William Hunter was born, 1718; attended the local Latin school; Glasgow University, 1731-1736; medical apprenticeship in Hamilton; went to London to learn midwifery from William Smellie, 1740; John Douglas's anatomy assistant and tutor to Douglas's son William George, 1741; surgical pupil of David Wilkie at St George's Hospital; studied anatomy and surgery, Paris, 1743- 1744; began building a surgical and midwifery practice, London; set up an anatomy course, 1746; member of the Company of Surgeons, 1747; temporary man-midwife at the Middlesex Hospital, 1748; man-midwife to the new British Lying-in Hospital, 1749-1759; member of the Society of London Physicians, 1754; licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1756; consultant physician, British Lying-in Hospital, 1759; Physician-Extraordinary to the Queen, 1762; steward, then treasurer, and finally President of the Society of Collegiate Physicians; fellow of the Royal Society, 1767; Professor of Anatomy, Royal Academy of Art, 1768; died, 1783.
James Young Simpson graduated from Edinburgh University in 1832. He was made President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh in 1835 and became Professor of Midwifery there in 1839. He was especially famous for his advocacy and use of chloroform in obstetric practice, but was also renowned for his work in gynaecology and obstetrics, particularly in the use of forceps and for various methods of ovariotomy.
James William Miller was born, 1836; MD, Edinburgh, 1857; licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 1857; examination in medicine and pathology, University of Aberdeen; Medical Officer, Liff and Benvie Poorhouse; physician, Dundee Royal Infirmary; surgeon, Dundee prison; died, 1901.
Thomas Young was born, 1730; MD, University of Edinburgh, 1761; apprenticed as an apothecary and surgeon in Edinburgh, becoming a master surgeon in 1755; joined the Incorporation of Surgeons, 1751; Deacon of the Incorporation of Surgeons, 1756-1762; Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh, 1756-1783; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1762; created a Lying-In Ward at the Royal Infirmary to give clinical lectures which eventually became the Edinburgh Maternity Hospital; died, 1783.
Robert Steavenson was educated at the University of Edinburgh; member of the Medical Society of Edinburgh, 1776; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 1777.
Robert Gell was Surgeon at Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
Alexander Simpson was born in Bathgate, Scotland in 1835. He was the nephew of Sir James Young Simpson, Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh. Simpson studied at Bathgate Academy and later at the University of Edinburgh where in 1856 he received his M.D. He worked for seven years with his uncle in Edinburgh before moving to be a general practitioner in Glasgow. He succeeded to the Chair of Sir James Young Simpson following the latter's death in 1870. In 1872 he married a Miss Barbour. In 1905 he retired at the age of 70, and a year later he was knighted. He was killed in a road accident during a wartime blackout in 1916.
Born, 1883; premedical studies at the London Hospital medical college, 1900; St Mary's Hospital, London, graduated, 1906; assistant in the inoculation department of St Mary's Hospital medical school, 1907; Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, worked on wound infections, first at St Mary's Hospital and later in Almroth Wright's laboratory at no. 13 general hospital in Boulogne, 1914-1918; member of the scientific staff of the Medical Research Council, 1919; St Mary's Hospital, 1922; honorary director of the research laboratories of Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital, 1930-1939; Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps and bacteriological consultant to the British Expeditionary Force, France, 1939-1940; worked on the infection and treatment of burns, 1940; director of the Burns Investigation Unit of the Medical Research Council, first based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and then at the Birmingham Accident Hospital, 1942-1948; honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 1944; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1945; retired, 1948; honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1950; died, 1967.
Robert Milne Murray was born, 1855; read arts in St Andrew's University; moved to Edinburgh to study medicine; staff of the Royal Infirmary and Royal Maternity Hospital; designed a modification of the forceps previously invented by Tarnier; died, 1904.
Arthur Joseph (Joe) Wrigley CBE, MD, FRCS, FRCOG (1904-1984) was educated at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and practised at St Thomas's, beginning his career as registrar to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and later becoming obstetric physician. He also offered his services to Mount Vernon Hospital, the Grosvenor Hospital, the Lambeth Hospital, and to the London boroughs of Lambeth and Stoke Newington. He was a Fellow of the College and inventor of the short forceps - "the Wrigley's". He died in 1984.
The Association of Law Teachers (ALT) was conceived in 1965 by a group of law teachers from institutions other than universities who met at Taplow in Buckinghamshire to discuss the particular problems of teaching law faced by such institutions. The following year a steering committee met in London to officially establish the ALT to represent the growing interest in law in Regional Colleges of Technology, further education colleges and schools. Initial funding came from the publishers Sweet & Maxwell. In its Constitution, the objects of the ALT were laid down as: a) to further the advancement, development, study, understanding, use and reform of the educational aspects of law and its teaching; b) to represent and make known the views of its members upon matters relating to or affecting their professional interests as teachers of law; c) to establish and support or aid in the establishment and support of associations and institutions calculated to benefit the objects of the Association or the members of the Association or the dependants or connections of such members and to subscribe to or guarantee money for charitable or benevolent objects or for any public, general or useful object; d) to do all things consistent with these objects considered by the Association or its Committee to be necessary, conducive or incidental to the promotion of the professional, social or general welfare of its members. The present membership of the ALT is drawn from teachers in higher (largely, but not exclusively, the new universities), further and tertiary education. It focuses primarily on the pedagogy and androgogy of law, teaching and learning methods and assessment, and fosters research in these fields, including the 1993 and 1997 Harris surveys of legal education. Until about 1990 the ALT was the only representative body for Polytechnic law teachers, and in the 1970s and 1980s it also provided a general forum for discussion of doctrinal legal issues. This remains a subsidiary function. The ALT's activities are run by a Committee comprising an elected Chairman, Vice-chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, plus five elected members and some co-opted members. Regular events include the Upjohn Lecture, the Annual Conference and one-day conferences. The ALT makes representations to a variety of official bodies concerning all aspects of law teaching, and is also represented on a number of these bodies. It has close links with the Society of Public Teachers of Law, which represents university law teachers.
Publications: Harris, P and Bellerby, S. with Leighton, P and Hodgson, J, A Survey of Law Teaching 1997 (ALT, 1993); Harris, P and Jones, M, "A Survey of Law Schools in the United Kingdom", (1997), The Law Teacher 38; Dr S B Marsh The Association of Law Teachers: the first 25 years (ALT, 1990); the ALT produces a regular Bulletin and a Journal.
The Council of Legal Education (CLE) was established by Resolutions of the Inns of Court in 1852, following the recommendation that year of a Legal Education Committee of the Four Inns. The CLE, consisting of eight members under the Chairmanship of Richard Bethell QC (later Lord Westbury), was entrusted with the power and duty of superintending the education and examination of students who had been admitted to the Inns and was to consist of an equal number of Benchers appointed by each of the Inns. Five Readerships or Professorships were set up, to each deliver three courses of lectures per year. Students were required to attend a certain number of lectures and to pass public examinations. The examinations were held thrice yearly, in Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity terms. The CLE was given the power to grant dispensations to students unable to attend all required lectures. In 1872 membership of the Council was increased from eight to twenty and a compulsory examination for Call to the Bar was introduced. A further recommendation was made that the Council appoint a Committee of its members to be called the Committee of Education and Examination; this Committee later became the Board of Studies. A Director of Legal Studies was appointed in 1905. The constant increase in the number of students and consequent growth in the CLE's activities led to the Council's decision in 1915 to appoint a permanent Finance (later Finance and Administration) Committee for the regulation of its expenditure and in 1916 to create the post of Council Secretary. The CLE initially met in the Library of Lincoln's Inn. In 1903 it moved to 15 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, where it remained until 1947. The CLE then moved to 7 Stone Buildings, where it was able to provide lecture rooms, common and reading room accommodation and canteen facilities for students. In 1964 the CLE gained the first home for law teaching with premises in Gray's Inn, donated by the Inn. In 1967 the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL) was formally established on the site; it became an incorporated body in 1996. In 1967, as a consequence of the institution of the Senate of the Inns of Court as a central body to represent the Inns, the CLE was reconstituted under regulation of the Senate, which now appointed the Chairman and five other representatives of Council, and which had general policy-making powers. For the first time the CLE had representatives from the Bar Council as well as from the Inns. A new system of education and training, drawn up by the CLE in 1967, was approved by the Senate, to take effect from 1969. This included the appointment of a professional law teacher as Dean of Faculty (later retitled Dean of ICSL), replacing the old position of Director of Legal Studies, and the inauguration of new practical training programmes. In 1974, following the recommendations of the Pearce and Templeman Committee, a new body, the Senate of the Inns of Court and the Bar, was set up. The CLE was reconstituted under the Regulations of the new Senate, and its membership and functions redefined. During the 1970s the CLE faced the major task of implementing the recommendations of the Ormrod Report (of the Lord Chancellor's Committee on Legal Education) and the Cross Committee (Advisory Committee on Legal Education) relating to graduate entry to the profession, and the transfer of Part 1 teaching to the universities and polytechnics. The CLE continued to oversee legal education for the Bar until 1997. In that year the CLE transferred most of its responsibilities and assets to the ICSL. Its responsibility for supporting education and training for the Bar was passed to a new body, the Inns of Court and Bar Educational Trust (ICBET), while its regulatory function was passed to the General Council of the Bar. In 1997 the CLE ceased to operate.
In 1932 a Legal Education Committee under the Chairmanship of Lord Atkin was set up to consider the organisation of legal education in England and to make recommendations as to further provision for advanced research in legal studies. The Committee's report in 1934 included a recommendation that an Institute of Advanced Legal Studies be established in London. In 1938 another Committee, chaired by Lord Macmillan, was set up to find a practical means of effecting this recommendation. The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) was established in 1946 as part of the University of London. Its aims were "the prosecution and promotion of legal research and the training of graduate students in its principles and methods" (39th Annual Report, 1985/86). Since its inception the scope of the Institute has expanded considerably, with sponsorship of and support for many research projects and the provision of facilities for other research bodies and for conferences, seminars and workshops. The Library provides facilities for academic and research staff and postgraduate research students from universities all over the world, and is one of the world's largest legal research libraries. In 1994 IALS became a major component of the School of Advanced Study. The School was established in September 1994. Its fore runner was the University of London Institutes for Advanced Study. The School includes the Institutes of Advanced Legal Studies, Classical Studies, Commonwealth Studies, Germanic Studies, Historical Research, Latin American Studies, Romance Studies, United States Studies and the Warburg Institute. The School gives the Institutes a collective voice in the governance of the University of London, fosters the development of new activities and collective enterprises among Institutes and generally promotes efficiency and effectiveness in the Institutes' missions of supporting and developing research in the humanities and social sciences, nationally and internationally.
For a detailed description of the establishment and development of the Institute see the IALS First Prospectus, 1948, and Willi Steiner (former IALS Librarian), 'The Establishment of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London', IALS Bulletin no. 17, Apr 1994, pp. 6-20.
These files were put together to isolate information of historical interest relating to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Secretary and Librarian undertook the administration of the Institute under the direction of the Committee of Management and was also responsible for building up the library. The position was held by K Howard Drake from 1947 until his death in 1967. He was succeeded by W A F P Steiner. In 1971 the functions were separated, with Steiner continuing as IALS Librarian while administrative duties passed to a new Secretary, J A Boxhall.
The Institute moved into the new building at Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, in December 1975; it was officially opened on 1 April 1976.
These estimates were compiled by the Secretary, primarily J A Boxhall.
Miss Muriel Anderson has been Assistant Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies since 1981.
Dr S B (Stan) Marsh (1926-1998) was a barrister and law teacher. After three and a half years' war service in the Royal Navy he graduated BCom from the University of London in 1949 and DipEd from Leicester University in 1950; he then taught at Leicester College of Technology from 1950-1956. During this time he obtained his LL.B from the University of London, and was called to the Bar of Gray's Inn in 1958. He was Head of the Commerce Department at Peterborough Technical College from 1956-1958 and Head of the Department of Business and Secretarial Studies at Manchester College of Commerce in 1958. From the latter Department grew the Department of Law, subsequently incorporated into Manchester Polytechnic. Dr Marsh's first foray into research in legal education was his thesis for a higher degree, for which he was awarded a PhD at Leicester University in 1956. This research was later continued in association with Professor John Wilson of Southampton University and then with Dr Julia Bailey, then lecturing at Manchester. Dr Marsh served as a member of the Lord Chancellor's Committee on Legal Education (the Ormrod Committee) and the Advisory Committee on Legal Education set up by the Inns of Court and the Law Society. He was the founding Chairman of the Association of Law Teachers from 1965-1967 and President from 1989-1996. Publications: The Association of Law Teachers; the First 25 Years (ALT, 1990).
The Society for Advanced Legal Studies (SALS), established in 1997, is the successor body to the Friends of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS). The Friends was established in 1989 to foster the interests of the IALS which holds what is in effect the UK's national law library and which is at the centre of legal research. SALS is a learned society consisting of scholars, practitioners and those involved in the administration of justice from the UK and around the world. Its objectives are to promote and facilitate legal research at an advanced level and in particular to engender greater collaboration between scholars and those involved in the practice of law. The Society seeks to achieve these objectives through a number of initiatives including organising and supporting specialised working groups, lectures and conferences. The Constitution of the SALS provides for an Advisory Council of persons drawn from academia, practitioners and the judiciary from the UK and overseas. During its first year there is a transitional executive committee, chaired by the Director of IALS, and an interim advisory council.
The Society of Public Teachers of Law (SPTL) was founded in 1908 by Dr Edward Jenks, the then Principal and Director of Studies of the Law Society. Rule 2 of the Society states that "The objects of the society shall be the furtherance of the cause of legal education in England and Wales, and of the work and interests of public teachers of law therein by holding discussions and enquiries, by publishing documents, and by taking other steps as may from time to time be deemed desirable" (see A.SPTL 6: List of Members and Rules 1910 p.9). The Society was to consist of a) ordinary members (any public teacher of law in England and Wales) and b) honorary members (any past teacher of law, overseas teacher of law or person who has "conferred important benefits on the Society or on legal education") (Ibid. Rule 6, p.11). The Society's affairs were to be managed by a General Committee, whose officers were to consist of a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Honorary Secretary. Other Committee members were to comprise one member for each university conferring degrees in law, and one member for each body conferring professional qualifications in law. Thus all branches of legal education would be represented. Since its inception, the SPTL has acted to improve the quality of legal education and research through publishing reports, setting up working parties, putting forward submissions, holding conferences and producing journals and newsletters on matters relevant to legal education. Its representation on the different law teaching bodies in England and Wales has meant that it has operated with great effectiveness as a pressure group for change.
In 2002 the Society of Public Teachers of Law was renamed as the Society of Legal Scholars. Further information about the Society can be found in Fiona Cownie and Raymond Cocks. "A Great and Noble Occupation!": The History of the Society of Legal Scholars. Hart Publishing, 2009 (available in the IALS Library and as SPTL 25/10)
William Lawrence Twining (b 1934) has had a long and distinguished career in law teaching and has been involved in many projects relating to legal education. He was educated at Charterhouse School, Brasenose College, Oxford, and the University of Chicago. He has been Lecturer in Private Law at the University of Khartoum (1958-1961), Senior Lecturer in Law at University College, Dar-es-Salaam (1961-1965), Professor of Jurisprudence at the Queen's University, Belfast (1965-1972) and Professor of Law at the University of Warwick (1972-1982). From 1983-1996 he was the Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London. Other activities have included membership of the Committee on Legal Education in Northern Ireland (1972-1974), presidency of the Society of Public Teachers of Law (1978-1979) and of the UK Society for Legal and Social Philosophy (1980-1983), chairmanship of the Bentham Committee (1982-) and of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (1983-1993).
Publications: How to do things with rules with David Miers (1976); editor of Law publishing and legal information: small jurisdictions of the British Isles with Jennifer Uglow (1981); Theories of evidence: Bentham and Wigmore (c1985); editor of Legal theory and common law (1986); editor of Essays on Kelsen with Richard Tur (1986); editor of Learning lawyers' skills with Neil Gold and Karl Mackie (1989); editor of Access to legal education and the legal profession with Rajeev Dhavan and Neil Kibble (1989); Rethinking evidence: exploratory essays (1990); editor of Issues of self-determination (1991); Analysis of evidence: how to do things with facts with Terence Anderson (1991); editor of Evidence and proof with Alex Stein (1992); joint editor of Legal Records in the Commonwealth with Emma Varnden Quick (Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1994); Blackstone's tower: the English law school (1994); Law in context: enlarging a discipline (1997); edited the Law in Context series and the Jurists' series.
Born in Kingston-upon-Thames, 1913; moved to Brentford, c1919; enrolled as a full-time student at the Engineering School, Regent Street Polytechnic, 1927; participated in sporting activities there; gained a Ordinary National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, 1930; employed in engineering; continued part-time education at Acton Technical College; Higher National Diploma, 1934; married Mary Eileen Senton, 1937; graduate member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, 1939; associate member, 1940; served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, later Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, during World War Two; in India, 1942-1945; emigrated to Australia, 1951; retired, 1974; moved to New Zealand, 1982.
Leslie William Alfred Baily was born in 1906; worked as a broadcaster and writer and died in 1976.
Savile Row and its environs, behind Regent Street, were renowned for their bespoke tailoring businesses. Boulter, Hepburn and Watts was apparently succeeded by Hogg, Sons & J B Johnstone Ltd; both companies had premises on Clifford Street (nos 10 and 19 respectively). The firm started in 1820 by John Brown Johnstone of Lockerbie, Scotland, developed as a civil and military tailors and was purchased from Johnstone's descendant by John Donaldson-Hudson in the 1940s. It acquired the firm of Hogg & Sons in the 1950s, and closed in 1999. The relationship with Tautz & Co Ltd (civil and sporting tailors, established in 1807), which had premises at no 19 Grafton Street, is unclear.
The philanthropist Quintin Hogg (1845-1903) was convinced of the health-giving and character-building qualities derived from organised sport, and was himself a keen footballer. He saw sport as an integral part of the work of his foundation, the Youths' Christian Institute, and its successors the Young Men's Christian Institute and Polytechnic Institute, later Regent Street Polytechnic. Hogg's friend Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird (1847-1923, 11th Baron Kinnaird) was a famous gentleman footballer and President of the Football Association, who with Hogg organised the first unofficial England-Scotland international matches. The two had played together at Eton at a period when the game, until then limited to public schools playing to their own rules, was first being organised. On leaving school, both continued to play for the Wanderers, a team of public school old boys which won five of the first seven FA cup finals. Kinnaird was involved with Hogg's charitable foundations and retained his connection with their football teams. Hogg's Institute encompassed members who were not students, but were involved in its other activities.
The first Institute football club was formed in 1875 as the Hanover Football Club, for which Hogg and Kinnaird both played. Following the removal of Hogg's foundation to premises in Regent Street, formerly home of the Royal Polytechnic Institution, in 1882, the club became the Polytechnic Football Club. It had grounds in Barnes and Wimbledon but in 1906 moved to the Polytechnic's Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground at Chiswick. The club continues to play there as a member of the Southern Amateur League.
Members of the Polytechnic founded by Quintin Hogg (1845-1903) and its predecessors had visited his homes, including Holly Hill in Hampshire, for holidays, but increasing numbers meant that this became impractical. In 1886 trips for members were arranged to Switzerland and Boulogne. In 1888 a party of boys from the Polytechnic School toured Belgium and Switzerland to see the mountains they were learning about in geography lessons. In 1889 arrangements were made for Polytechnic parties to visit the Paris Exhibition. Cruises to Norway began in 1892. In 1893 the Director of Education Robert Mitchell (1855-1933) acquired chalets by Lake Lucerne which were to become the most famous centre for the Polytechnic Touring Association. A notable achievement was the organisation of a series of trips to Chicago to see the World's Fair in 1893: more than 1,000 people made the month-long journey. By 1894 the total number of persons participating in Continental tours exceeded 3,000, increasing to 12,000 by 1903. The steam yacht Ceylon was purchased in 1896 for cruises of the Norwegian fjords. Polytechnic employees acted as guides. The trips pioneered cheaper travel, making it accessible to less affluent travellers, and the Touring Association, organising trips in Britain and overseas and attracting customers from among non-Polytechnic members, became a substantial business. Its office was adjacent to the main entrance of the Regent Street Polytechnic building. The tours were initially organised within the general administration of the Polytechnic, though after the Scheme of Administration in 1891, there was pressure from the auditors to separate out the accounts and administration. Robert Mitchell remained the driving force until after World War One. The continued expansion of the firm after 1918 was due largely to the leadership of Cmdr Ronald G Studd: when he left the Navy in 1921 his father, Sir Kynaston Studd, President of the Polytechnic, invited him to take over the management of the tours. He did this very successfully, expanding the range of tours to include southern Europe. When the Creative Tourist Agents Conference was formed, Studd became chair. In the 1960s the concern was taken over by the firm of Henry Lunn Ltd to form the travel retailer Lunn Poly.
Born into a Jewish family in Siauliai, Lithuania, 1888; with her seven brothers and sisters and her parents emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, USA, as a young child; active in the fight against tuberculosis in Boston and president of the Jewish Anti-Tuberculosis Association in Boston, 1912-1913; visited Europe, 1914; married Morris Klein, an emigrant from Krakow, 1921.
Born, c1923; volunteered for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 1940; basic training at Guildford; posted to the Records Office at Winchester; moved to Bournemouth; the work included writing up secret war diaries; posted to London to study for six months at Regent Street Polytechnic, 1942; kept apart from the civilian students; taught in the electrical and radio workshops; sent to Gainsborough for the final stages of training, including learning how to search for signals which could be relayed to guns and to calibrate the information; posted to Charminster, working in the radio workshops and on the gun sites; posted to various workshops around England, eventually at Kippings Cross near Pembury, Kent; discharged, 1946; married P R Baker.
The Schools of Engineering at Regent Street Polytechnic were used between 1940 and 1945 for training technicians in various disciplines for the army, navy and air force. Departmental laboratories were used under a double-shift system, and several thousand personnel were trained over the period. Civilian day courses were maintained, but with a restricted number of students, and evening courses were discontinued until the end of the war.
Stacey was appointed to be chief instructor at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Hairdressing in 1939, having previously been in charge of the hairdressing department at Harrods. Leslie Henry was a pupil at the School from 1938-41. He later became head of hairdressing at Brighton Technical College.
Hairdressing was one of four trade and technical schools at the Polytechnic which were amalgamated in 1929 to become the Craft Schools. They provided general education and specialist trade instruction for boys from 14-17. The Schools also had large evening departments. There were usually about 350 day boys, and in September 1939 about half that number were evacuated to the village of Winscombe in Somerset. A garage was converted into a ladies hairdressing saloon. In 1942, Hairdressing was one of two Schools allowed to make an early return to London. Changes after the War, including the implementation of the 1944 Education Act, meant that the Craft Schools were unable to continue as before, and in 1952 the London County Council moved the Senior School of Hairdressing to Barrett Street Technical College (one of the predecessor bodies of London College of Fashion).
The Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) was redesignated as the University of Westminster following the Higher and Further Education Act (1992), which created a single funding council, the Higher Education Funding Council, for England and abolished the remaining distinctions between polytechnics and universities. As a university, Westminster gained the power to grant its own degrees. The name was changed from "Polytechnic of Central London" to "University of Westminster" by Special Resolution passed on 30 March 1993, with the consent of the Privy Council given 16 June 1992 pursuant to Section 77 of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.
The merger of Harrow College of Higher Education and PCL in 1990 was followed in 1991 by the commissioning of an Accommodation Strategy. This identified the legacy of the fragmented and widely dispersed estate, spread across more than 20 sites. The University has been consolidating onto its main sites in the West End, at Marylebone Road, and at Harrow. A major redevelopment of the Harrow site was completed in 1995 to house the School of Communication (now the School of Communication and Creative Industries). Little Titchfield Street was then refurbished to house the School of Law (completed in 1998), and its former site in Red Lion Square, acquired through the amalgamation with Holborn College of Law, Languagues and Commerce in 1970, sold.
In 1997/98 the University introduced a new devolved structure based on four campuses - Cavendish, Harrow, Marylebone and Regent - supported by a small core of central service units. In 1998 the University acquired the Policy Studies Institute and also the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and in the same year opened Polyclinic for the teaching and provision of complementary therapies.
Further information on the University is available on its website: http://www.westminster.ac.uk.
York Place Ragged School was founded in 1864 by the philanthropist and educationist Quintin Hogg (1845-1903), inspired by his observation of the poor in London. With Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird (1847-1923, later 11th Baron Kinnaird), he rented rooms in York Place (formerly Of Alley), off the Strand, for a boys' school, initially a day school, which subsequently began to open in the evenings. Hogg was himself involved in teaching the boys. Another of Hogg's Eton friends, the Hon Thomas Henry William Pelham (1847-1916), was also involved in its inception. The Strand premises were gradually expanded, and a boys' home opened in 1866. The school was associated with a mission room. Later initiatives also catered for girls. By 1869 the institution had more spacious premises at Castle Street, Long Acre. York Place was retained as a home for young women. Hogg, who was engaged in various philanthropic and educational enterprises, also founded the Youths' Christian Institute (later known as the Young Men's Christian Institute). The removal of this Institute to larger premises in Long Acre in 1878 marked its separation from the Ragged School, which ceased when the Board Schools made such institutions less necessary. The missionary work and boys' homes continued under others, but Hogg himself was increasingly absorbed with his Institute.
Roy William Waters (1928-2010), M.A. Cambridge, spent the majority of professional life in education, working as an English teacher and then a school inspector. He began his career at Wandsworth School, south-west London (1954-63), before working as deputy head of Spencer Park School (1963-66). His final teaching post was as head of William Penn School in Dulwich (1966-68); feeling he lacked the necessary skills to excel as a head teacher Waters moved on to work for the Inner London Education Authority schools inspectorate, a post that he held for twenty years until his retirement in 1988.
During his career Roy Waters also undertook the arrangement of school plays and personally took on a number of performance and broadcast responsibilities, from planning a Son et Lumiere production at Spencer Park School to broadcasting both "Did You Write Poetry at School" in 1963 and a series of 60 broadcasts in Schools series "Over to You" for less able Secondary school pupils on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Home Service (Schools) from 1963 to 1966.
These achievements reflect the pastimes which occupied his personal life; Roy had an avid interest in theatre and the performing arts. He spent the last 40 years of his life building an extensive and diverse collection of ephemera, artefacts and printed books relating to his theatrical interests. The emphasis was initially on theatrical ephemera concerned with actors; however, it was when Roy developed an interest in material relating to Oscar Wilde that the scope of the collection expanded to include dramatists. The collection was acquired on various rationales from the narrow and specific, e.g. London theatre programmes, to the general, with material of various kinds linked by their relationship to a particular event or individual, either directly or by association.
The collection was acquired from the variety of avenues available to the private collector of theatrical material, namely ephemera fairs such as those hosted by the National Theatre, print and rare book sellers, auctions and websites such as EBay and AbeBooks.
Barking Local Board was formed in 1882, and took over many of the functions previously undertaken by the Parish Vestry, including the management of Barking Town Wharf. This local board was succeeded by Barking Urban District Council under the Local Government Act of 1894. The first meeting of the new council, consisting of twelve members was held on 8 January 1895, with Dr H. H. Mason being elected Chairman, Mr E. H. Lister becoming Clerk and Mr C. J. Dawson appointed Surveyor.
Barking Urban District Council was responsible for public services, notably public health, sanitation, lighting, electricity, tramways, highways, libraries and parks, as well as having a jurisdiction over the Barking Burial Board from 1897 and the Barking School Board from 1903. Barking Council went on to apply for a borough charter, which was granted in 1931 and led to the awarding of additional statutory powers in 1933.
Soon after incorporation the council began to plan a new town hall, but the project was delayed by the Second World War. After the war the scheme was resumed with only slight modifications to the original design by Herbert Jackson and Reginald Edmonds of Birmingham. Building work was carried out by the works department of the borough council and the new town hall was opened in 1958. The buildings, on the courtyard plan, occupy a large island site between East Street and Axe Street, and include an Assembly Hall approached from the Broadway. The old town hall, in East Street was sold to the Essex County Council for use as a magistrates' court, and became known as Barking Magistrates Court.
The London Government Act of 1963, created the London Borough of Barking in 1965. The constituent parts were almost all of the Borough of Barking and the greater part of the Borough of Dagenham. At the time of the amalgamation the combined population of Barking and Dagenham was around 180,000, the northern tip of Dagenham having been incorporated into Redbridge and a small area of Barking in Newham. The borough was renamed the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in 1980.
Lawes Chemical Company was founded by Sir John Bennet Lawes. He set up a factory for manufacture of super-phosphates at Deptford Creek, London, in 1843, and bought in 1857 100 acres at Barking Creek, Essex, on which the main factory and workmen's cottages were built. The business was purchased from Lawes by a group of businessmen in 1872 and incorporated with limited liability as Lawes Chemical Manure Co. Ltd, to manufacture artificial fertilisers, sulphuric acid and other chemical fertilisers. Branches were established in Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, and the company traded overseas in North and South America, India, New Zealand, Australia South Africa and the Middle East. Lawes also established several subsidiary companies as artificial fertiliser merchants. Including: Gwalia Fertilisers (Briton Ferry) Ltd., Neath, Glamorgan (inc 1934), A Nightingale and Sons Ltd, Bedford (inc 1937), Thomas Fenn. Ltd, Ipswich, Suffolk (inc 1947), Seabright Chemicals Ltd (inc 1967), Jersey Trading Co Ltd (inc 1914) and Jersey Trading Co (1948) Ltd, as fruit and vegetable traders. The company became Lawes Chemical Company Ltd in 1935 and went into liquidation in 1969, the business continuing to trade under the name of Seabright Chemicals Ltd.
Williams Hudson Group Limited is the parent holding company for a number of companies, and was incorporated on 30 September 1936, bringing together Samuel Williams and Sons Ltd and John Hudson Ltd, and their subsidiaries. This group went on to acquire more companies, covering the following aspects of trade: international transportation and wharf ownership, road transportation, property dealing, motor retail, finance, hotels and building, engineering and metalwork, fuel distribution, storage and manufacture.
Williams Hudson Group went into liquidation and was sold to an asset stripper in the 1980s, who divided up and sold off the various companies that comprised it. The majority of the companies whose archives are contained within this collection were part of the group, but some are believed to be other companies, which had been taken over by the asset stripper and whose files had become mixed with those of the Williams Hudson Group.
Allan Victor Batley (1887-1977) was born at Wramplingham, Norfolk. He was superintendent of the Parks and Cemeteries Department of the Borough of Dagenham for 24 years from 1930 to 1954. Before this he tended the gardens of a number of private houses, including Broke Hall, Ipswich and Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, as well as parks belonging to Southall and Norwood Urban District Council. After his retirement he returned to Norfolk. He died at his home in Attleborough at the age of 90.
William Warne and Co Ltd was established in 1837 as a private company to manufacture rubber products. The company became a joint stock company, the directors then being Edward Gerard Coles (Chairman), Ernest Harry Coles, George Frederick Spencer Warne, Oscar Edwin Coles, and James Burbridge; Ernest. F Spencer Warne acted as the Company Secretary in 1895. The company factory was in Tottenham, Middlesex, with registered offices at 29 Gresham Street in the City of London. In 1907 the company purchased land in Barking and built a new factory there, which became its headquarters, known as India Rubber Mills.
The onset of the Second World War, trading conditions became difficult because, despite military orders, there was a shortage of raw materials. In 1945, William Warne and Co. Ltd amalgamated with the St. Alban' s Rubber Company and The London and Provincial Rubber Co. Ltd. was set up as the holding company. Their range of products was broad, aimed mainly at defence, pharmaceutical and postal markets, and ranged from precision seals for pharmaceutical inhalers and refuelling hoses for military aircraft to rubber bands for the Post Office.
In June 2000, Icon Material Technologies (Holdings) Ltd purchased William Warne and the company name was changed to Icon Warne. At the time, there were 140 employees at Barking. The Barking premises were closed in 2002 when Icon Warne based its production in Retford, Nottinghamshire.
In October 2011 a small group of MA Heritage students at the University of East London began to collect oral histories from the occupiers at the London LSX Occupy Camp in the grounds of St Paul's Cathedral. The vast majority of the histories were recorded during the occupation in and around the camp.
Cross Arrows Cricket Club was founded in 1880 by members of MCC staff. Prior to 1880 they played away matches against other local cricket clubs, calling themselves the ‘St. John’s Wood Ramblers Cricket Club’. When they discovered another cricket club had the same name, they needed to call themselves something different. The day before they played against Northwood Cricket Club, one of the staff members asked where Northwood was and received a reply of ‘It’s cross ‘arrow way’ meaning that it was beyond the District of Harrow. J Fennell, who worked at Lord’s as an Assistant Tennis Marker, said ‘That’s it, let’s call the club the Cross Arrows’. Membership of the club was initially only for MCC employees but nowadays allows for MCC and Middlesex County Cricket Club employees past and present and also members of both clubs.
J A Murdoch, Assistant Secretary of MCC between 1878 and 1907, became the Cross Arrows’ first President. Since Murdoch, all the Presidents have also been the MCC Secretary, from Sir Francis Lacey onwards. The captain is usually Assistant Secretary of MCC. Famous players who have represented Cross Arrows during the years include Albert Trott (the only man to have ever hit a ball over the top of the Lord’s Pavilion), Gubby Allen, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, Jim Laker, Fred Titmus, Mike Brearley, Garfield Sobers, and also non-cricketers such as Gary Lineker. The current Secretary of MCC and President of Cross Arrows, Derek Brewer, played against Cross Arrows for NatWest in 1988.
The club usually plays its fixtures in September, and regularly against teams such as Adastrians (Royal Air Force), Stage, Butterflies, Royal Navy, Stragglers of Asia, and MCC themselves. Cross Arrows fixtures have either been played on the Main Ground at Lord’s or the Nursery Ground. In 1980 Cross Arrows celebrated its centenary with a match against a combined MCC and Middlesex XI, while in 2014, to commemorate Lord's 200th anniversary, a match between a President of Cross Arrows XI and a Cross Arrows XI was played on the main ground at Lord's, made up of MCC staff.
This collection consists of minute books, files relating to fixture arrangements, scorebooks, membership and financial information. Not all records have been retained.
The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 was established in 1850 by Queen Victoria to mastermind the 'Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations'. The commissioners were appointed by Royal Charter to plan and promote the Great Exhibition, with Prince Albert as the President taking personal charge of the operation. The exhibition was held in London in 1851 in a building designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, known as the Crystal Palace. It was erected in Hyde Park, and after the exhibition closed was sold by the contractors to a syndicate for re-erection at Sydenham, where it remained until it was burnt down in 1936. The exhibition made a substantial profit of £186,000, and when its affairs were wound up the commissioners remained a permanent body under a supplemental charter to administer the surplus funds to 'increase the means of industrial education and extend the influence of science and art upon productive industry'. The profit was carefully managed, and capital assets are now of the order of £39 million with annual charitable disbursement of over £1 million. The commissioners proposed to provide a 'locality', and establish central institutions working in cooperation with regional interests to promote industrial education for the benefit of the whole country. Within two years the commissioners had bought an estate in South Kensington of eighty-seven acres. The commissioners were assisted by Parliament to complete the purchase of the estate, and elected Government representatives to the commission as ex-officio members to assist them in managing the estate. Government representatives continue to serve, although the partnership with the commission was dissolved in 1858.
The first step in the development of the system was taken by the Government in founding the Department of Science and Art in 1853. The Department was moved to land off Exhibition Road in Kensington in 1860, and other institutions were established in the same area including the School of Naval Architecture and Engineering (later moved to Greenwich), the Royal College of Science, the Royal School of Mines and the Royal College of Art. In 1858 the commissioners assigned to the Government the land east of Exhibition Road on which the South Kensington Museum (later the Victoria and Albert Museum) was built. The southern part of the main square of the estate was used for the International Exhibition of 1862, and in 1863 part of that site was sold to the Government for the Natural History Museum and other public institutions. From 1860 to 1889 the commissioners used the estate for temporary exhibitions and other activities designed to stimulate public interest in science and art. The commissioners still intended to establish permanent institutions according to their stated aims, and to this end a Museum of Art had been established and Museum of Science was being developed. The commissioners leased sites for and helped promote the foundation of the Royal Albert Hall, Royal College of Music, Royal College of Art, Royal College of Organists, Royal School of Needlework, National School of Cookery, School of Art Woodcarving and Queen Alexandra's House, a residential hostel for female students. The commissioners also enabled the Government to acquire land for developing the National Science Collections and Library and eventually to build the Science and Geological museums. Land was leased to the City and Guilds of London Institute for the building of their Central Institution (opened 1884), and for the building of the Imperial Institute (later Commonwealth Institute). The Royal Horticultural Society's gardens also occupied a large section of the estate until the 1870s. The remainder of the unoccupied estate was leased to the Imperial College of Science and Technology (now Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) which in 1907 co-ordinated its constituent colleges already established on the estate, the Royal College of Science, Royal School of Mines and City and Guild's College.
As part of their aims of 'increasing the means of industrial education and extending the influence of science and art upon productive industry' the commissioners also established fellowships and scholarships for science and engineering graduates which continue today. A scheme of postgraduate awards was launched in 1891 'for assisting the promotion of scientific education by devoting a portion of their surplus income to the establishment of technical scholarships'. Seventeen to twenty scholarships were offered each year to students from universities in Britain, Ireland and throughout the empire. The scheme was reorganised in 1922, with two schemes operating. Senior Studentships (later called Research Fellowships) were available to all British university institutions and provided funds for two years of research for scientists or engineers. Overseas Scholarships, which ran until 1988, were awarded to universities of the Empire and later the Commonwealth. They allowed selected students to devote two or three years to full time research. The schemes provided research opportunities to many outstanding scientists and engineers, including eleven Nobel Laureates, four Presidents and 130 Fellows of the Royal Society. Former 1851 award holders include Lord Ernest Rutherford, Professor Charles Barkla, Professor Robert Robinson, Professor Walter Haworth, Sir John Cockcroft, E T S Walton, Paul Dirac, Sir James Chadwick, C P Snow, Lord Alexander Todd, Professor Sir John Cornforth and Sir Aaron Klug.
A scheme of industrial bursaries was established in 1911 to give graduates financial assistance before obtaining employment in industry, ending in 1939. Post graduate scholarships in naval architecture were also awarded by the commission, and travelling scholarships tenable at the British School at Rome for the study and practice of fine arts. Currently the Commission's educational awards comprise Research Fellowships in Science or Engineering awarded to scientists or engineers to continue research for two years, Industrial Fellowships, awarded to British nationals for work in British industry, Industrial Design Studentships and Research Fellowships for research within the Built Environment.
Born in Tokyo in 1967, Mariko Mori graduated from Chelsea College of Art, London in 1992, before moving to New York to participate in the Whitney Independent Study Program. Her multimedia art comprises photographs, videos and video installations. She has had solo shows at Art and Public (Geneva, 1993), Shiseido Gallery (Tokyo, 1995), American Fine Arts (New York, 1995), the Centre National d'Art Contemporain (Grenoble, 1996) and the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg, 1999).
Thomas Henry Huxley died in Eastbourne on 29 June 1895 at the age of 70. A Memorial Committee was set up in August the same year with the object of collecting money to provide a fitting tribute to this great scientist. The first Provisional Committee was replaced by a large and distinguished General Committee, which met in November under the chairmanship of the Duke of Devonshire, and decided to seek funds for a statue, a medal and a studentship. An Executive Committee of twenty was set up at this meeting, and a number of local committees took charge of fund-raising in their areas. Statue and medal sub-committees were constituted soon afterwards. Of the £3378 which was collected over the next four years, £1813 was spent on a marble statue by Edward Onslow Ford which was unveiled in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum by the Prince of Wales in April 1900. Dies for a portrait medal were commissioned from the sculptor Frank Bowcher, and the remaining money was passed to the Royal College of Science as an endowment. A student in zoology, botany or palaeontology would be awarded the Huxley Gold Medal, with the option of receiving a silver medal and a sum of money instead. The committees were wound up in 1900 once the unveiling had taken place.
A K Totton was born in Surrey on 6 January 1892, and educated at Berkhamsted School. He studied at the Royal College of Science, London, attending lectures by Adam Sedgwick and E W MacBride, among others, and joined the staff of the British Museum (Natural History) in 1914. Totton served with distinction in the 1914-1918 war, being commissioned in 1915 and awarded the Military Cross the following year. He was severely wounded in 1916 and was invalided out of the army in 1918.
On his return to the Museum, Totton was given charge of the Coelenterate Section. Although he published on a number of coelenterate groups, it was the siphonophores which became his speciality. His first major work on the group was his Barrier Reef Expedition report (1932), to be followed by his Discovery Report on the siphonophores of the Indian Ocean (1954), and, the culmination of his work, the Synopsis of the Siphonophora (1965). Totton visited the West Indies on HMS Rodney in 1932, travelled to the Canary Islands with G O Mackie in 1955, and worked at the Villefranche Marine Station for a number of summers from 1949. Totton retired from the Museum in 1953, and was employed as an Associate until 1963. He continued his coelenterate researches until just before his death on 12 January 1973.
The Godman Exploration Fund was set up in 1920 following the gift of £5000 by Dame Alice Godman, widow of Frederick Ducane Godman (1834-1919), the zoologist. In a letter dated 24 May 1919 she directed that the money should become the nucleus of a fund 'for the acquirement of specimens, chiefly by exploration', and that it should be vested in the hands of five trustees, one of whom should be the Director of the Natural History Museum and another the Speaker of the House of Commons. A deed to bring her wishes into effect was drawn up on 26 May 1920, and the first grant was made to F V Sherrin to support his zoological collecting in Queensland. From 1920 to 1932 all the grants went to zoological collecting, but from 1933 botanical, entomological and geological projects were also supported.
The Fund was augmented in 1929 when Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (1858-1929), the Curator of Mammals, died, leaving the residue of his estate to the Godman Trustees. This amounted in the end to just over £6000 together with the lease of a house in Carlyle Square, which was sold in 1959.
In the 1880s the Director's Office consisted of the Director himself, the Assistant Secretary, the Assistant in charge of the General Library, clerks and attendants. To this were added an attendant for the Index Museum (1885), a staff officer (1922), a photographer (1923), a guide lecturer (1927), an accountant (1931), superintendents and publications sales staff (1940), and an exhibitions officer (1946). In 1970 the Director's Office numbered 77, and was responsible for administration, finance, establishments and security, as well as the Exhibition, Education, Photographic and Publications sections and the General Library. A Department of Central Services was set up in 1971 under the Deputy Director, initially consisting of the biometrics, electronic data processing and electron microscopy units, but incorporating the General Library in 1973, the Photographic Section in 1974, and Publications in 1976. The Department of Public Service was set up in 1975, taking over the old Exhibition and Education sections, and finally, the Department of Administrative Services was set up under the Museum Secretary in 1976. This left a Directorate of only six members. The archives of the Director's Office are divided into four parts: The Director, Central Administration, the General Library, Exhibitions and Education sections, and Publications Section.
The position and duties of the Director of the Museum were laid down in the different editions of the Statutes and rules for the British Museum published by the Trustees over the years. From 1856 to 1883 the natural history departments were under the general control of a Superintendent, who was himself one of the subordinate officers who assisted the Principal Librarian. The 1886 edition of the Statutes, drawn up after the move to South Kensington, gave the 'Director of the Museum (Natural History)' equality with the Principal Librarian in most respects. The 1898 edition removed the power of summoning Trustees meetings from the Director of the Natural History Departments, but otherwise left matters unchanged. In 1908 however, following the stormy directorship of E Ray Lankester (1847-1929), the rules were revised to make the Director of the Natural History Departments subject to the general authority of the Principal Librarian. This clause was retained in the 1922 revision, and only disappeared in 1932 when the Director of The Natural History Museum was once again accorded equal status to the Principal Librarian.
Following the passing of the British Museum Act, 1963, the Director became responsible for the newly independent Natural History Museum to the new Board of Trustees. A Deputy Director post was created in 1971 to improve surveillance of the Museum's scientific work, and Ronald Henderson Hedley appointed.
Operating within the Director's Office was the General Library, set up by resolution of the Trustees in March 1880 to house books and periodicals which were not appropriate for one of the four departmental libraries. Bernard Barham Woodward (1853-1930) was transferred from Bloomsbury to take charge of the new Library, which was located in a corridor to the east of Central Hall. Responsibility for the General Library was initially in the hands of a committee of keepers, but was transferred to the Director in 1884. Woodward had the services of an attendant from 1884, and was given much help with acquisitions by both Charles Davies Sherborn (1861-1940), a natural history bibliographer, and Frederick Justen (1832-1906) of Dulau and Co. Although Woodward's authority was limited to the General Library, he did devise a classification scheme for books which was used in both the General and Geological libraries, and was responsible for cataloguing books across the Museum. He built up a card catalogue of books in all the libraries, which was published as 'Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts, Maps and Drawings ...', 5 volumes 1903-1915, with supplement, 3 volumes 1922-1940. By the time that Woodward retired in 1920 the Museum libraries had an international reputation.
Woodward was followed by Basil Harrington Soulsby (1864-1933), who had worked in Printed Books at Bloomsbury, and then in the Natural History Museum Director's Office. Soulsby devoted much time to building up the Linnaeus collection, and published 'Catalogue of the Works of Linnaeus in the British Museum ...' in 1929. Soulsby had a staff of two, with George William Frederick Claxton as Clerk.
Alexander Cockburn Townsend (1905-1964), who succeeded Soulsby, presided over the wartime evacuation of the most valuable books and manuscripts, and the move of the General Library into the North Building in 1959. He tried unsuccessfully to wrest control of the departmental libraries from the keepers, but did succeed in centralising cataloguing, purchasing, bookbinding and accounts within the General Library in 1949. Townsend also started a subject catalogue and the publication of lists of accessions. He gained the services of a cataloguer in 1938, and had a staff of nine by 1964, when he was killed in a railway accident.
Maldwyn Jones Rowlands (1918-1995), who had worked in the Science Museum and the Patents Office as well as at the Museum, succeeded Townsend as Librarian in 1965. He oversaw the expansion of the General Library into the Northeast Building in 1973, and the formation of a unified library service for the Museum in the Department of Library Services in October 1975. At the end of 1975 the new department had a staff of forty two, who operated six reading rooms and received nearly 8,500 visitors a year. The Department was acquiring 25,000 items of stock each year, and operated an extensive advisory service.
The Department was renamed the Department of Library and Information Services in 1994 to reflect its wider remit.
The Department of Zoology has its origins in the Department of Natural and Artificial Productions which was set up at the founding of the British Museum in 1756. In 1806 it was renamed the Department of Natural History and Modern Curiosities and was under the keepership of George Shaw (1751-1813) and later Charles Dietrich Eberhard Konig (1774-1851). In 1836 the Department was divided into three branches, of which zoology was one, and in 1856 the branch was given the status of a department, with John Edward Gray (1800-1875) as the first Keeper, and a staff of 15. Gray made great progress in registering, cataloguing and exhibiting the growing collections, and was the first zoologist to gain and deserve scientific eminence through his work at the Museum. Although Gray pressed long and hard for a move to larger premises, he had been succeeded by Dr A Gunther (1830-1914) by the time the move to South Kensington took place in 1883. When Gunther retired in 1895 the department had a staff of 35, divided into the Vertebrate, Invertebrate and Insect Sections.
In 1913 the Insect Section became the separate Department of Entomology. In 1922 the department was divided into nine sections, including Mammals, Birds, Fishes, Mollusca and Crustacea. The number and precise designation of the sections has changed over the years, and by 1965 there were 17, each with its own head, and keeping its own records. By 1965 the department was responsible for one of the largest and most important collections of zoological material in the world, and was an international centre for research in animal taxonomy and systematics. The research was supported by a fine departmental library, rich in manuscripts and rare books. The department was also responsible, in conjunction with the exhibition staff, for displays in the zoological galleries. Staff numbered 98, who between them saw to nearly 5,000 visitors a year, coped with the acquisition of over 35,000 specimens a year, and were responsible for over 100 monographs, papers and reports.
The Society for the Bibliography of Natural History was founded in 1936 by a small number of naturalists and bibliographers based at the Natural History Museum and Royal Entomological Society, led by C Davies Sherborn, Francis Griffin and Francis Hemming. Sherborn was elected the first President, and Griffin the Honorary Secretary. The prime concern of the Society in its early years was to establish the accurate dates of publication of works of taxonomic significance as a contribution to zoological and botanical nomenclature. The purpose of the Society, as stated, was 'the study of the bibliography of all branches of natural history, and the promotion of the study by the issue of publications and the maintenance of a correspondence bureau'. Although no correspondence bureau was to materialise, the first number of the 'Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History' appeared in October 1936.
Originally concerned strictly with bibliography, the society rapidly became a focal point for those interested in the wider history of natural history. It was renamed the Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) in 1981. The Society's journal, now entitled 'Archives of Natural History', is published in 3 parts every year, and a Newsletter, occasional facsimiles and conference proceeding are also published. The Society has always held an Annual General Meeting, and in the late 1960s evening meetings were held at University College London each winter.
A more ambitious series of conferences and other meetings began in 1974, and continues. Officers of the Society include a President, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer, Honorary Editor and (from 1979) a Meetings Secretary. There is also a Committee (Council from 1986) consisting of nine members, with coopted Representatives in North America, Australasia, Central Europe and other areas.. In 1996 membership of the society numbered 650.
The Ticket Office, a department in the Navy Office, was established in 1674. Its principal responsibilities were redemption of 'tickets' which were often issued to seamen instead of pay, the maintenance of lists of seamen on ships' books, the adjustment of pay-books according to the muster books, and the registering of the pay and allowances of seamen, naval officers and dockyard officers and artificers. Usually there was a clerk from the office at each port who attended the payment of ships' crews and dockyard workers. The office staff grew from three established clerks in 1689 to eighteen in 1758 and remained thereafter around that size until 1829 when the office was abolished and sixteen of the clerks were transferred to a new Ticket and Wages branch of the Navy Office.
Austen, brother of Charles John Austen (q.v.) and of Jane Austen, the novelist, entered the Royal Naval Academy in 1786 and in 1788 joined the Perseverance in the East Indies He was made lieutenant in 1792, commander in 1799 and captain in 1800, while in the PETEREL. In 1805 he was Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis (q.v.) in the CANOPUS and was at the battle of San Domingo in 1806. Whilst on convoy to the East Indies in 1809 he successfully settled a dispute with the Chinese, which earned the approval of the Admiralty and the award of a thousand pounds by the East India Company. He was Flag-Captain to Admiral Lord Gambier (1756-1833), then commanding the Home Fleet, in 1810 and, from 1811 to 1814, was in the ELEPHANT in the North Sea and the Baltic. In 1830 Austen was promoted to rear-admiral and to vice-admiral in 1838. He was Commander-in-Chief, West Indies, 1844 to 1848, and was made Admiral of the Fleet in 1863.