1900-1902). He also received the Bigsby and the Wollaston medals (1889 and 1905). Other recognitions include the presidency of the Geologists' Association (1898-1900), Fellowship of the Royal Society (1890), the Delesse prize from the Académie des Sciences (1907), and honorary doctorates from Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and St Andrews, in addition to his knighthood (1916). He died on 2 July 1924.

Arthur Greig was born in London on 5 January 1893. One of eleven children, his formal education was not prolonged, but a schoolmaster had inspired him with an interest in books and ideas. On 13 October 1908, Greig joined the Society's staff (which then numbered only three) at the age of 15 on probation as an 'extra assistant in Library and Office'. He had been introduced to the Society by the then Clerk, Clyde Henderson Black, who was a neighbour and friend of the family. Greig's appointment was confirmed on 1 January 1909 as 'Assistant in Library, Office and Museum' at a salary of two shillings per week.

Following the outbreak of World War One in August 1914, Greig enlisted in the London Scottish Regiment and was posted overseas in March 1915. Apart from three months at an Officer Cadet School in Cambridge, Greig served with the infantry in France. Commissioned from the rank of sergeant in December 1916, he was demobilised in 1919, as a Captain.

On his return to the Society, he was promoted in October 1919 to Librarian. After C H Black's resignation as Clerk in April 1923, Greig was additionally given charge of the Library and Office with an assistant in each. In January 1931 he succeeded L L Belinfante as Assistant Secretary of the Society and editor of the Quarterly Journal. He was called up to serve again as a reserve officer in the Second World War, however his military duties involved aerodrome defence in South East England, guarding the Tower of London, which enabled him to keep in touch with Society business and continue his editorial duties. He was finally demobilised with the rank of Major. Greig retired as Assistant Secretary in 1961, but continued to serve the Society - creating cumulative indexes for the Quarterly Journal and contributing to the 'Annual List of Geological Literature Added to the Society Library'. He only relinquished these duties at the age of 90 years old, due to failing eyesight.

Greig's remarkable contribution to the Society was marked by his award of the Wollaston Fund in 1951, his award of an MBE in 1959 (nominated by the Society) and his election as Fellow on 8 May 1963, later becoming an Honorary Fellow on 29 April 1981. Arthur Greig died on 16 February 1989.

The provenance of the slides is unclear, they were found in a damp and dirty 'potting shed' presumably in the late 1990s and subsequently donated to the Society in 2001. At least half of the slides were either taken by Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy or reflect his interests at the turn of the 19th/20th century and additionally include a number by Ethel Partridge who became his first wife in 1902.

Robert Millner Shackleton was born in Purley, Surrey, on 30 December 1909. He was educated at the Quakers' (Society of Friends) Sidcot School in Somerset and the University of Liverpool, graduating B.Sc. Geology with First Class Honours in 1930. He went on to research at Liverpool under P.G.H. Boswell on the geology of the Moel Hebog area of Snowdonia in North Wales (Ph.D. 1934), then won a Beit Fellowship at Imperial College London 1932-1934. In 1935 he was appointed Chief Geologist to Whitehall Exploration Ltd in Fiji but returned to Imperial College as Lecturer in Geology in 1936.

In 1940 Shackleton was appointed a geologist in the Mining and Geological Department of Kenya, as part of the wartime strategic planning programme. He surveyed widely throughout Kenya producing reports for the Geological Survey of Kenya on the areas of Malikisi, North Kavirondo, Nyeri, the Migori Gold Belt, and Nanyuki and Maralal. His studies extended into the geometry of the orogenic belts of East Africa and the volcanism that produced the Rift System. In 1942 the archaeologist Mary Leakey discovered prehistoric human artefacts at Olorgesailie, a lower Palaeolithic (Acheulean) site southwest of Nairobi. In the mid-1940s Mary and L.S.B. Leakey excavated the site and Shackleton collaborated with the investigations, preparing geological maps of the area around the Olorgesailie site and the area between Olorgesailie and Ngong.

Shackleton returned to Imperial College in 1945 and was offered a Professorship there. However, he thought the department too unmanageable and in 1948 returned to Liverpool as the Herdman Professor of Geology. In his time in the Herdman chair, he re-organised the Liverpool geology department and put it at the forefront of geological research in Britain. In 1962, in order to increase his opportunities for research in Africa, Shackleton became Professor of Geology in the University of Leeds and joined the staff of the Research Institute of African Geology (serving as Director from 1965 until retirement). For the year 1970-1971 Shackleton was Royal Society Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Geology at the Haile Selassie University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He formally retired in 1975 but was Research Fellow at the Open University from 1977 until his death and remained very active in field geology.

Shackleton's influence on his profession was profound. His achievements were recognized by the award of the Silver Medal of the Liverpool Geological Society (1957) and the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London (1970), and his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society (1971). His Royal Society citation recorded that he was:

'Well-known for his contributions to the study of crystalline rocks, more particularly of rock deformation and large scale tectonics. A versatile pioneer in investigation of the Caledonides of Wales and western Ireland, of Rift Valley vulcanicity and Pre-Cambrian tectonics. His papers and discussions have influenced much recent work in these fields in which he has trained many of the younger British workers. Of particular importance have been his work on Tertiary volcanics in Kenya, his understanding of the Pre-Cambrian of eastern and central Affica.-and his acqounts of Dairadian structures and deposits'.

Shackleton produced some 160 scientific papers and through encouragement of younger colleagues exerted a deep influence on several generations of geologists. He had an extremely wide knowledge of his subject, from the origins of the Earth to the evolution of man. Although his earlier work had focused on the British Isles, he developed a particular interest in the geology of East Africa. Shackleton initiated structural studies across orogenic belts in Tarizania-Zambia-Malawi (in the late 1960s), major studies across the Limpopo Belt and adjacent Archaean greenstone belts of Zimbabwe-Botswana-South Africa (in the 1970s) and projects across the orogenic systems of Egypt, Sudan and Kenya (in the early 1980s). Just prior to his death he was working on a detai led compilation of the Pre-Cambrian geology of East Africa. Shackleton's interests were global, however, and continuing research interests included the Pre-Cambrian geology of Arabia and the tectonics of the central and western Himalayas. At the age of 75 he led a pioneering Royal Society geological traverse across Tibet, in collaboration with the Academica Sinica, Beijing.

Shackleton died on 3 May 2001. He married three times and left five children (two sons and three daughters), including the distinguished geoscientist Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton (1937-2006).

Mount Pelée began its eruptions on 23 April 1902, the main eruption occurring on 8 May 1902 which destroyed the nearby town of Saint-Pierre, killing or injuring most of its 30,000 inhabitants. The eruption is considered to be the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century.

George Duncan Gibb was born in Montreal, Canada, on 25 December 1821. He studied medicine at McGill University and graduated in 1846, being appointed immediately afterwards as Surgeon to the Canadian Militia. He moved to Dublin to pursue his studies, becoming a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In 1853, Gibb moved to London being at first Physician at St Pancras General Dispensary which he left to take up the post of Assistant Physician to the Westminster Hospital in 1863.

Throughout his stay in London, Gibb added various qualifications to his name, FGS (1855), MRCP (1859), LLD (1864 from Quebec) and most notably 'Sir' which was attached to a supposed baronetcy - a title which he adopted after research into his family history discovered it to be 'vacant'.

Gibb wrote numerous publications on laryngology, his family history, unusual meteorology and Canadian geology. He died on 16 February 1876 from lung disease.

Born in 1784, in Axminster, Devon, William Buckland had developed an interest in natural history and geology whilst exploring the local woods and quarries with his father Charles Buckland, the rector of Templeton and Trusham. Buckland was initially home schooled by his father, but in 1797 entered Blundell's School in Tiverton, enrolling the following year at St Mary's College, Winchester.

With the help of his uncle, John Buckland, he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, as a scholar on the Exeter Foundation, obtaining his BA in classics and theology three years later. Buckland was elected Fellow of the College in 1808 when he was ordained. During this time he had been attending the lectures of John Kidd, reader in mineralogy at Oxford and when Kidd resigned in 1813, Buckland succeeded him. That same year he became a Member of the Geological Society. In 1818 he was appointed to the new readership in geology and his inaugural lecture of 1819 'Vindiciae geologicae', compiled with the help of his mentor the Rev William Daniel Conybeare, explained that the facts of geology were conversant with the record of the creation of the Earth found in the Bible - notably the presence of older gravels (diluvium) which could not be explained through normal river deposits and therefore provided evidence of a 'universal deluge', that is Noah's flood.

Buckland's most important early geological work was on fossil cave faunas, principally his excavations of the Kirkdale Cavern, Yorkshire. There he discovered the bones of hyenas and other exotic animals such as an elephant, hippomatus and rhinocerus. His theory that the cave was a hyena den and the exotic animals had been dragged in as their prey was backed up by his experiments on and observation of modern hyenas. The results were published as 'Reliquiae diluvianae' (1823), and his discoveries at Kirkdale won him the Royal Society's Copley medal in 1822.

Due to his modest income from his two readerships and teaching, by 1825 Buckland was considering leaving Oxford for a more lucrative position, such as vicar, elswhere. However with the help of influential friends such as Sir Robert Peel, Buckland managed to obtain the position of canon to Christ Church which had an income of five times his previous salary. In December of that year he married Mary Morland, who had been helping him with his work and also illustrating his papers for a number of years.

In the field, Buckland notoriously dressed in a rather eccentric manner, always wearing his academic gown and carrying a large blue bag from which he would draw out his latest finds such as fossil faeces of giant marine reptiles. Buckland had found and identified these 'Coprolites', the term he coined for fossil faeces, in Lyme Regis when he worked with the fossil collector Mary Anning.

Buckland continued to research and publish over the next two decades, notably his influential treatise 'Geology and Mineralogy' of 1836, in which he abandoned his former belief in the geological effects deriving from the biblical flood. Indeed after a visit to Switzerland to see his friend Louis Agassiz in 1838, the Swiss naturalist had convinced him that glaciation had been more extensive in the past - leading Buckland to reinterpret his early theories and observations of a universal flood as evidence instead for the new glacial theory of an ice age. Buckland was extremely active within the Geological Society, serving twice as its President between 1824-1826 and 1839-1841, and winning the Wollaston Medal (the highest award bestowed by the Society) in 1848.

In 1845, Buckland had become dissatisfied with academic life in Oxford and accepted the appointment of dean of Westminster, coupled with the rectorship of Islip, near Oxford, although he still continued to lecture on geology in the university town. However by 1850 his diminishing mental health, possibly resulting from a fall from a coach a few years earlier, prevented Buckland from performing his duties as dean or professor. He retired to Islip but was later placed in The Retreat, a mental asylum in Clapham where he died on 14 August 1856.

Frederic William Harmer was born on 24 April 1835 in Norwich. His father, Thomas Harmer, was a partner in the local clothes manufacturing company Harmer and Rivett. At the age of 15, Frederic joined the family firm and would eventually change the firm's name to F W Harmer and Co.

The early period of his life was focussed on business, but in 1864 he met the younger Valentine Searles Wood (1830-1884) on the Mundesley shore and began a firm friendship and geological partnership. Together they studied the Pliocene deposits, the fauna of which was then being described in the monographs of the Palaeontographical Society ('The Crag Mollusca') by Searles Wood the elder. The Drift deposits also engaged their attention, and between them the two men surveyed an area of 2000 square miles, Harmer undertaking the survey of Norfolk and Northern Suffolk. Their map, produced on a scale of 1 inch to the mile, was claimed to be the first 'drift' map of the kind.

The prolonged illness and then death of the younger Searles Wood in 1884, and his reluctance to study geology alone, saw Harmer devoting the next few years to municipal duties and politics of the day. However a disagreement over the question of Irish Home Rule, caused Harmer to return whole-heartedly to geology.

His later work concerned the Tertiary and Quaternary deposits of East Anglia and the Continent, and comparing the Pliocene sequence in Britain with that in Holland and Belgium. He devoted the last few years of his life updating the 'Monograph of the Crag Mollusca'. Harmer died on 11 April 1923.

He became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1869, and was awarded the Murchison Medal in 1902 in recognition of his work on the Pliocene and other deposits of East Anglia.

Lucas Barrett was born on 14 November 1837 in London. He was the eldest son of George Barrett, an iron-founder of 247 Tottenham Court Road. In 1847 he was sent to school in Royston, Hertfordshire, where he collected fossils from the local chalk pits as a hobby. He transferred to University College School, in Gower Street, London, in 1851 but during the holidays he would stay with relatives in Cambridge and it was there he made the acquaintance of Adam Sedgwick for whom he would later work as Curator at the Woodwardian Museum in Cambridge between 1855-1859.

It was during Barrett's time as Woodwardian Curator that he published his geological map of the Cambridge. First issued in 1857, it was reprinted a number of times over the years.

Barrett was elected Fellow of the Geological Society in 1855.

Son of the civil engineer, Sir John Hawkshaw (1811-1891), John Clarke Hawkshaw was born on 17 August 1841 in Manchester. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in the Mathematical Tripos. Between 1865-1868 he was a pupil of his father, and later Assistant Engineer, during the construction of the Albert Dock, Hull. In 1870 he became a partner in his father's civil engineering firm, which he continued after his father's retirement in 1890.

Hawkshaw was a member of various scientific societies, including the Geological Society, and notably served as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1902-1903. He died on 12 February 1921.

James Mitchell was born on 15 January 1787. Details of his early life are sketchy, but it is known that he attended King's College, Aberdeen, graduating with an MA in 1804. He might have made a tour of France and Italy before settling in London the following year, working as a schoolmaster and private tutor. Mitchell then gained employment with the Star Assurance Company, becoming the company secretary until its dissolution in 1822. He was later appointed to a similar position with the British Annuity Company.

From 1813, Mitchell published a number of works on scientific topics, including astronomy, chemistry, natural history and geology. By the 1830s his principle interest was to become the geology and botany of London and the south east. Although he was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1832, only a few brief abstracts of his papers appeared in the 'Proceedings'. Mitchell complained to Dr Henry Woodward that "a certain set of elder brethren, members of the Council and ex-members, who monopolise as much as they can, both the 'Transactions' and in the speaking at the Society; and a new man has to fight his way through them." Therefore the majority of his observations remained in manuscript form.

Mitchell served on a number of parliamentary and royal commissions, and it was whilst acting as a sub-commissioner into children's employment (1840-1843) that he suffered a stroke in June 1843, possibly brought on from over work. Never fully recovering, he died of apoplexy at the home of his nephew on 3 September 1844.

Nathaniel John Winch was born on 20 December 1768 at Hampton, Middlesex. He was apprenticed to Robert Lisle, hostman, in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1780. Winch developed an interest in the study of botany, particularly the geographical distribution of species around the Northumberland, Cumberland and Durham areas. Indeed his devotion to the subject was considered to be behind the failure of his merchant businesses in 1808 when he was declared bankrupt.

He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1803, became an honorary member of the Geological Society in 1808, and was an active member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle. He died on 5 May 1838, leaving his manuscripts, library and herbarium to the Linnean Society. His valuable mineralogical collection was left to the Geological Society.

Cecil Collins was born in Plymouth, Devon on 23 March 1908. His early life was physically and economically difficult and he was apprenticed to an engineering firm for a year before winning scholarships to Plymouth School of Art (1924-1927) and the Royal College of Art in London (1927-1931). At the RCA he won the William Rothenstein Life Drawing Prize. He also met and, in 1931, married Elisabeth Ramsden, a sculpture student. They lived in London and rented a cottage at Speen, north of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, where they were introduced to Eric Gill, nearby at Piggots, and met David Jones. In 1933 the Collinses visited Paris, where they saw the work of Paul Klee and visited Gertrude Stein's apartment. They also became life-long friends with Mark Tobey after his exhibition at Beaux Arts Gallery. Collins held his first exhibition at the Bloomsbury Gallery in October 1935, where he showed some of his most important early paintings, including 'The Fall of Lucifer' (1933), which indicated the mystical direction of his work. He published a poem in 'The New English Weekly' in 1936 and a painting and a drawing were included in the 'International Exhibition of Surrealism' (New Burlington Galleries, 1936). In the same year, the couple moved to Devon, attending Tobey's classes at Dartington Hall. Collins held an exhibition in the Barn Studio (1937) attached to the Dartington Hall Art Department and, after Tobey's departure in 1938, Collins taught there (1939-1943) alongside Bernard Leach, Hein Heckroth and Willi Soukop. The combination of interests in Far Eastern art and philosophy and German Expressionist performance proved important, and it was there that Collins began the series of Fools.

Between 1944 and 1948, the Collinses divided their time between London and Cambridge. His exhibition at Lefevre's in February 1944 escaped major damage even though paintings were blown off the walls in an air raid, and two more exhibitions in London followed in 1945. This period saw the publication of the first monograph on the artist 'Cecil Collins: Paintings and Drawings 1935-45' by Alex Comfort 1946 and Collins's own major text written in 1944, 'The Vision of the Fool' was published in 1947. Both confirmed his links with the poets of the 'Apocalypse' group and an inclination towards a visionary Neo-Romanticism in painting. In Cambridge from 1948, the Collinses were part of a circle, including the painters Nan Youngman and Elisabeth Vellacott, which founded the Cambridge Society of Painters and Sculptors (1955). From 1951, Collins also taught life drawing part-time with Mervyn Peake at the Central School of Art and Crafts and the City Lit. in London. He had a major retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1959, which included some "matrica" paintings, which developed mystical images from gestural beginnings. The Collinses moved to Chelsea in 1970. In these later years he received a number of religious commissions, making an altar front for the Chapel of St Clement in Chichester Cathedral (1973), for which Elisabeth made kneelers, and windows for St Michael and All Saints, Basingstoke (1985). In 1979 he was awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) in recognition of his service to art. A retrospective of his prints at the Tate Gallery in 1981, was followed by one of paintings and drawings in 1989. The painter died on 4 June 1989, during the course of the exhibition.

Kenneth McKenzie Clark was born on 13 July 1903, to a family who made their fortune in the Glasgow cotton trade. Clark described his parents as 'idle rich', moving between their country house in Suffolk, their home and yacht in Scotland and the South of France. An only child, he was sent away to Wixenford School, from where he went to Winchester College from 1917 to 1922. He gained a scholarship to read 'Greats' at Trinity College, Oxford, and it was here that he began to fully develop the artistic eye which had been nurtured by rearranging his parents' picture collection and by the exhibition of Japanese art in London in 1910. At Oxford, Clark made many of the friends he was to keep throughout his life, including Maurice Bowra, Colin Anderson and Gordon Waterfield. He also began to collect original works of art, managing to buy cheaply works from Old Master drawings and pictures by then unknown, or unfashionable, artists. He began to help out at the Ashmolean Museum, and was befriended by the Keeper, Charles Bell.

In 1925, during a visit to Italy, Bell introduced him to the art connoisseur Bernard Berenson at his house, I Tatti, near Florence. Clark made an impression on Berenson, who invited him to work for him on the revisions of his 'Florentine Painters'. After a struggle with his parents, who insisted on him finishing his degree, the arrangements were made for Clark to join Berenson. In the meantime Clark spent the summer of 1926 travelling in Europe and seeing the great collections in pre-war Germany, where at Berenson's instruction he learnt German. In 1927 Clark married Elizabeth Jane Martin, known as Jane (or Betty to her family), a fellow student at Oxford. They were introduced by Gordon Waterfield, her then fiancé. In 1928 their first son, Alan, was born, followed by the twins, Colin and Colette (known as Celly). There were plans for more work with Berenson, but in 1930 Clark was offered the position of Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, to succeed Bell.

Although he had little museum experience, Clark had made a name for himself, in particular through his work on the Royal Academy's exhibition of Italian art, a major exhibition of 1930, and was already working on the Leonardo drawings in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle (eventually published in 1935). It was an unprecendented appointment, which damaged forever his friendship with Bell. Berenson urged Clark not to go into curatorship, but to concentrate on writing, but Clark accepted the position. His activities at the museum included the reorganisation of the collection and the notable acquisition of Piero di Cosimo's 'Forest Fire'. In 1933 Clark was offered the post of Director of the National Gallery. He was only thirty years old when he began to work there in 1934. The Clarks were launched into a whirl of public and social activity: they became the toast of London society and were constantly in the newspapers. 1934 also saw Clark's appointment as Surveyor of the King's Pictures. Clark's reign at the National Gallery was not without problems. In the first year he acquired seven panels, believed to be by Sassetta, in somewhat dubious circumstances from Duveen, an art dealer and National Gallery Trustee. Another controversy was the acquisition of four panels which Clark originally believed to be by Giorgione, although the Trustees acquired them as 'Giorgionesque'. Other problems included an appearance before the Committee for Public Accounts.

The outbreak of war in 1939 changed the Clarks' life. Jane and the children moved to Upton House, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, where they had many guests including Graham and Kathleen Sutherland. Clark stayed in London, where his flat in Grays Inn was bombed in 1940, destroying many of his early papers. After the evacuation of the National Gallery's pictures to the mines of Manod, Wales, he was less involved with Gallery work than with his secondment to the Ministry of Information. Clark joined the Ministry in 1939. He was first Director of the Films Division, then Controller of Home Publicity until 1941. Clark found the work interesting, but the bureaucratic machinery and rivalries in the Ministry wearying. He was involved in some interesting work including propaganda and public information films, however, the cream of his work there was the War Artists' Advisory Committee. Clark was chairman of the Committee and it was a role he felt very useful in, although he was unable to help as many artists as he would have liked. Artists were selected to carry out work for the armed forces and Clark often acted as a mediator, for sometimes it was hard to reconcile the artists interests and desire to experiment, with what might be very conventional and specific requirements. The Committee met from 1939-1945, then faced the problem of dispersing the thousands of works created.

At the end of 1945 Clark resigned from the National Gallery as soon as he decently could. Contrary to popular belief he did not have another post to go to: he simply wanted to concentrate on his writing. However, he was soon invited to be Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University, a post he held from 1947-1950. Over the winter of 1948-1949, Clark embarked on a trip to Australia. He found the country stimulating and made contacts with both art administrators and artists, including Joseph Burke and Sydney Nolan. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Clark spent much of his time writing and lecturing. He was always inundated with invitations to lecture and he accepted many. His books sold well and he became enormously popular in America. In 1953 he was appointed Chairman of the Arts Council, a post he held until 1960. Clark had been involved in radio broadcasting since the 1930s. As well as art based programmes, he often appeared as a "celebrity guest" on more general programmes. He was a regular panelist in the early days of the Brains Trust. With the development of television, Clark extended his broadcasting by bringing art images into thousands of homes. However, public reaction was mixed when he agreed to be Chariman of the new Independent Television Association in 1954. In the 1950s Clark became further involved with independent television production companies and began to work with his son Colin, a producer. The subject area of his material remained wide, but perhaps the culmination of his TV work was the 1969 series 'Civilisation'. This brought Clark worldwide fame and he became popularly known as 'Lord Clark of Civilisation'. In 1953 the Clarks moved from Upper Terrace House, Hampstead, to Saltwood Castle in Kent (to which Thomas à Becket's murderers had fled from the scene of their crime in Canterbury Cathedral). The Clarks kept a small flat in Albany, Piccadilly and Clark had a secretary in both residences. However, as the Clarks grew older the Castle became too much for them and they built The Garden House at the edge of the grounds, where they moved, while Alan, their son, moved into the Castle. In 1976 Jane, who had been intermittently ill for many years, died. Clark remarried in 1977, Nolwen de Janze Rice, who was French and owned an estate in Normandy. Clark continued to write and lecture on a smaller scale almost to the end. He died in 1983.

Born 1887; educated at St. Pauls School and at New College, Oxford; student interpreter at the British Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, 1913; appointed second assistant in Seoul, Korea, 1915; became acting Vice Consul in Kobe, Japan 1915; Vice Consul in Kobe, 1919; 1924-25 was the acting Consul in Dairen (Dalian, China); retired from the consular service in 1928; died 1940.

South London Polytechnic Institutes was established following the City of London Parochial Charities Act, 1883. In the Act the Government's Charity Commissioners were to distribute money to schemes which would improve the physical, social and moral condition of Londoners. Edric Bayley, a solicitor and member of the London School Board, wanted to use the money to establish a people's college in Elephant and Castle, which could help alleviate the extreme poverty he saw in that area as well as help strengthen British industry.

In 1887 Bayley established the South London Polytechnic Institutes Council, whose members included the Lord Mayor of London and the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) as its President. In January 1888 the Council appealed to the Charity Commissioners for the money they needed. The Commissioners were impressed and pledged that they would match any funds raised by the public up to the sum of £150,000 in order to establish three technical colleges, or polytechnics, in South London.

A Committee of the Council had the task of raising the money needed from the public and also of deciding where the three polytechnics should be located. The Committee decided that one should be established at Elephant and Castle (now LSBU), another at New Cross (which is now Goldsmiths College) and lastly at Battersea (which eventually moved and became part of the University of Surrey). The public appeal for the money needed was launched at a widely publicised dinner held at Mansion House in June 1888. Within four years £78,000 had been raised through the public's generosity for the Elephant and Castle and Battersea Polytechnics, which was matched by the Charity Commissioners.

Stephen Percival (‘Percy’) Cane (1881–1976) was brought up in Braintree, Essex. The family had a house with extensive grounds, and as a young boy Cane gained practical experience in horticulture, planting and tending a small plot of his own in the family kitchen garden. As he grew up he developed a strong interest in art and architecture, and read widely in these fields. At the age of 22 he went to work at a local firm run by friends of the family, the Crittall Manufacturing Company, which made metal windows. The work was not entirely to his taste, but it provided a reasonable income until he took the decision to enrol as a full-time student at the Chelmsford College of Science and Art. Cane began to design gardens in the Chelmsford district in his spare time, and it was after a visit to Easton Lodge, a stately Essex home which was having its grounds altered in a contemporary style by the garden architect Harold Peto, that he decided to make his own career in the field. Through the First World War he contributed garden designs and plans to the monthly magazine ‘My Garden, Illustrated’, and in 1918 became its editor, which prompted him to enrol at the Chelmsford County School of Horticulture in order to learn more about the science of gardening. By 1919 he was styling himself ‘Landscape and Garden Architect’, and working full time as a designer.

Cane was soon in great demand, and received numerous commissions for gardens both in the United Kingdom and abroad. These include designs for Ivy House, Hampstead, Hascombe Court, Godalming, Falkland Palace, Fife, the palace of the Emperor of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, and Dartington Hall, Devon. He became a respected authority and wrote many articles and several books on garden design. A regular exhibitor at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, he received eight gold and three silver-gilt medals at the show between 1934 and 1952, and in 1963 was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for his work. He practised as a garden architect, based at his home in Lower Sloane Street, London. Some plans in this collection were created after he suffered a stroke in Sep 1972.

Sources:

'Percy Cane Garden Designer' / by Ronald Weber. Edinburgh, 1974

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by Charlotte Johnson

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded in 1888 by Dr William Wynn Westcott, Dr William Robert Woodman and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, who were all Freemasons and members of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A).

The Order was based on the rituals and knowledge lectures found in the Cipher Documents. [A series of encrypted documents containing outlines for a series of initiation rituals, see GBR 1991 GD 1/1/1-8]. Although the history and authenticity of these documents is subject to considerable debate, in general it is now agreed that they were written by Kenneth Mackenzie as outline rituals for the Society of Eight [a Golden Dawn prototype body founded by Frederick Holland in 1883 but which never developed into a membership body] or the Sat B'hai [This order, founded around 1871 by Captain J H Lawrence-Archer, using some Hindu terminology within a framework derived from masonry, had little more than a paper existence until 1875, when Mackenzie joined]. Westcott acquired these papers after Mackenzie's death, and set about transferring them into full grade rituals.

An additional paper found within the cipher documents contained the address of a woman in Germany, referred to as Fraulein Sprengel. Described as being an Adept of an occult order known as the Die Goldene Dammerung, Westcott asserted that Sprengel had authorized him in a series of letters to sign documents under her name and had granted him permission to set up a Temple in England. Researchers now believe that Westcott created this story in order to give the Golden Dawn a legitimate provenance and to attract serious occultists and freemasons to his new Order. The Order grew steadily and by the end of 1888 three temples had been set up, namely Isis-Urania in London, Osiris in Weston-Super-Mare and Horus in Bradford.

From 1888 to 1891 the Golden Dawn functioned as a theoretical school, performing the initiation ceremonies of the Outer Order from the 0°=0° Neophyte grade to the 4°=7° Philosophus grade and teaching the basics of the Qabalah, astrology, alchemical symbolism, geomancy and tarot. No practical magic was performed until 1891, when Mathers completed the ritual for the 5°=6° grade, the first grade of the Secord or Inner Order of the Golden Dawn, known as the Order of the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (the Ruby Rose and Cross of Gold). By this time Woodman had died and as a replacement was not appointed, Mathers managed to reconstruct the Order, becoming its primary Chief.

The new 5=6 ritual was based on the legend of Christian Rosenkreuz, a great spiritual teacher who was secretly buried and later found perfectly preserved within a seven sided tomb. Mathers and his wife, Moina (nee Mina Bergson), created an elaborate full-size replica of his tomb, referred to as the Vault of the Adepts, which members of the Inner Order used when performing the rituals. The Inner Order transferred theory into practice, with members making and consecrating their own magical implements. Mathers also created a formal curriculum, which included guidance on scrying, astral travel, and alchemy and a series of eight graded examinations which lead to members achieving the sub-grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor.

In 1895 the stability of the Order was threatened by the breakdown of the relationship between Mathers and Annie Horniman. This lead to her expulsion and increasing unrest among the Second Order Adepts in London. In 1897 further problems arose when civil authorities became aware of Westcott's link with the group, forcing him to resign in order to keep his position as Coroner for North East London. Florence Farr assumed Westcott's role but without his administrative supervision of the paperwork, the decline in grade work and examination system undertaken by members led the Order to decline in London.

By 1900 Mathers' domineering behaviour led to Farr suggesting that the Order should be dissolved. Fearing this was an attempt to replace him with Westcott, Mathers wrote to Farr stating that the Sprengel letters had been forged by Westcott. As Westcott declined to defend himself this shook the trust of London members in particular, leading to open rebellion after Mathers initiated Aleister Crowley, who had been refused admission as a member in the London Temple. A committee was set up to investigate Mathers' claims which led to the expulsion of Mathers, Moina Mathers, Crowley and other supporters in May 1900, despite Mathers sending Crowley as his envoy to London in an attempt to take possession of the Inner Order headquarters at 36 Blythe Road, London (subsequently referred to as the Battle of Blythe Road).

Those remaining loyal to Mathers formed a rival Isis Temple, headed by Mathers and run by Dr E. Berridge. This was later known as Alpha and Omega 1. The Paris Temple and later Amen-Ra in Edinburgh, under John W. Brodie-Innes also became part of Mathers' Alpha and Omega Order.

After Mathers' displacement, William Butler Yeats resumed responsibility for the Temple in London. Further trouble was caused by the newly reinstated Annie Horniman, who led disputes over the forgotten examination system and Farr's splinter organisation, known as the Sphere Group. A further blow came in 1901 following unwanted publicity as a result of the Horos case. An American couple, Frank and Editha Jackson, also known as Theo and Laura Horos, used the rituals, which they had duped Mathers into handing over to them in Paris, to set up their own order in London, known as the Order of Theocratic Unity. They defrauded and raped several young women persuaded to join this Order and the subsequent court case lead to the exposure of many Golden Dawn secrets in the press. Editha Jackson was also known as the Swami Vive Ananda and assumed various other names, including Anne O'Delia Diss De Bar but was born into a respectable Kentucky family, the Salomons, during a criminal career as a spiritualist and extortionist in New York and New Orleans, America. As a result of this Case, leading to the imprisonment of the American couple in London, many members left in order to distance themselves from the Golden Dawn. Remaining members changed the Order's name to the Hermetic Society of the Morgenröthe.

In 1903 a further schism occurred within the Order. Arthur Edward Waite took over the remnant of the original Isis-Urania Temple, which became known as the Independent and Rectified Rite. Waite's new Order moved away from the ritual magic present in the old Order, replacing it with a more mystical path. This Order existed until 1914 when internal disputes led to Waite closing the Temple and forming the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross the following year. This continued to exist until Waite's death in 1942.

Those members who preferred the rituals and magic developed by Mathers joined Dr Robert Felkin in his new organisation known as the Stella Matutina. Their temple, based in London was named Amoun. After lengthy negotiations, Felkin signed a concordat with Waite in 1907 to govern the relationship between the two Temples, but this agreement only lasted until 1910.

Once he became Chief, Dr Felkin communicated with several mystical individuals including the discarnate Arab teacher, Ara Ben Shemesh and the Sun Masters. Increasingly, Felkin became interested in establishing new links with the 'Secret Chiefs' and the original Rosicrucian societies in Germany, with which Westcott had claimed to have had links. Felkin's quest led him on several continental trips where he met Ruldolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian philosopher and esotericist, and claimed to have been given higher grades, the equivalent to 8=3 and 7=4 grades. Felkin also corresponded with Anne Sprengel, a patient of his, whom he claimed was the niece of Fraülein Sprengel.

While travelling in New Zealand with his family in 1912, Felkin founded a new Temple, Smaragdum Thalasses, at Havelock North, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Before his relocation to New Zealand in 1916, Felkin issued a new constitution for Stella Matutina, which included details for three daughter temples for Amoun, namely Hermes Temple, Bristol (which became independent in the early 1920's and survived until c. 1972); The Secret College, London, which was to be 'confined to members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, who have taken at least Grade 4' (this college was active in 1921 but may not have survived long beyond this date0; and finally Merlin Temple, perhaps located in London but not established successfully, which was to consist of former members of Waite's group or the Anthroposophical Society.

After Felkin's departure, the Order in London came under the control of Christina Stoddart. She became increasingly paranoid and obsessed with details about the Order's origins. After working on her paper 'Investigations into the Foundations of the Order G.D. and R.R. et A.C. and the Source of its Teachings' for four years, she concluded that the whole Order was evil. Stoddart's attitude, further internal disputes and bad publicity in the press led to the closure of the Amoun Temple, London, in the early 1920's. By 1923 a significant quantity of the Order's papers had been given by Stoddart to a colleague for safekeeping.

Grand Lodge, to provide benefits to clothe and educate the sons of indigent freemasons. In 1808, a similar Institution was established by the Royal Naval Lodge of Independence, No. 59, of the Moderns Grand Lodge. In 1816, the two Institutions merged under the Patronage of HRH the Duke of Sussex following the union four years earlier between the two Grand Lodges to form the United Grand Lodge of England. Although known as the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys from 1798, its official title changed over time. Formed in 1798 as the Masonic Institution for Clothing and Educating the Sons of Deceased and Indigent Free Masons, by 1832, the suffix ‘Royal’ was added when King William IV (1765-1837) became the Patron. From 1858, the Institution operated under the name of the Royal Masonic Institution for the sons of Decayed and Deceased Freemasons, until it formally adopted the title of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys in 1868.

The Institution initially supported boys by providing grants for clothing and education at local schools, known as out-education and maintenance grants. The Institution offered support to boys in this form throughout its existence but in 1857, the Institution also opened its own School for the sons of indigent freemasons. From 1857-1902, the Royal Masonic School for Boys was located in Wood Green, London. In 1903, the School relocated to Bushey, Hertfordshire and in 1929 the Institution opened a Junior School adjacent to the Senior School. Due to a fall in pupil numbers, the Junior and Senior Schools were merged in 1970. In 1977, due to a continued fall numbers, the Royal Masonic School for Boys was closed and the Institution reverted to its initial remit of supporting boys through out-education and maintenance grants.

In 1971, HRH the Duke of Kent, as Grand Master, set up a Committee of Inquiry on Masonic charity, under the Chairmanship of the Hon Mr Justice Bagnall. In 1973, the Committee of Inquiry produced a report, known as the Bagnall Report, which recommended the merger of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls into a single Trust. In 1982, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys merged with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and the trust deed establishing the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys was signed. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys became active in 1986 and it continues to provide educational support to the children of Masonic families where required.

The Supreme Grand Chapter, responsible for the governance of Royal Arch freemasonry in England and Wales and in Chapters overseas meeting under the English Constitution, came into existence on 18 March 1817. However evidence for working the Royal Arch degree exists from the 1730’s, with the first printed reference occurring in 1744. In addition to the three Craft degrees by the 1750’s this degree was conferred on a regular basis in England, Scotland and Ireland. From its formation in 1751, lodges meeting under the jurisdiction of the Antients or Atholl Grand Lodge also conferred Royal Arch and other Masonic degrees. The Antients formed a Grand Chapter in 1771 which met infrequently and did not create formal minutes, appoint separate officers or operate independently from its Grand Lodge. However the Antients Grand Lodge created and maintained separate registers of royal arch membership returns with an index, covering the period c.1746 to 1819.

The Moderns (or premier) Grand Lodge, formed in 1717, preferred to retain a distinction between Craft and Royal Arch freemasonry. While Antients’ Grand Lodges conferred the Royal Arch degree with consent and approval, the Moderns Grand Lodge did not acknowledge it openly and considered it an innovation representing irregular Masonic practice. In consequence several leading members who wished to do this additional degree established an Excellent Grand and Royal Chapter in 1765, in which the Moderns’ Grand Master, Lord Blayney, was exalted on 11 June the following year. A Charter of Compact dated 22 July 1766 constituted this new body as the Grand and Royal Chapter of the Royal Arch of Jerusalem. It met monthly at the Turk’s Head Tavern, Gerrard Street, Soho, from 12 June 1765 until November 1770, and then at various inns before relocating to the new Freemasons’ Hall in December 1775. Minutes, including names of new members exalted between 1769 and 1819, survive from 1765 and by laws were issued from December 1766. It only began to function as a governing body or Council from 13 January 1769, when it constituted three sub-ordinate Chapters and commissioned an official seal the following month. From 1801 the Excellent Grand and Royal Chapter met twice a year and during its existence it was also referred to as the Grand Lodge of Royal Arch Masons, the Grand and Royal Chapter of Jerusalem, the Most Grand and Royal Chapter, Royal Arch Grand Chapter, the Grand and Royal Arch Chapter of the Royal Arch of Jerusalem and the Supreme Grand and Royal Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England, with no fewer than eight alterations to its official title.

Thomas Dunckerley (1724-1795) was a driving force behind the early development of the Grand Chapter, serving as a Royal Arch Superintendent in eighteen Provinces. Chapters working under the Charter of Compact welcomed members from both Antients’ and Moderns’ lodges. By September 1771 the new Moderns’ Grand Secretary, William Dickey complained of abuses and sought a meeting of Lodge Masters and Past Masters to discuss the future of the Grand Chapter. Some reforms took place in November 1773, when it was decided that the Chapter membership should be restricted to Masters and Past Masters, excluding those who had merely ‘passed the Chair’. Many lodge members considered Grand Lodge had no right to restrict them from becoming Royal Arch freemasons. By 1781 the formation of twenty five individual Chapters had been approved, mainly in the Provinces but only three in London. Two years later, thirty five Chapters were meeting but representation by members on its governing body remained limited, despite the formation of a General Convention in April 1784. Calls for reform were followed by unsuccessful attempts to separate the administrative functions of Grand Chapter from its role as a private Chapter that continued to exalt candidates and rehearse ceremonies. Grand Chapter experienced a period of stagnation between 1797 and 1800 but began to renew its activities from 1801, with the appointment of Arthur, 1st Earl of Mountnorris, as First Grand Principal. This revitalisation continued after Lord Moira, Acting Grand Master of the Moderns Grand Lodge under the Prince of Wales, was exalted in June 1803 and became First Grand Principal the following year. Moira resigned in 1810 to enable the Duke of Sussex to become First Grand Principal. Grand Chapter continued to perform both administrative and ceremonial functions until 1817, with the last exaltation of a member taking place on 12 March 1812 and a final Royal Arch ceremony worked on 17 May 1813.

At its last regular meeting on 30 November 1813, Grand Chapter announced the proposed Union between the Moderns’ and Antients’ Grand Lodges. Negotiations concerning the merger between the two Grand Lodges included an acknowledgement of the existence of Royal Arch freemasonry in the Articles of Union, representing the perfection of the Master’s Degree. The final meeting of the Supreme Grand and Royal Chapter took place on 18 March 1817, when the body that became known as the Supreme Grand Chapter of England, responsible for the governance of Royal Arch freemasonry, was formed. The laws and regulations of the new body were approved in May 1817, confirming that every Chapter had to be attached to a Craft Lodge and that no Lodge could form a Chapter without obtaining a Charter to attach to its Craft Warrant. In 1818 a Committee was appointed to regularise the installation ceremonies for Chapter officers, known as Principals. By February 1819 the Committee reported that Principals and Past Principals in London Chapters had been installed regularly but further ceremonies continued into 1824. In 1820 Grand Chapter permitted the installation of Principals and Past Principals in country and foreign Chapters. The first set of printed laws and Regulations appeared in 1823, including a list of 198 Chapters that had become attached to a Lodge.

The new administrative body was entitled initially the United Grand Chapter but from February 1822 it became known as the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England. This indicated that the new body was not in effect a Union between two distinct Grand Chapters, but an amalgamation between the Moderns’ Supreme Grand and Royal Chapter and some Antients’ Royal Arch members. In 1834 and 1835 the Duke of Sussex, First Grand Principal, appointed leading members of the Supreme Grand Chapter to form a Chapter of Promulgation in order to regularise Royal Arch ceremonies. Royal Arch freemasonry incorporates unique symbolism and terminology. The term Brother, as used by Craft lodge members, continued to be used by Royal Arch freemasons until c.1778-1779, when the term Companion appears in Chapter minutes. The symbols Z, H and J for the three Chapter Principals or officers were already in use by 1765. The T and H symbols used in Royal Arch freemasonry, later referred to as the Triple Tau symbol, derive from the Latin phrase, Templum Hierosolimae, or Temple of Jerusalem.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for children was founded in 1852 by Charles West on its current site in Bloomsbury. It was the first children's hospital in Great Britain. The administrative records were kept by the boards and committees of the hospital from its foundation.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852 on its Bloomsbury site. It has undergone several changes of title since its foundation. Its current description, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, dates from 1994.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852. It went through many stages of expansion and building at its Bloomsbury site.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852, in Bloomsbury. It has undergone several changes of name since its foundation, that of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children dates from 1994.

Gunnersbury Women’s Cricket Club was founded in 1925, a year before the formation of the Women’s Cricket Association. They first played their matches at a school in Gunnersbury Lane, West London, and later moved to Headstone Lane in North Pinner, Boston Manor and Ealing Technical College.

Gunnersbury have won the National Club Knockout competition five times – in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 2000. They also won the South Premier Division in 2001. Past members of the club include the cricketer, administrator and journalist Netta Rheinberg, and D M Turner and M I Taylor who played in the first England Women’s tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1934-1935. In 2010 the decision was taken to absorb the club as part of Finchley Cricket Club, thus changing the name of the women’s side to Finchley Gunns Cricket Club.

The collection is made up of items that originally belonged to Miss D Warden, one of the first Treasurers of Gunnersbury Women’s Cricket Club, during the early years of the club's existence.

Michael Hornsby-Smith is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Surrey. He was Chairman of the British Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Study group, 1990-1993.

Publications:

Catholic Education (1978)

Roman Catholic Opinion (co-author 1979)

Roman Catholics in England (1987)

The Changing Parish (1989)

Roman Catholic Beliefs in England (1991)

The Politics of Spirituality (1995)

An Introduction to Catholic Social Thought (2006)

The Post Office was established in 1635 by Charles I. The head of this new service was variously known as Master of Posts, Comptroller General of the Posts and Postmaster of England.

The Civil War saw the the Post Office contested by both sides. Acts of Parliament were passed during the Interregnum (1656) and later upon the Restoration (1660). These established the General Post Office as a branch of government which was to be headed by the Postmaster General.

The service at this time consisted of a number of main routes from London to the provinces. Postmasters on the routes collected and distributed mail and collected revenue.

During this period the scope of The Post Office's activities was limited and its administrative functions were largely concerned with its finances. The General Post Office was based in the City of London and was organised into three departments; the Inland Office which handled all internal letters, the Foreign Office which handled all overseas mails and the Penny Post Office which dealt with all locally posted mail for London. This building was destroyed by the Great Fire of London, which might explain why only a small number of Post Office records from that period survive. Those that have survived are largely volumes of accounts detailing levels of income and expenditure through the years. From 1667 the role of Postmaster General became a political appointment. Between 1691 and 1823, two Postmasters General were appointed, one being a Whig and the other a Tory. At the same time the post of Secretary to the Post Office was created. Over time this post developed into one which held real influence within the General Post Office; the Secretary's Office becoming the centre of decision making within Headquarters.

The eighteenth century saw much development of routes and post towns, although the Post Office continued to be run from London. It was not until 1715 that the Post Office appointed its first regional administrators, known as Surveyors. Surveyors were charged with ensuring that those at lower levels in the organisation were doing their duty and that the revenues were being correctly managed.

The nineteenth Century was a period of vast expansion for The Post Office. Postal rates were subject to a reform which resulted in the introduction of penny postage and the adhesive postage stamp. Increased adult literacy led to a dramatic increase in the volume of mail. The latter half of the century saw an explosion of new services as the Post Office moved into banking, telecommunications and set up a parcels operation. It also saw the development of a nationwide network of post offices through which these services could be accessed.

By the end of the century, Headquarters buildings had accumulated large volumes of historical material. To meet the challenge of managing this material, in 1896 The Post Office established its own record room.

The responsibilities of the surveyors had also grown during this period. They became the heads of districts of management; responsible for managing the range of Post Office activities in their areas.

The Post Office's move into telecommunications began in 1870, with the establishment of the United Kingdom telegraph service as a Post Office monopoly. From 1880, the control of the telephone service passed progressively to the Post Office, with the entire service being taken over in 1912. The Post Office also became involved in international telecommunications culminating in 1947 when, following the nationalisation of Cable and Wireless Ltd, it acquired the company's telecommunications assets in Britain. In 1904, the Wireless Telegraphy Act conferred licensing powers on the Postmaster General, and the Post Office continued to regulate radio services until the responsibility was passed to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1969. Within the field of broadcasting, the Post Office was responsible for the granting of transmission licences and the collection of radio licence fees, and for advising Parliament on questions of sound and television broadcasting services. In 1933 the Post Office's new Public Relations Division took over the Film Unit from the Empire Marketing Board, and in 1940 this unit was transferred to the Ministry of Information, later becoming the Crown Film Unit.

By the 1930s the size and complexity of The Post Office had grown so much as to lead to public criticism. The result of this was a committee of enquiry; the Bridgeman Committee, which led to a large-scale devolution of powers to provincial management and the creation of eight regions.

The Post Office Act of 1961 created a Post Office fund under the management of the Postmaster General. All income was paid into the fund and all expenditure met out of it. This enabled the Post Office to operate as a business with the financial status of a public authority. However, the Post Office remained a government department answerable to Parliament on day-to-day business.

The Post Office Act of 1969 saw the General Post Office ceasing to be a branch of government and becoming instead a nationalised industry, established as a public corporation. Under the terms of the Act, the Corporation was split into two divisions - Posts and Telecommunications - which thus became distinct businesses. The office of Postmaster General was discontinued and The Post Office, as it was now known, was headed by a Chairman and Chief Executive/Deputy Chairman. This role was directly appointed by the Post Office Board. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was created in 1969 and, in addition to sponsoring the Post Office, took over the functions previously exercised by the Postmaster General in relation to Broadcasting.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was dissolved in March 1974. Broadcasting and radio regulation became part of the Home Office, whilst Post and Telecommunications functions became the responsibility of the Department of Industry. The latter merged with the Department of Trade in 1983 to become the Department of Trade and Industry.

In 1981 the telecommunications business of The Post Office became a separate public corporation, trading as British Telecom. In 1984, British Telecom was privatised and since 1991 has traded as BT. Following the 1981 split, the Post Office was then reorganised into two distinct businesses; Post and Parcels. In 1987, there was a further separation of Post Office business as Girobank was transferred to the private sector, eventually being acquired by Alliance and Leicester in 1994.

In late 1986 The Post Office was restructured to create three businesses; SSL (Subscription Services Limited), Royal Mail and Parcelforce. A year later the network of post offices was established as Post Office Counters Limited; a limited company which was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Post Office. Although each of the above had their own Managing Directors and headquarters functions, what was now the Post Office group of businesses retained a headquarters function for group policy. Additionally this Group function continued to provide the rest of the businesses with services and support.

In 1993 the positions of Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive became two separate roles. The position of Chairman as the 'head' of the Post Office remained. The White Paper on Post Office Reform was published in 1999, with the objective of giving greater commercial freedom to the Post Office to enable it to compete and respond to changes in the market place. The paper reduces the governments' financial demands on the business and allows it to borrow from the Government at commercial rates to pay for acquisitions and joint ventures with private companies. This White Paper was followed by the Postal Services Act 2000, which put the recommendations of the White paper into action, giving the postal service the necessary greater commercial freedom. It also established Postcomm as the independent regulator of the postal service, and Postwatch as a national consumer body, which replaced the old Post Office Users National Council (POUNC).

The name Consignia was taken in Spring 2001 as part of an attempt to position the business globally. However, since November 2002, the business that carries letters and parcels and runs the mail has been known as Royal Mail.

Colonel Frederick Nathan joined the Royal Artillery in 1879 and in 1886 took up an appointment at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. Colonel Nathan worked in the explosives industry.