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The Political Economy Club was founded in 1821 to support the principles of free trade. The prime mover for the formation of the society appears to have been Thomas Tooke (1774-1858), economist, perhaps at the instigation of David Ricardo. The first meeting, on 18 April 1821, took place at the house of Swinton Holand, a partner in Baring and Co, and James Mill was given the task of preparing a draft set of rules for consideration. The first full meeting of the Club took place on 30 April at the Freemason's Tavern.

From the beginning, the Club was composed mainly of businessmen, followed by politicans, civil servants and professional economists. Each meeting was to discuss 'some doubt or question on some topic of political economy' and no official record was kept of the discussion. At first the rules of the Club stated that the remarks of the opening and subsequent speakers should not be written down, although later on opening speakers were allowed to circulate a printed synopsis of their argument. Eventually the practise of reading a written paper became the norm.

The Political Economy Club continues to meet to the present day.

Born 1898; educated Strand School and London School of Economics and Political Science; Gerstenberg Scholar in Economics and Political Science, 1921; previously a manager in the engineering industry; Professor of Commerce and Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, University of Cape Town, 1924-1930; Professor of Commerce, LSE, 1930-1965; Knight, 1947; Vice-President of the Council, Royal Economic Society; Member, Cinematograph Films Council, 1938-1969; Chairman, Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, 1955-1967; Chairman, Advertising Standards Authority, 1962-1965; Chairman, Colonial Social Science Research Council, 1955-1962; Member, Overseas Research Council, 1959-1964; Organiser for Ministry of Information, and first Director of Wartime Social Survey, 1940; Chairman, National Service Deferment Committee for the Cinematograph Industry, Ministry of Labour, 1942-1945; temporary civil servant, 1940-1946, as Adviser to Ministerial Chairman of Interdepartmental Materials Committee and Central Priority Committee under Production Council (1940), Production Executive (1941), Ministry of Production (1942-1945), and on special duties in Cabinet Office, 1945-1946; Member, Board of Trade Committee on a Central Institute of Management, 1945-1946; Member, Ministry of Works Committee on Distribution of Building Materials, 1946; Member, Ministry of Education Committee on Commercial Education, 1946; Member, Board of Trade Committee on Film Distribution, 1949 (Chairman); Member, Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission, 1953-1956; Chairman, Ministry of Agriculture Committee on Fowl Pest Policy, 1960-1962; retired 1965; died 1978.

Private Secretary to Sir F Lugard, High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria, 1900, and subsequently a Political Officer until 1906; served Sokoto Kano Campaign, 1903 (medal and clasp), and minor operations, 1903-1905; attached to Colonial Office, East African Dept, 1906-1908. Colonial Secretary and Registrar-General, Bermuda, 1908-1915; Administrator of St Vincent, 1915-1922; acted as Administrator of St Lucia, March 1917-December 1918; Col Secretary British Guiana, 1922-1925; Colonial Secretary of Cyprus, 1926-1929; represented Cyprus at 1st Colonial Office Conference, 1927; acting Governor of British Guiana and of Cyprus for over 2 years in all; retired, 1929; Secretary R. African Society and Editor of its Journal, 1932-1938; Empire Division, Ministry of Information, March-December 1940; Red Cross Foreign Relations Department, 1941-1943; has exhibited drawings at the N. English Art Club, etc, Chairman, Surrey County Committee, Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Karl Raimund Popper, 1902-1994, was born in Vienna, Austria, and gained a PhD from the University of Vienna in 1926. From 1930 to 1935, he worked as a schoolteacher in Vienna, and from 1937 to 1945, he was senior lecturer in Philosophy at Canterbury University College, University of New Zealand, Christchurch. In 1945, he became Reader in Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics, and in 1949, he became Professor of Logic and Scientific Method, a post that he held until 1969 when he became Emeritus Professor. He also held the posts of Guest Professor in the Theory of Science at the University of Vienna and Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University from 1986, and was President of the Aristotelian Society, 1958-1959, and President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science, 1959-1961. He was a prolific author and published many works on the philosophy of science, historicism and political thought.

PROGRESS Campaign for Research into Human Reproduction was launched in November 1985 to campaign for the protection of human embryo research so that IVF treatment could continue. PROGRESS was wound up after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was passed in 1990, but in May 1992 Progress Educational Trust was established to carry on the educational work of PROGRESS. See http://www.progress.org.uk/ for further information.

Foundation. The Royal Economic Society (RES) was founded in 1890 as the British Economics Association (BEA) with the aim of promoting and encouraging the study of economic science and with the particular objective of publishing an economic journal in Britain. Many prominent British economists were involved in the foundation of the BEA, including Inglis Palgrave, Herbert Foxwell and Alfred Marshall. At the particular urging of Alfred Marshall, membership of the BEA was declared open to all and has been ever since, making the Society not only a learned professional body but also an open society for anyone interested in economics. Members have included prominent academics, businessmen, journalists, clergymen, politicians and civil servants.

Structure. On the initiative of Henry Higgs (Secretary of the Society, 1892-1906), the BEA applied for and was granted a Royal Charter in December 1902 and became the Royal Economic Society. The Charter specifies that there shall be a Council which will be responsible for the 'management and direction of the Society'. It also lays down that 'The Council shall consist of the President, Vice-Presidents, and not less than twenty Councillors; and the Treasurer or Treasurer and the Secretary or Secretaries if honorary'. Many distinguished economists have been associated with the RES throughout its history, as Presidents, Council members, Secretaries, Treasurers and Editors of the Economic Journal. The first two Presidents of the Society were prominent statesmen, namely George Goschen who was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and R B Haldance, another prominent politician who remained President of the Society for 22 years. In 1929 the Council re-affirmed an earlier resolution that 'it was considered advisable that as a rule the President should not hold office for more than three years'. In fact, apart from Herbert Foxwell, the term of office of the Society's Presidents was two years until 1986 when a three-year term was introduced. Past Presidents include John Maynard Keynes, William Beveridge, Lionel Robbins, James Meade, Nicholas Kaldor and Richard Stone. In its early years, the day-to-day running of the Society was left to Henry Higgs and F Y Edgeworth (Editor of the Economic Journal, 1892-1906). Among later Secretaries and Editors who also took a prominent part in the administration of the Society's affairs were John Maynard Keynes (1912-1945), Roy Harrod (1945-1961) and Austin Robinson (1945-1971). The retirement of Austin Robinson in 1971 was followed by the decentralisation of the Society's activities as well as significent changes in its administration. These changes were overseen by the then President, Sir Alec Cairncross, and they included the formation of an Executive Committee in 1975. This committee is responsible for the execution of the Society's policy as laid down by the Council (which now meets twice a year) and for the co-ordination of the activities of its officers. Other changes which have taken place include the introduction of a more direct say by members in the composition of the Council and the selection of the President.

The EJ and other Publications. The first Economic Journal (EJ) appeared in 1891. The first page of the first issue stated 'The British Economic Association is open to all schools and parties: no person is excluded because of his opinions. The Economic Journal, issued under the authority of the Association, will be conducted in a similar spirit of toleration'. The EJ has been produced ever since, even during war years, quarterly until 1991 and six times a year since then. Successive editors to 1970 (F Y Edgeworth, J M Keynes, Roy Harrod and Charles Carter) took responsibility for the articles and notes sections: book reviews were handled by separate assistant or joint editors following the appointment of Austin Robinson in 1934. From 1970 onwards the editorship became more collaborative and much greater use began to be made of referees and associate editors. In addition, the Society has produced a Newsletter since 1972; at first this contained mainly information on visiting scholars, appointments and conferences, but it now also publishes short articles of topical interest, correspondence and news about research. The Newsletter is published quarterly. One of the objectives of the Society at its foundation was to make scholarly economic works available to its members, primarily by the reprinting of early tracts, the translation of important foreign works and producing definitive editions of economic texts. Early publications included Quesnay's Tableau Economique; later more ambitious undertakings included the multi-volume editions of the Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo and the Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. The Keynes Edition was one of the Society's major undertakings from its conception in 1954 to the publication of its final volume in 1989.

Other activities. The RES continues to contribute today to the advancement and dissemination of economic knowledge. The aims and activities of the Society have, however, broadened since 1890. In addition to its publishing activities, the Society contributes to the exchange of ideas in the profession through its Annual Conference, through its support for the standing Conference of Heads of University Departments of Economics (CHUDE) established in 1987 to promote the study and teaching of economics in the UK, and through its Visiting Lectureship scheme. Support for younger members is provided through summer research workshops, the Easter School, junior fellowships and the conference grant scheme. The Society also co-operates with other economic societies both nationally and internationally. It was a founding member of the International Economic Association and of the Confederation of European Economic Associations.

Professor Michael Rose is a Visiting Professor in Social Research on Economic Life at the University of Bath. He has published numerous books and articles on subjects including employee satisfaction, trade union support in the UK, and skill and the work ethic, including Industrial behaviour (Allen Lane, London, 1975), Reworking the work ethic (Batsford, London, 1985), and French industrial studies (Saxon House, Farnsborough, 1977). The research in this collection, which was funded by the ESRC, was published as Servants of Post-Industrial Power? Sociologie du Travail and Modern French Socio-Political Structure (Macmillan, London, 1979). The purpose of the study was to present, characterise and explain the organisation and structure of the sociology of industry, work and organisations in postwar France.

The Russian Refugees Relief Association was set up in 1946 to care for people forced to leave Russia and eastern Europe by the spread of Communism. As well as supporting refugees in the UK, the RRRA provided food parcels and other aid to Russians in Germany and Europe. The organisation generally acted to promote Russian issues and provide a service to those trying to locate family and friends. As the refugees in Britain became elderly, the Association purchased two houses in Earls Court, London, as hostels. They also provided a Russian language library. As its income gradually decreased, the Association's work was gradually superceded by other agencies, and it was wound up in 1968. Its assets were passed on to the Russian Benevolent Society.

Neville Devonshire Sandelson was Member of Parliament for the Hayes and Harlington constituency 1971-1983 (Labour MP 1971-1981, Social Democratic Party MP 1981-1983).

Sandelson was born in 1923 and joined the Labour Party in 1939. He was a member of the London County Council for Stoke Newington and Hackney North, 1952-1958. He unsuccessfully contested eight General Elections and by-elections as a Labour Party candidate in six different constituencies: Ashford (Kent) (1950, 1951 and 1955), Beckenham (by-election, 1957), Rushcliffe (1959), Heston and Isleworth (1966), South West Leicester (by-election, 1967) and Chichester (1970).

He was elected as MP for Hayes and Harlington in a by-election in 1971. He was a moderate Labour MP and opposed the activities of extreme left-wing organisations inside and outside the Labour Party. His relationship with left-wing members of the Hayes and Harlington Constituency Labour Party was a stormy one, and various attempts were made to de-select him as MP. He was a founder member and Treasurer of the Labour Party Manifesto Group (1975-1980). In 1981 he was one of the founding members of the SDP, and continued to represent Hayes and Harlington as MP until losing his seat in the General Election of 1983. Sandelson never held government office but he did hold office in various parliamentary groups, including being Secretary of the British Gibraltar Parliamentary Group and Vice-Chairman of the Afghanistan Parliamentary Support Committee.

After 1983, Sandelson continued to be active in politics outside parliament. He remained a member of the SDP until 1987, when he allowed his membership to lapse. He campaigned in support of the return of a Conservative government in the 1987 General Election. In 1988 he and Stephen Haseler co-founded the Radical Society, a cross-party forum for debate on political and other issues. In 1996 he re-joined the Labour Party.

As well his career in politics, Sandelson worked in a wide variety of areas, including as a barrister, a deputy circuit judge and assistant recorder, a political and business consultant and a producer of television programmes.

Isaac Schapera was born in 1905 in Garies in Little Namaqualand, south of the Orange River in the Northwestern Cape. Here he acquired a fluency in Afrikaans and an interest in the peoples around him. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town where he intended to study law, but after attending a course of lectures by A R Radcliffe-Brown, he changed to anthropology. After completing his masters degree in 1925, Schapera was accepted as a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics. He joined Malinowski's seminar and was for a time his research assistant. His supervisor was C G Seligman. He held an assistant lectureship at LSE for a year, 1928-1929, and then returned to South Africa. He lectured for a year at the University of Witwatersrand and then returned to the University of Cape Town, where he was made Professor in 1935.In 1950, he returned to the LSE where he accepted a chair in anthropology. He retired from teaching in 1969. Over the years, Schapera made many trips to Botswana and had a deep interest in the history of the Tswana people. As part of his historical research, he made a study of missionary records, and undertook the editing of Robert Moffat's journals and letters and the unpublished writings of David Livingstone.

Charles Seligman, 1873-1940, was educated at St Paul's School. He qualified as a doctor and became Director of the Clinical Laboratory at St Thomas's hospital, and also treated shellshock victims during World War One. He became interested in tropical diseases and it was for this reason that he went on his first expedition to Borneo and the Torres Straits. Whilst there, he developed an interest in anthropology and the rest of his life was devoted to this discipline. He also attempted to combine disciplines, using psychology to explain anthropological problems. He first taught at the London School of Economics in 1910, and was appointed to the Chair of Ethnology of the University of London in 1913, the first of its kind at the University. He retired in 1934, and was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor. Brenda Seligman, d 1960, accompanied her husband on anthropological expeditions and published material in her own right. Like her husband she acquired her knowledge of anthropology whilst working in the field. She was particularly interested in kinship and the lives of women and children.

Beatrice Serota (1919-2002) was born in London on 15 October 1919, the daughter of Alexander Katz and Milly Witkower. She was educated at the Clapton county secondary school and at the London School of Economics. In 1942 she married Stanley Serota. After wartime service in the Ministry of Fuel and Power, Serota was elected as a Labour member of Hampstead Borough Council in 1945, beginning a long involvement with local politics. In 1954 she was elected to the London County Council (LCC), serving as Chairman of the Children's Committee. When the LCC was abolished in 1965, Serota was elected to the Greater London Council (GLC) which replaced it. She became the Labour Chief Whip on the GLC, and served on the Inner London Education Authority, until 1967. Serota's work for the LCC and GLC led to her being awarded a peerage for services to children in 1967. This enabled her appointment as Minister of State for Health in the Department of Health and Social Security, 1969-1970. Prior to becoming a minister, Serota had served on a number of advisory bodies and commissions. She was a member of the Longford Committee on crime, 1964; the Royal Commission on the Penal System, 1964-1966; the Latey Committee on the Age of Majority, 1965-1967; and the Advisory Council on the Penal System, 1966-1968, and 1974-1979. Following the Labour government's defeat in 1970, Serota served on the Community Relations Commission, 1970-1976; and was Chair of the Commission for Local Administration, 1974-1982; the BBC Complaints Commission, 1975-1977; and was a Governor of the BBC, 1977-1982. Serota also had an active career in the House of Lords, being Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees and a member of the European Communities Select Committee, 1986-1992. she was Deputy Speaker in the Lords from 1985 until her death in 2002.

She was also involved with the National Council for One Parent Families and the Family Service Units until her death in 2002.

Emanuel Shinwell, 1884-1986, was born in Spitalfields, London, but began work at the Scottish Wholesale Co-operative Society in 1909. By 1912, he had become chairman of the Glasgow Trades Council, a position that he held again from 1916 to 1919. His involvement with the 40 hours strike committee in 1919 led to his imprisonment for 5 months. Shinwell entered politics in 1922, becoming the Labour MP for Linlithgow, and rising to become Parliamentary Secretary for the Department of Mines in 1924, Financial Secretary for the War Office, 1929-1930, and Parliamentary Secretary for the Department of Mines, 1930-1931. In 1935, he defeated J Ramsey Macdonald in the election for Seaham. Lord Shinwell declined to serve in Churchill's wartime government, preferring to remain an independent backbencher, active in broadcasting and opposing ship production policy. During this time he was chairman of the Central Committee for Reconstruction. He joined the post-war Labour government as Minister of Fuel and Power, and was given the task of nationalising the mines. The difficulties and failures of this task led to his demotion from the cabinet and transfer to Defence as Secretary of State for War, 1947-1950. He returned to the cabinet as Minister of Defence, 1950-1951, and maintained an interest in defence issues for the rest of his career. He was also chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party 1964-1967.

Born in Cornwall in 1800; migrated to London, 1821, where he worked as a cabinet maker; Member, later President, Cabinet Makers Society; Storekeeper to the first London Cooperative Trading Society; Secretary, British Association for Promoting Co-operative Knowledge, 1830; Member, Grand National Consolidated Trades Union; arrested and tried for rioting, 1832; helped found the London Working Man's Association, 1836, and played a large part in their drafting of the People's Charter in 1838; arrested for his manifesto against the police, tried, and imprisoned in Warwick jail, 1839-1840; opened a bookseller's shop, and published Chartism; a new Organisation of the People, on the organisation of the Chartist party (1841); established the national Association for promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People, 1841; member of the council of the Anti-Slavery League, 1846; published textbooks on elementary science after 1857; died 1877.

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, acted as Secretary (1558-1572) and Lord Treasurer (1572-1598) to Queen Elizabeth I.

No information available at present.

For a biographical history of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, see the description for the Passfield personal papers (Ref: Passfield).

Walter Stern was a student at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1946-1949. He then became a member of staff at LSE, teaching economic history. Publications: Ed Essays in European economic history (Edward Arnold, London, 1969); Britain yesterday and today: an outline economic history from the middle of the eighteenth century (Longmans, London, 1969); The porters of London (Longmans, London, 1960).

Stoatley Rough School was founded by Dr Hilde Lion in 1934 as a mixed boarding school, mainly for refugee children from Nazi Europe. It was recognised by the Ministry of Education in 1940. After World War Two, a number of British pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds were sent to the school by local authorities. It was also attended by private boarders. Stoatley Rough was run as a non-profit-making concern, and was closed upon the retirement of Dr Lion in 1960. The Stoatley Rough School History Steering Committee (later the Stoatley Rough School Association) was constituted in July 1991 following a reunion, and is dedicated to preserving, cataloguing and researching the historical records of the School.

Documentary produced by Brook Productions, broadcast as 'The Writing on the Wall'.

Richard Morris Titmuss, 1907-1973, was educated at St Gregory's preparatory school in Luton and at the age of fourteen went on to Clark's Commercial College for a six month course in bookkeeping. At eighteen he was engaged as a probationary clerk to the County Fire Insurance Office and he stayed there for the next sixteen years. In 1937, Titmuss married Kay Miller, who influenced his interests towards more social and political themes. He began writing articles on topics such as public health and migration, and his first book 'Poverty and Population' was published in 1938. When war broke out, Titmuss' job in war damage insurance became a reserved occupation. However, his name was added to the Ministry of Labour's Central Register of professional people. In this capacity he informally advised the Ministry of Information on some social survey reports and was statistical adviser in a voluntary capacity to the Ministries of Health and Economic Warfare on wartime German vital statistics.

In 1942, he left the County Fire Insurance Office to join a group of historians commissioned to write the civil histories of the Second World War and to cover the work of the Ministry of Health. Throughout this period he continued writing on the problems of poverty and population, publishing books, and from late 1944 working as a statistical and demographic adviser to Luton. His interest in social inequality led him to abandon the Liberal Party and join other wartime political groups. He worked with the Liberal MP Sir Richard Acland, whose publication 'Unser Kampf' demanded that steps should be taken during the war towards a new order of society. They formed a group called Forward March which then merged with other groups to become the short lived Commonwealth Party.

In 1947, Titmuss was working as Social Economist and Deputy Director of the Social Medicine Research Unit. However with the publication of his book 'Problems of Social Policy' academic employment opened up for him. He was offered the chairs of social administration at Birmingham and the London School of Economics and chose LSE, arriving in 1950. Here he continued to define and analyse social services and to establish the academic respectability of social administration until his retirement.

In 1975 the pressure groups Pressure for Economic and Social Toryism (PEST), the Macleod Group, the Social Tory Action Group and the Manchester Tory Reform Group merged to form the Tory Reform Group.

The main aim of the Group is to encourage the Conservative Party to adopt centre-right, One Nation policies. It regularly publishes policy papers and issues a quarterly journal, The Reformer. It also organises events such as conferences, lectures, receptions and fringe meetings at Conservative Party Conferences.

The Group's President is Kenneth Clarke MP. Former Presidents were Nicholas Scott (1975-1980), Peter Walker (1980-1991) and David Hunt (1991-1997).

The papers of David Wainwright, Director of Information of the Social Science Research Council, originally bequeathed to the Business Archives Council upon his death, circa January 1998.

The Webbs pooled their respective talents into writing joint works on economic and social issues. This partnership produced books such as The history of Trade Unionism, 1666-1920 (1894), Industrial democracy (1897), and Problems of Modern Industry (1898). Their work spread into areas such as historical and social research, educational and political reform and journalism, and much of what they produced altered the perceptions of economists and social historians, who had previously ignored the working classes. For a biographical history of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, see the description for the Passfield personal papers (Ref: Passfield).

Reginald Earle Welby, 1832-1915, was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered the Treasury in 1856, becoming Assistant Financial Secretary of the Treasury in 1880, Auditor of the Civil List in 1881, and Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, 1885-1894. He was also a commissioner of the 1851 Exhibition, and Chairman of London County Council in 1900.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was formed in 1915, when a group of women met in an International Congress at The Hague to protest against World War One and to suggest ways of ending it and preventing future wars. The organisers of the Congress were prominent women in the International Suffrage Alliance who assembled more than a thousand women from both belligerent and neutral countries to work out the principles on which the war could be stopped and a permanent peace constructed. The Congress established an International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace, which four years later became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The organisation continues to function as an NGO, working for peace and disarmament, social and economic justice, and the full enjoyment of human rights. Its international headquarters are in Geneva and it has branches in around 50 countries.

Sir Frederic Wise, 1871-1928, was educated at Marlborough College and abroad. He entered banking in 1903 and later founded the stockbroking company of Wise, Speke and Co of Newcastle-on-Tyne. During World War One, he was Chairman of Volunteers and Military Representative for his county, and he also gave his services to National Service, the Food Ministry and the Treasury. In 1919, he was sent to Berlin to report of the financial position of Germany. He was also a financial advisor to Lord Byng's Committee of United Service Fund, a director of the Daily Express and a director of the Sudan Plantation Syndicate Ltd. He was Unionist MP for Ilford from 1920 and knighted in 1924.

The National League of Young Liberals (often just called the Young Liberals) was part of the Liberal Party and was founded in 1903. The Union of Liberal Students (ULS) was the English and Welsh student wing of the Liberal Party. In 1988, the Liberal Democrats were formed. In 1993, the Union of Liberal Democrat Students and Young Liberal Democrats merged to form Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS). In 2002, Scottish Young Liberal Democrats merged with LDYS.LDYS changed its name to Liberal Youth in 2008.

The Conference of Missionary Societies in Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Conference of British Missionary Societies (CBMS), was founded in 1912 with a membership of more than 40 Protestant missionary societies. It grew out of the Continuation Committee established as a result of the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910, which aimed to encourage the foundation of national co-operative councils for mission. For many years the CBMS shared premises (acquired in 1918), Edinburgh House (in Belgravia, near Sloane Square, London), with the Continuation Committee, which became known as the International Missionary Council in 1921. The CBMS was not itself a missionary society, but its archive documents how home missionary organisations co-operated with contacts abroad, show the public face of missionary activity, and also offer evidence on contemporary social and political, as well as religious, events. It held an annual conference, and a standing committee (later council) met quarterly. There were also specialized committees. In 1977 the CBMS became a division of the British Council of Churches and it is now known as the Churches' Commission on Mission. For further information see J T Hardyman and R K Orchard, Two Minutes from Sloane Square: a Brief History of the Conference of Missionary Societies in Great Britain and Ireland 1912-1977 (CBMS, London, 1977).

The Co-ordinating Council for Area Studies Associations (CCASA) was founded in 1980 to lobby for area studies in the face of government cuts in higher education. It represents the interests of scholars and researchers working specifically on regional cultures and languages. Members include the African Studies Association of the UK; Association of South East Asian Studies in the UK; British Association for American Studies; British Association for Canadian Studies; British Association for Chinese Studies; British Association for Japanese Studies; British Association for South Asian Studies; British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies; British Society for Middle Eastern Studies; Society for Caribbean Studies; Society for Latin American Studies; Standing Conference of Directors of Institutions and Centres of Latin American Studies; Standing Committee on University Studies of Africa, and the School of Oriental and African Studies. The CCASA looks at issues such as government strategy for funding allocation in the social sciences, represented through bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council. It was in part as a result of the pressure from CCASA that more money was provided for Oriental and African languages following a report published in 1988. More specifically in recent years, the CCASA has approached the government with requests for the modification of policy towards the British Library, and for the increase in financial support for students on study tours in Japan.

The Chinese Government Purchasing Commission was constituted by the China Indemnity (Application) Act of 1931, which implemented the terms of the Exchange of Notes between the Chinese and British Government, dated September 19th and 22nd 1930, concerning the disposal of the British share of the China Indemnity of 1901.

The original China Indemnity totalling $333 million was set by the Boxer Protocol of 1901, aimed at compensating eleven nations (including Britain, USA, France, Japan, Russia, Holland and Belgium) for losses incurred during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. However, China's role as an ally in the Great War led the British Government to issue a declaration in December 1922 which stated that the balance of the share of the Indemnity would be thenceforth devoted to 'purposes mutually beneficial to China and the United Kingdom'. A report published by the Anglo-Chinese Advisory Committee in 1926 set out recommendations for the best use of deposited Indemnity Funds and all future instalments. The Exchange of Notes with the Chinese Government in 1930 confirmed that the bulk of Indemnity Funds would be used for the creation of an endowment to be devoted to educational purposes. It was proposed that the provision of this endowment would lie in the investment of the greater part of the Funds in rehabilitating and building railways and in other productive enterprises in China. For the control, apportionment and administration of the endowment, a Board of Trustees would be appointed in China, which would include a certain number of British members.

The Chinese Government further proposed that Funds on deposit be transferred to a 'Purchasing Commission in London to consist of a chairman, who shall be China's diplomatic representative in London, a representative of the Chinese Ministry of Railways, and four other members appointed by the Chinese Government after consultation with the Board of Trustees from a panel of persons commended to those Trustees by His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs as being persons of standing with wide experience in business matters, for the purpose of purchasing bridges, locomotives, rolling stock, rails and other materials from United Kingdom manufacturers for the use of the Chinese Government Railways and other productive undertakings in China'.

The Board of Trustees for the Administration of the Indemnity Funds Remitted by the British Government was inaugurated on 8th April 1931, and based in Nanking [Nanjing], China. The Chinese Government Purchasing Commission held its first meeting on 29th April 1931. The first members of the Purchasing Commission included the Chairman, Sao-Ke Alfred Sze (Envoy Extraordinary & Minister Plenipotentiary), Dr C C Wang (Ministry of Railways), Sir Arthur Balfour, Sir Basil Blackett (Treasurer), Mr W T Charter, Sir Ralph Wedgewood and Mr T S Wynn (Secretary). The premises were at 21 Tothill Street, London.

The primary function of the Chinese Government Purchasing Commission was to enter into, supervise and secure the carrying out of contracts for the supply and delivery in China of such plant, machinery and other materials to be manufactured in the UK as required and ordered by the Chinese Government. One half of all instalments of the Indemnity Funds were to be transferred to the Purchasing Commission to be used in discharging its obligations, and one half to the account of the Board of Trustees for application to mutually beneficial objects. Until 1940, the Purchasing Commission was also involved in the work of arranging facilities for the practical training of Chinese students and junior engineers with British firms.

The Chinese Government Purchasing Commission was directly responsible to the Board of Trustees in China, which determined its Constitution and approved the nomination of its members. The term of office for a member of the Purchasing Commission was three years, subject to reappointment. Four members were required to constitute a quorum. It purchased materials under instruction from the Board, which communicated orders from the various Chinese Ministries. Only those orders that were transmitted through the Board were deemed valid. The Purchasing Commission was required to report to the Board on receipts, expenditure and purchases, and submit an annual report with a statement of accounts and audited balance sheet. It was permitted to provide itself with offices, staff, expert consultants and accountants with the consent of the Board.

During its relatively brief history, the Purchasing Commission arranged purchases on behalf of the Ministry of Railways, Hangchow Kiangshan Railway, Tientsin Pukow Railway, Ministry of Communications, National Construction Commission, Ministry of Industries, National Resources Commission, Huai River Commission, Kwantung River Conservancy Commission and the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. Contracts included the provision of locomotives, rolling stock and track for the Canton Hankow Railway, and the Nanking Pukow Train Ferry; coasting steamers for the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company (built on the Clyde and the Tyne); radio and telegraphy equipment for the Ministry of Communications; plant for the construction of power stations such as the Tsishuyen Power Station and Kunming Electricity Works for the National Construction Commission, and factories such as the National Central Machine Works for the Ministry of Industries.

The work of the Purchasing Commission suffered seriously from the effects of the Second World War. By 1938-1939 hostilities with the Japanese were causing shipping difficulties in Chinese ports. Raw and manufactured materials were subject to regulations for the control of exports, and the handling of export licences created extra work. Prices were unstable, with insurance premiums and freight rates considerably higher due to the need to cover against War Risk. There was a consequent decrease in purchases. From December 1938 the remittance of Indemnity Funds was suspended, and by 1941 the purchase of materials with these Funds had almost ceased. During the War and in the following years, the main efforts of the Purchasing Commission were given to services rendered through the China Purchasing Agency Ltd. In addition the Purchasing Commission attempted to complete deliveries pursuant to orders in place prior to 1949.

By 1949 the Chinese Communist Party had seized power from the Chinese Nationalist government. The Peoples' Republic of China was established at Peking [later Beijing] on 1st October, with Mao Zedong as Chairman of the Central Peoples' Government. The change in government undoubtedly had an effect on the position of the Board of Trustees, and by 1951 it seems that communication from the Board had ceased. The position of the Purchasing Commission became increasingly uncertain. The late Chinese Ambassador had relinquished his position as Chairman on the termination of his diplomatic mission, and the representative of the Chinese Ministry of Railways had retired on the grounds of ill-health, with no replacement. The remaining four British members continued to administer the affairs of the Purchasing Commission and safeguard the balance of funds, $300,000. However, the sudden death of Sir Arthur Rundell Guinness in March 1951 meant that only three members remained - less than was required for a quorum. Furthermore, the expiration of their terms of office was due to expire on 22nd September 1951. Various approaches were made to the Foreign Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Peking requesting the appointment of an additional member, or a reduction in the size of quorum. No word was received from China, and the Purchasing Commission was officially wound up in September 1951.

The China Purchasing Agency Ltd was formed in 1939 to effect purchases with funds that did not come under the arrangements for the disposal of the British share of the China Indemnity. It shared staff and offices with the Chinese Government Purchasing Commission.

Born, 1862; second son of the founder of the China Inland Mission, James Hudson Taylor; MD, London, 1888; member of the Royal College of Physicians, 1889; Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh; initiated the Student Foreign Missionary Union; toured the USA and Canada with his father, 1888; served the China Inland Mission in Henan from 1890; peripatetic medical missionary; married M Geraldine Guinness, 1894; travelled frequently with his father; died, 1946. Publications: Pastor Hsi: One of China's Christians (1905); Hudson Taylor in early years: the growth of a soul (1911); Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission: the Growth of a Work of God (1918); The Triumph of John and Betty Stam (1935); Biography of James Hudson Taylor (1965).

Born in Chefoo (Yantai), China, 1911; son of Benjamin Charles Broomhall and his wife Marion, of the Baptist Missionary Society, and grandson of the general secretary of the China Inland Mission, Benjamin Broomhall, who married Amelia, sister of its founder James Hudson Taylor; educated at the Chefoo School and at Monkton Combe, Bath, England; received his medical training at the London Hospital; joined the China Inland Mission (CIM) and sailed for China, 1938; married Theodora Janet Churchill, 1942; the couple began pioneering work among the Nosu tribe of south-west China, but were soon forced by the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) to flee to India; after the war they returned to the Nosu for four further years of medical and evangelical work; following several months of house arrest, they were expelled from China by the Communists with their four daughters, 1951; Broomhall's investigations as to whether the CIM could undertake medical work in Thailand led to three hospitals being founded there; also a pioneering missionary among the Mangyan people of the island of Mindoro in the Philippines for 11 years; re-visited Nosuland, 1988; historian of the China Inland Mission; died, 1994. Publications: Strong Tower (1947); Strong Man's Prey (1953); Fields for Reaping (1953); Time for Action (1965); Hudson Taylor and China's Open Century (7 volumes, 1981-1989).

The Rev Eric Liberty and his wife Edith served the China Inland Mission from the 1920s, in China, the Philippines and Taiwan, retiring to England in 1970 following a motorbike accident. Eric Liberty died in 1971 and his wife is thought to have died in 1978. Eric Liberty's publications: Sons of China won to Christ (1943); Chinese Students at the Cross-Roads (1948).

The Congregational Missionary Society was formed in 1836 with the principal aim of working to provide communities in Canada and North America with ministers. The Society changed its name to the Colonial Missionary Society soon after its formation. Its work was restricted to the British colonies, and later its work would spread out from its base in North America. The Colonial Missionary Society was linked to the Congregational Church, which is reflected in its early name, and the administrative Board or Committee was a committee of the Congregational Church. These close links lessened over time, but a link was always maintained. The Society's object was 'the promotion of education and religion in the British colonies', and in 1834 the Congregational Union made representation to the London Missionary Society, who agreed to donate the sum of £1000 towards provision of ministers for the colonies. The first minister appointed was the Revd H Wilkes, who left for Montreal, Canada, in 1836. The Society grew rapidly, and by 1842 had established mission stations in Wellington, New Zealand, and Canada. By the end of the 19th century, work had expanded to include missions in South Africa, Australia and the British West Indies.

The Society was organised through a main Committee or Board, with a Treasurer and Honorary Secretary. Originally staff were unpaid, but gradually salaried officials were appointed to run the administration. The headquarters of the Colonial Missionary Society were originally at the Congregational Library, Bloomfield Street, Finsbury Circus, London, but moved to the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street. Sub-committees dealt with the day-to-day administration of the Society, with a North sub-committee and a South sub-committee having geographical responsibilities for regions north and south of the equator. By the 1890s, an Eastern and a Western sub-committee had been formed to deal with stations in areas such as Jamaica, Rhodesia and South Africa. The Colonial Missionary Society became an incorporated body on 16th October 1897. In 1956 it changed its name to the Commonwealth Missionary Society, and in 1966 it merged with the London Missionary Society to form the Congregational Council for World Mission.

Born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, 1775; apprenticed to a linen manufacturer in Leven; clerk in Dundee, 1794-1797; converted in the Haldane revival; studied at Hoxton Theological College for three years and entered the Congregational ministry; assistant in Newbury, Berkshire; minister at the first Scottish Congregational chapel in Aberdeen, 1804; married Jane Ross (d 1847), 1809; the work of the London Missionary Society (LMS) in South Africa was threatened with closure by the British authorities and as an LMS director went on a deputation, with the Rev John Campbell, to investigate, 1818; arrived in Cape Town, 1819; prevented by a war from travelling beyond the colony; found the mission stations neglected and colonial opinion against the missionaries' benign relations with indigenous people; believed the population to be oppressed by the settlers; appointed to remain in South Africa as LMS superintendent, 1820; his wife, Jane, was the de facto LMS administrative secretary there; Doctor of Divinity, Princetown College, New Jersey, USA, 1820; travelled extensively to inspect mission stations within and beyond the colony and to collect evidence supporting his theories, 1820-1826; pastor of the new Union chapel in Cape Town, 1822; campaigned for civil rights for the 'Cape Coloured' people, who formed a number of LMS congregations, 1823; visited Britain to lobby for their civil rights, 1826; the campaign achieved success and, following Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton's motion in the House of Commons, the Cape government was ordered to implement Philip's recommendations, 1828; Philip hoped that the Christian `mini-state' the Griqua people, aided by the LMS, had formed beyond the Cape Colony frontier would become a model for other indigenous peoples; while in Europe, solicited the Paris Evangelical Mission Society and the Rhenish Missionary Society to begin work in South Africa; corresponded with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to persuade them to come; advocated the idea that only Africans could convert Africa ('native agency'); returned to Africa to increased unpopularity from the white population, 1829; a libel suit by William Mackay, one of the officials accused by Philip in his Researches in South Africa, resulted in a unanimous verdict for Mackay, 1830; visited stations within and beyond the colony, 1832-1833; accompanied Coloured and Xhosa Christians to London to give evidence before a parliamentary committee and rouse public opinion against the Cape government, 1836; the committee's report supported his views, but his insistence that much of the responsibility for the war lay with the British authorities and white colonists brought hostility from much of the white population in the Cape, 1837; returned to South Africa, 1837-1838; travelled extensively to promote his scheme for establishment of independent states north and east of the colony, 1839, 1842; following a war (1846) Philip withdrew from public affairs, 1849; retired to Hankey; died, 1851; admired by the Coloured, Griqua, Sotho and Xhosa peoples, he was buried in the Coloured graveyard of a Coloured township. Publication: Researches in South Africa, illustrating the civil, moral and religious condition of the Native Tribes (2 volumes, 1828).

Born in Liverpool, England, 1811; trained at the Meath Hospital, Dublin, and Guy's Hospital, London; member of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1834; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) medical missionary to Canton and, as such, was the first British medical missionary; sailed to Batavia (Jakarta) and proceeded to Canton, 1838; travelled to Macau, where he opened a hospital, but government hostility compelled him to leave, 1839; returned to Macau, 1840; in accordance with an arrangement between the American and London missionaries, left Macau for Tinghae, where he started work, 1840; returned to Macau and married Catherine Parkes (d 1918), 1841; went via Hong Kong to Chusan (Chou-san, Zhoushan), 1842; proceeded to Shanghai and opened the first Shanghai hospital, 1843; elected Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1857; travelled to England, 1857-1858; left England for China, intending to open the first missionary hospital at Peking (Beijing), 1861; visited Hankow and Japan and returned to England, 1864; director of the LMS; retired from LMS foreign service, 1867; elected Chairman of the LMS Board of Directors, 1869-1870; President of the newly-formed Medical Missionary Association, London, 1878; presented his books on China to the LMS, 1892; advocated a strict separation between the roles of preacher and physician; died at Blackheath, 1896. Publications: The Medical Missionary in China (1861); translations from Chinese medical works; contributions to the Royal Asiatic Society Record.

Born in Birmingham, England, 1877; studied at Mason University College, Birmingham; BA (University of London external degree); appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to Madagascar, 1917; detained in England owing to World War One (1914-1918); sailed to Madagascar, 1919; took temporary charge of the Girls' High School at Fianarantsoa, Betsileo; moved to Tananarive and took charge of the Girls' Central School, 1921; retired, 1939; died at Parkstone, 1959.

Born at Harbertonford, Devon, England, 1866; studied at Western College; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to the Fly River District, Papua, ordained in Plymouth, and travelled to Papua, 1893; visited the Fly River and Western Stations and returned to Thursday Island; at Port Moresby for a time; appointed to the Elema district and settled at Jokea, 1894; visited the mission stations in the (Torres) Straits and Fly River and returned to Jokea, 1895; to benefit his health, went with the mission ship the SS John Williams IV on its round of visits to the South Sea stations, 1896; returned to Papua and moved to Orokolo, 1897; visited England and married Alice Middleton (d 1941) in Plymouth, 1901; returned with his wife to Papua, 1902; volunteered to move to the Purari Delta, 1904; visited Australia to superintend the construction of a launch, the Purari, 1905; settled at Urika, 1906; visited Australia for health reasons, 1911; went to Sydney for his wife's health, 1917; the couple returned to England, 1919; retired from active service, 1920; an authority on the Elema cultures; died in Streatham, London, 1934. Publications: By Canoe to Cannibal Land (1923); In Primitive New Guinea (1924); Way back in Papua (1926).

The Heinemann African Writers Series was begun in 1962 and is ongoing.

The International Missionary Council (IMC) was established in 1921, the result of currents in Christianity apparent as far back as the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910. The IMC divided its work between its London office and a New York office, opened in 1924. There was later a Far Eastern office. The IMC linked 14 interdenominational associations of missionary societies, such as the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of Churches of Christ, USA, with 16 interdenominational field bodies, such as the National Christian Council of India. The Council served its member bodies through study, consultation and programmes of mutual assistance, addressing issues such as missionary freedom, general and theological education, opium addiction, labour, slavery, racial discrimination, the church in rural and industrial society, home and family life, and literature, and advised local and regional church bodies. Several major international conferences were held, the subjects of which included the message, especially in relation to modern secularism (Jerusalem, 1928); the study of the Christian message in a non-Christian world (Madras, 1938); the relevance of the gospel in a world recovering from war (Whitby, Ontario, 1947); church unity as a condition of effective witness and advance (Willingen, Germany, 1952); and the establishment of a theological education fund (Ghana, 1958). J H Oldham, John R Mott, William Paton and A L Warnhuis were among those instrumental in the Council's work. The IMC became a focus of the emerging ecumenical movement soon after its formation and had a close relationship with the World Council of Churches from 1939, becoming in 1961 the Division of (later Commission on) World Mission and Evangelism of the WCC. The periodical International Review of Missions was produced from 1912. See the biography of the Secretary of the World Missionary Conference of 1910: Keith Clements, Faith on the Frontier: a Life of J H Oldham (1999).

The Japan Evangelistic Band (JEB) was founded in 1903 as a non-denominational fellowship of Japanese and expatriate missionaries dedicated to personal holiness and aggressive evangelism. The JEB's primary field was the Kinki area of South West Japan and the island of Shikoku and, from time to time, missionaries worked among Japanese living on the West Coast of Canada and the USA, and in the UK. In 1999 the organisation adopted the name Japan Christian Link for operations in the UK, though work in Japan continues under the name of JEB.

The JEB was co-founded by the Rev Barclay Fowell Buxton (1860-1946) and Alpheus Paget Wilkes (1871-1934). In 1890 Buxton went to Japan as an independent missionary with the British Church Missionary Society. He invited Wilkes to join him as a lay helper in 1897, and the two worked together at Matsue in Western Japan, before returning to England. The JEB was formally launched at the Keswick Convention in 1903, where Buxton and Wilkes were joined by a small group of friends who shared their concern for evangelism in Japan. Among the group was Thomas Hogben, the founder of the One by One Working Band, a group devoted to personal evangelism, and at first the new mission was known as the One by One Band of Japan. Nine months after Keswick, the name was changed to Japan Evangelistic Band, or 'Kyodan Nihon Dendo Tai' in Japanese. The JEB was incorporated under the Religious Incorporation Law and became a Registered Charity (Number 21834).

Members of the JEB were drawn from a variety of denominations or from none. Wilkes envisioned 'a band of men ... who detaching themselves from the responsibilities and entanglements of ecclesiastical organisation, would give themselves to prayer and ministry of the Word...'. Both Japanese and missionary workers were included in the Band from the start. Expatriate workers came from North America, South Africa and Australia as well as the British Isles. The mission was never numerically large, probably numbering never more than 30 missionaries at one time. Japanese workers were greater in number.

The original aim of the JEB was to 'initiate and sustain evangelistic work among Japanese wherever they are found'. It did not see itself as a missionary society, seeking to plant new churches and withdraw, but rather as an evangelising agency assisting existing missions and churches and organising Christian Conventions for Bible Study and Prayer.

Wilkes led the first missionary party to Japan in October 1903. He served briefly in Yokohama and Tokyo, then moved south west to Kobe, which became the centre of JEB activity. In 1905 two central works were started to provide for the training of an indigenous ministry for the long-term continuation of the work: the Kobe Mission Hall and the JEB Kansai Bible College.

By the 1920s other missions were finding their own experts in evangelism and invitations received by the JEB were not sufficient to fill the time of its workers. Facing this situation, the JEB decided to launch its own forward outreach work. Band workers went out into rural towns and villages where no Christian work had yet been done. Full salvation and missionary literature was printed and circulated. Churches were started in about 100 centres. The JEB intended that these churches would be linked with existing Japanese denominational churches, to avoid the formation of another denomination. However, the JEB-inspired churches conferred together and decided they would prefer to be linked together in their own denomination. In 1938 many of them withdrew from the denominations they had joined and formed a separate denomination called the Nihon Iesu Kirisuto Kyokwai (NIKK) or Japan Church of Christ. Subsequently new churches were invited to link up with this group or remain independent. Most continued to join the NIKK, but there were a few churches in other denominations.

World War Two brought a temporary halt to work, but some of the Japanese members were able to continue a limited evangelistic activity through the war. The Mission Hall in Kobe and the Kansai Bible College were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1945, though both were later rebuilt. JEB missionaries returned to Japan in late 1947 and they began to work on new housing estates that were growing up on the outskirts of cities. Miss Irene Webster Smith started a centre for students in Tokyo. The 1950s saw new outreach into Wakayama Ken, first to the far south in Susami and Kushimoto, then later to Minoshima and Kainan and later to Kozagawa. There was also outreach to Shikoku Island where work commenced in Tokushima Ken at Tachitana then in Hanoura and Naruto, while a separate venture was started in Shido, Kagawa Ken. Work also started in Wajiki. Churches started in Tachitana and Naruto. Another outreach of the 1950s was the work in Northern Hyogo Ken. Later interest in the area moved over the prefectural boundary into Kyoto Fu, where work started in the mountainous districts around Amano Hashidate. In 1952 the JEB absorbed the Japan Rescue Mission, which had worked to save girls likely to be sold to the licensed prostitution system. By 1950 licensed prostitution had been abolished and the work was no longer necessary, so the missionaries were redirected to other JEB activities.

In the UK, JEB members worked among Japanese seamen arriving at the docks in Birkenhead. Conventions were held regularly at Swanwick, Derbyshire, in June, and at Southbourne, in August. From the early days of the JEB there was children's work, whose objective was to win children for the Lord in the home countries and to set them to pray and work for the children of Japan. The Young People's Branch of the JEB was called the Sunrise Band until 1977, when the name was changed to Japan Sunrise Fellowship.

The parent body of the JEB was the British Home Council. Barclay Buxton was the first Chairman, and he was succeeded by his son, Godfrey Buxton. Eric William Gosden became the Chairman in the late 1970s. A General Secretary was responsible for the day-to-day administration of the JEB. Among the subsidiaries reporting to the British Home Council were Regional Committees, the Japan Christian Union, Seamen's Work in Birkenhead, and the Sunrise Band Committee. In 1947 the British Home Council appointed a Publications Committee to 'co-opt, plan, produce and supervise all publications of the JEB and the Sunrise Band'. From September 1955 this committee was known as the Literature Committee. Other sub-committees were formed as needed. In the early years, the British office of the JEB was no 55 Gower Street, London. In May 1962, it purchased as the British headquarters and office no 26 Woodside Park Road, North Finchley, London. This property was sold in 1983, and the JEB bought new headquarters at no 275 London Road, North End, Portsmouth.

The Japan Council directed work in the Japanese field. There were always a majority of Japanese members, usually five against three expatriates.

The year 1999 saw a strategic reorganisation. The renamed Japan Christian Link refocused its work on expatriate Japanese, mainly in Europe. Work in Japan continues to be known as the JEB, and is now under the direction of Japanese workers.

Janet Dann (1899-1986) was a missionary first with the Japan Rescue Mission, then the JEB.

For further information see: Eric W Gosden, Thank You, Lord! The eightieth anniversary of the Japan Evangelistic Band 1903-1983 (1982); Eric W Gosden, The Other Ninety-Nine: the Persisting Challenge of Modern-Day Japan (1982); B Godfrey Buxton, The Reward of Faith in the Life of Barclay Fowell Buxton 1860-1946 (1949).

The Lebanon Hospital for the Insane, Asfuriyeh, was founded in 1898 by Dr Theophilus Waldmeir (1832-1915), a Swiss Quaker, to provide care for the mentally afflicted of the Lebanon, Syria and the Middle East.

On 17 April 1896, a public meeting was held at Dr Henry Jessup's house in Beirut, to announce the plan for founding 'the first Home for the insane in Bible Lands'. The campaign was launched, Waldmeier travelled to Europe and the USA to collect funds, and the Beirut Executive Committee was founded. The first meeting of the London General Committee (LGC) was held at the Bethlem Royal Asylum on 11 March 1897 and its Medical Superintendent, Dr Percy Smith, was elected as Chairman. The Asfuriyeh estate was purchased in April 1898, six miles from the centre of Beirut. The Hospital opened on 6 August 1900 with 10 patients. The Hospital's Constitution and Rules were formally drawn up in 1907. Under the Constitution, the Beirut Committee officially became the local executive committee in Beirut of the London General Committee, which retained overall authority over the Hospital.

In 1912 the property became a 'Wakf' , i.e. it was dedicated as a religious foundation under the code of law prevailing in the Lebanon, to be held by the Chairman of the London General Committee (who became the 'Trustee' or 'Mutawalli'). This set down the responsibilities of the 'Trustee' and his agents (in this case the Beirut Executive Committee) for managing the property. It was made a condition that the Hospital should be international and interdenominational.

The Lebanon Hospital for the Insane gradually expanded, and there was reportedly accommodation for 150 people by 1924; 350 by 1935; and 410 by 1936. By 1949, 14,000 patients had been treated since the opening of the Hospital. In 1938 the Hospital was renamed the Lebanon Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders.

In addition to clinical work, the Hospital contributed to training in the field of psychiatry. In 1922 it was affiliated with the American University of Beirut and became the Psychiatric Division of the University Hospital. In 1939 it was recognised by the Royal Medical/Psychological Association as a Training Centre for the Mental Nursing Certificate. In 1948, it opened a School of Psychiatric Nursing, the first of its kind in the Middle East, and which was subsequently used by the World Health Organisation for the training of specialised personnel. Treatment at the Hospital followed world-wide medical advances, and included Insulin Coma Therapy, Cardiazol Convulsion Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Electric Convulsion Therapy. Chemotherapy was introduced in 1952.

Between 1941 and 1946, a large part of the Hospital had to be handed over to the British Military Authorities, then in occupation of the Lebanon, to house their 43rd General Hospital. In the post-war climate, the Hospital's financial status never fully recovered, and by 1972 the Hospital was experiencing real financial difficulties. It was decided to sell the existing site and buildings and to re-build the Hospital on a more modern plan. A new site was chosen at Aramoun, near Beirut Airport. Asfuriyeh was sold in April 1973. The building programme was brought to a halt by the Lebanese Civil War (April 1975 - November 1976), and construction did not resume until summer 1977. The need for replacement materials and inflated prices meant that by the end of 1977, the Hospital was on the point of bankruptcy.

Despite appeals for funds, by early 1981 negotiations had commenced between the London General Committee and the Beirut Executive Committee to close the Hospital and to dispose of the property in accordance with the legal terms of the 'Wakf'. The Hospital at Asfuriyeh was officially closed on 10 April 1982. Aramoun continued to operate, although extensively damaged during the Civil War and occupied by the Israeli Army until 17 October 1982.

The LGC eventually resigned control of the Hospital itself to the Beirut Committee. However, in accordance with its continued responsibilities for trust funds established in the Hospital's name and held in the UK, it retained several of its members as London Trustees of the Lebanon Hospital for Nervous and Mental Disorders and established a scheme for the administration of these funds under charitable status. The Trustees continue to operate.

The Hospital's founder, Theophilus Waldmeier, was born in 1832 in Basle, Switzerland. He attended the missionary college of St Crischona, near Basle, and went to Abyssinia as a missionary in 1858. He left in 1868 and went to Syria, settling at Beirut in connection with the British Syrian Mission founded in 1860. In 1873, he started the Friends' Syrian Mission at Brummana, where he was superintendent, and founded Brummana High School. He relinquished his position in 1896 in order to promote his plan of providing a home for the insane. He travelled extensively to appeal for funds. Returning to Beirut in 1898, he purchased the site at Asfuriyeh. He became business superintendent at the Lebanon Hospital and retired in 1915, the year of his death. He published The Autobiography of Theophilus Waldmeier, Missionary, being an account of Ten Years' Life in Abyssinia and Sixteen Years in Syria (1886).

The Committee for Peace in Nigeria (CPN) was an all-party, representative committee established as a result of concern raised by the conflict between Biafra and Nigeria, in the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). The Committee acted as an independent body, but was closely associated with the work of the Movement for Colonial Freedom (MCF). Lord Fenner Brockway chaired both the MCF and the CPN. Members of the CPN included leading figures from all three political parties, representatives from the missionary societies (Anglican, Catholic and Free Church) working in Nigeria, former members of the Colonial Service in Nigeria including two ex-Governors General, business representatives and other notable figures. The CPN also included Africans from both the Federal and the Biafran sides of the conflict.

The Committee was active from 1968, campaigning for the intervention of the British Government and international governments in the Nigerian conflict. Representatives of the CPN met with both sides of the conflict and representatives from the British Commonwealth Office, and in 1968 sent an all-party deputation to the British Prime Minister. A result of the deputation was that the Rt. Hon. James Griffiths MP and Lord Brockway met with Colonel Ojukwu of Biafra (3-12 December 1968) and General Gowon of the Nigerian Federal Government (18-22 December 1968) to put forward their practical proposals for a ceasefire.

The CPN forwarded a set of practical proposals around which a ceasefire should be based. These included the presence of an international peace-keeping force; the cessation of the supply of arms by the British Government to either side in the conflict; that the government should take the initiative in securing the agreement of other countries to stop supplying arms; the demilitarisation of routes for relief supplies and an international relief effort to be planned on a government and UN level, for those areas suffering from starvation.

Born in York, England, 1840; trained at the theological college, Richmond; ordained as a Wesleyan Methodist minister; posted to the Central China mission field, based in Wuchang, Hupeh (Hubei) province; sailed to China, 1864; visited Japan for health reasons, but returned to missionary work in China; his single status made him more mobile than most Protestant missionaries; with a few other missionaries, including the Baptist Timothy Richard, engaged in famine relief work in Shansi (Shanxi) province, 1878-c1880; the experience expanded Hill's ministry in terms of social vision and ecumenism; instrumental in the conversion of Hsi Sheng-mo (Xi Shengmo, d 1896), who was to become an important independent pastor, 1879; visited England, 1881-1882; influential in recruiting other missionaries to China; established a hospital and homes for the aged, the blind, and orphans; helped to found the Central China Religious Tract Society; his evangelistic work extended outside the boundaries of existing Methodist circuits in China, resulting in the formation of the Central China Lay Mission, of which he became superintendent; chairman of the Central China Lay Mission, 1885; elected a member of the Legal Conference, 1888; played a central role in the Shanghai missionary conference as English president, 1891; appointed deputy to the British consul in the investigation into a riot at Wusueh, 1891; attended the Ecumenical Conference in Washington, 1891; visited England, 1891-1893; died of typhus fever at Hankow, 1896. Publication: Mission Work in Central China: a letter to Methodist young men (1882).

Born in Camelford, Cornwall, 1864; his father, Samuel Pollard, and his mother were preachers with the Bible Christian Church (from 1907 part of the United Methodist Church); converted, c1875; initially prepared for a career in the civil service, but a London conference influenced him to become a missionary, 1885; appointed Bible Christian missionary, 1886; sailed for China, 1887; attended Ganking Language School, 1887; posted to Yunnan province, 1888; went to Chaotung (Zhaotong), where a new station was opened, 1891; married Emmie (née Hainge), 1891; assigned to the provincial capital (now Kunming); engaged in evangelistic work; worked with the Flowery Miao (A-Hmao, a minority tribe), among whom started in Anshun, Kweichow (Guizhou) province, a religious movement which spread to Chaotung, from c1905; Pollard became its most prominent missionary leader; established a centre for thousands of new believers at Shihmenkan; travelled extensively, planting churches, training leaders, and soliciting justice for Miao Christians from officials and landlords; developed a new script which he used to translate the New Testament into the Miao language; died from typhoid fever while in service as a missionary, 1915. Publications: Tight Corners in China (second edition [1913]); with Henry Smith and F J Dymond, The Story of the Miao (1919); In Unknown China: observations, adventures and experiences of a pioneer missionary (1921); Eyes of the Earth: the diary of Samuel Pollard, ed R Elliott Kendall (1954).

Born, 1821; entered the service of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in Hatton Garden, London; cared for Spanish sailors visiting the port of London and learnt Spanish; requested the Missionary Committee to send him to Spain; lay agent at Barcelona, employed in educational and evangelistic work; missionary to the Balearic Isles, 1879-1888; returned to England owing to ill health; served at City Road, London, 1888; Brighton, 1890; died, 1899.

Born in Manchester, England, 1798; educated at Manchester grammar school, 1809-1813; assisted in his father's shoemaking business; following private study, became a probationer for the Wesleyan ministry, 1818; appointed by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (WMMS), 1819; lost his possessions in a shipwreck on the way to Madras, India; arrived, 1820; a pioneer missionary in the area, serving at Bangalore, Negapatam, Madras, and Seringapatam; elected a member of the committee for revising the Tamil version of the Bible, 1822; his Tamil translations included a hymnbook, 1825; left India owing to ill-health, 1828; returned to England, 1829; employed at Missionary House, London, 1829-1830; superintendent of schools in Ireland, 1830-1834; returned to London, 1834; Assistant Secretary of the WMMS, 1834-1836; married Elizabeth (d 1880), daughter of the lockmaker Charles Chubb, 1835; WMMS General Secretary, 1836-1872; Honorary Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews and of the Home for Asiatics, London; Doctor of Divinity; died, 1872. Publications include: Personal Narrative of a Mission to the South of India, from 1820 to 1828 (1829); Madras, Mysore, and the South of India: or, a personal narrative of a mission to those countries from 1820 to 1828 (2nd edition, 1844); Dureisani-Tamil-Puttagam: the Lady's Tamil Book; containing the Morning and Evening Services, and other portions of the Book of Common Prayer, in ... Tamil ... with an Anglo-Tamil grammar and vocabulary (1859); introduced E J Robinson's Tamil Wisdom: traditions concerning Hindu sages, and selections from their writings (1873); contributed articles to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and London Quarterly Review.

Samuel Palmer: Wesleyan Methodist minister in Weymouth, England, 1826-1827; Melton Mowbray, 1827-1828; Oakham, 1828-1829; married Sarah Ann (née Dunman) in Dewlish, Dorset, 1829; ordained in Islington chapel, London, 1829; Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society missionary in Salem, South Africa, 1829-1832; in Morley, South Africa, from 1832; died when suddenly taken ill while leading people away from fighting towards his mission station at Buntingville, 1846.

Following her husband's death, Mrs Palmer founded a girls' school at Butterworth, South Africa, in 1849-1850, where local girls could learn to read the Scriptures and were catechised and taught other elementary subjects. Owing to wars in the region which hindered travel, she did not return to England until 1853.

Born in Pickering, Yorkshire, England, 1813; a printer, bookbinder, and bookseller; while ill, a mystical experience drew him to missionary work, 1831; completed his studies at the Wesleyan Theological Institution, Hoxton, 1837; married Mary Fowler (1814-1882) and, with his wife and his friend John Hunt, sailed to Fiji for the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 1838; worked at Rewa and Lakeba; returned to England to oversee publication of the Fijian Bible, 1856; returned to Fiji, 1857; returned to England, 1866; served as a missionary in South Africa, 1872-1880; minister at City Road, London, 1881; Croydon, 1882; went to Fiji for the mission jubilee, 1885; toured Australia and America on behalf of the mission; retired to England; minister at Finsbury Park, 1887; continued to revise the Fijian Bible; died at Hastings, 1892. Publications: Copy of a Letter addressed to the Rev Dr Hannah ... on the death of the Rev John Hunt [1849]; 'Mission History', in Thomas Williams, Wesleyan Missionary: Fiji and the Fijians, vol 2, ed George Stringer Rowe (1858); edited: John Hunt's Entire Sanctification (1853); John Hunt's translation of the New Testament into Fijian, Ai Vola ni Veiyalayalati Vou ni noda turaga kei na nodai vakabula ko Jisu Kraisiti (1853); David Hazlewood's A Feejeean and English dictionary (2nd edition [1872]).