Roberto Weiss was born in Milan, 1906 and studied at the University of Oxford, receiving his DPhil in 1938; excepting a period of military service, he taught in the Italian Department at University College London from 1938 (as Professor from 1946) until his death in 1969. He was naturalized as a British subject in 1934.
This collection of papers documents the experiences of German and Austrian Jewish servicemen in the British Army during the Second World War.
The Weir Hospital was established as a voluntary, general hospital in 1911 on Grove Road, Balham. In 1938, Grove Road was renamed Weir Road. Remaining on the same site, the hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948. It was administered by the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and Wandsworth Hospital Management Committee. In 1950 the hospital became a specialist maternity hospital and was renamed Wandsworth Maternity Hospital. With NHS reorganisation in 1974 the Hospital became part of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority and Wandsworth and East Merton (Teaching) District Health Authority. The hospital closed in the late 1980's.
In April 1933, Joyce Weiner was a young free-lance journalist who had recently spent two semesters as Hilfslektorin at the University of Leipzig. She had many friends in Leipzig and was, therefore, aware of the situation in which the Jewish population found itself. In view of this, she agreed to become the Honorary Secretary of the Hospitality Committee organised by the ladies of the B'nai Brith (in association with the main German Refugees Committee). At the committee she met many talented and distinguished refugees from Germany, the vanguard being professional people such as artists, writers, doctors and scientists. Amongst them was Frau Irma Sernau, a well-known fashion editor from Berlin. Because Joyce Weiner was able to render some service to friends of Frau Sernau, that lady desired to make some return. Her sister, Lola Sernau, was, at that time, private secretary to Leon Feuchtwanger, who was, in Sanary with other famous writers. Lola Sernau arranged for interviews with four of these writers, it being understood that these would be published in John O'London's Weekly, then a reputable and highly regarded literary paper of a popular nature. This was in the summer of 1933. Accordingly, Joyce Weiner had four fascinating conversations with, in turn, Feuchtwanger, Thomas and Heinrich Mann and Arnold Zweig. On her return to England, however, she received a letter from Lola Sernau asking her to stay her hand for the reasons stated in the letter and so the interviews were not published. In fact, for safety's sake they were not written. Irma Sernau went to and from Germany during this period, helping friends to emigrate. She managed to get to France just before the outbreak of war. There she took an active part in the resistance, escaping death many times but surviving and having an unexpected reunion with Joyce Weiner in the late 1950s. Lola Sernau had an honoured place among the exiled writers in Ascona, where eventually Irma died and is buried.
Harry Weinberger was born in 1924 in Berlin, Germany. His family later fled to Czechoslovakia in 1933, and he was later sent by them to England in 1939. After some years in England, including a time in the British Army, Weinberger studied at Chelsea School of Art. He then went on to become an art teacher, as well as being an artist in his own right.
Weinberger's work was very colourful, and mostly featured exterior and interior scenes. He did paint occasional portraits. One of these he painted of Iris Murdoch, a long time friend of his he met in the 1970s. Throughout the rest of her lifetime he maintained a correspondence with Murdoch, and would regularly meet with her to visit art galleries. She was a great supporter of his work, owning a number of his paintings, and writing introductions to catalogues for exhibitions of his work.
Weinberger had a number of exhibitions of his work held, in the UK and in Europe, including regular exhibitions at the Duncan Campbell Gallery in London. He was married to Barbara, who died of cancer in 1996. They had one daughter.
Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin, Ireland on 15 Jul 1919. When she was very young Iris and her parents moved to London, England, and Iris studied at Frobel and Badminton Schools. She followed this with studies in classics, ancient history and philosophy at Oxford, and further study at Cambridge. During the war years Iris worked for the Treasury in London, and then joined the UNRRA providing relief in formerly occupied countries in Europe. In 1948 she became a fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford, where she taught and researched philosophy.
Iris Murdoch wrote a number of tracts on philosophy, however it is for her novels that she is best known. She wrote 26 novels in total, her first being 'Under the Net' published in 1954. Other notable works include 'The Bell' and 'The Sea, the Sea', for which she won the Booker Prize. Her last novel, 'Jackson's Dilemma', was published in 1995.
In her youth Iris Murdoch had relationships with a number of individuals, including Elias Canetti. She met author and scholar John Bayley while at Oxford, and they married in 1956. She wrote to a great number of people and maintained friendships in this way.
Later in life Iris Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease, the first effects of which she had attributed to writer's block. She died in 1999.
Born Antwerp, Belgium, 1907; educated at St Paul's School, 1920-1926, Christ Church, Oxford, 1926-1930; Senior Scholar of Christ Church, 1931-1933; Senior Researcher, Department of Thermodynamics, Oxford, 1933-1935; Dewar Fellow of the Royal Institution, London, 1936-1940; Principal Experimental Officer, Ministry of Supply, 1940-1945; Professor of Chemistry at Queen's University, Belfast, 1945-1954; elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1951; Professor of Thermodynamics, Imperial College, 1954-1975; awarded CBE, 1961; Head of Chemical Engineering Department, Imperial College, 1961-1975; Senior Research Fellow, Imperial College, 1975-1988; research interests included chemical thermodynamics, combustion, explosions and detonations, ionic melts, graphite and intercalation compounds; died, 1988.
Publications: An Introduction to Modern Thermodynamical Principles (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1937); Time and Thermodynamics (Oxford University Press, London, 1947); Man and Energy ... Illustrated (Hutchinson's Scientific & Technical Publications, London, 1954); Thermodynamics in the World of To-day, etc [London, 1955]; Graphite and its Crystal Compounds with Frederick Alastair Lewis (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1960); Melting and crystal structure (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1965).
Bruno Weil, was a scholar, lawyer and politician, who in 1926, was elected Vice-President of the Central Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens. In 1935 he was sent by the CV to the USA to develop links with American Jewish organisations. From there he made a trip to South America, the result of which was this series of articles which were later to be published in the CV newspaper. This particular edition was presumably written for the American market, since the reports are in English and are printed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which was, by then, based in New York.
The Weigh House Boys' Charity School was situated on City Road. The date of foundation is unknown.
Pupil, St Thomas's Hospital, 1933-1935; applied for the position of Physician to the General (Public) Dispensary, Bishop's Court, 1845, and also to the position of Assistant Physician at St Thomas, Hospital, 1849, the latter application was unsuccessful.
Publications: Observations relating to the science and art of Medicine, London, 1851
In 1750 Samuel Wegg bought a house and a few acres of land in Acton. The house was known variously as 'the Paddocks', 'Acton House' and 'the Elms'. Samuel's wife Elizabeth Lehook added to their land when she inherited the Bank House and estate; while Samuel further increased the estate, purchasing the Daycroft estate from the Chapter of Saint Paul's cathedral in 1758 and leasing Acton Ponds from the Bishop of London from 1777.
Wegg died in 1802 and left his estates to his son George Samuel, who died in 1817. The estates passed to Samuel's daughters, one of whom, Sarah Prosser, was married. The other, Elizabeth, moved into the Elms and took up management of the estate. She continued to lease Acton Ponds, but sold Bank House in 1837. When she died in 1842 the estate comprised 169 acres.
The estates were left to a distant relative, Charles Gray Round of Birch Hall in Essex. The Rounds leased out the Elms, and sold Daycroft in 1889. They continued to lease Acton Ponds, buying the freehold in 1877. They sold the ponds to the Council in 1903, while other parts of the Elms estate were also sold off.
Source of information: 'Acton: Manors and other estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 16-23 (available online).
Richard Weekes was born in 1751, the son of Richard Weekes of Shoreham. He was admitted as a pupil at Guy's Hospital, London in 1773. He married in 1777Charity Hampton (1756-1786). In 1791, he married Elizabeth Peckham (1791-1802) Hampton Weekes was born in 1780, the eldest son of Richard Weekes, a Sussex doctor, and his wife Charity Hampton. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School from1791-1796, before returning home to learn the trade of surgeon-apothecary. He furthered his studies at St Thomas's Hospital, London, where he was pupil to Richard Whitfield, Hospital Apothecary, from 1801 to 1803. He practiced in Brighton, before returning to the family home at Hurst around 1810. He married in 1906, Sarah Borer (died 1829), and in 1836, Phyllia Ellis. He retired to Brighton in 1831 aftter selling the family home to his son George, also a medical practitioner. He died in 1855. Richard Weekes was born in 1751, the son of Richard Weekes of Shoreham. He was admitted as a pupil at Guy's Hospital, London in 1773. He married in 1777Charity Hampton (1756-1786). In 1791, he married Elizabeth Peckham (1791-1802).
Hampton Weekes was born in 1780, the eldest son of Richard Weekes, a Sussex doctor, and his wife Charity Hampton. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School from1791-1796, before returning home to learn the trade of surgeon-apothecary. He furthered his studies at St Thomas's Hospital, London, where he was pupil to Richard Whitfield, Hospital Apothecary, from 1801 to 1803. He practiced in Brighton, before returning to the family home at Hurst around 1810. He married in 1906, Sarah Borer (died 1829), and in 1836, Phyllia Ellis. He retired to Brighton in 1831 aftter selling the family home to his son George, also a medical practitioner. He died in 1855.
Richard Weekes (junior) was born in 1783, the second son of Richard Weekes, a Sussex doctor, and his wife Charity Hampton. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School between 1795 and 1797, after which he assisted his father in his surgeons practice, succeeding his brother Hampton as pupil to Richard Whitfield, Apothecary, St Thomas's Hospital, London, in 1803. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeon, 1804. He returned to Hurst where he practiced his trade as well as engaging in the collection of archaeological artefacts. He died in 1847.
Mary Ann Weekes was born in 1781, the eldest daughter of Richard Weekes, a Sussex doctor, and his wife Charity Hampton. In 1811, she married Nathaniel Borrer. She died in 1854.
Grace Weekes , was born in 1784, the second daughter of Richard Weekes, a Sussex doctor, and his wife Charity Hampton. She never married, and died in 1834.
Fanny Weekes was born in 1792, the daughter of Richard Weekes, a Sussex doctor, and his second wife Elizabeth Peckham. She died in 1823.
Teddy Wedlock worked for the Admiralty. From 1924-1928 he and his wife Dora were stationed at Wei-hai-wei Naval Dockyard, North China, where he served as Second Officer to Mr Lofts, the Store Officer to the Naval Dockyard. From 1929-1931, the Wedlocks were based at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Trincomalee in Ceylon. From 1931-1932, they were stationed at HM Naval Dockyard, Hong Kong. Whilst there, they lived in a suite of rooms in the Knutsford Hotel in Kowloon. Dora Wedlock had a strong interest in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Born 1835; educated Edinburgh, Cambridge and Heidelberg Universities; Scottish Member of Parliament for South Ayrshire, 1868-1874 and for Haddington Burghs, 1879-1882; lectured and wrote on his extensive travels including in Europe, North America, India, North Africa, South Africa, Indonesia, China, Japan, Middle East; Australia, New Zealand and Russia; died 1882.
A commission of bankruptcy was a commission appointing and empowering certain persons to examine the facts relative to an alleged bankruptcy, and to secure the bankrupt's lands and effects for the creditors. The bankrupt being examined in this case lived in Kingsland.
Thomas Webster was born in the Orkney Islands, Scotland in c 1772. He was educated in Aberdeen, Scotland before travelling to England and France, making architectural sketches on his journey. He became an architect in London and in 1799 he was Clerk of the Works at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI), employed to design the lecture theatre. He was also a geologist and in 1814 he wrote a paper called `On the Freshwater Formations of the Isle of Wight, with some Observations on the Strata Over the Chalk in the South East Part of England' in Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 2 (1814) 161-254. This study highlighted aspects of British geology not known before indicating upper secondary and tertiary strata, and was very important at the time. Thomas Webster became Curator of the Geological Society's museum and was Professor of Geology at University College London from 1842 to 1844. He died in London in 1844.
Born 1886; educated Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and King's College, Cambridge; Professor of Modern History, Liverpool University, 1914-1922; served World War One as a Subaltern in the Royal Army Service Corps, 1915-1917 and on the General Staff of the War Office, 1917-1918; Secretary, Military Section, British Delegation to the Conference of Paris, 1918-1919; Wilson Professor of International Politics, University of Wales, 1922-1932; Ausserordentlich Professor, University of Vienna, 1926; Nobel Lecturer, Oslo, 1926; Reader, University of Calcutta, India, 1927; Professor of History, Harvard University, USA, 1928-1932; Stevenson Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1932-1953; Foreign Research and Press Service, 1939-1941; Director, British School of Information, New York, 1941-1942; Foreign Office, 1943-1946; Member of British Delegation, Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco Conferences, 1944-1945; Member, Preparatory Commission and General Assembly, United Nations, 1945-1946; Ford Lecturer, Oxford University, 1948; President, 1950-1954, and Foreign Secretary, 1955-1958, British Academy; retired 1953; died 1961. Publications: The European alliance, 1815-1825 (University of Calcutta, 1929); The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815 (Foreign Office Historical Section, London, 1919); editor of Britain and the independence of Latin America, 1812-1830 (Ibero-American Institute of Great Britain, London, 1938); The art and practice of diplomacy (LSE, London, 1952); British Diplomacy, 1813-1815 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1921); British Foreign Policy since the Second World War; The Congress of Vienna, 1814-15, and the Conference of Paris, 1919 (London, 1923); The foreign policy of Castlereagh, 1815-1822 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1925); The foreign policy of Palmerston, 1830-1841 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1951); The founder of the national home (Weizmann Science Press of Israel, 1955); The League of Nations in theory and practice (Allen and Unwin, London, 1933); The pacification of Europe, 1813-1815 (1922); Palmerston, Metternich and the European system, 1830-1841 (Humphrey Milford, London, 1934); Sanctions: the use of force in an international organisation (London, 1956); Some problems of international organisation (University of Leeds, 1943); What the world owes to President Wilson (League of Nations Union, London, 1930); The strategic air offensive against Germany, 1939-1945 (London, 1961); editor of British diplomatic representatives, 1789-1852 (London, 1934); editor of Some letters of the Duke of Wellington to his brother, William Wellesley-Pole (London, 1948).
Sir Charles Kingsley Webster was born in 1886 and educated Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied diplomatic history, and remained until 1914. His career as historian involved research, teaching and advisory work concerning international and current affairs. He married Nora Violet in 1915 and was made KCMG in the new year's honours list in 1946.
During the First World War Webster served as a Subaltern in the Royal Army Service Corps, 1915-1917 and on the General Staff of the War Office, 1917-1918. After the war he continued his involvement with diplomatic and current affairs and undertook various advisory roles. These included; Secretary, Military Section, British Delegation to the Conference of Paris, 1918-1919; Foreign Research and Press Service, 1939-1941; Director, British School of Information, New York, 1941-1942; Foreign Office, 1943-1946; Member of British Delegation, Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco Conferences, 1944-1945; Member, Preparatory Commission and General Assembly, United Nations, 1945-1946.
Webster's academic career included the following posts; Professor of Modern History, Liverpool University, 1914-1922; Wilson Professor of International Politics, University of Wales, 1922-1932; Ausserordentlich Professor, University of Vienna, 1926; Nobel Lecturer, Oslo, 1926; Reader, University of Calcutta, India, 1927; Professor of History, Harvard University, USA, 1928-1932; Ford Lecturer, Oxford University, 1948; Stevenson Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1932-1953.
He also worked to promote international co-operation between scholars, as President, 1950-1954, and Foreign Secretary, 1955-1958, of the British Academy. As President (1950-1954) he represented the British Academy in the Union Académique Internationale from 1948 to 1959. He was also energetic in the International Congress of Historical Sciences, with which he had been associated since 1913, presiding at the Stockholm meeting in 1960.
He retired from full time academia in 1953 and died in 1961.
Publications: The European alliance, 1815-1825 (University of Calcutta, 1929). The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815 (Foreign Office Historical Section, London, 1919). Editor of Britain and the Independence of Latin America, 1812-1830 (Ibero-American Institute of Great Britain, London, 1938). The art and practice of diplomacy (LSE, London, 1952). British Diplomacy, 1813-1815 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1921). British Foreign Policy since the Second World War; The Congress of Vienna, 1814-15, and the Conference of Paris, 1919 (London, 1923). The foreign policy of Castlereagh, 1815-1822 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1925). The foreign policy of Palmerston, 1830-1841 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1951). The founder of the national home (Weizmann Science Press of Israel, 1955). The League of Nations in theory and practice (Allen and Unwin, London, 1933). The pacification of Europe, 1813-1815 (1922); Palmerston, Metternich and the European system, 1830-1841 (Humphrey Milford, London, 1934). Sanctions: the use of force in an international organisation (London, 1956). Some problems of international organisation (University of Leeds, 1943). What the world owes to President Wilson (League of Nations Union, London, 1930). The strategic air offensive against Germany, 1939-1945 (London, 1961). Editor of British diplomatic representatives, 1789-1852 (London, 1934). Editor of Some letters of the Duke of Wellington to his brother, William Wellesley-Pole (London, 1948).
Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire in 1782, and educated at Dartmouth College. He became a lawyer and was elected to the House of Representatives (1812-1817) before rising to national prominence after arguing several cases before the Supreme Court. He was first elected to the Senate in 1827. Webster's attempts to become US President were unsuccessful, but he served twice as Secretary of State, under Presidents Harrison and Tyler (1841-1843) and President Fillmore (1850-1852); the second term ended with his death from injuries sustained after falling from his horse in 1852.
Frederick Parkes Weber (1863-1962): born in London, son of Sir Hermann Weber MD FRCP and his wife Matilda, May 8 1863; attends Temple Grove School, East Sheen, 1874-1877; educated at Charterhouse School, 1877-1881; enters Trinity College Cambridge, 1882; BA (Cantab) Medical education at St Bartholomew's, 1886; MB BCh (Cantab), 1889; MRCP, 1890; MD (Cantab), 1892; Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 1891; Appointed Physician at the German Hospital, Dalston Becomes member of Pathological Society of London, 1894; FRCP, 1898; Physician to Mount Vernon Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, 1899-1911; First edition of Aspects of Death and correlated aspects of life in art, epigram and poetry, 1910; First Mitchell Lecturer, RCP, 1921; Marries Dr Hedwig Unger-Laissle; Fourth edition of Aspects of Death, 1933; Awarded the Moxon Gold Medal of the RCP for 'distinguished observation and research in clinical medicine', 1930; Some thoughts of a doctor, 1935; More thoughts of a doctor, 1938-1947; Gives his papers to the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1958; Elected to the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine; Gives £5000 to the Royal College of Physicians to promote advance in dermatology, 1959; dies aged 99 on 2 June 1962.
There are obituaries in the British Medical Journal, 1962, i, 1630-1, and The Lancet, 1962, i, 1308-9, and an entry in Munk's Roll of Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians. Frederick Parkes Weber's collected writings in celebration of his 80th birthday and 50th anniversary as physician to the German Hospital London, edited by the Medical Staff, 1943, is held in the Wellcome Library and includes a complete bibliography of his publications to that date (update to 1958 in PP/FPW/D.10), a list of the societies and organisations of which he was a member, and tributes from colleagues.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Born, London,1849; President, Architectural Association, 1884; President, Royal Institute of British Architects, 1902-1904; Knighted, 1904; Royal Gold medallist, Architecture, English, 1905, American, 1907; President, Royal Academy, 1919; works included Buckingham Palace, Admiralty Arch, Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal College of Science and Imperial College; died, 1930.
Publications: include: London of the Future editor (London, 1921).
Sidney Webb, 1859-1947, the son of an accountant, was born in London on 13 July, 1859. At the age of sixteen Webb became an office clerk but he continued to attend evening classes at the University of London until he acquired the qualifications needed to enter the Civil Service. Webb also contributed to the 'Christian Socialist' and taught at the London Working Men's College. In 1885 he joined the Fabian Society. In 1892 Webb married Beatrice Potter (1958-1943), the social reformer. In the same year he stood as the Fabian Society candidate for Deptford in the London County Council elections. Webb won the seat and he retained it for the next eighteen years. Webb was appointed as Chairman of the Technical Instruction Committee and as a result was known as the Minister of Public Education for London. In 1894 Henry Hutchinson, a wealthy solicitor from Derby, left the Fabian Society £10,000. Sidney and Beatrice Webb suggested that the money should be used to develop a new university in London. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was founded in 1895.
When the Conservative Party won the 1900 General Election, the Webbs drafted what later became the 1902 Education Act. In 1915 Sidney Webb was appointed to the Labour Party National Executive. By 1922 he was Chairman of the National Executive and the following year, in the 1923 General Election, was chosen to represent the Labour Party in the Seaham constituency. Webb won the seat, and when Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) became Britain's first Labour Prime Minister in 1924, he appointed Webb as his President of the Board of Trade. Webb left the House of Commons in 1929 when he was granted the title Baron Passfield. Now in the House of Lords, Webb served as Secretary of State for the Colonies in MacDonald's second Labour Government. His publications include: 'The case for an eight hours bill' (1891); 'The History of Trade Unionism' (1894) Co-written with Beatrice Webb; 'Industrial Democracy' (1897) Co-written with Beatrice Webb; 'Facts for Socialists' (1887); 'Facts for Londoners' (1888); 'The Eight Hour Day' (1891); 'English local government' (1906); 'The decline in the birth-rate' (1907); 'The basis & policy of socialism' (1908); 'The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission' (1909); 'Conscience and the conscientious objector' (1917); 'A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain' (1920); 'The decay of capitalist civilisation' (1923); 'English poor law history' (1927); 'Soviet communism: dictatorship or democracy?' (1936).
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, 1892; taught himself topographical and hydrographical surveying, 1910-1915; served in the First World War in France, 1914-1919; returned and continued his career in mapping South Africa, 1919; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1916-1932; worked in the Orange Free State, South Africa; reconnaissance in Basutoland; privately published the Gazetteer of Basutoland for which he was honoured by the Queen of England; awarded a prize by the Royal Geographical Society; fought to verify the traditional land claims of the Basotho people who lived near the Orange Free State, the Eastern Cape Colony, and Southern Transvaal. In 1955, he was evicted from his home, and 89 percent of his property was appropriated by the State.
Born in Oxford, 1831; educated at private school, Aynho, Northamptonshire; apprentice to the architect John Billing, Reading, 1849-1852; joined architect's office, Wolverhampton, 1852; assistant to the architect George Edmund Street, Oxford, [1852-1858]; became a close friend of William Morris, also an assistant to Street, Edward Burne-Jones and Charles Faulkner, 1856; moved to London with Street's office, 1856; established independent practice at Great Ormond Street, [1858]; with Morris designed the Red House, Bexley Heath, Kent; founder member of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co, 1861 (later Morris and Co); specialised in the design of animals, metal work and furniture; work included St Martin's Church, Scarborough, the Victoria and Albert Museum, house at Arisaig, Inverness; with Morris and Faulkner founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), 1877; wintered in Italy, 1884-1885, involved with the restoration and excavation of buildings in Italy, became a close friend of Giacomo Boni; retired to Worth, Sussex, 1901; died, 1915.
George Wardle was a member of the Committee of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.
Commendatore Giacomo Boni (1859-1925) was an Italian architect and archaeologist. He was Director of the excavations in the Roman Forum and on the Palatine, Member of the Superior Council of Antiquities and Fine Arts, Minister of Public Instruction and Royal Commissioner for the Monuments of Rome.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Martha Beatrice Webb was born on 20 October 1863 in Furness Vale, Cheshire. She was educated at a private school in Stockport until the age of 16. After a four-year period of ill health, she entered Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied natural sciences. She began the study of medicine relatively late in life, having worked for ten years as a teacher at Edgbaston High School, Birmingham. In 1902, at the age of 38, she attended the Birmingham Medical School, as one of the first female students. Part of her education included clinical training at the General Hospital and Queens Hospital. Both in the classroom and in the wards she experienced discrimination due to her sex from her male colleagues, teachers, and some patients. She graduated MB ChB at Edinburgh in 1907, proceeding MD in 1909.
Webb practiced medicine in Birmingham, where she held the post of lecturer in personal hygiene at Birmingham University, and later became the medical officer for the Department of Education. She created the Women's University Club, a social gathering for professional women, and the Women's Medical Society.
During World War One, 1914-18, Webb studied the conditions affecting the health of working girls for the Ministry of Munitions. She published two books on the subject, entitled Health of Working Girls and On Keeping Well.
During Webb's life there were great advances in women's higher education and their establishment as professionals. Webb was a pioneer in social medicine, and played her part in making this progress possible. From 1923-25 she was a member of the council of the British Medical Women's Federation. She also became president of the Birmingham Association of Medical Women, vice-president of the Birmingham Medical Institute, and a founder member of the Birmingham Soroptimists. She actively supported the British Medical Association's (BMA) campaign for equal pay and conditions for men and women.
Webb retired from medical practice and teaching in 1932. She lived to see Cambridge University admit women to full membership in the late 1940s. She died in Birmingham on 14 February 1951.
Publications:
Health of Working Girls (London, 1917)
On Keeping Well
Teaching Children as to Reproduction
Publications by others about Webb:
`To Live History: the Letters of Martha Beatrice Webb, an Edwardian Medical Student', Katharine Appleton Downes (Harvard University BA thesis, 1989)
The Webbs pooled their respective talents into writing joint works on economic and social issues. This partnership produced books such as The history of Trade Unionism, 1666-1920 (1894), Industrial democracy (1897), and Problems of Modern Industry (1898). Their work spread into areas such as historical and social research, educational and political reform and journalism, and much of what they produced altered the perceptions of economists and social historians, who had previously ignored the working classes. For a biographical history of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, see the description for the Passfield personal papers (Ref: Passfield).
Sidney Webb, 1859-1947, the son of an accountant, was born in London on 13 July, 1859. At the age of sixteen Webb became an office clerk but he continued to attend evening classes at the University of London until he acquired the qualifications needed to enter the Civil Service. Webb also contributed to the 'Christian Socialist' and taught at the London Working Men's College. In 1885 he joined the Fabian Society. In 1892 Webb married Beatrice Potter (1958-1943), the social reformer. In the same year he stood as the Fabian Society candidate for Deptford in the London County Council elections. Webb won the seat and he retained it for the next eighteen years. Webb was appointed as Chairman of the Technical Instruction Committee and as a result was known as the Minister of Public Education for London. In 1894 Henry Hutchinson, a wealthy solicitor from Derby, left the Fabian Society £10,000. Sidney and Beatrice Webb suggested that the money should be used to develop a new university in London. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was founded in 1895.
When the Conservative Party won the 1900 General Election, the Webbs drafted what later became the 1902 Education Act. In 1915 Sidney Webb was appointed to the Labour Party National Executive. By 1922 he was Chairman of the National Executive and the following year, in the 1923 General Election, was chosen to represent the Labour Party in the Seaham constituency. Webb won the seat, and when Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) became Britain's first Labour Prime Minister in 1924, he appointed Webb as his President of the Board of Trade. Webb left the House of Commons in 1929 when he was granted the title Baron Passfield. Now in the House of Lords, Webb served as Secretary of State for the Colonies in MacDonald's second Labour Government. His publications include: 'The case for an eight hours bill' (1891); 'The History of Trade Unionism' (1894) Co-written with Beatrice Webb; 'Industrial Democracy' (1897) Co-written with Beatrice Webb; 'Facts for Socialists' (1887); 'Facts for Londoners' (1888); 'The Eight Hour Day' (1891); 'English local government' (1906); 'The decline in the birth-rate' (1907); 'The basis & policy of socialism' (1908); 'The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission' (1909); 'Conscience and the conscientious objector' (1917); 'A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain' (1920); 'The decay of capitalist civilisation' (1923); 'English poor law history' (1927); 'Soviet communism: dictatorship or democracy?' (1936).
Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943, was born Martha Beatrice Potter at Standish House near Gloucester, she was the eighth daughter of the railway and industrial magnate Richard Potter (1817-1892). Beatrice was educated privately and became a business associate of her father after her mother's death in 1882. She became interested in reform and began to do social work in London.
Beatrice investigated working-class conditions as part of the survey 'Life and Labour of the People in London' (1891-1903), directed by her cousin Charles Booth (1840-1916). In 1892 she married Sidney Webb (1859-1947), later Baron Passfield, a member of the socialist Fabian Society. Sidney and Beatrice Webb served on many royal commissions and wrote widely on economic problems. In 1895 they founded the London School of Economics and Political Science. After a tour of the United States and the Dominions in 1898, they embarked on their massive ten-volume work, 'English Local Government' (1906-1929). Beatrice Webb also served on the Poor Law Commission (1906-1909) and was joint author of its minority report. During World War I Beatrice Webb was a member of the War Cabinet committee on women in industry (1918-1919) and served on the Lord Chancellor's advisory committee for women justices (1919-1920), being a justice of the peace herself from 1919 to 1927.
Sidney Webb became an MP in 1922 and held ministerial office in both the early Labour governments. In 1932, after he had left office, the Webbs visited the Soviet Union. They recorded their views in 'Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation' (1935). The Webbs retired to their home in Hampshire in 1928. Beatrice Webb produced two volumes of autobiography: 'My Apprenticeship' (1926) and 'Our Partnership' (1948), which was published after her death. Her publications include: 'The co-operative movement in Great Britain' (1891); 'The history of trade unionism' (1894) (co-author with Sidney Webb); 'The case for the Factory Acts' (1901); 'English Local Government' (1906) (co-author with Sidney Webb); 'The charter of the poor' (1909); 'The break-up of the Poor Law: being part one of the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission' (1909); 'The coming of a unified county medical service and how it will affect the voluntary hospital' (1910); 'Complete national provision for sickness: how to amend the insurance acts' (1912); 'The abolition of the Poor Law' (1918); 'Wages of men and women-should they be equal?' (1919); 'A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain' (1920); 'Decay of capitalist civilisation' (1923) Co-author with Sidney Webb; 'My apprenticeship' (1926); 'Soviet Communism: a new civilisation' (1935); 'Our partnership' (1948).
Beatrice and Sidney Webb were pioneering social economists, early members of the Fabian Society and co-founders of the London School of Economic and Political Science, and had a profound effect on English social thought and institutions. Beatrice Potter Webb was born in 1858, the eighth daughter of Richard Potter, a wealthy businessman, and Lawrencina Heyworth. Surrounded from an early age by her parents' intellectual and worldly friends and visitors, notably the philosopher Herbert Spencer, she was largely self-educated through copious reading, and frequently a partner for her father during business trips abroad. Following a tempestuous relationship with Joseph Chamberlain, which began in 1883 and lasted several years, Beatrice took up social work in London, acting as a rent collector for the Charity Organisation Society, and becoming steadily disillusioned by the inability of charitable organisations to tackle the basic causes of poverty. During 1886, she participated in research for Charles Booth's investigations into London labour conditions, eventually contributing to Volume I of Life and Labour of the People of London (1889). During this period she continued to write articles on social subjects, most of which were printed in The nineteenth century, and published The co-operative movement in Great Britain (1891). She met Sidney Webb in 1890 during research into economic conditions and labour unions. Sidney Webb was born in London in 1859. Educated in the local academy, he left school at sixteen to work as a clerk in a colonial brokers. By attending evening classes, he passed the civil service exams in 1881 and was appointed a clerk in the Inland Revenue. The following year, he took the Civil Service upper division examination and was appointed to the Colonial Office in 1883. He also began lecturing on political economy at the Working Men's College. Webb was a close friend of George Bernard Shaw, who induced him to join the socialist Fabian Society in 1885, where both men became leading members: Webb was responsible for putting forward the first concise expression of Fabian convictions in Facts for Socialists (Fabian Tract 5, 1887). As a member of the Fabian executive, Webb continued to write and lecture extensively on economic and social issues, and took a leading role in Fabian policy-making. For the year following their first meeting in 1890, Sidney Webb pressed Beatrice to marry him, and she finally agreed in May 1891. They were married in 1892, after the death of Richard Potter, and set up home in London. Sidney left his post in the Civil Service, and the couple lived on Beatrice's inheritance and income derived from books and journalism, in order to dedicate time to social research and political work, though Sidney retained his position on the London County Council (elected for Deptford in 1892, Chairman of the Technical Education Board) and both kept up their association with the Fabian Society, which Beatrice had joined in 1891. They formed a close personal and working relationship. The Webbs pooled their respective talents into writing joint works on economic and social issues. This partnership produced books such as The history of Trade Unionism, 1666-1920 (1894), Industrial democracy (1897), Problems of Modern Industry (1898), and their great nine-volume English Local Government from the Reformation to the Municipal Corporations Act (Longmans and Co, 1906-1929), which was produced over 25 years. Their work spread into areas such as historical and social research, educational and political reform and journalism, and much of what they produced altered the perceptions of economists and social historians, who had previously ignored the working classes. Sidney Webb's work on the London County Council (1892-1910) was equally impressive, as he was a prime mover in the reorganisation of the University of London into a federation of teaching institutions, and was closely involved in the drafting of the Conservative Educational Acts of 1902 and 1903. It was also in this period that the Webbs played a vital part in the founding of the London School of Economics. The LSE owed its existence to the will of Henry Hunt Hutchinson, a provincial member of the Fabian Society, who had left a significant sum of money in trust for 'propaganda and other purposes of the said [Fabian] Society and its Socialism and towards advancing its objects in any way they [the trustees] deem advisable'. The Chairman of the five trustees named in the will was Sidney Webb, who believed the money should be used to encourage research and study of economics. His proposal to establish a Central School of Economic and Political Science in London was accepted by the Trustees in February 1895. Sidney Webb was the driving and organising force in the establishment and early years of the School, providing funding through his connection with the LCC, acting as Chairman of the Hutchinson Trust, the School Trustees and Governors, the Administrative Committee and the Library Committee, as well as being Treasurer and Acting Librarian, and making most of the decisions concerning the choice of Director of the LSE. He was also appointed as Lecturer in Public Administration at LSE, 1895-1912, and Professor of Public Administration in the University of London, 1912-1927. Beatrice undertook the unpaid job of Honorary Visitor from 1895. Beatrice Webb was appointed as a member of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law from 1905 to 1909, and, failing to turn the Commission to her way of thinking, produced a comprehensive policy on pauperism in the form of a minority report, which advocated universal social insurance and outlined a fledgling welfare state. This report was published in 1909 and the Webbs launched a national campaign for the break up of the Poor Law, publishing The prevention of destitution in 1911. In 1912, Beatrice joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and was elected to the Fabian executive, where she set up the Fabian Research Department and promoted joint campaigns of the Fabians and the ILP. In 1917, Beatrice was appointed to the government Reconstruction Committee, to consider post-war social problems, and sat on the Committee on Women in Industry, producing a minority report in favour of equal pay. In 1913, the Webbs planned and launched the New Statesman, a political and weekly magazine, funded by themselves and subscribers from the Fabian Society. The journal quickly became a politically independent socialist forum for serious intellectual discussion, political commentary, and criticism, and was soon influential, especially within parliamentary circles. Sidney Webb acted as Director of the Statesman Publishing Company until 1922, and resigned from the Board altogether in 1924, By 1914, both Webbs were involved with the Labour Party: Sidney became a member of the executive in 1916, and drafted Labour's first policy statement, Labour and the new social order (1918), and stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for London University. He was also nominated by the Miner's Federation to serve on the Sankey Commission on the Coal Mines (1919), which led to his nomination and election as parliamentary candidate for Seaham Harbour, County Durham, in 1922. Sidney Webb held office in both Labour governments, as President of the Board of Trade in 1924 and as Colonial Secretary in 1929, when he was created Lord Passfield. Beatrice published My apprenticeship in 1926. After a visit to the USSR in 1932, where they were impressed with the Communist system, the Webbs devoted three years to the writing of Soviet Communism: a new civilisation (Longmans and Co, London, 1935). By this time they had retired to Passfield Corner in Hampshire: though Beatrice continued to write, Sidney was incapacitated by a stroke in 1938. Beatrice Webb died in 1943, Sidney Webb in 1947. Both are buried in Westminster Abbey.
Beatrice and Sidney Webb pooled their respective talents into writing joint works on economic and social issues. They spent 25 years researching and writing their nine-volume English Local Government from the Reformation to the Municipal Corporations Act (Longmans and Co, 1906-1929, and produced other relevant works on the poor law and social relief. For a biographical history of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, see the description for the Passfield personal papers (Ref: Passfield).
Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943, was born Martha Beatrice Potter at Standish House near Gloucester, she was the eighth daughter of the railway and industrial magnate Richard Potter (1817-1892). Beatrice was educated privately and became a business associate of her father after her mother's death in 1882. She became interested in reform and began to do social work in London. In January 1885 Beatrice became a rent collector and manager for Katharine Buildings in the East End of London. She worked alongside Ella Pycroft, a physician's daughter from Devon. Pycroft had arrived in London in 1883 and spent 5 years working at Katharine Buildings. The property was owned by the East End Dwelling Company and situated in Aldgate. The tenants were casual labourers, dock-workers, porters, hawkers and coster-mongers. Beatrice's task was to collect rents and choose the tenants, replacing them if she felt it to be necessary.
Beatrice investigated working-class conditions as part of the survey 'Life and Labour of the People in London' (1891-1903), directed by her cousin Charles Booth (1840-1916). In 1892 she married Sidney Webb (1859-1947), later Baron Passfield, a member of the socialist Fabian Society. Sidney and Beatrice Webb served on many royal commissions and wrote widely on economic problems. In 1895 they founded the London School of Economics and Political Science. After a tour of the United States and the Dominions in 1898, they embarked on their massive ten-volume work, 'English Local Government' (1906-1929). Beatrice Webb also served on the Poor Law Commission (1906-1909) and was joint author of its minority report. During World War I Beatrice Webb was a member of the War Cabinet committee on women in industry (1918-1919) and served on the Lord Chancellor's advisory committee for women justices (1919-1920), being a justice of the peace herself from 1919 to 1927.
Sidney Webb became an MP in 1922 and held ministerial office in both the early Labour governments. In 1932, after he had left office, the Webbs visited the Soviet Union. They recorded their views in 'Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation' (1935). The Webbs retired to their home in Hampshire in 1928. Beatrice Webb produced two volumes of autobiography: 'My Apprenticeship' (1926) and 'Our Partnership' (1948), which was published after her death. Her publications include: 'The co-operative movement in Great Britain' (1891); 'The history of trade unionism' (1894) (co-author with Sidney Webb); 'The case for the Factory Acts' (1901); 'English Local Government' (1906) (co-author with Sidney Webb); 'The charter of the poor' (1909); 'The break-up of the Poor Law: being part one of the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission' (1909); 'The coming of a unified county medical service and how it will affect the voluntary hospital' (1910); 'Complete national provision for sickness: how to amend the insurance acts' (1912); 'The abolition of the Poor Law' (1918); 'Wages of men and women-should they be equal?' (1919); 'A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain' (1920); 'Decay of capitalist civilisation' (1923) Co-author with Sidney Webb; 'My apprenticeship' (1926); 'Soviet Communism: a new civilisation' (1935); 'Our partnership' (1948).
Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943, was born Martha Beatrice Potter at Standish House near Gloucester, she was the eighth daughter of the railway and industrial magnate Richard Potter (1817-1892). Beatrice was educated privately and became a business associate of her father after her mother's death in 1882. She became interested in reform and began to do social work in London. Beatrice investigated working-class conditions as part of the survey 'Life and Labour of the People in London' (1891-1903), directed by her cousin Charles Booth (1840-1916).
In 1892 she married Sidney Webb (1859-1947), later Baron Passfield, a member of the socialist Fabian Society. Sidney and Beatrice Webb served on many royal commissions and wrote widely on economic problems. In 1895 they founded the London School of Economics and Political Science. After a tour of the United States and the Dominions in 1898, they embarked on their massive ten-volume work, 'English Local Government' (1906-1929). Beatrice Webb also served on the Poor Law Commission (1906-1909) and was joint author of its minority report. During World War I Beatrice Webb was a member of the War Cabinet committee on women in industry (1918-1919) and served on the Lord Chancellor's advisory committee for women justices (1919-1920), being a justice of the peace herself from 1919 to 1927.
Sidney Webb became an MP in 1922 and held ministerial office in both the early Labour governments. In 1932, after he had left office, the Webbs visited the Soviet Union. They recorded their views in 'Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation' (1935). The Webbs retired to their home in Hampshire in 1928. Beatrice Webb produced two volumes of autobiography: 'My Apprenticeship' (1926) and 'Our Partnership' (1948), which was published after her death. Her publications include: 'The co-operative movement in Great Britain' (1891); 'The history of trade unionism' (1894) (co-author with Sidney Webb); 'The case for the Factory Acts' (1901); 'English Local Government' (1906) (co-author with Sidney Webb); 'The charter of the poor' (1909); 'The break-up of the Poor Law: being part one of the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission' (1909); 'The coming of a unified county medical service and how it will affect the voluntary hospital' (1910); 'Complete national provision for sickness: how to amend the insurance acts' (1912); 'The abolition of the Poor Law' (1918); 'Wages of men and women-should they be equal?' (1919); 'A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain' (1920); 'Decay of capitalist civilisation' (1923) Co-author with Sidney Webb; 'My apprenticeship' (1926); 'Soviet Communism: a new civilisation' (1935); 'Our partnership' (1948).
For a biographical history of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, see the description for the Passfield personal papers (Ref: Passfield).
Tobias Rushton Weaver was born in London in 1911, the younger son of Sir Lawrence and Lady Weaver (nee Kathleen Purcell, harpist). He was educated at Temple Grove School, Eastbourne, and at Clifton College, Bristol. In 1929 he attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, gaining degrees in classics and law. In October 1932, Weaver moved to Toronto to work as a bank clerk for two years at the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Upon his return to England, he enrolled at the London Day Training College (later the Institute of Education) and gained a teaching certificate. Weaver's first post (1935-1936) was as a class teacher at the Park Modern School, Barking, which he followed with a one-term appointment as a 'beak' at Eton. In 1936 he was appointed Assistant Director of Education to Wiltshire County Council, and in 1939 became Assistant Director for Higher Education to the Essex County Council. Weaver served in the Royal Navy during World War Two, before taking up a post at the War Office in the Army Education Branch in 1942. Here he was Civil Assistant to the Director and later the Director General of Army Education. It was also during the war that Weaver married Marjorie Trevelyan (1941) and saw his first two children born. In 1946, Toby Weaver joined the Civil Service and was posted to the Ministry of Education, where he joined the Teachers Branch. The Branch was at that time employed in the creation of 55 Emergency Training Colleges to absorb the 100,000 applicants for a shortened training. By 1947, he had moved to the Schools Branch as Territorial Officer in charge of LEAs in the south east. In Jan 1948 Weaver became the Assistant Secretary to the External Relations Branch, with the title of Chief Information Officer. Responsibilities included the Ministry's press and public relations, editing the Annual Report, and representing the Ministry at overseas educational conferences. His next role was once more in the Schools Branch as Assistant Secretary in charge of the School Building Programme and the organisation of schools, 1952-1956. In 1956, Weaver became Under-Secretary in charge of Schools Branch, taking responsibility for advising on all aspects of policy affecting schools, including the reorganisation of all-age schools, the comprehensive system, maintenance allowances, and attendance on the Minister during debates. In Jan 1962 he was promoted Deputy-Secretary, Schools. In 1963, he was appointed Deputy-Secretary, Higher Education, a post he held until his retirement in 1973. Early on, the role included advising Ministers on the implementation of the Robbins Report on Higher Education, and Weaver largely drafted the 1966 White Paper `A Plan for Polytechnics and Other Colleges'. His work was therefore largely responsible for the establishment of the binary policy for higher education and the creation of polytechnics. Other responsibilities included liasing with the University Grants Committee, university salaries, teachers' salaries and assessor on the Burnham Committee, further education, art education and teacher training. Following his retirement, Weaver acted as Visiting Professor of Education at the University of Southampton, 1973; Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, 1974-1976; and Professor of Educational Administration at the Open University, 1976-1978. In addition to the above, Toby Weaver acted as Governor of Clifton College; a member of the Education for Capability Committee of the Royal Society of Arts; Governor of Imperial College (1963-1987); Chairman of the Validation Board of the School of Independent Study, North-East London Polytechnic; Chairman of the Housing Association for Officers and their families; Member of the All Souls Group; and a Member of the British Academy. Toby Weaver was honoured with a CB in 1961 and a knighthood in 1973.
Poulett Weatherley was an explorer and big-game hunter who travelled extensively in Mweru and Luapula, Zambia, 1895 and 1900. He was the first European to circumnavigate and survey Lake Bangweulu, Zambia, 1896. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society 1891-1917.
Born, 1888; educated at the Central Foundation School, City of London College, Royal College of Science; travelled to Egypt, making a geological study of an area near Aswan, 1909; conducted geographical reconnaissance in Portuguese East Africa for Memba Minerals Limited, 1911; assistant mineral surveyor in the Ceylon government service, 1912; war service, 1916; director of the geological survey, Uganda; retired 1939 and returned to England; war service, 1940; director of geological survey of Bechuanaland, 1948-1952; died, 1966.
The Manor of Denham in Buckinghamshire was purchased by Sir Roger Hill in 1670. It was inherited by his daughter Hester, widow of Henry Probert. When she died in 1742 the manor passed to her younger sister Abigail, widow of Edward Lockey. When Abigail died in 1757 her only child, a daughter, was already dead, so the daughter's husband Lewis Way inherited the manor. The manor subsequently remained in the Way family. They lived at Denham Place.
Information from: 'Parishes: Denham', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3 (1925), pp. 255-261 (available online).
Born, 1815; Education: University College, London. BA (1841); Career: Articled to an architect and surveyor; took up teaching; assistant to George Fownes (FRS 1845); Professor of Practical Chemistry, University College, London (1849-1857); had a speech impediment; Editor, Journal of the Chemical Society (1849-1884); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1866; died, 1884.
Ethel Watts (fl 1920-1960) was active in the movement to secure equality for women from the 1920s to the 1960s. She was involved with the London and National Society for Women's Service since at least the 1920s, became Chair of the Junior Council in the mid-twenties and then the Chair of the Executive Committee, taking over from Mrs Kinnell when she retired. Her special interests were wide and ranged over the issues of superannuation paid by women, the taxation of married women, the marriage bar in the Civil Service and the general area of accountancy. She continued this work when it became the Fawcett Society and offered her services as an accountant to this and other organisations with which she had links.
No further information available at present
Thomas Henry Watson was a student at Edinburgh University from 1871-1875. He graduated Bachelor of Medicine and Master in Surgery in 1875. Watson's career history included Assistant Medical Officer, Fife and Kinross District Asylum; Resident Medical Officer at Mildmay Mission Hospital and Dispensary, Bethnal Green, London; Medical Officer, 2nd District, and Public Vaccination Officer, 4th District, Eastbourne Union. He died in 1927.
Born Dublin, 1844; educated Trinity College Dublin and Royal Military Academy Woolwich; Royal Engineers, 1866; served in Sudan under General Charles Gordon, 1874-1875; War Office, 1875-1878; India Office, 1880-1882; led advance on Cairo after Battle of Tell al-Kebir, 1882; served in Egyptian Army, 1882-1886; assistant Inspector General of Fortifications, 1891; retired 1902; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1875-1916; knighted, 1905; died, London, 1916.
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.
Janet Vida Watson was born in London on 1 September 1923, the daughter of D. M. S. Watson FRS, the palaeontologist, and K. M. Watson (née Parker) D.Sc. She was educated privately and at South Hampstead High School, a school chosen by her parents for the high quality of its science teaching for girls. She studied for her B.Sc. in General Science at Reading University 1940-1943, graduating with first class honours. Watson spent 1943-1944 working at the National Institute for Research in Dairying at Reading and 1944-1945 teaching biology at Wentworth School, Bournemouth. In 1945 she entered Imperial College London to study for a B.Sc. in Geology. She graduated in 1947, again with first class honours.
In 1946, on the advice of Professor H. H. Read, she undertook a mapping project in the Highlands of Scotland, initiating her lasting interest in Highland geology. On graduation she registered as a Ph.D. student supported by a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research studentship and, again on the advice of Professor Read, studied the Lewisian complex in the Scourie area of north west Scotland. At the same time John Sutton, another postgraduate student of Read, was working on the Lewisian complex in the Torridon area. Watson and Sutton reached very similar conclusions and the results of their work were written up in a joint paper. Watson and Sutton married in June 1949.
After receiving her Ph.D. in 1949 Watson was awarded a three year Senior Research Fellowship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. In 1952 she took up a Research Assistantship under H. H. Read at Imperial College, a post she held until 1973 when she was appointed Senior Lecturer. She was employed on a part-time basis 1956-1974, having also to look after her elderly parents and parents-in-law. In 1974 Watson was appointed to a personal Chair in Geology at Imperial College and on her retirement in 1983 became Professor emeritus and Senior Research Fellow.
Watson's professional and public responsibilities also included service as President of Section C of the British Association 1972, membership of the National Water Council 1973-1976 and service on project 86 of the International Geological Correlation Programme surveying the south western border of the East European platform. In connection with the latter she made a number of visits to East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.
Watson's first geological research was undertaken as an undergraduate at Imperial College on the Moine metamorphic rocks of the Strath Kildonan area in Scotland. This was followed by her postgraduate work with John Sutton on the Lewisian granite of north west Scotland. This research, which identified two successive Pre-Cambrian tectonic provinces, initiated a new stage in studies of Lewisian rocks and Watson continued to work on Lewisian rocks during her tenure of the 1851 Senior Research Fellowship. From this developed a more general study of the geology of northern Scotland, with which Sutton was involved, but Watson moved on to study of the evolution of the Scottish Caledonides. This research was concentrated on the north east Scottish coast (Banffshire). In the later 1960s Watson returned to work on the Lewisian rocks of Scotland (with particular reference to the Outer Hebrides), and she and her research students collaborated with the Highlands Unit of the Institute of Geological Sciences (IGS, later British Geological Survey) on geological mapping of the Outer Hebrides. The late 1970s saw Watson move into new fields of research. She studied ore-forming processes as an aspect of Pre-Cambrian crustal evolution and from 1977 was involved with joint work with Jane Plant of the IGS on the regional distribution of uranium in relation to the structural evolution of northern Scotland. This work took the well-known technique of stream sediment sampling and used it for investigation of fundamental geochemical problems. In addition from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s Watson also undertook collaborative research with IGS staff on the effects of diagenesis and hydrothermal activity in the post-Caledonian evolution of Scotland.
In recognition of her contributions to geology the Geological Society of London awarded her the Moiety of the Lyell Fund (jointly with Sutton) in 1954, the Bigsby Medal (again jointly with Sutton) in 1965 and the Lyell Medal in 1973. From 1982 to 1984 she was President of the Geological Society, the first woman to hold this office. In 1979 Watson was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society and was appointed a Vice President of the Society in 1983.
Born 1956; educated City of Bath Boys' School and Heriot-Watt University; freelance interpreter and translator in four languages, 1979-1980; Vice-President, 1977-1979, and General Secretary, 1979-1981, International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth; Founder Member, European Community Youth Forum, 1980; Member of Governing Board, European Youth Centre, 1980-1982; Administrator, Paisley College of Technology, 1980-1983; Head of Private Office of the Leader of the Liberal Party (David Steel), 1983-1987; Senior Press officer, TSB Group plc, 1987-1988; Public Affairs manager, 1988-1993, and Senior Public Affairs Manager, 1993-1994, HSBC Holdings plc; Liberal Democrat MEP for Somerset and North Devon, 1994-1999, and South West England, 1999-; Chairman, European Parliament Committee on Justice and Home Affairs, 1999-; Leader, UK Liberal Democratic Party European Parliament, 1999-. Publications: Transport policy in Scotland: time for a rethink (Printout Publications, Edinburgh, 1980); editor of The Liberals in the North-South dialogue (1980).
George Hugh Nicholas Seton-Watson (known as Hugh) (1916-1984) was the elder son of Robert William Seton-Watson, the first holder of the chair of Central European history at SSEES. On graduating from Oxford University, he travelled in Central and South Eastern Europe, studying the conditions of these countries and learning the languages. After World War Two and war service including three years with Special Forces in Cairo and Istanbul, he was able to embark on an academic career at Oxford University. Seton-Watson was appointed to the chair of Russian history at SSEES in 1951 and held this post until his retirement in 1983. He was also head of the History Department at SSEES from 1961 to 1976. Seton-Watson's interests extended beyond Russian history to also cover Eastern and Central Europe. He published twelve books and over 275 articles.
Edith Watson was a member of the Women's Freedom League (WFL) and was involved in the protest which took place on the river Thames in 1913. She became involved with the newspaper 'The Vote' which was published by the WFL and became one of its regular journalists and its court correspondent as well as sending copy covering suffrage events to other newspapers such as the Daily Herald . She became involved at this time in calling for women journalists to be allowed to remain in court when assault charges were being discussed. During the First World War she joined Nina Boyle in establishing the first Women's Volunteer Police Service as well as becoming involved in other areas of civil defence. She moved to Watford in 1945 where she remained politically active. That same year she also became the secretary of the Divorce Law Reform Union.
No information was available at the time of compilation.