Boole was born in Lincoln on 2 November 1815, son of a small tradesman interested in mechanics and mathematics. He attended the National School in Lincoln and then the small commercial school of Thomas Bainbridge. He engaged in teaching from the age of sixteen, then at twenty opened his own school in the village of Waddington. He devoted every spare minute to the study of Greek, Latin and the modern languages of French, German and Italian. In 1844, while applying the doctrine of the separation of symbols to the solution of differential equations with viable coefficients, he was led to devise a general method in analysis. This paper was printed in the Philosophical Transactions of 1844, and he was awarded the Royal Medal for it. His work had led him to consider the possibility of constructing a calculus of deductive reasoning. He found that logical symbols in general conform to the same fundamental laws which govern the laws of algebra in particular, while also subject to a certain special law. This led to his remarkable essay, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, published in 1847. This demonstrated the calculus of logic, upon the invention of which Boole's fame as a philosophical mathematician rests, and was followed by the publication An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities (subsequently known as 'The Laws of Thought') of 1854. In 1849 he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics in the newly formed Queen's University of Cork. He produced two highly regarded textbooks on 'Differential Equations' and 'Finite Differences', and published a number of highly original papers in various journals, including the Philosophical Transactions. In 1852 the University of Dublin conferred on him the honorary title of LL.D., in consideration of his eminent services to the advancement of mathematical science. In 1857 he was awarded the Keith Medal by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in June of the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1859 at the Oxford Commemoration he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. In 1855 he married Mary, the daughter of the Rev T R Everest, by whom he had five daughters. He died on 8 December 1864 of a feverish cold and congestion of the lungs.
Born, 1775; Profession: Scientific instrument maker; Career: succeeded to his father's business, and extended it to scientific instrument making; invented apparatus, including a Eudiometer, and the Pepys Water gas holder; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1808; died, 1856.
Isaac Newton was born, 1642; Education: Grantham Grammar School; Trinity College, Cambridge; BA (1665), MA (1668); Career: Left Cambridge because of the plague and spent two years at Woolsthorpe, where he did most of the work later published in the 'Principia Mathematica' and 'Opticks' (1665-1667); Fellow of Trinity (1667-death); Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Cambridge (1669-1701); MP for Cambridge University (1689, 1701); Warden of the Mint (1696); Master of the Mint (1699-death); Commissioner for Assessment for Cambridge, Cambridge University and Lincolnshire (1689-1690); acknowledged throughout Europe as a great scientist, philosopher and mathematician, he was involved in bitter controversies with Robert Hooke (FRS 1663), with Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (FRS 1673) over the calculus and with John Flamsteed (FRS 1677) over the publication of his astronomical observations; his body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster; Benefactor to the chapels of Christ's and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge and to Addenbrooke's Hospital; Fellow of the Royal Society, (1672); President of the Royal Society, (1703-1727); Royal Society Council (1697, 1699); died, 1727.
Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield was Born, 1919; Education: Magnus Grammar School, Newark; City and Guilds examination in Radio Communications; diploma from Faraday House Electrical Engineering College, London; Career: Builder's drawing office; volunteer reservist with RAF during WW2 - radar mechanic instructor working at Royal College of Science and then Cranwell Radar School, RAF Certificate of Merit (1945); joined research staff Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) Hayes (1951) working on first all transistor computer to be constructed in Britain (EMIDEC 1100, 1958), moved to EMI Central Research Laboratories where he developed the EMI brain scanner, first demonstrated at Atkinson Morley's Hospital, Wimbledon in September 1971; Head of Medical Systems Section, Thorn EMI Central Research Laboratories (1972-1976), Chief Staff Scientist (1976-1977), Senior Staff Scientist (1977-1985), Consultant to Laboratories (1986-2004); winner of MacRobert Award (1972) and many other honours including Lasker Award (1975); continued to work as a consultant for EMI after retirement until 2002 and also for National Heart and Chest Hospitals, Chelsea and the National Heart Hospital and the Brompton Hospital; Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1994), received six honorary degrees and more than forty awards; Mullard Medal 1977; Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) 1979; Fellow of the Royal Society (1975); died, 2004.
Born, 1892; Kt, 1960; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1941; Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, 1955-1960; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1959-1960; died, 1977.
Education: Merchant Taylors' School; St John's College, Oxford; BCL (1683), Incorporated at Cambridge (1685), DCL (1694); studied botany under Tournefort in Paris (1686-1688); Leyden (admitted 1694); Padua (admitted 1696). Career: Fellow of St John's (1683-1703); granted permission to travel abroad for three periods of five years each (1685); travelled to Geneva, Rome and Naples, Cornwall and Jersey, sending lists of the plants he saw to John Ray (FRS 1667); Tutor to Sir Arthur Rawdon at Moira, Co Down (1690-1694), Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (FRS 1706), with whom he travelled in Europe (1694), Wriothesley, son of William, Lord Russell, with whom he travelled in France and Italy (1695-1699), Henry, Duke of Beaufort, at Badminton (1700-1702); Commissioner for Sick and Wounded Prisoners (1702); English Consul at Smyrna, where he grew many rare plants in his garden, formed a celebrated herbarium and travelled in Asia Minor (1703-1717); travelled in Europe (1721, 1723, 1727); bequeathed £3000 to found the chair of Botany at Oxford first occupied by his friend John James Dillenius (FRS 1724).
Marjorie L Caygill had an extensive career at the British Museum, and is the author of several books on the Museum and its collections.
The British Medical Association was founded, as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, in Worcester in 1832 by Dr (later Sir) Charles Hastings. There was no regulation of the profession at this time and anyone, whetherqualified or not, could practise as a doctor. The Association lobbied for aregulatory body and this led to the setting up of the General Medical Council in 1858. The Association also campaigned on behalf of doctors providing medical care under the Poor Laws and on other issues.
The Association's membership grew rapidly. In 1853, it extended its membership to London doctors and became the British Medical Association in 1856.
The former Kingdom of Benin is situated in SW Nigeria. Ruled by the Oba and by a sophisticated bureaucracy, the African state flourished (14th-17th centuries). Benin sold slaves as well as ivory, pepper, and cloth to Europeans. After a period of decline, it revived in the 19th century with a trade in palm products. The modern Nigerian city of Benin (1987 est. pop. 183,000) served as the capital and was conquered and burned by the British in 1898. Iron work, carved ivory, and bronze busts made in Benin rank with the finest art of Africa.
The demand for a separate State or Region by the peoples of the Benin and Delta Provinces of Western Nigeria, the Edo, Urhobo, Isioko, Itsekiri, Western Ibo, Ishan and Afenmai dates back to 1938. After World War Two the demand began to gain momentum. The matter was discussed at the 1957 Conference on the Nigerian Constitution, and the British Colonial Secretary, Alan Lennox Boyd [later Lord Boyd of Merton] appointed a Commission of Inquiry, under Sir Henry Willink to ascertain the facts about the fears of minorities in Nigeria and to propose means of allaying those fears, and to make recommendations on the creation of new states.
The South African Institute of Race Relations was established in 1929.
The late 1960s and early 1970s in Australia saw the burgeoning of new movements which sought to influence the political process, often on single issues and from outside the established parties which were the conventional channels of political expression. The most popular of these included the anti-war movement, the anti-uranium movement, the land rights movement, the women's movement and the conservation movement, although as the list above indicates there was no shortage of other issues prompting the formation of new pressure groups. Some of these movements coalesced into mainstream political organisations, in the case of the Green Party with significant electoral success, whilst others remain on the margins or have been co-opted by the very forces and institutions they set out to challenge - an example of this being the deradicalizing of the agendas of many feminist groups. The materials held here reflect first-hand both the concerns and the struggles of these movements.
The two main issues arising in the pressure groups' materials held here are those of discrimination against scheduled castes and of inter-community violence and human rights abuses reported in the early 1990s.
The majority of the materials held here are concerned with the ethnic strife between Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority. The latter considered itself discriminated against by language and university admisson policies introduced in the 1950s and 1970s respectively, as well as by the encouragement of Sinhalese settlement in the traditionally Tamil northern and eastern areas of the island, and in response a number of militant Tamil groups emerged, most notably the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Folowing the communal riots of 1981 and 1983 support for these groups increased, as the country degenerated into a state of civil war. Despite peace initiatives and intervention by India the situation continues to remain unstable, hence the continued issuance of material by the groups represented here, notably the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.
The pressure and interest group materials assembled here date predominantly from the 1970s and 1980s and their content has almost certainly been influenced by the research interests of those collecting them as well as by the prevailing issues of the time. Thus whilst the lobbying efforts of the business community are not represented in this collection a variety of women's groups and pro-labour organisations are, along with several movements concerned with human rights in general. In addition there is a wide selection of materials from different Québécois groups, dealing both with the province's constitutional status around the time of the 1980 referendum and with other domestic issues.
As the Burnham administration moved to consolidate its power in the years following independence in 1966 groups like the Civil Liberties Action Council emerged challenging the erosion of rights in Guyana and disputing the fairness of various national and local elections. This criticism provoked further repressive measures which in turn stimulated the formation of the likes of the Guyana Human Rights Association and groups affiliated to the major political parties such as the Women's Progressive Organisation (linked to the PPP) and the Women's Revolutionary Socialist Movement (linked to the PNC).
The legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism dominated Jamaican politics throughout the period that the materials held here cover, and as a consequence all the items are connected in some way with Jamaican independence, whether reflecting upon the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865, warning against the INF agreements of 1977-1978 or discussing the merits of a republican constitution.
A significant number of the materials held here are British in origin, and include both the publications of human rights pressure groups campaigning for the release of political prisoners during the presidency of Daniel Arap Moi, and the Voice of Kenya newsletter which presented the viewpoint of the European population of Kenya at the time of the Mau Mau freedom movement in the 1950s. Organisations concerned with the pre-independence constitutional debates and with the demand for increased democracy in the 1980s are also represented, and there is also a constitution originating from the main Kenyan trade union federation.
The vast majority of the materials held in this collection date from the period between UDI in 1965 and Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, and include items issued by organisations both supporting and opposing majority rule. Many of the former were based abroad, and they also include in their number several Christian groups. Materials published by the pioneering multi-racial project the Cold Comfort Farm Society are also held here.
Previously known as British Honduras, Belize finally became independent in 1981, the process having been delayed more by the unresolved sovereignty dispute with Guatemala (which did not recognise the new state until 1992) than by instransigence on the behalf of London. The colony had enjoyed universal suffrage from 1954 and was granted full internal self-government from 1964, with George Price's People's United Party (PUP) and its anti-colonial stance initially dominating the domestic political scene. From the formation of the economically more liberal United Democratic Party (UDP) in 1973 a genuine two-party system emerged, with ethnic difference threatening more recently to replace political ideology as the main distinction between the two. The views of the PUP and UDP, as well as those of more minor parties, on the developments described above are represented in the materials held here.
Canada emerged from World War Two with the power and jurisdiction of its federal government greatly enhanced by the necessity of wartime controls and centralization, and the post-war period has borne witness to a complex debate between the provinces and Ottawa as to the extent to which this power should be limited or even relinquished. Complicating the issue has been the presence within the confederation of predominantly francophone Quebec, where the desire for special status or even independence has in turn impacted upon the demands made by the other provinces and territories. This has also had an effect on the political party system, with perhaps only the Liberals (and until recently the Progressive Conservatives) consistently being able to lay claim to being a truly national party whilst other essentially regionalist parties (Social Credit, Bloc Quebecois, the Reform Party and arguably the New Democratic Party) sent representatives to the national parliament. External relations have also been a focus for debate, with concern centring on the United States and its economic and cultural influence, as well as the consequences for Canadian foreign policy of following the lead of its powerful neighbour. These issues and others are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials held here.
Although trades unions had functioned in The Gambia from the 1920s, it was not until the 1950s that the first political parties emerged. Disputes between these parties, which included the Gambia Muslim Congress, the United Party and the Protectorate People's Party (later to become the Peoples' Progressive Party), delayed agreement on the transition to independence until 1965, when Dawda Kairaba Jawara of the PPP became the country's first Prime Minister. Though Gambia had a multi-party electoral system Jawara and the PPP remained in power until the 1994 coup, during which time the country became a republic (1970), experienced its first coup (1981) and formed a confederation with Senegal (Senegambia, 1982-1989). The leader of the second coup, Yahya Jammeh, has since won two presidential elections under a new constitution with his Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (Gambia), although several opposition parties were either banned from or boycotted the polls. The materials here cover the entire period from the end of colonial rule to the Jammeh era.
Guadeloupe changed hands been France and Britain many times before settling as a French colony in 1815. Since 1946 it has been an overseas département of France.
The politics of the areas now known as Malaysia have been dominated since independence by ethnic divisions which have permeated the economic as well as the cultural and political spheres. While the Malays form a majority of the population under the British they were largely excluded from urban roles and economic ownership in favour of the large Chinese minority, while the Indian community largely worked in serflike conditions on the peninsula's rubber plantations. The Federation of Malaya was created in 1952, and the aforementioned differences were initially resolved by the formation of the Alliance Party comprising the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the Malayan - later Malaysian - Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malayan - later Malaysian - Indian Congress (MIC). This multi-racial umbrella organisation presided over independence in 1957 and the merger with Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah which created the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 (Singapore left in 1965). Yet subsuming potentially antagonistic groups inside the Alliance almost guaranteed that the challenge to one-party rule would draw on the dissatisfaction of ethnic groups which no longer felt the original parties were representing their interests, and so new parties emerged in opposition, most notably the largely Malay Parti Islam-Se-Malaysia (PAS) and the predominantly Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP). The advances of the latter in the 1969 elections led to communal rioting and the two-year suspension of parliament, which was dominated upon its recall by a new coalition, the Barisan Nasional, based upon the Alliance but with a greater Malay dominance. This party has remained in power since, presiding over the impressive Malaysian growth of the New Economic Policy period of the 1970s and 1980s but also over a democratic process which looked increasingly unlikely to offer any possibility of a change of government.
Since achieving independence in 1960 Nigeria has oscillated between periods of civilian and military rule. From the start the fact that that the three main parties (the Northern People's Congress (NPC), the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) and the Action Group (AG)) largely represented particular ethnic and linguistic groups made for a volatile political environment. Two coups in 1966 led to a suspension of electoral politics until 1979, when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) led by Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari took power following victory in the elections of that year. The result was repeated four years later, but against a background of vote-rigging allegations the military overthrew the government. Despite changes of leader, limited tolerance of political parties and aborted elections it was not until the 1999 polls that under Olusegun Obasanjo of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) the country returned to civilian administration. The vast majority of the holdings date from the periods when party politics was tolerated, and include regional and seperatist materials occasioned by the religious, tribal and linguistic divisions that have dogged Nigeria since independence. Another recurring theme is that of economic crisis and foreign exploitation, relected particularly in items originating from left-wing and nationalist political parties and in the small amount of trade union material. Besides items produced in Nigeria itself there are also a significant number of newsletters and pamphlets originating from the United Kingdom branches of parties and organisations, most of them dating from the periods of military rule.
As the Union of South Africa (1910-1961) and subsequently as a republic the country's history between independence from British rule and the 1994 elections has been dominated by the issue of relations between its different racial groups. Following the ascension to power of the Boer-dominated National Party in 1948 racial discrimination became increasingly entrenched in law as part of the 'apartheid' policy. Resistance and repression increased together, with groups representing the demands of the non-white population (notably the PAC and the ANC) being banned and subsequently conducting an armed struggle from various bases in sympathetic neighbouring countries. Legislation such as the pass laws and the ruling requiring all pupils to learn Afrikaans led to protests and subsequent massacres, in the former case at Sharpeville in 1960 and in the latter in Soweto in 1976. Domestic events were played out against a backdrop of increasing foreign condemnation of the apartheid regime and its consciousness of the vulnerability of its position as an important factor in Cold War strategy. These issues, as well as the disputes between different factions in the liberation and apartheid movements, are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials held here. In addition, newer materials deal with the political scene after the transition to majority rule and the problems such as endemic poverty and AIDS which have tempered the initial optimism of the post-apartheid era.
Sabah, previously British North Borneo, joined with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
Sierra Leone's 1951 constitution inaugurated a process of increasing self-government culminating in independence in 1961. Its first post-independence elections were won by the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) in 1962, but after an unsuccessful attempt to establish a one-party state the SLPP was defeated at the polls in 1967 by the All People's Congress (APC) of Siaka Stevens. This prompted a series of coups and counter-coups until eventually Stevens assumed the prime ministership of the country in 1968. Having himself successfully enacted a one-party state in 1978 he and his successor Joseph Saidu Momoh ruled Sierra Leone until 1992, when the combination of an armed rebellion from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and a coup overthrowing Momoh and installing a National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) plunged the country into a civil war from which it is only now tentatively emerging. The majority of the materials held here date from the period between the granting of the first constitution and the 1992 coup, and originate from both the governing party and opposition groups objecting to failures of democracy and perceived economic mismanagement. There are also a significant quantity of items produced by the country's Electoral Commission for the instruction of voters at the crucial 1967 election.
Since the independence of the Bahamas in 1973 the Turks and Caicos Islands have been a separate colony of the United Kingdom, with a 1976 constitution providing for democratic elections. These elections have seen the islands' two main parties, the People's Democratic Movement (PDM) and the Progressive National Party (PNP) alternate in power.
The sole materials currently held here originate from the United Workers' Party (UWP), which was in power in Saint Lucia for most of the period between 1964 and 1997 including the transition to independence in 1979.
By 1963 the British administration, struggling to maintain its grip on the port of Aden and the surrounding territories, had created a Federation in the hope that this would satisfy growing nationalist sentiment in the region. The ATUC pamphlet here rejects this development and instead calls for free elections which it anticipates will produce representatives committed to uniting the colony with the Yemen Arab Republic.
The union scene on the islands was dominated in the post war period by the Antigua Trades and Labour Union, formed in 1940 and led by Vere Cornwall Bird. Its political arm, the Antigua Labour Party, subsequently became the vehicle by which many erstwhile union leaders transformed themselves into politicians. The materials here mainly originate from union conferences of the 1950s and 1960s, but also include items concerning agreements struck with the oil company Esso and detailing the progress of an unfair dismissal case.
Sri Lanka had been traditionally highly unionised, particularly in the state sector, and the majority of the materials held here date from the period in the 1970s when the influence of organised labour was at its highest. Most of the items originate from umbrella organisations like the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC), whose relative militancy prior to 1977 and subsequent support for the United National Party government that came to power that year epitomises the ebbing of union power in the 1980s. Some of the material found here relates to the struggle for worker's rights in the most turbulent sector of the island's economy, tea production.
The 1950s and 1960s saw an expansion in union power and membership as the high demand for labour in a growing economy strengthened its representatives' bargaining power. At the same time the merger of the Canadian Congress of Labour and the Trades and Labor Congress, which formed the Canadian Labor Congress, both allowed labour to present a more united front and facilitated the setting up in 1961 of the New Democratic Party, a political party intended at least in part to represent union interests. Yet by the 1970s and 1980s the movement found itself on the back foot, as the Trudeau wage controls and later demands for a more flexible workforce and the loss of manufacturing jobs contributed to the erosion of hard-won rights. The materials here, mainly from union confederations, deal with their internal and external responses to the changing conditions described above.
Part of the British Windward Islands Federation until 1958, Grenada then joined the West Indies (Federation) and when that dissolved in 1962 was made part of a further federation comprising Great Britain's remaining East Caribbean dependencies. After achieving "associated statehood" in 1967 it finally became independent in 1974, with Eric Gairy of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) becoming the country's first Prime Minister. The emergence in the 1970s of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) posed a challenge to Gairy that was met by an increasingly authoritarian approach. The NJM took power in a 1979 coup and established a people's revolutionary government (PRG) with Maurice Bishop at its head, but differences between Bishop and the more radical wing of the government led by Bernard Coard led to the death of the revolutionary leader in an armed fracas and the subsequent invasion of the island by the United States. Elections following the invasion saw the return of the New National Party (NNP), and this party or offshoots of it have governed the country ever since. The materials held here all date from the period prior to independence and include constitutions produced in the 1950s during a period of expansion for the Grenadian trade union movement as well as later bulletins produced by both blue and white collar unions. Interestingly these latter publications concentrate on the industrial rather than the political sphere, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that by this time Eric Gairy's union-based GULP party was in office.
The trade union movement in India inevitably became bound up with the independence movement, with the foundation of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)in 1920 reflecting the increase in political and national consciousness following the First World War. An indication of the degree to which the economic struggle was subsumed in favour of the fight for independence can be found in the split which followed independence, with the Indian National Congress forming the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in response to communist domination of the AITUC. The struggles of these umbrella organisations to work inside and outside the system throughout a period marked by increasing socio-economic and political crisis (encompassing the curtailing of trade union freedoms during the emergency and the wave of strikes under the Janata Party administration) are reflected in the materials here, as are the more generalised protests against the erosion of civil rights in this period by the likes of the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).
The Trinidad and Tobago labour movement was particularly significant in the 1960s and 1970s, the period from which most of the materials in this collection originate. Particularly well represented are the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU), an organisation whose significance mirrored the importance of oil to the country's economy, and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factories Workers Trade Union (ATSE/FWTU), who represented the largely East Indian sugar cane workers. Though Trinidad and Tobago was unusual in the Caribbean area in that unions tended not to affiliate to political parties, this is not to say that they did not involve themselves in politics - as shown here by the polemics issued by OWTU leader George Weekes against the ruling People's National Movement (PNM), accused of selling out the workers. Also represented here are union federations, of which the most prominent were the Trinidad and Tobago Labour Congress and the Council of Progressive Trade Unions, and many smaller organisations. Following the economic downturn of the 1980s and the opening up of the previously state-dominated economy, union membership and influence declined, but a significant proportion of the workforce continues to be unionised and materials continue to be collected.
Thomas Young was born, 1730; MD, University of Edinburgh, 1761; apprenticed as an apothecary and surgeon in Edinburgh, becoming a master surgeon in 1755; joined the Incorporation of Surgeons, 1751; Deacon of the Incorporation of Surgeons, 1756-1762; Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh, 1756-1783; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1762; created a Lying-In Ward at the Royal Infirmary to give clinical lectures which eventually became the Edinburgh Maternity Hospital; died, 1783.
James Prew was a surgeon dentist of Bristol and Bath.
St Bartholomew's Hospital was founded, with the Priory of St Bartholomew, in 1123 by Rahere, a former courtier of Henry I. A vow made while sick on a pilgrimage to Rome, and a vision of St Bartholomew, inspired Rahere to found a priory and a hospital for the sick poor at Smithfield in London. Rahere was the first Prior of the Priory of Austin Canons in Smithfield and supervised the Hospital House. In 1170 a layman Adam the Mercer was given charge of the Hospital as the first Proctor and a certain amount of independence from the Priory was achieved. After 1170 grants were received by the Hospital, which attracted valuable endowments of property.
However, relations with the Priory remained problematic throughout the medieval period. There were conflicts over several issues, including the admittance of brethren, lay-brethren and sisters who cared for the sick in the early medieval period. Gradually the Hospital became independent, and was using a distinctive seal from about 1200. By 1300 the title of Proctor used for the head of the Hospital was dropped in favour of Master. By 1420 the two institutions had become entirely separate. As well as caring for patients from the City of London and the country the brethren looked after small children and babies from Newgate Prison, and orphans. By the 15th century a school had been formed with a latin master, and a night shelter for pilgrims and travellers was provided.
The Priory of St Bartholomew was closed during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, and although the Hospital was allowed to continue, its future was uncertain as it had no income. The citizens of London, concerned about the disappearance of provision for the sick poor and the possibility of plague, petitioned the King in 1538 for the grant of four hospitals in the City including St Bartholomew's. In 1546-1547 St Bartholomew's Hospital was refounded as a secular institution and a Master and Vice-Master, Curate, Hospitaller and Visitor of Newgate Prison were appointed. Henry issued a signed agreement dated December 1546 granting the Hospital to the City of London, and Letters Patent of January 1547 endowing it with properties and income, comprising most of its medieval property. Along with Bethlem, Bridewell and St Thomas', St Bartholomew's became one of four Royal Hospitals administered by the City.
In 1546 four Aldermen and eight Common Councillors of the City of London became the first Governors of the Hospital. They administered the Hospital and appointed paid officials, including a Renter-Clerk, Steward, Porter and eight Beadles. The Board of Governors also divided work amongst themselves. Four were Almoners with responsibility for admitting and discharging patients, ordering stock and checking bills. They worked closely with the Treasurer, responsible for Hospital finances. The weekly meetings of the Treasurer and Almoners developed into an executive committee in the 19th century, reporting to General Courts of the Governors, and became the Executive and Finance Committee in 1948. Other Governors were Surveyors of the Hospital buildings and property. The first professional Surveyor was appointed in 1748. Some Governors had responsibility for inspecting financial statements, and worked closely with the Treasurer and Almoners. Their meetings developed into the House Committee in the 18th century, dealing with leases, appointments and reports of the Hospital Surveyor. The House Committee met frequently and eventually came to manage the routine running of the Hospital. The General Courts of Governors were held two or three times a year. The basic constitution of the Hospital remained the same until the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948. The Medical Council was formed in 1842 to give expert advice to the Governors, and comprised all physicians and surgeons serving the Hospital.
The nursing staff on the Hospital's re-foundation consisted of a Matron and twelve Sisters, and there were also three Surgeons who had to attend the poor daily. Nurses, or "Sisters' helpers", were first recorded in 1647. Although a Physician had been provided for in the Agreement of 1546, the first Physician was not appointed until 1562. A Medical School was gradually established from the end of the 18th century, but its foundation is generally attributed to the efforts of the surgeon and lecturer John Abernethy, who in 1822 persuaded the Hospital Governors to pass a resolution giving formal recognition to the School. Bart's was one of the first hospitals in the 19th century to encourage the use of anaesthetics, making a great many more kinds of operation possible. Understanding of infection and the importance of antiseptic procedures in surgery were only gradually accepted at Bart's, but once adopted did a great deal to reduce patient mortality. The development of medical science, particularly in pathology and bacteriology, led to an increased knowledge of disease. X-rays were first used in the Hospital in 1896 and by the end of the century the first specialised departments had been established. A School of Nursing at St Bartholomew's was founded in 1877. A notable early Matron was Ethel Gordon Manson, better known as Mrs Bedford Fenwick, who encouraged a high standard of training and campaigned for the state registration of nurses.
All the medieval hospital buildings were demolished during the 18th century rebuilding programme, carried out to the designs of architect James Gibbs. The staircase leading to the Great Hall in the North Wing is decorated with two huge paintings by the artist William Hogarth. Other buildings have continued to be added as the need has arisen, including Medical College buildings, nurses' accommodation and new ward blocks.
The Hospital remained open throughout the World Wars, although during World War Two many services were evacuated to Hertfordshire and Middlesex. In 1954 it became the first hospital in the country to offer mega-voltage radiotherapy for cancer patients. Cancer services remain a speciality today. Other notable medical specialities are endocrinology and immunology (particularly HIV/AIDS), while a Day Surgery Unit and state-of-the-art operating theatres were opened in 1991 and 1993.
In 1948 St Bartholomew's became part of the National Health Service, and following re-organisation in 1974 became the teaching hospital for the newly-formed City and Hackney Health District, which included several other hospitals. In the late 1980s, Bart's was planning to set up a self-governing hospital trust when its future was called into question by the publication in 1992 of the Tomlinson Report of the Inquiry into the London Health Service. Bart's was not regarded as a viable hospital and its closure was recommended. The Government's response to this report (Making London Better, 1993), laid out three possible options for Bart's: closure, retention as a small specialist hospital, or merger with the Royal London Hospital and the London Chest Hospital. This produced an intense public debate and a campaign to save the Hospital on its Smithfield site. The result was St Bartholomew's remained open, and joined with the Royal London and the London Chest to form the Royal Hospitals NHS Trust in 1994, which became Barts and The London NHS Trust in 1999. St Bartholomew's Hospital now provides specialist cardiac and cancer care. The Medical Colleges of St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Royal London Hospital merged with Queen Mary, University of London in 1989, to form the Central and East London Confederation (CELC). Following the recommendations of the Tomlinson Report (1992) and the governmental response to it (Making London Better, 1993), the colleges united with Queen Mary and Westfield College in December 1995, to become known as Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
The case concerned Richard Paternoster's claim for damages after he was seized and certified as a lunatic in 1838. Witnesses included Edward James Seymour, Commissioner in Lunacy, Benjamin Hawes, MP, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Richard Paternoster went on to publish, in 1841, The madhouse system, a pamphlet attacking 'the absurdities of the Lunacy Act'.
Alec Haggis was a staff member of Wellcome Historical Medical Museum.
[Jonas] Henrik Kellgren (1837-1916) was a practitioner of Swedish medical gymnastics and helped to disseminate the technique beyond Sweden. He was born in Alingsas, southern Sweden, matriculated in 1855 and became an officer in the Swedish Army in 1858. In 1863-1865 he trained at the Kungliga Gymnastika Centralinstitut in Stockholm (founded 1813 by Per Henrik Ling, the pioneer of medical gymnastics), gaining the institute's diploma, and took up the post of teacher of pedagogical gymnastics at Lidköping. Following the death of his wife and son, however, he left Sweden and settled in Germany, setting up the Schwedisches Heilgymnastisches Institut in Gotha. In the early 1870s his health broke down and he retired from full-time work, taking up residence in London. Here he founded the Swedish Institution for the Cure of Diseases by Manual Treatment. An expanding practice was reflected in the foundation of further institutes in the German resorts of Norderney (1877) and Baden-Baden (1883), and in Paris (1884); in summer he took patients to Sanna, near Jönköping in Sweden, leading to the foundation of a sanatorium there. He became the director of the Kungliga Gymnastika Centralinstitut in Stockholm. His son-in-law, Edgar Ferdinand Cyriax, who took up residence in London, was also an important figure in the spread of Kellgren's techniques of Swedish remedial gymnastics and massage to the United Kingdom.
Born, 1877; Graduated MB. BS. University of Durham, 1898; Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne; Postgraduate study at Vienna; MS, 1901; FRCS, 1903; Elected to staff of Royal Infirmary, 1906; Service with R.A.M.C. at home and overseas - for a time as consulting surgeon in Mesopotamia; 1914-1918; Council of Royal College of Surgeons, 1926-1950; Professor Surgery in University of Durham, 1927; President of the Association of Surgeons of GB and Ireland Hunterian Professor, 1928; Orator, Medical Society of London, 1929; President Medical Society of London, 1934; Professor of Surgery in new British Postgraduate Medical School, 1935; Vice President, Royal College of Surgeons, 1937-1939; President, Medical Society of London, 1943-1944; died, 1951.
Born, 1780; spent four years studying under the Norwich surgeon Philip Meadows Martineau, before matriculating at Edinburgh University in 1800; graduated MD at Edinburgh, 1803; attended Robert Willan's practice at the Public Dispensary in Carey Street, London, 1803; fellow of the Medical Society of London, 1803; went on a year-long European tour, 1805-1806; extra-licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1807; private practice in Norfolk; physician to the Norfolk Public Dispensary; physician to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and the Bethel Hospital for Lunatics, 1808; died, 1814.