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Henry Warren, member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, 1809. In 1859, he was resident at Gravesend, Kent.

Sir Astley Cooper: Born, Brooke Hall near Norwich, 1768; educated at home; apprenticed to his uncle, William Cooper, surgeon to Guy's Hospital, 1784; soon after transferred to Henry Cline, surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital; Edinburgh Medical School, 1787-1788; Demonstrator of Anatomy, St Thomas's Hospital, 1789; joint lecturer with Cline in Anatomy and Surgery, 1791; lectured on anatomy at the College of Surgeons, 1793-1796; Surgeon, Guy's Hospital, 1800-1825; private practice rapidly increased; Fellow, Royal Society, 1802; made post-mortem examinations wherever possible, and was often in contact with 'resurrectionists'; a founder and first treasurer, 1805, President, 1819-1820, Medical and Chirurgical Society of London; Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Royal College of Surgeons, 1813; lectured, 1814-1815; performed a small operation on King George IV, 1820; by the bestowal of a baronetcy; examiner at the College of Surgeons, 1822; published his 'Dislocations and Fractures of the Joints', 1822; resigned his lectureship at St Thomas's, 1825; instigator of the founding of a separate medical school at Guy's Hospital; Consulting Surgeon to Guy's Hospital; President, College of Surgeons, 1827, 1836; Sergeant-Surgeon to King William IV, 1828; Vice-President, Royal Society, 1830; died, 1841.
Publications include: The Anatomy and Surgical Treatment of Inguinal and Congenital Hernia (Crural and Umbilical Hernia) (printed for T Cox; sold by Messrs Johnson, etc, London, 1804); A Treatise on Dislocations, and on Fractures of the Joints (Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown; E Cox & Son, London, 1822); The Lectures of Sir Astley Cooper, Bart., F.R.S. ... on the Principles and Practice of Surgery: with additional notes and cases, by Frederick Tyrrell 3 volumes (Thomas & George Underwood, London, 1824-1827); Illustrations of the Diseases of the Breast ... In two parts (Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green: London, 1829); Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Surgery Second edition (F C Westley, London, 1830); Observations on the Structure and Diseases of the Testis (Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green; Highley & Underwood, London, 1830); The Anatomy of the Thymus Gland (Longman, Rees, Orme, Green & Brown, London, 1832).

Cline: Born, London, 1750; educated, Merchant Taylors' School; apprenticed to Mr Thomas Smith, surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital, 1767; diploma from Surgeons' Hall, 1774; Lecturer on anatomy, St Thomas's Hospital, 1781-1811; Surgeon, St Thomas's Hospital, 1784-1811; examiner at the College of Surgeons, 1810; master of the College of Surgeons, 1815, president, 1823; delivered the Hunterian oration, 1816, 1824; died, 1827.
Publications: On the Form of Animals (Bulmer & Co, London, 1805).

The Medical Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals reunited as the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals (UMDS) in 1982. The new institution was then enlarged by the amalgamation of the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery with Guy's Dental School on 1 August 1983.
In 1990 the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals (UMDS) began discussions with King's College London and, following formal agreement to merge in 1992 and the King's College London Act 1997, the formal merger took place on 1 August 1998. The merger created three new schools: the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Biomedical Sciences.

Walter Terence Stace (1886-1967) first went out to Ceylon as a young civil servant in 1910, accompanied by a wife (Adelaide) considerably older than himself. Beginning as a cadet in Galle, he gradually rose in the administrative hierarchy to become a police magistrate, private secretary to the Governor (Sir Robert Chalmers), district judge at Negombo, and an official (ultimately, the head) of the Land Settlement Department. During his last ten years in the colony, while working on land settlement, Stace divorced his first wife (who had returned to Britain) and married Blanche Beven; and he spent an increasing amount of time writing on philosophy which from an early age had been a significant personal interest. He resigned from the civil service in 1932 to become a teacher of philosophy at Princeton University, USA.
Stace published several works on philosophy, including A critical history of Greek philosophy (1920), The philosophy of Hegel: a systematic exposition(1924), The meaning of beauty: a theory of aesthetics (1929), The theory of knowledge and existence (1932), The concept of morals(1937), The destiny of western man (1942), and Mysticism and philosophy (1961).

Papua comprised the south-eastern portion of the island of New Guinea. The area was proclaimed a British Protectorate in 1884, and in 1888 a part of the British Empire, known as British New Guinea. Its government was carried on under the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with participation from New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, until 1902. It was then placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia, this control taking effect in 1906; its name was changed to the Territory of Papua at that date.
The north-eastern portion of New Guinea formed the protectorate of German New Guinea until its occupation by an Australian Expeditionary Force in 1914. It continued under military rule until 1920 when it was entrusted to the Commonwealth of Australia, effective from 1921. It was then named the Territory of New Guinea.
Both these territories were invaded and occupied by the Japanese in 1942. Following the end of the war, civil administration was gradually restored and by 1946 a provisional joint administration of the former separate territories was instituted, as the Territory of Papua-New Guinea. The intention was that this be a temporary arrangement pending the determination of future policy for the area. This led to the formation, by the Department of External Territories, of the Inter-Departmental Committee for the Co-ordination of Plans for the Development of the Territories of Papua and New Guinea in 1947.
The joint territory continued under Australian administration until 1973 when self-government was achieved, to be followed in 1975 by complete independence, as Papua New Guinea.

Miss M E Westrop was an Inspector of Schools in Ceylon from 1928-1948. No other biographical details are available.

Philip Qipu Vundla was born in Healdtown, Cape Province, South Africa in 1901. His father was one of the first registered African voters in Cape Province. After leaving school he worked as a domestic servant in East London for a short time, before he was recruited to work as a clerk in the gold mines in Johannesburg. He left the mines after giving evidence to a Commission of Inquiry into native mine wages and working conditions, and became a full time organiser of the African Mineworkers Union. After a strike in 1946 the South African Government passed a law prohibiting Africans from holding gatherings on mine ground, Vundla joined the Defiance Campaign, and the African National Congress. In 1948 he was Chairman of the Anti-Tram Fare Increase Committee, and organised a major boycott of tram system. He was later a member of the National Executive and Chairmman of the Western Region of the ANC, 1952-1955. He left active politics in 1953 and became a journalist. He died in 1969.

The Legal Aid and Welfare Fund was first set up in 1959 to provide support to persons detained by the Government of Southern Rhodesia, later Rhodesia. It received donations from individuals and organisations within Rhodesia and overseas, and used these to provide both legal aid for detainees to be adequately defended, and practical support in the form of various necessities, and other items such as books, while they were in prison. Other national and international organisations also gave support. The papers in this collection relate to the meetings and work of the group in Salisbury only. The minutes and accounts frequently refer to specific cases of aid required and/or given. A pencil note at the end of the minutes of the meeting of 3 Aug 1965 suggests that this was probably the last meeting to be held, the suspension of activity partly being due to the suspicion that a police informer had been planted on the Committee. However, there are further notes on detainees' cases in 1966-1967 and the support they received from legal representatives.

There is little information on JG Wallace, the author of these works, apart from a note of his appointments in the Overseas Civil Service in one of the files. He was assigned to the Northern Region of Nigeria in 1954, and after passing examinations, was appointed as a member of HM Overseas Civil Service in 1956. In that year he was made a Grade III Magistrate and posted to Nasarawa Division, then became an Administrative Officer Class IV in 1957. In 1958 he was posted in charge of Wukari Division, then of Lafia Division. The two works were originally intended as two volumes of one work. However, the volume on legislation was completed more readily than that on Benue Province; therefore Wallace intended to publish it separately. There is no evidence that either work progressed beyond the state in which the drafts and notes were found.

Australia held a year of celebrations in 1988 to mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of the country. Events were co-ordinated by the Australian Bicentennial Authority, with individual states, cities and other organisations mounting their own celebrations.

Heloise Ruth First was born on 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg, the daughter of Julius and Matilda ('Tilly') First, Jewish emigrants to South Africa from the Baltic states. Her parents were members of the International Socialist League and founder members of the South African Communist Party (SACP).
After attending schools in Johannesburg, Ruth First began a Social Science degree in 1942 at the University of Witwatersrand. Whilst at university, she helped found the left-wing Federation of Progressive Students, and also served as secretary of the Young Communist League and Progressive Youth Council.
On her graduation in 1945, First took a job in the Research Division of the Department of Social Welfare of Johannesburg City Council, but she resigned in 1946 in order to pursue a career in journalism. In the same year she produced pamphlets in aid of the miners' strike and was temporarily secretary of the Johannesburg offices of the South African Communist Party. In 1947, together with Michael Scott, she exposed a farm labour scandal in Bethal, Eastern Tansvaal.
Between 1946-1952 she was the Johannesburg editor of the weekly newspaper The Guardian, the mouthpiece of the SACP. When this publication was banned in 1952, it was restarted under the name Clarion, a pattern which continued throughout the next decade, the titles used being People's World, Advance, New Age and Spark. Between 1954-1963 she was also the editor of Fighting Talk, a Johannesburg based monthly.
In 1949 Ruth First married Joe Slovo. They had three daughters, Shawn (b 1950), Gillian (b 1952) and Robyn (b 1953). In 1950, First was named under the Suppression of Communism Act and her movements restricted. In 1953 she was banned from membership of all political organisations, although in 1955 she helped draw up the Freedom Charter, a fundamental document of the African National Congress, and was later a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's military wing. In December 1956, she and Joe Slovo were among the 156 people charged in the so-called Treason Trial, although her indictment was dismissed in April 1959. In August 1963 she was arrested and detained under the 90-Day Law for a total period of 117 days. Effectively forced into exile, in March 1964 she left South Africa for the United Kingdom, accompanied by her three daughters.
From 1964 she worked full-time as a freelance writer, before becoming a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in 1972. Between 1973-1978 she lectured in development studies at the University of Durham, although she spent periods of secondment at universities in Dar es Salaam and Lourenco Marques (Maputo). In November 1978 she took up a post as Director of the research training programme at the University Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo.
Ruth First was killed on 17 Aug 1982, when she opened a parcel bomb addressed to her at the above university.

Sir (William) Ivor Jennings, constitutional lawyer and educationalist, was born in Bristol on 16 May 1903 and died in Cambridge on 19 December 1965. Educated at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, Bristol Grammar School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, he had already begun a university career before he was called to the bar in 1928. His first academic appointment was as lecturer in law at Leeds University in 1925-1929, following which he taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he was first lecturer, (1929-1930) and then reader in English Law (1930-1940). His publications in this period included works on the poor law code, housing law, public health law, town and country planning law and laws relating to local government. He also wrote on constitutional matters in The Law and the Constitution (1933), Cabinet Government (1936) and Parliament (1939).
Appointed principal of University College, Ceylon in 1940, he was its first Vice-Chancellor (1942-1955) when it became the University of Ceylon. He described his life there in Road to Peradeniya, an unpublished autobiography (ref: C/14); see also Jennings' The Kandy Road (ed. H.A.I. Goonetileke, University of Peradeniya, 1993). He was frequently consulted on constitutional, educational and other matters and was Chairman of the Ceylon Social Services Commission (1944-1946), a member of the Commission on University Education in Malaya (1947), a member of the Commission on the Ceylon Constitution (1948), President of the Inter-University Board of India (1949-1950), Constitutional Adviser and Chief Draughtsman, Pakistan (1954-1955), a member of the Malayan Constitutional Commission (1956-1957), and Chairman of the Royal University of Malta Commission. He was also Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia, in 1938-1939 and Visiting Professor, Australian National University in 1950.
As the colonial period ended, he became particularly interested in the Commonwealth and the newly independent nations and was valued as a commentator on the subject. He delivered the 1948-1949 Wayneflete lectures at Magdelen College, Oxford on The Commonwealth in Asia', the 1950 George Judah Cohen Memorial Lecture at the University of Sydney onThe Commonwealth of Nations', the 1957 Montague Burton lecture on International Relations at the University of Leeds on Nationalism, Colonialism and Neutralism' and a series onProblems of the New Commonwealth' at the Commonwealth Studies Center (now closed) at Duke University, South Carolina, USA in 1958. He re-published an earlier work on laws of the empire as Constitutional Laws of the Commonwealth (3ed. 1956) and published The Approach to Self-Government (1956) and works on Ceylon and Pakistan.
In 1954 he became Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Downing Professor of the Laws of England in 1962, holding both posts until his death. In later life he returned to his study of the British constitution, with the publication of Party Politics (1960-62). He was knighted in 1948, made a QC in 1949, and awarded the KBE in 1955.

Jabavu is one of the townships making up the modern Soweto. The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 caused an influx of thousands of people to the area, including black job-seekers. This growing population had to be housed. The townships of Kliptown, Sophiatown, and Western Native Township were established in and around Johannesburg for black and so-called Coloured people. The Native Urban Areas Act (1923) decreed that local councils had to provide housing for black people living in their areas. This led to the development of the larger townships of Klipspruit and Western and Eastern Townships closer to Johannesburg from 1927 to 1930. Demand for space and housing grew, prompting the Johannesburg Council to purchase land at Klipspruit on which Orlando East was established in 1930, the first township making up modern day Soweto.
The coming to power of the Nationalist Party in 1948 and the Group Areas Act of 1950 led to further racial segregation, controls on settlers, and separate development. During the 1950's, black people living in and around Johannesburg were forced to move to newly laid-out townships southwest of the city--Mofolo South, Moroka North, Jabavu, Molapo, and Moletsane.

John Patrick Cope, the son of C F J Cope, was born on Mooi River, Natal, South Africa, on 17 Mar 1906. He was educated at St Andrews College, Grahamstown and in 1924 joined the Rand Daily Mail as a reporter. In 1930 he joined the Natal Mercury as their parliamentary and political correspondent, and became friendly with Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, and other prominent political figures.
In 1935 he went to Abyssinia and discovered the Italian Plot to annex the country. In 1937 he went to China to cover the Sino-Japanese war for three South African papers. In 1937 he joined his former editor, R J Kingston Russell in his venture to found a political weekly Forum. On Russell's retirement through ill health he assumed the editorship, which he retained for 14 years under the chairmanship of Hofmeyr.
In 1951 Forum closed, and Cope rejoined the Rand Daily Mail as editorial assistant. He entered politics and was returned for Parktown in 1953 and 1958 as a United Party MP. In 1958 he was one of a group of UP members who broke away to form the Progressive Party, but he lost his seat after a smear campaign in the 1961 election.
Cope married Margaret Nancy Rouillard in 1939 and they have 3 children.

Benjamin Turok, born Latvia, 1927; came with his family to South Africa, 1934; educated at the University of Cape Town; taught in London, 1950-1953; returned to South Africa, and became a full-time political activist; served with a banning order, 1955, and arrested for treason, 1956 (the charges were withdrawn in 1958); elected unopposed to represent Africans of the Western Cape on the Cape Provincial Council, 1957; during the 1960 emergency Turok evaded arrest, and went underground to help reestablish ANC organisation; in 1962 he was convicted under the Explosives Act, and sentenced to three years in prison; after his release he escaped via Botswana; resident in the UK from 1972; currently a member of the South African Parliament.

The Britain Australia Bicentennial Committee (BABC) was set up in 1984 by the British Government through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to supervise the British involvement in the Australian Bicentennial. It was chaired by Sir Peter Gadsden. Initially a steering committee was set up, which later became the BABC. In 1985 the Britain Australia Bicentennial Trust was set up to deal with the public money raised, at this time the BABC also set up a number of National Task subcommittees and regional subcommittees.

One of the tasks of the BABC was to make a recommendation for the UK gift to Australia for the Bicentennial. Several ideas were put forward for consideration, notably a re-enactment of the voyage of the First Fleet under Admiral Arthur Philip, This was decided against, although the re-enactment fleet did sail from the Isle of Wight, 13 May 1987 and arrived in Australia 26 Jan 1988, without the support of the BABC. The UK gift to Australia was eventually decided on as the sail training schooner STS Young Endeavour, proposed by Arthur Weller. The building of STS Young Endeavour, was supervised by the Schooner Trust, supervised by Weller. The Bicentennial events in the UK were widespread including balls, banquets and church services, notably at Westminster Abbey led by Archbishop Robert Runcie, 14 Jul 1988.

Not known

The Commonwealth Journalists' Association was founded by a group of journalists in 1978 following a conference of Commonwealth non-governmental organisations held at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada, to cater for the needs of individual journalists in Commonwealth countries. The CJA's objectives include the raising of journalistic standards by the provision of training courses, the encouragement of an interest in and knowledge of Commonwealth affairs and the defence of the independence of journalists where a threat is perceived. The CJA takes a particular interest in safeguarding the rights of journalists in countries where press freedom is restricted and has intervened on several occasions, sometimes in collaboration with other interested bodies, to secure the re-opening of a newspaper or the release of journalists from prison. The CJA's main activity is the provision of training courses for journalists in developing countries. Other activities include holding conferences, open to the whole membership, every three years. Where there is sufficiently large individual membership in a given country or region members are encouraged to set up local branches or chapters to organise their own activities and, where possible, organise their own training. A newsletter devoted to subjects of professional interest is published and distributed to members three times yearly.

Edward Trevor Dyson: born 1886, educated at Ruthin Grammar School, University College Wales, Aberystwyth (BA) and Jesus College Oxford (BA); Cadet, Ceylon Civil Service, 1910; office assistant to Government Agent, NW Province, 1912; Police Magistrate, Kurunegala, 1913; Police Magistrate, Kandy, 1920, Assistant Government Agent, N Eliya, 1921; Assistant Government Agent, Jaffna, 1924; District Judge, Matara, 1926; Assistant Government Agent, Kalutara, 1926; Government Agent, Anuradhapura, 1928; Government Agent, Jaffna, 1930; Government Agent, Central Province, 1934; Government Agent, Northern Province, 1935.

From Independence until 1987, Fiji was governed by the Alliance Party, which was pledged towards policies of multiracialism. The only challenge to its rule occurred in 1977, when Fijian voters were attracted by Fijian nationalist candidates. This led to the Alliance Party losing ground in the April General Election, and the Indian-dominated National Federation Party obtaining 26 of the 52 seats in Parliament, with 24 seats for the Alliance Party. However, owing to a leadership dispute the NFP split into factions, and the Governor-General in a surprise move, asked the Alliance Party leader and former Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, to form a minority administration. These events caused considerable political debate in the press, and increased factionalism in the FNP. A further General Election was held in September of the same year, and the Alliance Party was restored to power with a substantial majority.

Abdullah Abdurahman was born December 18, 1872? in Cape Town, South Africa. He married Helen Potter James and they had two children, of whom the younger, Zainunnissa Abdurahman, like her father, was a prominent figure in Cape Town municipal affairs. After the dissolution of his first marriage, Dr. Abdurahman in 1925 married Margaret May Stansfield. They had a son and two daughters. Dr. Abdurahman was educated at Marist Brothers School and the South African College School. In 1888 he went to Glasgow University, where he obtained the M.B., Ch.M. medical degree in 1893.
In 1895 he returned to South Africa and acquired an extensive practice in Cape Town, among both Coloured and White people. In 1904 he was elected to the Cape Town City Council, and was the first Coloured person to become a Councillor. Except for two years (1913-1915) he remained a member up to the time of his death. Dr. Abdurahman was also a member of the Cape Provincial Council from 1914 until his death, and was largely responsible in establishing a system of school medical instruction for the Cape Province. In 1905 Dr. Abdurahman founded and was president of the South African Native and Coloured People's Organization, later known as the African People's Organization.
In 1909 he was a member of a delegation led by W. P. Schreiner to London. He was also a member of the Indian National Congress and in 1925 went to India to discuss the Indian's position in South Africa with the National Congress and Viceroy.
In 1934 he was appointed a member of the coloured People's Fact-finding Commission and served on the Cape Coloured Commission of 1937. He died in Cape Town in 1940

World in Action, produced by Granada Television, is one of Britain's longest running current affairs programmes. First launched in 1963, World in Action was the first weekly current affairs programme in Britain to pioneer pictorial journalism on film and to risk taking an independent editorial stance.
British settlement in Rhodesia began in the 1830s, and Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company assumed control in 1890s. Britain took over administration from the Company in 1923 and granted self-government to white colonists. Southern Rhodesia federated in 1953 with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland with a view to achieving independence as a unified country. The Federation dissolved in 1963, and the three constituent countries pursued separate paths to independence. Britain rejected independence for the white Southern Rhodesia regime 1964, and the government unilaterally declared independence (UDI) in 1965 as Rhodesia. British colonial rule was briefly reimposed in 1979 in order to achieve a settlement, and independence was granted in 1980 under black majority rule as Zimbabwe.

Sir (William) Keith Hancock was born in Melbourne, Australia on 26 June 1898. and obtained his BA at Melbourne University. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, 1922-1923, and obtained a BA with 1st class honours in modern history. In 1923 he was the first Australian to be awarded a Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, and in 1924 he returned to Australia to be professor of modern history at Adelaide University. He was professor of modern history at Birmingham University from 1933-1944, and professor of economic history at Oxford University, 1944-1949. He was appointed to the War Cabinet Offices as Supervisor of Civil Histories, 1941, and thereafter editor of series. In 1949 he became the first director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, and professor of British Commonwealth affairs, London University. In 1954 he headed an inquiry into constitutional problems in Buganda. The Report was published by HMSO in 1954 as Cmd 9320, Uganda Protectorate Buganda [Namirembe Conference].
In 1957 he became director of the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University (ANU), and was created the first University Fellow of ANU on his retirement in 1961. He was knighted in 1953, and awarded the KBE in 1965.
Publications: Ricasolo 1926), Australia (1930), Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs (1937, 1940 and 1942), Politics in Pitcairn (with M M Gowing) (1947); British War Economy (1949), Country and Calling (1954), War and Peace in this Century (1961), Smuts: The Sanguine Years, 1870-1919 Vol 1 (1962), The Fields of Force, 1919-1950 Vol 2 (1968), Discovering Monaro(1972), Professing History (1976), Perspective in History(1982), Testimony(1985).

Ruth Hayman was a lawyer in South Africa, and a campaigner for racial equality and justice. After she was banned for her work in South Africa, she settled in North London, and in 1969 set up the pioneering organisation, Neighbourhood English Classes, to help newly arrived immigrants settle into the UK. In 1977 she was a founding member, and honorary secretary of the National Association for the Teaching of English as a Second Language to Adults. After her death in 1981 the Ruth Hayman Trust was established in her memory.

I O Horvitch was an architect and active member and later Chairman of the South African Communist Party (SACP.) The SACP was founded in 1921 and was always at the forefront of the struggles agains imperialism and apartheid. In December 1956 over 150 men and women were arrested and flown to Johannesburg to face charges of communism and high treason. The preparatory examination and trial lasted from December 1956 until March 1961, when all the accused were found not guilty and discharged.

The International Transport Workers' Federation was founded in London in 1886 by European seafarers and dockers' union leaders who realised the need to organize internationally against strike breakers. In 2001 it is a Federation of 570 trade unions in 132 countries, representing around 5 million workers. The ITF represents transport workers at world level and promotes their interests through global campaigning and solidarity. It is dedicated to the advancement of independent and democratic trade unionism, and to the defence of fundamental human and trade union rights. It is opposed to any form of totalitarianism, aggression and discrimination.

Not known

In 1957 Kenya was a British Crown Colony, governed by a Legislative Council with 54 Members. The 1957 election was the first in which African members were elected to the Legislative Council through a restricted franchise. A Luo trade unionist, Tom M'boya, together with other Africans promoted to ministerial posts, refused to assume official responsibilities. A constitutional conference was held in London in January and February, 1960, that led to a transitional constitution legalizing political parties and giving Africans a comfortable majority on the Legislative Council.

Professor Bryan Wooleston Langlands (1928-1989) was Professor of Geography at the University of Ulster at Coleraine and was killed in the British Airways crash of BD092 at Kegsworth. He had spent much of his time in Uganda and accumulated a large library on various aspects of African historical geography.

Julius Lewin, Lecturer in Native Law at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Edward Mayow Hastings Lloyd: Born 1889; educated at Rugby School and Corpus Christi College Oxford; joined Inland Revenue, 1913; War Office Contracts Department, 1914-1917; Ministry of Food, 1917-1919; Economic and Financial Section of the League of Nations Secretariat, 1919-1921; Assistant Secretary, Empire Marketing Board, 1926-1933; Secretary, Market Supply Committee, 1933-1936; Assistant Director, Food (Defence Plans) Dept, 1936-1939; Principal Asst Secretary, Ministry of Food, 1939-1942; Economic Adviser to Minister of State, Middle East, 1942-1944; UNRRA Economic and Financial Adviser for the Balkans, 1945; CMG 1945; UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1946-1947; Under-Secretary, Min. of Food, 1947-1953; CB 1952; died 1968.

Mary Benson was born on 8 December 1919 in Pretoria, South Africa and was educated there and in Great Britain. Before the Second World War she was a secretary in the High Commission Territories Office of the British High Commission in South Africa. Between 1941-1945 she joined the South African women's army, rising to the rank of Captain and serving as Personal Assistant to various British generals in Egypt and Italy.
After the war she joined UNRRA and then became personal assistant to the film director David Lean. In 1950 she became secretary to Michael Scott and first became involved in the field of race relations. In 1951 she became secretary to Tshekedi Khama, and in 1952, together with Scott and David Astor, she helped to found the Africa Bureau in London. She was its secretary until 1957 and travelled widely on its behalf. In 1957 she became secretary to the Treason Trials Defence Fund in Johannesburg. She became a close friend of Nelson Mandela, and assisted with smuggling him out of South Africa in 1962. In February 1966 she was served with a banning order under the Suppression of Communism Act and she left South Africa for London later that year.
In London she continued to work tirelessly against apartheid, writing to newspapers and corresponding with fellow activists in South Africa. In April 1999 Mandela visited her at her home during his state visit to Britain and later that year an 80th birthday party was staged for her at South Africa House.
Mary Benson died on 20 June 2000.
Among her writings are South Africa: the Struggle for a Birthright, Chief Albert Luthuli, The History of Robben Island, Nelson Mandela: the Man and the Movement, the autobiographical A Far Cry and radio plays on Mandela and the Rivonia trial.

Henry T Birch Reynardson: born 24 Feb 1872; joined Army 1913, Commissioned in Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry; served in India, 1913-1914; Mesopotamia, 1914-1915; retired on grounds of ill-health as result of wounds 1927, with the rank of Lt Col; Secretary to Governor-General of Union of South Africa, 1927-1933. High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, 1958. Died 1972.

T W Roberts joined the Ceylon Civil Service in 1902, having obtained a degree in Greats from Oxford University, and failed to find a job as a school master in the UK 'probably because of a colour bar in the teaching ranks of public schools'. He was initally appointed office assistant at Matara, and was later posted to Kurunegala and Chilaw. He became a Magistrate in 1904 and sat on the bench until 1916.

The Southern Rhodesia African National Congress was founded in 1957 under the leadership of Joshua Nkomo. It was banned by the Government in 1959, and several prominent members were arrested and detained. The detainees were released early in 1961. Their claim for compensation does not appear to have been successful.

Between 16 and 24 June 1976 there was widespread rioting in the African townships of South Africa, the worst since the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. The disturbances began in Soweto, the immediate cause was the compulsory use of the Afrikaans language as the medium of instruction in Bantu schools. The rioting quickly spead to other townships. The official death toll was put at 176. The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning the South African Government for 'massive violence against and killings of the African people including schoolchilden and students and others opposing racial discrimination'.

John Ferguson was born in Tain, Easter Ross in 1842. He was educated at Tain Royal Academy, then trained as a journalist in Inverness and London before going to Ceylon om 1861 to take up a position as Assistant Editor of the Columbo Observer, under his uncle, the proprietor and Editor, Alastair Mackenzie (AM) Ferguson. He was to remain with the paper (renamed the Ceylon Observer) in 1867) for nearly 50 years, initially assisting his uncle, but gradually taking a more senior role, and becoming the proprietor and editor on his uncle's death in 1892.
Ferguson developed an active role in the political, commercial and cultural affairs of Ceylon. He took a particular interest in the development and expansion of the railway system, and became closely involved in the tea, coffee, coconut and other planting trades for which he compiled and published statistics in his annually issued Handbook and Directory of Ceylon. His interest in these trades also led to his founding and publishing the Tropical Agriculturalist, a journal covering planting in all tropical regions, which began in 1881 and continued under his control until 1904, when responsibility for it was assumed by the Agricultural Society. Ferguson was very active in the Cinnamon Gardens Baptist Church (as was his uncle), and lectured on many of his interests. He travelled overseas from Ceylon on several occasions, visiting Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, North America and Britain.
In 1903 Ferguson was awarded the CMG, and in the same year was appointed as a member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon. In this role he continued to support his interests, such as extension of the railway system and supporting trade. He resigned in 1908, and in 1912 returned to Britain for the last time, and he died there in 1913. He was married twice: firstly in 1871 to Charlotte Haddon (died 1903), by whom he had two sons and two daughters; secondly in 1905 to Ella Smith, who survived him.
Alastair Mackenzie (AM) Ferguson, the uncle of John, was born in Wester Ross in 1816. He came to Ceylon in 1837 as one of the staff of JA Stewart Mackenzie, the newly appointed Governor. After holding various posts, he became assistant editor on the Ceylon Observer in 1846, under the then owner, Dr Elliott. In 1859 Dr Elliott sold the newspaper to Ferguson, who was himself joined by his nephew as assistant editor in 1861. From 1879 he took a lesser role in the production of the newspaper, but continued to contribute material, while in 1880-1 he was the Ceylon Commissioner to the Melboune Exhibition. He was awarded the CMG shortly after this event. He made return visits to Britain in the 1860s and 1870s but not thereafter for health reasons; however he continued to make visits abroad to India and Australia. He became a highly respected figure in Ceylon, and like his nephew was very supportive of the planting trades and railway development. He died in 1892.

The Commonwealth Secretariat was established in June 1965 by a decision of the 1964 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Prior to this date intra-Commonwealth affairs had been administered by British Civil Servants. The Secretariat was designed to assist internal co-operation between member states and was never intended to have executive powers.

The South African Institute of Race Relations was established in 1929.

The late 1960s and early 1970s in Australia saw the burgeoning of new movements which sought to influence the political process, often on single issues and from outside the established parties which were the conventional channels of political expression. The most popular of these included the anti-war movement, the anti-uranium movement, the land rights movement, the women's movement and the conservation movement, although as the list above indicates there was no shortage of other issues prompting the formation of new pressure groups. Some of these movements coalesced into mainstream political organisations, in the case of the Green Party with significant electoral success, whilst others remain on the margins or have been co-opted by the very forces and institutions they set out to challenge - an example of this being the deradicalizing of the agendas of many feminist groups. The materials held here reflect first-hand both the concerns and the struggles of these movements.

The two main issues arising in the pressure groups' materials held here are those of discrimination against scheduled castes and of inter-community violence and human rights abuses reported in the early 1990s.

As the Burnham administration moved to consolidate its power in the years following independence in 1966 groups like the Civil Liberties Action Council emerged challenging the erosion of rights in Guyana and disputing the fairness of various national and local elections. This criticism provoked further repressive measures which in turn stimulated the formation of the likes of the Guyana Human Rights Association and groups affiliated to the major political parties such as the Women's Progressive Organisation (linked to the PPP) and the Women's Revolutionary Socialist Movement (linked to the PNC).

The legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism dominated Jamaican politics throughout the period that the materials held here cover, and as a consequence all the items are connected in some way with Jamaican independence, whether reflecting upon the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865, warning against the INF agreements of 1977-1978 or discussing the merits of a republican constitution.

As a consequence of the policies of the South African government nearly all pressure groups, whatever their particular issues, found themselves having to focus on apartheid. Thus the material here largely falls into two categories, being either concerned directly with the struggle to overthrow the system (and in a few cases with the struggle to maintain it) or with an area on which apartheid most directly impacted. The entrenchment of inequality in education provoked the emergence of numerous groups representing both students and teachers, and similarly there is much evidence here of opposition to the policy of forced removals. The sheer number of groups represented here is both an indication of extensive radicalisation within society and a reflection of how the outlawing of various political parties left a greater space for other organisations to contest these issues.

The gradual extension of the franchise in the decades prior to independence led to the marginalisation in the House of Assembly of parties such as the Progressive Conservatives, which represented the interests of the planter class (although they maintained their dominance in the Legislative Council), while at the same time the contest for dominance in the democratic arena polarised into a struggle between Grantley Adams' Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and the more radical Democratic Labour Party (DLP) led by Errol Barrow, who was eventually to become Barbados's first post-independence Prime Minister. There was also a vigorous debate over the role and value of the short-lived West Indies Federation (1958-1962) which was strongly supported by Adams. The materials held here deal with these issues in detail as well as covering the electoral struggle between the two main parties after 1966.

Although the Falkland Islands are now most famous for the 1982 war the materials held here do not deal directly with that conflict. However there are indications of early islander opposition to the prospect of Argentinian sovereignty in descriptions of the 1968 visit by Lord Chalfont which sought to faciliate the transfer of the islands, and of British efforts throughout the 1970s to tie economic investment to closer political co-operation with the Argentines. The items from the 1989 election are also interesting in this respect, showing that the war, whilst still an issue, is less significant than the need to ensure continuing economic stability. The shortage of political party materials can to an extent be ascribed to the Falklands' tradition of non-partisan candidates standing in elections.

Although trades unions had functioned in The Gambia from the 1920s, it was not until the 1950s that the first political parties emerged. Disputes between these parties, which included the Gambia Muslim Congress, the United Party and the Protectorate People's Party (later to become the Peoples' Progressive Party), delayed agreement on the transition to independence until 1965, when Dawda Kairaba Jawara of the PPP became the country's first Prime Minister. Though Gambia had a multi-party electoral system Jawara and the PPP remained in power until the 1994 coup, during which time the country became a republic (1970), experienced its first coup (1981) and formed a confederation with Senegal (Senegambia, 1982-1989). The leader of the second coup, Yahya Jammeh, has since won two presidential elections under a new constitution with his Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (Gambia), although several opposition parties were either banned from or boycotted the polls. The materials here cover the entire period from the end of colonial rule to the Jammeh era.

The materials held here all date from the period between the official acceptance in 1990 of the Hong Kong Basic Law as the constitution after handover and the last elections under the British in 1994. The major issue for the parties and groups represented here is the prospect of Chinese rule and its implications for democracy and human rights in the Special Administrative Region. As Hong Kong is no longer part of the Commonwealth this collection is now considered closed.

Mauritius was a British colony from its capture from the French 1810 until its independence in 1968, but it maintained both its Napoleonic institutions and its Franco-Mauritian business elite. Other ethnic groups on the island include a Creole population descended from the French plantation owners and their slaves and both Muslim and Hindu Indo-Mauritians who arrived as indentured labourers from 1835 after the abolition of slavery. Since the country's first elections in 1947 Hindu-led parties have monopolised power, with the Parti travailliste (Mauritius) ruling the country until 1982 before being supplanted by an alliance of the Mouvement militant mauricien (MMM) and the Mouvement socialiste mauricien (MSM).

A large proportion of the material held here dates from the 1950s and 1960s, encompassing the build-up to and eventual realisation of Malta's independence in 1964. Amongst the significant debates of this period were the question of the consequences for Malta's economy of any reduction in the British military presence on the island and the merits of the various options of integration, interdependence and independence. The collection also covers the post-independence electoral struggle between the two main parties, the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party, led for a long time by Dom Mintoff, whose writings and speeches feature prominently here. The antipathy of the Catholic Church to Mintoff's Labour Party led to the formation of alternatives, such as the Christian Workers Party, and there are holdings for these alongside those of other minority parties, trades unions and pressure groups.

The former French colony of Martinique became an Overseas Department of the French Republic in 1946. Political parties tend to be departmental counterparts to those of metropolitan France. The only party represented here is the Parti communiste martiniquais.