See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1945-
Oliver was educated at Osborne and Dartmouth Royal Naval Colleges. He served as Midshipman on HMS GOOD HOPE, Flag ship of the Mediterranean Fleet, in 1912 and HMS INFLEXIBLE from January 1913. Oliver was promoted to Acting Sub-Lieutenant in 1914, then lent to HMS ALBION as Acting Lieutenant in March 1915, when he volunteered in command of a pair of Trawlers sweeping Minefields off Chanak. In April 1915, he was appointed to HMS PRINCE OF WALES, which landed five hundred Australian troops at ANZAC beach and supported their operations with gun fire. Oliver joined HMS MURRAY in September 1915, and was promoted to Lieutenant and became Second in Command in April 1916: he was subsequently awarded the Swedish Gold Medal 5th Class for life saving. In 1917, Oliver transferred to HMS TELEMACHUS, Destroyer, which lay mines for the most part in the German Swept channels in the Heligoland Bight, sinking numerous U Boats and Sweepers: he was awarded the D.S.C. in 1918. He was on HMS RENOWN during H.R.H. the Prince of Wales' tours to North America from May to December 1919, and to Australia and New Zealand from March to November 1920. From April 1921 to May 1922, Oliver was at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, for a preliminary gunnery course and from May 1922 to Feb 1923, he attended the Long (G) Course at HMS EXCELLENT (The Gunnery School at Whale Island, Portsmouth). In April 1924, Oliver was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and was on the Senior Staff of HMS EXCELLENT from 1925 to 1927. In November, he was appointed First Lieutenant and HMS WARSRITE, Mediterranean Fleet. Oliver was promoted to Commander on 31 December 1929 and was on the staff at HMS EXCELLENT until November 1930. From April 1931, he was Squadron Gunnery Officer in the Battle Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet, until he was commissioned HMS RESOLUTION as Executive Officer Second in Command in September 1933. Oliver was promoted to Captain in 1936, and attended various courses at Greenwich and Portsmouth before moving to Wellington in order to take up an appointment as Second Member of the New Zealand Navy Board. He returned to the U.K. at the end of 1938 and took command of HMS IRON DUKE, proceeding to his War Station at Scapa Flow in August 1939. In 1940, Oliver joined HMS DEVONSHIRE, which was involved with Convoy work in the South Atlantic and convoying troops in the Indian Ocean: he was awarded the C.B.E. in 1942. From January 1943 to February 1944, Oliver was in Command of HMS EXCELLENT, Gunnery School, Portsmouth. From March 1944, he was in command of HMS SWIFTSURE building at Vickers, Newcastle, and subsequently proceeding to join the Pacific Fleet at Sydney, N.S.W. Oliver became Rear-Admiral in 1945 and was Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Weapons) at the Admiralty from March to September, when he was appointed Deputy Chief of Naval Staff with a Seat on the Board of Admiralty. In August 1947, he hoisted his Flag in HMS SUSSEX as Flag Officer Commanding 5th Cruiser Squadron. Oliver was promoted to Vice Admiral retired list in 1948 and was made Deputy Lieutenant for the county of Roxburghshire in 1962.
Oliver was the son of Admiral Robert Oliver. He entered the Navy in 1825 and became a lieutenant in 1838. He was in the QUEEN in the Mediterranean from 1842 to 1844 and was promoted to commander in 1844. In 1847 he was appointed to command the FLY in Australian and New Zealand waters. Following his return home in 1851 he served during the Crimean War and was promoted to captain in 1854 but from then had no further service. He retired in 1864 and rose to the rank of admiral on the retired list.
Oliver entered the Navy in 1779. He served in the West Indies and was promoted to lieutenant in 1790, commander in 1794 and captain in 1796. After the battle of Trafalgar he was appointed to the MARS, whose captain, George Duff, had been killed. He continued to serve until 1814 and was promoted to rear-admiral in 1819, vice-admiral in 1830 and admiral in 1841.
Oliver entered the Navy in 1878 and passed for lieutenant in 1884. In 1903 he was promoted to captain and founded the navigation school in the Mercury. This school was later given the name HMS Dryad. Oliver became Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord in 1908, and after a seagoing appointment became Director of Naval Intelligence in 1913. He was promoted to rear-admiral in the same year. In 1914 Oliver became Naval Secretary to the First Sea Lord. At the end of the war he commanded the First Battle Cruiser Squadron in the Grand Fleet, hoisting his flag in the REPULSE. In 1919 he was promoted to vice-admiral and in 1921 he was appointed Second Sea Lord. In 1923 he was made admiral. His last active employment was as Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, in which post he remained until 1927. He was made Admiral of the Fleet in 1928 and retired in the same year. See Sir William James, A great seaman. The life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry F. Oliver (London, 1956).
Based at 64 Lincoln's Inn Fields, William Oliver was a solicitor involved in the development of land at Devonshire Road in Forest Hill, Lewisham.
William was trustee of the Wills of his father (Thomas) and brother (Arthur) and the Marriage Settlement of his sister (Mrs Sanders).
First incorporated in 1960 as Olympia Exhibitions Limited. In 1999 the name was changed to Olympia Limited [See LMA/4684/OF]. This company is responsible for managing Olympia exhibition hall, and for providing contracting services for exhibitions.
This company should not be confused with Olympia Exhibitions Limited which was formed through a renaming of the existing Olympia Limited in 1999 (LMA/4684/DO01; Company no. 01103492)
Registered offices:
Olympia Kensington, London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (1960-2004)
154 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex (2004-2007)
40 Broadway, London Borough of Westminster (2007-2010)
15 Grosvenor Street, London Borough of Westminster (2010-2017)
4th Floor, 26-28 Mount Row London Borough of Westminster (2017 - )
Company No. 00661157.
As a sub-lieutenant Ommaney served in the TOPAZE, 1873 to 1874, in home waters, and in the BARRACOUTA, 1874 to 1877, on the Australian Station. In 1877 he became a lieutenant and from 1878 to 1881 was in the PENGUIN in the Pacific. He then served in the ALGERINE between 1881 and 1886 on the Cape and West Africa Station and in the CRUISER, 1886 to 1889, in the Mediterranean. In 1890 he was promoted to commander and served in the AURORA, Channel Squadron, from 1890 to 1891 and in the BOUDICEA, East Indies, from 1891 to 1894. He was promoted to captain in 1897 and commanded the CALLIOPE, tender to the training ship Northampton, from 1901 to 1903, when he retired. He became a rear-admiral in 1907.
Born, 1814; entered the navy, 1826, under his uncle, John Ommanney; passed his examination, 1833; mate in the brig PANTALOON; appointed to the transport COVE (Captain Clark Ross), which was ordered to Baffin's Bay to release a number of whalers caught in the ice, 1835; joined the frigate PIQUE (Captain Henry John Rous), 1836; appointed to the DONEGAL as flag-lieutenant to his uncle, now Sir John Ommanney, commander-in-chief on the Lisbon and Mediterranean stations, 1837; commander, 1840; served on board the steam sloop VESUVIUS in the Mediterranean, 1841-1844; second in command, Franklin search expedition, 1850-1851; Deputy Controller-General of the Coastguard, 1851-1854; commissioned the EURYDICE as senior officer of a small squadron for the White Sea in the Russian War, 1854; appointed to the HAWKE, blockship for the Baltic, and was employed chiefly as senior officer in the Gulf of Riga, 1855; appointed to the BRUNSWICK, going out to the West Indies, 1857, and later the Channel Fleet, 1859; senior officer at Gibraltar from 1862; promoted to flag rank, 1864; retired, 1875; died, 1904.
Born, 1848; entered the Navy, 1862; served on HMS LONDON engaged in suppressing the slave trade on the East Coast of Africa, 1875-1879; qualified as interpreter in Swahili; British Consul at Mozambique, 1879; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1881-1925; explored interior of Mozambique, 1882-1885; returned to England, 1885; RGS Patron's Medal, 1885; Consul at Leghorn; Consul at Rouen; retired, 1899; died, 1925.
Not given.
Gilda O'Neill was born in Bethnal Green in 1951, the granddaughter of a Thames tug skipper and a pie-and-mash shop owner. Her parents, Dolly and Tom Griffiths, originally from Bow, eventually joined the postwar slum clearance diaspora in Dagenham, Essex. Leaving school at 15, she took a succession of office and bar jobs in the City. In 1971 she began a whirlwind romance with John O'Neill and married him a week after their first meeting. After their son and daughter were born, Gilda went back to education and began writing after studying at the Open University and the Polytechnic of East London.
In 1989, Gilda's first book was commissioned, the oral history Pull No More Bines: Hop Picking: Memories of a Vanished Way of Life (1990) for the Women's Press (it was reissued as Lost Voices in 2006). She had been fascinated by her mother's accounts of hop-picking in Kent as a girl, and indeed had accompanied her there as a small child. Her first novel, The Cockney Girl (1992), drew on her family experience, but combined it with careful research, also a feature of the crime novels she wrote in later years, of which The Sins of Their Fathers (2003) was the first in a trilogy. Gilda was prolific. Over 20 years, she published 15 novels and five social histories.
She participated regularly in workshops, and co-founded the writers' network Material Girls. In 2008, she joined the National Reading Campaign and contributed not only her book East End Tales (2008), a collection of easy-to-read childhood memories, to the campaign but also lent real fire to what might otherwise have been earnest events. Gilda died from side-effects triggered by medication prescribed for a minor injury in 2010.
Her publications include: My East End: Memories of Life in Cockney London (1999), Our Street: East End Life in the Second World War (2003), The Good Old Days: Crime, Murder and Mayhem in Victorian London (2006). Her novels, include family sagas such as The Bells of Bow (1994) and Just Around the Corner (1995).
The Open Door Council (1926-1965) was established in 1926. After 1918, women over the age of thirty became entitled to vote for their MP and women's organisations that had previously campaigned for women's suffrage began to concern themselves with a wider range of issues. The sudden mass redundancy of women who had occupied traditionally male-dominated jobs between 1914 and 1918 focussed attention on the issue of women's employment and financial inequality. At the same time, they concerned themselves with the ongoing issue that had first been raised in the previous century: restrictive legislation such as limiting working hours which applied only to women and with the aim of 'protecting' them against industrial exploitation. However, there was no consensus within the movement regarding the appropriate response to protective legislation. An ideological split occurred at this time between those on the one hand who supported ideas such as an 'Endowment of Motherhood' which was intended to be paid to women to ensure their financial independence and, on the other, those who adopted a more strictly equalist position. In the mid-1920s, the Labour government proposed a series of bills which would extend this protective legislation and the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship of the time was being pressurised to change its equalist policies on the issue. In response to this situation, the Open Door Council was established in May 1926 by Lady Rhonnda (Six Point Group), Elizabeth Abbott (NUSEC), Miss Clegg (London Society for Women's Service), Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (Women's Freedom League) and Virginia Crawford (St Joan's Social and Political Alliance). The new groups object was to ensure a woman's opportunities, right to work and to protection at all stages of her life were the same as those of a man. By Jun 1927, the six members of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship who resigned over the issue of protective policies had joined their organisation. From its creation, the group intended to organise an international group to further their aims. In its first year, an international committee was formed and in Jun 1929 it held a conference in Berlin for individuals and organisations concerned with equality within the workplace. From this emerged a group called the Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker. The British parent body continued its work through the next decade, from 1933 spearheading the movement for the right of married women to work. During the Second World War, they campaigned on issues such as female volunteers in the Civil Defence Services receiving two-thirds the man's pay and compensation rate provided for by the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act of 1939 by traditional constitutional methods: deputations to the appropriate government ministers, public rallies and letters to major newspapers. They were also closely involved in the Equal Compensation Campaign from 1941 to 1943 and subsequently had representatives beside the Six Point Group and the Fawcett Society on the committee of the Equal Pay Campaign from 1944 to ensure equal pay in the Civil Service. The group was finally wound up in 1965.
Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker (1929-1974) was established in 1929. After 1918, women over the age of thirty became entitled to vote for their MP and women's organisations that had previously campaigned for women's suffrage began to concern themselves with a wider range of issues. The sudden mass redundancy of women who had occupied traditionally male-dominated jobs between 1914 and 1918 focussed attention on the issue of women's employment and financial inequality. At the same time, they concerned themselves with the ongoing issue that had first been raised in the previous century: restrictive legislation such as limiting working hours which applied only to women and with the aim of 'protecting' them against industrial exploitation. However, there was no consensus within the movement regarding the appropriate response protective legislation. An ideological split occurred at this time between those who supported ideas such as an 'Endowment of Motherhood' to women to allow their financial independence and those who adopted a more strictly equalist position. In the mid-1920s, the Labour government proposed a series of bills which would extend this protective legislation and the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship of the time was being pressurised to change its equalist policies on the issue. In response to this situation, the Open Door Council was established in May 1926. Its object was to ensure a woman's opportunities, right to work and to protection at all stages of her life were the same as those of a man. From its creation, the group intended to organise an international group to further their aims. The Open Door Council always hoped to be an international group and in its first year, an international committee was formed. In Jun 1929 it held a conference in Berlin for individuals and organisations concerned with equality within the workplace. From this emerged a group called the Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker with Chrystal Macmillan as the first president. Sympathetic individuals and organisations from 21 countries supported the group until the Second World War, but when the first post-war meeting was called in 1945 for board members of international branches, several previously flourishing branches failed to send representatives. Conferences resumed in 1948, but its sphere of influence shrank to Scandinavia, Belgium and Britain in the 1950s and the decline continued through the next decade. The organisation dwindled until it came to an end, without any winding up meeting, in 1974.
No history available
Born, 1925; educated at University College School, Hampstead; Guy's Hospital Medical School; Lecturer in Child Health, University of Bristol, 1956-1960; Consultant Paediatrician, United Bristol Hospitals, 1960; Assistant Director, 1960-1964 and Director, 1964-1969, Paediatric Unit, St Mary's Hospital Medical School; Consultant Paediatrician, St Mary's Hospital, 1960-1990; Fellow, Royal College of Physicians, 1966; Consultant Adviser in Paediatrics, DHSS, 1971-1986, and member of DHSS committees, 1966-1988; University of London member of Board of Studies in Medicine, 1964-1990, member of Senate, 1981-1989, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, 1984-1986, member of Court, 1984-1989; member, General Medical Council, 1984-1988, British Medical Association, British Paediatric Association, European Society for Paediatric Research.
Publications: Modern Textbook of Paediatrics for Nurses (William Heinemann Medical Books, London, 1961); Neurological examination of children with Richmond Shepard Paine (London, Spastics Society Medical Education and Information Unit in association with Heinemann Medical, 1966); book chapters and papers on paediatrics and child health.
Barbara Whittingham Jones (married name Oppenheim) was a British journalist who spent some time living in Malaya. She became known for her forceful article 'Malaya Betrayed', which appeared in World Review, May 1946, during the Malayan Union controversy. The article caused a sensation throughout Malaya. In September 1947, she also became the first British correspondent to visit Patani, to observe the political oppression of the 700,000 Malays in this part of the Kingdom of Siam. She continued her work as a correspondent for various publications, covering political events in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. These publications included Eastern World, Straits Times, Straits Budget, letters to The Times, and radio broadcasts with Macassar Radio. Her husband was Henry Rolf Oppenheim (1902-1987).
Dorrith Sim (née Oppenheim) came to England on the Kindertransport, 26 July 1939. Her parents worked for the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, c 1943, they were eventually pronounced verschollen in Auschwitz. Julius Oppenheim was the grandfather of Dorrith.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Oppenheimer, Nathan and Vandyk were run by Herbert Oppenheimer, Major Harry Louis Nathan and Arthur Vandyk. They were based at 1 Finsbury Square, EC2.
Albert Edward Oram, 1913-1999, was educated at Brighton Grammar School and the University of London (London School of Economics and Institute of Education). He became a teacher, but left the profession to become a research officer for the Co-operative Party, 1946-1955. He was a Labour and Co-operative Party MP for East Ham South, 1955-1974, Parliamentary Secretary, 1964-1969, and a Government Whip, 1976-1978. He was greatly interested in aiding development throughout the world and was a member of the Commonwealth Development Corp, 1975-1976, co-ordinator of the development programmes of the Co-operative Alliance, 1971-1973 and Chairman of the Co-operative Development Agency 1978-1981.
Craven Ord (1756-1832) was Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He compiled a fine collection of impressions of brasses and of historical manuscripts. His Suffolk collections are in the British Museum. Publications: Description of a carving in the Church of Long Melford (London, 1794); Vain boastings of Frenchmen. The same in 1386 as in 1798. Being an account of the threatened invasion of England by the French the 10th year of King Richard II. Extracted from ancient chronicles (J. Pridden, London, 1798).
William Miller Ord was born on 23 September 1834; the son of George Ord, FRCS, and his wife Harriet (nee Clark). He was educated at St Thomas's Hospital London. Awarded MD London; FRCP, FLS. Ord was Consulting Physician St Thomas's Hospital; Treasurer of the Clinical Society; Fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. He married firstly in 1859, Julia Rainbow (died 1864), and secondly Jane Youl. He died on 14 May 1902.
Publications: Influence of Colloids upon Crystalline Forms, 1879; edited the Works of Francis Sibson, 1881; various papers on "Myxodema" (including the Bradshawe Lecture, 1898); Neurotic Dystrophies; Notes on Comparative Anatomy, 1871; papers on Neurotic Origin of Gout; The Relations of Arthritis; Lettsomian Oration; A Doctor's Holiday (oration to Medical Society, 1894); an edition of Nomenclature of Diseases, 1884; and many others.
William Wallis Ord was born in 1869, the son of William Miller Ord and his wife Julie nee Rainbow. He was a student at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, 1883-1887. Awarded MA, MD BCh Oxon, MRCP London, OBE.
The Order of Friars Minor was founded by Saint Francis in 1209 and is usually known as the Franciscan Order. The Order first came to England in 1224 and were known as the 'greyfriars'.
The Office of the Armoury and the Ordnance Office both evolved in the early 15th century from the activities of the Privy Wardrobe, one of the departments of the Royal Household, with offices at the Tower of London. The Tower was the most important arsenal in the kingdom, with its own workforce of armourers, bowyers, fletchers, etc., to maintain the arms and armour stored there.
The first Master of the Ordnance was appointed in 1414, and the Ordnance Office became responsible for the supply of munitions and equipment to the army and navy. Prior to the establishment of a standing army or navy, the Ordnance Office was the only permanent military department in England. As a result the importance and status of the Master rose steadily, and from 1483 all holders of the office were knights or peers.
The first mention of an official solely responsible for armour appears in 1423, and the first use of the title Master of the King's Armoury occurs in 1462. The Office of the Armoury was responsible for the provision and maintenance of body armour, and was much smaller than that of the Ordnance. It rose in importance briefly when Henry VIII established the royal workshops at Greenwich in 1515, but with the decrease in the use of armour during the 17th century, the Office of the Armoury was abolished in 1671, and its duties were taken over by the Board of Ordnance.
The role of the Board of Ordnance continued to grow and develop during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was responsible for the issue of all guns and warlike stores to the ships of the navy and the permanent fortifications (the Sea Service), and the issue of small arms, the provision of artillery and engineer trains to the army (the Land Service). It was also responsible for the development of weapons, and in addition to its headquarters at the Tower of London, it had numerous other establishments, such as the Royal Arsenal, Royal Academy and Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, and the powder mills at Faversham and Waltham Abbey. The Board was finally abolished in 1855 and its duties merged with those of the War Office.
The Royal Armouries museum has its basis in the arsenal maintained at the Tower of London, and the royal armours of the Tudor and Stuart kings. The first displays were opened to the public in the second half of the 17th century: the Line of Kings, a display of armours dedicated to the kings of England; the Spanish Armoury, celebrating the victory over the Armada; and the Grand Storehouse, displaying captured trophies, small arms and artillery.
In the early 19th century the Board of Ordnance, which was responsible for the maintenance of the collection, began the process of re-organising the displays on a more academic basis. It also purchased important historic pieces to augment the collections. When the Board was abolished in 1855, the Armouries came under the control of the War Office. The first part-time curator, Viscount Dillon, was appointed in 1897.
In 1904 responsibility for the Armouries was transferred from the War Office to the Office of Works, which was already responsible for the buildings of the Tower of London. The first full time curator, Charles ffoulkes, was appointed in 1910, and the ancient office of Master of the Armouries revived in 1935, as the Armouries achieved the status of a national museum.
The National Heritage Act 1983 transferred control of the Armouries from the Department of the Environment (the successor to the Office of Works) to the Board of Trustees, and the Museum was granted the prefix `Royal' in 1984. Fort Nelson, the national museum of artillery, was opened in 1995, the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds in 1996, and the redisplay of the White Tower completed in 1998.
Born, 1920; Marlborough; Merton College Oxford, 1939; Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), 186 Field Ambulance Service in Middle East, 1940; Intelligence Corps (Field Services Wing), GHQ, Middle East, from May 1942, and Political Warfare Executive Military Training School, from Oct 1943; transferred to Special Operations Executive (SOE), 1944; organised French Resistance in southern France; No 1 Special Force with partisans in Italy, 1944; Force 136, Ceylon, 1945; Foreign Office, 1946; died 1961.
John Noel O'Reilly was born on 15 December 1904, in Oxford, where his father was a civil servant. He was educated at the City of Oxford School and then in 1923 entered Jesus College, Oxford, as a mathematics exhibitioner, where he was a keen athlete. After becoming interested in natural sciences he chose to study medicine. He studied at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London, where he had a distinguished academic career. He became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1929, and qualified BM BCh in 1930.
O'Reilly became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1932, and qualified MD from Oxford in 1936. He obtained a Medical Research Council travelling fellowship and went to Vienna, Heidelberg, and Munich to study tuberculosis in children. After returning to England he held registrar posts at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, before becoming consultant paediatrician to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the East End of London in 1934.
During the Second World War he was found to be unfit for service in the Armed Forces, due to having undergone gastrectomy. He became medical superintendent and physician of an Army hospital, from 1940-43.
In 1943 he was appointed consultant paediatrician to St Helier Hospital, Carshalton, where he remained for 25 years. He was responsible for starting one of the earliest premature baby units in the United Kingdom. His hard work and high standards enabled the paediatric unit of the hospital to thrive, amongst an underprivileged population that had recently been re-housed from London's East End. He was an inspiration to many junior staff, and it has been said that he `inspired confidence in his excellent medical skills and related well to children' (Munk's Roll, 1994, p.400).
He simultaneously held appointments as paediatrician at several hospitals, including the Croydon General Hospital, whose staff he joined in 1946. In 1966 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
He married Doreen Daly, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at St Helier's Hospital, in 1955. After retirement they travelled extensively and learnt Spanish, to add interest to their travels. O'Reilly suffered with diabetes towards the end of his life, and died at the age of 84 on 10 October 1989.
The Organisation for Comparative Social Research consisted of a group of social scientists from seven European countries, first brought together in 1951 by the Oslo Institute for Social Research as an international seminar for the planning of a common research programme. The purpose of the OCSR was to encourage co-operation among social scientists of different countries, to increase training facilities and to carry out studies of cross-national differences in respect of group behaviour. The British office of the OCSR was based at the LSE.
The Orient Steam Navigation Company was established in 1878 and jointly managed by the London shipowning firms of Anderson, Anderson and Company and F. Green and Company until 1919, when the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company acquired a controlling interest in its shareholding capital; at approximately the same time the dual management of the undertaking by the Anderson and Green companies came to an end and the two businesses were merged into a private limited company formed for the purpose, Anderson, Green and Company Limited. The Orient company was a small enterprise operating a handful of very large ships in virtually one trade, the mail and passenger service to Australia and New Zealand. In due course it provided a co-ordinated service in this region with ships of the P&O fleet; in later years, similarly in collaboration with P&O, a passenger service between North American ports and Australia and New Zealand was instituted, and in attempts to promote passenger traffic in the Pacific, a series of voyages between North America, the Far East and Australia were inaugurated. The company's ships were also extensively employed in ocean cruising. Anderson, Green and Company Limited, the managers, were brought under the P and O umbrella in 1949, but the P and O and Orient companies maintained separate identities and independent shore organizations until 1960 when the services were run together and the balance of the ordinary share-holdings of the Orient company was bought up by P and O. A new company, P and O/Orient Lines Passenger Services Limited, better known under its trading name, Orient and Pacific Lines, was set up to run the services of the two companies, an arrangement which ceased to exist in 1966. In the following years the former Orient company vessels gradually came into P and O ownership and their livery was likewise altered. See 'Steam to Australia', Syren and Shipping, July 1938; Stephen Rabson, 'Orient -- a mark of quality', Wavelength, June 1977.
On 17 February 1824 the founding members of the Oriental Club met for the first time at the Royal Asiatic Society with the purpose of drawing up a prospectus for the creation of a club which would meet their specific needs. Their rational for doing so was recorded in the prospectus:
"The British Empire in the East is now so extensive, and the persons connected with it so numerous, that the establishment of an institution where they may meet on a footing of social intercourse seems particularly desirable".
The club was designed to attract persons who had resided or travelled in the East. Membership was initially almost exclusively reserved for servants of the East India Company, both civil and military, who, finding themselves in London after service abroad, sought the company of like minded gentlemen with whom they could share experiences of their travels.
In many respects the club was also a necessity. Many Company men found it difficult to gain membership to the numerous gentlemen's clubs in nineteenth century London. This was partly a reflection of London society's general prejudice towards returning Company men; but it was also a consequence of the fact that Company soldiers were often not eligible for membership at many of the clubs due to the fact that they were forced to relinquish their rank on returning from service in India (unlike King's officers serving abroad).
On 24 February 1824 the Oriental Club was officially formed. It was resolved to elect a committee and to offer the presidency of the club to the Duke of Wellington. Founding members included Sir John Malcolm (1769-1833 first chairman), Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm (1768-1838), Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm (1782-1851), Major James Rivett Carnac (1785-1846), Major Robert Haldane, Sir George Staunton, Thomas Snodgrass, William Bentinck, John Elphinstone (1779-1859), Charles William Wynn, and Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood.
Legend has it that the Duke of Wellington's advice to John Malcolm on setting up the Oriental was: 'Have your own club. Own your own property'. Whether or not this is true, the founding members of the Oriental were certainly keen to find a suitable property they could buy, deciding to rent a building at 16 Lower Grosvenor Street only until a suitable property became available for purchase.
On 2 March 1826 the committee offered £14,000 to JD Alexander for the freehold to his house at 18 Hanover Square, which included the use of a stable yard held under lease to City of London. Benjamin Wyatt was appointed architect charged with turning the townhouse into a clubhouse. He opted to pull down the existing house and build another at a cost of £17,000. The purchase of the Hanover Square property was financed partly by loans raised from members on the security of any property the Oriental would eventually own, with Some 100 signatories agreeing to loan £160 each in 1825. The new clubhouse was ready in 1828 and the Oriental remained there until 30 November 1961.
By 1850s the Oriental Club was well established. In 1851 and 1854 a possible amalgamation with the new East India United Services Club was suggested but on both occasions the two clubs were unable to agree on terms. In 1854, however, it was agreed that the Alfred Club, founded in 1808 in Albemarle Street, should merge with the Oriental and thereafter the club admitted Alfred members.
The amalgamation necessitated changes in membership qualifications as it brought members to the club who had no overseas connections. This trend was extended beyond Alfred members in the 1870s. Despite this, however, the identity of the club always remained centred on the experiences of the majority of its members in the East. Membership rules were further relaxed with regard to honorary members. Non-British subjects could be granted honorary member status from 1831. Throughout the nineteenth century they included the likes of Oman Effendi (1831), The Prince of Oudh (1839), Dwarkanath Tagore and Mohun Lal (1842), HH Maharajah Duleep Singh, son of Ranjit Singh, ruler of Punjab (1854), Sir Cursetjee Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (1860), HE Nazim Bey, Prime Minister of Turkey (1862), and Nawab Nazim of Bengal (1869).
The question of whether to admit women to the club was one repeatedly posed throughout the twentieth century. Initially women were tolerated only as guests, but the 1950s saw a change in policy. Wives and daughters of members were offered associate membership in an attempt to reverse the trend of falling subscriptions, and by 1953 some 270 had joined.
By the late 1950s the Oriental was again in financial difficulty. The club was fast outgrowing the clubhouse at Hanover Square and only very expensive building work could hope to convert it to the club's changing needs. At the same time income from subscriptions began to fall in the second half of the decade and the future of the Oriental suddenly seemed unsure.
The club was saved due to the work of Sir Arthur Bruce, chairman, and Sir Aynsley Bridgland, a property magnate. They both looked into the possibility of allowing a property developer to exploit the land at Hanover Square and came to the conclusion that the value of land in central London had risen to such an extent that the freehold to the Hanover Square site might provide the club with enough income to resurrect its finances.
It was decided that the club should not sell the freehold but rather that it should move to new premises and then develop the Hanover Square site itself. The plan required perfect co-ordination. The head lease at Hanover Square was taken on by the Legal and General Assurance Society for a building to be erected on site, and a sub-tenant was found in the Courtauld Group to occupy the building. Meanwhile an alternative clubhouse was found in the splendid Stratford House. By raising the cash to purchase the house through a fixed mortgage, the Club was then able to use the rent from the Hanover Square site both to repay the mortgage and generate a healthy excess. Thanks to this shrewd economic foresight, the club was able to guarantee its future, and by 1974, the 150th anniversary of the club, the Oriental was one of the most secure clubs in London.
This company was registered in 1919, to take over a firm of the same name registered in 1906. It was acquired in 1954 by the British Malay Rubber Company Limited, and in 1960 by London Asiatic Rubber and Produce Company. Oriental Rubber Company went into voluntary liquidation in 1976.
Oriental Tea Company was based in Melbourne, Australia, with branches in Sydney and Brisbane. Robur Tea Company (CLC/B/112-134) held shares in the company.
Orion SAR de Petrol owned oilfields in Romania. Although a Romanian registered company, it was a Dutch undertaking, formed in 1910. Orion was acquired by Phoenix Oil and Transport Company in 1926 and amalgamated with Unirea SAR de Petrol, a wholly owned subsidiary of Phoenix Oil and Transport Company, in 1935.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Orme, Stanley (1923-2005) Lord Orme of Salford, was born on April 5th 1923 in Sale, Cheshire. He left school at 15 to work as an engineer at Trafford Park. Orme continued his education at the National Council of Labour Colleges and the Workers' Education Association, and became an active member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). Orme joined the RAF in 1942 and served an navigator in the Pathfinder Force of Bomber Command. He was demobilized in 1947 and returned to work at Budenberg Gauge Company, Broadheath. Orme had joined the Labour Party in 1944, and on return to civilian life, became an important shop steward in the AEU. He married Irene Mary Harris in 1951. Orme served on Sale Borough Council between 1958-1965, and fought unsuccessfully the Parliamentary seat of Stockport South in 1959. He was elected to the Parliamentary seat of Salford West in 1964. Orme was an important member of the Tribune Group, and its chairman during the late 1960s. Orme was made Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office in 1974 and was involved in passing a bill against religious discrimination in the Province. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1975, and then made Minister of Social Security in the Cabinet in 1976. Following the Labour election defeat in 1979 Orme took up the post of Opposition Spokesman on Trade and Industry, before moving to shadow the Minister for Energy in 1983.
Orme was very closely involved with the miners' strike of 1984-1985, and was praised widely for his persistent efforts to encourage a negotiated settlement between the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Coal Board. Following the end of the strike, Orme campaigned against privatizations, increased nuclear power supply, and the closure of collieries. Orme increased his majority in the 1987 election, and was subsequently elected chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. He retired as a Member of Parliament at the 1997, and was made a life peer, taking the title Lord Orme of Salford. He died on April 28th 2005.
Paulus Orosius was a Christian historian, theologian and disciple of St. Augustine who came from Gallaecia. He wrote Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII ("Seven Books of History Against the Pagans"), which he wrote in response to the belief that the decline of the Roman Empire was the result of its adoption of Christianity.
James Orton was a poet who often published under the name of 'Alastor'. His published works include The enthusiast; or, the straying angel (London, 1852), Excelsior; or, the realms of poesy (London, 1851), and The three palaces and other poems (London, 1859). It appears that 'Reuben Manasseh' was never published.
Osborn served in the Mediterranean before becoming a lieutenant in 1717. In 1718 He took part in the action off Cape Passaro in the Mediterranean and the following year served in a squadron on the north coast of Africa. His first command was the SQUIRREL in 1728. In 1734 he commanded the PORTLAND in the Channel and in 1738 the SALISBURY in the Mediterranean. He was appointed to the PRINCE OF ORANGE in 1740, returning to England in the CHICHESTER in 1741, when he moved to the PRINCESS CAROLINE, Channel, until 1743. Osborn was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1747 and in 1748 was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands; in the same year he became a Vice-Admiral. He was promoted Admiral and appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, in 1757 but after blockading the French fleet in 1758, he suffered a stroke and saw no more active service. Osborn was Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire, 1758 to 1761.
Joseph Osborn traded from Liverpool to Cape Town, Calcutta, Amoy, Singapore, Hong Kong, Foochow, Demerara, Bombay, Madras, Sydney, etc. For one period of eight months he was on Government Service, carrying supplies from Bombay to Abyssinia for the punitive war that Britain had declared on the "King-of-Kings" Theodore, who had deposed Ras Ali in 1855. Osborn was at sea for over 35 years, his longest period of service being 12 years on the barque RECORDER. He retired from the sea in 1875 and spent the next eight years overseeing the building and fitting of Liverpool ships.
Born in Falmouth, Cornwall, 31 January 1798, the son of Eward Osler senior. He was apprenticed to a surgeon at Falmouth, and later attended lectures at Joshua Brookes' Blenheim St School of Anatomy, London and Guy's Hospital Medical School. Became Resident Surgeon at Swansea Infirmary, Wales. He resigned from the infirmary, returned to Falmouth where he wrote poetry, natural history, many hymns, and theology.' Later he moved to Truro, where he was editor of the Royal Cornwall Gazette. Osler died at Truro, Cornwall, 7 March 1863.
Publications: The Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth, Smith, Elder & Co.: London, 1835; The Church and Dissent, considered in their practical influence, (Smith, Elder & Co.: London, 1836); Church and King. Comprising I. Church and Dissent, considered in their practical influence ... II. The Church established in the Bible ... III. The Catechism, explained and illustrated ... IV. Psalms and Hymns in the services and rites of the Church, (Smith, Elder & Co.: London, 1837); The Education of the People: the Bible the foundation, and the Church the teacher. An ... address delivered in the Lecture Room of the Bath General Instruction Society, etc., (Smith, Elder & Co.: London, 1839); The Voyage: a poem: written at sea, and in the West Indies, and illustrated by papers on natural history, (Longman & Co.: London; Falmouth [printed], 1830); and numerous hymns.
Sir William Osler was born in Canada, 1849; educated, Trinity College, Toronto, 1867; McGill University, Montreal, 1870-1872; postgraduate study in University College Hospital, St Thomas's Hospital, University College and the Brown Institute, London, 1872; studied pathology in Berlin and Vienna; returned to Canada, 1874; lectureship in the Institutes of Medicine at McGill University; attending physician at Montreal General, 1878; member of the Royal College of Physicians, 1878; fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1883; chair of clinical medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 1884; founder member of the Association of American Physicians, 1885; physician-in-chief at the hospital and professor of medicine at the medical school, Johns Hopkins University, 1889; regius chair of medicine, Oxford, 1905; died, 1919.
Born, 1849; educated Trinity College, Toronto, University of Toronto, 1868-1870, McGill University, Montreal, 1870-1872, University College London, 1872-1873; Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, McGill University, 1874-1884; Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 1884-1889; Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1889-1904; Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford, 1904-1919; elected to the Royal College of Physicians, 1884, and to the Royal Society, 1898; died, 1919.
Publications: The cerebral palsies of children (London, 1889) The principles and practice of medicine (Edinburgh, 1891); On Chorea and choreiform affections (London, 1894); Lectures on Angina Pectoris and allied states (New York, 1897); Cancer of the stomach. A clinical study (London, 1900); Aequanimitas. With other addresses to medical students, nurses and practitioners of medicine (London, 1904); The student life. A farewell address to Canadian and American medical students (Oxford, 1905); Counsels and ideals from the writings of William Osler (Oxford, 1905); The growth of truth, as illustrated in the discovery of the circulation of the blood (London, 1906); Science and immortality (London, 1906); An Alabama student, and other biographical essays (Oxford, 1908); Thomas Linacre (Cambridge, 1908); The treatment of disease (London, 1909); Incunabula medica. A study of the earlier printed medical books, 1467-1480 (London, 1923); The tuberculous soldier (London, 1961).
This collection consists mainly of correspondence from friends and acquaintances of Valerie and Andrea Wolffenstein, two sisters of Jewish origins, who converted to Christianity and who managed to survive the war in hiding in Germany. Valerie and Andrea Wolffenstein were both born in Berlin, in 1891 and 1897 respectively. Valerie trained as a painter and worked as a secretary for Reichskunstwart, Dr Edwin Redslob; from 1931 for the writer and film director, Eberhard Frowein; and after a period of unemployment, for Dr Paul Zucker, architect and art historian. There followed a period of forced labour with the company Zeiss-Ikon, and from January 1943 she lived in hiding until liberation by the Americans at the end of the war. Since which time she lived with her sister in Munich.
Andrea studied music at the Berlin Hochschule and taught piano from 1924, until she was forbidden to teach aryan children. Thereafter she spent a short time as a music teacher at the Jewish Goldschmidt-Schule. She then worked as a forced labourer for the armaments manufacturer, Scherb und Schwer, until going underground with her sister.
Born 1933; educated Beaudesert Park, Minchinhampton, and Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth; Junior Officer, 1951; served in HM Ships Devonshire, Vanguard, Verulam, Newfoundland, Jewel, Victorious, Naiad; specialised in Gunnery, 1960; Commanded HMS Yarnton, 1962-1963, HMS Bacchante, 1971-1972; MoD, 1972-1975; Commanded HMS Newcastle, 1977-1979; Captain, Britannia RNC, 1980-1982; Assistant Chief of Defence Staff, 1982-1985; Flag Officer, Third Flotilla, and Commander, Anti-Submarine Warfare, Striking Fleet, 1985-1987; C-in-C, Fleet, Allied C-in-C, Channel, and C-in-C, East Atlantic, 1987-1989; First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, and First and Principal Naval ADC to the Queen, 1989-1993; KCB, 1987; GCB, 1989. Publications The Royal Navy-Today and Tomorrow 1993.
The first Ottoman Bank was formed in 1856 as a British chartered company by a group of London businessmen with interests in Turkey. It was liquidated in 1863 when a new Turkish company, the Imperial Ottoman Bank was formed, with its head office in Istanbul and a board of directors divided between London and Paris. This new Turkish company which absorbed all the business of the old British company, operated under a concession granted by the Turkish government, and acted as the state bank of Turkey. In 1923 the new Turkish republic established its own central bank and the Imperial Ottoman Bank became an ordinary bank. In 1925 the bank reverted to its original title, the Ottoman Bank, as a condition of the renewal of its concession by the Turkish government.
The head office was located in Istanbul, but with management control resting with a board of directors, half of which sat in London and the other half in Paris, decisions taken by one half being subject to ratification by the other. Annual general meetings were held in London. Branches of the bank were opened throughout the Ottoman Empire; these became subsidiary banks when the Empire disintegrated. The branches in Turkey and subsidiaries in Yugoslavia and Syria were the particular interest of the Paris group of directors, while the London group supervised the branches in Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Transjordan and Roumania. In 1969 the branches of the bank in London, Cyprus, Jordan, Sudan, Uganda, Arabia and Jersey were taken over by Grindlay's Bank.
The London office had premises at 26 Old Broad Street 1856-62; 4 Bank Buildings, Lothbury 1863-71; 26 Throgmorton Street 1872-1947 (including 27 Throgmorton Street 1925-7); 20-22 Abchurch Lane 1948-58; 18-22 Abchurch Lane 1959-69; 23 Fenchurch Street 1970-71; 2-3 Philpot Lane 1972-83; 3rd floor, Dunster House, 17-21 Mark Lane 1984-7; and King Wiilliam House, 2A Eastcheap from 1988.
Born, 1911; educated University College, Cardiff (engineering) and RAF College Cranwell, 1927-1931; commissioned, 1931; served in flying boat squadron, Malta; studied and taught at School of Navigation, Manston; flying boat squadron at Pembroke Dock and in charge of research on navigational equipment, Ministry of Aircraft Production, 1939-1941; wartime service, 1941-1945, including training of British air crews and combined services liaison team, US, commanded 58 Squadron, set up RAF base on the Azores, in charge of the flying boat station, RAF Castle Archdale, Northern Ireland, Deputy Director Flying Control responsible for setting up air traffic control systems in post-war Britain; Director, Joint Anti-Submarine School, Londonderry, 1946-1948; Joint Services Staff College, 1948-1950; Air Attache, Argentina, Uraguay, Paraguay, 1950-1953; Director of Operations, Air Ministry, 1954-1956; commanded Joint Task Force GRAPPLE for first British thermonuclear weapons tests in the Pacific, 1956-1958; Senior Air Staff Officer, RAF Coastal Command HQ, 1958-1960; retired, 1960; upon retirement became Director of Defence Projects, EMI Electronics and established business consultancy, Medsales Executive; died, 1997.
Publications: Christmas Island cracker (London, 1987)
No information available at present.
A report dealing with life and labour in West Ham, with particular emphasis on the problems of unemployment and casual labour. The 'Inquiry' was initially planned to extend to other areas of the East End once the West Ham survey was complete. However, funding was only just sufficient to produce the survey of West Ham. The findings were published as a book: West Ham: A Study in Social and Industrial Problems (J.M. Dent and Co, London, 1907), by Howarth and Wilson. Unlike Booth's investigation, there is no actual household survey. The inquiry relied upon rent books, obtained from house agents, and contains no actual survey data, being a collection of indirectly related material, including examples of analysis drawn from other surveys.
Born 1923; educated Oxford University; Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Oxfordshire, to 1954; Demonstrator, 1954-1956, Senior Demonstrator, 1956-1963, and Lecturer in Physics, King's College London, 1963-1982; College Radiological Protection Officer, 1957-1981; retired 1981; died 1989.