Born, 1635; Education: Queen's College, Oxford; BA (1655), DCL (1677); Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1654); Career: Travelled abroad (1659-1661); Original Fellow of the Royal Society, 1663; Clerk to the Commission of Prizes (1664-1667); Clerk to the Privy Council (1664-1679); Deputy Vice-Admiral of the Provinces of Munster (1665), Vice-Admiral (1677); Envoy extraordinary to Portugal (1665-1669), Flanders (1671-1672) and to the Elector of Brandenburg (1680); Chief Commissioner of Excise (1671-1681); Commissioner for Assessment for Middlesex (1673-1680, Westminster (1677-1680), Gloucestershire (1679-1680, 1689-1690); MP for Penrhyn (1673-1679), Lostwithiel (1685-1687); Commissioner of Customs (1689-1697); Deputy-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire (1689-1694); Principal Secretary of State for Ireland (1690-1702); Privy Councillor, Ireland (1690-death); endowed an almshouse for eight helpless men and women on his estate at Dromderrick, Kinsale (1682); died, 1702.
William Hyde Wollaston: born at East Dereham, Norfolk, 1766; third son of the author Francis Wollaston and his wife, Althea Hyde; educated at a private school at Lewisham for two years and then at Charterhouse, 1774-1778; a pensioner of Caius College Cambridge, 1782; scholar of Caius College Cambridge, 1782-1787; appointed a senior fellow, 1787; retained his fellowship until his death; while at Cambridge, became intimate with John Brinkley and John Pond and studied astronomy with their assistance; graduated MB, 1788; on leaving Cambridge, worked as a physician in Huntingdon, 1789; subsequently went to Bury St Edmund's; became acquainted with the Reverend Henry Hasted, a close friend and lifelong correspondent; MD, 1793; elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1793 and admitted, 1794; admitted candidate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1794; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1795; went to London and set up practice at no 18 Cecil Street, Strand, 1797; censor of the Royal College of Physicians, 1798; increasing devotion to various branches of natural science, including physics, chemistry, and botany, led him to retire from medical practice, 1800; looked to support himself by chemical research; took a house, no 14 Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, and set up a laboratory, 1801; innovations relating to platinum including the discovery of palladium and of a process for producing pure platinum and welding it into vessels, c 1804; awarded the Copley medal, 1802; Secretary of the Royal Society, 1804-1816; Fellow of the Geological Society, 1812; suggested in evidence before a committee of the House of Commons the replacement of the various gallons then in use by the 'imperial gallon' (adopted in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824), 1814; served as commissioner of the Royal Society on the Board of Longitude, 1818-1828; a member of the Royal Commission on Weights and Measures that rejected the adoption of the decimal system of weights and measures, 1819; frequently elected a vice-president of the Royal Society; declined a proposal to be nominated president of the Royal Society, but consented to act as president until the election, 1820; elected a foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences, 1823; elected to the Royal College of Physicians, 1824; suffered occasional partial blindness in both eyes from 1800; attacked by symptoms said to be signify a fatal brain tumour, 1827; set about dictating papers on his unrecorded work, many of which were published posthumously; transferred £1,000 to the Geological Society (which formed 'the Wollaston Fund' from which the society awards annually the Wollaston medal and the balance of the interest), 1828; transferred £2,000 to the Royal Society to form the `Donation Fund', the interest to be applied in promoting experimental research, 1828; awarded a royal medal by the Royal Society for his work, 1828; elected a member of the Astronomical Society, 1828; died, 1828; his house was afterwards inhabited by his friend Charles Babbage. Publications: fifty-six papers on pathology, physiology, chemistry, optics, mineralogy, crystallography, astronomy, electricity, mechanics, and botany, the majority read before the Royal Society and published in the Philosophical Transactions.
Faraday was born the son of a blacksmith in Newington Butts, Southwark. It is not known where he was educated as a child, but the family moved north near Manchester Square. At 13, he worked as a newspaper boy for George Riebau of Blandford Street. He then became an apprentice for seven years in bookbinding under Riebau. In 1810 and 1811, he attended lectures on science given by silversmith John Tatum (1772-1858) in the city of London and took notes. These were shown to the son of a Member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) who in turn showed them to the Member who was so impressed he gave Faraday tickets to see Humphry Davy (1778-1829) lecture at the RI in 1812. After writing to Davy to ask for a job, he was appointed as a chemical assistant at the laboratory at the RI in 1813. In 1813 he travelled with Davy to France as an assistant, secretary and valet; subsequently visiting laboratories in Italy, Switzerland and Germany until April 1815. In 1816 he began his `Commonplace Book' and was elected Member of the City Philosophical Society from 1816 to 1819 giving lectures on chemical subjects. From 1816 to 1828, he published his work results in journals such as Quarterly Journal of Science, Philosophical Magazine and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. In 1821 he was appointed Superintendent of the RI to maintain the building. In 1825 he was appointed Director of the Laboratory and in 1833 he became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the RI. In 1821 he discovered electro-magnetic rotations, the principle of the electric motor. In 1831 he discovered electro-magnetic induction; also in the early 1830s, he discovered the laws of electrolysis and coined words such as electrode, cathode, anode and ion. In 1845 he discovered the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism developing the theory of the electromagnetic field. In 1824 he was elected to the Royal Society. He gave lectures at the RI between 1825 and 1862, establishing the Friday Evening Discourses and the Christmas Lectures for the young. In 1827 he delivered a course of lectures on chemical manipulation to the London Institution and he also gave lectures for medical students from St George's Hospital from the mid 1820s onwards. In 1829 he was appointed Scientific Adviser to the Admiralty. In 1830 he was Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich until 1851. In 1836 he was appointed Scientific Adviser to the Corporation of Trinity House, the English and Welsh lighthouse authority, until 1865. During the 1850s and 1860s, he introduced electricity to lighthouses under this position. In 1844 he conducted an enquiry with the geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875), into the Haswell Colliery, County Durham, explosion.
Thomas Young was born, 1773; Made pioneering contribution to the understanding of light by demonstrating interference patterns, known as 'Young's fringes' (1800) which led to the Young-Fresnel undulatory theory. He also formulated an important measure of elasticity, known as 'Young's Modulus'. First to explain the accommodation of the eye; discovered the phemomenon of astigmatism; and proposed the three colour theory of vision which was later known as the Young-Hemholz theory, and was finally confirmed experimentally in 1959. Appointed to a professorship of natural philosphy at the Royal Institution (1801). His lectures at Royal Institution (1802-1803) were described by Joseph Larmor as "the greatest and most original of all general lecture courses". Undertook seminal work on the Rosetta Stone, deciphering the second type of Egyptian script on the stone, known as demotic, though the credit for finally reading the hieroglyphs belongs to Jean-Francois Champollion. A major scholar in ancient Greek, and a phenomenal linguist who coined the term 'Indo-European' for the language family which includes Greek and Sanscrit. Also a distinguished physician at St. George's Hospital, adviser to the Admiralty on shipbuilding, secretary of the Board of Longitude, and superintendent of the vital 'Nautical Almanac' from 1818 to 1829. Contributed many entries to the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' (1816-1825). Physician to and inspector of calculations for the Palladian Insurance Company (1824-1829).
Born, 1646; Education: Derby School; Jesus College, Cambridge; MA (Lit. Reg. 1674)
Career: Left school because of an attack of rheumatism (1662); travelled to Ireland in search of a cure; went to London (1670) where he met Henry Oldenburg (FRS date) and Sir Jonas Moore (FRS date), who became his patron; ordained (1675); first Astronomer Royal (1675-1719), he used his own instruments, which were removed by his widow after his death; Vicar of Burstow, Surrey (1684); a perfectionist, he was reluctant to publish his observations unless they were perfect, which led to conflict with Newton and Halley. On 12 December 1709 Queen Anne appointed a Board of Visitors of the Royal Observatory made up of the President and Council of the Royal Society, authorizing them to demand a copy of each year's observations, to direct what observations should be made, and to examine the observatory's instruments. Flamsteed's vigorous objections and refusal to co-operate further on the publication of his star catalogue and observations led to an incomplete version being published by Halley in 1712, which he condemned. After the accession of George I Flamsteed was able to buy up 300 of Halley's unsold copies, and after removing the sextant observations which he had previously approved and reserving some copies to display their errors, he burnt the rest. His observations were published to his very high standards posthumously in 1725 edited by his wife Margaret, and his 'Atlas Coelestis' in 1729, where the editor was again his wife with Crosthwait and Sharp responsible for the technical side; died, 1719.
Founder member of the Royal Society, one of the earliest Freemasons, he was devoted to the causes of the welfare of Scotland, loyalty to his monarch, and in promoting the new experimental philosophy. He was experienced in negotiating affairs of state, and an intimate friend of King Charles II. The son of Sir Mungo Moray of Craigie in Perthshire, he was educated in Scotland and in France, probably a member of the Scottish regiment which joined the French army in 1633. He made a considerable reputation for himself and was favoured by Cardinal Richelieu. In 1641 he was recruiting Scots soldiers for the French, later becoming Colonel of the Scots Guards at the French court. He was knighted in 1643 by Charles I. He was captured by the Duke of Bavaria in November 1643 whilst leading his regiment into battle for the French, and whilst in prison until 1645 was lent a book on magnetism by Kircherus, with whom he entered into correspondence. He tried unsuccessfully to arrange the escape of Charles I in 1646, and in 1651 was engaged in negotiations with the Prince of Wales to persuade him to come to Scotland, thus beginning his long friendship with the future Charles II.
After a failed Scottish rising in the Highland in 1653, his military career was over and he went into exile, in Bruges in 1656, then Maastricht until 1659, where he led the life of a recluse but spent his time in scientific pursuits. It was at this time that many of his letters to Alexander Bruce were written. Late in 1659 he went to Paris and did much, by correspondence, to help prepare for the return of the King to England, especially in relation to religious matters. After the return he was active in promoting the best interests of Scotland and was given high office. He was also provided with rooms at Whitehall Palace, the King's London residence, which included a laboratory, as the King shared his scientific interests. It was Moray who was the chief intermediary between the Royal Society and the King, and other highly placed persons at the Court such as Prince Rupert and the Duke of York. More important than his scientific work for the Society were his powers of organisation and firmness of purpose in establishing it on a sound and lasting basis, including his efforts in obtaining the three founding Royal Charters and his attempts to put the Society on a sound financial footing. In 1670 he and Lauderdale quarrelled, leading to Moray withdrawing from politics. On his death in 1673 he was buried in Westminster Abbey by personal order and expense of the king.
David Gregory of Kinnairdie (1627-1720), inventor, apprenticed by his father to a mercantile house in Holland. Returned in 1655, and succeeded to the estate of Kinnairdie on the death of an older brother. Highly regarded in medicine, having a large gratuitous practice both among the poor, and people of standing. First man in Aberdeenshire to possess a barometer, and his weather forecasts exposed him to suspicions of witchcraft. Moved to Aberdeen and investigated artillery. With help of an Aberdeen watchmaker constructed an improved model of a cannon, forwarding it to his eldest son David , and to Newton, who held it was 'for the diabolical purpose of increasing carnage', and who urged him to break it up.
David Gregorie (1661-1708, FRS 1692), astronomer, son of David Gregory (1627-1720). Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh University in 1683, first professor to lecture publicly on Newtonian philosophy, enthusiastic promoter of Newton's 'Principia'. In 1691 went to Oxford where introduced to Newton, who became an intimate friend and who with Flamsteed influenced his appointment as Savilian Professor of Astronomy in Oxford. His principal work 'Astronomiae Physicae et Geometricae Elementa' in 1702 was the first text book composed on gravitational principles and remodelling astronomy in conformity with physical theory. Approved by Newton, who had included in it his lunar theory, and for which he wrote a preface. Gregory was a skilful mathematician who left manuscript treatises on fluxions, trigonometry, mechanics and hydrostatics, and who was also known for his printing in 1703 of all the writings attributed, with any show of authority, to Euclid.
James Gregory (1638-1675, FRS 1668) mathematician and elder brother of David Gregory (1627-1708) His scientific talent was discovered and encouraged by his brother, and in 1673 at age 24 he published his 'Optica Promota' containing the first feasible description of a reflecting telescope, his invention of it dating from 1661, and inspiring Newton to make his own reflecting telescope. Studied mathematics in Padua 1664-1667, publishing 'Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura' in 1667, showing how to find the areas of the circle, elipse, and hyoerbole by means of converging series, and applying the same new method to calculation of logarithms. Friendly debate with Newton 1672-1673 as to merits of their respective telescopes. From 1674 first exclusively mathematical professor at Edinburgh.
Charles Gregory was one of the 32 children of David Gregory (1627-1720) and brother of the second David Gregory (1661-1708).
Born, 1635; Education: Queen's College, Oxford; BA (1655), DCL (1677); Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1654); Career: Travelled abroad (1659-1661); Original Fellow of the Royal Society, 1663; Clerk to the Commission of Prizes (1664-1667); Clerk to the Privy Council (1664-1679); Deputy Vice-Admiral of the Provinces of Munster (1665), Vice-Admiral (1677); Envoy extraordinary to Portugal (1665-1669), Flanders (1671-1672) and to the Elector of Brandenburg (1680); Chief Commissioner of Excise (1671-1681); Commissioner for Assessment for Middlesex (1673-1680, Westminster (1677-1680), Gloucestershire (1679-1680, 1689-1690); MP for Penrhyn (1673-1679), Lostwithiel (1685-1687); Commissioner of Customs (1689-1697); Deputy-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire (1689-1694); Principal Secretary of State for Ireland (1690-1702); Privy Councillor, Ireland (1690-death); endowed an almshouse for eight helpless men and women on his estate at Dromderrick, Kinsale (1682); died, 1702.
Born in 1659 at Bushby, Leicestershire, educated at Merchant Taylors School, and elected in 1677 to St John's College Oxford where he developed an interest in botany. In 1683 he was elected a law Fellow of St John's College, and in 1694 received the degree of Doctor of Common Law. With the permission of the college, he began a series of foreign tours. He studied botany in Paris under Tournefort (1686-1688) and in 1688 spent time in Leiden with Paul Hermann. The plants he listed in the Swiss Alps, Geneva Roma and Naples were sent to Ray to publish in his 'Stirpium Europeaorum' of 1694, and those from Cornwall and Jersey in his 'Synopsis methodica Stirpium Britannicarum' of 1690. He wa a tutor to Sir Arthur Rawdon, living mainly at Moira, County Down, then tutor to Charles Viscount Townsend on his continental tour, and in 1695 to Wriothesley, eldest son of William Lord Russell in France and Italy. During this period he began his revision of Gaspard Bauhin's 'Pinax', a project which remained unfinished at his death. Until 1702 he was tutor to Henry, second Duke of Beaufort at Badminton. In 1702 he had a short appointment as Commissioner for the Sick and Wounded, and the Exchange of Prisoners, follwed in 1703 with his appointment by the Levant Company as Consul in Smyrna. Here he indulged his botanical and antiquarian interests, collecting plants, copying anitquarian artefacts and collected coins.In 1717 he returned to England a wealthy man. In 1718 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and served on the council for two years. He made three further trips to the continent, in 1721, 1723 and 1727, visiting Boerhaeve in Holland and bringing Dillenius back to asist him with the 'Pinax'. He had been hampered in this by a quarrel with Sir Hans Sloane, who refused him his herbarium, but a reconciliation took place in 1727. Sherard died in 1728, leaving his books, drawings and paintings, and his manuscript of 'Pinax' to the library of the 'Physic Garden' at Oxford, the rest to St John's College. In addition, he left £3000 to establish the Sherardian Chair of Botany, naming Dillenius the first Sherardian professor. Sherard occupied a high position among botanists of his time, although the only work he himself wrote was 'Schola Botanica' (1689).
Warren de la Rue was born, 1815; engineer who undertook research in chemistry and astronomy; FRS, 1850; Royal Medal, 1864; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1869-1870 and 1883-1885; died, 1889.
Born, 1826; BA; Astronomical Observer, University of Durham; FRAS; FCPS; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1860; died, 1875.
Originally set to the family trade of broadcloth weaving, his learning and mechanical talent, as shown by his creation of an accurate sundial proudly displayed outside the house by his father, brought him to the attention of Dr Henry Miles (FRS 1843). Miles persuaded the father to allow John to reside with him in Tooting, Surrey, until 1738, when John articled himself to Samuel Watkins, master of a school in Spital Square London, and whom he succeeded as master and owner of the school until his death in 1772. Canton's first contributions to science were routine calculations of the times of lunar eclispes, published in the 'Ladies Diary' for 1739 and 1740. Through Miles he met London's best 'experimental philosophers' such as the apothecary William Watson and clockmaker John Ellicott. He rapidly acquired the same reputation, largely for his invention of a new method of making strong artificial magnets. He kept the method secret, hoping to make some income from it, until the publication of John Mitchell's 'A Treatise of Artificial Magnets' (1750). His procedure appeared very similar to Mitchell's, who immediately accused him of plagiarism. This did not prevent the Royal Society from awarding him the Copley Medal for 1751; Canton had a method before Mitchell's publication, and from what is known of his character testifies to his innocence. In 1752 Canton learned of the French experiments confirming Franklin's conjecture about lightning. He was the first in England to repeat the experiments successfully, and in the process discovered independently that clouds came electrified both positively (as theory suggested) and negatively. His work on determining the sign of a cloud's charge led Canton to design the well known experiments on electrostatic induction which have earned him a place in the history of electricity. He also made the notable discovery that glass does not always charge positively by friction; the sign of the electricity developed depends upon the nature of the substance rubbed over it and the condition of the surface of the glass. Other contributions to the subject were a portable pith-ball electroscope (1754), a method for electifying the air by communication (1754), a careful account of that bewildering stone the tourmaline (1759) and an improvement in the electrical machine, coating its cushion with an amalgam of mercury and tin (1762). As a gifted amateur physicist of his time, Canton displayed interest in other topics, such as identifying the cause of the luminosity of seawater (putrefying organic matter); invented a strongly phosphorescent compound 'Canton's phosphor' made of sulfur and calcined oyster shells (CaS); kept a meteorological journal; recorded the diurnal variations of the compass; and demonstrated the compressibility of water, a notable achievement, which depended on measurements so minute he was challenged on his revolutionalry interpretation of them, although they stood the scrutiny of a special committee of the Royal Society and earned him a second Copley Medal in 1765. He was a frequenter of the Club of Honest Whigs in the company of Franklin and Dissenting Ministers like Joseph Priestley, whose 'History and Present State of Electricity' owed much to his patient assistance. Canton was one of the most distinguished of the group of self-made, self-educated men who were the best representatives of English physics in the mid-eighteenth century.
Warren de la Rue was born, 1815; engineer who undertook research in chemistry and astronomy; FRS, 1850; Royal Medal, 1864; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1869-1870 and 1883-1885; died, 1889.
John Aubrey was born, 1626; Education: Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1641); Middle Temple (admitted 1646); Career: Discovered the megaliths at Avebury, Wiltshire (1649); inherited estates in Wiltshire, Herefordshire and Wales from his father (1652) but dissipated them through law suits, selling the last of his property (1670) and his library (1677); formed topographical collections on Surrey and North Wiltshire; assisted Anthony à Wood with his 'Antiquities of Oxford'; wrote 'Brief Lives' of his notable contemporaries; Original Fellow of the Royal Society; died, 1697.
Alexander Pearson was surgeon of the East India Company at Canton.
Norman Wingate (Bill) Pirie was born in Torrance, Stirlingshire, on 1 July 1907. After attending various schools in Scotland an England he completed his schooling at Rydal School, Colwyn Bay. He entered Emmanuel College Cambridge in 1925 to study for the Natural Science Tripos. Pirie specialised in biochemistry for Part II, attracted by the liveliness of the Biochemistry Department under Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, who had assembled a team of highly talented young biochemists including J B S Haldane, J Needham and D Keilin. He graduated BA in 1929 and was appointed Demonstrator in the Department of Biochemistry and recveived an Emmanuel College research fellowship. For the following five years Pirie worked on the purification of sulphur compounds, studying the chemistry and metabolism of compounds such as methionine and glutathione. In 1932 he began research with ASA (later Sir Ashley) Miles on the bacteria 'Brucella abortus' and 'Brucella mellitensis'. He retained an active interest in this research through the 1930's and 1940's.
In 1934 he began his longstanding collaborative research with the biochemist F C (later Sir Frederick) Bawden, then with the Potato Virus Research Unit in Cambridge, on viruses responsible for potato disease. Their work demonstrated conclusively that the genetic material found in all viruses is ribonucleic acie (RNA) and thus contradicted the view of Wendell Stanley, who had thought the viruses consisted entirely of protein. Bawden and Pirie realized that RNA might be the infective component of viruses but they were unable to confirm this experimentally, and it was not until 1956 that this was established by others. Bawden had moved to the Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, in 1936 and in 1940 Pirie moved there himself, having been appointed Virus Physiologist. He became Head of the Biochemistry Department in 1947.
Pirie's research into plant viruses had intitiated his interest in properties and uses of leaf protein. Wartime food shortages prompted investigative work on the large-scale extraction of leaf protein for human food and tests were undertaken at Rothamsted. After the war Pirie continued this line of research, with support from the Rockefeller and Wolfson Foundations and later, under the International Biological Programme, he worked on methods of extraction. Although the potential of leaves as a human protein source had first been mooted in 1773, the full significance of it was not recognized until the twentieth century. Pirie was the first to develop a practical technology for its extraction. Pirie argued that in many climates more edible protein could be obtained by cultivation of leaf crops than any other form of cultivation. Much of his attention was given to studying suitable plants and to developing equipment for efficient small scale or household production of leaf protein, particularly in the developing world. He was also interested in marketing it as suitable for human consumption through use in recipes.
Pirie was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1949 'for his researches on plant viruses, especially as regards their isolation and their chemical and physical properties. With F C Bawden he was responsible for demonstrating that tobacco mosaic virus and several other plant viruses were nucleoproteins. These two workers were the first to isolate a plant virus in 3 dimensional crystalline form. Much of the recent work on plant viruses has been stimulate4d by these important discoverie. In addition Pirie has worked on the chemistry of antigens and has also concerned himself with the assessment of purity of large molecules of bilogical interest'. Pirie gave the Royal Society Leeuwenhoek Lecture for 1963 and was awarded its Copley Medal in 1971 'in recognition of his distinguished contributions to biochemistry and especially for his elucidation of the nature of plant viruses'. In 1976 he received the first Rank Prize for Nutrition and Agronomy.
Pirie died 29 March 1997. His wife, the opthalmologist Antoinettte Pirie with whom he had a son and a daughter, predeceased him in 1991.
Born on 3 June 1873 in Frankfurt am Main, Loewi attended, 1881-1890, a Gymnasium in Frankfurt of the old style where studies were centred on classical languages, resulting in lifelong cultural interests of great width and variety. He matriculated in medicine at Strassburg where he came into contact with Nannyn in clinical medicine, Schmiedeberg in pharmacology and Hofmeister in biochemistry, working under the latter after taking a course in chemistry in Frankfurt after graduation. His first post was with the City Hospital in Frankfurt, then with Dr. Hans Horst Meyer, Professor of Pharmacology at Marburg a.d. Lahn, where his researches were concerned with biochemical problems of metabolism. In 1902 he studied with Ernest Starling, Professor of Physiology at University College London, visited Cambridge and learnt about several productive lines of research which would influence him many years later, and met Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. On his return to Marburg he concentrated on renal function and publications on other subjects which had caught his interest, such as treatment with digitalis. He and his co-workers at Graz concentrated on the chemical transmission of effects from the nerve endings of the autonomic system until 1938, when the Nazi occupation of Austria and his temporary imprisonment compelled him to leave Austria. After a visit to England and a temporary post in Brussels, he was caught in England by the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 and worked in the Pharmacology Department at Oxford under Professor J A Gunn, before moving to the Medical School of New York University as Research Professor of Pharmacology in 1940. He became an American citizen in 1946, and died on 25 December 1961. He was awarded the Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) in 1936, and elected a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society in 1954. He married in 1908 Guida, daughter of Guido Goldschmidt, Professor of Chemistry in Prague and Vienna, and had 3 sons and one daughter.
This Copy version was transcribed in the eighteenth century, possibly for reasons of security like the Journal Books and the Council Minutes. It is known that one volume of the Register was lost (Volume 2) and then recovered - but not before a replacement had been made, leaving three versions in total (Original, Duplicate and Copy). A further copy of the original Volumes 1and 2 was made (date unknown) and returned to the Society in 1814, being presented to Sir Joseph Banks (MSG/776). Volume 10 of the series does not exist - this was left as a deliberate gap in the sequence, to be filled if original papers became available for copying.
The Register Books exist in Original and Copy form. The Original set was copied in the eighteenth century, possibly for reasons of security as were the Journal Books and the Council Minutes. It is known that one volume of the Register was lost (Volume 2) and then recovered, but not before a replacement had been made, leaving three versions. A further copy of Volumes 1 and 2 of the Register was made (date unknown) and returned to the Society in 1814, being presented to Sir Joseph Banks (MSG/776). Volume 10 of the series does not exist - this was left as a deliberate gap in the sequence, to be filled if original papers became available for copying. MS/245 may once have been considered as part of, or supplementary to, the Register Book. It contains copies of original documents in Classified Papers 23(i) and (ii) on the subject of inoculation, and is copied and bound in similar style.
Robinson was born into a well-to-do-family of surgical dressing manufacturers (Robinsons of Chesterfield). He entered Manchester University to read chemistry in 1902 aged sixteen, and on graduation began research there under W.H. Perkin. Other lasting relationships from this period were with C. Weizmann (from 1906) and A. Lapworth (from 1909). In 1912 Robinson was appointed to his first chair at the University of Sydney and subsequently occupied chairs of organic chemistry at Liverpool (1915), St Andrews (1920), Manchester (1922), University College London (1928), and the Waynflete Chair of Chemistry, Oxford (1930-1955): the university extended his tenure for four years after the normal retirement age. In all these posts, Robinson developed productive research schools working in a wide range of chemical problems, and in retirement his activity continued in a small laboratory made available by the Shell Chemical Company, where he was consultant.
He was elected FRS in 1920 (Bakerian Lecture 1930, Davy Medal 1930, Royal Medal 1932, Copley Medal 1942, PRS 1945-1950) and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1947. The actual citation read 'for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids' though his Royal Society memorialists A.R. Todd and J.W. Cornforth suggest that 'it would have been equally, or possibly more, appropriate to have said "for his outstanding contributions to the entire science of organic chemistry".' (Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol 22, 426.) Robinson was knighted in 1939 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1949.
This system of assessment began in December 1831, and became the norm for most papers, although the Reports were not necessarily presented in person. The Statutes of the Royal Society for 1831 describe the process by which papers were judged; those failing to gain a majority vote on two meetings of the Committee were rejected, but the Committee could call upon any Fellow to present a written Report to assist the process of deliberation before the second meeting, Formal printed sheets first appeared in 1898 and continue to the present day.
Royal Society Club is a Dining Club and an independent body, membership of which is limited to Fellows of the Royal Society. The modern Club traces its lineage to the mid-18th century, although such institutions are at least as old as the Royal Society itself. Meetings are social rather than scientific, but inevitably matters of scientific interest have continued to form the main topics for discussion.
The Royal Society's Tercentenary celebrations took place on 18 July 1960.
Thomas Gold was born, 22 May 1920 in Vienna, Austria. He lived there for the first ten years of his life before moving with his family to Berlin for three years. When he was thirteen, he was sent to Zuoz College, a boarding school in Switzerland. At the age of eighteen, he left for England, where his parents had settled and, at the age of nineteen, just after the Second World War had started, he went to study engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge. In May 1940, he was interned as an enemy alien. During his internment he met Hermann Bondi, a cosmologist and mathematician (1919-2005) with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.
In August 1941, Gold returned to Trinity College and, in 1942, received a BA degree in Mechanical Sciences (an MA degree in Mechanical Sciences from Cambridge University followed in 1946. He became a Doctor of Science at Cambridge University in 1969). Gold then worked for a few months as a farm labourer and lumberjack. In the autumn of 1942, Frederick Hoyle, Director of the theory group (code named Section XRC8) at the British Admiralty's Signal Establishment, hired him, on Hermann Bondi's advice, as an Experimental Officer to work on radar research and development.
Gold worked at the British Admiralty until 1946 before returning to Cambridge University where he applied for a research grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to study ultra sound and its possible use for medical diagnostics. Although the MRC agreed to the grant, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, where he was going to carry out his research, had no space to accommodate him. Therefore his work could not go ahead. Instead, he found another position, also at Cavendish Laboratory, constructing a giant 21cm magnetron for accelerators.
After a few months, Gold went to carry out research into the mechanism of hearing in mammalian ears at the Zoological Laboratory, Cambridge, with Richard Pumphrey, whom he had met during the war. In 1947, he was awarded a prize fellowship from Trinity College for a thesis based on that research and married Merle Eleanor Tuberg, an American astronomer with whom he had three daughters. The marriage eventually ended in divorce. In the late 1940s, he, Hermann Bondi and Fred Hoyle developed the Steady State theory of the expanding universe. In 1949, he became a University Demonstrator in Physics at Cavendish Laboratory. In 1952, he became Chief Assistant to the Royal Astronomer (Senior Principal Scientific Officer) at Royal Greenwich Observatory.
In 1956, Gold moved to America and spent the autumn semester at Cornell University before settling at Harvard University where he became Professor of Astronomy (1957-1958) and then Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy, Harvard University (1958-1959). In 1957, he received a Master of Arts degree, honoris causa, from Harvard University. In 1959, he returned to Cornell University to become Chairman of its Astronomy Department (1959-1968) and Director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research (1959-1981), which he founded. From 1963 until 1971, he was involved in the running of Arecibo Observatory, a facility operated by Cornell University, and home to the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. He was also Assistant Vice President for Research (1969-1971), John L Wetherill Professor of Astronomy (1971-1986) and John L Wetherill Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus (1987-2004).
During his time at Cornell University, his achievements included correctly identifying that pulsars are rotating neutron stars, predicting that the surface of the moon would be covered with a layer of fine-grained rock powder ('lunar regolith' or 'moon dust') and designing the camera that astronauts used to photograph the surface of the moon on the Apollo 11, 12 and 14 missions. Towards the end of his life, he was perhaps best known for his advocacy of the controversial theory that oil and gas deposits are non-biological (abiogenic) in origin. He also proposed that microbial life exists deep beneath the earth's surface, a theory that has been proved correct. These theories resulted in two books, Thomas Gold, 'Power from the Earth: deep earth gas - energy for the future' (London, Dent, 1987) and Thomas Gold, 'The deep hot biosphere - the myth of fossil fuels' (New York, Copernicus Books, 1999).
In 1972, Gold married Carvel Beyer with whom he had one daughter. He died in Ithaca, New York, on 22 June 2004 at the age of 84. By birth, he was an Austrian citizen. He was also a British citizen (through naturalisation in July 1947) and an American citizen (through naturalisation in 1964).
Thomas Gold also held the following academic and non-academic positions: Vanuxem Lecturer, Princeton University (1973); Henry R Luce Professor of Cosmology, Mount Holyoke College, whilst on leave from Cornell University (1975-1976); Commonwealth Lecturer, University of Massachusetts (1975); Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar (1978-1979); Visiting Professor, Niehls Bohr Institute, Copenhagen (1980); Welsh Lecturer, University of Toronto (1980); Alexander von Humboldt Professor, University of Bonn, whilst on leave from Cornell University (1982); George Darwin Lectureship, Royal Astronomical Society, London (1982). He was also a member of the Space Sciences Panel of the American President's Science Advisory Committee for seven years and a member of a number of NASA planning committees including the Lunar and Planetary Missions Board.
Thomas Gold was also a Fellow or Member of the following societies: Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, London (10 December 1948). Served on the Council of the Society from 1955 until 1957; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (8 May 1957); Member of the Cornell University Chapter of The Society of the Sigma Xi (15 May 1960); Fellow of The American Geophysical Union (April 1962); Fellow of the Royal Society (19 March 1964); Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1968); Fellow of the American Astronautical Society (1970). Member from 1970 until 1976; Member of the American Philosophical Society (21 Apr 1972); President of the New York Astronomical Society (1981-1986); Member of the International Academy of Astronautics.
Thomas Gold received the following: John F Lewis Prize, American Philosophical Society (1972); Alexander von Humboldt Prize [1979]; Gold Medal, Royal Astronomical Society, London (1985). He was also given an Honorary Fellowship by Trinity College, Cambridge (1986).
Thompson was born in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, and educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield, and Trinity College, Oxford, where his tutor was C.N. Hinshelwood. He gained first class honours in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) in 1929. He then spent a year researching in Berlin with F. Haber before returning to Oxford to take up a Fellowship at St John's College. Thompson quickly established himself as one of the finest teachers in the university and many of his students went on to great scientific distinction and included F.S. Dainton, C.F. Kearton, J.W. Linnett, R.E. Richards and D.H. Whiffen, all of whom became Fellows of the Royal Society. Thompson's main research interest in Berlin had been gas reactions but on his return to Oxford he focused his research activity in the area of chemical spectroscopy and in particular work on the infrared. During the Second World War he worked for the Ministry of Aircraft Production in collaboration with G.B.B.M. Sutherland on the infrared spectroscopic analysis of enemy aviation fuels, and in 1943 he and Sutherland were members of a British scientific mission which visited the USA on behalf of the Ministry. After the war Thompson continued to play a major role in demonstrating how infrared spectra might be applied to a very wide range of chemical studies. He contributed to international science as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, 1965-1971, when the Society's overseas activities were greatly expanded, and as President of International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), 1963-1966, and of International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), 1973-1975. Throughout his life Thompson gave devoted service to football, from amateur player in his youth to Chairman of the Football Association, 1976-1981.
Thompson was elected FRS in 1946 (Davy Medal 1965) and was knighted in 1968.
German Educational Reconstruction (GER) was a voluntary organisation founded in London in 1943 with the aim of helping German refugee educationists to prepare for their post-war return to Germany. The main consideration was the restructuring of the German school system on 'democratic principles'. After World War Two the emphasis shifted toward promoting Anglo-German relations by acting as an information bureau and means of communication and exchange between British and German educationists. GER undertook a wide variety of activities, including organising conferences, lectures, and study groups; co-operating with other voluntary bodies; arranging visits and youth work; publishing and distributing memoranda, pamphlets and textbooks. Several prominent figures were associated with GER, including Eleanor Rathbone, Sir Ernest Barker, Karl Mannheim, Fritz Borinski, S.H. Wood, Erich Hirsch and Fritz Burchardt. It was wound up in 1958.
The Architects and Building Branch was formed in 1949 by the merger of the Architects Branch and the Buildings and Priority Branch of the then Ministry of Education, thus bringing together both administrative personnel and professional architects into one multi-disciplinary team. During its influential work overseeing central government policy relating to school architecture and specific building programmes, its staff accumulated large collections of photographs, slides and associated materials. On the initiative of one member of staff, David Medd, the collection was brought together at some stage in the 1990s. Whilst the photgraphic prints seem to have already formed a core collection for the use of all staff, the slide collection (DC/ABB/C) was assembled by David Medd from numerous individual sources in the Architects and Building Branch such as abandoned boxes, drawers and cupboards. The transparencies were not taken by professional photographers, but by architects and others when visiting sites to supplement investigation work or to record progress or building projects undertaken by the Branch and did not form a single collection, but were kept by these individuals as an adjunct to their work.
Amelia Fysh (nee Bullen) (born c 1922) was brought up in Grimsby. She won a scholarship to attend the local grammar school and during the war worked in the Royal Signal Corps as a cipher operator. At the end of the war she was working in the War Office in London. Before being demobilised she was recruited to teach young male recruits. After the end of the war she entered the teaching profession through completing the Emergency Training Scheme. Her first teaching role was a reception class of 50 children in a school in her home town. Appalled by the class sizes in primary schools she entered nursery education, running the nursery class at South Parade Primary School, also in Grimsby. During this time she completed the Child Development Diploma at the University of London, Institute of Education. In 1966 she gained a Certificate in Education of the Handicapped Child from the University of Leicester, School of Education.
In 1956 she became the Headteacher of Beech Green Nursery School in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, which had been opened in 1942 by the Save the Children Fund, initially for evacuees and the children of mothers working towards the war effort. When Amelia joined the nursery it was already inclusive in its nature but during her time there Fysh was a pioneer of learning through creating an environment that fostered creativity, outdoor play and inclusive education for children with learning and physical disabilities. During this time the nursery admitted fifty children with disabilities including Downs Syndrome, cerebal palsey, spina bifida, autism, epilepsy, and hearing and sight impairments. Many leaders from other playgroups visited Beech Green to talk to staff about their work and Amelia devised an eight week course regarding the work that had been completed at the nursery. She left the nursery school in 1972 to become a teacher trainer.
Amelia Fysh has been described as a champion of introducing educational inclusion, particularly for children with special needs, decades before the writing of the Warnock Report in 1978. She did not conform to one school of theory but drew on the work of a number of different academics including Jean Piaget, Susan Isaacs and Tina Bruce. Her main line of thought focused on the importance of the individuality of children. She stated a child's development could be stimulated through creative learning and important activities including water play, building materials, dressing up, role play, painting and cookery. Over a nine year period (1964-1973) she tracked the development of nursery years children through asking them to draw a man with felt-tip pen on a 6 inch by 9 inch piece of paper. No child was requested to complete a drawing and drawings were completed on regular (but not time specific) occasions. These works showed how a child's development was not linear. Amelia's work was published in 199[7] in 'Discovering Development with the 3-5s. A Longitudinal study 1964-1973'.
In more recent years Power Drawing, an education programme of the Campaign for Drawing, has encouraged teachers to follow the work of Amelia Fysh, and to retain a collection of the work created as evidence of their development. In 2003, aged 81 she worked for Buckinghamshire Local Education Authority (LEA), participating in their training provision on inclusion and special needs for nursery and child care providers.
The British Families Education Service (BFES) was established by the Foreign Office in 1946 to provide schooling for the children of British families stationed in the British Zone of Germany after World War Two, amidst the post-war devastation. In the winter of 1951-1952 it was taken over by the Army and became Service Children's Education. Arabella Kurdi, then Pallister, went to Germany in February 1947 and worked as School Meals and Domestic Science Organiser for the Service. As such she travelled widely within the British Zone and visited many schools and different areas of the country.
Founded in 1891 by a small group of London schoolmasters, including Robert Blair, later Chief Education Officer of the London County Council, the Association, then known as the Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools, quickly expanded to a nationwide membership and was incorporated in 1901. Its main objects were the promotion of professional status and standards for secondary school masters, including conditions of service, security of tenure, salaries and pensions, although it also took an interest in wider educational policy including the school curriculum and examinations. In 1978 it merged with the Association of Assistant Mistresses to form the Assistant Masters and Mistresses Association.
Mary Irene Anderson (more generally known by her middle name of Irene) was born in Scotland and was educated at the Girls' High School in Doncaster and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she studied geography, graduating in 1941. She worked as Geography Mistress at Kirkby Stephen Grammar school, Westmorland, 1941-1944. Wishing to work as a missionary, Miss Anderson then underwent two years of training at the Church of Scotland Women's Missionary College in Edinburgh from 1944-1946, followed by a short period running the Church of Scotland Club for Fishergirls, until December 1947. In March 1948 she then moved to the Gold Coast and took a post as Geography Mistress at Achimota School, remaining there until 1953 when she was appointed Headmistress of the Aburi Girls' Secondary School, a Scottish Mission Girls' School, where she stayed until her retirement in 1970.
George and Judith Baines were both primary school teachers who pioneered new teaching methods in an open-plan environment in the 1960s-1980s. George Baines once summarised his views that the work of a teacher should be to 'prescribe the environment of school, to release the children permissively into it, to observe and diagnose needs from their activities, and to draw upon all our professional resources to meet those needs [George Baines, 'Social and environmental studies', in Vincent R. Rogers (ed.), Teaching in the British Primary School (London: Macmillan, 1970), p. 199-216.]
George Baines (1927-2009) trained as a teacher, at Newland Park Training College, Buckinghamshire, 1951-1953. From 1953-1962 he taught in schools in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, before being appointed as Headmaster of Brize Norton Primary School, Oxfordshire, 1962-1966, where he first began to experiment with teaching in open-plan spaces. In 1966 he was appointed headmaster of Eynsham County Primary School, Oxfordshire. Here he spent one year preparing the teachers for the move into a new open-plan school building, which was then being designed, and for the adoption of new teaching methods.
Judith Baines, née Purbrook, trained, 1951-1953 at OffleyTraining College, Hertfordshire, and then taught briefly at Ashwell County Primary School, Hertfordshire. In 1960-1961 she taught at Strathmore Infant School, Hitchen, Hertfordshire, and then for three years at a private school in Oxfordshire, before joining the staff at Eynsham County Primary School in 1967. She was appointed Deputy Head in 1968 and she and George Baines married in 1974.
In 1967 the new Eynsham school building opened and George and Judith began their teaching collaboration pioneering new teaching methods, including learning through the environment and project-based work, in an open-plan school. The building burned down in 1969 and the school was housed in temporary accommodation until it re-opened in 1970. It was initially a school for the age-range 5 to 9, extending to children up to 11 in the mid-1970s. The children followed a course of 'self-directed learning'. The building was not divided into classrooms, but into a number of specialist areas for different activities, e.g. 'Botany Bay' and 'Cookery Bay'. Each child had a 'Home Bay' where they gathered before morning assembly and at the end of each day and where an individual teacher was responsible. A system of vertical grouping was adopted for these groups. In the morning the children would launch straight into whatever task they wished, before the whole school gathered for morning assembly, and at the end of the day they would talk over their activities with their own teacher in their 'Home Bay'. For the rest of the day the children moved freely around the building depending upon what type of activity they wished to do and during this period they could ask for help from any teacher. Eynsham was visited by groups from all over the world to look at the teaching methods employed.
Whilst at Brize Norton and Eynsham, George Baines lectured in Bristol and elsewhere, including in Germany and Iceland (c.1975) and made three trips to Gambia (1968, 1970, 1971) and a Canadian exchange visit (1980).
George and Judith retired from Eynsham in 1983. However, George went on to teach INSET courses at Bishop Grossteste College, Lincoln in the mid-1980s and in 1987 they moved to Lincoln where Judith also taught at the College as a first-year tutor for primary studies. Here, they collaborated with David and Mary Medd on the design and establishment of a Primary Base. George Baines died on 26 September 2009.
Bernard Basil Bernstein (1924-2000) was educated at Christ's College, Finchley, London. After serving in the RAF during World War Two, he went on to study sociology at the London School of Economics, graduating in 1951. Meanwhile he also undertook social work, being a resident Settlement Worker at the Bernard Baron Settlement in Stepney, London, from 1947-1949, where he undertook family case work, youth club work, community organisation and participated in 'delinquent camps'. He went on to train as a teacher at Westminster Training College (1953-1954) and then taught a range of subjects at the City Day College, Golden Lane (1954-1960), becoming a Research Assistant at University College London (1960-1963) and obtaining a PhD from the University of London in 1963. From 1962 to 1967 Bernstein was a Reader in the Sociology of Education at the University of London Institute of Education, being Head of the Sociological Research Unit from 1962 and Professor in the Sociology of Education from 1967. From 1979 he was the Karl Mannheim Professor in the Sociology of Education at the Institute and from 1984 was Senior Pro-Director and Pro-Director Research. After his retirement in 1991 Bernsetin became an Emeritus Professor. He held honorary degrees from several different universities. Bernstein was influential in the field of socio-linguistics. His published works, in particular the five volumes of the series on Class, Codes and Control, have become classics in the field.
Charles Henry Burden (1869-1957) was the first headmaster of Hyde Technical School from 1902 to 1912. He had served previously for five years in York and prior to that in Cheshire. In 1912 he became headmaster of Beverley Grammar School, Yorkshire, until his retirement in 1935. During this period he was Mayor of Beverley three times. He received two bachelor's degrees (in Arts and Science) and a certificate of education from the University of London. Between December 1906 and April 1907, Burden toured various schools in Canada and the USA as part of the Mosely Commission. His mission was 'to ascertain their methods of teaching and to make note of the resources available'. Alfred Mosely (1855-1917), formerly a businessman in South Africa, was concerned with the growing economic power of the United States and convinced that the reason for this advance could be found in their schooling and its abundant resources. With the help of the Ministry of Education, he set up a commission of enquiry which published a report in 1903. He organised another education commission in 1906.
Basic English was developed by Charles Kay Ogden (1889 - 1957) as an 'international language' and as a system for teaching English to speakers of other languages using a simplified vocabulary of 850 words.
In 1927 Ogden established the Orthological Institute followed by the publication, in quick succession, of 'Basic English' (1930), 'The Basic Vocabulary' (1930), 'Debabelization' (1931) and 'The Basic Words' (1932). A period of rapid expansion saw the establishment of 30 agencies connected with Basic English across the world and by 1939 there were around 200 printed works in, or about, Basic English.
In 1943 Winston Churchill established a cabinet committee looking at Basic English. Following the committee's report, Churchill made a statement to the House of Commons on 9 March 1944. The statement outlined a strategy to develop Basic English as an 'auxiliary international and administrative language'. The statement was later published as White Paper CMD. 6511 titled 'The Atlantic Charter, and the Prime Minister's Statement on Basic English of March 9, 1944; in their original form, and in Basic English, for purposes of Comparison' (DC/BEF/5/10).
Ogden assigned his copyright for Basic English works to the Crown in June 1946. In 1947, with a grant from the Ministry of Education, the Basic English Foundation was established. The Basic English Foundation was constituted as a charitable trust 'to develop the study and teaching of the system and to promote a knowledge of Basic English, and thereby of the English Language, throughout the world'. The Basic English Foundation would remain closely associated with the Orthological Institute through which a certain amount of teacher training in Basic English was conducted.
Following the Second World War those concerned with Basic English were not able to reassemble the international network of teaching agencies. However, the promotion of Basic English as a means of teaching English continued.
The Basic English Foundation's main activity was translating and publishing books in Basic English and, after a controversial history, it finally wound up its activities in the 1960s.
Brenda Francis (fl. 1930s-1980s) was a London County Council (LCC)/Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) Advisory Teacher in the field of domestic science. She retired in the 1980s.
Advisory Teachers are experienced classroom teachers who are either seconded or employed permanently by their Local Education Authority to provide advisory and inspection services in schools in order to meet the training and development needs of teachers. They do so by arranging in-service training, helping schools prepare for inspection, and identifying and disseminating good practice.
The London County Council was the local government body for London from 1889 to 1965. It gained responsibility for education in London in 1904, as a result of the 1902 Education Act (which passed responsibility of education to Local Education Authorities). As such, it instigated a number of educational reforms and institutions within London, such as school medical services, school meals, open-air schools for delicate children, and the division of schools into primary and secondary stages.
The LCC was also influential in the passing of the 1944 Education Act, which introduced free secondary education for all children, with particular emphasis on girls and those of a lower socio-economic status. The Act also introduced comprehensive secondary schools, which had particularly strong political and administrative support in London. The first purpose-built state school in the United Kingdom was Kidbrooke School, in Greenwich, which opened in 1954.
In 1963, the London Government Act (an overhaul of general administration of the capital influenced by the 1957-1960 Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London, also known as the Herbert Report) abolished and replaced the LCC with the Greater London Council (GLC). This came into force from 1965.
Responsibility for the education of Inner London (the London boroughs of Camden, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, and the City of Westminster) was transferred to the newly-created Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).
The ILEA was considered to be a 'special committee' of the GLC, and consisted of members of the GLC from the Inner London area, plus one member delegated from each of the inner London boroughs and the City of London.
The ILEA was involved in some experimental approaches towards education, such as introducing an educational television network where programmes were prepared and presented by practising London teachers on secondment, with the assistance of professional television staff. By 1970, all London schools had been brought into the closed circuit network. The ILEA's desire to disseminate information and promote learning and training among the teachers as well as the pupils was also reflected in the number of advisory and resource books published by the organization during its existence.
By 1970 the ILEA had established Teachers Centres which provided in-service (INSET) education for ILEA teachers and had a team responsible for the development of home economics. Maureen Walshe was the Staff Inspector of home economics and was responsible for 4 subject inspectors who were each responsible for a region of the ILEA, oversaw the wardens of the Teachers Centres, and were responsible for an subject area of home economics comprising, needlecraft; special education; health education; and child development. From 1972 Brenda Francis was the ILEA Subject Inspector responsible for needlecraft and the East & North East and Central Regional of the ILEA. She also oversaw the warden of the Exton Street Teachers Centre. Advisory teachers were also appointed to work with each subject inspector to help develop the different subject areas.
Towards the end of the 1970s, ILEA was noted for its adoption of a culturally pluralist approach towards ethnic minorities in London schools. As such it issued a number of policy statements endorsing multiculturalism, with an emphasis on allowing children who had immigrated to London from countries outside the UK to be fully integrated into the education system. This reflected the current educational climate in the UK that propounded the belief that learning in schools should mirror the growing multicultural nature of the UK. The ILEA's publications on life in the Caribbean contained in this collection are part of this emphasis on integration of ethnic minorities into UK culture.
By the 1980s, the ILEA came under criticism from Conservative politicians, in particular the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who believed that the organisation was over-spending and over-bureaucratic. Subsequently the ILEA was abolished in 1990 as a direct result of the Education Reform Act of 1988. Responsibility for education in London was transferred to the individual London Boroughs.
The British Families Education Service (BFES) was established by the Foreign Office in 1946 to provide schooling for the children of British families stationed in the British Zone of Germany after the Second World War, and amidst the post-War devastation. In the winter of 1951-1952 it was taken over by the Army and became Service Childrens' Education. The BFES Association was founded in 1967 to enable BFES teachers to keep in touch. In the 1980s it merged with the Service Childrens' Education Association (SCEA), which had changed its name to SCE, to become the BFES/SCE Association. It arranges annual reunions and publishes an annual magazine.
Brian Holmes (1920-1993) trained as a science teacher at the Institute of Education, University of London in 1946. He went on to classroom teaching in grammar schools in London, 1946-1951, and was then a lecturer in science at Durham University. He joined the staff of the Institute of Education, University of London, in 1953 and was Professor of Comparative Education at the Institute, 1975-1985. He was instrumental in the development of a number of national and international comparative education societies and had wide interests in international and comparative education and alternative philosophies of education.
John Stanley Beaumont Boyce was born in Stoney Stratford, Buckinghamshire, in 1911. He was the youngest of the three sons of E R S Boyce, Headmaster of Wolverton County School which his sons attended. In 1930 Boyce won a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford, from where he graduated in French and German. He worked as a Master at Ellesmere College, Cheltenham, until 1937 and thereafter at Coatham School, Redcar. In August 1937 he married Margaret L Nicholls of Oxford with whom he had 3 children.
Boyce had served with the OTC during peacetime. During the War he served with the Oxford and Bucks Infantry Regiment, followed by work under John Newsom in northern Germany as part of the military government. As part of the Education Branch he was involved in setting up local government and education systems. He ended the war with the rank of Major.
Following the war Boyce was employed as an assistant Chief Education Officer (CEO) in Hertfordshire Education Authority under John Newsom. In 1951 he became Deputy CEO in West Sussex and in 1957 followed this with work as Deputy CEO in Lancashire. He was appointed CEO of Lancashire in 1968, a post he held until his retirement in 1973.
In 1986 he received an Honorary LLD from Lancaster University. He died peacefully from cancer in 1992, 10 days after his 81st birthday.
The ILEA Bridging Course began as a pre-pilot scheme in 1976 with one college and two associated schools. By 1980, the numbers involved had grown to nine secondary schools and five colleges of further education in seven divisions of the ILEA. The intention of the Course was to bridge the transition from school to working life. It was part-funded by the EEC from 1978-1982.
Robin Tanner (1904-1988) became a teacher in 1924, having studied at Goldsmith's College, London, and taught in schools in Greenwich, and then in Corsham and Chippenham, Wiltshire. In 1935 he became on of His Majesty's Inspectors of Schools in primary education and subsequently worked in Leeds, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. In Oxfordshire he worked with Edith Moorhouse, the County's Primary Adviser and his views on primary education were also influenced by the work of Christian Schiller. He retired in 1964 but continued to participate in numerous short courses and conferences, giving lectures and arranging displays to illustrate his themes, including at Dartington Hall in Devon, Cowley Manor in Gloucestershire and Woolley Hall in Yorkshire. Tanner believed that the study of natural things and the exploration of arts and crafts, music and poetry were essential for the development of teachers and children. He was himself a distinguished artist and etcher and helped to found and support the Crafts Study Centre at the Holborne Menstrie Museum in Bath. He married Heather Spackman in 1931.