Dr Andrew Blick was a doctoral student at QMUL, supervised by Professor Lord Hennessy, and is now a Lecturer at King's College London; George Jones was an Honorary Professor at QM and is Emeritus Professor of Government at LSE. They have co-authored the following two books: Premiership: the Development, Nature and Power of the Office of the British Prime Minister (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2010) and At Power's Elbow: Aides to the Prime Minister from Robert Walpole to David Cameron (London: Biteback Publishing, 2013). The papers in the collection include documents used in research and writing these books and other material relating to their teaching and research.
Ann Carlton (fl 1965-2018) attended school in Liverpool and later studied at the London School of Economics. She undertook various roles for the Labour Party including work in the research department (1965-1966), Local Government Officer (1967-1974) and Special Adviser in the Department of the Environment (from 1974). In her capacity as Local Government Officer she was Secretary to the Home Policy Committee's Regional and Local Government Advisory Committee (later the Regional and Local Government Sub-Committee) and the Association of Municipal Corporations Labour Group.
Born Cairo 24 February 1932, schooled in Liverpool, and Jersey, attended Pembroke College, Oxford, reading modern languages, from 1950; 1953 he began BLitt research, degree completed 1957; 1955 first teaching post as Assistant Lecturer at Westfield College, advanced swiftly through each career grade to Chair in 1969, serving, much later (1986-1989), as Vice-Principal of Westfield College; 1990-1997 Research Professor, Queen Mary, University of London; 1997 retired, but held various Visiting Professorships and delivered lectures and conference papers internationally.
Married Ann Bracken in 1957. Published 40 books, written or edited, and almost 200 articles ranging through four centuries of medieval Hispanic literature. Died 19 September 2009.
Alfred Abraham Bernard Rubenstein was born 3 Apr 1911, and registered as an undergraduate of East London College in Sep 1930 to study Chemistry. He graduated with 2nd Class Hons in 1933, and then began studying towards an MSc in Chemistry. Between Jun 1935 and Jun 1936, the time of submitting his Thesis, he had changed his name to Alfred Arthur Bernard Harvey. Whilst attending East London College, Alfred Rubenstein was president of the Students' Union and was present when Queen Mary College received its Charter in 1935. Following his graduation from Queen Mary College, Alfred Harvey continued to be involved with the College. At one point, when Mile End Hospital was expected to close he argued that it should be retained and that the College should become involved in the training of doctors.
Joyce Elizabeth Harvey, nee Gale, was born 24 Aug 1914 in Dorset, and entered as a student of East London College in Oct 1933 to study English. She shared a room at Forest Lodge, the Women's Hall of Residence, with Josephine Tooke, nee Hampson, and Beatrice Worthing. Joyce Gale graduated with 2nd Class Hons in English in 1936. Whilst at East London College and Queen Mary College she was a member of the swimming club, hockey club, lawn tennis club, women's badminton club, table tennis club, and the Union Committee.
Alan Wilson became Director of Music at Queen Mary in 1976. There is no formal music faculty here but instead a lively music tradition thrives, given as extra-mural activities by students and staff. At the heart of the musical life is the output of the Music Society, which presents thematic based concerts related to music studied in the semester, the most important event being the Christmas Concert. Much research is undertaken by Alan, including new discoveries and transcriptions along with frequent re-arranging of standard repertoire. Original works and commissions include The Palace of Delights (A Musical from 1984), The Harmony of the Spheres (An inter-faith cantata from 2001) and The Downs (A cantata from 2007 set to words by Constance Maynard, the First Principal of Westfield College). Alan regularly organises music for both the Graduation Ceremonies and the William Harvey Memorial Service, along with many other occasions that require music. A CD was produced in 2001 and further projects are in the pipeline.
Alan was a scholar at the Royal College of Music and the Amsterdam Conservatorium. He specialised in Early Music (as a pupil of Gustav Leonhardt) and composition. Before arrival at QMC he was tutor of early keyboard instruments at Goldsmiths College and conductor of several school choirs. Between 1973 and 1986, he was Director of Music at the London University Church of Christ the King, which inspired many choral compositions, and then in 1986 became Organist at St. Mary-le-Bow, City of London (the famous Bow Bells church), a post he still holds. As harpsichordist and continuo player, he has performed in many countries, and for many years was the keyboard player in the celebrated group The Consort of Musicke. As composer, he regularly receives commissions from the UK and abroad, many works now published. He frequently composes/arranges and directs music for the BBC, most notably Radio 4's Daily Service, and also acts as a liturgical advisor in the work of the Royal School of Church Music.
Born, Plymouth, 1786; educated, Grammar schools at Plymouth and Plympton; moved to London to establish his career, 1804; exhibited his first picture, Joseph and Mary resting on the Road to Egypt', at the Royal Academy, 1807; continued to specialise in producing large historical pictures, but struggled to stay solvent throughout his career; exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art, 1809; publicly attacked the Royal Academy in the Examiner, 1812; successfully exhibitedThe Judgment of Solomon', 1814; involved with the controversy on the purchase of the Elgin marbles for the nation, 1815; set up a school to rival the Royal Academy; successfully exhibited `Christ's Entry into Jerusalem', 1820; arrested for debt, 1821; imprisoned in the King's Bench for debt and petitioned parliament to grant money for the decoration of churches and public buildings with paintings, 1823; continued to petition parliament, and ministers for support of his projects, including the decoration of the houses of parliament and scheme for schools of design; leased 58 Connaught Terrace, London from and had a close friendship with William Newton, who gave him considerable financial assistance; imprisoned for debt three more times, finally in 1830; exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1828 and again, 1842; involved in establishing an opposition school to the Somerset House government school of design, closed in 1839 after Somerset House introduced life drawing; lectured and wrote on painting and design, 1835-1846; committed suicide, 1846.
Publications: The Judgement of Connoisseurs upon Works of Art compared with that of Professional Men, in reference more particularly to the Elgin Marbles (London, 1816); New Churches considered with respect to the opportunities they afford for the Encouragement of Painting (London, 1818); Comparaison entre la tête d'un des Chevaux de Verise, qui étaient sur l'arc triomphale des Thuilleries, et qu'on dit être de Lysippe, et la Tête de Cheval d'Elgin du Parthenon (London, 1818); Descriptions of Drawings from the Cartoons and Elgin Marbles by Mr. Haydon's Pupils (London, 1819); Some Enquiry into the Causes which have obstructed the Course of Historical Painting for the last seventy years in England (1829); On Academies of Art (more particularly the Royal Academy) and their pernicious effect on the Genius of Europe. Lecture xiii (London, 1839); Thoughts on the relative value of Fresco and Oil Painting as applied to the Architectural Decorations of the Houses of Parliament (London, 1842); Lectures on Painting and Design 2 vols (London, 1844-6).
At the age of 14 Bernard Morris became an engineer apprentice at Merryweathers. During the Second World War he undertook fire watching on roofs and completed his apprenticeship in the Royal Navy, as an area Petty Officer. After the war he worked at Queen Mary College as a technician. He built the steam engine by hand between 1972 and 1974.
Constance Lousia Maynard was born on 9 February 1849 in Middlesex, one of four daughters and two sons of Henry Maynard (1880-1888) South African merchant, and his wife Louisa Maynard née Hillyard (1806-1878). She grew up in Hawkhurst, Kent, in the house of Oakfield. She was educated at home, before studying for one year at Belstead School in Suffolk. After her education was completed she, alongside her sisters, helped in the community. In 1872, Constance Maynard left to study at Hitchin College, and moved with the college to Cambridge to become Girton College, in 1873. She was the first Girton student to study the Moral Sciences tripos and in 1875 received a second class honours degree. Whilst at Girton she established a group called Girton Prayer Group.
After leaving Girton, due to problems in the family business, Constance Maynard was allowed to accept an invitation from Frances Dove to join the staff of Cheltenham Ladies' College. In 1877 she left with her colleague and friend Louisa Lumsden to establish St Leonard's School, at St Andrews, where Lumsden was head. During her three years (1877-1880) here, she rejected offers of headships, including that of her former school Belstead. She also hesitatingly refused a marriage proposal from Scottish Minister Dr James Robertson. In 1880 she moved to London with her brother and studied part time at the Slade School of Art. Whilst studying here she became involved with a group of individuals including Major Charles Hamilton Malan, Ann Dudin Brown and and Caroline Cavendish, with the shared aim of establishing a ladies' college. All with varying ideas of how the college should proceed, Constance Maynard was an integral part of forming the plans for her ideal college - to prepare ladies for the London degree, based on Christian principles. The group first met for discussions in February 1882, and in May Constance Maynard was offered the position of Mistress (a title borrowed from Girton), and in October of that year, Westfield College opened in two private houses in Hampstead.
She remained Mistress of Westfield for thirty-three years, retiring in 1913, leaving Westfield as a securely established school of the University of London. She had taught around five hundred students, and many were successful working in schools, colleges and for missionary organisations. She kept in close contact with her old students through letters and visits, and maintained strong relationships with them. . The money they collected as a parting gift she donated to the college; some was used as a hardship fund, the remainder as endowment for the Maynard divinity lectures. In 1888 Maynard adopted a child of Italian extraction, through a friend in the Salvation Army. At the time of her adoption Stephanë Anthon, known as Effie, was eight years old, and the relationship between them was a tumultuous one. Whilst Constance continued to support Effie until her death in 1915, from tuberculosis, it is detailed in her diaries as a period of disappoint.
Religious movements, from the Salvation Army to the Modern Churchmen's Union, figure prominently in the life of Constance Maynard. She was elected as old students' representative to the governing body of Girton and served from 1897 to about 1905 on the council of the Church Schools' Society. She also traveled extensively around the world; to South Africa, the Holy Land, Canada, Europe, and by bicycle throughout the British Isles. After her retirement, Constance Maynard spent her time travelling, receiving visitors, reading and writing. She wrote poetry, including four volumes of War poems, lectures, particularly Divinity lectures, and pamphlets of a moral nature on subjects such as temperance. Her published works include 'Between College Terms (1910); 'The Life of Dora Greenwell' (1926); 'From an early Victorian schoolroom to the university', Nineteenth Century, November 1914; contributions to The Hibbert Journal and other religious periodicals; and numerous tracts and pamphlets. Her unpublished writings include an unfinished autobiography, composed at intervals between 1915 and 1927.
Constance Maynard died at her home, The Sundial, Marsham Way, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, on 26 March 1935, and was buried at Gerrards Cross parish church on 29 March. Under her will the college received £1500 to fund an entrance scholarship.
Born Maximilian Schmitthoff in Berlin, 1903; classical education at the Friedrichsgymnasium, Berlin; read law at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and later at the University of Berlin; doctorate in law at Berlin, 1927; joined his father's flourishing law practice and became a successful advocate in the Berlin Kammergericht (court of appeal); forced to leave Germany for England, 1933 where he assumed the name Clive Macmillan; obtained an LLM degree at the London School of Economics, 1936; called to the bar in Gray's Inn, becoming a tenant in the chambers of Valentine Holmes, where he had served his pupillage; part-time lecturer in German at the City of London College (later the City of London Polytechnic); wrote books on commercial German and German poetry and prose; married Ilse, daughter of leading Frankfurt lawyer, Ernst Moritz Auerbach, 1940; wartime service in the Pioneer Corps and Canadian Engineers as a warrant officer; naturalised, 1946; returned to City of London College, initially in the language department but later becoming a lecturer in law in the Department of Professional Studies, lecturer 1948-1958, senior lecturer 1958-1963, principal lecturer 1963-1971; retired, 1971; Gresham chair in law at City University, London, 1976-1986; became joint vice-chairman of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary College, University of London, 1985, where he introduced and co-taught an LLM course on international trade law, at the same time establishing and organising a series of annual conferences on international commercial law; died, 1990.
SKEEL , CAROLINE ANNE JAMES ( 1872 - 1951 ) was born on the 9 Feb. 1872 in She was the sixth of the seven children of William James Skeel (1822 - 1899) and Anne James (1831 - 1895). Her father, the son of Henry Skeel (d. 1847 ), a farmer, was born at Castle Hill in the parish of Haycastle, Pembrokeshire, and became a successful London merchant with offices in Finsbury Chambers in the city and a director of the South Australian Land Mortgage and Agency Co. Ltd . Her mother was a first cousin of her husband; the daughter of Thomas and Martha James of Clarbeston, Pembrokeshire.
Educated at Notting Hill High School (1887-90), she attended Girton College, Cambridge (1891-95). She was a St. Dunstan's Exhibitioner and took a double first in classics in 1894 and then took a first in the historical tripos, in 1895. Skeel joined Westfield in 1896 as a visiting lecturer in classics, and in 1901 enrolled as a postgraduate student at the London School of receiving the London DLitt in 1903. The onset in 1907 of severe and lasting depression removed Skeel temporarily from the academic scene, to which she eventually returned on her reappointment to Westfield in 1911.She was promoted in 1919 to a university readership and in 1925; she was advanced to a professorship, the first to be held at Westfield. But within a year symptoms of depression reappeared and in 1929 she took early retirement.
She lived quietly in Hendon until her death, following a stroke on 25 February 1951. She had inherited the large fortunes left by her father and brother, the total of which amounted at her death to some £270,000 (gross). She bequeathed the bulk of it to Westfield, already the beneficiary of gifts made anonymously during her lifetime. After her death it was revealed that she had anonymously given away in her lifetime about £30,000 to poor families and charities.
Sir Charles Kingsley Webster was born in 1886 and educated Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied diplomatic history, and remained until 1914. His career as historian involved research, teaching and advisory work concerning international and current affairs. He married Nora Violet in 1915 and was made KCMG in the new year's honours list in 1946.
During the First World War Webster served as a Subaltern in the Royal Army Service Corps, 1915-1917 and on the General Staff of the War Office, 1917-1918. After the war he continued his involvement with diplomatic and current affairs and undertook various advisory roles. These included; Secretary, Military Section, British Delegation to the Conference of Paris, 1918-1919; Foreign Research and Press Service, 1939-1941; Director, British School of Information, New York, 1941-1942; Foreign Office, 1943-1946; Member of British Delegation, Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco Conferences, 1944-1945; Member, Preparatory Commission and General Assembly, United Nations, 1945-1946.
Webster's academic career included the following posts; Professor of Modern History, Liverpool University, 1914-1922; Wilson Professor of International Politics, University of Wales, 1922-1932; Ausserordentlich Professor, University of Vienna, 1926; Nobel Lecturer, Oslo, 1926; Reader, University of Calcutta, India, 1927; Professor of History, Harvard University, USA, 1928-1932; Ford Lecturer, Oxford University, 1948; Stevenson Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1932-1953.
He also worked to promote international co-operation between scholars, as President, 1950-1954, and Foreign Secretary, 1955-1958, of the British Academy. As President (1950-1954) he represented the British Academy in the Union Académique Internationale from 1948 to 1959. He was also energetic in the International Congress of Historical Sciences, with which he had been associated since 1913, presiding at the Stockholm meeting in 1960.
He retired from full time academia in 1953 and died in 1961.
Publications: The European alliance, 1815-1825 (University of Calcutta, 1929). The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815 (Foreign Office Historical Section, London, 1919). Editor of Britain and the Independence of Latin America, 1812-1830 (Ibero-American Institute of Great Britain, London, 1938). The art and practice of diplomacy (LSE, London, 1952). British Diplomacy, 1813-1815 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1921). British Foreign Policy since the Second World War; The Congress of Vienna, 1814-15, and the Conference of Paris, 1919 (London, 1923). The foreign policy of Castlereagh, 1815-1822 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1925). The foreign policy of Palmerston, 1830-1841 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1951). The founder of the national home (Weizmann Science Press of Israel, 1955). The League of Nations in theory and practice (Allen and Unwin, London, 1933). The pacification of Europe, 1813-1815 (1922); Palmerston, Metternich and the European system, 1830-1841 (Humphrey Milford, London, 1934). Sanctions: the use of force in an international organisation (London, 1956). Some problems of international organisation (University of Leeds, 1943). What the world owes to President Wilson (League of Nations Union, London, 1930). The strategic air offensive against Germany, 1939-1945 (London, 1961). Editor of British diplomatic representatives, 1789-1852 (London, 1934). Editor of Some letters of the Duke of Wellington to his brother, William Wellesley-Pole (London, 1948).
Born, 1923; educated at King Edward VI School, Birmingham; London School of Economics; worked for National Fire Service and Royal Air Force, 1939-1945; stood as an unsuccessful Labour candidate in Warwick and Leamington, 1945, Bromsgrove, 1950, 1951; life member of the Labour party; Student and Overseas Secretary, International Union of Socialist Youth, 1947-1951; Chairman, National Association of Labour Student Organisations, 1947; Whip and Member of the Policy Committee, London County Council, 1952-1965; involved with investigation of the slum landlord Perec (Peter) Rachman in Notting Hill, after rent protests and demonstrations, [1950s]; Member, Board of Visitors, Hewell Grange Borstal, 1950-1952; Chairman, Managers of Mayford Home Office Approved School, 1952-1958; Labour Adviser, Tanganyika Government and Chairman, Territorial Minimum Wages Board, 1961-1962; Labour Adviser, Mauritius Government and Chairman, Sugar Wages Councils, 1962-1965; Council member, 1965-1976 and Chairman, 1967, 1968, 1970-1974, War on Want; Director, Notting Hill Social Council, 1968-1977; National Committee, UK Freedom from Hunger Campaigns, 1969-1976; Executive Board, Voluntary Committee on Overseas Aid and Development, 1969-1976; Member, ILEA Education Committee, 1970-1977; Chairman, World Development Political Action Trust, 1971-1975; Alderman, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 1971-1977; Chairman, Mauritius Salaries Commission, 1973-1977; Member, Court of Governors, London School of Economics, 1973-1978; South Metropolitan Conciliation Committee, Race Relations Board, 1975-1977; Warden, Toynbee Hall, 1977-1987; Vice-Chairman, Toynbee Housing Association, 1977-1986; Governor, Tower Hamlets Adult Education Institute, 1978-1991; Governor, City and East London College, 1978-1991; Chairman, Mauritius Government Enquiry into position of families without wage earners, 1981; OBE, 1987; Government Salaries Commissioner, Mauritius, 1987-1988; Chairman, Tower Hamlets ILEA Tertiary Education Council, and Member Tertiary Education Board, 1987-1991; Asha East London Education Project, 1986-1991; Advisory Committee member, Queen Mary College project to expand further and higher education taken up by East London youth, 1987-1991, Chairman, Spitalfields Heritage Centre, 1987-1991; Executive Member, Tower Hamlets Training Forum and Workshops, 1986-1991 and Tower Hamlets Education and Careers Centre, 1986-1991; Member, Education Committee, Tower Hamlets Association for Racial Equality, 1986-1991; Social Affairs Consultant, Kumagai Gumi UK, 1987-1991; OBE, 1987; died, 1991.
Publications: contributor to Statutory Wage Fixing in Developing Countries (ILO), 1968; contributor to International Labour Review.
Eileen Brooke graduated from East London College in 1926 with a BSc in Maths, and in 1929 with a MSc in Mathematics. In 1952 completed a PHD. Carried out statistical analysis work for as Chief of Medical Statistics, Institut Universitaire de Medecine Sociale et Preventive, Lausanne, Switzerland (Corresponding Associate) and earlier in her career at the World Health Organisation.
Pioneer and supporter of public health orientation in mental health programmes. Co-author with G. C. Tooth of 'Trends in the mental hospital population and their effect on future planning', published in the Lancet in 1961, in which it was claimed that, as the result of statistical analyses of current trends, the future needs of beds in British mental hospitals would be halved. A paper which proved influential in shaping Government policy with regard to the future of mental hospitals.
Selincourt, Ernest De (1870-1943), literary scholar and university teacher. Educated at Huddersfield College and then in 1885 at Dulwich College, matriculated at University College, Oxford in 1890. 1893 to 1895 lectured at Bedford College, and gave tutorials at Oxford; Lecturer in English Literature at University College, 1896, and in 1899, University Lecturer in Modern English Literature; elected to the chair of English literature at Birmingham University, December 1908; 1919 became dean of the Faculty of Arts, and in 1931 Vice-Principal, retired from Birmingham University in 1935. Selincourt was also the brother of Agnes De Selincourt (1872-1917), Principal of Westfield College 1913-1917.
East London Papers was a journal of history, social studies and the arts edited by members of Queen Mary College staff, 1958-1973. Edited by Stanley Bindoff (1908-1980) and published at University House, it represented a forum for the study of local history in East London, and expression of views on the social and artistic life of the community.
Delf-Smith, Ellen Marion (1883-1980), botanist, was born on 31 January 1883. Educated at the James Allen Girls' School, Dulwich, and at Girton College, Cambridge, she studied under such historic figures as Marshall Ward and F. F. Blackman. At Girton she earned a first class in both parts of the natural sciences tripos, and was joint winner of the Montefiore prize in 1906, her final year. Originally planning to stay at Cambridge to study plant physiology with F. F. Blackman, she instead accepted an offer to teach botany at Westfield College, University of London.
In the early years there were few facilities for science teaching at Westfield and she had no help. Equipment grants and technicians were unknown, and if she wanted a specimen she had to go out and collect it and prepare it herself. In 1910 the University of London approved the Westfield laboratory to prepare students for the final BSc pass examination in botany and granted Delf the status of a recognized teacher of the university. The college was recognized to prepare students for honours degrees in botany in 1915.
By working at the Joddrell Laboratory, Kew, she took her London D.Sc. in 1912. Her main studies were in plant physiology, but in later years her interests widened to take in the marine algae and indeed a large number of other subjects. Between 1911 and 1916 she studied the transpiration of plants, the process by which plants excrete water, particularly the morphology of Ulvaceae or seaweeds, publishing her results in four papers in the Annals of Botany. In 1912 she was awarded the London DSc degree for a thesis based on original research, as well as the Gamble prize from Girton for an essay entitled 'The biology of transpiration'.
In 1914 Delf was granted a Yarrow fellowship from Girton to work on transpiration in evergreens, but the demands of the First World War made her feel that she should be more directly involved in war work and so from December 1916 to January 1920 she was a research assistant at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London. As a member of a team led by Dr Harriet Chick she investigated the vitamin content of foods as pertaining to the rations of the military.
After the war, she was returned to Westfield, yet left once more in 1920 to go to South Africa as a temporary research fellow attached to the Institute of Medical Research, Johannesburg, where she continued her vitamin research; investigating the vitamin C content in the diets of local mine workers. She was offered a chance to remain permanently in South Africa, but chose to return to Westfield, when she learned that a new laboratory had just been built for her. From 1922 her connection with Westfield was unbroken; she was appointed a university reader in 1921, became head of the Westfield botany department in 1939, and directed the developing Botany Department through its removal to a new building and over its war years in evacuation in Oxford. Many of her students proceeded to posts in higher education and research and attribute their scientific awakening to her stimulus and interest.
In 1928 she married Percy John Smith, well-known as an artist, etcher and letterer from which time she was generally known as Delf-Smith. She moved with him to Haverstock Hill in Hampstead, remaining at Westfield as a non-resident lecturer. He pre-deceased her in 1948, the year of her retirement. After retirement she continued her association with Westfield as President of the Westfield College Association, 1950-1955, and subsequently as an Honorary Fellow, appointed in 1955. Delf-Smith was a life member of the British Association, a fellow of the Linnean Society, a member of the South East London Botany Society, the South East Union of Scientific Societies, and the Association of Women Science Teachers, served on the advisory algae committee of the Scottish Seaweed Organization and for many years was an Honorary Member of the British Phycological Society. She died on 23 February 1980 at the age of ninety-seven.
Ernst Sondheimer, Mathematician, Lecturer Westfield College, husband of Janet Sondheimer, Historian.
Born, London, 1796; educated at Westminster School, 1808-1810, Edinburgh high school, 1810-1812; employed by William Hill, envoy to the court of Turin, 1814; made a runaway match with an heiress, Eliza Susan Pattle, 1816; secretary to the under-secretary of the legation, Turin; abducted a Cheshire heiress, 1826 and was jailed for three years; wrote a series of works on the theory of colonisation whilst in prison, including A Letter from Sydney, 1829; views supported by Robert Stephen Rintoul, who published Wakefield's opinions on colonial questions in the Spectator, and Lieutenant-colonel Robert Torrens; National Colonization Society founded, 1830; South Australian Association established to found a colony on Wakefield's principles, 1834; gave evidence to parliamentary committees on colonial affairs, 1836, 1837, 1840, 1844; formed the New Zealand Association, 1837, which attempted to establish a colony in New Zealand; colony in South Australia formed and constituted, 1838, although Wakefield was not directly involved; accompanied Lord Durham to Canada as an unofficial advisor after the suspension of the Canadian constitution, 1838, and influential in drawing up Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America; New Zealand Land Company formed, and founded a colony in New Zealand, 1839; managed the affairs of the New Zealand Company in London; secret adviser to Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe on Canadian politics, 1843; resigned from the New Zealand Company, 1849; helped found Church of England settlement at Canterbury, New Zealand, 1849; formed the Colonial Reform Society with Charles Bowyer Adderley, 1850; lived in New Zealand, 1853-1862; advisor to the governor, 1853-1854; died, 1862.
Publications: Sketch of a Proposal for Colonising Australasia (J F Dove, London, 1829); A Letter from Sydney (London, 1829); A Statement of the principles and objects of a proposed National Society, for the cure and prevention of Pauperism, by means of systematic Colonization (London, 1830); Facts relating to the Punishment of Death in the Metropolis (London, 1831); Swing Unmasked, or the causes of Rural Incendiarism (London, 1831); The Hangman and the Judge (London, 1833); England and America (London, 1833); Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith edited by E G Wakefield (London, 1835-9); The British Colonization of New Zealand; being an account of the principles, objects and plans of the New Zealand Association (J W Parker, London, 1837); Popular Politics (London, 1837); A View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government of Canada (London, 1844); `Sir Charles Metcalfe in Canada,' in Fisher's Colonial Magazine (1844); A View of the Art of Colonization (London, 1849).
Dr Frank Alexander Middlemiss (1920-2014) was born on 25 March 1920 in Leyton, East London. Served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War, spending 14 months as a Prisoner of War in Italy and Germany in 1944-1945. Received a first class degree in Geology from Queen Mary College in 1950, and stayed on to pursue a PhD, completed in 1955. He taught in the Geology department at Queen Mary for the rest of his career, leading many field trips. He officially retired in 1982. He was made a Fellow in 1996.
Middlemiss’s specialisms were Lower Cretaceous brachiopods, and the geology of the Weald and South East England, including the Lower Greensand Group and the chalk cliffs of Kent. He provided advice on the construction of the Channel Tunnel. He was a Fellow of the Geographical Society from 1950-1982. He was a member of the Geologists' Association and a member of several working groups of the International Union of Geological Societies.
Met his wife, Florence, in 1946 when they were both students at Queen Mary. They had two children, Stella and Joan.
Gwyn Owain Jones (1917-2006) CBE, joined Queen Mary College in 1949. Professor and Head of the Department of Physics, 1953-1968. Resigned in 1968 to become Director of the National Museum of Wales. Fellow of Queen Mary College 1969.
Gerry Moss graduated from Imperial College, London and studied for his PhD at the University of Cambridge. After postdoctoral work at Colombia University, New York and Imperial College he was appointed a lecturer in Organic Chemistry at Queen Mary College in 1966. His research work focussed on the chemistry of carotenoids, vitamin A and related compounds. He later became Senior Lecturer, and is now an Associate Academic in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences.
His specialism is in chemical nomenclature, especially organic and biochemical nomenclature. He is a consultant for the World Health Organisation which names all new International Non-Proprietary Names (all new drugs), Chairman of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature. He is a former chairman of the IUPAC Commission on Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry and was President of IUPAC Division VIII.
Moss worked on the official pictorial history of the college, ‘From Palace to College’, with Mike Saville in the mid-1980s for the College’s one hundredth anniversary. Moss’s interest in the history of the college, particularly the chemistry department, dates back to the late 1960s and creating pictorial displays for visitors to the college. He also acted as the Chemistry department’s archivist, acquiring information particularly in relation to former staff and students.
Jenkins, Harold (1909-2000), literary scholar, was born on 19 July 1909 in Shenley, Buckinghamshire, the eldest son of Henry Jenkins (1878-1932), a dairyman, and his wife, Mildred, née Carter, who were cousins. Harold had an elder and a younger sister, and two younger brothers. Educated at a local school from the age of three, he won a free place in 1920 at what became Wolverton grammar school. Scholarships enabled him to proceed in 1927 to University College, London, where he read English language and literature. He graduated in 1930 with first-class honours, winning both the George Morley medal in English literature and the prestigious George Smith studentship (1930-31). The subsequent award of the Quain studentship enabled him to continue his studies for another five years, during which he also taught.
His MA thesis (1933) on the Elizabethan dramatist Henry Chettle, supervised by W. W. Greg, was published in revised form as The Life and Work of Henry Chettle in the following year. After a year as William Noble fellow in the University of Liverpool he took up a lecturership in English in 1936 at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where he stayed until 1945. His Witwatersrand DLitt thesis (1945) appeared in revised form as Edward Benlowes (1602-76): Biography of a Minor Poet (1952). During his time in South Africa, he produced book reviews in the form of radio broadcasts, 1940-1941 and 1944-1945. In 1939 he married Gladys Puddifoot (1908-1984), whom he had met as a student. She became a respected historian and was an ideal partner, sharing his scholarly interests until her death in a road accident in 1984.
Returning to London as lecturer at University College in 1945, Jenkins was promoted to Reader in the following year, and in 1954 took up the chair of English at Westfield College. During the 1950s he wrote essays on Twelfth Night and As You Like It, and a classic study, The Structural Problem in Henry IV (1956), delivered as his inaugural lecture at Westfield College. In 1954 Jenkins was assigned to edit Hamlet for the New Arden Shakespeare, and in 1958 he became joint general editor with Dr Harold Brooks. In 1967 Jenkins was appointed Regius Professor of rhetoric and English literature in the University of Edinburgh. He retired early and returned to London in 1971 to work on his edition of Hamlet, which was published in1982. His studies of the play produced at least eight articles or major lectures, two of the most notable being his British Academy lecture in 1963 entitled Hamlet and Ophelia, and his 1967 inaugural lecture at Edinburgh, The Catastrophe in Shakespearean Tragedy.
In later life Jenkins received several prizes and honours including the fellowship of the British Academy in 1989 and the 1986 Shakespeare Prize from the FVS Foundation of Hamburg. A volume in his honour, Fanned and Winnowed Opinions, including essays by friends along with a memoir and a list of publications, appeared in 1987. For over forty years Jenkins served on the council of the Malone Society, of which he was elected president in 1989, and for which he edited Chettle's Tragedy of Hoffman (1951).
He died at home in Surrey, on 4 January 2000, bequeathing his books to Queen Mary and Westfield College, which also houses his literary paper
Born, 1870; educated at Charterhouse, 1883-1885; privately educated in Lausanne, 1885-1888; Universities of Bonn, Heidelberg and Corpus Christi College, Oxford; B. Litt, 1899; English Language Lecturer, University College, Liverpool, 1899; Special Inspector of the Teaching of Phonetics in the Training Colleges of Scotland 1902-1910; Baines Professor of English Language and Philology, Liverpool University, 1904-1920; Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, Oxford University, 1920-1945; Fellow of Merton College Oxford, 1920-1945; British Academy Biennial Prize for contributions to the study of the English Language and Literature, 1932; published his Universal Dictionary of the English Language, 1932; died, 1945.
Publications: include: Contributions to the History of the Guttural Sounds in English (1899); The Neglect of the Study of the English Language in the training of Teachers (University Press, Liverpool, 1904); The Historical Study of the Mother Tongue (John Murray, London, 1906); The Place of the Mother Tongue in National Education (John Murray, London, 1906); The Growth of English (John Murray, London, 1907); The Teaching of Reading in Training Colleges (John Murray, London, 1908); Elementary Lessons in English Grammar (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1909); The Place Names of Lancashire. Their origin and history with T Oakes Hirst (Constable & Co, London, 1911); Collected Papers of Henry Sweet (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913); A Short History of English (John Murray, London, 1914); A History of Modern Colloquial English (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1920); South-Eastern and South-East Midland Dialects (1920); Studies in English Rhymes from Surrey to Pope. A chapter in the history of English (John Murray, London, 1923); Diction and Imagery in Anglo-Saxon Poetry (1925); Some aspects of the diction of English poetry (Basil Blackwell, 1933); The Universal Dictionary of the English Language Editor (Amalgamated Press, London, [1931, 32]); The Best English. A claim for the superiority of Received Standard English, together with notes on Mr. Gladstone's pronunciation (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1934).
Ian Hinchliffe (1942-2010) was born in 1942 in Huddersfield, and many of his early influences of music hall, vaudeville and jazz originate from this time.
Following a move to London, Hinchliffe enjoyed his most productive years in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1971, Hinchliffe founded the Matchbox Purveyors, a performance group based at Oval House, whose first show took the form of Hinchliffe and Mark Long (of the People’s Show) selling boxes of matches. Jude Morris joined the same year, and left in 1975, and this set the stage for a combination of solo performances and a sequence of guest performers collaborating with Hinchliffe under the Matchbox Purveyors name, including Dave Stephens, Laura Gilbert and Derek Wilson (Jail Warehouse Co), Lol Coxhill, Rob Con, Diz Willis, Rose Maguire, Jeff Nuttall, Chris and Tim Britton, Phil Minton, Emil Wok, and Alan Porter. His performance work took place in a variety of locations, including art galleries, clubs, pubs, festivals and the street. Hinchliffe also undertook film work, acting in ‘Walter’ (1982), ‘Stormy Monday’ (1988), and ‘Diary of a Sane Man’ (1989).
Hinchliffe's later career, from the 1990s onwards, represented a distinct phase in his creative output, with a focus on durational performance via projects such as Woodwork and Gargantua. The culmination of this approach came in the form of the 4 week exhibition at Beaconsfield, 'Estate - the Ian Hinchliffe Retrospective' (1998), with an installation that developed through daily performances during gallery hours. Regular collaborators during this time included Tony Green, Hugh Metcalfe and David Crawforth. The venues most commonly frequented in this period were The Water Rats, Nosepaint and Beaconsfield.
Alongside his performance work, Hinchliffe was also a visual artist, whose sculptures, paintings and collages form part of his artistic output. Further contributions came in the form of his writing, with Hinchliffe's columns 'HINCHLIFFE LASHES OUT' appearing in Performance Magazine.
Born, 1896; educated at the Grocers' Company's School, Hackney Downs; civil service, 1912-1916; active service in France as a lieutenant (Territorial Army) in the Royal Garrison Artillery, 1916-1918; Exeter College, Oxford, 1919; assistant lecturer in English at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, 1921-1924; assistant lecturer in English at King's College, University of London, 1924-1928; lecturer in English, 1928; first Montefiore Professor of English in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Palestine, 1942-1945; returned to England, 1945; chair of English Language and Literature at Queen Mary College, University of London, 1952-1964; retired from the chair and appointed Professor Emeritus, 1964; died, 1973.
Jon John (1983-2017) was a performance artist and practitioner of body modification.
Born in the French Basque country as Jonathan Arias, Jon John as he was known both personally and professionally, was best known for using his body in situations of ritual suffering, duress, and difficulty in performance. He was also renowned for his piercing and tattoo studio AKA (Berlin and London), his development of techniques for piercing, scarification, and implants, and as a designer of body piercing jewellery.
His performances drew on extensive field research in the Middle East, North Africa, and India, where he investigated folk usages of ritual self-injury as forms of secular as well as religious transcendence. At the end of his life, he was collaborating with the lay anthropologist Paul King on Hearts in Sorrow, a documentary about Shia Islamic rites in Iran. Paying homage to these and other ritual practices, Jon John's performances also incorporated references to high fashion, pop music, so-called 'modern primitivism' and industrial culture, magic, sadomasochism, and sex.
His work was also centrally concerned with his intersectional identity as Gitano (Spanish Romani), Basque, and queer. Including sentimental uses of bloodletting, hook suspensions, dancing on thorns, and DIY surgery, Jon John's own tattooed, scarred and 'hacked' body was central to his work as an artist. His works were known to be arduous to perform, and sometimes gruelling for his audiences to witness, but Jon John professed his own investment in the themes of love, romance, tenderness, loss and grief: in a manifesto, he would describe his art as an 'action of love', and an 'ecstatic' ritual of 'communal alchemy'.
Key performance included 'The 2 of Us', in which a cannula was inserted into the crook of his elbow, allowing him to write in blood until he passed out; and his 'farewell' performance 'Love on Me: The Finest Hour', performed shortly before his death. Beyond performances, his art works also included video, film, writing, and collodion print photography. He collaborated on projects with international artists, including Ron Athey, Lukas Zpira, Marilyn Manson, Kiril Bikov, Joey Arias, Jochen Kronier, and Nick Knight.
Jon John died of cancer in Bayonne, France, on 6 April 2017.
Born, Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, 1789; apprenticed to a Newcastle coach-painter, 1804; ran away after a dispute over wages; apprenticed to a Newcastle china-painter, Boniface Musso; moved to London and supported himself painting on china and glass whilst studying perspective and architecture; sent the Royal Academy his first pictures, 1812; became an opponent of the Royal Academy after becoming aggrieved over the hanging of his pictures in 1814 and 1816, but continued to contribute to their exhibitions; appointed historical painter to Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold, 1817; exhibited at the British Institution, 1819-1821, including 'Belshazzar's Feast'; joined the Royal Society of British Artists on its foundation and exhibited there, 1824-1831,1837-1838; exhibited 'The Fall of Nineveh' at Brussels, 1833, bought by the Belgian government; elected a member of the Belgian Academy and awarded the order of Leopold by the King of Belgium; quarrelled with the British Institution, 1836; exhibited many works at the Royal Academy, 1837-1852, including many landscapes in water-colours; drew illustrations (with Westall) to Milton's Paradise Lost; worked on plans for improving London, including water supply and recycling of sewerage, 1827-1853; died, 1854.
John Morris was born in London in 1872. He married Annie Elizabeth Frances MacGregor in 1917. Educated privately and at University College London. He became an assistant to Professor Fleming at University College London, 1894-1898; specialising in subjects connected with illumination and cathode ray oscillographs.
Joined East London College in 1898; became head of the Department of Electrical Engineering some time between 1899-1900; College Professor 1903; University Professor 1924; Fellow Queen Mary College 1938 and of University College London. During the First World War he co-operated with a research student, A F Sykes, in the development of a design for a directional hydrophone which was taken up by the Admiralty. He contributed to the establishment of the high voltage laboratory at East London College (opened 1936). This included a study tour to the USA in 1928 to visit laboratories.
MacGregor-Morris engaged with university clubs, societies, sports and concerts, and helped to establish the Students' Union Society in 1908.
He was Honorary Research Associate in Electrical Engineering at University College London from 1939, and Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at the University of London from 1938.
Publications include 'Cathode Ray Oscillography' with J A Henley (1936); 'Sir Ambrose Fleming and the birth of the valve' (1954); and numerous papers in scientific journals.
Died on 18 March 1959.
James Smetham was born in Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire, in 1821 and educated in Leeds. He began his career apprenticed to an architect but left to make his living painting portraits in Shropshire. In 1843 he went to London and entered the Academy School but left before completing the course and returned to itinerate portrait painting. In 1851 he became drawing teacher at the Wesleyan Normal College, Westminster, where he remained until his final illness. He married Sarah Goble, another teacher from the College, in 1854, and they had six children. In 1877 he suffered a final breakdown and lived in seclusion until his death in 1889. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery. His early work has been compared to William Blake and he was a Pre-Raphaelite associate numbering John Ruskin and Charles Gabriel Dante Rossetti among his admirers and friends. Religion was as important to him as art, he regularly attended Saturday and Sunday services and was a Methodist class leader. After his death his widow collaborated with William Davies (c1830-1897), a lifelong friend of Smetham and his family, on an edition of her husband's letters.
Libris was an independent publishing company based in London, which opened in September 1986, and published its first titles in 1988. Libris started out with a general list, including Victorian religious doubters (Froude and 'Mark Rutherford'), Neruda poems (now out of print), biographies of Italo Svevo and Wordsworth, and the late Brigid Brophy's Mozart book. However, from 1990 Libris concentrated almost exclusively on books of and about German literature from Goethe to Brecht. It closed in 2014.
Professor Michael Laughton, Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of London; Employed at Queen Mary College in Faculty of Engineering 1961-2000. Became a Professor in 1977, Inaugural lecture 1978, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering 1983-1986; Pro-Principal 1986-1991 and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
General Sir Neville Lyttelton born the third son of the 4th Baron Lyttelton, of Hagley Hall in Worcestershire, 1845; his mother was sister-in-law of William Gladstone; educated at Eton College; entered Rifle Brigade, 1865; helped to suppress Fenian rising, Canada, 1866; Secretary, Oregon Boundary Dispute Commission, Canada, 1867; ADC to Viceroy of Ireland, 1868-1873; served in Jowaki Expedition, India, 1877, and in Egyptian Campaign, 1882; appointed private secretary to the Secretary of State for War in the Liberal Government, 1880; Military Secretary to Governor of Gibraltar, 1883-1885, and to Governor of Bombay, 1885-1890; 2nd in Command, 3 Bn, Rifle Bde, Jullundar, India, 1890-1893; Lt Col, 1892; commanded 2 Bn, Rifle Bde, Dublin, Ireland, 1893-1895; appointed Assistant Adjutant General War Office, 1895; Assistant Military Secretary, War Office, 1897-1898; commanded brigade during Nile Expedition, Sudan, 1898; commanded 2 Infantry Bde, Aldershot, 1899; commanded 4 Infantry Bde, 2 and 4 Divs, South Africa, 1899-1900; served in Natal, 1901-1902; Commander-in-Chief, South Africa, 1902-1904; Chief of General Staff and First Military Member of Army Council, 1904-1908; Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, 1908-1912; appointed Governor of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, 1912; published Eighty years: soldiering, politics, games (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1927); died, 1931. He married Katherine Stuart-Wortley in 1883 and they had 3 daughters, of whom Lucy (1884-1977) a writer and poet, married Charles Masterman (1873-1927), the Liberal politician.
Hilda Margaret Grenfell née Lyttelton born the second daughter of General Sir Neville Lyttelton and Katherine Stuart-Wortley, 1886; died 1972. She married Arthur Morton Grenfell in 1909 and they had 4 daughters, Mary, Katherine, Frances and Laura.
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Morton Grenfell was born the sixth son of Pascoe du Pré Grenfell and Sophia Grenfell, 1873; educated at Eton College; fought in the First World War; he gained the rank of Colonel in the service of the Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars; died 1958. He first married Victoria Sybil Mary Grey in 1901 and they had 3 children, daughter Sybil and sons Reginald and Harry. He married, secondly, Hilda Margaret Lyttelton in 1909.
A guild or union existed amongst tailors' servingmen and journeymen in London as long ago as 1417 but the history of the present Union and its predecessors is only recorded from the later 19th Century. The National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (NUTGW) existed as an independent body until 1991 when it joined the General Municipal and Boilermakers (GMB). At the time of the merger, the NUTGW was itself the result of many amalgamations. In 1912 the United Garment Workers' Union was formed by the amalgamation of the Amalgamated Society of Journeymen Tailors; Amalgamated Union of Clothiers' Operatives; Amalgamated Jewish Tailors, Pressers and Machinists' Trade Union; London Clothiers Cutters; The Shirt, Jacket and Overall Workers; and The Belfast Shirt and Collar Workers. These were later joined by the Scottish National Association of Operative Tailors; London Operative Tailors; and Amalgamated Society of Tailors and Tailoresses. In 1931 these became the NUTGW with the addition of the United Ladies Tailors (London) and the Waterproof Garment Workers' Union.
Employee Queen Mary College 1951-1982, Lecturer in Modern Languages, Warden of Linden Hall, Tutor to Women Students.
Philip Henry Wood (1904-1970) and Hilda Mary Wood (nee Smith) (1902-2005), East London College students 1921-1924.
Born, 1947; educated, St John's College Cambridge, 1969; reporter: Times Higher Education Supplement, 1972-1974; The Times, 1974-1976; Lobby Correspondent, Financial Times, 1976; Whitehall Correspondent, The Times, 1976-1982; journalist, The Economist, 1982; home leader, writer and columnist, The Times, 1982-1984; co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary British History, 1986; columnist: New Statesman, 1986-1987; The Independent, 1987-1991; Director, 1989-1993; The Tablet, 2003-; regular presenter of the BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme, 1987-1992; Professor of Contemporary History, Queen Mary, University of London, 1992-2000; Atlee Professor of Contemporary British History, Queen Mary, University of London, since 2001.
Publications: Cabinet (1986),
Whitehall (1989),
Never Again: Britain 1945-51 (1992),
The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution (1995),
The Prime Minister: The Office and Its Holders since 1945 (2000)
The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War (2002)
Having It So good: Britain In The Fifties (2006)
Born, Dublin, 1856; attended a Weslyan school, but was largely self educated through visits to the National Gallery of Ireland and wide reading; worked as a cashier, 1872-1876; moved to London in 1876 to join his mother and sister; wrote but failed to publish five novels, 1878-1883; strongly influenced by Karl Marx's Das Kapital; joined and became a leading member of the Fabian Society, 1884, and edited Fabian Essays in Socialism, 1889; worked as a book, drama and music critic for the Pall Mall Gazette, 1885-1888, the World, 1886-1889, the Star, 1888-1890, and the Saturday Review, 1895-1898; published The quintessence of Ibsenism, 1891; wrote Widowers' Houses for performance by Independent Theatre, 1892, attacking slum landlords and allying Shaw with a realistic and political movement in the theatre; this was followed by The Philanderer (1893), Mrs Warren's Profession (1893, concerning prostitution and banned until 1902), Arms and the Man (1894), Candida (1897) and You Never Can Tell (1899); obtained first successful production of a play with The Devil's Disciple, New York, 1897; married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, 1898; wrote Captain Brassbound's Conversion for Ellen Terry, 1900; completed Caesar and Cleopatra, 1899, which was produced by Mrs Patrick Campbell in 1901; established as a playwright of international importance, with the completion and performance of Man and Superman (1901-1903), John Bull's Other Island (1904), Major Barbara (1905) and The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), which were produced by Harley Granville-Barker for the Royal Court Theatre; wrote his most popular play, Pygmalion, in 1913 (he later adapted it for the screen, winning an Academy Award in the process); during World War One, made numerous anti-war speeches; his postwar plays include Heartbreak House (1920), Back to Methuselah (1922), and St Joan (1923); won the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1925, but refused the award; established the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation for the translation of Swedish literature into English; wrote extensively on social, economic and political issues, notably The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928), and Everybody's Political What's What? (1944); his later plays, produced at the Malvern Festivals, included The Apple Cart (1929), Too True to be Good (1932) and Geneva (1939); retired, 1943; left residue of his estate to institute a British alphabet of at least 40 letters; died 1950.
Publications: include: The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (Constable & Co, London, 1928); The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God (Constable and Co, London, 1932); Everybody's Political What's What? (Constable & Co, London, 1944).
Created by People's Palace Projects (PPP). The founder and artistic director of PPP is Paul Heritage, Professor of Drama and Performance. People's Palace Projects (PPP) is an independent arts charity, founded in 1996, that advances the practice and understanding of art for social justice. It is a regularly funded organisation (RFO) of Arts Council England and is based at Queen Mary, University of London.
Interested in exploring the ways in which the arts can respond to urgent social crises, Paul Heritage's vision for People's Palace Projects was supported by Queen Mary University of London and the organisation was incorporated as a charity in 1998. People's Palace Projects has had an international focus from its inception, with our first project journeying to Burkina Faso, West Africa. This initial project marked the beginning of the process that still forms the basis of PPP's work, both in the UK and beyond. The People's Palace Projects has spent the last fifteen years creating and debating art that makes a difference to people's lives. From London to Brazil, Liverpool to Azerbaijan, creative projects and cultural exchange programmes have sought out contexts where art matters most and worked with those for whom art makes a difference in their lives.
The present College was formed in 1989 by the merger of Queen Mary and Westfield Colleges by Act of Parliament. In the same year pre-clinical students from St. Bartholomew's Medical College and The London Hospital Medical College were taught for the first time. In 1995 the creation of St. Bartholomew's and The Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry brought clinical medical teaching to the College. The nucleus of the College site is that of the People's Palace, predecessor of Queen Mary College, which has been extensively developed especially following the merger in 1989. The present day Queen Mary is the fourth largest college in the University of London.
The People's Palace began in 1886, with the purpose of providing an educational and cultural centre for the local community. It was financed by the Beaumont Trust, established under the will of John Barber Beaumont to support the Philosophical Institution that he had founded, and occupied the site of the former Bancroft's School acquired from the Drapers' Company. The Palace was to comprise the Queen's Hall, a library modelled on that of the British Museum, a swimming bath, a gymnasium, and a winter garden as well as schools. The foundation stone of the Queen's Hall was laid by the Prince of Wales in June 1886, and it was opened by Queen Victoria in the following year. The Queen's Hall was used for lectures, concerts and organ recitals, shows of birds and flowers, exhibitions of animals and pictures, fetes and other entertainments which, reportedly, were attended by thousands of people. The library and swimming bath were completed in 1888 as were the technical and trade schools which later developed into Queen Mary College. The Bow and Bromley Institute amalgamated with the People's Palace as a branch of East London College in 1898. The winter garden, begun in 1890 and completed in 1892, was also used for concerts and refreshments. The gymnasium, constructed in 1891, had a roller-skating rink in the basement. However, the financial management of the Palace soon ran into difficulties. It was saved by the Drapers' Company which committed a subsidy of £70,000 over ten years.
In 1889 a separate students' library had been established and by 1902 the Governors agreed that the original library should be transferred to the Borough of Stepney to form the basis for the first public library in Mile End. In 1911 the Visiting Committee of the Palace Governors was split into two to form a Palace Committee and a College Committee albeit still under the umbrella of the Palace Governors. This was the beginning of a final administrative separation of the Palace from the College which was formalised in 1913.
In 1931 a fire completely destroyed the Queen's Hall and it was decided to resite the People's Palace in St Helen's Terrace. This gave the whole of the original site to the College and finally achieved the physical separation of Palace and College. The new People's Palace was opened in 1937, providing a concert and dance hall. However, postwar conditions meant that the People's Palace was no longer financially sustainable, and in 1953 it came on the market. In 1954 it was acquired by Queen Mary College. Then in 1956 it was renamed the Queen's Building by HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and became an integral part of Queen Mary College.
Queen Mary College traced its foundation from the opening of the People's Palace in Mile End in1887. The purpose of the Palace was to provide an educational and cultural centre for the local community and it included technical schools from the beginning. The whole complex was completed by 1892 but already the tensions between the two purposes of the Palace: pleasure and tuition, were evident. The entertainment side of the operation was suffering from financial difficulties which threatened the continued success of the educational side. Eventually a Scheme was approved whereby the Drapers' Company agreed to support the Palace with £7000 per annum for ten years and took seven places on the Governing Body.
In 1896 the Palace's technical schools became the East London Technical College. The College was divided into three Departments: a boys' Day School (closed in 1906), Day Classes and Evening Classes preparing students for university and the civil service. There was an emphasis on engineering and chemistry but trade and commercial classes were also taught. Bow and Bromley Institute was amalgamated with the College in 1898 and continued as a branch until its closure in 1911. By 1900 five Professors at the College were recognised as University of London teachers.
In 1905 an evening Arts course was started and Technical was removed from the college's name reflecting the changed emphasis of its mission to promote higher education in East London. An application for School status was made to the University of London and in 1907 this was granted on a temporary basis, followed by permanent recognition in 1915. Working arrangements for the Palace and the College were also under review and in 1911 the Visiting Committee of the Palace Governors was split into two to form a College Committee and a Palace Committee albeit still under the umbrella of the Palace Governors. In 1913 a College Council and an Academic Board were established which finally separated the College from the Palace.
The Students' Union Society started in 1908 and a College magazine was authorised in 1910 subject to the Principal's censorship. Following a bequest in 1909 an Aeronautical Society and the first university aeronautical laboratory were established. In 1917 the College admitted London Hospital Medical College students for the first time due to war-time conditions. Hostel accommodation for women was first provided in 1918 at Snaresbrook and, later, at Whipps Cross. The mid-1920s saw the development of a School of Drama and a Drama Society.
A fire in 1931 which completely destroyed the Palace's Queen's Hall paved the way for the final physical separation of Palace and College whilst also allowing space for the expansion of the College onto the original site of the Palace. Again the Drapers' Company provided the means and the finance for the change. The College then set about gaining a Royal Charter and as part of the process decided that a change of name would be beneficial. In December 1934 the Charter of Incorporation of Queen Mary's College was handed to the Master of the Drapers' Company. During the 1930s, a reconstruction scheme resulted in a new lecture theatre, a rebuilding of the engineering departments, provision of a high-voltage laboratory, a new chemistry laboratory, extension of the physics department, and dining hall.
From 1939 to 1945 the College was evacuated to Cambridge with the male students housed at King's and the female at Girton. QMC buildings in Mile End became a barracks for troops guarding the London Docks until 1941 when Stepney Borough Council became tenants. During this period the College Governors met at Drapers' Hall whilst the Academic Board met regularly at King's. The two decades after the war saw a substantial expansion of the College through the acquisition of adjacent bombed sites and student numbers increased from 853 in 1947 to 2162 in 1967. Between 1956 and 1962 a new engineering complex was constructed and a new physics block was completed in the same year. This was the first stage of a strategy to house science departments outside the main building which could then devoted to arts and administration. In 1961 the establishment of a mathematical laboratory laid the basis for the development of a Computer Centre, opened in 1968, and a Department of Computer Science and Statistics which enabled the College to be the first within the University to provide a degree course concentrated on computer science. The college has continued to be at the forefront of the application of computer technology with the establishment of computer-assisted teaching in 1973 and a computer aided design and manufacture laboratory in 1984.
Following the Robbins Report in 1963 the College proposed new buildings for mathematics and biology with the establishment of new Faculties of Laws and Economics. The latter were established in 1965 and 1966 respectively. The provision of a nuclear reactor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering during the same years was another first for the College among UK universities. The reactor was deactivated in 1982 as part of the rationalisation of College activities.
Courses for London Hospital Medical College students were discontinued in 1961. However, the Todd Report on Medical Education in 1968 recommended the association of St Bartholomew's and the London Medical Colleges with QMC and the "BLQ" scheme dominated the College's planning for the following seventeen years. After 1967 the College began to expand eastwards towards the Regent's Canal to provide space for pre-clinical teaching as well as facilities and amenities for a larger College. The financial stringencies of the late 1970s and 1980s, brought a reduction in estate commitments elsewhere and some single honours courses were relinquished with others transferred. However, QMC was designated as one of the five sites within the University for concentration of laboratory sciences and some fifty-three academic and twenty technical staff with 350 science-based students were transferred from other Schools of the University during 1983 and 1984. Also the academic structure of the College was adapted with the establishment of Schools which combined the resources of departments where interests and activities overlapped. Emphasis was given to developing Centres to facilitate inter-disciplinary research. The 1980s ended with the amalgamation of Westfield College with QMC in 1989. In the same year the BLQ scheme was finally realised and courses were provided for pre-clinical students from the Medical Colleges of St. Bartholomew's and The London Hospitals.
The Personnel Department became part of Queen Mary and Westfield College on the merger of the colleges in 1989.
The first principal of East London College (later Queen Mary College) was John Leigh Streatham Hatton, from 1908 to 1933. He was also Director of Studies of the People's Palace Schools from 1896. Later principals were Major General Sir Frederick Barton Maurice, 1933-1944, Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1944-1951, Sir Thomas Percival Creed, 1952-1967, Sir Harry Melville, 1967-1976, Sir James Woodham Menter, 1976-1986 and Professor Ian Butterworth, 1986-1991.
Salters Fellow Cambridge 1957-1958; Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry Queen Mary, Queen Mary College posts 1961-1994, Lecturer Organic Chemistry 1961-1966, Reader 1966-1974, Personal Chair 1974-1976, Professor of Organic Chemistry 1976-1994.
Professor R S [Dicky] Clymo. Member of Botany Department at Westfield College 1961-1983, moved to Queen Mary College 1983, remained with Queen Mary and Westfield College after the merger and became, Dean of Faculty 1988-1991 and Head of School 1991-1995.
Born 1872; Entered Westfield College in 1894 and left to study a Degree Course in Modern Languages at Oxford University; obtained a Doctorate from University of Paris in 1905 with thesis on 'Une source francaise des poèmes de Gower'; served as a nurse for two years in Paris during the First World War; later went on to lecture on art and history at Oxford; committed suicide in old age. Daughter of Sir Robert Nicholas Fowler, first baronet (1828-1891), banker and politician.