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Stephen Percival (‘Percy’) Cane (1881–1976) was brought up in Braintree, Essex. The family had a house with extensive grounds, and as a young boy Cane gained practical experience in horticulture, planting and tending a small plot of his own in the family kitchen garden. As he grew up he developed a strong interest in art and architecture, and read widely in these fields. At the age of 22 he went to work at a local firm run by friends of the family, the Crittall Manufacturing Company, which made metal windows. The work was not entirely to his taste, but it provided a reasonable income until he took the decision to enrol as a full-time student at the Chelmsford College of Science and Art. Cane began to design gardens in the Chelmsford district in his spare time, and it was after a visit to Easton Lodge, a stately Essex home which was having its grounds altered in a contemporary style by the garden architect Harold Peto, that he decided to make his own career in the field. Through the First World War he contributed garden designs and plans to the monthly magazine ‘My Garden, Illustrated’, and in 1918 became its editor, which prompted him to enrol at the Chelmsford County School of Horticulture in order to learn more about the science of gardening. By 1919 he was styling himself ‘Landscape and Garden Architect’, and working full time as a designer.

Cane was soon in great demand, and received numerous commissions for gardens both in the United Kingdom and abroad. These include designs for Ivy House, Hampstead, Hascombe Court, Godalming, Falkland Palace, Fife, the palace of the Emperor of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, and Dartington Hall, Devon. He became a respected authority and wrote many articles and several books on garden design. A regular exhibitor at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, he received eight gold and three silver-gilt medals at the show between 1934 and 1952, and in 1963 was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for his work. He practised as a garden architect, based at his home in Lower Sloane Street, London. Some plans in this collection were created after he suffered a stroke in Sep 1972.

Sources:

'Percy Cane Garden Designer' / by Ronald Weber. Edinburgh, 1974

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by Charlotte Johnson

William Robinson was born on 5 Jul 1838 in Ireland, the son of William and Catherine Robinson. He began his career as a garden boy at the Marquess of Waterford’s estate at Curraghmore, County Waterford, and subsequently worked at Sir Hunt Johnson-Walsh’s estate at Ballykilcavan as foreman gardener. He left in 1861 under circumstances that are disputed, and made his way back to the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin. With the encouragement of David Moore, the curator, he went to London, and in 1862 took a letter of introduction from Moore to Robert Marnock, who ran the Royal Botanic Society’s garden in Regent’s Park, where he spent four years. He rapidly became foreman of the educational and herbaceous departments, and began travelling to other gardens and nurseries in the United Kingdom, in an attempt to increase the number and range of plants at Regent’s Park. By 1864 plants were coming in from many sources, and Robinson, now ‘the Society’s gardener’ (head gardener), had embarked on an ambitious programme of improvements to the garden. He started contributing articles to ‘The Gardeners’ Chronicle’, describing his tours around the country and the different gardens he visited, and in 1866, having recently been elected Fellow of the Linnean Society, he resigned his post at Regent’s Park in order to devote himself to studying horticulture full-time. With commissions from various gardening journals he was able to travel extensively in Europe, travels that provided copy for numerous articles and two books.

From 1868 Robinson lived in a house in Kensington, which he used as a base from which to write and travel, including to the United States. He published further books in the early 1870s including ‘The Wild Garden’ and in 1871 he founded ‘The Garden’, an illustrated weekly publication which he was to edit for 28 years, and own for nearly 50. He launched a number of other journals on specialised aspects of horticulture, mostly relatively shortlived, but including ‘Gardening’ (later ‘Gardening Illustrated’). In 1883 Robinson published his most important book, ‘The English Flower Garden’. He was vehemently opposed to the Victorian taste for garishly coloured flowers in garden displays, and through his advocacy of a more natural way of gardening is credited with having invented the English cottage garden style of planting.

Robinson’s opinions on wider issues are reflected in his correspondence. He was an advocate of cremation, and actively protested against what he regarded as unfair taxes imposed by the Government of the day. In 1885 he bought and moved to Gravetye Manor, in Sussex, an Elizabethan manor house with extensive grounds. Robinson altered the house and redesigned the garden according to his own taste, writing about the work in a series of books about Gravetye. Though paralysed after an accident in 1909, he remained as active as his wheelchair existence permitted, assisted by his staff, in particular his nurse, Mary Gilpin. In 1917 he wrote his last book ‘My Wood Fires and Their Story’, and only in 1919 aged 81 finally gave up his interests in ‘The Garden’ and ‘Gardening Illustrated’. He died at Gravetye Manor on 12 May 1935.

Source: biographical notes based on the entry for William Robinson in the 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography', ‘William Robinson: The Wild Gardener’ / by Richard Bisgrove, and ‘William Robinson 1838-1935: Father of the English Flower Garden’ / by Mea Allan.

Iran and the West was a three-part series which examined relations between Iran and Western countries for thirty years beginning with the Islamic revolution of 1979. The documentary was produced by Brook Lapping Productions Limited, a London-based television production company. It was first broadcast by the BBC in Feb 2009. The Executive Producer of the series was Brian Lapping, with Series Producer Norma Percy, Producer/Directors Paul Mitchell, Dai Richards and Delphine Jaudeau and in Iran, Producer/Directors Mohammad Shakibania and Hosein Sharif.

Born 1898; educated Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; 12 Lancers, 1915; served in France, 1915-1918; Staff College, 1928-1929; Brigade Major, 2 Cavalry Brigade, 1930-1933; commanded 12 Lancers (Armoured Car Regiment), 1935-1938; General Staff Officer, 1938-1939; served in France, 1940; Commander, 8 Armoured Division, Home Forces, Dec 1940-Oct 1941; Major General, 1943; Chief of General Staff, Middle East, 1942; Tunisia, 1943; Lieutenant General, 1944; commanded Eight Army, Italy, 1944-1945; General Officer Commanding in Chief, British Forces of Occupation in Austria and British representative on the Allied Commission for Austria, 1945-1946; General Officer Commanding in Chief, British Army on the Rhine, 1946-1948; General, 1948; British Army representative, Military Staff Committee, United Nations, 1948-1949; retired, 1949; Colonel Commandant, Royal Armoured Corps, 1947-1956; Colonel, 12 Lancers, 1951; Colonel, 9/12 Royal Lancers, 1960; died 1967.

The Antients Grand Lodge came into existence following a meeting at the Turk's Head Tavern, Greek Street, Soho, London on 17 July 1751, attended by about eighty freemasons, many of Irish extraction, from five lodges. These were lodges meeting at the Turk's Head [SN 275]; The Cripple, Little Britain [SN 276]; The Cannon, Water Lane, Fleet Street [SN 277]; The Plaisterers' Arms, Grays Inn Lane [SN 278] and The Globe, Bridges Street, Covent Garden [SN 279]. Those present decided to establish a rival to the Moderns (or premier) Grand Lodge, which had been formed in 1717, as the Grand Lodge of England 'according to the old institutions'. The new Grand Lodge, which referred to itself as a Grand Committee until 27 December 1753, claimed the first Grand Lodge in England had introduced innovations and that it was the only one to preserve the ancient customs of freemasonry. It claimed that the first Grand Lodge had changed words in the ceremonies and signs of recognition; had 'dechristianise​d' and abbreviated ceremonies and lectures; used the term Wardens not Deacons for certain Lodge officers; and removed an esoteric installation ceremony for Lodge masters. In consequence, the first Grand Lodge became known as the 'Moderns' (or premier) Grand Lodge, while the new one formed in 1751, assumed the name 'Antients'.

Rules and Orders agreed at the first meeting in 1751, included in the first Antients' Grand Lodge membership register, known as Morgan's Register, were signed by Philip McLoughlin, a member of Enoch Lodge, No. 6 [SN 355], who returned to Ireland by 29 July 1751; Samuel Quay, a member of Lodge of Fidelity, No. 2 [SN 338], a habit maker of Tavistock Street, London, first Senior Grand Warden; James Shee, a member of Royal York Lodge of Perseverance, No. 4 [SN 774], an attorney of Fetter Lane, London, who returned later to Ireland and John Morgan, a member of Antients' Lodge, No. 2 [SN 275], who resigned to join a 'stationed ship' on 4 March 1752, as Grand Secretary. One of the first members listed was Abraham Ardasoif [or Ardisoif], of Broad Court, Bow Street, Covent Garden, 'deemed unworthy' of membership on 17 July 1751 but readmitted the following year. By the end of 1755 over a thousand members had joined the Antients' Grand Lodge, including several members who had transferred across from the Moderns' Grand Lodge.

Considered by some to be more progressive, the Antients attracted as a member Laurence Dermott, a painter and decorator born in 1720, who was initiated as a freemason aged 20 in Good Lodge, No. 26, meeting in Dublin at the house of Thomas Allen (later Worshipful Master of Lodge, No. 2 [SN 275], Antients), under the Grand Lodge of Ireland. Having served as Junior and Senior Deacon in that Lodge, Dermott later served as its Worshipful Master. Dermott served as Secretary and Right Worshipful Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland from 1746, before relocating to London two years later. On arrival he lived in Stepney, near the burial ground of the Portuguese Synagogue at Bevis Marks, and joined a Lodge meeting under the Moderns Grand Lodge or an independent Lodge, before joining the Antients' Kent Lodge, No. 9 [SN 284] and then a Lodge which became Royal Athelstan Lodge, No. 10 [SN 754]. He married Susannah Neale on 20 January 1759 at St Paul's church, Shadwell, witnesses Edward Newth and Ruth Rush. The couple, who lived at Broad Bridge, Shadwell, had at least three children, Susanna baptised at St Giles' church, Cripplegate on 28 February 1755; Susanna Mary, baptised at the same church on 4 April 1757 and Elizabeth, buried at the same church on 4 August 1758. His wife, Susanna, was buried there on 7 December 1764 and Laurence, a widower of St Clement Danes, described as a vintner, married a widow, Elizabeth Merryman of Bethnal Green on 13 November 1766 at St Matthew's Church in that parish, witnessed by Robert Pell and Isaac Laud(?). On 30 December 1767, their son Laurence was baptised at St Botolph's Church, Aldgate. Laurence Dermott was buried at St Olave's Church, Bermondsey on 8 July 1791, aged seventy one.

Dermott, who maintained that his Grand Lodge acted as the custodian of 'pure ancient freemasonry', served as Grand Secretary for the Antients Grand Lodge from 1752 to 1771; Deputy Grand Master between 1771 and 1777 and again between 1783 and 1787. He was appointed Grand Secretary on the recommendation of his predecessor, John Morgan, in preference to John Morris, Past Master of Lodge, No. 5 [SN 278]. Dermott wrote the first edition of the rule book of the Antients' Grand Lodge, referred to as Ahiman Rezon, or, A help to a brother, in 1756. Dermott encouraged John, 3rd Duke of Atholl, to serve as Grand Master of the Antients from 1771 until his death in 1774. The 3rd Duke was also elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland on 30 November 1773. His son, John, 4th Duke of Atholl, was initiated, passed and raised aged nineteen in Grand Masters Lodge, No. 1 on 25 February 1775. He was installed as Master of this Lodge at the same meeting and was proposed as Grand Master of the Antients' at the next Grand Lodge meeting. He was installed as Grand Master on 25 March 1775, serving in this role until 1781, before returning as Grand Master from 1791 to 1813. Due to the significant involvement of both Atholl peers, the Antients' Grand Lodge is also referred to as the Atholl Grand Lodge.

Over time some Moderns' Lodges and members changed allegiance to the Antients' Grand Lodge and vice versa, with rivalry emerging between the two Grand Lodges both in England and Wales and overseas, where lodges sometimes competed to attract members. In 1813 HRH Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex became Grand Master of the Moderns' Grand Lodge. In the Antients' Grand Lodge, the 4th Duke of Atholl stood aside for the installation of HRH Edward, Duke of Kent (brother of the Duke of Sussex and son of King George III) as Grand Master. The brothers led meetings that year to consider and discuss arrangements for the union between the Antients' and Moderns' Grand Lodges to form the United Grand Lodge of England.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded in 1888 by Dr William Wynn Westcott, Dr William Robert Woodman and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, who were all Freemasons and members of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A).

The Order was based on the rituals and knowledge lectures found in the Cipher Documents. [A series of encrypted documents containing outlines for a series of initiation rituals, see GBR 1991 GD 1/1/1-8]. Although the history and authenticity of these documents is subject to considerable debate, in general it is now agreed that they were written by Kenneth Mackenzie as outline rituals for the Society of Eight [a Golden Dawn prototype body founded by Frederick Holland in 1883 but which never developed into a membership body] or the Sat B'hai [This order, founded around 1871 by Captain J H Lawrence-Archer, using some Hindu terminology within a framework derived from masonry, had little more than a paper existence until 1875, when Mackenzie joined]. Westcott acquired these papers after Mackenzie's death, and set about transferring them into full grade rituals.

An additional paper found within the cipher documents contained the address of a woman in Germany, referred to as Fraulein Sprengel. Described as being an Adept of an occult order known as the Die Goldene Dammerung, Westcott asserted that Sprengel had authorized him in a series of letters to sign documents under her name and had granted him permission to set up a Temple in England. Researchers now believe that Westcott created this story in order to give the Golden Dawn a legitimate provenance and to attract serious occultists and freemasons to his new Order. The Order grew steadily and by the end of 1888 three temples had been set up, namely Isis-Urania in London, Osiris in Weston-Super-Mare and Horus in Bradford.

From 1888 to 1891 the Golden Dawn functioned as a theoretical school, performing the initiation ceremonies of the Outer Order from the 0°=0° Neophyte grade to the 4°=7° Philosophus grade and teaching the basics of the Qabalah, astrology, alchemical symbolism, geomancy and tarot. No practical magic was performed until 1891, when Mathers completed the ritual for the 5°=6° grade, the first grade of the Secord or Inner Order of the Golden Dawn, known as the Order of the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (the Ruby Rose and Cross of Gold). By this time Woodman had died and as a replacement was not appointed, Mathers managed to reconstruct the Order, becoming its primary Chief.

The new 5=6 ritual was based on the legend of Christian Rosenkreuz, a great spiritual teacher who was secretly buried and later found perfectly preserved within a seven sided tomb. Mathers and his wife, Moina (nee Mina Bergson), created an elaborate full-size replica of his tomb, referred to as the Vault of the Adepts, which members of the Inner Order used when performing the rituals. The Inner Order transferred theory into practice, with members making and consecrating their own magical implements. Mathers also created a formal curriculum, which included guidance on scrying, astral travel, and alchemy and a series of eight graded examinations which lead to members achieving the sub-grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor.

In 1895 the stability of the Order was threatened by the breakdown of the relationship between Mathers and Annie Horniman. This lead to her expulsion and increasing unrest among the Second Order Adepts in London. In 1897 further problems arose when civil authorities became aware of Westcott's link with the group, forcing him to resign in order to keep his position as Coroner for North East London. Florence Farr assumed Westcott's role but without his administrative supervision of the paperwork, the decline in grade work and examination system undertaken by members led the Order to decline in London.

By 1900 Mathers' domineering behaviour led to Farr suggesting that the Order should be dissolved. Fearing this was an attempt to replace him with Westcott, Mathers wrote to Farr stating that the Sprengel letters had been forged by Westcott. As Westcott declined to defend himself this shook the trust of London members in particular, leading to open rebellion after Mathers initiated Aleister Crowley, who had been refused admission as a member in the London Temple. A committee was set up to investigate Mathers' claims which led to the expulsion of Mathers, Moina Mathers, Crowley and other supporters in May 1900, despite Mathers sending Crowley as his envoy to London in an attempt to take possession of the Inner Order headquarters at 36 Blythe Road, London (subsequently referred to as the Battle of Blythe Road).

Those remaining loyal to Mathers formed a rival Isis Temple, headed by Mathers and run by Dr E. Berridge. This was later known as Alpha and Omega 1. The Paris Temple and later Amen-Ra in Edinburgh, under John W. Brodie-Innes also became part of Mathers' Alpha and Omega Order.

After Mathers' displacement, William Butler Yeats resumed responsibility for the Temple in London. Further trouble was caused by the newly reinstated Annie Horniman, who led disputes over the forgotten examination system and Farr's splinter organisation, known as the Sphere Group. A further blow came in 1901 following unwanted publicity as a result of the Horos case. An American couple, Frank and Editha Jackson, also known as Theo and Laura Horos, used the rituals, which they had duped Mathers into handing over to them in Paris, to set up their own order in London, known as the Order of Theocratic Unity. They defrauded and raped several young women persuaded to join this Order and the subsequent court case lead to the exposure of many Golden Dawn secrets in the press. Editha Jackson was also known as the Swami Vive Ananda and assumed various other names, including Anne O'Delia Diss De Bar but was born into a respectable Kentucky family, the Salomons, during a criminal career as a spiritualist and extortionist in New York and New Orleans, America. As a result of this Case, leading to the imprisonment of the American couple in London, many members left in order to distance themselves from the Golden Dawn. Remaining members changed the Order's name to the Hermetic Society of the Morgenröthe.

In 1903 a further schism occurred within the Order. Arthur Edward Waite took over the remnant of the original Isis-Urania Temple, which became known as the Independent and Rectified Rite. Waite's new Order moved away from the ritual magic present in the old Order, replacing it with a more mystical path. This Order existed until 1914 when internal disputes led to Waite closing the Temple and forming the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross the following year. This continued to exist until Waite's death in 1942.

Those members who preferred the rituals and magic developed by Mathers joined Dr Robert Felkin in his new organisation known as the Stella Matutina. Their temple, based in London was named Amoun. After lengthy negotiations, Felkin signed a concordat with Waite in 1907 to govern the relationship between the two Temples, but this agreement only lasted until 1910.

Once he became Chief, Dr Felkin communicated with several mystical individuals including the discarnate Arab teacher, Ara Ben Shemesh and the Sun Masters. Increasingly, Felkin became interested in establishing new links with the 'Secret Chiefs' and the original Rosicrucian societies in Germany, with which Westcott had claimed to have had links. Felkin's quest led him on several continental trips where he met Ruldolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian philosopher and esotericist, and claimed to have been given higher grades, the equivalent to 8=3 and 7=4 grades. Felkin also corresponded with Anne Sprengel, a patient of his, whom he claimed was the niece of Fraülein Sprengel.

While travelling in New Zealand with his family in 1912, Felkin founded a new Temple, Smaragdum Thalasses, at Havelock North, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Before his relocation to New Zealand in 1916, Felkin issued a new constitution for Stella Matutina, which included details for three daughter temples for Amoun, namely Hermes Temple, Bristol (which became independent in the early 1920's and survived until c. 1972); The Secret College, London, which was to be 'confined to members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, who have taken at least Grade 4' (this college was active in 1921 but may not have survived long beyond this date0; and finally Merlin Temple, perhaps located in London but not established successfully, which was to consist of former members of Waite's group or the Anthroposophical Society.

After Felkin's departure, the Order in London came under the control of Christina Stoddart. She became increasingly paranoid and obsessed with details about the Order's origins. After working on her paper 'Investigations into the Foundations of the Order G.D. and R.R. et A.C. and the Source of its Teachings' for four years, she concluded that the whole Order was evil. Stoddart's attitude, further internal disputes and bad publicity in the press led to the closure of the Amoun Temple, London, in the early 1920's. By 1923 a significant quantity of the Order's papers had been given by Stoddart to a colleague for safekeeping.

The Royal Masonic Benevolent Annuity Fund was set up in 1842 to provide financial support for elderly freemasons. In 1849 a female annuity fund was set up to provide financial support for the widows, spinster daughters and sisters of freemasons. In 1850 a home for the care of annuitants was opened in East Croydon under the control of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution, which was created at the same time through the merger of the two annuity funds. The home was moved to Hove in Sussex in 1955 and seventeen further homes were opened at locations around the country between 1966 and 1998.

Proposals for a Freemasons' Hospital and Nursing Home were made by Major Charles Heaton-Ellis, Percy Still and four other members of Malmesbury Lodge, No. 3156, London at an installation meeting in 1911, recommending that, ‘Bros A[rchibald] D Ryder, C[harles] H[erbert] Thorpe, Major K[enneth] R[obert] Balfour, Sir C[harles] Heaton-Ellis, A[ugustus] Turner and Percy Still, be appointed a Committee of the Lodge to formulate a scheme for the suggested Masonic Nursing Home, and be empowered to take such steps as may seem necessary or desirable in the promotion of the scheme.’ By 5 March 1913 the Quarterly Communications of the United Grand Lodge of England recorded that, ‘Grand Lodge views with approval the praiseworthy efforts of certain Brethren to establish a Masonic Nursing Home, and recommends the Scheme to the favourable attention of the Craft at large.’ By 1916 fundraising began for the proposed Freemasons' Hospital and Nursing Home but the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 led to a change in plans. In consequence, the United Grand Lodge of England proposed running and meeting the expenses of a hospital for the War Office, provided the government department located appropriate premises. The former Chelsea Hospital for Women, at 237 Fulham Road, Chelsea was acquired by Grand Lodge with the assistance of the War Office for £10,000. This hospital had been constructed in 1880 to 1883 on a plot of land on the south side of Fulham Road and was designed by the architect, J T Smith. The first hospital in London built especially for diseases specific to women, it offered a free ward funded by a Samaritan fund, and featured red brick facings, stone dressings and decorative elements, with spaces for sixty three beds. In 1891 Earl Cadogan led an appeal to raise funds to construct a larger hospital facility, as it was assisting 500 in patients and 12,000 out patients each year and the operating theatre was enlarged in 1899.

From 1911 the Women's Hospital relocated to a new site provided by Earl Cadogan in Arthur (later Dovehouse) Street, near the Royal Marsden and Royal Brompton Hospitals, which opened in 1916. After the relocation of the Chelsea Hospital for Women, the Fulham Road premises became the Freemasons' War Hospital and Nursing Home. The Freemasons' War Hospital opened in September 1916 and HRH King George V and HM Queen Mary visited soon afterwards. During the First World War, the Freemasons' Hospital treated over 4,000 members of the armed forces under a team of doctors, including Dr [Robert Maxwell] Chance and Dr Dobson, Red Cross nurses, Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses, led by a Matron, Miss Minnie Evelyn Windemer (1877-1923). In 1918 the Bishop of London offered additional hospital facilities at Fulham Palace, which became known as the Freemasons' Hospital No. 2, which opened on 27 April, with Mrs Maude Minnie Fox-Symons (1868-1957), wife of the military surgeon, Sir Robert Fox-Symons (1870-1932), wartime head of the Auxilliary Home Hospital Department of the British Red Cross, as Matron. Rooms at the Palace were converted into wards and a wooden sign, entitled 'Fortitude', now on display at the Museum of Fulham Palace, hung in the drawing room. In addition a third hospital opened for convalescents at Cliff House, Caversham, near Reading. Records including details about the Freemasons' War Hospital in this collection include minute books of the general committee, medical advisory committee, an investments ledger, cash books, a diary noting Matron's weekly reports and ephemera collated by Percy Still. The minute books and investment ledger continue in use after the formation of the Freemasons' Hospital and Nursing Home after the war in 1919.

By the Autumn of 1919, the premises at 237 Fulham Road re-opened as the Freemasons’ Hospital and Nursing Home, with facilities for 46 in-patients, who had to be freemasons, their wives or dependent children. The Hospital was established as an endowment fund, in order that annual appeals would not be required. Some record series, such as the Medical Advisory Committee minutes, investment ledgers and visitors' books, which commence during the years of the Freemasons' War Hospital continue, additional record series commence in the early 1920's including the minutes of governors' meetings, Board of Management minutes, House Committee minutes, Finance Committee minutes, Building and Premises Committee minutes, propaganda committee minutes and nursing staff registers. Patients were asked to pay fees according to their means and a separate Samaritan Fund was established to assist those who were unable to pay, generated by individual donations as well as Lodge collections. Lodges which contributed 100 Guineas to the Hospital Endowment Fund became known as ‘Founding Lodges’. Founding Lodges were entitled to send representatives to the Hospital management board, with numbers of representatives depending on the levels of contribution made. The first Masonic patient was Mrs Fry, wife of Arthur, a member of Berries Lodge, No. 2928, Berkshire, who was admitted on 7 June 1920. Her consultant was the gynaecologist, Victor Bonney (1872-1953). In 1924 a permanent constitution for the Hospital was adopted and a Student Nurses Association was formed in 1926-1927. Structural alterations were made to enlarge the Fulham Road premises in 1928 but a search began for a new site to erect a Hospital ‘worthy of the craft’.

In 1929 an extension fund was established to raise an endowment capital fund to ensure the Hospital was self-supporting and a permanent Commemorative Jewel was issued to fund raisers, the only jewel issued by the Hospital. It was designed by C L Doman, the artist responsible for the Armistice Medal issued after the First World War. The jewel included an image of the hospital motto, ‘Humanity tending the sick’ or in Latin, ‘Aegros Sanat Humanitas’. The jewel ribbon, dark blue with light blue strip down the centre, was attached by means of a pentalpha, or 5-pointed star, long recognised as a symbol of health. In 1931 land overlooking Ravenscourt Park was identified as a site for a new Hospital, offering accomodation for 180 beds and much improved working facilities, and an Appeal was launched to raise £250,000. On 19 May 1932 a foundation stone, connected electrically to a replica stone at Olympia, was laid by the Grand Master, HRH the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn at a significant Masonic gathering, attended by over 12,000 people, including four Royal princes. A solid block of Lunel marble, engraved with lines from the poet, Rudyard Kipling, ‘By mine own work before the night, Great Overseer, I make my prayer’, supported a bronze and crystal casket containing an illuminated Roll of the Founding Lodges of the original Hospital at Chelsea. The stone stood on a base of Hopton Wood marble from Derbyshire, with an engraving around the base with the line, ‘Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it.’ On 12 July 1933 King George V, accompanied by Queen Mary, officially opened the Hospital, announcing that it was to be known as, The Royal Masonic Hospital. The opening ceremony included a performance by the Band of HM Grenadier Guards. The first 75 patients arrived in November 1933, while thirty two patients continued to be treated at the Fulham Road premises, sold for £17,500 to pay for the proposed new Nurses’ Home at Ravenscourt Park.

The new hospital site, which occupied 10 acres, included accommodation for some 200 patients, with special departments for an X-ray unit and other facilities, costing £335,000. Nurses continued to reside at Fulham Road until Christmas 1937 and the premises were purchased and adapted for use the following year by the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute, later known as The Institute of Cancer Research. The striking architecture of the new building at Ravenscourt Park was created in a modern international Art Deco style by the architects, Sir John Burnet RA, Tait and Lorne, who won the London Architectural Medal for their work and was built by John Mowlem and Co Ltd. The site was deisgned to American hospital practice standards, comprising four principal building units linked by glass bridges on a cross-axial layout. It featured lavish decoration, influenced by the work of the Dutch architect, W Dudok, and clad with expensive hand-made red bricks. The Art Deco styled entrance featured concrete figures, representing Healing (Aesculapius) and Charity (Hygeia), on pillars designed by Gilbert William Bayes RA (1872–1953). An acid-etched window depicted Aesculapius surrounded by signs of the zodiac. The 50ft high entrance hall had the appearance of a cinema foyer, lined with Lunel, Hopton Wood and Botticino marbles. The Board and conference rooms on either side of the hall featured Australian walnut panelling, decorated with Indian Coramandel wood. A marble relief by C L Doman, included the design of the Commemorative jewel of the Hospital, ‘Humanity tending the sick’ or in Latin, ‘Aegros Sanat Humanitas’. The structural engineer responsible for the steel frame of the building was Sven Bylander, responsible for the innovative work at the Ritz Hotel and Selfridges department store.

The Hospital was designed by Thomas Smith Tait (1882–1954) and Sir John James Burnet (1857–1938), a Glaswegian who had trained in Paris, the architect of the King Edward VII extension to the British Museum. The Princess Royal Children’s wards on third floor of the Hospital included mural paintings by Reginald Lewis (girls' ward) and hand-painted tiles of animals. Kitchens on the fourth floor included special facilities for Jewish patients requiring kosher food. A nurses’ home was added to side of the Hospital site, now Grade II listed, in 1937. The following year this was opened on 25 May by the Princess Royal, providing accommodation for 200 sisters, nurses and domestic staff, with music performed by the Band of HM Grenadier Guards. Connected to the Hospital by a subway, the new Nurses Home facility included the Elford Recreation Room, a Silver Jubilee Room and roof top gardens. During the Second World War from September 1939, the Royal Masonic Hospital in London treated, at no cost to the government, 8,640 servicemen, including over 600 American officers and other allies from 1941 onwards. 150 beds were made available for service personnel, at first other ranks and then officers after the Dunkirk retreat. During the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, many fighter pilots were treated, including burns victims such as Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary (1919-1943), author of The Last Enemy, recently rewritten by Sebastian Faulkes as The Fatal Englishman. Others treated included P/O Donald Mclntosh Gray of 610 Squadron, who died in a flying accident on 5 November 1940 and General Giffard Martel, former head of the military mission to Moscow, who received eye surgery at the Hospital as he informed the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, in a letter dated 1944.

Also treated were members of the allied Resistance, some of whom had been tortured in Nazi concentration camps. Churchill visited the Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Dudley Pound, just before he died in October 1943. In the autumn of 1941, before his death, HRH the Duke of Kent visited all the patients at the Royal Masonic Hospital. In 1944 the Duchess of Kent visited the Hospital and the Nurses’ Home. One nurse, Jeanne Hyatt, recorded details about life at the Hospital during wartime as part of the BBC’s WWII People’s War, ‘I was in my last year of training at the Royal London Hospital when war broke out. I was moved to the Royal Masonic Hospital at Hammersmith in 1941, which experienced the worst of the London blitz and lasted every night for 3 to 4 months. It didn't stop us going out, we just hoped for the best. I can clearly remember the awful fires and the total devastation of huge areas of bombing, much of it residential. Travelling by tube was the safest way. One night my train was stopped because of the bombing, so a very kind stationmaster let me sleep on a couch in his little office, and even bought me a cup of tea in the morning. At least the bombing eased off a little bit the next day and I felt like a holiday so I headed off to my parents home in the Hampshire countryside.’ During Word War II the Hospital treated 8,640 casualties, a fact recorded on a plaque unveiled by The Secretary of State for War, Rt. Hon Emanuel Shinwell, MP on 10 June 1946, above the Hospital reception desk. The armed services provided a short-wave diathermy set for use in the physiotherapy department. In 1948 the School of Nursing opened, with priority given to pupils from the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls's school at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. The first nurses qualified in 1952.

After training Royal Masonic Hospital nurses wore a distinctive Masonic blue uniform, with a silver belt buckle incorporating a square and compasses motif. Miss W L Huntly, known as Peter, was appointed as the Principal Tutor. On 10 August 1949 twenty student nurses arrived but the introduction of a 10pm curfew proved an irritation to many and all male visitors were banned from bedrooms. Nurses once had to remove capes when speaking to a Sister, a rule later removed. Photographs of nursing sets taken on Prize Day from 1952 to 1976 are included in this archive collection at GBR 1991 RMH 5/2/1-24. On 17 March 1953 the Royal Masonic Hospital Convalescent Home opened at Frinton-at-Sea, Essex to ease bed pressure at the Ravenscourt Park site. The Home provided spaces for fifteen patients and remained open until 20 January 1973. By 1956 long waiting lists restricted access to Hospital facilities and an extension, known as the Wakefield Wing, was planned at a cost of £650,000. A foundation stone for the new extension, built by the same architects, was laid by the Grand Master, Lawrence Roger Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarbrough. Life Governors of the Hospital, who donated an additional amount each year or subscribed by covenant, were awarded a bar to add to the Permanent Commemorative Jewel from 1 January 1956. On 10 December 1958 HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, opened the Wakefield Wing, providing eighty additional beds and the new School of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Hydrotherapy departments, and the Bishop of London dedicated the new Chapel. In 1962 the Royal Masonic Hospital League of Nurses was founded by a former Matron, Dorothy Brand and Miss Huntly was appointed its Life President.

In 1963 a Rehabilitation Unit opened in the Wakefield Wing providing care for non-acute illnesses with specialised treatment and nursing. An Intensive Care Unit opened in 1966, which was extended at a later date to cope with demand. Close Circuit Television (CCTV) was introduced at an early date to monitor patients. In 1967 Mr Smart, appointed Chief Administrator of the Hospital, lived with his wife Isabel at Royal Masonic Hospital House until October 1976. He gave lectures to Lodges about the work of the Hospital. The Cantores Medicini, a choir comprising nurses, doctors and medical students was formed at the Hospital by Dr Roy Stoddard, a medical student at the Royal Free Hospital and later Medical Director at the Royal Masonic Hospital. The choir issued three albums of carols and sacred music of the sixteenth century which formed part of their repertoire and was performed at cathedrals countrywide. Following the establishment of the Redevelopment and Modernisation Committee in the late 1960's, an initiative driven by Frank William Radford Douglas (1897-1971), a Redevelopment and Modernisation Fund Appeal was launched on 1 January 1970, aimed at enabling the Hospital to meet the latest hospital management and medical standards. An organisation and management working party met during the 1970's to encourage efficiencies and updated working methods. A Redevelopment Fund jewel was issued by the Hospital and the Redevelopment and Modernisation Fund merged with the main Hospital appeal fund in December 1976. Due to inflation, the costs for modernisation, estimated as £2 million in 1970, rose to £4 million by 1973. This target was reached by 1976 but by that date an additional £5 million was required to upgrade Hospital facilities. In 1972 the Association of Friends of the Royal Masonic Hospital was formed, with volunteers running a Hospital shop and library, with tours provided for members on Saturday afternoons.

All the Hospital committees were reconstituted on 7 October 1975, following the Hospital modernisation and redevelopment campaign. Committees dating from this period include the Executive and Finance Committee and investment sub-committee, Building and Premises sub-committee, Treasurer's Advisory sub-committee, Patients' Services sub-committee [Minutes 1975 to 1982, see GBR 1991 RMH 1/2/14/1], Support Services sub-committee [Minutes 1975 to 1983, see GBR 1991 RMH 1/2/15/1], Nursing sub-committee, Medical Staff sub-committee, Appeals sub-committee and Building and Premises Committee. Given the distances travelled by some patients to the Hospital, limited on-site accommodation was introduced at a modest fee for patients’ relatives. By 1979, some 4,715 patients were being treated a year, 2,387 from the London area, 2,253 from the Provinces and 75 from Districts Overseas, and from 1977 some 349 non-Masons were accepted as fee-paying patients if members did not require beds. The cost of maintaining each patient had risen to £475 per week. As spiraling inflation devalued investments, capital funds had to be used to cover costs. Patient income declined, with 80% of brethren being subsidised by the Craft. By 1979 there were 7,487 Patron Lodges but only 4,869 Grand Patron Lodges, each of which contributed £420 each year. The Percy Still Wing, comprising four new operating theatres and Pathology Laboratories designed by the architects, Watkins Gray Woodgate International, were opened on 1 December 1976 by the Grand Master, HRH the Duke of Kent, President of the Hospital. Due to inflation, the costs had risen to over £6 million. In 1979 the School of Nursing became the Royal Masonic Hospital and Roehampton School of Nursing, a unique partnership between an independent hospital and a National Health Service (NHS) District.

The training programme was extended to include pupil nurse training, enabling both student and pupil nurses to gain experience at the Royal Masonic Hospital, Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton and St John’s Hospital, Battersea and within the community, with all three locations providing training venues. Frank Douglas Court was constructed to provide modern flats for nurses. By October 1980 the Hospital renovation works were completed, increasing bed capacity from 205 to 273 but £1.5 million remained to be found to complete the renovation and modernisation programme. By this date annual running costs reached £4 million, with the Hospital employing approximately 700 staff, with responsibility for numerous pensioners. The Hospital was the largest independent hospital in Britain and the only private medical facility to offer a Nurses’ Training School linked to a National Health Service hospital to facilitate experience and training. A new permanent Appeal Committee for the Hospital was established under Alan Raymond Mais (1911-1993), Lord Mais, as Chairman. In 1982 Michael Richardson MD was appointed Chairman of the Hospital and served as Governor from September 1986. In 1983 the Golden Jubilee of the Hospital was celebrated by a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring the Band of the Welsh Guards, the Band of the Irish Guards, the Basingstoke Male Voice Choir, Cantores Medicini, London Welsh Male Voice Choir, the jazz pianist Jack Dieval (1920-2012), composer and arranger Geoff Love (1917-1991), the soprano Ava June Cooper (1931-2013) and the tenor, Ramon Remedios (b.1940). In 1984 a Committee of Inquiry was established, chaired by , recommending the sale of the Royal Masonic Hospital to American Medical International with the conversion of its assets into a Masonic insurance scheme. The closure campaign was supported by Grand Lodge but failed to succeed as only 69.6% of Hospital Governors voted in favour of this scheme rather than the required 75%.

The Bagnall Report in 1974 recommended accepting fee-paying patients, the amalgamation of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution and the Royal Masonic Hospital to form the Masonic Foundation for the Aged and the Sick, which was formed in November 1979. A Committee of enquiry led by Sir Maurice Drake (The Hon. Mr Justice Drake) made further recommendations in 1984, published as the Drake Report. In consequence the High Court ordered a redrafting of the Hospital’s constitution and the election of a new board of management. In 1986 the Royal Masonic Hospital and the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution combined to form the Masonic Foundation for the Aged and the Sick. In March 1986 the Nurses’ Training School closed due to changes introduced by the General Nursing Council which stipulated a format for training facilities with which the Hospital was unable to comply. On 22 January, the Hospital Chairman and Trustees went to the High Court, where the vote for selling the Hospital was ruled invalid. As part of a campaign, led by Douglas Brooks of Oakwood, a Grand Vice-Patron of the Hospital, the proposed sale was stopped. The Board of Management of the Hospital agreed to the formation of three sub-committees, namely Policy and Resources, Premises and Estates and Finance Committee. Viscount Chelsea, Chairman of the Masonic Foundation for the Aged and the Sick, recommended the termination of this charity in December 1987 and a committee formed to consider this recommendation submitted a report from its chairman, Iain Ross Bryce (1936-2015), in March 1988. In consequence a new Chairman, Sir Bernard Chacksfield, was appointed to the Hospital in 1988.

Legal objections made by the group formed by Douglas Brooks led to a High Court judge setting specific terms for, and a date of, an election. At the same time, a Writ was issued by Richmond, Roehampton and Twickenham Area Health Authority of the National Health Service against the threat of the Royal Masonic Hospital withdrawing from its nurse training agreement commitments. The Hospital re-emerged with a new management structure and reorganisation in 1986 and records, such as minutes of a Finance sub-committee, Premises and Estates committee and Policy and Resources Committee in this collection relate to this period. In June 1989 an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinic opened at the Hospital, which was run by Professor Robert Winston (b.1940) and Raul Adolfo Margara (b.1944) in a separate wing. The Unit, which achieved excellent success rates and developed ground-breaking fertilisation techniques, transferred to Hammersmith Hospital Trust in 1996. In November 1989 the management consultants, Touche Ross, prepared an independent review of all aspects of the Hospital. By 12 June 1989, the Hospital Board decided to separate the Samaritan Fund to safeguard its charitable assets, and transferred the operation of the Hospital to a company limited by guarantee, the Royal Masonic Hospital Limited.

Grand Lodge distanced itself from the Hospital, while recommending its closure and the safeguarding of its assets. The School of Nursing and Convalescent Home were replaced by two new wings. The Hospital, influenced by the Report of the Inquiry into London's Health Service, Medical Education and Research by Sir Bernard Tomlinson in October 1992, aimed to attract private and NHS patients, as well as members. It leased out part of the Ravenscourt Park site formerly known as the R Unit as the Stamford Wing, a 26-bed unit which treated psychiatric patients, including conditions such as anorexia and other eating disorders, run by Cygnet Health Care from October 1990. The unit employed two clinical psychologists, seven mental nurses and a therapist, with treatment provided for depression and alcohol problems. In 1992 Hospital catering was outsourced to Sutcliffe Catering and Charterhouse Clinical Research, seeking to expand the number of beds available, transferred to the Royal Masonic Hospital in March 1992. Led by Dr Jorg Taubel, the Charterhouse Clinical Research Unit was an independent research organisation facilitating drugs trials. In 1993 a Diamond Jubilee Appeal Fund was launched by the Hospital to refurbish the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU), to build and equip a health centre at Sintana, Romania and to facilitate use of the Hospital by the local community and the National Health Service. A Grand Fete was held at the Ravenscourt Park site on 10 July 1993. The Hospital aimed to become the UK’s premier hospital for sports medicine, with Peter R Norman treating members of the Royal Ballet School, and negotiated the transfer of the National Sports Medicine Institute at St Batholomew's Hospital to the Royal Masonic Hospital under Professor Greg McLatchie. Plans for the Hospital site included an eye clinic, psychiatric wing and an ITU. A centre for alternative therapies, such as aromatherapy and reflexology to assist techniques and procedures, was also planned.

The International Federation of Aromatherapists​, based its department of continuing education at the Royal Masonic Hospital. Andrew T Austin, pioneered Neuro Linguistic Programming at the site from 1994 to 1995 and Stephen Brooks ran Ericksonian Hypnosis training courses. By this time 32% of patients were masons or their dependents and the Hospital sought to attract NHS patients. The Hospital employed sixty nurses, supervised by a Matron, Heather Cole, who introduced a quality assurance system of levels in patient care. A computer system introduced and an occupational health service for the London Borough of Hounslow. A laundry service was provided for Charing Cross Hospital and Ravenscourt Laboratories operated at the Hospital site on a contract basis as a clinical pathology facility, with a staff assisting pharmaceutical drug trials. In 1995 two Hospital nurses held the Guinness Book of Records' record for fastest time to make a hospital bed, 17.3 seconds, broken by Sister Sharon Stringer and Senior Staff Nurse Michel Ambler, in front of a live American audience. The Hospital site was used as a set for numerous films and television programmes including Jeeves and Wooster, Minder, Poirot, Rumpole of the Bailey, Kavanagh QC and Simon Brett’s How to be a Little Sod. The Hospital also served as a venue for Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons examinations. Despite numerous attempts to generate sufficient income to become self-financing, the Hospital proved unable to maintain its independent private status and a decision was taken to close the facility. In 1996 a consultants farewell dinner was held and the Hospital contents and equipment were sold in April 1997.

In 2001 the Charity Commission appointed a receiver, Price Waterhouse Cooper and manager to take control of the Royal Masonic Hospital Association of Friends. The building became known as the Stamford Hospital and in 2002 was acquired by the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust on a 15-year lease to help cut operation waiting times. The Ravenscourt Park Hospital, with six theatres and 105 beds, was improved at a cost of £14 million to help to cut waiting lists for operations. However the anticipated NHS shortages of capacity did not materialise and Ravenscourt Park lacked the supply of patients to make the investment work. In 2006 the NHS announced the closure of this facility. During its four years as an NHS facility, the Hospital conducted 18,500 operations, an average of about 4,500 a year. However, this proved uneconomic and the Hospital, losing about £12 million a year, proved unable to treat 11,000 to 12,000 patients each year in order to break even, despite being sent patients from other regional hospitals.

Grand Lodge, to provide benefits to clothe and educate the sons of indigent freemasons. In 1808, a similar Institution was established by the Royal Naval Lodge of Independence, No. 59, of the Moderns Grand Lodge. In 1816, the two Institutions merged under the Patronage of HRH the Duke of Sussex following the union four years earlier between the two Grand Lodges to form the United Grand Lodge of England. Although known as the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys from 1798, its official title changed over time. Formed in 1798 as the Masonic Institution for Clothing and Educating the Sons of Deceased and Indigent Free Masons, by 1832, the suffix ‘Royal’ was added when King William IV (1765-1837) became the Patron. From 1858, the Institution operated under the name of the Royal Masonic Institution for the sons of Decayed and Deceased Freemasons, until it formally adopted the title of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys in 1868.

The Institution initially supported boys by providing grants for clothing and education at local schools, known as out-education and maintenance grants. The Institution offered support to boys in this form throughout its existence but in 1857, the Institution also opened its own School for the sons of indigent freemasons. From 1857-1902, the Royal Masonic School for Boys was located in Wood Green, London. In 1903, the School relocated to Bushey, Hertfordshire and in 1929 the Institution opened a Junior School adjacent to the Senior School. Due to a fall in pupil numbers, the Junior and Senior Schools were merged in 1970. In 1977, due to a continued fall numbers, the Royal Masonic School for Boys was closed and the Institution reverted to its initial remit of supporting boys through out-education and maintenance grants.

In 1971, HRH the Duke of Kent, as Grand Master, set up a Committee of Inquiry on Masonic charity, under the Chairmanship of the Hon Mr Justice Bagnall. In 1973, the Committee of Inquiry produced a report, known as the Bagnall Report, which recommended the merger of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls into a single Trust. In 1982, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys merged with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and the trust deed establishing the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys was signed. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys became active in 1986 and it continues to provide educational support to the children of Masonic families where required.

The Royal Masonic Institution for Girls was founded in 1788, by Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini who formulated a scheme to establish a school to aid the education of the daughters of deceased and distressed freemasons. The first School was based in Somers Place East, near Euston, London and was known as the Royal Cumberland School for the Daughters of Indigent Free Masons. In 1795, the School moved to larger premises in St George’s Fields, Westminster Bridge Road, London and changed its name to the Royal Freemasons School for Female Children. The School moved to even larger premises in Clapham Junction, London in 1858 and in 1868, the Institution formally adopted the name the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls. In 1880, the Institution opened a Junior School, known as the Royal Masonic (Junior) School for Girls, at the site at Clapham Junction. In 1918, the Junior School moved to Weybridge, Surrey where it remained until its closure in 1973. The Royal Masonic (Senior) School for Girls moved to its current premises in Rickmansworth Park, Hertfordshire in 1934. Due to a fall in pupil numbers, fee-paying boarding pupils were allowed to fill vacancies from 1965 and fee-paying day-girls admitted from 1972, if they were daughters of a freemason. In September 1978, the Royal Masonic School for Girls became a limited company, The Rickmansworth Masonic School Limited and girls from non-Masonic families were accepted to fill vacancies on a fee paying basis. In 1984, the School became an entirely fee-paying independent school, with the Institution paying the fees of girls placed there as a result of petitions.

As well as providing places at the Royal Masonic Schools, from 1906, the Institution also awarded grants for girls to attend schools local to them, a procedure known as out-education. They also extended their benefits to provide special grants for girls to pursue courses in further and higher education.

In 1971, HRH the Duke of Kent, as Grand Master, set up a Committee of Inquiry on Masonic charity, under the Chairmanship of the Hon Mr Justice Bagnall. In 1973, the Committee of Inquiry produced a report, known as the Bagnall Report, which recommended the merger of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls into a single Trust. In 1982, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys merged with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and the trust deed establishing the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boy was signed. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boy became active in 1986 and it continues to provide educational support to the children of Masonic families where required.

The Supreme Grand Chapter, responsible for the governance of Royal Arch freemasonry in England and Wales and in Chapters overseas meeting under the English Constitution, came into existence on 18 March 1817. However evidence for working the Royal Arch degree exists from the 1730’s, with the first printed reference occurring in 1744. In addition to the three Craft degrees by the 1750’s this degree was conferred on a regular basis in England, Scotland and Ireland. From its formation in 1751, lodges meeting under the jurisdiction of the Antients or Atholl Grand Lodge also conferred Royal Arch and other Masonic degrees. The Antients formed a Grand Chapter in 1771 which met infrequently and did not create formal minutes, appoint separate officers or operate independently from its Grand Lodge. However the Antients Grand Lodge created and maintained separate registers of royal arch membership returns with an index, covering the period c.1746 to 1819.

The Moderns (or premier) Grand Lodge, formed in 1717, preferred to retain a distinction between Craft and Royal Arch freemasonry. While Antients’ Grand Lodges conferred the Royal Arch degree with consent and approval, the Moderns Grand Lodge did not acknowledge it openly and considered it an innovation representing irregular Masonic practice. In consequence several leading members who wished to do this additional degree established an Excellent Grand and Royal Chapter in 1765, in which the Moderns’ Grand Master, Lord Blayney, was exalted on 11 June the following year. A Charter of Compact dated 22 July 1766 constituted this new body as the Grand and Royal Chapter of the Royal Arch of Jerusalem. It met monthly at the Turk’s Head Tavern, Gerrard Street, Soho, from 12 June 1765 until November 1770, and then at various inns before relocating to the new Freemasons’ Hall in December 1775. Minutes, including names of new members exalted between 1769 and 1819, survive from 1765 and by laws were issued from December 1766. It only began to function as a governing body or Council from 13 January 1769, when it constituted three sub-ordinate Chapters and commissioned an official seal the following month. From 1801 the Excellent Grand and Royal Chapter met twice a year and during its existence it was also referred to as the Grand Lodge of Royal Arch Masons, the Grand and Royal Chapter of Jerusalem, the Most Grand and Royal Chapter, Royal Arch Grand Chapter, the Grand and Royal Arch Chapter of the Royal Arch of Jerusalem and the Supreme Grand and Royal Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England, with no fewer than eight alterations to its official title.

Thomas Dunckerley (1724-1795) was a driving force behind the early development of the Grand Chapter, serving as a Royal Arch Superintendent in eighteen Provinces. Chapters working under the Charter of Compact welcomed members from both Antients’ and Moderns’ lodges. By September 1771 the new Moderns’ Grand Secretary, William Dickey complained of abuses and sought a meeting of Lodge Masters and Past Masters to discuss the future of the Grand Chapter. Some reforms took place in November 1773, when it was decided that the Chapter membership should be restricted to Masters and Past Masters, excluding those who had merely ‘passed the Chair’. Many lodge members considered Grand Lodge had no right to restrict them from becoming Royal Arch freemasons. By 1781 the formation of twenty five individual Chapters had been approved, mainly in the Provinces but only three in London. Two years later, thirty five Chapters were meeting but representation by members on its governing body remained limited, despite the formation of a General Convention in April 1784. Calls for reform were followed by unsuccessful attempts to separate the administrative functions of Grand Chapter from its role as a private Chapter that continued to exalt candidates and rehearse ceremonies. Grand Chapter experienced a period of stagnation between 1797 and 1800 but began to renew its activities from 1801, with the appointment of Arthur, 1st Earl of Mountnorris, as First Grand Principal. This revitalisation continued after Lord Moira, Acting Grand Master of the Moderns Grand Lodge under the Prince of Wales, was exalted in June 1803 and became First Grand Principal the following year. Moira resigned in 1810 to enable the Duke of Sussex to become First Grand Principal. Grand Chapter continued to perform both administrative and ceremonial functions until 1817, with the last exaltation of a member taking place on 12 March 1812 and a final Royal Arch ceremony worked on 17 May 1813.

At its last regular meeting on 30 November 1813, Grand Chapter announced the proposed Union between the Moderns’ and Antients’ Grand Lodges. Negotiations concerning the merger between the two Grand Lodges included an acknowledgement of the existence of Royal Arch freemasonry in the Articles of Union, representing the perfection of the Master’s Degree. The final meeting of the Supreme Grand and Royal Chapter took place on 18 March 1817, when the body that became known as the Supreme Grand Chapter of England, responsible for the governance of Royal Arch freemasonry, was formed. The laws and regulations of the new body were approved in May 1817, confirming that every Chapter had to be attached to a Craft Lodge and that no Lodge could form a Chapter without obtaining a Charter to attach to its Craft Warrant. In 1818 a Committee was appointed to regularise the installation ceremonies for Chapter officers, known as Principals. By February 1819 the Committee reported that Principals and Past Principals in London Chapters had been installed regularly but further ceremonies continued into 1824. In 1820 Grand Chapter permitted the installation of Principals and Past Principals in country and foreign Chapters. The first set of printed laws and Regulations appeared in 1823, including a list of 198 Chapters that had become attached to a Lodge.

The new administrative body was entitled initially the United Grand Chapter but from February 1822 it became known as the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England. This indicated that the new body was not in effect a Union between two distinct Grand Chapters, but an amalgamation between the Moderns’ Supreme Grand and Royal Chapter and some Antients’ Royal Arch members. In 1834 and 1835 the Duke of Sussex, First Grand Principal, appointed leading members of the Supreme Grand Chapter to form a Chapter of Promulgation in order to regularise Royal Arch ceremonies. Royal Arch freemasonry incorporates unique symbolism and terminology. The term Brother, as used by Craft lodge members, continued to be used by Royal Arch freemasons until c.1778-1779, when the term Companion appears in Chapter minutes. The symbols Z, H and J for the three Chapter Principals or officers were already in use by 1765. The T and H symbols used in Royal Arch freemasonry, later referred to as the Triple Tau symbol, derive from the Latin phrase, Templum Hierosolimae, or Temple of Jerusalem.

No further information.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children was founded on its Bloomsbury site in 1852, as the Hospital for Sick Children. It became part of the National Health Service in 1948.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for children was founded in 1852 by Charles West on its current site in Bloomsbury. It was the first children's hospital in Great Britain. The administrative records were kept by the boards and committees of the hospital from its foundation.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852 by Charles West on its current site in Bloomsbury as the Hospital for Sick Children. It was the first children's hospital in Britain. It became part of the NHS in 1948 and took over the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Sick Children in 1968. It went through several changes of name during this period and adopted its current name in 1994.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852 by Charles West on its current site in Bloomsbury as the Hospital for Sick Children. It was the first children's hospital in Britain. It became part of the NHS in 1948 and took over the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Sick Children in 1968. It went through several changes of name during this period and adopted its current name in 1994.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852 on its Bloomsbury site. It has undergone several changes of title since its foundation. Its current description, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, dates from 1994.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852 by Charles West on its current site in Bloomsbury as the Hospital for Sick Children. It was the first children's hospital in Britain. It became part of the NHS in 1948 and took over the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Sick Children in 1968. It went through several changes of name during this period and adopted its current name in 1994.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852. It went through many stages of expansion and building at its Bloomsbury site.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children was founded on its Bloomsbury site in 1852, as the Hospital for Sick Children. It became part of the National Health Service in 1948.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was founded in 1852, in Bloomsbury. It has undergone several changes of name since its foundation, that of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children dates from 1994.

Gunnersbury Women’s Cricket Club was founded in 1925, a year before the formation of the Women’s Cricket Association. They first played their matches at a school in Gunnersbury Lane, West London, and later moved to Headstone Lane in North Pinner, Boston Manor and Ealing Technical College.

Gunnersbury have won the National Club Knockout competition five times – in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 2000. They also won the South Premier Division in 2001. Past members of the club include the cricketer, administrator and journalist Netta Rheinberg, and D M Turner and M I Taylor who played in the first England Women’s tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1934-1935. In 2010 the decision was taken to absorb the club as part of Finchley Cricket Club, thus changing the name of the women’s side to Finchley Gunns Cricket Club.

The collection is made up of items that originally belonged to Miss D Warden, one of the first Treasurers of Gunnersbury Women’s Cricket Club, during the early years of the club's existence.

Michael Hornsby-Smith is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Surrey. He was Chairman of the British Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Study group, 1990-1993.

Publications:

Catholic Education (1978)

Roman Catholic Opinion (co-author 1979)

Roman Catholics in England (1987)

The Changing Parish (1989)

Roman Catholic Beliefs in England (1991)

The Politics of Spirituality (1995)

An Introduction to Catholic Social Thought (2006)

Irving Rosenwater was born on 11 September 1932 at Mile End in London. He was initially known as 'Isidore' and was registered as such on his first birth certificate, until his parents (Rosenwater's father was Polish) decided to change his name. He was educated at Parmenter's Grammar School in Bethnal Green, London.

Rosenwater was a former assistant editor of The Cricketer magazine, founder editor of The Cricket Society Journal, a frequent contributor to Wisden, and a statistician for BBC and Channel 9. He was also a noted cricket writer - his book Sir Donald Bradman - The Biography, released in 1978, won The Cricket Society Literary Award. In 1970, Rosenwater became the cricket scorer for BBC TV, but he left in 1977 to become part of World Series Cricket. Rosenwater died in 2006 in Stepney, London.

Rosenwater was an avid collector of cricket material and the majority of this collection is made up of the period when he worked for BBC and Channel 9 - in particular during the World Series Cricket era - and contains scorecards, scoresheets and reports from that period, as well as ephemera. Also included in this collection is MCC records from the late 1920s-early 1930s, including letters sent to its then Secretary, William Findlay - an indication of Rosenwater's keenness for collecting any kind of cricket material. As Rosenwater was an MCC member he kept a lot of items sent to him during the course of his membership, such as invitations to events and notifications of meetings.

Between 1966 and 2006, Libby Hall collected old photographs of dogs, amassing many thousands to assemble what is possibly the largest number of canine pictures ever gathered by any single person. Libby began collecting casually when the photographs were of negligible value, but by the end she had published four books and been priced out of the market. Yet through her actions Libby rescued an entire canon of photography from the scrap heap, seeing the poetry and sophistication in images that were previously dismissed as merely sentimental. And today, we are the beneficiaries of her visionary endeavour.

The Post Office was established in 1635 by Charles I. The head of this new service was variously known as Master of Posts, Comptroller General of the Posts and Postmaster of England.

The Civil War saw the the Post Office contested by both sides. Acts of Parliament were passed during the Interregnum (1656) and later upon the Restoration (1660). These established the General Post Office as a branch of government which was to be headed by the Postmaster General.

The service at this time consisted of a number of main routes from London to the provinces. Postmasters on the routes collected and distributed mail and collected revenue.

During this period the scope of The Post Office's activities was limited and its administrative functions were largely concerned with its finances. The General Post Office was based in the City of London and was organised into three departments; the Inland Office which handled all internal letters, the Foreign Office which handled all overseas mails and the Penny Post Office which dealt with all locally posted mail for London. This building was destroyed by the Great Fire of London, which might explain why only a small number of Post Office records from that period survive. Those that have survived are largely volumes of accounts detailing levels of income and expenditure through the years. From 1667 the role of Postmaster General became a political appointment. Between 1691 and 1823, two Postmasters General were appointed, one being a Whig and the other a Tory. At the same time the post of Secretary to the Post Office was created. Over time this post developed into one which held real influence within the General Post Office; the Secretary's Office becoming the centre of decision making within Headquarters.

The eighteenth century saw much development of routes and post towns, although the Post Office continued to be run from London. It was not until 1715 that the Post Office appointed its first regional administrators, known as Surveyors. Surveyors were charged with ensuring that those at lower levels in the organisation were doing their duty and that the revenues were being correctly managed.

The nineteenth Century was a period of vast expansion for The Post Office. Postal rates were subject to a reform which resulted in the introduction of penny postage and the adhesive postage stamp. Increased adult literacy led to a dramatic increase in the volume of mail. The latter half of the century saw an explosion of new services as the Post Office moved into banking, telecommunications and set up a parcels operation. It also saw the development of a nationwide network of post offices through which these services could be accessed.

By the end of the century, Headquarters buildings had accumulated large volumes of historical material. To meet the challenge of managing this material, in 1896 The Post Office established its own record room.

The responsibilities of the surveyors had also grown during this period. They became the heads of districts of management; responsible for managing the range of Post Office activities in their areas.

The Post Office's move into telecommunications began in 1870, with the establishment of the United Kingdom telegraph service as a Post Office monopoly. From 1880, the control of the telephone service passed progressively to the Post Office, with the entire service being taken over in 1912. The Post Office also became involved in international telecommunications culminating in 1947 when, following the nationalisation of Cable and Wireless Ltd, it acquired the company's telecommunications assets in Britain. In 1904, the Wireless Telegraphy Act conferred licensing powers on the Postmaster General, and the Post Office continued to regulate radio services until the responsibility was passed to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1969. Within the field of broadcasting, the Post Office was responsible for the granting of transmission licences and the collection of radio licence fees, and for advising Parliament on questions of sound and television broadcasting services. In 1933 the Post Office's new Public Relations Division took over the Film Unit from the Empire Marketing Board, and in 1940 this unit was transferred to the Ministry of Information, later becoming the Crown Film Unit.

By the 1930s the size and complexity of The Post Office had grown so much as to lead to public criticism. The result of this was a committee of enquiry; the Bridgeman Committee, which led to a large-scale devolution of powers to provincial management and the creation of eight regions.

The Post Office Act of 1961 created a Post Office fund under the management of the Postmaster General. All income was paid into the fund and all expenditure met out of it. This enabled the Post Office to operate as a business with the financial status of a public authority. However, the Post Office remained a government department answerable to Parliament on day-to-day business.

The Post Office Act of 1969 saw the General Post Office ceasing to be a branch of government and becoming instead a nationalised industry, established as a public corporation. Under the terms of the Act, the Corporation was split into two divisions - Posts and Telecommunications - which thus became distinct businesses. The office of Postmaster General was discontinued and The Post Office, as it was now known, was headed by a Chairman and Chief Executive/Deputy Chairman. This role was directly appointed by the Post Office Board. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was created in 1969 and, in addition to sponsoring the Post Office, took over the functions previously exercised by the Postmaster General in relation to Broadcasting.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was dissolved in March 1974. Broadcasting and radio regulation became part of the Home Office, whilst Post and Telecommunications functions became the responsibility of the Department of Industry. The latter merged with the Department of Trade in 1983 to become the Department of Trade and Industry.

In 1981 the telecommunications business of The Post Office became a separate public corporation, trading as British Telecom. In 1984, British Telecom was privatised and since 1991 has traded as BT. Following the 1981 split, the Post Office was then reorganised into two distinct businesses; Post and Parcels. In 1987, there was a further separation of Post Office business as Girobank was transferred to the private sector, eventually being acquired by Alliance and Leicester in 1994.

In late 1986 The Post Office was restructured to create three businesses; SSL (Subscription Services Limited), Royal Mail and Parcelforce. A year later the network of post offices was established as Post Office Counters Limited; a limited company which was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Post Office. Although each of the above had their own Managing Directors and headquarters functions, what was now the Post Office group of businesses retained a headquarters function for group policy. Additionally this Group function continued to provide the rest of the businesses with services and support.

In 1993 the positions of Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive became two separate roles. The position of Chairman as the 'head' of the Post Office remained. The White Paper on Post Office Reform was published in 1999, with the objective of giving greater commercial freedom to the Post Office to enable it to compete and respond to changes in the market place. The paper reduces the governments' financial demands on the business and allows it to borrow from the Government at commercial rates to pay for acquisitions and joint ventures with private companies. This White Paper was followed by the Postal Services Act 2000, which put the recommendations of the White paper into action, giving the postal service the necessary greater commercial freedom. It also established Postcomm as the independent regulator of the postal service, and Postwatch as a national consumer body, which replaced the old Post Office Users National Council (POUNC).

The name Consignia was taken in Spring 2001 as part of an attempt to position the business globally. However, since November 2002, the business that carries letters and parcels and runs the mail has been known as Royal Mail.

Robert Allan Fitzgerald was born in Purley House, Berkshire on 1 October 1834. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge.

A right-handed batsman and round arm right-arm fast bowler, Fitzgerald participated in 46 first-class matches between 1854 and 1874, scoring over 1,000 runs. He later became Secretary of MCC from 1863 to 1876, during which time MCC purchased the freehold of the ground from Isaac Moses Marsden thanks to money advanced from William Nicholson, built the ground's first Grand Stand, and in 1872 Fitzgerald led a team of cricketers including Lord Harris and W G Grace on a tour of North America.

This tour is documented at length in one of the scrapbooks in this collection. Fitzgerald was also a keen amateur dramatist and plays written by him are included in one of the other scrapbooks, alongside accounts of MCC, I Zingari and Quidnunc matches, as well as newspaper articles on cricket and lawn tennis.

Sir Frederick Augustus Abel (1827-1902) was an English chemist and became the 15th President of the Chemical Society (1875-1877) and the 2nd President of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (1880-1883). His area of expertise was in explosives and in 1889 invented Cordite with Sir James Dewar.

Colonel Frederick Nathan joined the Royal Artillery in 1879 and in 1886 took up an appointment at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. Colonel Nathan worked in the explosives industry.

Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe (1833-1915) was the 17th President of the Chemical Society (1880-1882) and went to University College London in 1848 where Thomas Graham was the Professor of Chemistry. Roscoe was a student of German chemist Robert Bunsen at Heidelberg; they later became collaborators in research and lifelong friends.

James Pettigrew Ogilvie (1881-1953) was the son of a well-known sugar refiner and became an authority on the subject of sugar himself, authoring many books and journal titles in the area as well as working within the sugar industry. He became a Fellow of the Chemical Society in 1912 and later presented a number of valuable books on sugar chemistry to the Society.

Sir Pelham Francis Warner was born in The Hall, Port of Spain, Trinidad, on 2 October 1873. He was the son of Charles William Warner, Attorney General of Trinidad. He married Agnes Blyth in 1904 and they had three children, two boys Esmond and John and a daughter Elizabeth.

Warner was educated at Rugby School and Oxford University, where he played in the varsity match against Cambridge. He made his first-class debut for Middlesex in 1894 and in 1897 was called up to play for Lord Hawke's XI in the West Indies. He then made his debut for England vs. South Africa in Johannesburg in 1899.

In 1903 Warner had the honour of being the first captain of an MCC touring side following the decision to make MCC the governing body responsible for England cricket tours overseas. The tour was to Australia and England won the series 3-2, thus bringing back the Ashes. Warner was rewarded with a place on the MCC Committee, and captained the first ever MCC tour of South Africa. During the First World War, Warner served with the Inns of Court and the Ministry of Information at the Foreign Office. After the war he returned to play first-class cricket in Middlesex and helped them to win the championship in 1920, scoring 79 and being led off the pitch by spectators - a framed picture of which is included in this collection.

After he retired from cricket Warner remained active in the game. He became manager of the MCC touring team during the infamous Bodyline series of 1932-1933. Warner was knighted in 1937 and during the Second World War he became Deputy Secretary of MCC. In 1950-1951 Warner was President of MCC and celebrated his 80th birthday with a dinner in the Long Room - two events that make up the bulk of correspondence and telegrams included in this collection. Warner died at West Lavington, near Midhurst, Sussex, on January 30, 1963.

This collection was bequeathed to MCC by Marina Warner, Warner's granddaughter, in 2009. The collection focuses on Warner's achievements away from the game - his MBE, his knighthood, his election as MCC President in 1950-1951, the release of his book 'Lord's 1787-1945' and his 80th birthday. The collection also includes material acquired during the course of Warner's life, including poetry, menu cards, orders of service and certificates. The material was held in a Louis Vuitton trunk with one sticker with 'The Grand Hotel, Melbourne' written on it, and with the scarlet and gold colours of MCC. MCC has retained the trunk.

Henry Weston Elder was a bristlemerchant. He held the manor of Topsfield in Crouch End from 1855. He died in 1882 and his widow sold the property in 1894.

From: 'Hornsey, including Highgate: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate (1980), pp. 140-146.

The first registers of voters were lists of those owing land tax, since the right to vote depended on the amount of property a man owned.

It was not until the 1832 Reform Act that the creation of electoral registers became a requirement. At first these were the responsibility of the Quarter Sessions, although from 1888 they were compiled by County Councils and from 1974 by District Councils. The registers mainly list those eligible to vote for parliamentary elections although they often double as lists for local government elections.

A turnpike was barrier placed across a road to stop traffic passing until a toll was paid.

The Manor of Isleworth Syon was in the hands of Walter de St. Valery in 1086, having been granted to him by William the Conqueror as a reward for his support during the conquest of England. The family retained possession of the manor until 1227 when it escheated to the crown. In 1229 a full grant of the manor was made by Henry III to his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, whose son Edward inherited it in 1272. In 1301, Edward's widow Margaret was assigned the manor by Edward I as part of her dower, but it reverted to the crown on her death in 1312. The manor was eventually granted for life by Edward III to his wife Queen Philippa in 1330. The reversion was included in a grant of lands to Edward, Duke of Cornwall, in 1337. In 1390 Queen Anne the wife of Richard II was given a life interest in the manor. Henry V held the manor, as Prince of Wales, but when king, separated the manor from the duchy of Cornwall by Act of Parliament in 1421 in order to bestow it upon his newly founded convent of Syon. It remained as part of the convent's possessions until the dissolution in 1539 when it fell into the hands of the Crown and was added to the Honour of Hampton Court. In 1604 James I granted the manor to Henry, Earl of Northumberland, in whose family it remained.

Strawberry Hill was the residence of writer Horace Walpole (1717-1797). Situated in Twickenham, it was described as a 'little Gothic castle'. The building eventually came into the ownership of George, Earl of Waldegrave, who sold the contents in 1842 in order to pay off his debts.

Under the Education Act of 1876 Ealing Educational Association was formed instead of a school board to meet current deficits and pay for building extensions to existing local schools, which were mostly church schools. Apart from an unsuccessful voluntary rate in 1880, funds were raised by subscription until 1895. Rates levied for the Association by Ealing council from 1896 were criticized because the demands did not indicate that they were voluntary, and by 1901 only one-third was collected. Average attendance at local schools under the management of the Association rose from 754 in 1878 to 2,388 in 1902 at Ealing. By the late 1890s there may have been overcrowding but a request by the Board of Education for extra places in 1901 was ignored, as responsibility under the Education Act of 1902 was to pass to Ealing Metropolitan Borough (M.B.), which duly became an autonomous part III authority.

Ealing had too few places in 1903, when the population was growing rapidly. In addition to temporary schools, permanent ones were built by the borough engineer Charles Jones: Little Ealing, Northfields, Drayton Grove, Lammas, and North Ealing, the first four containing large boys', girls', and infants' schools on a single site. Few places were needed in North Ealing, where most children were educated privately, and elsewhere the council charged fees, which at Drayton Grove were higher than the Board of Education would permit. After the First World War only Grange school replaced the voluntary schools as they closed. From 1931 school building was concentrated in the expanding north and west parts of the borough; although Jones's buildings were seen as outmoded by 1938, it was only from 1952 that they were replaced.

The county council established secondary schools for boys in 1913 and girls in 1926 at Ealing, where a selective central school was opened in 1925. Following the Hadow report, four of Ealing's council schools acquired a single-sex senior department and after the Education Act of 1944 the former central school became a grammar school. Secondary classes elsewhere used converted premises and the only change before the introduction of the comprehensive system was the transfer of two of the smaller secondary schools to the new Ealing Mead school in 1962. At Brentford the boys' and girls' senior schools and Gunnersbury Roman Catholic grammar school were the only secondary schools. Under the Act of 1944 Ealing M.B. became an 'excepted district', responsible for primary and secondary education. From 1965 they lay within Ealing and Hounslow London Boroughs.

From: 'Ealing and Brentford: Education', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 162-170.

The administration of roads and bridges was one of the very earliest functions of County administration. In 1555 an Act of Parliament was passed which made parishes responsible for the maintenance of the roads running through it, including supply of materials and labour for repairs. In 1663 Parliament first authorised the erection of turnpikes or toll barriers to raise funds for the maintenance of roads. By 1770 there were 7800 toll gates, despite the system being so unpopular it caused riots.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century the Industrial Revolution led to a large increase in traffic. In 1808 a Parliamentary Committee to consider the administration of roads was established. This Committee appointed paid county surveyors to examine the roads and produced a plan for the consolidation of the turnpike system around London, which led to improvement to the Middlesex turnpikes in 1826. It was not until the Local Government Act of 1888 that responsibility for the maintenance and repair of main roads was passed to county councils, while the care of smaller roads was passed to the local councils.

The Standing Joint Committee of most counties was responsible for control of the local police force. However, Middlesex was within the Metropolitan Police Area controlled by the Home Office, so the Standing Joint Committee was given other duties. These included matters relating to the accommodation of the quarter sessions and all property, appointment and control of officers and the provision of petty sessional court houses.

A burial board appointed for Ealing and Old Brentford in 1858 acquired 8 acres east of South Ealing Road in 1860, which were laid out as a cemetery in 1861. Chapels for Anglicans and dissenters, forming a single building, had been built by 1873 and the area had been extended to 21 acres by 1890.

The Burial Acts of 1852-1857 gave parishes and town councils the power to establish Burial Boards which would be responsible for providing suitable arrangments for the dead of the parish. This was usually in the form of a cemetery. The Board was responsible for the management of the cemetery, usually providing chapels consecrated for the use of different denominations. The expense of setting up the cemetery would be charges to the Poor Rate or the Borough Rate.

From: 'Ealing and Brentford: Public services', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 147-149.

Poor rates were administered by parishes, and were levied to assist the poor of that parish. The duty of relieving the poor was given to parish overseers. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act established Boards of Guardians which were responsible for the care of poor persons in a group of parishes, known as Poor Law Unions. Hendon Poor Law Union was formed in 1835, and comprised the parishes of Hendon, Harrow, Pinner, Edgware, Kingsbury, Great and Little Stanmore, and Willesden. A red-brick workhouse was built at Redhill, Edgware Road, in 1835 to hold 350 inmates; a union school for 150 children was erected near by in 1859 and the workhouse itself was extended in 1889.

The turnpike system dated from 1663 when Parliament authorised the erection of toll barriers along the Great North Road. The principle was that each person should contribute to the repair of the roads in proportion to the use he made of them. A barrier was placed across a road and a toll taken from each road user except pedestrians; the monies were then used to support the maintenance and improvement of the road. Turnpikes were placed under the control of bodies known as Turnpike Trusts. By 1770 there were over 1100 Trusts, administering 23,000 miles of road, with 7800 toll gates.

The "Great Essex Road" from London to Harwich followed what was is now the A12 as far as Colchester and then followed the same route as the A137 and B1352 to Harwich. The original starting point in London was from The Standard in Cornhill, but later measurements were taken from Whitechapel Church on the eastern boundary of the City of London. As Middlesex encircled the north of the City the first milestone in Essex along the route was placed at Stratford.

In 1780 Matthias Peter Dupont, an innkeeper from Aldersgate in the City of London, opened the Zion Chapel in Chase Side, Enfield. In 1791 a controversial ministerial appointment caused a split in the congregation and a second chapel was begun, called the Independent Chapel or the Chase Side Chapel. John Stribling became minister of the Zion Chapel in 1832 and retired in 1871. In 1865 the community voted to reunite and the Zion Chapel was demolished in order to make way for a new building, Christ Church. The Independent Chapel became a lecture hall. The church still stands as the Christ Church United Reformed Church.

Pinner for some time depended upon fire hydrants but there was a fire brigade by 1881 and in the 1890s a manual engine was kept at Pinner Hall and later at the George Inn. A fire station was opened in 1903 at the Red Lion Inn to house a steam fire engine. New fire brigade headquarters were opened in 1938 in Pinner Road.

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 237-249.

A Presbyterian congregation was established in Uxbridge in 1753. By 1833 they had adopted Congregational Church practices and the name Uxbridge Old Meeting Congregational Church. They joined the London Congregational Union in 1922. A second Congregational body was established in Uxbridge in 1777, called the Providence Congregational Church. The two churches were united in 1962 as the Uxbridge Congregational Church, worshipping at the Old Meeting premises.

The parish of Edgware lay on the northern boundary of Middlesex, bordered on the north by Elstree, on the west by Little Stanmore, and on the east by Hendon. The parish of Little Stanmore was bounded on the north by Bushey Heath, on the east by Watling Street, separating Little Stanmore from Edgware and Hendon, on the south by Kingsbury and on the west by Great Stanmore.

Parish officers were elected annually and were responsible for various aspects of local administration. Because of their proximity Little Stanmore and Edgware always shared their main areas of settlement. The north of both parishes included parts of the village of Elstree. This closeness meant that the two parishes formed various joint administrative bodies and shared some staff and facilities. For example in 1767 a punishment cage was built and used jointly by Edgware and Little Stanmore.

Maintenance of county roads and bridges was supervised by the County Engineer and Surveyor's Department.

The County Council's Architectural Service was concerned with the diverse types of building required for the education, health, welfare, legal, administrative and fire and ambulance services run by the County, each with special requirements affecting their design.

John Wilkes was born in Clerkenwell in 1725. He was educated at the University of Leiden from 1744, where he developed life-long habits of vice and profligacy. In 1747 he returned to England to enter into an arranged marriage. The dowry was the manor of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. In London Wilkes was admitted to several clubs and moved in intellectual circles, while in Aylesbury he participated in local administration as a magistrate. In 1757 he stood for the Aylesbury Parliamentary seat in an uncontested by-election. In 1761 he again won the seat by bribing the voters. Wilkes began to write anonymous political pamphlets and in 1762 he established a political weekly, the North Briton which was highly critical of the Prime Minister Lord Bute and his successor, George Greville. In November 1763 the North Briton was declared to be seditious libel, leaving Wilkes exposed to punitive legal action. At the same time he was badly injured in a pistol duel with another MP. Wilkes fled to Paris to escape legal proceedings and was expelled from Parliament.

In January 1764 Wilkes was convicted for publishing the North Briton. He was summoned to appear at the court of the King's Bench and when he failed to appear was outlawed. Wilkes therefore stayed abroad for four years as returning to England would mean imprisonment. In Paris he moved in intellectual circles and was praised as a champion of freedom, however, he was accruing serious debts. Between 1766 and 1767 he made brief return visits to London, hoping to be pardoned. In 1768 he returned permanently, living under a false name. He announced that he would attend the King's Bench when the court next met, and declared his intention to run for Parliament. He contested for the Middlesex seat and ran a superbly organised campaign backed by popular enthusiasm, winning the seat in March by 1292 votes to 827.

Wilkes was immediately expelled from Parliament as it was assumed he would be imprisoned when he attended court in April. The decision was reversed as it was feared that Wilkes' supporters would riot. In June Wilkes was sentenced to two years imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison. On 3 February 1769 he was again expelled from Parliament, only to be re-elected on 16 February in a by-election. He was expelled again but again re-elected in March, only to be expelled. At the April by-election Parliament produced a rival candidate who was soundly defeated, but nevertheless was awarded the Parliamentary seat. The resulting controversy forced the Prime Minister to resign.

Released in 1770 Wilkes stood for election as alderman for the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. In 1771 he was elected Sheriff and in 1774 Lord Mayor. In the same year he was again elected to the Parliamentary seat for Middlesex. He held this seat until 1790. In 1779 he became the City of London Chamberlain and after leaving Parliament concentrated on this post until his death in 1797.

The origins of the Staines Congregational Church, Thames Street, are in a small congregation of independents formed in 1789. A minister was appointed by the group in the same year, but no meeting house was constructed until 1802. This was situated on Tilley's Lane. In 1837 a new chapel was constructed at Thames Street. Designed by W Higgins, it was brick with an Ionic portico looking towards the High Street. In 1956 this chapel was demolished to allow road widening and a third constructed, designed by J P Blake. The present day church is situated on Stainash Crescent, off Kingston Road.

Major W H Morgan appears to have served with the 711 (Middlesex County Council) Company, Royal Engineers, during the First World War.

Iceland was occupied by British forces in May 1940 despite its neutrality. It was considered strategically important for control of the Atlantic and the battle against U-boat attacks on convoys.

John Wilkes was born in Clerkenwell in 1725. He was educated at the University of Leiden from 1744, where he developed life-long habits of vice and profligacy. In 1747 he returned to England to enter into an arranged marriage. The dowry was the manor of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. In London Wilkes was admitted to several clubs and moved in intellectual circles, while in Aylesbury he participated in local administration as a magistrate. In 1757 he stood for the Aylesbury Parliamentary seat in an uncontested by-election. In 1761 he again won the seat by bribing the voters. Wilkes began to write anonymous political pamphlets and in 1762 he established a political weekly, the North Briton which was highly critical of the Prime Minister Lord Bute and his successor, George Greville. In November 1763 the North Briton was declared to be seditious libel, leaving Wilkes exposed to punitive legal action. At the same time he was badly injured in a pistol duel with another MP. Wilkes fled to Paris to escape legal proceedings and was expelled from Parliament.

In January 1764 Wilkes was convicted for publishing the North Briton. He was summoned to appear at the court of the King's Bench and when he failed to appear was outlawed. Wilkes therefore stayed abroad for four years as returning to England would mean imprisonment. In Paris he moved in intellectual circles and was praised as a champion of freedom, however, he was accruing serious debts. Between 1766 and 1767 he made brief return visits to London, hoping to be pardoned. In 1768 he returned permanently, living under a false name. He announced that he would attend the King's Bench when the court next met, and declared his intention to run for Parliament. He contested for the Middlesex seat and ran a superbly organised campaign backed by popular enthusiasm, winning the seat in March by 1292 votes to 827.

Wilkes was immediately expelled from Parliament as it was assumed he would be imprisoned when he attended court in April. The decision was reversed as it was feared that Wilkes' supporters would riot. In June Wilkes was sentenced to two years imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison. On 3 February 1769 he was again expelled from Parliament, only to be re-elected on 16 February in a by-election. He was expelled again but again re-elected in March, only to be expelled. At the April by-election Parliament produced a rival candidate who was soundly defeated, but nevertheless was awarded the Parliamentary seat. The resulting controversy forced the Prime Minister to resign.

Released in 1770 Wilkes stood for election as alderman for the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. In 1771 he was elected Sheriff and in 1774 Lord Mayor. In the same year he was again elected to the Parliamentary seat for Middlesex. He held this seat until 1790. In 1779 he became the City of London Chamberlain and after leaving Parliament concentrated on this post until his death in 1797.

For most of the 19th century local government in Edmonton was divided among several bodies, although membership often overlapped. At the time of the cholera outbreak in 1853, the vestry appointed a committee to consider the sanitary state of the parish. There was a watching and lighting committee, presumably set up after the Act of 1833, and the overseers collected a lighting rate. A board of the surveyors of the highway was responsible for the roads in the parish by 1841. In 1837 Edmonton parish became a medical district within the poor law union and in 1842 it was divided into three, each with its own medical officer.

Edmonton local board of health was set up in 1850 under the Public Health Act of 1848. It immediately replaced the highway board and took over responsibility for street lighting under the Local Government Act of 1858. It consisted of 12 members who met twice a month at the watch-house in Church Street. Its salaried officials were a clerk, a combined inspector of nuisances and surveyor, and a collector of rates, who later received a percentage of the collected rates in place of a salary. The board was financed by a general district rate, although sometimes there was a separate highway-rate. Expenditure on highways was nearly always considerably greater than on sanitary improvements.

There were many complaints about sewerage, especially from Southgate, where in 1879 a petition for separation from Edmonton was drawn up by the leading landholders and signed by more than 500 people. In 1881 Southgate was granted its own local board (under the Edmonton Local Board (Division of District) Act 1881) and Edmonton local board was reduced to 9 members. Although the loss of the large houses in Southgate deprived it of valuable rates, the Edmonton board seems to have been more active after the separation. Jerry-builders were vigorously prosecuted during the 1880s. During the 1880s and 1890s there were committees for the town hall, cemetery, works, finance, farms, engines, sanitation, and the library. A town hall 'in municipal Perpendicular' was built facing Fore Street in 1884 and enlarged in 1903.

Southgate local board had 9 members, whose first chairman was John Walker of Arnos Grove. The board met twice a month in Ash Lodge and in the village hall until 1893, when council offices were erected to a design by A. Rowland Barker, a Southgate resident; they were enlarged in 1914. Salaried officials were a clerk, treasurer, rate collector, sanitary inspector, medical officer of health, and a combined surveyor and engineer.

Under the Act of 1894 the two local boards became urban districts (U.D.). Edmonton local board of health had used the traditional wards of Bury Street, Church Street, and Fore Street. There had been proposals to add two new wards, Angel Road and Silver Street, and the new U.D. was organized accordingly, with three councillors for each of the five wards. After an inquiry in 1903 the district again consisted of three wards, with nine councillors each. In 1933 the area was divided into Bury Street, Church Street, Angel Road, and Silver Street wards, with seven councillors for each. Southgate U.D. had nine councillors in 1894 and twelve from 1900. In 1906 it was divided into four wards: Middle, South, North-east, and Northwest. Swimming baths and a refuse destructor were erected but the most important achievement was control over the development of the area. Although the number of houses increased eightfold between 1881 and 1931, Southgate remained one of the 'most agreeable of the northern suburbs', largely because of the council's regulations and its acquisition of 287 acres of park-land.

Southgate was incorporated in 1933, retaining its four wards. The council, consisting of a mayor, 7 aldermen, and 21 councillors, was enlarged. Edmonton was incorporated in 1937, after which it had four wards, a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. Southgate Borough Council was consistently dominated by opponents of the Labour party, while Edmonton, at least after the Second World War, was controlled by Labour councillors.

In 1965 Edmonton and Southgate were united in Enfield London Borough, created under the London Government Act of 1963. The names of three Edmonton wards, Angel Road, Church Street, and Silver Street, survived among the 30 wards of the new authority. Edmonton and Southgate town halls were retained to house the borough treasurer, architect, engineer and surveyor, area housing and town planning offices. The education department was housed in Church Street, Edmonton.

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 175-179.