The London Methodist Choir was part of the London North East District of the Methodist Church. The Methodist Church in Britain is arranged into over 600 Circuits, which in turn are grouped into 32 Districts covering Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Each District is supervised by a District Synod. Circuits and missions in the London North East District include: London City Road, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, Stoke Newington, Finsbury park and Southgate, Tottenham, Enfield, Waltham Abbey and Hertford, [Epping] Forest, Barking and Ilford, West Essex, Bishop's Stortford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Romford, Grays, Southend-on-sea, Leigh-on-sea, Basildon, Chelmsford, Colchester, Manningtree and Harwich, Clacton-on-Sea.
To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of D-Day, the Meteorological Office, Bracknell, Berkshire, commissioned a study designed to recognise the influence of weather patterns, weather forecasting, and meteorological data on the military planning and execution of Allied Operations NEPTUNE and OVERLORD, the Allied preparation and subsequent invasion of France, Jun 1944. In Mar 1994, it produced With Wind and Sword: the story of meteorology and D-Day by Stan Cornford, a paper detailing the Meteorological Office's role during World War Two generally and the invasion of France specifically. The paper was subsequently used for the publication of the Meteorological Office pamphlet, '6 June 1944: D-Day: the role of the Met. Office', (Meteorological Office, Bracknell, 1994).
Born 1928; educated at Harrow County Grammar School and Imperial College London; National Service with RAF Airborne Radar Service, 1946-1948; joined Bristol Aeroplane Company, 1951; helped develop the Bloodhound Surface-to-Air Missile, 1957; Chief Aerodynamicist, Bristol Aeroplane Company, 1958; worked on development of Rapier Surface-to-Air Missile, 1971; Group Director, Naval Weapons, Hawker Siddeley, 1978; Managing Director, Hawker Siddeley's Bristol site, 1980; Managing director, Hawker Siddeley's Hatfield site, 1981; Director of British Aerospace, 1982; Deputy Chief Executive, British Aerospace, 1984-1988; Gold Medal of Royal Aeronautical Society, 1984; served on Council of the Society of British Aerospace Companies; President of Royal Aeronautical Society, 1989; Chairman of Bristol Heritage Trust Aero Collection, 1992; died 2002.
Singapore was founded and declared a free port in 1819. Following the end of the East India Company's monopoly of Asian commerce, independent merchant houses were quick to seize the opportunity to establish trading posts on the island. Amongst these pioneers was Alexander Guthrie, merchant with Messrs. Harrington & Company. Guthrie made a success of their enterprise and by 1824, the partnership with Harrington had been formally dissolved. Guthrie took on James Scott Clark as a new partner, to form Messrs. Guthrie & Clark.
During its early history various partnerships controlled the business, from its base in Singapore. Following Clark's departure in 1833, Alexander took on his nephew James Guthrie and renamed the firm Messrs. Guthrie & Co. James became a partner in 1837, and headed the Singapore office from 1847, when Alexander returned to London. In 1849 John James Greenshields became a partner. In 1856, James Guthrie returned to London. In 1857 Thomas Scott (responsible for the formation of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company in 1864) became a partner, and later Senior Partner in 1867. On his return to London in 1873, Scott established a registered office for the firm in London, known as Scott & Company. In 1876, Louis John Robertson Glass was the senior partner in Singapore. On 28 February 1903 Guthrie & Co merged with Scott & Company to become Guthrie & Co. Ltd, with its own London office. Sir John Anderson became the Governing Director of the whole concern, with Robert McNair Scott as the London Director. Anderson went on to launch many of the company's planting and mining interests and shaped its policy for a quarter of a century. By the time Sir John Hay assumed the position of General Manager in 1925, the total range of Guthrie business interests was known as the 'Guthrie Group'. Hay went on to become Managing Director and Chairman, distinguished for his work for the British rubber plantation industry.
By the mid 19th century, Guthrie & Co was a successful merchant house trading British goods (e.g. cotton, wool, manufactured articles) for produce from the Straits (spices, tin, coffee, beeswax, ebony, ivory); India (Punjab wheat, Indian cotton, opium from Calcutta); Java (coffee); Borneo (sago); Malay Peninsula (rattan, pepper); and Siam and Cambodia (sugar, coconut oil, salt, rice, teak). Trading was conducted largely through Chinese merchants, who collected goods from native producers and sold it on to the British merchants for export. In addition the firm managed estates, and acted as agents for numerous banks and insurance companies including the London banking firm of Coutts (from 1830), London Fire Insurance Co (from 1853), and the London & Provincial Marine Insurance Co (from 1861). By 1896 the firm had begun to establish itself in the Malay Peninsula, accepting the agency of 5 coffee estates owned by Thomas Heslop Hill. By 1900 Guthrie agencies included 6 banks, 5 insurance companies, 2 shipping companies and 23 new 'general' agencies. These concerned tin mines, gold mines, tobacco estates, sugar, flour cement, tea and coffee machinery, whiskies, beers, wines and spirits, Jeyes' Fluid and Lipton's Tea.
By the beginning of the 20th century, Guthrie & Co. had taken on the agency of a number of new rubber plantation companies with estates in Malaya, Borneo and Sumatra. Amongst these agencies were the Selangor Rubber Co., Linggi Plantations Ltd. (1904), United Sua Betong Rubber Estates Ltd. (1909), United Temiang Rubber Estates Ltd. (1910), and Malacca Rubber Plantations Ltd. (1920). Guthrie & Co. also played a key role in research in this field, with the development of 'Stimulex' in the 1930's (which significantly increased the output of natural latex), and a new form of natural rubber, 'Dynat', in 1961 (with greater standardisation of physical and chemical composition). Modern day distributors of rubber products for the Group include Guthrie Latex Inc. and its sister company in the UK, Guthrie Symington Ltd.
By the 1920's, the flotation of companies concerned with the oil palm industry had become an important sideline to Guthrie & Co.'s extensive rubber planting interests in Malaya. In 1924 they floated Elaeis Plantations Ltd., and subsequently three of the rubber companies in the 'Guthrie Group' (Linggi Plantations Ltd, United Sua Betong Rubber Estates Ltd, and Malacca Rubber Plantations Ltd) acquired adjoining tracts of land and commenced planting oil palms. In 1930, these three companies merged their interests in oil palms by creating Oil Palms of Malaya Ltd. By 1942 the oil palm interests of Guthrie & Co in Malaya amounted to nearly 20,000 acres.
With the outbreak of War in Asia on 8 December 1941, and the surrender of Singapore on 15 February 1942, business ceased. Bombing destroyed the Guthrie Head Office, and many employees were sent to Japanese internment camps. Following the War, together with other member organisations of the Rubber Estate Owners Company who had suffered losses in the East, Guthrie were able to reclaim their estates and offices in Singapore, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, Ipon and Penang, and resume trading with the eastern public. From 1947, the commercial side of the firm flourished. There was an extension of activity into Africa with the purchase of Cochrane & Milton (agricultural equipment and builders hardware), the opening of an office in Melbourne in 1953, and the purchase of F. W. Green & Co. in 1959 (general traders in Australia). The London Office also branched out to incorporate the food-importing business of B.N. Sexton, Canadian Foods and John Dorell. The company's Head Office was also transferred to London. Guthrie & Co. became a world-wide network of interests including Guthries' of Singapore and Malaysia (later merged with an off-shoot of the House of Jardine Matheson into Guthrie Waugh), Guthries' of Rhodesia, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Nigeria and innumerable subsidiaries.
On 1 January 1961, the 'Guthrie Group' formed a co-operative - Guthrie Estates Agency Ltd. with a subsidiary, Guthrie Agency (Malaya) Ltd. - to manage the affairs of its constituent companies. In 1964, Sir John Hay died, and Sir Eric Griffith Jones took his place, welding together the rubber and palm interests of the group into the Guthrie Corporation, the largest owner of such plantations in the world. Keith Anderson became Chairman of Guthrie & Co. (UK) Ltd. In 1988, the Guthrie Corporation plc was acquired by BBA Group plc.
Further reading: S Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders: A Story of Britain's South-East Asian Commercial Adventure (London, 1971)
The Bishop of London was held to exercise responsibility for Anglican churches overseas where no other bishop had been appointed. He retained responsibility for churches in northern and central Europe until 1980, but his jurisdiction in southern Europe ceased in 1842 on the creation of the diocese of Gibraltar. In 1980, the Bishop of London divested himself of all overseas jurisdiction and a new diocese of 'Gibraltar in Europe' was established.
Messina on the island of Sicily, in Italy, was an important trading post and Anglicanism spread there with British merchants.
Born, 1913; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, -1934; 3 Battalion, Royal Tank Corps, 1934; Experimental Wing RAC Gunnery School, 1938-1942; Instructor School of Tank Technology, 1942; Ministry of Supply, 1943; Instructor RMCS Shrivenham, 1946-1948; 7 Royal Tank Regiment as Officer Commanding Specialised Armour Squadron, 1948-1950; Inspectorate of Armoured Fighting Vehicles, 1950-1953; attended Exercise TOTEM nuclear test in Australia as Royal Armoured Corps and Royal Artillery representative, 1953; Army Operational Research Group, West Byfleet, 1953; Commanded Experimental Wing of Defence Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Centre School, Winterbourne Gunner, 1956-1958; retired from the Army, 1958; Health and Safety Branch UK Atomic Energy Authority, 1958-1973; freelance nuclear consultant and technical translator, 1973; Scientific Advisor (Nuclear) to Northhampton County Council Emergency Planning, 1980-1993; died, 2005.
Wilhelm Merzbach was director of the family business, Bankhaus S Merzbach.
Charles Lewis Meryon (1783-1877) was physician to Lady Hester Stanhope.
No information available at present.
The company was originally established in circa 1690 by Nathaniel Hadley, manufacturing pumps and fire-fighting apparatus. The first fire engine factory was built in 1738. In 1791 Henry Lott joined the firm and later took over full control of the company and when he retired handed it over to his nephew by marriage, Moses Merryweather (1791-1872). He and his sons, including Richard Moses Merryweather (1839-1877) managed the business and it was known as Merryweather and Sons.
In the 1830s customers included parishes and vestries in London and beyond including Ireland, fire insurance companies including Sun Fire Office and the Hand in Hand, for other businesses and for individuals mainly the aristocracy. In 1840s the company was based in Long Acre. In 1862 a new factory was built in York Street, Lambeth, for the manufacture of steam engines. In 1876 another factory was built in Greenwich Road, Greenwich and three years later the Lambeth factory was closed. The company took Limited Liability status in 1892 and became registered as Merryweather and Company Limited.
By the later 19th century Merryweather had become Fire Engine Makers by Appointment to the Royal Family and sold fire-fighting apparatus across the world. In the 1910s products were distributed to as widely as South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, Egypt, India and Singapore and China.
In the 1980s Calamite absorbed Merryweather and operations were moved from London to South Wales. April 1984 saw a 'moonlight flit' of the company. Siebe Gorman Limited (later Siebe plc) which had moved to Wales from Surrey in 1975, took over Calamite and produced firefighter's breathing equipment.
In 2008 Merryweather and Sons Limited was based at 3 Church Road, Croydon. It was supplying a range of fire extinguishers and fire fighting equipment and providing regular service inspection of fire extinguishers at customer premises to meet fire safety standards.
According to the 1930 Post Office London Directory, Merry and Company were run by E Merry Owen and Arthur Trepess. They were based at 4 Saint James's Street, Piccadilly, SW1.
Lieutenant Merry (1922-1986) joined the Royal Navy on his 18th birthday in August 1940 for war service. He was appointed Flag Lieutenant to Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser and saw service in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean theatres. He was on the bridge of the battleship HMS DUKE OF YORK during the Battle of the North Cape in 1943 and witnessed the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst on 25 December 1943. He remained as Flag Lieutenant when Admiral Fraser was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Pacific Fleet. He was present on the deck of the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945 and witnessed Admiral Fraser signing the Japanese surrender document on behalf of Britain. Lieutenant Merry was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and after the War he elected to remain in the Royal Navy and served in a variety of appointments at sea and ashore in the UK and around the world, including Australia and the USA. In the early 1960s he attended the Allied Forces' Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, and then served in a NATO appointment on the staff of Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic. He retired from the Royal Navy in the rank of Commodore in 1977. Lieutenant Merry died in January 1986 at the age of 63.
Born, 1771; education, the free grammar school, Marlborough and a school in Old Burlington Street, London; medical education mainly under his paternal uncle, also Samuel Merriman, a distinguished obstetrician; qualified, 1800; member of the Society of Apothecaries, 1800; initially practised as an apothecary but began to specialise in midwifery; from 1808 he was physician accoucheur, consulting physician accoucheur, and vice-president at the Westminster Dispensary; employed by the board of St George's, Hanover Square, to attend all difficult births in the parish, 1808; physician accoucheur to the Middlesex and Westminster lying-in hospitals, 1809; lectured on obstetrics at the Middlesex Hospital, 1810-; taught at St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1820-1821; died, 1852.
Publications: Synopsis of the Various Kinds of Difficult Parturition (1814)
Samuel Merriman, was born on 25 Oct 1771 at Marlborough, Wiltshire, the son of Benjamin Merriman (1722-1781) and his second wife Mary (nee Hawkes). He was educated at the Marlborough free school. In 1784 he arrived in London to study medicine under his uncle, Dr Samuel Merriman (1731-1818). He also attended the lectures at the Anatomical Theatre in Great Windmill Street, and the Westminster Lying-in Hospital, as well as aquiring clinical knowledge of disease by seeing the numerous patients of his cousin William (1766-1800), son of the elder Samuel Merriman (1731-1818). In 1807, having become a member of the Society of Apothecaries, he entered into partnership with Mr Peregrine, to whom he soon resigned the general practice, limiting himself to midwifery alone. In 1808 he was appointed physician-accoucheur to the Westminster General Dispensary, having previously received the honorary degree of MD from Marischal College, Aberdeen. He resigned the office in 1815, and was appointed consulting physician-accoucheur and subsequently vice-president of the charity. In 1809 he was elected to the same office at the Middlesex Hospital, where in 1810 he commenced his annual course of lectures on midwifery, and continued them regularly till 1825. In 1822, when his consultation practice as a physician for the diseases of women and children had largely increased, he removed to Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, and he subsequently purchased an estate at Rodborne Cheney, Wiltshire. Merriman resigned his post at the Middlesex Hospital on 7 March 1826, but continued to take a warm interest in the institution, and was one of the treasurers from 1840 until 1845. He was elected treasurer of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1837. Merriman died in Brook Street on 22 Nov 1852. He married in 1799 his cousin Ann (1778-1831), daughter of his uncle, Samuel Merriman(1731-1818).
Publications: `Observations on some late Attempts to Depreciate the Value and Efficacy of Vaccine Inoculation.' 1805; Dissertation on the Retroversion of the Womb, London, 1810; Synopsis of the Various Kinds of Difficult Parturition, London, 1814; The validity of 'Thoughts on Medical Reform', 1833; an edition of Dr M Underwood's Treatise on the Diseases of Children, London, 1827; essays and other papers of his were published in the London Medical Repository, London Medical and Physical Journal, and Medico-Chirurgical Transactions; and articles contributed to Gentleman's Magazine, and Notes and Queries, London Journal of Medicine.
Hugh Ley was born in 1790 at Abingdon, Berkshire, the son of Hugh Ley (1762-1826) a former medical practitioner. He was educated at Dr. Lempriere's school, Abingdon; the united medical schools of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals in Southwark, and took the diploma of the College of Surgeons. He then studied at Edinburgh, where he graduated MD in 1813. On 30 Sep 1818 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London, and began practice in London as a man midwife. He was elected physician to the Westminster Lying-in Hospital, and soon afterwards became lecturer on midwifery at the Middlesex Hospital. On 20 April 1835 he accepted the unanimous invitation of the staff of St Bartholomew's Hospital to deliver the lectures on midwifery in their school. He lived in Half-Moon Street, London, but died, from heart disease, at Stilton, Huntingdonshire, 24 Jan 1837.
Publications: Graduation thesis : The pathology of phthisis, Edinburgh, 1813; An Essay on Laryngismus Stridulus, or Crouplike Inspiration of Infants, 1836.
James Blundell was born, 1790; educated first by the Revd Thomas Thomason, and then at the United Borough Hospitals by his maternal uncle, the physiologist John Haighton, he graduated MD at Edinburgh, 1813; began lecturing in London on midwifery, 1814; soon after began to lecture on physiology; Lecturer in Midwifery and as Lecturer in Physiology at Guy's Hospital, 1818; Professor of Obstetrics and Lecturer on the Diseases of Women; left Guy's Hospital, 1834; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1838; retired, 1847; died, 1878.
Publications:
Researches Physiological and Pathological (1824)
Principles and Practice of Obstetricy (1834)
Observations on some of the More Important Diseases of Women (1837)
William Merrick gained a certificate to practice as an apothecary, 10 Nov 1831.
George Meredith was born in Portsmouth on 12 February 1828. He received his education at St Paul's School, Southsea and at the Moravian School at Neuwied on the Rhine, 1842-1844. Meredith returned to England in 1844, where he was articled to a solicitor in London, under whose encouragement Meredith began to write poetry. He contributed to Chambers Edinburgh Journal. In 1860 Meredith became a reader for the publishing company, Chapman and Hall. During his life he wrote poetry, seven novels and contributed essays to periodicals. After 1895 Meredith stopped writing prose, but continued to write poetry. His last collection of poems was published in 1901. In 1905 he was awarded the Order of Merit. George Meredith died on 18 May 1909.
Witherby's was founded in 1740 by Thomas Witherby (1719 - 1797), stationer. He began by copying manuscript documents brought to him by solicitors relating to property leases, wills and marriage settlements, as well as producing pro-forma articles of agreement, bonds and other documents relating to insurance and shipping required by merchants, shop owners and their captains. Many of these transactions were carried out in coffee houses including the Sword Blade coffee house in Exchange Alley which was burnt to the ground in 1748 together with Thomas Witherby's premises next door.
Witherby signed a new lease for a 'new built brick messuage' at 9 Birchin Lane in 1749 where the business remained until 1873.
In 1767 Thomas was elected to the Common Council of the City of London Corporation representing Langbourne Ward. In 1779 the firm became Witherby & Son, and later Witherby and Company becoming a registered limited company as Witherby and Company Limited in 1935 which acted as a parent for subsidiary companies. These subsidiaries included HF & G Witherby Limited, publishers specialising on books on British Birds reflecting Harry Forbes Witherby's interest in ornithology. Publications included the monthly magazine 'British Birds' launched in 1907 and printed at Witherby's Holborn works. The firm also diversified its products range from account books and headed stationery to 'Witherby's Magnetic pen' patented in 1898 and Witherby's Universal Automatic Gum Bottle.
Successive acquisitions (including Bean, Webley and Company in 1925 and drake, Driver and Leaver Limited in 1954) , and the expansion of the printing business, led the firm to settle at specially built premises for modernised printing production techniques at 32-36 Aylesbury Street, Islington in 1965. It was only in 2009, after its publishing arm merged in 2008 with Scottish based Seamanship International Limited, that Witherby's moved to Tottenham Hale.
The Company specialises in litho and digital printing.
Seven generations of Witherbys were involved in the business. Thomas Witherby's son George Henry (1766 - 1805) became a partner in 1778 and was joined by William (1758- 1840) when the business changed to 'Witherby and son', succeeded by William's son William Henry (1793 - 1890) and George Henry's son George (1791 - 1861). The fourth generation comprised Walter (1826 - 1881) and Henry Forbes (1836 - 1907) sons of George; then Harry Forbes (1873 - 1943), George (1878 - 1958) and Theodore (1872 - 1957) all sons of Henry Forbes Witherby.
By the twentieth century the company was managed by Harry's sons Thomas and Richard and latterly George's son Anthony. The seventh and final generation joined the business in the 1960's - Alan and David Witherby. The family's association with the business ended when David Witherby resigned as director of Witherby's Limited in 2012.
Trading As
Thomas Witherby 1759-1778 Birchin Lane
Thomas Witherby and Son 1779-1788
Thomas Witherby and Sons 1789-1800
William and George Henry Witherby 1801-1814
W.G and W.H Witherby 1815 - 1830
Witherby and Co.
Witherby and Company Limited 1935
Merchant Investors was incorporated in 1970 and underwrote high net worth life and pension products mainly for Independent Financial Advisors. The company was taken over in 2003 by Sanlam, a South African investment company. As of 23 December 2003, Sanlam Life and Pensions UK Limited operated as a subsidiary of Sanlam Limited and provided life insurance, pension, and investment products in the United Kingdom.
Philip A Knight was Pensions Manager to the company, was involved with setting up the pension scheme and became the first member-nominated trustee of the scheme.
Born, [1883]; Deacon, 1908; Priest, 1909; Curate of Blackhill, County Durham, 1908-1909; University of Durham, BA 1909, MA 1912; Curate of St Andrew, Tudhoe Granbe, 1909-1911; Bachelor of Divinity, London, 1915; Curate of St Luke, Kentish Town, 1911-1916; Organising Secretary, St Andrews Waterside Mission, 1919; Curate of Little Wakering, Southend on Sea.
The company was founded in 1861 for London wharf and warehouse fire insurance. It was acquired by the North British Insurance Company in 1862. This company, which was then styled North British and Mercantile Insurance Company, merged with Commercial Union in 1959. When it was established, Mercantile Fire Insurance occupied what it regarded as temporary offices at 31 Threadneedle Street.
Meppadi Wynaad Tea Company Limited was registered in 1910 to acquire the Arrapetta-Kardoora, Neddikarna, Nedimballi-Meppadi, Moopenaad, and Sentinel Rock estates in the Wynaad district of southern India. In 1923 it was acquired by Malayalam Plantations Limited (CLC/B/112-113).
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
An assignment of term, or assignment to attend the inheritance, was an assignment of the remaining term of years in a mortgage to a trustee after the mortgage itself has been redeemed. An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.
A covenant or deed of covenant was an agreement entered into by one of the parties to a deed to another. A covenant for production of title deeds was an agreement to produce deeds not being handed over to a purchaser, while a covenant to surrender was an agreement to surrender copyhold land.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).
An assignment of term, or assignment to attend the inheritance, was an assignment of the remaining term of years in a mortgage to a trustee after the mortgage itself has been redeemed. An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Little is known about the author save for that which is contained in the letter itself, namely that Emmerich Menzner was a rank and file member of an SS cavalry regiment in an unidentified part of Poland in 1942, and that he hailed from Litzmannstadt (Lodz).
The Australian Studies Centre was established as part of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, Sep 1982 and received funding from the Menzies Memorial Trust and the Australian Government. It was officially opened, 7 Jun 1983. The first Head of the Centre was Professor Geoffrey Bolton; Professor Thomas Millar became Head in 1985. The Menzies Centre's object is to promote Australian studies in British and European universities and to act as an Australian cultural base in London, providing a forum for the discussion of Australian issues. In 1988 the Australian government ceased its financial support for the Centre and the Menzies Memorial Trust took up the full financing. The Centre was subsequently renamed the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies. The Centre moved from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies to King's College London in 1999 and was then known as the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies. At this time the Centre was endowed permenantly by the Australisn government whilst continuing to receive funds from the Menzies Foundation and Monash University.
Born, 1875; educated at Llandovery College and at the University of Edinburgh; graduated MB, 1899 and MD, 1903; member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 1903; postgraduate study in Vienna and Berlin; held resident posts at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and in London at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, the Brompton Hospital, and the Western Fever Hospital of the Metropolitan Asylums Board; diploma in public health, 1905; demonstrator and lecturer in public health at University College, London, 1907; deputy medical officer of health of the Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington, London, 1907; part-time officer, London County Council, 1909; full-time assistant medical officer, London County Council, 1911-1924, working in schools in the East End of London; prepared and implemented schemes for the control of tuberculosis and venereal diseases in London; Director of Hospitals and Medical services for the joint council of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem, 1924, he also remained as London County Council part-time staff as a consultant on the tuberculosis and venereal diseases schemes; returned to full-time work for the London County Council, as County Medical Officer of Health, 1926-1939; returned to Caernarvonshire, where he acted as Inspector of hospitals and convalescent homes in north Wales for the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem; returned to London and undertook work on variouis committees, 1945; died, 1949.
The Mental After Care Association (MACA) was founded in 1879 by Henry Hawkins, Chaplain of Colney Hatch Asylum, as The After Care Association for Poor and Friendless Female Convalescents on Leaving Asylums for the Insane. Its aims were to provide an alternative to the workhouse for those discharged from asylums by offering a period of convalescence in the homes of private individuals. The ex-patients were given advice, money, clothing, and assisted to find suitable work. The name changed in 1892 when "Friendless" was dropped from the title. In 1893 the Association opened its own home for ex-patients in Redhill, Surrey. It was the first convalescent home for the mentally ill in England and closed in 1895. The Association's name changed again in 1894 when "Female" was dropped from the title. In 1914 the Association became The Mental After Care Association for Poor Persons Convalescent or Recovered from Institutions for the Insane. During World War One (1914-1918) the Association helped shell shock and air raid victims. In the 1930s the Association moved into preventive care, and also provided holiday accommodation for those not ready to leave hospital on a permanent basis. The Association became MACA in 1940. It registered as a limited company in 1949. In the 1960s chronic patients were accommodated in homes administered by MACA. More recently MACA has participated in community and respite care projects. In 2005 MACA became Together: Working for Wellbeing.
Born in 1840; studied economics at the Universities of Prague and Vienna, 1859-1863; became a prominent economic journalist, as well as writing a number of novels and comedies; gained a doctorate in law, 1866, and worked as an apprentice lawyer until granted a law degree from the University of Krakow, 1867; returned to work as a journalist, and developed Mengarian economics, which reconstructed price theory; published The principles of economics, 1871; joined the civil service, in the Press Department of the Austrian Cabinet, 1870-1873; appointed Lecturer, 1872, and Associate Professor, 1873-1876, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Vienna; tutor of Crown Prince Rudolph von Hapsburg, 1876-1878; Professor of Political Economy, Faculty of Law, University of Vienna, 1879-1903; published Investigation into the method of social sciences with special reference to economics, 1883; publication of The errors of historicism in German economics, 1884, began a lengthy debate between the Austrian School and the German Historical School; Member of a Commission charged with the reformation of the Austrian monetary system, 1888-1892; died 1921.
Emanuel Mendes da Costa was born 25 May 1717 in London to John, alias Abraham, and Johanna Mendes da Costa. A Sephardic Jewish merchant and public notary operating in the City of London, he engaged in the trade of goods including books and geologic specimens. He was interested in the study of natural science and served as Clerk to the Royal Society of London.
Emanuel Mendes da Costa's siblings included brothers Jacob, alias Philip, David (who was involved in the supply of bread to British troops in Flanders) and sister Sarah (married to Abraham Fernandes Nuñes).
Other family members included Abraham, alias John, Mendes da Costa, who refers to his brother Jacob the 3rd, (died 3 March 1752) in his will, and Moses, alias Philip, father to Abraham and grandfather to Emanuel, Philip, David and Sarah.
Emanuel was married to Elizabeth Skillman. Members of the Skillman family were living in Hendon during the 18th and 19th centuries as evident from the admission of Richard Skillman (recorded 5 May 1761) and Elizabeth Mendes da Costa, formerly Skillman, (1767). Elizabeth also figures in the apprenticeship of William Skillman, nephew of John Skillman, serving a carpenter in Hendon (1799).
In the 19th century, descendants included Emanuel Mendes da Costa Skillman (died 1903, aged 76), married to Caroline (died 1906, aged 73). They had a daughter, Amelia Jane Skillman, born at 1 Landseer Road, Upper Holloway in December 1871. Emanuel Skillman, a carpenter by profession, resided later at 54 Kingsdown Road. He and Caroline eventually resided at 7 Cromartie Road, Islington at their time of death and were buried at Islington Cemetery.
Little is known about the family save for their birth details and the following information gleaned from Franz Mendelsohn's cv dated c 1934. He was born in Breslau, 7 Jan 1899, the son of the lawyer, notary and Justizrat, Salo Mendelsohn. Franz studied law in Freiburg, taking his final examination on 15 Mar 1924 from which date he worked as a lawyer at the regional court at Breslau in a practice with his father until the latter's death in 1929. Then he carried on the practice on his own until 31 May 1933 on which date his right to practise law was withdrawn on account of his Jewish origins. He then worked voluntarily for half a year in a shipping company to gain experience in business and at the same time at the legal protection department of the Breslau synagogue community. He married Charlotte Fraenkel in 1925.
Mendaris (Sumatra) Rubber and Produce Estates Limited was registered in 1911 to acquire the Laut Tabor and Mendaris estates in the district of Deli on the east coast of Sumatra. In 1960 it was acquired by London Sumatra Plantations Limited (CLC/B/112-110), and in April 1982 it became a private company.
Catherine Kearsley and her husband were printers and booksellers in London in the late eighteenth century. They began the commercial production of Widow Welch's Female Pills, which they claimed to have as a family recipe, in 1787. There seems to have been some contention over who was manufacturing the true Widow Welch's Recipe, since the collection includes a handbill claiming that Mrs Smithers, as the granddaughter of the Widow Welch was the only person entitled to the preparation. It continued to be a popular patent medicine until the company ceased trading in the late 1960s.
Melville was born in Scotland, 1723 and educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities. In 1744 he became an ensign in the Edinburgh Regiment where he steadily rose through the ranks and in 1751 obtained his own company in the regiment. In 1760, on the death of his current commander he was appointed Governor of Guadeloupe and from there in 1760 appointed Governor to the Ceded Islands (Grenada, the Grenadines, Dominica. St Vincent and Tobago). His interests as an antiquary motivated him to study numerous locations for historical military purposes and he was also as member of the Society of Arts. When he died, in 1809, he was the oldest General in the British Army.
No information available at the time of compilation.
James Cosmo Melvill was born in Guernsey and brought up there and in England. He entered the East India Company's home service as young man and rose through the company's financial arm to become Chief Secretary in 1836. He was knighted in 1853 and retired in 1858, after 50 years of service.
Robert (Bob) Mellors was born in 1950. He was a student at the London School of Economics, following which he travelled to New York, where he became involved with the Gay Liberation Front. On his return to London, Mellors became the co-founder of the British Gay Liberation Front in 1970. When the GLF foundered in 1974, Mellors helped in the formation of more specialised lesbian and gay community groups. He was killed in 1996. Publications: editor of An outline of human ethnology: extracts from an unpublished work by Charlotte Bach (London, 1981); We are all androgynous yellow (Another-Orbit Press, London, 1980); Clint Eastwood loves Jeff Bridges - true! 'homosexuality', androgyny & evolution : a simple introduction (Another Orbit Press, London, 1978). Charlotte/Carl Bach, a man who lived the second half of his life as a woman, developed a number of philosophical theories relating to gender and sexuality.
Mellersh entered the Navy in 1825, was promoted to lieutenant in 1837 and to commander in 1849. He was appointed to the RATTLER in 1851 and served in her during the Burmese War, 1852. He pursued and destroyed a large force of pirate junks off Ping-hoey on the Fukien Coast, for which he received his promotion to captain. His last service was on the South American Station from 1862 to 1864. Mellersh eventually became an admiral on the retired list.
Born, 1884; Educated at Barnard Castle School, 1898-1902; Emmanuel College Cambridge, 1902; Research student, Emmanuel, working under Gowland Hopkins, 1906; Demonstrator in Department of Physiology, St Thomas's Hospital, 1909-1911; MA,MB(Cantab), 1910; Beit Memorial Fellowship, 1910-1912; Chair of Physiology of the University of London in the King's (subsequently Queen Elizabeth's) College for Women, 1913-1920; Married May Tweedy, 1914; MD (Cantab), 1915; Work on the absorption of alcohol, under the MRC for the Liquor Control Board, c 1918; Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Sheffield, 1920-1933; FRS, 1925, FRCP, 1928; Chairman, League of Nations Nutrition and Vitamins Standardisation Commission, 1931; Appointed Secretary to the Medical Research Council, 1933; Fullerian Professor of the Royal Institution, 1936-1937; KCB, 1937; Honorary Physician to King George VI , 1937-1941; Chairman of the Advisory Medical Panel of the British Council, 1942; Work on the role of agene in flour in the causation of canine hysteria, 1946; Visited South Africa to advise on medical research, 1948; Attended African Scientific Regional Congress, 1949; Retired as Secretary to the Medical Research Council, 1949; Visited India to advise on medical research policy, 1950-1951; Visit to Australia and New Zealand to advise on medical research, 1951; died, 1955.
May Tweedy was born in 1882, educated at Hampstead and Bromley High Schools, and then went to Girton College, Cambridge, where she pursued the Natural Science Tripos, Parts I and II, 1902-1905. She then held the post of Research Scholar and Lecturer at Bedford College London, 1906-1914. She married Edward Mellanby in 1914 and collaborated in his research throughout the rest of their lives together. Besides all the work she carried out with her husband on nutrition, she also conducted independently research into the physiology of dentition and the causes of dental disease, and was involved with a number of bodies making policy in this field. She died in 1978.
Born in 1879; worked as Professor of History previous to the Russian Revolution; founded an anti-Bolshevik socialist party (Popular Socialist Party), 1919; sentenced to death, then reprieved, with the sentence commuted to imprisonment; expelled from the Soviet Union, 1920; settled in Prague, Berlin and Paris, where he continued his historical researches and published works on Russian history; became editor of several émigré journals; died 1956. Publications: The Red Terror in Russia (JM Dent and Sons, London and Toronto, 1925); numerous publications in Russian.
Born, London, 1849; educated private schools, Royal School of Mines; teaching staff at Royal College of Science, 1872-1873; leader of British Eclipse Expedition to the Nicobar Islands, India, 1875; Demonstrator, Science Schools, 1877-1878; scientific chemist in factories of coal tar dyes, discovered many new products and processes; Professor of Chemistry, Finsbury Technical College, 1885; Society of Arts medallist, 1886, 1901; President, Entomological Society, 1895-1897; President, Chemical Society, 1905-1907, Society of Dyers and Colourists, 1907-1910, Society of Chemical Industry, 1907-1909, Institute of Chemistry, 1912-1915; Professor of Organic Chemistry, University of London, 1912; Davy medal, Royal Society, 1913; Advisory Committee on Chemical Supplies, Board of Trade, 1914; Vice-President, Royal Society, 1914-1915; died, 1915.
Publications: include: Studies in the theory of Descent August Weismann. Translated and edited by R Meldola (Sampson Low & Co, London, 1880-82); Report on the East Anglican Earthquake of April 22nd, 1884 with William White (1885); The Chemistry of Photography (1889); Coal and what we get from it. A romance of applied science (1891); Arnold's Practical Science Manuals editor 3 vol (E Arnold, London, [1897, 98]); The Chemical Synthesis of Vital Products and the inter-relations between organic compounds (Edward Arnold, London, 1904); Chemistry [1913].
The Melanesian Mission was founded in 1849 by the then Bishop of New Zealand, George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878), to evangelise the Melanesian islands of the South West Pacific Ocean (i.e. the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz and Northern New Hebrides Islands), which formed part of his diocese. In 1850 the Australian Board of Missions was formed and the Australian and New Zealand Colonies formally adopted the Melanesian Mission. In January 1854, Bishop Selwyn used a visit to England to plead the cause of the Mission. He obtained the gift of a mission ship, which was named the 'Southern Cross'. The ship and its successors were to become the visible link between the remote parts of the diocese, carrying the Bishop on his biannual circuits and transporting missionaries, trainees, stores and medical supplies to their destinations.
From its foundation, Selwyn intended the work of the Melanesian Mission to be conducted by native teachers and a native ministry. In his own words, the 'white corks are only to float the black net'. The work was threefold: evangelistic, educational and medical. Trained 'Native Brothers' undertook pioneer evangelistic work. Under vows renewed yearly, they volunteered to visit unexplored areas and win a footing for teachers to follow. European clergy and lay-workers also engaged in the first stages of work in certain areas. Education was the key to evangelisation. In addition to village and district schools there was a system of 'Central Schools' for native children who reached the required standard. These were run by European missionaries and assisted by native teachers. After training and testing, these children were set apart for the teaching of religion in their local communities or on other islands. The Mission also had a college at Siota, Solomon Islands, for training ordination candidates. Medical work in Melanesia truly began in 1888 with the addition of a missionary doctor, Dr. H. P. Welchman. The main medical centre of the Mission was the Hospital of the Epiphany at Fauabu, on the Island of Mala, with a series of smaller hospitals in the districts and village dispensaries run by local women. Care was also provided for lepers and, with the help of the Mother's Union in England, centres were established to give classes on health and hygiene to Melanesian women.
Initially the Melanesian Mission was funded with special grants and by private donors. Subsequent sources of funding included an endowment bequeathed by Bishop Patteson; proceeds from Miss Charlotte Yonge's book 'the Daisy Chain'; contributions from England in the form of donations, legacies, subscriptions, special appeal funds and the sale of the mission magazine, the Southern Cross Log; and contributions from New Zealand and Australia.
In 1855, John Coleridge Patteson (1827-1871) joined the Melanesian Mission. He was consecrated as Bishop of the newly formed diocese of Melanesia in 1861. Patteson's efforts were concentrated on the Northern New Hebrides, Banks and Solomon Groups, including Santa Cruz and Swallow Isles. In 1867 he secured the transfer of the training college and headquarters of the mission from New Zealand to St. Barnabas, Norfolk Island. He also reduced to writing several of the Melanesian languages, preparing grammatical studies and translations of parts of the New Testament. In 1869 Patteson began the native ministry with the ordination of George Sarawia. In 1871, Patteson was killed by natives at Nukapu, Santa Cruz Group, probably in response to the recent forced removal of islanders by labour traffickers. His death encouraged the regulation of the labour trade in the South Pacific.
On the death of Patteson, Rev. R. H. Codrington declined the bishopric but continued the Mission with the support of the Bishops of New Zealand and Australia. Subsequent Bishops of Melanesia included the son of the founder, John Richardson Selwyn (1877-1892); Cecil Wilson (1894-1911); Cecil J. Wood (1912-1918); John Manwaring Steward (1919-1928); Frederick Molyneux (1928-1932); Walter Hubert Baddeley (1932-1947); S.G. Caulton (1948-1954); and Bishop A. T. Hill (1954-).
By 1899, the staff of the Mission included the Bishop, Archdeacon, 9 white priests, 2 native priests, 9 native deacons, 420 native teachers, 6 white women workers and 12,000 Christians.
In 1910 the first conference of Mission staff was held in the Islands, and the second in 1916. At this time the decision was made to adopt English as the language to be used in Mission Schools in place of Mota, a change which took effect in 1928. On 6 August 1919, for the first time, a special Synod composed of European and native clergy was called to propose a successor to Bishop Wood from its own members. They elected John Manwaring Steward. In October 1921, at St. Luke's Church, Siota, the first Synod of the Missionary Diocese of Melanesia was constituted. Bishop Steward issued his primary charge, which was printed at the Mission Press, Norfolk Island. His charge laid down that the manner of rule in a diocese is that of a Bishop and his priests together; that native clergy should have the same position in Diocesan Councils as the missionary clergy; that the Synod should not meet less than once in 7 years; and he gave definite regulations as to the powers of the synod and its relations with the Bishop.
In 1920, the Mission headquarters moved to Siota, on the Island of Florida in the Solomons. In 1925 Rev. F. M. Molyneux was consecrated as the first Assistant Bishop, and the Native Brotherhood was founded, led by Ini Kopuria. In 1929, two Sisters from the Community of the Cross were brought to Melanesia to work amongst the women and girls of the Islands. In 1926 the Diocese of Melanesia was extended to include the Mandated Territory, which included North New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the northern islands of the Solomon Group, and preliminary visits were made to discuss the possibility of opening up new work there. From 1929, New Britain in the Mandated Territory was also opened up and developed, assisted by the work of the Native Brotherhood.
The Japanese invasion in early 1942 involved the Mission in New Britain and the Solomon Island areas. The Mission experienced a great deal of damage to stations and buildings; however, the native church survived and assisted with the care of wounded Allied troops. Bishop Baddeley began the work of reconstruction after the War.
In 1963, Rev. Dudley Tuti and Rev. Leonard Alufurai became the first Melanesian priests to be consecrated as Assistant Bishops of Melanesia by the Archbishop of New Zealand. In January 1973, at the diocesan conference held in Honiara, Solomon Islands, it was agreed to set up an autonomous Province of Melanesia (formerly an Associated Missionary Diocese of the Church of the Province of New Zealand) with its own constitution. On 12 January 1975, with the permission of the General Synod of the Church of the Province of New Zealand, the Church of Melanesia was thus inaugurated as an autonomous province.
In 1999, the 150th anniversary of the Church of Melanesia was celebrated in Honiara, Solomon Islands. The Church's Archbishop, Ellison Pogo, vowed that the Church would continue to uphold the founder's vision for the Melanesian Mission. The Church of Melanesia is now widely involved in many development and social projects. It has a fleet of ships, operates a shipyard and a commercial printing press.
Further reading: D Hilliard, God's Gentlemen. A History of the Melanesian Mission, 1849-1942 (University of Queensland Press, 1978); E S Armstrong, History of the Melanesian Mission (London, 1900); S W Artless, The Story of the Melanesian Mission (Church Army Press, Oxford, revised 1965).
Richard Meinertzhagen was born in London and educated at Harrow School and the University of Göttingen. He spent much of his childhood at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire, and became a keen ornithologist. He joined the army in 1899, serving in India and East Africa, and as Intelligence Officer with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force and in Allenby's Palestine Campaign. Meinertzhagen was in the intelligence branch of GHQ in France, an
He attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He held military posts at the Foreign Office until 1925, when he retired to devote himself to ornithology. For the rest of his long life, Meinertzhagen travelled in north Africa and the Middle East, studying and collecting birds, although he retained an involvement with military intelligence and the secret service. He published a series of autobiographical diaries, as well as papers in The Ibis and books on the birds of Arabia and elsewhere. He was Vice-President and medallist of the British Ornithologists' Union and President of the British Ornithologists' Club. He was made a CBE for his services to ornithology.
Meinertzhagen was associated with the Museum throughout his life, and was a regular visitor to the Bird Room for nearly sixty years. It was not an easy relationship: he was often fiercely critical of the Museum, and his own conduct gave cause for concern on several occasions. In spite of this he was made an Honorary Associate, and presented his library and collections of birds, insects and plants in 1950 and 1954. Since his death evidence has emerged that many of his birdskins were stolen or had been given false localities.
John Wallace Dick Megaw was born in 1874 and qualified at the Royal University of Ireland in 1899. In 1900 he joined the Indian Medical Service. By 1914 he was professor of pathology and principal of Lucknow College and in 1921 became the first Director of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine; in 1930 he became Director-General of the Indian Medical Service. He retired in 1939 and died in 1958.
George Henry Meering (1896-1975) was the eldest son of George Henry Meering, a lace manufacturer in Nottingham, and Ada Meering. After his parents' divorce, George and his three siblings moved with their mother to London, where she later remarried a Mr Geach.
During World War One, George was a corporal with the 'B' Squadron of 1st County of London Yeomanry (also known as the Middlesex Duke of Cambridge's Hussars). On 27 October 1917 his detachment was involved in a battle against the Turkish Ottoman forces on Hill 720, south of Beersheba in Palestine. Vastly outnumbered, the troops put up remarkable resistance, fighting to the last man. George was seriously wounded and taken to a Turkish hospital at Tel el Sheria as a prisoner of war. Left behind by the retreating Turks, he was discovered by the advancing British troops and sent to a British hospital in Cairo and then to Bristol, where in April 1918 he wrote a survivor's account of the battle. In September that year he wrote about his experiences as a prisoner of war. For the rest of his life, he had periodic operations to remove shrapnel from his body.
George was married twice, but both his wives had predeceased him. His first wife gave birth to stillborn twin sons; he had no other children. He died on 16 July 1975 at Kingston Hospital, aged 79.
The papers were deposited at LMA on 27 May 2005 by George Meering's niece, Mrs Pamela Burgess, who also provided some of the biographical information used above.
Henry Meen: a native of Norfolk; entered Emmanuel College Cambridge, 1761; graduated BA, 1766; MA, 1769; BD, 1776; Fellow of Emmanuel College; ordained; appointed to a minor canonry in St Paul's Cathedral; instituted to the rectory of St Nicholas Cole Abbey, with St Nicholas Olave, London, 1792; collated as prebendary of Twyford in St Paul's Cathedral, 1795; also held the office of lecturer there; obtained no other preferment, these posts leaving him ample time for literary pursuits; studied the writings of Lycophron, and proposed undertaking an edition of Lycophron's works; his criticisms on Lycophron appeared in the 'European Magazine', 1796-1813, but his complete translation was never published; died at the rectory, Bread Street Hill, London, 1817. Publications: while an undergraduate, published a poem in blank verse, 'Happiness, a Poetical Essay' (London, 1766); revised and completed the Revd Francis Fawkes's unfinished translation of 'Apollonius Rhodius' (1780), annexing his own version of Colothus's 'Rape of Helen, or the Origin of the Trojan War', afterwards also published elsewhere; 'A Sermon before the Association of Volunteers' (1782); 'Remarks on the Cassandra of Lycophron' (1800); collected the poems of Elizabeth Scot, 'Alonzo and Cora' (1801); 'Succisivae Operae, or Selections from Ancient Writers, with Translations and Notes' (1815).Gilbert Wakefield: an associate of Henry Meen; born in the parsonage house of St Nicholas, Nottingham, 1756; educated at the free schools of Nottingham and Kingston; obtained a scholarship at Jesus College Cambridge, 1772; followed a distinguished university career; elected Fellow of his college; ordained deacon, 1778; curate at Stockport and Liverpool; endeavoured to rouse public opinion against the slave trade; studied theology, which led him to adopt Unitarian doctrines; resigned his curacy; married and vacated his Fellowship, 1779; never formally connected with any dissenting body; classical tutor at the liberal Warrington Academy, 1779-1783; moved to Bramcote, near Nottingham, 1783; later moved to Richmond, Surrey, and to Nottingham; intended to take on private pupils, but these were not numerous; left Nottingham and became classical tutor in the newly established dissenting college in Hackney, 1790; resigned, 1791; continued to reside at Hackney, and devoted himself to scholarship; his political opinions were increasingly radical, and he sometimes defended them impulsively; Wakefield's 'Reply' to the tract of Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff ( 'Address to the People of Great Britain', 1798, which defended Pitt, the war, and the new income tax), opposing the war and contemporary civil and ecclesiastical system and accusing the bishop of absenteeism and pluralism, brought a prosecution for seditious libel; Wakefield defended himself, but was convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Dorchester gaol, 1799; corresponded with Charles James Fox, and pursued his scholarly work; released, 1801; returned to Hackney, but died of typhus fever soon after; buried in St Mary Magdalene's Church, Richmond. Publications: editions of classical works; New Testament translations; many tracts and pamphlets on religious and political subjects.
Born 7 Oct 1934; educated at Northgate Grammar School for Boys, Ipswich, 1945-1953, and King's College London, 1953-1956; BSc in Mathematics, 1956; MSc, 1959; Tutorial Student, Mathematics Department, King's College London, 1957-1958; Assistant Lecturer, 1958-1961; Lecturer, Leeds University, 1961; Head of Computing Unit at Queen Elizabeth College London, at the time of its merger with King's College London in 1985; subsequently Deputy Director of the Computing Department at King's College London; active on international computing standards bodies; died 11 July 1997.
Publications: Algol by problems (McGraw-Hill, London, 1971); Using computers with Simon Fairthorne, (Ellis Horwood, Chichester, 1977); Fortran, PL/1 and the Algols (Macmillan, London, 1978); editor of Guide to good programming practice with P M Heath, (Ellis Horwood, Chichester, c1980); editor of Programming language standardisation with I D Hill, (Ellis Horwood, Chichester, and Halsted Press, New York, 1980); Guides to computing standards: No.15 Programming languages (1981); general editor of User needs in information technology standards with C D Evans and R S Walker, (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1993).