Born in Hampshire, England; physician; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1734; died, 1759.
George Langstaff was born in Richmond, Yorkshire, in c 1780. He studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He travelled to the East and West Indies and became a naturalist and zoologist, collecting specimens which would become his museum. He became Surgeon to the workhouse of St Giles's Cripplegate where he had abundant opportunities of studying both pathology and practical anatomy. He became a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, in 1814. He published the catalogue of his museum, Catalogue of the Preparations illustrative of normal, abnormal, and morbid structure, human and comparative, constituting the Anatomical Museum of George Langstaff in 1842. Part of the collection was bought by the Hunterian Museum, and the remainder bought by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He died in 1846.
Lanka Plantation Company Limited was based at various City of London addresses. The company were tea growers in Ceylon. They were taken over in 1982 by the Caparo Group Limited.
Lankat Rubber Company was registered in 1910 to acquire Paja Djamboe and Soengei Gerpa estates from United Lankat Plantations Company Limited in Langkat, Sumatra. Harrisons and Crosfield Limited (CLC/B/112) became agents for the company in 1926. In 1960 it was acquired by London Sumatra Plantations Limited (CLC/B/112-110), and in May 1982 it became a private company.
Lankester was born in May 1847 and was educated at Downing College Cambridge (1864-1866) and Christ Church Oxford (1866-1868). From 1874 to 1890 he was Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College London. In 1891 he was appointed Linacre Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Oxford. In 1898 he became Director of the Natural History Departments of the British Museum, a post he held till 1907. Lankester was the founder (1884) of the Marine Biological Association. He was a member of many scientific societies. He published many books and articles on science and zoology. He was knighted in 1907. He died in August 1929.
Rt Hon George Lansbury, 1859-1940, left school at the age of fourteen and worked as a clerk, a wholesale grocer and in a coffee bar before starting his own business as a contractor for the Great Eastern Railway. In 1884 he emigrated to Australia with his wife and children, but did not find the experience satisfactory, returning home in 1885 to enter his father-in-law's timber merchant business. Lansbury was involved in politics from an early age, first as an active Radical and then as a Socialist. He became a borough councillor in Poplar in 1903 and Labour MP of Bow and Bromley in 1910. In 1912, he resigned to fight the seat as an Independent and a supporter of suffrage for women. He was re-elected in 1922 and held the position of leader of the Labour Party from 1931 to 1935. Lansbury was greatly interested in the causes and prevention of poverty and unemployment. He was a member of the Central Unemployed Body for London and also a member of the Royal Commission on Poor Law, where he signed the minority report. In 1929 he became the first Commissioner of Works and also established the first Poor Law Labour Colony and the first Labour Colony for the Unemployed (apart from the Poor Law and under public control) at Hollesley Bay. He was also a founder of the Daily Herald and its editor from 1919 to 1923.
Dionysius Lardner was a scientific writer who popularised science and technology, and edited the, 133-volume, Cabinet Cyclopedia. He was chair of natural philosophy at the London University, 1827-1831.
Nathaniel Lardner (1684-1768) was born in Kent and trained at the Presbyterian Academy in London. From 1699-1703 he studied in Utrecht, afterwards returning to London where he undertook 6 years of private study. In 1709 he preached his first sermon in the church of his study colleague Martin Tomkiss in Stoke Newington. From 1713 to 1721 Lardner was domestic chaplain to Lady Treby, and tutor to her youngest son. On her death in 1721, he took over the role of assistant to his father at the Presbyterian meeting house in Hoxton Square. In 1723 he gave a series of lectures on 'The credibility of Gospel history', which began a life's work on the subject. His first publication of the lecture series in 1729 placed him in the first rank of Christian apologists, and he continued to write on Gospel history for the remainder of his life. He also acted as a preacher at the Presbyterian meeting house in Poor Jewry Lane from 1729 to 1751, being elected Pastor in 1740. IN 1745 he gained a D.D. from Marischal College in Scotland.
Larking entered the Navy in 1889, served on the Mediterranean, West Indian and China Stations and became a lieutenant in 1898. He retired from active service in 1906. On the retired list he was promoted to commander in 1916 and to captain in 1918. He was Naval Attachee in Rome from 1915 to 1919 and in the Balkans from 1939 to 1941. He was then recalled to the Admiralty until 1945.
Born 11 July 1857 in Magheragall, County Antrim, Ireland, Larmor attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, then Queen's University Belfast, where he received his BA and MA, and entered St John's College, Cambridge University, in 1877. He was Senior Wrangler in the mathematical tripos in 1880, was awarded a Smith's Prize and elected Fellow of St John's. He was Professor of Natural History at Queen's College Galway, 1880-1885, then returned as a lecturer to St John's. He became Lucasian Professor in 1903 after Sir George Gabriel Stokes, retiring in 1932. He was concerned with geometrical and physical aspects of a problem rather than the analytical, described in his 'Address on the Geometrical Method' of 1896. The researches for which he is chiefly remembered took place mainly between 1892-1901, a transition period in physics by the end of which X-rays, electrons and radio-activity had again set experimental physics in feverish progress, followed by revolutionary changes in the foundations of physical theory. Of those who brought classical physics to the point where new methods became inevitable, H A Lorentz and Larmor were the most prominent, preparing the old physics for the advent of the new. Larmor's major contribution to this was his book Aether and Matter, published in 1900, which began as a memoir published initially in the Philosophical Transactions between 1894-1897 and which to the student of the period was the gateway to new thought. He was concerned with numerous other subjects, such as the bending of radio waves round the earth (1924), with E H Hills producing a new kind of analysis of the irregular motion of the earth's axis of rotation as given by the determinations of latitude variation at the chain of International Latitude Observatories (1906 and 1915), protection from lightening (1914), and geomagnetism, on which he was a leading authority. His intense feelings over the Irish Question led him to enter Parliament, representing Cambridge University as a unionist from 1911 to 1922. His most important work outside the university was in the responsible and influential post of secretary of the Royal Society, 1901-1912.
Early in his life Sir George entered the East India House of Cockerell & Larpent. He went on to become Chairman of the Oriental and China Association and Deputy Chair of St Katherine's Dock Company. In 1841 he was created a baronet and during that same year was elected to represent Nottingham. He died in 1855.
Daniel Larratt died intestate on or about 11 May 1848, leaving his eldest son, also named Daniel Larratt, his heir at law. On 19 June 1848 letters of administration were granted to his widow, Eliza Downing.
Surgeon-in-chief of the Napoleonic army, a key influence on the treatment of military casualties on the battlefield. Wife Charlotte Elisabeth (1770-1842); daughter [Charlotte] Isaure (1798-1855), afterwards Mme Périer; son Félix Hippolyte Larrey (1808-1895).
The London and South East Region (LASER) Advisory Council for Education and Training was founded in 1945 as the Regional Advisory Council for Technical Education (London and Home Counties). Its role was to provide quality assurance for existing vocational for technical courses, to organise conferences and training and to assist with curriculum development. It became free of local government control in 1989 but was unable to compete in the open market and was forced to close in 1995.
Ernst Cohn-Wiener was a Jewish German born in Tilsit (East Prusia), 1882; education: Bromberg (now Bydgoszcz) Gymnasium-Abitur (A levels) 1902; art history, archaeology and philosophy at Berlin and Heidelberg Universities; PhD 1907; left Germany 1933 because of racial persecution; England, 1933; India, 1934; USA, 1939; published numerous works initially on medieval European art and later oriental and Indian art; died, New York, 1941.
For biographical information on Dr Maurice Laserson see Wiener Library Biographical news-cuttings section (G15).
Valley Lasker's early life was closely connected to Gustav Holst. Born in 1885, she was educated at Morley College while Holst was director of music there, and later taught music at St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith, as assistant to Holst, who was also head of music. She arranged several works by Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams for piano and was a regular participant in the Whitsun festival established at Thaxted, Essex, by Holst in 1916 for both amateur and professional musicians. She was also a singer in the Whitsuntide Singers, giving concerts for Holst's festivals at Thaxted, Dulwich, Canterbury, Chichester and Bosham. She directed the singers in 1933, as Holst was ill and conducted the choir at the interment of Holst's ashes in Chichester Cathedral in 1934. Following Holst's death, she directed the group, renamed the Holiday Singers, mainly singing at Chichester and Boxgrove, 1937-1957. She retired from the choir in 1958.
Charles Latham was born in 1888. He followed a career as an account, founding Latham and Co, certified accountants. He was also a member of Hendon Urban District Council and later Alderman of the Borough of Hendon, 1926-1934. He became an Alderman of the London County Council in 1928 and in 1940 to 1947 was leader of the London County Council. He served as chairman of the London Transport Executive, 1947-1953. He was created Baron Latham of Hendon in 1942. He died in 1970.
John Latham was born on 29 December 1761, at Gawsworth, Cheshire, the eldest son of the Rev. John Latham, vicar of Siddington, Cheshire. Latham acquired his early education at Manchester Grammar School. In 1778 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford. He proceeded BA in 1782, and MA in 1784. Between 1782 and 1784 he studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. In 1784 he began to practice medicine in Manchester, where he was elected physician to the town's infirmary. In 1786 he resigned the office and returned to Oxford where he graduated MB in the same year. The following year he was appointed physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary and graduated MD in 1788.
In 1788 Latham moved to London and set up his home and practice in Bedford Row. His exertions on settling in the capital were excessive, and he consequently established a large, lucrative practice. He was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians in the same year, and became a fellow in 1789. It was also in 1789 that he was elected physician of the Middlesex Hospital and the Magdalen Hospital. From his election as fellow he played an active roll in the life of the College, for example acting as censor on several occasions between 1790 and 1807. In 1791 he published A Plan of a Charitable Institution to be Established on the Sea Coast. In 1792 Latham undertook to arrange the College library, the result proved so satisfactory that his colleagues voted him the sum of £100. In 1793 he resigned from the Middlesex and became physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital.
Latham gave several of the eponymous lectures of the Royal College of Physicians, including the Goulstonian Lectures in 1793, the Harveian Oration in 1794, and the Croonian Lectures in 1795. In 1795 he was appointed physician extraordinary to the Prince of Wales. The following year Latham published On Rheumatism and Gout, in which he detailed an elaborate treatment and argued that neither acute rheumatism nor gout were hereditary. In 1802 Latham retired from his position at St Bartholomew's.
In 1807, at the age of 46, Latham retired to the country, due to exhaustion brought on by his intense labour. It was believed that he was consumptive and that he might die. However away from his professional business he regained his health and eventually recovered. He returned to London and began a more moderate practice, based in Harley Street.
In 1811 Latham published Facts and Opinions concerning Diabetes, and authored many medical papers which were published in the Royal College of Physicians's Medical Transactions. His writings `show that the parts of physic in which he excelled were clinical observation and acquaintance with the materia medica' (DNB, 1892, p.166). Latham was President of the College from 1813-19. In 1816 he founded the Medical Benevolent Society. When the Prince of Wales ascended to the throne as George IV in 1820, Latham was reappointed physician extraordinary.
In 1829 Latham finally left London and retired to Bradwall Hall in Cheshire. He had married Mary Mere in 1874, and they had had three sons. Their second son Peter Mere Latham, born in 1789, also became a physician, whilst the first and third sons, John and Henry, were both poetical writers. Latham died on 20 April 1843 at the age of 81, after suffering from stones in the bladder.
Publications:
Diatribae duae encaemicae coram Collegio Regali Medicorum Londinensi, scilicet Oratio Harveiana et Praelectio Crooniana (London, 1795?)
On Rheumatism and Gout: A Letter Addressed to Sir George Baker (London, 1796)
The New Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians (index by John Latham) (London, 1796, 7th edition; 1801 8th edition)
Facts and Opinions concerning Diabetes (London, 1811)
Peter Mere Latham was born in London on 1 July 1789, the second son of John Latham, physician. He was first educated at the free school of Sandbach, Cheshire, and then from 1797 at Macclesfield Grammar School. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1806. He graduated BA in 1810 and began his medical studies at St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Carey Street Public Dispensary under the tutelage of Thomas Bateman, dermatologist and physician. Whilst studying at the Dispensary he met the celebrated Richard Bright, physician, with whom he established a life-long friendship. He proceeded MA in 1813, and then MB in 1814. Latham took a house in Gower Street and in 1815 was appointed physician to the Middlesex Hospital. In 1816 he delivered a course of lectures on the practice of physic in London. He graduated MD in the same year.
Latham was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1818, and delivered the College's Goulstonian Lectures the following year. In 1820 he was a censor for the College, and held that office again in 1833 and 1837. In March 1823 he and Peter Mark Roget, fellow physician and savant, were asked by the government to undertake the investigation of an epidemic disorder then rife in the Millbank Penitentiary. They found the epidemic to be scurvy and dysentery, which they concluded was due to an insufficient diet. Consequently they recommended for the prisoners at least one solid meal a day, better bread, and 3lbs of meat every fortnight. Latham subsequently published An Account of the Disease lately prevalent at the General Penitentiary (1825).
In 1824 Latham resigned from the Middlesex Hospital and was appointed physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1827 he delivered the Royal College of Physician's Lumleian Lectures. Latham published his Essays on some Diseases of the Heart' in the Medical Gazette (1828). In them he maintained that administering mercury until it produced salivation was essential for the cure of pericarditis. Latham's particular interest in heart diseases had been encouraged by the recent invention of the stethoscope by the French physician Laennec. In 1836 Latham was elected joint lecturer on medicine, with fellow physician Dr (later Sir) George Burrows, at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. It has been said of Latham thathis clinical teaching was excellent' (DNB, 1892, p.167). It was also in 1836 that he published Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine, of which the first six are on methods of study and observation, the next six on auscultation and percussion, and two more on phthisis.
In 1837 he was appointed physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria, an office which he retained until his death. Latham never acquired a large private practice. In 1839 he delivered the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians, which he subsequently published. In 1841 he resigned from St Bartholomew's Hospital due to frequent attacks of asthma, from which he had suffered from an early age. Latham published Lectures on Clinical Medicine, comprising Diseases of the Heart in 1845. This was described as `a work of great originality, full of careful observation, and containing a discussion of all parts of the subject' (ibid). It has also been said of his work that
`although most remedies Latham advocated have proved ineffective, his descriptions of the clinical symptoms and physical findings in his patients remain interesting and instructive' (Fye, 1989, p.610).
In 1865 he relinquished his small practice and left London to settle in Torquay. He was married twice, firstly to Diana Clarissa Chetwynd Stapleton in 1824, who had died the following year, and then to Grace Mary Chambers, with whom he had four children all of whom survived him. He died in Torquay on 20 July 1875, at the age of 86.
Publications:
An Account of the Disease lately prevalent at the General Penitentiary (London, 1825)
Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine (London, 1836)
Oratio ex Harveii instituto habita..., MDCCCXXXIX (London, 1839?)
Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine, comprising Diseases of the Heart (London, 1845-46, 2nd ed.)
Collected Works, with Memoir by Sir Thomas Watson, Robert Martin (ed.) (London, 1876-78)
Aphorisms from Latham; edited by W.B. Bean, William Bennett Bean (ed.) (Iowa, 1962)
Peter Mere Latham was born in London, in 1789. He was educated at the free school of Sandbach, Macclesfield grammar school, and Brasenose College, Oxford. He graduated BA (1810) MA (1813), MB (1814), and MD (1816). He was admitted an Inceptor-Candidate of the College of Physicians in 1815; a Candidate in 1817; and a Fellow in 1818. He was Censor in 1820, 1833, and 1837; Gulstonian lecturer in 1819; Lumleian lecturer in 1827 and 1828; Harveian orator in 1839; and was repeatedly placed upon the council. He was physician to the Middlesex Hospital in 1815, and in 1823 was appointed by the government, in conjunction with Dr Roget, to take the medical charge of the inmates of the penitentiary at Millbank, then suffering from an epidemic of scurvy and dysentery. He was then appointed physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1824. He lectured at the Hospital's medical school with Sir George Burrows on the theory and practice of medicine. Later he published some of his lectures titled Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine (London, 1836) and Lectures on Diseases of the Heart (2 volumes, London, 1845). Latham left St Bartholomew's in 1841, He retired to Torquay in 1865 and died there in 1875.
Heinrich von Laufenberg was born, 1391; priest in Freiburg (Breisgau), and later dean of the cathedral; entered the cloister of the Knights of St. John, 1445; died, 1460.
Leonard G Carr Laughton, son of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton by his first wife, shared his father's passion for maritime history. Little is known of his early life including his date of birth or details of his education. He seems to have worked alongside his father, collecting many notes and references on a vast variety of naval subjects from documents kept at the Public Record Office, British Museum, Pepysian Library and many other repositories. He also studied archaeology and etymology. He made a study of ship decoration and published Old Ship Figureheads and Sterns in 1925. He was involved in the restoration of HMS VICTORY and wrote a 'Report to the Victory Technical Committee', 1927-32, giving information that would help in restoring her to her condition at the time of Trafalgar. He was the prime mover, alongside others such a Harold H Brindley, Cdr C N Robinson, Sir Alan Moore, William Wyllie and Harold Wyllie, in the formation of The Society of Nautical Research in 1928. He had always wanted to produce a 'Nautical Encyclopaedia or Dictionary', and was one of the Society's main objectives, but L G Carr Laughton was never satisfied he had found out enough to justify publication. He died in 1956.
South Hackney School began its life as Lauriston Road Central School, which opened in March 1911 in an area that was then a fashionable suburb of London. After World War One air raids over London, the school moved into an existing school building in Cassland Road in 1917. It is believed that this Cassland Road building was the last Higher Grade School built by the London School Board before county councils took over responsibility for education in 1904.
The name of the school changed in 1913 to Hackney Council School, which reflected its role as one of the new central schools established in 1911 by the London County Council to provide education for brighter children whose parents could not afford the fees and who had not won a scholarship. According to Mr. Chew, Hackney Central's headmaster from 1911 to 1943, these schools 'were intended to put boys and girls on the road they could travel best'. Hackney Central Secondary School covered a fixed catchment area of elementary schools, and began with a commercial bias towards shorthand, book-keeping and typing. The syllabus developed towards more general education, although passing public examinations was not the primary aim of the central schools.
The school in Cassland Road was bombed during the Blitz and many children were evacuated to Northampton. In 1944 the school was forced to use another building in Lauriston Road and a new headmistress, Miss Beswick, took charge. The inter-war years started a tradition of school journeys and music and drama activities. The war had caused severe disruption with pupil members falling to 280, but the 1950s saw a period of growth and development.
Although the changes established by the 1944 Education Act refined the role of secondary education and the central schools, Hackney Central was one of the few schools allowed to select its pupils until the comprehensive system was introduced. But when the Education Committee decided that a school should not be allowed to bear the name of a borough, Hackney Central was forced to change its name in 1951 to Cassland Secondary School. The name derived from the old estate of Sir John Cass, a prominent educationalist, on whose grounds the school stood. The Sir John Cass Foundation gave permission for the family badges and shield to be worn on the uniform, and old pupils became familiarly known as 'Old Casslanders'.
Born in Belgium, Joseph Lauwerys (1902-1981) came to England with his parents in 1914. After taking degrees in chemistry and physics at King's College, London, Lauwerys worked from 1927 to 1932 as a physics master at Bournemouth and at Christ's Hospital School. In 1932 he joined the staff of the Institute of Education, University of London, being in turn Lecturer in Methods of Science (1932-1941), Reader in Education (1941-1947), and Professor of Comparative Education (1947-1970). In 1970 he became the first Director of the Atlantic Institute, Nova Scotia. During his career he held many visiting professorships around the world and travelled widely as a consultant and observer of educational conditions. In particular, from 1944-1945 he was Director of Commission of Enquiry on Special Educational Problems, Conference of Allied Ministers of Education and, from 1945-1947, as an adviser and consultant, he played an important role in the establishment of UNESCO. He was also heavily involved in many different organisations for promoting international co-operation and understanding and comparative education, including the World Education Fellowship. For almost twenty years he was an editor of the World Year Book of Education. Building on his science background, Lauwerys also pioneered new aspects of science teaching and curriculum reform, emphasising how science should be a part of mainstream culture, and promoted the use of new educational media, including film and radio.
John Francis Lavery was born in 1935, he originally enrolled at King's College, University of London in 1968 but did not complete his course. He re-enrolled in 1983 where he studied for a PhD in Classics on the subject of Greek tragedies, under the supervision of Prof Reginald Winnington-Ingram. He died in 2004.
Edward Law was educated at Eton College and at St John's College Cambridge, before becoming MP for the borough of St Michael's, Cornwall, in 1813. On his father's death in 1818 he entered the House of Lords as 2nd Baron Ellenborough, and served as a cabinet minister and member of the India Board for several years. His second wife (whom he divorced in 1830) was the notorious Jane Elizabeth Digby. From 1841 to 1844 Law served as Governor-General of India, an office which involved him in wars in Afghanistan, Sindh and Gwalior. On his return to Britain he was created Viscount Southam and Earl of Ellenborough. He re-entered domestic politics for a few years but left office in 1858; however, he maintained a strong interest in India for the rest of his life.
In times of emergency companies of volunteers were often raised, financed and governed by private committees of subscribers and in many cases remained in existence for only a few years.
In 1803 the Home Department requested details of proposals from the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex for the re-embodiment of the Corps of Volunteers formed during the Revolutionary War. Meetings were called in various parishes to form or reform such corps. The Law Association formed a committee to group members into companies to be commanded by officers recommended by a majority of the Association.
Under the Volunteer Act of 1804 (44 Geo. III. c.54) previous enactments were amended and systematised and in particular commanding officers were required to make returns on 1 April, August and December of their strength, to clerks of general meetings of the county lieutenancy, to the Principal Secretary of State and the General Officer commanding the district. It has not been possible to ascertain to whom this particular return was made. It has obviously strayed from a series of similar returns as it bears the number "51" in a contemporary numeration in top left hand corner.
Hon. Thos. Erskine is probably Thomas first Baron Erskine 1750-1823, Lord Chancellor, son of the Earl of Buchan. When volunteers were raised "he became colonel of the Temple corps... [and] was seen giving the word of command from directions written on a card, and doing it ill." (Dictionary of National Biography).
The Law Fire Insurance Society was established in 1845. From 1848-58 it had offices in 5-6 Chancery Lane and from 1859-1907 at 114 Chancery Lane. It was reconstituted and united with the Alliance Assurance Company in 1907; which later merged with the Sun Insurance Office to become Sun Alliance.
This collection of correspondence and papers relates to the infamous Bern trial of the distributors of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', in particular to the appeal, which took place between 27 October and 1 November 1937, in which the original verdict, convicting the distributors of falsification and plagiarism, was overturned on a legal technicality, although the appellants were not compensated.
The material was originally housed in a folder entitled 'Protokolle Prozess Bern Appellation' (front cover); 'Bern Protokolle Prozess II Instanz' (spine). Their custodial history prior to deposit is unknown. At some point they came into the possession of Hans Jonak von Freyenwald, and were subsequently referred to as the 'Freyenwald Collection at the Wiener Library'.
Jonak von Freyenwald, born 1878 in Vienna; held various civil service posts until retirement in 1922. He worked for the Anti-semitic organisation Weltdienst between 1934 and 1940 in Erfurt, then Frankfurt. Between 1934 and 1937 he worked as an academic assistant for the Swiss defendants and their lawyers in the Bern trial of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'.
The Society was established in 1823, with a subscribed capital of £1,000,000. By February 1859 it had become the second largest life insurance company in Britain (Insurance Gazette), with a home business concentrated on those in the law, army, navy and church. The Society also attracted a number of celebrity and wealthy clients.
From 1823-35 the Society was based in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and from 1835-1909 in Fleet Street in the City of London. In 1909/10 the Society was acquired by Phoenix Assurance.
The Society met at the Law Institution in Chancery Lane and debated matters of legal interest.
This company was established in 1854 as the Law Union Fire and Life Insurance Company. In 1892 it acquired the Crown Life Assurance Company and changed its name to the Law Union and Crown Fire and Life Insurance Company. In 1898 the Company's name was changed to the Law Union and Crown Insurance Company. In 1909 it acquired, and amalgamated with, the Rock Life Assurance Company and was renamed as the Law Union and Rock Insurance Company Limited.
Its head offices were at 45 Pall Mall, 1854-6; 126 Chancery Lane, 1857-1912; and 7 Chancery Lane ("Old Serjeants Inn"), from 1912. In 1919 the Company was acquired by, and allied with, the London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company, which in 1961 was acquired by, and allied with, the Royal Insurance Company Limited.
Lawes Chemical Company was founded by Sir John Bennet Lawes. He set up a factory for manufacture of super-phosphates at Deptford Creek, London, in 1843, and bought in 1857 100 acres at Barking Creek, Essex, on which the main factory and workmen's cottages were built. The business was purchased from Lawes by a group of businessmen in 1872 and incorporated with limited liability as Lawes Chemical Manure Co. Ltd, to manufacture artificial fertilisers, sulphuric acid and other chemical fertilisers. Branches were established in Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, and the company traded overseas in North and South America, India, New Zealand, Australia South Africa and the Middle East. Lawes also established several subsidiary companies as artificial fertiliser merchants. Including: Gwalia Fertilisers (Briton Ferry) Ltd., Neath, Glamorgan (inc 1934), A Nightingale and Sons Ltd, Bedford (inc 1937), Thomas Fenn. Ltd, Ipswich, Suffolk (inc 1947), Seabright Chemicals Ltd (inc 1967), Jersey Trading Co Ltd (inc 1914) and Jersey Trading Co (1948) Ltd, as fruit and vegetable traders. The company became Lawes Chemical Company Ltd in 1935 and went into liquidation in 1969, the business continuing to trade under the name of Seabright Chemicals Ltd.
Lancelot Lawford worked for the Chinese Maritime Customs in Shanghai and Peking at a period of political instability and fighting following the Chinese revolution of 1911 and the establishment of a republic.
Lawn and Alder Limited, wine merchants (of 19 Clifford Street, New Bond Street, London, SW1) was incorporated in 1954. It was a subsidiary of Saccone and Speed 1954-1963; and was taken over by Courage Barclay and Simonds, probably in 1963. The company was in voluntary liquidation in April 1979, Courage Limited was the liquidator.
Jeremy Lawrance was a District Commissioner in Karamoja, Uganda, for two years and in Teso for five years during the 1950s. Publications: The Iteso: fifty years of change in a Nilo-Hamitic tribe of Uganda (1957); with J H Hilder, An introduction to the Ateso language (1957); with J H Hilder, An English-Ateso and Ateso-English vocabulary (1958).
Charles Lawrence was Chairman of the Liverpool and Birmingham Railway Company from 1826-1830.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company was established in 1826. The Railway, a stretch of track 31 miles long linking the two cities, was opened on 15 September 1830, though the opening was marred by the death of William Huskisson MP when he was accidentally hit by the Rocket.
The Grand Junction Railway Company was established in 1833 to build a line linking Birmingham to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It opened in 1837.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway merged with the Grand Junction Railway in 1845. The following year, Grand Junction was merged with the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway to form the London and North Western Railway.
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (1867-1954) was the daughter of West Country businessman Henry Pethick. In 1891 she left her home in Weston-super-Mare to become a volunteer with the Sisterhood of the West London Mission and she subsequently went on, with Mary Neal, to undertake a variety of philanthropic activities with working girls in London. In 1901 she married the newspaper publisher Frederick Lawrence. Emmeline became involved with the activities of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906, acting as treasurer, and was arrested and imprisoned for the cause. In October 1907 the Pethick-Lawrences founded the suffrage paper Votes for Women to which Emmeline was a regular contributor. In 1912, following a rift with the Pankhursts, the Pethick-Lawrences left the WSPU, although they retained control of Votes for Women (which was henceforward published under the auspices of the Votes for Women Fellowship) and Emmeline continued her suffragist activities. Following the outbreak of the First World War Emmeline became involved in peace campaigning, a cause to which she devoted the rest of her campaigning career. In the inter-war period she was also active in the Women's Freedom League, the Open Door Council and the Six Point Group. She died in 1954.
William Ironside (fl 1953-1957) was a friend of the Labour politician Frederick Pethick-Lawrence.
Frederick Pethick-Lawrence (1867-1954) was a politician active in the campaign for women's suffrage. He was educated at Eton College, and at Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied mathematics and natural sciences. He later studied law and was called to the bar in 1899. After marriage to Emmeline Pethick in 1901 he appended her maiden name to his own surname Lawrence. He was a leading member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) from 1907-1912, founded and edited the periodical Votes for Women alongside his wife, and was imprisoned and suffered forcible feeding for the women's suffrage cause in 1912. Originally a Liberal Unionist candidate (for North Lambeth in 1901), Pethick-Lawrence had a lifelong involvement in the Labour Party, defeating Winston Churchill to become Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for West Leicester (1923-1931) and later working as MP for Edinburgh East and for the Treasury. He was a leading Labour spokesman on economics. A supporter of Indian self-government, he became Secretary of State for India, with a seat in the House of Lords in 1945. After his wife's death in 1954 he married Helen McCombie (née Millar) in 1957, who had also been a militant suffragette. He died in 1961.
Doctor Mildred Burgess trained at the London School of Medicine for Women, graduating MD in 1905. She held various medical positions including Assistant School Medical Officer for the London County Council and Medical Officer for two London County Council institutions: Stockwell Training College and Ponton Road Place of Detention. She was also the Medical Officer for Cornwall Nursery Hostel and Brixton and Herne Hill Creche and a House Surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital. She gave lectures on nursing and child health and wrote on the subject, including her book "The care of Infants and Young Children in Health", 1913. Her interest in the training of nurses is evidenced by a letter to the British Journal of Medicine, 19 February 1916, in which she calls for better theoretical training before nurses entered wards.
Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence was born in London in February 1837, the youngest son of late William Lawrence, Alderman, and brother of politician Sir William Lawrence. He was educated at University College School, followed by University College London where he obtained a BA (1861) and LLB with honours. He married Edith Jane Durning Smith in 1874, the youngest daughter and co-heiress of politician John Benjamin Smith.
During 1867, Durning Lawrence was called to Middle Temple and also was a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works for a short time, as well as a Lieutenant for the City of London and a Justice of the Peace in Berkshire. After unsuccesfully contesting the seats of East Berkshire (1865), Haggerston (1866) and Burnley (1892), Durning-Lawrence was finally elected as Liberal Unionist member of Parliament for Truro in 1895; a position he held until 1906. However, Durning-Lawrence's main passion was the study of literature, especially the field of Bacon/ Shakespeare controversy, and he wrote the works 'Bacon is Shakespeare' (1910) and 'The Shakespeare Myth' (1912), as well as lecturing widely on the subject and dedicating time and money to creating a library to back up his Baconian theories. Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence died in April 1914
Born, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, 1783; educated, private school at Gloucester; apprenticed to John Abernethy, 1799; Demonstrator of Anatomy, St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1801-1813; Member, 1805, Fellow, 1813, Royal College of Surgeons of England; Assistant Surgeon, St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1813; Surgeon, London Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye, 1814; Surgeon, Royal Hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlehem, 1815; Surgeon, St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1824-1865; Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1815; Lecturer on Surgery, St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1829-1862; President, Medical and Chirurgical Society, 1831; Member of the Council, 1828, Examiner, 1840-1867, President 1846 and 1855, Royal College of Surgeons of England; Hunterian Orator, 1834, 1846; Surgeon Extraordinary; Sergeant-Surgeons to Queen Victoria, 1857; created baronet, 1867; died, London, 1867.
Publications include: Description of the Mouth, Nose, Larynx, and Pharynx (1809); A treatise on ruptures, containing an anatomical description of each species second edition (London, J Callow, 1810); An Introduction to Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, being the two introductory lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons (London, 1816); Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man (London, 1819); A Short System of Comparative Anatomy, translated from the German ... by William Lawrence Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (W Simpkin & R Marshall, London, 1827); Lectures on Surgery, medical and operative, as delivered in the theatre of St. Bartholomew's Hospital (F C Westley, London, [1830?]);A treatise on the venereal diseases of the eye (London, 1830); A treatise on the Diseases of the Eye (London, 1833); The Hunterian Oration delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons...1834 (J Churchill, London, 1834); The Hunterian Oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons...1846 (London, 1846); Lectures on Surgery delivered in St Bartholomew's Hospital (J Churchill, London, 1863).
Thomas Lawrence was born on 25 May 1711 in Westminster, London, the second son of Captain Thomas Lawrence. He was educated first in Dublin, after his father was posted to Ireland in 1715. His mother died in 1724 and his father brought the family to live with his widowed sister in Southampton, who looked after the children. Lawrence continued his education at school in Southampton. In October 1727 he was admitted a commoner to Trinity College, Oxford. He graduated BA in 1730, MA in 1733, and then chose medicine as his profession. He moved to London and attended the anatomical lectures of the physician Frank Nicholls and the practice at St Thomas' Hospital. He graduated BM in 1736, and MD at Oxford in 1740.
Lawrence became anatomy reader in the University of Oxford upon Nicholls' resignation. He remained in this office for several years although he resided in London where he also delivered lectures in anatomy. He took the house previously occupied by Nicholls, in Lincoln's Inn Field. Lawrence became a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1743, and a fellow the following year. He was also Goulstonian Lecturer at the College in 1744. In the same year he married Frances Chauncey, daughter of a physician at Derby, and moved to Essex Street, off the Strand. He was a censor at the College five times between 1746 and 1759, and became registrar in 1747, a position he held for almost 20 years until 1766. In 1748 he delivered the Harveian Oration.
In 1750 Lawrence stopped lecturing, in the face of the overwhelming success of the lectures of the Scottish surgeon William Hunter, and instead devoted himself entirely to general practice. In 1751 he delivered the Royal College of Physicians' Croonian Lectures, and was appointed Lumleian Lecturer in 1755. The following year he published Hydrops: Disputatio Medica, which took the form of an imaginary conversation between the great physicians Baldwin Hamey, Sir George Ent, and William Harvey. Lawrence was named an elect of the College in 1759, and was made consiliarius (adviser to the president) in 1760, 1761, and 1763. He wrote a biography of Harvey, which was prefixed to the College's publication on the works of Harvey, Guilielmi Harveii Opera Omnia a Collegio Medicorum (1766). Lawrence was awarded £100 for his services.
Lawrence became president of the College in 1767. He was elected upon the resignation of Sir William Browne, after the famous siege of the College. A group of licentiates had forced their way into a Comitia meeting in June 1767, in an attempt to obtain a dispensation from the College, causing Browne to dissolve the Comitia. The licentiates were protesting against the College policy that only graduates from Oxford and Cambridge could become fellows. Ultimately it was not until 1834 that the fellowship was thrown open to graduates of other universities, although in 1771 Lawrence did accept four such candidates for fellowship. Lawrence was made president in September 1767, and was re-elected every year for the following seven years.
Despite his elevated position within the College, he never really attained great success as a physician. It has been said of him that he was
`an elegant scholar, a good anatomist, and a sound practitioner; but in his endeavour to attain to eminence it was his misfortune to fail' (Munk's Roll, p.151).
His failure has been put down to personal traits, namely a vacant countenance and a convulsive tic. He was an intimate friend of the lexicographer Samuel Johnson, a fellow sufferer of the latter affliction, who considered him `"one of the best men whom I have known"' (ibid, p.152). Johnson had a very high opinion of his friend, which was a testimony to the latter's prowess as a scholar. Lawrence often submitted his Latin for Johnson's correction, and it is believed that Johnson did the same to him. Johnson was also one of Lawrence's patients. Much about their relationship is discernible through Johnson's letters to Lawrence.
Lawrence's wife died in 1780 and he never really recovered from the bereavement. He and his wife had had six sons and three daughters. Soon after his wife's death he lost his hearing. In 1780 he had privately printed his biography of his friend and patron Frank Nicholls. In 1782 Lawrence was struck with paralysis. He resigned from his position as elect at the Royal College of Physicians, and retired with his family to Canterbury. In 1783 he began to suffer from angina pectoris. He died on 6 June 1783, at the age of 72. He was buried in the church of St Margaret, Canterbury. His two surviving children erected a memorial tablet in Canterbury Cathedral.
Publications:
Oratio Harvaeana (London, 1748)
Hydrops: Disputatio Medica (London, 1756)
Praelectiones Medicae Duodecim de Calvariae et Capitis Morbis (Croonian Lectures) (London, 1757)
De Natura Musculorum Praelectiones Tres in Theatro Collegii Medicorum Londinensium Habitae (London, 1759)
Guilielmi Harveii Opera Omnia a Collegio Medicorum, Mark Akenside (ed.) (London, 1766) collected edition of Harvey's works, with prefixed biography by Thomas Lawrence
Franci Nichollsii, MD, Vita, cum Conjecturis Eiusdem de Natura et Usu Partium Humani Corporis Similarium (London, 1780)
The time log was a method of evaluating and paying for the work of tailors and tailoresses, and was an attempt to deal with industrial unrest at the end of the 19th century. Detailed lists of times allocated for the making of designated garments were set out, for example dress and frock coats. In some parts of the country the log created more problems than it solved, but the system was adopted in London and log books were produced for every type of garment including alterations. Machine logs, deducting times for operations when sewing machines were used, were also given. The log was agreed to by various trade unions, including the Association of London Master Tailors, the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and the London Society of Tailors. It was considered and amended by a Conciliation Board and new editions produced. The board met to consider the log and matters affecting the salaries and working conditions of tailors and tailoresses.
The log covered gentleman's coats, waistcoats, trousers, breeches and livery, uniforms, ladieswear, naval, court and diplomatic dress. The London Log continues to exist as a method of payment for piecework and is negotiated annually between the Federation of Merchant Tailors and the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers. It operates in a closely defined geographical area for all workers, and corresponds approximately with the W1 postcode area and Knightsbridge.
William Cooling Lawrence was President of the Association of London Master Tailors and Chair of the Joint Log Committee.
John Daniell Morell (1816-1891) was a physician with an interest in psychology and philosophy. He was also a writer of books on English language and grammar.
John Bateman Lawson (1922-1997) MA, MB, Bchir, FRCS(Glasgow), FRCOG, has been a member of several committees of the College, including the Fellowship Selection Committee 1971-1976 and 1987-1989, Scientific Advisory and Pathology Committee 1972-1974, Postgraduate Committee 1978-1987, Examination Committee 1980-1987, Accreditation Committee 1981-1984, Council 1981-1983 and 1985-1989, Hospital Recognition Committee 1981-1987 and Higher Training Committee 1984-1987. He was Director of Postgraduate Studies 1981-1987 and Vice President from 1987-1989. He was also a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Ibadan, Nigeria, and was renowned for his work in African countries.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
No information available at present.
Born 1907; educated at Eton College and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; joined Royal Horse Guards, Mar 1927, 2nd Lt, 1927; Lt 1930; Capt 1934; married Angela Claire Louise (née Dudley Ward), 1935; instructor on anti-gas and air defence measures, School of Military Engineering, Chatham, Dec 1937; General Staff Officer, Grade 3 (passive air defence) in department of Chief of Imperial General Staff, Dec 1938; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, chemical warfare section, British Expeditionary Force Headquarters, France, 1939-1940; joined Combined Operations, 1940; Lt Col 1941; commanded Special Service Brigade LAYFORCE, Feb-Aug 1941 and Middle East Commando, Aug 1941-Aug 1942; Brig, 1942; commanded Special Service Brigade, organizing and training all commandos in Britain, 1942-1943; Maj Gen 1943; Chief of Combined Operations, Oct 1943-1947; retired 1947; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Malta, 1954-1959; Col Commandant, Special Air Service (SAS) and Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, 1960-1968. Died 1968.