Samuel Vyvyan Trerice Adams was born on 22 April 1900 and was drowned at Helston in Cornwall on 13 August 1951. He was educated at the Kings School, Cambridge and then went on to Kings College, Cambridge, where he took the Classical Tripos, parts 1 and 11. He was called to the Bar in 1927 and worked as lawyer until 1931 when he was elected as the Conservative MP for the Leeds West Constituency, defeating a large Liberal majority. During World War II he was in the army, reaching the rank of major and continuing his duties as an MP. After being defeated in the 1945 elections he worked as a manager in industry for some time and then became the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for the East Fulham Constituency 1947 - 1950. After failing to win election he worked as a political researcher for Conservative Central Office and was prospective candidate for Ormskirk, Lancashire and Darwen, Lancashire. He also supplemented his income by writing articles reviews and books. Under the pseudonym "Watchman" he wrote Right Honourable Gentlemen.
AEGIS (Aid to the Elderly in Government Institutions) was a pressure group set up by Barbara Robb (d 1975) to campaign about the treatment of elderly people in the psychiatric and geriatric wards of British hospitals, following her personal involvement in the case of Amy Gibbs, a patient at Friern Barnet Hospital. AEGIS was founded in November 1965, and the publication of Sans Everything: a case to answer (Nelson, London, 1967) by Robb led to government debates and the setting up of Committees of Inquiry into the conditions at several hospitals in Great Britain. The first reading of the NHS Reorganisation Bill took place in 1972, and a Health Ombudsman was appointed in 1973. Robb died in 1975.
(Andrews). Born in Southampton, 1914; educated at the University of Southampton; Open Foundation Scholar, University College Southampton, 1931-1934; British Association Exhibitioner, 1934; Assistant Lecturer in Economics, University College Southampton, 1935-1936; Worker, Education Association (Southern District), 1936-1937; Research Staff, Social Studies Research Group, Oxford, 1937-1941; Lecturer in Economics, New College, Oxford University, 1941-1948; Chief of Statistics, Social Reconstruction Survey, 1941-1946, and Fellow, 1946-1967, Nuffield College, Oxford University; first Bley Stein Memorial Lecturer, University of California, USA, 1963; Special University Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University, 1967-1971; General Editor, Journal of Industrial Economics, 1952-1971, and member of the Editorial Board, Oxford Economic Papers, 1948-1952; died 1971.
No information available for Elizabeth Brunner at present.
Publications: (Andrews and Brunner) Capital Development in Steel: a study of the United Steel Companies Ltd (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1951); The Life of Lord Nuffield: a study in enterprise and benevolence (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1955); The Eagle Ironworks Oxford: the story of W. Lucy and Company Limited (Mills & Boon, 1965); Studies in pricing (Macmillan, London, 1975); (Andrews and Frank Adzley Friday) Fair Trade: resale price maintenance re-examined (Macmillan & Co, London; St. Martin's Press, New York, 1960); (Andrews) Manufacturing business (Gregg Revivals, Aldershot, 1994); (Brunner) Holiday Making and the Holiday Trades (Oxford University Press, London, 1945).
The Coefficients dining club was founded at a dinner given by Beatrice and Sidney Webb in September 1902.
Sir William Henry Beveridge was Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry, 1925-1926. For a biography, see the Beveridge personal papers (Ref: Beveridge).
The Ministry of Reconstruction was set up in July 1917, and covered a wide range of economic, social and political issues, from administrative reform and improvement of industrial relations, to the position of women in society and the prevention of post-war unemployment. It was split into several committees, including the Reconstruction Committee and the Civil War Workers Committe. For a biography, see the Beveridge personal papers (Ref: Beveridge).
For a biography, see the Beveridge personal papers (Ref: Beveridge).
The British Hospitals Contributory Schemes Association was formed in 1930 in the aftermath of the report of the Cave Committee of 1921. The aim of the committee was to rationalise the various health contributory schemes established to fund voluntary hospitals, prior to the introduction of the National Health Service, in different regions at the end of the nineteenth century. The BHCSA was essentially an instrument for dealing with the territorial spheres of the operation of the schemes, and gave guidelines and advice on contributions and benefits. The association continued to act as the national organising body for the regional schemes until it was disbanded with the inception of the National Health Service in 1948.
The National League for Hospital Friends (now the National Association of Leagues of Hospital Friends) was founded in 1949. The association represents voluntary workers supporting patients and their carers in hospitals and in the community, and provides services such as group insurance and deposit schemes, grants, fund-raising, advice, goods, information and publications, and opportunities for national and regional networking.
Arthur George Bottomley, 1907-1995, was educated at Gamuel Road Council School and took extension classes at Toynbee Hall. He entered politics in 1929 as a councillor in the Borough of Walthamstow, holding the office of mayor 1945-1946. He was the Labour Party MP for Chatham Division of Rochester 1945-1950, for Rochester and Chatham, 1950-1959, for Middlesborough East, 1962-1974, and for Teeside, Middlesborough 1974-1983. His Parliamentary career focused on trade and the Commonwealth. His positions included Parliamentary Under-Secretary for State for the Dominions, 1947-1951; Secretary for Overseas Trade, Board of Trade, 1947-1951; Chairman of the Commonwealth Relations and Colonies Group of the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1963; Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, 1964 - 1966; and Minister for Overseas Development, 1966 - 1967. He also participated in many government missions and delegations overseas during the course of his career. He was created a life peer in 1984.
Born 1930; educated Southend High School, University College of the South West, and London School of Economics; Research Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, 1955-1956; Research Fellow, Reading University, 1956; Lecturer, London School of Economics, 1957-1969; Fulbright Fellow and Senior Research Fellow, British Association for American Studies, 1961-1962; Visiting Lecturer, University of California, USA, 1966-1967; Reader in International History, University of London, 1969-1976; Scaife Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, Kenyon College, 1971; Professor of International History, LSE, 1976-1993; Kratter Professor, Stanford University, USA, 1979; Visiting Professor, University of Mississippi, USA, 1981; Griffin Lecturer, Stanford University, 1983; James Pinckney Harrison Professor, College of William and Mary, 1984-1985; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Humanities, University of Colorado, USA, 1988; J Richardson Dilworth Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA, 1989; Nuffield Foundation Social Sciences Research Fellow, 1991; Chairman, Board of Studies in History, University of London, 1983-1984; member of Council, List and Index Society, 1986-1993; Member of British National Committee, International Congress of Historical Sciences, 1987-1988; Member of the Archives and Manuscripts Committee, University of Southampton, 1988-1993; Member of the Senate, University of London, 1987-1991; Member of the Council, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1987-1992; Governor of Wilson's Grammar School, Camberwell, 1964-1974; Governor of Wilson's School, Sutton, 1972-1984; Governor, LSE, 1986-1990; died 1993.
Publications: Britain and the balance of power in North America, 1815-1908 (Longmans, London, 1967); The foreign policy of Victorian England (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1970); editor Studies in International History (Longmans, London, 1967); editor The Horner papers: selections from the letters and miscellaneous writings of Francis Horner, MP, 1795-1817 (Edinburgh University Press, 1994); editor The blackmailing of the Chancellor: some intimate and hitherto unpublished letters from Harriet Wilson to her friend Henry Brougham, Lord Chancellor of England (Lemon Tree Press, London, 1975); editor The letters of the third Viscount Palmerston to Laurence and Elizabeth Sullivan, 1804-1863 (Royal Historical Society, London, 1979); Palmerston; the early years (Allen Lane, London, 1982).
Born 1876: educated Winchester and Oxford University; joined civil service, 1898, as part of the Inland Revenue Department; sent on mission to Germany, 1908, to inquire into local taxation methods; Assistant Secretary, Board of Inland Revenue, 1910-1911; sent to investigate German system of health insurance, 1910; Personal Assistant to the Rt Hon David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1910-1911, during the creation of the National Insurance Act; appointed Secretary, National Health Insurance Joint Committee, 1911-1912; Commissioner for Special Purpose of Income Tax, 1913; CB, 1937; died 1938.
London merchant bank.
Sir Henry (Harry) Ernest Brittain, 1873-1974, was educated at Repton and Worcester College, Oxford, where he obtained at BA and an MA in law. He was called to the Bar in 1897 but only practiced for a week before retiring from law in favour of business and journalism. He worked on the staff of both the Standard and the Evening Standard, was secretary to Sir C Arthur Pearson, owner of the Evening Standard, and also worked with him in the formation of the Tariff Reform League and the creation of the tariff community. Sir Harry became Director of numerous daily and weekly newspapers and other business concerns. He was president of the British International Association of Journalists 1920-1922, Patron of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists from 1925, and was the originator and organiser of the first Imperial Press Conference, 1932.
He was always keen to build links with America. During World War One, when he was the British representative on the American Citizens Emergency Committee, 1914, serving on special mission throughout the USA, 1915, on the staff of General Lloyd as captain of the London Volunteer Regiment, 1916, as Director of Intelligence National Service Department, and as the founder and Chairman of the American officers club in London, 1917-1919. After the war he was the originator and honourary life member of the Association of American Correspondents in London, 1919 and the president of the Anglo-American delegation to Holland for the celebration of the Pilgrim Fathers tercentenary, 1920. He was a member of the Anglo-American Brains Trust, 1942-1944 and was awarded the Silver Medal of Merit and Diploma by the Poor Richard Club of Philadelphia for his lifelong services to Anglo-American fellowship and understanding in 1958.
Sir Harry Brittain was also a Conservative MP for Acton 1918-1929. As an MP he was a members of the executive of the Empire Parliamentary Association, 1919-1929 and a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, from 1929. He was also committed to the protection of British birds, and steered the Brittain Act for the protection of British birds through Parliament in 1925. Amongst his other honours, he was created KBE for public services in 1918, and CMG in 1924.
The Review Committee (or 'Younger Committee') of the Greater London Citizen's Advice Bureau Service Limited was appointed in June 1973 to examine the role of Citizen's Advice Bureaux in London. It was also charged with making suggestions regarding the functions, organisation and finances of Citizen's Advice Bureaux in the Greater London boroughs. The Committee was chaired by Sir Kenneth Younger and conducted research amongst all the CABs in London, as well as looking at local authority advice and information services. The Committee reported its findings to the Greater London Citizen's Advice Bureau in 1975.
No further information available at present
Born 1860; educated at the Stationers' School, London; entered the civil service, 1878, in the legal department of the Local Government Board; established a correspondence society for manuscript exchange called the MS Club, [1881]; member of the Progressive Association, 1882; founder member of the Fabian Society, 1884; joined the London branch of the Fellowship of the New Life, an intellectual discussion and study group dedicated to developing models of alternative societies, 1884-1889; member of the Ethical Society, 1886; emigrated to the USA, 1889; Lecturer at Thomas Davidson's School of the Cultural Sciences, Farmington, Connecticut; Lecturer, Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1890-1892; Head of English, Brooklyn Manual Training High School, 1893-1897; Principal of the Second Grade, New York Society's Ethical Culture School, 1897; Lecturer at the Pratt Institute and New York University, New York; Associate Leader, Society for Ethical Culture of New York, [1897-1910]; married his second wife, Anna Sheldon, the widow of Walter Sheldon, the founder of the St Louis Ethical Society; Leader of the St Louis Ethical Society, 1911-1932; President, Drama League of America, 1915-1920; retired 1932; President of the American Ethical Union, 1934-1939; died 1960. Publications: editor of Dryden's Palamon and Arcite; or the Knight's Tale from Chaucer (New York, 1908); On the religious frontier: from an outpost of ethical religion (Macmillan Co, New York, 1931); The teaching of English in the elementary and secondary school (Macmillan Co, new York, 1902); introduction to Select writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1888); editor of Essays of Montaigne (1893).
Clayton, Morris & Co., law scriveners, merchant bankers and estate agents, of the City of London was originally established in 1636 by Robert Abbot, and was taken over on his death in 1658 by his nephew and apprentice, Robert Clayton, and another of his apprentices, John Morris. From its foundation in 1638 until the premises were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, the firm was based at the sign of the Flying Horse in the parish of St Michael's, Cornhill. It then moved to premises in Austin Friars, whilst purpose built premises were constructed in Old Jewry, to which the bank relocated in 1672. At this point, the name and symbol of the Flying Horse ceased to be used. No contract was ever registered for the Clayton - Morris corporation, and the company was known variously as Robert Clayton and Partner, John Morris and Partner, and Morris and Clayton and Company.
Robert Abbott, c 1610 - 1653, was born in Gretton, Northamptonshire, but went to London during the 1620s, becoming apprenticed to Francis Webb, scrivener. He completed his apprenticeship and became a member of the Scriveners Company in 1635, establishing his own shop, the Flying Horse, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. As a result of his Royalist sympathies, he was forced to move to Bow in 1646, but his business flourished nonetheless. Despite a codicil to Abbott's will specifying that his banking operations should be dissolved after his death, his apprentices, Robert Clayton and John Morris, continued to run the business.
Sir Robert Clayton (alias Cleton), 1629 - 1707, was born in Northamptonshire and moved to London, where he was apprenticed to his uncle. It was in London that he made the acquaintance of a fellow apprentice, John Morris, with whom he went on to establish the company Clayton and Morris Co. Clayton went on to become a member of the Scriveners and Drapers Co, an alderman of Cheap Ward in the City of London, 1670 - 1683, a sheriff in 1671, Lord Mayor of London, 1679 - 1680, an MP for the City of London, 1678 - 1681, colonel of the Orange Regiment of militia at various times between 1680 and 1702, President of the Honourable Artillery Company, 1690 - 1703, Commissioner of the Customs, 1689 - 1697, an Assistant to the Royal African Company, 1672 - 1681, and governor of the Bank of England 1702 - 1707. He was knighted in 1671. He was also a supporter of the Whigs and the Exclusionists, and a benefactor of St Thomas' Hospital and Christ's Hospital. Sir Robert outlived his children and his heir was his nephew, Sir William Clayton. Sir William's son, Sir Kenrick Clayton, was also involved in the company.
John Morris (alias Hall or Hales) was born in Abingdon. His father died in 1633, leaving three sons as paupers, of which John was the eldest. He was elected to a Bennett's scholarship at Abingdon School in 1941, but was apprenticed in London in 1642, having been driven out of Abingdon by the Civil War. On John Morris' death in 1682, Robert Clayton inherited considerable wealth from him.
For further information see Sir Robert Clayton and the Origins of English Deposit Banking, 1658 - 1685 by F T Melton (Cambridge, 1986).
William Beveridge, 1879-1963: William Beveridge was educated at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford. He was sub-warden of Toynbee Hall 1903-1905, and leader-writer on "social problems" for the "Morning Post" 1906-1908. From 1905 to 1908 Beveridge was a member of the Central (Unemployed) Body for London, and was also the first Chairman of the Employment Exchanges Committee. He was a member of the Board of Trade 1908-1916 and Director of Labour Exchanges 1909-1916. During World War I he was Assistant General Secretary of the Ministry of Munitions (1915 - 1916) and Second Secretary in the Ministry of Food (1916-1918). In 1919 Beveridge became Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Food. In the same year he was knighted. He then retired from the civil service and was appointed director of the London School of Economics (1919-1937). He then moved on to be Master of University College, Oxford (1937-1944). During World War II he was Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Labour (1940) and was Chairman of the Social Service Inquiry (1941-1942) he produced "Social Insurance and Allied Services", a report prepared for government which proposed a social system "from the cradle to the grave" for British citizens. This report became known as the "Beveridge Report" and became the blueprint for the welfare-state legislation of 1944-1948. Beveridge was Liberal MP for Berwick on Tweed 1944-1945, and was made 1st Baron Beveridge of Tuggal in 1946.
His publications include: Unemployment: A problem of industry (1909); Prices and Wages in England from the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century (1939); Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942) (Beveridge Report); Full Employment in a Free Society (1944); The Economics of Full Employment (1944); Report on the Methods of Social Advance (1948); Voluntary Action (1948); A Defence of Free Learning (1959).
Richard Trevithick, a Cornish engineer, built the first steam locomotive for a railway, in 1804. The Manchester to Liverpool railway of 1830 was the first to convey passengers and goods entirely by mechanical traction. By 1852 nearly all the main lines of the modern railway system in England were authorised or completed.
Sir John Parnell (1744-1801), Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, was a student of Lincoln's Inn 1766, and a bencher at King's Inns, Dublin, 1786. From 1761 to 1768 he was MP for Bangor in the Irish Parliament, and for Inistioge 1776-1783. He became Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer in 1785. He opposed the liberal policy of the English government, and in consequence of his opposition to the Union was removed from his post in 1799. In 1801 he entered the first parliament of the United Kingdom as MP for Queen's County.
Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943, was born Martha Beatrice Potter at Standish House near Gloucester, she was the eighth daughter of the railway and industrial magnate Richard Potter (1817-1892). Beatrice was educated privately and became a business associate of her father after her mother's death in 1882. She became interested in reform and began to do social work in London. In January 1885 Beatrice became a rent collector and manager for Katharine Buildings in the East End of London. She worked alongside Ella Pycroft, a physician's daughter from Devon. Pycroft had arrived in London in 1883 and spent 5 years working at Katharine Buildings. The property was owned by the East End Dwelling Company and situated in Aldgate. The tenants were casual labourers, dock-workers, porters, hawkers and coster-mongers. Beatrice's task was to collect rents and choose the tenants, replacing them if she felt it to be necessary.
Beatrice investigated working-class conditions as part of the survey 'Life and Labour of the People in London' (1891-1903), directed by her cousin Charles Booth (1840-1916). In 1892 she married Sidney Webb (1859-1947), later Baron Passfield, a member of the socialist Fabian Society. Sidney and Beatrice Webb served on many royal commissions and wrote widely on economic problems. In 1895 they founded the London School of Economics and Political Science. After a tour of the United States and the Dominions in 1898, they embarked on their massive ten-volume work, 'English Local Government' (1906-1929). Beatrice Webb also served on the Poor Law Commission (1906-1909) and was joint author of its minority report. During World War I Beatrice Webb was a member of the War Cabinet committee on women in industry (1918-1919) and served on the Lord Chancellor's advisory committee for women justices (1919-1920), being a justice of the peace herself from 1919 to 1927.
Sidney Webb became an MP in 1922 and held ministerial office in both the early Labour governments. In 1932, after he had left office, the Webbs visited the Soviet Union. They recorded their views in 'Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation' (1935). The Webbs retired to their home in Hampshire in 1928. Beatrice Webb produced two volumes of autobiography: 'My Apprenticeship' (1926) and 'Our Partnership' (1948), which was published after her death. Her publications include: 'The co-operative movement in Great Britain' (1891); 'The history of trade unionism' (1894) (co-author with Sidney Webb); 'The case for the Factory Acts' (1901); 'English Local Government' (1906) (co-author with Sidney Webb); 'The charter of the poor' (1909); 'The break-up of the Poor Law: being part one of the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission' (1909); 'The coming of a unified county medical service and how it will affect the voluntary hospital' (1910); 'Complete national provision for sickness: how to amend the insurance acts' (1912); 'The abolition of the Poor Law' (1918); 'Wages of men and women-should they be equal?' (1919); 'A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain' (1920); 'Decay of capitalist civilisation' (1923) Co-author with Sidney Webb; 'My apprenticeship' (1926); 'Soviet Communism: a new civilisation' (1935); 'Our partnership' (1948).
In 1846 three companies, London and Birmingham, Grand Junction Railway and Manchester and Birmingham amalgamated to form the London and North Western Railway. The amalgamation created 247 miles of railway that linked London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Preston. The London and North Western Railway continued to expand and by 1868 the company had added links to Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Swansea and Cardiff. However, attempts to amalgamate with Midland Railway ended in failure. By 1871 the London and North Western Railway employed 15,000 people.
Michael Sadler, 1780-1835, was born in Snelston, Derbyshire. While he was still young he assisted the Methodist movement. In 1800 he moved to Leeds where he became an importer of Irish linens. He was Tory MP for Newark, 1829 and 1830, and for Aldborough, North Yorkshire 1831-1832. He moved unsuccessfully for the establishment of poor law in Ireland, and moved resolution for improving the living conditions of the agricultural poor in England, 1831. On 16th March 1832 Sadler introduced a Bill in the House of Commons that proposed limiting the hours of all persons under the age of 18 to ten hours a day. Parliament was unwilling to pass Sadler's bill, but in April 1832 it was agreed that there should be another parliamentary enquiry into child labour. Sadler was made chairman and for the next three months the parliamentary committee interviewed 48 people who had worked in textile factories as children. On 9th July Michael Sadler discovered that at least six of these workers had been sacked for giving evidence to the parliamentary committee. Sadler announced that this victimisation meant that he could no longer ask factory workers to be interviewed. He now concentrated on interviewing doctors who had experience treating people who worked in textile factories. In the 1832 General Election, Sadler's opponent was John Marshall (1765-1845), the Leeds flax-spinning magnate. Marshall used his influence to win the election and Sadler lost his seat in the House of Commons. Sadler's report was published in January 1833. The information in the report shocked the British public and Parliament came under increasing pressure to protect the children working in factories. His publications include: "An apology for the Methodists: being a copy of a letter to the Reverend Henry Stokes, vicar of Doveridge, Derbyshire. Containing some animadversions on one of his late discourses, and on a certain combination in that parish" (1797); "Catholic question. Speech of Michael Thomas Sadler, Esq. MP for Newark, in the House of Commons, on Tuesday, the 17th of March, 1829, at the second reading of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill" (1829); "The cause of the poor: The speech of M T Sadler, Esq. MP in the House of Commons, on Monday the 29th of August, on bringing forward his resolution for the permanent relief of the Irish poor" (1831); "Condition of the labouring poor: Speech of Michael Thomas Sadler, Esq. in the House of Commons, on Tuesday evening, October 11, 1831, on obtaining leave to bring in a bill for bettering the condition of the labouring poor of England" (1831).
The Central Small Holdings Society was formed at the New Reform Club, 10 Adelphi Terrace, London. The Society was amalgamated with the Land Club League, the Rural Development Society and the Rural Housing and Sanitation Association in 1911.
John Francis Bray (1809-1897) was born in Washington in the United States, the son of a singer and comedian who was descended from West Riding farmers and cloth manufacturers. In 1822 the Bray family returned to Leeds. When his father died a few days following the family's return to Yorkshire Bray stayed with his aunt who was a milliner. During the 1820s he became apprenticed to a printer and bookbinder in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. He later moved to Selby, North Yorkshire to complete his apprenticeship. In 1832 Bray returned to Leeds and in the following year worked on the "Voice of the West Riding" periodical. He then moved to York and contributed to the "Leeds Times" until 1837 when he moved back to Leeds. He became involved in the town's working class movement and helped to set up the Leeds Working Men's Association. He became its treasurer and delivered a number of lectures on its behalf. Bray returned to the United States in 1842 and became a printer in Detroit. From 1856 to 1865 he ran a daguerreotype gallery in Pontiac, Michigan. In the following decade Bray became involved in the Young American Socialist Movement. He helped draft a number of political tracts, addressed public meetings in parts of the mid-West and was a correspondent on economic and social questions. By this time Bray was living on a farm near Pontiac, Michigan, where he spent the rest of his life producing corn and fruit for market. He joined the Knights of Labour in 1886 and the Pontiac branch of the knights subsequently took the name the "John F Bray Assembly". Bray died on 1st February 1897 at his son's farm in Pontiac.
His publications include: "Labour's wrongs and labour's remedy" (1839); "Government and society considered in relation to first principles" (1842); "The coming age devoted to the fraternisation and advancement of mankind through religious, political and social reforms. No. 1 Spiritualism founded on a fallacy" (1855); "No. 2 The origin of mundane and human energies unfavourable to spiritualism" (1855); "American destiny what shall it be? Republican or Cossack? An argument addressed to the people of the late Union North and South" (1864); "God and man a unity and all mankind a unity; a basis for a new dispensation social and religious" (1879).
Sidney Webb, 1859-1947, the son of an accountant, was born in London on 13 July, 1859. At the age of sixteen Webb became an office clerk but he continued to attend evening classes at the University of London until he acquired the qualifications needed to enter the Civil Service. Webb also contributed to the 'Christian Socialist' and taught at the London Working Men's College. In 1885 he joined the Fabian Society. In 1892 Webb married Beatrice Potter (1958-1943), the social reformer. In the same year he stood as the Fabian Society candidate for Deptford in the London County Council elections. Webb won the seat and he retained it for the next eighteen years. Webb was appointed as Chairman of the Technical Instruction Committee and as a result was known as the Minister of Public Education for London. In 1894 Henry Hutchinson, a wealthy solicitor from Derby, left the Fabian Society £10,000. Sidney and Beatrice Webb suggested that the money should be used to develop a new university in London. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was founded in 1895.
When the Conservative Party won the 1900 General Election, the Webbs drafted what later became the 1902 Education Act. In 1915 Sidney Webb was appointed to the Labour Party National Executive. By 1922 he was Chairman of the National Executive and the following year, in the 1923 General Election, was chosen to represent the Labour Party in the Seaham constituency. Webb won the seat, and when Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) became Britain's first Labour Prime Minister in 1924, he appointed Webb as his President of the Board of Trade. Webb left the House of Commons in 1929 when he was granted the title Baron Passfield. Now in the House of Lords, Webb served as Secretary of State for the Colonies in MacDonald's second Labour Government. His publications include: 'The case for an eight hours bill' (1891); 'The History of Trade Unionism' (1894) Co-written with Beatrice Webb; 'Industrial Democracy' (1897) Co-written with Beatrice Webb; 'Facts for Socialists' (1887); 'Facts for Londoners' (1888); 'The Eight Hour Day' (1891); 'English local government' (1906); 'The decline in the birth-rate' (1907); 'The basis & policy of socialism' (1908); 'The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission' (1909); 'Conscience and the conscientious objector' (1917); 'A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain' (1920); 'The decay of capitalist civilisation' (1923); 'English poor law history' (1927); 'Soviet communism: dictatorship or democracy?' (1936).
The London and North Eastern Railway, which incorporates the former Great Central, Great Eastern, Great Northern, Hull and Barnsley, North Eastern, North British and Great North of Scotland Railway Companies, is the second largest railway company in Great Britain. With a total single track mileage, including sidings, of 16,824, the system covers the whole of Eastern England and East and West Scotland It serves the country between the Moray Firth and the Thames.
In 1926 the government set up a Royal Commission to look into the problems of the Mining Industry. The Commission published its report in March 1926. It recognised that the industry needed to be reorganised but rejected the suggestion of nationalisation. The report also recommended that the Government subsidy should be withdrawn and the miners' wages should be reduced. The month in which the report was issued also saw the mine-owners publishing new terms of employment. These new procedures included an extension of the seven-hour working day, district wage-agreements, and a reduction in the wages of all miners. The mine-owners announced that if the miners did not accept their new terms of employment they would be locked out of the pits from the first of May. A Conference of the Trade Union Congress met on 1st May 1926, and afterwards announced that a General Strike "in defence of miners' wages and hours" was to begin two days later. The TUC decided to bring out workers in what they regarded as the key industries - railwaymen, transport workers, dockers, printers, builders, iron and steel workers - a total of 3 million men (a fifth of the adult male population). Only later would other trade unionists, like the engineers and shipyard workers, be called out on strike. During the next two days efforts were made to reach an agreement with the Conservative Government and the mine-owners. For several months the miners held out, but by October 1926 hardship forced men to return to the mines. In 1927 the British Government passed the Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act. This act made all sympathetic strikes illegal, ensured the trade union members had to voluntarily 'contract in' to pay the political levy, forbade Civil Service unions to affiliate to the TUC, and made mass picketing illegal.
The Co-operative Women's Guild was formed in 1883 following the first inclusion of a women's page in 'Co-operative News'. Its aim was to spread the knowledge of the benefits of co-operation and improve the conditions of women with the slogan "co-operation in poor neighbourhoods". In 1885 the organisation changed its name to the Women's Co-operative Guild. In 1889 Miss Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861-1943) became General Secretary on a voluntary basis and Miss Lilian Harris was appointed Cashier to the Guild. Under the direction of these two women the organisation expanded rapidly from 51 branches and a membership of 1700 in 1889 to a peak of 1500 branches and a membership of 72,000 in 1933. By this time the organisation had again been changed to the Co-operative Women's Guild. Margaret Llewelyn Davies was the daughter of Reverend John Llewelyn Davies, a Christian Socialist and supporter of women's rights. She ran the Guild's affairs from her father's vicarage at Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria. Under her leadership the Guild became a campaigning body. After carrying out an investigation into the working conditions of the 2000 women employed in co-operative stores, the Guild advocated the introduction of a minimum wage. By 1912 the Co-operative Wholesale Society and 200 other retail stores had complied with the Guild's policy on wages.
Llewelyn Davies was a member of the National Union of Suffrage Societies, and she took part in several peaceful demonstrations, including a sandwich-board picket of the House of Commons in 1912. She also gave evidence to the Royal Commission on divorce reform and the Guild created great controversy by urging that divorce by mutual consent after two years separation should be legalised. Other campaigns instigated by Llewelyn Davies included an attempt to reduce the high infant-mortality rates by the introduction of improved ante-natal, natal, and post-natal care. Her publications include: 'Maternity' (1915); 'Life as We Have Known It' (1931).
Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, was the third son of Lord John Russell (1792-1878), who twice served as Prime Minister (1846-1852 and 1865-1866). His parents died when he was very young and he was brought up by his grandmother. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge and obtained a first-class honours degree in mathematics and philosophy. He became a Fellow of the college in 1895. A visit to Berlin after university led to his first book "German Social Democracy" (1896). In 1907 a group of male supporters of votes for women formed the Men's League for Women's Suffrage. Bertrand Russell joined and stood unsuccessfully as a Suffragist candidate at a parliamentary by-election at Wimbledon. Russell was also a member of the Fabian Society. After the outbreak of the First World War Russell helped form the No-Conscription Fellowship (NCF), an organisation that planned to campaign against the introduction of conscription. Russell's activities in the the NCF resulted in him being sacked from his post as a lecturer at Cambridge University. Russell was also the editor of the NCF journal "Tribunal". Russell wrote an article in January 1918 criticising the American Army for strike-breaking. Russell was arrested and charged with making statements "likely to prejudice His Majesty's relations with the United States of America". He was found guilty and sentenced to six months in Brixton Prison. In 1931 Bertrand succeeded his elder brother as 3rd Earl of Russell. He used the forum of the House of Lords to promote his views on pacifism. Russell ceased to be a pacifist in the late 1930s with the rise of Hitler in Germany. Russell was rewarded with the restoration of his fellowship at Cambridge University. In 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Russell became increasing concerned about the major powers producing nuclear weapons and in 1958 helped form The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. His publications include: "The Principles of Mathematics" (1903); "Principia Mathematica" (1910); "Theory and Practice of Bolshevism" (1919); "An Enquiry into Meaning and Truth" (1940); "History of Western Philosophy" (1945); "Human Knowledge: Its scope and limits" (1948); "Why I am not a Christian" (1957).
Alys Pearsall Smith, 1867-1951, was an American Quaker who worked for the temperance cause. She was the first of Bertrand Russell's four wives. Pearsall Smith married Russell in 1894, despite opposition from both their families. They separated in 1911 and divorced in 1921. She then lived in Chelsea, London, with her brother the writer Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946).
Rastrick is in West Yorkshire.
The Bethnal Green Labour Party was formed in 1908 and aimed to "forward the just claims of the working class and to promote independent Labour representation on all governing bodies". The branch was closely involved with the Trades Union movement and was affiliated to the National Union of Corporation Workers, London Carmen's Trade Union, National Union of Shop Assistants, Glass Bevelers Branch of the Furnishing Trades Association, National League of the Blind and the Independent Labour Party. Like minded individuals could also join.
The Alice Patterson Foundation Program (formerly known as the Alice Patterson Fund) makes awards to USA journalists to study in a foreign country. It was established in 1965 in memory of Alicia Patterson (1906-1963), who was editor and publisher of "Newsday" for nearly 23 years before her death in 1963. One-year grants are awarded to working journalists to pursue independent projects of significant interest and to write articles based on their investigations for the "The APF Reporter", a quarterly magazine published by the Foundation. Winners are chosen by an annual competition. Applicants must have at least five years of professional journalistic experience. The website for the Foundation can be found at: http://www.aliciapatterson.org.
The State Children Aid Association was formed in 1896 with the aim "to obtain individual treatment for children under the guardianship of the state", following a report on poor law schools.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation was founded in Cambridge 1914 by a group of pacifist Christians. During the summer of 1914 an ecumenical conference of Christians who wanted to avert the approaching war was held in Switzerland. However, war broke out before the end of the conference and, at Cologne station, Henry Hodgkin, an English Quaker, and Friedrich Siegmund-Schulze, a German Lutheran, pledged themselves to a continued search for peace with the words, "We are at one in Christ and can never be at war". Inspired by that pledge, about 130 Christians of all denominations gathered in Cambridge at the end of 1914 and set up the FoR, recording their general agreement in a statement which became 'The Basis' of the FoR, namely:
1) That love as revealed and interpreted in the life and death of Jesus Christ involves more than we have yet seen, that is the only power by which evil can be overcome and the only sufficient basis of human society.
2) That, in order to establish a world-order based on Love, it is incumbent upon those who believe in this principle to accept it fully, both for themselves and in relation to others and to take the risks involved in doing so in a world which does not yet accept it.
3) That therefore, as Christians, we are forbidden to wage war, and that our loyalty to our country, to humanity, to the Church Universal, and to Jesus Christ our Lord and Master, calls us instead to a life-service for the enthronement of Love in personal, commercial and national life.
4) That the Power, Wisdom and Love of God stretch far beyond the limits of our present experience, and that He is ever waiting to break forth into human life in new and larger ways.
5) That since God manifests Himself in the world through men and women, we offer ourselves to His redemptive purpose to be used by Him in whatever way He may reveal to us.
The FoR supported conscientious objectors during World War I and was a supporter of passive resistance during World War II. In 1919, representatives from a dozen countries met in Holland and established the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, which now has many branches in all five continents.
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Charity Organisation Society (COS): During the 1860s there was a concern that self-help and charity could conflict. It was believed that the poor could best be helped through the use of charity funding, to help themselves. In June 1868 at a meeting if the Society of Arts, the Unitarian minister Henry Solly (1813-1903) gave a public lecture entitled "How to deal with the Unemployed Poor of London and with its 'Rough' and Criminal Class". This led to the formation of the Charity Organisation Society in 1869, with Solly as its first Secretary. The aim of COS was a better standard of administering charity relief, emphasising the need for self help, and accompanying it with personal care. COS became involved in administering charity relief in London, and in the 20th century was associated with the introduction and development of social casework in Britain. The social reformer Beatrice Webb (1858-1943) became a member in 1883, and the housing reformer Octavia Hill (1838-1912) was a key figure in the development of the COS until her death.
The Independent Labour Party: The activities of the Manchester Independent Labour Party (established in 1892) inspired Liberal-Labour MPs to consider setting up a new national working class party. The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was consequently formed in 1893 under the leadership of James Keir Hardie (1856 - 1915). The chief objective of the ILP would be "to secure the collective ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange". The ILP had 35,000 members at the time of the 1895 General Election, and put forward 28 candidates, but only won 44,325 votes. The party had more success in local elections, winning over 600 seats on borough councils. The ILP joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1898 to make West Ham the first local authority to have a Labour majority. On 27th February 1900 representatives of all the socialist groups in Britain (the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation and the Fabian Society, joined trade union leaders to form the Labour Representation Committee.
Thomas Allsop 1795-1880, entered the silk mercery trade in London in 1812. He then joined the Stock Exchange. He made the acquaintance of Samuel Coleridge in 1818, and on the poet's death published his "Letters, Conversations, and Recollections". Allsop was also a friend of the essayists Charles Lamb (1775-1834), William Hazlitt (1778-1830), and the poet Barry Cornwall (1787-1874). Allsop provided the Irish Radical Feargus O'Connor (1796-1855) with his property qualification as representative of Chartism on his election as MP for Nottingham. He was in sympathy with Felice Orsini, the conspirator against Napoleon III. Allsop was charged by the government of having knowingly purchased shells to be used by Orsini in an assassination attempt upon the emperor Napoleon III. Allsop was not brought to trial, however. A reward was offered for his apprehension as accessory in the "attempt of Felice Orsini", but the overtness of his actions disarmed suspicion.
The Movement for Colonial Freedom was a group formed in 1954 to campaign for the right of all people to full independence and international mutual aid. It became "Liberation" in 1970.
Margaret Tyssen-Amherst (1835-1919) was the only child of Admiral Robert Mitford (d 1870). She married William Tyssen Amherst in 1856, who was created 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney in 1892. They had six daughters. Her book A Sketch of Egyptian History was published in 1904. She was also a member of the Ladies' Grand Council of the Primrose League. The League was founded in 1883 to commemorate the work of Benjamin Disraeli. Its aim was the maintenance of religion, the monarchy, the constitution, the unity of the commonwealth and the improvement of the condition of the people.
The Advisory Committee on Local Government was set up by the Labour Party to explore the feasibility of reconstructing local government. It had a sub-committee which dealt with town-planning which discussed controlling the price of building materials.
In 1928 a birth control information centre was established in London under the direction of Edith How-Martyn (1875-1954). In 1930, following the Seventh International Conference on Birth Control in Zurich, the centre was re-organized as the Birth Control International Information Centre (BCIIC), with Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) as president and How-Martyn as director. Eileen Palmer was secretary of the BCIIC mainly during the 1930s. She worked closely with How-Martyn to forward the spread of information world-wide and maintained close links with Sanger's movement for planned parenthood in the USA. The BCIIC merged with the National Birth Control Association of England (name later changed to the Family Planning Association of England) in 1938, which continued much of the international agenda of the Centre until the formation of the International Committee on Planned Parenthood in 1948. The stated purpose of the BCIIC was to "spread the knowledge of birth control all over the world." The Centre acted as a clearinghouse for birth control information, responding to inquiries regarding the location of clinics, availability and effectiveness of particular contraceptives, methods, and legal restrictions. The Centre published numerous pamphlets, transcriptions of speeches, newsletters, bulletins and other information about contraception, new research and clinic updates. The BCIIC co-ordinated international birth control activities (the organisation of clinics and conferences) with the help of correspondents in over 30 countries. Centre staff also arranged for visitors to tour clinics in London and New York, and hosted weekly meetings in London with guest speakers from various countries.
Reuben Kelf-Cohen (1905-1978) was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford. He served in the Royal Field Artillery during World War One (1914-1918). In 1920 he entered the Board of Education. from 1924 to 1939 he was Tutorial Class Tutor, London University. He was a member of the Board of Trade 1925-1941, the Petroleum Department 1941-1942, and Principal Assistant Secretary (Gas and Electricity) at the Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1942-1945. From 1946 to 1955 he was Under-Secretary at the Ministry. Kelf-Cohen was also Director of the East Indian Produce company 1955-1959, and Visiting Lecturer at St. Andrews University, 1970, and University College, Aberystwyth, 1971. His publications include: Nationalisation in Britain: the end of a dogma (1958); To whom is nationalized industry responsible? (1959); Twenty years of nationalisation: the British experience (1969).
The posters were produced by the Ministerstvo Edravookhraneniia of Russia in 1930.
The Committee on the Prevention and Relief of Distress examined the plight of various areas throughout Britain which were considered to be in need of financial assistance during World War One (1914-1918). It had the power to recommend that Local Representative Committees grant various sums of money to these areas.
Professor John Michael Lee (b 1932): Lee was educated at Christ Church Oxford. From 1958 to 1967 he was Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in government at Manchester University. Lee went on an academic secondment to HM Treasury, 1967-1969. He was Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 1969-1972, and Reader in Politics at Birkbeck College, 1972-1981. He was Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bristol, 1987-1990 (Professor of Politics, 1981-1992 and Emeritus Professor 1992). From 1993 to 1995 Lee was a Visiting Fellow for the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His publications include: "Social Leaders and Public Persons" (1963); "Colonial Development and Good Government" (1967); "African Armies and Civil Order" (1969); "The Churchill Coalition" (1980); "At the Centre of Whitehall (1998 with GW Jones and June Burnham).
The Fulton Report: In 1968 the Fulton Committee urged radical reform in the civil service, recommending the establishment of agencies through the subdivision of departments on a functional basis. Other Fulton report recommendations included the establishment of a civil service college, improving in-service training practices, and increasing the role of specialists. All centred on improving the quality of management in the civil service, as a means to increased efficiency and economy. The principle civil service reforms implemented since the early 1980s have their origins in the recommendations of the Fulton Report.
The membership of this organisation included religious, political, trade union, co-operative, peace society, womens', council and youth representatives. The organisation's first chairman was John Beckett (1894-1954). Beckett was educated at Latymer School and was a journalist and Company Director. He was Labour MP for Gateshead 1924-1929, and Peckham 1929-1931.
The committee comprised representatives of organisations affiliated to, or eligible for affiliation to the Labour Party. They discussed the relief of civil distress, food prices, housing and pensions.
Born 1902; educated privately; social worker in South and East London, 1924-1929; student at the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1926-1929; Lecturer, LSE, 1929-1939 and 1944-1957; Principal Officer for Employment and Training, National Association of Girls' Clubs, 1939-1944; Director of British Council Social Welfare Courses, 1942-1944; Member, McNair Committee, 1943; Member, Departmental Committee on Social Workers in the Mental health Services, 1948; Member, Committee of Enquiry into the Law and Practice Relating to Charitable Trusts; Chairman, Ministry of Health Working Party on Social Workers in the Health and Welfare Services, 1959; Adviser, National Institute for Social Work Training, 1961-1967; President, International Association of Schools of Social Work, 1961-1968; Member, Committee on the Probation Service, 1962; DBE, 1964; member of various committees for penal reform, child care, youth service, care of old people, family welfare, social studies and international social work; René Sand Award, International Council on Social Welfare, 1976; Chairman, Hammersmith Juvenile Court; died 1981. Publications: The education and training of social workers (Carnegie UK Trust, 1947); Social work in Britain (Carnegie UK Trust, 1951); Social work and social change (London, 1964); Social work in Britain, 1950-1975: a follow-up study (Allen and Unwin, London, 1978); The newest profession: a short history of social work (Community Care, Sutton, 1981).
Colonial Research covers the papers relating to various councils and committees concerned with colonial research. The Colonial Social Science Research Council was established by the British Government at the end of World War Two to undertake research into the economic development of the colonies. The records held at the LSE appear to represent private sets of the Council's papers collected by its leading members, specifically Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders and Sir Arnold Plant. The Council was superceded by the Overseas Development Committee and various other councils and committees, represented by each section of the collection. Official Colonial Office records deposited at The National Archives may contain the Council's central archive.