Student at Bedford College, University of London, 1881-1884; awarded Class I in her Matriculation of 1882 and her Intermediate in Arts in 1883; granted Reid Scholarship, 1883; received Certificates of Merit for Greek History and German, 1884, and achieved a Class I Honours degree; awarded a diploma of Associateship by Bedford College, 1887; gained Class II in the Cambridge Classical Tripos; married Mr J J Nelson, prior to 1899; Governor of Bedford College, 1909; died 1935.
Born 1841; student at Bedford College, 1868; Resident, Bedford College Boarding House in Bedford Square and York Place, London, until 1894; Assistant, Department of Latin, Bedford College, 1881-1891; Honorary Librarian, Bedford College, 1883-1895; Member of Council, Bedford College, University of London, 1891-1901 and 1909-1913; Member of House Committee, 1891-1921, and Library Committee, 1890-1921, Bedford College; Secretary of Reid Trustees, 1882-1921; Notcutt Travelling Studentship instituted by the Reid Trust, 1918; died 1921.
Born 1885: educated Clapham High School, London, and Girton College, Cambridge University; Gilchrist Fellowship, Cambridge University, 1908-1909; Assistant Lecturer, 1909-1921, Lecturer, 1921-1929, Reader, 1929-1936, and Professor, 1936-1950, in Classics and Greek, Bedford College, University of London; Head of Greek Department, Bedford College, 1936-1950; Honorary Fellow of Girton College, 1955, Bedford College, 1969, and Manchester College, Oxford University, 1969; President, Unitarian Assembly, 1952-1953; President of the Hellenic Society, 1953-1956; President of the Classical Association, 1957-1958; Professor Emeritus, [1950]; died 1973.
Publications: editor of A golden treasury of the Bible (Lindsey Press, London, 1934); preface to Hymns for school and home (Sunday School Association, London, 1920); The Hippias Major, attributed to Plato. With introductory essay and commentary by Dorothy Tarrant (University Press, Cambridge, 1928); Lessons for the little ones (Sunday School Association, London, 1924) with E D Scott; The contribution of Plato to free religious thought: the Essex Hall lecture (Lindsey Press, London, [1949]); The question of moderate drinking: an address delivered at the annual meeting of the Temperance Collegiate Association, April 16th 1953 (Temperance Collegiate Association, Cardiff, [1953]); What Unitarians believe (Lindsey Press, London, [1926]).
Born 1922; educated in Wimbledon and at Bedford College, University of London, graduating in 1943 with a first class honours degree in Geography; Research Assistant, Ministry of Town and Country Planning, 1944-1945; gained doctorate in Economic Geography, 1947; Lecturer, University of Capetown, South Africa, 1947; Lecturer, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, 1948; Lecturer and Senior Lecturer, Keele University, Staffordshire, 1951-1964; Professor of Geography and Head of Geography Department, Bedford College, University of London, 1964-1975; Member of Department of Transport Advisory Committee on the Landscaping of Trunk Roads, 1972; Director of Research in Geobotany, Terrain Analysis and Related Resource Use, Bedford College, 1975-1987; retired 1987; Emeritus Professor, 1987; Leverhulme Fellowship, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, 1987-1994; Murchison Award, Royal Geographical Society, 1987; Honorary Life Member, South African Geographical Society, 1993; died 1994.
Publications: Biogeography in the service of man, with particular reference to the underdeveloped lands. An inaugural lecture at Bedford College (Bedford College, University of London, 1965); Land use studies in the Transvaal Lowveld (Geographical Publications, [Bude], 1956); South Africa (Methuen and Co, London, 1961); The Savannas: biogeography and geobotany (Academic, London, 1986); The use of LANDSAT imagery in relation to air survey imagery for terrain analysis in Northwest Queensland, Australia. ERTS follow-on programme study no.2692B(29650), final report (Department of Industry, Research and Technology Requirements Division, London, 1977) with E Stuart-Owen-Jones.
Born 1899; educated Palmer's School, Grays, Essex and Bedford College, University of London; gained BA, 1920, MSc, 1924, and DSc, 1927; Assistant in Geology, Queen's University, Belfast, 1921-1926; Demonstrator in Geology, Bedford College, University of London. 1927-1931; Lecturer in Petrology, Bedford College, University of London, 1931-1933; Lecturer in Petrology, Durham University, 1933-1943; married Professor Arthur Holmes, 1939; Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh, 1943-1962; Leverhulme Fellowship to investigate the geology of the Slieve Gullion volcano, 1946-1948; Lyell Medallist, Geological Society, London, 1960; Honorary Research Fellow, Bedford College, University of London, 1962-[1985]; died 1985.
Publications: revision of Holmes principles of Physical Geography (English Language Book Society, London, 1978).
Born 1889; educated Southport High School for Girls and University of Liverpool, gaining a BSc, 1910, BSc with Honours, 1911, and an MSc, 1912; Demonstrator and Assistant Lecturer in Botany, University of Liverpool, 1911-1922; Head of Botany Department, Royal Holloway College, University of London, 1922-1949; President of the British Mycological Society, 1942-1961; retired 1949; died 1973.
Publications: Terminology in Phytophthora (Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, 1949); Key to the species of Phytophthora recorded in the British Isles (Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, 1954).
Born 1859; educated Bedford College, 1879-1880; gained BSc at University College London, 1891; Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge University, 1892-1893, gaining a DSc in 1894; Head of the Botany Department, Royal Holloway College, University of London, 1893-1922; Professor of Botany, Royal Holloway College, 1912-1922; Examiner in Honours Internal BSc, London; Member of Faculty of Science, University of London, 1903; Fellow of University College London; Fellow of Linnean Society, 1905; died 1936.
Publications: various articles in Annals of Botany.
Born 1889; educated at Earlsmead and Queen Mary College, and University College London; Resident Science Master, St George's School, Eastbourne, East Sussex, 1910-1911; Physics Master, Tavistock Grammar School, Devon, 1911-1913; Head of Science Department, Leamington College, Warwickshire, 1913-1920; Lecturer in Physics, Leamington Technical School, 1913-1920; served World War One, 1914-1918, as Lt, Royal Garrison Artillery, in Italy, Mesopotamia and India; RAF Educational Service, 1920-1949; Principal Deputy Director of Educational Services, Air Ministry, 1945-1949; Secretary, Insignia Awards Committee, City and Guilds of London Institute, 1950-1958; died 1962.
Publications: A student's heat (J.M. Dent and Sons, London and Toronto, 1916); An introduction to advanced heat (London, 1928); An introduction to mechanics (W.D. Willis, Bombay and English Universities Press, London, 1963): An introduction to physical science (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1925); Elementary experimental statics (J.M. Dent and Sons, London and Toronto, 1915); An elementary textbook (London, 1925); James Watt, pioneer of mechanical power (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, [1962]); James Watt and the history of steam power (Henry Schuman, New York, [1949]); Leonardo da Vinci, supreme artist and scientist (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1964); Makers of science, mathematics, physics, astronomy etc (Humphrey Milford, London, 1923); The great engineers (Methuen and Co, London, 1928); The great physicists (Methuen and Co, London, 1927); The mechanical investigations of Leonardo da Vinci (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963); The world of Leonard da Vinci, man of science, engineer and dreamer of flight (Macdonald, London, 1961); Elementary aeronautical science (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1923).
Born 1896; educated privately and at Birkbeck College and University College London, 1913-1917; Administrative Assistant and Personnel Officer, Ministry of National Service, 1917-1918, and War Trade Intelligence Department, 1918-1919; editor of peace handbooks prepared for the Paris Peace Conference, 1918; Lecturer, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1921-1930; part-time Lecturer, East London (later Queen Mary) College, London, 1923-1925; Member of the Board of Studies in History, 1924, and Member of the Board of Examiners in History, 1926, University of London; Vice-President of the Historical Association, 1930; Professor of Modern History, Bedford College, University of London, 1930-1962; Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of London, 1938-1944; Member of the Senate, University of London, 1940-1962; National Service, Intelligence Division, Ministry of Information, 1938-1939; Member of Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, 1943-1945; Chairman of the Academic Council, University of London, 1945-1948; Vice-Chancellor, University of London, 1948-1951; Founder Member, 1948, and Chairman, 1953-1954, of the United States Educational Commission in the United Kingdom; DBE, 1951; Member of the Council, Salisbury College, Rhodesia, 1955; Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons, 1959; Member of the Council, 1928, Vice-President and Honorary Vice-President, 1959-1963, Royal Historical Society; Honorary degrees from Canterbury, Leeds, St Andrews, Southampton, Oxford, Sheffield, Cambridge, Belfast and Western Ontario, Canada; Emeritus Professor, 1962; retired 1962; died 1963.
Publications: assisted with British documents on the origin of the war, 1898-1914 (London, 1927); editor of Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Longmans, London, 1940); Bibliography of modern history (London, 1922); Educational partnership in Africa and the West Indies: being a lecture on the Montague Burton Foundation in the University of Glasgow, delivered on 15th April, 1954 (Jackson and Co, Glasgow, 1955); Foreign affairs under the third Marquis of Salisbury (Athlone Press, London, 1962); History and politics (Birkbeck College, London, 1949); The Bengal administrative system, 1786-1818 (Cambridge History of the British Empire, Vol 4); The Colonial Agents of the British West Indies: a study in colonial administration, mainly in the eighteenth century (University Press, London, 1924); The colonial background of British foreign policy (Bell and Sons, London, 1930); The West Indies and the Spanish-American trade, 1713-1748; A century of diplomatic Blue Books, 1814-1914 (University Press, Cambridge, 1938); Foundations of British foreign policy (University Press, Cambridge, 1938); Short bibliography of modern European history, 1789-1935 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1936); Short bibliography of modern European history, 1709-1926 (London, 1927).
Kathleen Tillotson: born 1905; educated at Ackworth School, Yorkshire; The Mount School, York and Somerville College, Oxford; gained BLitt in 1929. Part-time assistant in English Department at Bedford College 1929-1933; became junior lecturer in 1933 and lecturer in 1937; full-time lecturer in 1939; Senior Lecturer then Reader in 1947; Hildred Carlile Professor of English Literature 1958 til retirement in 1971. Died 2001.
Geoffrey Tillotson: born 1905; educated at Glusburn Elementary School; Keighley Trade and Grammar School; Balliol College, and BLitt at Oxford. Lectured in English at College of Technology, Leicester, 1928-1929; Sub-Librarian if English Schools library in Oxford, 1930-1931; Assistant Lecturer at University College London 1931-1934; Lecturer there 1934-1940, then Assistant Principal in the Ministry of Aircraft Production, 1940-1945. Granted Readership in Absentia from University of London 1942; then Professor of English Language and Literature at Birkbeck College, 1944-1969. Visiting Professor at Harvard, 1948. Died 1969.
Elizabeth Jesser Sturch was born on 25 December 1789 in London, daughter of William Sturch, a wealthy Unitarian ironmonger. In 1821 she married John Reid, M.D., author of 'Essay on hypochondriasis and other nervous affections' (1816). His father and brother had been hosiers in Leicester, but the family's roots appear to have been in Scotland, and Dr Reid had inherited land on the River Clyde at Glasgow which had become extremely valuable as the port grew in size. His death in July 1822 gave Mrs Reid an independent income with which she patronised various philanthropic causes. Active in liberal Unitarian circles, she was an anti-slavery activist, attending the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 and taking a close interest in the American Civil War (1860-1865), and was in contact with leading figures in the revolutions in France and Germany in 1848, and the struggles for Italian independence. In 1849 she founded the 'Ladies College' in Bedford Square, London, which became Bedford College for Women. She died on 1st April 1866.
Thomas Holloway (1800-1883) was a highly successful pill and ointment manufacturer, who pioneered the use of product advertising. He married Jane Driver in 1840, and together they built up a large and prosperous business. Having no descendants, Holloway decided to use his fortune for philanthropic causes, and was encouraged by his wife to found a college for the higher education of women. He purchased the Mount Lee estate in Egham in 1874, and building commenced on a large scale - Holloway and his architect William Henry Crossland wanted to recreate the gothic style of the Chateau of Chambord. Jane Holloway died in 1875, and the project became a memorial to her, though Holloway left the overseeing of the building work to his brother-in-law, George Martin. Thomas Holloway died before either project was completed, but not before the composition of a Royal Holloway College Foundation Deed (Oct 1883), which assigned the management and government of the College to twelve Governors, including the three Trustees of the College Estate, appointed by Holloway. He also left a large sum of money with which to endow the College. The College was officially opened by Queen Victoria on June 30th 1886.
The College opened in 1887 with twenty-eight students. By 1890 numbers had doubled and between 1920 and 1946 there was an average of just under two hundred students a session.
When Royal Holloway was founded London University was not yet a teaching university, but women as well as men were eligible for its degrees and the foundation deed of the College allowed the students to take degrees either at London or at any other university in the United Kingdom which would admit them to degrees or to degree examinations. In 1897 the Governors of Royal Holloway College called a conference to discuss whether the College should become an independent university, part of a larger university for women or part of the proposed teaching university for London. In the event it became a School of London University and had direct representation on the Senate, but owing to the fact that it lay outside the geographical boundaries established for the University, its inclusion had to be effected by a special act of Parliament. Following the reform of the University of London's constitution in 1926, Royal Holloway College was excluded from the Committee's first list of schools which were given direct representation on the Senate and the proposed Collegiate Council and the Governors felt obliged to protest in order to have the proposals changed. The position of the College in London University was then finally established although it has frequently been criticised as being too remote from the centre of things.
The life of the College was very much disrupted by the Second World War. On the outbreak of the War London University's administrative staff were displaced from Bloomsbury by the Ministry of Information and were installed at Royal Holloway College where they occupied the Picture Gallery and about one and a half corridors on the west side of Founder's Building. They stayed until 1941 when the War Office requisitioned the entire east side of the building for an ATS unit and the University was removed to Richmond. The College staff and students were then confined to the West side and to the North and South Towers for teaching and living accomodation and all the students, as well as many of the staff, were allocated a single study/bedroom in place of the two rooms provided for in the foundation deed. In 1943 the Governors appointed a Post-War Policy Committee to discuss the question of how the College should develop after the War. The Committee interviewed a large number of external witnesses, as well as representatives of the staff and students of the College and of Royal Holloway College Association. Its fundamental recommendations were that access to London should be made easier for the students and that the College should expand and become co-educational. Stemming from these it made further recommendations on staffing and finance. Lack of funds and building restrictions made it impossible for these recommendations to be implemented at once. Men were admitted in 1946 as non-resident post-graduate students and the number of undergraduates was increased by retaining the war-time arrangement of allocating each student one room instead of two. Numbers rose from 191 at the end of the Summer term of 1946 to 270 in the Autumn and then increased more steadily to 390 in 1962. In 1964 it became possible to embark on plans for expansion so as to admit men as undergraduates in 1965 and to increase the number of students to one thousand. This involved providing extra teaching and residential accomodation, first of all in converted houses in the neighbourhood of the College and more recently in new buildings on the main College estate. It also involved an increase in staff, a re-organisation of administrative work and radical changes in the size and functions of the Student's Union.
Royal Holloway College merged with Bedford College in 1985, and the joint institution became known as the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College.
The art collection housed in the Picture Gallery at Royal Holloway College was based on the similar model at Vassar College in America. Thomas Holloway compiled the collection through purchases at auction from 1881-1883, when he bought at every Christie's sale of note. Although the initial plan was to obtain modern British paintings, examples of work by European painters were also acquired. The collection totalled 77 pictures at the time of Holloway's death in 1883. Charles W Carey was appointed to act as Curator of the Picture Gallery, a task he undertook from 1887 until his death in 1943.
His main role was to supervise the conservation of the pictures, compile the catalogue, show the collection to visitors, and correspond with artists, art historians and students concerning the works.
W H Russell Lumsden was born, 1914; graduated in science and medicine from the University of Glasgow; studied tropical medicine and hygiene at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and worked as a research fellow in the Department of Parasitology and Entomology. During World War Two he served in malaria field laboratories of the Royal Army Medical Corps and then spent a year with Patrick Buxton becoming Medical Research Council Senior Fellow in Buxton's department, 1946-1947; joined the Yellow Fever Research Institute at Entebbe, Uganda where he remained until he became Director of the East African Trypanosomiasis Research Organisation (EATRO) from 1957 to 1963. Lumsden was Chair of Medical Protozoology 1968-1979.
Born 5 Sep 1874; educated Rugby School and King's College, Cambridge; First Class Mechanical Sciences Tripos, Part I 1896, and Part II (with special distinction), 1898; called to Bar, Inner Temple, 1902; subsequently engaged in scientific research; Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; organised in 1920, a scheme for mosquito control of Hayling Island; built and equipped the British Mosquito Control Institute, Hayling Island, 1925; died 5 Dec 1949. Publications: Unofficial Mosquito Control in England (1922); Coastal Mosquitoes and their Control (British Association Address, 1925); Principles and Practice of Mosquito Control (1927); The Organization of Mosquito Control Work (Presidential Address in Zoology Section, South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, Portsmouth Congress, 1930); The British Mosquitoes (1938); The Morphology and Biology of Culex molestus (1944).
Sir Shirley Foster Murphy was born in 1848 and educated University College School and Guy's Hospital. Murphy was Vice President of Royal Sanitary Institute, Society of Medical Officers of Health, Epidemiological Section Royal Society of Medicine and Royal Statistical Society and examiner in Public Health, Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. He was a Bissett Hawkins Medallist, Royal College of Physicians; Jenner Medallist, Royal Society of Medicine; Medical Officer of Health, Administrative County of London and a member of Royal Commission on Tuberculosis. Murphy was knighted in 1904; awarded Knight Commander Order of the British Empire, 1919, and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Murphy died in 1923.
Born Almora, India, 13 May 1857; entered Springhill School, 1869; entered St Bartholomew's Hospital medical school, London, 1874; MRCS, 1879; engaged as a ship's surgeon; passed LSA and entered Indian Medical Service, 1881; held temporary appointments either attached to Madras regiments or doing duty at station hospitals in Madras and Burma, 1881-1886; developed interests in literature, poetry and mathematics; commenced special study of malaria, 1892; introduced to (Sir) Patrick Manson, 1894, and developed interests in aetiology of malaria; undertook experimental verification of mosquito theory of malaria, 1895; discovered means of transmission of malaria parasites in man by anopholes mosquitoes, 1897-1898; leader of expedition which found malaria-bearing mosquitoes in West Africa, 1899, and laid down methods for large-scale malaria reduction; retired from Indian Medical Service with rank of Major, 1899; lecturer in tropical medicine, 1899-1902, and subsequently Professor of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 1902-1912; appointed Physician for Tropical Diseases, King's College Hospital, 1912; Professor of Tropical Sanitation, University of Liverpool, 1912-1917; appointed Consultant in Malaria, War Office, 1917; appointed Consultant in Malaria, Ministry of Pensions, 1925; Director in Chief, Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Putney, 1926-1932 (the Ross Institute combined with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Dec 1933); conducted numerous expeditions to malarial countries and published extensively on epidemiology of malaria elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1901; awarded Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1902; knighted 1911; Vice-President and Royal Medallist of the Royal Society; President Society of Tropical Medicine; Editor of Science Progress, 1913-1932; died, Ross Institute, 16 Sep 1932. Selected publications: novel The Child of Ocean (1889); Philosophies, Psychologies, and other Poems; novel, The Revels of Orsera; The Prevention of Malaria (1910); Memoirs (1923); Poems (1928); Studies on Malaria (1928); Fables and Satires (1930); In Exile (1931); Lyra Modulatu (1931); five mathematical works (1929-1931); The Child of Ocean (1932).
Born, 1874; educated Mercers' and City of London School and University College London; received his clinical training at St Bartholomew's and St Thomas' Hospitals, qualifying MRCS, LRCP in 1897, after which he held the appointments of house-physician at St Thomas' and resident medical officer at Teignmouth, Dawlish and Newton Abbot Infirmary; after taking the London MB in 1900, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps with the South African Field Force during the early days of the Boer War, there he isolated the diphtheria bacillus from veld sores and has the claim of being the first to discover this infection of the skin; stayed in South Africa until 1902, gaining the Queen's Medal with five clasps.
He entered the Colonial Service and in 1910 accepted the appointment of Government bacteriologist and pathologist in Jamaica, where he developed an interest in tropical medical problems; while there he discovered that vomiting sickness was due to poisoning by unripe ackee fruit which he found to be highly toxic and described the cysts of Entamoeba histolytica.
He took the DPH of the Irish Royal Colleges, with honours, in 1913; during World War One he served as pathologist at the Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot, in charge of a mobile laboratory, with the rank of honorary captain in the RAMC; after demobilization he became Milner Research Fellow in comparative pathology at the London School of Tropical Medicine and obtained DTM&H (Cambridge); went to Hong Kong as Government bacteriologist and pathologist where he did valuable work on tuberculosis among the poorer class Chinese and gained a great knowledge of morbid anatomy; returned to England in 1922 and became pathologist to the Zoological Society of London, here he compared his 300 post-mortem studies of fatal human cases in Hong Kong with similar studies of animals dying of tuberculosis in the Zoological Gardens; results published by the Medical Research Council in 1929 and threw new light on the pathology of the disease; also a lecturer on tropical diseases at the Westminster Board and Liverpool University; medical secretary to the Colonial Medical Research Committee, 1928-1930; elected a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1916, and a fellow in 1925; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1917; KCMG in 1941; Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1911, becoming President 1943-1945; appointed assistant director of the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases, 1930, becoming director in 1935, holding the appointment until 1942.
In 1937-38 he delivered the FitzPatrick Lectures before the Royal College of Physicians, discussing the conquest of disease in the Tropics, these lectures formed the basis of his best known work: The History of Tropical Medicine, published in two volumes in 1939.
The Sleeping Sickness Bureau was founded in June 1908 at the Royal Society, under the direction of Arthur Bagshawe. It was established as a central bureau to collate and offer information on current research and control measures in sleeping sickness. It soon became apparent that sleeping sickness was not the only disease in need of attention; in 1911 the Kala azar Bulletin was published and in 1912 the Bureau moved to the Imperial Institute and was renamed the Tropical Diseases Bureau.
From 1914 onwards the Bureau, maintaining a comprehensive international sphere of interests, emphasised a growing awareness of sanitation as a necessary factor in control of disease in tropical latitudes by publishing also a Bulletin of Hygiene.
In 1920, the Bureau moved to share the new premises of the London School of Tropical Medicine in Endsleigh Gardens and in 1925 changed its name to the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases. It moved in 1929 to the new School building in Keppel and was housed in the London School until 1993 when it became part of Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International (CABI).
John Gordon Thomson was born in Linlithgowshire; graduated with an MA from Edinburgh University in 1903, and 5 years later qualified in medicine. After house appointments, he went to Liverpool as research student in tropical medicine in 1910, becoming pathologist to the Royal Southern Hospital and research fellow at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. With a Beir Memorial research fellowship he went to the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1914; went to Egypt with Professor Robert Leiper on the bilharzia mission as Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1915. Later in the war he and his brother, Dr David Thomson, who had both enjoyed the patronage of Ronald Ross when they first went to Liverpool, worked at the War Office malaria research laboratories. After the war he was appointed Chair of Protozoology at the London School where he was a gifted teacher, maintaining a collection of cultures of trypanosomes and other pathological organisms and blood films for teaching purposes.
In 1926 he was exchange lecturer in protozoology at the School of Hygiene, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. In 1936 he gave a series of lectures at Singapore for the League of Nations Special Course on Malaria. He travelled widely in South America and other tropical countries. In 1921-1922 he undertook two expeditions to Rhodesia to study blackwater fever. In 1926 he was in the West Indies, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama.
His publications include a book with Andrew Robertson, Protozoology for Medical Men. His contributions to the knowledge of blackwater fever were regarded as standard, while his methods of enumerating malaria parasites in the blood and cultivating these organisms were of great importance. Thomson died in 1937.
Born 1896, graduated Manchester University; served in World War One in Egypt and the Palestine Campaign 1915-19 (wounded at Gaza 1917); Graduating MB Ch.B in 1924; joined the East African Medical Service in 1927; became Tuberculosis Research Officer in Tanganyika in 1930; at the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases (he took the DTM&H in 1941) from 1938; Director of the Bureau, 1942 to 1961; also consultant to Counties Public Health Laboratories, London, 1962-76.
Sir Graham Selby Wilson was born on 10 September 1895 in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated at various schools, including Mill Hill School and Epsom College, and entered King's College London, 1912. During World War One he joined the clinical school at Charing Cross Hospital, where he qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1916; later joining the Royal Army Medical Corps serving as a captain and specialist in bacteriology, until 1920. He then joined the department headed by William Whiteman Carlton Topley (1886-1944), at Charing Cross Hospital and moved to the University of Manchester in 1923.
Wilson became reader in bacteriology at the University of London, 1927 and was appointed Professor of Bacteriology as Applied to Hygiene at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1930. Prior to World War Two, Wilson assisted Topley in creating plans for an emergency bacteriological service, to be mobilized in the event of war to control expected epidemics of infectious disease. Wilson assisted in the development of the Emergency Public Health Laboratory Service (EPHLS) and was appointed its director, 1941-1963.
Among his achievements Wilson was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1930; fellow of the Royal Society in 1978; knighted, 1962, and received an honorary LLD from Glasgow University, 1962. He died on 5 April 1987 in the Westminster Hospital, London.
Publications include: The bacteriological grading of milk By G S Wilson and others (H M Stationery Office, London, 1935) and The hazards of immunization: based on University of London Heath Clark lectures, 1966, delivered at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Athlone P, London, 1967).
Sir John Tilley began his career with the Post Office, more specifically the Secretary's Office, in 1829, when he entered that department as a Clerk on 19th February. At that time the Secretary's Office had a very small workforce headed by the then Secretary Sir Francis Freeling. Seven months after Tilley joined that department it transferred to St Martin's le Grand, London.
Tilley had a very successful career with the Post Office and rose quickly through the ranks. By 1838, aged only 26, he had been made a Surveyor, and on 11 October 1848 he was appointed to the post of Assistant Secretary. On 15 March 1864, he succeeded the then Secretary Sir Rowland Hill, the postal reformer, of whom he had always been a staunch supporter. Tilley was made a CB in 1871, and upon his retirement in 1880 the honour of KCB was bestowed upon him.
On 18th October 1968 Prime Minister Harold Wilson officially opened Girobank - 'the people's bank', or National Giro as it was first known. Part of a Labour Government initiative to provide banking facilities for those people who did not have bank accounts, it was the first bank in the world to be planned and built from its very beginning as a fully computerised unit. The process was overseen by the then Postmaster General, Tony Benn.
Much optimism surrounded the new company and the promotional booklet enthusiastically claimed that, 'Within one or two years the National Giro Centre will be handling the accounts of some 1,200,000 customers, including many large firms and organisations.' At that time there were 23,000 Post Offices in the UK and Girobank provided free banking and credit transfer facilities at each one for six days a week, thereby creating competition for the high street banks. Due to the fact that only 25% of adults had bank accounts the market was considered very penetrable. However, despite its extensive promotion Girobank secured only 110,000 accounts in its first six months and suffered further losses for the next seven years.
Many reasons were put forward as to why the National Giro had not been as successful as predicted. Competition by joint-stock banks and the development of competitive current accounts by other banks had been cited as plausible causes. However, the real issue appeared to be the miscalculation of the difference between the real and actual demands of the customers. Furthermore, the economic growth of the UK had been sluggish since the Second World War and consequently its rate of absorption of new services was painfully slow.
Girobank did, however, benefit greatly from a partnership with the Mercantile Loan Company Ltd. The partnership meant that Giro customers were eligible to apply for Mercantile credit loans and new applications for a Giro account soared as a result.
When the Conservative Government were voted into power in 1970, the future of Girobank looked distinctly shaky as a review of the activities of Girobank was commissioned. By this point Girobank's cumulative losses had reached over £19.7 million and although Giro was granted a reprieve, there was little doubt that it had been a very close call. On 17th November 1971, Christopher Chataway, the Minister for Posts and Telecommunications, declared that Giro should continue but that it must employ a new approach to its practices.
As part of the new approach many structural reforms were implemented during 1972. These included a review of the Tariff structure which doubled the majority of the existing charges and added a charge for debt transactions and later an overhaul of the Rents Scheme, the introduction of the Giro Gold Card, the streamlining of the business, a reduction of the labour force from 3500 to 3000 and a change in the standard 'same day' service to one of a 'next-day' service. The Giro also took on the Postal Order business and began using its International Services to replace the Post Office's own International Money Order Service.
In 1973 a report prepared by Coopers and Lybrand recommended that Giro should implement a formal business planning procedure and annual business plan. The advice was welcomed and the first business plan issued in 1973.
During 1986 postal operations were organised into three separate businesses - Royal Mail Letters, Royal Mail Parcels and Post Office Counters (in addition to National Girobank which remained a separate business unit). National Girobank became independent as a plc in 1988.
Despite the fact that Girobank had managed to overcome its shaky start and that it had grown rapidly to become Britain's sixth biggest bank, it never really shook off its down-market image and, in 1990 it was sold to the Alliance and Leicester Building Society.
Since the mid-nineteenth century, staff associations and unions have come into existence, acting on behalf of their members primarily on issues of pay and working conditions. In addition, clubs and societies have been formed, providing social and leisure opportunities. By 1890, the British workforce had been organised into workers unions and associations to a far greater degree than it had previously and the Post Office, which had grown in numbers as well as in the variety of its services (and therefore in the variety of occupations falling under its employment), was very much a part of this development. There were over 40 distinct grades of employment in the organisation and each had its own staff association. In 1919 these were amalgamated into the Union of Post Office Workers (UPW), although secessionist groups continued to break away from the UPW, which consequently struggled to remain united (which is perhaps explained by the diverse range of working conditions and pay that its members experienced). From the large-scale public enquiries at the beginning of the century, to the wholesale workers' strike of 1971, to the 1995 amalgamation into the Communications Workers' Union (CWU), staff associations, unions, clubs and societies have been an integral component, as collective organisations, to the history and development of the Post Office and its workforce. See POST 65 (Post Office Staff Associations) for relevant records and a more detailed account of this subject.
The majority of these associations and unions produced some form of literature, many publishing an association or union magazine or periodical. It is a wide range of this kind of material that is present in POST 115, which consists of in excess of 1,000 volumes. The class has been divided into eight Sub-Series, which cover the main types of publications that can be found. These are: Civil Service Associations Journals; Post Office Clerks Associations Journals; Postmen's Associations Journals; Postmasters' Associations Journals; Supervisory Grades Associations Journals; Post Office Engineering Union and Association Journals; Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal; and The Rowland Hill Benevolent Fund. It is important to note that the official Post Office Magazine (entitled 'St Martin's le Grand' until its name changed to 'The Post Office Magazine' in 1934) is not an association, society or club publication and can consequently be found in POST 92.
The largest association in the history of Post Office staff associations is the UPW, which was formed in 1919 from the numerous, disparate and less formal associations that preceded this. In 1920, the UPW launched its official journal called 'The Post, the Organ of the Union of Post Office Workers' (Commonly referred to simply as 'The Post'). The first issue sold almost 90,000 copies and in another early issue, the editorial noted that 'Standing on the threshold of the New Year [1920] we are, as postal workers, confronted with one outstanding fact - amalgamation has occurred' (POST 115/437, p.27; p.32). This periodical is likewise a useful source of information (albeit from a UPW perspective) for subsequent events of importance to the Post Office through the twentieth century. Indeed, Martin Daunton and Alan Clinton (the two most prominent historians of the modern Post Office) have both made heavy use of 'The Post' in their work. Its name changed to 'The Post, the Journal of the Communication Union Workers' in 1980 and continued to be published until 1993. It should also be noted that 'The Post' is distinct from 'The Post of UPW House' which was a UPW newspaper that was filled with similar, but more informal content.
Beyond the 3,700+ issues of 'The Post', there remains over 45 distinct association and union publications that are available to view in POST 115. From 1890, the publications that predate the 1919 amalgamation include: 'The Postman's Gazette', 'The Post (the Organ of the Fawcett Association)', 'The Central London Review and The Postal and Telegraph Record', amongst others. There are journals representing women only such as 'Opportunity, The Organ of the Federation of Women Civil Servants' and many publications that relate to a particular issue of concern such as 'The Whitley Bulletin, The Official Publication of the National Whitley Council for the Civil Service'. Other major publications representing particular grades and types of employment include: 'The Controlling Officers' Journal'; 'The Sub-Postmaster, The Official Organ of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters'; 'The Journal, The Official Journal of the Post Office Engineering Union'; and 'The Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal'.
Other publications range from the specific, such as 'The Rowland Hill Fund Handbook', to the broader ranging, such as the numerous Civil Service newspapers and journals. These ran from 1890 to 1977 (although most stop at 1969, the year the Post Office ceased to be a Government Department) and include titles such as 'Red Tape' and 'The Quill'. Considering the following Civil Service journal should help the prospective reader avoid possible confusion: POST 115/1-38 is 'The Civilian', a Civil Service newspaper that ran from 1894-1928, which changed its name to 'The New Civilian' in 1926. There are a number of publications in this class where a slight name change has occurred. In each instance, the individual catalogue description alerts the reader to this. Additionally, the series description for 'The Civilian/The New Civilian' (immediately preceding POST 115/1 in the catalogue) states that volumes 51-113 are held in the archive. Beneath this, [in square brackets] it states that there are 38 volumes. The volume number in square brackets always refers to the number of bound volumes of material in the archive, the description 'Vols 51-113' above this refers to the original, contemporary volume numbers that this publication was serialised under.
The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (i.e. numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.
Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 and POST 40)
In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.
Please contact the Archive for further information.
The majority of maps in the collection were produced as part of an administrative exercise on the part of the Post Office to establish the boundaries for free mail deliveries after the increase of mail circulation in the nineteenth century (see particularly 'Town Maps: England and Wales and 'Town Maps: Ireland').
The Irish town maps were created during the period 1830-1860. This was a time of change in the Irish postal system, as it was amalgamated with Britain's postal service in 1831. In 1843 the British government laid down the principle: 'All places the letters for which exceed one hundred per week should be entitled to a receiving office and a free delivery of letters.' The boundary of free delivery for individual areas within Ireland was decided by the Postmaster General in consultation with Augustus Godby, Secretary to the Irish Post Office. A set of maps was created to show the boundaries decided for the various towns which qualified for free delivery.
This exercise coincided with the survey of Ireland carried out by Ordnance Survey Ireland between 1829 and 1842; consequently, the majority of these maps consist of annotated sections of Ordnance Survey maps.
Some of the maps in POST 21 were produced as part of official government enquiries into Post Office administration; for example there are maps produced as part of or as a result of: 2nd Report of Committee on postage, 1838 (POST 21/142, POST 21/152, POST 21/156); 20th Report of Commissioners of Revenue Enquiry, February 1830 (POST 21/153); 21st Report of Commissioners of Revenue Enquiry, March 1830 (POST 21/53, POST 21/56 and POST 21/57); Fifth Report from Select Committee on the roads from Holyhead to London, July 1817(POST 21/217), Report of Commissioners on the Post Office, 1838 (POST 21/761).
The increase of mail coach transportation in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries necessitated the production of good maps showing postal roads, distances between coach stops and places of interest along the way. There are several such maps in POST 21, including: 'Bowles' Road Directory through England and Wales (1796) (POST 21/159), 'Cary's 6 sheet map of England and Wales with part of Scotland' (1830) (POST 21/770) and 'General map of the Roads of England and Wales engraved for Moggs' improved edition of Paterson's Roads' (1829) (POST 21/173).
Several of the maps in the collection were officially commissioned by the Post Office; of particular note are the GPO (General Post Office) Circulation maps of England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland produced by the cartographer, Edward Stanford; these show the routes and manner of transportation of the mail across the countries. Other examples are the various maps produced by John Cary, who was commissioned by the Postmaster General to organise the survey of turnpike roads in Great Britain, a task involving nine thousand miles of survey. The maps resulting from this work were included in his 'New Itinerary,' first published in 1798; the work was dedicated to the Postmasters General and provided the official measures for all mail coach routes and for the postage due on letters, which until 1840 were charged by distance carried.
After the establishment of Uniform Penny Post in 1840, followed a few months later by the introduction of the prepaid postage stamp, the Penny Black, there was a huge increase in the amount of mail sent. In 1839 there were 76 million letters posted in the United Kingdom; in 1840 after the introduction of the Penny Post there were 168 million. The mail service was opened up more to the general public, particularly after the introduction of pillar boxes to mainland Britain in 1855. These developments necessitated the increasing production of post office directories which included maps showing the location of the numerous district post offices and subsidiary sorting houses; there are several 'Kelly's Post Office Directory' maps of London in the collection.
Officials of The Post Office acted as the first newsagents in this country after the establishment of the public postal service. Six postal officials entitled 'Clerks of the Road' were privileged to frank gazettes at 2d, a reduced charge from letter post. Under the terms of the Franking Act 1764, newspapers bearing the signature of a Member of Parliament or sent to a member at any place which he advised were to go free. The Newspaper Office was established at the General Post Office in 1782 by John Palmer, following criticisms relating to the treatment of newspapers. With the coming of the French Revolution, the Clerks in the Foreign Office established a large foreign news agency. The Ship Letter Act of 1815 contained an important provision in favour of newspapers, providing the first enactment that allowed newspapers to go out of the United Kingdom at a cheaper rate than letters.
The act of 1764 also authorised Members of Parliament to frank newspapers. Many extended the provisions of the act by allowing free postage to booksellers and newsagents who rapidly took over a considerable part of the distribution of newspapers from the Clerks of the Road. An Act of 1825 legalised the free transmission of newspapers by post. In 1830 news vendors presented a petition to Parliament protesting against Post Office servants being allowed to compete with private dealers, and on 5 April 1834, The Post Office ceased to have a privileged interest in the franking of newspapers.
An act of 1855 abolished the compulsory payment of stamp duty on newspapers. Newspaper proprietors were allowed the option of printing on paper stamped to denote payment of stamp duty and thereby qualifying for free transmission by post or using unstamped paper and paying normal rates of postage, until 1870.
The Post Office Act of 1870 provided that newspapers fulfilling the conditions specified in the act were, after registration by The Post Office, entitled to transmission within the United Kingdom at a rate of ½d irrespective of weight. In 1897 weight restrictions were introduced. A grant of preferential tariff to the press was declared by a Treasury Committee in 1875, enabling The Post Office to transmit press releases and news messages to newspapers and other news institutions at the press tariff rate. By The Post Office (Newspapers Published in British Possessions) Act of 1913, copies of newspapers printed and published in any British possession or protectorate were admitted to the benefit of the inland newspaper rate. The Canadian Magazine Post introduced in 1907
allowed for the transmission of all newspapers registered at the Inland Newspaper rate and in addition publications issued at intervals of not more than 31 days, subject to certain conditions.
Until the late nineteenth century the carriage of parcels was in the hands of 'carters' or carriers, operating on a local basis. With the improvement of the roads in the eighteenth century and the inception of the railway services in the late 1820s, the volume of parcels conveyed by coach and railway increased. By the 1850s railway companies had cornered the bulk of this business. In 1842 Rowland Hill suggested that a parcel service should be operated by the Post Office. However, the government was content to let this business remain in the private sector, for the time being. By the 1860s the population explosion and dramatic expansion of British commerce and industry gradually forced the Post Office to give some thought to parcel post. A plan for the introduction of a parcels post was suggested in the 1860s by Rowland Hill and Frederick Hill, (Rowlands' brother and Assistant in the Postmaster General's Office).
The establishment of the General Postal Union in 1874, (now known as the Universal Postal Union) led to further discussions. In 1880 the union promulgated a convention for the exchange of postal parcels between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, France, Great Britain and Ireland, British India, Italy and Luxembourg. This envisaged the transmission of parcels up to 3 kilograms in weight. A convention was signed at Paris on 3 November 1880, due to come into operation on 1 October 1881. A protocol attached to this convention took note that Great Britain, Ireland and British India were not in a position to sign the convention as they did not have an inland parcels service at that time, and they were accordingly given until 1 April 1882 to bring the convention into effect.
On 11 February 1882, Henry Fawcett, Postmaster General, assisted by Frederick E Baines, Inspector General of mails, and Sir Arthur Blackwood, Secretary to the Post Office, submitted a memorandum analysing the various problems preventing the introduction of an inland Parcel Post service and suggesting ways of overcoming them.
An Act to amend the Post Office Acts with respect to the Conveyance of Parcels (45 and 46 Vict. Ch. 74), was passed by Parliament on 18 August 1882. Twelve of its seventeen sections dealt with matters arising from the negotiations between the Post Office and the railway companies; their remuneration and the services to be rendered by them.
The Inland Parcel Post came into operation on 1 August 1883 and 'letter-carriers' were entitled 'postmen' as a result. From 12 August 1884 the service was known as the Parcels Post. Parcels sent by the Post were limited to 7lbs in weight and the rates of postage ranged from 3d for 1lb to 1s for 7lbs.
The Accountant General was appointed by the Postmaster General to keep an account of all revenue in the Post Office. There was another major financial position, that of the Receiver General, who was appointed independently to remove all responsibilities for cash from the hands of the Postmaster General, taking receipt of all money paid into the department, and paid cash directly from these funds. These two positions overlapped, and there is much duplication of work, and records, and they were finally amalgamated in 1854.
The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (i.e., numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.
Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 & POST 40).
In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.
For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.
The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (ie numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.
Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). The Scottish minute series was started in 1842; previously Scottish subjects had been included in the general minute series (POST 30). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 & POST 40).
In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.
For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.
During the period covered by these records the Secretary to the Post Office was Sir Francis Freeling. Freeling began his career in the Bristol Post Office and had been appointed appointed principal and resident surveyor in London by 1785. In 1797 he rose to the office of joint secretary to the Post Office and in 1798 he became sole secretary, serving in this capacity as the head of the post office until his death. His administration saw many reforms, including the growth of local penny posts and the introduction of steam power to transport the mail by rail and sea. Freeling was made a Baronet in March 1828.
This series comprises accounts of British packet services and overseas posts, including records of agents and postmasters, packet stations, and packet boats. The accounts cover income, expenditure, salaries, allowances and disbursements.
The earliest established packet stations were Dover to Calais 1633, Harwich to Holland 1660, Falmouth to Spain and Portugal 1689 and Falmouth to the West Indies in 1702.
Mail was carried in sailing packets up to 1815, but after this date these gradually gave way to steam-driven vessels. By 1840 the carrying of mail had been put into the hands of the commercial shipping lines, Cunard, Peninsular and Oriental Shipping Company, the West Indian Royal Mail, Union Castle etc., who found the postal subsidies valuable as they extended their routes further to keep pace with the expansion of the British Colonies.
After 1840 the General Post Office introduced domestic and Imperial 'penny postage' (in 1898), and before the Second World War, 1939-1945, pioneered a comprehensive airmail service, carrying letters at a standard rate without air surcharges. During the war it also introduced the airgraph and, later the airletter which was prefranked with the standard postage.
From the introduction of penny postage in 1840 all stamps and stamped stationery was produced, distributed and paid for by the Inland Revenue's Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes. In December 1876 the Inland Revenue suggested that it would be more appropriate for these costs to be met by the Post Office. At the beginning of the financial year in 1883 the Treasury instructed the Post Office to budget for the cost of stamp production. (POST 54/3).
Although the Post Office was now footing the bill, the Inland Revenue retained responsibility for manufacturing and distribution arrangements until 1 April 1914. On this date the Post Office took over all operations at the Inland Revenue's Somerset House stamp distribution centre for England and Wales. This involved the manufacture and distribution of all postage stamps, adhesive revenue and fee stamps, insurance stamps, postal orders, licenses, savings bank coupons, stamped postal stationery and telegraph forms for use in England and Wales. The transfer was authorised by the Treasury and "The Inland Revenue and Post Office (Powers and Duties) Order" was published by His Majesty's Stationery Office in March 1914. (POST 54/36).
The complicated relationship between the Inland Revenue, the Post Office, stamp designers, printers and printing hardware manufacturers is well represented in correspondence and memoranda relating to the introduction of King George V postage stamps, following his accession to the throne in 1910. (POST 54/48 - 49).
In 1962 yet another authority was to officially enter the sphere of postage stamp production. The existing relationship between the Post Office and the Council of Industrial Design was reviewed and the Postmaster General's new Stamp Advisory Committee was created consisting of Post Office and COID members. The role of the committee was clearly defined in a memorandum agreed by both parties. (POST 54/16). Today the SAC continues to influence the issue of postage stamps primarily through making recommendations to Royal Mail for commemorative stamp subjects and the selection of final designs. Other matters relating to the production and marketing of stamps and philatelic products are the responsibility of the Post Office Stamps and Philately Board (Stamps Advisory Committee).
In 1799, Henry Darlot, a clerk in the Foreign Section, was chosen for the position of Army Postmaster. He was the first to accompany the Army overseas when he joined them in Holland to facilitate delivery, collect letters, and protect the revenue. In 1854, Edward Smith of the Inland Letter Office was sent to Constantinople as postmaster to H M Forces. He, along with three assistants and seven sorters, handled 450,000 letters a month to and from troops between Britain and the Crimea (via France).
The origins of the Post Office Rifles Association stem from the Fenian troubles in 1867. Sixteen hundred Post Office staff were sworn in as special constables to protect key installations, including post offices. With the passing of the danger the following year, a number of the special constables asked if a Post Office Volunteer Corps could be formed. The War Office officially sanctioned the proposal, and the 49th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers were formed in 1868. The title of the regiment was changed to the 24th Middlesex (Post Office) Rifle Volunteers in 1880. In 1882, the Army Postal Corps was formed from the members of the Middlesex Volunteers to run the Army's postal service. A sister unit, the Field Telegraph Corps, was formed from postal workers in 1883 becoming 'I' Company of the 24th Middlesex. Both units were embodied in the reserve of the Royal Engineers in 1884, although still attached to the 24th Middlesex for drill and discipline.
The Boer War saw eleven officers and 624 other ranks serve with the Army Postal Corps between 1899 and 1902. Their base in Capetown connected with many temporary Field Post Offices and five travelling post offices. 68.9 million letters and newspapers and 1.4 million parcels were delivered to the troops. In an average December week, 789 bags of mail were received in Capetown, and in the busiest week of the war 643,000 letters and newspapers and 33,967 parcels were delivered.
In 1908 the 24th Middlesex Volunteers became the 8th Battalion of the City of London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) on formation of the Territorial Force. This battalion and its two sister battalions (2/8th and 3/8th raised during the First World War) were largely made up of Post Office personnel but no longer had any direct links with the Army Post Office Corps. In 1913 the Army Post Office Corps became the Royal Engineers Postal Section and the Telegraph Reserve became the Royal Engineers Signal Section. At the outbreak of the First World War a Base Post Office was set up at Le Harve, whence army mail went to an Advanced Base Post Office and then to Field Offices and Branches. Primary sorting in the UK was done from the Home Depot. All mail below 4 oz. from servicemen was carried free, with letters to them addressed "c/o GPO, London" then sorted by code to preserve secrets of military layout. Censorship was operated by military authorities. The shortage of men led to a reduction in the number of deliveries and 35,000 women were temporarily employed. Subdivision of the London Postal Districts was introduced in 1917 to aid the women sorters.
The Second World War presented an even greater challenge, with mobile fronts all over the world and enemy air attacks at home. At the outbreak of the war the Post Office was the largest employer in the country, and by mid-war nearly a third had volunteered for active service. Fifty thousand staff were members of the Post Office Home Guard, who were detailed to defend telephone and telegraph facilities in case of invasion. Postwomen were again taken on to fill the gaps, often working long shifts. Mobilisation then evacuation caused millions of people to change address, greatly increasing the volume of mail and the percentage of insufficiently addressed letters. Payment of pensions and allowances greatly increased, as well as new tasks like the distribution of millions of ration books, public information leaflets and permits. The blackout made sorting, delivery and station work very difficult, and the need to blacken the glass roofs of sorting offices etc. meant that many sorters and telephonists worked all the time by artificial light.
Air raids brought large scale destruction of Post Office buildings, mostly in major urban centres, telephone cables had to be repaired or re-routed as quickly as possible, destruction at major railway termini often meant improvised re-routing of mails, and bomb damage sometimes made letter delivery hazardous and difficult, when the numbers on houses, or the occupants, or even the houses themselves might disappear overnight. In September 1940 23 post offices were destroyed in one night. During the Blitz post office buildings had their own fire-fighting teams composed of staff, often very efficient in preserving its buildings.
The Army Post Office was based at Nottingham in a former textile factory. Army and RAF mail was handled there by hundreds of WRAC women, plus men unfit for active service and GPO officials who had volunteered. Insufficiently addressed letters were also handled at Nottingham by the Post Office. Naval mail for ships in foreign waters was handled by Wrens at King Edward Building, London, then by the Admiralty at Reading. Hostilities in the Mediterranean posed particular difficulties for getting mail to British forces in the Middle and Far East. The sea route around the Cape added 12,000 miles to the journey, a 3 month delay, and aircraft space was at a premium. Microphotography offered a solution and the airgraph service was introduced in 1941. Some 330 million airgraphs were sent until the service ended in July 1945. At first airgraphs and air letters were for military use only, but were then made available to civilians. By 1945 600,000 civilian air letters per week were being despatched to 33 different countries.
Prisoner of war mail was despatched abroad by the Post Office. Between 1941 and 1945, 26,250,000 parcels (both Red Cross parcels and parcels from next-of-kin) were sent from Mount Pleasant via Portugal to Geneva (despite difficulties in getting around or across enemy territory) where they were transmitted forward by the International Red Cross. About 200,000 letters per week were sent to POWs from Britain by air to Lisbon, where an exchange system operated with mail from Germany for German prisoners in Britain and Canada. The Post Office was in effect a fourth service, vital to the survival of the state and performed its duty well despite labour shortage, the need to recruit and train inexperienced staff, and enemy attack.
The appointments procedure in The Post Office during this period was very complicated. Employees could either be Established, which meant they had privileges and rights, such as superannuation, or they were non-Established, which meant that they were probably part-time, and had no benefits or job security. Established employees were also civil servants and therefore were affected by any changes in the system, such as the gradual efforts to replace patronage with examinations and grading. Sub-postmasters and packet captains were not officially employed by The Post Office but were sub-contracted. Sub-postmasters tended to work in another line of business such as greengrocing and run a sub-post office as a side-line. Up until the end of the nineteenth century appointments were made by a system of patronage. Staff were appointed by being nominated to posts. Although they were supposed to then take a test of competency, this was often just a formality. The broad sweeping changes in the Civil Service with the introduction of competitive examinations meant that this practice was abandoned at the end of the nineteenth century.
Medical officers were first appointed to the Post Office in 1854 after a committee of enquiry decided that all candidates should be examined prior to appointment in order to assess their fitness for public service. The Medical Officer was responsible for overseeing health care in The Post Office and from 1893 he compiled an annual report with sick leave statistics to show the level of staff absence for the different districts and departments. Many of the medical officers to have served over the years also wrote medical articles and, following the work of Dr John Sinclair, were involved with The Post Office Ambulance Corps. The Post Office Ambulance Corps was established in 1902 following a suggestion by a group of employees. Many of the members of this group held first aid certificates but were concerned about the length of time taken for medical assistance to arrive at the scene of an accident and wished to provide a first aid service during this period. However, they were not allowed to provide this service until they had achieved further qualifications from the St John Ambulance Association and there was no provision for such courses to be run at The Post Office. The group therefore sought and received the support of the Chief Medical Officer, Dr John Sinclair, and a course of lectures was set up. From its creation the Corps expanded throughout the organisation and maintained close links with the St John Ambulance Association. Annual competitions evolved as an opportunity for teams to demonstrate their skills in an emergency, and these became increasingly popular. In 1911 courses were arranged for women and two women's branches were formed. In 1928 the name was changed to the Post Office Ambulance Centre and re-organised to enable non-members of the St John Ambulance Brigade to join. The Centre was valuable in both World Wars and provided first aid posts and wards staffed by volunteers from the Corps in some of the most bombed areas of London.
Prior to the setting up of the Office of Controller of Telegraph Stores in 1877, the purchase of postal and postal telegraph stores was the responsibility of the Chief Clerk of the Post Office and the Engineer-in-Chief. In 1901 a committee of enquiry into the organisation and working of the Department of Telegraph Stores suggested that consideration should be given to the amalgamation of the postal and telegraph stores departments, and this took place in 1902. At this same time an independent Factories Department was formed. A further change took place in 1941 with the setting up of a separate Contracts Department. The Stores Department later became known as the Post Office Supplies Department. This department provided both postal and telecommunication stores until the separation of the businesses into the Post Office, dealing purely with postal matters, and British Telecom dealing with the telecommunication business in the 1980s.
This class contains specimens of the engineering rate book and vocabulary of engineering stores; a number of descriptive booklets on the work of the department together with various committee, annual and other reports.
The Supplies Department was based at Mount Pleasant, London, with other premises situated in Studd Street London N1, Wembley, Bridgewater Somerset, Birmingham and Edinburgh, and with a number of satellite units supplying the most frequently requisitioned items to their local areas. A separate clothing store existed at Hook in Hampshire. The London operations and work from the Bridgewater depot was relocated to new purpose built premises at Swindon in 1975. This new office and warehouse complex was designed to use modern storage and handling methods including high level storage racking, conveyors, fork lift and pallet trucks. It handles all the requirements for stores from offices in England, and it also handles requests for general publicity items, the distribution of telephone directories, (carried out under a contract on behalf of British Telecom), and requests for uniforms from offices in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Other items for offices in Scotland and Northern Ireland are supplied from the Edinburgh site.
The first transmission of telegraphic communication to overseas routes was by submarine cable from Dover to Calais in 1850. Private telegraph companies pioneered this work, with the Post Office becoming increasingly involved in the management of overseas cables following its takeover of the UK domestic telegraph network in 1870. Private companies remained active in the international arena, particularly in providing telegraph services to places outside Europe. Many of these companies merged in 1929 to form Cable and Wireless Ltd.
Following the introduction of the first telephone of practical value in 1876-1877, a number of private telephone companies were formed, including The Telephone Company (in 1878) and the Edison Telephone Company (in 1879). Other similar companies also sprang up throughout the country. The Telephone Company and the Edison Telephone Company amalgamated in 1880 to form the United Telephone Company and, in 1889, with other companies, combined with the National Telephone Company. The National Telephone Company swiftly became the most prominent of the telephone companies, although following a ruling in 1880 on the legal powers of the Postmaster General under the Telegraph Act 1869, it operated under licence from the Postmaster General, which also began to operate its own telephone service in competition with the National Telephone Company. In 1896, the Post Office acquired the National Telephone Company's trunk (long distance) network, restricting the company to the provision of a network of local telephone services. In 1905, an agreement was reached between the Postmaster General and the National Telephone Company that the Post Office would purchase the National Telephone Company's system on expiry of its licence in 1911. The entire UK telephone service (with the exception of the service operated by Kingston-upon-Hull Borough Council) passed to Post Office control on 1 January 1912.
The possibility of transmitting signals from one point to another by electrical impulses without a connecting wire had attracted attention since the early days of telegraphy, and the Post Office, among others, conducted experiments in this field. In 1896, the Post Office (through its Engineer-in-Chief, Sir William Preece) provided facilities for Guglielmo Marconi to conduct experiments in the field of wireless telegraphy by means of hertzian waves.
Marconi gave the first demonstration of his new system of wireless telegraphy before members of the Post Office administration on 27 July 1896. With the transmitter on the roof of the Central Telegraph Office in Newgate Street, London, and the receiver on the roof of GPO South in Carter Lane, 300 yards away, signals from the transmitter were satisfactorily recorded. In August, the Post Office permitted Marconi to experiment with wireless equipment on Salisbury plain and elsewhere. The ensuing trials demonstrated the practicality of his system.
The following year Marconi was granted a British patent for his system by which "electrical actions or manifestations are transmitted through the air, earth or water by means of electric oscillations of high frequency". In July of the same year, Marconi parted company with the Post Office and, with other backers, set up the Marconi Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company.
In order to secure the control of wireless telegraphy, the Wireless Telegraph Act was passed in 1904 rendering it illegal for persons to install or work apparatus without a licence from the Postmaster General. In 1918, the Wireless Telegraphy Board was set up to coordinate interference problems in radio communication in the English Channel. The interests of users of radio other than Government departments were represented by the Post Office.
In 1924, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company entered into an agreement with the British Government for the provision of radio stations to set up an Imperial Wireless Chain in England, Australia, Canada, India and South Africa. From 1929 electrical communications across the Empire were overseen by the Imperial Communications Advisory Committee, on which the Post Office was represented.
The Marquis of Salisbury, together with the Earl of Chichester, held the appointment of Joint Postmaster General from 6 April 1816. In May 1822 it was ordered in the House of Commons that the office of one of the Postmaster Generals be abolished to save revenue. Salisbury (the junior of the two) gave orders that his salary should be discontinued whilst he retained the appointment of Postmaster General. It was not until Salisbury's death on 13 June 1823 that Lord Chichester was appointed sole Postmaster General.
Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It runs the Institute of Zoology, conservation projects in more than 50 countries, and two Zoos, ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.
Dubois or "The Sieur Du Bois" was an early traveller to the islands of Madagascar and Bourbon in the years 1669-1672. In his account of his trip he made many references to species of birds he encountered, many of which are now extinct.
Born, 8 May 1749, sailed in March 1765 for Bombay as an East India Company writer; appointed member of council at Anjengo, 1772; officiated as chaplain, 1775, later secretary, attached to British forces sent to assist Raghunath Rao in the Maratha civil wars; embarked for England, 1 December 1775; returned to India, 1777; returned to England, 1784; elected to the Society of Antiquaries, 1801; fellow of the Royal Society, 1803; died, 1819.
Publications: Oriental Memoirs Reflections on the Character of the Hindoos (1810)
Letters from France (2 vols., 1806)
Both Cobbe and Browne were involved in the nineteenth-century women's movement, whilst Eunice Murray was of a slightly later generation of women activists. Amongst other activities, Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), journalist, anti-vivisectionist, suffragist and social reformer, was an early member of the Kensington Society, the Enfranchisement of Women Committee and later a founder of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage and a member of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. Annie Leigh Browne (1851-1936), suffragist, was a friend of Frances Power Cobbe, a founder of the Society for Promoting the Return of Women as County Councillors and a member of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage and its successor, the London Society for Women's Suffrage. Eunice Guthrie Murray (1877-1960) came from a family of Scottish suffragists, and by 1913 was President of the Women's Freedom League in Scotland. Later she became the first woman to stand in a parliamentary election in Scotland.