Fennings Pharmaceuticals was founded in 1840 when Alfred Fennings (d 1900) opened the Golden Key Pharmacy in Hammersmith Broadway, London. Fennings sold medicines for the treatment of typhoid and cholera as well as for more minor ailments such as coughs and colds. However he was not a member of The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and there is no trace of him in the Medical Register. In 1850 the business moved to Cowes, Isle of Wight and went into manufacturing. While the general management of the business, including advertising, correspondence, book-keeping, manufacturing and publishing was carried out at the Cowes office, manufacturing, packing and supply of various medicines was also carried out, under agreement, by Sanger and Sons (Seymour Works, 47 Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush London) and G.F. Sutton, Sons and Co. (Osbourne Works, Brandon Road, Kings Cross, London). These two firms collected all acounts due for goods supplied by them. After the death of Alfred Fennings in 1900 Fennings Pharmaceuticals became a Trust, with all profits going to Shaftesbury Homes, a children's charity. In 1948 the main office moved from Cowes to Horsham, West Sussex. From 1964 some medicines were being manufactured and distributed by J. Waterhouse and Co Ltd, (Church Street, Old Square, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire). There was also a manufacturing plant in Mabelthorpe, Lincolnshire. The company ceased trading in 1996. Fennings Pharmaceticals sold products across the Commonwealth, mainly in the area of child proprietary medicines.
The organisation now known as the Health Visitors' Association was founded in 1896 as Women Sanitary Inspectors' Association; renamed in 1915 as the Women Sanitary Inspectors' and Health Visitors' Association and in 1930 became the Women Public Health Officers' Association. The name Health Visitors' Association was adopted in 1962.
The Women Sanitary Inspectors' Association was founded in 1896 by seven women sanitary workers, all based in London. By 1906 the membership had risen to sixty-three and that year invitations to join the Association were sent out to those working in the provinces. The main aims of the Association have remained constant throughout its history - to safeguard the interests and improve the status of women public health workers and to promote the interchange of relevant technical and professional knowledge. In 1915 the name of the Association was changed to The Women Sanitary Inspectors' and Health Visitors' Association to reflect the increased number of Health Visitors who had joined, and in 1929 it became The Women Public Health Officers' Association due to the inclusion in the membership of others working in the public health field. In 1962 it adopted the new name of The Health Visitors' Association as this was seen as more indicative of the work and function of most members, although other types of workers were not excluded.
Throughout its history the Association has been interested in the work of the many different types of health worker who have been eligible for membership at one time or another such as school nurses, tuberculosis visitors, sanitary inspectors, clinic nurses, family planning nurses, domiciliary midwives and matrons of day nurseries as well as health visitors themselves, and has shared connections with parallel professions such as nursing, social work, district nursing and midwifery. In 1918 the Association affiliated to the National Union of Women Workers and in 1924 was the first health service union to affiliate to the Trades Union Congress and has actively negotiated and campaigned on a variety of issues such as pay and conditions, state welfare benefits, training, etc.
The early emphasis of health visiting was on mother and child care, as part of the tide of concern over infant mortality during the late 19th and early 20th century, but later, particularly after the National Health Service Acts of 1946-7, their work extended into involvement with the health of the whole family and other groups such as those needing after-care following admission to hospital, those with long term illness, the recently bereaved, and families with social problems, although the emphasis throughout has remained on public health education. Because of this, and the varied settings in which its members have worked at different times over the years, such as the home and school, workshop and factory, as well as the health centre, clinic and hospital, the records of the Association, and of the individual health visitors which lie alongside them, document many social, rather than purely medical, aspects of health and disease in a wide range of areas ranging from the working conditions of outworkers and the recovery of the tuberculous at the beginning of the century, to, more recently, concern over cigarette advertising and the public health implications of the chemical and nuclear industries.
The archives date from the inauguration of the Committee in 1881 at a conference for those engaged in the teaching of anatomy in London. At this time teachers of anatomy were experiencing severe problems in obtaining subjects for dissection for classes in Practical Anatomy and Operative Surgery, with medical schools competing with one another for this limited supply of bodies. The Anatomical Teachers' Board was set up to represent the various London medical schools, to improve distribution of unclaimed bodies and to improve also their transfer for subsequent burial. A committee was appointed to investigate the workings of the Anatomy Act 1871 and what measures should be taken to improve the supply of subjects. The Board's duties included visiting existing sources of supply (workhouses, infirmaries, etc.) and taking every opportunity to increase the supply, receiving payments from teachers and examining boards for every subject sent to them by the Inspector of Anatomy, maintaining accounts with the undertakers who removed anatomical subjects for burial, and keeping a register of all subjects sent to schools and examining boards open to inspection by the Inspector of Anatomy. The Committee continues to deal with the supplying of cadavers for teaching and examination purposes to London medical schools, under the University of London, responsible to HM Inspector of Anatomy at the Department of Health. However, since unclaimed bodies are in ever-dwindling supply at the end of the twentieth century, most bodies are now those of individuals who have bequeathed them for this purpose.
The Mental After Care Association (MACA) was founded in 1879 by Henry Hawkins, Chaplain of Colney Hatch Asylum, as The After Care Association for Poor and Friendless Female Convalescents on Leaving Asylums for the Insane. Its aims were to provide an alternative to the workhouse for those discharged from asylums by offering a period of convalescence in the homes of private individuals. The ex-patients were given advice, money, clothing, and assisted to find suitable work. The name changed in 1892 when "Friendless" was dropped from the title. In 1893 the Association opened its own home for ex-patients in Redhill, Surrey. It was the first convalescent home for the mentally ill in England and closed in 1895. The Association's name changed again in 1894 when "Female" was dropped from the title. In 1914 the Association became The Mental After Care Association for Poor Persons Convalescent or Recovered from Institutions for the Insane. During World War One (1914-1918) the Association helped shell shock and air raid victims. In the 1930s the Association moved into preventive care, and also provided holiday accommodation for those not ready to leave hospital on a permanent basis. The Association became MACA in 1940. It registered as a limited company in 1949. In the 1960s chronic patients were accommodated in homes administered by MACA. More recently MACA has participated in community and respite care projects. In 2005 MACA became Together: Working for Wellbeing.
Founded in 1929 as the National Ophthalmic Treatment Board Association (NOTBA) to organise eye examinations by medically qualified practitioners. NOTBA changed it's name to the Medical Eye Centre Association (MECA), which ended in 1990.
The Medical Research Club was founded in 1891, for social and medical reasons, by London-based pathologists including Sir Almroth Wright and Sir John Bland Sutton. Its main object was the discussion of original work in general and pathological science, and it had a strong interest in microbiology, immunology, virology and molecular biology. Members are elected after the presentation of a paper and approval by the rest of the Club. Membership stood at 110 in 1993. Past members have included Sir Henry Dale, Sir Ernst Chain, Sir Charles Sherrington, Sir Howard Florey, Sir Alexander Fleming, Sir Henry Head and Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins.
The British Phrenological Society was established in 1886, incorporated in 1899, and disbanded in 1966-1967.
Many of these photographs were taken for use in publications, such as handbooks and guides.
In 1894-1895 Burroughs Wellcome and Co. began to produce antitoxin in central London under supervision of T J Bokenham in a laboratory administered directly from firm's headquarters in Snow Hill.
In 1897 Bokenham's successor, Walter Dowson, was appointed Director perhaps indicating that Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories (WPRL) were now regarded as a separate entity.
In 1902 Henry Wellcome directed that both chemical and physiological research laboratories should be considered as separate from the business.
In 1924 the establishment of The Wellcome Foundation Ltd which formally drew together for the first time, the company and the research laboratories and museums.
While Coopers was primarily a veterinary and agricultural products company, it was not entirely so. During the 1950s and 1960s, Coopers became the first firm in Britain to produce aerosols on a large scale, and this fact is mentioned many times in their advertising for such products. They also branched out, for a time, into the production and/or sale of domestic household goods such as cleaners, toilet rolls and hair care products. Not all of these were actually sold under the Coopers name, and some were manufactured by subsidiaries rather than by Coopers themselves.
The Real Expedición Botánica was launched by the Spanish crown in the late 18th century to investigate the indigenous flora of New Spain. The expedition was led by until his return to Spain in 1803 and thereafter by Vicente de Cervantes.
Manuel Andrade y Pastor was born in Mexico in 1809 and qualified as a surgeon and physician in Mexico in 1831-1833. He travelled to study in Paris in 1833-1836. On his return to Mexico he was appointed Director of the Hospital of Jesus. In 1838 he was made Director of the Escuela Nacional de Cirugía, which was incorporated later that year into the Establecimiento de Ciencias Médicas founded in 1833. He held the chair of anatomy here until his death in 1848.
Charles Donovan obtained his MD at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1889 and was commissioned into the Indian Medical Service in 1891. After service in Burma, he was posted in 1898 to Madras to take up an appointment in the Surgeon-General's Office. He was Second Physician at the Government General Hospital until 1910 and then Superintendent at the Royapetta Hospital until his retirement in 1919. He was also Professor of Physiology at the Madras Medical School, studying at King's College, London, during his leave in 1901, and visiting colleagues in the field of tropical medicine in Paris, Edinburgh and Liverpool. His research came to concentrate on Kala-azar, which was prevalent in Blacktown, a densely-populated part of Madras, and in June 1903 he identified the parasite now known as Leishmania donovani.
Amy Skelland was widowed in 1907. She qualified as a nurse in 1909, having trained at the Government General Hospital at Madras, and she was matron of the Royapetta Hospital at the time that Donovan was Superintendent. His reference for her (B.2/4) mentions her "very good knowledge of microscopical work" and the "great help" she had been in "the record keeping of special cases that interested [him]".
James Acheson graduated MB, BCh, BAO from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1921; Medical Officer for the British South Africa Company and subsequently for the Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia [Zambia], 1923-1948, and had a special interest in dermatology. His MD thesis, 'Framboesia tropica or yaws, with special reference to its occurrence in the Kasempa District of Northern Rhodesia' (1927), was based on the observations recorded in these notes and photographs. Further biographical details can be found in the obituary in the British Medical Journal, 17 February 1968.
Stanley George Browne (CMG, OBE, MD, FRCS, FRCP, DTM) was born on 8 December 1907 in London, and studied medicine at King's College Hospital, London, graduating in 1933. He combined house appointments at King's with postgraduate study, and became Member, Royal College of Physicians, London in 1934 and Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1935. After being accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) for work in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Browne studied French and tropical medicine at the Institute de Médecine Tropicale Prince Léopold, Antwerp, obtaining the Diploma in Tropical Medicine in 1936.
From 1936 to 1959 he worked at the BMS hospital in Yakusu, working to control trypanosomiasis and onchocerciasis in the surrounding area. His rural surveys showed a high incidence of leprosy, and he endeavoured to find the cause and cure for this disease, establishing a leprosarium at Yalisombo. While at the hospital he oversaw an area of 10,000 square miles, in which he developed a programme of community care based on 18 health centres and 36 treatment centres. This pioneering programme became a model in Africa for the control of endemic diseases.
From 1959 to 1966 Browne was Director of the Leprosy Research Unit, Uzuakoli, Eastern Nigeria (becoming known in West Africa as Mr Leprosy' and sometimesBonganga'), after which he became Director of the Leprosy Study Centre, London, 1966-1980.
Browne's outstanding skills in leprosy were in great demand throughout the world, and his very many advisory roles included Consultant Advisor in Leprosy, Department of Health and Social Security, 1966-1979, and Medical Consultant to the Leprosy Mission, 1966-1978. Similarly, he was involved with numerous leprosy organisations, including LEPRA (Medical Secretary, 1968-1973, Vice-President, 1984-1986) and the International Leprosy Association (Secretary-Treasurer, 1966-1984, Honorary Vice-President, 1984-1986). His contributions to tropical medicine were recognised by many awards, including the British Medical Association's Stewart Prize for Epidemiology, 1975, the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine's JN Chaudry gold medal, 1978, and the Fellowship of King's College Hospital Medical School, also in 1978.
He was a dedicated and active Christian, and was president of the Christian Medical Fellowship of Great Britain, 1969-1971, and of the Baptist Union 1980-1981. He married Ethel Marion Williamson (known as Mali) in 1940. He died on 29 January 1986.
For further biographical material on Browne see his obituaries in The Lancet, 22 Feb 1986, p 455 and the British Medical Journal, vol 292, 15 Feb 1986, p 491; Munk's Roll, vol 8, p 59; and Who Was Who, 1981-1990, p 98.
Priest's registers: Before the restoration of the hierarchy many individual priests, as opposed to parishes, often kept registers covering diverse geographical areas.
During the Second World War the Wellcome Foundation laboratories at Frant, East Sussex, were engaged in work for the Ministry of Supply, producing scrub typhus vaccine for the armed forces. The project was given the wartime codename of 'Tyburn' after Tyburn Farm, the farm at the Wellcome Veterinary Research Station there. The project was organised by the bacteriologist Marinus van den Ende (1912-1957), serving with the RAMC: his obituary in the Lancet states that "his greatest achievement in England was the organisation of the laboratory at Frant for the large-scale production of scrub typhus vaccine, exacting and dangerous work which he carried out with great speed and precision"
The 28th County of London (Wandsworth) Battalion Home Guard was established on 11 November 1940. It was made up of volunteers from the V Battalion, men from four companies which had been raised as Home Guard Units by Wandsworth Borough Council and men from factories within the new Battalion area including Young & Co. Ltd at Ram Brewery. The Commanding Officer was Lt Col Sanders until 1942 when Major J Black took command. Many of the men in the Home Guard had seen service during World War I. The Battalion participated in civil defence duties during the War particularly helping the Air Raid Wardens during and after bombing raids. In 1942 the Battalion became responsible for Wimbledon Common and a company from the Wimbledon Home Guard Battalion was transferred to the join the Wandsworth Company. The Battalion was comprised of approximately 2000 men of all ranks and it is estimated that during its existence over 6000 served in it. The Battalion was disbanded following a final parade on Sunday 22 October 1944 although many men became members of the Home Guard Social Club and took part in anniversary parades at Ram Brewery until 1982.
Florence Mary Turtle was born on 19th November 1896 in Lambeth, the daughter of Charles E and Florence AM Turtle. After living in Hackney and Fulham, where Florence attended Sherbrooke Road School, the family settled at 135 Putney Bridge Road, Putney, where Mrs Turtle ran a fur shop. In 1917 Florence got a job at Finsbury Library, and then at a branch of W H Smith, before going to work in Harrods book department in 1921. In 1923 she started working at John Barkers department store in Kensington, and by 1929 had become the buyer for the book department. As well as this, she subsequently became a buyer for Barkers' sister store, Derry and Toms. In 1930, at the age of 34, Florence moved out of Putney Bridge Road and into 9 Ranelagh Gardens Mansions, Fulham, where she lived with her younger sister Barbara. Two years later, Florence, Barbara, and their brother Bernard moved into 28 Kingscliffe Gardens, Southfields. In 1933 Florence started volunteering on Saturdays at St James' Hospital in Balham where she would distribute books to the patients. Florence was an avid reader and took an interest in a wide range of subjects, taking evening classes at various times in French, German, public speaking, creative writing, and mothercraft. She occasionally wrote articles on bookselling and related subjects for publications such as 'The Publisher and Bookseller'. She was a member of the Book Craft Guild, serving as chairman in 1929/30. In 1938 she became a member of the Buyers Association of Great Britain. In 1941 Florence became the stationary buyer for British Home Stores, where she worked at their Baker Street headquarters until retiring in 1960. Throughout her life, Florence attended St Etheldreda's church in Fulham, where she was an active member of the choir. She also enjoyed going to the theatre, walking on Wandsworth and Wimbledon Commons, holidaying in the countryside, gardening, and having baths. She was an admirer of antiques, ornaments, and beautiful furniture, and enjoyed visiting the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her lifelong friends since school were Connie Cowgill (nee Bishop) and Gwen Foot. She never married, and continued to live at Kingscliffe Gardens with her brother Brian until her death in 1981.
Geoffrey Haines was born in Barrow-in-Furness in 1899 before his family moved to London. He was educated at St Paul's school. In December 1917 he joined the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps at Whitehall before being sent to Cambridge. In 1918 he had a severe case of Spanish Influenza and subsequently never saw action. After the war he moved to London and worked firstly as an account in his father's company before getting a job as accountant with the London Association for the Blind where he was to remain for the rest of his career. He married Olive in June 1927 and they moved into a house in Balmuir Gardens Putney before moving to Larpent Avenue in Putney in 1934. Their daughter Anne was born in 1928. During World War Two Geoffrey was an Air Raid Warden for the B7 division in Putney and later became a Bomb Reconaissance Officer alongside his wife Olive. The Warden's Reporting Post was in his front room at Larpent Avenue. In 1956 Olive Haines was appointed Mayor of Wandsworth and their daughter Anne was her Mayoress. He had a keen interest in antique coins and he built up an impressive coin collection which he sold to the Barber Institute at the University of Birmingham in 1965. He received an OBE in 1968 and was also made Vice-President of the Blind Association after thirty-seven years of working there. He was the Treasurer of the Royal Numismatic Society and was a member of numerous other institutions. Geoffrey was also involved with the Masons and held several key positions at the Lux in Tenebris lodge and within the larger organisation including Deputy Chair of the Royal Masonic Institute, a position he held for 18 years. He died on 14 September 1981.
Edward Thomas was born on 3 March 1878 in Lambeth, and was educated at Battersea Grammar School, St Paul's School and Lincoln College, Oxford. He married in 1899, and began writing reviews for newspapers and magazines, particularly the Daily Chronicle. Despite regular reviewing work he had consistent financial worries, and made several attempts to find alternative work, few of which were successful. He suffered from depression for several years, including considering suicide, and spent time away from his family in the care of doctors in attempts to recover. In 1915 he decided to enlist in the Army, and was killed in action during the Battle of Arras on 9 April 1917.
William Halle was born in Hastings in 1912, and lived there with his mother and sister, Annette. His father left when he was a child. From the 1960s, possibly earlier, he lived at 7a Mexfield Road, Wandsworth and also had an art studio in Battersea. He worked as an artist and at the Telephone Exchange, possibly because his paintings were not successful enough for him to be an artist full-time. He also wrote novels, and made several attempts to get them published. Also living in 7a Mexfield Road were Julia and Norman McLachlan, referred to by Halle Norman as Mac. Mac was a great friend of Halle's until Mac's death in 1984, which Halle mourned deeply. Halle moved to Olive Haines Lodge in 1990 and died in February 1998. The majority of Halle's friendships were with other men, with whom he often maintained life long friendships, he also records sexual relationships with various men right up until his death. Despite his sister living in South Africa, they clearly remained very close, and he often worried about her and tried to regularly send her money.
The Wandsworth Area Social Democratic Party (SDP) was set up in 1981. The Party was active until 1988 when the SDP merged with the Liberal Party. In the years in which the party was active they worked closely with the Liberal Party in the area to forming the SDP/Liberal Alliance to run at Local and General elections.
Tooting Bec Hospital, just off Tooting Bec Road, was opened in 1903. It specialised in mental health care for the aged. Friends of Tooting Bec Hospital were active between 1961 and 2002. They were a group of volunteers who visited patients at the hospital, organised fundraising activities and tried to raise awareness of the work of the hospital and mental health issues. From 1995 they changed their name to The Bec Community Friends. The hospital was closed in 1995.
T H Adamson and Sons was founded around 1790 in Chiswick, by Thomas Adamson, and was re-named T H Adamson and Sons in 1852, by the original founder's son, Thomas Henry Adamson, with works at Putney, Chiswick and Ealing. The Putney works were at 129 Putney High Street, the site of Essex House, which was demolished in 1872. As well as general building works, the firm also carried out decorative works, and had a showroom at 145 Putney High Street. They were responsible for the stonework on the Cromwell Statue in Westminster Hall Gardens and the Gladstone Memorial on the Strand, as well as repairs to the Clerestorys and the construction of a new Rose Window in Westminster Abbey. The firm worked on several churches, including All Saints, Putney and Trinity Church, Streatham, as well as the Regal Cinema in Putney and Westminster School.
Stanley Bollans was born in 1911. He lived at Penwith Road, Southfields and attended Wandsworth Technical Insitute. He was a keen cyclist and athlete and was a member of the Wandsworth Technical Institute Cycle Club.
Herbert Thomas Charles Battcock was born around 1896. He married Gladys Matthews in Wandsworth in 1921, but was widowed before any children were born. In 1939 he married Aileen O'Callaghan, and a daughter, Celia, was born in 1944.
In a deed of 1922 (D157/3/5) his occupation is given as 'printer', and in 1927 'printers machine manager'. By the time of the Second World War he was working in the Foreign Office, and belonged to the Home Guard. He retired from the Civil Service in 1962.
Herbert Battcock was initiated into the Freemasons Lodge of Affinity in 1927, and was a founder member of the Earlsfield Lodge which was consecrated on 10 October 1938. He received honorary membership of the Earlsfield Lodge in 1979. He died in 1981.
Martin Colin Tupper was born on 20th June 1950 in St James Hospital, Balham. From 1954 to 1960 he attended Hearnville Primary and Balham Central [Chestnut Grove] schools. In 1967 he joined the Libraries Department of Islington Borough Council, where he developed his interest in local history and archaeology. He remained there until his last illness in 2006.
He was a resident of Balham and active in the local Labour Party, which he joined in 1970. He was elected a Wandsworth Borough Councillor in 1986 and combined his interests in local history with membership of the Clapham Society, the Co-operative Movement and the Socialist Educational Movement. He was also connect4ed with the Battersea Churches Chairty and Battersea Combined Charities. Within the Labour Party, he was chair of the Nightingale Ward of Battersea Labour Party 1975-1977. He became secretary of Balham Ward 1978-1982, and publicity officer for the same ward in 1982. He became secretary of Battersea Labour Party 1982-1985. He was chair of Balham Ward 1991-1992, and vice chair towards the end of the 1990s. He attended some meetings of Wandsworth Labour Group in the 1980s, possibly in his capacity as councillor.
He was a governor of Alderbrook Primary School, Balham, 1973-2002, taking the role of vice chair and chair at various times through the 1980s and 1990s. He was a governor of Chestnut Grove School, formerly Hydeburn School, Balham, 1977-2005, taking the role of chair 1981-1984, vice chair 1988-1989, and chair of the exclusions panel 1998-1999. He was a governor of Hearnville Primary School, Balham, 1973-1991.
Wandsworth Common is an important historic common, the remains of more extensive commonland which earlier went by a number of names including Battersea West Heath and Wandsworth East Heath.
It was part of the wastes of the Manor of Battersea and Wandsworth; by the 19th century it had been sub-divided by the railway and encroached upon by building as London was developed, with some 53 enclosures between 1794 and 1866. The larger areas enclosed were taken for building the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, the industrial school of St James, Allfarthing Piece, McKellar's Triangle, the Justices of Surrey.
Attempts by local people to preserve the common against further encroachment began in earnest in 1868 when appeals were made to the metropolitan board of works to take over responsibility, following the metropolitan commons act of 1866, but this was initially unsuccessful. In 1870 a common defence committee was set up, later to become the Wandsworth Common preservation society. Action was taken in April 1870 to try and keep Plough Green open and in the months following fund-raising efforts and lobbying of support accelerated. Eventually Earl Spencer, Lord of the Manor, agreed to transfer most of the common to the defence committee excluding the area which later became Spencer Park. A bill went through Parliament in July 1871, the Wandsworth Common Act, and the common was then transferred to a group of conservators elected by inhabitants of Battersea and Wandsworth for a £250 annuity paid to Earl Spencer. This annuity and maintenance costs were raised by a special rate levied of the inhabitants.
In 1887 responsibility transferred to the Metropolitan Board of Works who carried out a number of improvements including planting, paths layout, creation of the ornamental lakes from old gravel pits as well as the smaller Three Island Pond near Bolingbroke Grove. In 1898 the common became the responsibility of the new London County Council who in 1912 purchased an area of 20 acres of open land to extend the common. This had belonged to the Royal Patriotic Fund Company but prior to the 1850s had been part of the common. The cost of £12,000 included building a wall between the open space and the Royal Patriotic Fund Company's land. However, before this area could be provided for the public's use, it was taken over in World War One for the third London General Hospital by the Government. When it was reinstated after the war, facilities were provided including a bowling green and tennis courts.
In 1971 responsibility for the common transferred to Wandsworth Council. (From the Wandsworth Council website, courtesy of the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust).
William Tarlton Rayment Jackson was born in 1856, the son of a chemist, and married Mary Emily Bruton on 15 September 1888, in the parish church of St Andrew, Holborn. Their son Hugh was born in 1890 and their daughter Mary Marguerite - sometimes referred to as Daisy - in 1893. William, known to his wife as Jack, was a commercial traveller for the firm of Blundell, Spence and Co, who manufactured paint. Jackson also had a sister, Louise, to whom he occasionally wrote and also refers to his wife's younger sister Rose. The family seemed to suffer from financial worries, as this is a regular theme within the letters and Jackson makes clear that he has undertaken his long business trips abroad to try and get the family out of these difficulties. Mary Emily was known as Emily, or affectionately by Jackson as "wifie", and was born in Derbyshire in 1856. From the 1881 census she appears to have been a school teacher prior to her marriage.
Blundell, Spence and Co were a Hull firm, who had offices at Anchor Wharf, 9 Upper Thames Street, London. Jackson refers to other employees of the firm, including Bob Cooke and Richmond.
Susan Ward was a Labour councillor until May 1978.
The deeds were received in a bundle together. It is not clear if they are associated.
Edwin Fairland was an assistant surgeon in the 21 Regiment Hussars, Lucknow. He married Emma Thomson in Lucknow on 3 November 1870. They had three daughters. Emma Fairland died on 21 October 1897 and Edwin Fairland died on 6 August 1909. Edwin Fairland died at the home of his daughter, Mrs Mabel Alice Harrison of 76 Prince of Wales Mansions, Battersea.
Where known, full details of the administrative history are in individual catalogue records.
Hotham Road School in Putney opened on 2nd June 1909, and was initially run by the London County Council. Many of the pupils were transfered from the Deodar Road School, which closed that year. In 1948 the name changed to Hotham School, and subsequently to Hotham Primary School. It is currently run by the London Borough of Wandsworth. In 1910 the Putney Evening School was established in the same building as Hotham School. This organisation was later known as Putney Evening Institute, and Hotham Adult Education Centre. It formed part of the Putney Adult Education Institute, which later became the Putney and Wandsworth Adult Education Institute and was incorporated into the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). In 1985 John Payne, Head of Adult Education at Hotham School, founded the Hotham School Social History Group. This group, with the help of past and present students and staff from the school and the adult centre, organised several events to celebrate the school's 80th anniversary in 1989, and also produced a number of publications about the history of the school. When the ILEA was dissolved in 1990, adult education ceased at Hotham.
In 1700 a Trust was established by Sir Walter St John for the continued provision of a school to provide free education for twenty poor boys from Battersea. By 1750 the school had nearly 90 pupils, and was the only school of significance in Battersea until a school was established there by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in 1799. The two schools were run as one for part of the first half of the 19th century, and separated out again in 1853. In the 1870s an upper school for 250 fee-paying scholars was proposed as an addition to the elementary school. The original twenty free places were to be safeguarded at the latter.
The Upper School, shortly renamed Battersea Grammar School, opened on 12th April 1875 on St John's Hill, Battersea. The second headmaster, William Henry Brindley who originally joined the school as an assistant master, was appointed in 1881, to what was then a school of 48 pupils. In 1936 the school moved to purpose built premises in Abbotswood Road, Streatham. During the Second World War pupils were evacuated first to Worthing then to Hertford. As a result of lack of funds, the school became a controlled school in the late 1940s. It closed in 1977, and staff and pupils were amalgamated with those of the Rosa Bassett Grammar School in the new Furzedown Secondary School. In 1993 the Abbotswood Road site was taken over by Streatham Hill and Clapham High School.
Headmasters of Battersea Grammar School were Rev Edmund A Richardson, 1875-1881, William Bindley, 1881-1918, Henry Ellis, 1918-1945, Walter Langford, 1945-1965, James Cowan, 1965-1972, and John Phillips, 1973-1977.
The Old Grammarians' Association was founded on 16 July 1902, although Old Grammarians had held a variety of recreational and social functions prior to this, and it continued to provide social and recreational activities for old boys of Battersea Grammar School throughout the 20th century. It is still in existence at the time of writing, seee www.oldgrammarians.co.uk (correct at time of writing, January 2011).
The Sir Walter St John's Schools Trust was from 1875-1949 the governing body of both schools. After 1949 it existed largely to handle the funds of the Trust, to nominate a proportion of governors and help the schools by making grants.
Sir Walter St John's School continued in existence until 1986. At the time of writing the site houses the Thomas' Day School.
Spencer Park was a secondary county school for boys which opened in 1957. On opening, the intake was made up of boys from Honeywell secondary school, Wandsworth secondary technical school as well as some students from schools in Lavender Hill and Earlsfield. The school was housed in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in Trinity Road, Wandsworth Common, which had been sold to the London County Council in 1952. The school also occupied a new building erected in 1957 specifically to house the school. The two buildings were divided by a playground. The school moved out of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in September 1976 and into the extended new buildings next door, as the building was falling in to disrepair and was unsafe to house the school. The school closed in 1986 when it was amalgamated with Wandsworth School and renamed John Archer School. The students moved to the premises in Sutherland Grove, Southfields in September 1986.
The school was founded in 1850 and closed in 1985. It was on Green Lane, High Street, Battersea.
Berthold Auerbach was born into a Jewish family in Thorn in Western Prussia (now Torun in Poland). He attended school there, until his parents moved to Berlin in 1885. He had already begun studying Latin and in the next few years added French and Greek to his curriculum.
In December 1891 he began his working life by going into commercial training with the firm of H. Holde in Berlin. He remained with them until October 1894. Between 1895 and 1897 he trained in business and commerce with Albert Meyer (Speditions-, Commissions- und Bankgeschäft) but was most unhappy, realising that this type of career was not for him.
He joined the Literarische Gesellschaft in Leipzig, which had been founded by Carl Heine, and in March 1898 began work there as actor, Treasurer and Secretary. Out of this society grew Heine's Ibsentheater. The dramatist Frank Wedekind was also a member of the company. The Ibsentheater toured Northern Germany until the end of 1898 when it ceased to exist.
After a brief period as a reporter in Berlin, Auerbach started a career as a theatrical agent. He was to pursue this career for the next thirty-six years and became skilled in matching directors and companies with suitable actors and actresses, not only in Germany, but also in Austria and Switzerland. In this way many famous names in German theatre owed their careers to him through discovery by him and subsequent support and protection for their talent. Amongst these were Adolf Roff, Elsa Wagner, Emil Jannings and Carl Ebert. He was untiring in his travels to review productions and was enthusiastic about contemporary drama. His conduct and industry won him many lasting friendships in the profession: Helene Riechers, Carl Ebert, Elsa Wagner, and the Dumont/Lindemann Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.
In October 1898, Auerbach went to work for the theatre agency E. Drenker & Co. In 1907 he married Anna Pergams who came to Berlin from Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad in Russia). In 1915 he was called up for military service and sent to Königsberg for training, where the director of the Stadttheater 'Neues Schauspielhaus' gave him free tickets for all performances. His old firm of Drenker managed to secure his release from the army and he remained with them until 1929, when the firm closed. At this point the State founded an official agency for stage and film, Paritätischer Stellennachweis der Deutschen Bühnen, where the Actors' Union and the Union of Theatre Directors were represented on equal terms. Auerbach remained with them until 1933, when he was dismissed after an SA (Sturmabteilung) raid, albeit with a creditable testimonial. He was called back and re-employed for short periods four times, having become indispensable to the Agency, until Goebbels personally put a stop to this.
Despite numerous letters from the acting profession and others urging his re-employment, Auerbach remained unemployed in Berlin from 1934-1939 when he and his wife, after much heart-searching, decided to leave Germany to join their daughter in England. They were not allowed to bring out their two sons. During the first few years of the Nazi regime, Auerbach was sent free tickets for performances at most of the Berlin theatres, but this largely ceased once Jews were forbidden to enter German theatres, and he could only attend performances in the few special Jewish theatres.
After his arrival in England, Auerbach was interned in a camp on the Isle of Man for a few months. In 1945 he was invited back to Germany to take up his profession again, but he decided it was too late to start afresh. In 1951 he made his first visit to Düsseldorf and Berlin. When he revisited Germany his reception was tumultuous. He wrote an address for Helene Riecher's 85th birthday in 1954, which was read out at her memorial sevice in 1957. She died one month after Auerbach's wife.
In November 1959, Auerbach celebrated his own 85th birthday and received presents and tributes from the entire German theatrical profession, including the Unions. During his exile, he never lost touch with the German theatre scene and derived immense enjoyment not only from the letters he received but from the journals which were sent to him regularly.
Auerbach also wrote poetry, examples of which are scattered through the collection and in relevant literature.
The English Goethe Society was founded on 26 February 1886, one year after the founding of the Goethe-Gesellschaft in Weimar. The idea for such a society was first put forward by the publisher Alfred Trübner Nutt (1856-1910). At an initial meeting convened in a room at the Society of Arts, the new Society was officially constituted. Its aims were '... to promote and extend the study of Goethe's work and thought, and to encourage original research upon all subjects connected with Goethe' (English Goethe Society: First Annual Report presented at a Business Meeting 1 December 1886). It proposed to do this in three ways: (a) through publications - a volume of Transactions each year, at least one translated work, and a Goethe handbook - David Nutt was appointed the Society's official publisher; (b) through meetings and lectures - ordinary meetings were held regularly and papers read before them which were published in the Transactions - the first Ordinary Meeting was held one week after the Inaugural Meeting, on 28 May 1886; (c) through pursuit of Goethe themes in the fine arts - issue of a Goethe portrait, postcards, dramatic productions.
The formal business of the Society was to be carried out by a President (Professor F. Max Müller was the first to be elected), Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and an Assistant Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Council. A subscription of one guinea per annum was payable, roughly half of which was sent to the Goethe-Gesellschaft in Weimar in return for the privileges of affiliation. However, the Society soon found itself in financial difficulties and changed its rules to create two classes of membership: one paying the full guinea as before and the other paying a half-guinea for membership of the English Goethe Society only.
In its first few years the Society flourished and its membership, which included many distinguished scholars and public figures, rose to about 300. In 1890-1891, however, it went into a steep decline, a significant number of resignations reducing the membership by almost one third. In his autobiography Dr Eugen Oswald, a founder member and Secretary (1891-1912), writes: 'In 1891 weariness had overcome some of its leading members, and the dissolution of the English Goethe Society was formally proposed by some of its officers' (Eugen Oswald: Reminiscences of a Busy Life. London, Alexander Moring, 1911). The weariness was due to the limited scope of the Society's aims. At a special business meeting called for the purpose in 1891, Dr Oswald, backed by Dr Leonard Thorne and Ernest Weiss (later Professor of German at Manchester University), vigorously opposed the dissolution and proposed extending the Society's programme to the fields of German literature, art and science, while still keeping Goethe as the central figure.
This proposal together with the fresh injection of enthusiasm carried the day and a new Council was constituted. Membership rose again and regular meetings once again took place. The presidency passed from Professor Müller to Professor Edward Dowden and thence to a succession of distinguished people including Viscount Haldane of Cloan and Professor Elizabeth Mary Wilkinson. In addition to Ordinary Meetings, soirées were held at which interesting relics and objets d'art were displayed, many lent by Mrs Ludwig (Frieda) Mond, a constant and enthusiastic supporter of the Society. Visits were arranged to Weimar in 1909 and 1910 by Dr Oswald's daughters Lina and Ella, and special celebrations of important anniversaries were organised, e.g. Goethe's centenary and bicentenary (1932 and 1949) and the Society's silver (1911) and golden (1936) jubilees. The Society was represented at several Goethe commemorations in Weimar, Strasbourg and Vienna. The papers read before the meetings of the Society were regularly published in an annual volume, first published in 1886 through to 1912. The activities of the Society were suspended during World War One, 1914-1918. Anti-German feeling ran high for an appreciable time and the Society was not reconstituted until 1923, with the first of a new series of annual volumes appearing in 1924. The aims of the Society spread further to '... the cultivation of relationships with other countries and "world citizenship"' (Leonard Thorne: In Memoriam Dr Eugen Oswald, MA) and in particular to fostering understanding between Anglo-German nations and bringing them into closer union.
Activities were again suspended in 1939 for the duration of World War Two, although the Council continued to meet. This time hostile feeling in the United Kingdom was directed against the Nazi regime and not against Germany as a whole. The then Secretary, Professor Willoughby, was able to reconstitute the Society before hostilities ceased and on 22 February 1945, Dorothy L. Sayers gave a lecture at University College London on 'The Faust Legend and the Idea of the Devil'.
University College had received a direct hit in 1940 which destroyed all the Society's records, deposited there. What records remained in the personal possession of Ella Oswald, Dr Eugen Oswald's younger daughter, were deposited by her on permanent loan in the Archive of the Institute of Germanic Studies in 1955. By agreement of the Society's Council, the Society's library of some 373 books had been deposited in the library of the Institute on permanent loan three years previously.
In the post-war period the Society continued to flourish. By 1947 its membership had reached 75% of the pre-war numbers and continued to remain steady at 150-200. There was considerable participation in the Goethe bicentenary celebrations in 1949 when Thomas Mann delivered the Society's special lecture before an audience of 700 in the Senate House building of the University of London. The Society also contributed to the planning and execution of activities by the ad hoc British Goethe Festival Society.
A decade later, Schiller was honoured by the Society during a highly successful commemoration week at Bedford College (University of London), organised by Professors Purdie and Willoughby.
Further special activities were organised for the 150th anniversary of Goethe's death in 1982 including a translation competition which attracted 160 entries from all over the world. The Society also participated in a joint conference with the Conference of University Teachers in German at Queen Mary College (University of London). An exhibition was arranged, displayed initially at the Goethe Institute in London, and then shown in cities all over the United Kingdom.
In 1986 the Society celebrated its centenary when at a special dinner and reception Professor Siegbert Prawer gave an address on 'Dichtung und Wahrheit'. The Society is still very active and holds regular meetings at the Institute of Germanic Studies.
Friedrich Gundolf, born Friedrich Leopold Gundelfinger, Darmstadt, 20 July 1880, son of Sigmung Gundelfinger (1846-1910), Professor of Mathematics at the Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt; educated at the Ludwig-Georgs Gymnasium, Darmstadt, and studied German literature and history at the Universities of Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin; served in Army Reserve, 1916-1918, and held lectures on Goethe for the 6th Army in France and Belgium; appointed Professor of German Literature at Heidelberg, 1920, a post he held until his death in 1931, he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy.
Gundolf's research output was prolific and wide ranging, his major publications were Shakespeare Und Der Deutsche Geist, (1911), Caesar Geschichte Seines Ruhms, (1924) and biographies of Goethe (1916), Heinrich von Kleist (1922) and Stefan George (1924). On his death he left many unfinished and unpublished manuscripts, of which a few were published posthumously by his widow.
Jethro Bithelll was born at Hindley near Wigan in 1878. He was educated at Wigan Technical School and Owens College, in the Victoria University of Manchester, where he graduated with a first class degree in modern languages in 1900. He then studied German and Scandinavian literature at the Universities of Munich and Copenhagen.
From 1902-1904 he lectured in modern languages at Salford Technical College, and from 1904-1910 he was a lecturer in German at Manchester University. In 1910 he married his first wife, Ethel Rose Fisher (d 1946) and was appointed head of the Department of German at Birkbeck College London. In 1921 he was elected Reader in the University of London, but never became a full professor. He remained at Birkbeck until his retirement in 1938.
During World War One he served as a Private in the Royal Sussex Regiment, Oct 1916-Jan 1919. In 1947 Bithell married again to Dr Alice Emily Eastlake, a long standing friend of himself and his first wife.
Bithell belonged to the group of British born Germanisten who sought to turn German Studies in a new direction, breaking away from the positevistic and philological approach perpetrated by their German-born teachers. He believed, in common with other Germanisten such as William Rose, that literature was a social phenomenon and this attitude is best exemplified by his book Germany, 1932, a collection of essays on all aspects of the artstic and intellectual life of Germany set against its climate and geography. He was aware of a wider need for text book support in language studies and compiled dictionaries, readers and grammars in German and French.
His studies embraced medieval and modern language and literature from not only Germany, but also France, Belgium (including Flemish) and Norway. In retirement he continued to act as an examiner for schools and universities in German. Marking for the Higher School Certificate prompted him to compile his Anthology of German Poetry, 1880-1940, (1941) and two other anthologies followed. He had an abiding love of poetry in several languages. His superlative translation of the Minnesingers in 1909 earned him an entry in Who's Who and his translations from the work of Henrik Wergeland were considered by many to be a "tour de force".
He worked with Professor Andrew Gillies, who was editor of the Germanic Section of the Modern Language Review. During World War Two, the numbers of Germanisten available for review work were greatly reduced, and Gillies asked Bithell to oblige, which he did. At this time he popularised the work of Carossa, and demonstrated that not all Germans were Nazis or Nazi sympathisers. Bithell was also a keen supporter and contributor to German Life and Letters, which honoured his 80th birthday (1958) with a Festschrift volume.
Publications: The Minnesingers: vol I translations, (London, Longmans Green & Co., 1909); Contemporary German Poetry: translations (London: Scott, 1909); Contemporary Belgian Poetry: translations (London: Scott, 1911); Contemporary French Poetry: translations (London: Scott, 1912); Pitman's commercial German grammar (London: Pitman, 1912); Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck (London: Scott, 1913); Gustav Vollmoeller, Turandot Princess of China: translation (Produced at the St James's Theatre by Sir George Alexander) (London: Fisher Unwin, 1913); Verhaeren/Stefan Zweig: translation (London: Constable,1914); Contemporary Belgian literature (London: Fisher Unwin, 1915); 'Emile Verhaeren: Helen of Sparta' translation in The Plays of Emile Verhaeren (London, Constable, 1916); Contemporary Flemish Poetry: translations (London: Scott, 1917); Byron i Vadmel - Byron in Homespun / H.M. Drachmann: translation (London: Harrap, 1920); (with A. Watson Bain) A German poetry book (London: Methuen, 1924); (with A.C. Dunstan) A German course for Science students (London: Methuen, 1925); A French reader for Science students (London: Methuen, 1926); (with J.H. Helweg) English-Danish commercial correspondence (London: Marlboroughs, 1927); (with A.C. Dunstan) A modern German course for students of History (London: Methuen, 1928); Norwegian-English commercial correspondence (London: Marlboroughs, 1928); (with G.M Gathorne-Hardy and I. Grøndal) Henrik Wergeland: poems: translation (London and Oslo, 1929); Advanced German composition (London: Methuen, 1929); (with W. Theilkuhl) Key to advanced German composition , (London: Methuen, 1929); Dutch-English commercial correspondence (London: Marlboroughs, 1929); Germany: a commpanion to German studies (London: Methuen, 1932); (with A.E Eastlake) A commercial German reader (London: Methuen, 1933); Modern German literature (London: Methuen, 1939); An anthology of German poetry, 1880-1940 (London: Methuen, 1941); Hans Carossa: eine Kindheit (Oxford: Blackwell, 1942); (with A Watson Bain) A French poetry book (London: Methuen, 1946); An anthology of German poetry, 1830-1880 (London: Methuen, 1947); Hans Carossa: Verwandlungen einer Jugend (Oxford: Blackwell, 1949); German pronunciation and phonology (London: Methuen, 1952); An anthology of German poetry, 1730-1830 (London: Methuen, 1957); German-English and English-German dictionary (London: Pitman, 1958). Numerous reviews ad articles for English, French, Belgian and other journals including German Life and Letters, Les Marges and the Modern Language Review.
James Blair Leishman was born on 8 May 1902. He was educated at Rydal School and St John's College, Oxford. He was Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in English Literature at University College Southampton from 1928 to 1946 and Lecturer in English Literature at Oxford University from 1946 until his death in 1963.
Publications: The metaphysical poets: Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Traherne, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1934); The monarch of wit: an analytical and comparative study of the poetry of John Donne, (London: Hutchinson, 1951); Selected poems of Friedrich Hölderlin; the German text, translated with an introduction and notes by J.B. Leishman, (London, Hogarth Press, 1954); Poems 1906 To 1926 / Rainer Maria Rilke Translated By J.B. Leishman, (London, Hogarth Press, 1957); Selected works / by Rainer Maria Rilke, Vol. 2 Poetry translated by J.B. Leishman, (London, Hogarth Press, 1960); Themes and variations in Shakespeares sonnets, (London, Hutchinson, 1961); Duino Elegies: the German text / Rainer Maria Rilke; with an English translation, introduction and commentary by J.B. Leishman & Stephen Spender, (London, Hogarth Press, 1963); The art of Marvell's poetry, (London, Hutchinson, 1968).
Leonard William Forster: Born London 30 Mar 1913; Educated at Marlborough College, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, (BA 1934, MA 1938)) and University of Basle (PhD 1938); English Lektor, University of Leipzig, 1934, University of Konigsberg, 1935-1936, and University of Basle, 1936-1938; Fellow of Selwyn College Cambridge, 1937-1950, 1961-1997; during World War Two worked on codebreaking at Bletchley Park, with rank of Lt Cdr RNVR; Professor of German, University College London, 1950-1961; Schröder Professor of German, University of Cambridge, 1961-1979; President of the International Association for Germanic Studies, 1970-1975; Died Cambridge 18 Apr 1997.
Yvonne Kapp: Born Yvonne Mayer, 1903; educated at King's College London; married the artist, Edmond Kapp, 1922; joined Communist Party of Great Britain, 1936, following a visit to the Soviet Union; worked with Basque and Jewish refugees, 1937-1938; Assistant to Director, British Committee to Refugees from Czechoslovakia, dismissed from her post by the Home Office, 1940, and wrote [with Margaret Mynatt] pamphlet British Policy and the Refugees, 1941; Research Officer, Amalgamated Engineering Union, 1941-1946; worked for Medical Research Council, undertaking field work in the East End of London, 1947-1953; editor and translator, Lawrence and Wishart (publishers), 1953-1957; died 1999. Publications: four novels under the pseudonym Yvonne Cloud, including Nobody Asked You, 1932 and The Houses in Between, 1938; Eleanor Marx, (2 vols 1972, 1976).
Margaret Mynatt: Born Vienna, 1907, daughter of a British musician, John Charles Mynatt, (who was known professionally as Giovanni Carlo Minotti); she moved to Berlin in 1929, and joined the Communist Party, and was also involved with Bertolt Brecht and his circle, assistng in the creation of St Joan of the Stockyards and other plays; she left Germany in 1933, following the Reichstag fire, and settled in London; she was Head of Tribunals for the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, 1938-1941, and was dismissed (with Yvonne Kapp) by the Foreign Office in 1941; they subsequently published the pamphlet British Policy and the Refugees; she was Head of Reuters Soviet Monitor, 1951-1951; Manager of Central Books, 1951-1966 and a director of the publishers Lawrence and Wishart, 1966-1977; at the time of her death in Feb 1977 she was editor-in-chief of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels.