After breaking away from the Soviet Union in 1991, Latvia held its first independent elections in 1993.
Karel Lisicky served in the Czechoslovak diplomatic service from its foundation in 1918 when Czechoslovakia gained her independence. He served in the Czechoslovak embassy in Paris, 1918-1926 and in Warsaw 1927-1931. From 1932 until 1936 he was part of the Czechoslovak delegation to the League of Nations. In 1936 he was appointed Counsellor of the Czechoslovak embassy in London. He remained in this position throughout the Munich crisis and World War Two, during which time Czechoslovakia was under German occupation and the Czechoslovak Government in exile was based in London. After the end of the war and the restoration of Czechoslovak independence Lisicky was posted to the Czechoslovak delegation to the United Nations where he was on a number of committees. Most notably he was chairman of the United Nations Palestine Commission which was set up to partion Palestine in 1948. Later in 1948 Lisicky resigned from the diplomatic service after the Communists took power in Czechoslovakia. He spent the remainder of his life in exile in Britain.
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.
Baron Alexander Felixovich Meyendorff (1869-1964) was born in Russia, the son of a diplomat and Olga, Princess Gorchagov. After graduating in law from St Petersburg University and military service, in 1893 he joined the civil service. In 1907 he became member for Livonia in the Duma. He was vice president of the Duma for some time and in 1917 became a senator. He accepted an appointment as Russian ambassador to Britain but resigned after the policy supporting the Stockholm Conference was abandoned. In 1918 he left Russia for Latvia with his wife and in 1919 emigrated to Britain, From 1922 to 1934 Meyendorff was reader in Russian institutional politics at the London School of Economics. He wrote several books, his interests being land law, organisation of peasant communities and diplomatic history.
Ref: "Slavonic and East European Review" vol 42, no 99, 1964, pp 440-442
Prince Dmitry Petrovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky (1890-1939), literary critic and historian was born in Russia. He served in the Russian army during World War One, and in Denikin's Volunteer Army during the civil war. He emigrated to Britain in 1920. He was lecturer in Russian literature at SSEES from 1922 to 1932. In 1932 Mirsky joined the British Communist Party and in 1932 he returned to Russia. He was arrested in 1937 and died in a labour camp in 1939. Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928), whose obituary is part of this collection was an expert on ancient religions, teacher of Russian at Cambridge and a friend of Mirskys'.
Ref: Mirsky, D S & ed. Smith, G S "The letters of D.S. Mirsky to P.P. Suvchinskii, 1922-1931" (Birmingham, 1995)
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.
"Families, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial values: Britain and Russia" was a project headed by Professors R E Pahl and P R Thompson and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The project involved life story interviews of adults from two different generations of the same family in order to investigate the connection between family and cultural sources of entrepreneurial values and entrepreneurship. The British section of the project was never undertaken.
Heinz Pannwitz (1911-?1981) (real name Paulsen) was born in Berlin. In 1940 he became criminal commissioner heading Department GII of the Prague Gestapo in German occupied Czechoslovakia. On 27 May 1942 an assassination attempt was made on the life of Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) which resulted in his death on 4 June. Heydrich was head of the Nazi security police and governor of Bohemia-Moravia. The assassins were intelligence agents sent by Czech military intelligence in exile in Britain, aided by the Special Operations Executive. Pannwitz was appointed head of a special commision to investigate the killing. His final report was submitted to Hitler and found its way to the archives of the Institute for Jewish Research, New York (YIVO). In 1959 Pannwitz wrote his account of the investigation found in this collection. He would have had to rely on his memory as few books had been published on the subject at that time.
K A Papmehl received his PhD from SSEES in 1965. He later went to work in Canada. This collection consists of Papmehl's writings on Matthew Guthrie (1732-1807). Guthrie was a Scottish physician who worked in Edinburgh and wrote on Russian ethnography, folklore and early history as well as on science and medicine.
S W Pring (?-1954) was a translator of Russian literature and writings on music.
Frank Gann Redwood (1896-?) was born in Gillingham, Kent. During World War One he served first in the Royal Naval Air Service and then in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, being with the Danube Flotilla in 1919. He was transferred to the British High Commission in Hungary in 1920 and continued in the Foreign Service there until 1941 when he was evacuated via the Soviet Union. He returned to Hungary in 1945 with the Inter-Allied Control Commission, leaving in 1948.
Edmund W Richardson edited "The Picture Postcard", a magazine published in London 1900-1907.
Margaret Tatiana Rose was awarded a PhD by the University of Hull in 1988.
Bonds selected from those submitted by claimants against the Russian Compensation Fund after the final distribution from the Fund.
Michael Joseph Rura was a postgraduate student at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
The School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London began life as the School of Slavonic Studies, Kings' College in 1915. In 1932 the School became a self governing department of the University of London. In the post Second World War period the School expanded.
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".
Harold Gordon Skilling (1912-) obtained his PhD from SSEES. He later taught at the Universities of Wisconsin, Dartmouth College and Columbia. He has written a number of books on Czechoslovak and Central and East European history and politics. He is currently Professor Emiritus of the University of Toronto.
Harry C Stevens (1896-1972) was a translator of Russian and Polish literature and had a strong interest in the affairs of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. During World War One he was a conscientious objector from military service on religious grounds and was imprisoned. From August 1919 to September 1924 he worked with the Polish, Russian and joint British and American Units of the Friends War Victims' Relief Committee on a number of aid projects based in Warsaw, Minsk, Buzuluk and Moscow. On his return to Britain Stevens wrote articles and lectured on his experiences. From 1929 to 1935 he was a research worker in England for the Marx-Engels Institute and in 1931 became manager of Atlas Film Company which was engaged in the commercial exploitation of Soviet silent films. He was also during this time a very active member of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR.
During the 1930s Stevens increasingly devoted more time to the translation of Russian and Polish literature and this remained his main occupation until 1953 when a decline in commissions led him to take a post as a clerk. From 1940-1945 however he worked for the Polish Ministry of Information (Government in exile in London) as an editor and translator.
Magdolna Kallay (?-1989) came to Britain from Hungary in 1947. She married Miles Tomalin and used the forename Madeleine.
Jekaterina Vaitsenberg-Schwetje was a postgraduate student at Georg-August University, Göttingen, 1995.
Jacques M Vergotti (1915-) was one time equerry to King Michael of Romania (1920-) (reigned 1926-1947).
Born Cairo 24 February 1932, schooled in Liverpool, and Jersey, attended Pembroke College, Oxford, reading modern languages, from 1950; 1953 he began BLitt research, degree completed 1957; 1955 first teaching post as Assistant Lecturer at Westfield College, advanced swiftly through each career grade to Chair in 1969, serving, much later (1986-1989), as Vice-Principal of Westfield College; 1990-1997 Research Professor, Queen Mary, University of London; 1997 retired, but held various Visiting Professorships and delivered lectures and conference papers internationally.
Married Ann Bracken in 1957. Published 40 books, written or edited, and almost 200 articles ranging through four centuries of medieval Hispanic literature. Died 19 September 2009.
At the age of 14 Bernard Morris became an engineer apprentice at Merryweathers. During the Second World War he undertook fire watching on roofs and completed his apprenticeship in the Royal Navy, as an area Petty Officer. After the war he worked at Queen Mary College as a technician. He built the steam engine by hand between 1972 and 1974.
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).
Eileen Brooke graduated from East London College in 1926 with a BSc in Maths, and in 1929 with a MSc in Mathematics. In 1952 completed a PHD. Carried out statistical analysis work for as Chief of Medical Statistics, Institut Universitaire de Medecine Sociale et Preventive, Lausanne, Switzerland (Corresponding Associate) and earlier in her career at the World Health Organisation.
Pioneer and supporter of public health orientation in mental health programmes. Co-author with G. C. Tooth of 'Trends in the mental hospital population and their effect on future planning', published in the Lancet in 1961, in which it was claimed that, as the result of statistical analyses of current trends, the future needs of beds in British mental hospitals would be halved. A paper which proved influential in shaping Government policy with regard to the future of mental hospitals.
East London Papers was a journal of history, social studies and the arts edited by members of Queen Mary College staff, 1958-1973. Edited by Stanley Bindoff (1908-1980) and published at University House, it represented a forum for the study of local history in East London, and expression of views on the social and artistic life of the community.
Delf-Smith, Ellen Marion (1883-1980), botanist, was born on 31 January 1883. Educated at the James Allen Girls' School, Dulwich, and at Girton College, Cambridge, she studied under such historic figures as Marshall Ward and F. F. Blackman. At Girton she earned a first class in both parts of the natural sciences tripos, and was joint winner of the Montefiore prize in 1906, her final year. Originally planning to stay at Cambridge to study plant physiology with F. F. Blackman, she instead accepted an offer to teach botany at Westfield College, University of London.
In the early years there were few facilities for science teaching at Westfield and she had no help. Equipment grants and technicians were unknown, and if she wanted a specimen she had to go out and collect it and prepare it herself. In 1910 the University of London approved the Westfield laboratory to prepare students for the final BSc pass examination in botany and granted Delf the status of a recognized teacher of the university. The college was recognized to prepare students for honours degrees in botany in 1915.
By working at the Joddrell Laboratory, Kew, she took her London D.Sc. in 1912. Her main studies were in plant physiology, but in later years her interests widened to take in the marine algae and indeed a large number of other subjects. Between 1911 and 1916 she studied the transpiration of plants, the process by which plants excrete water, particularly the morphology of Ulvaceae or seaweeds, publishing her results in four papers in the Annals of Botany. In 1912 she was awarded the London DSc degree for a thesis based on original research, as well as the Gamble prize from Girton for an essay entitled 'The biology of transpiration'.
In 1914 Delf was granted a Yarrow fellowship from Girton to work on transpiration in evergreens, but the demands of the First World War made her feel that she should be more directly involved in war work and so from December 1916 to January 1920 she was a research assistant at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London. As a member of a team led by Dr Harriet Chick she investigated the vitamin content of foods as pertaining to the rations of the military.
After the war, she was returned to Westfield, yet left once more in 1920 to go to South Africa as a temporary research fellow attached to the Institute of Medical Research, Johannesburg, where she continued her vitamin research; investigating the vitamin C content in the diets of local mine workers. She was offered a chance to remain permanently in South Africa, but chose to return to Westfield, when she learned that a new laboratory had just been built for her. From 1922 her connection with Westfield was unbroken; she was appointed a university reader in 1921, became head of the Westfield botany department in 1939, and directed the developing Botany Department through its removal to a new building and over its war years in evacuation in Oxford. Many of her students proceeded to posts in higher education and research and attribute their scientific awakening to her stimulus and interest.
In 1928 she married Percy John Smith, well-known as an artist, etcher and letterer from which time she was generally known as Delf-Smith. She moved with him to Haverstock Hill in Hampstead, remaining at Westfield as a non-resident lecturer. He pre-deceased her in 1948, the year of her retirement. After retirement she continued her association with Westfield as President of the Westfield College Association, 1950-1955, and subsequently as an Honorary Fellow, appointed in 1955. Delf-Smith was a life member of the British Association, a fellow of the Linnean Society, a member of the South East London Botany Society, the South East Union of Scientific Societies, and the Association of Women Science Teachers, served on the advisory algae committee of the Scottish Seaweed Organization and for many years was an Honorary Member of the British Phycological Society. She died on 23 February 1980 at the age of ninety-seven.
Dr Frank Alexander Middlemiss (1920-2014) was born on 25 March 1920 in Leyton, East London. Served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War, spending 14 months as a Prisoner of War in Italy and Germany in 1944-1945. Received a first class degree in Geology from Queen Mary College in 1950, and stayed on to pursue a PhD, completed in 1955. He taught in the Geology department at Queen Mary for the rest of his career, leading many field trips. He officially retired in 1982. He was made a Fellow in 1996.
Middlemiss’s specialisms were Lower Cretaceous brachiopods, and the geology of the Weald and South East England, including the Lower Greensand Group and the chalk cliffs of Kent. He provided advice on the construction of the Channel Tunnel. He was a Fellow of the Geographical Society from 1950-1982. He was a member of the Geologists' Association and a member of several working groups of the International Union of Geological Societies.
Met his wife, Florence, in 1946 when they were both students at Queen Mary. They had two children, Stella and Joan.
Gwyn Owain Jones (1917-2006) CBE, joined Queen Mary College in 1949. Professor and Head of the Department of Physics, 1953-1968. Resigned in 1968 to become Director of the National Museum of Wales. Fellow of Queen Mary College 1969.
Jenkins, Harold (1909-2000), literary scholar, was born on 19 July 1909 in Shenley, Buckinghamshire, the eldest son of Henry Jenkins (1878-1932), a dairyman, and his wife, Mildred, née Carter, who were cousins. Harold had an elder and a younger sister, and two younger brothers. Educated at a local school from the age of three, he won a free place in 1920 at what became Wolverton grammar school. Scholarships enabled him to proceed in 1927 to University College, London, where he read English language and literature. He graduated in 1930 with first-class honours, winning both the George Morley medal in English literature and the prestigious George Smith studentship (1930-31). The subsequent award of the Quain studentship enabled him to continue his studies for another five years, during which he also taught.
His MA thesis (1933) on the Elizabethan dramatist Henry Chettle, supervised by W. W. Greg, was published in revised form as The Life and Work of Henry Chettle in the following year. After a year as William Noble fellow in the University of Liverpool he took up a lecturership in English in 1936 at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where he stayed until 1945. His Witwatersrand DLitt thesis (1945) appeared in revised form as Edward Benlowes (1602-76): Biography of a Minor Poet (1952). During his time in South Africa, he produced book reviews in the form of radio broadcasts, 1940-1941 and 1944-1945. In 1939 he married Gladys Puddifoot (1908-1984), whom he had met as a student. She became a respected historian and was an ideal partner, sharing his scholarly interests until her death in a road accident in 1984.
Returning to London as lecturer at University College in 1945, Jenkins was promoted to Reader in the following year, and in 1954 took up the chair of English at Westfield College. During the 1950s he wrote essays on Twelfth Night and As You Like It, and a classic study, The Structural Problem in Henry IV (1956), delivered as his inaugural lecture at Westfield College. In 1954 Jenkins was assigned to edit Hamlet for the New Arden Shakespeare, and in 1958 he became joint general editor with Dr Harold Brooks. In 1967 Jenkins was appointed Regius Professor of rhetoric and English literature in the University of Edinburgh. He retired early and returned to London in 1971 to work on his edition of Hamlet, which was published in1982. His studies of the play produced at least eight articles or major lectures, two of the most notable being his British Academy lecture in 1963 entitled Hamlet and Ophelia, and his 1967 inaugural lecture at Edinburgh, The Catastrophe in Shakespearean Tragedy.
In later life Jenkins received several prizes and honours including the fellowship of the British Academy in 1989 and the 1986 Shakespeare Prize from the FVS Foundation of Hamburg. A volume in his honour, Fanned and Winnowed Opinions, including essays by friends along with a memoir and a list of publications, appeared in 1987. For over forty years Jenkins served on the council of the Malone Society, of which he was elected president in 1989, and for which he edited Chettle's Tragedy of Hoffman (1951).
He died at home in Surrey, on 4 January 2000, bequeathing his books to Queen Mary and Westfield College, which also houses his literary paper
Born, 1896; educated at the Grocers' Company's School, Hackney Downs; civil service, 1912-1916; active service in France as a lieutenant (Territorial Army) in the Royal Garrison Artillery, 1916-1918; Exeter College, Oxford, 1919; assistant lecturer in English at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, 1921-1924; assistant lecturer in English at King's College, University of London, 1924-1928; lecturer in English, 1928; first Montefiore Professor of English in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Palestine, 1942-1945; returned to England, 1945; chair of English Language and Literature at Queen Mary College, University of London, 1952-1964; retired from the chair and appointed Professor Emeritus, 1964; died, 1973.
Jon John (1983-2017) was a performance artist and practitioner of body modification.
Born in the French Basque country as Jonathan Arias, Jon John as he was known both personally and professionally, was best known for using his body in situations of ritual suffering, duress, and difficulty in performance. He was also renowned for his piercing and tattoo studio AKA (Berlin and London), his development of techniques for piercing, scarification, and implants, and as a designer of body piercing jewellery.
His performances drew on extensive field research in the Middle East, North Africa, and India, where he investigated folk usages of ritual self-injury as forms of secular as well as religious transcendence. At the end of his life, he was collaborating with the lay anthropologist Paul King on Hearts in Sorrow, a documentary about Shia Islamic rites in Iran. Paying homage to these and other ritual practices, Jon John's performances also incorporated references to high fashion, pop music, so-called 'modern primitivism' and industrial culture, magic, sadomasochism, and sex.
His work was also centrally concerned with his intersectional identity as Gitano (Spanish Romani), Basque, and queer. Including sentimental uses of bloodletting, hook suspensions, dancing on thorns, and DIY surgery, Jon John's own tattooed, scarred and 'hacked' body was central to his work as an artist. His works were known to be arduous to perform, and sometimes gruelling for his audiences to witness, but Jon John professed his own investment in the themes of love, romance, tenderness, loss and grief: in a manifesto, he would describe his art as an 'action of love', and an 'ecstatic' ritual of 'communal alchemy'.
Key performance included 'The 2 of Us', in which a cannula was inserted into the crook of his elbow, allowing him to write in blood until he passed out; and his 'farewell' performance 'Love on Me: The Finest Hour', performed shortly before his death. Beyond performances, his art works also included video, film, writing, and collodion print photography. He collaborated on projects with international artists, including Ron Athey, Lukas Zpira, Marilyn Manson, Kiril Bikov, Joey Arias, Jochen Kronier, and Nick Knight.
Jon John died of cancer in Bayonne, France, on 6 April 2017.
Born, Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, 1789; apprenticed to a Newcastle coach-painter, 1804; ran away after a dispute over wages; apprenticed to a Newcastle china-painter, Boniface Musso; moved to London and supported himself painting on china and glass whilst studying perspective and architecture; sent the Royal Academy his first pictures, 1812; became an opponent of the Royal Academy after becoming aggrieved over the hanging of his pictures in 1814 and 1816, but continued to contribute to their exhibitions; appointed historical painter to Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold, 1817; exhibited at the British Institution, 1819-1821, including 'Belshazzar's Feast'; joined the Royal Society of British Artists on its foundation and exhibited there, 1824-1831,1837-1838; exhibited 'The Fall of Nineveh' at Brussels, 1833, bought by the Belgian government; elected a member of the Belgian Academy and awarded the order of Leopold by the King of Belgium; quarrelled with the British Institution, 1836; exhibited many works at the Royal Academy, 1837-1852, including many landscapes in water-colours; drew illustrations (with Westall) to Milton's Paradise Lost; worked on plans for improving London, including water supply and recycling of sewerage, 1827-1853; died, 1854.
Professor Michael Laughton, Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of London; Employed at Queen Mary College in Faculty of Engineering 1961-2000. Became a Professor in 1977, Inaugural lecture 1978, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering 1983-1986; Pro-Principal 1986-1991 and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
Born, Dublin, 1856; attended a Weslyan school, but was largely self educated through visits to the National Gallery of Ireland and wide reading; worked as a cashier, 1872-1876; moved to London in 1876 to join his mother and sister; wrote but failed to publish five novels, 1878-1883; strongly influenced by Karl Marx's Das Kapital; joined and became a leading member of the Fabian Society, 1884, and edited Fabian Essays in Socialism, 1889; worked as a book, drama and music critic for the Pall Mall Gazette, 1885-1888, the World, 1886-1889, the Star, 1888-1890, and the Saturday Review, 1895-1898; published The quintessence of Ibsenism, 1891; wrote Widowers' Houses for performance by Independent Theatre, 1892, attacking slum landlords and allying Shaw with a realistic and political movement in the theatre; this was followed by The Philanderer (1893), Mrs Warren's Profession (1893, concerning prostitution and banned until 1902), Arms and the Man (1894), Candida (1897) and You Never Can Tell (1899); obtained first successful production of a play with The Devil's Disciple, New York, 1897; married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, 1898; wrote Captain Brassbound's Conversion for Ellen Terry, 1900; completed Caesar and Cleopatra, 1899, which was produced by Mrs Patrick Campbell in 1901; established as a playwright of international importance, with the completion and performance of Man and Superman (1901-1903), John Bull's Other Island (1904), Major Barbara (1905) and The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), which were produced by Harley Granville-Barker for the Royal Court Theatre; wrote his most popular play, Pygmalion, in 1913 (he later adapted it for the screen, winning an Academy Award in the process); during World War One, made numerous anti-war speeches; his postwar plays include Heartbreak House (1920), Back to Methuselah (1922), and St Joan (1923); won the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1925, but refused the award; established the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation for the translation of Swedish literature into English; wrote extensively on social, economic and political issues, notably The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928), and Everybody's Political What's What? (1944); his later plays, produced at the Malvern Festivals, included The Apple Cart (1929), Too True to be Good (1932) and Geneva (1939); retired, 1943; left residue of his estate to institute a British alphabet of at least 40 letters; died 1950.
Publications: include: The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (Constable & Co, London, 1928); The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God (Constable and Co, London, 1932); Everybody's Political What's What? (Constable & Co, London, 1944).
The Personnel Department became part of Queen Mary and Westfield College on the merger of the colleges in 1989.
The first principal of East London College (later Queen Mary College) was John Leigh Streatham Hatton, from 1908 to 1933. He was also Director of Studies of the People's Palace Schools from 1896. Later principals were Major General Sir Frederick Barton Maurice, 1933-1944, Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1944-1951, Sir Thomas Percival Creed, 1952-1967, Sir Harry Melville, 1967-1976, Sir James Woodham Menter, 1976-1986 and Professor Ian Butterworth, 1986-1991.