When he was a boy Sisson's family moved to Switzerland where he went to school. He entered the Navy in 1860 as a cadet in the BRITANNIA and was promoted to midshipman in 1862 After serving in the NEPTUNE, 1861 to 1863, in the Mediterranean, the EDGAR in home waters, 1863 to 1866 and the DORIS in North America and the West Indies from 1866 to 1869, he was promoted to lieutenant in 1869. From 1872 to 1875 Sisson was in the PETEREL on the Pacific Station. After a spell in the MALABAR in 1878 he commanded the FIREBRAND at the Cape of Good Hope from 1879 to 1882. He retired as a commander in 1882 and in 1883 was appointed Port Captain of Natal but died the same year.
Smith entered the Navy in 1777 and served in North America and the West Indies, where in 1780 he was promoted to lieutenant. After the American War of Independence, he travelled in France, North Africa and the Baltic as a government agent and at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he was in Smyrna. He joined Hood at Toulon and took part in its evacuation and burning. In 1794 he was employed in the North Sea and in 1796 off Le Havre, where he was captured during a cutting-out expedition. For two years he was a prisoner but escaped in 1798, when he was given command of Tigre as senior officer in the Levant. In 1799 his success at the defence of Acre halted the advance of the French army. He was elected Member of Parliament for Rochester in 1802. On the resumption of the war Smith commanded a squadron off Holland. In 1805 he was promoted to rear-admiral and went to the Mediterranean where he was active off the coast of South Italy. He took part in the expedition to the Dardanelles in 1807 and in the following year went briefly to the South American Station. In 1810 he was promoted to vice-admiral and went in 1812 to be second-in-command of the Mediterranean Station, returning in bad health in 1814. He saw no further active service and retired to Paris after 1815. He was made an admiral in 1821 Among the biographies are Sir John Barrow, 'Life and correspondence of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, G. C. B.' (London, 1848) and Edward Russell, 2nd Baron of Liverpool, 'Knight of the sword; the life and letters of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, C. C. B.' (London, 1964).
Francis Shipton was promoted to lieutenant in 1884. He held the rank of lieutenant-commander during World War One, having previously retired from the Navy.
James Shipton entered the Navy in 1803. He served in HMS THUNDERER 1803 to1805, HIBERNIA 1805 to 1806, PRINCE OF WALES and PENELOPE 1806 to 1809, as midshipman and mate. He reached the rank and lieutenant in 1810, invalied early in 1812, and was on half pay from 1815.
Francis Shipton was promoted to lieutenant in 1884. He held the rank of lieutenant-commander during World War One, having previously retired from the Navy.
Frank Clarke Strick (1849-1943) set himself up in business in 1885 in London as a shipbroker and coal exporter; two years later he purchased a small vessel and to raise additional capital he founded, with others, the London and Paris Steamship Company Limited. A new company was formed to operate the vessel called the Anglo-Algerian Steamship Company Limited. This was the first strand in a pattern of Strick trading which was to last for many years -- coal from South Wales or North East Coast ports to West Italian ports, loading iron ore homewards from Benisaf in North Africa for the United Kingdom or the Continent, under contract, using owned or chartered vessels. A successful voyage to the Persian Gulf in 1892 with coal and general cargo induced Strick to build ships for the Gulf trade, within the framework of a new company, the Anglo-Arabian and Persian Steamship Company Limited. By the beginning of the century, Frank Strick had fifteen ships sailing under his flag, serving the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf trades; less regularly, his ships were also to be found in the Indian Ocean or the United States. La Tunisienne Steam Navigation Company Limited was formed by Strick in 1909; this company operated vessels in the North African trade, where Strick's interests were important. In addition Strick's controlled coal bunkering depots in Port Said, Algiers and Oran. In 1919 Strick sold the remaining Strick Line fleet and business to Lord Inchcape and it was absorbed into P and O in 1923. The company went into voluntary liquidation, but Strick had no intention of retiring, forming a new company under the name of London, Paris and Marseilles Steamship Company (later London and Paris Steamship Co Ltd) and continuing to operate La Tunisienne. The Persian Gulf trade was carried on under the joint management of Frank C. Strick and Company Ltd and Cray, Dawes and Company. At first the ships were owned by single-ship companies, but later Strick Line (1923) Limited was formed to own and operate the fleet. Ships of Anglo-American Steamship Company (1896) Limited, in a joint service with Ellerman's Bucknall Steamship Lines, carried large quantities of the prospectors'equipment, stores and personnel to the Gulf. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company Limited (later Anglo-Iranian, later British Petroleum) was formed in 1909 and its Managing Director was appointed a director of Anglo-Algerian. Strick opened his own offices in the Gulf through a partnership with Lloyd, Scott and Company; the firm was known as Strick, Scott and Company. In 1913 Anglo-Algerian became the Strick Line Ltd. By 1928 Strick wished to re-acquire an interest in the Persian Gulf and in the company which bore his name. He succeeded in negotiating with P&O the purchase by his London and Paris Company of a 49% minority interest in Strick Line (1923) Ltd and the Shahristan Steamship Company Ltd. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War the Strick ownership of twenty-five ships was divided into three fleets -- Strick Line, La Tunisienne and Cory and Strick. During the war Strick Line built eight vessels and Frank C. Strick managed twelve; but twenty vessels were lost. In 1960 Strick Line acquired Frank C Strick and Co Ltd. In 1972 P and O completed its acquisition of all the Strick interests and absorbed them into the and O Group.
The Shipbuilders and Repairers National Association was formed in 1967 by the integration of the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation (founded in 1899), the Dry Dock Owners' and Repairers' Central Council (founded in 1910) and the Shipbuilding Conference (founded in 1928). Before the formation of the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation, a 'Federation of Shipbuilders and Engineers of England, Scotland and Ireland' had been constituted. As early as 1890 there was a feeling that it would be advantageous if the association were to be confined to shipbuilding members only, but it was 1897 -- the same year as the engineers strike for a forty-eight hour week --before the engineering firms withdrew. They then formed their own body, the Engineering Employers' Federation. The National Federation of Shipbuilders, as the old association was briefly known, was dissolved in 1899 with the formation of the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation. Most of the local Shipbuilders' Associations then in existence were represented, including those of Aberdeen, Clyde, Barrow, Hull, Tyne, Tees and Wear. Responsibility for negotiation with the shipyard trade unions was undertaken by the central body on behalf of the membership; in this period several important national agreements were concluded, notably that of 1909, which laid down procedures to be followed in future negotiations and established a framework for conciliation and arbitration. This, with a review in 1913, was maintained until the beginning of the war when the shipyards came within the provisions of the legislation for the compulsory settlement of disputes. There was also a comprehensive review of labour relations by a joint Committee of management and labour which led in 1928 to an agreement with the S.E.F. and the shipbuilding trade unions on the procedures to be followed in future disputes, which, with some modifications, lasted to the present day.
The Dry Dock Owners' and Repairers' Central Council was formed in 1910 by members of several local ship-repairing associations to ensure greater uniformity of schedules and rates and to contain the extreme competition which was then taking place. The Shipbuilding Conference, a national commercial organization representative of the whole industry, was set up in 1928 at a time when the industry was experiencing severe difficulties. In an attempt to solve the problem of economically unsound competition between firms in the 1930s, one of the Conference's first actions was to produce a 'tendering expenses scheme', whereby one per cent of the contract price was intended for tendering expenses to be divided among the tenderers in accordance with an agreed scale. Another system which it- instituted was notification to the Conference of enquiries received by builders which led to the introduction of 'Job Conferences', an arrangement for establishing co-operation between firms and maintaining reasonable price levels. There was a general recognition during this period that the major task of the industry was to reduce building capacity which led to the formation in 1920 of National Shipbuilders Security Ltd. The main object of this organization was the purchase by voluntary negotiation of redundant shipyards. By 1938 it had reduced building capacity by purchase by 1.3 million tons. National Shipbuilders Security Ltd went into voluntary liquidation in 1958.
The National Association of Marine Enginebuilders, formed in 1939, operated as an affiliate of the Conference, since many of its members were neither shipbuilders nor ship-repairers. Its members' workforces negotiated with the Engineering Employers' Federation rather than the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation, and this relationship continued after the formation of the Shipbuilders and Repairers National Association in 1967. In this year the three organizations joined to become the Shipbuilders and Repairers National Association. Within the new body separate boards were set up.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
Tait entered the Navy in 1902 and served in the Pacific from 1903 to February, 1905, in the GRAFTON, and then in the Mediterranean, in the DRAKE. He went to the FLORA, China, in 1908 and became a lieutenant in 1909. In 1910 he joined the Home Fleet, serving in a number of ships, including the HINDUSTAN and the COLLINGWOOD until 1912. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander in 1917, commander in 1921 and captain in 1926. After a course at Greenwich, Tait returned to sea in 1928 and took command of four cruisers; these included the CAPETOWN in 1929 and the DELHI in 1930, on the America and West Indies Station. He was appointed Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence in 1932 and in 1933 went out to the Far East to report on the possibility of an outbreak of hostilities with Japan. In 1938 he became a rear-admiral and in 1941 was appointed vice-admiral and Commander-in-Chief, African Station. On his appointment as Governor of Southern Rhodesia in 1944, he retired and was promoted to admiral in 1945.
Thursfield joined the Times as a leader writer in 1877 and by about 1880 he had begun to specialize in naval affairs. He represented the Times in the naval manoeuvres of 1887 and in every subsequent year when correspondents were admitted. When Mahan's book The influence of sea power upon history appeared in 1890, Thursfield's review was the first that adequately recognized its importance. He lectured at the invitation of the Staff College, Camberley, in 1902 on the 'Higher policy of defence' and at this time became closely associated with Sir John (later Lord) Fisher (1841-1920). After the war he wrote the four naval volumes of the Times documentary history of the war. Thursfield was knighted in 1920.
Copies of Volumes and Documents - Transcripts
Tyler entered the Navy in 1771 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1779. During the American War he served chiefly in the Channel and the Mediterranean and in the early part of the Revolutionary war in the Mediterranean. In 1799 he was appointed to the WARRIOR, at first in the Channel and after 1802 in the West Indies, and in 1805 to the TONNANT, with the Mediterranean fleet. He was severely wounded at Trafalgar. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1808 and hoisted his flag as second-in-command at Portsmouth. Between 1812 and 1816 he was Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope, after which he had no further service. He was promoted to vice-admiral in 1813 and to admiral in 1825.
See W.H. Wyndham-Quin Sir Charles Tyler, G. C. B. Admiral of the White (London, 1912)
Upton entered the East India Company's service as a midshipman in 1788 and served in the ROCKINGHAM during two voyages to China. He was in the GENERAL GODDARD as Fourth Officer on a voyage to Madras and Bengal from 1793 to 1794 and remained in her as part of the Cape Expedition of 1795. Nine Dutch Indiamen were captured during this cruise and Upton was detached in one of them as prize master. He went to China in the TRUE BRITON in 1804 and to Bengal in the WINDHAM in 1809, from which ship he was captured. However, after the taking of the Ile de France (Mauritius), Upton joined the CEYLON, 1810, and brought her home. His next voyage was to China, 1814, in the GLATTON; upon her arrival at St Helena her captain died and Upton was sworn in to command. Nothing further is known about his career.
William Waldegrave, 1753-1825, entered the Navy in 1766 aboard the JERSEY. He was made Lieutenant in 1772 and captain in 1776 when in the RIPPON he joined Sir Edward Vernon in the East Indies. After 15 months his health broke down and he returned to England. In September 1778 he was sent to the West Indies in the POMONA and the following year captured the large American privateer CUMBERLAND. He then transferred to the frigate LA PRUDENTE and with the assistance of the frigate LICORNE captured the large French frigate CAPRICIEUSE after a desperate action of four hours. In 1782 he commanded the frigate PHAETON before coming ashore at the peace of 1783. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he was appointed to the COURAGEUX (74) and was made Rear Admiral the following year. He then commanded a small squadron in the channel before being made Vice Admiral in 1795 when he joined Sir John Jervis in the Mediterranean. In 1797 he was Jervis' third in command at the battle of Cape St Vincent. For the next three years he was governor and commander in chief of the Newfoundland station and colony. He was made Admiral in 1802 but saw no further action. He died in 1825 having been made First Baron Radstock in the Irish peerage for his services in Newfoundland.
George Granville Waldegrave was the eldest son of Willaim Waldegrave and therefore became the second Baron Radstock on his father's death. He was entered on the books of his father's ship COURAGEUX (74) in 1794 but first went to sea in the AGINCOURT in 1798. He was made captain in 1807 and given the frigate THAMES in the Mediterranean. In 1811 he took command of another frigate, the VOLONTAIRE, until the defeat of Napoleon. His years of frigate command were spent in attacks on the enemy's coasting trade, cutting out armed ships and destroying coastal batteries. He was made a CB in 1815 when he came ashore. From 1831 to 1841 he served as naval aide de camp to the monarch, becoming Rear Admiral in 1841. Ten years later he became a full Admiral and died in 1857.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
Woodriff became a lieutenant in 1782. In 1789 he commanded the troopship ENDYMION, which was wrecked in 1790 at Jamaica; he was honourably acquitted at the subsequent court-martial. On his return to England in 1794 he was appointed Principal Agent for Transports, and was involved in the evacuation of troops from the Low Countries. He became a commander in 1795. He was promoted to captain in 1802, the year he took command of the CALCUTTA. After survey work in the Bass Straits, the ship returned to Spithead, 1804, was converted into a warship for convoy duties and went to St. Helena. On the return journey the CALCUTTA was attacked by the French and captured. In 1808, a year after his release, Woodriff became Superintendent of Prisoners of War at Forton, near Gosport, until in 1814 he went to Jamaica as Resident Commissioner at Port Royal. Returning to England in 1822, he was offered, in 1837, either flag-rank or an appointment to Greenwich Hospital; he chose the latter.
Wigram began his career with the East India Company as a surgeon. He contracted an illness, however, which affected his eyesight so that he could no longer practise as a surgeon nor could he go to sea again. He then set himself up as a drug merchant. In 1788 he bought the General Goddard and then the True Briton, which was built in Wells' Yard, Deptford in 1790. Wigram built up the business and acquired a large interest in the Blackwall Yard and in 1810 became Chairman of the new East India Dock Company. He retired in 1819 and sold the yard to two of his sons, Money and Henry Loftus Wigram, and to George Green.
Henry Walker entered the Navy in 1803 and served as midshipman in HMS BELLEROPHON. He was promoted lieutenant in 1810. In 1833 he was given command as lieutenant commander of HMS ALBAN following the suppression of the disturbances which arose in the agricultural districts in 1830. The ALBAN was a steamship serving in the Mediterranean and there were considerable problems over the supply and quality of coal. He had many disagreements with Captain Hugh Pigot of HMS BARHAM who ordered him to flog certain seamen on grounds which Walker considered to be unjust and which he therefore refused to have done. Walker apprears to have been relieved of his command following these disagreements, but continued to accuse Pigot of cruelty and in 1834 he decided to stand for Parliament in order to impeach him, but withdrew in favour of Captain Byng, later Lord Torrington.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
Penn served under the Commonwealth in the Irish Fleet. He then went to the Mediterranean in the CENTURION and FAIRFAX, 1650 to 1651, before becoming First Captain of the TRIUMPH. During 1652 and 1653 he was Vice-Admiral of the Fleet under General Robert Blake during the First Dutch War. The following year he was appointed General and Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, in the SWIFTSUR, for the expedition to capture HISPANIOLA, returning home in 1655. During the Second Dutch War, Penn was appointed to the ROYAL CHARLES, the Duke of York's flagship, in a capacity similar to that of 'Captain of the Fleet'. He served at the Navy Board as a Commissioner between 1660 and 1663, influencing the tactical instructions and drawing up the code long-known as the 'Duke of York's Sailing and Fighting Instructions'. See Granville Penn, Memorials of the professional life and times of Sir William Penn. From 1644 to 1670 (London, 1833, 2 vols).
Potter's Ferry, also known as the Isle of Dogs Ferry, connected Garden Stairs, Greenwich, with the Isle of Dogs. In 1550 Edward VI granted to Sir Thomas Wentworth (1501-1551) the lord-ships and manors of Stepney and Hackney which included rights of running the ferry. Pepys recorded that he used the ferry twice in 1665. In 1762 the ferry was purchased by the Potter's Ferry Society set up by a number of Greenwich watermen. Potter's Ferry was limited to foot passengers only until in 1812 a horse ferry was established by Act of Parliament, creating a statutory ferry for horses and vehicles in favour of the Poplar and Greenwich Ferry Company. The nineteenth century saw the Ferry Society involved in a great deal of litigation. In 1826 an act was passed confirming its rights. The ferry was leased to the Thames Steamboat Company and from them to the London and Blackwall Railway Company which became part of the Great Eastern Railway Company. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the ferry was said to be transporting 1,300,000 passengers annually. Its long history ended with the completion of the Greenwich to Millwall foot tunnel in 1902.
The Fowey shipbroking firm of Toyne Carter and Co was founded in 1896 when J P Carter (1872-1957), of Coppack, Carter and Co, Connah's Quay, joined in partnership with C L Toyne (c 1870-1921), who had become established in business in the port some time earlier. Before long the firm became one of the principal shipbrokers and agents in Fowey, a position which resulted from the partners' involvement with the china clay shippers in and around nearby St Austell. The export of china clay in the early days was handled through the liner ports, local merchants selling in small amounts which would then be held until there was sufficient to make up a coaster cargo. It would then be shipped in casks to Liverpool for outward shipment. Toyne Carter and Co ran an office in Liverpool for several years for this reason, but subsequently arrangements were made to charter ships to carry china clay directly from Fowey. The first shipment in what became known as the 'Clay Line' left Fowey harbour for the United States in 1904. With the growth in the demand for china clay, more and larger ships were arriving to load for destinations all over the world; some, like those of the Holland Steamship Company and the Glynn Line, on a regular basis, and with these the company forged particularly strong links.
The company owned ships on several occasions, both steam and sail, most notably the three-masted schooner A B Sherman. A war prize, she was acquired by the firm in 1918 in poor condition, restored at great expense and returned to service in 1921, when the post-war boom had passed its peak. With freight rates down and cargoes difficult to find, the A B Sherman traded under the company's flag for only a short period. The consequence of this episode, which came close to bankrupting the company, was its change into a limited liability company in 1921. It remained one until 1968, reverting back into a partnership then. In 1977 Toyne Carter & Co was acquired by English Clays Lovering Pochin and Co Ltd, St Austell.
The Union Marine and General Insurance Company, established in Liverpool in 1863 with an authorized capital of two million pounds, was formed by a syndicate of underwriters of that port, taking over the marine insurance business of two existing firms of Liverpool underwriters. Agencies were set up in both Manchester and Glasgow, while the Ocean Marine Insurance Company acted as London agents. In 1911, the Union Marine was acquired as a subsidiary of the Phoenix Assurance Company. See Centennial story: The Union Marine and General Insurance Company Ltd 1863-1963 (privately published, Liverpool, 1963).
Lady Yule, the wife of Sir David Yule (d 1928), a wealthy Calcutta jute merchant, commissioned the yacht to be built in 1929 by John Brown of Clydebank. In 1930 Lady Yule and her daughter embarked on a world cruise in the NAHLIN and they stayed in New Zealand, Australia and Miami from 1931 to 1934.
Ballard was born in London 18th March 1896 and died Chiswick, Middlesex on 25th January 1976. He graduated with a BSc in London in 1927 before being appointed temporary assistant at the Herbarium at RBG Kew on 23/09/1929. He was later made a permanent member of staff there on 1 January 1946. During his career Ballard worked as a pteriodologist (fern specialist), travelling to work with Carl Christensen, in Copenhagen 'the greatest authority on ferns in Europe' in 1937, and to Ceylon with Irene Manton and Sledge in 1950 to look at the native flora there. Ballard finally retired from the Herbarium at Kew in 1961. Ballard was also involved with international botanical work including the Special Committee for Pteridophyta, which he worked with Pichi-Sermolli, Alston, Copeland, Holttum, Morton and Tardieu-Blot.
Arthur Disbrowe Cotton was born on 15th January, 1879 in London. He was educated at King's College School, London, which is where he began to develop his interest in plants. Cotton attended a 3 year course in horticulture directly after school before embarking on a 3 year course on botany at the Royal College of Science, London. It was here that Cotton became attracted to and then specialised in fungi, algae and lichens. His first professional post came in 1902 when he was appointed as Demonstrator and Assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester, where he specialised in lichens and marine algae. It was also at this time he became a member of the British Mycological Society; a membership that lasted the rest of his life. In 1904, Cotton accepted a post at Kew in the Cryptogamic section under Dr George Massee, where he remained for the rest of his career, save for 2 years during the First World War, which was spent under the Board of Agriculture, undertaking research in plant pathology to assist the Food Production Department in the protection of food crops, particularly potatoes, against fungus diseases. Before this appointment, from 1904 to 1915, Cotton concentrated on marine algae from a taxonomic and ecological perspective. This culminated in seven separate trips between 1910 and 1911 to Clare Island, a small island off the west coast of Ireland, from which Cotton published his findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy in 1912.
It was on 1st March 1922 that Arthur Cotton succeeded Otto Von Stapf to become Keeper of the Herbarium and Library at Kew, where he remained until his retirement on 31st January 1946. Cotton was interested cultivated species, such as the tree Senecios, which were found by Cotton during his trip to Mount Kilimanjaro, East Africa in 1929-1930 and of which some samples of the tree were collected to be planted at Kew. Cotton's ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, 1929-1930, with Dr A S Hitchcock, the US Agrostologist was one of a number of trips Cotton made as Keeper at Kew. Many of this trips included making acquaintances with botanical institutions on the Continent, including Berlin (1927, 1931), Copenhagen (1931), Paris (1935), Prague (1927) and Vienna (1927). Cotton attained the Keepership at Kew at a time when there was a revival of interest in plant taxonomy and plant-nomenclature, which meant many undeveloped countries called on Kew for assistance in naming botanical specimens. Another consequence of these renewed interests, meant enormous amounts of un-mounted and unclassified material, some hundreds of thousands specimens, had accumulated in the Herbarium during the previous 50 years before Cotton's appointment. Credit needs to be paid to Cotton, in that during his tenure as Keeper at Kew, he managed to add 900,000 sheets of specimens to the collections, through the careful guidance and gentle encouragement Cotton paid to his staff.
Cotton was also an active member of many societies and committees outside his work at Kew, which included; joint vice-chairman of the Lily Group Committee of the RHS 1935 to 1962; a member of the Lily Group's editorial committee 1953-1962; the British Mycological Society; a Fellow of the Linnaean Society 1960-1962; president of Linnaean Society 1943-46, Vice-President 1927-28 and 1946-47; Council member of Association of Applied Biologists 1917-21; Vice-President from1923-24; member of the British Ecological Society and President of the Kew Guild, 1940-41. During his life, Cotton was also awarded with the Lyttel Lily Cup in honour of his valuable contributions to the knowledge of the genus Lilium in 1944 by the Council of the PHS; the Victoria Medal of Honour by the RHS for Cotton's services to botany and horticulture and an OBE in 1934 for his contributions to botany. After the death of his wife Enid Mary Jesson, he lived with his daughter, where he died on 27th December 1962.
Born 14th August 1898 died May 1972. Robinson began his career in horticulture at 15 as an apprentice in Cumberland at Brackenburgh Towers, Calthwaite, Carlisle. Following military service in WW1, Robinson gained experience of construction and landscaping whilst working for the War Graves Commission in France and Belgium from 1920 to 1922 as sub-foreman gardener. He studied for a Kew Certificate between 1922 and 1924, working in the Palm House and later as sub-foreman of the T-Range.
Robinson then travelled to Chile where he worked for the late Chilean Minister in London, laying out an estate for him near Valparaiso, cultivating temperate and sub tropical plants between 1924 and 1929. Robinson worked a Head Gardener to Dowager Marchioness of Linlithgow (1929) and Head Gardener to London Electric Railways (1930-1).
He then returned to Kew as Assistant Curator in the January 1931, before becoming Curator at the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1937. Robinson later became Curator at the old University Botanic Garden in Oxford in 1942. He continued to live there until ill health forced him to take early retirement in 1963, upon which he moved to Coventry. During his time at Oxford he was awarded an honorary MA degree, the Victoria Medal for Horticulture (V.M.H.) and the Associate Honour of the Royal Horticultural Society (A.H.R.H.S.) in 1946 and became an Associate of the Linnean Society (A.L.S.) in 1952. Robinson was also President of the Kew Guild from 1957-1958.
Reginald Rose-Innes was born in South Africa in 1915. His interest in botany led him to complete a Masters in Ecology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. He went on to study in Austin at the University of Texas and also spent time studying in California from 1939 under the American Ecologist, Frederick E Clements. During this time Rose-Innes travelled extensively in America and a large part of the photographs in the collection are from this period.
In the 1940s Rose-Innes briefly served in the South African Navy, before undertaking employment at the University of Witwatersrand under the directorship of Professor John F V Phillips. During this time he carried out research into plague in Namibia and the Kalahari Desert.
In 1954 Rose-Innes became a research lecturer at the University College of the Gold Coast alongside Professor Phillips who had become Professor of Agriculture at the institution. The University became known as the University of Ghana following the independence of the Gold Coast in 1957. Rose-Innes continued to work in Ghana until the late 1960s and during this time sent many grass specimens to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew also hold specimens sent from Somalia in October 1982. The South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, hold specimens sent from Ghana in October 1957, and The Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium at Florida State University hold specimen collected in Texas.
In the late 1960s Rose-Innes became employed by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) under the United Nations. He remained in Ghana, and was based in Tamale, where he was able to continue his detailed research into grassland ecology.
After several years with the FAO Rose-Innes worked for the Ministry of Overseas Surveys based in Tolworth in the UK. During this time Rose-Innes carried out research assignments in Nigeria, Belize, Bangladesh and Somalia.
Professor Francis K Fianu, a former student of Rose-Innes at the University of Ghana, and later a Professor of the same department, attempted to establish a Grassland Herbarium at the University in the name of Reginald Rose-Innes in the 1980s and 1990s. Sadly there were insufficient funds to make this possible. However, Fianu remembers Rose-Innes as a remarkably thorough scientist whose 'knowledge of Ghana Grasses was beyond compare'.
Richard Spruce, born 10 September 1817; died 28 December 1893.
Richard Spruce was born on 10 September 1817 in the village of Ganthorpe, Yorkshire. Spruce's father (also named Richard) was the schoolmaster at Ganthorpe and his mother, Ann, was one of the Etty family, a relative of the painter William Etty. His mother died while he was young, and when he was about fourteen his father married again, and had a family of eight daughters, only two of whom survived their half-brother.
Spruce appears to have developed a love of nature from an early age and, at the age of sixteen, had drawn up an alphabetical list of all the plants (403 species) that he had found around Ganthorpe. Three years later he had drawn up a List of the Flora of the Malton District, containing 485 species of flowering plants. Several of Spruce's localities for the rarer plants are given in Baines's Flora of Yorkshire, published in 1840. It is clear that he also studied plants carefully and this is illustrated by the fact that in 1841 he discovered, and identified as a new British plant, the very rare sedge Carex paradoxa. He had also now begun the study of mosses, since in the same year he found a moss new to Britain, Leskea fulvinata, previously known only from Lapland.
Spruce was educated by his father who initially helped him to follow his own profession. He learnt Latin and Greek and appears to have had a natural aptitude for languages, since he not only taught himself to read and write French fairly well, but later learnt Portuguese and Spanish as well as gaining some knowledge of three different Indian languages - the Lingoa Geral, Barré, and Quichua. At 20, he left home to become tutor in a school at Haxby and, at the end of 1839, he obtained the post of mathematical master at the Collegiate School at York, which he retained until the school closed in 1844. During this time he suffered frequent bouts of the ill health from which he was to suffer for the rest of his life.
In 1841, a monthly magazine, The Phytologist, was started for British Botany, and Spruce contributed to it numerous accounts of his botanical excursions and notes on rare plants. His paper on the Musci and Hepaticae of Teesdale showed him to be one of the most observant discoverers of rare species. In Baines's Flora of Yorkshire (1840) only four mosses were recorded from Teesdale, though no doubt many more had been collected. Spruce at once raised the number to 167 mosses and 41 hepaticae, of which six mosses and one Jungermannia were new to Britain. In April 1845 he published in the London Journal of Botany descriptions of twenty-three new British mosses, of which about half were discovered by himself and the remainder by William Borrer and other botanists. In the same year he published, in The Phytologist, his List of the Musci and Hepaticae of Yorkshire, in which he recorded no less than 48 mosses new to the English Flora and 33 others new to that of Yorkshire.
In the latter part of 1844, with the loss of his teaching post, Spruce's future was very unsettled. A plant agency in London and the curatorship of a colonial botanical garden were rejected as either unsuitable or uncertain of attainment. Plant-collecting in Spain was suggested but, at that time, considered too dangerous. Eventually, in December 1844, an expedition to the Pyrenees was agreed and he set out in April 1845. He reached Pau early in May, and stayed there until the following March, collecting and studying the flowers and mosses of the region. He returned to England in April 1846, and spent the remainder of the year naming, arranging and distributing his Pyrenean collections.
Over the next two years, he worked on The Musci and Hepaticae of the Pyrenees, which was published in the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh after his departure for South America. It gives the names of all the species carefully identified, describes fully all that were new or doubtful, and gives particulars of the local and geographical distribution of each. A general account of his whole excursion was published in the London Journal of Botany for 1846, under the title Notes on the Botany of the Pyrenees. When in London in September 1848, Spruce decided to undertake the botanical exploration of the Amazon valley and he sailed on June 7, 1849. George Bentham agreed to receive all his botanical collections, name and sort them, send them to the various subscribers in Great Britain, as well as in different parts of Europe, to collect the subscriptions and keep all accounts, in return for which invaluable services he was to receive the first (complete) set of the plants collected.
On July 12th 1849, Spruce's ship, The BRITANNIA, docked at Para and Spruce began his South American exploration which would last for fifteen years. From Para, Spruce sailed on 10th October up the Amazon to Santarem, a journey of 17 days. He remained here for almost a year, exploring and collecting in extremely adverse conditions. His journeys continued - in October 1850 he travelled to Manaos, then up the Rio Negro to Sao Gabriel on the Orinoco between November 1851 and March 1852 followed by a collecting expedition in the forest around the river Vaupes. In March 1853, he left for San Carlos in Venezuela where he remained for five months. In the small settlement of San Fernando, Spruce suffered from a long and serious bout of fever which left him exhausted and, on the way back to Manaos, he successfully foiled an attempt by his boatmen to murder him and steal his possessions. Once back in Manaos, he planned a trip to Peru, travelling up the Amazon and Huallaga rivers to Tarapoto in the Andes of Maynas where he remained from June 1855 to March 1857. During his time at Tarapoto, Spruce collected over 1000 specimens of flowering plants in addition to hundreds of specimens of mosses and hepaticae.
His next journey was to Banos in Ecuador, a journey of 100 days by river and on foot. He explored this volcanic area for six months and then moved on to make his base at Ambato for two and a half years. It was here, in April 1860, that he suffered a physical breakdown, suffering paralysis and pain in his back and legs. Nevertheless, he set out six weeks later to collect seed from Cinchona trees which became the foundation of the plantations in India and Ceylon which produced quinine, bringing relief to thousands of malaria sufferers. Spruce's last expedition in South America was to Payta in northern Peru. From here he was carried by litter to Piura where he remained from January 1863 to May 1864 when he embarked for Europe.
After his return from South America in June 1864, Spruce continued to be plagued by ill health which affected his ability to work, the cause of which was not discovered until four years after his return by which time a cure was impossible. Despite this, he succeeded in producing a great deal of botanical work, including the study of the Palms of the Amazon valley and of equatorial South America, which resulted in a paper in the Journal of the Linnean Society.
But his greatest work, which has established his reputation among the botanists of the world, is his massive volume on the Hepaticae of the Amazon and the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. This appeared in 1885, as a volume of the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. It contains very full descriptions of more than 700 species and varieties distributed in 43 genera and a large number of new sub-genera, all precisely characterised and defined. Of these 700 species nearly 500 were collected by him and of these more than 400 were quite new to the science of botany.
The whole of Spruce's Mosses were placed in the hands of William Mitten for classification, description of new species and distribution; and were all included in this botanist's great work on South American Mosses, published by the Linnean Society in 1867. Spruce's work on the Hepaticae brought him a large correspondence from every part of the world, and for the remainder of his life he was sufficiently occupied with this, with the determination of specimens sent him, and with a few special papers, among which were the description of a new hepatic from Killarney in the Journal of Botany in 1887 and a paper in the Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club on a collection made in the Andes of Bolivia. After Spruce's work on the Hepaticae was published, he was occupied in the task of sorting out and preparing his immense collection of South American Hepaticae into sets of species for distribution which was completed and twenty five sets sent off before the end of 1892.
Richard Spruce died on 28 December 1893 after an attack of influenza. He was buried at Terrington beside his father and mother, in accordance with his own directions.
Peter Peri was born in 1899 in Budapest and was originally named Laszlo Weisz. He left grammar school at 15 but attended evening classes in art. He was a strong supporter of the Bela Kun regime. When the regime fell, he was marked as a dangerous subversive and left to live in Paris in 1920. He was soon expelled from Paris for revolutionary activities, and moved to Berlin, where he became one of a group of Hungarian avant-garde artists. Peri became known as a leading constructivist, and in 1922 had his first exhibition of 'space constructions' with Moholy-Nagy.
During the mid 1920s Peri gave up sculpture for architecture, but lack of success made him return to sculpture. At this time, Peri decided that he wanted to make art that reflected the life around him. His work took on a kind of realism within his strong sense of form and structure. Between 1927 and 1933, he concentrated on small figures made of bronze. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Peri left Germany for England, with his second wife, British music student, Mary McNaughton. The bulk of his work was left behind and destroyed by the concierge of his flat. In London, Peri soon became a leading member of the Artists International Association. As bronze was too expensive, he began to use concrete as his medium. Peri used concrete for the rest of his life, as felt that concrete was not only aesthetic and practical, but reflected the political concerns of his work. Many of his sculptures commented on the human situation. In 1938, he had an important one man show 'London Life in Concrete'. During the war Peri turned to making original prints, including lino-cuts, etchings, aquatints and engravings. From 1948, Peri continued with his small figurative works and received many commissions for outdoor sculptures. During this time Peri felt a need for a spiritual dimension to his life and became a Quaker. In 1966 he married his third wife, Heather Hall. Peter Peri died in 1967.
The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers was founded by Francis Howard on 23rd December 1897, and inaugurated in May 1898. Known as the 'International Society', it acted as a forum for independent artists from Europe and the USA who were invited to send work to, and support, international exhibitions in London and abroad. In the early years work from Royal Academicians was discouraged. In 1904, the Society was registered as a company under the Companies Act. The first President of the Society was Whistler, followed by Rodin. The first council included among others, John Lavery (Chairman), E.A. Walton, Sauter, Joseph Pennell and Gilbert. The Society organised its own exhibitions at various London galleries, including eventually the Royal Academy. In all, it held twenty-nine London exhibitions, between 1898 and 1925. The Council of the Society voted to wind up its Public Regulated Company in 1937, however the Society itself was to continue, and support exhibitions and purchase works of art until its existing funding ran out.
Christopher Wood was born in Knowsley, near Liverpool on 7 April 1901, the son of Mrs Clare and Dr Lucius Wood, a GP. At fourteen, Wood began to draw during recuperation from septicaemia, and went on to study architecture briefly at Liverpool University, 1919-20. In London in 1920, the French collector Alphonse Kahn invited him to Paris, where Wood studied painting at the Academie Julian in 1921. He entered effortlessly into artistic circles, meeting Augustus John and the Chilean diplomat Antonio de Gandarillas, with whom he began to live. As well as providing financial support, Gandarillas introduced Wood to Picasso, Georges Auric and Jean Cocteau, and to the use of opium. Wood became a member of the London Group in 1926 and the Seven and Five Society between 1926-30. He exhibited with Ben and Winifred Nicholson at the Beaux Arts Gallery during April-May 1927, and became close to them personally and artistically. Winifred in particular was supportive in the aftermath of his failed elopement with the painter and heiress Meraud Guinness (subsequently Meraud Guevara). He painted with the Nicholsons at their home 'Banks Head' in Cumberland and in Cornwall in 1928. On a trip to St Ives, he and Ben Nicholson encountered the fisherman painter Alfred Wallis, whose work answered a shared interest in 'primitive' expression and helped Wood to establish a personal style. By this time he was in a close personal relationship with the Russian emigre, Frosca Munster, who accompanied him on his subsequent painting trips to Brittany.His solo exhibition at Tooth's Gallery in April 1929, was followed by an exhibition with Nicholson at the Galerie Bernheim in Paris, May 1930, in which Wood showed paintings made in Brittany in 1929. The results of a second stay in Brittany during June-July 1930, were intended to be shown at the Wertheim Gallery, London in October. Travelling with his paintings, Wood met his mother in Salisbury on 21 August 1930. Possibly believing himself pursued (an effect of withdrawal from opium), he threw himself under the London train and was killed.
Born 1900; RN Cadet, Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight, 1913-1914; Midshipman, battleship HMS BELLEROPHON, Grand Fleet, Scapa Flow, 1916; battle of Jutland, 1916; witnessed scuttling of captured German Fleet, Scapa Flow, 1919; Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 1919-1920; Lt, HMS VENOMOUS, 1920-1921; Flinders Naval Depot, Australia, 1922-1924; HMS FROBISHER, 1924-1926; trained as observer, Fleet Air Arm, 1926; HMS FURIOUS, 1926-1928; Ground Instructor, RAF Leuchars, Scotland, 1928-1929; HMS HERMES, Hong Kong, 1929-1931; HMS FURIOUS, 1931-1934; HMS COURAGEOUS, 1934-1935; Staff Officer, Operations, to Adm Noel Frank Laurence, HMS GLORIOUS, 1936; Director of Training and Staff Duties, Air Ministry, 1936-1938; Second in Command, HMS NEWCASTLE, 1939-1941; Air Ministry, 1941-1942; commanded HMS OWL, Fearn, Scotland, 1942-1944; Deputy Director (Naval), Combined Operations Headquarters, 1944-1945; commanded HMS AJAX, 1946-1948; Deputy Director, Department of Naval Equipment, Admiralty 1948-1951; retired, 1951
Born, 1923; studied Mathematics, King's College London, 1946-1949, awarded 1st class honours; Chief Mathematician, Hawker Aircraft Ltd, Kingston-on-Thames, 1950-1954; Deputy Chief Designer, Vickers Armstrong Ltd, Weybridge, 1954-1961, designing guided missiles and in charge of specification group for TSR2 tactical strike and reconnaissance aircraft; Divisional Manager, Elliott Flight Automation, Borehamwood, 1961-1965, founding and managing Airborne Computing Division; Divisional Manager, Plessey Company Ltd, Poole, 1965-1968, founding and managing Traffic Division; Managing Director, Revenue Systems Ltd, 1968-1973, working in electronic money; General Manager, Communication Ltd, Kaduna, Nigeria, 1974-1975; General Manager, Communications Associates of Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria, 1975-1978; engineering consultant, 1978-1980; teacher, 1981-1988; died, 2000.
Born 1907; educated at Wimbledon School and Merton College, Oxford; Assistant Director, Archaeological Survey of Nubia, 1929-1934; Field Director, Oxford University expeditions to Sudan, 1934-1937; exploratory journeys in eastern Sudan and Aden Protectorate, 1938-1939; service in Intelligence Corps, Territorial Army Reserve of Officers, 1939-1957; service on Joint Staff, Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence, 1942-1945; acting Lt Col, 1943; attended QUADRANT Conference, Quebec, Canada, Aug 1943; released from active military service with honorary rank of Lt Col, 1945; Director and Secretary, Royal Geographical Society, 1945-1975; editor, Geographical Journal, 1945-1978; President, British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1961-1981; President, British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1961-1962; on United Nations register of fact-finding experts, 1968; honorary Vice President, Royal Geographical Society, 1981-1999.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee was the principal US inter-service body which, together with the British Chiefs of Staff, formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, the supreme Anglo- American military strategic and operational authority, 1942-1945. With the formation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) in Dec 1941 it became necessary to form an American agency with comparable decision making structure to that of the British Chiefs of Staff (COS). This was formally inaugurated in Feb 1942 as the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee, its first members being Gen George Catlett Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff, Adm Harold Raynsford Stark and Adm Ernest Joseph King, US Navy, and Lt Gen Henry H 'Hap' Arnold, US Army Air Forces. In Jul 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Adm William D Leahy as his political and military representative and Chief of Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee. Unlike the British Chiefs of Staff (COS), which was integrated into the British Cabinet system, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was responsible primarily to the President of the United States as Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces. Under Leahy's leadership, the Joint Chiefs of Staff became the centre of the US executive command structure during World War Two and was responsible for operational strategy in the Pacific, the co-ordination of US military operations in the Far East, and the planning and co-ordination of US operational strategy elsewhere. In addition, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the British Chiefs of Staff functioned together under the auspices of the Combined Chiefs of Staff to plan Allied strategic and operational efforts in Europe, North Africa, and the Far East.
Born 1921; educated Beckenham Grammar School; joined the Queen's Westminsters, 1 Battalion, Territorial Army, 1938; Lance Corporal, 1939; commissioned into Loyal (Lancashire) Regiment, Dec 1940; volunteered for Indian Army, Nov 1941; posted to 6 Battalion, 11 Sikh Regiment as Adjutant; joined 152 Indian Parachute Regiment, 1945; Captain, York and Lancaster Regiment, British Army on the Rhine, 1946; interpreter and intelligence duties, 1948-1953; regimental postings, Sudan, Egypt and Cyprus, 1953-1956; Major, 1955; took part in Suez conflict, 1956; training officer, Battalion Headquarters, Sheffield, 1957-1961; Naval, Air and Military Attaché, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1961-1962; General Staff Officer, Intelligence Division, SHAPE, 1962-1964; Lieutenant Colonel, 1964; Commander, Yorkshire Training Brigade, 1964-1967; General Staff Officer, Allied Forces Central Europe, Holland, 1967-1969; British Liaison Officer, Germany, 1969-1974; retired 1974, Admin Officer, 2 Battalion, Wessex Regiment, Territorial Army, Reading; died 2001.
Born 1928; educated Eton; enlisted Scots Guards, 1946; 2 Lieutenant, 1948; Lieutenant, 1950; Captain, 1954; Equerry to HRH the Duke of Gloucester, 1957-59; Staff College, 1959; Major, 1961; Brigade Major, 4 Guards Armoured Brigade, 1964-1966; Lieutenant Colonel, 1967; Commanding Officer 2 Battalion Scots Guards, 1968-71; Chief of General Staff, Armament Supply Department, Ministry of Defence, 1972-1974; Brigadier, 1975; Brigadier General Staff, Ministry of Defence, 1975; Commander Land Forces and Deputy Commander British Forces, Cyprus, 1976-1978; General Officer Commanding South West District, 1978-1981; Commander, Commonwealth Monitoring Force and Military Adviser to the Governor, Southern Rhodesia [Zimbabwe], 1979-1980; retired 1981; died 2006.
Enlisted, Apr 1917; served with Royal Garrison Artillery, North West Frontier, India, 1917-1919; awarded Indian General Service Medal with clasp, 'Afghan 1919'.
Yorkshire Television is an independent television company based in Leeds, Yorkshire. It was established in 1968 and is presently one of the largest independent television companies. In 1997 it became a franchise of the Granada Media Group, later Granada Compass.
Served in the RAF in the UK, Middle East and Singapore, 1928-1936; Flight Lt, 1933; joined 230 (Flying Boat) Sqn, 1935; Sqn Leader, 1937; student at Staff College, Andover, 1938; died 1993.
Born in 1858; joined 77 (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Regt of Foot, 1878; Adjutant 2 Bn Middlesex Regt, 1882-1886; Capt, 1885; graduated Staff College, 1888; Aide de Camp to Governor of Bermuda, 1889-1892; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Eastern District, 1894-1897; Maj, 1896; Staff Captain Intelligence Div, War Office, 1898-1899; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Intelligence Div, War Office, 1899-1901; served with 2 Bn Middlesex Regt in the Second Boer War, South Africa, 1901-1902; temporary Military Attache to Brussels and The Hague, 1902-1904; Lt Col, 1904; Military Attache to Brussels, The Hague, and the Scandinavian Courts, 1904-1906; Military Attache to Brussels and The Hague, 1906; Assistant Commandant at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and General Staff Officer Grade 2, 1906-1910; Brevet Col, 1907; Assistant Director of Military Training and General Staff Officer Grade 1, 1910-1914; Col, 1910; served World War One, 1914-1918; commanded British troops at the capture of Tsingtao, North China, 1914; Maj Gen, 1914; Commander 39 Div, 1915-1916; Chief of British Military Mission to Portugal, 1916-1919; died 1919.Publications:Handbook of the Belgian Army,(War Office Intelligence Department, Stationary Office, London, 1899); Handbook of the French Army, (War Office Intelligence Department, Stationary Office, London, 1901).
Born in 1877; educated at Newton College, south Devon and Royal Military Academy,Woolwich; joined Royal Artillery, 1897; graduated Staff College, Quetta, India, 1909-1910;served in World War One, 1914-1918; General Staff Officer, Grade 1, 4 Div, and Brig Gen,General Staff, 20 Corps, 1917-1918; Brig Gen, General Staff, Egyptian Expeditionary Force,1918; commanded 6 Infantry Bde, 1923-1926; Aide de Camp to the King and Maj Gen, 1926;Director of Recruiting and Organisation, War Office, 1927-1928; Commandant, ImperialDefence College, 1929-1931; Director of Military Operations and Intelligence, War Office,1931-1934; Col Commandant, Royal Artillery, 1934-1937; Lt Gen, 1933; Chief of GeneralStaff, India, 1934-1937; Gen, 1937; General Officer Commanding in Chief, Northern Command,1937-1940; Aide de Camp General to the King, 1938-1940; retired, 1940; North EasternRegional Commissioner for Civil Defence, 1940-1945; died 1962.
Born in 1893; educated at Eton College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; joined Grenadier Guards, 1912; Lt, 1914; Capt, 1915; Adjutant, Divisional Base Depot, 1915; ADC to Commander, 11 Army Corps, France, 1915-1916; General Staff Officer Grade 3, 4 Army, France, 1917-1918; Bde Maj, 3rd Guards Bde, France, 1918; Adjutant, Dispersal Unit, 1919; Staff Capt, 2 Guards Bde, UK, 1919-1920; taught English at a French military school, 1920-1921; Adjutant, Grenadier Guards, 1921-1922; General Staff Officer Grade 3, War Office, 1922-1924 and Grade 2, 1926-1930; commanded 2 Bn, Grenadier Guards, 1932-1935; Military Attaché, Paris, 1936-1938; Deputy Director of Military Intelligence, War Office, 1938-1939, and Director of Military Intelligence, 1939-1940; Military Attaché, Washington DC, 1941; Maj Gen, General Staff, British Army Staff, Washington DC, 1941-1943; Maj Gen, General Staff, Middle East, North Africa and Italy, 1943-1945; ADC to King George VI, 1944-1945; Liaison Officer on staff of FM Hon Sir Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1945; retired pay, 1945; Gentleman Usher to the Queen, 1959-1967; died in 1971.
Born 1946; educated at Winchester and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; commissioned into the 11 Hussars (Prince Albert's Own), 1963; served with the 11 Hussars (Prince Albert's Own), British Army of the Rhine, West Germany, 1963-1968; resigned commission, 1968; lived in Paris, France, and worked on first novel, The violent brink (John Murray, London, 1975); author and military historian, from 1973; made Chevalier de l'Orde des Artes et des Lettres by French Government. Publications: The violent brink (John Murray, London, 1975); For reasons of state (Cape, London, 1980); The Spanish Civil War (Orbis, London, 1982); The Faustian pact (Cape, London, 1983); The enchantment of Christina von Retzen (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1989); Inside the British Army (Chatto Windus, London, 1990); Crete: the battle and the resistance (John Murray, London, 1991); Paris after the liberation, 1944-1949 (Penguin, London, 1995) with Artemis Cooper, ; Stalingrad (Viking, London, 1998).
Born in 1903; educated at Cheltenham College and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; 2nd Lt, Royal Field Artillery, 1923; Lt, 1925; ADC to Government United Provinces, 1929-1931; Capt, 1936; Adjutant, 1936-1938; General Staff Officer Grade 3, 1939-1940; Maj, 1940; Brig, 1942; served in North West Europe, 1944-1946; Col, 1946; Deputy Director, Military Government (British Element), Berlin, 1948-1950; Maj Gen, 1951; Commander, 4 Anti-Aircraft Group, 1951-1953; Chief of Staff, General HQ, Middle East Land Forces, 1954-1957; retired, 1957; Col Commandant, Royal Artillery, 1960-1965; died in 1985.
Born 1891; educated at Sandroyd Cobham, Winchester College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into 1 Bn, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 1911; service in Gibraltar, 1911-1912; served in Bermuda, 1912-1914; Lt, 1913; service in Pretoria, South Africa, 1914; served in World War One, 1914-1918; wounded, First Battle of Ypres, Belgium, 1914; acting Capt, 1915; Capt, 1915; Assistant Instructor, Mersey School of Instruction, 1915-1916; Company Commander, No 8, Officer Cadet Bn, 1916-1917; Staff Course, Clare College, Cambridge, 1917; Assistant Instructor, No 1 School of Instruction for Infantry Officers, 1917-1918; Senior Officers Course, Aldershot, Hampshire, 1918; commanded B Company, 1 Bn, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 19 Infantry Bde, 33 Div, 5 Corps, 3 Army, Western Front, 1918; killed in action, near Epehy, France, 21 Sep 1918.