De Beer was born on 1 November 1899 at Malden, Surrey. His early life was spent abroad and he attended the Ecole Pascale in Paris. He came to England in 1912 and attended Harrow School, followed by Magdalen College Oxford. He joined the Grenadier Guards and was called up, but the First World War ended soon afterwards. He returned to Oxford and studied zoology, achieving a first class honours in 1921. He was elected to a Prize Fellowship of Merton College in 1923, and held this until 1938. From 1926 to 1938 De Beer was Jenkinson Lecturer in Embryology at Oxford. He served in the Second World War, being involved with psychological warfare. From 1946 to 1950 he was Professor of Embryology at University College London and from 1950 to 1960 Director of the British Museum (Natural History). He then joined the publishing company Thomas Nelson, initially as a Director and later as Editorial Consultant. He was President of the Linnean Society from 1946 to 1949. He was knighted in 1954. He won many medals during his lifetime and published a many of books on a range of subjects, from embryology and genetics to travelling in Switzerland. De Beer died on 21 June 1972.
Born 1899; educated at the Ecole Pascal, Paris, Harrow School and Magdalen College, Oxford, 1917; Grenadier Guards and Army Education Scheme, 1918-1919; Magdalen, 1919-1921; graduated with Zoology degree in 1921; fellow of Merton College, 1923-1938; taught in the University Zoology Department until 1938; reader in embryology, University College London, 1938; Professor, 1945-1950; World War Two work in intelligence, propaganda and psychological warfare; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1940; President of the Linnean Society, 1946-1949; Director of the British Museum (Natural History), 1950-1960; knighted, 1954; retired, 1960; lived in Switzerland, 1965-1971; died 1972. Publications: Growth (London, 1924); Early travellers in the Alps (London, 1930); Vertebrate zoology (London, 1932); An introduction to experimental embryology (Oxford, 1934); De Beer and Julian Sorell Huxley, Elements of experimental embryology (Cambridge, 1934); The development of the vertebrate skull (Oxford, 1937); edited, Evolution. Essays on aspects of evolutionary biology presented to Professor E S Goodrich on his seventieth birthday (Oxford, 1938); Alps and elephants. Hannibal's march (London, 1955); Darwin's Journal (London, 1959); edited Darwin's notebooks on transmutation of species (London, 1960); Charles Darwin: evolution by natural selection (London, 1963); Atlas of evolution (London, 1964); Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his world (London, 1972).
The Beer Trade Protection Society represented 41,000 "beershops" and 89,000 public houses in England. The Society was based in London and was mainly concerned with the sale of beer and ale within the capital. The Society had a number of functions. It was a political lobbying group but also cared for retired or distressed inn-keepers and their dependents. The Society was particularly concerned with defending the Beerhouse Act of 1830, which exempted the sale of beer from the need to be licensed by a justice. This provision of the Act was under constant pressure from temperance groups.
Edward Spencer Beesly went to Wadham College Oxford, graduating in 1854. In 1859 he was appointed Principal of University Hall, London. He was Professor of History at University College London, 1860-1893, and also Professor of Latin at Bedford College London, 1860-1889. In 1869 he married Henry Crompton's sister Emily. In 1882 he was a radical candidate for Marylebone and in 1885 a radical candidate for Westminster. In 1893 he became editor of the Positivist Review. Beesly died in 1915.
In 1813 the health of Beethoven's brother Kaspar Anton Karl began to seriously deteriorate through tuberculosis and on 12 April 1813 he signed a declaration appointing Ludwig guardian of his son Karl, then aged six, in the event of his death. Kaspar died on 15 Nov 1815. In his will dated the previous day, Kaspar had assigned guardianship of his son Karl both to his wife Johanna and to Ludwig, in order to encourage Johanna and Ludwig to forego their previous antipathy. The arrangement was not a success, as Ludwig was convinced of Johanna's moral unsuitability to act as guardian, and wished to take charge of all responsibilities for Karl's uprising as a surrogate father. On 9 Jan 1816 Beethoven was appointed by the Imperial and Royal Landrechte of Lower Austria sole guardian of Karl, overturning their decision of the previous November to appoint Johanna and Ludwig as joint guardians and Beethoven 'co-guardian'. Beethoven took Karl away from his mother and placed him in the boarding school in Vienna run by Kajetan Giannatasio del Rio in 1816 where he stayed until the end of January 1818. During this period the court permitted Ludwig to allow Johanna to visit Karl only at certain times sanctioned by Ludwig. Giannatasio del Rio had two daughters, Fanny and Anna (Nanni), who both became close friends of Beethoven. Beethoven composed a piece (MS 4222) for Nanni's marriage in 1819.
Born 1946; educated at Winchester and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; commissioned into the 11 Hussars (Prince Albert's Own), 1963; served with the 11 Hussars (Prince Albert's Own), British Army of the Rhine, West Germany, 1963-1968; resigned commission, 1968; lived in Paris, France, and worked on first novel, The violent brink (John Murray, London, 1975); author and military historian, from 1973; made Chevalier de l'Orde des Artes et des Lettres by French Government. Publications: The violent brink (John Murray, London, 1975); For reasons of state (Cape, London, 1980); The Spanish Civil War (Orbis, London, 1982); The Faustian pact (Cape, London, 1983); The enchantment of Christina von Retzen (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1989); Inside the British Army (Chatto Windus, London, 1990); Crete: the battle and the resistance (John Murray, London, 1991); Paris after the liberation, 1944-1949 (Penguin, London, 1995) with Artemis Cooper, ; Stalingrad (Viking, London, 1998).
Thomas Beighton: born at Ednaston, Derbyshire, 1790; studied at Gosport; appointed to the Malacca mission of the London Missionary Society (LMS); ordained at Derby, 1817; married Abigail Tobitt; sailed to Malacca via Madras with his wife, 1818; stationed at Penang, 1819; carried out missionary work in Penang, the Malayan Peninsula, and the Queda coast, particularly educational work and translation; responsible for the mission printing press at Penang, which produced materials in Malay and English; died in Penang, 1844. Publications: various Christian texts published in Malay, 1836-1841.
Abigail Beighton (née Tobitt): born, 1791; engaged in missionary work in female education; returned to England, 1846; died at Barnet, 1879.
Born in Germany, 1865; Director, British South Africa Company; Director, Rhodesia Railways Ltd; Member, Governing Body of Imperial College, 1912-1930; Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, and Beit Railway Trust for Rhodesia; founded Beit Memorial Trust for Medical Research; established the Beit Fellowship at Imperial College in memory of his brother Alfred, 1913; created 1st Baronet, 1924; died, 1930.
Founded 1909 to promote the advancement of medical science through the award of research fellowships by Otto Beit (later Sir Otto) in memory of his brother Alfred, who had died in 1906, from whom Otto, as residual legatee, inherited a large fortune. The purpose of the Fellowships was to promote the advancement of medical science at a time when research scholarships were few. The first Fellowships were awarded in 1910. Initially the Fellowships were for a period of three years, with the only condition on application being that the candidate was of European descent by both parents, although the Deed of Foundation was altered in 1945 to open up the field to applicants with a degree from any university in the British Empire. In 1922 it was decided that Fellows could extend their period of study to four years in exceptional circumstances. At the same time a Senior Fellowship was established, also for a period of three years, for those who had held both a Junior and a Fourth Year Fellowship, allowing research to be carried out for total of seven years. The Fellowships are governed by a Board of Trustees and an Advisory Boar, the Trustees being men involved in public affairs, and the Advisory Board made up of eminent medics and scientists. The Principal of the University of London is always ex-officio a member of the Board of Trustees.
Charles Tilstone Beke was an explorer in Abyssinia.
Anne, Lady Belasyse was the daughter of John (Pawlet) 5th Marquess of Winchester, and his wife Honora. She was the third wife of John, Baron Belasyse of Worlaby, Lincolnshire. Lord Belasyse died 10 September, 1689, aged 75. Lady Belasyse died in September 1694 and was buried at St. Giles in the Fields.
From information taken from the London County Council's Survey of London, Volume V; The Parish of St. Giles in the Fields (Part II) 1914, the house in Great Queen Street which was known at one time as Bristol House and had been the home of the second Earl of Bristol from the Restoration until about 1671, was purchased by Lord Belasyse in 1684. Shortly afterwards the house was divided into two, to be numbered respectively 55-56 and 57-58 Great Queen Street. The first four occupants of the eastern half (nos. 57-58) were the Earl of Wiltshire, the Earl of Stamford, Henry, Viscount Montagu and the Portuguese envoy. It later was demolished and the site became part of the Freemason's Hall.
The Survey of London, quoting the will of Lord Belasyse, that "prior to 1689" the portion of Bristol House which became nos. 55-56 Great Queen Street had been occupied by Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk: "His residence {there} must have fallen in the period 1684-1689. Subsequently it was occupied by Thomas Stonor who had married the Hon. Isabella Belasyse, daughter of Lord Belasyse, to whom her father had bequeathed this portion of the original house; Stonor is shown in occupation in 1698 ..." Lady Belasyse must have occupied the house from her husband's death in 1689 until her own death in 1694.
Belcher entered the Navy in 1812, became a lieutenant in 1818 and a commander in 1829. After early experiences surveying in Arctic regions and a lengthy survey of the Pacific, he was given post-rank and a knighthood in 1841. From 1842 to 1847 he commanded the SAMARANG, in which he surveyed the coasts of Borneo, the Philippines and Formosa (Taiwan). In 1852 he was appointed to the Assistance to search for Sir John Franklin (q.v.). He was court-martialled for abandoning his ships but acquitted; one, however, was recovered the following year. He saw no more active service and reached the rank of admiral in 1872.
Sir Edward Belcher, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 27 February 1799. Belcher entered the navy in April 1812, and after serving in several ships in the channel and on the Newfoundland station was a midshipman of the Superb (Captain Charles Ekins) at the bombardment of Algiers in August 1816. He was made lieutenant on 21 July 1818; appointed assistant surveyor to the Blossom, and in May 1825 sailed for the Pacific Ocean and Bering Strait on a voyage of exploration of more than three years. He was made commander on 16 March 1829, and from May 1830 to September 1833 commanded the Aetna, surveying parts of the west and north coasts of Africa.
Following this Belcher was employed for some time on the home survey, principally in the Irish sea, and in November 1836 was appointed to the Sulphur, a surveying ship. After visiting several of the island groups in the south Pacific and making such observations, Belcher arrived at Singapore in October 1840, where he was ordered back to China, due to war; during the following year he was actively engaged, especially in operations in the Canton River. He returned to England in July 1842, after a commission of nearly seven years. Belcher had already been advanced to post rank (6 May 1841) and was made a CB (14 October 1841); in January 1843 he was made a knight.
In November 1842 Belcher was appointed to the Samarang for the survey of the coast of China, which the recent war and treaty had opened to British trade. More pressing necessities, however, changed her field of work to Borneo, the Philippines, and Taiwan, and on these and neighbouring coasts Belcher was employed for nearly five years surveying and fighting pirates. In 1852 he was appointed to command an Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. The appointment was unfortunate; for Belcher, though an able and experienced surveyor, had already demonstrated that he had neither the temper nor the tact necessary for a commanding officer under circumstances of peculiar difficulty. Belcher was never employed again, though he attained his flag on 11 February 1861, became vice-admiral on 2 April 1866, and admiral on 20 October 1872. Belcher was a Fellow of Royal Geographical Society 1830-1877. He was made a KCB on 13 March 1867. He died on 18 March 1877.
Dorothea Edith Belfield (fl.1933-1940) was admitted to the order of deaconess in 1933 and appointed to the Parish of Mere (Diocese of Salisbury) in Feb 1933. She was known as the Rev. Deaconess Belfield. Information extracted from Mere parish magazines indicates that while the Order of Deaconess was recognised in 1920, the office was still contentious. In May 1934 Dorothea was on a month's sick leave. She left the parish in Jan 1935. Her health had not, apparently, been good. She worked unpaid and had anticipated staying for two years and then moving on to work of 'wider scope'. She was hard working and conscientious. Her vicar was the Rev. Ian Cameron. Dorothea Belfield published pamphlets in the 1940's for the London Society for the Equal Ministry of Men and Women in the Church. Little information on her has been traced.
Edmund Belfour was born in 1790. He became secretary to The Royal College of Surgeons of England at age 21, taking over from his father, Okey Belfour. Edmund Belfour held this post for fifty years, and died on in 1865 at his residence in Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Belgrave Hospital for Children, a voluntary hospital, was founded in 1866. New buildings were constructed at no 1 Clapham Road, London SW9 (Kennington, Lambeth) between 1899 and 1926 to an innovative design. Under the National Health Service Act (1946), in 1948 the hospital was amalgamated with King's College Hospital as part of the King's College Hospital Group (a teaching group managed by a Board of Governors), but remained a children's hospital. The Belgrave Hospital for Children closed after a new hospital, the Variety Club Children's Hospital, opened in 1985. The building was restored in the 1990s after some years of neglect.
Belgrave Hospital for Children, a voluntary hospital, was founded in 1866. New buildings were constructed at 1 Clapham Road, London SW9 (Kennington, Lambeth) between 1899 and 1926 to an innovative design. Under the National Health Service Act (1946), in 1948 the hospital was amalgamated with King's College Hospital as part of the King's College Hospital Group (a teaching group managed by a Board of Governors), but remained a children's hospital. The Belgrave Hospital for Children closed after a new hospital, the Variety Club Children's Hospital, opened in 1985. The building was restored in the 1990s after some years of neglect.
The Belgravia Dairy Company were based at St Petersburgh Place, Kensington, with outlets in Bayswater.
Andrew Bell, born St. Andrews, Scotland, 27th March 1753; entered St. Andrews University aged sixteen to study mathematics and natural philosophy; moved to America and became a tutor to a family that owned a tobacco planation in Virginia. Bell returned to St. Andrews in 1781 where he took orders in the Church of England. After a period at the Episcopal Chapel in Leith he became an army chaplain in India. Eight years later he was appointed superintendent of the Madras Male Orphan Asylum, an institution founded by the East India Company for the sons of its soldiers. The teachers at the Madras Male Orphan Asylum were badly paid and of poor quality. Bell had the idea that some of the teaching could be done by the pupils themselves. He selected a clever eight year old boy who he taught to teach the alphabet by writing on sand. This approach was successful and so he taught other boys how to teach other subjects. Bell called his new system of education, mutual instruction. Bell returned to England in 1796 and the following year published An Experiment in Education, an account of the teaching methods he had developed in Madras. In 1798 St. Botolph's School in Aldgate became the first institution in England to use Bell's system. Other teachers also adopted mutual instruction, including Joseph Lancaster, a young teacher at the Borough School in London. Lancaster amended Bell's methods and gave it the name, the monitorial system. Lancaster was a Quaker and his approach was adopted by other Nonconformist schoolteachers. Some of Bell's supporters in the Church of England became concerned about this development. Sarah Trimmer, who used Bell's methods to teach her twelve children, warned in an article published in the Edinburgh Review that Lancaster's example might increase the growth of nonconformity in England. Bell responded to the fears expressed by Trimmer by publishing Sketch of a National Institution (1808). In this pamphlet Bell urged the Church of England to use his methods throughout the country. Progress was slow and so in 1811 Bell formed the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church. Bell became superintendent of the society and with the help of people such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, the movement grew rapidly. By the time Andrew Bell died on 27th January 1832, the Society for the Promoting the Education of the Poor had established 12,000 schools in Britain.
No further information at present.
Born in 1916; educated at Haileybury College and Peterhouse, Cambridge; joined the army, 1940; POW in Japanese hands, 1942-1945; Assistant Secretary of the University of Cambridge Board of Extra-Mural Studies, 1946-1948; Chairman of the Educational Interchange Council, 1951-1979; founded first Bell School of Languages for the teaching of English to foreign students, 1955; died in 1989.
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born at Washington Hall, County Durham, on 14 July 1868; educated at Queen's College, Harley Street, London, a leading girls' school, and at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, which she entered in April 1886 and after only two years, she gained a first in modern history in 1888. After completing her studies, Bell was sent by her family on a European tour, staying in Bucharest during 1888-1889; visited Constantinople early in 1889, returning to England later that year. The following three years were divided between the family home in Redcar and London. Bell later visited Persia in 1892 and on her return to England she was persuaded to publish, anonymously, a series of her travel sketches adapted from her letters, Safar Nameh, Persian Pictures (1894). During the 1890s Bell undertook travels to France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. In the summers of 1899-1904, with the brothers Ulrich and Heinrich Fuhrer as guides, she undertook a series of expeditions in the Alps, tacking the Meije in August 1899 and Mont Blanc in the following summer. She became attracted to travelling in the East and including visits to Syria and Jerusalem and began publishing her accounts of her journeys. She undertook many expeditions including a number with archaeologist, Sir William Ramsay.
Bell was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in June 1913 soon after membership was opened to women. In Basrah in June 1916 she joined the staff of Sir Percy Cox, chief political officer with the expeditionary force, and was appointed assistant political officer, the only woman to hold formal rank within the force. Early in 1916 Bell was summoned to India and asked by Lord Hardinge to proceed to Basrah on a liaison mission as the viceroy's personal envoy in order to assess the effects of the Arab Bureau's schemes, whose approach differed from the India Office's imperial policy. After the capture of Baghdad from the Turks by Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Maude in March 1917, Bell continued to act as Cox's right hand in the civil administration of Mesopotamia, as his oriental secretary in charge of daily contacts with the population. Sir Percy Cox became British high commissioner in October 1920 and enhanced the role for Bell as oriental secretary, a position she held under him and his successor until her death. Gertrude Bell's position in Iraq was eroded after Iraq's new constitution (1924) and administrative structures replaced the old, colonial order. She was often at odds with Cox's successor, Sir Henry Dobbs.
In 1917 she was appointed CBE; became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1913-1926 and received the RGS Founders Medal 1918. Bell died in Baghdad, July 1926 and was buried on the evening of the 12th in the British military cemetery there.
John Bell was born in Edinburgh, in 1763. Aged 17 he was apprenticed to Alexander Wood, the leading surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and attended the lectures of Joseph Black, William Cullen and Alexander Monro secundus. He was admitted freeman surgeon apothecary by the Royal College and Corporation of Surgeon Apothecaries of Edinburgh, in 1786. He began his own practice and also his own programme of lectures. He opened his own lecture theatre in Surgeon's Square, Edinburgh, in 1790. He published a series of textbooks on surgical anatomy and emphasised the practical experience of surgical techniques in training. He had a talent for drawing and produced his own illustrations for his The Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles and Joints (1793-1794) and Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds (1793-1795). He died in Rome in 1825.
Charles Bell was born in Edinburgh, in 1774. He received his medical education from the University of Edinburgh between 1792-1799, attending courses on anatomy, botany, chemistry, and the practice of medicine and clinical lectures at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He also assisted his brother John, also a surgeon, teaching anatomy and surgery in the Edinburgh extramural school. Charles Bell had a talent for drawing and developed his skills as an artist during this time. While still a student in 1798, he published a System of Dissections, illustrated by his own drawings. He was elected a fellow of the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1799, and practised at the Edinburgh Infirmary. He published The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings, in 1802. He left Edinburgh for London in 1804. He married Marion Shaw in 1811 and used the money from the dowry to buy a share in the Hunterian School of Medicine, in Great Windmill Street. He was appointed surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital in 1814, and became a member of The Royal College of Surgeons of London. He lectured as Senior Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at The Royal College of Surgeons of London in 1824, and then became a member of Council. He was knighted in 1831. He was appointed Professor of Anatomy, Surgery and Physiology at the London University in 1827. When the University Medical School finally opened in 1828, Bell gave the inaugural speech. There were some difficulties in the new Medical School and in 1830, Bell left to help establish a medical school at the Middlesex Hospital where he conducted his clinical lectures. The school opened in 1835, and Bell was to teach surgery and anatomy. However, at this time, Bell was offered the post of Professor of Surgery at Edinburgh University, which he accepted, returning to Edinburgh in 1836. In 1840 he made a three month tour of Italy to view works of art for one of his publications. He died in 1842.
Charles Bell was born at Edinburgh in November 1774. He received his medical education from the University of Edinburgh. In 1799 he was elected a fellow of the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and practised at the Edinburgh Infirmary. In 1804 he left Edinburgh for London to practise and to teach (1812-1836) at the William Hunter's School of Anatomy which was linked to the Middlesex Hospital. In 1828, he became the first Professor of Surgery at the University of London but was disappointed that there was no affiliation between the Middlesex Hospital and the University and resigned from the University in order to establish the medical school at the Middlesex. He continued to write on different aspects of anatomy. After spending the years 1821 to 1829 investigating the nervous system, Bell published The Nervous System of the Human Body in 1830. In 1838, he returned to Edinburgh where he became Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh. In 1840, he made a three month tour of Italy. Bell became ill with heart disease and died on 28 April 1842.
William Prout obtained his MD at Edinburgh University in 1811, and then began practice in London. He was a pioneer in physiological and organic chemistry, and lectured at his residence to a small but distinguished audience including Sir Astley Paston Cooper. (See MS.4016.) He was elected FRS in 1819, and FRCP in 1829.
The Bridgewater Treatises represented in this collection were the result of a bequest of £8,000 to the Royal Society by the Earl of Bridgewater, to finance the publication of a work or works "on the power, wisdom, and goodness, of God, as manifested in the creation". Eight were completed.
William Blair-Bell (1871-1936) was co-founder (with William Fletcher Shaw) of the College and its first President. The second son of William and Helen Bell, he was born in Wallasey in 1871 and educated at Rossall School, King's College London and King's College Hospital. In 1905 he left general practice in Wallasey and was appointed to the post of Assistant Consultant Gynaecologist to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. In 1918 he became senior surgeon and in 1921 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool University, a position he held until 1931. In 1929 he married his cousin, Florence.
Blair-Bell was President of the Obstetric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the North of England Gynaecological Society and the Liverpool Medical Institution. In 1911 he founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society (GVS). He was co-founder of the College in 1929 and presented the College with its first headquarters at 58 Queen Anne Street. He established the money for the William Blair-Bell memorial lectures and for other research projects. He was President of the College from its inception until 1935, the year before his death.
William Blair-Bell (1871-1936) was co-founder (with William Fletcher Shaw) of the College and its first President. The second son of William and Helen Bell, he was born in Wallasey in 1871 and educated at Rossall School, King's College London and King's College Hospital. In 1905 he left general practice in Wallasey and was appointed to the post of Assistant Consultant Gynaecologist to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. In 1918 he became senior surgeon and in 1921 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool University, a position he held until 1931. In 1929 he married his cousin, Florence.
Blair-Bell was President of the Obstetric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the North of England Gynaecological Society and the Liverpool Medical Institution. In 1911 he founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society (GVS). He was co-founder of the College in 1929 and presented the College with its first headquarters at 58 Queen Anne Street. He established the money for the William Blair-Bell memorial lectures and for other research projects. He was President of the College from its inception until 1935, the year before his death.
Morris Myer Datnow (1901-1962), MB, ChB (Liverpool) 1924, MD 1928, FRCS (Ed) 1932, FRCOG 1939, was born in South Africa and trained at Cape Town University. He completed his medical training in Liverpool, where he became a member of the Liverpool university staff in 1925. There he served successively as Ethel Boyce research fellow, Samuels memorial scholar, demonstrator and sub-curator of the museum and lecturer in clinical obstetrics and gynaecology. He was appointed to the staff of the Women's Hospital, Liverpool, the Liverpool Maternity Hospital and the Royal Southern Hospital. He was married with two children. Morris Datnow became closely associated with William Blair-Bell in the research work which was going on at that time in the department, and was one of the team undertaking basic research into the nature of cancer and the place of chemotherapy in its treatment. He was to become a close friend of Blair-Bell's and was elected to deliver the third Blair-Bell Memorial Lecture in 1940 at the RCOG.
William Blair-Bell (1871-1936) was co-founder (with William Fletcher Shaw) of the College and its first President. The second son of William and Helen Bell, he was born in Wallasey in 1871 and educated at Rossall School, King's College London and King's College Hospital. In 1905 he left general practice in Wallasey and was appointed to the post of Assistant Consultant Gynaecologist to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. In 1918 he became senior surgeon and in 1921 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool University, a position he held until 1931. In 1929 he married his cousin, Florence.
Blair-Bell was President of the Obstetric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the North of England Gynaecological Society and the Liverpool Medical Institution. In 1911 he founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society (GVS). He was co-founder of the College in 1929 and presented the College with its first headquarters at 58 Queen Anne Street. He established the money for the William Blair-Bell memorial lectures and for other research projects. He was President of the College from its inception until 1935, the year before his death (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp 73-77).
Background to The History of the Origin and Rise of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists: Blair-Bell resigned from all committees of the College in April 1934, and it would appear that shortly afterwards he began to compose his history of the foundation and earliest years of the College. The prefatory explanation is dated 22 May 1934 and it was probably written before any other part of the text. It appears from a file of his correspondence with colleagues and others that he first began to seek information and papers to help him in late May 1934 (the file is A1/1 and covers May to June 1934. Fletcher Shaw's copies of his correspondence with Blair-Bell on the subject are in A4/4/23).
Blair Bell's will, which is dated 22 March 1935, contains the following clause: "I also direct that the historical composition concerning the origin and rise of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists which I shall leave shall be kept sealed and unread and shall immediately be deposited in a bank until such time as it is published not sooner than fifteen years after my death and not until after the death of the last surviving member of the Finance and Executive Committees of the aforesaid College in existence between One thousand nine hundred and twenty nine and one thousand nine hundred and thirty four and I direct that the expenses of publication shall be defrayed by means of a grant from the final accumulated residue of my estate. The format printing and binding shall in accordance with a memorandum I shall leave with the typescript copies of the book and the copies printed shall be distributed in accordance with a further memorandum I shall leave. Should the history not be completed at the time of my death a fact which will be known by Miss Nockolds it is to be completed at once Arthur Capel Herbert Bell and Eleanor Nockolds from documents and letters in my possession and from extracts made from my diaries by Arthur Capel Herbert Bell. Editing of the whole or part completed by me is to be confined to typing and printing and verbal errors". In addition to instructions about format, binding, and printing, Blair Bell also left instructions with the typescript that one thousand were to be printed and distributed to various institutions and individuals, and to each fellow and member of the College. If the College wished to print copies it might do so, but at its own expense. In those circumstances the typescript was to pass to the College providing that College gave an undertaking not to alter the text in any way.
In a memorandum, the text of which may be seen in S33/3, it is stated that the text was completed by the trustees. It is unclear how much of the text was left unfinished by Blair-Bell.
William Blair-Bell (1871-1936) was co-founder (with William Fletcher Shaw) of the College and its first President. The second son of William and Helen Bell, he was born in Wallasey in 1871 and educated at Rossall School, King's College London and King's College Hospital. In 1905 he left general practice in Wallasey and was appointed to the post of Assistant Consultant Gynaecologist to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. In 1918 he became senior surgeon and in 1921 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool University, a position he held until 1931. In 1929 he married his cousin, Florence.
Blair-Bell was President of the Obstetric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the North of England Gynaecological Society and the Liverpool Medical Institution. In 1911 he founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society (GVS). He was co-founder of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929 and presented the College with its first headquarters at 58 Queen Anne Street. He established the money for the William Blair-Bell memorial lectures and for other research projects. He was President of the College from its inception until 1935, the year before his death (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp 73-77).
Bell Brothers, South Brancepeth Colliery and Clarence Iron Works: Bell Brothers was formed in 1884 by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell to operate an iron works. Clarence Works was added in 1854. Later the company gained control of ironstone and coal mines. In 1899 Bell Brothers became a public company and Droman Long a steel company took a 50% interest. In 1902 the two companies merged although a complete amalgamation did not take place until 1923.
Vanessa Bell was born in 1879, daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen and sister of Virginia Woolf. She studied art under Sir Arthur Cope and at the Royal Academy Schools under John Singer Sargent. In 1907 she married Clive Bell and worked mainly in London, Sussex and France. Vanessa Bell exhibited first at the New Gallery in 1905, and at the New English Art Club, the Allied Artists Association and at numerous London galleries. She became a member of the London Group in 1919 and her work was exhibited at the second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912. A central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, she founded the Friday Club in 1905, and was influenced by Roger Fry and by Duncan Grant. As co-director of the Omega Workshops she carried out many decorative projects, particularly with Grant. The impact of Post-Impressionism caused a radical change in her work. Influenced by Matisse she established a leading role as a colourist before 1920. Between 1914-15 she produced some pure abstracts but later returned to a more traditional naturalism and greater realism in works that centred around her friends, still-life and landscapes. Vanessa Bell died in 1961.
Vanessa Bell was born in 1879, daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen and sister of Virginia Woolf. She studied art under Sir Arthur Cope and at the Royal Academy Schools under John Singer Sargent. In 1907 she married Clive Bell and worked mainly in London, Sussex and France. Vanessa Bell exhibited first at the New Gallery in 1905, and at the New English Art Club, the Allied Artists Association and at numerous London galleries. She became a member of the London Group in 1919 and her work was exhibited at the second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912. A central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, she founded the Friday Club in 1905, and was influenced by Roger Fry and by Duncan Grant. As co-director of the Omega Workshops she carried out many decorative projects, particularly with Grant. The impact of Post-Impressionism caused a radical change in her work. Influenced by Matisse she established a leading role as a colourist before 1920. Between 1914-15 she produced some pure abstracts but later returned to a more traditional naturalism and greater realism in works that centred around her friends, still-life and landscapes. Vanessa Bell died in 1961.
Oliver-Bellasis entered the Navy in 1918. He became a lieutenant in 1920 and specialized in torpedoes. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander in 1928 and commander in 1933. From 1932 to 1934 he served in the RENOWN, Home Fleet, and, after a spell at the Admiralty, was in the EAGLE, China Station, 1937 to 1939. During the Second World War, Oliver-Bellasis held both posts ashore and at sea, being promoted to captain in 1941. He was Director of Underwater Weapons from 1947 to 1950 and retired in 1953.
The transcriber of the manuscript, Louis Bellec, was a farmer in Kergoual, Pluméliau.
Not known at present.
Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer, was born in Catania, Sicily, Italy in 1801. Having grown up in a musical household, it is alleged that he was a child prodigy, playing piano well by the age of five, and composing at six. Bellini is best known for his opera 'Norma' (1831) the title role of which is considered the most difficult role in the soprano repertoire. He composed Bel Canto operas, including 'Adelson e Salvini' (1825), 'Bianca e Gernando' (1826), 'Il pirata (1827), 'Bianca e Fernando (1828), 'La straniera' (1829), 'Zaira' (1829), 'I Capuleti e i Montecchi' (1830), 'La sonnambula' (1831), 'Beatrice di Tenda' (1833) and 'I puritani di Scozia' (1835). Bellini died in Puteaux, near Paris in 1835, and was buried next to Chopin in Pere Lachaise.
Hugh Hale Leigh Bellot was born on 26 January 1890 and received his early education at Bedales School and then went to Lincoln College Oxford with a scholarship. He became master at the Battersea Polytechnical Secondary School and later at the Bedales School and then, in 1915, he was appointed a clerk at H. M. Customs and Excise where he remained until the end of the First World War.
In 1921, on being appointed an assistant in the department of History at University College London, Bellot began an association with the University of London that was to continue until the end of his life in 1969. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1926 but moved to the University of Manchester in 1927 to become Reader in Modern History. In 1930, however, he returned to the University of London as Professor of American History, a post that he held until 1955. This period of tenure was broken occasionally as Bellot became Sir George Watson lecturer in 1938 at Birmingham and between 1940 and 1944 when he acted as Principal at the Board of Trade. He was finally given the title. 'Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of London', and awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University. He was a fellow of University College London and an honorary fellow of Lincoln College Oxford.
Bellot's involvement in the running of the University of London began with his election to the Senate in 1938 (until 1956). He was elected to the Court in 1948 (to 1953) and was Chairman of the Academic Council between 1948 and 1951. This promotion culminated with his election as Vice-Chancellor in 1951 for a two-year term. He was latterly a Member of Council for Westfield College, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and University College, Ibadan.
Other positions held included being honorary secretary of the Royal Historical Society between 1934 and 1952 and President from 1952 to 1956
As in Hayes the first industry to make its appearance in Norwood was brick-making. As early as 1697 a London tiler and bricklayer, Robert Browne, had bought 3 acres in Bulls Bridge Field, Hayes, and in South Field, Norwood. That the brick-making industry grew in the 19th century was due to the opening of the Grand Junction Canal in 1796 and of the Paddington Canal five years later. The industry was slightly later in developing in Norwood than in Hayes and in 1821 there was only one small brick-field near Wolf Bridge. In 1826 John Nash, the architect and builder, was licensed by Lord Jersey to dig brickearth in East Field, and apparently he also made his bricks in Norwood. These are said to have been too rough and uneven for anything but thick walls. Nash supplied a great number of bricks for Buckingham Palace and may have sent some from Norwood.
In 1859 a Holborn builder developed a 14-acre brick-field in Norwood, paying Lord Jersey a royalty of 1shilling 6 pence on every thousand bricks over 2,666,666 a year. He also erected labourers' cottages on the site and built a dock on the canal. In the 1860s the St. John's parochial school at Southall Green drew most of its pupils from the brick-makers. The school numbers fluctuated, which may indicate a rapid turn-over of labour, and the speedy working-out of the brickfields.
The Southall Brick Co. was in existence by 1874 and three other brick-making firms were centred on the Green in Southall. At the end of the 19th century a 28-acre brick-field was opened in North Road, Southall, by Thomas Watson and between 1899 and 1901 this produced well over 2 million bricks a year. A site for a brick-field in Havelock Road was advertised for sale in 1903, and a brick-field behind Tudor Road was causing such smells in 1906 that there were complaints at a council meeting. A new brick-field in North Road was let as late as 1910 at 2s. a thousand bricks, and the East Acton Brick Co. held property at least until 1926. In the late 19th century some gravel was also extracted.
From: 'Norwood, including Southall: Economic and social history', 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. 45-48.
The Belmont Shul was officially formed on 16th February 1966. This was a result of a meeting of local community members held at the house of David Shine in 1965 which identified a need for a Synagogue/meeting place in that area. It was formally accepted into the United Synagogue as a member in the same year in which it was founded.
By the time land was purchased for the site of the Shul in 1977 membership had already grown to 365 members despite not having a communal building to meet and practice in. It was not until 1981 that this purpose-built site was completed and their first service was held at Vernon Drive, Wemborough Road, Stanmore. The first part-time minister was Reverend Elkan Levy who resigned in 1973 and was replaced by Reverend David Freedman. Rabbi Shafer became the new minister in 1989, succeeded by Rabbi Geoffrey Hyman in 1992 and most recently Rabbi Daniel Roselaar.
Apart from carrying out religious functions (the first Barmitzvah was in 1970 and the first Bat Chayil ceremony was in 1975), Belmont Synagogue developed many community groups and activities including a kindergarten, a choir, a youth club, a scouts and brownie group, a social and cultural group and societies such as the Belmont Israel Society which promotes the State of Israel and carries out fundraising work for causes in that country.
The Synagogue was, and is still, run by a Board of Management and Council of Management which accepted female members for the first time in 1987 and 1988 respectively. In 1990 the Shul celebrated its 25th Anniversary by commissioning a new Sefer Toarah which was dedicated by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks. In 1994 membership had reached 508 male and 173 female members and the Synagogue continues to thrive in 2001 with a membership of 724.
Dr Bela Berend was born in Budapest, 12 January 1911, the son of Adolf Presser and Regina Máriás. As a young Rabbi he was regarded as a non-conformist, anti-assimilationist, Zionist who, later with the threat of deportations, advocated emigration as the way to save the Hungarian Jewish population.
His role on the Hungarian Jewish Council brought him into contact with elements of the extreme, anti-Semitic Hungarian Right, in particular Zoltán Boznyák, who, paradoxically, shared the same desire to remove Hungary's Jewish population. This association resulted in his becoming one of the most controversial figures in the Hungarian Holocaust.
In 1946 he was tried for war crimes by the newly installed communist government, where he faced accusations of collusion with the Gestapo, stealing Jewish property and collaborating with the extreme right. After appeals he was finally exonerated and settled in the United States, where he changed his name to Albert B Belton. However, despite the court's final ruling he faced numerous accusations and libels over the course of the next few decades.
He was also a witness in war crimes trials and referred to in the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, 1961. He was an ardent Zionist and defender of the state of Israel.
Olga Benario was born into a family of Jewish intellectuals in Munich in 1911. At the age of 16 she was already a member of the Communist party. In 1926 she, along with others, stormed the Berlin-Moabit district gaol in order to free some comrades, later going into hiding. In 1928 she went to Moscow and in 1934 she accompanied the Brazilian revolutionary, Luiz Carlos Prestes (whom she later married), to Brazil where she took part in the resistance to the regime of President Vargas. However, such was the affinity between Hitler and Vargas that once captured, she was deported back to Nazi Germany where she was interned in the concentration camp Lichtenburg. She was gassed in the concentration camp at Bernburg an der Saale in 1943 at the age of 34.
Henry Bence Jones was born the son of Lieutenant-Colonel William Jones and Matilda Bence in 1814. He attended Harrow School and then Trinity College Cambridge gaining a BA in 1836 and a MD in 1849. He undertook medical studies at St George's Hospital and became a physician there from 1846 to 1872. He studied chemistry under Thomas Graham at the University College, London, and in 1841 he went to Giessen, Germany to study under Justus Liebig. In 1842 he became licentiate to the Royal College of Physicians and was a Fellow in 1849. He married Lady Millicent Acheson. In 1846 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. He studied the aspects of chemistry in pathology and medicine, and gave a course of lectures in Animal Chemistry in its application to Stomach and Renal Diseases'. He became Secretary of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) in 1860, a position he held until 1873. In 1868 he gave theCroonian lectures on matter and force'. He was a friend and biographer of Michael Faraday (1791-1867). He published a book on Animal Electricity in 1852. He died in 1873.
Solomon Bender MD, FRCS (Ed), FRCOG, wrote an article on this case for the British Medical Journal in 1965.
Otto Bendix was born in Wilmersdorf, Berlin, 1878, of Jewish heritage. He married a non-Jew and was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on one of the 'old people's transports' on 3 October 1942, where he died on 8 January 1943.
Born in Ellidhavatn, Iceland, 1864; son of a leader of the Icelandic independence movement; received a law degree at Copenhagen, 1892; briefly edited a newspaper, Dagskrá, advocating the cause of Icelandic independence, 1896-1898; spent much of his life abroad, raising capital to develop Icelandic industries; published five volumes of Symbolist verse, which reflected his patriotism, mysticism, love of nature, and the influence of his extensive travels; died at Herdísarvík, 1940. Publications: Sögur og kvaedi (1897; 'Stories and Poems'); Hafblik (1906; 'Smooth Seas'); Hrannir (1913; 'Waves'); Vogar (1921; 'Billows'); Hvammar (1930; 'Grass Hollows'); translated Ibsen's Peer Gynt into Icelandic; a selection of his poems was translated into English as Harp of the North by Frederic T Wood (1955).
Etheldred Benett was born on 22 July 1775 at Pyt House, Tisbury, Wiltshire, the eldest daughter of Thomas Benett. The geologist and botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert, her brother's wife's half brother, encouraged her and her sister Anna Maria to study natural history. Whilst her sister concentrated on botany, Benett took up the newly fashionable study of fossils.
By at least 1809, Benett had begun to acquire a significant collection of material. Her independent wealth (she never married) meant that she was able to collect high quality specimens from the many working quarries in the area, as well as from her holidays to the Dorset coast. Such was the importance of her collection that it became the first port of call for geologists studying the Wiltshire area. In addition Benett was in regular correspondence with geologists such as James Sowerby, George Bellas Greenough, Gideon Mantell and William Buckland, sent duplicate specimens to museums all over the country (including the Geological Society) and published books on her collection.
Her unusual first name and her achievements in what was perceived to be the masculine science of geology, meant that she was regularly mistaken for a man. For instance in 1836 the Natural History Society of Moscow made her a member but the diploma was ascribed to 'Dominum [Master] Etheldredus Benett'.
Benett died on 11 January 1845, and her collection was sold. The most important material is now held by the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia although a small portion of her collection remains in Leeds City Museum.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
The Institution was founded prior to 1858. Its name was changed to the Clothier Cutters' Society on 6 November 1865.
The Benevolent Society of St Patrick was established in 1783 to provide charitable relief to poor and distressed Irish living in and around London. It was amalgamated with the older Irish Charitable Society (founded 1704) in 1787. In providing relief no religious or political distinctions were to be made. Children were particularly the objects of the Society's care. Assistance in clothing and education were regularly given. In 1820 the Society opened its own schools in Stamford Street. These were closed in 1921. The Society reviewed its activities and started to give grants to young Irish men and women 'of good conduct and industry' and to elderly Irish people. In addition grants were given towards hospital beds. After 1948 grants were regularly given to assist the unemployed and other Irish families in need. The Society has long enjoyed royal patronage.