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Miniature replica of Czech Crown Jewels:

The crown is named after the patron Saint Wenceslas I of the Premyslids dynasty, who reigned in Bohemia between the 9th century up to the year 1306. The original crown was made from gold and precious stones and weighs 2.475kg. It was made for King Charles IV in 1346. The royal orb dates back to the era of Rudolph II; the scepter dates from the late 16th century. The original jewels are exhibited only to mark special occasions:

Marie Curie University: commemorative tea set:

Lublin University was named in honour of Marie Curie-Skłodowska (1867-1934), a physicist and chemist of Polish origin; pioneer in the field of radioactivity who discovered Polonium along with her husband Pierre Curie in 1898. She became the first person honoured with two Nobel Prizes, and the first female professor at the University of Paris.

Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham (1757-1831) was an engineer and naval architect and was an official in the Russian Navy (1780-1791) and in the British Navy (1795-1831). He was the brother of the reformer and philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).

Josef Beran (1888-1969) was Archbishop of Prague and was later made a Cardinal. Beran was put under house arrest by the new Communist government in 1949. He was released in 1963 and in 1965 was allowed to leave Czechoslovakia for the Vatican City.

Lucjan Blit (?-1978) was born in Warsaw but left Poland during the Second World War and after 1943 lived in Britain. He worked as a journalist and later as a lecturer becoming lecturer in East European political institutions at SSEES 1973-1977 and the London School of Economics and Political Science 1970-1977.

Countess Brasova (1888-1952) was born Natalia Sergeevna Cheremtevskaia, the daughter of a Moscow lawyer. Before she was twenty she had married twice, to Sergei Manmontoff, with whom she had a daughter and after their divorce to Liolucha Wulfurt, an army captain. Shortly after her marriage to Wulfurt, Chermemtevskaia met and began an affair with the Colonel in Chief of her husband's regiment, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, the younger brother of Tsar Nicholas II. In 1910 their son was born, Cheremtevskaia later obtained a divorce from Wulfurt and in 1911 she married the Grand Duke. As a result of their morganatic marriage the couple were banished from Russia by the Tsar and. spent two years in exile. They lived in England and travelled around Europe before the First World War began and the couple were allowed to return to Russia.
Eventually the Tsar recognised their marriage and gave Cheremtevskaia the title of Countess Brasova. As she was not of royal blood Countess Brasova was not entitled to hold any imperial title. In March 1917 as the Russian Revolution began, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in favour of Grand Duke Michael. The Grand Duke held the throne for only two days before he too abdicated, ending imperial rule in Russia. The Grand Duke and Countess Brasova were imprisoned by the new Bolshevik Government. Countess Brasova was released and left Russia with her children in 1919. Grand Duke Michael disappeared, later it was learnt that he had been executed in June 1918. Countess Brasova settled first in England and later in Paris where she lived in increasing poverty until her death in 1952.

Pavel Vasilievich Chichagov (1767-1848) was the son of a Russian admiral and arctic explorer, Vasili Yakovevich Chichagov and his British wife. He entered the Russian navy at the age of 15, became rear-admiral in 1796 and Minister of Marine in 1802. In 1812 he took command of the army in Turkey and the Government of the Danube Principalities. He was recalled from this post with his army to cut off the retreat of the French army led by Napoleon. This aim was achived with a great victory at Beretsina in November 1812. After Beretsina, Chichagov retired and spent the remainder of his life in England and France.

During late 1989 Communist rule in Czechoslovakia was ended, Civic Forum became the first legal opposition movement for 40 years and Václav Havel was elected president.

Not known

Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich (1890-1954), politician and diplomat, served as War Minister 1935-1937 and First Lord of the Admiralty 1937-1938. He resigned from the latter post in protest at the Munich Agreement. The album in this collection was presented to Duff Cooper in 1938 by a Czechoslovak school, Prof. Drtina Kralov, Girls' Seondary School as a gesture of thanks for his support of Czechoslovakia. After the outbreak of the Second World War he re-entered government, serving as Minister of Information 1940-1941, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1941-1943, representative to the French Committee of National Liberation 1943-1944 and Ambassador to France 1944-1947.

Margaret Evans (?1851-1893) was born Margaret Freeman, the daughter of a historian, E A Freeman. In 1878 she married the archaelogist and journalist Arthur Evans. She took an active interest in his work which specialised in the Balkans. After their marriage they lived in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), Croatia until 1882 when her husband was expelled from the country as a result of his journalistic activities. In 1883 she accompanied her husband on a trip to Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria. On this visit Arthur Evans was able to complete his study of an ancient site at Scupi (later Üskub, now Skopje in Macedonia. Margaret Evans lived in Oxford for the remainder of her life as her husband became keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 1884.

Michael Glenny (1927-1990) spent ten years in the army. He then took an MA in Modern Languages followed by postgraduate study in Soviet studies at Oxford University. He became a well known translator of Russian literature, having translated works by Gogol, Dostoevskii, Gorky, Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn. He was also a lecturer in Russian language, literature and history at Birmingham University 1969-1975, Southern Illinois University 1975-1977 and Bristol University 1977-1984. He was the author of several works on Russian literature as well as co-author of "The other Russia", a study on Russian emigres.

Sergius Hessen (1887-1950), philosopher and educationalist, was born in Ust Sysol'sk, Northern Russia. He studied at German universities before returning to Russia to became a lecturer at St Petersburg and Tomsk Universities. In 1922 Hessen left Russia to live first in Czechoslovakia and after 1935 in Poland where he lectured on education at Warsaw University. During the Second World War he was one of the professors who established a clandestine university during German occupation. After 1945 he was Professor of Education at Lodz University. Ref: "Slavonic and East European Review" vol 29, no 72, 1950, pp 296-298

Joseph Christopher William Horne worked for many years in the British Museum Library and was well known as a translator of Hungarian poetry.

Kenneth Johnstone b. 1902; educated at Eton College and Balliol College Oxford; entered Diplomatic Service, 1926; served in Warsaw, 1928, Oslo, 1930, Sofia, 1931 and London; seconded to British Council, 1936; resigned to join Welsh Guards, 1939; served war of 1939-1945 in France, 1940, North Africa, 1942, Middle East and Greece, 1943-1945; rejoined Foreign Office, 1945; CMG 1949; Deputy Director-General British Council, 1953-1962; CB 1962; Chairman of Council, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1965-1976

Martti Julkinen is Director of the Centre for Extension Studies, University of Turku, Finland.

Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic (1787-1864), Serbian language reformer, was born in Trsic, Serbia, then under Turkish rule. In 1813 after a brief period of independence, Serbia was reconquered by the Ottoman Empire and Karadzic was one of many refugees to flee to Vienna. It was here that he met Jernej Kopitar who became an influence on his thinking. Kopitar was a Slovene working as the Austrian Imperial consor of Slavonic subjects. Karadzic's goal became to make the Serb language spoken by peasants under Turkish rule the literary norm in place of the classical style. He also wanted to establish a uniform orthography with a revised and simplified alphabet. In 1815 Prince Milos Obrenovic succeeded in overthowing Turkish rule. From 1829 to 1832 Karadzic served the newly independent state in various ways.

In 1832 Karadzic returned to Vienna after his newly published alphabet was banned by Obrenovic as a result of opposition from the Orthodox Church. Karadzic protested at Obrenovic's policy in his published letter "Letter to Milos Obrenovic". A copy of the original letter (now probably in the National Library of Slovenia) is part of this collection, For much of the period 1832-1859, Karadzic was barred from Serbia (from 1842 to 1859 the Obrenovic family were also in exile). He continued his battle against the old Serb alphabet and for the use of popular language. Karadzic also wrote works on Serbian history and the life and customs of Serbian peasants and published collections of folk songs. He died having largely succeeded in his linguistic aims.

James Klugmann (1912-1977) joined the Communist Party in 1933 while at Cambridge University. In 1935 he gave up an academic career to become Secretary of the World Student Association and travelled widely. During World War Two he rose to the rank of major and became deputy director of the Yugoslav section in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), based in Cairo and later in Bari, Italy. After the war he was attached to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Yugoslavia. It was during his service in Yugoslavia with the SOE and UNRRA that Klugmann collected the material for this collection. Returning to Britain in 1946 he spent the rest of his life working for the Communist Party. From 1957-1977 he was also editor of "Marxism Today".

George Luckyj and Jaroslav Rudnykj are both Canadian academics with Ukrainian family backgrounds. Luckyj is professor emeritus, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto. He is the author, translator and editor of more than 30 books on Ukrainian language and literature.

Dr Bertha Malnick was Reader in Russian Studies at SSEES from 1946 to 1966.

William Kleesmann Matthews (1901-1958) was born in Narva, Estonia of an Estonian mother and an English father. The family came to live in Blackpool, Britain in 1914. After graduating from Manchester University, he gained a PhD from SSEES in 1926. His interests at that time were in Slavonic literature rather than linguistics. However since there were few suitable career opportunities for him in Britain at that time, Matthews went to live in Latvia where he worked as a lecturer in English at the State Institute of English, Riga and later at Latvia University. During this time he wrote several books, numerous articles on linguistic and literary subjects and also translated Latvian poetry.

After the incorporation of Latvia into the Soviet Union in 1940, Matthews was evacuated as a British citizen via Moscow to Australia. He spent the rest of World War One in Brisbane serving as a military censor, interpreter and German teacher to the Australian and U.S. Armed Forces. During this time he also studied Australasian languages. He returned to Britain in June 1945 and was employed once more by SSEES. From 1946-1948 he was lecturer in Russian and in 1948 became Professor in Russian Literature and Language. In 1950 he was appointed head of the Department of Language and Literature and also editor of "The Slavonic and East European Review". In addition to publishing several books on linguistics, Matthews wrote many articles on linguistics and literature and translations of Latvian, Estonian and Slovenian poetry.
Ref: "Slavonic and East European Review" vol 37, no 88, 1958, pp 1-16

Professor William Richard Mead (1915-) was Professor of Geography at University College London 1966-1981. He is now Professor Emeritus. He was chairman of SSEES Council 1978-1980. He has had a life long interest in Scandinavian countries, Finland in particular. He has written an number of books on Finland and on other Scandinavian countries. He has been chairman of the Anglo-Finnish Society since 1966.

Aleksei Semenovich Musin-Pushkin was Russian ambassador in London 1769-1778.

Gjenco Demetre Naçi (1907-1992) was born in Turkey to parents of Albanian descent. Albania was at that time still part of the Ottoman Empire. His family later moved to Greece and he grew up in Paxos and Corfu. There is little information in the collection on the events of his early adult life although it is clear that he qualified as a lawyer, moved to Albania and at some time in the early 1930s, married Jeanne Rogge-Vancappel (1911-c.1992), a Belgian. When Albania was invaded by Italy in April 1939, Naçi and his wife left the country. It was at this time that he became private secretary to King Zog (1896-1961). King Zog had became president in 1925 and king in 1928. Naçi and his wife probably fled the country along with the king, his family and other staff.

King Zog and his party, now including the Naçis stayed briefly in Greece and Turkey before making their way to France in August 1939. After the fall of France in June 1940, they settled in Britain. At first they made their home at the Ritz Hotel, London but in May 1941 Zog and his party moved to Sunningdale before settling at Parmoor, a country house near Henley-on Thames. The group totalling around forty, was comprised of King Zog, his wife Queen Geraldine, their young son Leka, other members of King Zog's family, Sohir Martini who served as court minister during this period of exile and staff members including Naçi and his wife.

In February 1946 the king, his family and most of his party left Britain to live in Egypt. He never returned to Albania, which became a communist state and was declared a republic. Naçi and his wife remained in Britain and settled in London. He probably made his living as a journalist and translator. In 1949 the Naçis' only child Alexander Leonidha Peter (1949-1995) was born. The following year Naçi took up a post as Albanian monitor for the BBC monitoring service, based at Reading and the family moved there. Naçi always retained an interest in Albanian affairs, particularly after his retirement when he wrote several unpublished books on the subject.

Alexander Naçi obtained a degree in modern languages from Queens College, Oxford and worked as a journalist and lecturer. In 1973 he changed his surname by deed poll to Nash. On his death, he bequeathed his estate to SSEES to enable the setting up of a Centre for Albanian Studies.

G A Pavlovsky was a PhD student at SSEES in the 1920s.

Edmund W Richardson edited "The Picture Postcard", a magazine published in London 1900-1907.

Vivian Dering Vandeleur Robinson (in adult life he only used Vandeleur Robinson) (1902-1990) was the son of an army colonel and was briefly a military cadet himself before leaving to study history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was active during the inter war period within the League of Nations Union and possibly spent some time living in Czechoslovakia. He was the author of several books on the Balkans as well as a number of plays. He became a captain in the army during the Second World War and was probably involved in political intelligence work.

Michael Joseph Rura was a postgraduate student at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

The Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (SCONUL) became an incorporated body in 1978. The Slavonic and East European Group (SEEG), at that time a special interest group of SCONUL became an advisory committee, the Advisory Committee on Slavonic and East European Materials (ACOSEEM). These papers are the gift of Dr J E O Screen, the Librarian of the University of London School of Slavonic and East European Studies (1972-1998). He was Chairman of SEEG/ACOSEEM 1975-1980 and was also a committee member.

Dr Milos Sekulich (1900-1986) was born in Valjevo, Serbia and trained as a physician at Belgrade University. He became a specialist in internal diseases and tuberculosis and from 1935 was head of the Belgrade Municipal Hospital. In 1941 he fled the German occupation of Yugoslavia to come to Britain, bringing messages and accounts of atrocities from General Mihailovich and the Serbian Peasant Party to the British Government. In exile in Britain he was medical adviser to the Yugoslav Ministry of Health in exile, a member of the Medical Council of the Yugoslav War Ministry in exile, executive committee member of the Yugoslav Red Cross and Yugoslav Representative to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, 1941-1945. After World War Two, he remained in Britain, an opponent to the new communist government of Yugoslavia. He continued to practice medicine. From 1945-1948 he did research on the classification of tuberculosis, later he worked as a GP in the National Health Service and in various chest clinics. He published many medical works. Sekulich was much involved in Serbian emigre affairs publishing several pamphlets and books through the emigre press. He was editor of the Serbian emigre publications "Peasant Yugoslavia" and from 1964 "Voice of the Serbian Community".

Robert William Seton-Watson (1879-1951) arrived at Vienna University in 1905. It was the beginning of a life-long interest in the history and politics of Central and South East Europe, much of which was then unified under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Seton-Watson travelled widely in Austria-Hungary prior to World War One and published a number of books on the national conflicts that existed within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the war, recognised as an expert on the area, and with many personal contacts, he was able to exercise influence as a member of the Intelligence Bureau of the War Cabinet (1917) and the Enemy Propaganda Department (1918) where he was largely responsible for the British propaganda that was disseminated to the Austro-Hungarian people. Seton-Watson also published a weekly periodical "The New Europe" (1916-1920) which was prominent in informing a wider public of the situation in the region. He travelled widely in the immediate aftermath of the war, attending the Paris Peace Conference and visiting the new states that had been created as a result of the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After the First World War Seton-Watson played a lesser role in influencing policy and his academic committments grew. He played a prominent role in establishing a School of Slavonic Studies at Kings College London in 1915 (later SSEES). Seton-Watson was appointed the first holder of the Masaryk chair in Central European history in 1922, a post he held until 1945. During this time he founded and edited "The Slavonic Review" with Sir Bernard Pares. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Seton-Watson once again held posts in Government service, at the Foreign Research and Press Service (1939-1940) and Political Intelligence Bureau of the Foreign Office (1940-1942). However in contrast to his work during the First World War, he was unable to influence policy partly because he did not have access to decision makers and also because he was not allowed to publish his writings. In 1945 he was appointed to the new chair of Czechoslovak Studies at Oxford University, a post he held until his retirement in 1949. He had three children with his wife, May Stack. His sons Hugh (George Hugh Nicholas) and Christopher also became historians.

Born 1841, Hafod, Wales, and brought up on the family farm in Pembrokeshire; apprenticed to a local apothecary; aged nineteen moved to London, worked at a chemist in Streatham and then as dispenser to the German Hospital; attended German lectures at University College London; moved to Aberdeen where he qualified in 1867; Army Medical School at Netley, Hampshire, 1868, where at the end of the four-month course passed out first on the list; posted to India in 1869, where he investigated cholera; while studying chyluria (the presence of lymphatic fluid in urine), he discovered minute worms in the urine of one particular patient - subsequently they were identified as Filariidae; in 1872 Lewis found similar worms in a blood sample and when this work was written up Lewis was amazed to discover the original patient setting up the type for its publication by the Government Printing Office in Calcutta. Later he found the mature worm but it had already been discovered independently of him by Joseph Bancroft in Australia. However he discovered and described the first trypanosome, which was named Trypanosoma lewisei after him, in the blood of a mammal; appointed, 1883, Assistant Professor of Pathology at Netley where he introduced practical bacteriology to the curriculum; died of pneumonia, 1886, allegedly as a consequence of a laboratory accident.

Lionel Everard Napier was born in 1888 and educated at St John's School, Leatherhead and St Bartholomew's Hospital. Napier became a member and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1914 and served in World War One, 1915-1918.

Napier worked as consultant on Tropical Diseases, Ministry of Pensions; Medical Editor, Caxton Publishing Company; editor of the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Professor of Tropical Medicine and Director of School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta. Napier's work was recognised when he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1940 and when he was appointed Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, 1942. Napier died in 1957.

Max Joseph von Pettenkofer was born in southern Germany in 1818; attended high school in Munich and then studied pharmacy, natural science and medicine, qualifying with a Phd in medicine, surgery and midwifery, 1843. Pettenkofer then applied to join Liebig's laboratory at Giessen, having to wait two years to enter. During these two years he studied at Würzberg, devising the test for bile acid that bears his name and started research into meat juices which inspired Liebig to investigate them.

Pettenkofer left Giessen to seek better-paid employment in Munich; was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Pathological Chemistry at the University of Munich, 1847 and was promoted to Ordinary Professor 8 years later. Pettenkofer became Chief of the Court Pharmacy and Apothecary to the Court, 1850 and began investigating John Snow's thesis that cholera and typhoid were water-borne, following epidemics in Munich. Results of his investigation convinced him that the cause lay in the moisture content of the soil which varied with the rise and fall of ground water. Despite his fallacious theories Pettenkofer's sanitary work improved the health of Munich. Pettenkofer refused to believe in the germ theory and is said to have drunk a vial of water contaminated by Vibrio cholerae which was sent to him by Robert Koch, assuring Koch that he remained in his usual good health. There is a theory that this was a death wish in disguise as he later committed suicide in 1901.

Publications: Cholera: how to prevent and resist it (Baillière Tindall, & Cox, London, 1883); Outbreak of cholera among convicts : an etiological study of the influence of dwelling, food, drinking-water, occupation, age, state of health, and intercourse upon the course of cholera in a community living in precisely the same circumstances (Asher, London, 1876) and The value of health to a city: two lectures delivered in 1873 (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1941).

Born 18 Jan 1868; educated Tavistock Grammar School, Devon County School, and Plymouth College; entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, 1886; FRCS and MB, BS (London), 1892; entered Indian Medical Service, 1893; MD (London), 1897; MRCP, 1898; on return to India, lent to the veterinary department for research, Múktesar, where he made important discoveries on the control of rinderpest in cattle by inoculation and on transmission of equine trypanosomiasis (surra) in horses and camels; posted to the Bengal civil medical department, Calcutta, 1900; Professor of Pathology, Medical College Calcutta, 1906; undertook research on the effects of antimony on the parasite of kala-azar, sea snake venom, and the effects of emetine on amoebic dysentery; also introduced major improvements in treatment of amoebic abscess of the liver by aseptic aspiration, and in cholera by the intravenous infusion of sterile solution of blood salts (known as 'Rogers Fluid'); investigated efficacy of chaulmoogra oil on leprosy and encouraged research into a cure for leprosy; instrumental in foundation of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, and in foundation of the British Empire Leprosy Relief Association, 1923; knighted, 1914; elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1916; left India, 1920; retired from Indian Medical Service, 1921; appointed lecturer at the London School of Tropical Medicine; appointed member of the India Office Medical Board, 1922, and its President, 1928; Secretary of the Research Defence Society; retired and given honorary rank of Major General, 1933; President Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, 1933-1935. Selected publications: Fevers in the Tropics (1907); Cholera and its treatment (1911); Bowel diseases in the Tropics (1921); Leprosy with Ernest Muir (1925); Recent Advances in Tropical Medicine (1928); Tropical Medicine with JWD Megaw (1930); Happy Toil (1950), numerous scientific papers in medical journals and Royal Society publications on fevers, snake venoms, liver abscesses, tuberculosis, leprosy; kala-azar, cholera and dysenteries.

Prior to the introduction of the GPO's mail coach service in 1784, the mail was conveyed by horse riders or mail cart on the longer routes out of London and on foot on some country services. The service was slow and vulnerable to attacks by armed robbers. In 1782 John Palmer of Bath put forward his scheme for conveying the mail by stage coach. Rejected in 1783 by the Postmasters General, a trial was finally approved in June 1784, with the support of William Pitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The experiment on the Bristol-Bath-London road in August 1784 was a success and Palmer began to organise further mail coach services in 1785. He was appointed Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office in 1786 and presided over the expansion of the service throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. By 1790 all the most important routes had been covered and many towns had a daily delivery and collection of mail by coach. The full scheme involved 42 mail coach routes.

The mail coach service was almost immediately affected by the arrival of the railways in the 1830s. The GPO quickly took advantage of this new and faster method of transport to replace the mail coaches. The last of the London based coaches ceased in 1846, although this method of conveyance continued for cross post services between some provincial towns until the 1850s. The last coach in the Midlands ran out of Manchester in 1858. Mail coaches lasted longest in those area which railways were slow to reach, such as Cornwall, Mid Wales, the Peak District and far North of Scotland. One of the last mail routes to be used, to Thurso in northern Scotland, ceased after the opening of the Highland Railway in 1874. In some remote parts of Scotland railways were never built and horse drawn carriage continued into the twentieth century, until replaced by motor vehicles.

Post Office experiments with motor transport began in the 1890s. Until the end of the First World War services were provided mainly by private contractors. In 1919 the Post Office introduced its own fleet of motor vehicles.

Rowland Hill is remembered today as a key reformer of the British Postal Service. In 1840, he introduced the Universal Penny Postage which decreed that letters of a given weight should all cost the same to send, regardless of the distance. For example, letters up to ½ ounce cost 1d (14gms/0.5p) to send and postage was prepaid, using the world's first adhesive stamp.

He first advocated his plan in a pamphlet published in 1837 and the system was recommended for adoption by a Committee of the House of Commons the following year and put into effect in 1840. Hill was appointed as adviser to the Treasury to introduce the postal reforms. He strove to create a more efficient postal service that everyone could afford. His reforms ranged from encouraging people to insert letter boxes in their front doors to creating London's first postal districts. The appointment was terminated following a change of government in 1842. He was recalled to the Post Office in 1846 and appointed Secretary to the Postmaster General, and succeeded Colonel Maberly as Secretary to the Post Office in 1854. He retired from Office in 1864 and died in August, 1879.

Over the centuries there have been hundreds of different ways that messages have been carried and sent. By the early 1830s typeprinting of Telegraphs was happening in Europe, and in 1889 an English model of one of these machines was introduced to the Post Office by (Mr) Hughes.

By 1913 the Post Office was looking at ways of improving the speed of its operation and it was not long before the 'Teleprinter' was introduced by Creed. This machine possessed a typewriter keyboard and could be operated to approximately sixty five words a minute. This machine printed the Telegram ready for delivery. This was a great boost to the efficiency of the system. It was adopted by the Post Office and used by its telegraph services.

The Post Office wanted to encourage the use of the Telegraph and in the early days reduced rates and employed more operators in order to reduce delay. They improved the working areas, and introduced motor cycles to speed up delivery. By the 1930s they were introducing beautifully decorated Greeting cards for sending on special occasions. These continued until the late 1960s when the numbers being sent reduced.

In the early 1980s and through to the 1990s there was liaison with British Telecom in order to introduce a 'Telemessage Service'. This was similar to the Greetings Telegram and a variety of designs were produced for various events like 'Weddings', '21st Birthday' and 'New Arrival'.

The first ever main line railway opened in 1825 and ran between Stockton and Darlington. In 1827 the use of that railway, and future lines, for carriage of mails was suggested to Secretary Francis Freeling by Thomas Richardson (see POST 11/51). The first conveyance of mail by this method actually occurred on 11 November 1830 on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, less than two months after this second main line had opened (see POST 11/52). The Post Office was quick to take advantage of the new form of transport and in July 1837 mails were conveyed by train from Birmingham to Liverpool on the inaugural service of the Grand Junction Railway (see POST 11/57 and 58). In January 1838 the idea of having special mail carriages was experimented with; a horse box suitably fitted up started running between Birmingham and Liverpool on the Grand Junction in 1838. Proving a success, the first official 'travelling post office' set off from London to Preston on 1 October 1838.

In August 1838 an Act to provide for the conveyance of the mails by railways was passed by Parliament. This enabled the Postmaster General to compel railway companies to carry mails by ordinary or special trains, at such hours as the Postmaster General might direct, together with mail guards and other officers of the Post Office. Companies could also be required to provide carriages fitted up for sorting letters en route. In return, railway companies would receive a payment to be fixed, by arbitration if necessary, for any services and accommodation supplied. This Act provided the foundation for all future arrangements for carrying mails by rail.

Between 1838 and 1848 railways expanded rapidly in Britain and mails were quickly diverted to them from the roads. The London and Birmingham Railway, opened in September 1838, was the first important line to be completed in England and marked the end of the 'Golden Age' of coaching. From 1844, the year of 'railway mania', to 1848, 637 separate lines received their charters from Parliament. Mail coach contractors unable to get passengers essential to their operations where the railway ran a parallel route began giving notice to quit (see POST 11/60 and 61). The south western coaches ceased their runs when the Great Western Railway was completed to Bristol in June 1841. The last horse drawn mail from London, to Norwich via Newmarket, was withdrawn in January 1846. By this time the railway network was becoming moderately complete. However, up to the 1870s railway services in the provinces often operated in connection with mail coaches.

By the 1850s the railway posts were generally known as Travelling Post Offices or Sorting Carriages and a number of trains almost wholly devoted to carrying mail were in operation. (See also POST 18). Over the next seventy years railways contributed significantly to the vast improvement in quality, increase of volume and speed of postal communications within Britain. Serious competition was absent until the widespread use of motor vehicles from the second quarter of the twentieth century.

The Post Office began to consider the benefits of introducing automatic data processing (ADP) in the 1950s. The first large scale application of a computerised system to Post Office operations was the introduction of the LEAPS system (London Electronic Agency for Pay and Statistics) in 1958. Prior to this, computers had been used in remittance work and postmaster balancing work, as well as in the Post Office Savings Bank.

The LEAPS system was introduced to replace the manual preparation of pay. Two Elliot 405 computers were developed and used for payroll, pensions and statistical work; this meant that the Post Office was now one of the largest users of ADP equipment in the UK.

Gradually, computer applications and ADP systems were proposed and introduced throughout the organisation. In 1961, the Post Office looked at ten areas of Head Post Office work where ADP could be applied. The areas considered were: mail circulation; delivery and collection planning; motor transport scheduling; payroll and staff; postal staff planning and control; cash accounting by counter machine; broadcast receiving licences; postal costing; income and expenditure accounting. A review was undertaken and it was decided to proceed with computer application in all these areas. Eventually, ADP and the use of computer applications and systems were applied to all aspects of postal work.

Several factors had to be considered each time a new proposal for a computer application/system was thought up - the Post Office had to consider whether or not it was profitable to introduce the new system and if there was an urgent need for it, as well as the practicialities of implementation and optimum timing. They also had to think about the effect it would have on the public and on Post Office staff as, inevitably, the introduction of ADP and computer applications meant that fewer staff were needed.

Up until 1969, the Post Office was a government department. Its change of status brought in legislation, namely the Post Office Data Processing Act, 1967 (see related material) which enabled the establishment of the Data Processing Service. The Data Processing Service had two arms - the Post Office Data Processing Service (PODPS) which provided ADP services and support to the Post Office and the National Data Processing Service which worked for external customers.

While the 1960s saw the Post Office considering ways of introducing ADP, the following decades saw the increasing use of computers in Post Office work, particularly in the 1980s with various plans to implement and improve computer systems for data capture and streamlining data processing methods. The counter automation project in the 1980s (which looked at the possibility of introducing a computer system to record cash transactions at local offices) is just one example.

The 1980s also saw the Post Office's Information Technology Department informing people of their work and developing IT strategies; the work resulted in the introduction of several computer systems to assist with the day to day running of the Post Office.

Around 1990 the Information Technology Business of the Post Office became known as 'iT'.

In the following passage of writing, a selection of the major Acts of Parliament that have affected the Post Office over the centuries, and that can be found within this class of records, are described in a little more detail.

An Act for the Settling of the Postage of England, Scotland and Ireland 1657 (POST 114/1):

In 1635, Charles I made the Royal Posts officially available for public use for the first time. Unlike Charles, this service survived the Civil War and in 1657, Oliver Cromwell's parliament passed an Act that established a number of important principles that would guide the early Post Office during its subsequent expansion. On the second page of the Act is the following passage: 'Be it enacted by his highness the Lord Protector and the parliament… that from henceforth there be one general office to be called and known by the name of the Post Office of England'. And so the General Post Office (GPO) came into being. The Act established the position of Postmaster General (which remained the head Post Office position until the role was eventually abolished with the Post Office Act of 1969) and rates of postage were also set forth. To send one letter anywhere within 80 miles of London cost two pence; to Scotland, four pence; and to send a letter as far as towns in France, or even to Constantinople, cost one shilling. Finally, the Act claimed for the Crown the sole right to offer a postal service within the British Isles, establishing a state monopoly that would survive until the new millennium. Any person or organisation found to be offering postal services without the proper authority could be fined £1000 for each month the service was active (p.10). There have been numerous subsequent Acts of parliament that have modified the terms of this monopoly, such as the 1837 Post Office Management Act and Post Office Offences Act (POST 114/5).

Conveyance of Mail Acts: Mail Coaches (1790) and Railways (1838) (POST 114/52 and 53):

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the Post Office introduced a new method of conveying letters and parcels across Britain that greatly contributed to a growth and improvement of postal services and an expansion of the organisation. A system of mail coaches was developed that became the principal method of conveyance of mails until trains came to dominate from the 1840s onwards. The Stage Coach Act of 1790 laid down rules for the new system. Turnpike charges, the number of horses per carriage, the number of passengers per carriage, fines for mail guards who unnecessarily fired their issued guns and other details were set forth. The champion of the new mail coaches was John Palmer who was the first to see that armed mail coaches travelling on improved roads according to a precise timetable could make postal communications more efficient. This it did, and it was the first of a number of significant transportation changes that would facilitate great leaps in the growth of mail volumes that could be effectively handled by the Post Office. The mail coach system eventually passed away as the trains of the industrial revolution became the prime method of transporting the mails over distance. The Conveyance of Mails by railways Act of 1838 gave the Postmaster General the authority to require railway companies to carry mails at the direction of the Post Office in return for suitable payment, with fines imposed upon companies who refused. The Royal Arms were to be painted on these carriages and from the early 1840s, Travelling Post Offices (TPO) - trains that would carry the mails and staff to sort them whilst in transit - began to run, with over 100 in operation by the end of the century. Further Railway Acts with various amendments were passed in 1844 and 1868.

Superannuation Act 1859 (Post 114/105)

State pensions could be claimed at the age of 70 from 1908 and this marked the beginning of improved welfare provisions in Britain aimed at tackling the poverty and hardships that had been perennially associated with old age. For much of the nineteenth century, those who became too old to work had to rely on the meagre provisions of family, charity and the Poor Law to survive and in this respect, the Superannuation Act of 19 April 1859 meant that working for the Post Office as an established employee became a vocation coveted for the financial securities it offered later in life. From this date, pensions were paid to employees after at least ten years service at one-sixtieth of retirement pay, rising to a maximum of four-sixths. Those who retired earlier than age 60 for health reasons could expect to receive one month's pay for each year of service. Further pensions acts were passed by parliament through the nineteenth century (also reproduced in this volume; see also POST 114/106), which expanded upon the provisions of the landmark 1859 act and added various adjustments to pension and gratuity entitlement. From 1909, standard pension entitlement was slightly reduced, but a lump sum to the value of one-thirtieth of retirement pay was added, in addition to other entitlements such as a gratuity worth one year's wages paid to the family of an employee who died in service.

Savings Bank Act 1861 (POST 114/89)

By the mid-nineteenth century the debate about the role the state should play in the country's personal banking had grown in importance. The old Trustee Savings Banks handed their takings to the government for investment and received a fixed yearly dividend in return. This system did not facilitate small savings and depositors often had to travel a great distance to use such services. Although Rowland Hill, who was still secretary of the Post Office at the end of the 1850s, opposed further state (Post Office) intervention into financial services, others such as Frank Scudamore and John Tilley favoured the introduction of a set of reforms that would see the department take primary responsibility in administrating a personal savings facility. In 1861, having been introduced by Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, the Savings Bank Act was passed by the Palmerston Government and business began on 16 September. What was new about the service was that it was state-run and therefore enjoyed high security; deposits and withdrawals could be made at different post offices for one account by using a 'depositor's book'; small sums under one pound could be deposited; and account holders received a dividend equivalent to the value of interest accrued by state investment of their money, rather than a fixed rate. This meant that poorer people could now more easily use such services and the Post Office Savings Bank grew rapidly. In 1862, 178,000 accounts held £1.7m and by the turn of the century these figures had risen to 8.5m accounts and £136m in deposits (note that many people, as well as clubs and societies, held numerous accounts). Banking services remained an important part of the Post Office. In 1969, the service became known as National Savings.

Post Office Act 1969 (POST 114/14)

The Post Office Act of 1969 is one of the landmark events in the history of the organisation during the twentieth century. By this time, the Post Office, still a department of government, had acquired full responsibility for running an array of national services including postal communications, the ever-growing telephone system, a national savings bank (including National GIRO, introduced in 1968), pensions and much else besides. When the 1969 legislation came into effect on 1 October, it made a number of significant changes. Firstly, the Post Office ceased to be a government department and became a public corporation with all of its shares owned by the government. Organisational changes to this effect had been underway since the beginning of the decade and by 1969 it had been generally accepted that the new corporate status was necessary for the organisation to become a profitable entity in the post-war economy. This meant that the historic position of Postmaster General was abolished and a new Post Office Board reported to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, a newly established ministerial position. Secondly, this legislation effectively divided the organisation into two distinct businesses: posts and telecommunications. It was felt that this would ensure a more efficient service for both and facilitate the ongoing modernisation that it was hoped would improve the profit margins of the Post Office as a whole. In reality, the Post Office Act of 1969 paved the way for the telecommunications side of the business to be separated from Post Office management entirely and it was eventually privatised in the early 1980s. The Act itself is 264 pages long and addresses other issues such as finance, banking, pensions, stamps and the status of the Post Office's postal and telecommunications monopoly.

Faller's Pharmacy was opened by Faller Snr in 1932 and was finally closed down in 1979 by Mr Faller's son. These volumes containing details of prescriptions dispensed cover the whole lifespan of the business. All of them are indexed.

Lewis and Burrows Ltd was formed in 1895 to acquire and amalgamate under one management several pharmacy businesses in north and west London, including Burrow's Drug Stores in Brompton Road and Westbourne Grove, Matterson's Drug Stores in New Oxford Street and Wigmore Street, Lewis's Drug Stores in Great Portland Street, Kilburn High Road and Baker Street, and Trick's Drug Stores in Green Lanes and Abney Park Terrace, Stamford Hill. Photographs of the premises are reproduced in the prospectus, a copy of which is enclosed in the Allotment Book (GC/134/2).

Founded in 1905 as Napsbury Asylum, under Middlesex County Council. Became Napsbury Mental Hospital after the end of the First World War.

For details of G W M Findlay's life and career, see Who Was Who 1951-1960, Munk's Roll Vol V and obituaries in The Times, British Medical Journal and Lancet.

Dr Ludwig Freyberger qualified in medicine in Vienna in 1889 and was House Physician, House Surgeon and Clinical Assistant at Vienna General Hospital before moving to London where he was Clinical Assistant at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. He qualified MRCS (Eng) in 1893 and MRCP (Lond) in 1894. He was a barrister-at-law at the Middle Temple as well as a toxocologist, and served as pathologist for London inquests. At this time he was also Honorary Physician to the St Pancras and Northern Dispensary, and pathologist, museum curator and registrar at the Great Northern Central Hospital. An analysis of the controversy surrounding his employment, 1902-1912, by the new coroner for the South-Western District of London can be found in Medical History, 39,3, July 1995.