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Mount Pelée began its eruptions on 23 April 1902, the main eruption occurring on 8 May 1902 which destroyed the nearby town of Saint-Pierre, killing or injuring most of its 30,000 inhabitants. The eruption is considered to be the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century.

Born in Stoke Newington, London, John Lucas Tupper was the son of the lithographer George Frederick Tupper. He attended the Royal Academy Schools from about 1844 and at the same time became an anatomical draftsman at Guy's Hospital, London. This not only provided an income but reflected his lifelong interest in science. Tupper remained working at Guy's until 1863 and two years later became master of drawing at Rugby School. His teaching at Rugby pioneered '...teaching art from the human form, as shown in the skeleton, the anatomical figure and the best antiques...'. The 'Athenaeum' considered him one of the ablest 'draughtsmen of the day' and that his experiment to make the study of drawing more than 'a genteel accomplishment' was 'fully attained'. In recognition of his achievements, Tupper was appointed curator of the museum at Rugby School.

Tupper was an early member of the Pre-Raphaelite circle and was particularly close to William Holman Hunt (later godfather to one of his children) and to William Michael Rossetti who edited a published volume of his poems in 1897. Tupper was not only a poet but also contributed letters and articles on literature, art and art education to: 'The Germ'; 'Art and Poetry: Being Thoughts towards Nature Conducted principally by Artists'; 'The Crayon'; and 'The Portfolio'. In 1866 he published under the name of "Outis" 'Hiatus, the Void in Modern Education, its cause and Antidote' (Macmillan). Demonstrating his versatility, Tupper also wrote an article 'On the Centre of Motion in the Human Eye' which was published in the 'Royal Society Proceedings', vol. 22 (1874), pp. 429-30.

His interest in science is reflected in the subjects of his work. In the 1850s and early 1860s Tupper made a number of portraits of his colleagues at Guy's Hospital. He was also commissioned (c.1858) to make a statue of Linnaeus for the Natural History Museum at Oxford designed by the Dublin based practice of Sir Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward.

George Duncan Gibb was born in Montreal, Canada, on 25 December 1821. He studied medicine at McGill University and graduated in 1846, being appointed immediately afterwards as Surgeon to the Canadian Militia. He moved to Dublin to pursue his studies, becoming a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In 1853, Gibb moved to London being at first Physician at St Pancras General Dispensary which he left to take up the post of Assistant Physician to the Westminster Hospital in 1863.

Throughout his stay in London, Gibb added various qualifications to his name, FGS (1855), MRCP (1859), LLD (1864 from Quebec) and most notably 'Sir' which was attached to a supposed baronetcy - a title which he adopted after research into his family history discovered it to be 'vacant'.

Gibb wrote numerous publications on laryngology, his family history, unusual meteorology and Canadian geology. He died on 16 February 1876 from lung disease.

Lewis Leigh Fermor was born in Peckham on 18th September 1880, the eldest of six children of a bank clerk. After gaining a National Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Science in 1898, Fermor began studying metallurgy with the aim of working at the Royal Mint. He was eventually encouraged to apply to the Geological Survey of India by Professor J W Judd, and departed for India in 1902.

There followed a long and successful career at the Geological Survey of India. In 1909, after discovering six manganese minerals, his report on the manganese deposits of the country earned him his DSc. During WW1 he assisted the Railway Board and the Indian Munitions Board, for which he received an OBE in 1919. He lead the surveying of the Archaean rocks of Madhya Pradesh both before and after the First World War. Although he officially became director of the Survey in 1932, he had previously acted as such for several years in the 1920s and from 1930 onwards. He retired from the directorship in 1935, but continued to live in India until 1939 as a consulting geologist.

Fermor eventually retired to Bristol, and died on 24th May 1954. His knighthood came in 1935, with other honours including the presidency of the Indian Science Congress (1933), first President of the National Institute of Sciences of India (1935), FRS (1934) and President of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (1951-1952). He became a fellow of the Geological Society in 1902, received the Bigsby Medal in 1921 for his earlier work on garnets, and served on Council from 1943-1947. He married his first wife, Muriel Ambler, in 1909, with whom he had two children (Vanessa and the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor) before divorcing, and his second wife, Frances Mary Case, in 1933.

William Hutton was born in on 26 July 1797 in Sunderland. He had little formal education, but by 1818 Hutton had joined the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne and in 1825 the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. By this time he had already become honorary curator of the George Allan Museum, which had been purchased by the Literary and Philosophical Society in 1822, and had began to amass his own collection of minerals and fossil plants.

He became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1828, and the next year helped found the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne, of which he also acted as secretary and curator. From 1830 until 1835 he was also co-secretary of the Newcastle Literary, Scientific and Mechanical Institution and from 1835 served as one of its vice-presidents.

Hutton's major contribution was his work on palaeobotany, publishing The Fossil Flora, between 1831 and 1837 which was co-authored by John Lindley (1799-1865). His other significant contribution was his work on the nature of coal. The fossil plant Huttonia was named after him in 1837 by Sternberg in recognition of his achievements and in 1840 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.

By 1845, Hutton had also taken on the post of treasurer for the Natural History Society, the extra work possibly contributing to the breakdown in his health which occurred the following year. For the next few years he lived in Malta, returning to Britain in 1851. He later moved to West Hartlepool, becoming involved with the local Literary and Mechanics Institution and the plan to establish a museum at the Athenaeum. He died on 20 November 1860.

Etheldred Benett was born on 22 July 1775 at Pyt House, Tisbury, Wiltshire, the eldest daughter of Thomas Benett. The geologist and botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert, her brother's wife's half brother, encouraged her and her sister Anna Maria to study natural history. Whilst her sister concentrated on botany, Benett took up the newly fashionable study of fossils.

By at least 1809, Benett had begun to acquire a significant collection of material. Her independent wealth (she never married) meant that she was able to collect high quality specimens from the many working quarries in the area, as well as from her holidays to the Dorset coast. Such was the importance of her collection that it became the first port of call for geologists studying the Wiltshire area. In addition Benett was in regular correspondence with geologists such as James Sowerby, George Bellas Greenough, Gideon Mantell and William Buckland, sent duplicate specimens to museums all over the country (including the Geological Society) and published books on her collection.

Her unusual first name and her achievements in what was perceived to be the masculine science of geology, meant that she was regularly mistaken for a man. For instance in 1836 the Natural History Society of Moscow made her a member but the diploma was ascribed to 'Dominum [Master] Etheldredus Benett'.

Benett died on 11 January 1845, and her collection was sold. The most important material is now held by the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia although a small portion of her collection remains in Leeds City Museum.

Born in 1784, in Axminster, Devon, William Buckland had developed an interest in natural history and geology whilst exploring the local woods and quarries with his father Charles Buckland, the rector of Templeton and Trusham. Buckland was initially home schooled by his father, but in 1797 entered Blundell's School in Tiverton, enrolling the following year at St Mary's College, Winchester.

With the help of his uncle, John Buckland, he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, as a scholar on the Exeter Foundation, obtaining his BA in classics and theology three years later. Buckland was elected Fellow of the College in 1808 when he was ordained. During this time he had been attending the lectures of John Kidd, reader in mineralogy at Oxford and when Kidd resigned in 1813, Buckland succeeded him. That same year he became a Member of the Geological Society. In 1818 he was appointed to the new readership in geology and his inaugural lecture of 1819 'Vindiciae geologicae', compiled with the help of his mentor the Rev William Daniel Conybeare, explained that the facts of geology were conversant with the record of the creation of the Earth found in the Bible - notably the presence of older gravels (diluvium) which could not be explained through normal river deposits and therefore provided evidence of a 'universal deluge', that is Noah's flood.

Buckland's most important early geological work was on fossil cave faunas, principally his excavations of the Kirkdale Cavern, Yorkshire. There he discovered the bones of hyenas and other exotic animals such as an elephant, hippomatus and rhinocerus. His theory that the cave was a hyena den and the exotic animals had been dragged in as their prey was backed up by his experiments on and observation of modern hyenas. The results were published as 'Reliquiae diluvianae' (1823), and his discoveries at Kirkdale won him the Royal Society's Copley medal in 1822.

Due to his modest income from his two readerships and teaching, by 1825 Buckland was considering leaving Oxford for a more lucrative position, such as vicar, elswhere. However with the help of influential friends such as Sir Robert Peel, Buckland managed to obtain the position of canon to Christ Church which had an income of five times his previous salary. In December of that year he married Mary Morland, who had been helping him with his work and also illustrating his papers for a number of years.

In the field, Buckland notoriously dressed in a rather eccentric manner, always wearing his academic gown and carrying a large blue bag from which he would draw out his latest finds such as fossil faeces of giant marine reptiles. Buckland had found and identified these 'Coprolites', the term he coined for fossil faeces, in Lyme Regis when he worked with the fossil collector Mary Anning.

Buckland continued to research and publish over the next two decades, notably his influential treatise 'Geology and Mineralogy' of 1836, in which he abandoned his former belief in the geological effects deriving from the biblical flood. Indeed after a visit to Switzerland to see his friend Louis Agassiz in 1838, the Swiss naturalist had convinced him that glaciation had been more extensive in the past - leading Buckland to reinterpret his early theories and observations of a universal flood as evidence instead for the new glacial theory of an ice age. Buckland was extremely active within the Geological Society, serving twice as its President between 1824-1826 and 1839-1841, and winning the Wollaston Medal (the highest award bestowed by the Society) in 1848.

In 1845, Buckland had become dissatisfied with academic life in Oxford and accepted the appointment of dean of Westminster, coupled with the rectorship of Islip, near Oxford, although he still continued to lecture on geology in the university town. However by 1850 his diminishing mental health, possibly resulting from a fall from a coach a few years earlier, prevented Buckland from performing his duties as dean or professor. He retired to Islip but was later placed in The Retreat, a mental asylum in Clapham where he died on 14 August 1856.

The Rev Adam Sedgwick was born in 1785, at the vicarage of Dent, Yorkshire, the third of seven children of the vicar Richard Sedgwick. He attended the local grammar school, under the tutelage of his father, until he was 16 after which he was sent to Sedbergh Grammar School.

Sedgwick entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1804 where he chiefly read mathematics. He graduated in 1808 as 'fifth wrangler' [first class honours, 5th highest marks in the year], and gained his Fellowship from Trinity in 1810. Sedgwick's health broke down in 1813 due to a burst a blood vessel caused by a combination of overwork and unhappiness with his position. Whilst he did recover over the next few years, he continued to suffer from bouts of ill health throughout his life. In 1815 he became assistant mathematics tutor at Trinity, and was ordained the following year during which he also travelled for several months throughout Europe.

In 1818 he was elected Woodwardian Professor of Geology of the University of Cambridge, a post he held until his death in 1873. One of the odder duties of the chair, as set down in the will of its founder John Woodward in 1728, was to defend Woodward's views as to the nature and origin of fossils against the outdated attacks of Dr Rudolf Jakob Camerarius of Tübingen and his followers - a duty Sedgwick faithfully undertook in his inaugural lecture each year. The post was also allocated £10 a year to correspond in scientific matters with distinguished foreigners, with a view to adding to Woodward's fossil collection. Unlike the previous Woodwardian Professors, Sedgwick was expected to lecture on geology, a subject he admitted he knew little about at the time. Energetically throwing himself into the subject, he undertook his first geological field trip with John Stevens Henslow to the Isle of Wight in 1818, the findings from the excursion forming his first course of lectures. That same year he joined the Geological Society, going on to serve as its President between 1829-1831.

Sedgwick's first geological paper was on the physical structure of Devonshire and Cornwall, which was read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1820, an organisation of which he was also co-founder. Sedgwick continued with his summer field trips, learning much from Henslow and William Daniel Conybeare, and in 1828 accompanied Roderick Impey Murchison on a tour of Scotland. Murchison, whom Sedgwick met at the Geological Society, was less experienced than he, but they became close friends publishing a number of joint papers on the geology of Britain and Europe between 1828-1842.

By the late 1820s, Sedgwick's main focus was to complete a book on the strata below the Old Red Sandstone, and the majority of his papers over the next 20 years were essentially progress reports on the project. He travelled around the Lake District, Wales and the southern uplands of Scotland to investigate these older rocks. In 1831, a young Charles Darwin accompanied Sedgwick on a tour of north Wales, where Darwin gained his first training in the field.

Whilst Sedgwick was researching structures in north Wales, Murchison had began examining the younger and more fossiliferous strata of south Wales and the Welsh borders. Together, their work provided the foundations for a new classification of the oldest rocks with fossils - Sedgwick's strata were called the Cambrian, while Murchison's became the Silurian. This friendly arrangement was threatened by Henry De la Beche's discovery of Coal plants in rocks which appeared to be of the same age as those which Murchison and Sedgwick had been studying. The resulting controversy, in which the two friends collaborated closely, bore fruit in their 1839 announcement of the Devonian system as a distinctive period in earth history.

However, the creation of the Devonian effectively removed any distinctive fauna from Sedgwick's Cambrian. The problem was exacerbated when John Eddowes Bowman, Daniel Sharpe, and finally the official Geological Survey extended its work into Sedgwick's territory during the early 1840. Most of the strata which had been identified as being older than the Silurian proved to be of the same age. Almost all geologists followed Murchison in wiping the Cambrian off the map, ignoring Sedgwick's attempts to create alternatives to what he condemned as a grossly over-extended Silurian.

By the 1850s, with his book on the older rocks scarcely begun, Sedgwick argued the case for the Cambrian in increasingly intemperate language. He cut off links not only with Murchison, but also with the Geological Society (whose Wollaston medal he had been awarded in 1851) and the London geological community more generally. The controversy was settled only after Sedgwick's death. The discovery of a fauna below that of Murchison's oldest Silurians became the basis for a redefined Cambrian. The uppermost strata of Murchison's expanded system were called Silurian, and the strata in between were termed Ordovician.

The controversy between the once close friends has been marked by the Society, in its positioning of the busts of Murchison and Sedgwick. Both busts can be found by the main entrance, but on opposite sides.

Jean Louis Rudolphe Agassiz, was born on the 28 May 1807 in Môtier, Switzerland, where his father was the local pastor. Between 1824-1829, Agassiz studied medicine at the Universities of Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich, during which he developed an interest in zoology, particularly the study of European freshwater fishes. In 1828 he published his first paper on the subject - a description of a new species of the genus Cyprinus (carp) -but the following year saw the issue of 'Selecta genera et species piscium quos in itinere per Brasiliam annis MDCCCXVII-MDCCCXX …' which contained descriptions of the species of fish found by the German naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius during their expedition to Brazil between 1817-1820. On Spix's death in 1826, Martius had commissioned Agassiz to complete the work. However, it would be during Agassiz's research for his next planned work, a natural history of the freshwater fishes of Europe, when he began to compare the fossil forms found in Oeningen and Glarus, in Switzerland, and at Solnhofen, in Bavaria, that he would develop his lifetime's fascination with fossil ichthyology.

Louis Agassiz arrived in Britain during the autumn of 1834, having already received a welcome prize fund from the Geological Society to support him in his fossil fish researches, which he had been working on for two years (notably with the blessing of Georges Cuvier who had given Agassiz his research on the subject). George Bellas Greenough, the President of the Society, eager to help with such an important palaeontological and geological work, issued a call to the Society's Fellows to send examples of fossil fish to aid Agassiz and a room was set aside for the specimens to be copied. Agassiz's principal artist, the Austrian born Joseph Dinkel (c.1806-1891), spent his first few years in London splitting his time between the Society and the British Museum. Slavish copying was not the aim of the work. Instead the intention was to show the structure of fossil fish and, as Agassiz's classification system was primarily based on dermal features and appendages, the artist would emphasise the scales and fins in his drawings.

For the next decade, Agassiz continued to visit the palaeontological collections of Britain and Europe seeking out new specimens for his work. Those which were not sent to the holding centre of the Society or his publishing base at Neuchatel, Switzerland, were drawn in situ by one of Agassiz's commissioned artists. The cost of the research involved in such a major work, combined with the expensive colour printing techniques saw Agassiz accepting help from various friends and scientific figures of the time. Wealthy collectors such as Lord William Willoughby Cole (1807-1886), later the Earl of Enniskillen, and Sir Philip de Malpas Egerton (1806-1881) defrayed some of Agassiz's costs by having specimens from their fossil cabinets drawn by Dinkel at their own expense - the drawings becoming their property once Agassiz had had them copied onto lithographic stones. Despite this, Agassiz still had to sell his own natural history collection to the local authorities at Neuchatel to meet the high production costs, and with nothing left apart from the original artwork, which was of no further use once converted to lithographic images, these were next marked to be sold. Egerton originally approached the British Museum (Natural History) on Agassiz's behalf, but apparently meeting with little interest instead persuaded his brother, Lord Francis Egerton, later 1st Earl of Ellesmere, to purchase most of the drawings and paintings for £500 in 1843.

By the time the follow up volume 'Monographie des Poissons Fossiles du Vieux Grès Rouge' (1844-1845), had been issued Agassiz's interest had switched to other subjects such as his studies on glaciers and the ice age. In 1846 he left Europe for the United States where he widely lectured at the Lowell Institute, Harvard and Cornell Universities. Following a bout of ill health, Agassiz did briefly return to the study of Brazilian fish in the 1860s.

Agassiz died on 14 December 1873, aged 66.

Notes on artists: The majority of the drawings were undertaken by Agassiz's principal artist Joseph Dinkel, however there are a large number of drawings in the collection by others such Charles Weber (active 1831-1835) and his first wife Cécilie Agassiz née Braun (active 1831-1835). These other artists' contribution were usually of shorter duration than Dinkel's, for instance Sixtus Heinrich Jarwart and G A H Köppel appear to have worked for Agassiz only between 1836-1838, which is likely to coincide with the period when Dinkel had left Agassiz's service to pursue an opportunity to purchase a company in Munich which designed carriages. He changed his mind and returned to Agassiz's publishing base in Neuchatel in October 1837.

Brothers Joshua William and Francis Thomas Gregory were two of the five sons (another being Sir August Charles Gregory) born to Joshua Gregory, an army officer from Farnfield, Nottinghamshire. The family emigrated in 1829 after their father, who had been wounded in action, was granted land in the new Swan River Colony in Western Australia in lieu of a pension.

The Swan River Colony, on the Swan River, Western Australia, was a British settlement established in 1829. The area was later named officially as Western Australia after its first governor, Captain James Stirling RN, belatedly received his commission. Stirling served as governor until 1839, when he was succeeded by John Hutt.

William Kennett Loftus was born in Rye, Sussex in c 1821. He was educated at Newcastle Grammar School, a school in Twickenham and later at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he did not take a degree. Loftus' interest in geology may have been inspired by the lectures of Prof Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge, certainly it was Sedgwick who proposed Loftus as a Fellow of the Society in 1842.

Sir Henry De la Beche, Director of the Geological Survey, recommended Loftus to Lord Palmerston for the post of geologist on the staff of Sir William Fenwick Williams on the Turco-Persian frontier commission. This joint commission, consisting of representatives appointed by the British, Russian, Turkish and Persian governments, was charged with defining the border between Turkey and Persia [now Iran], the work which it undertook between 1849-1852.

The publication of the paper was delayed due to a bout of ill health and Loftus' absorption in his archaelogical digs around the biblical cities of Mesopotamia. In 1855, Loftus was appointed to the Geological Survey of India however his health, already weakened from a fever which he developed in the swamps of Assyria, completely broke down due to sunstroke. He died on the return voyage aboard the Tyburnia on 27 November 1858 from the effects of an abscess of the liver.

Louis Albert Necker was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1786. His father Jacques Necker was a professor of botany and local magistrate, his mother Albertine was the daughter of the famous alpine geologist and naturalist Horace Benedict de Saussure.

Necker moved to Scotland in 1806 to study at the University of Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of Robert Jameson, Professor of Natural History and a Wernian. Whilst based in Edinburgh, Necker undertook a series of tours around Scotland, including visits to Fife, Berwickshire, Arran and the Isle of Skye. The result of the tours was the construction of the earliest known geological map of the whole of Scotland, influenced by Huttonian and Wernian principles, which he presented to the Geological Society in 1808.

In 1810, Necker returned to Geneva to become Chair of Mineralogy and Geology but continued to make extensive geological tours. After the death of his mother in 1841, Necker returned to Scotland, settling in the town of Portree on the Isle of Skye. He died on 20 November 1861.

Searles Valentine Wood jnr, was born on February 1830 at Hasketon, Suffolk. His father, Searles Valentine Wood senior (1798-1880), was a keen geologist and his only child followed in his footsteps, working with him on fossiliferous Eocene deposits Hordle cliff, Hampshire, as early as 1843.

Wood attended King's College School (the grammar school which was once attached to King's College London) between 1839-1843 and continued his education in France until 1845. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1851, but after practising law in Woodbridge, Suffolk for a number of years, gave it up to purse geology full-time.

Wood's main focus of interest was on tertiary and post-tertiary geology, and is best known for his study of glacial beds and deposits on which he published nearly sixty papers, many in conjunction with his friend Frederic William Harmer. Although a virtual invalid for the last ten years of his life, he continued to study and to submit papers for publication right up to his death on 14 December 1884.

Frederic William Harmer was born on 24 April 1835 in Norwich. His father, Thomas Harmer, was a partner in the local clothes manufacturing company Harmer and Rivett. At the age of 15, Frederic joined the family firm and would eventually change the firm's name to F W Harmer and Co.

The early period of his life was focussed on business, but in 1864 he met the younger Valentine Searles Wood (1830-1884) on the Mundesley shore and began a firm friendship and geological partnership. Together they studied the Pliocene deposits, the fauna of which was then being described in the monographs of the Palaeontographical Society ('The Crag Mollusca') by Searles Wood the elder. The Drift deposits also engaged their attention, and between them the two men surveyed an area of 2000 square miles, Harmer undertaking the survey of Norfolk and Northern Suffolk. Their map, produced on a scale of 1 inch to the mile, was claimed to be the first 'drift' map of the kind.

The prolonged illness and then death of the younger Searles Wood in 1884, and his reluctance to study geology alone, saw Harmer devoting the next few years to municipal duties and politics of the day. However a disagreement over the question of Irish Home Rule, caused Harmer to return whole-heartedly to geology.

His later work concerned the Tertiary and Quaternary deposits of East Anglia and the Continent, and comparing the Pliocene sequence in Britain with that in Holland and Belgium. He devoted the last few years of his life updating the 'Monograph of the Crag Mollusca'. Harmer died on 11 April 1923.

He became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1869, and was awarded the Murchison Medal in 1902 in recognition of his work on the Pliocene and other deposits of East Anglia.

Lucas Barrett was born on 14 November 1837 in London. He was the eldest son of George Barrett, an iron-founder of 247 Tottenham Court Road. In 1847 he was sent to school in Royston, Hertfordshire, where he collected fossils from the local chalk pits as a hobby. He transferred to University College School, in Gower Street, London, in 1851 but during the holidays he would stay with relatives in Cambridge and it was there he made the acquaintance of Adam Sedgwick for whom he would later work as Curator at the Woodwardian Museum in Cambridge between 1855-1859.

It was during Barrett's time as Woodwardian Curator that he published his geological map of the Cambridge. First issued in 1857, it was reprinted a number of times over the years.

Barrett was elected Fellow of the Geological Society in 1855.

Son of the civil engineer, Sir John Hawkshaw (1811-1891), John Clarke Hawkshaw was born on 17 August 1841 in Manchester. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in the Mathematical Tripos. Between 1865-1868 he was a pupil of his father, and later Assistant Engineer, during the construction of the Albert Dock, Hull. In 1870 he became a partner in his father's civil engineering firm, which he continued after his father's retirement in 1890.

Hawkshaw was a member of various scientific societies, including the Geological Society, and notably served as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1902-1903. He died on 12 February 1921.

John Robert Mortimer was born on 15 June 1825 in Fimber, a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at the village school in Fridaythorpe. He started a business as a corn merchant in Fimber, later moving to Driffield where he remained for the rest of his life.

Mortimer's interest in scientific enquiry was inspired by the Great Exhibition of 1851. Later visits to Edward Tindall's archaeological and geological collections at Bridlington spurred him to develop a collection of his own, indeed he purchased one of his first specimens from Tindall. At first he collected chalk fossils and flint implements from the Yorkshire wolds, training the local farm workers to recognise any potential specimens for himself and the small band of other collectors in the neighbourhood. However competition for collecting grew with other enthusiasts descending on the area and paying the same farm workers to find material for them instead. Faced with a dearth of material, particularly those which were archaeological in nature, Mortimer turned to excavation himself - concentrating on Bronze Age burial mounds.

Concerned that other local collections were being sold to or broken up by collectors outside of the area, Mortimer offered his collection at half its value to East Riding county council. The local council were not keen, but with the aid of Colonel G H Clarke the collection was purchased in its entirety in 1914, where the majority of it is still held by Hull Museum. Mortimer died in 1911.

Thomas George Bonney was born on 27 July 1833 in Rugely, Staffordshire, the eldest of ten children of the Revd Thomas Bonney, headmaster of Rugely grammar school. He attended St John's College, Cambridge, and subsequently studied for holy orders. Though never studying geology formally, he taught the subject at his old college from 1868 onwards, inspiring and encouraging many students who went on to become leading geologists. From 1877 he also took on the role of geology academic at University College London (UCL). Moving to London in 1881 to concentrate on his work as assistant general secretary of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, he stayed there for a number of years until, retiring from his post at UCL, he returned to Cambridge in 1905 and resumed teaching at St John's.

Bonney wrote and published prolifically, in the form of academic works, popular books, and newspaper articles, as well as theological lectures and sermons. Valuing fieldwork, his geological interests included mineralogy, petrology (especially ultrabasic rocks and metamorphism), and glaciation studies. He was also a skilled artist and a keen alpine mountaineer.

He was a leader in many societies, being president of the Mineralogical Society (1884-1886), the Alpine Club (1883), and the British Association (1910), and vice-president of the Royal Society (1898-1899). He became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1860, serving as secretary (1878-1884) and president (1884-1886), and remained so until his death on 9 December 1923.

John MacCulloch was born in his grandparents' house in Guernsey on 6 October 1773. The third of eight children of James MacCulloch, a wine merchant, and Elizabeth de Lisle, the young MacCulloch was sent to schools in Cornwall between 1778-1790, before enrolling as a medical student at Edinburgh University in 1790. Whilst there he also read chemistry under Joseph Black and natural history under John Walker. MacCulloch graduated with an MD in 1793, but the following year his postgraduate studies were cut short by his parents' internment during the French Revolution.

MacCulloch became a surgeon's mate in the Royal Artillery on 15 August 1795, and by 1803 had risen to assistant surgeon. He was then drafted into the ordnance chemical department, becoming ordnance chemist in 1806 and retiring from the army with a small pension. He received his licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1808, and set up a private medical practice in Blackheath, south east London but had to give it up when ordnance duties demanded prolonged absences for geological surveys. He still, however, managed to be appointed physician to Prince Leopold, later king of the Belgians, in 1820. MacCulloch's main contribution to the field of medicine was his writings on fever, notably his work on malaria in the late 1820s.

MacCulloch's burgeoning interest in geology can be traced back at least to the early 1800s, notably on his tours of the Lake District (1805) and the west country (1807), when he visited mines and noted down comments on local rocks in his diary. He was elected a Member of the Geological Society on 5 February 1808, and his paper on the geology of the Channel Islands, opened the first issue of the Society's 'Transactions' in 1811.

In his search for silica-free limestone for millwheels, MacCulloch conducted geological surveys in Wessex, Wales, and Scotland, between 1809-1813, and then from 1814-1821 acted as geologist to the ordnance trigonometrical survey during which he had surveyed hundreds of Scottish peaks and produced a geological map of west Scotland. However this intense survey work affected his health, and in 1821 he developed an enlargement of the spleen. Although he returned to work in 1822, his consitution remained affected thereafter.

Between 1816-1820, MacCulloch served as president of the Geological Society and in 1820 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. When in 1824, the chemical department of the ordnance was abolished, the now retired MacCulloch instead spent his summer field seasons surveying Scotland for the geological survey. Essentially MacCulloch became the first government sponsored geological surveyor in Britain, a move which was controversial as it cost the Treasury over £1000 per annum. Despite suffering a stroke in 1831, MacCulloch still managed to draft the final reports and map before his death four years later, his geological map Scotland being issued posthumously in 1836. Although criticised for topographical and geological inaccuracies, the map was not superseded for many years.

MacCulloch was a prolific scientific author, writing not only on geology, medicine and chemistry but on varied subjects such as methods of transferring the habitat of saltwater fish to freshwater and horticulture. His most noted geological works were 'A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland' (1819), 'A Geological Classification of Rocks' (1821), 'The Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland' (1824) and 'The System of Geology' (1831). MacCulloch's 'Proofs and Illustrations of the Attributes of God' which connected theology and geology was published by his widow in 1837.

He married Louisa Margaretta White on 6 July 1835, but on whilst on honeymoon in Cornwall was thrown from his carriage and suffered severe leg injuries. Despite an operation to amputate his leg, John MacCulloch died on 20 August 1835.

James Mitchell was born on 15 January 1787. Details of his early life are sketchy, but it is known that he attended King's College, Aberdeen, graduating with an MA in 1804. He might have made a tour of France and Italy before settling in London the following year, working as a schoolmaster and private tutor. Mitchell then gained employment with the Star Assurance Company, becoming the company secretary until its dissolution in 1822. He was later appointed to a similar position with the British Annuity Company.

From 1813, Mitchell published a number of works on scientific topics, including astronomy, chemistry, natural history and geology. By the 1830s his principle interest was to become the geology and botany of London and the south east. Although he was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1832, only a few brief abstracts of his papers appeared in the 'Proceedings'. Mitchell complained to Dr Henry Woodward that "a certain set of elder brethren, members of the Council and ex-members, who monopolise as much as they can, both the 'Transactions' and in the speaking at the Society; and a new man has to fight his way through them." Therefore the majority of his observations remained in manuscript form.

Mitchell served on a number of parliamentary and royal commissions, and it was whilst acting as a sub-commissioner into children's employment (1840-1843) that he suffered a stroke in June 1843, possibly brought on from over work. Never fully recovering, he died of apoplexy at the home of his nephew on 3 September 1844.

Nathaniel John Winch was born on 20 December 1768 at Hampton, Middlesex. He was apprenticed to Robert Lisle, hostman, in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1780. Winch developed an interest in the study of botany, particularly the geographical distribution of species around the Northumberland, Cumberland and Durham areas. Indeed his devotion to the subject was considered to be behind the failure of his merchant businesses in 1808 when he was declared bankrupt.

He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1803, became an honorary member of the Geological Society in 1808, and was an active member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle. He died on 5 May 1838, leaving his manuscripts, library and herbarium to the Linnean Society. His valuable mineralogical collection was left to the Geological Society.

John Percy was born in Nottingham on 23 March 1817, the son of a solicitor. Initially studying medicine in Paris and Edinburgh, followed by being elected physician in Birmingham, he became increasingly interested in chemistry, specifically metallurgy.

He gave up medicine in 1851 to lecture in metallurgy at the newly established Royal School of Mines, Jermyn Street, remaining there until the School moved to South Kensington in 1879. He wrote on many subjects, including medical science and social and political issues, as well as metallurgy. Intending to produce the first comprehensive work on metallurgy in English, he published four volumes between 1861 and 1880, but the work remained unfinished. He was highly regarded in his field, receiving awards such as the Bessemer medal from the Iron and Steel Institute (now IOM3) and the Albert Medal from the Royal Society of Arts, which was conferred on him two days before his death.

He became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1851, serving on the Society's Council between 1853 and 1856, and died on 19 June 1889.

John Henry Cooke was born in Weymouth on 29 November 1862, and received his education at St Vincent de Paule Roman Catholic School, Liverpool, and St Mary's Training College of Catholic Teachers, Hammersmith, London. In 1887 he travelled to Malta to take up a post of teacher of English at the Valletta Lyceum. Cooke lived in Malta for seven years, founding an editing the journal 'The Mediterranean Naturalist' after becoming interested in the natural history of the island. He also made significant contributions to the understanding of the geology of Malta, publishing papers on the Tertiary Rocks and Pleistocene deposits of the island, and collecting fossils (which he donated or sold to various European museums).

Cooke was forced to leave Malta in 1894 due to his wife's poor health, but he still produced papers on the geology of Malta on his return to England for the next few years. He became an Inspector in the Science and Art Department of the South Kensington Museum, but when that department closed he was appointed Inspector of Schools in Shropshire and Wolverhampton.

Cooke was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 3rd (Volunteer) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment in July 1901, transferring to the 1st (Volunteer) Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry (later 4th Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry) in October the same year. He rose to the rank of Captain.

After his retirement from military service and until his death on 7 December 1933, Cooke continued to investigate and write about the prehistory of his local area.

The Society of the Sacred Heart had been founded in France by Madeleine Sophie Barat (1779-1865) in order to provide a sound academic education based on religious principles for Catholic girls, with a great importance placed on teacher training. The first English foundation of the Society was at Berry Mead Priory, Acton, in 1842, and in 1850, the foundation moved to Roehampton, where a school was established. In response to a need for Catholic teachers after the Education Act of 1870, a teacher training college for girls was established at Roehampton in 1874. This was only a temporary home, the nuns at the Roehampton convent providing accommodation for the College until it could move to its new home, 'The Orchards' in West Hill, Wandsworth. The acquisition of the property and the organisation of the College were the work of an eminent English nun, Mother Mabel Digby, the superior of the Roehampton community. Obeying the government requirement that a practising school be established in connection with the College, Mother Digby duly set up a 'poor' school at Wandsworth, which flourished and proved a great asset to the students and the pupils. Charlotte Leslie was appointed as the first Principal.
In 1894, Mabel Digby left Roehampton for Rome, and was succeeded by Reverend Mother Janet Stuart, who worked hard to improve the system of teacher training at West Hill, and also encouraged her nuns to further their own education, often by taking degrees. Teaching followed the requirements laid down by the Department of Education, but was also expanded to include cookery and needlework. She also recognised developments in the teaching of younger children.
By 1901, student numbers had risen to 104, and in recognition of this the Society acquired St Charles' College in St Charles' Square, North Kensington. Students and staff from the Wandsworth College took up residence in 1905, and took the name 'St Charles' College'. The College continued to thrive, with students taking part in local religious and secular organisations, mainly relating to family welfare. The 1920s saw a growing academic link between St Charles' and Bedford College, and the setting up of the London Training Colleges Delegacy in 1928 only intensified the links with the University of London.
The College was evacuated to Cold Ash, Berkshire, in 1939, where they were housed in the noviceship house of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary: it remained there until 1946. The houses at Roehampton and St Charles' Square were heavily bombed and suffered significant damage. In 1946, St Charles' was sold to the diocese, and the decision taken that the College should return to its birthplace at the Roehampton convent. It was renamed 'Digby Stuart College', in memory of Mabel Digby and Janet Stuart.
The post-war era was a time of expansion. Between 1946 and 1953, the College was slowly rebuilt both physically and academically. New buildings were erected, including the East and South wings, the new Science and Primary Education block, and the Harvey, Fincham and Richardson blocks. Academic studies were developed, and the College became one of the constituent colleges of the University of London Institute of Education, which came into operation in 1949. In 1963 the three-year course started, followed by the fourth year BEd course in 1968 and the post-graduate Diploma course in 1971. Student numbers rose. Plans to form a union of the four voluntary teacher-training colleges in the south-west of London began to take shape in the early 1970s, with the four acting as an academic unity to offer BA, BSc and B Humanities degrees, validated by the University of London, from 1974. The Roehampton Institute of Higher Education (RIHE) was formally incorporated in 1975, with each of the constituent colleges - Froebel, Whitelands, Southlands and Digby Stuart - retaining its own corporate identity. The title Roehampton Institute London was subsequently adopted.
Though its degrees were validated by the University of Surrey from 1985, full university status was achieved in 2000, when the Roehampton Institute formally entered into federation with the University of Surrey and became known as the University of Surrey, Roehampton.

The Froebel Educational Institute was inaugurated at a meeting held in the Westminster Palace Hotel on the 25th October 1892, through the initiative of Mrs Julia Salis Schwabe and a group of liberal-minded men and women who formed the membership of the Froebel Society (to give it its full title, Froebel Society for the Promotion of the Kindergarten System) which had come into being in London in 1874. The Froebel Educational Institute (FEI) was inaugurated as a non-denominational college, and was intended to promote the kindergarten system in Britain. One of their most strongly held convictions was that the training of teachers should include practical experience, and consequently the FEI was provided from its inception with a co-educational Demonstration School with a Kindergarten.
On 20th September 1894, the College formally opened in Talgarth Road, West Kensington, and Madame Emilie Michaelis was appointed as the first Principal. FEI's first school, the fee-paying Colet Gardens Demonstration School, was opened in 1895, and was followed by the Challoner Street Practising School in 1899 (the latter survived until 1918, when its pupils were transferred to Colet Gardens). In 1896, the Michaelis Guild was formed as the alumni organisation for ex-Froebel College students.
In 1900, the FEI became the 'Incorporated Froebel Educational Institute', a registered company under the Board of Trade; the governing body was known as the Committee of Members. Esther Lawrence succeeded Emilie Michaelis as Principal in 1901: she remained in the post until 1931, overseeing the growth and development of FEI into a residential college based at Roehampton. Esther Lawrence was closely involved in the founding of two of the oldest nursery schools in London - the Michaelis Free Kindergarten in Notting Dale (founded in 1908, later the Notting Hill Nursery School) and the Somers Town Nursery School near St Pancras (1910).
In 1921, the FEI purchased Grove House at Roehampton and moved the students there in 1922. Colet Gardens School remained in Talgarth Road and expanded into the old College accommodation. As the Roehampton site developed, there was a need for a school in the grounds, and Grove House School was opened in 1929 (it closed in 1939). Student numbers were growing so rapidly that the FEI purchased Templeton, a listed building in Priory Lane, Roehampton, in 1930. A new Principal, Eglantyne Mary Jebb, continued the policy of expansion and growth, overseeing major extensions to the Grove House property designed by Verner Rees. During World War Two, the College was evacuated to Knebworth and Offley Place, Hertfordshire, while the Demonstration School was moved to Little Gaddesdon nearby. When the war ended, the Demonstration School moved to new premises at Ibstock Place in Roehampton. Offley Place was retained as a rural training centre until 1953.
On the establishment of the University of London Institute of Education, FEI became one of its constituent colleges. Eglantyne Mary Jebb retired as Principal in 1955 and was succeeded by Molly Brearley, who oversaw some major changes, not least the requirement in 1960 that all teachers take a three-year training course. The following year, Molly Brearley introduced the pioneering one-year Diploma in Education, the first offered in a College of Education. More expansions to the College took place under the direction of the firm Norman and Dawbarn, notably several halls of residence and the Olive Garnett Building. Molly Brearley retired in 1970. Further course developments included the introduction of the Postgraduate Certificate of Education in 1971, and an MA in Education in 1974. A joint project with Queen Mary Hospital came to fruition in 1989, when the Redford House Nursery was opened, once again providing a school on-site.
Plans to form a union of the four voluntary teacher-training colleges in the south-west of London began to take shape in the early 1970s, with the four acting as an academic unity to offer BA, BSc and B Humanities degrees, validated by the University of London, from 1974. The Roehampton Institute of Higher Education (RIHE) was formally incorporated in 1975, with each of the constituent colleges - Froebel, Whitelands, Southlands and Digby Stuart - retaining its own corporate identity. The title Roehampton Institute London was subsequently adopted. Though its degrees were validated by the University of Surrey from 1985, full university status was achieved in 2000, when the Roehampton Institute formally entered into federation with the University of Surrey and became known as the University of Surrey, Roehampton.

Methodist teacher training for women began in Glasgow Normal Seminary in 1841, and in 1851 Westminster College for Men and Women Students was founded. As a separate college for the training of women teachers, Southlands Wesleyan Training College was opened on 26th February 1872 by the Wesleyan Education Committee. The Committee had chosen a site at Battersea known as the 'Southlands Estate', which contained a large mansion, and proceeded to build practising schools, and later a Principal's House, within the grounds. The first Principal was the Reverend G.W. Olver, and the Headmaster was Mr James Bailey. The government of the College was closely linked to Westminster College, and both institutions shared a Governing Body until 1929. Moreover, the Chairman of the Governors was, until 1921, also the President of the Wesleyan Conference.
The College continued to grow in numbers and reputation, and in 1886 was reckoned the second-best womens' college in the country by the Wesleyan Education Committee. Building work was undertaken to provide a new library, and art room, a laboratory, a new hall and more student accommodation. Several students worked towards degree qualifications. In 1908 the staff was organised into Departments which consisted of Religious Instruction, Principles and Practise of Teaching, English, History and Geography, Mathematics, Science, Latin and Greek, French, Music and Needlework. Various student societies had been in existence from 1872 and the Southlands Student Society was formed c1898/1899 formally as an alumni association, and local branches were set up, although reunions and events had been taking place since the college beginnings.
Though they had initially been used as practising schools, during the 1920s the attached schools were changed to demonstration schools, and were eventually taken over by the local authority when the College moved. This it did in 1929, following its purchase of the 'Belmont Estate' at Wimbledon. The years 1927-1929 were spent at the Burlington Hotel in Dover whilst the Belmont site was prepared for occupation. Three accommodation and teaching blocks were added, and the official opening was held on 7th May 1930.
The College was evacuated to Weston-super-Mare during World War Two, returning in 1946. In 1948 Southlands was made a constituent college of the University of London Institute of Education.
Several properties were bought to house the growing student numbers, including a house on Queensmere Road in 1946, and a new Hall was completed in 1953. Building continued apace, with the Rank block in 1957 and Osborn and Roberts blocks at Queensmere in 1963, and continued well into the 1980s.
With the introduction of the three-year training course in 1960, and the growth in student numbers, went an increased range of courses including a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1962 and the BEd degree in 1965 (validated by the University of London). Male students were admitted in 1965.
In 1969, the governance of the College was changed: the old Belmont Trust was replaced by a new Trust Deed approved by the Methodist Conference, and a new Instrument of Government for the College was approved by the Methodist Education Committee. This allowed the Governors more complete and effective control over the running of the College.
Plans to form a union of the four voluntary teacher-training colleges in the south-west of London began to take shape in the early 1970s, with the four acting as an academic unity to offer BA, BSc and B Humanities degrees, validated by the University of London, from 1974. The Roehampton Institute of Higher Education (RIHE) was formally incorporated in 1975, with each of the constituent colleges - Froebel, Whitelands, Southlands and Digby Stuart - retaining its own corporate identity. The title Roehampton Institute London was subsequently adopted. Though its degrees were validated by the University of Surrey from 1985, full university status was achieved in 2000, when the Roehampton Institute formally entered into federation with the University of Surrey and became known as the University of Surrey, Roehampton. The move to Roehampton Lane took place in August/September 1997, and Mount Clare House and the student hostels at Roehampton were purchased in 2002.

Whitelands College was founded in 1841 by the National Society for the Promotion of Education of the Poor in the Principle of the Established Church, as a teacher training college for women. The National Society took a lease on a house in the King's Road, Chelsea, known as 'Whitelands House', and the College opened in January 1842 with Julia Field as its first Lady Superintendent. Student numbers grew rapidly in the first two years from 12 to more than 40 and the College soon expanded to other houses in the area. In 1844 the dining room of the College was converted into a practising school where poor children were admitted free. Other schools were to follow for different ages and classes, so that soon Whitelands had four attached schools, including a girls' secondary school. All of these were fitted into the corner of Whitelands at the junction with Walpole Street.
In 1850 the College was given its own Council, thus gaining a measure of independence from the National Society. The new governing body oversaw the expansion of Whitelands House by the erection of new buildings in the grounds. In [1874] the roles of the various officers who had headed the college - the Lecturer, the Chaplain and the Secretary - were amalgamated and the Rev John Faunthorpe was appointed as the first Principal. Faunthorpe improved the training at the College to such a degree that by 1878 Whitelands College was judged to be the best in England by her inspectors. In addition to the basic government syllabus, the curriculum included French, Latin, botany, art, algebra, first aid, kindergarten theory and drill. The College was also renowned for its music and needlework. The number of students continued to grow, necessitating the lease of new houses for accommodation, and the erection of a completely new block housing dormitories and a recreation room. Five years later the space between the original Whitelands House and the Schools was filled with a new wing and in 1899 further buildings were erected above the schools.
One of the most famous friends of Whitelands was John Ruskin, who donated hundreds of books and pictures. His was the original suggestion for the annual May day ceremony which is still held in the present day, and he was also instrumental in persuading Edward Burne-Jones to design windows for the College chapel and William Morris to make them. The Guild of St Ursula, originally the Reading Girl Guild, was founded by the students in 1879 as a means of combining the ideals of serious study and Christian friendship. The Chapel of St Ursula was begun by Faunthorpe in 1881 and soon beautified by the William Morris windows and subscriptions from students.
From 1907, Whitelands began to accept non-conformist students under the terms of the 'Modus Vivendi' agreement drawn up by the government. The last of the Whitelands practising schools was closed in 1917, but was reopened as lady Margaret School, Parson's Green.
In 1931 the College moved to a larger site called Melrose Gardens, in East Putney. The new building had been designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, and comprised one large purpose-built structure, which held common rooms, dormitories and classrooms. The sole exception was the chapel, which stood at the main entrance to the College and continued to be maintained by donations from the students (though the Morris windows were moved from the old site and incorporated).
During World War Two, the students were taught from home via correspondence courses, and practised teaching in their local schools under the supervision of Whitelands tutors. The College was finally gathered in one place, the buildings of the College of the Venerable Bede in Durham, in 1941. In Putney, serious bomb damage was done to the College building. The first students returned in October 1941 and normal service was soon resumed.
In 1948 Whitelands was made a constituent college of the University of London Institute of Education. With the introduction of the three-year training course in 1960, and the growth in student numbers, went an increased range of courses including a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1962 and the BEd degree in 1965 (validated by the University of London). The first male students were enrolled in 1966. Expansion and development of the site continued. Plans to form a union of the four voluntary teacher-training colleges in the south-west of London began to take shape in the early 1970s, with the four acting as an academic unity to offer BA, BSc and B Humanities degrees, validated by the University of London, from 1974. The Roehampton Institute of Higher Education (RIHE) was formally incorporated in 1975, with each of the constituent colleges - Froebel, Whitelands, Southlands and Digby Stuart - retaining its own corporate identity. The title Roehampton Institute London was subsequently adopted.
Though its degrees were validated by the University of Surrey from 1985, full university status was achieved in 2000, when the Roehampton Institute formally entered into federation with the University of Surrey and became known as the University of Surrey, Roehampton.

The Carnival Resource has been collected by Ruth Tompsett, Principal Lecturer, for use by students studying Carnival on the BA in Performing Arts at Middlesex University.

Staff College, Camberley, was inaugurated in 1862 to provide Staff training to British Army officers, and remained in existence until 1997 when single-Service Staff training was ended. Staff Training for the British Army is now conducted by the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

Staff College, Camberley, was inaugurated in 1862 to provide Staff training to British Army officers and remained in existence until 1997 when single-Service Staff training was ended. Staff training for the British Army is now conducted by the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

Staff College, Camberley, was inaugurated in 1862 to provide Staff training to British Army officers, and remained in existence until 1997 when single-Service Staff training was ended. Staff Training for the British Army is now conducted by the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

Cecil Collins was born in Plymouth, Devon on 23 March 1908. His early life was physically and economically difficult and he was apprenticed to an engineering firm for a year before winning scholarships to Plymouth School of Art (1924-1927) and the Royal College of Art in London (1927-1931). At the RCA he won the William Rothenstein Life Drawing Prize. He also met and, in 1931, married Elisabeth Ramsden, a sculpture student. They lived in London and rented a cottage at Speen, north of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, where they were introduced to Eric Gill, nearby at Piggots, and met David Jones. In 1933 the Collinses visited Paris, where they saw the work of Paul Klee and visited Gertrude Stein's apartment. They also became life-long friends with Mark Tobey after his exhibition at Beaux Arts Gallery. Collins held his first exhibition at the Bloomsbury Gallery in October 1935, where he showed some of his most important early paintings, including 'The Fall of Lucifer' (1933), which indicated the mystical direction of his work. He published a poem in 'The New English Weekly' in 1936 and a painting and a drawing were included in the 'International Exhibition of Surrealism' (New Burlington Galleries, 1936). In the same year, the couple moved to Devon, attending Tobey's classes at Dartington Hall. Collins held an exhibition in the Barn Studio (1937) attached to the Dartington Hall Art Department and, after Tobey's departure in 1938, Collins taught there (1939-1943) alongside Bernard Leach, Hein Heckroth and Willi Soukop. The combination of interests in Far Eastern art and philosophy and German Expressionist performance proved important, and it was there that Collins began the series of Fools.

Between 1944 and 1948, the Collinses divided their time between London and Cambridge. His exhibition at Lefevre's in February 1944 escaped major damage even though paintings were blown off the walls in an air raid, and two more exhibitions in London followed in 1945. This period saw the publication of the first monograph on the artist 'Cecil Collins: Paintings and Drawings 1935-45' by Alex Comfort 1946 and Collins's own major text written in 1944, 'The Vision of the Fool' was published in 1947. Both confirmed his links with the poets of the 'Apocalypse' group and an inclination towards a visionary Neo-Romanticism in painting. In Cambridge from 1948, the Collinses were part of a circle, including the painters Nan Youngman and Elisabeth Vellacott, which founded the Cambridge Society of Painters and Sculptors (1955). From 1951, Collins also taught life drawing part-time with Mervyn Peake at the Central School of Art and Crafts and the City Lit. in London. He had a major retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1959, which included some "matrica" paintings, which developed mystical images from gestural beginnings. The Collinses moved to Chelsea in 1970. In these later years he received a number of religious commissions, making an altar front for the Chapel of St Clement in Chichester Cathedral (1973), for which Elisabeth made kneelers, and windows for St Michael and All Saints, Basingstoke (1985). In 1979 he was awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) in recognition of his service to art. A retrospective of his prints at the Tate Gallery in 1981, was followed by one of paintings and drawings in 1989. The painter died on 4 June 1989, during the course of the exhibition.

The British Council was founded in 1934 as the 'British Committee for Relations with Other Countries' and in 1936 it was re-named' The British Council'. The aims of the Council were:

"to promote abroad a wider appreciation of British culture and civilization, by encouraging the study and use of the English language, and thereby, to extend a knowledge of British literature and of the British contribution to music and the fine arts, the sciences, philosophic thought and political practice."

Funded by the British Government the Council's work was developed during World War Two and was particularly important during the 'Cold War' period and this is reflected in the papers in this collection. The Fine Arts Department role was to organize exhibitions of the work of British artists and send them overseas. In this work they established international relationships with overseas arts organisations and brought British art to wide and varied audiences.

The first Director of the Fine Arts Department was Major Alfred A. Longden. He was succeeded in 1947 by Lilian Somerville, who had joined the Council during the war; she was appointed as Director of the Fine Arts Section of the Visual Arts Department). In 1949 she was appointed Director of the retitled Fine Arts Department, and remained in this position until her retirement in 1970. She was succeeded by John Hulton (1971-1975) who had been her deputy. Other heads of the Department include Henry Meyric Hughes (1984-1992). The current Director is Andrea Rose.

The papers in this collection run from 1945-2003. Other documents relating to the British Council Fine Arts Department for this period have been deposited at The National Archives.

John Piper was a major figure in modern British art. He was a painter in oils and water colour, designed stained glass, ceramics and for the stage, made prints and devised ingenious firework displays. In addition to this he was also a gifted photographer of buildings and landscapes. Piper also wrote poetry, art criticism and several guidebooks on landscape and architecture.

Piper was born at Epsom, Surrey on 13 December 1903 and educated at Epsom College. He joined his father's law firm as an articled clerk in 1921 and loyally stayed there until his father died in 1926. He then gave up law and entered the Richmond School of Art (1926-7), later moving to the Royal College of Art (1927-1929) where he studied engraving, painting, drawing, lithography and stained glass and also developed his interests in music, ballet and theatre. In 1929 he married Eileen Holding a fellow student at Richmond College of Art.

In the early 1930s Piper, influenced by the work of Picasso and Braque, produced some dramatic abstract works. He was involved in the avant-garde developments in British Art, showing paintings at the exhibitions of the London Group from 1931 and in 1934 he was elected a member of the 7&5 Society. He was soon appointed secretary of the group whose membership included Ben Nicholson, Ivon Hitchens and Henry Moore. In the late 1930s he moved away from this abstract phase and looked for new ways to record the landscape and architecture of England which he loved. He created a romantic idiosyncratic style which combined rich colour, sharp lines and varied textures. Piper also went on to develop his photography and use collage and printmaking.

Piper began writing reviews from the late 1920s making a name for himself as a critic writing for periodicals like 'The Listener' and the 'Architectural Review'. From 1935-1937 he assisted Myfanwy Evans, with the production of a quarterly review of contemporary European abstract painting called 'Axis'. In 1937 Piper was commissioned by his friend John Betjeman to write the 'Shell Guide to Oxfordshire'. Piper went on to write and provide photographs for a number of the guides as well as edit the series. In the same year John Piper married the writer Myfanwy Evans. Together they had two sons and two daughters and lived at Fawley Bottom Farmhouse.

He also designed stage sets and costumes, starting with the play 'Trial of a Judge' by Stephen Spender at the Unity Theatre in 1938 and thereafter designing for many theatre, ballet and opera productions. Designing for opera led to his friendship with Benjamin Britten with whom, in 1946, Piper founded the English Opera Group which became the mainstay of the Aldeburgh Festival. He designed Britten's last opera 'Death in Venice' (1973) and Myfanwy Piper wrote the librettos for three of Britten's operas.

Although not created an Official War Artist until 1944, Piper recorded the effects of bomb-damage to buildings in works such as 'St Mary le Port, Bristol' 1940 now in the Tate Collection (N05718) and he also drew Windsor Castle. In the 1950s he was given his first commission to design stained glass windows for Oundle School Chapel. This was followed by many other commissions including the blaze of colour he designed for the great Baptistery window of the new Coventry Cathedral and the windows for the Metropolitan Cathedral of Liverpool. From the 1960s he exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery a series of landscape paintings of Britain, France and Italy. Throughout his life Piper collaborated with other artists, designers and publishers in a mass of popular art on both a large and small scale. He planned decorative panels for buildings and in his sixties took up ceramics.

Piper was also a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission for a long period, served on the Arts Council and as a Trustee of the Tate Gallery for three terms and at the National Gallery for two. He was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1972. John Piper died in 1992.

Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) was born in Cookham, Berkshire, where he spent much of his life. He attended the Slade School under Tonks, 1908-1912; returning in 1923, where he concentrated on drawing. His contemporaries at the Slade included Nevinson, Bomberg, Roberts, Gertler, Wadsworth, Carrington, Allinson, Jacques and Gwen Raverat, Lightfoot and Ihlee; the latter four being his closest friends. In 1912, Spencer exhibited in the 2nd Post-Impressionist exhibition, organised by Roger Fry, and in 1913 he met Edward Marsh who, with fellow artist Henry Lamb, supported his work. Between 1915 and 1918 he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps where he saw action in Salonika. In 1918 he was commissioned for an official war picture: 'Travoys with Wounded Soldiers' (Imperial War Museum). In 1919 Spencer met Hilda Carline (sister to Richard and Sydney), and they married in 1925. They had two children, Shirin born 1925 and Unity born in 1930. A member of the New English Art Club, 1919-27, his first solo exhibition was at the Goupil Gallery in 1927, where he exhibited 'The Resurrection, Cookham', 1924-26 (Tate). Between 1927 and 1932 he worked on the decorations for the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere, and he subsequently exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1928, 1930, 1932 and 1938, and at the Tooth, Leger and Zwemmer Galleries in London. Elected Associate Royal Academician in 1932 (resigned 1935) he was re-elected Royal Academician in 1950. In 1937 Hilda divorced Stanley so he could marry Patricia Preece. His second marriage only lasted two years and Spencer remained in love, and in close contact, with Hilda until her death in 1950.

From the 1930s he worked on a series of paintings for his unrealised Church-House scheme and in 1940 he was commissioned by the WAAC to paint shipbuilding subjects at Port Glasgow (Imerpial War Museum). 'The Resurrection, Port Glasgow' (Tate) was one of nine pictures of the Resurrection painted between 1945 and 1950. He received his CBE in 1950 and was knighted in 1959. In 1954 he visited China as part of a cultural delegation, and in 1955 the Tate held a retrospective exhibition of his work. His painting gives an autobiographical, visionary interpretation of secular and religious subjects, often depicting biblical scenes in the contemporary environment of Cookham. Influenced by early Italian painting and work by his contemporaries at the Slade, he used distortions of scale, perspective and anatomy, heightened realistic detail, cool, earthy colour and rhythmical forms to produce work of great imaginative intensity. In the 1920s and 1930s he painted urban, domestic subjects, sometimes with an erotic content. His sharply defined work was based on drawn preparation and painted in a methodical manner which rarely altered or overpainted images. In December 1958 Spencer was diagnosed with cancer and taken into hospital for a colostomy operation. The operation was a success, but Spencer's recovery was slow and painful. During 1959 Spencer limited his social engagements to allow more time for his painting. He also moved back into 'Fernlea', Cookham, his childhood home. Stanley Spencer died at the Canadian War Memorial Hospital, Cliveden, on 14th December 1959.

The Artist Placement Group (APG) emerged in London in the 1960s. The idea of artist placements took its focus from the group of UK artists, including John Latham and Barbara Steveni, who were experimenting with new art forms. Initiated and directed by Steveni, the APG pioneered the concept of art in the social context; from the outset her concept of 'placement' directly acknowledged the isolated and marginal position that artists held within society and was an effort to overcome this situation. The APG acting outside the conventional art gallery system, attempted to place artists, through negotiation and agreement, within industry and in government departments. Artists such as Keith Arnatt, Ian Breakwell, Stuart Brisley, and Barry Flanagan, had important placements or early associations with the APG.

Today the organisation exists as Organisation and Imagination (O + I), and describes itself as 'an independent, radical international artist initiative, a network consultancy and research organisation'. Its board of directors, members and specialist advisors include leading artists, senior civil servants, politicians, scientists, and academics from various disciplines. The name was changed in 1989 in order to distinguish the initiative from arts administrative placement schemes set up following the APG example.

Keith Vaughan 1912-1977, born on the 23rd August 1912 at Selsey Bill, Sussex, was an English painter and writer. After attending Christ's Hospital school, he worked at Lintas advertising agency until he abandoned his career in advertising in 1939 to pursue painting. When the Second World War broke out Vaughan joined the St John's Ambulance as a conscientious objector. In 1941, Vaughan was attached to the Pioneer Corps and was periodically moved from camp to camp around southern England, generally working on the land until he was transferred north in 1943 to Yorkshire. His drawings of army life attracted attention and he entered the circle of Peter Watson in London. During the war Vaughan formed friendships with the painters Graham Sutherland and John Minton, with whom, after demobilization in 1946, he shared a studio. Through these contacts he formed part of the Neo-Romantic circle of the immediate post-war period. During the 1950s, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse were major influences, but most important was that of Nicolas De Stael, who enabled him to reconcile figurative and abstract elements. After 1945 Vaughan travelled in the Mediterranean, North Africa, Mexico and the USA, where he was resident artist at Iowa State University in 1959. He taught in London at Camberwell School of Art (1946-1948) and the Central School of Arts and Crafts (1948-1957) and was a visiting teacher at the Slade School of Fine Art (1959-1977). Vaughan is also known for his journals which he began writing in August 1939, selections from which were published in 1966 and more extensively in 1989 (Keith Vaughan Journals 1939-1977, Alan Ross, London, John Murry, 1989). Vaughan had considerable success, including the award of a CBE in 1965. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1975 and committed suicide on the 4th November 1977.

Vanessa Bell was born in 1879, daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen and sister of Virginia Woolf. She studied art under Sir Arthur Cope and at the Royal Academy Schools under John Singer Sargent. In 1907 she married Clive Bell and worked mainly in London, Sussex and France. Vanessa Bell exhibited first at the New Gallery in 1905, and at the New English Art Club, the Allied Artists Association and at numerous London galleries. She became a member of the London Group in 1919 and her work was exhibited at the second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912. A central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, she founded the Friday Club in 1905, and was influenced by Roger Fry and by Duncan Grant. As co-director of the Omega Workshops she carried out many decorative projects, particularly with Grant. The impact of Post-Impressionism caused a radical change in her work. Influenced by Matisse she established a leading role as a colourist before 1920. Between 1914-15 she produced some pure abstracts but later returned to a more traditional naturalism and greater realism in works that centred around her friends, still-life and landscapes. Vanessa Bell died in 1961.

Kenneth McKenzie Clark was born on 13 July 1903, to a family who made their fortune in the Glasgow cotton trade. Clark described his parents as 'idle rich', moving between their country house in Suffolk, their home and yacht in Scotland and the South of France. An only child, he was sent away to Wixenford School, from where he went to Winchester College from 1917 to 1922. He gained a scholarship to read 'Greats' at Trinity College, Oxford, and it was here that he began to fully develop the artistic eye which had been nurtured by rearranging his parents' picture collection and by the exhibition of Japanese art in London in 1910. At Oxford, Clark made many of the friends he was to keep throughout his life, including Maurice Bowra, Colin Anderson and Gordon Waterfield. He also began to collect original works of art, managing to buy cheaply works from Old Master drawings and pictures by then unknown, or unfashionable, artists. He began to help out at the Ashmolean Museum, and was befriended by the Keeper, Charles Bell.

In 1925, during a visit to Italy, Bell introduced him to the art connoisseur Bernard Berenson at his house, I Tatti, near Florence. Clark made an impression on Berenson, who invited him to work for him on the revisions of his 'Florentine Painters'. After a struggle with his parents, who insisted on him finishing his degree, the arrangements were made for Clark to join Berenson. In the meantime Clark spent the summer of 1926 travelling in Europe and seeing the great collections in pre-war Germany, where at Berenson's instruction he learnt German. In 1927 Clark married Elizabeth Jane Martin, known as Jane (or Betty to her family), a fellow student at Oxford. They were introduced by Gordon Waterfield, her then fiancé. In 1928 their first son, Alan, was born, followed by the twins, Colin and Colette (known as Celly). There were plans for more work with Berenson, but in 1930 Clark was offered the position of Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, to succeed Bell.

Although he had little museum experience, Clark had made a name for himself, in particular through his work on the Royal Academy's exhibition of Italian art, a major exhibition of 1930, and was already working on the Leonardo drawings in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle (eventually published in 1935). It was an unprecendented appointment, which damaged forever his friendship with Bell. Berenson urged Clark not to go into curatorship, but to concentrate on writing, but Clark accepted the position. His activities at the museum included the reorganisation of the collection and the notable acquisition of Piero di Cosimo's 'Forest Fire'. In 1933 Clark was offered the post of Director of the National Gallery. He was only thirty years old when he began to work there in 1934. The Clarks were launched into a whirl of public and social activity: they became the toast of London society and were constantly in the newspapers. 1934 also saw Clark's appointment as Surveyor of the King's Pictures. Clark's reign at the National Gallery was not without problems. In the first year he acquired seven panels, believed to be by Sassetta, in somewhat dubious circumstances from Duveen, an art dealer and National Gallery Trustee. Another controversy was the acquisition of four panels which Clark originally believed to be by Giorgione, although the Trustees acquired them as 'Giorgionesque'. Other problems included an appearance before the Committee for Public Accounts.

The outbreak of war in 1939 changed the Clarks' life. Jane and the children moved to Upton House, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, where they had many guests including Graham and Kathleen Sutherland. Clark stayed in London, where his flat in Grays Inn was bombed in 1940, destroying many of his early papers. After the evacuation of the National Gallery's pictures to the mines of Manod, Wales, he was less involved with Gallery work than with his secondment to the Ministry of Information. Clark joined the Ministry in 1939. He was first Director of the Films Division, then Controller of Home Publicity until 1941. Clark found the work interesting, but the bureaucratic machinery and rivalries in the Ministry wearying. He was involved in some interesting work including propaganda and public information films, however, the cream of his work there was the War Artists' Advisory Committee. Clark was chairman of the Committee and it was a role he felt very useful in, although he was unable to help as many artists as he would have liked. Artists were selected to carry out work for the armed forces and Clark often acted as a mediator, for sometimes it was hard to reconcile the artists interests and desire to experiment, with what might be very conventional and specific requirements. The Committee met from 1939-1945, then faced the problem of dispersing the thousands of works created.

At the end of 1945 Clark resigned from the National Gallery as soon as he decently could. Contrary to popular belief he did not have another post to go to: he simply wanted to concentrate on his writing. However, he was soon invited to be Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University, a post he held from 1947-1950. Over the winter of 1948-1949, Clark embarked on a trip to Australia. He found the country stimulating and made contacts with both art administrators and artists, including Joseph Burke and Sydney Nolan. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Clark spent much of his time writing and lecturing. He was always inundated with invitations to lecture and he accepted many. His books sold well and he became enormously popular in America. In 1953 he was appointed Chairman of the Arts Council, a post he held until 1960. Clark had been involved in radio broadcasting since the 1930s. As well as art based programmes, he often appeared as a "celebrity guest" on more general programmes. He was a regular panelist in the early days of the Brains Trust. With the development of television, Clark extended his broadcasting by bringing art images into thousands of homes. However, public reaction was mixed when he agreed to be Chariman of the new Independent Television Association in 1954. In the 1950s Clark became further involved with independent television production companies and began to work with his son Colin, a producer. The subject area of his material remained wide, but perhaps the culmination of his TV work was the 1969 series 'Civilisation'. This brought Clark worldwide fame and he became popularly known as 'Lord Clark of Civilisation'. In 1953 the Clarks moved from Upper Terrace House, Hampstead, to Saltwood Castle in Kent (to which Thomas à Becket's murderers had fled from the scene of their crime in Canterbury Cathedral). The Clarks kept a small flat in Albany, Piccadilly and Clark had a secretary in both residences. However, as the Clarks grew older the Castle became too much for them and they built The Garden House at the edge of the grounds, where they moved, while Alan, their son, moved into the Castle. In 1976 Jane, who had been intermittently ill for many years, died. Clark remarried in 1977, Nolwen de Janze Rice, who was French and owned an estate in Normandy. Clark continued to write and lecture on a smaller scale almost to the end. He died in 1983.

Vanessa Bell was born in 1879, daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen and sister of Virginia Woolf. She studied art under Sir Arthur Cope and at the Royal Academy Schools under John Singer Sargent. In 1907 she married Clive Bell and worked mainly in London, Sussex and France. Vanessa Bell exhibited first at the New Gallery in 1905, and at the New English Art Club, the Allied Artists Association and at numerous London galleries. She became a member of the London Group in 1919 and her work was exhibited at the second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912. A central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, she founded the Friday Club in 1905, and was influenced by Roger Fry and by Duncan Grant. As co-director of the Omega Workshops she carried out many decorative projects, particularly with Grant. The impact of Post-Impressionism caused a radical change in her work. Influenced by Matisse she established a leading role as a colourist before 1920. Between 1914-15 she produced some pure abstracts but later returned to a more traditional naturalism and greater realism in works that centred around her friends, still-life and landscapes. Vanessa Bell died in 1961.

Naum Gabo was born Naum Pevsner in Russia, in 1890. He was the younger brother of the sculptor Antoine Pevsner. Gabo went to Munich University in 1910 to study medicine and natural sciences, but also attended art history lectures by Heinrich Wölfflin. In 1912 he transferred to an engineering school in Munich. In 1913 he joined Antoine, then a painter, in Paris and whilst there he met Kandinsky. After the outbreak of war, Gabo moved from Paris to Copenhagen and then to Oslo. From 1915 he began to make constructions under the name Naum Gabo. Between 1917 and 1922, Gabo was in Moscow with his brother. Whilst there, they jointly wrote and issued a 'Realistic Manifesto' on the tenets of pure Constructivism. In 1922 Gabo moved to Berlin, where he lived in contact with artists of the de Stijl group and the Bauhaus. In 1926 he co-designed with Antoine, costumes for Diaghilev's ballett 'La Chatte'. In 1932 Gabo moved back to Paris and became a member of Abstraction Création. In 1936 he left Paris, moved to London and married Miriam Franklin (née Israels) in 1937. Gabo edited 'Circle: International Survey of Constructivist Art' along with J.L. Martin and Ben Nicholson. Gabo became good friends with Nicholson, and in 1939 he moved to Carbis Bay, Cornwall, where Nicholson was also based. In 1944 Gabo joined the Design Research Unit and in 1946 he moved to the USA, settling in Conneticut in 1953. He became a US citizen in 1952. Between 1953 and 1954, he was a professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Harvard University. From 1950 onwards, Gabo took a number of sculpture commmissions, including one for the Bijenkorf store in Rotterdam. In 1971 Gabo was awarded an Honorary KBE. He died in Conneticut in 1977.

The General Post Office was, until 1969, a government department, and its expenditure was controlled by the Treasury. Prior to 1969 the treasury supervised all GPO financial management, policy, planning and development.

The Receiver General was an independent appointment, designed to remove all responsibilities for cash from the hands of the Postmaster General. There was, however, another major financial position in the Post Office, the Accountant General, who was appointed by the Postmaster General to keep an account of all revenue. This produced duplication of records. The Receiver General took receipt of all money paid into the Department, and paid costs directly from these funds.

The sources of income are mainly payments received from inland letters; window money (postage due on letters handed in by the public to the clerk behind the window of a post office); postmasters; letter receivers; returned letters; charges levied on incoming foreign letters. Expenditure includes payments for salaries of postmasters, letter carriers, sorters, window men, clerks of the roads and of the inland and foreign offices, inspectors, watchmen and other employees; ship letters; returned letters; accommodation, furnishings and equipment; travelling expenses; allowances and pensions; local taxes; contractors and tradesmen; building, hire, wear and tear of packet ships; captains fees. The balance of cash was transferred to the Exchequer.

Born 1919; joined RAF Volunteer Reserves, 1939; navigator, No 78 Squadron and No 79 Squadron, 1940-1941; Pilot Officer, 1941; navigation instructor, 1942; Navigation Leader, 196 Squadron, 1943; Pathfinder Squadron, Sept 1944; Flight Lieutenant, 1946; RAF Transport Command, 1946-1948; Air Ministry, 1948-1950; Staff College, 1950; Exchange Officer, Washington DC, USA, 1953; Wing Commander (Operations), 1957; Singapore, 1960; staff appointments, Ministry of Defence; Group Captain, 1969; commander, RAF Gaydon, Warwickshire and RAF Finningley, Yorkshire, 1969-1971; chairman, Tactical Air Group, Mutual Balanced Force Reduction talks, NATO, Brussels, 1971-1974; retired, 1974; worked for British Aerospace, Lancashire, 1974-1986; died 2003.

Born 1887; educated at St. Pauls School and at New College, Oxford; student interpreter at the British Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, 1913; appointed second assistant in Seoul, Korea, 1915; became acting Vice Consul in Kobe, Japan 1915; Vice Consul in Kobe, 1919; 1924-25 was the acting Consul in Dairen (Dalian, China); retired from the consular service in 1928; died 1940.

Dr Basil Hood, MRCS, LRCP, was the Medical Superintendent of the St Marylebone Infirmary, later St Charles' Hospital, from 1910 to 1941. Few further details of his career may be found in the Medical Directory.

Redwood College was formed in July 1993 by the merger of Roding and Romford Colleges of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare Studies. These Colleges were in turn formed by the amalgamation of several Schools of Nursing and Midwifery in Essex and London. Redwood College of Health Studies merged with South Bank University in 1994.

Records in this collection were created by several hospitals in Essex and London, which taught nursing but which no longer exist, with the exception of Whipps Cross Hospital.

South London Polytechnic Institutes was established following the City of London Parochial Charities Act, 1883. In the Act the Government's Charity Commissioners were to distribute money to schemes which would improve the physical, social and moral condition of Londoners. Edric Bayley, a solicitor and member of the London School Board, wanted to use the money to establish a people's college in Elephant and Castle, which could help alleviate the extreme poverty he saw in that area as well as help strengthen British industry.

In 1887 Bayley established the South London Polytechnic Institutes Council, whose members included the Lord Mayor of London and the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) as its President. In January 1888 the Council appealed to the Charity Commissioners for the money they needed. The Commissioners were impressed and pledged that they would match any funds raised by the public up to the sum of £150,000 in order to establish three technical colleges, or polytechnics, in South London.

A Committee of the Council had the task of raising the money needed from the public and also of deciding where the three polytechnics should be located. The Committee decided that one should be established at Elephant and Castle (now LSBU), another at New Cross (which is now Goldsmiths College) and lastly at Battersea (which eventually moved and became part of the University of Surrey). The public appeal for the money needed was launched at a widely publicised dinner held at Mansion House in June 1888. Within four years £78,000 had been raised through the public's generosity for the Elephant and Castle and Battersea Polytechnics, which was matched by the Charity Commissioners.

William Pickles (1885-1969) general practitioner and epidemiologist practised medicine in Aylsgarth in Yorkshire between 1912 and 1964.

Pickles practiced as GP for over fifty years in Aysgarth, Yorkshire, until his retirement in 1964. Throughout this period he conducted extensive research into epidemiology, using the Aysgarth District and its inhabitants he worked tirelessly to investigate epidemiological trends in rural areas. He lectured throughout Britain and worlwide, in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. He was appointed Cutter Lecturer, 1947-48 at Harvard University, America. Pickles was influential in the founding of the College of General Practitoners (later the Royal Collge of General Practitioners) and held the post of First President, 1953-1956.

Arthur Woodward (17 Mar 1917-5 Feb 2008) was born in Wigan, Lancashire, and was educated at Hindley Green Council School. At the age of 15 he began his career as an apprentice at Leyland Park, Hindley, maintaining the tennis courts and doing horticultural work when time permitted.

In 1935 Woodward was appointed gardener, at a level known as ‘improver’, on a private estate, Leggatt’s Park in Potters Bar, where he spent 18 months, and where in due course he was put in charge of the fruit and plant houses. In 1937 he moved to Cambridge University Botanic Garden, employed as student gardener in the glasshouses and propagating department. He left two years later as a trained gardener, to gain more experience in parks work and joined the Council Parks Department at Dudley, Worcestershire. His time at Dudley was interrupted by the war, which he spent in the Royal Air Force, during which time he continued to practice horticulture.

After demobilisation Woodward spent a year as a student gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, before being appointed ‘technical assistant’ at Beckenham Parks Department, where he had a wide range of administrative responsibilities. Over time he gained a number of qualifications: the RHS junior and senior certificates in general horticulture, the RHS Teachers preliminary and advanced qualifications in school and cottage gardening, RHS National Diploma in Horticulture qualifications in general horticulture, and the Diploma of the Institute of Park Administration.

In 1947 he was appointed Deputy Parks Superintendent at the Borough of Richmond. In 1956, following the retirement of George Humphreys, Woodward was appointed Parks and Allotments Superintendent, a post he held until his retirement in 1982. During his time at Richmond he developed the Terrace Gardens, Richmond, improved tree care practices, opened up the parks by removing gates and fences, and created 200 acres of natural parkland from gravel pits near the river. He also established a central nursery at Ham and a nine-hole golf course at Twickenham.

After retirement Woodward joined a local group of architects as Landscape Consultant, and was variously President of the University Botanic Gardens Association, Kew Guild, Richmond Rotary Club and the Barnes Horticultural and Allotments Association.

Woodward married Adah Major in Lancashire in 1942, and they had two sons.

Source: The archive of Arthur Woodward