Egon Sharpe Pearson was the son of Karl Pearson and his first wife, Maria Sharpe Pearson. He was born in Hampstead in 1895 and had one older and one younger sister; Sigrid Loetitia Sharpe Pearson (later Bousfield) and Helga Sharpe Pearson (later Hacker). Egon was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Winchester College before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1914. His time at Cambridge was interrupted by a period of war service at the Admiralty and the Ministry of Shipping, and he graduated in 1920.
In 1921 E S Pearson took up a post as a lecturer at the Department of Applied Statistics, University College London, which was then headed by his father, Karl Pearson. Egon assisted his father with the editing of the journal Biometrika, eventually taking over the role of managing editor after Karl's death in 1936. On Karl's retirement in 1933 his former department was split into the Eugenics (later Human Genetics) Department, run by R A Fisher, and the Department of Statistics, of which Egon became head. He was made Professor of Statistics in 1935.
During the Second World War E S Pearson worked for the Ordnance Board as part of an operational research group for trials of explosive weapons. He returned to UCL after the war at the age of fifty.
Egon Pearson had several important working relationships over the course of his career. He is known particularly for his collaboration with Polish mathematician Jerzy Neyman who spent time in the 1920s and 30s as a research fellow and special lecturer at UCL, working with Karl Pearson, Egon Pearson, and R A Fisher. Neyman and Egon Pearson are well known for devising the Neyman-Pearson lemma of hypothesis testing. Pearson was also influenced by W S Gosset [aka "Student"] whom he regarded as "one of the greatest of what might be called real practising statisticians". He drafted a biography of Gosset titled All This and Student Too which was published posthumously as Student: A Statistical Biography of William Sealy Gosset. Pearson also worked closely with Walter Shewhart on statistical technique in standardisation and industrial production..
Fletcher was educated at University College London and the Royal Academy. He won the Architectural Association Medal for Design in 1888. He was a Lecturer and then Assistant Professor at King's College London, lecturing on architecture. He was also an Examiner to the City and Guilds of London Institute. From 1901 to 1938 he was an Extension Course Lecturer at London University. He then became a partner in the firm of Banister Fletcher & Sons. Fletcher was knighted in 1919. He published some professional text books on architecture. He died on 17 August 1953.
Born, 9 April 1906; educated, Winchester and New College Oxford, First Class Hons Philosophy, Politics and Economics, 1927; Workers' Educational Association lecturer, 1927; Assistant, Department of Political Economy, University College London, 1928; joined 1917 Club, 1929; founded Tots & Quots, a left-wing discussion group, 1930; Assistant Honorary Secretary and Chairman of the Economics Section of the New Fabian Research Bureau, 1931; awarded Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship and spent next academic year studying in Vienna, Austria, 1933; Secretary, XYZ Club, 1934; stood as a Labour Party candidate in Chatham, Kent, in General Election, defeated by Conservative, 1935; adopted as prospective candidate for Leeds South, 1937; promoted to Readership at University College London, 1937; co-opted onto National Executive Committee, Finance and Trade Sub-committee, 1937; joined war-time Civil Service at newly founded Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1939; Principal Private Secretary to Hugh Dalton, Minister of Economic Warfare, 1940-1942; Principal Assistant Secretary to Dalton at Board of Trade, 1942-1945; elected as member for Leeds South, General Election, 1945-1963; Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1946-1947; Minister of Fuel and Power, 1947-1950; Minister of State for Economic Affairs, 1950; Chancellor of Exchequer, 1950-1951; Treasurer of Labour Party, 1954-1956; Leader of Labour Party, 1955-1963; Vice-Chairman, Labour Party Executive Committee, 1962; died, 18 January 1963. Publications: Chartism (Longmans & Co, London, 1929); Money and everyday life (Labour Book Service, London, 1939); In defence of politics (London, 1954); The high cost of Toryism (Labour Party, London, 1955); Recent developments in British Socialist thinking (Co-operative Union, London, 1956); The challenge of co-existence (Methuen & Co, London, 1957); Britain and the common market (Labour Party, London, 1962); various articles written for publications such as New York Times Magazine, Reynolds News, The Birmingham Post, Leeds Weekly Citizen, The Observer, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Social Commentary and New Statesman and Nation.
Francis Galton was born in Birmingham on the 16th February 1822. His father was Samuel Tertius Galton (1783-1844), a banker, and his mother was Frances Anne Violetta Darwin (1783-1874), daughter of the physician Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802). Through his mother's family he was a cousin of the naturalist Charles Darwin.
Galton was educated in Kenilworth and at King Edward's School, Birmingham, until the age of sixteen. Following in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather, he was enrolled to study medicine at Birmingham General Hospital in 1838 and moved to King's College Medical School in 1839. However, he gave up his medical education and in 1840 spent six months travelling through Europe, Turkey and Syria. On his return he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge to read mathematics and was awarded his BA in 1844. When his father died later that year, a generous inheritance allowed Galton to give up his plans to study medicine at Cambridge and instead he embarked on a year-long tour of the Middle East.
In 1850 he explored south-west Africa on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society and later published two books as a result of his experiences: Tropical South Africa (1852) and The Art of Travel (1855). He married Louisa Jane Butler in 1855 and they established a home in Rutland Gate in South Kensington, London.
Galton then devoted his life to the study of diverse fields, including the weather, physical and mental characteristics in man and animals, the influence of heredity, heredity in twins, and fingerprints. He was preoccupied with counting and measuring, and collected a huge amount of statistical data to support his research.
Today, Galton is perhaps best known for his studies into the inheritance of mental characteristics in humans, for example estimating the frequency with which eminent individuals come from similarly distinguished families. His questionable hypotheses and methods led him to conclude that talents could be inherited, and later in his life he was zealous in advocating the study of "those agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally". He invented the word "eugenics" to describe this. Many of his genetic theories, such as eugenics, have since been discredited, although his study into the concept of inheritance - that certain physical characteristics can be passed from one generation to the next - is an important legacy.
One of Galton's other important legacies was his work on fingerprints. He discovered that a person's fingerprints could be used for personal identification because they are unique and do not change throughout a person's lifetime. His archive contains a large number of examples of fingerprints, which he used to create a taxonomic system still in use today. Galton also carried out further studies into the method of inheritance, for example disproving Charles Darwin's theory of pangenesis (inheritance via particles in the bloodstream) and making various discoveries through his data analysis that eventually formed the basis of biostatistics.
Galton was also involved in many societies and organisations, particularly the Royal Society, the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He was on the governing committee of the Meteorological Office from 1868 to 1900. He founded the Galton Laboratory of National Eugenics at University College London to further his work on eugenics, although under the leadership of L S Penrose in the 1960s the name of this department was changed to the Galton Laboratory, Department of Human Genetics and Biometry.
Francis Galton died on the 17 January 1911 and he was buried at the Galton family vault in Claverdon, Warwickshire. His wife Louisa predeceased him; they had no children.
Born in Bucharest, eldest son of Abraham Emanuel Gaster, who was attached to the Netherlands legation in Bucharest, and his wife Phina Judith Rubinstein, 1856; Bachelier dès lettres et sciences, University of Bucharest, 1873; PhD, Leipzig, 1877; returned to Rumania, 1880; Rabbinical Diploma, Theological Seminary, Breslau, 1881; lecturer on Rumanian language and literature and comparative mythology, University of Bucharest, 1881-1885; a versatile scholar, his publications included the first translation of the Jewish liturgy into Rumanian, 1883, and his seminal work on the study of Rumanian language and literature ('Chrestomatie Românk'), 1891; his agitation on behalf of persecuted Jews in Rumania led the government to expel him, and Gaster became domiciled in England; Ilchester Lecturer on Slavonic and Byzantine literature at Oxford, 1886, 1891; appointed Chief Rabbi (Haham) of the Sephardic community in England, 1887; married Leah Lucy, only child of Dr Michael Friedlander (d 1910; Principal of Jews' College, London, 1865-1907), 1890; chosen Principal of the Judith Lady Montefiore College at Ramsgate, 1890; naturalized, 1893; a prominent member of Anglo-Jewry and active in many of its principal institutions; serious differences of opinion over the management of the College at Ramsgate led him to resign as Principal, 1896; for a time after his arrival in England he continued to support the Choveve Zion movement in which he had been active in Rumania, but later supported Theodor Herzl's Zionist movement, and was a founder and President of the English Zionist Federation and Vice-President of Zionist congresses in Basel and London, 1898-1900; his house was the venue for talks between prominent Zionists and the Foreign Office before the issue of the Balfour declaration, 1917; failing eyesight compelled him to retire his rabbinate, 1919; honorary member of the Rumanian Academy, 1929; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 1930; Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society, Anglo-Jewish Association, and Jewish Historical Society of England; Vice-President and President of the English Folk Lore Society; holder of Rumanian Orders "Bene merenti" 1st class, for literary achievements, and Commander of Rumanian Crown; an outspoken leader in public causes, often involved in controversy, and an arresting orator; as an eminent Jewish linguist, literary historian, folklorist, and pioneer of the study of Rumanian literature, accumulated a large library of printed and manuscript material in his fields of interest, namely Hebraica and Judaica, Samaritana, and Rumanian and related studies; died, 1939. Publications include: 'Literatura Populara Romana' (1883), on Rumanian popular literature; 'Ilchester Lectures on Greeko-Slavonic literature' (1887); 'Chrestomatie Românk' (2 volumes, 1891); reports of the Montefiore College (1891-1896); 'The Sword of Moses' (1896); 'The Chronicles of Jerahmeel' (1899); 'Geschichte der rumanischen Literatur', in 'Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie', vol ii (1900); 'Hebrew Illuminated Bibles of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries and a Samaritan Scroll of the Pentateuch' (1901); 'History of the Ancient Synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, the cathedral synagogue of the Jews in England, situate in Bevis Marks ... 1701-1901' (privately printed, 1901); edited 'The Book of Prayer and Order of Service according to the custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' (6 volumes, 1901-1907), a new edition of the Sephardic service books with revised English translation; 'The Hebrew Version of the "Secretum Secretorum"' (1907-1908); 'Das Buch Josua' (1908), on the Samaritan Book of Joshua; 'Rumanian Bird and Beast Stories' (1915); 'Children's Stories from Roumanian Legends and Fairy Tales' [1923]; 'The Exempla of the Rabbis' (1924); 'The Samaritans' (Schweich lectures, 1925); 'The Asatir: the Samaritan Book of the Secrets of Moses' (1927); 'The Story of Chanucah' (1928); 'The Tittled Bible' (1929); 'The Story of Passover' (1929); 'The Story of Purim' (1929); 'The Story of Shavuoth' (1930); 'The Story of the High Festivals and the Feast of Tabernacles' (1931); 'Ma'aseh Book' (1934), translated from the Judeo-German; various Biblical Apocrypha in 'Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archæology'; contributions to the 'Encyclopædia Britannica', 'Hastings' Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics', and other journals and reviews. 'Gaster Centenary Publication' (1936) provides a 'List of Publications of Dr M Gaster', by Bruno Schindler.
Lionel Felix Gilbert: born, 1893; studied chemistry at University College London, 1910-1915, 1923-1928; on the staff of the Chemistry Department at University College London, 1919-1955; Senior Lecturer; died, 1955.
Philip(pe) Joseph Hartog: born, 1864; entered University College London, 1875; a chemist in London, Manchester, and elsewhere, but attained distinction as an educationist in Manchester, London, and India; joint contributor of the entry on Wollaston to the Dictionary of National Biography, 1900; knighted, 1926; died, 1947.
William Hyde Wollaston: born at East Dereham, Norfolk, 1766; third son of the author Francis Wollaston and his wife, Althea Hyde; educated at a private school at Lewisham for two years and then at Charterhouse, 1774-1778; a pensioner of Caius College Cambridge, 1782; scholar of Caius College Cambridge, 1782-1787; appointed a senior fellow, 1787; retained his fellowship until his death; while at Cambridge, became intimate with John Brinkley and John Pond and studied astronomy with their assistance; graduated MB, 1788; on leaving Cambridge, worked as a physician in Huntingdon, 1789; subsequently went to Bury St Edmund's; became acquainted with the Reverend Henry Hasted, a close friend and lifelong correspondent; MD, 1793; elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1793 and admitted, 1794; admitted candidate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1794; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1795; went to London and set up practice at no 18 Cecil Street, Strand, 1797; censor of the Royal College of Physicians, 1798; increasing devotion to various branches of natural science, including physics, chemistry, and botany, led him to retire from medical practice, 1800; looked to support himself by chemical research; took a house, no 14 Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, and set up a laboratory, 1801; innovations relating to platinum including the discovery of palladium and of a process for producing pure platinum and welding it into vessels, c1804; awarded the Copley medal, 1802; secretary of the Royal Society, 1804-1816; fellow of the Geological Society, 1812; suggested in evidence before a committee of the House of Commons the replacement of the various gallons then in use by the imperial gallon' (adopted in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824), 1814; served as commissioner of the Royal Society on the Board of Longitude, 1818-1828; a member of the Royal Commission on Weights and Measures that rejected the adoption of the decimal system of weights and measures, 1819; frequently elected a vice-president of the Royal Society; declined a proposal to be nominated president of the Royal Society, but consented to act as president until the election, 1820; elected a foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences, 1823; elected to the Royal College of Physicians, 1824; suffered occasional partial blindness in both eyes from 1800; attacked by symptoms said to be signify a fatal brain tumour, 1827; set about dictating papers on his unrecorded work, many of which were published posthumously; transferred £1,000 to the Geological Society (which formedthe Wollaston Fund' from which the society awards annually the Wollaston medal and the balance of the interest), 1828; transferred £2,000 to the Royal Society to form the `Donation Fund', the interest to be applied in promoting experimental research, 1828; awarded a royal medal by the Royal Society for his work, 1828; elected a member of the Astronomical Society, 1828; died, 1828; his house was afterwards inhabited by his friend Charles Babbage. Publications: fifty-six papers on pathology, physiology, chemistry, optics, mineralogy, crystallography, astronomy, electricity, mechanics, and botany, the majority read before the Royal Society and published in the Philosophical Transactions.
The Gilchrist Educational Trust was founded on the bequest of Dr John Borthwick Gilchrist (1759-1841) who left the residue of his estate to the Trustees 'for the benefit advancement and propagation of education and learning in every part of the world as far as circumstances will permit'. After long litigation procedures the Educational Trust was founded in 1865.
The principle which guided the Trustees in the administration of the funds under their control was that of doing pioneering work, such as seeking to fill up educational gaps; making some provision for the educational needs of classes of persons not already provided for; aiding new educational movements which, for lack of public support at their initiation, needed financial help to enable them to grow in strength. They began by establishing scholarships to bring natives of India to England for a University education that would fit them to undertake public work on their return. These, later taken over by the Government of India, were followed by similar scholarships in the (then) Colonies which were, in turn, taken over by the appropriate authorities. There followed scholarships in England for women at the time when Women's Colleges were being established. The Trust is perhaps best known for its establishment of the Gilchrist Lecturers, 1867-1939, which were given in industrial communities by eminent men and were attended by many thousands of people. After the Lectures began, the University Extension movement started to develop; the Trust worked in close association with it and, later, with the Workers' Educational Association.
Born, 1929; educated, Grocers' Company's School, Hackney; taught Jewish religion classes in east London and officiating in synagogue ceremonial; Jews' College; BA in Hebrew and Aramaic, 1951; MA in Hebrew and Aramaic, 1953; studied for a BA in English at Birkbeck College, 1951-1954; Postgrad Certificate in Education; primary school teacher, 1954-1957; Head of English Department at Hasmonean Grammar School, Hendon, 1957-1964; taught evening classes at Goldsmiths' College, 1965; research assistant in the Survey of English Usage, University College London (UCL), 1965-1968; PhD, 1967; Visiting Professor in English language at the University of Oregon, Eugene, 1968-1969; Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1969-1972; Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1972-1973; chair in English language, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1972-1983; Quain Professor of English language and literature, UCL, 1983-1990; Director of the Survey of English Usage, 1983-1996; resigned the Quain chair, 1990, but continued as a Research Professor Director of the Survey of English Usage; founded the International Corpus of English; Dean of the Faculty of Arts, UCL, 1988-1990; Visiting Professor, English Department, UCL, 1990-1995; died, 1996.
Orphaned at an early age, George Bellas was brought up by his maternal grandfather Thomas Greenough, a successful apothecary. The boy was sent to Mr Cotton's school at Salthill at the age of six, and to Eton at the age of ten. He stayed there only a year, and in September 1789 entered Dr Thompson's school at Kensington. While he was at school he took the name Greenough at the request of his grandfather who had adopted him. In 1795 his grandfather died leaving him a fortune which enabled him, for the rest of his life, to devote himself wholeheartedly to his many interests without the necessity of earning a living. In that year too, he went up to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, but he did not take a degree, and in September 1798 he went to the University of Göttingen where he became interested in geology. In 1799 Greenough made at least two tours of the Harz: one in the Easter vacation with Clement Carlyon and Charles and Frederic Parry; and the other in the late summer with Carlyon. During these tours he collected many minerals, and also studied geological collections in the towns he visited. His interest in geology deepened when in 1801 he travelled over England with Carlyon and met Humphry Davy in Penzance. Later he attended Davy's lectures, and in 1802 went to France and Italy and 'noted what I saw of geology on my way'. He went on a geological tour of Scotland with James Skene in 1805, and of Ireland with Davy in 1806: in Ireland he also made a study of social conditions. In 1807 he became associated with a group of mineralogists to which Davy referred in a letter to William Pepys, dated 13th November 1807, when he said 'We are forming a little talking Geological Club'. This club rapidly developed into a learned society devoted to geology. Greenough was to be the first president of the Geological Society from its inception in 1807 until 1813. When the future Royal Geographical Society was founded in 1830 Greenough was once again an early interested member and he was its president in 1839 and 1840. Greenough's interests were very varied, and he travelled extensively. His many journals and notebooks bear witness to the close attention which he paid not only to geological and geographical detail, but also to architecture, sculpture, painting, history and politics. He gave practical effect to this last by sitting as the MP for the pocket borough of Gatton in Surrey, from 1807 to 1812. A list in which he briefly noted some of the societies to which he belonged mentions 37, and against many of these he wrote the words 'original life member'. Greenough wrote a good deal, but he published very little, and his main achievement was the publication in 1820 of his geological map of England and Wales. This map was the culmination of many years of work during which he had noted and plotted the location of the various strata of areas visited by him and other travellers, and had gleaned information from books or from a questionnaire sent to anyone who might have local knowledge. A second edition of the map was published in 1839 together with an introduction in which he set out his theory on the manner in which geological structures should be represented on a map. In 1854 his large scale geological map of the whole of British India appeared - once again he had relied on information from questionnaires, books and travellers: in this instance they were his only sources, for he did not visit India himself. His only book, A critical examination of the first principles of geology, in a series of essays was published in 1819. He derived much pleasure from the building and design of his home, Grove Lodge, in Regent's Park, London, where he entertained members of his family from Dripsey in Ireland, and also his wide circle of friends.The diaries of his last years show his health beginning to fail in the early 1850s, and Greenough died in 1855 while travelling in Italy.
H K Lewis & Company Ltd was founded in 1844 as medical publishers and booksellers. The firm occupied 136 Gower Street and 28 Gower Place. In 1989 the business was purchased by Pentos publishing group.
Helga Hacker was born in 1898, she was the youngest of the three children of Karl Pearson and his wife Maria Sharpe. She died in 1975.
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane was born on 5 November 1892. He was educated at Eton and at New College Oxford where he attained his MA. During the First World War he served in the Black Watch in France and Iraq, 1914-1919. From 1919 to 1922 he was a Fellow of New College Oxford; then moving to Cambridge University to be a Reader in Biochemistry until 1932. He was also the Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution from 1930 to 1932. Then he went to University College London to become Professor of Genetics (1933-1937) and later Professor of Biometry (1937-1957). After this, Haldane became Research Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute until 1961. In 1962 he was Head of the Genetics and Biometry Laboratory for the Government of Orissa. He received medals for scientific excellence during his career, and also published many scientific articles and writings. Haldane died on 1 December 1964.
Charlotte Haldane (née Franken), formerly Charlotte Burghes, married John Burdon Sanderson Haldane in 1926; they were divorced in 1945. A journalist and author, her publications included two volumes of autobiography. She died in 1969.
Born, 1923; educated, Eastbourne College; war service in the merchant navy as a radio operator, 1941-1945; Jesus College, Oxford, 1945-1948; Commonwealth fellowship in the United States, 1948; fellowship and college tutorship in modern history at Jesus College, Oxford, [1949]-1964; founding chair of history at the University of Warwick, 1964-1969; visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, 1969; chair of Italian at University College London, 1970-1988; Head of the Italian History Department, University College London, 1970-1985; Chairman of the Trustees of the National Gallery, 1974-1980; Fellow of the British Academy, 1977; retired, 1988; died, 1999.
Publications:
England and the Italian Renaissance (1954)
Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy (1961),
Renaissance Europe, 1480-1520 (1971)
Renaissance War Studies (1983)
The Military Organisation of a Renaissance State: Venice, c.1400-1617 (1984)
Artists and Warfare in the Renaissance (1990)
Civilisation of Europe in the Renaissance (1993).
Mark Haymon was C K Ogden's solicitor and also his close friend and collaborator. He was a member of the Orthological Institute and for many years a trustee of the Basic English Foundation.
Alex Helm was a writer and Fellow of the Folk Lore Society. Starting in 1955, he collected together material relating to British folk drama, which he hoped to publish as a complete geographical index. Later, joined by Dr E C Cawte and N Peacock, Helm produced the first part of this work, A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain, in 1960, and the second, English Ritual Drama, a Geographical Index, in 1967.
The Chilean merchants Balfour Williamson & Company Ltd were founded in 1851.
Victor Horsley was born in Kensington, London, and educated at Cranbrook School in Kent and at University College London, where he studied medicine under John Burdon Sanderson and G D Thane. In 1880 he was appointed House Surgeon at University College Hospital where he experimented with anaesthetics. Horsley studied at postgraduate level in Berlin in 1881 and in 1882 was appointed Surgical Registrar at University College Hospital. From 1884 to 1890 Horsley was Professor-Superintendent of the Brown Institute, where he did experiments on localization of brain function (with Charles Beevor), on the pituitary gland, on the relation of the larynx to the nervous system (with Felix Semon), and on the thyroid gland, myxoedema and cachexia strumipriva. In 1885 he was promoted to assistant surgeon. In 1886 he took the position of Assistant Professor of Surgery at the National Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy, Queen Square, where he performed operations on the brain and spinal cord. In 1886 he was appointed secretary of the Local Government Board Commission on Hydrophobia, and also studied Pasteur's anti-rabies vaccine. In the same year he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. From 1887 to 1896 Horsley was Professor of Pathology at University College London. He married Eldred, daughter of Sir Frederick Bramwell, in 1887, and the couple had two sons and one daughter. Horsley was elected President of the Medical Defence Union in 1893 and the British Medical Temperance Association in 1896. In 1897 he was appointed to the Senate of the University of London and elected to the General Medical Council. From 1899 to 1902 he was Professor of Clinical Surgery at University College London. In 1902 he was knighted for his work in medicine. In 1907 he published Alcohol and the Human Body with Dr Mary Sturge. Towards the end of his life he stood as a Liberal candidate in London but later resigned; he was also rejected by Leicester. In 1915 and 1916 he travelled extensively in a medical capacity, performing surgery on the war field. He died at Amara from heatstroke and pyrexia in July 1916. Lady Horsley continued to be involved in radical causes after her husband's death. Their sons, Siward and Oswald, were both educated at Bedales School in Hampshire, then at Oxford University. Both fought in the Great War, the younger, Oswald, being killed in a flying accident at the end of 1918. The elder, Siward, died in 1920. In 1917 Victor's daughter Pamela married Stanley Robinson, who was knighted in 1972 for his work in the British Museum. Pamela and her husband helped to found a Babies Club in Chelsea.
Frederick Huth first established his own business in Corunna, Spain, in 1805. He came to London in 1809 and set up business as a merchant. In 1814 he took John Frederick Grüning into partnership and the resulting firm, Huth & Company, was formed. Throughout the 19th century the firm is described in London directories as 'merchants'; only from 1904 is the description 'bankers' added, although it is clear that the business always included banking. From 1912 the firm had a fur warehouse; it also had a tea warehouse from 1921. In 1936 the company was dissolved: the banking business was acquired by British Overseas Bank Ltd, and the fur business by C M Lampson & Co Ltd.
The Institute of Jewish Affairs was founded in New York under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress in 1941, aiming to conduct an investigation of Jewish life over the preceding 25 years, to establish the facts of the position of the Jews during World War Two and determine their causes, and to suggest how Jewish rights might be claimed in a post-war settlement. It conducted research and collected documentation and information on various issues including anti-Semitism. The Insitute moved to London in 1965, maintaining its programme of research and publications into contemporary issues affecting Jewish communities, its regular publications including its report on anti-Semitism. The Institute was renamed the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in 1997.
Born, 1907; educated, Wells House, Malvern Wells; Magdalen College, Oxford, 1925-1928; tutor and zoologist, Magdalen College, Oxford, 1929-1945; Vice-President of Magdalen, 1943; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1945; Chair of Human Anatomy at University College, London, 1945-1974; President and Vice-President of the Marine Biological Association of Great Britain; retired 1974; continued to conduct research work at the Wellcome Foundation and later, in the Psychology Department, Oxford; died, 1997.
Publications: The Life of Vertebrates (1950)
The Life of Mammals (1957)
Edward Johnston & Company Ltd was a Brazilian coffee exporting house based in Santos. It was founded in 1842 by Edward Johnston who had an expert knowledge of Brazil. It became one of the leading firms in the coffee trade and is now Brazilian owned.
Jones was born in central London, the son of Daniel Jones, a barrister, and his second wife, Viola. Although Jones himself passed the bar exams, he never practised law as he had already developed an interest in the then relatively new science of phonetics. Jones's association with University College London began in 1907 when he became a part-time lecturer in phonetics. In 1912 phonetics attained departmental status and expanded both in staffing and scope. In 1913 an experimental research laboratory was set up, in 1914 Jones was made Reader in Phonetics and in 1921 he became the first Professor of Phonetics in a British university. During his years at University College London and after his retirement in 1949, Jones published several works. His major publications were 'The pronunciation of English' (Cambridge University Press, 1909), 'An English Pronouncing Dictionary' (Dent, 1917), 'An Outline of English Phonetics' (Teubner, 1918), 'The Phoneme, its nature and use' (Heffer, 1950) and a number of phonetic readers of various languages. Jones was involved with the International Phonetics Association becoming President in 1950. He was also active in the Simplified Spelling Society, the BBC, and the Advisory Committee on Spoken English.
The James Joyces Centre was set up in 1973. The collection was started with the help of the Trustees of the Joyce Estate, Faber & Faber, the Society of Authors and other donors. The Centre started collecting archival material in 1974.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, 1911; University of Leipzig, MD 1934; emigrated to London, 1935; Biophysical research, University College London (UCL), 1935-1939; Carnegie Residential Fellow, Sydney Hospital, Sydney, 1939-1942; served in Second World War in the Pacific with RAAF, 1942-1945; Assistant Director of Research, Biophysics Research Unit, UCL, and Henry Head Research Fellow (Royal Society), 1946-1950; Reader in Physiology, UCL, 1950-1951; Professor and Head of Biophysics Department, UCL, 1952-1978; Vice-President, Royal Society, 1965; Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, 1970; Emeritus Honorary Research Fellow, 1978; died, 2003.
Ker was born in Glasgow, the eldest son of William Ker, a merchant, and Caroline Agnes Paton. He was educated at Glasgow Academy and Glasgow University, then in 1874 he went to Balliol College Oxford with a Snell exhibition. He was elected to a Fellowship of All Souls, Oxford, in November 1879. In 1878 Ker was appointed assistant to William Young Snellar, Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh University. In 1883 he was appointed Professor of English Literature and History in the new University College of South Wales, Cardiff. In 1889 he became Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London, where he remained until his retirement in 1922. In 1900 Ker was appointed Chairman of the Modern Languages Board and later of the English Board in the University of London. A department of Scandinavian studies was founded in London University in 1917 and Ker was its first director. Ker died walking in Italy in July 1923 and was buried in the old churchyard at Macugnaga, Italy. Ker wrote numerous books, articles and lectures, mainly on literature and poetry, many of which are listed in John Pafford's bibliography 'W.P. Ker, 1855-1923: a bibliography' (University of London Press, 1950). Ker's successor as Quain Professor of English at University College, R.W. Chambers, wrote a number of biographical studies of Ker.
Raymond Wilson Chambers studied at University College London, 1891-1899, and was appointed Quain Student in English there in 1899. He stayed at University College and was Librarian from 1901 to 1922. He was also Assistant Professor in the English Department, 1904-1914. In 1915 he became Reader in English. From 1915 to 1917 he served for a time with the Red Cross in France, and with the Y.M.C.A. with the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium. In 1922 he became Quain Professor of English at UCL in succession to W.P.Ker. In 1933 he visited the U.S.A. to deliver the Turnbull lectures in Baltimore. He published 'Thomas More' in 1935 and 'Man's unconquerable mind' in 1939. Chambers retired in 1941 and died in 1942.
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Unknown.
Amicie Lebaudy was the wife of Jules Lebaudy, she wrote works on the Jansénisme under the pseudonym of Guillaume Dall. Following her husband's death she devoted her income to social works including the restoration of the abbey of Port-Royal-of-Fields and the building of the Kereon lighthouse. She was a supporter of La Ligue de la patrie française and was also involved in the 'Syveton affair'.
The Sanatorium du Mont des Oiseaux was established in [1906] by Dr Petit, a physician in San Salvadour, to accommodate adults, (San Salvadour was intended for children). The architect was A. Gléna. Shortly before the 1914-1918 war, the sanatorium became the property of the Red Cross and hosted the war wounded. In the late 1960s it was converted into houses.
Born, 1936; educated at the City of London School and Trinity College Cambridge (Exhibitioner); BA; Harvard Law School (Harkness Commonwealth Fund Fellowship); LLM; served in the Royal Artillery, 1955-1957; 2nd Lieutenant; called to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn, 1963; Mansfield scholar; Trustee of the Runnymede Trust from 1969; Special Adviser to the Home Secretary (Roy Jenkins), 1974-1976; involved in writing two White Papers on sexual and racial discrimination; Queen's Counsel (QC), 1975; Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, 1975-1977; Member of the Board of Overseers, University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1978-1989; Irish Bar, 1983; Honorary Visiting Professor, University College London, from 1983; called to the Bar of Northern Ireland, 1984; Member of the Board of Governors, James Allen's Girls' School, 1984-1994, and Chairman, 1987-1991; Bencher, Lincoln's Inn, 1985; Member of the American Law Institute from 1985; Recorder, 1987-1993; President, Interights, from 1991; Chairman of the Runnymede Trust, 1991-1993; Visiting Professor of Public Law, University College London, from 1992; created Baron Lester of Herne Hill (Life Peer, Liberal Democrat), 1993; QC (Northern Ireland); Member of the Court of Governors, London School of Economics; Member of the International Law Association Committee on Human Rights; Member of Council, Policy Studies Institute; Member of Council, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies; Governor, British Institute of Human Rights; delivered various lectures in the UK and USA; interests include human rights law and administrative and public law. Publications: Justice in the American South (Amnesty International, 1964); as co-editor, Shawcross and Beaumont on Air Law (3rd edition, 1966); as co-editor, Policies for racial equality (Fabian Society, London, 1967); edited Roy Jenkins' Essays and speeches (Collins, London, 1967); as co-author, Race and Law (1972); contributor to British Nationality, Immigration and Race Relations, in Halsbury's Laws of England (4th edition, 1973); Leading counsel's opinion on the proposed amendments to the Equal Pay Act 1970: European and community law (1983); as co-author, Equal pay for work of equal value: law and practice (1984); The Changing Constitution, ed Jeffrey Jowell and Dawn Oliver (1985); A British Bill of Rights (1990); The crisis facing human rights in Europe: does the British government really care? (1993); as co-author, What price Hansard? (1994).
Born in Paris 1924; family returned to England 1927; Winchester College, 1936-; Trinity College, Cambridge, 1941-1943; worked in the aerodynamics division of the National Physical Laboratory, 1943-1945; prize fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1945; Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester, 1946; Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics, University of Manchester, 1950-1959; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1953; Director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, 1959-1964; founder member and President of the of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, 1964; Royal Society Research Professor at Imperial College, London, 1964-1969; served as Secretary (physical sciences) and Vice-President of the Royal Society, 1965-1969; Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge, 1969-1979; President of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction, 1971-1974; Provost of University College, London, 1979-1989; President of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 1984-1988; retired, 1989; chairman of the International Council of Scientific Unions committee on the international decade for natural disaster relief, 1990-1995; died, 1998.
Born, 1936; educated St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School; national service, Royal Navy; University College London (UCL), (BSc, PhD, DSc); worked under Patricia Clarke researching microbial enzymes, UCL; transferred to the Department of Chemical Engineering, UCL; Lecturer in Biochemical Engineering, UCL 1963-1972; Reader in Enzyme Technology, 1972-1979; Professor of Biochemical Engineering, UCL, 1979; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1991; died, 1998.
The London Mathematical Society (LMS) was founded as the University College Mathematical Society in 1865, for the promotion and extension of mathematical knowledge. It was granted a royal charter in 1965. In spite of its name, its reach extends beyond London as a national learned society for mathematics. Members include c1,500 academic mathematicians in the UK and c1,000 members overseas. Its affairs are managed by an elected Council and Officers. It undertakes various publications, holds regular meetings, conferences and symposia, and offers financial support to various mathematical activities.
Thomas Archer Hirst: born at Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, 1830; entered the West Riding proprietary school, Wakefield, 1840; articled to a Halifax land agent and surveyor, 1846; went to Marburg to study mathematics, physics and chemistry, 1849; PhD; spent a short time at Göttingen; studied in Berlin; lecturer in mathematics and natural philosophy at Queenwood College, Hampshire, 1853-1856; lived in Paris, 1857-1858; lived in Rome, 1858-1859; appointed mathematical master at University College School, 1860; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1861; one of the founders of the LMS, 1865; a member of its Council; Professor of Physics, University College London, 1865; succeeded Augustus De Morgan as Professor of Pure Mathematics, 1866; Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1866; general secretary of the British Association, 1866-1870; resigned his chair to become assistant registrar in the University of London, 1870; President of the newly-founded Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching, 1871-1878; President of the LMS, 1872-1874; director of naval studies at the newly-founded Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 1873-1883; Fellow of the University of London, 1882; awarded a royal medal by the Royal Society, 1883; retired, 1883; honorary member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and of several foreign scientific institutions; author of papers on mathematical physics and, from 1861, pure geometry; his research included work on the correlation of planes and the correlation of space of three dimensions; died in London, 1892. Publications: papers in the LMS Proceedings and the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions; preface to Richard P Wright's Elements of Plane Geometry (London, 1868); 'On the Complexes generated by two Correlative Planes' in collected mathematical papers In Memoriam D Chelini, ed Luigi Cremona (Milan, 1881); edited The Mechanical Theory of Heat (London, 1867), translated from Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius's German.
Born Kathleen Yardley in Newbridge, southern Ireland, 1903; moved with her family to Seven Kings, Essex, 1908; attended the County High School for Girls, Ilford; attended Bedford College for Women and graduated in physics, 1922; finished first in the University of London BSc Honours exam; gained a place in W H Bragg's research team, first at University College London, and subsequently at the Royal Institution, 1923-1927; working with W T Astbury, began to apply space group theories to the study of X-ray diffraction patterns from crystals; with Astbury, published 'Tabulated data for the examination of the 230 space-groups by homogeneous X-rays' in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, 1924; married Thomas Jackson Lonsdale, 1927; worked at the University of Leeds, carrying out analyses of hexamethylbenzene and hexachlorobenzene crystals; returned to the Royal Institution, 1931-1946; concentrated on research on diamagnetic anisotropy; work on the magnetic anisotropy of benzil led to her studies of disorder in crystals caused by thermal motions, one of her principal research interests for the remainder of her career; a member of the editorial group concerned with the production of new tables for crystal structure determination, providing the structure factor formulae for each space group, resulting in the publication of the International Tables, 1935; became a Quaker, 1935; her pacifism led her to refuse to register for civil defence duties and, refusing to pay a fine imposed for non-registration, imprisoned in Holloway gaol for a month, 1943; one of the first two women to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1945; Reader in Crystallography, University College London, 1946-1949; first Chairman of the Commission on Tables, 1948; Professor of Chemistry, University College London, 1949; established her own research school and introduced new courses in crystallography for undergraduates and for graduates; her diverse interests included methonium compounds, urinary calculi and synthetic diamonds, though work on the International Tables diverted considerable time away from research; principal editor in the production of the new volumes of International Tables, 1951; Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1956; awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society, 1957; British Association General Secretary, 1959-1964, President of the Physics Section, 1967, and (first female) President, 1968; member of Council and Vice-President of the Royal Society, 1960-1961; Vice President of the International Union of Crystallography, 1960-1966, and President, 1966; received honorary degrees from several universities; Vice-President of the Atomic Scientists' Association; President of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; attended several Pugwash Conferences on World Affairs and expressed her hopes for peace in numerous lectures and articles, including a Penguin Special Is Peace Possible?; her experience in prison led to an interest in penal reform and she was a member of the Board of Visitors, Aylesbury Prison for Women and Borstal Institution for Girls, and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Visitors of Bullwood Hall Borstal, Essex; her interests also included scientific ethics; travelled extensively in connection with her scientific career and peace interests; attended scientific conferences including Congresses of the International Union of Crystallography; undertook some foreign engagements on behalf of the Society of Friends; died, 1971.
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore: born in Leghorn (Livorno, Italy), 1784; eldest son of Joseph Elias Montefiore, a Jewish merchant of Italian descent whose father had settled in London, by Rachel, daughter of Abraham Lumbrozo de Mattos Mocatta, of an ancient family of Spanish Jews; educated in London; married Judith (1784-1862), second daughter of Levi Barent Cohen, 1812; spent some time in a mercantile house; acquired for £1,200 the right to act as a broker on the London Stock Exchange, where the number of Jewish brokers was limited to twelve; rapidly amassed a fortune; retired from much of his business, 1824; retained some business interests, but devoted himself to the service of the Jewish race at home and abroad; on his way to Jerusalem, visited Egypt and had a private audience with Muhammad 'Ali Pasha, 1827; became a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and was active in the struggle for emancipation; President of the Board of Deputies, 1835-1874; chosen sheriff of London and was knighted when Queen Victoria visited the Guildhall, 1837; submitted a scheme for establishing Jewish colonies in Syria to Muhammad 'Ali Pasha, but despite the Sultan's promise to give it favourable consideration it fell through, 1839; intervened on behalf of some Jews who had been arrested and tortured at Damascus for using Christian blood for religious rites and, as head of a deputation from the English and French Jewish communities, pleaded the prisoners' cause before Muhammad 'Ali Pasha, convincing him of their innocence and obtaining their release, 1840; proceeded to Constantinople and obtained from the Sultan a firman, placing Jews on the same footing as other aliens throughout the Ottoman empire, 1840; on his return to England, was presented to the Queen, who granted him the privilege of bearing supporters to his arms with `Jerusalem' inscribed in Hebrew characters; the Jewish community recognised his services by appointing a day of thanksgiving; when Tsar Nicholas of Russia issued an order for the removal into the interior of Jews domiciled on Russia's western frontier areas near Germany and Austria in 1844, Montefiore made representations to the Russian ambassador, Count Brunnow, which resulted in its suspension; on its threatened reissue, Montefiore was admitted by the Tsar to a private audience in St Petersburg and obtained its abrogation, 1846; toured Eastern Russia and made notes of the condition of the Jewish population, which he communicated to the Russian ministry; created baronet, 1846; following a revival of anti-Semitic feeling in Syria in 1847, Montefiore obtained a private audience with Louis-Philippe whom he asked, as protector of the Christians in Syria, to repress the agitation, which was granted; prominent in the collection and distribution of the relief fund for victims of the Syrian famine, 1855; founded a girls' school and hospital in Jerusalem, 1855; became involved in the celebrated Mortara case in which a Jewish child in Bologna was secretly baptised by his Catholic nurse and subsequently removed from his parents by the papal police and placed in a convent to be educated as a Christian, an affair which created a panic among the Jewish population in Italy and aroused indignation elsewhere, 1858; since remonstrances addressed to the papal government were ineffective, Montefiore attempted a personal appeal to Pope Pius IX in Rome, which was refused, and although the Pope consented to receive Montefiore's petition through Cardinal Antonelli he remained inflexible, 1859; raised funds for the relief of Jewish refugees brought to Gilbraltar by apprehension of war between Spain and Morocco and for Christian survivors of the massacre of the Lebanon, 1860; visited Constantinople and obtained confirmation by the new Sultan, Abdul-Aziz, of all firmans granted by his predecessor in favour of the Jews, 1863; in response to an outbreak of anti-Semitic fanaticism in Tangier, travelled on HMS Magicienne from Gibraltar to Mogador and, under an escort provided by the Sultan, crossed the Atlas desert to Morocco, where the Sultan issued an edict placing the Jews upon an equal footing with his other subjects, 1864; went to Syria, distributing alms to the victims of a plague of locusts and cholera epidemic, 1866; visited Bucharest and interceded with Prince Charles on behalf of the persecuted Jews of Moldavia, and was well received by the prince, but was threatened by a mob which he managed to quieten, 1867; carried to St Petersburg an address from the British Jewish community congratulating Tsar Alexander II on the bicentenary of the birth of Peter the Great, 1872; made a seventh and final pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 1875; spent his later years in comparative seclusion at his seat, East Cliff Lodge, Ramsgate, where he died, 1885; a strict Sephardic Jew, orthodox in his religious opinions and observance; on his death without issue the baronetcy became extinct. See also Lady Montefiore, Private Journal of a Visit to Egypt and Palestine by way of Italy and the Mediterranean (privately printed, London, 1836); Meyer ben Isaac Auerbach and Samuel Salant, An Open Letter addressed to Sir M Montefiore ... on the day of his arrival in ... Jerusalem. Together with a narrative of a forty days' sojourn in the Holy Land ... by Sir M Montefiore (Wertheimer, Lea & Co, London, 1875); Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore: comprising their life and work as recorded in their diaries from 1812 to 1883, ed L Loewe (2 volumes, Griffith, Farran & Co, London, 1890; facsimile edition introduced by Raphael Loewe [1983]). Dr Nathaniel Mayer Montefiore: born, 1819; second son of Abraham Montefiore and his second wife Henrietta Rothschild; nephew of Sir Moses Haim Montefiore; married Emma (1819-1902), daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, 1850; had issue Alice, Leonard (1853-1879), Charlotte, and the biblical scholar and philanthropist Claude Joseph Goldsmid (1858-1938); Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; died, 1883.
Born, 1913; read Modern History at Oxford University; served in World War Two; joined University College London as Lecturer in Ancient History, 1948; founder and first editor of Past and Present, 1952; visited India as a lecturer for the Indian University Grants Commission, 1968-1969; Senior Lecturer, University College London, 1969; involved in several socialist organisations, particularly the Institute for Workers' Control; died, 1977. Publications: The Age of Arthur (1973); co-editor and translator of the Phillimore edition of The Domesday Book; co-editor with A H M Jones and J R Martindale of the Prospography of the Later Roman Empire (from 1971); Londinium: London in the Roman Empire (1982), revised by Sarah Macready and published posthumously.
Robert Grant was born in Edinburgh on 11 November 1793. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and at the University of Edinburgh, graduating M.D. in 1814. From 1815 to 1820 Grant studied medicine and natural history in Paris and at many continental universities. He returned to Edinburgh in 1820 and devoted himself to natural history. In 1824 he gave lectures on comparative anatomy of the invertebrate for his friend Dr John Barclay, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He believed in the transformation of species and the Darwinian theory of natural selection. Charles Darwin was his intimate companion in study. Grant wrote numerous original papers during this period. In June 1827 he was elected Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology at University College London and became absorbed in teaching for the next 46 years. He also lectured at other institutions. In 1836 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. Grant died on 23 August 1874 at the age of 80.
Unknown.
Born, 10 June 1866; educated at University College School and University College London (UCL); graduated with honours in English Language and Literature, 1888; awarded the degree of PhD by Strasburg University for a thesis on the old English poem 'Judith', which was also published, 1892; taught in the English department at UCL as Quain student, 1894-1899; also Professor of English Language and Literature at Bedford College for Women, London, 1897-1900; Assistant Professor at UCL, 1900-1904; appointed Secretary to UCL, 1900; elected Principal, 1904; the title was changed to Provost, 1907; knighted, 1917; Vice-Chancellor of London University, 1928-1930; created a baronet, 1930; died in London, 24 September 1931.
Clifford was born in 1845. He was educated at Exeter, at King's College London and at Trinity College Cambridge. He was appointed Professor of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics at University College London in 1871, a post he held till 1879. A mathematician, Clifford was also a classical scholar and read French, German, Spanish and modern Greek fluently. However, he drove himself relentlessly and worked long hours. Signs of pulmonary disease appeared in 1876 and he died in 1879 at the age of 33.
George Grote was born in Kent in November 1794, the eldest of eleven children. His father was a banker. At school George had a genuine love of learning which survived the plunge into business at the bank that his father imposed on him at the age of sixteen. He pursued his interest in classical reading, took up German and philosophy, and extended his view of political economy. He was also musical. From 1822, Grote was committed to the project of writing a history of Greece. From 1826 to 1830 he was one of the promoters of the new University College London. Grote became interested in political reform when he visited Paris in 1830. He became known as a man of business and this helped him when he entered politics. He sat through three parliaments till 1841, when he refused to be nominated again. He wished to return to studying and finish his History of Greece which was completed in 1856 and consisted of twelve volumes. In 1843 he left the bank permanently. Grote published other writings during his lifetime, mainly about politics and philosophy. In 1849 he was re-elected to the University College London Council and in 1868 he became president of the University. During his life Grote received many honours: D.D.L. of Oxford in 1853; LL.D. of Cambridge in 1861; fellow of the Royal Society in 1857; and honorary Professor of Ancient History to the Royal Academy in 1859. He also received honours from other countries. He was offered a peerage by Gladstone in 1869 but declined it. He died in June 1871 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Harriet Grote née Lewin, biographer and wife of the historian George Grote (1794-1871), was born near Southampton in July 1792. She married George Grote in 1820. During their engagement Harriet studied hard so that she could share Grote's intellectual interests. Mrs Grote devoted herself to managing her husband's life, both practically and socially. They lived mainly in London and Surrey. Harriet Grote was always a diligent keeper of diaries and notebooks, as well as a good letterwriter, and having accumulated an abundance of materials, began to write a biographical account of her husband while he was still alive. This work was rapidly pushed forward on his death in 1871, and she herself had already reached her eightieth year, when it was published in 1873 as The personal life of George Grote. She had printed and published other material previously in her lifetime. She died at Shiere in Surrey, aged eighty-seven.
John Chaplyn Burnett was born in December 1863 to Charles Mountford Burnett MD and Emily Jane Chaplyn. He entered the Army in 1884 and became a Captain in 1893 and a Major in 1902. He received a DSO in 1900 and an OBE in 1919. He published Easy methods for the construction of magic squares (London, 1936).
No information could be found at the time of compilation.
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Os Marron was a Lancashire poet (d1947). He was the son of a miner and cotton worker and one of a small number of working class poets writing in the 1940s. He died of tubercolosis.
Alex Comfort (1920-2000) was a gerontologist and author.
Born at Higher Broughton, near Salford, Lancashire, only son of the two children of David Watson, chemist, metallurgist, and pioneer of the electrolytic refining of copper, and his wife Mary, daughter of Samuel Seares, a London stockbroker, 1886; educated privately and at Manchester Grammar School; entered the University of Manchester, 1904; intended a career in chemistry and industry, but in fact specialised in geology, and while an undergraduate began to study preserved plants from Coal Measures deposits, with Marie Stopes producing a seminal paper on coal balls in Philosophical Transactions, vol 200B, 1907; graduated with first class honours in geology, 1907; produced other papers on palaeobotany, 1907-1908; Beyer fellow at the University of Manchester, 1908; MSc; demonstrator, 1909; Watson's sister Constance died tragically in her second year at Somerville College Oxford, 1909; Watson became interested in fossil reptiles and other vertebrates, visited many fossil localities in Britain, and worked intensively in the British Museum (Natural History) (BMNH), 1908-1911; became interested in the BMNH collection of fossil reptiles from the Karoo (Karroo) of South Africa, and to further his knowledge collected extensively there, met the palaeontologist Robert Broom, and set up a subdivision of the Beaufort Series into biostratigraphical zones, 1911; invited by James P Hill to be honorary lecturer in vertebrate palaeontology at University College London, 1911; Lecturer in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University College London, 1912-1921; collected fossils in Australia, 1914; wrote an account of the embryological development of the skull of the platypus; returned through North America, making useful collections in Texas, 1915; returned to Britain and took a technical commission as lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1916-1918; married Katharine Margarite Parker, 1917; transferred to the Royal Air Force as a captain, working on airship and balloon fabrics, 1918; after World War One, conducted research at Newcastle upon Tyne on coal measure amphibia and fish; returned to University College London, 1920; succeeded Hill as Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, 1921; developed the Zoology department at University College London; elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1922; Croonian lecturer, Royal Society, 1924; Romanes lecturer at Oxford, 1928; Rainer Medal, 1928; Honorary DSc, Cape Town, 1929; member of the Agricultural Research Council, 1931-1942; Lyell medal, Geological Society of London, 1935; Silliman lecturer, Yale University, 1937; in the USA as acting secretary of the Agricultural Research Council, 1939; returned to supervise the evacuation of the department to Bangor; became Secretary of the Scientific Subcommittee of the Food Policy Committee of the War Cabinet, 1940; Thompson Medal, National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 1941; Darwin medal, Royal Society, 1942; Honorary LLD, Aberdeen, 1943; Honorary DSc, Manchester, 1943; returned to University College in Bangor and, when the war-damaged department was made habitable, in London; Trustee of the British Museum, 1946-1963; travelled abroad, including the USSR, South Africa, and Ceylon; honorary fellow of University College London, 1948; Honorary DSc, Reading and Wales, 1948; Honorary DSc, Witwatersrand, 1949; Linnean medal, Linnean Society, 1949; retired from his chair and became Emeritus Professor, 1951; Alexander Agassiz visiting professor at Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, 1952-1953; Darwin Wallace Medal, Linnean Society, 1958; recipient of a Festschrift, Studies on Fossil Vertebrates presented to David Meredith Seares Watson, edited by T Stanley Westoll, 1958; continued to have the use of a room at University College London and with his secretary and illustrator since 1928, Joyce Townsend, continued to write papers until his full retirement from scientific research, 1965; Wollaston medal, Geological Society of London, 1965; scientific papers, apart from early and significant work on fossil plants, dealt largely with vertebrate palaeontology, including seminal work on fossil reptiles, based largely on his own collections from South Africa, Texas, and elsewhere; two daughters, Katharine Mary and Janet Vida; died, 1973. See also F R Parrington and T S Westoll's memoir in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol xx (1974), pp 483-504. Publications: Palaeontology and the Evolution of Man ... Romanes Lecture ... 1928 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1928); The Animal Bones from Skara Brae (1931); Science and Government [Earl Grey Memorial Lecture no 24, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1942]; Paleontology and Modern Biology [Mrs Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Lectures] (Yale University Press, New Haven, [1951]); The Brachyopid Labyrinthodonts, etc [Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Geology, vol ii, no 8] (London, 1956); A New Labyrinthodont, Paracyclotosaurus, from the Upper Trias of New South Wales, etc [Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Geology, vol iii, no 7] (London, 1958); The Anomodont Skeleton [Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol xxix, pt 3] (London, 1960); many papers on vertebrate palaeontology and connected subjects in Philosophical Transactions, Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Journal of Anatomy, and elsewhere.
Petrie was born in Charlton and educated privately. He worked on many excavation sites, mostly in Egypt. He was Edwards Professor of Egyptology at University College London from 1892 to 1933, and Emeritus Professor from 1933. He published many works on excavation. Petrie was knighted in 1923.
De La Mare was born on 25 April 1873 at Charlton in Kent. He was educated at St Paul's Cathedral Choristers' School, where he edited the school magazine. He then entered the service of the Anglo-American Oil Company for which he worked until 1908. He began his literary career with Songs of Childhood (1902), followed by a vast array of poems, stories, novels, books for children and anthologies. He died at Twickenham on 22 June 1956.