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Local taxation licences were necessary for keeping a dog, employing a game-keeper, carrying a gun, killing or dealing in game and were obtainable at any Post Office or directly from the County Council. The Council was also responsible for the issue of minor excise licences required by hawkers, pawnbrokers, resreshment house keepers and money lenders. In all these cases it was the Council's duty to ensure that the necessary licences were taken out and renewed. All these functions were carried out by the Local Taxation Department in which was employed a staff of inspectors and enquiry officers who worked from offices in Brentford, Tottenham and Willesden. When necessary the Council prosecuted offenders. It was also empowered to impose monetary penalties, the payment of which avoided the necessity for court proceedings.

The Local Taxation Department was also responsible for the registration and licensing of all motor vehicles kept in the County and for issuing driving licences to County residents. For registration and licensing purposes, the person keeping and using a motor vehicle was regarded as its owner, and once a vehicle had been registered, all changes of ownership, as well as changes in the use of the vehicle, had to be reported. Factors which were considered before a vehicle was licensed included ownership, construction and use, and in the case of goods vehicles the weight.

The first election of Middlesex County Councillors took place on 29 January 1889 and the first meeting of the Provisional Council was held at Middlesex Guildhall on 7 February 1889. At a meeting on 21 March 1889, the formation of committees was considered. Members were elected to the Finance, Highways, General Purposes, Parliamentary, Asylum, Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, and Stand Joint Committees.

As the work of the Council increased so too did the number and range of committees. Joint committees were also organised with other relevant bodies such as neighbouring local authorities or lower tier Middlesex authorities.

A section within the Clerk's Department became the Public Control Department in 1920 and existed until 1965. The Department reported to the General Purposes Committee and the Head of the Department was the Chief of Weights and Measures Staff 1908-1920 and Chief Officer of the Public Control Department 1920-1965.

Weights and Measures:

Before 1889 the Justices of the Peace had powers and responsibilities over the verification and inspection of weights and measures. The Weights and Measures Act 1878 provided for a national standardization of weights and measures and the Weights and Measures Act 1889 provided legislation for the verification of weighing machines. Under the Local Government Act 1888 the County Council became responsible for the inspection and verification of weighing and measuring apparatus used by traders in Middlesex. Under the terms of the Middlesex County Council Bye-laws the County Council also had responsibility for weighing coke. Further responsibilities were added so that by 1965 three quarters of the Departments work was concerned with weights and measures functions.

The functions of this section were:

1 To keep and maintain in good condition the weights, scales and balances used by the County Council inspectors

2 To test apparatus to be used by traders

3 To check the quantities of pre-packed goods in wholesale and retail transactions. Foods not pre-packed, coal, sand, and ballast in retail transactions also had to be checked.

The County Council owned and operated two public weighbridges at Brentford and Willesden. As a highway authority the County Council was also responsible for ensuring that overweight vehicles were not driven on roads and this work was dealt with by the Public Control Department.

Food and Drugs:

Here too the Justices of the Peace had responsibilities to protect the public against the adulteration of food. The County Council inherited these functions in 1889. During the lifetime of the County Council these responsibilities were added to and consolidated. The Department was responsible for ensuring that food and drugs sold were genuine; that they did not contain unlawful substances; that they were correctly labelled; and that the special provisions for the production and sale of milk were carried out. Milk was the substance most commonly tested.

Middlesex County Council was the biggest Food and Drugs authority in the country and resisted attempts by its local authorities to take over these functions. The Department established a system of informal sampling (formal sampling had to be done by the County Analyst and was more expensive). These departmental tests were made as preliminary surveys to decide on the best selection of formal samples to be procured. Under Food and Drugs legislation the County Council was obliged to appoint a County Analyst. The County Analyst was not a full time employee.

Merchandise Marks:

The Merchandise Marks Act 1887 prohibited the use of false or misleading trade descriptions being applied to goods. The Merchandise Marks Act 1926 gave food and drugs authorities permission to use this legislation in relation to imported foods. This legislation was consolidated later in the century.

Pharmacy and Poisons:

The Pharmacy and Poisons Act 1933 made local authorities responsible for the control of poison sellers (other than pharmacists) and poisons in Part II of the Poison List. The Pharmaceutical Society was responsible for pharmacists. Stringent provisions regarding the packaging, storage, labelling and sale of poisons were introduced. Poisons on the Part II list were mainly domestic in type - ammonia, carbolic disinfectants, insecticides and weed-killers.

The Public Control Department:

Until 1920 the work of the Department was done as a section of the Clerk's Department. In 1920 the Chief of Weights and Measures staff became the Chief Officer of the Public Control Department. The Department was, by the 1950s, run on two tiers with a small Headquarters staff and below that three divisional offices administered on an area basis.

Western Division: Brentford and Chiswick; Ealing; Feltham; Hayes and Harlington; Heston and Isleworth; Southall; Staines; Sunbury-on-Thames; Twickenham; Yiewsley and West Drayton.

Central Division: Acton; Harrow; Hendon; Ruislip-Northwood; Uxbridge; Wembley; Willesden.

Eastern Division: Edmonton; Enfield; Finchley; Friern Barnet; Hornsey; Potters Bar; Southgate; Tottenham; Wood Green.

Divisional offices were in Willesden, Brentford and Tottenham. At each divisional office thee was a Divisional Chief Inspector; a Senior Inspector of Weights and Measures with up to half a dozen inspectors; a Coal and Sale of Food officer and trained assistants. The direction of policy came from the County Headquarters. On the abolition of the County Council in 1965 the functions of the Public Control Department passed to the new London Boroughs.

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 Provincial Joint Industrial Council was affiliated to the National Joint Industrial Council. The Council considered the working conditions, health, and welfare provisions for manual workers of all local authorities in Middlesex. The Council also had some responsibility to education, training and the protection of rights and inventions. It liaised with the National Council and other Provincial Councils. The Council consisted of representatives elected from the Middlesex County Council, lower tier authorities (borough councils and urban districts) and trade unions.

The City Road Congregational Chapel was founded in 1848. The congregation had been assembling in temporary premises at Chadwell Street, Islington; Barford Street School, Finsbury and at Islington Green Chapel.

Lower Street (now Essex Road) Congregational Chapel was built in 1744 on the south corner of Greenman's Lane. It was the first dissenting chapel in Islington. During the ministry of John Gawsell, 1761-1768, seceders met in Ward's Place, an old house just south of the chapel, but the congregation was reunited when their minisiter left. Numbers rose after 1768 and galleries were built to provide added accommodation. The church was known as Islington Meeting House in 1800. The Chapel was much enlarged in 1820, when the front was brought forward. A schoolroom for 200 was also later added. Attendance in 1851 was 476 in the morning and 560 in the evening. The lease expired in 1865 and a new chapel in River Street (later River Place) was registered in 1864. A lecture room was added by 1872. However, attendance in 1903 was 19 in the morning and 86 in the evening, and the church closed in 1909.

Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 101-115.

The Congregationalists registered a temporary church in Upton Road (later part of Belsize Road) in 1856, and formed a church in 1858. A permanent building in Greville Place, Kilburn, was opened in 1859.

The Southgate Road Chapel was built adjoining a school at the north corner of Balmes Road. It was registered Congregational in 1860-1869. Attendance in 1886 was 204 in the morning and 237 in the evening. By 1903 attendance was 57 in the morning and 205 in the evening. The church closed between 1935 and 1938. It is likely that the Southgate Road Chapel was founded when the congregation of the Pavement Chapel, Hoxton, found it was too small for their needs and decided to construct a larger church.

White's Row Congregational Chapel was built, probably in about 1755, by a congregation of Independents [Congregationalists] under Edward Hitchin, which had met previously in Artillery Lane Chapel. Hitchin died in 1774 and was succeeded by Nathaniel Trotman. The congregation was then large, drawing most of its members from within a mile of the chapel: Trotman's reception service was attended by 1,200 persons. He died in 1792 and was followed by John Goode, who served the chapel until his resignation in 1826, by which time the congregation had dwindled considerably. The Reverend Henry Townley became minister in 1828. In 1836 the congregation left White's Row, the lease having nearly expired, and after a short stay in Bury Street Chapel, built Bishopsgate Chapel in the City of London.

From: Survey of London: volume 27: Spitalfields and Mile End New Town (1957), pp. 127-147.

The Park Crescent Congregational Church, Clapham, was founded in 1819.

In 1957, the Wolfenden Report proposed that homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private no longer be considered a criminal offence. On 7 March 1958, a letter, drafted by Anthony Edward Dyson and signed by a number of eminent individuals, appeared in The Times supporting the Wolfenden recommendation.
Dyson was instrumental in the creation of the Homosexual Law Reform Society in 1958, and became one of the original Trustees of the Albany Trust, a counselling and research service for the gay community, in the same year.

The Gay Community Organisation was formed in 1982, following the establishment of a Special Commission investigating the future of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), which recommended a restructuring. The minority report noted a failure to meet the needs of most gay people and suggested that CHE should become two interlinked organisations devoted to campaigning and social activities. A working party suggested the establishment of local gay co-operatives working under the Industrial and Providential Societies Act. These groups would organise local activities and support, and would in turn purchase shares in the national Gay Community Organisation, which would act as a central fund holder and co-ordinator. The decision to establish the Gay Community Organisation was taken in June 1982 at Hastings National Council, and the scheme was launched at the Sheffield Gayfest the same August. GCO officially came into existence on 1 September 1982, with a National Council and a General Management Committee at the centre and 24 groups throughout the country, mostly former CHE groups. By April 1983 it was clear that there were problems with the development of the local groups and their relation to the central organisation. The central body of the GCO ceased to exist in 1984, though some local groups continued an independent existence.

The first meeting of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) took place on 13 Oct 1970 in a basement classroom at the London School of Economics, and was instigated by Aubrey Walters and Bob Mellors, who had been influenced by the development of the GLF in the USA. It was the beginning of a three year period of great activity, including demonstrations, debates, street theatre, the establishment of a new gay press, and the establishment of communes. Local GLF groups were founded across the country, with Leeds and West Sussex being particularly active. The first ever public gay protest in Britain took place on 27th. November 1970, when approximately 80 GLF members gathered for a torchlight demonstration on Highbury Fields, Islington. In August 1971 the GLF organised a further public event when members marched along Islington's Upper Street back to Highbury Fields. This was an exclusively GLF event but led to the first real Pride in London in 1972. In the spring of 1973 the London GLF set up the support group Icebreakers. The first issue of Come Together, the journal of Gay Liberation was produced in 1971. By the mid-seventies, the influence of the GLF in the USA and elsewhere had begun to decline. Throughout its existence the GLF had no formal management structure. An account of the GLF entitled No bath but plenty of bubbles: an oral history of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970-1973 was written by Lisa Power.

Stephen Jeffrey-Poulter was educated at St Albans Grammar School for Boys and atttended Southampton University. He worked in the media and regularly lectured and wrote on the British media. In 1991, Jeffrey-Poulter undertook a national lecture tour on the subject of the history of gay law reform. In July 1995 he presented Coming Together at the National Film Theatre for the British Film Institute's Out of the Archives season - a 90 minute talk featuring clips from archive television documentaries on gay issues from 1957 to 1973. At the Museum of the Moving Image in July 1996 he interviewed television playwright Howard Schuman (Rock Follies and Nervous Energy) about his 23-year career for the fifth Out of the Archives season.
He was the producer of the television documentary 'A Bill Called William' which was broadcast on Channel 4 television in July 1997.

The Joint Council for Gay teenagers was established in 1978, formed from groups which provided support for young gay people.

No information available at present.

The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) was founded by journalist Ronald Kidd in 1934 to protect and promote civil liberties and human rights. NCCL's activity in the field of gay rights has been focussed on discrimination in the criminal law and employment rights. NCCL supported the implementation of the Wolfenden Committee's recommendation for the decriminalisation of homosexual activity, and developed links with the Homosexual Law Reform Society, the Albany Trust, and later the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. Gay issues were included in NCCL newsletters and conference resolutions, and a NCCL pamphlet, Privacy under attack, included a section on the private rights of individuals. Two surveys into discrimination in the workplace were undertaken in the 1970s, the first into the policies of London Education Authorities and the second into the attitudes of Social Services Committees, both of which revealed prejudice against gay staff. NCCL also submitted evidence to the criminal Law Reform Committee on Sexual Offences in 1976, and produced a pamphlet Homosexuality and the law in 1978. NCCL was relaunched as Liberty in 1989.

Robert Palmer was Treasurer, 1977-1978, and Chairperson, 1978-1980, of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE). He was actively involved in the activities of CHE at other times, and was a member of the Executive Committee until Sep 1980.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1952, Peter Tatchell emigrated to Britain in 1971 to avoid being drafted to the Vietnam War, which he had actively opposed. He worked freelance in design and display whilst studying for a BSc in Sociology at the Polytechnic of North London, 1974-1977. During this period, Tatchell attended meetings of the Gay Liberation Front and soon became actively involved in gay politics. He acted as the GLF delegate to the World Youth Festival in East Berlin in 1973. Following his graduation in 1977, Tatchell became a social worker with the North Lambeth housing agency in Waterloo. In 1978 he joined the Labour Party, standing as an unsuccessful candidate for the Bermondsey by-election in 1983. In 1987 Tatchell founded the UK Aids Vigil Organisation, the first group to campaign for the civil liberties of those with AIDS. This was followed in 1989 by his creation of the London Act Up (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power). May 1990 saw the foundation of OutRage!, a direct action group, primarily focussed on the Church of England. In the year 2000, Peter Tatchell stood unsuccessfully as an Independent candidate for the new Greater London Assembly. Publications: We don't want to march straight: masculinity, queers and the military (Cassell, London, 1995); Safer sexy: the guide to gay sex safely (Freedom Editions, London, 1994); Europe in the pink (The Gay Men's Press, London, 1991); AIDS - a guide to survival (The Gay Men's Press, London, 1986); The battle for Bermondsey (Heretic, London, 1983).

Hector Alastair Hetherington, 1919-1999, was educated at Gresham's School, Holt and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He spent the second world war in the Royal Armoured Corps and in 1946 joined the editorial staff of the Glasgow Herald. He left in 1950 to join the Manchester Guardian where he was assistant editor and foreign editor 1953-1956 and editor 1956-1975. After he left the Guardian, he went into television, becoming controller of BBC Scotland 1975-1978 and manager of BBC Highland 1979-1980.

The IAI was founded in 1926 as the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. It is governed by a council representing a balance between African and non African countries. The IAI's principle aim is "to promote the education of the public in the study of Africa and its languages and cultures". Its activities range from supporting seminars and other means of disseminating knowledge within and about Africa, to a range of publications, which include an international journal, monographs by distinguished authorities on African society and edited volumes. In recent years the Institute has extended its activities to encourage projects concerned with stimulating scholarship within Africa.

The International Marxist Group is a British Trotskyite revolutionary group affiliated to the Fourth International. Its broad aims are the overthrow of imperialist capitalism followed be the setting up of a government based on direct democratic control by the people.

The International Tin Council was established in 1956, following on from the work of the International Tin Study Group, which was established in 1947 to survey the world supply and demand of tin. The ITCs aims were to promote the achievement of a long-term balance between world production and consumption of tin, and to prevent excessive fluctuation in price. This was achieved by the creation and operation of a buffer stock system involving mandatory contributions by producer and consumer countries, the fixing of floor and ceiling prices, and the regulation of exports. The activities of the Council were governed by a series of six 5-year International Tin Agreements, commencing in 1956. The sixth agreement was extended for a further two years in 1987. The Council was dissolved in 1990.

The Ionian Bank was founded in London in 1839 to finance trade between the Ionian Islands, (a British protectorate) and Great Britain. After the cession to Greece of the islands in 1864, the Bank extended its operations to the rest of Greece and during the twentieth century to Egypt, Cyprus and Turkey. The Greek assets were sold to the Commercial Bank of Greece in the 1950s and the Egyptian assets were sequestrated. The Ionian Bank ceased trading as such in 1978, though certain parts of its business were carried on by Ionian Securities Ltd, which was taken over by Alpha Credit Bank in 1999, forming the Alpha Bank.

The Inland Waterways Association was founded as a registered charity in 1946 to campaign for the restoration, retention and development of inland waterways in the British Isles and their fullest possible commercial use. Membership is by invitation only. In 1971, the IWA Council established a sub-committee entitled the Commercial Carrying Group, which later changed its name to the Inland Shipping Group (ISG). Its purpose is to advise the IWA on matters pertaining to freight carrying on inland waterways, as well as maintaining liaison with other interest groups, organising conferences and seminars, and generally publicising this mode of transport. Each of the IWA's seven regions has an Inland Shipping Committee.

Born 1903; educated at Cheltenham College, Gonville and Caius Colleges, Cambridge University, and St Bartholomew's Hospital; qualified as doctor, 1926; barrister-at-law, 1930; Medical Officer, Cambridge University East Greenland Expedition, 1926; Casualty Officer, Metropolitan Hospital, 1926; House Physician, East London Hospital for Children, Shadwell, 1927; Medical Officer, Harrington Harbour Hospital, International Grenfell Association, Labrador, 1928-1929; General Practitioner, Thornton Heath, Croydon, 1930-1937; Demonstrator of Anatomy, Oxford University, 1937-1939; served during World War Two in the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1939-1945; Member, Croydon Medical Board, Ministry of Labour and National Service, 1951-1955; Conservative MP for Carlisle, 1955-1963, and Independent Conservative MP, 1963-1964; first MP to raise parliamentary debate on the Ombudsman; Chairman and Managing Director of Johnson Publications Ltd; died 1978. Publications: A Cassandra at Westminster (Johnson, London, 1967); A doctor in Parliament (Christopher Johnson, London, 1958); A doctor regrets (Christopher Johnson, London, 1949); A doctor returns (Christopher Johnson, London, 1956); Bars and barricades (Christopher Johnson, London, 1952); Conservative government and a liberal society (Christopher Johnson, London, 1955); Indian hemp (Christopher Johnson, London, 1952); On being an Independent MP (Johnson, London, 1964); Ted Heath: a latter day Charlemagne (Johnson, London, 1971); The British National Health Service (Johnson, London, 1962); The end of socialism (Christopher Johnson, London, 1946); The hallucinogenic drugs (Christopher Johnson, London, 1953); The nutritive properties of the rye grain (Minneapolis, 1934); A guide to reference materials on Southeast Asia (Yale University press, 1970); The plea for the silent (Christopher Johnson, London, 1957).

Born in Norfolk and educated in Surrey; spent a year in the civil service; studied Modern History at Kingston University; worked in House of Commons as a research assistant; left in 1992 to join a public affairs company; now runs his own consultancy firm; Chief Executive of Conservative Mainstream.

Lilian Charlotte Anne Knowles, 1870-1926, (nee Tomn) was born in Truro and educated at Truro High School, on the continent, and at Girton College Cambridge. At Cambridge she took a History Tripos, First Class in 1894 and a Law Tripos (Part 1), First Class in 1894. She also obtained a Litt.D from Trinity College, Dublin in 1906. Knowles was a lecturer in modern economic history at the London School of Economics in 1904, Reader in Economic History at the University of London in 1907, and Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of London from 1920 to 1924. She was also a member of the Royal Commission on Income Tax, 1919-1920, a member of the Council of the Royal Economic Society, and a member of the Council of the Royal Historical Society.

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.

Chartered accountant and founder and senior partner of P. D. Leake & Co; has written and lectured extensively on accountancy subjects; was retained by the Postmaster General and gave evidence in the well-known case of The National Telephone Co. Ltd v. HM Postmaster-General; funded the PD Leake Trust which financed much of the academic research programme of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; has visited USA and Canada and studied their methods of cost accounting; Member of the Board of Trustees, Albany, Piccadilly, W1; died 1949. Publications: Balance sheet values (Gee and Co, London, 1929); Capital: Adam Smith, Karl Marx (Gee and Co, London, 1933); Commercial goodwill (Pitman and Sons, London, 1921); Depreciation and wasting assets (Henry Good and Son, London 1912); Industrial capital (Gee and Co, London, 1933); Inflated Industrial Share Capital: a plea for the use of no par value shares (Gee & Co, London, 1936); Introductory notes on Leake's Register of Industrial Plant (Henry Good & Son, London, 1910); The Corporation Profits Tax explained and illustrated (Pitman & Sons, London, 1920); Income Tax on Capital: a plea for reform in the official method of computing taxable profits (Gee & Co, London, 1909).

The League of Nations Union (LNU) was formed by the merger of the League of Free Nations Association and the League of Nations Society, two groups working for the establishment of a new world order based upon the ideals of the League of Nations. It became the largest and most influential organisation in the British peace movement, played an important role in inter-war politics, and launched education programmes that had a lasting impact on British schools. The LNU's popularity dwindled during World War Two, and when the United Nations Association (UNA) was founded in 1945 to promote the work of the United Nations, the LNU arranged for the wholesale transference of its organisational structure and its membership to the UNA. However, under the provisions of its Royal Charter, the LNU was able to continue until the mid-1970s, albeit in a limited capacity, in order to handle bequests, and administer the payment of pensions to former employees. The administrative structure of the LNU consisted of a General Council, which met twice a year and held final responsibility for LNU policy under the Royal Charter of Incorporation granted in 1925; an Executive Committee, which met every two weeks and co-ordinated campaigns, analysed branch reports and resolutions, monitored the work of the numerous specialist sub-committees, supervised the staff, and generally acted as the central policy-making body of the LNU; and regional LNU branches, which had their own independent management structures.

The London Positivist Society was established in 1867 by Richard Congreve. The Society appears to have concerned itself mainly with the application of positivism to political events. It produced pamphlets and wrote letters to the press protesting against such issues as the Irish Coercion Bill, the war in the Transvaal, the Empire in India, and religious tolerance. Its members also engaged in a series of public lectures to explain positivism to the general public, petitioned parliament, and attended conferences and meetings of positivists from around the world. The Society was renamed the English Positivist Committee in 1934.

The Central Filing Registry consists of the subjects files of the central administration of the London School of Economics, and incorporates files dating back to the foundation of the School. The Registry did not have a comprehensive classification system, with sections being set up as required with brief titles and numbers allocated in numerical order. Each file has an individual identification code in the following format: section/sub-section/sub-sub-section/sub-sub-sub-section. The number of sub-sections varies according to the importance and complication of the topic and the number of files produced. The original file codes have been preserved. The Registry was reorganised in the 1960s.

Most of the oral history interviews were organised by the LSE History project for the School Centenary History, or collected by the project. The interviews conducted by Nadim Shehadi were taped in the early 1980s as part of his research on the development of Economics at LSE in the interwar period, and were transcribed by the LSE History Project in 1991.

The Organisation for Comparative Social Research consisted of a group of social scientists from seven European countries, first brought together in 1951 by the Oslo Institute for Social Research as an international seminar for the planning of a common research programme. The purpose of the OCSR was to encourage co-operation among social scientists of different countries, to increase training facilities and to carry out studies of cross-national differences in respect of group behaviour. The British office of the OCSR was based at the LSE.

Born in New Zealand, 1891; educated at Christchurch Boys' High School; political cartoonist, Spectator and Canterbury Times; joined Sydney Bulletin, 1911,and became resident cartoonist, 1914; cartoons published in The Billy Book (Sydney, 1918); arrived in London, 1919; political cartoonist, The Star, 1919-1926; Evening Standard, 1926-1949; joined Daily Herald, 1950-1953; Manchester Guardian, 1953; created "Colonel Blimp"; knighted, 1962; died 1963. Publications: Lloyd George and Co. (Allen and Unwin, London, 1922); Low and I (Methuen and Co, London, 1923); Low and I holiday book (Daily News, London, 1925); The best of Low (Jonathan Cape, London, 1930); Low's Russian sketchbook (Victor Gollancz, London, 1932); Low and Terry (Hutchinson and Co, London, 1934); The New Rake's Progress (Hutchinson and Co, London, 1934); Ye Madde Designer (The Studio, London, 1935); Political Parade (Cresset Press, London, 1936); Low Again (Cresset Press, London, 1938); A Cartoon History of our Times (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1939); Europe since Versailles (Harmondsworth, 1939); Europe at War (Allen Lane, Harmondsworth, 1940); Low's War Cartoons (Cresset Press, London, 1941); The World at War (Harmondsworth, New York, 1942); C'est la Guerre (New Europe Publishing Company, London, 1943); Válka Zaeala Mnichovem (New Europe Publishing Company, London, 1945); Years of Wrath (Victor Gollancz, London, 1949); Low's company (Methuen and Co, London, 1952); Low Visibility (Cresset Press, London, 1953); Low's Autobiography (Michael Joseph, London, 1956); The Fearful Fifties (Bodley Head, London, 1960); British Cartoonists, Caricaturists and Comic Artists (William Collins, London, 1942).

Tony Lynes worked with Richard Titmuss at the London Sschool of Economics, 1958-1965. He was advisor on social security to Labour Secretaries of State, 1974-1979, and continued to advise the Labour Party into the 1990s. His publications include the Penguin Guide to Supplementary Benefits. He also contributed a weekly column on benefits in New Society and the New Statesman. In addition, he has been secretary of the Child Poverty Action Group, an advisor to the National Pensioners Convention and has worked with pensioners' groups in Southwark, London.

The Management Research Group was founded in 1926 by Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, and was based on an existing group in America, the Manufacturers Research Association of Massachusetts. The aim of the management research groups in this country was to provide a vehicle for the exchange of ideas, the collation of information and the discussion of problems common to member companies in order to promote more efficient management. Nine groups were set up around the country. Group 1, which was based in London and consisted of a small number of the largest manufacturing companies, co-ordinated the activities of Groups 2 - 8, which were based in the regions and consisted of small and medium sized companies. No company was accepted as a member without the unanimous agreement of all the member companies. Group 1 remained a totally autonomous group whose members interests were represented by their trade and employers associations. During the war it was decided that if the Group's views were not put forward by the usual trade or industrial organisation appropriate contact should be made between the Group's secretary and government officials. In 1943, Group 1 changed its title to the Industrial Management Research Association to show its separate identity from Groups 2 - 8.

Born 1887; educated at University College School, London, and University College, Oxford University; entered Treasury, 1910, by open competition; Private Secretary to six successive Financial Secretaries, 1913-1917; accompanied Sir H. Lever to USA on special financial mission, 1917; served under John Maynard Keynes at the Treasury, 1917-1919; Treasury representative, Paris Peace Conference, 1919-1920; Secretary to British Delegation, Reparation Commission, 1920-1922; General Secretary to Reparation Commission, 1922-1924, and Secretary to the Dawes Committee, 1924; Commissioner of Controlled Revenues, Berlin, 1924-1930; Knighted, 1925; started new career in the City of London, as Chairman, 1934-1952 and Director, 1952-1967, of S.G. Warburg and Co; Member, Executive National Liberal Federation, 1933-1936; Joint Treasurer, 1936-1948, President, 1949-1950, and Vice-President, 1950-1960, Liberal Party Organisation; President, Free Trade Union, 1948-1959; Vice-President, Liberal International, 1954-1967; Vice-President, Anglo-Israel Association (Chairman of Council, 1950-1960); Member of Council, 1933-1967, and President, 1970, Royal Institute of International Affairs; Liberal candidate for the City of London, 1945 and Finchley, 1950; died 1974. Publications: translator of Europe must unite (Paneuropa Editions, Glarus; Plymouth printed, 1940) and The Totalitarian State against Man (Frederick Muller, London, 1938), both by Count Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi; Government and industry (Lund, Humphries and Co, London, 1944); Government intervention in industry (Lovat Dickson, London, 1935); Liberal principle and policies (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1947); Moral and political problems of economic prosperity (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1962); Recollected in Tranquillity (Pall Mall Press, London & Dunmow, 1964); Reparation Reviewed (Ernest Benn, London, 1930); The Liberal Case (Allan Wingate, London & New York, 1950).

FIRM (Forum for Initiatives in Reparation and Mediation) was set up in 1989, and changed its name to Mediation UK in 1991. Mediation UK is a registered charity which acts as an umbrella body for a network of projects, organisations and individuals interested in mediation and other forms of conflict resolution. It acts as an information and referral service, sponsors training events and workshops, organises an annual conference, helps groups to set up mediation services and provides standards of professional conduct for mediators. A quarterly journal, Mediation, is also produced.

No information available at present.

Born in Bucharest, Rumania, in 1888; educated at the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1912-1914; undertook war work at the Romanian Legation in London, the Foreign Office and the War Office, 1914-1918; Member, Labour Party Advisory Committee on International Affairs, 1918-1931; Editorial Staff, Manchester Guardian, 1919-1922, with special responsibility for foreign affairs; Assistant European Editor, Economic and Social History of the World War, sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1922-1929; Visiting Professor, Harvard University 1931-1933; Dodge Lecturer, Yale University, 1932; Nielsen Research Professor, Smith College, 1951; Member, British Co-ordinating Committee for International Studies, 1927-1930; Professor in School of Economics and Politics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1933-1939 and 1946-1956; Member, Foreign Research and Press Service, Foreign Office, 1939-1942; Adviser on International Affairs to Board of Unilever & Lever Brothers Ltd, 1943-1962; Member, Executive Committee, Political and Economic Planning; died 1975. Publications: The functional theory of politics (Robertson, for the LSE, 1975); American interpretations; four political essays (Contact Publications, London, 1946); The effect of the War in south eastern Europe (Yale University press, 1936); Food and freedom (Batchworth Press, London, 1954); Greater Rumania: a study in national ideals (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1917); The land and the peasant in Rumania: the War and agrarian reform, 1917-1921 (Oxford University press, London, 1930); Marx against the peasant: a study in social dogmatism (George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1951); The problem of international sanctions (Humphrey Milford, London, 1925); The progress of international government (Allen and Unwin, London, 1933); The road to security (National Peace Council, London, 1944); Rumania, her history and politics (1915); A working peace system (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1943); World unity and the nations (London, 1950).

Modern Law Review was established in 1937; its main objectives were to promote legal education, and the study of law, arts and sciences of interest to those involved in the study or practice of law; aims met through the publication of the law review, the organisation of lectures (including the annual Chorley lecture), seminars, scholarships and prizes that support legal education and scholarship. The Journal is one of Europe's leading scholarly journals and publishes original articles relating to various areas of law, book reviews, case analysis, recent legislation reports; activities undertaken by the Editorial Committee which is overseen and supported by an Editorial Board.

Edmund Dene Morel, 1873-1924, was educated in Eastbourne but moved to Liverpool in 1891. Forced to leave school at the age of 15 due to his mother's financial difficulties, Morel worked as a clerk for the shipping firm Elder Dempster, and supplemented his income with part-time journalism. Many of the articles that Morel wrote related to stories from visitors to the shipping office, including material on British trade in Africa. Morel became concerned about the consequences of such trade for African culture. In 1900, he published a series of articles concerning the Congo, and was forced to resign from Elder Dempster due to the company's involvement in the rubber trade in the Congo. In 1904, Morel founded the Congo Reform Association and took a leading part in the movement against Congo misrule. He published many pamphlets on the subject and travelled to the United States to create a similar movement there. Morel was Honorary Secretary of the Congo Reform Association from 1904 to 1912. In 1909, he took part in the formation of the International League for the Defence of the Natives of the Conventional Basin of the Congo. He was also a member of the West African Lands Committee (Colonial Office), 1912-1914, and vice-president of the Anti-Slavery Society. His interest in African affairs extended to his journalism. He published "Le Congo Leopoldien" with the French explorer Pierre Mille, and was editor of the "African Mail" for ten years before bringing out his own paper "The West African Mail" in 1903. Morel was also active in the political world. He was the Liberal candidate for Birkenhead, 1912-1914, resigning when the First World War broke out. He then formed the Union of Democratic Control, a political party that opposed the war. From 1917 to 1918 he was imprisoned for violation of the Defence of the Realm Act. After the war he joined the Labour Party and was the Labour candidate for Dundee, 1921-1922.

Herbert Stanley Morrison, 1888-1965, left school at fourteen and had a variety of jobs, including errand boy, telephone operator, shop assistant, and deputy circulation manager of the "Daily Citizen". He became part-time secretary of London Labour Party in 1915 and entered local government in 1919, becoming Mayor and later Alderman of Hackney. He was also a member of the London County Council, 1922-1945 and leader of the council 1934-1940. Morrison entered Parliament in 1923 as the Labour member for South Hackney, and served as Minister of Transport from 1929-1931. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he became Minister of Supply in 1940, Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, 1940-1945, and a member of the War Cabinet, 1942-1945. After the war, Morrison served as Deputy Prime Minister, 1945-1951, Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, 1945-1951, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1951, and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, 1951-1955. He was also president of the British Board of Film Censors 1960.

Siegfried Nadel, 1903-1956, was born in Vienna. His early studies were in philosophy, psychology and music, but he later turned to anthropology. In 1932, he was granted a fellowship by the International Institute of African Languages and Culture. He became a postgraduate student of the London School of Economics Department of Anthropology. In 1938, he was appointed as Government Anthropologist in the Sudan, to investigate the Nuba tribes. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the British Military Administration in Eritrea and, in 1945, he became Secretary for Native Affairs to the British Military Administration in Tripolitania. In 1946, he became Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at LSE and, in 1948, he became Reader in Anthropology at Durham. In 1950, he was appointed Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University.

Born 1916; educated at Stowe School, the Institute of Actuaries and the London School of Economics; Researcher and Lecturer, Oxford University Institute of Statistics, 1941-1946; Statistician, Ministry of Home Security, 1943-1944; Statistician, 1947-1952, and Chief Statistician, 1952-1968, Central Statistical Office, 1947-1968; External Examiner in Statistics, London, 1951-1956, and Manchester, 1958-1960; Simon Research Fellow, Manchester University, 1962-1963; Chief Economic Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Security and to successive Secretaries of State for Social Services, 1968-1976; Associate Professor of Quantitative Economics, Brunel University, 1972-1974; Senior Leverhulme Fellowship, 1977; Senior Fellow, Policy Studies Institute, 1977-1983; Rockefeller Fellowship, 1984; Fellow, Royal Statistical Society, 1940 (Member of Council, 1961-1966); Member, Econometric Society, 1951-1971; died 1990. Publications: Redistribution of Income in the United Kingdom in 1959, 1957 & 1953 (Bowes & Bowes, London, 1965); The interim index of industrial production (HMSO, 1949); The assessment of poverty (HMSO, 1979).

Florence Nightingale, 1820-1910, was born in Florence and educated in nursing by the Protestant Sisters of Mercy at Kaiserwerth on the Rhine. She went to the Crimea in 1854, and made her reputation in the military hospitals there. When she returned to England she devoted a £50,000 testimonial to the foundation of the Nightingale home for the training of nurses. She spent much of the rest of her life writing and lecturing.

T H Oakley was a stockbroker of 2 Copthall Buildings, London, c 1885. The Company became known as Oakley Norris Bros (same address), c 1888-1966; then Norris Oakley Richardson and Glover. John Kenneth Ritchie, third Baron Ritchie of Dundee (1902-1975) and chairman of the London Stock Exchange, 1959-1965, was a senior partner of the company.