The Joint Committee for Women in the Civil Service (JCWCS) (1920-1954) was created in 1920 after a major reorganisation of the Civil Service had taken place. Grading systems that had been structured around each individual department were now merged across the entire service to form four basic bands. Additionally, efforts to introduce arbitration and militated for what would become Whitley Councils for the negotiation of pay and conditions had taken place in which most of the women's civil service trades unions had been involved. However, despite the statement of the Sex Disqualification Act of 1920 that 'women should have equal opportunity with men in all branches of the Civil Service and Local Authorities', the report presented by the official Joint Reorganisation Committee maintained there should be a separate selection process for women which did not involve the traditional examination, lower wages for women working in the same grades as men and the bar against married women should remain. The London & National Society for Women's Service LNSWS were aware that the introduction of equal pay in the Civil Service would have a great impact on the debate in other areas of work. With this in mind, they established the Joint Committee of Women in the Civil Service as a response to the report. It was chaired by Ray Strachey, the LNSWS's president, and was composed of members of the London Society's Employment Committee along with representatives of other women's organisations. It campaigned for financial equality between male and female civil servants as well as the removal of the marriage bar throughout the 1920s but was faced with the backlash regarding equal pay that occurred at the end of the decade when the Depression occurred. However, by the early thirties, it was considered appropriate by several women's organisations to launch a new Equal Pay Campaign, which the JCWCS initiated. In this, they co-operated closely with the National Association of Women Civil Servants and the Council of Women Civil Servants. Public meetings were staged and the group set up a Parliamentary Committee on Equal Pay chaired by the Conservative MP Colonel Clifton Brown. In 1936 they helped introduce a private members bill into the Commons on equal pay which was presented by Ellen Wilkinson and passed with a slim majority before being defeated on its second reading. After the Second World War, activities in the field passed to the Equal Pay Campaign Committee to which it sent representatives. No meetings of the JCWCS were held between 1947 and 1954. It was in this year that the last meeting to wind up its affairs appears to have occurred in the wake of the granting of equal pay in government services.
The Joint Board consisted of three representatives and the secretaries from the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress, the General Federation of Trade Unions and the Labour Party. The Joint Board met to:
- consider and report as whether new societies connected with trades already covered by existing organisations should be encouraged or otherwise.
- consider and agree upon joint political or other action when such is deemed to be advantageous or necessary.
3.use its influence to bring about a settlement in cases of trade disputes, provided it had the concurrence of the Executive of the union or unions affected.
Kenneth Johnstone b. 1902; educated at Eton College and Balliol College Oxford; entered Diplomatic Service, 1926; served in Warsaw, 1928, Oslo, 1930, Sofia, 1931 and London; seconded to British Council, 1936; resigned to join Welsh Guards, 1939; served war of 1939-1945 in France, 1940, North Africa, 1942, Middle East and Greece, 1943-1945; rejoined Foreign Office, 1945; CMG 1949; Deputy Director-General British Council, 1953-1962; CB 1962; Chairman of Council, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1965-1976
Born 1882; educated Manchester High School for Girls and Manchester University, where she was a Jones Fellow in History, 1904, and gained an MA in 1906; Assistant Lecturer in History, University of Manchester, 1906-1913; Editorial Section, War Trade Intelligence Department, 1916-1919; Reader in History, [King's College London], University of London, 1913-1922; Fellow of Royal Historical Society; Member of London University History Board and the Board of Examiners; Professor of History, Royal Holloway College, University of London, 1922-1942; retired 1942; Honorary Archivist to the Bishop of Chichester, 1942-1951; Emeritus Professor of History in University of London, 1948-1961; Honorary Consultant on Ecclesiastical Archives to Records Committee, West Sussex County Council, 1951; died 1961.
Publications: The wardrobe and household of Henry, son of Edward I (University Press, Manchester, 1923); Annals of Ghent (Thomas Nelson and Sons, London, 1951); A hundred years of history from record and chronicle, 1216-1327 (Longmans and Co, London, 1912); A short history of England (P. Varadachary and Co, Madras, 1934); English history for beginners (P. Varadachary and Co, Madras, 1934); France: the last Capetians (1932); Oliver Cromwell and his times ([1912]); Stories of Greece and Rome (Longmans and Co, London, 1914); Alexander Hay: historian of Chichester (Chichester, 1961); editor of Churchwardens presentments, 17th century (Lewes, 1948); editor of Letters of Edward, Prince of Wales, 1304-1305 (Cambridge, 1931); Happy days in healthy ways (Macmillan and Co, London, 1923); The place of the reign of Edward II in English history (Manchester, 1936); editor of State trials of the reign of Edward the First, 1289-1293 (London, 1906).
Johnstone entered the Navy in 1858 and served on the Mediterranean Station and then in the ST GEORGE between 1860 and 1864. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1865. From this time until 1873 he served on the China Station in the SERPENT, PERSEUS and JUNO, was then appointed to the command of the training brig LIBERTY. He was made a commander in 1877. Afterwards he commanded the EGERIA in China and the DRYAD in the East Indies; in both ships he was involved in diplomatic affairs in Borneo and then in Madagascar, for which service he was promoted to captain in 1883. He attended the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and subsequently served on a committee inquiring into the education of naval officers. From 1885 to 1889 he commanded the VOLAGE in the Training Squadron. In 1891 he took command of the AGAMEMNON and turned over with his crew to the CAMPERDOWN the following year; he was still in command when the CAMPERDOWN collided with the VICTORIA, for which incident he was held partly to blame by the Admiralty. His only service after this was as Flag-Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, Devonport, 1896 to 1898. He retired as rear-admiral in 1899 and became a vice-admiral in 1903.
Thomas Crawford Johnston was a scholar working in San Francisco, USA. He was an honorary member of the Geographical Society of California.
Born, 1858; Studied as an artist and zoologist; explored Central Africa 1882-1884; became British Consul in Cameroon and then Mozambique; British Commissioner for South Central Africa; KCB 1896; retired 1901; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1883-1927; RGS Founder's Medal 1904; Council Member and Vice President; died, 1927.
Harry Hamilton Johnston was born on 12 June 1858, in Kennington, London. He was educated at Stockwell Grammar School, Kings College London and from 1876-1880 he was a student of the Royal Academy of Arts. He travelled to North Africa, 1879-1880. He explored Portugese West Africa and the Congo River, 1882-1883. In 1884 he commanded a Scientific Expedition of the Royal Society to Mt. Kilimanjaro.
He served in the Consular Service in Africa from 1885-1901. He was H.M. Vice-Consul in the Cameroons, 1885; Acting-Consul in the Niger Coast Protectorate, 1887; Consul for the Province of Mozambique, 1888. In 1889, his expedition to Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika led to the foundation of the British Central Africa Protectorate. He became Commissioner and Consul-General of the British Central Africa Protectorate in 1891; Consul-General for the Regency of Tunis, 1897-1899; and Special Commissioner, Commander-in-Chief and Consul-General for the Uganda Protectorate, 1899-1901.
He was married to the Hon. Winifred Irby, O.B.E. He was awarded the K.C.B. in 1896, and the G.C.M.G in 1901. He died on 31 July 1927.
Harry Hamilton Johnston published numerous works including A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages (Oxford University Press, 1919).
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1913-1962.
Charles Johnston was born in Tottenham in 1801, being the third son of William Johnston who prospered on the Stock Exchange. In 1827 Charles married Caroline Roebuck of Cheltenham by whom he had four children. By 1836 Charles was established in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and was trustee of various parish charities. The family moved to Hyde Park and, in 1856, to Southland House in Godstone, Surrey. Charles did not appear to have his father's success in business. He became involved in the formation of joint-stock companies, holding the position of chairman in both a chartered banking company with branches in Australia, and a gold mining company in South America. As the correspondence reveals, the companies did not prosper and there was general dissatisfaction from shareholders and directors alike.
Whether the pressures of business affected Charles Johnston's mind is not known but, by 1863 he was insane and as such placed in Dr Harrington Tuke's asylum at The Manor House, Chiswick. In one of his lucid moments Charles wrote to his elder daughter, Harriet describing his life at Chiswick where he was, apparently, very happy (ACC/1292/040). He died in 1865 and his affairs were wound up by his surviving son, William Archibald, and his solicitors.
Edmund Johnston was the second son of William and Sarah Johnston and elder brother to Charles Johnston. Under the terms of his father's will, in 1836, Edmund received property in Holborn and was co-trustee of premises in St. Marylebone (see ACC/1292/003). He did not marry and lived with his widowed mother until her death in 1851 when she bequeathed him the household effects at "Beaulieu", Winchmore Hill, Edmonton. Here he resided until his own death in October 1864.
The estate was left in trust for the children of Charles Johnston and their heirs. Entries in Edmund's account books (ACC/1292/181-182) reveal his affection for his nephew and nieces, although he had little patience with his brother's disastrous business affairs. Nevertheless, he did contribute considerable sums of money to these ventures and also paid the costs of Charles's maintenance in Dr Tuke's asylum in Chiswick.
Wolfgang Josephs, a German Jew from Berlin, came to Great Britain sometime in the mid 1930s. He was interned as an enemy alien at the outbreak of war and later transported on the 'Dunera' to Hay Internment Camp, Australia. On his return to Great Britain in 1941 he enlisted in the Pioneer Corps, later changing his name to Peter Johnson. He was a military interpreter for the British occupying forces in Germany at Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, May 1945-Oct 1946 where he was involved with the denazification process. Whilst there he also took an interest in the returnees from concentration camps, arranging correspondence between them and their families all over the world. The Wiener Library has a copy of a tape recorded interview with him, the original being produced for the Imperial War Museum, which details his life as an internee in Great Britain and Australia.
'The Hyphen' was founded in 1948 by a group of younger continental Jewish refugees (between the ages of 20 and 35), many of whom were the children of members of the Association of Jewish Refugees, who having settled in Great Britain, found that owing to their similar background and experiences they had interests and problems in common. The group was to have no particular religious or political bias. The intention was to provide cultural, social and welfare activities in a way that would enable them to feel at home in their newly adopted country. The name 'The Hyphen' was chosen because it symbolized the gap between the older generation of refugees who had no intention or desire to integrate into British society, and the ideal of seamless integration which the younger generation aspired to but could not immediately realise.
One of the group's first activities was the setting up of a study and discussion group, which covered topics such as immigration in general, as well as German-Jewish immigration into Britain; German-Jewish history, and British cultural and political topics. Its most popular functions became the social gatherings, dances, and rambles in the Home Counties. 'The Hyphen' never had more than 100 members at any one time but there were between 400 and 500 names on its mailing lists. The activities eventually petered out and the group was wound up in 1968. Compared with other German-Jewish institutions it was rather marginal, but for the members it fulfilled a very important function by giving them a sense of belonging during a difficult period of settling in to a new society.
Born 1916, Wolfgang Josephs, a German Jew from Berlin, came to Great Britain sometime in the mid 1930s. He was interned as an enemy alien at the outbreak of war and later transported on the 'Dunera' to Hay Internment Camp, Australia. On his return to Great Britain in 1941 he enlisted in the Pioneer Corps, later changing his name to Peter Johnson. He was a military interpreter for the British occupying forces in Germany at Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, May 1945-Oct 1946 where he was involved with the denazification process. Whilst there he also took an interest in the returnees from concentration camps, arranging correspondence between them and their families all over the world. The Wiener Library has a copy of a tape recorded interview with him, the original being produced for the Imperial War Museum, which details his life as an internee in Great Britain and Australia.
'The Hyphen' was founded in 1948 by a group of younger continental Jewish refugees (between the ages of 20 and 35), many of whom were the children of members of the Association of Jewish Refugees, who having settled in Great Britain, found that owing to their similar background and experiences they had interests and problems in common. The group was to have no particular religious or political bias. The intention was to provide cultural, social and welfare activities in a way that would enable them to feel at home in their newly adopted country. The name 'The Hyphen' was chosen because it symbolized the gap between the older generation of refugees who had no intention or desire to integrate into British society, and the ideal of seamless integration which the younger generation aspired to but could not immediately realise.
One of the group's first activities was the setting up of a study and discussion group, which covered topics such as immigration in general, as well as German-Jewish immigration into Britain; German-Jewish history, and British cultural and political topics. Its most popular functions became the social gatherings, dances, and rambles in the Home Counties. 'The Hyphen' never had more than 100 members at one time but there were between 400 and 500 names on its mailing lists. The activities eventually petered out and the group was wound up in 1968. Compared with other German-Jewish institutions it was rather marginal, but for the members it fulfilled a very important function by giving them a sense of belonging during a difficult period of settling in to a new society.
The presidential administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-69) represents a significant period in the history of US foreign policy. The 1960s marked the height post-World War Two globalism and Johnson inherited from his predecessors world-wide obligations and a host of complex problems. In addition to the Vietnam War, he faced major crises in Panama, the Dominican Republic and the Middle East, as well as concerns about apartheid in South Africa, the coup d'état in Brazil, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Although the Cold War shaped US responses to these crises and continued to influence US foreign policy in general, new approaches were devised toward the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, the major adversaries of the United States, as well as towards the Third World and Latin America. The 'Country Files' were maintained in the White House by McGeorge Bundy and Walt Whitman Rostow, national security advisors to the president. Bundy and Rostow monitored the daily cable traffic through the White House Situation Room and co-ordinated the flow of intelligence and information to the president, determining what items should be brought to this attention. They served as liaison officers with the departments and agencies involved in foreign policy, reviewing recommendations sent to the President by these groups and monitoring their daily operations to ensure that policies were co-ordinated and decisions implemented.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
George Lindsay Johnson, MD, FRCS.
Born, 1905; grew up in the Lake District; tea planter near Darjeeling; joined Professor Dyhrenfurth's international expedition to Kangchenjunga as transport officer, 1930; attempted the summit of Jongsong Peak with Smythe; joined the 1933 Everest expedition; returned to England; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1944-1955; died, 1956.
The Physical Society of Guy's Hospital was founded in 1771, and was London's first medical society. It was not initially associated with Guy's Hospital, but met in the theatre of Dr Lowder in Southwark, a private teacher of midwifery as well as lecturer at St Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals. The first meeting was held at Guy's Hospital between 1780 and 1782. The society met weekly from October to May to hear and discuss a dissertation and exchange medical news and cases. At the early meetings the chairman was usually Dr Haighton, Lecturer in Physiology and Midwifery at St Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals. The society was open to physicians, surgeons, apothecaries and pupils, and members largely comprised the officers of the Guy's and Thomas's Hospitals and practitioners in the area. On the establishment of other medical societies in London its popularity declined, and the Society closed in 1852.
Born 1903; educated at Cheltenham College, Gonville and Caius Colleges, Cambridge University, and St Bartholomew's Hospital; qualified as doctor, 1926; barrister-at-law, 1930; Medical Officer, Cambridge University East Greenland Expedition, 1926; Casualty Officer, Metropolitan Hospital, 1926; House Physician, East London Hospital for Children, Shadwell, 1927; Medical Officer, Harrington Harbour Hospital, International Grenfell Association, Labrador, 1928-1929; General Practitioner, Thornton Heath, Croydon, 1930-1937; Demonstrator of Anatomy, Oxford University, 1937-1939; served during World War Two in the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1939-1945; Member, Croydon Medical Board, Ministry of Labour and National Service, 1951-1955; Conservative MP for Carlisle, 1955-1963, and Independent Conservative MP, 1963-1964; first MP to raise parliamentary debate on the Ombudsman; Chairman and Managing Director of Johnson Publications Ltd; died 1978. Publications: A Cassandra at Westminster (Johnson, London, 1967); A doctor in Parliament (Christopher Johnson, London, 1958); A doctor regrets (Christopher Johnson, London, 1949); A doctor returns (Christopher Johnson, London, 1956); Bars and barricades (Christopher Johnson, London, 1952); Conservative government and a liberal society (Christopher Johnson, London, 1955); Indian hemp (Christopher Johnson, London, 1952); On being an Independent MP (Johnson, London, 1964); Ted Heath: a latter day Charlemagne (Johnson, London, 1971); The British National Health Service (Johnson, London, 1962); The end of socialism (Christopher Johnson, London, 1946); The hallucinogenic drugs (Christopher Johnson, London, 1953); The nutritive properties of the rye grain (Minneapolis, 1934); A guide to reference materials on Southeast Asia (Yale University press, 1970); The plea for the silent (Christopher Johnson, London, 1957).
Charles James Johnson joined the firm of Price, Forbes and Company, insurance brokers, in 1902. He was appointed a director in 1940 and retired in 1950. He was an underwriter at Lloyd's from 1922-71.
Born 1933; student of English at King's College London; Poetry Editor, Transatlantic Review, 1965-1973; director and writer of cinema films including You're human like the rest of them, 1967 (Grand Prix, Tours, 1968; Grand Prix, Melbourne, 1968), Up yours too, Guillaume Apollinaire!, 1968, and Paradigm, 1969; director and writer of nine television documentaries; theatre director, including Backwards and The ramp at the Mermaid Theatre, London, 1970; playwright, including Entry on BBC radio, 1965, BSJ v God at the Basement Theatre, Soho, London, 1971, and Not counting the savages on BBC TV, 1971; Chairman Greater London Arts Association Literature Panel, 1973; died 1973.
Publications: editor of London consequences (Greater London Arts Association for the Festivals of London, London, 1972) with Margaret Drabble; Albert Angelo (Constable, London, 1964); editor of All bull: the National Servicemen (Quartet Books, London, 1973); Aren't you rather young to be writing your memoirs? (Hutchinson, London, 1973); Christie Malry's own double entry (Collins, London, 1973); Everybody knows somebody who's dead (Covent Garden Press, London, 1973); House Mother normal: a geriatric comedy (Collins, London, 1971); Poems (Constable, London, 1964); Poems two (Trigram Press, London, 1972); Statement against corpses (Constable, London, 1964) with Zulfikar Ghose; text of Street children (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1964) with photographs by Julia Trevelyan Oman; The evacuees (Victor Gollancz, London, 1968); The unfortunates (Panther, London, 1969); Travelling people (Constable, London, 1964); See the old lady decently (Hutchinson, London, 1975); Trawl (Secker and Warburg, London, 1966); Gavin Ewart, Zulfikar Ghose, B. S. Johnson: Penguin Modern Poets No. 25 (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1975).
The complaint was lodged by John van Zoom Nicholas of Amsterdam against Sir Goddard Nelthropp of Clerkenwell Green, concerning an alleged breach of contract in the sale to him of seven rough diamonds for the sum of £17,600; and seeking to recover £2000 wrongfully withheld from him by Sir Goddard.
John T Clark Limited is first listed in the trade directories for 1933 as a fish factor of Billingsgate and 90 Lower Thames Street. The firm was taken over by H Barber and Son Limited circa 1965 (John T Clark is listed in the directories until 1968, and these records run until 1971).
John Swire & Sons (JS&S) was founded in 1832 when John Swire, a Liverpool merchant since 1816, extended his business to include his young sons John Samuel (born 1825) and William Hudson (born 1830). On his death in 1847, they inherited a small but solvent business.
Over the next twenty years, evidence points to a series of attempts by the firm to expand its trade in America, Australia, and the Far East when China was finally opened to foreigners. The beginning of the firm's real expansion in the East dates from the creation of Butterfield and Swire. Previously, textiles assigned to JS&S for sale in China were handled for them in that country by the Shanghai firm Preston, Bruell & Co. However, JS&S aimed to have their own trading house in the East to attend to this side of the business. In 1866 they formed a partnership with R. S. Butterfield - a Yorkshire textile manufacturer - to create Butterfield & Swire (B&S) with two other firms in England and America. B&S opened its first office in Shanghai in 1867, with William Lang and R. N. Newby to handle the textile shipments and James Scott employed as a bookkeeper. On 1 August 1868, the short-lived partnership came to an end, leaving B&S in the hands of JS&S, whilst the other two firms became the property of R. S. Butterfield. The prospects of B&S were quickly strengthened with the acquisition of the agency for Alfred Holt's Blue Funnel Line. JS&S continued to develop and expand and in 1870, the London Branch (established 1868/9) became the Head Office. Two years later in 1872, the China Navigation Company (CNCo) came into being, and in 1874 the Coast Boats Ownery was created, extending JS&S's involvement in the shipping trade. Both concerns, which amalgamated in 1883, were intended to act as feeders to Holt's ocean going vessels by capturing the growing steam trade along the China coast and Yangtze River.
It was, however, a period of economic difficulties and fierce competition with existing trading and shipping companies in the East, notably Jardine, Matheson & Company and the Chinese sponsored China Merchants Company. The impetus for the establishment of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery in Hong Kong in 1881 and the insurance interests of John Swire and Sons arose directly from this period of hostility with Jardines. In 1876 William was forced to retire from the firm because of poor health, further increasing the financial strain on his brother but also leaving him in sole control of the business. By the late 1870s the partnership consisted of John Swire, his right hand man in London, F. R. Gamwell, and the three Eastern Managers, William Lang, J. H. Scott and Edwin Mackintosh. Initially however, only John Swire put up any capital and until his death in December 1898 the history of the firm is very much that of its Senior Partner.
When James Scott became the Senior Partner on John Swire's death, he put through two schemes previously vetoed by Swire: the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company (1901), and the Tientsin Lighter Company (1904). Scott died in 1912 leaving three partners: his son Colin, and John (Jack) and George Warren Swire, the sons of John Samuel Swire. These three became life Directors of the private limited company, which was formally announced on 1 January 1914. Throughout the Twentieth Century the firm has remained a family concern. J. K. (Jock) Swire and John Swire Scott joined the Board after the First World War and further generations were brought in after the Second World War.
Despite the internal disturbances in China in the inter-war period, JS&S's interests in the East continued to prosper and expand. The Taikoo Chinese Navigation Company (registered in 1930) was an attempt to encourage Chinese participation in Taikoo; the Orient Paint, Colour and Varnish Company was opened in Shanghai (1934) and continual efforts were made to increase Taikoo's markets in Asia and the Pacific area generally. The Directors and Eastern managers found themselves more involved in Chinese politics and local problems than John Samuel Swire would have approved. B&S senior staff played important parts in Hong Kong and Shanghai municipal affairs, while the London Directors, in particular Warren and Jock Swire, were involved with the China Association and other Eastern trade and political interest groups in Britain.
The Second World War appeared at first more likely to affect JS&S in London than its subsidiaries in the East, although Government requisition of shipping in 1940 affected the working of the CNCo. In December 1941, however, the Japanese invasion of China pushed the British firm out of all its interests in the Pacific and China including the Orient Paint, Colour and Varnish Company in Shanghai and the Dockyard and Refinery in Hong Kong. Many of the staff were interned although some escaped from Hong Kong to Australia. For the duration of the war B&S's presence in the East was maintained from Bombay and Calcutta by B&S (India), with an office remaining in operation in Chungking in Free China. In Britain the Directors, particularly J. K. Swire, worked with the Ministry of War Transport and in the National Dock Labour Board to assist the war effort as well as taking an active part in the China Association's plans for the post-war redevelopment of the Far Eastern trade. In the autumn of 1945 the offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai were returned to B&S and the task of rebuilding their interests in the East began.
Further reading: S Marriner & F Hyde, 'The Senior' John Samuel Swire 1825-1898 (Liverpool University Press, 1967); F Hyde, Blue Funnel. A History of Alfred Holt & Co. of Liverpool, 1865-1914 (Liverpool University Press, 1956).
John Swan (born circa 1834, Westminster) lived at The Peacock Public House, 41 Minories, City of London. He was editor of 'Our Magazine' which was produced for 'private circulation' on the 1st and 15th of each month during 1856.
The first part issued on 1 March 1856 states that 'Our Magazine' replaced 'a small weekly periodical, which we named the "Peacockian Times", which was entirely devoted to fun, and carried on solely by ourselves; this has given rise to the idea of bringing out a magazine of sufficient size for all our kind friends to contribute to'.
John Swan's father William Swan (born circa 1807, Shoreditch) was the publican at The Peacock by 1839 until 1856-1857 when William North took over. On the 1851 Census William Swan is shown as married to Emily Jane (born circa 1810, Southwark) with their sons John and Edward Adam Swan (born circa 1849-1850) and three servants.
The school was founded by John Roan (c 1600-1644) of Greenwich, son of John Roan, a Sergeant of the Scullery to James I in the Palace of Placentia. In 1640, Roan was appointed Yeoman of His Majesty's Harriers. During the Civil War he was arrested for trying to obtain recruits for the King's Army and as a prisoner of war, he was 'stripped of all he had and in great necessity and want, ready to starve'. His brother Robert would not come to his aid, and his release was eventually obtained by a friend, Richard Wakeham.
In John Roan's Will, drawn up in March 1643, he left his property first to his wife Elizabeth, then to the daughters of Richard Wakeman during their lifetimes, and then to the founding of a school for 'poor town-bred children of Greenwich', 'up to the age of fifteen', wearing a school 'uniform and badge', and undertaking 'reading, writing and cyphering'. Roan's motives for founding a school may be attributed to his having died childless, his only son having been buried 'an infant' at Saint Alfege Church, Greenwich in 1624.
The Will also named the Vicar, the Churchwardens and the Overseers of the Poor of Saint Alfege, Greenwich as the Trustees. They were the forerunners of the School Governors (known as the Feoffees) of the Roan Charity (later Roan Schools Foundation), who managed the Roan Estate and appointed the School Master. The first Chairman of the Governors was Dr Thomas Plume.
Charitable bequests to the school included gifts by Sir William Hooker, Lord Mayor of London. The Charities Commissioners met in 1677 following the death of the last of the Wakemans named in the Will, to decide on the use of bequests to the poor of Greenwich. It was agreed that they be used for the building of a school, and that the Roan Estate would maintain it under the terms of the Will. The school began as the Grey Coat School or Roan's Charity school, and was opened for the education of boys in 1677-1678.
During the 18th century revenues of the Roan Estate grew dramatically. In the thirty years after 1775, the rentals trebled and by 1814 the Estate could afford to educate and clothe 100 boys. The first school building was surrendered to Greenwich Hospital in 1808 and a new school, paid for by the Hospital, was built in 1809 in Roan Street to accommodate 120 boys.
In 1814 Reverend George Mathew, Vicar and Chairman of the Governors proposed that the Roan Estate should make a contribution towards the education of girls in Greenwich. A decree was issued by the Master of the Rolls that £130 of the revenue of the Roan Estate was to be paid towards the maintenance of a school for girls. In January 1815 the National School of Industry was opened and became the forerunner of the Roan School for Girls.
In 1838 there were 200 boys. The demand for education grew and the Governors opened two branch schools at the junction of Old Woolwich Road and East Street. By 1853, the four Roan Charity schools were educating 630 boys and girls.
The Elementary Education Act 1870, aimed at putting education within the reach of all children, had a great impact on the Roan Schools. The School Board for London established by the Act began to lay its plans for new buildings and the Endowed Schools' Commissioners drew up a scheme of school closure and transfer of the boys and girls to the Board's two new schools built in 1877: one for 300 boys in East Street (later renamed Eastney Street) and one for 300 girls in Devonshire Road (later renamed Devonshire Drive), and the name was changed to the Roan Schools. The reorganisation was to give 'a superior education of the character usually given in the best middle class schools', and introduced a Headmaster for the boys' School and Headmistress for the girls' school, who were allowed to appoint assistant teachers, admit pupils and establish a curriculum.
As demand for accommodation grew, the boys' school moved to Maze Hill in 1928 and an extension was built at the Girls' school in 1937. The Roan Schools came to the forefront of London's Grammar Schools with modern purpose built buildings extra provision made for the sciences, library and games.
During the Second World War staff and pupils were evacuated for four years from 1939 first to Ticehurst, Flimwell and Stonegate, Kent, later to Rye and Bexhill, Sussex and a third move in June 1940 (for three years) to Ammanford and Llandebie, South Wales. During this time the South East London Emergency School was established by the London County Council in the Roan Girls' building. Pupils' fees were abolished under the Education Act 1944 and the junior school was closed.
In 1977, an agreement was made between the Inner London Education Authority and Roan Foundation Governors for the amalgamation of the Roan School for Boys, the Roan School for Girls and Charlton Secondary School for Boys and establishment of a new mixed comprehensive school, the John Roan School in 1980. New buildings were built at Westcombe Park Road in 1981 and last pupils in the former Roan Grammar School buildings were transferred in 1984.
The Inner London Education Authority was abolished in 1990 and from this time is managed by Greenwich Borough Council as a mixed comprehensive for 11 to 18 year olds and in 2002 there were 1,082 pupils. Their web site in 2003 was www.thejohnroanschool.co.uk/ .
The Collection is split into 2 main parts: (i) the records of John Mowlem and Co. Ltd; (ii) the records of the Improved Wood Pavement Company Ltd.
(i) John Mowlem (1788-1868) was originally from Dorset and had experience of quarrying in the area around Swanage. He started business in London in 1822 and built up a steady account with Vestries and other authorities responsible for paving and roads. As builders and contractors, John Mowlem and Co. undertook a lot of small jobs in mid-nineteenth century London. Business expanded towards the end of the century with notable work carried out for the Jubilee Celebration for Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey in 1887. Further recognition for the Company was gained in 1902 when it received a Royal Warrant from the Prince of Wales; later Warrants were received in 1910 and 1920.
John Mowlem and Co. is better known today as a large contractor and much of the credit for this must go to the work of Sir George Mowlem Burt, civil engineer, and grandson of George Burt, a nephew and partner of the Company's founder. Under his guidance the Company undertook large scale public works such as the Admiralty Arch, the diversion of the low-level sewer at Millbank (for the London County Council), and other maintenance contracts for the Office of Works and the Port of London Authority. The Headquarters of I.C.I. in Millbank in the 1920's, and the Southampton Graving Dock (for the Southern Railway) in the 1930's were contracts which proved the Company's worth so that during wartime many government contracts were awarded to John Mowlem and Co. Ltd. These included the Royal Ordnance Factory at Swynnerton (1939-1942), many runways and tunnels and Phoenix Units for Mulberry Harbours, in all, contracts worth £29 million for the period 1940-1945. Post-war contracts included power stations at Braehead and Hunterston.
The Company was incorporated in 1903, reverted to being a Private Company in 1908 and reconverted into a Public Company in 1925. In 1982, the company was re-registered as John Mowlem and Co. plc.
(ii) The Improved Wood Pavement Company Ltd was incorporated in 1872 to acquire the patent of improved Wood Pavement combining the use of wood with preserving composition packed with stone, and for laying and maintaining same. The Company took over the business and contracts of Samuel Norris and Benjamin Berkley Hotchkiss, who had already laid some wood pavements in London and elsewhere. Bartholomew Lane, EC2 had been paved in December 1871.
The original offices were at 32 Lombard Street, EC2, moving to Victoria Street, EC4, in 1876: in 1922 to Blackfriars House, New Bridge Street, EC4. By 1914 the Company was a contractor for wood paving, wood block flooring, sawing, excavating, concreting and had saw mills and works at East Greenwich.
Improved Wood Pavement Company Ltd became associated with John Mowlem and Co. Ltd, government and public works contractors of Westminster and formed with them in 1941 the Mowlem Paving Co. Ltd. During the 1950s the Company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mowlems and in 1959 it ceased to operate independently. Its name was subsequently changed to Mowlem Construction (Plant Hire) Ltd and it is now a subsidiary of John Mowlem and Co. plc though Mowlem Construction Co. Ltd.
John Motteux and Company were merchants, with premises at 11 Walbrook.
The Brewery, Brook Street, Basingstoke, was established in 1750. The business was incorporated in 1894 as John May and Company Limited. It was acquired by H and G Simonds in 1947 and in liquidation in 1950.
In 1627 John Marshall, a gentleman resident in Axe Yard (now Newcomen Street), Southwark, left property in trust for various charities, including the erection of a new church. This was to be called Christ Church, and was to be built in a part of Saint Saviour's Parish in which the population had increased significantly. Money was also left to pay for a minister, provide university scholarships for poor Southwark students, and hold a weekly lecture. Instructions were given that the remainder of the money should be used for "the Mayntenance and Continuance of the sincere preaching of God's most holie Word in this Land for ever". Under this section of the will the Charity made grants to poor clergy and now contributes grants towards the provision of housing for the clergy.
The 1855 Marshall's Charity Act allowed the Trustees greater freedoms, including the right to make grants towards the construction of new churches. A later Charity Commission Scheme gave them the power to make grants towards the restoration and repair of existing churches in Kent, Surrey or Lincolnshire.
For more information see the charity website at http://www.marshalls.org.uk/history.html (accessed July 2010).
John Locke Lovibond founded his brewery in 1834, but did not move to London until 1847, purchasing a brewey in Greenwich. In 1872 Lovibond's four sons set up a partnership, trading as "John Lovibond and Sons, Greenwich", later forming a limited company in 1896 as "John Lovibond and Sons Ltd". In 1959 the company stopped production of beer and became wine merchants. The company was purchased by Wine Ways Supermarkets Ltd in 1968, and a year later the Greenwich premises were sold.
Source of information: Lovibonds Brewery website at http://www.lovibonds.co.uk/about.php (accessed Jan 2010).
John Lane, solicitor, was based at Goldsmith's Hall, Foster Lane.
John Hubbard and Company were Russia merchants of 19 Birchin Lane and from circa 1865 to circa 1900 of 4 St Helen's Place.
John Henderson Hunt was born on 3 July 1905 in Secunderabad, India, eldest son of Edmund Hunt, surgeon in charge of staff of the Nizam of Hyderabad's State Railways and Chief Medical Officer of the Railway Hospital, Secunderabad, and Laura Mary Hunt, daughter of a tea plantation owner. Hunt grew up in England with his mother and his siblings, whilst his father lived and worked in India until 1931, attending pre-preparatory school and then Temple Grove Preparatory School, Eastbourne. He was then educated at Charterhouse School from 1918. In 1923 Hunt achieved an exhibition to Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he graduated with a 2:1 in Physiology in 1927. Hunt was awarded the Radcliffe Scholarship in Pharmacology, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. He was registered BM, BCh, MRCS/LRCP with the General Medical Council in 1931.
Hunt worked as House Surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1931 and did a locum tenens at Duffield, Derbyshire. In 1933 he became second assistant at the Medical Unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital and in 1934, for two years, he was House Physician at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. In 1936 he went on to be Chief Assistant to the Consultative Neurological Clinic at St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1934 he passed the membership examination of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 1935 he obtained his DM Thesis, University of Oxford, on the subject of Raynaud's disease, a published work of the thesis appeared the following year in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine.
Hunt chose to become a general practitioner, and in 1937 joined Dr George Cregan in practice as a partner at 83 Sloane Street, London. The reaction of his teachers and colleagues was that he was 'committing professional suicide' (John Horder) as the differences in education, pay and status were indeed considerable. During the Second World War Hunt served as a neurologist in the Royal Air Force, at Blackpool and Ely, held the rank of Wing Commander. When the war was over he returned to set up independent practice at 54 Sloane Street, London. The practice had its own laboratory and x-ray department. Hunt choose not to enter the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, continuing to run a private service, having an already well-established clientele since establishing the practice at the end of the war.
Although Hunt had not entered the NHS he was acutely aware of the uncertain and unsatisfactory position of general practitioners during the crucial NHS planning stages. It was felt that there was justification for general practitioners to have a college of their own. The notion of an academic body to promote the efficiency of general practice had been proposed as long ago as 1844, but to no effect. However, over a hundred years later the ideas were again being put forward.
In October 1951 Hunt and Dr Fraser Rose wrote a letter, published in the British Medical Journal and The Lancet, proposing 'a possible College of General Practice'. Memoranda published two weeks later provoked both favourable and unfavourable responses, with many influential people, particularly the Presidents of the established Royal Colleges, expressing their opposition. Hunt brought together a group of influential figures, including former Minister of Health, Sir Henry Willink, to form a steering committee which looked into the practical aims and needs of the proposed institution. The Steering Committee, with Hunt as Secretary, persevered and on 19 November 1952 Memorandum and Articles of Association of the College of General Practitioners were signed and in December the Committee's Report was published. Within six months the College had 2000 doctors as members, and had widespread support of both medical and non-medical bodies. Hunt continued his steadfast commitment to, and hard work for, the College, displaying determined leadership as the first Honorary Secretary of Council, 1953-66, and then as President, 1967-70, and developing the College's role and influence both at home and abroad, throughout the rest of his professional life. In the College's first annual report the Foundation Council of the College put on record its appreciation of Hunt, 'in the events leading up to the formation of the steering committee, Dr John Hunt was mainly responsible for bringing together the right individuals and for enlisting the interest and support of the leaders of medical opinion everywhere... the measure of success so far achieved by the College would not have been possible without him' (1st Annual Report 1953, pp.12-13).
'A History of the Royal College of General Practitioners', edited by Hunt, along with John Fry and Robin Pinsent, tells the story of the College's first 25 years. Published in 1983 this was the last of many publications for which Hunt was responsible. A complete collection of his published papers is held at the Royal College of General Practitioners, Princes Gate, London. The writings cover many topics including the foundation of the College.
Hunt was honoured by both medical and lay organisations worldwide, he was appointed CBE in 1970 and in 1973 was given life peerage, as Lord Hunt of Fawley, in the House of Lords. He participated in many debates on medical affairs, with a voice of authority gained from his wide experience, and was responsible for steering the Medical Act of 1978 through the Upper House. It has been suggested though that the keynote speech of his life however was his Lloyd Roberts Lecture, 'The Renaissance of General Practice', delivered in 1957, which illuminated proposals for the future work of the College and of general practitioners. Hunt received many awards including the W Victor Johnson Medal, in 1973, when he was made Honorary Member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and the Gold Medal of the BMA in 1980.
Hunt was supported throughout his career by his wife Elisabeth who he had married in 1941. They had five children, two daugthers, a son who died in childhood, and two twin sons, both of whom became general practitioners. Hunt was forced to retire due to failing eye sight in 1981, and died 6 years later on 28 December 1987 at his home in Fawley, near Henley-on-Thames.
John Fry was born 16 June 1922, the son of a general practitioner. He was educated at Whitgift Middle School, Croydon, and graduated MB, BS in 1944 from Guy's Hospital. In 1955 he proceeded to MD. His first interest was in surgery and he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons at the early age of 24. However he soon turned to general practice, and just before the National Health Service was introduced, in the late 1940s, he became practitioner in Beckenham, Kent. Fry worked as a general practitioner until his retirement in 1991, never leaving to take up an academic post as some might have expected.
Fry built up a reputation for research and writing that influenced governments at home and abroad, and was arguably the leading research worker in the 1960s, writing and editing more books than any other general practitioner. His early books such as 'The Catarrhal Child' (1961) challenged the then routine procedure of tonsillectomy, whilst 'Profiles of Disease in Childhood' (1966) shed new light on the prognosis of many common chronic diseases. He was fundamental in introducing a new medical magazine, Update, and continued to write for this popular educational journal until his death. As the British Medical Journal explained in his obituary;
'his writings were widely distributed and discussed, and he became a key member of a small group who made general practice a medical discipline. His work was descriptive and analytical rather than experimental... his writing has been described as "user friendly" because it was usually straightforward, logical, and practical' (BMJ, 21 May 1994, Vol. 308, p.1367)
Within his practice he meticulously recorded, for forty years, every consultation that took place. Through this work
'he helped to reveal the goldmine of information which lay in the records of ordinary NHS family doctors... [and]... set an example of blending service work in general practice with academic research and writing which has inspired succeeding generations' (The Times, 6 May 1994)
Fry was a founder member of the College of General Practitioners (later the Royal College of General Practitioners) in 1953. He made a major contribution to the College's development, serving for 34 years on the College Council, and as a member of numerous College committees and working parties. He wrote several of the Present State and Future Needs reports.
The College honoured him with several of their highest awards over the years, including the James Mackenzie prize for research in 1964, the George Abercrombie Award, for his contribution to the literature of general practice, in 1977, the Sir Harry Jephcott Visiting Professorship, 1981/82, the Baron Dr ver Heyden de Lancey Memorial Award in 1984, and the highest of all, the Foundation Council Award in 1993, however he never became President.
In addition to his commitment to his practice and the College, Fry was a consultant to the World Health Organisation, 1965-83, and consultant in general practice to the Army, 1968-87. He was elected every year, between 1970-92, by the whole medical profession to the General Medical Council, where he became Senior Treasurer. The Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust established the John Fry Lecture after he became their longest serving trustee. He was appointed CBE in 1988. Throughout his career he was honoured with several notable awards, including the Sir Charles Hastings Prize of the British Medical Association, which he won twice, in 1960 and 1964, the Hunterian Society Gold Medal, which he also won twice, in 1956 and 1966. In 1968 he was awarded the James Mackenzie Medal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
Fry married twice, first to Joan Sabel in 1944, with whom he had a son and a daughter. Joan died in 1989. He was married a second time in 1989 to Trudy Amiel (nee Scher). Fry retired just three years before his death, on 28 April 1994, at the age of 71. In his remaining years he was debilitated by a chronic lung disease, although his mind remained alert to the end.
The Papers of John Foster Dulles and of Christian A Herter, 1953-1961 are microfilmed copies of telephone conversations, correspondence, memoranda, working papers, position papers and speeches of John Foster Dulles during his tenure as US Secretary of State, 1953-1959, and of Christian Archibald Herter during his tenure as US Under Secretary of State, 1953-1959 and Secretary of State, 1959-1961. Born in Washington, DC, on 25 Feb 1888, John Foster Dulles studied law and politics at Princeton University, the Sorbonne, Paris, the University of Pennsylvania, John's Hopkins University, and Harvard University. He served on the Counsel to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, Versailles, 1918-1919. In 1945 he was a member of the US Delegation to the San Francisco Conference on World Organization (later the United Nations), and became a permanent delegate to the UN, 1946-1950. After the 1952 election campaign, in which Dulles attacked Democratic foreign policy as ineffective, President-elect Dwight David Eisenhower named Dulles as his Secretary of State. Together, Eisenhower and Dulles pursued a policy of containment towards the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Their 'New Look' defence policy sought to project a credible deterrent against communism through a combination of fiscal moderation, heavy reliance on nuclear weapons and a foreign policy based on threats of 'massive retaliation' in the event of a Soviet first-strike. Christian Archibald Herter was born in Paris, France, 28 Mar 1895. He served as an attaché to the American Embassy in Berlin, 1916-1917 and Secretary of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, Versailles, 1918-1919. From 1929-1930 Herter was a lecturer in international politics at Harvard University. In 1957, he became Under Secretary of State and, on Dulles's death in 1959, became Secretary of State for the remainder of the Eisenhower administration.US State Department telephone conversations and correspondence, excluding those with the President, were routinely monitored by personal assistants who took shorthand notes on their content. Later, these personal assistants prepared memoranda based on the shorthand notes. Dulles's staff used these memoranda to ensure that any required action resulting from the telephone conversations and correspondence was taken. Thus, the purpose of these memoranda was purely operational. Consequently, while Dulles's personal assistants tried to be accurate and complete in their note- taking, they were not concerned about nuance or detail. The transcribers often were not familiar with the subject matter and were not trying to record history. After serving their operational purpose, the memoranda were filed and kept only as a convenient reference of the time and date of various messages. US State Department correspondence with the President, however, was rarely monitored. Therefore, the memoranda of this material originated in the Secretary of State himself. He usually dictated them, occasionally through his Special Assistants, Roderic O'Connor and John Hanes.
Not a great deal appears to have been generally known about John Cowl and Sons save that it was one of five shipbuilding yards - of which the other 4 were Stribley, Rawl, Willment and Tredwen- located along the banks and in the shallow creeks of the Camel river at Padstow. The yard seems to have been opened in the early 1870s by John Cowl, whose indentures of apprenticeship (CWL/2) show that he began his time as a shipwright with John Tredwen, Carpenter of Padstow in 1836. Cowl appears to have put in some time at sea, though for how long it is difficult to say. Joseph Cowl, his father or more likely a brother or younger relative is credited (CWL/4) with having designed a number of Padstow built ships in the years 1855-70: e.g. the schooner JANE BANFIELD, in 1866 of 320 tons, built by Stribley's; the SAPPHO, also built by Stribley's and the EMPRESS OF CHINA, the same; the MORNING STAR, 480 tons, also built at Padstow, is said to have been designed by Joseph Cowl also.
The vessels built by the Cowl yard include the following:-
The EMMA, of 138 tons, in 1877 and the JANIE, of 134 tons, in 1878, both for Jenkins of New Quay, as was the KATIE, built by Cowl at Padstow in 1881, and which was in due course to become, in the hands of the Stephen family of Par, one of the last schooners still trading from a British port which had not been fitted with an engine. (CWL/12- appears to be the builder's specification for KATIE). Other ships built by the Cowl yard were the J. K. ALLPORT, of 100 tons, in 1876 for C ALLPORT of Plymouth, and the FAIRY GLEN, also of 100 tons, in 1879 for W. B. Williams. It would appear that the last clipper schooner built by John Cowl and Sons was the AMARANTH, in 1886 for WC Phillips. The company, which continued repairing ships into the 1890s, appears to have failed eventually with the demise of wooden shipbuilding at Padstow.
John Bradley, son of a Stourbridge ironmonger, Gabriel Bradley (1726-1771), was born in 1769. He established himself in the iron business in his own right by trading at the Stourbridge Forge in around 1795. In 1800 he founded a new company, John Bradley & Co. He was the managing partner and finance was obtained from Thomas Jukes Collier (1761-1845) and the trustees of his stepfather, Henry Foster (1743-1793), each with a third share in the company.
The company soon set up a forge, steam engine and mills and began by converting pig iron into wrought iron plates and rods for local industry. Expansion was rapid and leases were secured on further forges and land. In 1813, the Stourbridge Iron Works obtained a contract to purchase the entire production of pig iron from New Hadley Furnaces for seven years at a guaranteed price but, in 1818, James Foster (1786-1853), son of Henry Foster oversaw the construction of two new blast furnaces, thereby controlling all stages of iron production.
James went into partnership with John Urpeth Rastrick in 1819 to expand Bradley's involvement in machinery production. Rastrick was the resident managing engineer of a new company, Foster, Rastrick & Co., built alongside the Stourbridge Iron Works. A new foundry was built in 1821 to cope with the expansion of the business. The company produced: bedsteads, cooking plates, wheels and tools, rails and railway sleepers. Foster, Rastrick and Co. was formally dissolved on 20, June 1831.
The assets were transferred back into the Stourbridge Iron Works with the foundry business continuing under the management of John Bradley & Co. In 1837, James Foster became the sole owner of John Bradley & Co. The Stourbridge Iron Works continued to produce rods, bars and wires while the foundry worked on specialist rolling machines. James's nephew William Orme Foster (-1899), inherited the £700,000 estate and under his stewardship, John Bradley & Co. continued to grow. A revolution in iron manufacture occurred in 1856 with the development of cheap steel but Foster failed to invest in new machinery and when the iron industry entered a slump in the 1870s, the productivity of the company declined. After the death of William Orme Foster, the company fell into the hands of his son, William Henry Foster (1846-1924). Preferring other pursuits, William sold the company's collieries to Guy Pitt and Company in 1913 and the remaining portion of the Stourbridge Iron Works was sold to Edward J Taylor Ltd. in 1913.
(Compiled from information extracted from: Ed. Paul Collins, Stourbridge & Its Historic Locomotives (Dudley Leisure Services. 1989))
D and J Barber (Eels) Limited, were formerly known as John and Paul (Eels) Limited. They were eel merchants, trading from 13b Lovat Lane. They were taken over by H Barber and Sons, and renamed, in 1960.
Jon John (1983-2017) was a performance artist and practitioner of body modification.
Born in the French Basque country as Jonathan Arias, Jon John as he was known both personally and professionally, was best known for using his body in situations of ritual suffering, duress, and difficulty in performance. He was also renowned for his piercing and tattoo studio AKA (Berlin and London), his development of techniques for piercing, scarification, and implants, and as a designer of body piercing jewellery.
His performances drew on extensive field research in the Middle East, North Africa, and India, where he investigated folk usages of ritual self-injury as forms of secular as well as religious transcendence. At the end of his life, he was collaborating with the lay anthropologist Paul King on Hearts in Sorrow, a documentary about Shia Islamic rites in Iran. Paying homage to these and other ritual practices, Jon John's performances also incorporated references to high fashion, pop music, so-called 'modern primitivism' and industrial culture, magic, sadomasochism, and sex.
His work was also centrally concerned with his intersectional identity as Gitano (Spanish Romani), Basque, and queer. Including sentimental uses of bloodletting, hook suspensions, dancing on thorns, and DIY surgery, Jon John's own tattooed, scarred and 'hacked' body was central to his work as an artist. His works were known to be arduous to perform, and sometimes gruelling for his audiences to witness, but Jon John professed his own investment in the themes of love, romance, tenderness, loss and grief: in a manifesto, he would describe his art as an 'action of love', and an 'ecstatic' ritual of 'communal alchemy'.
Key performance included 'The 2 of Us', in which a cannula was inserted into the crook of his elbow, allowing him to write in blood until he passed out; and his 'farewell' performance 'Love on Me: The Finest Hour', performed shortly before his death. Beyond performances, his art works also included video, film, writing, and collodion print photography. He collaborated on projects with international artists, including Ron Athey, Lukas Zpira, Marilyn Manson, Kiril Bikov, Joey Arias, Jochen Kronier, and Nick Knight.
Jon John died of cancer in Bayonne, France, on 6 April 2017.
Soweto (originally an acronym for South West Townships) started with a competition organized by the Johannesburg City Council in 1931 for the design of new black townships for 80,000 residents south west of Johannesburg. Orlando ( named after the Mayor of Johannesburg between 1925-1926 Councilor Edwin Orlando Leake), was the first of its kind in South Africa and was to form the core around which other townships were to develop and eventually become Soweto. There was an increasing influx of Africans coming to Johannesburg in search of work, due to factors such as natural disasters in the country and exclusion from farm land.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born at Qunu, near Umtata on 18 July 1918. His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was chief councillor to Thembuland's acting paramount chief David Dalindyebo. When his father died, Mandela became the chief's ward to be groomed to assume high office. However, influenced by the cases that came before the Chief's court, he determined to become a lawyer. After receiving a primary education at a local mission school, Mandela matriculated at Healdtown Methodist Boarding School and then started a BA degree at Fort Hare. As a Student Representative Council member he participated in a student strike and was expelled, along with Oliver Tambo, in 1940. He completed his degree by correspondence from Johannesburg, did articles of clerkship and enrolled for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand.In 1944 he helped found the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, whose Programme of Action was adopted by the ANC in 1949.
Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation. He was given a suspended sentence for his part in the campaign. Shortly afterwards a banning order confined him to Johannesburg for six months. By 1952 Mandela and Tambo had opened the first black legal firm in the country, and Mandela was both Transvaal president of the ANC and deputy national president. A petition by the Transvaal Law Society to strike Mandela off the roll of attorneys was refused by the Supreme Court.In the 1950s after being forced through constant bannings to resign officially from the ANC, Mandela analysed the Bantustan policy as a political swindle. He predicted mass removals, political persecutions and police terror.
When the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, he was detained until 1961 when he went underground to lead a campaign for a new national convention. Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC, was born the same year. Under his leadership it launched a campaign of sabotage against government and economic installations. In 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to arrange training for other MK members. On his return he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He conducted his own defence. He was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962. While serving his sentence, he was charged, in the Rivonia trial, with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Shortly after his release on Sunday 11 February 1990, Mandela and his delegation agreed to the suspension of armed struggle. He was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994. Nelson Mandela retired from public life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei.
Joel Joffe was born in 1932, and educated at Marist Brothers' College, Johannesburg and Witwatersrand University. He became a solicitor in 1956 and a barrister in 1962. He worked as a human rights lawyer, 1958-1965, and acted as Nelson Mandela's instructing solicitor in the Rivonia Treason Trial, 1963-1964. He was Director and Secretary of Abbey Life Assurance, 1965-1970, and Director, Joint Managing Director and Deputy Chairman of Allied Dunbar Life Assurance, 1971-1991. He was appointed Chairman of Oxfam in 1995, and created a life peer as Baron Joffe in 2000.
Born 1940; BA Chemistry from Cambridge, 1964; MA Area Studies, University of London, 1975; has since worked as a freelance writer, broadcaster and analyst, and has taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, University of Southampton, and Sussex University during the 1980s and 1990s; Editor for the Middle East section of the Economist Intelligence Unit, 1983-1986; work for Menas (Middle East and North African Studies Press) Ltd, throughout 1980s; Deputy Director and Director of Studies, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, 1997-2000; founder and currently an editor of the Journal of North African Studies, 1996 to present; currently Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Affairs, University of Cambridge, Visiting Research Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE), Visiting Professor of Geography, King's College Cambridge; expert on political, economic and strategic affairs in North Africa and the Middle East and a regular contributor to newspapers and broadcast news and an expert witness called upon to provide evidence at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Publications include: The Gulf War. A survey of political issues and economic consequences (London, 1984); Iran and Iraq. Building on the stalemate (London, 1988); Bankrupting the Gulf. The economic consequences of the United Nations' war against Iraq on the Arab Gulf States (London, 1991); also edited Beyond the Middle East conflict. A future for federalism? (London, 1985); North Africa. Nation, state, and region (London, 1993); Tribe and state. Essays in honour of David Montgomery Hart (Wisbech, 1991); Security challenges in the Mediterranean region (London, 1995); Chad (Oxford, 1995); The Barcelona process. Building a Euro-Mediterranean regional community (London, 2000); The Middle East and North Africa 1984. Published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (London, 1984); Morocco and Europe. Papers of a conference entitled "Moroccan relations with Europe: past, present and future" (London, 1989).
Joel Emmanuel instituted a charity to provide almshouses for the Jewish poor, and bequeathed many properties to this end, in Shoreditch, Bermondsey and elsewhere. The charity was established in 1840.
Born in 1913; commissioned into Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1939; served as Navigating Officer in a Fleet Tug working out of Scapa Flow, Jan- Mar 1940; served in Norway, Apr-Jun 1940; appointed to staff of Adm Commanding Orkney and Shetland to collect information about the west coast of Norway, 1942; ran special Motor Torpedo Boat operations in Norway, 1942-1943; served with 12 (Special Service) Submarine Flotilla, 1943-1944; appointed to Naval Intelligence Division, Admiralty, 1944, and undertook reconnaissance work with 30 Assault Unit (directed by Ian Fleming) in France, Belgium and Germany, 1944-1945; after the war served for some years with the Royal Canadian Navy, before retiring in 1955. Died 2003. Publication: From Arctic Snow to Dust of Normandy (A. Sutton, Stroud, 1991).