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In 1870 the Education Act was passed making the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic compulsory. To give effect to the Act School Boards were set up with the duty to provide 'Board' schools were there were not enough voluntary, privately funded schools. In January 1891 the MCC passed its first resolution dealing with technical education, in 1895 it purchased the first of its polytechnics and in 1901 started its first secondary school.

The school leaving age was 12, and the elementary education system dealt in elementary schools with children from the age of 5 to 15. The concern of higher education was technical colleges, art schools, evening institutes, and especially secondary schools. Under the 1902 Education Act the County Council became responsible for higher education in the whole county, but was the authority for elementary education only in districts where the population was below a certain figure. In the other districts (known as 'Part III' districts for the part of the Act dealing with this matter) the borough or urban district were responsible for elementary education.

Between 1901 and 1938 the population of Middlesex grew from 792,000 to 1,952,000. This meant that more schools were urgently required and in the same period the County Council ordered the construction of 93 elementary schools, 42 secondary schools and 7 technical colleges and art schools. The 1926 'Hadow' report advocated the provision of advanced courses for all children over 11 years of age. As a consequence, 'senior elementary' schools came into existence for children of 11 to 14 years. These were the forerunners of the modern secondary school.

Under the Education Act of 1944 the 'part III' areas were abolished and the County Council became the local education authority for all forms of education for the whole of the County. The three stages of education were recognised by the Act - that is, the primary stage (up to 11 years old), the secondary stage (11 to 18) and the further education stage (18 onwards). The education authority was also encouraged to become more concerned with the educational welfare of the child in its widest sense. The school meals service, school health service, youth service and community centres were all considered to be an integral part of this remit by the MCC.

The County Council was required by statute to appoint a Finance Committee, and a recommendation from the Finance Committee was required to enable payments to be made. This prevented the Council committing itself to expenditure beyond its means. In addition to the duty of examining and approving estimates, the Committee also examined and approved all accounts for payment, made arrangements for financing expenditure and raised loans.

The chief financial officer was the County Treasurer. He had responsibility for the conduct of the Financial Department and the control and organisation of the staff. He also prepared, in conjunction with other chief departmental officers, estimates of the expenditure of each committee for the ensuing year.

The County Council had three sources of revenue: the income from charges of various kinds which they are allowed by law to levy; government grants and rates. Charges for services included school tuition, for accommodation at old people's homes, for children maintained in Council homes, for home helps and other health services, although some of these charges were stopped or changed over the course of the Council's operations. Other charges included rentals of properties, smallholdings, fines and court fees, and various licences. Government grants included contributions from the Ministry of Transport towards upkeep of roads, assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture for small holdings, payment from the Ministry of Education for school meals and teacher training, a grant from the Home Office for the Fire Service and a grant from the Ministry of Health for health services.

The balance of the Council's requirements was raised by rates. These were obtained not by a direct levy on the tax-payer but by a precept on each borough and urban district council, as the rating authority. This precept required each authority to pay to the County Council a rate of so many pence in the pound by instalments spread over the financial year. For the bulk of services the County precept was levied over the whole County, but for some services a 'special county rate' was levied. For example, the borough of Acton was responsible for its own public libraries, therefore it would have been unjust for the rate-payers of that borough to pay a County charge for libraries outside their area.

Everyday expenditure on the upkeep of schools and roads, on salaries and wages and on the many other services was known as 'revenue expenditure', as distinct from 'capital expenditure'. The building of a new school or similar project was 'capital expenditure'. In most cases this would be too heavy to charge to the rates in one year, and the money was borrowed in the form of stock issues or mortgages.

The Edmonton Latymer Foundation was the legacy of Edward Latymer (1557 or 1558-1627), an official of the Court of Wards, who by his will dated 1624 left property in the Hammersmith area to provide, amongst other things, clothing and education for eight poor boys of Edmonton and eight of Fulham. Separate groups of trustees administered the property on behalf of the boys in the two parishes.

In 1896 the Council was empowered to apply to the Railway Commissioners for an Order authorizing the construction of a light railway. For practical purposes there was no distinction between a light railway and a tramway, except that at that time tramways were horse-drawn. With the introduction of electric traction that distinction very soon disappeared. The MCC obtained a number of Light Railway Orders after the passing of the Act, but it did not work the railways, leasing them to the Metropolitan Electric Tramways.

With the establishment of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1930, all the Council's light railways and tramways were transferred to the Board. They were replaced with trolley buses and buses operated by the London Transport Executive.

The Middlesex County Council owned over 1,346 acres of agricultural land which was let to 400 tenants over the course of the Council's existence. The holdings varied in size from just over half and acre to 75 acres. With few exceptions the smaller holdings produced fruit and vegetables, pigs, poultry and eggs, whilst the larger holdings are used for dairy farming. Smallholdings were regarded as essential to the health of the industry, forming a 'ladder' for skilled agricultural workers, frequently leading to the occupation of larger farms outside the scheme.

All possible assistance and encouragement was given to the tenants in order to enable them to become successful smallholders, in return for which a high standard of production was required. Regulations were made by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries governing the selection of tenants. These regulations provided that preference must be given to agricultural workers with at least five years experience and that tenancies had to be granted to applicants between the ages of 25 and 50.

The Middlesex Magistrates' Courts Committee functioned for the whole County, and its members included justices representing each petty sessional division in the County. The Council worked closely with the Committee, and was empowered to make representations to the Home Secretary regarding any decision to alter the petty sessional divisions. The Council was expected to pay the expenses of the Committee and to appoint clerks to the justices and their staff. The Council also assumed responsiblity for the provision of petty sessional courthouses and the necessary furniture and books.

Magistrates' Courts were presided over by Justices of the Peace, who dealt at petty sessions, held locally, for minor offences committed within that petty sessional division. More serious offences were tried at quarter sessions.

When the County Council became a planning authority in 1948 its planning duties were, broadly, to control the development of land in the County and to prepare a Development Plan. Between the wars Middlesex had grown at a phenomenal rate, producing sprawl and over-industrialisation, with the attendant problems of competing uses for the remaining available land.

The County Development Plan, which laid down the future pattern of land use in Middlesex, was approved by the Minister of Housing and Local Government in 1956 and the Review of the Plan was before the Minister in 1964. The Plan maintained a careful balance of competing uses and was primarily directed towards the maintenance of the Green Belt, a limitation on uses giving rise to employment and improved provision of open space and land for the social services. Under its planning policies, the County Council arranged for hundreds of trees to be planted near main thoroughfares and acquired about fifty wrongly sited premises in order to extinguish their industrial uses.

In carrying out its planning functions the Council worked in close co-operation with the local authorities and under its delegation scheme a large number of applications for planning permission were dealt with by the borough and district councils.

Before 1870 schools were run as private concerns including small private schools and dame schools, the endowed grammar schools, and the beginning of the development of the Public Schools, and for the very poor there existed schools run by religious organisations.

Forster's Education Act of 1870 marked a watershed in the history of English education. It was based on the principle of elementary education for all. It aimed 'to cover the country with good schools and to get the parents to send the children to the schools', and principally to provide instruction in basic literacy and numeracy until the age of 12. The Act provided for the division of England and Wales into school districts. Wherever surveys showed that existing voluntary Schools could not provide enough places for all the school age children within their districts, the ratepayers elected school Boards, which were required to supplement the existing schools with (what became known as) Board Schools. Funds to build and maintain were to come from fees, government grants and the rates. This was the starting point of local responsibility for education expenditure, and of the partnership of central and local authorities.

The Act was not received with unbounded enthusiasm anywhere in the country and Middlesex was no exception. Many areas were reluctant to set up school boards and only did so after repeated prompting from the Education Department of the Privy Council. In many areas problems arose over the co-existence of Board Schools and denomination schools, and the building of new schools was at times regarded as extravagant and seen as robbing the ratepayer. Indeed, in order to avoid the expenditure associated with them, Ealing did not set up a School Board, establishing instead the Ealing Education Association in 1877 to promote voluntary subscriptions to help maintain existing schools. Nevertheless the Act made it possible for children who would previously never have had the opportunity, to receive some basic instruction. By 1903 the School Boards in Middlesex had completed 31 new elementary schools, with 3 more in the process of building.

School Board Districts in Middlesex: Acton; Ashford; Boston Road (formerly Hanwell National School); Brentford; Edgware; Edmonton; Enfield; Feltham, Hanworth and Bedfont; Finchley; Friern Barnet and South Mimms; Hanwell; Hampton Wick; Harmondsworth; Harefield; Harrow United School Board; Hornsey; Kingsbury; Norwood; Southall; Southgate; Staines; Tottenham; Uxbridge; Willesden and Wood Green.

School Boards were abolished by the 1902 Education Act and replaced by Local Education Authorities (LEAs), which were, in effect, the county councils or county borough councils. They were given charge of all elementary and much secondary education throughout the country.

Maintenance of county roads and bridges was supervised by the County Engineer and Surveyor's Department.

The County Council's Architectural Service was concerned with the diverse types of building required for the education, health, welfare, legal, administrative and fire and ambulance services run by the County, each with special requirements affecting their design.

The name 'Middlesex' is first recorded in a charter of AD 704 in the Latin form of 'Middelseaxan'. In the Domesday survey of 1086 the county is divided into six Hundreds (Edmonton, Elthorne, Gore, Hounslow, Ossulstone and Spelthorne) which remained as administrative units until the 19th century. Government in the County was in the hands of the justices of the peace, whose administrative duties steadily increased from the 16th century. In the 19th century boards of guardians became responsible for the care of poor persons; highway boards and boards of health were created and the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was set up in 1855 as the central administrative and coordinating body for the area which later became the Administrative County of London.

The Local Government Act of 1888 transferred the bulk of Middlesex wealth and population into the new County of London. Those areas which became part of London included Hammersmith, Chelsea, Kensington, Paddington, Fulham, Saint Marylebone, Saint Pancras, Westminster, Islington, Hackney, Bow, Bromley, Poplar, Mile End, Bethnal Green and Shoreditch. Remaining in Middlesex were Twickenham, Sunbury-on-Thames, Staines, Feltham, Heston, Isleworth, Brentford, Chiswick, Yiewsley, West Drayton, Hayes, Harlington, Southall, Acton, Ealing, Uxbridge, Ruislip, Northwood, Harrow, Wembley, Willesden, Hendon, Finchley, Hornsey, Wood Green, Tottenham, Edmonton, Southgate, Friern Barnet, Enfield and Potters Bar. The ancient Middlesex Guildhall was situated in Westminster, which was now part of the County of London. Nevertheless, the Guildhall buildings in Westminster remained the headquarters of Middlesex County Council.

The newly formed Middlesex County Council (MCC) first met in February 1889, with Mr Ralph Littler in the Chair. The principal functions of the County Council in 1889 were:

• matters relating to the levying of rates for county purposes

• control of the accounts of the County and of the County Treasurer

• ownership of county halls, courts and premises used for the administration of justice

• licensing of premises for public performances of stage plays, music and dancing and licensing of race courses

• provision and maintenance of asylums for pauper lunatics

• provision and maintenance of reformatory and industrial schools

• maintenance of County bridges

• matters affecting the County Surveyor, County Treasurer and all other County officers paid from the county rate

• matters relating to coroners and their districts

• division of the County into polling districts for Parliamentary elections and the appointment of polling places

• execution of acts of Parliament relating to diseases of animals, protection of wild birds, supervision of weights and measures, explosives and gas meters

• maintenance of all roads

• purchase of land for County purposes and sale of surplus land

• appointing of medical officers of health and other such officers as necessary

• power to make byelaws.

Further powers were conferred on the Council by later Acts of Parliament, including:

• responsibility for education and the administration of primary, secondary and technical schools (Education Act 1902)

• supervision of midwives and maternity services (Midwives Act 1902, Local Government Act 1929)

• supervision of employment agencies and ice cream vendors (1906)

• child welfare (Children's Act 1908 and Children and Young Persons Act 1932)

• regulation of cinemas and the storage of celluloid (Cinematograph Act 1909)

• public health and housing responsibilities (1909 and 1930)

• care of the mentally deficient; care of those suffering from tuberculosis (1913)

• welfare of the blind (1920)

• library services (1922)

• administration of hospitals and institutions after the abolition of the Boards of Guardians (1929)

• registration of births, marriages and deaths (1929)

• provision of sports, recreation and physical training facilities (1937)

• civil defence responsibilities (Air Raid Precautions Act 1938 and Civil Defence Act 1939)

• town and county planning (1947)

• fire and ambulance services (1947)

The Council also lobbied Parliament for powers it felt it required through the passing of the Middlesex County Council Acts, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1938 and 1950. Powers conferred by these acts included bridge construction, authority over mains drainage, authority over parks and open spaces, further controls over highways and licensing of wrestling and boxing entertainments.

Middlesex prospered until its growth from an area of small towns and villages to almost total urbanisation, which gradually eliminated all visible boundaries between London and Middlesex. This resulted in the merging of the two counties into a Greater London area in 1965, run by the Greater London Council (GLC).

The Children's Department of the Middlesex County Council was set up under the Children Act 1948 which embodied the findings of the Curtis Report of 1945-1946. The Act took effect on 5 July 1948; the first meeting of the newly formed Children's Committee took place on the next day, taking over from the Interim Children's Committee, formed of the members of the thereafter defunct Children's Care Sub-Committee of the Education Committee. The first Children's Officer, Mr Ainscow, had in fact been appointed in anticipation, with effect from 1 May 1948. The duties of the Department had previously been distributed across several County Council departments (the Public Assistance, Public Health and Education Departments), as well as bodies (education authorities outside the MCC and the County Maternity and Child Welfare authorities) not part of the County Council at all.

The activities of the Children's Department may be summarised as follows:
i) Care and welfare: this comprised of the provision of care for a) children under the age of 17 if they had no parents or guardians; if they were abandoned or lost; of if their parents were unable to provide for their proper upbringing, provided that such care was in the child's best interests: and b) children committed by a court to the care of the County Council under a Fit Person order. This involved inter alia the running of homes and nurseries, the maintenance of the boarding out system for foster homes, and in some cases the assumption of full parental rights until the child should attain majority. The Department also undertook the care of children as delegated by the Welfare Department when dealing with problem or evicted families.

ii) Child Life Protection: this was a long standing local authority responsibility. After the passing of the Children Act 1948 its effect was to render it an offence for any person other than the parent, legal guardian or a relative to undertake for reward (whether or not for profit) the care of a child below school leaving age (15 in 1948) without notifying the County Council as a welfare authority. The Children's Department publicised the legal obligations upon such persons, supervised placements, inspected and regulated foster homes and so on. After the Adoption Act 1950, a similar duty to notify the Council rested upon anyone placing a child in another's care (with the same exceptions as above).

iii) Approved schools and remand homes: a child could be committed by the courts into the care of the Council either by a Fit Person Order, the effect of which was to put the child into the care of the Children's Department or by an Approved School Order, which placed the child under the care of managers at an Approved School. It should be noted that placements were made under the aegis of the Home Office nationwide, and that although the Council, through sub-committees of the Children's Committees, ran two approved schools, by no means all Middlesex children would be allocated places there. The Committee also ran two remand homes. The Children's Department were involved in briefing judges on cases: sometimes in bringing themselves in order to gain the powers by which to afford children under threat the care and protection they needed; and as the executive arm of the County Council on receipt of Fit Person Orders. Staff were also responsible for the supervision and after-care of "licensed" Middlesex children.

iv) Under the Adoption Act 1926, the County Council had since 1943 to oversee the compulsory registration of adoption societies in the county (not an onerous duty: two were registered in of which only one, the Homeless Children's Aid and Adoption Society, continued for any length of time). Compulsory notification to the County Council of all adoptions in the county was not introduced until the Adoption Act 1950. Also, from that point of view the Council had to supervise every prospective third party adoption in its area, whether or not involved in any other capacity. After the 1958 Act the Council had the power to place children for adoption even if those children were not in its care. Its powers of supervision were widened to include all adoptions in the county.

Health areas of the County of Middlesex, also used as administrative areas by the MCC Children's Department: Area 1 Enfield and Edmonton; Area 2 Southgate, Potters Bar, Wood Green and Friern Barnet; Area 3 Hornsey and Tottenham; Area 4 Finchley and Hendon; Area 5 Harrow; Area 6 Wembley and Willesden; Area 7 Ealing and Acton; Area 8 Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, Hayes and Harlington, Yiewsley and West Drayton; Area 9 Heston and Isleworth, Southall and Area 10 Feltham, Staines, Twickenham, Sunbury.

Approved schools and remand homes:
In the first half of the nineteenth century, child offenders were sent to gaols along with adults; no differentiation was made. In the late 1840s and 1850s however, largely as a result of the Ragged School movement, various philanthropic groups and individuals began to experiment with schools for the reformation of delinquent children; also advocated were industrial schools where the children of the poorest classes whose mode of life was such that there was the probability of their becoming offenders might be fed and gainfully occupied in the acquisition and exercise of some means of making an honest livelihood. The movement bore fruit in the form of the Reformatory Schools (Youthful Offenders) Act 1854 and the Industrial Schools and Reformatory Schools Act 1857 reinforced by two further statutes of 1866. Under these acts, county justices were obliged to commit young offenders to such institutions, and local authorities to maintain them there, as well as being empowered themselves to maintain or contribute to the maintenance of such institutions (most were run by philanthropic or religious bodies).

On the creation of the Middlesex County Council in 1889 it was allotted the justices' functions regarding the maintenance of juveniles in reformatory and industrial schools. These functions were made the responsibility of the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Committee (after 1908 the Reformatory Schools Committee) until 1933.

The 1908 Children Act in effect abolished the difference between industrial and reformatory schools, which had more or less ceased to exist in 1899, when the Reformatory Schools Amendment Act did away with the requirement that juveniles committed to a reformatory school should spend a preliminary period in prison. More importantly the 1908 Act set up juvenile courts as an integral part of the legal system and redefined the reasons for which children might be brought before the Courts to include a much wider range of welfare (as opposed to punitive) committals. For example children being non-offenders might be brought before the juvenile courts as needing protection, if found begging in the streets; wandering and having no proper guardian; destitute, with parent(s) in prison; in the care of drunken or criminal parents; the daughter of a father convicted of the carnal knowledge of any daughter under 16; frequenting the company of a reported thief or prostitute; living in a house frequented by prostitutes or living in circumstances likely to lead to the seduction or prostitution of the child. Such children would then be committed if necessary to an industrial or reformatory school and maintained by the County Council. Further, whereas juveniles awaiting trial had previously been kept in prisons, it was now incumbent upon the police authorities to provide separate places of detention.

In the case of Middlesex the police authority was the Standing Joint Committee, who provided the Place of Detention, Willesden, located at 49 Church Road, Willesden. It opened in 1911 for the accommodation of remanded boys and girls. In 1913 the London County Council agreed to place the girls and the establishment thereafter was for the boys only. It closed in January 1921, when the LCC agreed to accommodate remanded boys for Middlesex County Council.

Major reforms were brought about by the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 which remained in force with amendments for the rest of the Council's existence. This Act replaced places of detention by remand homes, and reformatory and industrial schools by approved schools (i.e. approved by the Home Office). Juvenile offenders were committed by the juvenile courts by an approved school order to the care of the managers of an approved school. The placements were ultimately under the aegis of the Home Office, and could in theory be made anywhere in the country. The County Council was responsible for children and young people in its area. It was also responsible for making good any shortage in approved school accommodation, at the direction of the Home Office. Middlesex children might thus be committed to an approved school anywhere in the country, including those maintained by the MCC; the approved schools maintained by the MCC might receive children from and maintained by any authority in England and Wales. These new duties were given to the Education Committee, and the Reformatory Schools Committee was wound up.

The Children's Department of the Middlesex County Council was set up under the Children Act 1948 which embodied the findings of the Curtis Report of 1945-1946. The Act took effect on 5 July 1948; the first meeting of the newly formed Children's Committee took place on the next day, taking over from the Interim Children's Committee, formed of the members of the thereafter defunct Children's Care Sub-Committee of the Education Committee. The first Children's Officer, Mr Ainscow, had in fact been appointed in anticipation, with effect from 1 May 1948. The duties of the Department had previously been distributed across several County Council departments (the Public Assistance, Public Health and Education Departments), as well as bodies (education authorities outside the MCC and the County Maternity and Child Welfare authorities) not part of the County Council at all.

The activities of the Children's Department may be summarised as follows:
i) Care and welfare: this comprised of the provision of care for a) children under the age of 17 if they had no parents or guardians; if they were abandoned or lost; of if their parents were unable to provide for their proper upbringing, provided that such care was in the child's best interests: and b) children committed by a court to the care of the County Council under a Fit Person order. This involved inter alia the running of homes and nurseries, the maintenance of the boarding out system for foster homes, and in some cases the assumption of full parental rights until the child should attain majority. The Department also undertook the care of children as delegated by the Welfare Department when dealing with problem or evicted families.

ii) Child Life Protection: this was a long standing local authority responsibility. After the passing of the Children Act 1948 its effect was to render it an offence for any person other than the parent, legal guardian or a relative to undertake for reward (whether or not for profit) the care of a child below school leaving age (15 in 1948) without notifying the County Council as a welfare authority. The Children's Department publicised the legal obligations upon such persons, supervised placements, inspected and regulated foster homes and so on. After the Adoption Act 1950, a similar duty to notify the Council rested upon anyone placing a child in another's care (with the same exceptions as above).

iii) Approved schools and remand homes: a child could be committed by the courts into the care of the Council either by a Fit Person Order, the effect of which was to put the child into the care of the Children's Department or by an Approved School Order, which placed the child under the care of managers at an Approved School. It should be noted that placements were made under the aegis of the Home Office nationwide, and that although the Council, through sub-committees of the Children's Committees, ran two approved schools, by no means all Middlesex children would be allocated places there. The Committee also ran two remand homes. The Children's Department were involved in briefing judges on cases: sometimes in bringing themselves in order to gain the powers by which to afford children under threat the care and protection they needed; and as the executive arm of the County Council on receipt of Fit Person Orders. Staff were also responsible for the supervision and after-care of "licensed" Middlesex children.

iv) Under the Adoption Act 1926, the County Council had since 1943 to oversee the compulsory registration of adoption societies in the county (not an onerous duty: two were registered in of which only one, the Homeless Children's Aid and Adoption Society, continued for any length of time). Compulsory notification to the County Council of all adoptions in the county was not introduced until the Adoption Act 1950. Also, from that point of view the Council had to supervise every prospective third party adoption in its area, whether or not involved in any other capacity. After the 1958 Act the Council had the power to place children for adoption even if those children were not in its care. Its powers of supervision were widened to include all adoptions in the county.

Health areas of the County of Middlesex, also used as administrative areas by the MCC Children's Department: Area 1 Enfield and Edmonton; Area 2 Southgate, Potters Bar, Wood Green and Friern Barnet; Area 3 Hornsey and Tottenham; Area 4 Finchley and Hendon; Area 5 Harrow; Area 6 Wembley and Willesden; Area 7 Ealing and Acton; Area 8 Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, Hayes and Harlington, Yiewsley and West Drayton; Area 9 Heston and Isleworth, Southall and Area 10 Feltham, Staines, Twickenham, Sunbury

Children in care:
The care of destitute children, one of the functions of the Elizabethan poor law, was made a duty of the Boards of Guardians under the reformed Poor Law of the 1834 Act. They provided relief and education, and later arranged employment, apprenticeship or emigration. From 1889, the guardians could adopt children - that is to say assume the rights and duties of parents towards them. The Guardians were also empowered to board out children, either in private families or in voluntary homes. The Children Act 1908 among other important provisions described elsewhere transferred to the Guardians the duties of inspection and supervision previously given to the justices and the police under the child life protection legislation being passed from 1872.

The Local Government Act 1929 and the Poor Law Act 1930 abolished the Guardians and transferred their powers to local authorities. Those specifically relating to the poor and destitute became the responsibility of the newly formed Public Assistance Department of the Middlesex County Council, who took over the children and institutions formerly under the Guardians. Those large institutions still in use for children, such as the Chase Farm Schools in Enfield (formerly Edmonton Union) were re-employed, and the children placed in smaller and more personal homes favoured by the MCC.

The duties of the Guardians relating to child life protection were passed to the Maternity and Child Welfare authorities under the Maternity and Child Welfare Act 1918, of which the MCC was one, although the larger boroughs and urban districts provided their own services. The MCC Maternity and Child Welfare Service was part of the Public Health Department. Children with physical and mental disabilities were the responsibility of the local education authorities under the Education Act 1902, of which the MCC's Education Department was one, although as with the Maternity and Child Welfare services, there were others in the county.

All of these functions were taken over in 1948 by the Children's Department subsequent to the Children's Act. The Department also took over certain other functions of the Education Department. As stated above, the Acts of 1929 and 1930 transferred to the MCC Education Department the care of children with disabilities. The Department's role in child care was however greatly increased by the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (under this Act a child was defined as one up to the age of 14, and a young person as being aged 14-16). Besides re-stating the procedures by which a child being the victim of wilful neglect or cruelty might be brought before the courts for its own safety, this Act gave a new importance to local education authorities by transferring to them the duty of bringing before the courts children and young persons in need of care and protection; the administration of remand homes and newly established approved schools; and of being a "fit person" to whom the courts could commit the children brought before them.

The 1948 Act had the effect of transferring these functions of the Education Department to the Children's Department. Children taken into care were now defined by the relevant sections of the Act. Section One permitted the local authority to assume the care of orphaned or deserted children and children whose parents or guardians were unable or unfit to take care of them: this section also contained the unprecedented proviso that the children should be returned to their parents or guardians if at all possible. Section Two permitted the local authority to assume all parental rights and responsibilities over a Section One child if it seemed that the circumstances which caused the child to be taken into care would be permanent. Section Five made it obligatory for the local authority to accept the care of a child committed to it as a "fit person" by a court under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.

The Children's Department of the Middlesex County Council was set up under the Children Act 1948 which embodied the findings of the Curtis Report of 1945-1946. The Act took effect on 5 July 1948; the first meeting of the newly formed Children's Committee took place on the next day, taking over from the Interim Children's Committee, formed of the members of the thereafter defunct Children's Care Sub-Committee of the Education Committee. The first Children's Officer, Mr Ainscow, had in fact been appointed in anticipation, with effect from 1 May 1948. The duties of the Department had previously been distributed across several County Council departments (the Public Assistance, Public Health and Education Departments), as well as bodies (education authorities outside the MCC and the County Maternity and Child Welfare authorities) not part of the County Council at all.

The activities of the Children's Department may be summarised as follows:
i) Care and welfare: this comprised of the provision of care for a) children under the age of 17 if they had no parents or guardians; if they were abandoned or lost; of if their parents were unable to provide for their proper upbringing, provided that such care was in the child's best interests: and b) children committed by a court to the care of the County Council under a Fit Person order. This involved inter alia the running of homes and nurseries, the maintenance of the boarding out system for foster homes, and in some cases the assumption of full parental rights until the child should attain majority. The Department also undertook the care of children as delegated by the Welfare Department when dealing with problem or evicted families.

ii) Child Life Protection: this was a long standing local authority responsibility. After the passing of the Children Act 1948 its effect was to render it an offence for any person other than the parent, legal guardian or a relative to undertake for reward (whether or not for profit) the care of a child below school leaving age (15 in 1948) without notifying the County Council as a welfare authority. The Children's Department publicised the legal obligations upon such persons, supervised placements, inspected and regulated foster homes and so on. After the Adoption Act 1950, a similar duty to notify the Council rested upon anyone placing a child in another's care (with the same exceptions as above).

iii) Approved schools and remand homes: a child could be committed by the courts into the care of the Council either by a Fit Person Order, the effect of which was to put the child into the care of the Children's Department or by an Approved School Order, which placed the child under the care of managers at an Approved School. It should be noted that placements were made under the aegis of the Home Office nationwide, and that although the Council, through sub-committees of the Children's Committees, ran two approved schools, by no means all Middlesex children would be allocated places there. The Committee also ran two remand homes. The Children's Department were involved in briefing judges on cases: sometimes in bringing themselves in order to gain the powers by which to afford children under threat the care and protection they needed; and as the executive arm of the County Council on receipt of Fit Person Orders. Staff were also responsible for the supervision and after-care of "licensed" Middlesex children.

iv) Under the Adoption Act 1926, the County Council had since 1943 to oversee the compulsory registration of adoption societies in the county (not an onerous duty: two were registered in of which only one, the Homeless Children's Aid and Adoption Society, continued for any length of time). Compulsory notification to the County Council of all adoptions in the county was not introduced until the Adoption Act 1950. Also, from that point of view the Council had to supervise every prospective third party adoption in its area, whether or not involved in any other capacity. After the 1958 Act the Council had the power to place children for adoption even if those children were not in its care. Its powers of supervision were widened to include all adoptions in the county.

Health areas of the County of Middlesex, also used as administrative areas by the MCC Children's Department: Area 1 Enfield and Edmonton; Area 2 Southgate, Potters Bar, Wood Green and Friern Barnet; Area 3 Hornsey and Tottenham; Area 4 Finchley and Hendon; Area 5 Harrow; Area 6 Wembley and Willesden; Area 7 Ealing and Acton; Area 8 Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, Hayes and Harlington, Yiewsley and West Drayton; Area 9 Heston and Isleworth, Southall and Area 10 Feltham, Staines, Twickenham, Sunbury.

Children in care:

The care of destitute children, one of the functions of the Elizabethan poor law, was made a duty of the Boards of Guardians under the reformed Poor Law of the 1834 Act. They provided relief and education, and later arranged employment, apprenticeship or emigration. From 1889, the guardians could adopt children - that is to say assume the rights and duties of parents towards them. The Guardians were also empowered to board out children, either in private families or in voluntary homes. The Children Act 1908 among other important provisions described elsewhere transferred to the Guardians the duties of inspection and supervision previously given to the justices and the police under the child life protection legislation being passed from 1872.

The Local Government Act 1929 and the Poor Law Act 1930 abolished the Guardians and transferred their powers to local authorities. Those specifically relating to the poor and destitute became the responsibility of the newly formed Public Assistance Department of the Middlesex County Council, who took over the children and institutions formerly under the Guardians. Those large institutions still in use for children, such as the Chase Farm Schools in Enfield (formerly Edmonton Union) were re-employed, and the children placed in smaller and more personal homes favoured by the MCC.

The duties of the Guardians relating to child life protection were passed to the Maternity and Child Welfare authorities under the Maternity and Child Welfare Act 1918, of which the MCC was one, although the larger boroughs and urban districts provided their own services. The MCC Maternity and Child Welfare Service was part of the Public Health Department. Children with physical and mental disabilities were the responsibility of the local education authorities under the Education Act 1902, of which the MCC's Education Department was one, although as with the Maternity and Child Welfare services, there were others in the county.

All of these functions were taken over in 1948 by the Children's Department subsequent to the Children's Act. The Department also took over certain other functions of the Education Department. As stated above, the Acts of 1929 and 1930 transferred to the MCC Education Department the care of children with disabilities. The Department's role in child care was however greatly increased by the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (under this Act a child was defined as one up to the age of 14, and a young person as being aged 14-16). Besides re-stating the procedures by which a child being the victim of wilful neglect or cruelty might be brought before the courts for its own safety, this Act gave a new importance to local education authorities by transferring to them the duty of bringing before the courts children and young persons in need of care and protection; the administration of remand homes and newly established approved schools; and of being a "fit person" to whom the courts could commit the children brought before them.

The 1948 Act had the effect of transferring these functions of the Education Department to the Children's Department. Children taken into care were now defined by the relevant sections of the Act. Section One permitted the local authority to assume the care of orphaned or deserted children and children whose parents or guardians were unable or unfit to take care of them: this section also contained the unprecedented proviso that the children should be returned to their parents or guardians if at all possible. Section Two permitted the local authority to assume all parental rights and responsibilities over a Section One child if it seemed that the circumstances which caused the child to be taken into care would be permanent. Section Five made it obligatory for the local authority to accept the care of a child committed to it as a "fit person" by a court under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.

The Children's Department of the Middlesex County Council was set up under the Children Act 1948 which embodied the findings of the Curtis Report of 1945-1946. The Act took effect on 5 July 1948; the first meeting of the newly formed Children's Committee took place on the next day, taking over from the Interim Children's Committee, formed of the members of the thereafter defunct Children's Care Sub-Committee of the Education Committee. The first Children's Officer, Mr Ainscow, had in fact been appointed in anticipation, with effect from 1 May 1948. The duties of the Department had previously been distributed across several County Council departments (the Public Assistance, Public Health and Education Departments), as well as bodies (education authorities outside the MCC and the County Maternity and Child Welfare authorities) not part of the County Council at all.

The activities of the Children's Department may be summarised as follows:
i) Care and welfare: this comprised of the provision of care for a) children under the age of 17 if they had no parents or guardians; if they were abandoned or lost; of if their parents were unable to provide for their proper upbringing, provided that such care was in the child's best interests: and b) children committed by a court to the care of the County Council under a Fit Person order. This involved inter alia the running of homes and nurseries, the maintenance of the boarding out system for foster homes, and in some cases the assumption of full parental rights until the child should attain majority. The Department also undertook the care of children as delegated by the Welfare Department when dealing with problem or evicted families.

ii) Child Life Protection: this was a long standing local authority responsibility. After the passing of the Children Act 1948 its effect was to render it an offence for any person other than the parent, legal guardian or a relative to undertake for reward (whether or not for profit) the care of a child below school leaving age (15 in 1948) without notifying the County Council as a welfare authority. The Children's Department publicised the legal obligations upon such persons, supervised placements, inspected and regulated foster homes and so on. After the Adoption Act 1950, a similar duty to notify the Council rested upon anyone placing a child in another's care (with the same exceptions as above).

iii) Approved schools and remand homes: a child could be committed by the courts into the care of the Council either by a Fit Person Order, the effect of which was to put the child into the care of the Children's Department or by an Approved School Order, which placed the child under the care of managers at an Approved School. It should be noted that placements were made under the aegis of the Home Office nationwide, and that although the Council, through sub-committees of the Children's Committees, ran two approved schools, by no means all Middlesex children would be allocated places there. The Committee also ran two remand homes. The Children's Department were involved in briefing judges on cases: sometimes in bringing themselves in order to gain the powers by which to afford children under threat the care and protection they needed; and as the executive arm of the County Council on receipt of Fit Person Orders. Staff were also responsible for the supervision and after-care of "licensed" Middlesex children.

iv) Under the Adoption Act 1926, the County Council had since 1943 to oversee the compulsory registration of adoption societies in the county (not an onerous duty: two were registered in of which only one, the Homeless Children's Aid and Adoption Society, continued for any length of time). Compulsory notification to the County Council of all adoptions in the county was not introduced until the Adoption Act 1950. Also, from that point of view the Council had to supervise every prospective third party adoption in its area, whether or not involved in any other capacity. After the 1958 Act the Council had the power to place children for adoption even if those children were not in its care. Its powers of supervision were widened to include all adoptions in the county.

Health areas of the County of Middlesex, also used as administrative areas by the MCC Children's Department: Area 1 Enfield and Edmonton; Area 2 Southgate, Potters Bar, Wood Green and Friern Barnet; Area 3 Hornsey and Tottenham; Area 4 Finchley and Hendon; Area 5 Harrow; Area 6 Wembley and Willesden; Area 7 Ealing and Acton; Area 8 Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, Hayes and Harlington, Yiewsley and West Drayton; Area 9 Heston and Isleworth, Southall and Area 10 Feltham, Staines, Twickenham, Sunbury.

Child Life Protection (Fostering and Boarding-out):

Both fostering and boarding out as activities greatly pre-date the formation of the County Council. Fostering - that is the arrangement whereby one person pays another for the care of a child - has always existed in one form or another. Boarding out was a function of the Guardians under both the old and reformed Poor Law, whereby pauper children, instead of being maintained in the workhouse were housed by private individuals either in or out of the Union, who paid them for doing so. The main motive for this was probably economic: boarding out cost the Guardians less than maintaining the child in a workhouse, and those taking pauper children were able to use them as cheap, if not indeed free, labour.

Fostering too had its abuses, the grossest of which was baby farming, the scandal of which necessitated legislation in the form of the Infant Life Protection Act 1872 which made it compulsory for persons taking for hire two or more infants less than a year old to register with the local authorities, who were the Councils in the care of the boroughs and the Justices in the case of counties. A new Infant Life Protection Act was passed in 1897 which included the power for the inspectors of the local authority forcibly to remove a fostered child to a place of safety if it were endangered. A further measure to the same end was the Notification of Births Act 1907, a permissive act , made compulsory in 1915, whereby all births had not only to be registered but also notified to the local medical officer of health.

Under the Children Act 1908, the legislation was extended to cover those fostering one child for reward. Child life protection as a whole was transferred to the Poor Law authorities, whose duties comprised the receiving of notice where a person undertook for reward the nursing and maintenance of an infant under the age of 7; the appointment of visitors to inspect such children; the limitation of the number in a dwelling; the removal of such infants improperly kept; and the receiving of fines imposed from offences. Poor Law institutions had in fact been specifically excluded from child life protection legislation, and they were thus not obliged to inspect their own boarding out facilities. These had already been the subject of separate legislation in 1889 and 1905, to be followed by more in 1909 and 1911, whereby boarding-out committees exercised an impartial supervision of the measures of each Union.

The Local Government Act 1929 abolished the Guardians and their powers were transferred to and divided between various Departments of the County Councils and their authorities. Child life protection became the duty of the local health authorities responsible for the maternity and child welfare services under the Maternity and Child Welfare Act 1918. These were the same authorities as were constituted under the Notification of Births Act, of which the MCC was one of several in the County. Boarding-out of children in care, however, became the duty of the Public Assistance Department.

All the Maternity and Child Welfare authorities passed their child life protection duties to the Children's Department in 1948, which thus became responsible for the supervision of fostering throughout the County. The Department was of course also responsible for the boarding out of children in care.

The Children's Department of the Middlesex County Council was set up under the Children Act 1948 which embodied the findings of the Curtis Report of 1945-1946. The Act took effect on 5 July 1948; the first meeting of the newly formed Children's Committee took place on the next day, taking over from the Interim Children's Committee, formed of the members of the thereafter defunct Children's Care Sub-Committee of the Education Committee. The first Children's Officer, Mr Ainscow, had in fact been appointed in anticipation, with effect from 1 May 1948. The duties of the Department had previously been distributed across several County Council departments (the Public Assistance, Public Health and Education Departments), as well as bodies (education authorities outside the MCC and the County Maternity and Child Welfare authorities) not part of the County Council at all.

The activities of the Children's Department may be summarised as follows:
i) Care and welfare: this comprised of the provision of care for a) children under the age of 17 if they had no parents or guardians; if they were abandoned or lost; of if their parents were unable to provide for their proper upbringing, provided that such care was in the child's best interests: and b) children committed by a court to the care of the County Council under a Fit Person order. This involved inter alia the running of homes and nurseries, the maintenance of the boarding out system for foster homes, and in some cases the assumption of full parental rights until the child should attain majority. The Department also undertook the care of children as delegated by the Welfare Department when dealing with problem or evicted families.

ii) Child Life Protection: this was a long standing local authority responsibility. After the passing of the Children Act 1948 its effect was to render it an offence for any person other than the parent, legal guardian or a relative to undertake for reward (whether or not for profit) the care of a child below school leaving age (15 in 1948) without notifying the County Council as a welfare authority. The Children's Department publicised the legal obligations upon such persons, supervised placements, inspected and regulated foster homes and so on. After the Adoption Act 1950, a similar duty to notify the Council rested upon anyone placing a child in another's care (with the same exceptions as above).

iii) Approved schools and remand homes: a child could be committed by the courts into the care of the Council either by a Fit Person Order, the effect of which was to put the child into the care of the Children's Department or by an Approved School Order, which placed the child under the care of managers at an Approved School. It should be noted that placements were made under the aegis of the Home Office nationwide, and that although the Council, through sub-committees of the Children's Committees, ran two approved schools, by no means all Middlesex children would be allocated places there. The Committee also ran two remand homes. The Children's Department were involved in briefing judges on cases: sometimes in bringing themselves in order to gain the powers by which to afford children under threat the care and protection they needed; and as the executive arm of the County Council on receipt of Fit Person Orders. Staff were also responsible for the supervision and after-care of "licensed" Middlesex children.

iv) Under the Adoption Act 1926, the County Council had since 1943 to oversee the compulsory registration of adoption societies in the county (not an onerous duty: two were registered in of which only one, the Homeless Children's Aid and Adoption Society, continued for any length of time). Compulsory notification to the County Council of all adoptions in the county was not introduced until the Adoption Act 1950. Also, from that point of view the Council had to supervise every prospective third party adoption in its area, whether or not involved in any other capacity. After the 1958 Act the Council had the power to place children for adoption even if those children were not in its care. Its powers of supervision were widened to include all adoptions in the county.

Health areas of the County of Middlesex, also used as administrative areas by the MCC Children's Department: Area 1 Enfield and Edmonton; Area 2 Southgate, Potters Bar, Wood Green and Friern Barnet; Area 3 Hornsey and Tottenham; Area 4 Finchley and Hendon; Area 5 Harrow; Area 6 Wembley and Willesden; Area 7 Ealing and Acton; Area 8 Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, Hayes and Harlington, Yiewsley and West Drayton; Area 9 Heston and Isleworth, Southall and Area 10 Feltham, Staines, Twickenham, Sunbury.

Chairmen of the Middlesex County Council, 1889-1965:
Sir Ralph Littler, 1889-1908

Sir Montagu Sharpe, 1908-1909

William Regester, 1909-1912

Cecil Fane De Salis, 1919-1924

Benjamin Todd, 1924-1927

Sir Charles Pinkham, 1927-1930

George Marlow Reed, 1930-1933

Sir Howard Button, 1933-1936

William Prescott, 1936-1937

Forrester Clayton, 1937-1940

Sir Gilfrid Craig, 1940-1943

William Reginald Clemens, 1943-1946

Bernard Harry Rockman, 1946-1947

Sir Fred Messer, 1947-1948

William John Irving, 1948-1949

Albert Henry Farley, 1949-1951

Sir William Josiah Grimshaw, 1951-1953

Sir Archer Hoare, 1953-1954

Albert Noel Hansel Baines, 1954-1955

Sir Stanley Graham Rowlandson, 1955-1956

Sir Christopher George Armstrong Cowan, 1956-1957

William Rendel Myson Chambers, 1957-1958

Thomas Henry Joyce, 1958-1959

George Albert Pargiter, 1959-1960

Muriel Rose Forbes, 1960-1961

Sir Joseph Haygarth, 1961-1962

James Henry Knaggs, 1962-1963

Frances Timpson, 1963-1964

John Wilfred Barter, 1964-1965.

The work of the County Health Department included maternity and child health services; care and after-care of persons in the community who have been ill; prevention of illness; health education; school health services; mental health services and health control at airports. The Health Department had central offices and offices in each health area and there is a large staff of doctors, dentists, nurses and other technical staff, in addition to administrative and clerical staff, under the direction of the County Medical Officer of Health and the District Medical Officers.

The General Purposes Committee was responsible for matters of general principle and policy, and matters which affected more than one committee, but which were not designated as the responsibility of any one of those committees. It was also responsible for departments which did not have a separate committee.

Responsiblities of the General Purposes Committee:

• Coroners for Middlesex

• the Architect's Department

• the Local Tax Department

• town planning

• the Public Control Department

• public relations

• refuse dumps

• registration of births, marriages and deaths

• public swimming pools

• county boundaries and local government areas

• county and parliamentary elections

• financial assistance to bodies in the County working to promote trade, industry or commerce

• Alexandra Palace, Wood Green

• Hogarth's House, Chiswick

• ceremonials

• the coordination of dates and times of committee meetings

• the coordination of ceremonies

• control of MCC publications

• representing the MCC at external conferences

• general administration

London Heathrow started life in 1946 as an army surplus small grass airfield. Privately owned, the Great Western Aerodrome was used largely for test flying with commercial flights taking off from nearby Heston and Hanworth Park airfields.

In 1944 it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry to be developed as a major transport base for the Royal Air Force. Before the work was completed, the war ended and with it came the prospect of a huge expansion in civil aviation. London needed a large airport with modern equipment and the partly-built site at Heathrow was ideal. One runway was ready for use and when the Ministry of Civil Aviation took it over in 1946 the tented terminal was quickly put in place and a new chapter began.

By 1947 three runways had been completed and work on another three - subsequently abandoned as unnecessary - was going on. A new, permanent building arose in the central area at the start of the 1950s, replacing the tent. As traffic boomed Heathrow Airport found itself with an ever-increasing demand for passenger facilities. The Queen inaugurated a new building in 1955 (Terminal 2) and the tunnel which provides the main road access to Heathrow's central area was opened. Next came the new Oceanic terminal handling long-haul carriers, a function it still performs as Terminal 3, followed by the opening of Terminal 1 in 1968. Increased congestion in the central area led to the birth of Terminal 4 in 1986 on the south side of the airport

Source: http://www.heathrow-airport-guide.co.uk/history.html.

The Children's Department of the Middlesex County Council was set up under the Children Act 1948 which embodied the findings of the Curtis Report of 1945-1946. The Act took effect on 5 July 1948; the first meeting of the newly formed Children's Committee took place on the next day, taking over from the Interim Children's Committee, formed of the members of the thereafter defunct Children's Care Sub-Committee of the Education Committee. The first Children's Officer, Mr Ainscow, had in fact been appointed in anticipation, with effect from 1 May 1948. The duties of the Department had previously been distributed across several County Council departments (the Public Assistance, Public Health and Education Departments), as well as bodies (education authorities outside the MCC and the County Maternity and Child Welfare authorities) not part of the County Council at all.

The activities of the Children's Department may be summarised as follows:
i) Care and welfare: this comprised of the provision of care for a) children under the age of 17 if they had no parents or guardians; if they were abandoned or lost; of if their parents were unable to provide for their proper upbringing, provided that such care was in the child's best interests: and b) children committed by a court to the care of the County Council under a Fit Person order. This involved inter alia the running of homes and nurseries, the maintenance of the boarding out system for foster homes, and in some cases the assumption of full parental rights until the child should attain majority. The Department also undertook the care of children as delegated by the Welfare Department when dealing with problem or evicted families.

ii) Child Life Protection: this was a long standing local authority responsibility. After the passing of the Children Act 1948 its effect was to render it an offence for any person other than the parent, legal guardian or a relative to undertake for reward (whether or not for profit) the care of a child below school leaving age (15 in 1948) without notifying the County Council as a welfare authority. The Children's Department publicised the legal obligations upon such persons, supervised placements, inspected and regulated foster homes and so on. After the Adoption Act 1950, a similar duty to notify the Council rested upon anyone placing a child in another's care (with the same exceptions as above).

iii) Approved schools and remand homes: a child could be committed by the courts into the care of the Council either by a Fit Person Order, the effect of which was to put the child into the care of the Children's Department or by an Approved School Order, which placed the child under the care of managers at an Approved School. It should be noted that placements were made under the aegis of the Home Office nationwide, and that although the Council, through sub-committees of the Children's Committees, ran two approved schools, by no means all Middlesex children would be allocated places there. The Committee also ran two remand homes. The Children's Department were involved in briefing judges on cases: sometimes in bringing themselves in order to gain the powers by which to afford children under threat the care and protection they needed; and as the executive arm of the County Council on receipt of Fit Person Orders. Staff were also responsible for the supervision and after-care of "licensed" Middlesex children.

Adoption:
Until the Adoption Act 1926 legal adoption did not exist in English law. The 1926 Act gave no specific powers to local authorities, but the County Council was frequently, in its capacity as a local education authority, asked to act as a Guardian Ad Litem (that is to protect the child's rights before the law). When so requested, the County Council delegated this function to the officers of the Education Department. Other local education authorities could be approached instead in cases within their areas, or the Court's own probation officer might be appointed.

The Adoption of Children Regulation Act 1939 was designed to rectify some of the abuses of the 1926 Act and specifically, required adoption services to be approved and registered with local authorities. There were in fact only three such services in Middlesex in 1943 when the Act was finally implemented and only one, the Homeless Children's Aid and Adoption Society, remained in operation for any length of time thereafter. Also from 1943 certain duties of supervision of private adoptions were placed upon the welfare authorities, of which the MCC was one.

The duties of the Education Department relating to adoptions passed to the newly created Children's Department in 1948. In the next year was passed the Adoption of Children Act 1949, which was immediately consolidated with the previous legislation as the Adoption Act 1950. This Act made significant changes to adoption procedures: that which most particularly affected the County Council was the requirement that no adoption order could be made unless at least three months notice of intention to adopt had been given to the welfare authority, i.e. the County Council. Therefore from 1950 the County Council was notified of every intended adoption within the County, regardless of who the guardian ad litem was. Further, on receipt of a notice of an intended third party adoption (that is to say an adoption placement made by a third party, not a registered adoption society or local authority; adoptions by parents of their own children - very commonly done by women with illegitimate children and subsequently married) an officer of the Children's Department would commence supervision of the child or children either until the granting of the Court Order, or, if the supervision revealed the prospective adopters as unsuitable, until the end of the statutory period. The Adoption Act 1958 extended the powers of supervision to all adoptions and from this date the County Council had, in theory, some record of every adoption that took place in the County. The Act also enabled local authorities to act as adoption agencies in their own right.

Children in care:

The Local Government Act 1929 and the Poor Law Act 1930 abolished the Boards of Guardians and transferred their powers to local authorities. Those specifically relating to the poor and destitute became the responsibility of the newly formed Public Assistance Department of the Middlesex County Council, who took over the children and institutions formerly under the Guardians. Those large institutions still in use for children, such as the Chase Farm Schools in Enfield (formerly Edmonton Union) were re-employed, and the children placed in smaller and more personal homes favoured by the MCC.

The Council's role in child care was however greatly increased by the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (under this Act a child was defined as one up to the age of 14, and a young person as being aged 14-16). Besides re-stating the procedures by which a child being the victim of wilful neglect or cruelty might be brought before the courts for its own safety, this Act gave a new importance to local education authorities by transferring to them the duty of bringing before the courts children and young persons in need of care and protection; the administration of remand homes and newly established approved schools; and of being a "fit person" to whom the courts could commit the children brought before them.

The 1948 Act had the effect of transferring these functions of the Education Department to the Children's Department. Children taken into care were now defined by the relevant sections of the Act. Section One permitted the local authority to assume the care of orphaned or deserted children and children whose parents or guardians were unable or unfit to take care of them: this section also contained the unprecedented proviso that the children should be returned to their parents or guardians if at all possible. Section Two permitted the local authority to assume all parental rights and responsibilities over a Section One child if it seemed that the circumstances which caused the child to be taken into care would be permanent. Section Five made it obligatory for the local authority to accept the care of a child committed to it as a "fit person" by a court under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.

From 1918 the Middlesex County Council was responsible for maternity and child welfare services, and, from 1948, became responsible throughout the County for health centres, care of mothers and young children, midwifery, health visiting, home nursing, vaccination and immunisation, the ambulance service, the prevention of illness, care and after care and community mental health services. In 1945 the Council took over the school health service.

The County Health Service introduced a building programme for new or replacement clinics - 22 purpose built clinics with modern facilities were opened between 1948 and 1963. Immunisation programmes were expanded to include smallpox, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and poliomyelitis. Chiropody, geriatric, audiology and cerebral palsy clinics were provided. The ambulance service was improved with the building of a new central control equipped with radio, teleprinters and key and lamp units. Community services for the disabled were increased, including schools with special care units for severely handicapped children, adult training centres, including 3 in factories, days centres, hostels and so on. Training facilities were also introduced for health services staff including health visitors, district nurses, nursery nurses, midwives, mental welfare officers and teachers of the disabled.

Rapid local development, the tremendous increae in motor transport and national requirements such as Heathrow Airport all greatly influenced the Middlexsex County Council road programme; necessitating new and widened roads and dual carriageways. In the post-war period emphasis was laid upon relief of traffic congestion and reduction of accidents by junction improvements and the construction of pedestrian subways. A policy of landscaping and amenity treatment led to the planting of trees and shrubs and the extensive use of grass verges. Middlesex works undertaken by the Ministry of Transport completed the picture with two motorways, the M1 into Hendon and the M4 connection to London Airport.

The highways pattern for Middlesex stemmed from the radial roads originally built by the Romans - Watling Street to Saint Albans is now Edgware Road; Ermine Street to Lincoln is now Hertford Road and the western road to Silchester is now Staines Road. These radial routes remained of importance and were primarily supplemented by the Great West Road, Western Avenue, Watford and Barnet by-passes and the Great Cambridge Road which, in turn, have been linked by the North Circular Road, which traversed Middlesex from Kew Bridge to the Essex boundary. In 1889 the Council was responsible for 128 miles of road, as compared with 640 miles in 1964.

In 1889 County Council policy was directed by 72 members and administered under the leadership of Sir Richard Nicolson, Clerk of the County Council, and a handful of staff. The number of members had risen to 116 by 1952 and by 1965 the County staff numbered some 32,000, of whom 2,000 head office staff occupied the Guildhall and five other offices in Westminster. This indicates the tremendous increase in administrative work under successive Clerks of the County Council.

In the years between the two wars a semi-rural county became an almost completely urbanised area. The introduction of new legislation made ever increased demands upon members of the administrative staff, involving in later years monthly meetings of some 50 committees and sub-committees.

The Clerk's Department were responsible for monitoring Parliamentary legislation which might affect the work of the Council as well as preparing MCC bills for presentation to Parliament.

The decision to establish a County Supplies Department was made before the Second World War, but its foundation was delayed until 1947. In 1951 office and warehouse accommodation was obtained in Park Royal close to the transport workshops which came under its control. Turnover and responsibilities increased enormously between 1947 and 1965. Goods of every description were bought for all County services, including education. Service contracts were arranged and 370 vehicles, including cars used for official journeys, were controlled and maintained. In addition to central storage and distribution, a printing unit and a typewriter repair and maintenance service were established and the Central Transport section serviced vehicles and plant.

Rates are local taxes levied upon the occupiers of property to defray the expenses incurred by county councils and other local authorities in providing services. Up to 1925 there were two classes of rate: the general rate levied by the local council and the poor rate, levied by the Poor Law Guardians. Each rate was levied on the occupiers of all property in the area according to the annual value of the property. This annual value was determined by a committee of the Guardians called the 'assessment committee'. This system meant that the standard of valuation was not uniform throughout the county and that ratepayers might not be contributing equitably towards the cost of services.

The Rating and Valuation Act of 1925 entirely reformed the procedure. The County Council was required to establish a County Valuation Committee for the purpose of securing that as far as possible the standard of assessment throughout the County should be uniform. The local council was made the rating authority for its area. The Act also provided that there should be a general rate levied by each rating authority for the purpose of defraying the whole of the general expenditure within the particular area, so that the poor rate was no longer separately levied. Provision was made for an additional rate, called a 'special rate' to be levied on parts of an area where services were established that were not available elsewhere.

The valuation of property for rating purposes was transferred from local authorities to the Inland Revenue Department by the Local Government Act of 1948.

Harefield County Sanatorium began as a private home and estate used as a hospital for wounded Australian and New Zealander servicemen from 1915 to 1918. After the war the owners of the estate sold it to the Middlesex County Council who converted it into a sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis. It was thought ideal for treating this disease because it was one of the highest points in Middlesex with plenty of fresh air. On the formation of the National Health Service it became a general hospital specialising in chest diseases.

Napsbury County Asylum was founded in 1898 by the Middlesex County Council and was constructed near London Colney, Hertfordshire, completed by 1905. It had space for 1,200 residents with long term mental illness.

Shenley Hospital, Radlett, Hertfordshire was opened on 31st May 1934 as part of the Middlesex Colony. Along with Napsbury Hospital it was established for the care of the mentally ill. The hospital was built on the site of Porters Park and provided accommodation initially for 1,047 and the full development of 2000 beds with 500 staff. It was planned on the villa system comprising of small nursing units ranging from 20-45 patients and had its own water supply treatment, sewage works and farm.

In 1889 County Council policy was directed by 72 members and administered under the leadership of Sir Richard Nicolson, Clerk of the County Council, and a handful of staff. The number of members had risen to 116 by 1952 and by 1965 the County staff numbered some 32,000, of whom 2,000 head office staff occupied the Guildhall and five other offices in Westminster. This indicates the tremendous increase in administrative work under successive Clerks of the County Council.

In the years between the two wars a semi-rural county became an almost completely urbanised area. The introduction of new legislation made ever increased demands upon members of the administrative staff, involving in later years monthly meetings of some 50 committees and sub-committees.

In most counties the chief function of the Standing Joint Committee was the control of the local police force, but, owing to the fact that Middlesex was within the Metropolitan Police Area under the jurisdiction of the Home Office, its Standing Joint Committee did not have these duties.

In 1888 most counties had shire halls, guildhalls and other buildings in which courts and quarter sessions were held and where the officers dealing with county administration were accommodated. It would have been impractical that one building should be under the control of two distinct bodies - the justices and the county council - but also unnecessary for the county council to have separate premises. The Standing Joint Committee was accordingly given charge of all matters relating to accommodation for the quarter sessions and all property which was used jointly with the county council.

The Committee also controlled the officers who served both the quarter sessions and the county council, such as clerks of the peace who were also clerks of the council. In addition the Committee considered the provision of petty sessional courthouses and appointed clerks to the justices.

From 1953 Magistrates' Court Committees were established which largely took over the work of the Standing Joint Committee.

The National Health Service Act, 1948, transferred the County Council's responsibility for the provision of a countywide hospital service to the new regional hospital boards. The Act came into force in July 1948. In the same month the National Assistance Act was enforced and transferred the responsibility of the County Councils for relieving financial distress to the National Assistance Board. Thus a new Welfare Department was set up as successor to the Public Assistance Department. The first meeting of the Welfare Committee took place on 5 July 1948.

Under Part III of the National Assistance Act the Welfare Department had the following functions:

1 Provision of residential accommodation for the aged and infirm

2 Provision of temporary accommodation for the homeless

3 Promotion of the welfare of people with disabilities such as blindness;

and under Part IV of the Act:

4 Administration of the registration of all homes for the elderly and disabled and responsibility to ensure the homes were suitably maintained

5 Registration of charities for the disabled

6 Provision of temporary protection of moveable property of certain persons

The following areas were used to administer these responsibilities within Middlesex:

Area 1: Enfield, Edmonton

Area 2: Southgate, Wood Green, Potters Bar, Friern Barnet

Area 3: Tottenham, Hornsey

Area 4: Hendon, Finchley

Area 5: Harrow

Area 6: Wembley, Willesden

Area 7: Ealing, Acton

Area 8: Uxbridge, Rusilip-Northwood, Hayes and Harlington, Yiewsley and West Drayton

Area 9: Brentford and Chiswick, Southall, Heston and Isleworth

Area 10: Twickenham, Staines, Feltham, Sunbury on Thames

On 1 April 1965 on the abolition of the Middlesex County Council the functions of the Welfare Department were transferred to the newly established London Boroughs.

The Education Department of the Middlesex County Council may be described as one of the most important, progressive and vital public services provided by the council throughout its history. The Middlesex Education Authority, following its inception in 1903, stood as a pioneer in numerous aspects of its work. Previously various attempts had been made to provide public education, since the passing of legislation in 1870. Before 1870 schools were run as private concerns including small private schools and dame schools, the endowed grammar schools, and the beginning of the development of the Public Schools, and for the very poor there existed schools run by religious organisations.

Forster's Education Act of 1870 marked a watershed in the history of English education. It was based on the principle of elementary education for all. It aimed 'to cover the country with good schools and to get the parents to send the children to the schools', and principally to provide instruction in basic literacy and numeracy until the age of 12. The Act provided for the division of England and Wales into school districts. Wherever surveys showed that existing voluntary schools could not provide enough places for all the school age children within their districts, the ratepayers elected school boards, which were required to supplement the existing schools with (what became known as) Board Schools. Funds to build and maintain were to come from fees, government grants and the rates. This was the starting point of local responsibility for education expenditure, and of the partnership of central and local authorities.

School Boards were abolished by the 1902 Education Act and replaced by Local Education Authorities (LEAs), which were, in effect, the county councils or county borough councils. They were given charge of all elementary and much secondary education throughout the country. The Act was in many respects a great step forward, but Part II did create administrative complications in elementary education, that particularly affected Middlesex. For all higher education the LEA was to be the county council or county borough. However, the local variations in the needs of elementary education demanded closer local responsibility, and it was also felt that well populated urban areas deserved some degree of autonomy. Part III of the Act therefore laid down that within a county council area any boroughs of population over ten thousand or urban districts of population over twenty thousand should themselves be the LEA for elementary education in that area. The county council was left as the authority for any parts of the county that remained outside these areas. This produced anomalies in Middlesex where the County Council was directly responsible for secondary and technical education throughout the County (rural and inner city), but was only the elementary education authority for rural and agricultural areas, where the need was radically different. Generally, the Act instigated a period of great educational activity, as the LEAs were obliged to survey the needs of their areas, to shape their policies and implement them. The subsequent legislation described below modified and extended the power of the county council.

1918 Education Act

The fundamental principle of this Act was the right of the intelligent child to receive extended education to suit his age and ability. The minimum leaving age was raised to 14, and authorities were to increase the number of their secondary schools. The counties and Part III authorities were to co-operate in producing 'joint schemes of education', and the Board of Education was to make annual grants-in-aid to authorities related to their recognised expenditure on education as a comprehensive service. It was this Act which founded the Burnham Committee as the joint negotiating body for teachers salaries, which had previously been decided by the individual employing authorities.

The Hadow Report 1926

The recommendations of this Report were in accordance with Labour Party policy, although Labour were no longer in power. It proposed that elementary schooling should be renamed 'primary schooling' and end at the age of 11 or 12; and that children should then progress to one or other of two types of secondary school: grammar schools or 'modern schools' which would have a simpler curriculum in preparation for employment at 14 or 15.

The Butler Act of 1944

This Act called for the raising of the school leaving age to 15; for primary and secondary education to be provided in separate schools; for the provision of nursery classes for under 5's; for special facilities for the mentally or physically disabled and for the opportunity of boarding school education where parents desired it or where special circumstances made it advisable. The Act ended the autonomy of Part III authorities and made County Councils full Local Education Authorities for primary, secondary and further education with the duty to prepare comprehensive Development Plans for education in their areas and to implement them. The over-riding responsibility for all stages of education now lay with the County Council.

1945-1965

The 1944 Act triggered off a period of intense educational activity. There was a pressing need for school building, to replace premises damaged during the Second World War and to provide separate primary and secondary schools demanded by the Act.

On 31 March 1965 the Middlesex County Council ceased to exist under the terms of the 1963 London Government Act. Education became the responsibility of newly created London boroughs covering the area of the former Middlesex.

The Education Department of the Middlesex County Council may be described as one of the most important, progressive and vital public services provided by the council throughout its history. The Middlesex Education Authority, following its inception in 1903, stood as a pioneer in numerous aspects of its work. Previously various attempts had been made to provide public education, since the passing of legislation in 1870. Before 1870 schools were run as private concerns including small private schools and dame schools, the endowed grammar schools, and the beginning of the development of the Public Schools, and for the very poor there existed schools run by religious organisations.

Forster's Education Act of 1870 marked a watershed in the history of English education. It was based on the principle of elementary education for all. It aimed 'to cover the country with good schools and to get the parents to send the children to the schools', and principally to provide instruction in basic literacy and numeracy until the age of 12. The Act provided for the division of England and Wales into school districts. Wherever surveys showed that existing voluntary schools could not provide enough places for all the school age children within their districts, the ratepayers elected school boards, which were required to supplement the existing schools with (what became known as) Board Schools. Funds to build and maintain were to come from fees, government grants and the rates. This was the starting point of local responsibility for education expenditure, and of the partnership of central and local authorities.

School Boards were abolished by the 1902 Education Act and replaced by Local Education Authorities (LEAs), which were, in effect, the county councils or county borough councils. They were given charge of all elementary and much secondary education throughout the country. The Act was in many respects a great step forward, but Part II did create administrative complications in elementary education, that particularly affected Middlesex. For all higher education the LEA was to be the county council or county borough. However, the local variations in the needs of elementary education demanded closer local responsibility, and it was also felt that well populated urban areas deserved some degree of autonomy. Part III of the Act therefore laid down that within a county council area any boroughs of population over ten thousand or urban districts of population over twenty thousand should themselves be the LEA for elementary education in that area. The county council was left as the authority for any parts of the county that remained outside these areas. This produced anomalies in Middlesex where the County Council was directly responsible for secondary and technical education throughout the County (rural and inner city), but was only the elementary education authority for rural and agricultural areas, where the need was radically different. Generally, the Act instigated a period of great educational activity, as the LEAs were obliged to survey the needs of their areas, to shape their policies and implement them. The subsequent legislation described below modified and extended the power of the county council.

1918 Education Act

The fundamental principle of this Act was the right of the intelligent child to receive extended education to suit his age and ability. The minimum leaving age was raised to 14, and authorities were to increase the number of their secondary schools. The counties and Part III authorities were to co-operate in producing 'joint schemes of education', and the Board of Education was to make annual grants-in-aid to authorities related to their recognised expenditure on education as a comprehensive service. It was this Act which founded the Burnham Committee as the joint negotiating body for teachers salaries, which had previously been decided by the individual employing authorities.

The Hadow Report 1926

The recommendations of this Report were in accordance with Labour Party policy, although Labour were no longer in power. It proposed that elementary schooling should be renamed 'primary schooling' and end at the age of 11 or 12; and that children should then progress to one or other of two types of secondary school: grammar schools or 'modern schools' which would have a simpler curriculum in preparation for employment at 14 or 15.

The Butler Act of 1944

This Act called for the raising of the school leaving age to 15; for primary and secondary education to be provided in separate schools; for the provision of nursery classes for under 5's; for special facilities for the mentally or physically disabled and for the opportunity of boarding school education where parents desired it or where special circumstances made it advisable. The Act ended the autonomy of Part III authorities and made County Councils full Local Education Authorities for primary, secondary and further education with the duty to prepare comprehensive Development Plans for education in their areas and to implement them. The over-riding responsibility for all stages of education now lay with the County Council.

1945-1965

The 1944 Act triggered off a period of intense educational activity. There was a pressing need for school building, to replace premises damaged during the Second World War and to provide separate primary and secondary schools demanded by the Act.

On 31 March 1965 the Middlesex County Council ceased to exist under the terms of the 1963 London Government Act. Education became the responsibility of newly created London boroughs covering the area of the former Middlesex.

The Education Department of the Middlesex County Council may be described as one of the most important, progressive and vital public services provided by the council throughout its history. The Middlesex Education Authority, following its inception in 1903, stood as a pioneer in numerous aspects of its work. Previously various attempts had been made to provide public education, since the passing of legislation in 1870. School Boards were abolished by the 1902 Education Act and replaced by Local Education Authorities (LEAs), which were, in effect, the county councils or county borough councils. On 31 March 1965 the Middlesex County Council ceased to exist under the terms of the 1963 London Government Act. Education in the former County of Middlesex became the responsibility of the newly created London boroughs covering the area of the former administrative county.

From the time of their creation in 1889, county councils had been obliged to provide small public library centres in schools, although these were gradually replaced by public library buildings. County library services were set up as a result of the passing of the Public Libraries Act in 1919. Middlesex County Council was responsible for the library service in the districts of Feltham, Friern Barnet, Harrow, Hayes and Harlington, Ruislip and Northwood, Potters Bar, Southgate, Staines, Sunbury-on-Thames, Uxbridge, Wembley and Yiewsley, and West Drayton.

The Education Department of the Middlesex County Council may be described as one of the most important, progressive and vital public services provided by the council throughout its history. The Middlesex Education Authority, following its inception in 1903, stood as a pioneer in numerous aspects of its work. Previously various attempts had been made to provide public education, since the passing of legislation in 1870. Before 1870 schools were run as private concerns including small private schools and dame schools, the endowed grammar schools, and the beginning of the development of the Public Schools, and for the very poor there existed schools run by religious organisations.

Forster's Education Act of 1870 marked a watershed in the history of English education. It was based on the principle of elementary education for all. It aimed 'to cover the country with good schools and to get the parents to send the children to the schools', and principally to provide instruction in basic literacy and numeracy until the age of 12. The Act provided for the division of England and Wales into school districts. Wherever surveys showed that existing voluntary schools could not provide enough places for all the school age children within their districts, the ratepayers elected school boards, which were required to supplement the existing schools with (what became known as) Board Schools. Funds to build and maintain were to come from fees, government grants and the rates. This was the starting point of local responsibility for education expenditure, and of the partnership of central and local authorities.

School Boards were abolished by the 1902 Education Act and replaced by Local Education Authorities (LEAs), which were, in effect, the county councils or county borough councils. They were given charge of all elementary and much secondary education throughout the country. Not until the 1944 Butler Act did the over-riding responsibility for all stages of education lie with the county council.

The Technical Education Committee of the Middlesex County Council was established following the passing of the 1889 Technical Instruction Act and 1891 Technical Instruction (Amendment) Act. The National Association for Technical and and Secondary Education sponsored the Acts to provide impetus for meeting deficiencies in the existing provision of technical and secondary education. The Acts empowered the (new) county councils to set up Technical Education Committees, to raise money through the rates for technical and secondary education, to give financial aid to institutions and to provide scholarships and exhibitions to students.

The Middlesex Technical Education Committee was one of the first such committees to be established. It's first meeting was held on 28th April 1892 under the chairmanship of Mr Littler (Chairman of the Council). Local Committee Districts were established together with a scheme to provide scholarships for boys to go to secondary schools/. Over the next decade the Technical Education Committee was responsible for establishing polytechnics, institutes, and secondary schools, and became heavily involved in their running. The curriculum's of the schools were also widened, and in 1899 the Committee became the authority for science and art classes in the county. Provision was also made for Middlesex scholars to attend schools and institutes outside of the county.

The Technical Education Committee was merged into the newly created Education Committee in May 1903. The formers work had been vital in establishing the high standard of secondary and technical education in Middlesex.

In 1907 the Local Education Authorities were made responsible for providing medical inspection; however, it was not until the Education Act 1918 that the majority of Local Education Authorities established school clinics. The Health Department of the MCC was responsible for the medical supervision of children in secondary and technical schools throughout the County, and for elementary schools where the County was the authority. The service was carried out by a staff of assistant school medical officers and trained nurses who combined the care and treatment of school children with their duties as assistant medical officers and health visitors under the Council's maternity and child welfare scheme.

Children attending elementary schools underwent four routine medical inspections at the ages of five, seven, ten and when they left school. In secondary school medical checks were performed annually. Clinics were established for the treatment of minor ailments and was given free of charge. Facilities also existed for dental and ophthalmic treatment. From 1942 orthopaedic defects were treated with assistance from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore.

Blind, deaf, physically disabled or epileptic children were sent to special schools. The Talbot Special School in Southall was the MCC day school for mentally defective children. A Child Guidance Clinic was established at Harrow. Two full time psychiatrists were appointed, working under the general supervision of the County Medical Officer.

A nominal charge was made for attendance at clinics and courses of treatment, although this was lifted altogether in cases of hardship. Parents were asked to make what contribution they could afford towards the cost of treatment and of surgical appliances, spectacles, braces and so on.

The Milk in Schools scheme allowed each child to obtain in school a third of a pint of milk daily at a cost of a halfpenny. The Second World War led to a great expansion in the school meals service. By 1943 the number of school children receiving school meals was 36,575.

The Public Assistance Department was set up under the 1929 Local Government Act which followed the recommendations of the Macclean Report. Under section 1 of the Act the functions of the existing Poor Law Guardians were transferred to the County Council from 1 April 1930. Section 4 of the Act required that a scheme for the administration of such functions be submitted to the Ministry of Health for approval. The Middlesex (Public Assistance) Scheme 1929 was approved and the first meeting of the Public Health, Housing and Public Assistance Committee sat on 16 January 1930.

The 1929 Act did not abolish the Poor Law system, but transferred its administrative functions. Poor Law had its origins in the 1601 Poor Relief Act which put the responsibility for providing relief onto the parish. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act established Boards of Guardians and grouped parishes together into Poor Law Unions for which the Guardians took responsibility. The single most important function of the Poor Law Guardians was to administer, regulate, and dispense relief to the poor and destitute. Other functions included child care (the 1872 Infant Life Protection Act and 1908 Children Act] and the administration of hospitals, care of the homeless and single mothers.

Under section 1 of the 1929 Act the Middlesex County Council took responsibility for the following: consideration and examination of applicants for relief, determination of the nature and amount of any relief granted, determination of any reimbursement to the council; making arrangements for the casual poor and administration of casual wards; and managing institutions and staff, visitation and inspection and making arrangements with other counties for joint use of institutions. The office of Director of Public Assistance was created. The Director was responsible to the Public Assistance Committee and Clerk of the County Council and had the following tasks: control of the staff dealing with Poor Law administration; keeping records and indexes; supply of goods, materials and provisions to the poor law institutions; arranging settlement, emigration, casuals, schemes for dealing with the able bodied unemployed; adoption, boarding out and apprenticeship of children and reporting to the Public Assistance Committee and Supervising Guardians meetings.

Before the 1929 Local Government Act the following Poor Law Unions existed in Middlesex: Brentford; Edmonton; (which had the out county parishes of Cheshunt and Waltham); Hendon; Staines; and Willesden. The parishes of Hampton, Hampton Wick and Teddington were in Kingston Union and the parishes of Finchley, Friern Barnet and South Mimms were in Barnet Union. The Middlesex (Public Assistance) Scheme 1929 divided the County into the following 6 areas for the purposes of administration: North Middlesex; North east Middlesex; Central Middlesex; Willesden; West Middlesex and South Middlesex.

Each area had a Guardians Committee of 18 members to administer the relief functions transferred to the County Council, namely to interview all applicants for relief and distribute it. The Committees also inspected and reported on institutions in their areas. In 1931 the Committees were delegated the function of making determinations of relief for the unemployed under the Unemployment Insurance (Transitional / Payments) Regulations 1931.

Middlesex County Council Act 1934:

In 1934 the Public Assistance Department was overhauled. Problems had arisen with the Guardians Committees because large scale migration into Middlesex had increased the number of relief applications. In addition the committees varied in their generosity towards applicants. In October 1932 the Ministry of Health criticised the out relief system in one Middlesex area and this resulted in County Scales and Regulations being introduced. When a Guardians Committee wished to deviate from these rules they had to submit their case to the Public Assistance Committee. As large numbers of submissions were made by certain committees the County Council decided it would be more effective for them to run the service directly.

The Middlesex County Council Act 1934 gave the County Council direct and complete control over the administration of relief by means of abolishing the Guardians Committees. The work of the Guardians Committees was assumed by a Relief Sub-Committee made up entirely of Council Members. The County was re-divided into 8 new areas, grouped in 4 sections: Area 1: North Middlesex and North East Middlesex; Area 2: East Middlesex; Area 3: North East Middlesex and Central Middlesex and Area 4: South Middlesex, West Middlesex and South West Middlesex.

Each area had an Area Officer and a Deputy Area Officer. The Area Officers were in charge of the staff in their regions and advised the County Council Committees on granting relief. The area offices were allocated to Edmonton (area 1), Tottenham (area 2), Kilburn (area 3) and Brentford (area 4). An Adjudicating Officer was appointed to each area to interview applicants for relief and investigate liable relations. Hospital Almoners sent financial details about patients to the Area Officers. Appeals by relief applicants could be made and were heard by the Sub Committees.

National Health Service Act 1946 and National Assistance Act 1946:
The National Health Service Act transferred the County Council's responsibility for the provision of a countrywide hospital service to the new regional hospital boards. The Act came into force in July 1948. In the same month the National Assistance Act was enforced and transferred the responsibility of the County Councils for relieving financial distress to the National Assistance Board. Thus the functions of the Public Assistance Department were radically overhauled and a new Welfare Department was set up as its successor. The first meeting of the Welfare Committee took place on 5 July 1948.

Under the National Assistance Act the Welfare Department had the following functions: provision of residential accommodation for the aged and infirm; provision of temporary accommodation for the homeless; promotion of the welfare of people with disabilities such as blindness; administration of the registration of all homes for the elderly and disabled and responsibility to insure the homes were suitably maintained; registration of charities for the disabled and provision of temporary protection of moveable property of certain persons.

The following areas were used to administer these responsibilities within Middlesex: Area 1: Enfield, Edmonton; Area 2: Southgate, Wood Green, Potters Bar, Friern Barnet; Area 3: Tottenham, Hornsey; Area 4: Hendon, Finchley; Area 5: Harrow; Area 6: Wembley, Willesden; Area 7: Ealing, Acton; Area 8: Uxbridge, Rusilip-Northwood, Hayes and Harlington, Yiewsley and West Drayton; Area 9: Brentford and Chiswick, Southall, Heston and Isleworth and Area 10: Twickenham, Staines, Feltham, Sunbury on Thames.

On 1 April 1965 on the abolition of the Middlesex County Council the functions of the Welfare Department were transferred to the newly established London Boroughs.

The Middlesex County Staff Club was founded in 1911 and was the first such organisation for County Council staff. The Club had 97 members and was admitted as a member of the National and Local Government Officers Association (NALGO) in October 1911. A Secretary was appointed to carry out the administration of the Club. The majority of the Club's activities in the years before the First World War were social and sporting.

The Club fell into abeyance in 1914. In 1919 the staff of the County Council grew in number and the need for a united body was widely expressed. The Middlesex County Officers Association was formed and acknowledged by the County Council in May 1919. The Association was managed by an Executive Committee (a Council from 1949) which had representatives from all departments as well as ex-officio officers. Numerous sub-committees were set up in succeeding years until the Association was reconstructed in 1949. Thereafter the functions of the sub-committees were divided beween a handful of committees.

The single most important function of the Association was to represent the views of the members to the County Council. The mood of these consultations varied according to circumstances. During the lifetime of the Association all aspects of service came under discussion; grading; working hours; overtime; leave; rest rooms; post-entry training; long service awards. Particularly contentious was the debate over the County Council's membership of the Whitley Council. From 1960 onwards the Association was primarily concerned to safeguard the interests of staff in the approach to the implementation of the Report of the 1958 Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London.

The Association always took an active interest in sports and recreation, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s. Cultural societies were formed from time to time. Within county offices restaurants and canteens were sponsored. From 1920 representatives were sent to NALGO conferences and in 1958 a Middlesex member was elected to the National Executive Committee.

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

John Loudon McAdam was born in Ayr in 1756. He became famous as a road builder, in particular for his seminal book Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1816). McAdam was so influential that his surname has entered the English language as 'tarmacadam' and 'tarmac', a synonym for the tarred road surface he invented.

Anthony McAdam was a Lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences, University College, Rhodesia in the 1960s and early 1970s. He later taught at Stirling University.

When the London Coal and Wine Duties Continuance Bill was before the House of Commons in 1868, it met strong opposition. The suggestion was made that some compensation should be given by setting free the bridges across the Thames and Lea. This suggestion was embodied in the Act of 1868 by which the duties for the year 1888-9 were to be applied in the first instance to freeing from toll the following bridges: Kew, Kingston, Hampton Court, Walton and Staines on the Thames, and then Chingford and Tottenham Mills Bridges (including Hellyer's Ferry Bridge) upon the River Lea. These objects were provided for by the Kew and other Bridges Act of 1869 and an amendment Act of 1874 by which a Joint Committee of the Corporation of London and the Metropolitan Board of Works was appointed. The Coal and Wine Duties of 1888-9 were allocated as security for raising the necessary funds. The total cost of the purchase of the bridges was £155,485.2.0.

Staines Bridge was of Roman origin and was for many centuries the first bridge across the Thames above London. The newest bridge was built in 1828-1834. The title deeds of this bridge include many relating to the approaches of the old bridge, the site of the Bush Inn and Gardens. At the time of the freeing of the bridge, it was owned as a public trust. After negotiation the Solicitor to the Committee obtained agreement among the bondholders to accept a quarter of the capital sum, and a verdict for this amount was given on 2nd August 1870. The bridge was opened free of toll on 25th February 1871.

Battersea Bridge was built in 1771-2. It was constructed from wood to the designs of Henry Holland to replace the ferry between Chelsea and Battersea. The bridge was demolished in 1881 as boats often collided with the piers, but it had already contributed to the growth of Chelsea from a village to a small town. The present bridge with cast iron arches and designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette was erected 1886-90.

Fulham Bridge, now known as Putney Bridge, was a timber bridge built between 1727 and 1729 to a design by Sir Jacob Ackworth. Until 1750 it was the only bridge across the Thames west of London Bridge. The Metropolitan Board of Works purchased the bridge in 1879 and freed it from tolls. It had been damaged by a barge in 1870 and the MBW set about commissioning a new, granite bridge from Sir Joseph Bazalgette, completed in 1886 and still standing.

Waterloo Bridge, designed by Rennie, was built by a private company which obtained an act of Parliament for that purpose in 1809. Work began in 1811 and the original intention was to use the name 'Strand Bridge'. The project was renamed 'Waterloo Bridge' in 1816, a year before it opened in 1817. In 1878 it was acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works and the existing tolls were abandoned. Structural defects were soon discovered and repaired, but in the 1920's, the bridge was declared unsafe. The London County Council replaced it with a design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott which was erected 1939-1944.

Vauxhall Bridge was begun in 1811 to a design by Rennie, but two years later the Vauxhall Bridge Company decided to adopt James Walker's cast iron design as it was cheaper. The bridge was opened in 1816 and was at first called Regent's Bridge. It was the first iron bridge over the Thames. In 1895 to 1906 a new bridge was constructed designed by Sir Alexander Binnie.

The Metropolitan Board of Works was constituted under the Metropolis Local Management Act of 1855 (18 and 19 Vic. cap 120). It was only indirectly representative of ratepayers since its members were chosen, three by the Mayor and the Corporation of the City of London and the remainder by the parishes and district boards specifically mentioned in the Act. The Board took responsibility for the main drainage of London from the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers; it was given some supervisory and coordinating powers over the vestries and district boards, who were made responsible for local drainage and for paving and lighting of streets, and it was given power to make, widen or improve streets and roads and to regulate the naming of streets and numbering of houses. The Metropolitan Buildings Act (18 and 19 Vic. cap 122), passed on the same day as the Metropolis Local Management Act, gave the Board power to appoint and dismiss District Surveyors, to appoint a Superintending Architect of Metropolitan Buildings, and to modify the building regulations contained in the Act as might be necessary fron time to time.

During the life of the Board a whole series of Acts gradually extended its powers; notably the Metropolitan Gas Act, 1860, The Thames Embankment Acts, 1862, 1863 and 1868, The Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act, 1865, The Metropolitan Commons Act, 1866 (and subsequent amending Acts), and Acts relating to individual parks and open spaces, The Metropolitan Streets Act, 1867 (and susequent Street Improvement Acts), The Metropolis Toll Bridges Act, 1877 (and other Acts relating to bridges), The Artizans Dwellings Act, 1875 and The Public Entertainments Act, 1875.

Almost throughout its history members of the Board were discussing the possibility of the complete reorganisation of London Government, and from 1883 to 1885 a sub-committee of the Works and General Purposes Committee was meeting to consider municipal government. The several scandals that arose concerning irregularities in administration were symptomatic of the need for wider powers and more direct representation of the ratepayers. Under the Local Government Act 1888 the powers, duties and liabilities of the Board were transferred to the London County Council.

Guiseppe Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1805, was a propagandist, revolutionary and republican, and a champion of the movement for Italian unity known as the Risorgimento. During the 1860s he was occupied by schemes for seizing Venice and Rome. He withdrew from early contact with the Socialist First International, since the moral and religious basis of his political thought prevented him from accepting either Karl Marx's communism or Mikhail Bakunin's anarchism. Mazzini was repeatedly elected by Messina as its parliamentary deputy, but the elections were quashed by the Italian government. In 1870, he agreed to lead a republican rising in Sicily, but was arrested en route and interned at Gaeta. The occupation of Rome by Italian troops prompted his release and pardon. Italy had thus been united, but as a monarchy and not the republic Mazzini had advocated. He founded the paper 'Roma del popolo' ('Rome of the People'), which he edited from Lugano, and made plans for an Italian working men's congress. He died from pleurisy at Pisa, 1872.

Linda Villari (née Mazini), an author, died in 1915. Publications: 'In the Golden Shell. A story of Palermo' (London, 1872); 'In Change unchanged' (2 volumes, London, 1877); 'Camilla's Girlhood'(T Fisher Unwin, London, 1885); 'On Tuscan Hills and Venetian Waters' (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1885); 'When I was a child; or, Left behind' (T F Unwin, London, 1885); 'Her and there in Italy and over the Border ' (W H Allen & Co, London, 1893); 'Oswald von Wolkenstein. A memoir of the last Minnesinger of Tirol' (J M Dent & Co, London, 1901). Translated: Pasquale Villari's 'Niccolo Machiavelli and his times' (2 volumes, London, 1878); MoÌr Joikai, 'Life in a Cave', from the Hungarian (W Swan Sonnenschein & Co, London, [1884]); Pasquale Villari's 'Life and times of Girolamo Savonarola' (2nd edition, 2 volumes, T Fisher Unwin, London, 1889); Pasquale Villari's 'The Two First Centuries of Florentine History' (2 volumes, T Fisher Unwin, London, 1894-1895); HRH Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, Duke of the Abruzzi, 'The Ascent of Mount St Elias, Alaska' (A Constable & Co, Westminster, 1900); Pasquale Villari's 'The Barbarian Invasions of Italy' (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1902); Pasquale Villari's 'Studies, Historical and Critical' (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1907).

The Axis occupation of Greece during World War Two began Apr 1941 following the German and Italian invasion of Greece, together with Bulgarian forces. It lasted until the German withdrawal from the mainland, Oct 1944. In some cases however, such as in Crete and other islands, German garrisons remained in control until May-Jun 1945.

Chief Inspectorate General of the Chinses Imperial Maritime Customs, 1929- 43. Maze joined the Chinese Customs Service in the closing period of Sir Robert Hart's tenure. He also served on the Chinese Government's Monetary Advisory Commitee in 1935. Maze became interested in Chinese vessels, especially Junks and in particular the 'crooked stern' junks of Fou Chou. He also maintained an interest in light houses, especially the Amherst Rocks. Maze was awarded various Chinese honours, as well as 'Knight Commander of the Order of Pope Pius IX'. Maze also published The Chinese Maritime Customs Service: A Brief Synopsis of its Genesis and Development.

Frederick Maze was born in Belfast. He was educated at Wesley College, Dublin, and privately. He entered the Chinese Maritime Customs in 1891, at the close of Sir Robert Hart's regime. In 1899 he was made Acting Audit Secretary at the Inspectorate General in Peking and the following year became Acting Commissioner at Ichang. In 1901 he became Deputy Commissioner firstly at Foochow and then from 1902-1904 in Canton. He opened the Custom House at Kongmoon, West River in 1904, and was subsequently Commissioner in Tengyueh (Burma Frontier) 1906-1908, Canton (1911-1915), Tientsin (1915-1920), Hankow (1921-1925) and Shanghai (1925-1929). In 1928 he was appointed by the Chinese Government to be Deputy Inspector-General of Customs, serving as Inspector-General from 1929-1943, a period of great upheaval in Chinese politics. He continued to run the service when the Japanese occupied in 1937 but after Pearl Harbour he was interned. On his release he went to Chungking where a temporary base for the Customs had been established, but after a few months he resigned and returned to England. Other positions included his appointment by the Chinese Government as Advisor to the National Board of Reconstruction in 1928, and his membership of the Loans Sinking Fund from 1932. He was married to Laura Gwendoline. He died on 25 March 1959.

The Mayor's Court developed as an adjunct to the Court of Husting (see CLA/023) as a result of business overflowing from that court. The first court roll dates to 1298 although proceedings were probably taking place before this, from around 1280. The Mayor's Court's main jurisdiction was to enforce the customs of London, including mercantile actions. The court could sit on any day.

The National Socialists made use of Nuremberg's heritage as the 'Treasure Chest of the German Empire' and in 1927, started holding their party rallies here. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Adolf Hitler made Nuremberg the 'City of the Party Rallies'. Monumental structures, based on plans by Albert Speer, were erected in the Volkspark Dutzendteich, in the south eastern city districts. Until today these bear testimony to the Third Reich's megalomaniacal pretensions. Here, Julius Streicher, the 'Frankenführer' (Franconian Führer), spread his anti-Semitic hate slogans. It was also in this city that the Nazis proclaimed their inhumane 'Nuremberg Racial Laws' in 1935. In Nuremberg more people than anywhere else were killed during the pogrom night of November 9/10, 1938. Nuremberg's Lord Mayor, National Socialist Willy Liebel, proclaimed 'with pride' that 26 Jews had not survived the 'Reichskristallnacht'.

Otto Weil was imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp on 24 Jun 1938 and released on 10 August 1939.

George Elton Mayo (1880-1949) was born in Adelaide, Australia. He was educated at Queen's School and the Collegiate School of St. Peter and began training in medicine. This was never completed and between 1903 and 1905 he spent time in West Africa and London where he taught English at the Working Men's College. In 1907 he returned to university in Adelaide, studying philosophy and psychology. He was appointed foundation lecturer in mental amd moral philosophy at the new University of Queensland in Brisbane and held its first Chair of Philosophy, 1919-1923.
Elton Mayo married Dorothea McConnel in 1913 and their daughters, Patricia and Gael were born in 1915 and 1921. Throughout their marriage they corresponded during their frequent and lengthy separations and a correpondence was also maintained with Patricia, while she was in England.
While at Brisbane, Mayo studied nervous breakdown and with T H Mathewson, and pioneered the treatment of shell-shock. Mayo's observation of the high level of industrial strife and political conflict in Australia led him to formulate an analogy between war neurosis and the psychological causes of industrial unrest. Arguing that the worker's morale depended on his perception of the social function of his work, Mayo believed that the solution to industrial unrest lay in sociological research and industrial management, not radical politics. Mayo travelled to the USA in 1922 where a Rockefeller grant enabled him as a research associate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to investigate high labour turnover at a textile mill. The results of the work led to his appointment as associate professor at the Harvard School of Business Administration in 1926. Mayo became Professor of Industrial Research in 1929. While at Harvard Mayo was closely involved with the investigations into the personal and social factors determining work output at the Western Electric Company's Chicago Plant (the Hawthorne experiments). The results were groundbreaking studies in modern social research.
Mayo retired from Harvard in 1947 and retired to England were he died in 1949 in Guildford, Surrey.

In 1880 Charles Riley Maynard started manufacturing sweets. Maynards was launched as a company in 1896, having expanded its manufacturing, wholesale and retail business. It is now owned by Cadbury's.

Constance Lousia Maynard was born on 9 February 1849 in Middlesex, one of four daughters and two sons of Henry Maynard (1880-1888) South African merchant, and his wife Louisa Maynard née Hillyard (1806-1878). She grew up in Hawkhurst, Kent, in the house of Oakfield. She was educated at home, before studying for one year at Belstead School in Suffolk. After her education was completed she, alongside her sisters, helped in the community. In 1872, Constance Maynard left to study at Hitchin College, and moved with the college to Cambridge to become Girton College, in 1873. She was the first Girton student to study the Moral Sciences tripos and in 1875 received a second class honours degree. Whilst at Girton she established a group called Girton Prayer Group.

After leaving Girton, due to problems in the family business, Constance Maynard was allowed to accept an invitation from Frances Dove to join the staff of Cheltenham Ladies' College. In 1877 she left with her colleague and friend Louisa Lumsden to establish St Leonard's School, at St Andrews, where Lumsden was head. During her three years (1877-1880) here, she rejected offers of headships, including that of her former school Belstead. She also hesitatingly refused a marriage proposal from Scottish Minister Dr James Robertson. In 1880 she moved to London with her brother and studied part time at the Slade School of Art. Whilst studying here she became involved with a group of individuals including Major Charles Hamilton Malan, Ann Dudin Brown and and Caroline Cavendish, with the shared aim of establishing a ladies' college. All with varying ideas of how the college should proceed, Constance Maynard was an integral part of forming the plans for her ideal college - to prepare ladies for the London degree, based on Christian principles. The group first met for discussions in February 1882, and in May Constance Maynard was offered the position of Mistress (a title borrowed from Girton), and in October of that year, Westfield College opened in two private houses in Hampstead.

She remained Mistress of Westfield for thirty-three years, retiring in 1913, leaving Westfield as a securely established school of the University of London. She had taught around five hundred students, and many were successful working in schools, colleges and for missionary organisations. She kept in close contact with her old students through letters and visits, and maintained strong relationships with them. . The money they collected as a parting gift she donated to the college; some was used as a hardship fund, the remainder as endowment for the Maynard divinity lectures. In 1888 Maynard adopted a child of Italian extraction, through a friend in the Salvation Army. At the time of her adoption Stephanë Anthon, known as Effie, was eight years old, and the relationship between them was a tumultuous one. Whilst Constance continued to support Effie until her death in 1915, from tuberculosis, it is detailed in her diaries as a period of disappoint.

Religious movements, from the Salvation Army to the Modern Churchmen's Union, figure prominently in the life of Constance Maynard. She was elected as old students' representative to the governing body of Girton and served from 1897 to about 1905 on the council of the Church Schools' Society. She also traveled extensively around the world; to South Africa, the Holy Land, Canada, Europe, and by bicycle throughout the British Isles. After her retirement, Constance Maynard spent her time travelling, receiving visitors, reading and writing. She wrote poetry, including four volumes of War poems, lectures, particularly Divinity lectures, and pamphlets of a moral nature on subjects such as temperance. Her published works include 'Between College Terms (1910); 'The Life of Dora Greenwell' (1926); 'From an early Victorian schoolroom to the university', Nineteenth Century, November 1914; contributions to The Hibbert Journal and other religious periodicals; and numerous tracts and pamphlets. Her unpublished writings include an unfinished autobiography, composed at intervals between 1915 and 1927.

Constance Maynard died at her home, The Sundial, Marsham Way, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, on 26 March 1935, and was buried at Gerrards Cross parish church on 29 March. Under her will the college received £1500 to fund an entrance scholarship.