The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Secretary and Librarian undertook the administration of the Institute under the direction of the Committee of Management and was also responsible for building up the library. The position was held by K Howard Drake from 1947 until his death in 1967. He was succeeded by W A F P Steiner. In 1971 the functions were separated, with Steiner continuing as IALS Librarian while administrative duties passed to a new Secretary, J A Boxhall.
This series originally comprised four account books dated 1947-1950, located and listed during the 1997 survey to find items of historical interest.
The Legal Skills Research Group (LSRG) was formed in 1989 as a collective enterprise by some of the country's leading researchers into the skills needed for the study and practice of the law. The Group intended that it should act as a resource for professional legal and judicial bodies, users of legal services and institutions providing legal education at all levels, by: doing original research on legal skills; monitoring and evaluating current and completed research in the field; developing and evaluating curricula for the teaching of legal skills and providing information and consultancy services. The Group was housed at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) from 1989-1997 and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council. It comprises teachers from law schools throughout the country. It has held annual symposia and regular lunchtime seminars, commencing in July 1990, on various subjects. Most symposia papers have been published in IALS working papers. Subjects have included teaching of ethics, incompetence at the Bar, teaching alternative dispute resolution and evaluation of the Bar Vocational Course. The Group has also undertaken various special research projects, including a 5 year study commencing in 1989 to develop a general methodology for assessing legal skills. Later projects included developing methods for applying the theoretical findings of year 1 of the legal skills project and the development of training videos.
Dr S B (Stan) Marsh (1926-1998) was a barrister and law teacher. After three and a half years' war service in the Royal Navy he graduated BCom from the University of London in 1949 and DipEd from Leicester University in 1950; he then taught at Leicester College of Technology from 1950-1956. During this time he obtained his LL.B from the University of London, and was called to the Bar of Gray's Inn in 1958. He was Head of the Commerce Department at Peterborough Technical College from 1956-1958 and Head of the Department of Business and Secretarial Studies at Manchester College of Commerce in 1958. From the latter Department grew the Department of Law, subsequently incorporated into Manchester Polytechnic. Dr Marsh's first foray into research in legal education was his thesis for a higher degree, for which he was awarded a PhD at Leicester University in 1956. This research was later continued in association with Professor John Wilson of Southampton University and then with Dr Julia Bailey, then lecturing at Manchester. Dr Marsh served as a member of the Lord Chancellor's Committee on Legal Education (the Ormrod Committee) and the Advisory Committee on Legal Education set up by the Inns of Court and the Law Society. He was the founding Chairman of the Association of Law Teachers from 1965-1967 and President from 1989-1996. Publications: The Association of Law Teachers; the First 25 Years (ALT, 1990).
Following the disappearance of the old non-statutory Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee, there was no longer any forum in which those responsible for the provision of legal education could discuss matters of common concern; nor was there any regular machinery for communication between the world of legal education and the new statutory Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (ACLEC). The then ACLEC Chairman, Lord Griffiths, therefore suggested the creation of a new forum in the shape of the Standing Conference on Legal Education (SCLE), and offered his own services as Chairman; meetings were also to be held at ACLEC. Financial support came from the Law Society and the Bar; an elected secretary was to carry out administrative work. The Conference meets six monthly: representatives include both the practising professions and academic lawyers. It consists of 22 members nominated by the legal profession and by the main providers of legal education; these include the Bar, the Law Society, Inns of Court School of Law, Inns of Court and Bar Educational Trust (formerly Council of Legal Education), the College of Law, the Association of Law Teachers, the Society of Public Teachers of Law, the Heads of University Law Schools, Legal Education and Training Group, Institute of Legal Executives, ACLEC and the Lord Chancellor's Department. The Conference offers advice and assistance to ACLEC; no formal links between the two have been created as the attendance of meetings by the ACLEC Chairman and Secretary has rendered this unnecessary.
Marian Henrietta Hewlett (1843-1915) decided to begin art and domestic science classes for girls in Harrow in 1887. Under the auspices of the Harrow Band of Mercy, premises were rented at no 102 High Street in 1888, and public funding (for technical education) was received from Middlesex County Council from 1890 (and from 1894 its Technical Education Committee). Boys were also admitted. Students were drawn from Harrow and the surrounding districts. A new building for Harrow Technical School opened at Greenhill, in Station Road, in 1902 (extended in 1907 and 1932). Teaching included art, photography, commercial and domestic subjects, particularly in evening classes. The School of Art was increasingly important. Many of the instructors were part-time. The name was changed to Harrow Technical College and School of Art in 1948. The first building on a 25-acre site at Northwick Park (acquired in 1936) was begun in 1954, completed in 1959 and formally opened in 1961. It housed the technical and commercial departments (Engineering, Science, Photography, Commerce, and Domestic Studies) - the School of Art did not move from Station Road until later. Following the White Paper on Technical Education in 1956 (Cmnd 9703) Harrow was designated an area college. From the 1960s alterations were made in Harrow courses and status under the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), with more degree-level courses and an increased number of full-time and part-time day students and staff. Links were formed with polytechnics including PCL (the Polytechnic of Central London, formerly Regent Street Polytechnic). Harrow specialisms included photography, fashion and ceramics. Additions were made to the buildings at Northwick Park in the 1970s. In 1978 the college was renamed Harrow College of Higher Education. In 1990 Harrow merged with PCL, which in 1992 became the University of Westminster. The Harrow campus was re-developed to house Harrow Business School, Harrow School of Computer Science, and the Schools of Communication and Design and Media (now the School of Communication and the Creative Industries). It was formally opened in 1995.
Born in London, 1927; Architectural Association Diploma, London, 1954; Associate, RIBA; self-employed, working mainly for clients obtaining improvement grants for small dwellings, and a new home self-builder, 1955-1957; employed, mainly by Peruvian government agencies, on improvement and self-help housing projects, and by the British Department of Technical Co-operation, setting up a Voluntary Service Overseas project for training young electricians, 1957-1965; Research Fellow at the Harvard-MIT Joint Centre for Urban Studies and subsequently a lecturer at MIT, publishing papers and developing a course on Housing in Development, and carrying out consultancies, mainly in Latin America, 1965-1973; lecturer at the Architectural Association Graduate School and subsequently at the Development Planning Unit, University College London, developing courses on Housing in Development, and carrying out consultancies in Africa and Asia, 1974-1983; received the Sir Robert Matthew Prize for Architecture, UIA, Paris, 1977; self-employed partner of AHAS, a consultancy on housing and local development, and undertook advisory work in London and Paris, 1984-1989; directed Habitat International Coalition's project for the UN International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, culminating in a conference of community activists and enablers at the Reichstag in Berlin, 1987; received the Right Livelihood Award, Stockholm, 1988; served on the Board of Hastings (local development ) Trust, 1991-2000; received the Habitat Scroll of Honour, United Nations, New York, 1992; received the Johannes Olivegren Memorial Award, Gothenburg, 1994; advised on projects at the Max Lock Centre (a research and consultancy group) at the School of the Built Environment, University of Westminster; volunteer on the Tools for Community Regeneration (TCR) project, an information and advisory service for self-managed community development initiatives, from 1997; Turner's work was influenced by the ecological, urban sociology of Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932). Publications include: edited and co-authored Dwelling Resources in South America, a special number of Architectural Design (Aug 1963); 'Barriers and Channels for Housing Development in Modernizing Countries', Journal of the American Institute of Planners, vol xxxiii, no 3 (1967); 'Uncontrolled Urban Settlement, problems and policies', International Social Development Review, no 1 (United Nations, New York, 1968); co-edited, with Robert Fichter, Freedom to Build, dweller control of the housing process (Macmillan, New York, 1972, and translated into Italian and Spanish); Housing By People, towards autonomy in building environments (London, 1976, and translated into Dutch, German, French, Italian and Spanish); 'Tools for Building Community, an examination of 13 hypotheses', in Habitat International, vol xx, no 3 (1996); 'From housing to building community, a mirror and a directive agency', in City, analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action (London, 1996); with Renate Ruether-Greaves, 'Tools for community regeneration (TCR) - a Hastings Trust project', in Building Civil Society, current initiatives in voluntary action, ed Barry Knight et al (Charities Aid Foundation, 1998).
(Cecil) Max Lock: born in Watford, 1909; attended the Architectural Association (AA) school in London from 1926; graduated, 1931; started a practice in the Watford area, 1933; its main work was housing, mostly for private clients; elected to Watford Borough Council, 1935; advocated better housing design and rent subsidies; travelled through Scandinavia for the Institute of Social Studies, 1937; commissioned to design a timber house, 1937; Unit Master at the AA, 1937-1939; a project for his students to compare residents' demands with LCC housing plans influenced his views, 1939; his timber house was featured in the RIBA Journal, 1939.
Lock influenced by Patrick Geddes's writings on town planning, began to study for town planning qualifications; served on the executive committee of the Housing Centre Trust; an active member of the Modern Architecture Research (MARS) group; his interests led him away from architecture and towards social policy and planning as a teacher, researcher, and town planner; left London for Hull and became provisional head of the School of Architecture, Hull College of Art, 1939; as a Quaker and conscientious objector, excused military service, but his views caused dispute over his permanent appointment; during evacuation to Scarborough, led a project by Hull students to design a recreation centre at nearby Scalby, 1940. In spite of the constant bombing Lock anticipated post-war reconstruction; on the School's return to Hull, a survey of Hull was started through sponsorship and grants, 1941; The Hull Regional Survey: a Civic Diagnosis was radical in its approach and novel in its presentation with visual aids, 1943; it was exhibited in London and discussed in the specialist and national press. Lock was invited by Middlesborough Corporation to draw up a master plan and moved to Middlesborough to start the survey, 1944; his Group of professionals and helpers lived communally in the suburbs, with an office in the town centre, open to all; with Jaqueline Tyrwhitt and Ruth Glass, pioneered social survey and analysis as the basis for planning; this work was carried out closely with Ministries and Departments responsible for planning, with a view to codifying the methodology of participatory social, economic and physical survey as an integral part of the emerging statutory planning process.
Lock travelled extensively, publicising the Group's work via exhibitions, the press and publications; the Middlesborough survey and plan were completed, 1945; the team was appointed to work on Hartlepool and its hinterland and, including some new members, moved to Hartlepool, with open premises in municipal buildings. This work was a test bed for the new procedures and was the first plan to go through the new statutory hurdles to receive full Ministry approval; Lock visited the Netherlands and wrote a report for the Town Planning Institute, 1946; the team was appointed to resolve conflicting interests between new county and city planning authorities in South Hampshire and moved to a house on Southampton Water, with open offices in Fareham.
Lock opposed the consequences of the Town and Country Planning Act (1947), believing it ignored social and public participation aspects essential to the planning process; the Group wound down following the completion of the Portsmouth report and co-operative working and living arrangements broke up. Lock moved to Victoria Square, London; appointed by Bedford municipality, where a locally-recruited team produced Bedford by the River, a more graphic report than previous work, for consideration by the county planning authority; formed Max Lock and Associates; the practice moved initially to Great Russell Street and finally to John Street.
Lock was elected to various Town Planning Institute committees; acted as planning consultant, including conflicts in Sevenoaks and Aberdare; undertook redevelopment plans for the centre of Salisbury - winning a public enquiry - and for Brentford's riverfront; the architectural practice flourished under his younger associates (made partners in 1954), but there was less town planning work; his reports had been well received overseas; made a lecture tour of India, Pakistan and Ceylon for the British Council, 1951. Lock met the Indian prime minister, Nehru, and wrote a report on India; visited Jordan as UN town planning advisor, 1954; spent time in the Middle East and worked on planning in Iraq, 1954-1956; visiting Professor at the Department of Town Planning and Civic Design, Harvard, 1957; appointed by the UK Overseas Development Administration to draw up a master plan for the city of Kaduna, 1964.
Lock returned to London to publish the results in a format that became an influential model, and introduced his concepts of participation and in-depth survey in the African context; instrumental in forming the Urban Development Advice Group (UDAG); UDAG drew up a report on Dunstable, 1969-1970; tried to save his team's concept for Kaduna from piecemeal aid projects in transport and drainage that disregarded the overall plan; travelled between Nigeria and the UK, where he continued work on places including Beverley and Middlesbrough. In his study of Hackney and Shoreditch he was an early advocate of rehabilitation, based on thorough social and economic survey, as against wholesale redevelopment, 1971. Lock made various trips to North and South America on planning issues; appointed by Nigeria's North Eastern State Government to draw up a master plan for Maiduguri and other provincial towns, 1972; designed an office there; with his partner, Michael Theis, formed the Max Lock Group Nigeria Ltd; influential in re-focusing planning from the edges of town, considering instead its core to its region; pioneered a multi-disciplinary approach; advocated new techniques ('Civic Diagnosis'), including surveys, public participation and graphic aids such as transparent overlays; interested in music and its relation to architecture; died, 1988.
Publications include: The Survey and Replanning of Middlesbrough (Middlesborough Corporation, 1945); The County Borough of Middlesbrough: Survey and Plan (Middlesborough Corporation, 1946); The Hartlepools: a survey and plan (West Hartlepool Corporation, 1948); The Portsmouth and District Survey and Plan (1949); Bedford by the River (1952); The New Basrah (1956); Final Report to the Council of the City of New Sarum on the Redevelopment of the City Centre (London, 1963); Kaduna, 1917, 1967, 2017. A survey and plan of the capital territory for the government of Northern Nigeria (Faber and Faber, London, 1967); contributions to RIBA Journal, TPI Journal, Town Planning Review, and others.
The Max Lock Centre at the School of the Built Environment, University of Westminster, is a multi-disciplinary research and consultancy group on development planning, continuing the tradition pioneered by the Max Lock Group. For further information see its website: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sabe/page-1148
The philanthropist Quintin Hogg (1845-1903) aimed to provide for the social, educational, spiritual and physical needs of young men, and later of young women. Consequently, the institutions which he founded (the Youths' Christian Institute and its successors, the Young Men's Christian Institute and Polytechnic Institute, later Regent Street Polytechnic) came to include a large number of clubs and societies. Many of these became very successful and attracted a much wider membership than did Polytechnic courses. Hogg undoubtedly saw all these activities as equal parts of a single entity, but many constitutional and organisational changes followed his death, as a result of which the educational activities, supported by public funding, became predominant. The relations between the surviving clubs and the Polytechnic have therefore become more complex and are sometimes unclear. Broadly, the term Polytechnic Institute, in the early 20th century used to describe the whole institution, came to describe the social and sports clubs, as distinct from the 'educational side'.
The largest clubs were for sporting activities, including football, cricket, boxing, rugby, basketball, fencing, rowing, and water polo, amongst others. In their heyday the Polytechnic Cycling Club and the Polytechnic Harriers were among the largest and most successful clubs in the country. Hogg provided in the Regent Street premises - acquired in 1882 - a gymnasium and (opened in 1884) a swimming bath-cum-reading room. There was also a rifle range. Hogg also bought the first boat house in 1888, and provided 27 acres at Merton, where cricket, football and athletics took place. The 40-acre Memorial Ground at Chiswick, bought by public donation following Hogg's death in 1903, opened in 1906. A stadium was added in 1938. Hogg was succeeded as President of the Polytechnic in 1903 by the cricketer J E K Studd (Sir Kynaston Studd). The Studd trophy was presented annually to the best athlete from any club. A number of self-improvement societies existed in the early days, including the Polytechnic Parliament, the Mutual Improvement Society, and a Reading Circle. There were religious groups, and many clubs continued the founder's tradition of good works, for example the Christmas dinner fund providing food parcels for poor families in Marylebone. Clubs would combine to present concerts and pantomimes; for many years there was a New Year fete which presented all aspects of Polytechnic activity. In addition, clubs and social groups were formed by the various educational courses. There were a number of old members' groups, as those once actively involved in different groups wanted to continue their connection with the Polytechnic.
The relationship between the Polytechnic and the clubs had to be redefined in 1970, when Regent Street Polytechnic became the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL). Property which did not pass directly to PCL, including the Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground at Chiswick, came to be managed by Trustees. Some of the clubs survive into the present day as open clubs retaining links with the University of Westminster; some retain the name Polytechnic. Following the Education Reform Act (1988), which began the process by which PCL became the University of Westminster in 1992, further constitutional changes were made. In 1989 the Institute of Polytechnic Sports and Social Clubs was established to represent the interests of the members and liaise with PCL and, after 1992, the University of Westminster. This continues to exist, although membership is very much smaller than in former times.
Regent Street Polytechnic, founded by Quintin Hogg as the Youth's Christian Institute, encompassed members who were not students, but were involved in recreational activities via a large number of clubs. The Polytechnic Parliament, established in 1883, was a debating society whose members examined contemporary issues. It was perhaps the oldest model parliament in the country. There was an increasing division between the educational side of the Polytechnic, which dealt with students and the organisation of classes, and the Polytechnic Institute, which catered for members of the social and sporting clubs. The Institute was eventually to decline, particularly after Regent Street Polytechnic became the Polytechnic of Central London in 1970. The Polytechnic Parliament was wound up in 1970.
Born, c1923; volunteered for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 1940; basic training at Guildford; posted to the Records Office at Winchester; moved to Bournemouth; the work included writing up secret war diaries; posted to London to study for six months at Regent Street Polytechnic, 1942; kept apart from the civilian students; taught in the electrical and radio workshops; sent to Gainsborough for the final stages of training, including learning how to search for signals which could be relayed to guns and to calibrate the information; posted to Charminster, working in the radio workshops and on the gun sites; posted to various workshops around England, eventually at Kippings Cross near Pembury, Kent; discharged, 1946; married P R Baker.
The Schools of Engineering at Regent Street Polytechnic were used between 1940 and 1945 for training technicians in various disciplines for the army, navy and air force. Departmental laboratories were used under a double-shift system, and several thousand personnel were trained over the period. Civilian day courses were maintained, but with a restricted number of students, and evening courses were discontinued until the end of the war.
Stacey was appointed to be chief instructor at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Hairdressing in 1939, having previously been in charge of the hairdressing department at Harrods. Leslie Henry was a pupil at the School from 1938-41. He later became head of hairdressing at Brighton Technical College.
Hairdressing was one of four trade and technical schools at the Polytechnic which were amalgamated in 1929 to become the Craft Schools. They provided general education and specialist trade instruction for boys from 14-17. The Schools also had large evening departments. There were usually about 350 day boys, and in September 1939 about half that number were evacuated to the village of Winscombe in Somerset. A garage was converted into a ladies hairdressing saloon. In 1942, Hairdressing was one of two Schools allowed to make an early return to London. Changes after the War, including the implementation of the 1944 Education Act, meant that the Craft Schools were unable to continue as before, and in 1952 the London County Council moved the Senior School of Hairdressing to Barrett Street Technical College (one of the predecessor bodies of London College of Fashion).
The Youth's Christian Institute (later known as the Young Men's Christian Institute) grew out of York Place Ragged School, which had been founded in 1864 by the philanthropist and educationist Quintin Hogg (1845-1903). Hogg founded the Institute in 1873 (some sources wrongly given the date as 1871) to provide for the needs of older, working boys who were evidently reluctant to break their connection with the School. It was in this period that Hogg developed his vision for providing for the athletic, intellectual, social and religious needs of young men which later characterised the polytechnic movement. The initial premises were between Endell Street and Castle Street, which it shared with the Ragged School, but it outgrew these, having increased its membership to some 300, and in 1878 removed to larger premises in nearby Long Acre. Membership fees paid for free use of a library, social rooms, gymnasium and entertainments for members; a small additional fee was required from students for technical classes. Non-members paid larger fees. Robert Mitchell (1855-1933), the Institute's honorary secretary, agreed to become the full-time Secretary. A more ambitious programme of classes was instituted: Science and Art classes began in 1878. A savings bank was also inaugurated. Soon there were 500 members and a year-long waiting list. A monthly magazine, Home Tidings (from 1888 The Polytechnic Magazine), was started in 1879. Hogg's search for larger premises identified a suitable site in St Martin's Lane, but in 1882 he instead purchased the lease and equipped and enlarged no 309 Regent Street, which provided much larger premises than Long Acre. The building had until 1881 housed the Royal Polytechnic Institution, which failed in that year. It became known as the Polytechnic Young Men's Christian Institute. The premises at Long Acre were closed. Hogg was its President, and Robert Mitchell its Secretary and, from 1891, the Director of Education. From 1882 an expanded programme of classes began, including science and art classes held in conjunction with the Science and Art Department (of the Board of Trade), and a scheme of technical and trade education, related to the City and Guilds of London Institute of Technical Instruction and to the London Trades Council. The building housed classrooms, a swimming bath, gymnasium, and a refreshment room. Activities included debating and gymnastics. By 1888 membership was 4,200, in addition to 7,300 students, and over 200 classes were held weekly; concerts, lectures, and an annual industrial exhibition were also held. Membership was open to those aged between 16 and 25. A Young Women's Branch, housed in separate premises in Langham Place, was also begun. In the early 1880s the Institute attracted much favourable attention from the technical education lobby. Following the City of London Parochial Charities Act in 1883, it became clear that funds would be available to endow the Polytechnic and to found and support institutions on the same model across London. A public appeal was launched in 1888 to raise the required matching funding. The Scheme was finalised under the auspices of the Charity Commissioners in 1891, when the Institute was reconstituted as Regent Street Polytechnic, managed by a newly created governing body.
The Coton Collection originated in the personal library of the late Edward Haddakin (1906-1969), the eminent ballet and dance critic who wrote under the name of A V Coton. This library, consisting of the books, periodicals, programmes, souvenir items, and photographs collected by Edward Haddakin during his career as a ballet and dance critic from 1938-1968, was donated to Royal Holloway by his wife, Dr Lillian Haddakin (1914-1982), formerly Senior Lecturer in English at University College, London. The Collection also includes some additional programmes that were donated by Lorraine Williams, a former employee of Westminster Music Library.
The following biographical note about A.V. Coton is extracted from Writings on Dance, 1938-68, by A. V. Coton, (selected and edited by Kathrine Sorley Walker and Lillian Haddakin and published in London by Dance Books in 1975).
";A. V. COTON (EDWARD HADDAKIN) was born at York on 16 February, 1906; son of a railwayman; of mixed Irish and English extraction. He was educated at St. Michael's College, Leeds. From 1922 to 1924 he was a merchant seaman, and he served in the Metropolitan Police Force from 1925 to 1937, mainly in Bethnal Green. He began writing ballet criticism in 1935 and became a full-time freelance writer in march 1937. He published his first book, A Prejudice for Ballet (Methuen) in 1938; in the same year he married Lillian Turner. He was also active in the organising and management of Antony Tudor's London Ballet, which was launched in 1938; and he worked with Peggy van Praagh and Maude Lloyd when the company was revived in 1939-40. From 1940 to 1945 he served in the Civil Defence (Light Rescue Division) in the City of Westminster, (Light Rescue workers went into action during air raids, rescuing as many still-living persons as they could). After the war he returned to freelance writing, diversified by lecturing (mainly evening courses in the London area) and by radio and television work; he was a founder-member of the London freelance branch of the National Union of Journalists. He published The New Ballet: Kurt Joos and His Work (Denis Dobson) in 1946. From 1943 to 1956 he was London correspondent for the American Dance News. He was best known in journalism as dance critic of The Daily Telegraph, a position he held from 1954 to 1969; but he also acted as assistant drama critic for the same newspaper from 1957, and throughout his career he was deeply interested in drama and the theatre generally. He was part author of Ballet Here and Now, published by Denis Dobson in 1961, and in the same year, President of the Critics' Circle, London. He travelled extensively in Europe and North America for the purpose of seeing ballet and other forms of dance, in performance and in teaching; he visited the U.S.S.R. in 1960. He died of cancer on 7 July, 1969."
Douglas Jerrold was born into a theatrical family in 1803 and became a prolific playwright and journalist. His plays included "Black-Eyed Susan" and "The Rent Day". He was a frequent contributor to "Punch" after its launch in 1841: "Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures", which Jerrold wrote in 1845, was particularly popular. Jerrold also wrote for his own periodicals such as the monthly "Douglas Jerrold's Shilling Magazine".
The Dagenham Film Co-operative Society was established under the patronage of the Dagenham Borough Council, in particular the Library Service in order to support cultural activities in the Borough of Dagenham in 1947. The first film made by the society, entitled 'The Seeds of Time' (1948), depicted what life was like on the Becontree Estate and went on to be awarded several national prizes. Further films followed including 'Dagenham Festival' (1951), 'Our Year' (1957), 'Time to Play' (1960), 'Help Yourself to Health' (1963) and 'Playtime' (1969). Members of the society were also involvoed in the British Film Institute, the federation of film societies, the London regional group, the federation of cine societies and the Dagenham Arts Council.
Egbert E. Smart, librarian and Borough Photograph was Honorable Secretary and active member in the early years, other members of the first Board included:
President: Alderman F. Brown ECC
Chairman: R. E. Crawley
Vice-Chairman: C. E Nicklen
Hon. Asst Secretary: T. J. H. Stevens
Hon. Treasurer: G. A. Allen
Film Production: N. Crosby
Members later formed the Fanshawe Film Society. According to the constitution this new society was conducted under the auspices of the Barking Arts Council, and the patronage of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, with the main objective to encourage interest in film and the study of films through the means of exhibitions, lectures and amateur film production. Sadly this society ceased to function in the late 1980s.
Allan Victor Batley (1887-1977) was born at Wramplingham, Norfolk. He was superintendent of the Parks and Cemeteries Department of the Borough of Dagenham for 24 years from 1930 to 1954. Before this he tended the gardens of a number of private houses, including Broke Hall, Ipswich and Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, as well as parks belonging to Southall and Norwood Urban District Council. After his retirement he returned to Norfolk. He died at his home in Attleborough at the age of 90.
In October 2011 a small group of MA Heritage students at the University of East London began to collect oral histories from the occupiers at the London LSX Occupy Camp in the grounds of St Paul's Cathedral. The vast majority of the histories were recorded during the occupation in and around the camp.
Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852 by Charles West on its current site in Bloomsbury as the Hospital for Sick Children. It was the first children's hospital in Britain. It became part of the NHS in 1948 and took over the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Sick Children in 1968. It went through several changes of name during this period and adopted its current name in 1994.
Cromwell House opened in 1868 as a convalescent home. Since it opened in 1852, the hospital had sent children to convalescent homes, generally at the expense of hospital supporters. Children were regularly transported to Mitcham, and to the seaside at Margate, Brighton, Torquay and Eastbourne, in the hope that rest and country or sea air would help them regain health and strength.
The governors settled on Cromwell House, a mansion in Highgate Village, that had been used as a boys’ school for many years, and had suffered a catastrophic fire in 1865. The house was built in the early 17th century, and, coincidentally, had medical associations dating back to the time of the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. The Queen’s physician, Dr Fernando Moses Mendes, (a Portuguese Jewish convert to Christianity who attended Charles II in his final illness), lived in the house when it was owned by his cousin, Alvaro Jacob Mendes, a diamond merchant. The hospital negotiated a 70-year lease, at an annual rent of £250, and the hospital spent £3,000 on fitting it out as a suitable place to care for sick children. It had space for 20 beds for convalescents, and 32 for chronic cases (12 medical and 20 surgical).
The numbers treated crept up, and by 1885, Cromwell House had provided care for 98 convalescent and 152 chronic patients. The vast majority of the patients cared for in Highgate were chronic cases, that is, suffering from long-term debilitating conditions that required continuing skilled treatment.
From 1870, parents were allowed to visit their children at Cromwell House on Sunday afternoons. Highgate had been originally intended for both in and out patients, but always had far more in-patients, as it was difficult to arrange their removal to north London unless the children actually passed through the hospital. Many children who would not have benefited from treatment in the hospital were presented for admission to Great Ormond Street with governors' letters, but who would be expected to gain much from a spell at Cromwell House. By 1870, these children were brought into Great Ormond Street for only a day or two before being sent up the hill to 'healthy Highgate'.
The staff at Cromwell House, away from the management committee, enjoyed more freedom, but also more individual responsibility, than their Great Ormond Street counterparts. In 1869 it was run by a lady superintendent, just one experienced nurse, two assistant nurses, a convalescent nurse or teacher, a cook, two housemaids, one kitchen maid, and a porter-cum-gardener. There was only one night nurse on duty, who had charge from 9.30 p.m. until 7.30 am.
No admissions were allowed from the fever wards, or where the patient or a member of his or her family had had an eruptive fever in the previous two months. All children admitted had to be able to walk, and to partly feed and dress themselves, and the patients had to be able to observe the regulations regarding the hours of rising, meals and rest. There was a strict veto on epileptics, idiots, the insane, or those who needed a lot of care at night. While these regulations certainly restricted the numbers of children admitted to Cromwell House, the biggest filter was the fact that parents were expected to pay two and sixpence in transport costs to get their child to and from Highgate, and sixpence a week for washing.
Great Ormond Street kept Cromwell House open until the early 1920s, when it became clear that the old mansion was no longer suitable for long-term convalescent care, and that metropolitan London had crept up Highgate Hill, enveloping the house and garden in pollution and traffic noise. A new mansion (complete with extensive parkland) was found near Epsom on Surrey, and Tadworth Court became the new convalescent branch of Great Ormond Street Hospital. The main house was partly given over to wards, but mostly for offices, and single-storey pavilions were built in the grounds to house non-ambulant patients more easily.
Cromwell House’s medical associations did not end with the departure of the patients, however; it became home to the first Mothercraft School set up in this country, according to the tenets of the Dr Spock of his day, New Zealand paediatrician Sir Frederic Truby King. Today it is home to the Ghanayan Embassy.
Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts was opened on 10 January 1898 in premises adjoining the South London Art Gallery. It was established by the Technical Education Board of the London County Council in a building provided by the Vestry of Camberwell, and aimed 'to give the best artistic and technical education to all classes in the district', 'supplement knowledge gained by craftsmen in workshops' and 'help the craftsman become the designer of his own work'. The philanthropist John Passmore Edwards gave a substantial sum of money for the erection of the building in memory of Lord Leighton. The school and gallery were the fruition of a movement for the foundation of an artistic centre in Camberwell, supported by Edward Burne-Jones, Lord Leighton, Walter Crane and G F Watts. The school enrolled 198 students, mostly part-time, for the first session. The school offered evening technical classes in architecture, cabinet design, embroidery, wood carving, wood block and stencil cutting; trade classes in masonry and stone carving, plasterwork, house painting and decorating and an evening art school giving classes in elementary drawing and design, life classes and modelling. A day art and technical school was also held from 10 to 4, offering life classes, preliminary drawing, painting and design, modelling, wood carving and embroidery. The demand for places in the school grew continuously and an extension was opened in 1904 enabling further courses to be added including brickwork, plumbing and typography. A further major extension was completed in 1913 providing rooms and studios for a wide range of courses, including sculpture, pottery, drawing and painting and a new library.
Between its foundation and the Second World War the school provided a wide range of courses, mainly for those employed in the building and printing trades and in the manufacture of pottery and furniture. By 1913 courses offered by the school were divided into four, mainly vocational areas, comprising printing and book production, construction and decoration of buildings, embroidery and dressmaking and jewellery, silversmithing and enamelling. All the trade courses were taught with the co-operation of the relevant trade organisations, and afternoon and evening courses for apprentices were established by the 1920s. After 1913 there was a gradual movement away from the trade courses (with the exception of printing and typographical design) to an increasing emphasis on the fine arts and design, with the establishment of the Fine Art Department in the inter-war years. A number of building trade subjects were dropped from the curriculum between 1913 and 1930, and under Stanley Thorogood, Principal from 1920 to 1938, the study of drawing and painting, commercial art and crafts such as pottery, dressmaking and embroidery was extended.
A Junior Art School (later known as the Secondary Art School) was established in 1920, providing preliminary training courses for students from the ages of 14 to 16 before moving to full-time senior courses. As well as teaching trade, technical and art subjects students were given instruction in English, science and physical training. It was closed in 1958 when the policy of separating secondary and further education was established.
During the Second World War the Junior Art School was evacuated to Chipstead and later to Northampton along with other students from the school. Printing continued at Camberwell throughout the war. The number of full-time students (apart from the Secondary Art School) increased from about 40 before the war to nearly 400 by 1948. After the war the school concentrated on providing courses on fewer subjects, with the main fields of study being painting, sculpture, illustration, graphic design, printed and woven textile design, pottery, printing and bookbinding. A new sculpture building was opened in 1953, providing new workshops for modelling in clay, bronze casting, plaster casting, stone and wood carving. By 1963 the work of the school was organised into three departments, Painting and Sculpture, Design and Crafts and Printing and Bookbinding. A course in foundation studies was begun in 1962, and in 1963 the former courses for the National Diploma in Design were superseded by those for the Diploma in Art and Design. These were approved in 1974 as leading to the BA honours degrees of the CNAA, with main studies in painting, sculpture, graphic design, printed and woven textiles and ceramics. Courses in paper conservation were started in 1970.
By 1968 the School was organised into eight departments, Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Design, Ceramics and Metalwork, Textiles, Foundation Studies, Art History and Printing. Between 1966 and 1971 additional accommodation was opened in Meeting House Lane and Lyndhurst Grove, and a purpose-built sculpture annexe was completed in 1969. A new building on an adjoining site was opened in 1973, providing a further 42 studio workshops and classrooms, new assembly and lecture halls, library and common rooms. In 1976 the former premises of Wilson School was taken over by the school, allowing a number of smaller annexes to be relinquished. Degree courses in silversmithing and metalwork were introduced in 1976. The vocational courses in printing and typographical design were discontinued in 1981 and the department closed, and in 1983 the textiles degree course was closed. In 1982 a new Department of Art History and Conservation was established, offering Higher Diploma and BA honours degree courses.
In January 1986 the school became a constituent college of the London Institute, formed by the Inner London Education Authority associating its art schools and specialist colleges of printing, fashion and distributive trades into a collegiate structure. In 1989 Camberwell was renamed Camberwell College of Arts, and the courses were organised into two schools, one of Applied and Graphic Arts and the other of Art History and Conservation. In 1993 the London Institute was granted the right to award degrees in its own name, and in 1998 the college launched a new framework for its BA courses, offering students the opportunity to focus on a specialist discipline supplemented by chosen elective subjects.
Teachers at Camberwell have included William Coldstream, Rodney Burn, Lawrence Gowing, John Minton, W T Monnington, Victor Pasmore, Claude Rogers, William Townsend, Nigel Walters, Edward Ardizzone, Martin Bloch, Norah Braden, Helmut Ruhemann, Gilbert Spencer, Karel Vogel, Berthold Wolpe, John Buckland Wright and Dennis Young.
The Women's International Art Club was founded in Paris in 1900, as the Paris International Art Club. At this time there was very little opportunity for women to exhibit their art work, and as an exhibiting society the Club was instrumental in bringing the work of women sculptors and painters to the notice of the general public. The first exhibition under its new name was held at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1900. The Club had an annual exhibition of paintings and sculptures in London until it closed in 1976, and smaller exhibitions were also shown outside London and abroad. The foreign sections of the Club also contributed work to the exhibition, including the Italian, Scottish, Dutch, American, French and Greek sections.
Members' works were submitted for selection by a selection committee, comprising officials of the club and two outsiders chosen from the artistic community, usually art critics, gallery owners etc. In the 1950s and 1960s the club continued to flourish, encouraging young experimental artists and organising exhibitions from abroad. In the 1970s the waning of interest in large exhibitions and rising costs of gallery space led to the closure of the club in 1976. Exhibitors included Gwen Barnard, Eileen Agar, Elizabeth Frink, Lee Krasner and Gwen John.
The Colonial Office of the UK government set up the Anti-Locust Research Centre as an independent research institute in 1945 because of the threat from locusts to overseas agriculture. Sir Boris Uvarov (1889-1970) was appointed as its first director. Uvarov pioneered modern locust studies and proposed the phase theory of locusts to explain the origin and disappearance of locust plagues. Formerly, Uvarov was head of a small locust research unit at the Imperial Institute of Entomology in London. International collaborations were successfully achieved through this unit's work and were then formalised at a series of international anti-locust conferences organised during the 1930's. It was these conferences that ultimately led to the formation of the Anti-Locust Research Centre (ALRC).
The ALRC's primary aims were the coordination on international research in acridology and international cooperation in locust control. From 1945 to 1970 the scientists at ALRC made great advances in operational tactics, application methods, survey techniques and locust biology, within the objectives of improved forecasting of locust activity and the effective control of this important migrant pest. Originally the ALRC was based at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington , before subsequent moves elsewhere in London.
The ALRC's remit was broadened to include more general aspects of both plant and animal protection, and pest management. With this expanded remit it became the Centre for Overseas Pest Research (COPR) in 1971. In 1983 COPR was amalgamated with the Tropical Products Institute (TPI, founded in 1958) to form the Tropical Development and Research Institute (TDRI), which was managed by the Overseas Development Administration of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 1988 TDRI was relocated to Chatham, where it merged with the Land Resources Development Centre (LDRC, founded in 1964) to form the Overseas Development Natural Resources Institute (ODNRI). The ODNRI became simply the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) in 1990. The NRI was transferred to the Univeristy of Greenwich in 1996.
Acridology is no longer a central focus of the NRI's work and now primary operational and survey responsibilities for coordinating locust forecasting and control have been transferred to the Locusts and Other Migratory Pests Group (which includes the Desert Locust Information Service, DLIS) of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), based in Rome.
Miss Jacqueline Palmer was born in London in 1918. Having trained at the Froebel Educational Institute, Roehampton, she gained her diploma in 1939 and taught throughout the war. Later she went up to Cambridge University to read geography at Newnham College, graduating with honours in 1948.
Having joined the Museum on a part-time basis in the Autumn of 1948, Miss Palmer proposed the development of a Children's Centre as an attempt to encourage and direct the interest of children in the natural world and the Museum. Inaugurated on an experimental basis during the school holidays, the Centre was located on the west side of Central Hall, near to the main entrance. It was an area where children could draw, make models and receive instruction. Miss Palmer was seconded to the Museum by the London County Council who paid her salary.
In 1948 she inaugurated the Junior Naturalists' Club for children aged 10 to 15 who were regular visitors to the Centre and who proved their commitment by producing a piece of fieldwork. The Club had its own committee and met once a week with occasional extra activities. The Club had a small library and programmes of activities were devised by the Committee, under Miss Palmer's guidance. In 1950 a Country Club was started at the suggestion of Sir Norman Kinnear for children aged 13 to 16 living outside London who wanted help with their studies of the natural world.
This generated considerable correspondence and subsequently the work of the Country Club was incorporated within that of the Field Observer's Club. This was formed in 1953 as a senior group for young people over the age of 15 so that more appropriate work could be provided for older Centre members. It too had its own committee, programme and selection procedure. An Argus Club for scientific illustration, intended for children aged between 13 and 17, was also formed but was later incorporated into the Field Observer's Club. Close ties were always maintained between these two clubs and both continued their work after Miss Palmer left the Museum in 1956. The Junior Naturalists' Club was linked to the Chelsea Physic Garden while the Field Observer's Club became independent of any other organization. The latter was affiliated to the International Youth Federation for the Study and Protection of Nature and the former to the Council for Nature, an alliance resulting in productive exchanges. Miss Palmer left the Museum in 1956 and died from cancer on 3 January 1961.
The Department of Entomology was set up on 1st April 1913. Before that date insects had been studied alongside the other arthropods within the Zoology Department. In 1895 Zoology was divided into three sections, with Arthur Gardiner Butler (1844-1925) becoming Assistant Keeper responsible for the insects. Formation of a separate department of entomology was recommended in 1906, but not implemented for seven years. In 1913 the staff consisted of the Keeper, Charles Joseph Gahan (1862-1939), nine Assistants, and ten Attendants. Most of the work of the Department was in classical taxonomy and curation, although some research on tropical diseases and other economic and applied topics was initiated. Staff numbers were increased in 1930 only to be cut back during the economic crisis of 1931. However, by 1937 there were 17 scientists distributed among seven sections, backed up by 20 technical staff and 22 specialists, who regularly worked in the Department as unofficial researchers. Economic research was restricted to 'domestic' areas during the 1930s, to avoid overlapping with other research institutes, and the economic collection was disbanded in 1933. By 1965 staff numbered 68, who between them were responsible for a collection of more than 15 million specimens, a fine library, a large exhibition gallery, an extensive taxonomic research programme and an information service.
Since 1909 the Department has worked closely with the Bureau of Entomological Research (later the Imperial, and finally the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology), which was set up by the Colonial Office under Sir Guy Marshall, and housed in the Museum. In 1953 the Colonial Office set up The Termite Research Unit under W V Harris, which is housed in the Museum under a similar arrangement.
From 1882 the insect collections were housed in four, and later ten, rooms in the southwest basement of the Museum. The Department moved into an extension of the New Spirit Building in 1930, pending construction of a new Entomology Block. This building, which was under construction from 1934 to 1952, was shared with the Bird Section of Zoology Department until 1972. There was an outpost of the Department at Tring from 1937, when Lord Rothschild bequeathed his huge insect collection to the Museum, until 1972, when the transfer of the Bird Section finally made space for it to move to London.
In 2005, in preparation for the construction of a new building to be opened in 2008, the Entomology staff and collections were dispersed through the South Kensington site (into the former British Natural History gallery, Origin of Species exhibition and the Spencer Gallery) and the Wandsworth outstore. The Entomology block was demolished 2005-2006.
The exhibition galleries were, from the time of their first development, the responsibility of the Keeper of the respective science departments, with the Director having control of the Central and North halls through the staff of the Index Museum. John Priestman Doncaster (1907-1981) was appointed in 1937 to assist the Director in this area, and undertook some work in the departmental galleries as well as in Central Hall. Creation of a centralised Exhibition Section was proposed in 1938, and realised once Doncaster returned from war service in 1946. By the end of 1947 the Section comprised the Exhibitions Officer, two modellers, two guide lecturers, two printers and two assistants. Its aim was to relieve the departments of the burden of producing exhibitions, and to ensure harmony of style and treatment throughout the Museum. A procedure for preparation of exhibitions was agreed in 1950 which left planning and design in the hands of the departments, and most of the production with the Exhibition Section.
Doncaster moved to Entomology in 1951 and was succeeded by Mary (Mona) Rosalie Jane Edwards (1902-1994), who had been Guide Lecturer since 1932. The Museum photographers were attached to the Section in 1955, and by 1960 staff numbered twenty five, all in scientific grades. In 1963 the productivity of the Section was criticised by the Director, and contrast unfavourably with the contract work carried out for the new Botany Gallery, and Miss Edwards was retired the following year. The Section was split in 1970 into an Exhibition Section with seventeen posts led by Michael George Belcher (1942-1993), an Education Section with five posts headed by Frank Hatton Brightman (1921-1996), and a Photographic Section with eight posts under Peter John Green (b 1932). The Photographic Section was transferred to the Department of Central Services in 1974, and Exhibitions and Education were incorporated into the new Department of Public Services in 1975.
The Department of Palaeontology has its origins in the Department of Natural and Artificial Productions which was set up at the foundation of the British Museum in 1756. In 1806 it was renamed the Department of Natural History and Modern Curiosities and was under the keepership of George Shaw (1751-1813) and later Carl Dietrich Eberhard Konig (1774-1851). In 1837 the Department was divided into three branches, of which Mineralogy and Geology was one, and in 1856 the branch became a Department in its own right, almost immediately being divided into the two departments of Geology and Mineralogy. The first Keeper of Geology was George Robert Waterhouse (1810-1888), an entomologist, who had joined the Museum in 1843 from the Zoological Society. He was succeeded in 1880 by Henry Woodward (1832-1921), who thus had the task of supervising the move from Bloomsbury to South Kensington. By the time Woodward retired in 1901 the Department had a staff of 15.
Through the 1920s and 1930s the collections were divided into 15 units, each presided over by an Assistant Keeper or an Unofficial Worker. Subdivision of the Department into sections developed during this period, and was firmly established when the Museum got back to normal after the Second World War. An Anthropology Section, which spanned the departments of Geology and Zoology was set up in 1954. It was given the status of a Sub-Department in 1959, and was made part of Palaeontology the following year.
In 1956 the title of the Department was changed from Geology to Palaeontology.
By 1956 the Department was responsible for one of the largest and most important collections of palaeontological material in the world, and was an international centre for research in both stratigraphic and taxonomic palaeontology. Research work was supported by a rich departmental library. Staff numbered 63.
The Department of Zoology has its origins in the Department of Natural and Artificial Productions which was set up at the founding of the British Museum in 1756. In 1806 it was renamed the Department of Natural History and Modern Curiosities and was under the keepership of George Shaw (1751-1813) and later Charles Dietrich Eberhard Konig (1774-1851). In 1836 the Department was divided into three branches, of which zoology was one, and in 1856 the branch was given the status of a department, with John Edward Gray (1800-1875) as the first Keeper, and a staff of 15. Gray made great progress in registering, cataloguing and exhibiting the growing collections, and was the first zoologist to gain and deserve scientific eminence through his work at the Museum. Although Gray pressed long and hard for a move to larger premises, he had been succeeded by Dr A Gunther (1830-1914) by the time the move to South Kensington took place in 1883. When Gunther retired in 1895 the department had a staff of 35, divided into the Vertebrate, Invertebrate and Insect Sections.
In 1913 the Insect Section became the separate Department of Entomology. In 1922 the department was divided into nine sections, including Mammals, Birds, Fishes, Mollusca and Crustacea. The number and precise designation of the sections has changed over the years, and by 1965 there were 17, each with its own head, and keeping its own records. By 1965 the department was responsible for one of the largest and most important collections of zoological material in the world, and was an international centre for research in animal taxonomy and systematics. The research was supported by a fine departmental library, rich in manuscripts and rare books. The department was also responsible, in conjunction with the exhibition staff, for displays in the zoological galleries. Staff numbered 98, who between them saw to nearly 5,000 visitors a year, coped with the acquisition of over 35,000 specimens a year, and were responsible for over 100 monographs, papers and reports.
The Society for the Bibliography of Natural History was founded in 1936 by a small number of naturalists and bibliographers based at the Natural History Museum and Royal Entomological Society, led by C Davies Sherborn, Francis Griffin and Francis Hemming. Sherborn was elected the first President, and Griffin the Honorary Secretary. The prime concern of the Society in its early years was to establish the accurate dates of publication of works of taxonomic significance as a contribution to zoological and botanical nomenclature. The purpose of the Society, as stated, was 'the study of the bibliography of all branches of natural history, and the promotion of the study by the issue of publications and the maintenance of a correspondence bureau'. Although no correspondence bureau was to materialise, the first number of the 'Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History' appeared in October 1936.
Originally concerned strictly with bibliography, the society rapidly became a focal point for those interested in the wider history of natural history. It was renamed the Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) in 1981. The Society's journal, now entitled 'Archives of Natural History', is published in 3 parts every year, and a Newsletter, occasional facsimiles and conference proceeding are also published. The Society has always held an Annual General Meeting, and in the late 1960s evening meetings were held at University College London each winter.
A more ambitious series of conferences and other meetings began in 1974, and continues. Officers of the Society include a President, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer, Honorary Editor and (from 1979) a Meetings Secretary. There is also a Committee (Council from 1986) consisting of nine members, with coopted Representatives in North America, Australasia, Central Europe and other areas.. In 1996 membership of the society numbered 650.
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) traveller and naturalist, independently of but at the same time as, Charles Darwin, identified Natural Selection as the key to evolutionary change.
Alfred Russel Wallace was born on January 8th, 1823, near the town of Usk in Monmouthshire, to Thomas Vere Wallace (died May 1843) and Mary Anne Wallace (née Greenell; died 15 November 1868). The family moved to Hertford, Essex, in about 1826. Their father, originally a gentleman of independent means and a non-practicing solicitor, lost money in unsuccessful financial speculation and took up a series of low-paid jobs, and the family moved several times for economic reasons.
When Mrs Greenell, Mary Wallace's stepmother, died in 1826, the family moved to her home-town, Hertford, in Essex. Here ARW met another child, George Silk, who became a lifelong friend and correspondent. The Wallaces lived first in a house in Andrews Street, next at an address in Old Cross, a short distance away.
Other members of the family included Aunt Wilson, Mary Anne Wallace's sister, wife of Thomas Wilson, lawyer, who in 1826 lived in Dulwich. Thomas Wilson was controlling trustee of a Greenell family legacy which paid for, among other things, John Wallace's board, and held money in trust for the other Wallace children. When Thomas Wilson was declared bankrupt in 1834, the legacy became involved and the Wallace's income was drastically reduced.
ARW was educated at Hertford Grammar School and then Hertford School where in his final year he was a pupil-teacher. In 1837, aged 14, he went to London where he stayed with his brother John (an apprentice builder) and became an apprentice surveyor as pupil to his brother William. His parents moved to Rawdon Cottage, Hoddesdon, in the same year.
ARW began collecting insect specimens found during his surveying trips, and became increasingly interested in natural history. In 1848 he went with fellow enthusiast H W Bates to the Amazon on a collecting expedition, hoping to make a living as a collector of natural history specimens. His brother Herbert (usually known by his second name, Edward) subsequently joined him, but died of Yellow Fever in 1851. ARW returned to England in 1851, losing his journals and collection of specimens when the ship in which he was sailing caught fire and sank.
Still hoping to make a living as a collector and naturalist, ARW sailed for Malaysia in 1854 with a young assistant, Charles Allen. He spent eight years in the Malay Archipelago, collecting birds and insects and studying and writing on the local flora, fauna and people. It was here that he began writing scientific papers, formed his ideas on the natural selection and geographical distribution of species, and began corresponding with Charles Darwin.
At a meeting of the Linnean Society on July 1st, 1858, Wallace's paper "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type", written in early 1858 while he was at Ternate in the Moluccas, was presented jointly with an unpublished essay of 1844 on the subject by Darwin.
ARW returned to England in 1862, and subsequently published widely on a variety of scientific and other subjects, and gave public lectures. He travelled to America and Canada for a lecture tour in 1886-1887. He was member of a number of scientific societies, was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1892 and was awarded the Order of Merit by the King in 1908.
ARW married Annie Mitten, the daughter of pharmacist and bryologist William Mitten, in about 1866. They had three children, Herbert Spencer, (1867-1874), William Greenell (born 1871) and Violet, (born 1869).
ARW died at home in Broadstone, Dorset, on 8 November, 1913.
The administration of the Navy 1688-1832 was controlled by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty and the Navy Board. With occasional exceptions, the number of Lords Commissioners varied between five and seven. According to the Admiralty patent, orders had to be signed by at least 3 members of the board, that number having authority "to be everything which belongs to the office of our Lord High Admiral". Sometimes for greater speed, an order was signed and dispatched by the secretary, but it was followed by an order in due form as soon as the board met, back dated to cover action which had taken place on the secretary's order.
The Navy Board, which was set up by Henry VIII in 1546, was responsible for the building and repair of ships and the maintenance of the dockyards, as well as the appointment of warrant and junior officers. Its responsibilities were divided between four principal officers, resident in London. These were the Comptroller, the Surveyor and the Treasurer and the Clerk of the Acts, and the three dockyard commissioners at Portsmouth, Chatham and Plymouth. Extra commissioners were sometimes appointed. Within the organisation of the Navy Office, there were several departments, such as the Ticket Office, the Slop Office, the Office for Stores and the Marine Office, some of them being housed in separate buildings. In 1788 the staff of the Navy Office was five times as large as that of the Admiralty.
The pressure of business caused by war was responsible for the creation of further departments, some of which were retained in the eighteenth century even in times of peace. A Board of Commissioners for Victualling was set up in 1683 and this body which usually consisted of seven commissioners remained responsible for the victualling of the navy until the reforms of 1832. The Commissioners for taking care of the sick and wounded seamen continued to function after the peace of 1714, though their number was reduced from four to two, and in the subsequent wars of the eighteenth century were also responsible for prisoners of war. In 1788 the latter function was transferred to the Transport Board, which had operated from 1690-1724 and was revived in 1794. This board took over the remaining duties of the commissioners for sick and wounded seaman in 1806, the number of its commissioners being increased then from four to six.
The administration of public offices were made the subject of an inquiry in 1786 but the reports were not published until 1806. Some alterations were made at the end of the century and for a time the Navy Board was organised on the committee system, but this was found to be unsuccessful. In 1817 the number of boards was reduced to three, by the absorption of the Transport Board into the Victualling Board. The Admiralty Act of 1832 abolished the three boards, the Admiralty Boards, the Navy Board and the Victualling Board, and concentrated all authority in the Board of Admiralty. The dockyard commissioners were replaced by superintendents.
In the eighteenth century the office of the Clerk of the Acts was responsible for drawing up Navy Board contracts, although it was noted in 1786 that it was the duty of the two assistants to the Surveyor of the Navy 'to examine and correct all contracts for building and repairing in the merchant yards'. In 1796 the Secretary's Office continued to draw up the contracts, but in 1803 an Order-in-Council created a Contract Office with two clerks from the Secretary's office. This office continued after the abolition of the Navy Board in 1832. See Bernard Pool, Navy Board contracts 1660-1832 (London, 1966).
The Navy Office occupied various sites in the vicinity of Tower Hill prior to 1654. At this time the office moved to a building at the junction of Crutched Friars and Seething Lane. This building was burnt down in 1673 but a new office on the same site was completed in 1682. The Navy Office remained at Tower Hill until 1786 when it was moved to more spacious accommodation at Somerset House. The Navy Board was composed of sea officers and civilians known as the 'Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy'. The Comptroller of the Navy presided over the Board, generally superintended the business of the Navy Office, and was responsible for the offices dealing with bills, accounts and wages; though theoretically of equal standing, the Comptroller tended to exercise seniority over his colleagues owing to the variety of business which he conducted. The Clerk of the Acts arranged the business of the Board and conducted its correspondence. The Surveyor, appointed from among the Master Shipwrights at the dock-yards, examined all survey reports on ships at the yards, considered what to repair, was responsible for the design and construction of ships and ensured the yards had sufficient stores and equipment. The Comptrollers of Victualling Accounts, of Storekeepers' Accounts and of Treasurers' Accounts respectively examined the accounts of bills made out by the Victualling Hoard, of the stores received in the dockyards and of the money received and paid by the Treasurer of the Navy. In 1796 the offices of Clerk of the Acts and the three Comptrollers of Accounts were abolished and the Board reconstituted, the business of the Navy Office being placed under the supervision of three Committees, of Correspondence, Accounts and Stores. Sir Charles Middleton and Sir Thomas Byam Martin (1773-1854) each held the office of Comptroller. Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) and Charles Sergison (1654-1732) each held the position of Clerk of the Acts whilst notable Surveyors included Sir Thomas Slade (d 1771) and Sir Robert Seppings (1767-1840). The number of clerks in the Navy Office fluctuated according to the pressure of business and especially to whether the country was at war. The clerical establishment nevertheless grew steadily from the time of the Restoration until the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Until 1796 the great majority of clerks were employed in one of eight Offices: the Offices for Bills and Accounts and for Seamen's Wages, the Ticket Office, the Surveyor's Office, the Clerk of the Acts Office, the Offices for Examining Treasurer's Accounts, for Examining Victualling Accounts and for Examining Storekeepers' Accounts. The reorganization after 1796 involved the formation of several new offices: a Secretary's Office in 1796, an Office for Stores in 1796, an Allotment Office in 1797, a Contract Office in 1803 and an Office for Foreign Accounts in 1807. In 1808 the Naval Works Department was transferred to the Navy Office to become until 1812 the Office of the Architect and Engineer. A Ticket and Wages Branch was formed in 1829.
Commissioners for the care of sick and hurt seamen were first appointed during the Dutch wars. Between 1692 and 1702 and between 1713 and 1715 their duties were performed by the Commissioners of the Register Office and from 1715 until 1717 by two Commissioners of the Navy Board. One Commissioner each from the Sick and Hurt Board and the Navy Board then conducted the business from the Navy Office until 1740, when at least two Commissioners of the Sick and Hurt Board were appointed during peace and up to five in wartime. This Board appointed ships' surgeons and their assistants, ensured that they were equipped and supplied with medicines, superintended the dispensers who issued medicines, supervised the furnishing and equipment of hospitals and hospital ships, examined and cleared accounts and made returns of the sick and wounded to the Admiralty and Navy Boards. In 1743 the Board was also made responsible for the care of prisoners of war. In 1796 this duty was transferred to the Transport Board which in 1806 also became responsible for caring for the sick and wounded seamen.
The lieutenants' logs were kept by the lieutenants of a ship in commission, recording details of weather, navigation and the routine of the ship, as well as incidents that occurred during the commission. Printed formats appeared from about 1799, different printed forms being sold by various printers in Portsea and in Plymouth. A standard form was laid down by the Admiralty in October 1805 when the practice of starting the day's log at noon was altered to coincide with the civil calendar, by beginning the log at midnight. At the completion of each year a lieutenant's log was required to be deposited in the Admiralty Office, accompanied by a certificate stating that the officer had complied with the printed instructions and not been absent from his ship. At the Admiralty the chief clerk abstracted details of the voyage and, in return for a fee, sent the log to the Navy Office where a clerk in the office of the Clerk of the Acts made out a certificate entitling the lieutenant to be paid. At the Navy Office individual logs were bound into volumes. It was the practice to bind them according to the name of the ship, not that of their keeper, but during a period in the mid-eighteenth century logs were collected by year, as well as by name of ship, and logs for four or five ships, beginning with the same letter, were bound in one volume.
The Albyn Line was founded as a private company in Sunderland in 1901 with Sir William Allan (1837-1903) as its chairman. After his death, Sir James (later Lord) Joicey (1846-1936) succeeded him. From then until the dissolution of the company in 1966 the office of chairman was filled by members of the Joicey family. Following a management contract in 1901 between the new company and the already existing firm of Allan Black and Company, the latter's managing director and managers took over these posts in the new company as well. The pattern of Albyn Line trade was South Welsh or Tyne coal outwards to the Continent or Port Said, and after discharge in ballast through the Dardanelles to Odessa to load grain for London or the Continent. Other areas served occasionally were the River Plate and the Gulf of Mexico. At the outbreak of the First World War the company owned four vessels. Apart from one which was detained by the Turks for the duration of the war, all the others were lost in 1917. Until 1924 the Albyn Line operated with only one ship and the voyages tended to be of longer duration. During this period its income was supplemented by the profits of its shipping agency business. Two ships were built in 1924 and 1925, and in 1928 and 1929 four more new ships were immediately laid up because of the depression. As in 1914, the Albyn Line entered the Second World War with four ships, only one of which survived. In the 1950s three motor ships were built and they were chartered to liner or tramp companies. From 1961 trading conditions became less and less profitable and in 1966 the firm went into voluntary liquidation.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
Edward Bates (d 1896) spent a number of years in India where he established himself as a merchant in Bombay. In 1848 he left this business in charge of an agent, returned to England and opened an office in Liverpool as an importer of Indian produce. He also began a regular service to Bombay with chartered vessels, and in 1850 he started building up a fleet of sailing ships. Trading was soon extended to include first Calcutta and then the Far East and, when the gold rush began, passenger ships sailed direct to Australia and returned via India or South America. In 1870 the firm was renamed Edward Bates and Sons. Edward went to live in Hampshire and the eldest of his four sons, Edward Percy Bates (d 1899), took over the management of the Liverpool office. The next year Edward became an MP and a regular attender at the House; in 1886 he received a baronetcy. In earlier years Bates had bought steamers and converted them into sailing vessels, but from 1870 the partners began adding steamers to their fleet. They continued to acquire sailing ships as well up to 1884, but in 1886 they had a steel-screw steamer built to their own design, which heralded a change of direction to a smaller number of large modern steamships engaged in general tramping. The Bombay office was closed in 1898 and the business there amalgamated with Killick Nixon and Co. When Edward Percy Bates died in 1899 his son Edward Bertram Bates (d 1903) succeeded to the title and the management of the family business. He in turn was succeeded by Percy Elly Bates (1879-1946), who in 1910 joined the board of the Cunard Company. In 1911 he and his two brothers joined the board of Thomas and John Brocklebank and exchanged their largest vessel for half of the Brocklebank family's shares. By 1916 Sir Percy Elly Bates was running the Commercial Services branch of the Ministry of Shipping and his two brothers had gone to the war; as there was no one in the office to manage their ships they sold them to Brocklebank's. This was the end of their shipowning activities, but the partnership of Edward Bates and Sons continued in business as merchants and private bankers. In 1916 Bates and Brocklebank's both moved their offices into the new Cunard Building and in 1919 Cunard bought all the shares in the Brocklebank Line owned by the Brocklebank and Bates families. Sir Percy Bates became deputy chairman of the Cunard Shipping Co in 1922 and was chairman from 1930 until his death in 1946. His brother Denis (1886-1959) became chairman of Brocklebank's when Sir Aubrey Brocklebank died in 1929. The remaining Brocklebank shares (owned by the Anchor Line) were bought by Cunard in 1940.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
Brackenbury entered the Navy in 1857, served in the MARLBOROUGH on the Mediterranean Station, 1862 to 1863, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1865, to Commander in 1876 and in 1879 commanded the SHAH's naval brigade during the Zulu war. He became a Captain in 1881 and served in the THALIA during the Egyptian campaign of 1882. From 1886 until 1887 he commanded the HYACINTH, South American Station, and the TURQUOISE, East Indies, from 1888 until 1891, during which time he took part in the operations against the Sultan of Vitu. In 1893 he was Captain of the EDINBURGH and witnessed the collision of the VICTORIA and CAMPERDOWN. From 1894 to 1896 he was in charge of Naval establishments at Bermuda. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1896 and in 1898 served as second-in-command of the Channel Squadron in the MAGNIFICENT. Brackenbury received his commission as Admiral in 1905. Be married Frances Mary Francklyn in 1880.
Bedford entered the Navy with a cadetship awarded by the Naval School at New Cross. In 1854 he was at the Crimea as a midshipman in the Sampson. However, he went to the Baltic in March 1855, when he was appointed to the Vulture, and he took part in the destruction of the Russian fortress at Sveaborg. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1859, to commander in 1871 and to captain in 1875 into the SERAPIS, which took the Prince of Wales to attend ceremonies proclaiming Queen Victoria Empress of India. Bedford was next appointed to the SHAH, 1876, as Flag-Captain to Rear Admiral de Horsey (1827-1922), Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station. In this ship he was engaged in the duel with the Peruvian ironclad HUASCAR. As a consequence of this action, the ironclad TRIUMPH replaced the SHAH and Bedford transferred to her. In 1880, on his return home, he attended the torpedo course at Portsmouth. Bedford then joined the Board of Admiralty, 1889 to 1892. In 1895 he became Second Sea Lord and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the North American and West Indies Station, 1899 to 1903. From 1903 to 1909 he was Governor of Western Australia. See F.G.H. Bedford, The life and letters of Admiral Frederick George Denham Bedford (published privately, 1960).
Oliver entered the Navy in 1869. He served in the BRISTOL, 1870 to 1871, and was rated midshipman in 1871. He was in the Mediterranean from 1871 to 1874, in the ARIADNE and then for two years in the flagship LORD WARDON. From 1874 to 1876 he served in the AUDACIOUS, flagship on the China Station. He was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1876 and served in the SHANNON, 1877 to 1880, on the same station. In 1880 he was promoted to lieutenant and appointed to the PELICAN, Pacific Station, 1880 to 1882. From 1882 to 1884 he was in the Indian troopship JUMA and served in operations in the Sudan in 1884. Between 1885 and 1887, Oliver served in three Coast Guard ships based at Southampton, the HECTOR, NORTHAMPTON and INVINCIPLE. He returned to China in the WANDERER between 1888 and 1891. During the 1890s Oliver served in various posts, in a training ship, in the dockyard reserve and the coastguard. He retired with the rank of commander in 1900.
Oliver was the son of Admiral Robert Oliver. He entered the Navy in 1825 and became a lieutenant in 1838. He was in the QUEEN in the Mediterranean from 1842 to 1844 and was promoted to commander in 1844. In 1847 he was appointed to command the FLY in Australian and New Zealand waters. Following his return home in 1851 he served during the Crimean War and was promoted to captain in 1854 but from then had no further service. He retired in 1864 and rose to the rank of admiral on the retired list.
Belcher entered the Navy in 1812, became a lieutenant in 1818 and a commander in 1829. After early experiences surveying in Arctic regions and a lengthy survey of the Pacific, he was given post-rank and a knighthood in 1841. From 1842 to 1847 he commanded the SAMARANG, in which he surveyed the coasts of Borneo, the Philippines and Formosa (Taiwan). In 1852 he was appointed to the Assistance to search for Sir John Franklin (q.v.). He was court-martialled for abandoning his ships but acquitted; one, however, was recovered the following year. He saw no more active service and reached the rank of admiral in 1872.
Blake entered the Navy as a cadet in 1846, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1854 and to Commander in 1860 After two years in the ALECTO in South America, 1863 to 1865, he was on the Pacific Station in the MUTINE in 1865, when Chile was at war with Spain. He then commanded the FALCON, 1866 to 1867, on the Australian Station. Blake was promoted to Captain in 1867 and, as Captain of the DRUID, was in command of the Naval Brigade during the Second Ashanti War, 1873 to 1874, when he died.
Brent entered the Navy as a cadet in 1848, was promoted to lieutenant in 1854 and to commander in 1866. Between 1867 and 1870 he served in the BELLEROPHON in the Channel and the Mediterranean. He was promoted to captain in 1875 and commanded the troopship HIMALAYA from 1879 to 1881, running between Great Britain and the Mediterranean. For a short period he was Director of the Royal Indian Marine but resigned and after further seagoing appointments, retired in 1889. He was made a vice-admiral in 1896.
Bond spent the whole of his seafaring career in the employ of the British India Steam Navigation Company. He joined as a cadet in 1918 on the ship CHAKRATA. His next ship was the CHUPRA, carrying troops from India home and from London to New Zealand. He next served on the Indian coast until 1925. He passed for Second Mate in Bombay and did tours of duty in several ships. After passing as mate, he returned to indian waters as Second Officer of the SIRDHANA, and remained in her for three and a half years. He got his Master's Certificate in 1930. His first command of a ship was in 1938, and in December 1939 was given command of the VASNA, in which he remained for the whole of World War Two. The VASNA was fitted-out in Bombay as a naval hospital ship and served in Indian Waters, with the Home Fleet in the Mediterranean, with the Eastern Fleet and with the Pacific Fleet. In 1945, the VASNA was sent to Tokio Bay to help in the repatriation of prisoners of war from Japanese camps and as a Fleet hospital ship, and was the sole British Hospital Ship in Japanese waters. Capt Bond was awarded the OBE for his services during the war. In 1947, Bond was given command of the SANGOLA and in1949 the EMPIRE TROOPER, in which he stayed for over five years. In 1956, he took command of the NEVASA, which was hired by the Ministry of Transport as a troopship. He retired in June 1962 at the age of 60.
Bosanquet entered the Navy in 1883 and served on the Cape of Good Hope Station, 1885 to 1887, in the RALEIGH, going out in the WYE and returning in the HIMALAYA. Between 1888 and 1892 he served in the IRON DUKE, ACTIVE, THAMES and ANSON, all in home waters. He became a lieutenant in 1892. In the PALUMA he went to Australia and there joined the CRESCENT, KATOOMBA and IPHIGENIA, returning to England in 1894. Because of ill-health he retired as lieutenant in 1898. During the two World Wars he worked at the Admiralty and was advanced to captain on the retired list. He was Secretary of the Marine Society, 1900 to 1914, was then on the Committee between 1917 and 1948 and was also active in the Society for Nautical Research.
Bridges joined the Navy as an assistant clerk on 15 July 1912 and shortly afterwards took up a position in the NEPTUNE, transferring to the PRINCESS ROYAL in November 1912. In July 1913 he was promoted to clerk and a year later he joined the 4th Battle Squadron in the DREADNOUGHT as clerk to the Flag Officer's secretary and moved to the BENBOW soon afterwards from which ship he was lent to the ERIN in August 1915. Bridges became a paymaster sub-lieutenant in October 1915. In January 1916 he joined the HERCULES and was promoted to paymaster lieutenant in October 1917. In May 1918 he joined the LORD NELSON as clerk to the secretary of the Rear-Admiral second-in-command of the Mediterranean fleet and he served in this capacity, mainly in the EMPEROR OF INDIA, until 1920 when he retired. His brother William M Bridges became a midshipman in January 1917 and in February joined the NEW ZEALAND. He was promoted to sub-lieutenat in May 1918 and subsequently joined the VEGA. He retired in 1920 and saw further active service in the Second World War.