The committee comprised representatives of organisations affiliated to, or eligible for affiliation to the Labour Party. They discussed the relief of civil distress, food prices, housing and pensions.
Born 1902; educated privately; social worker in South and East London, 1924-1929; student at the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1926-1929; Lecturer, LSE, 1929-1939 and 1944-1957; Principal Officer for Employment and Training, National Association of Girls' Clubs, 1939-1944; Director of British Council Social Welfare Courses, 1942-1944; Member, McNair Committee, 1943; Member, Departmental Committee on Social Workers in the Mental health Services, 1948; Member, Committee of Enquiry into the Law and Practice Relating to Charitable Trusts; Chairman, Ministry of Health Working Party on Social Workers in the Health and Welfare Services, 1959; Adviser, National Institute for Social Work Training, 1961-1967; President, International Association of Schools of Social Work, 1961-1968; Member, Committee on the Probation Service, 1962; DBE, 1964; member of various committees for penal reform, child care, youth service, care of old people, family welfare, social studies and international social work; René Sand Award, International Council on Social Welfare, 1976; Chairman, Hammersmith Juvenile Court; died 1981. Publications: The education and training of social workers (Carnegie UK Trust, 1947); Social work in Britain (Carnegie UK Trust, 1951); Social work and social change (London, 1964); Social work in Britain, 1950-1975: a follow-up study (Allen and Unwin, London, 1978); The newest profession: a short history of social work (Community Care, Sutton, 1981).
Colonial Research covers the papers relating to various councils and committees concerned with colonial research. The Colonial Social Science Research Council was established by the British Government at the end of World War Two to undertake research into the economic development of the colonies. The records held at the LSE appear to represent private sets of the Council's papers collected by its leading members, specifically Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders and Sir Arnold Plant. The Council was superceded by the Overseas Development Committee and various other councils and committees, represented by each section of the collection. Official Colonial Office records deposited at The National Archives may contain the Council's central archive.
This research explored the effects of changing legal regulation between 1983 and 1992 on relations of power within local government. The methodology of the project involved case studies in four local authorities with in-depth interviews being undertaken with local officials, councillors and other relevant individuals. The project resulted in a book, Governing out of order: space, law and the politics of belonging by Davina Cooper.
Leonard Henry Courtney, 1832 - 1918, was born in Penzance and educated at St John's College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar in 1858 and became a Bencher in 1889. He left law to became Professor of Political Economy at University College, London in 1872, a post that he held until 1875. He also entered politics, becoming the Liberal Party MP for Liskeard from 1875 to 1885, and then MP for the Bodmin Division of Cornwall until 1900. He was made Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department 1880 - 1881, and for the Colonial Office 1881 - 1882. In 1884 he resigned the office of Financial Secretary to the Treasury. His last post was as Chairman of Committees and Deputy Speaker, which he held 1886 - 1892. Leonard Courtney was also a contributor to The Times and The Nineteenth Century. He married Catherine (née Potter, sister of Beatrice Webb) in 1883.
The Constitutional Reform Centre was founded in 1984 to investigate the reform of the British constitution and government. The work of the CRC is controlled by an advisory board, and includes holding conferences and commissioning investigations into areas of constitutional reform. These have included the role of planning enquiries, the development of a written constitution, the civil service, and the intervention of the European Commission. The Centre has also organised a series of seminars under the aegis of the Rt Hon Leslie George Scarman, Baron Scarman of Quatt. A working party has investigated company political donations and benefits to business of good government. Publications include the Constitutional Reform Quarterly Review and CRC Politics Briefings. The CRC has worked with other organisations, notably the National Committee for Electoral Reform, and the Campaign for Fair Votes.
Anthony Crosland was educated at Highgate School and Trinity College, Oxford. He graduated in PPE in 1946, following war service in Italy, and was a lecturer and fellow of Trinity College from 1947-1950. He was Labour MP for South Gloucester 1950-1955 and for Grimsby 1959-1977. He was Minister of State for Economic Affairs 1964-1965, Secretary of State for Education and Science 1965-1967, for Local Government and Regional Planning 1969-1970, and for the Environment 1974-1976, and Foreign Secretary 1976-1977. He was also secretary of the Independent Commission into the Co-operative Movement, 1956-1958, and a member of the Consumer's Council, 1958-1963. He married Susan Catling in 1964.
John Edward Hugh Neale Dalton, 1887-1962, was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He won the Winchester Reading Prize at Cambridge in 1909 and the Hutchinson Research studentship at LSE 1911-1913. He became a Barrister-at-law in 1914, and it was also in this year that he married Ruth Fox. During World War I, Dalton served in the RASC and the Royal Artillery in France and Italy, and was attached to the Ministry of Labour for special investigations in 1919. After the war he returned to a career in economics. He became a lecturer at LSE in 1919, Sir Ernest Cassel Reader in Commerce at the University of London, 1920-1925, and a Reader in Economics at the University of London, 1925-1936. He entered politics in 1924, becoming the Labour MP for Peckham 1924-1929, and Bishop Auckland 1929-1931 and 1935-1959. He became Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs 1929-1931, Chairman of Labour Party National Executive Committee 1936-1937, Minister of Economic Warfare 1940-1942, President of the Board of Trade 1942-1945, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1945-1947, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1948-1950 and Minister of Town and Country Planning 1950-1951. He was created Baron Dalton of Forest and Frith in 1960.
An ESRC funded project drawing together two key contemporary political debates: on the one hand, the democratic implications of the expansion in non-elective government in recent years, and on the other the media's growing centrality in the political system. Apart from providing unique data on the hitherto neglected relationship between these areas, the project aimed to contribute to current debates regarding democratic accountability, information flows, news management and state-media relations. The research programme combines several empirical strands various facets of the relationship between the appointive, Quasi-non governmental organisations ('Quangos') and the British news media.
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson was born in 1862 in a Christian Socialist family. He studied at Charterhouse and King's College, Cambridge, and tried lecturing and medicine before turning to literature full time. In 1887 he became a Fellow at King's College where he remained for the rest of his life. Dickinson lectured at the London School of Economics for 15 years and with Lord Dickinson and Lord Bryce he planned the ideas behind of the League of Nations, resulting in his book The International Anarchy. He died on 3 August 1932.
The Economic History Society was inaugurated at a general meeting held at the London School of Economics on 14 July 1926. R H Tawney took the chair and, after the resolution to form the Society had been carried unanimously, the meeting discussed the constitution and aims of the Society and proceeded to elect its first officers, with Sir William Ashley as the first President. The publication of the Economic History Review was also discussed and R H Tawney and Mr Lipson were appointed as joint editors. The aims of the Society are:
- To promote the study of economic history.
- To issue the Economic History Review.
- to publish and sponsor other publications in the fields of economic and social history.
- To establish closer relations between students and teachers of economic and social history.
- To hold an annual conference and to hold or participate in any other conference or meeting as may be deemed expedient in accordance with the objects of the Society.
6.To co-operate with other organisations having kindred purposes.
The promotion of economic history has mainly been effected through the publication of the Economic History Review and the holding of annual conferences. The Society has also liased with academic funding councils about support for economic history teaching and research and has sought to encourage schools to promote the teaching of economic history.
Woolly Al Walks the Kitty Back was produced by Brian Lapping Associates for BBC Timewatch. It was broadcast in 1992.
William Farr, 1807-1883, was born in Kenley, Shropshire. At the age of two, he was effectively adopted by a local squire, Joseph Pryce, who paid for Farr's education. From 1826 to 1828, Farr worked as a dresser in the infirmary at Shrewsbury and studied medicine with a doctor there. On Pryce's death in 1828, Farr received a legacy that enabled him to pursue his studies in Paris and Switzerland. In 1831, Farr returned to Shrewsbury to work as an unqualified locum before studying at University College London, becoming a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries. In 1833, he established an apothecary's practice in Bloomsbury, London, and proceeded to publish a number of articles in The Lancet on such topics as hygiene, quack medicine, life assurance and cholera. Farr had first demonstrated an interest in medical statistics during his studies abroad, and in 1832 he published his "Vital Statistics" in Macculloch's Account of the British Empire, thus starting a new interest in statistics. From 1838 to 1879, he worked in the Registrar General's Office compiling abstracts. In 1855, he served on the Committee for Scientific Enquiry into the cholera epidemic of 1854, and produced statistical evidence that cholera was spread by polluted water, though he and his colleagues continued to adhere to the theory that epidemic disease was spread by miasma. Farr also served as commissioner for the 1871 census. He retired from public service in 1879.
Born 1923; educated George Watson's, Edinburgh, King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth, Daniel Stewart's, Edinburgh, High School, Stirling, and Glasgow University; spent three seasons with Shakespeare Memorial Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1948-[1951]; spent three years with the BBC Repertory Company; became famous for playing the part of Jet Morgan in the BBC radio drama Journey into Space; appeared in 37 films and many TV and radio performances; Council Member, British Actors' Equity, 1966-1969; Labour MP, Smethwick, 1966-74, and Warley East, 1974-97; Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Thomson Stonehouse as Minister of State for Aviation, 1967, Minister of Technology, 1967-68, and Postmaster General, 1968-69; Opposition spokesman for the Arts, 1970-73, and 1979-82; Founder, and Chairman, British Parliamentary Association for Euro-Arab Cooperation, 1974-97; Co-Chairman, All-Party Parliamentary Heritage Group, 1974-97; Member, House of Commons Works of Art Committee, 1970-97; Member, British Delegation to Council of Europe and Western European Union, 1975-80, and 1987-97; Executive Committee, GB China Centre, 1976-97; Executive Committee, Inter-Parliamentary Union, (British Section), 1983-97; Executive Committee, Franco-British Council, 1978-88; retired 1997; died 2000.
The Federal Union was founded in 1938 to advance the cause of federal government among democratic states in order to achieve international peace, economic stability and civil rights, by means of research, debate and political activity. The Federal Union flourished throughout the war years and established a series of active local and regional organisations. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Union was involved in political debates on topics such as the United Nations charter, international monetary reform and disarmament. It also concerned itself with post war reconstruction and, through this, the cause of European integration and the British entry into the European Economic Community. Federal Union continues to campaign for federalism for the UK, Europe and the world and argues that democracy and the rule of law should apply between states as well as within them. In 1945, on the initiative of Sir William Beveridge, the Federal Educational & Research Trust, an educational charity, was established. The purpose of the Trust was to encourage the study of international relations and co-operation and further research into federal principles and institutions by conducting enquiries, seminars, conferences and reports. Now known as the Federal Trust for Education and Research it continues to operate as a think tank studying the interaction between regional, national, European and global levels of government. Federal Trust has always had a particular interest in the European Union and Britain's place in it. In more recent years, it has supplemented its European work with studies on devolution and regional government in the United Kingdom and reports on global governance.
The Committee on One Parent Families (Finer Committee) was established by Richard (Howard Stafford) Crossman, Secretary of State for Social Services, on 6 November 1969, to consider the problems of one parent families and what help could be given them. The Chair was the Hon Sir Morris Finer (1917-1974). The Report of the Committee (Cmnd 5629) was presented to Barbara Anne Castle, Secretary of State for Social Services, in July 1974. The Committee gathered material through the research projects of universities, government departments and charities, as well as the Department of Health and Social Services and its own research assistants. It also collected evidence from organisations and individuals, a request for which was published in the national press of November 1969. Professor Richard Morris Titmuss, Professor of Social Administration at LSE, was a member of the Committee until his death in 1973.
The general election was held in May 2005 and was won by the Labour Party with a reduced majority. Requests for donations were sent out to candidates of all parties throughout the country and major deposits were received from all parts of the United Kingdom. Parties represented include: Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, UK Independence Party, Socialist Alliance, Plaid Cymru, Scottish National Party and a range of parties from Northern Ireland. The collection also includes a wide range of addresses and material from smaller parties and Independent candidates.
Morris Ginsberg, 1889-1970, was born into one of the smaller Lithuanian Jewish communities of the Russian empire. His first language was Yiddish and as a Talmudic scholar he was educated in classical Hebrew. However he quickly mastered English when he migrated to England to work in the business of relatives in Manchester whilst preparing for entry to London University. He entered University College London in 1910 to read for a degree in philosophy and obtained his MA in 1915. He was a temporary lecturer at LSE from 1915-1916, and Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at UCL in 1921. He became an assistant in the Sociology Department at LSE in 1921 and a Lecturer in 1924. He became Martin White Professor of Sociology in 1929, succeeding Hobhouse, and held this chair until 1954. As Professor Emeritus he taught in the School until 1968.
Ellis Charles Raymond Hadfield, 1909-1996, was born in Pietersburg, South Africa, and educated at Blundell's School, Devon, where he began his first researches into canal history. After studying economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, Hadfield became a bookseller. He joined the Oxford University Press in 1936 and rose to become Director of Publications, Central Office of Information, 1946-1948, and Controller (Overseas), 1948-1962. David and Charles publishers was formed in 1960, and Hadfield was Director of this company from 1960-1964. Hadfield is best known for his extensive publications which chart the history of British canals and waterways. His most notable publications are The Canal Age, David and Charles (1968), and British Canals - An Illustrated History, David and Charles (1984). In 1945 he became the first Vice Chairman of the Inland Waterways Association, and he was a member of the British Waterways Board from 1962 to 1966.
Thomas Bewley Haran was born in Wishaw, Scotland. He was a retired bank official, whose career spanned 43 years, the majority in the City of London. He died on 15 July 2000.
Robert Beach was a member of the Gay Liberation Front which held its first meeting on 13 October 1970 at the London School of Economics. It was the beginning of a three year period of great activity, with demonstrations, debates, street theatre, and the establishment of a new gay press. Although GLF began in London, local groups rapidly grew up.
John Chesterman was closely involved in the formation of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in 1970, and the production of the Gay International News, which preceded Gay News. The GLF began life in a basement room at the London School of Economics on 13 October 1970. Though without a formal structure, the movement grew rapidly for the next few years and undertook a great number of consciousness-raising activities, such as demonstrations, debates and the establishment of a new gay press.
The Christian Literature Society for China had a complex genesis. It originated as a School and Text Book Committee of the China Missionary Conference in 1877, developing into the Chinese Book and Tract Society in Glasgow in 1884 and forming the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge (SDCGK) among the Chinese in 1887. It was supported by the Christian Literature Society for China, organised in 1892 to succeed the Chinese Book and Tract Society. In 1906 the SDCGK changed its name to the Christian Literature Society for China. In 1942 the Scottish Committee organising support for the Christian Literature Society for China was incorporated into the United Society for Christian Literature. For further information see G Hewitt, Let the People Read (London, 1949).
Arthur Cowper Raynard was born in Kent in 1845; studied at University College London, co-founding a mathematical society with George De Morgan (son of Augustus De Morgan), before entering Pembroke College, Cambridge, from which he graduated MA in 1868. Ranyard was called the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1871 and thereafter practised law, but his income was sufficient to allow him to spend much of his time studying astronomy. He became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1863 and spent many years serving on its council. Ranyard died in 1894.
Algernon Charles Swinburne was born in Grosvenor Place, London on 5 April 1837. Swinburne attended Eton in 1849 before entering Balliol College, Oxford in 1856. He left Oxford without graduating in 1860. He contributed to periodicals including the Spectator and Fortnightly Review. The first poem to be published under his name was Atalanta in Calydon (1865), which was received with critical acclaim. He also wrote the political work Songs before Sunrise and continued to write until a few years before his death. He died of influenza on 10 April 1909.
Augustus de Morgan was born at Madura, India in 1806; educated at various English schools. In February 1823 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1827. In 1828 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at University College London. De Morgan resigned his post in 1831, on account of a disagreement with the University Council who claimed the right of dismissing a professor without assigning reasons. He resumed his chair in 1836 on assurance that the regulations had been altered so as to preserve the independence of professors, remaining Professor of Mathematics at UCL until he resigned in November 1866; he died in 1871.
Benjamin Hall was born in London in 1802 of Welsh parents and educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford. He served as Whig MP for Monmouth for several years in the 1830s before being elected Liberal MP for Marylebone in 1837. He became a baronet in 1838 and entered the House of Lords as Baron Llanover in 1859. He also spent periods serving as as president of the General Board of Health, as Chief Commissioner of works, and as Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire. Hall's wife Augusta (née Waddington) was a leading figure in the movement to revive the Welsh language, literature and culture. The Great Bell of Westminster is believed to have been given its nickname 'Big Ben' in his honour. Hall died in 1867.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Anne Isabella Ritchie was born in 1837, the elder daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1861), a well-known Victorian novelist. Anne (Anny) was a prolific novelist, essayist and writer of memoirs. By 1875, The Works of Miss Thackeray had been published in eight volumes (Smith, Elder and Company), extended to 15 volumes by 1866. Most of her critical essays appeared in The Cornhill Magazine. Her first contribution appeared in the magazine's first year, 1860, and most of her fiction appeared serially in the magazine including, The Village on the Cliff, Old Kensington, Miss Angel and Mrs Dymond. Anne Thackeray married her cousin, Richmond Thackeray Willoughby Ritchie, in 1877; their son's wife Margaret Paulina Ritchie was the daughter of Charles and Mary Booth. Richie died in 1919.
Anne Isabella Ritchie was born in 1837, the elder daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1861), a well-known Victorian novelist. Anne (Anny) was a prolific novelist, essayist and writer of memoirs. By 1875, The Works of Miss Thackeray had been published in eight volumes (Smith, Elder and Company), extended to 15 volumes by 1866. Most of her critical essays appeared in The Cornhill Magazine. Her first contribution appeared in the magazine's first year, 1860, and most of her fiction appeared serially in the magazine including, The Village on the Cliff, Old Kensington, Miss Angel and Mrs Dymond. Anne Thackeray married her cousin, Richmond Thackeray Willoughby Ritchie, in 1877; their son's wife Margaret Paulina Ritchie was the daughter of Charles and Mary Booth. Richie died in 1919.
Brenda Elizabeth Spender was born in Bray, Berkshire. She was the literary editor of Country Life magazine between 1925 and 1946. Spender also wrote the 'On'y Tony' series of books for children.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Alfred John Fairbank was born in Grimsby , Lincolnshire, in 1895 and brought up in Gillingham, Kent. He joined the civil service aged 15, initially working as a writer at Chatham dockyard, where a colleague introduced him to calligraphy. Whilst working at the Admiralty in London in th 1920s, Fairbank was able to study handwriting formally, becoming an acknowledged expert in both the study and practice of calligraphy and the author of several books on the subject, as well as a founder-member of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators. He was awarded the CBE in 1951 and died in 1982.
Dr Bruce Barker-Benfield is a librarian in the Special Collections and Western Manuscripts department at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
John Sinclair was born in Thurso, Caithness in 1754. He was educated at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford. He qualified as a lawyer in both Scotland and England but never practised law. In 1780 he entered the House of Commons as MP for Caithness, subsequently serving as MP for several English and Scottish constituencies between 1784 and 1811. Sir John wrote several works on economics and agriculture and became the first
President of the Board of Agriculture in 1793. His Statistical Account of Scotland popularized the use of the word 'statistics' in English.
John Sinclair was born in Thurso, Caithness, and educated at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford. He qualified as a lawyer in both Scotland and England but never practised law. In 1780 he entered the House of Commons as MP for Caithness, subsequently serving as MP for several English and Scottish constituencies between 1784 and 1811. Sir John wrote several works on ecnomics and agriculture and became the first president of the Board of Agriculture in 1793. His Statistical Account of Scotland popularized the use of the word 'statistics' in English.
Samuel Smiles was born in Haddington, East Lothian in 1812. He studied medicine in Edinburgh. He also became a journalist, lecturer and campaigner for political reform, writing radical articles for regional newsapers, most often in Leeds. In later years he worked for railway companies and the National Provident Institution, and also became a noted biographer. Smiles's radical views mellowed into liberalism and his writings turned towards advocating self-improvement. His book Self Help, with illustrations of character and conduct (1859) became a bestseller and was translated into more than ten languages.
Adam Smith was born in Fifeshire and studied at the University of Glasgow and Balliol College, Oxford. During 1751-1763 he was a Professor of at Glasgow, teaching logic and moral philosophy, and subsquently worked a private tutor and independent scholar before becoming Commissioner of Customs for Scotland in 1788. His friends and associates included the philosopher David Hume, the scientist Joseph Black and the geologist James Hutton. Smith's academic work helped to create the discipline of economics in its modern form and provided an intellectual rationale for capitalism and free-market economics. His best known works are The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776).
Gilbert Wakefield was born in Nottingham and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. He became a fellow of the college in 1776, concentrating on Biblical studies. He was ordained in the Church of England, but gave up his curacy after a few years because of his disagreements with aspects of Anglican teaching, including the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and subsequently taught in several Unitarian schools. His speeches and writings gave him a reputation as a political and religious controversialist: he was opposed to slavery and to many of the policies of the Pitt government, but supported the French Revolution. Wakefield was imprisoned in Dorchester Gaol after writing an anti-government pamphlet in 1798; he died a few months after his release in 1801.
Charles Wood was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire in 1800. He was educated at Eton and at Oriel College, Oxford. He entered Parliament as Liberal MP for Great Grimsby in 1826, subsequently serving as MP for Wareham, Dorset (1831-1832), Halifax (1832-1865) and Ripon (1865-1866). He also held several cabinet posts, being successively Chancellor of the Exchequer (1846-1852), President of the Board of Control (1852-1855), First Lord of the Admiralty (1855-1858) and Secretary of State for India (1859-1866). He was created a baronet in 1846 and entered the House of Lords as Viscount Halifax in 1866. In general his policies were progressive but not radical. His wife, Mary (1807-1884), was the daughter of the 2nd Earl Grey.
Robert Southey was born in Bristol in 1774. He was educated in Corston, Bristol and Westminster School. He entered Balliol College, Oxford in 1792 after he was expelled from Westminster for denouncing flogging in a school magazine, The Flagellant. In 1794 Southey wrote the play that belied his then republican spirit, Wat Tyler. Southey became a supporter of the Tory government. His epic poem Joan of Arc was published in 1795. He was appointed secretary to Isaac Corry, the Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer in c 1801. In 1809 Southey joined the staff of the Quarterly Review and wrote regularly for the periodical until 1839. From 1809 to 1815 he edited and principally wrote the Edinburgh Annual Register. He also wrote several books including, The Book of the Church Vindicated (1824), Sir Thomas More (1829) and Lives of the British Admirals (1833). Southey was appointed Poet Laureate in 1813, and to commemorate the death of King George III in 1821, he wrote his poem A Vision of Judgement. In 1826 he was elected MP for Downton, Wiltshire, but was disqualified for not possessing the necessary estate. He died in Keswick in 1843.
Sir Robert Peel was born in Lancashire in 1788. He was at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford. He entered parliament aged 21 as Tory MP for Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland, subsequently serving as MP for Chippenham, Wiltshire and Oxford University before succeeding his father as MP for Tamworth, Staffordshire in 1830. He first became a cabinet minister in 1822 and served two terms as Prime Minister (1834-1835, 1841-1846). Peel's Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 and his government's repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 (which led to its fall and provoked a split in the Tories) both strongly influenced the development of the Conservative party into its current form. However, he is best remembered for establishing the Metropolitan Police ('Bobbies' or 'Peelers') whilst Home Secretary in 1829. He died in 1850 after falling from his horse. His son (also Robert) succeeded him as baronet and as MP for Tamworth.
Charles George Gordon was born in Woolwich, Kent, and educated at the Royal Military Academy there. He was commissioned as an army officer in 1852. He took part in the Crimean War and served in China for several years, but is best known for his service in Sudan in the 1870 and 1880s. He became Governor General of Sudan in 1874. He was killed when Khartoum was captured by forces of the Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, after a siege of 317 days; at the time of his death he held the rank of major-general. His nicknames 'Chinese Gordon' and 'Gordon of Khartoum' were derived from the places with which he was most associated in the public imagination.
Samuel Plimsoll was born in Bristol in 1824. He was brought up in northern England. He became a clerk and later a businessman before entering parliament as Liberal MP for Derby in 1868, retaining the seat until 1880. Plimsoll was concerned with the struggles of the poor and with sailors' interests. He spoke out against the common practice of overloading ships with goods and devised the Plimsoll line, marked on ships to show the safe depth at which they may sit in the water. Plimsoll gym shoes, so-called because their outer rubber band is reminiscent of a Plimsoll line, are indirectly named after him.
Godfrey Lushington was born in Westminster in 1832. He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford. His father, Stephen, was a judge and his twin brother, Vernon, was an eminent lawyer; both twins were strongly influenced by Auguste Comte's positivist philosophy. An early supporter of the labour movement, Godfrey Lushington was one of the first teachers at the Working Men's College in London, founded in 1854. He became a civil servant, rising to permanent under-secretary at the Home Office in 1885, and was knighted in 1892. On his retirement, Sir Godfrey became an alderman of the London County Council from 1895 to 1898.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
John Burnett was born in Alnwick, Northumberland, in 1842. He was orphaned at the age of twelve, he went to live with an uncle on Tyneside, where he became an engineering apprentice and attended evening classes. He was prominent in the Newcastle Mechanics' Institute. He became a trade union leader, eventually becoming general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1875. He became labour correspondent at the Board of Trade in 1886, and continued to work for the Board until his retirement in 1906.
Maximilian II was born in Vienna in 1527. He became King of Bohemia in 1562 and King of Hungary in 1563, before succeeding his father, Ferdinand II, as Holy Roman Emperor in 1564. His son, Rudolf II, succeeded him as Emperor on his death in 1576. A Roman Catholic himself, Maximilian was sympathetic towards Lutheranism and worked for peace and religious tolerance.
Charles Stanhope was born in London and educated at Eton College and the University of Geneva. He became MP for High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in 1780, keeping the seat until 1786, when he became Earl Stanhope on his father's death. Politically, his opinions were liberal and strongly democratic: he supported the abolition of slavery and was sympathetic to religious dissenters and to the French Revolution. Stanhope was also strongly interested in science: he became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1772 and conceived several inventions, including a new type of printing press. William Pitt the Younger was his brother-in-law from his first marriage and Lady Hester Stanhope, who travelled widely in the Middle East, was his eldest daughter.
Wilhelmina Stirling (1865-1965) was a collector of artefacts. She was the younger sister of the painter Evelyn De Morgan, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite art circle.
Walter Copeland Jerrold was born in Liverpool in 1865. He married Clara Bridgeman in 1895 and they had 6 children. The subjects of Jerrold's books include Thomas Hood, Charles Lamb and George Meredith, as well as Jerrold's grandfather, the playwright and journalist Douglas William Jerrold. Walter Copeland Jerrold died in London in 1929