Peace campaigner, community worker and writer, Muriel Lester was born in 1883 at Gainsborough Lodge, Leytonstone, Essex, the third daughter of a wealthy businessman, Henry Edward Lester, and his third wife, Rachel Mary Goodwin. In 1908 Muriel and her sister Doris moved to Bow (now Bromley by Bow) in London's East End and became active in providing social and educational activities in the community. The sisters were joined by their younger brother, Kingsley, who died in 1914. The following year, with financial help from their father, the sisters bought a disused chapel as a 'teetotal pub' to give local people,evening meeting place. It was named Kingsley Hall, in memory of their brother. Muriel and Doris then set up the first purpose-built 'Children's House' in London. Designed by Charles Cowles Voysey according to the ideas of Maria Montessori, it was opened in 1923. From 1922 to 1926, Muriel served as an Alderman on George Lansbury's radical Poplar Borough Council, chairing the Maternal and Child Welfare Committee. In 1928 Cowles Voysey designed a new, purpose-built Kingsley Hall for the sisters, combining the functions of a community centre and place of worship. Muriel herself took on the role of vicar. In 1929 the sisters set up a second Kingsley Hall was on the vast new Becontree Estate in Dagenham, Essex, where many Bow residents had been relocated as part of the slum clearance programme. Muriel took a pacifist stance in 1914 and was a founding member of the Christian pacifist organization, the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR). She travelled to India in 1926 to meet M K Gandhi: this was the start of a warm friendship. In 1931, attending the Round Table Conference on Indian independence in London, Gandhi stayed at Kingsley Hall in Bow. In 1934 Muriel Lester began her work as travelling secretary for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. Over the next years she carried a message of Christian non violence into the very heart of conflict situations all over the world. She had a large following in the USA. The success of her anti-war speeches there led to her detention in Trinidad in 1941. She mixed easily with the humble but impressed many influential figures, among them Clement Attlee, George Lansbury, Lord Lytton, Lord Halifax, Gandhi, Nehru, Kenyatta, Mandela, H G Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Madame Chiang Kaishek, Sybil Thorndike, and Vera Brittain. Muriel Lester was an exponent of practical Christianity, but her writings also reveal deep spirituality. In addition to copious Travel Letters, She wrote numerous articles and had over twenty works published, including two autobiographical accounts, It Occurred to Me (1939) and It So Happened (1947). During More formal recognition of her work came in 1964 when Muriel was awarded the freedom of the borough of Poplar. She died on 11 February 1968 at her home, Kingsley Cottage, Loughton, Essex. A thanksgiving service was held at Kingsley Hall, Bow, on 4 April; her body was donated to science.
The London History Workshop Centre was established in 1982 as a spin-off from the national History Workshop events and History Workshop Journal. The Centre aimed to gather material on all aspects of London life, organise and conserve such material and encourage participation and involvement by Londoners in recording and using the city's history. The Centre also offered an educational service, ran events, such as the LCC/GLC Centenary, and produced a number of publications. A major part of its work was a sound and video archive which collected stored and made accessible audio and video recordings about and by Londoners. The Centre closed in 1992.
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Born in Winchester in 1815; when Butler was four years old, the family moved to London in search of employment and in later years, he learned the family trade of boot and shoemaking; ran a shop in Ben Jonson Road, Stepney (formerly Rhodeswell Road); married, lived in Baker Street, Stepney, and had nine children, of which two boys and three girls reached adulthood; around 1850, Butler found religion and became an active member of the Open Air Mission, working together with City missionaries to offer material and spiritual support to the disadvantaged in the East End; died in March 1884 while living in Stepney Green and was buried in Tower Hamlets Cemetery as a non conformist in unconsecrated ground and in a public, unmarked grave.
The Society for Photographing Relics of Old London originated in the wish of a few friends to preserve a record of the 'Oxford Arms' Inn, threatened with destruction in 1875, and actually demolished a few years later. The project, mentioned in The Times, was so well received, that it enabled the Society to follow up the first issue, and later on to double the annual number of photographs. By the twelfth years issue, published in April 1886, it was considered the project had reached its completion.
Mavis Middleton (nee Bidgood) was born July 28, 1922, and from the age of one grew up at Wensley House, a home school on the edge of the forest at Epping. She attended the Loughton County High School and then Bedford College, London, where she gained a certificate in Social Studies. As part of her training she worked for a time at the Stepney Green Jewish Girls Club and Settlement House, a place she loved and remained in contact with for many years. Her first job was as a club leader for the National Council of Girls Clubs in Rugby, Warks. There she met her husband, 'Middy' Middleton, who was working for BTH (British Thompson Houston), and they were married on January 29, 1944. Four and a half years later, they moved to Cambridge where Middy had been offered the post of university lecturer in electrical engineering. Two of their children were born in Rugby and two in Cambridge. As a young wife and mother, Mavis was fortunate enough not to have to go out to work, but she never lost her strong commitment to social causes. During the early 1950s she joined in the efforts of the International Help for Children to find foster homes for refugee children from the Balkans. She and Middy were active in the local Liberal Party, and once hosted a fundraising garden party opened by Jo Grimmond. During the 1960s as their children grew older, her voluntary activities increased. For more than a decade she was an elected council member of the South Cambridgeshire Rural District Council. She was an active founder member of the Cambridge Law Surgery, the Cambridge Association for the Advancement of State Education and the Cambridge Association for the Prevention of Drug Addiction. From the late 1960s as their own children left home, she and Middy fostered a family of five children with whom they remained in touch for the rest of their lives. As a result of this experience, Mavis became involved with The Voice for the Child in Care, and later helped, both practically and financially, to establish a refuge for battered women in Cambridge. She was employed for a year as a welfare support worker for students at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. During the course of the 1970s, Mavis became increasingly active with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the Cambridge and the East Anglia groups and then on the national committee. In June 1982, she and Middy attended the United Nations Second Special Session on Nuclear Disarmament in New York, and in October 1983, on behalf of CND, she went to lobby US senators in Washington, DC. In 1987, after 40 years in Cambridge, Mavis and Middy moved to Whittlesey, Cambs. Mavis became a volunteer general adviser for the Peterborough CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau), and then for DIAL Peterborough (Disability Information and Advice Line). She continued to do this to the end of her life. Middy died in 1994, aged 88, and Mavis died on New Year's Day, 1999.
PartiZans are a campaign group who aim to raise awareness of the affect mining and other related industial practices have on local communities (especially indigenous populations) lations) and environments.
Born, March 1905, the youngest son of Colonel Sir John Perring and his wife Florence Higginson; educated at University College School and, during the Second World War, served as a Lieutenant in Royal Artillery, although was invalided in 1940.
After the war, Perring worked as Chairman of his own company, Perring Furnishings Ltd (1948-1981) but also took a variety of public roles, serving as member of the Court of Common Council (Ward of Cripplegate) (1948-1951), Alderman of the City of London (Langbourn Ward) (1951-1975) and one of Her Majesty's Lieutenants of the City of London and Sheriff (1958-1959). Between 1962 and 1963, Perring served as Lord Mayor of London. Furthermore, he was Chairman of the Spitalfields Market Committee (1951-1952), member of the London County Council for Cities of London and Westminster (1952-1955) and served on the County of London Planning Committee, the New Guildford Cathedral Council and the Consumer Advisory Council of the British Standards Institute between 1955 and 1959. Perring also worked as a governor of various public institutions, including St Bartholomew's Hospital (1964-1969) and Imperial College of Science and Technology (1964-1967). He was also a Master of the Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers (1944-1945), a Master of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers (1977-1978) and Senior Past Master and founder member of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, along with serving as the Chairman of the BNEC Committee for Exports to Canada (1968-1970) and the Confederation Life Insurance Company of Canada (1969-1981). He died in June 1998.
'Republic' was formed in London in 1983 as an interest and pressure group to promote Republicanism, to provide a forum and focus for democratic republican opinion and to contribute to ideas about the concept of a British Republic. It was affiliated to the Thomas Paine Society; to the Campaign for the Freedom of Information and to Charter 88. The group subscribed to the Quarterly Review of the Constitutional Reform Centre and hosted its own Working Party on Constitutional Reform, although avoided direct affiliation with any political party.
As a result of Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech denouncing Joseph Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, many abandoned the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and began to rethink its orthodox Marxism. Some joined various Trotskyist groupings or the Labour Party.
The Marxist historians E. P. Thompson and Ralph Miliband established the Communist Party Historians Group and a dissenting journal within the CPGB called Reasoner. Once expelled from the party, they began the New Reasoner from 1957. In 1960, this journal merged with the Universities and Left Review to form the New Left Review. These journals attempted to synthesise a theoretical position of a revisionist, humanist, socialist Marxism, departing from orthodox Marxist theory. This publishing effort made the ideas of culturally oriented theorists available to an undergraduate reading audience. In this early period, many on the New Left were involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, formed in 1957.
Under the long-standing editorial leadership of Perry Anderson, the New Left Review popularised the Frankfurt School, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser and other forms of Marxism. Other periodicals like Socialist Register, started in 1964, and Radical Philosophy, started in 1972, have also been associated with the New Left, and published a range of important writings in this field.
As the campus orientation of the American New Left became clear in the mid to late 1960s, the student sections of the British New Left began taking action. The London School of Economics became a key site of British student militancy. The influence of protests against the Vietnam War and of the May 1968 events in France were also felt strongly throughout the British New Left. Some within the British New Left joined the International Socialists, which later became Socialist Workers Party while others became involved with groups such as the International Marxist Group.The politics of the British New Left can be contrasted with Solidarity, UK, which continued to focus primarily on industrial issues.
Born, London, 1934; educated at King Alfred's School, Hampstead, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was tutored by and became friends with historian Christopher Hill; during this time he became a Marxist, joining the Communist Party and the Communist Party Historian's Group; the latter an organisation formed by E.P.Thompson, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Eric Hobsbawm, Maurice Dobb and others and which was responsible for founding the journal Past and Present, which aimed to pioneer the study of working class history; left the Communist Party, 1956, and was one of the founder editors, together with Stuart Hall and Charles Taylor, of what was soon to become the New Left Review; appointed Tutor in Sociology at Ruskin College, Oxford, 1962; launched a series of national workshops, starting in 1966, on topics previously neglected including women's history, the history of childhood, empire and patriotism, the changing definitions of nations and the cultural diversity of Britain. Participation in these workshops was to remain extremely popular into the 1970s and 1980s, and many of its contributors became initial writers for the History Workshop Journal, founded in 1975; appointed Professor at the University of East London in 1996, although died shortly after. His publications include: Village Life and Labour (1975), Miners, Quarrymen and Saltworkers (1977), People's History and Socialist Theory (1981), East End Underworld (1981), Culture, Ideology and Politics (1983), Theatres of the Left: 1880-1935 (1985), The Lost World of Communism (1986), The Enemy Within: The Miners' Strike of 1984 (1987), Patriotism: The Making and Unmaking of British National Identity (1989), Patriotsm: Minorities and Outsiders (1989), The Myths We Live By (1990), Theatres of Memory (1996) and Island Stories: Unravelling Britain (1997).
Jean Sargeant arrived in London from Antigua in 1950, at the age of 17, never to return. While taking a secretarial course, and living with her aunt, she began to explore London. Within a year she had met and married her husband and, for a few years, lived in Newcastle upon Tyne and Inverness. By the early 1960s Jean was back in London and, although the marriage was over, she remained good friends with her ex-husband for the rest of her life. She began work as a secretary at The Sunday Times and rose to become an editorial researcher in the travel section where she wrote many articles. She stayed at The Sunday Times until 1986 when she lost her job in the Wapping dispute. Despite a colonial upbringing which might have led her to different politics, Jean joined the Labour Party and actively campaigned in the 1964 general election and all subsequent elections, general and local, until the last few months of her life. She was a committed Anglican, a Christian Socialist and an active member of the Jubilee Group. A regular visitor to Lords, especially when the West Indies were playing, she was enormously proud that her grandfather, Percy Goodman, was a member of the first West Indies cricket team to tour Britain in 1900 and again in 1906 - a multi-racial team, she was pleased to point out. When the anti-apartheid Stop the Seventy Tour campaign sought to disrupt tours by the all-white South African cricket team in the late 1960s, Jean became actively involved. The campaign succeeded in stopping the 1970 South African cricket tour of Britain. After Jean lost her job in Wapping, she joined the Guardian as a secretary where she worked until her retirement.
The Spitalfields Inventory was a project to detail the features of buildings in the Spitalfields area conducted by a group of researchers between 1990 and 1991. The area was divided into 8 blocks and surveys were conducted on a select number of buildings in that area recorded on a survey form and colour transparency of the building. No further information on the origins of the project is currently known.
The Society of Public Librarians (SPL) was founded in 1895 to promote the interests and professional status of chief librarians in and around London. The Society held monthly meetings at which papers would be presented on matters of professional interest or debate, including cataloguing, public access to library shelves, the selection of books and so on. The group also hosted an annual outing every summer out of London to a historic or cultural landmark or educational institution, along with an annual dinner in the Holborn area of London. The Society, along with leading members Charles Goss, John Frowde, Frank Chennell, William Bridle and Edward Foskett, remained one of the main vehicles of opposition to open access within the public library, with debate channelled through the correspondence pages of newspapers and periodicals. The Society folded in 1930.
The archive comprises material pertaining to Frederick Porter Wensley (1865-1949) [FPW] and his family. FPW rose from humble origins in Somerset (his father was a cobbler) to become arguably the greatest British detective of his age. His early career was pursued substantially in the East End of London and the family lived for much of this period at 98 Dempsey Street (just off the Commercial Road) in Stepney - moving in 1913 to a new suburban development in Palmers Green.
The archive tells the story of FPW's marriage to "Lollie" [Laura] Martin (1869-1943) and their three children Frederick Martin Wensley (1894-1916), "Edie" [Edith] Mercy Wensley - later Cory (1897-1974) and Harold William Wensley (1899-1918). That the collection has survived is largely due to Edie who after the death of her brothers in the 'Great War' took upon herself the task of keeping the memories of the family alive. Edie's own story is then taken forward. The correspondence gives a remarkable insight into her social life, development, marriage to another detective 'Bert' [Herbert] Cory (1893-1946) and the upbringing of FPW's only grandchild Harold Frederick Wensley Cory (1927-1997).
The Wensley Family archive thus overlaps with the earlier part of the Cory (see above) Family Archive. The former relates to London whilst the latter relates to the family's period of residence in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
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Volumes 1-54 formed part of the collection of Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey, 1st Earl of Norfolk (1585-1646). Art collector, politician, and patron of antiquarians and scholars. Grandson of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (executed for treason in 1572) and son of Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel (convicted of treason in 1589, d 1595). Restored to title of Earl of Arundel in 1604. Possibly educated at Westminster School, where would have been pupil of William Camden (Clarenceux King of Arms 1597-1623), then Trinity College, Cambridge. Married Aletheia, daughter of Gilbert Talbot, seventh earl of Shrewsbury. Died in Italy in 1646. The collection was dispersed in 1678 by his grandson, Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal.
Volumes 55-64 were put in the same press in the College of Arms' Record Room but were not part of the collection donated by Thomas Howard. However, they have been bound and numbered as though they were. Since W H Black's catalogue was printed a further 6 volumes added to the press have been treated as though part of the collection (HDN 58, HDN 74, HDN 75, N.90, N.94, and a second N.61 (Historia de Hispania)).
Bethnal Green Hospital, London was originally an infirmary built by the Board of Guardians of the Parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, and opened in 1900. It was built on a site once part of Bishop Hall Farm, and leased in 1811 by William Sotheby to the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. The site was renamed Palestine Place and became the centre of the Society's activities in London. The foundation stone of a Chapel (later known as the Episcopal Jews Chapel) was laid in 1813 and in the following years schools for boys and girls and 14 houses were built.
The Board of Guardians of the Parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, approached the Society in 1891 with a view to purchasing the estate as a site for a new infirmary, but their offer was refused. In 1894 the Board applied to the Local Government Board for an order to purchase the site. Although the purchase price of £18,000 for the freehold and £17,500 for the leasehold was regarded as expensive the purchases were completed in 1895, except for a small piece of land which reverted to the Guardians in 1909. In 1948 a further piece of land on Parmiter Street was purchased by the London County Council from the Elizabeth Mary Bates Trust for the Moravians. The building was designed by Messrs Giles, Gough and Trollope and was intended to accommodate approximately 750 patients. The total cost, including the purchase of the site, was £212,894-7s-10d. The clock from the old Palestine Chapel was transferred to the tower on the new administrative block. Some of the minor furnishings, such as mattresses and tables, were made by the inmates of the Workhouse in Waterloo Road.
The Hospital was certified for 669 patients and was opened on 5th March 1900, with the first patients admitted on 17th April. The central administrative block included facilities for the Nurse Training School, which held the first examinations of candidates in 1901. The first Medical Superintendent was William James Potts and the first Matron Joanna E Hopper. From 1900 to 1906 the Hospital received 14,705 admissions. The Hospital was planned principally with chronic sick in mind and this remained the case until the First World War. In March 1915 the Military Authorities took over the Hospital for the use of wounded soldiers. Civilian patients were moved to St George-in-the-East, or to the Workhouse in Waterloo Road. The Military Hospital was commanded by Colonel E Hurry Fenwick, a Surgeon at the London Hospital from 1890 to 1910. During the military occupation a Pathological Laboratory was installed. It was not until February 1920 that all patients and staff were back in the Hospital. From 1920 to 1930 changes were made to provide a wider range of services for acute patients.
Under the Local Government Act, 1929, the Board of Guardians was dissolved and the Hospital passed to the London County Council on 1st April 1930. By 1929 casualty and receiving blocks had been built, a small X-ray Department had been added and an operating theatre was under construction. The Hospital also had a VD unit, which was closed in 1952. Its certified accommodation was 650 and it had 551 inmates. The Workhouse was mainly occupied by chronic sick and infirm under the charge of the Hospital's Medical Superintendent. The Hospital came under the control of the London County Council's Central Public Health Committee, which in 1934 became the Hospitals and Medical Services Committee. There was also a Bethnal Green Hospital Sub-Committee dealing with immediate day-to-day matters. During the 1939-1945 War, the Hospital suffered some minor bomb damage.
With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 the Hospital became part of the Central Group (No 5) within the North East Metropolitan Region. By now the number of beds was considerably reduced, being little more than 300; in 1953 there were 313 beds, with an average daily occupation rate of 260. The Group Pathology Laboratory was established at the Hospital in 1950. A Geriatric Unit was established in 1954. In 1966 the Central Group was dissolved and the Hospital became part of the East London Group; in the same year, the Postgraduate Medical Education Centre was started. In 1972 the Obstetrics Department was closed. Under the National Health Service reorganisation of 1974 Bethnal Green Hospital became part of Tower Hamlets District, managed by the City and East London Area Health Authority. In the same year the Gynaecology Department was closed. From 1977 to 1979 the Hospital's role was changed from acute to geriatric, with the closure of 167 acute beds and their replacement with 120 geriatric beds for Tower Hamlets patients in St Matthew's Hospital. In June 1978 the surgical beds were closed and the remaining 40 medical beds were closed in August 1979. The Hospital closed in 1990 when patients and staff transferred to the newly built Bancroft Unit for the Care of the Elderly at the Royal London Hospital (Mile End).
The City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching) was established in April 1974 as a result of the National Health Service Reorganisation Act, 1973. It was one of six Area Health Authorities in the North East Thames Region, and encompassed the Districts of City and Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets. It was abolished at the end of March 1982 by the Secretary of State under powers conferred on him by the National Service Act 1977 and the Health Services Act 1980.
The Joint Liaison Committee was formed in 1973, and consisted of representatives of Hospital Management Committee, Boards of Governors, Local Authorities and the Regional Hospital Board. The purpose of the Committee was to prepare for the 1974 re-organisation.
The London Hospital Dental Club was founded in 1951 to provide a forum for former and present alumni and staff of the Dental School. The Club organised annual clinical meetings, annual dinners from 1953, and provided a benevolent fund. The Dental Club also relaunched the London Hospital Gazette in 1975, in association with the Medical Club. In 2000 the London Hospital Dental Club merged with the London Hospital Medical Club and Barts Alumni Association, to form the Barts and The London Alumni Association.
The Eastern Dispensary was founded in 1782 in Great Alie Street, Stepney, moving to new premises in Leman Street in 1858. Owing to wartime difficulties it closed in September 1940 and in 1944 the building was leased to the Jewish Hospitality Committee. After the Second World War it was proposed that the Dispensary should be transferred to the London Hospital. This proved unacceptable to the Charity Commissioners, and the assets were transferred to the Marie Celeste Samaritan Society by a Charity Commission scheme in 1952.
The East London Nursing Society was established in 1868 with the aim of providing trained nurses to nurse the sick poor in their own homes in East London. Three private nurses were initially engaged to work in Bromley, Poplar and St Philips, Stepney Way. The Society merged with the Metropolitan and National Association for Providing Trained Nurses for the Sick Poor (formed in 1874), becoming its Eastern Division. However in 1881 the East End Branch assumed its original, independent position. Princess Christian became President of the Society in 1883, and in 1891 the Society became affiliated with Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses. From 1912 the Society's nurses began to attend the School Centre in Poplar. In the years that followed, the London County Council and Borough Councils increasingly supported the Society's work. In 1943 the London County Council asked the Society to take responsibility for District midwifery training in the area.
Forest Gate Hospital was established in 1913 by the West Ham Board of Guardians, as the Forest Gate Sick Home. Accommodation was provided for the chronic sick, together with 50 mentally handicapped adults and 25 mentally handicapped children, including epileptics. Some maternity patients were also admitted and their numbers grew steadily. The buildings originally housed an Industrial School established by the Guardians of the Poor of the Whitechapel Union in 1854. In 1869, management of the School was transferred to the Board of Management of the Forest Gate Schools District (comprising Hackney, Poplar and Whitechapel Unions). A disastrous fire in 1890 caused the deaths of 20 of the 84 resident boys. Poplar Union took over management of the School in 1897, and it continued as an industrial training school until its closure in 1906. In 1908 it reopened as a branch workhouse for the Poplar Union, but closed again in 1911.
The buildings were purchased in 1912 by the West Ham Board of Guardians, and the Forest Gate Sick Home opened in 1913. Under the Local Government Act, 1929, the Sick Home was transferred in 1930 to the County Borough of West Ham Public Assistance Committee. By 1930, the Hospital had 550 beds for chronic sick and mentally handicapped patients, including a Maternity Unit which was opened with 64 lying-in beds. In 1931 temporary buildings were erected to provide an additional 200 beds for chronic sick patients transferred from the Central Homes, bringing the bed complement up to 723. During the Second World War, patients were evacuated to the South Ockendon Colony, Essex. Much of the accommodation for non-maternity patients at the Hospital was destroyed by bombing, including 2 direct hits which necessitated the demolition of 5 wards. In view of this and the unsuitability of some of the accommodation, the bed compliment was reduced to 201. In 1944 management of the Hospital was transferred to the Public Health Committee of West Ham County Borough. By 1945, accommodation for 128 residents patients had reopened and the building of a new Maternity Unit with 102 beds began in 1947.
The Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948, and management was transferred to the Regional Hospitals Board. The Maternity Unit was expanded into a number of existing wards. In 1974, the Hospital, which by now had 116 beds and was called Newham Maternity Hospital, became part of Newham Health District under the City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching). With the opening in 1985 of Phase 2 of Newham General Hospital, which included Maternity beds and a Special Care Baby Unit, the Hospital was closed by Newham Health Authority.
The Hospital was a weekly journal established in 1886 by Sir Henry Burdett, who also edited the title, at first alone and later jointly. From 1888 Burdett also published an annual directory entitled Burdett's hospitals and charities: being the year book of philanthropy and The Hospital annual. From October 1921 The Hospital was published on a monthly basis as The Hospital and Health Review. From 1935, The Hospital was merged with The Hospital Gazette, which itself had been founded in 1905 and was the official organ of The British Hospitals Association and The Incorporated Association of Hospital Officers. Latterly it was published as The Hospital and Health Services Review (from 1972) by the Institute of Health Service Management, London, which also publishes The IHSM Health Services year book. From 1988 the journal was known as Health Services Management.
The London Chest Hospital was founded in 1848 as the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. Its founders, who were predominately Quakers, recognised the needs of people suffering from diseases of the heart and lungs, particularly pulmonary tuberculosis, who were not able to afford adequate medical attention. The institution was intended to offer the same advantages as the Brompton Hospital (established in 1842) conferred on West London. The Royal Chest Hospital, City Road, (founded in 1814), was perceived as too small to accommodate the growing number of patients in the north and east of London seeking care.
The Hospital was originally a public dispensary, offering out-patient care only in Liverpool. Plans were soon drawn up for a new hospital and a site was obtained through the lease of crown property at Bonners Fields, Victoria Park, East London. In 1851 the foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert, who together with Queen Victoria, contributed towards the building costs of thirty thousand pounds. The new hospital, designed by Mr Ordish, opened in 1855 and was soon able to provide 80 beds. By 1881 the original design had been completed to provide 164 beds and was one of the first to employ the corridor system. Patients were admitted on governors' recommendation and were asked to contribute towards the cost of their care. With the development of the open air treatment for tuberculosis, balconies were added to the building in 1900, and the Hospital opened its own Sanatorium for women and children at Saunderton in Buckinghamshire. In 1923 it was renamed the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Heart and Lungs, before changing again in 1937 to the London Chest Hospital. A Pathological Laboratory and Research Institute opened in 1927 through the support of the Prudential Assurance Company, and in 1937 a new surgical wing was added. Hospital buildings were badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War, but remained open thanks to public generosity in funding repairs.
The London Chest Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and was designated a teaching hospital, along with Brompton Hospital. The Board of Governors was reconstituted to cover both hospitals, with membership increased from 20 to 30. The Hospital became part of a Special Health Authority, the National Chest and Heart Hospitals (with the National Heart, the Brompton and Frimley Hospitals) in 1974. The Hospital expanded its work to take in 4 chest clinics in East London, and its cardiothoracic surgery also grew with the opening of new theatres and intensive care facilities during the 1980s. In 1988 the Hospital shared in the award of a `Royal' title to the Brompton Group. In line with government recommendations following the publication of the Tomlinson Report in 1982 the Hospital joined St Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospitals to form the Royal Hospitals NHS Trust in April 1994.
The origins of the London Hospital Medical Council date from 1831, when the medical practitioners teaching in the Medical College formed themselves into an association of "Lecturers on and Teachers of Medicine, Surgery and Anatomy and other Sciences connected therewith at the Theatre attached to the London Hospital". The deed of covenant which created the body also set out basic rules for the Association and the ownership of the college museum. Records of the Association from 1831 to 1846 are lost, although some information from the minutes is recorded in a notebook by James Luke.
The Association became the Medical Council of the London Hospital School in 1847, and membership was extended to include the assistant physicians and surgeons. The old Medical College premises were now proving inadequate and in 1854 the Governors of the Hospital agreed to erect a new building. In the resultant administrative changes, the medical and surgical officers of the Hospital took over the management of the College from the Medical Council, as the London Hospital College Council. In practice, the Medical Council and the College Council consisted of the same people.
The management of the College was in the hands of the College Council (called, by 1868, the Medical Council of the London Hospital School) from 1855 to 1876, and the Medical Council continued to be heavily involved with the affairs of the college. In 1876 the Medical Council and the Board of Governors jointly established a College Board, comprising members of the House Committee and Medical Council. The Medical Council became less involved with the Medical College's affairs, and transferred its executive functions to the College Board. In 1888 membership of the Council comprised the physicians and surgeons of the hospital and lecturers at the Medical College of two years standing. In 1901 membership of the Council was extended, making it the sole channel through which views of the medical staff were expressed. The principal role of the Council was to advise the governors and the House Committee on all matters which affected the medical staff.
The Council had the power to create committees for particular purposes, but from 1960 its committee structure consisted of a Medical Committee and a Surgical Committee, and a Standing Committee to which they reported. In the late 1960s, the Medical Council's Medical and Surgical Committees were replaced by Divisions. Between 1969 and 1978 further divisions of Anaesthesia, Dentistry, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Pathology and Radiography (later Medical Imaging), Scientific and Technical Services and Paramedical Services were created. In 1971 the Standing Committee was abolished and replaced by the Final Medical Committee, which acted as the medium for transmitting advice between the Board of Governors (later District Management Team) and the consultant medical and dental staff. In 1974 the scope of the council was extended to include the whole of the new Tower Hamlets Health District, becoming the Medical Council of the London and Tower Hamlets Hospitals.
The Dental Council developed from the Dental School Committee, which was formed in 1911 to manage the Dental School. The Dental Council became known as the London Hospital Dental Board from 1913 to 1921, and from 1922 onwards the Dental Council. In 1974 the Council became the Division of Dentistry, reporting to the Final Medical Committee.
As a result of the "Cogwheel" reports of the late 1960s the pattern of the advisory structure of the Medical Council's Committee of Medicine and Surgery was replaced by Divisions, that of Medicine first meeting in October 1968 and that of Surgery in the following Year. Between 1969 and 1982 further divisions were created: Anaesthesia, Dentistry, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Pathology and Radiography (later Medical Imaging), Scientific and Technical Services and Paramedical Services.
A further development of this process was the abolition of the Standing Committee of the Medical Council (q.v. LM) and its replacement in 1971 by the Final Medical Committee. This body consists essentially of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Medical Council and representatives of the various divisions; acting as the official medium for the transmission of information and advice between the District Management Team (later Board) and the consultant medical and dental staff. As was the case with the Medical Council, the advisory structure was expanded in 1974 to include all of the District Hospitals. The Final Medical Committee was replaced by the Standing Committee of the Medical Council in February 1989: this was wound up in March 1995. The Divisions were replaced (excepting Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Paramedical Services) by four Strategic Planning Groups: 1. Local Acute Services, 2. Regional Services, 3. Sub-Regional Specialities and 4. Support and Diagnostic Departments.
St Bartholomew's Hospital was founded, with the Priory of St Bartholomew, in 1123 by Rahere, a former courtier of Henry I. A vow made while sick on a pilgrimage to Rome, and a vision of St Bartholomew, inspired Rahere to found a priory and a hospital for the sick poor at Smithfield in London. Rahere was the first Prior of the Priory of Austin Canons in Smithfield and supervised the Hospital House. In 1170 a layman Adam the Mercer was given charge of the Hospital as the first Proctor and a certain amount of independence from the Priory was achieved. After 1170 grants were received by the Hospital, which attracted valuable endowments of property. However, relations with the Priory remained problematic throughout the medieval period. There were conflicts over several issues, including the admittance of brethren, lay-brethren and sisters who cared for the sick in the early medieval period. Gradually the Hospital became independent, and was using a distinctive seal from about 1200. By 1300 the title of Proctor used for the head of the Hospital was dropped in favour of Master. By 1420 the two institutions had become entirely separate. As well as caring for patients from the City of London and the country the brethren looked after small children and babies from Newgate Prison, and orphans. By the 15th century a school had been formed with a latin master, and a night shelter for pilgrims and travellers was provided.
The Priory of St Bartholomew was closed during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, and although the Hospital was allowed to continue, its future was uncertain as it had no income. The citizens of London, concerned about the disappearance of provision for the sick poor and the possibility of plague, petitioned the King in 1538 for the grant of four hospitals in the City including St Bartholomew's. In 1546-1547 St Bartholomew's Hospital was refounded as a secular institution and a Master and Vice-Master, Curate, Hospitaller and Visitor of Newgate Prison were appointed. Henry issued a signed agreement dated December 1546 granting the Hospital to the City of London, and Letters Patent of January 1547 endowing it with properties and income, comprising most of its medieval property. Along with Bethlem, Bridewell and St Thomas', St Bartholomew's became one of four Royal Hospitals administered by the City.
In 1546 four Aldermen and eight Common Councillors of the City of London became the first Governors of the Hospital. They administered the Hospital and appointed paid officials, including a Renter-Clerk, Steward, Porter and eight Beadles. The Board of Governors also divided work amongst themselves. Four were Almoners with responsibility for admitting and discharging patients, ordering stock and checking bills. They worked closely with the Treasurer, responsible for Hospital finances. The weekly meetings of the Treasurer and Almoners developed into an executive committee in the 19th century, reporting to General Courts of the Governors, and became the Executive and Finance Committee in 1948. Other Governors were Surveyors of the Hospital buildings and property. The first professional Surveyor was appointed in 1748. Some Governors had responsibility for inspecting financial statements, and worked closely with the Treasurer and Almoners. Their meetings developed into the House Committee in the 18th century, dealing with leases, appointments and reports of the Hospital Surveyor. The House Committee met frequently and eventually came to manage the routine running of the Hospital. The General Courts of Governors were held two or three times a year. The basic constitution of the Hospital remained the same until the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948. The Medical Council was formed in 1842 to give expert advice to the Governors, and comprised all physicians and surgeons serving the Hospital.
The nursing staff on the Hospital's re-foundation consisted of a Matron and twelve Sisters, and there were also three Surgeons who had to attend the poor daily. Nurses, or "Sisters' helpers", were first recorded in 1647. Although a Physician had been provided for in the Agreement of 1546, the first Physician was not appointed until 1562. A Medical School was gradually established from the end of the 18th century, but its foundation is generally attributed to the efforts of the surgeon and lecturer John Abernethy, who in 1822 persuaded the Hospital Governors to pass a resolution giving formal recognition to the School. Bart's was one of the first hospitals in the 19th century to encourage the use of anaesthetics, making a great many more kinds of operation possible. Understanding of infection and the importance of antiseptic procedures in surgery were only gradually accepted at Bart's, but once adopted did a great deal to reduce patient mortality. The development of medical science, particularly in pathology and bacteriology, led to an increased knowledge of disease. X-rays were first used in the Hospital in 1896 and by the end of the century the first specialised departments had been established. A School of Nursing at St Bartholomew's was founded in 1877. A notable early Matron was Ethel Gordon Manson, better known as Mrs Bedford Fenwick, who encouraged a high standard of training and campaigned for the state registration of nurses.
All the medieval hospital buildings were demolished during the 18th century rebuilding programme, carried out to the designs of architect James Gibbs. The staircase leading to the Great Hall in the North Wing is decorated with two huge paintings by the artist William Hogarth. Other buildings have continued to be added as the need has arisen, including Medical College buildings, nurses' accommodation and new ward blocks.
The Hospital remained open throughout the World Wars, although during World War Two many services were evacuated to Hertfordshire and Middlesex. In 1954 it became the first hospital in the country to offer mega-voltage radiotherapy for cancer patients. Cancer services remain a speciality today. Other notable medical specialities are endocrinology and immunology (particularly HIV/AIDS), while a Day Surgery Unit and state-of-the-art operating theatres were opened in 1991 and 1993.
In 1948 St Bartholomew's became part of the National Health Service, and following re-organisation in 1974 became the teaching hospital for the newly-formed City and Hackney Health District, which included several other hospitals. In the late 1980s, Bart's was planning to set up a self-governing hospital trust when its future was called into question by the publication in 1992 of the Tomlinson Report of the Inquiry into the London Health Service. Bart's was not regarded as a viable hospital and its closure was recommended. The Government's response to this report (Making London Better, 1993), laid out three possible options for Bart's: closure, retention as a small specialist hospital, or merger with the Royal London Hospital and the London Chest Hospital. This produced an intense public debate and a campaign to save the Hospital on its Smithfield site. The result was St Bartholomew's remained open, and joined with the Royal London and the London Chest to form the Royal Hospitals NHS Trust in 1994, which became Barts and The London NHS Trust in 1999. St Bartholomew's Hospital now provides specialist cardiac and cancer care. The Medical Colleges of St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Royal London Hospital merged with Queen Mary, University of London in 1989, to form the Central and East London Confederation (CELC). Following the recommendations of the Tomlinson Report (1992) and the governmental response to it (Making London Better, 1993), the colleges united with Queen Mary & Westfield College in December 1995, to become known as Barts and The London School of Medicine & Dentistry.
The City and Hackney Health District was created in 1974 and formed one of three Health Districts in the City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching), its boundaries coinciding with those of the Local Authority. The two other districts were Tower Hamlets and Newham. The District became the City and Hackney Health District Authority in 1982. It was abolished in 1993 and superceded by the East London and The City Health Authority.
Hospitals in the area were divided into units, with St Bartholomew's Hospital Unit comprising St Bartholomew's, St Leonard's and St Mark's hospitals; City of London Unit comprising St Bartholomew's and St Mark's; and the Hackney Unit comprising the Hackney, Eastern, Mothers', German, Homerton and St Matthew's hospitals. The Joint Consultative Committee was established to provide for joint care planning between local authorities and health authorities, and drew its membership from the London Borough of Hackney, the City of London Corporation, the Inner London Education Authority, the City and East London Family Practitioner Committee and voluntary organisations, as well as City and Hackney Health Authority. The City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching) was responsible for the healthcare facilities in the City of London and the London Boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham. It was divided into three Health Districts: City and Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets.
The Mothers' Hospital traces its origins to the work for unmarried mothers begun in the earliest days of the Salvation Army. 'Refuge Homes' for poor and destitute women were provided in private houses in various parts of London. As part of this scheme the Salvation Army established a home at Ivy House, Mare Street, Hackney in 1884. Many of the women seeking shelter there were pregnant, and in 1888 the Salvation Army decided to dedicate Ivy House to the confinement of unmarried mothers. Although maternity hospitals had existed in this country since the eighteenth century, these were almost entirely reserved for married mothers only. This was the first time that maternity hospital facilities had been combined with a 'Home of Refuge'.
The Hospital trained its first student midwife in 1889 and more than 250 pupil midwives graduated from the school during its eighteen year existence at Ivy House. During this period, the Hospital continued to expand and more buildings were bought. One of the later developments was a mother-and-baby home called Cotland, based at 11 Springfield Road, Upper Clapton. It existed between 1912 and 1920, and many of the women mentioned in the records of the Mothers' Hospital gave Cotland as an address. Finally, the Salvation Army purchased land in Lower Clapton Road, London E5 in order to build a hospital dedicated to unmarried mothers. In 1912, the foundation stone for the new Mothers' Hospital was laid by Princess Louise, daughter to Queen Victoria, and the Hospital was officially opened in 1913. Designed for 600 births per year, it soon outgrew its facilities and various extensions were made over the years. The new Hospital continued to uphold the teaching tradition of Ivy House and midwives were trained to the standards of the London Obstetrical Society and of the Central Midwives Board (CMB). Pupils attended classes for Parts I and II of the examinations of the CMB and gained experience both on the wards and in District work.
The First World War meant that the Hospital opened its doors to both married and unmarried women. Soldiers could not always send sufficient money to their families and the loss of many lives often caused acute poverty. Therefore, it was decided that the Hospital would be allowed to admit married women whose husbands were in the Army or Navy, or had been killed. Since that time the Hospital accepted both married and unmarried mothers. Between the two world wars, many improvements and additions were made. In 1921, the new nurses' home and theatre were opened by Queen Mary. By the 1930s, the number of births had risen to 2,000 per annum. The Hospital suffered damage during the Second World War, but fortunately there was no great loss of life. Arrangements were made for evacuation to Willersley Castle in Matlock, Derbyshire and to Bragborough Hall, Northamptonshire. However, the Hospital remained in service throughout the war for those who did not leave London. In all, 6,587 babies were born there between September 1939 and August 1945.
Research and innovation were always encouraged at the Mothers' Hospital. One interesting experiment which foreshadowed modern techniques of nursing was dictated by wartime conditions. In defiance of current practice, patients were made ambulant on the second day after delivery. The purpose of this carefully controlled experiment was to facilitate the orderly transfer of patients to the air-raid shelter and make more shelter space available. Margaret Basden, consultant obstetrician in residence during the war, recorded 'from personal experience how smoothly the scheme works, how well the patients stand it, and how striking has been the absence of any confusion or panic'.
With the creation of the National Health Service in 1948, the Hospital was given over to the Minister for Health and was later administered as part of the Hackney Group of Hospitals. However, Health Service Authorities agreed that a proportion of the staff should be members of the Salvation Army and thus the Hospital was able to maintain its individuality. In 1952, Lorne House was acquired opposite the Hospital and used as a training centre and home for 24 nurses. There was also a visiting service provided for mothers giving birth in their own homes. Between 1948 and 1974, the Mothers' Hospital belonged to the Hackney Group Hospital Management Committee and on 1 April 1974, the Group became part of the City and Hackney Health District. The Mothers' Hospital was closed in 1986, and all obstetric services were transferred to the Homerton Hospital.
Hackney Hospital had its origins in 1750, when the wardens, overseers and trustees of the parish of St John, Hackney, ordered that a room be reserved in the workhouse in Homerton High Street so that sick paupers could be treated separately from other inmates. A matron and one nurse were appointed, and by the following year a larger room was needed and the matron's charge was extended to include the insane as well as the sick. The matron was able to order any of the healthy inmates to help her in treating the 'unfortunates'. Social conditions in Hackney were among the worst in London and there was a continual need for the workhouse and its infirmary to expand to meet the demands made upon it. In 1801, more land was acquired in Homerton High Street. However, it was not considered worthwhile to make improvements until after the freehold of all the property used for the relief of the poor was obtained in 1848. The Guardians of the Poor, who had taken over the responsibility for poor relief from the parish trustees in 1834, then immediately began to rebuild and modernise the buildings, managing to complete the work within two years. There was a cholera epidemic raging at the time, fuelled by the overcrowded conditions and poor drainage in the area. The parish medical officer had resigned in 1849 because he was unable to cope with attending all the sick poor, so the workhouse infirmary was quickly filled to capacity and beyond.
The Guardians took every opportunity to expand and improve the buildings. There is no mention of bad conditions at the Hackney Infirmary in the Lancet's survey of workhouse infirmaries published in 1866, despite it giving a general impression of the workhouses as rather dismal places. They were usually overcrowded, with few comforts, and the walls were painted dull brown and white with little ornament or decoration. The inmates slept on flock beds on wooden or iron bedsteads. There were few books or other amusements and card games were strictly forbidden. The food was usually adequate, but often cold after being carried long distances from the kitchens. The inmates' diet included mutton, bread and beer, but never fruit or vegetables. There were never enough nurses to look after the sick and those that were employed usually had no training and were inclined to drunkenness, encouraged by allowances of beer and gin to supplement their wages. A direct result of the Lancet's survey was the passing of the Metropolitan Poor Law Act in 1867. This resulted in further rebuilding at Hackney so that the Infirmary was entirely separate from the main workhouse buildings, according to the provisions of the Act. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Infirmary accommodated 606 beds. The nursing staff were now partially trained and consisted of a matron and her assistant, eleven staff nurses, twenty-six students and six ward maids. The nurses worked fifty-seven hours per week, or seventy-two hours if on night duty.
In 1930, the Hackney Institution as it was then known, was taken over by the London County Council. However, it was not until four years later that the healthy inmates were moved out and referred to the Public Assistance Committee and the workhouse finally ceased to exist. Its buildings were then used to provide hospital accommodation, but were administered separately until 1938, when they were amalgamated with the Infirmary under one matron. Among the first improvements was the building of a nurses' home in 1937, whilst wards and kitchens were also updated. In 1948, the Hospital came under the control of the newly formed Ministry of Health. For the next 25 years it was administered jointly with the Eastern, the German and the Mothers' hospitals, which together formed the Hackney Group of Hospitals. The Ministry made funds available for further improvements, including a new out-patients department opened in 1956 and physiotherapy rooms the following year. An oncology department with two wards was also opened. With reorganisation in 1974, Hackney Hospital and the other hospitals in the Group became part of the new City and Hackney Health District, the teaching hospital for which was St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1987, the City and Hackney Health Authority opened a new hospital, the Homerton, and the general services from Hackney Hospital were gradually transferred there. Only psychiatric and geriatric services remained at Hackney and, in 1995, these too were transferred to Homerton. The Hackney Hospital was closed in 1995.
St Leonard's Hospital originated in 1777 as the infirmary of St Leonard Shoreditch Workhouse, on the Kingsland Road, Hackney. The workhouse incorporated two wards for sick paupers, but there was little proper organisation of treatment until the appointment of James Parkinson as parish surgeon, apothecary and man-midwife in 1813. He divided the wards into male and female, surgical and medical, with additional maternity, incurable and insane wards. It was also Parkinson who established a separate fever block in the workhouse for the segregation of infectious patients, particularly those suffering from cholera. This was the first of its kind in London. In 1817, Parkinson published an 'Essay on the Shaking Palsy', in which he described the condition we now call Parkinson's Disease. James Parkinson died in December 1824, but his work was continued by his son, John William Keys Parkinson, previously his father's assistant.
By the 1860s it had become necessary to rebuild the workhouse, which was declared unsafe. The tender of Messrs Perry & Co of Stratford to carry out the work for £47,750 was accepted and building began in 1863. The new buildings were completed in 1866, and included provision for the care of 350 sick poor people in wards separate from the other inmates of the workhouse. In 1871 a further £10,000 was spent on additions and alterations to provide an infirmary and dispensary in a building separate from the main workhouse, according to the requirements of the Metropolitan Poor Act of 1867. However, it remained in the administration of the Shoreditch Board of Guardians until 1930. The new building was opened in 1872 with 503 beds and a Matron was appointed for the first time.
In 1930 the London County Council (LCC) took over the running of St Leonard's. The workhouse was closed and the buildings were incorporated into the infirmary which, since 1920, had been called a hospital. In 1934 the buildings were condemned, but the outbreak of the Second World War prevented any improvements being made. St Leonard's is believed to have been the first London hospital to receive air-raid casualties and was itself bombed in 1941. After the war the condemned buildings continued to be used until a public enquiry prompted the LCC to start improvement works. These were in progress when control of the Hospital passed to the Minister of Health upon the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948. St Leonard's was grouped with four other local hospitals to form Central Group no 5, administered by a Hospital Management Committee. From 1966 to 1974, the Hospital was under the administration of the East London Group Hospital Management Committee.
With the 1974 reorganisation of the Health Service, St Leonard's Hospital became part of the City of London and Hackney Health District, along with St Bartholomew's, St Mark's, the Metropolitan, the Eastern, Hackney, the German and the Mothers' Hospitals. St Leonard's remained a general hospital until 1984, when the in-patient facilities were closed. It was then developed as a centre for co-ordinating community services and supporting health centres. St Leonard's has also become the home for various District Services including physiotherapy, chiropody, a disability resource centre and a diabetic day centre.
The League of St Bartholomew's Nurses was founded in 1899. Isla Stewart, Matron of Bart's, was President and Mrs Bedford Fenwick, former matron and campaigner for state registration, a founder member. Membership was open to nurses who passed the final certificate examination at St Bartholomew's Hospital, regardless of whether they continued their career at Bart's. In recent years, senior nurses working at Bart's have also been eligible for membership even if they qualified at another hospital. The objects of the League have varied from time to time, but have generally included mutual assistance and the maintenance of professional interests of nurses, besides the organisation of social events. The League News was printed twice yearly from 1900 to 1919, and annually from 1920.
The Dispensary was founded in 1770 as the General Dispensary, Aldersgate Street, and was also known as the Aldersgate Dispensary. It was renamed the Royal General Dispensary in 1844 and moved from 36 Aldersgate Street to 25 Bartholomew Close in 1850. The premises were rebuilt in 1879. In 1932, the Dispensary made arrangements for its medical and secretarial work to be undertaken by St Bartholomew's Hospital. The building in Bartholomew's Close was destroyed by enemy action in 1941. In 1948, the business of the Dispensary was finally wound up and amalgamated with St Bartholomew's Hospital.
St Audoen alias St Ewin was a small church which stood at the north-west corner of Warwick Lane, Ludgate, and its existence is first recorded in about 1220. The church was demolished in about 1583, and the parish became part of Christ Church Greyfriars. The endowments of St Audoen were transferred to St Bartholomew's Hospital by a charter of Henry VIII. The parish of St Audoen was abolished in 1547 when the new parish of Christchurch Newgate Street was formed.
The Guild of St Bartholomew's Hospital was established in 1911, with the objective of providing for the needs and comfort of the patients and staff. At this time it was called 'The Women's Guild' and had 368 members. In the years before 1948, the Guild gave financial support towards the salaries of the four Out-patient Almoners. They also provided voluntary workers and financial help for 'necessitous cases' amounting to £100 a year. During the Second World War the Guild opened a small shop called 'Bart's Bazaar' and mebers provided clothing, household goods, comfort and tea for those people bombed out of their homes in the City. After the war the Guild took over the supplying and running of the Childrens' Library, and in 1946 the trolley service began. This enabled patients to do a little shopping whilst in bed and proved to be of considerable psychological benefit to them. In 1960 the Guild opened a flower shop and in 1972 they established a shop sellng a range of goods tailored to the needs of patients and staff. In 1979 the word 'Women's' was dropped from the name of the Guild and for the first time men were invited to become members. In 1980 the Guild raised sufficient funds to provide six beds for the new Intensive Care Unit, at a cost of £1500 per bed.
William Hunter (1718-1783) had opened his school of anatomy in Covent Garden in 1745, and his brother John joined him as his apprentice in 1748. John attended William Cheselden's surgical practice at Chelsea Hospital during 1749-1750 and in 1751 he became an apprentice at St Bartholomew's Hospital under the surgeon Percival Pott. In 1754 he entered St George's Hospital as a surgeon's pupil and was appointed House Surgeon in 1756, but resigned the post after only five months. He was elected to the surgeoncy of St George's in 1767.
When St George's Hospital had opened in 1733, six physicians and three surgeons had been appointed as the medical officers and were permitted a small number of students who accompanied them on the wards or attended operations. The fees collected from these pupils were pooled between the medical officers but there was no general teaching or lectures. Hunter attempted to formalise the teaching and invited all pupils to attend his surgical lectures and his brother William's anatomical lectures at the School of Anatomy in Great Windmill Street, opened by that William in 1768. In 1783 John suggested that St George's should have its own medical school run along the same lines as the Guys' Hospital school, with each of the St George's surgeons giving six lectures annually, though his colleagues rejected the idea. An acrimonious conflict developed between Hunter and his peers at St George's on the instruction of pupils. At a board meeting on 16 Oct 1793 during the discussion of the issue, Hunter suffered a fit of apoplexy leading to his death.
Hunter's pupils revolutionised medicine in the first half of the 19th century. These included Edward Jenner, renowned for his work in vaccinating against Smallpox, and Everard Home, Hunter's brother-in-law, who gave the first recorded lecture in St George's in 1803.
William Henry Perkin was an English chemist born in East London; he entered the Royal College of Chemistry aged 15 and discovered the first aniline dye, Mauveine, at the age of 18. Perkin's discovery set off the subsequent discovery of other new aniline dyes which led on to factories being established to produce them. Another result of his discovery was the increase in the processing of coal tar, the main source of material for his dye. Perkin was widely lauded in his later life (including his knighthood in 1906) and was also President of the Chemical Society from 1883 to 1885.
Born in Edinburgh in 1873, Balfour received his education at George Watson's college and at the University of Edinburgh where he graduated MB CM in 1894. After graduation he joined his father in general practice but it soon became clear that he was inclined toward preventive rather than curative medicine. He went to Cambridge University in 1895, taking his Diploma in Public Health in 1897. He returned to Edinburgh University where he graduated MD with a thesis on the toxicity of dyestuffs and river pollution for which he was awarded the Gold Medal. He took the Edinburgh BSc in Public Health at Edinburgh University in 1900 before serving as a civil surgeon in the Transvaal in the second Boer War, 1900-1901. On his return he became interested in tropical medicine through his friendship with Sir Patrick Manson and took a course at the School. In 1902 he was appointed Director of the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratory at Khartoum and Medical Officer of Health to that city. He remained in Khartoum until 1913 and his work was published in four reports from the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories (1904-1911). On his return to England, he founded and directed the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research and organised what was to become the Wellcome Museum of Medical Science. He made an extensive tour of South America and the West Indies. He took on many different roles during world war one, at the outbreak he was in uniform in France, in 1915 he became a temporary Lt Col, Royal Army Medical Corps. In 1915-1916 he became a member of the Medical Advisory Committee, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, he was the President of the Medical Advisory Committee, Mesopotamia 1916-1917, Scientific Adviser to Inspecting Surgeon-General, British Expeditionary Force, East Africa, 1917 and President of the Egyptian Public Health Commission, 1918. He returned as Director in Chief of the Wellcome Bureau and became a member of the Colonial Advisory Medical and Sanitary Committee and Medical Research Committee. In 1921 he visited Mauritius to advise on sanitation and went to Bermuda in 1923 on a similar expedition. In 1923 he was appointed the first Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1926 he revisited the Sudan at the invitation of the Government, presided at the opening of the State Institute in Warsaw and gave an address at the opening of the School of Hygiene in John Hopkins University in America. He was elected President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1925-1927, he became D.Sc and LL.D (Edinburgh) and LL.D of John Hopkins and Rochester Universities in USA and also a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and Edinburgh. In 1920 he received the Mary Kingsley Medal of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He was knighted in 1930. He died from a fall from a window of a nursing home in Kent on 1 January 1931. Selected publications include (medicine): Medicine, Public Health and Preventive Medicine (with C. J. Lewis, 1902); Memoranda on Medical Diseases in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Areas (1916); War Against Tropical Disease (1920); Reports to the Health Committee of the League of Nations on Tuberculosis and Sleeping Sickness in Equatorial Africa (1923); Health Problems of the Empire (with H. H. Scott, 1924); (novels/historical adventures): By Stroke of Sword (1897); To Arms (1898); Vengeance is Mine (1899); Cashiered and Other War Stories (1902); The Golden Kingdom (1903).
Sir Austin Bradford Hill was born on 8 July 1897 in Hampstead, London, son of Sir Leonard Erskine Hill (1866-1952), professor of physiology at the London Hospital medical college, and his wife, Janet, née Alexander (1868-1956). Bradford Hill was educated at Chigwell School, 1908-1916. He was destined for the study of medicine when, as a pilot in World War One, he was invalided out of the forces with near fatal tuberculosis while serving at Gallipoli in the Dardanelles campaign.
Recovering at home, he took an external London degree in economics and, encouraged by the family friend Major Greenwood, began statistical studies for the Medical Research Council in 1923. Moving with Greenwood to the new London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1927, he became Reader in Epidemiology and Vital Statistics, 1933-1945. The first edition of his textbook Principles of Medical Statistics was published in 1937 and has influenced generations of medical statisticians and epidemiologists, and left its mark on the development of medical science in the second half of the twentieth century, as have his seminal studies on carcinogenic effects of smoking (with Richard Doll) and on the use of randomisation in clinical trials of new drugs. Bradford Hill was Honorary Director of the MRC's Statistical Research Unit, 1945-61; 'acting' Dean, then Dean of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1955-1957.
CBE, 1951; knighted, 1961; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1954, and received honorary degrees from Oxford and Edinburgh and many honorary fellowships and medals, including an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of London and the gold medal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1953. Bradford Hill died, 18 April 1991.
Publications include: Principles of medical statistics (The Lancet; Oxford University Press, London and New York, 1971); Statistical methods in clinical and preventive medicine (Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1962) and Experimental epidemiology by M. Greenwood, A. Bradford Hill, W. W. C. Topley and J. Wilson, Medical Research Council (Great Britain) Special report series, no. 209 (H. M. Stationery Office, London, 1936).
Cinchona-Institute was a non-profit research institute connected to the quinine industry of Holland.
Professor John David Gillett was born in 1913; began working with P A Buxton's Department of Entomology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1930 having failed nine O-Level subjects at school, 1930; his first appointment was feeding and general upkeep of the Department's colonies of living insects.
Gillett went to East Africa with H S Leeson to educate himself in the study of mosquitoes, 1936, staying on for the next 26 years in Uganda's Medical Department. This was only interrupted with visits to the UK to obtain degrees and during World War Two, when he spent a year on an island in Lake Victoria, attempting to control sleeping sickness by reducing the number of tsetse in the infected area - this was a short term solution and it eventually became necessary to evacuate the island's entire population. In 1941, an outbreak of yellow fever occurred in western Uganda and he was seconded to the Rockefeller Foundation's Yellow Fever Institute to work in Bwamba on the old Congo border.
Gillett chose to retake his O-levels and then A-levels and was accepted at University College London to read Zoology, Physiology and Biochemistry. He graduated in 1949, with first class honours and returned to Uganda with his wife and two children to rejoin Haddow at what had become the East African Virus Research Institute. In 1955 he was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study mosquito virus relations in the United States. After his return to Uganda he was appointed Assistant Director to Alec Haddow at the East African Virus Research Institute, where they collaborated in a study of periodic behaviour in mosquitoes. He awarded the DSc from London, 1960.
Gillett returned to Britain, 1962, and was elected to the Chair of Applied Biology at Brunel University where later he was appointed Head of Biological Sciences. After serving two years as Treasurer of the Royal Entomological Society of London, he was elected President, 1977-79, and retired, 1978, becoming a Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Gillett died in 1995.
Publications include: Mosquitoes (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1971); Yellow fever in western Uganda By Mahaffy, A. F., K. C. Smithburn, H. R. Jacopx and J. D. Gillettt. (Trans. R. Sox. Trop. Med. Hyg. 36, 1942) and The cyclical transmission of yellow fever virus through the grivet monkey, Cercopithecus aethiops centraZis Neumann, and the mosquito Aedes Megomyia africanus by Ross, R. W. and J. D. Gillett (Theobald. Ann. Trop. Med. Parasit. 44, 1950).
Born 1861; educated Epsom College and London Hospital; Assistant Resident Medical Officer, South-East Fever Hospital, New Cross, London; House Physician, House Surgeon and Resident Accoucheur, London Hospital; Medical Officer in charge Sleeping Sickness Extended Investigation; Principal Medical Officer, Uganda Protectorate, 1908-1918; Lt Col Commanding Uganda Medical Service and Assistant Director of Medical Services for Uganda, 1914-1918; Fellow Royal Institute of Public Health; Fellow Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; died 1946. Publications: Observations relating to the transmission of Sleeping Sickness in Uganda; the distribution and bionomics of Glossina palpalis; and to clearing measures and Progress Report on the Uganda Sleeping Sickness Camps from December, 1906, to November 30th, 1908 (Royal Society, Sleeping Sickness Bureau, London, 1909).
Sir William Wilson Jameson was born in 1885; educated at Aberdeen University and University College London, graduating in arts at Aberdeen in 1905 and qualified MB Ch.B at Marischal College in 1909. After resident posts in London hospitals he obtained the DPH in 1914. Henry Kenwood, on the outlook for talent for his department as Professor of Hygiene at University College London appointed him assistant lecturer in the same year; the two men then shared academic and wartime duties throughout World War One.
Jameson served in France, Italy, and at Aldershot as Specialist Sanitary Officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps, deputising in between teaching duties and the running of the department for Kenwood during the latter's absences serving with the Army Medical Advisory Board. Demobilised in 1919, Jameson then spent almost 10 years as MOH in Finchley and St Marylebone, and writing Synopsis of Hygiene (1st ed. 1920), with G S Parkinson. Appointed to the new Chair of Public Health at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, January 1929, he managed his new responsibilities as Professor, Head of Division, and Dean of the School with the consummate skill and tact needed within the new School.
Jameson was appointed Dean after the death of Sir Andrew Balfour in 1931, a position he held for nine years until he was appointed Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health in 1940, a position he held for ten years. His further very distinguished career included decisive influence on the creation of the National Health Service through his links with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. For a time he acted part-time as Medical Advisor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He travelled widely in the tropics and visited Uganda and West Africa where his advice on many matters was been sought, so he was also of great service to tropical medicine. He was the Harveian Orator of the Royal College of Physicians in 1942 and he received the Bisset Hawkins Medal in 1950. He served on the General Medical Council from 1942-1947. Jameson was knighted, 1939; Knight Commander of the Bath, 1943 and Knight Grand Cross Order of the British Empire, 1949. Jameson died in 1962.
Publications include A synopsis of hygiene by W. W. Jameson and G. S. Parkinson (Churchill, London, 1936).
W H Russell Lumsden was born, 1914; graduated in science and medicine from the University of Glasgow; studied tropical medicine and hygiene at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and worked as a research fellow in the Department of Parasitology and Entomology. During World War Two he served in malaria field laboratories of the Royal Army Medical Corps and then spent a year with Patrick Buxton becoming Medical Research Council Senior Fellow in Buxton's department, 1946-1947; joined the Yellow Fever Research Institute at Entebbe, Uganda where he remained until he became Director of the East African Trypanosomiasis Research Organisation (EATRO) from 1957 to 1963. Lumsden was Chair of Medical Protozoology 1968-1979.
Born 1841; student at Bedford College, 1868; Resident, Bedford College Boarding House in Bedford Square and York Place, London, until 1894; Assistant, Department of Latin, Bedford College, 1881-1891; Honorary Librarian, Bedford College, 1883-1895; Member of Council, Bedford College, University of London, 1891-1901 and 1909-1913; Member of House Committee, 1891-1921, and Library Committee, 1890-1921, Bedford College; Secretary of Reid Trustees, 1882-1921; Notcutt Travelling Studentship instituted by the Reid Trust, 1918; died 1921.
Born 1885: educated Clapham High School, London, and Girton College, Cambridge University; Gilchrist Fellowship, Cambridge University, 1908-1909; Assistant Lecturer, 1909-1921, Lecturer, 1921-1929, Reader, 1929-1936, and Professor, 1936-1950, in Classics and Greek, Bedford College, University of London; Head of Greek Department, Bedford College, 1936-1950; Honorary Fellow of Girton College, 1955, Bedford College, 1969, and Manchester College, Oxford University, 1969; President, Unitarian Assembly, 1952-1953; President of the Hellenic Society, 1953-1956; President of the Classical Association, 1957-1958; Professor Emeritus, [1950]; died 1973.
Publications: editor of A golden treasury of the Bible (Lindsey Press, London, 1934); preface to Hymns for school and home (Sunday School Association, London, 1920); The Hippias Major, attributed to Plato. With introductory essay and commentary by Dorothy Tarrant (University Press, Cambridge, 1928); Lessons for the little ones (Sunday School Association, London, 1924) with E D Scott; The contribution of Plato to free religious thought: the Essex Hall lecture (Lindsey Press, London, [1949]); The question of moderate drinking: an address delivered at the annual meeting of the Temperance Collegiate Association, April 16th 1953 (Temperance Collegiate Association, Cardiff, [1953]); What Unitarians believe (Lindsey Press, London, [1926]).