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Dennis Berry was an architect and scholar who was head of the department of Architecture at Kingston School of Art/ Kingston Polytechnic from 1966-1987. During this period the Architecture course grew in reputation.

Kingston School of Art (later Kingston College of Art) was originally part of Kingston Technical Institute, but formed as a separate institution in 1930. The College moved into its own campus in the Knight's Park area of Kingston in 1939. The School continued to grow in the subsequent years, teaching a number of design related subjects including Fashion and architecture. In 1970 the Kingston College of Art merged with Kingston College of Technology to form Kingston Polytechnic. The former College's site is now the University's Knights Park Campus.

Colin Berry trained at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School from 1955 to 1959 and later specialised in Histopathology at the Hospital. He was awarded his MD in 1968. From 1964 he was Lecturer (later Senior Lecturer) at the Institute of Child Health, before being appointed Reader in Pathology at Guy's Hospital Medical School in 1970. In 1976 he was made Professor of Morbid Anatomy at the London Hospital Medical College, a chair he occupied till retirement in 2002. He was knighted in 1993.

Berry went to sea as a volunteer in 1779 and served in the guardship Magnificent between 1787 and 1788. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1794. He later served in the AGAMEMNON and the Captain with Nelson (q.v.), 1796 to 1797 and was then promoted to captain. After service with Nelson at the battle of the Nile, 1798, he commanded the FOUDROYANT and captured the GENEREUX and GUILLAUME TELL. He was appointed to the AGAMEMNON in 1805 and fought at Trafalgar. Subsequent commands took him to the West Indies and in 1812 he was appointed to the Barfleur. Berry commanded the royal yacht ROYAL SOVEREIGN, 1813 to 1814. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1821.

Sir James Berry was born in Kingston, Ontario, in 1860. He was educated at Whitgift School, Croydon, England, and St Bartholomew's Hospital. At the London BS examination in 1885, Berry took first-class honours and won the University scholarship and gold medal. He served as house surgeon at St Bartholomew's, and was demonstrator of anatomy. He then became surgical registrar. He became surgeon to the Alexandra Hospital for Diseases of the Hip (Queen Square, London) in 1885. He was elected surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, in 1891. At the start of World War One, Berry's knowledge of Serbia led him and his wife, an anaesthetist at the Royal Free Hospital, to volunteer for medical service there. They organised the Anglo-Serbian hospital unit, under the British Red Cross Society, and largely from the Royal Free Hospital. It was established early-1915 at Vrnjatchka Banja. They were over-run in 1916 by the Austro-Hungarian army and an exchange of prisoners was arranged. Berry then led a Red Cross unit in Romania and was with the Serbian army at Odessa, 1916-1917. He was awarded the Orders of the Star of Romania, St Sava or Serbia, and St Anna of Russia. He returned to England in 1917 and was honorary surgeon at the military hospitals at Napsbury and Bermonsdsey. He was president of the Medical Society of London, 1921-1922; a member of the Council of the RCSEng, 1923-1929; and President of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1926-1928. He was knighted in 1925. He retired in 1927 and was elected consulting surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital. He died in 1946.

Sir James Berry was born in 1860; educated at Whitgift School, Croydon; received medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital; was admitted Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (English), 1882; elected a Fellow of the College, 1885; having graduated in the interval BS at London University with the University Scholarship and Gold Medal. Berry was employed as house surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital; demonstrator of anatomy; surgical registrar. In 1885 he became surgeon to the Alexandra Hospital for Diseases of the Hip, Bloomsbury and elected surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's Inn Road. Berry became distinguished in general surgery, focusing on plastic work and then the operative treatment of goitre.

Berry travelled and had knowledge of French, German, Serbian and Magyar languages. In 1915, Berry organised a Red Cross Unit in Vrnjatchka Banja, Serbia. The hospital was confronted with an epidemic of Typhus, with Berry having to take on the role of physician. The German-Austrian invasion caused the hospital to fall into the hands of the Hungarians. Berry and other captives were treated well and during 1916-1917 Berry served as the head of a British Red Cross unit in Romania and Russia. Berry was made an Officer of the Star of Romania; decorated with the orders of St Sava of Serbia and St Anne of Russia. In 1917 Berry returned to England; became honorary surgeon to the military hospital at Napsbury and then Bermondsey. He was elected president of the Medical Society, 1926-1928 and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1918-1940. Berry was knighted in 1925 and died in 1946.

Publications include Diseases of the Thyroid Gland, 1901 and A Red Cross Unit in Serbia, 1916.

Not known

Alfred Bertheim was associated with Paul Ehrlich at the G Speyer-Haus in Frankfurt am Main from 1906 to 1914, in research which culminated in the discovery of salvarsan.

Born, 1827; member of the staff of the Collège de France as assistant to A.J. Balard, 1851; Professor of Organic Chemistry at the École Supérieure de Pharmacie, 1859; chair of organic chemistry, Collège de France, 1865; member of the Academy of Medicine, 1863; entered the Academy of Sciences, 1873; Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, 1889; Inspector General of Higher Education, 1876; elected Life Senator, 1881; Minister of Public Instruction, 1886-1887; portfolio for foreign affairs, 1895-1896; died, 1907.

No information was available at the time of compilation.

A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

John Besford was based at 23 Southampton Street, Strand, and 5 Park Village, Regents Park.

Unknown.

BETA was founded in May 1920 as the Office Appliance Trades Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (OATA), and was registered under the Companies Acts in May 1927. In July 1951 OATA merged with the Association of British Business Equipment Manufacturers (ABBEM), to form the Office Appliance and Business Equipment Trades Association (OABETA). The company name was changed to BETA in October 1961, and continued as such until 1986 when it became the Business Equipment and Information Technology Association (BEITA). The association went into liquidation in August 1989, and was taken over by the Electronic Engineering Association (EEA) at Leicester House, 8 Leicester Street, London WC2H 7BN, with whom BETA had enjoyed a close relationship for some years.

Aims and structure of the association: BETA was formed "... to promote, encourage, develop and enhance the interests of the business equipment industry ...." (BETA Forward Plan, Aug 1969). Manufacturers and suppliers of, and traders in business equipment (office machines, computers, office furniture for example) became members of BETA for an annual subscription, and could submit products to the association for registration and inclusion in the Business Efficiency Exhibitions, held annually at Olympia and in the regions. As well as public relations exercises such as the above, BETA's role included the dissemination of information amongst its members, arbitration in disputes over trading ethics, and representing the interests of the industry by lobbying parliament on relevant issues, amongst other activities.

The association was governed by an elected council of 14 members, which met monthly, and administered by a staff of 17. Its membership (over 150 companies in 1977) was divided into sections, reflecting the interests of individual companies, including data-processing, microfilm and office furniture divisions for example.

Born 1891; educated at Sandroyd Cobham, Winchester College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into 1 Bn, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 1911; service in Gibraltar, 1911-1912; served in Bermuda, 1912-1914; Lt, 1913; service in Pretoria, South Africa, 1914; served in World War One, 1914-1918; wounded, First Battle of Ypres, Belgium, 1914; acting Capt, 1915; Capt, 1915; Assistant Instructor, Mersey School of Instruction, 1915-1916; Company Commander, No 8, Officer Cadet Bn, 1916-1917; Staff Course, Clare College, Cambridge, 1917; Assistant Instructor, No 1 School of Instruction for Infantry Officers, 1917-1918; Senior Officers Course, Aldershot, Hampshire, 1918; commanded B Company, 1 Bn, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 19 Infantry Bde, 33 Div, 5 Corps, 3 Army, Western Front, 1918; killed in action, near Epehy, France, 21 Sep 1918.

Born in 1855; entered the Royal Navy in 1869; Sub Lt, 1875; Lt, 1878; Commander, 1891; Capt, 1898; Assistant Director of Torpedoes, 1903-1907; R Adm, 1908; Director of Naval Intelligence, 1909-1912; Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, 1912; Vice Adm, 1913; commander, Royal Naval War College, Portsmouth, 1913-1914; commanded battleships of 3 Fleet, 1914; commander, Channel Fleet, 1915; Adm, 1916; Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, 1916-1918; Adm commanding Coast Guard and Reserves; retired, 1918; died in 1932.

Born 1894; RN Cadet, Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight, 1907-1909; RN Cadet, Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Devon, 1909-1911; served on Training Cruiser HMS CUMBERLAND, 1911; Midshipman, 1911; HMS BRITANNIA, Home Fleet, 1911; HMS DRAKE, Flagship of V Adm Sir George Fowler King-Hall, Commander-in-Chief, Australia, 1911-1913; HMS DREADNOUGHT, Flagship of V Adm Sir Charles John Briggs, commanding 4 Battle Sqn, Home Fleet, 1913-1914; acting Sub Lt, 1914; First Lt, HMS BONETTA, Devonport, 1914; Sub Lt, 1914; HMS AURORA, Devonport, 1914; served in World War One, 1914-1916; Lt, 1915; First Lt, HMS NESTOR, 13 Destroyer Flotilla, Grand Fleet, Queensferry, Fife, Scotland, 1916; killed in action during the sinking of HMS NESTOR, 13 Destroyer Flotilla, Battle of Jutland, North Sea, 31 May 1916.

Eberhard Bethge was born in Warchau, near Magdeburg, Germany, and studied theology at several German universities. During the 1930s, he joined Germany's anti-Nazi resistance and the associated Bekennende Kirche, becoming a close associate of Dietrich Bonhoeffer; he married Bonhoeffer's niece Renate in 1943. After the Second World War, Bethge worked as a Lutheran pastor in Britain and in Germany. He also gave university lectures and wrote several books, including the definitive biography of Bonhoeffer.

Bethnal Green Hospital, London was originally an infirmary built by the Board of Guardians of the Parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, and opened in 1900. It was built on a site once part of Bishop Hall Farm, and leased in 1811 by William Sotheby to the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. The site was renamed Palestine Place and became the centre of the Society's activities in London. The foundation stone of a Chapel (later known as the Episcopal Jews Chapel) was laid in 1813 and in the following years schools for boys and girls and 14 houses were built.

The Board of Guardians of the Parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, approached the Society in 1891 with a view to purchasing the estate as a site for a new infirmary, but their offer was refused. In 1894 the Board applied to the Local Government Board for an order to purchase the site. Although the purchase price of £18,000 for the freehold and £17,500 for the leasehold was regarded as expensive the purchases were completed in 1895, except for a small piece of land which reverted to the Guardians in 1909. In 1948 a further piece of land on Parmiter Street was purchased by the London County Council from the Elizabeth Mary Bates Trust for the Moravians. The building was designed by Messrs Giles, Gough and Trollope and was intended to accommodate approximately 750 patients. The total cost, including the purchase of the site, was £212,894-7s-10d. The clock from the old Palestine Chapel was transferred to the tower on the new administrative block. Some of the minor furnishings, such as mattresses and tables, were made by the inmates of the Workhouse in Waterloo Road.

The Hospital was certified for 669 patients and was opened on 5th March 1900, with the first patients admitted on 17th April. The central administrative block included facilities for the Nurse Training School, which held the first examinations of candidates in 1901. The first Medical Superintendent was William James Potts and the first Matron Joanna E Hopper. From 1900 to 1906 the Hospital received 14,705 admissions. The Hospital was planned principally with chronic sick in mind and this remained the case until the First World War. In March 1915 the Military Authorities took over the Hospital for the use of wounded soldiers. Civilian patients were moved to St George-in-the-East, or to the Workhouse in Waterloo Road. The Military Hospital was commanded by Colonel E Hurry Fenwick, a Surgeon at the London Hospital from 1890 to 1910. During the military occupation a Pathological Laboratory was installed. It was not until February 1920 that all patients and staff were back in the Hospital. From 1920 to 1930 changes were made to provide a wider range of services for acute patients.

Under the Local Government Act, 1929, the Board of Guardians was dissolved and the Hospital passed to the London County Council on 1st April 1930. By 1929 casualty and receiving blocks had been built, a small X-ray Department had been added and an operating theatre was under construction. The Hospital also had a VD unit, which was closed in 1952. Its certified accommodation was 650 and it had 551 inmates. The Workhouse was mainly occupied by chronic sick and infirm under the charge of the Hospital's Medical Superintendent. The Hospital came under the control of the London County Council's Central Public Health Committee, which in 1934 became the Hospitals and Medical Services Committee. There was also a Bethnal Green Hospital Sub-Committee dealing with immediate day-to-day matters. During the 1939-1945 War, the Hospital suffered some minor bomb damage.

With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 the Hospital became part of the Central Group (No 5) within the North East Metropolitan Region. By now the number of beds was considerably reduced, being little more than 300; in 1953 there were 313 beds, with an average daily occupation rate of 260. The Group Pathology Laboratory was established at the Hospital in 1950. A Geriatric Unit was established in 1954. In 1966 the Central Group was dissolved and the Hospital became part of the East London Group; in the same year, the Postgraduate Medical Education Centre was started. In 1972 the Obstetrics Department was closed. Under the National Health Service reorganisation of 1974 Bethnal Green Hospital became part of Tower Hamlets District, managed by the City and East London Area Health Authority. In the same year the Gynaecology Department was closed. From 1977 to 1979 the Hospital's role was changed from acute to geriatric, with the closure of 167 acute beds and their replacement with 120 geriatric beds for Tower Hamlets patients in St Matthew's Hospital. In June 1978 the surgical beds were closed and the remaining 40 medical beds were closed in August 1979. The Hospital closed in 1990 when patients and staff transferred to the newly built Bancroft Unit for the Care of the Elderly at the Royal London Hospital (Mile End).

The Bethnal Green Labour Party was formed in 1908 and aimed to "forward the just claims of the working class and to promote independent Labour representation on all governing bodies". The branch was closely involved with the Trades Union movement and was affiliated to the National Union of Corporation Workers, London Carmen's Trade Union, National Union of Shop Assistants, Glass Bevelers Branch of the Furnishing Trades Association, National League of the Blind and the Independent Labour Party. Like minded individuals could also join.

In 1678 a group of householders in Bethnal Green formed a Trust to purchase an area of common land, known as the Green or Poor's Land, comprising 15 and a half acres; with the aim of preserving the land as an open space. In 1690 the trust deed stipulated that no new buildings could be constructed on the Green. In 1868 the Trustees sold 4 and a half acres to the new Bethnal Green Museum to form part of their gardens (now known as Museum Gardens); and in 1891 they sold the remaining 6 and a half acres to the London County Council to manage as an open space (now known as Bethnal Green Gardens).

Information from: www.towerhamlets.gov.uk(accessed August 2010).

Poor relief was based on the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 which obliged parishes to take care of the aged and needy in their area. Parish overseers were empowered to collect a local income tax known as the poor-rate which would be put towards the relief of the poor. This evolved into the rating system, where the amount of poor-rate charged was based on the value of a person's property. Early workhouses were constructed and managed by the parish. However, this process was expensive and various schemes were devised where groups of parishes could act together and pool their resources. As early as 1647 towns were setting up 'Corporations' of parishes. An Act of 1782, promoted by Thomas Gilbert, allowed adjacent parishes to combine into Unions and provide workhouses. These were known as 'Gilbert's Unions' and were managed by a board of Guardians.

Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. Each Union was to be administered by a local Board of Guardians. Relief was to be provided through the provision of a workhouse. An amendment to the 1834 Act allowed already existing 'Gilbert's Unions' or Corporations of parishes to remain in existence, although they were encouraged to convert themselves into Poor Law Unions. Although there was some reorganisation of union boundaries, particularly in London, the majority of Unions created under the 1834 Act remained in operation until 1930. In March 1930 a new Local Government Bill abolished the Poor Law Unions and the Board of Guardians. Responsibility for their institutions passed to Public Assistance Committees managed by the county councils - in the metropolis either the London County Council or the Middlesex County Council.

The Bethnal Green Poor Law Union was formed in 1836 and consisted of only one parish, Saint Matthew. It did not merge with other parishes. The parish had built a workhouse which was operational by 1777, but in 1840 they constructed a new workhouse at Bonners Hall Fields near the Waterloo Road. A second workhouse on Well Street in Hackney was used from 1890, it housed the 'respectable poor' who had demonstrated good behaviour in the Waterloo Road institution. The Waterloo Road workhouse was extended and refurbished in 1908 and the Union stopped using the second institution.The Union also managed the Cambridge Heath Road Infirmary and the Bethnal Green School for the Juvenile Poor in Leytonstone.

Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.

Bethune was the son of the army officer and historian Colonel John Drinkwater (d 1844) and it was not until 1837 that he took the name Bethune. He entered the Navy in 1815 as a first-class volunteer in the NORTHUMBERLAND and sailed in her from 1815 to 1816 on the voyage taking Napoleon to exile in St Helena. In 1817 he joined the LEANDER in North America; he then went to South America, where he served in the SUPERB and the CREOLE from 1819 until 1823. Still on this station, he was promoted to lieutenant, 1823, and joined the DORIS and then the BARHAM until promoted to commander in 1828. From 1828 to 1829 he commanded the ESPIEGLE, Jamaica Station. He was promoted to captain in 1830. At Palmerston's request, in 1835, he joined the Embassy of the Earl of Durham (1792-1840) to Russia to report on the naval installations in the Black Sea. Later he served in the East Indies and in the China War. He was made rear-admiral in 1855, vice-admiral in 1862, admiral in 1866 and retired in 1870.

Bethune entered the Navy in 1871 and served from 1873 to 1877 in the TOPAZE, Detached Squadron. In 1878 he was appointed to the ALEXANDER, flagship in the Mediterranean, leaving her in order to join the AGINCOURT, flagship, Channel, 1881 to 1882. He was commissioned lieutenant in 1882, in the CONSTANCE, remaining in her on the Pacific Station until 1886. Still a lieutenant, he retired in 1903 and was promoted on the retired list.

Born 1855; commissioned into the 92 Highlanders, 1875; served in Second Afghan War, 1878-1880; service in First Boer War, South Africa, 1880-1881; transferred to 6 Dragoon Guards, 1886; Maj, 16 Lancers, 1895; served in Second Boer War, South Africa, 1899-1902; raised and commanded Bethune's Horse, South Africa, 1899-1900; relief of Ladysmith, 1900; Assistant Adjutant General, Field Force, South Africa, 1900; Commanding Officer, 16 Lancers, 1900-1904; Brevet Col, 1900; Col on Staff, 1901; commanded Cavalry Bde, South Africa, 1901; appointed to General Staff and promoted to Brig Gen, 1905; awarded CB, 1905; commanded Eastern Sub-District, Cape Colony, south Africa; Maj Gen, 1908; Col, 4 (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards, 1908-1920; awarded CVO, 1909; General Officer Commanding West Lancashire Div, Territorial Force, Western Command, 1909-1912; Director General, Territorial Force, 1912-1917; Lt Gen, 1913; served in World War One, 1914-1918; created KCB, 1915; retired 1920; Chairman, Metropolitan Area, Royal British Legion, 1925-1930; died 1930.

Publications: The Infirmities of Genius, Christopher Johnson: London, 1952; Osler: the Man and the Legend William Heinemann Medical Books: London, 1951; The Preparation and Writing of Medical Papers for Publication, Menley & James, [London, 1952.] A Short History of Nursing, Faber & Faber, London, 1960; The Short-Lived Spring. Poems of youth and desire, A. H. Stockwell, London, 1934; Sir John Bland-Sutton, 1855-1936, E & S Livingstone, Edinburgh & London, 1956; Editor of The History and Conquest of Common Diseases. [By various authors.] University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, [1954.]; and A Short History of Some Common Diseases, Oxford University Press, London, 1934.

Camp Westerbork was a World War Two concentration camp in Hooghalen, ten kilometers north of Westerbork, in the northeastern Netherlands. Its function during the Second World War was to assemble Dutch Jews for transport to other Nazi concentration camps.

This report was apparently produced by a member of a resistance group asssociated with the camp by the name of Bettleheim. Nothing further is known about him.

Reginald Robert Betts (1903-1961) was born in Norwich. After completing his studies at Oxford University he took up a post there as a temporary lecturer. This was followed by positions as lecturer at Liverpool and Belfast Universities. In 1934 he became a professor at Southampton University. As a medieval historian, Betts specialised in the history of Bohemia but later developed a great interest in the modern Czechoslovak state, becoming an expert in Czech affairs. This knowledge led to his appointment at the BBC, during the later years of the Second World War as editor of the broadcasting service for Czechoslovakia and later of the whole European service. After the war Betts was briefly, 1945-1946 a professor at Birmingham University before becoming Masaryk Professor of Central European history at SSEES in 1946, a position he held until his death. He was also head of the History Department at SSEES until 1957.

(Mary) Daisy Waldegrave (1871-?) was the daughter of Granville Waldegrave, 3rd Baron Radstock. She married Edwyn Bevan.

The interviews were conducted by Dr Michael Bevan of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Oxford, Jul 1996.

Born in Rangpur, Bengal, 1879; educated at Charterhouse, and Balliol College, Oxford University; Stowell Civil Law Fellow, University College, Oxford University, 1902-1909; Sub-Warden, Toynbee Hall, 1903-1905; leader writer for the Morning Post, 1906-1908; Member of the Central (Unemployed) Body for London and first Chairman of the Employment Exchanges Committee, 1905-1908; employed at Board of Trade, 1908-1916, as Director of Labour Exchanges and Assistant Secretary in charge of the Employment Department; Assistant General Secretary, Ministry of Munitions, 1915-1916; CB, 1916; 2nd Secretary, 1916-1918, and Permanent Secretary, 1919, Ministry of Food; Director of the London School of Economics, 1919-1937; Senator of the University of London, 1919-1937 and 1944-1948; KCB, 1919; Member of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry, 1925; Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, 1926-1928; Chairman, Unemployment Insurance Statutory Committee, 1934-1944; Chairman, Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence on Food Rationing, 1936; Master of University College, Oxford University, 1937-1945; Chairman, Committee on Skilled Men in Services, 1941-1942; Fuel Rationing Enquiry for the President of the Board of Trade, 1942; Chairman, Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, 1941-1942; Liberal MP for Berwick-on-Tweed, 1944-1945; President of the Royal Economic Society, 1940-1944, and the Royal Statistical Society, 1941-1948; Chairman of the Aycliffe Development Corporation, 1947-1953, and the Peterlee Development Corporation, 1949-1951; Chairman, Broadcasting Committee, 1949-1950; died 1963.
Publications: Insurance for all and everything (Daily News, London, 1924); John and Irene: an anthology of thoughts on women (Longmans and Co, London, 1912); New Towns and the case for them (University of London Press, London, 1952); Planning under socialism and other addresses (Longmans and Co, London, 1936); Power and influence: an autobiography (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1953); A defence of free learning (Oxford University Press, London, 1959); An urgent message from Germany (Pilot Press, London, 1946); Blockade and the civilian population (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1939); British food control (Oxford University Press, London, 1928); Causes and cures of unemployment (Longmans and Co, London, 1931); Changes in family life (Allen and Unwin, London, 1932); Contributions for social insurance: a reconsideration of rates (Reprinted from The Times, 1945); Full employment in a free society (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1944); India called them (George Allen and Unwin, London, 1947); Peace by federation? (London, 1940); Security and adventure (Council for Education in World Citizenship, London, 1946); Tariffs: the case examined. By a committee of economists under the chairmanship of Sir William Beveridge (Longmans and Co, London, 1932); The conditions of peace; The London School of Economics and its problems, 1919-1937 (George Allen and Unwin, London, 1960); The past and present of unemployment insurance (Oxford University press, London, 1930); The pillars of security and other war-time essays and addresses (G Allen and Unwin, London, 1943); The price of peace (Pilot Press, London, 1945); The problem of the unemployed (1907); The public service in war and peace (Constable and Co, London, 1920); Unemployment: a problem of industry (Longmans and Co, London, 1909); Voluntary action: a report on methods of social advance (George Allen and Unwin, London, 1948); Why I am a Liberal (Herbert Jenkins, London, 1945).

For a biography, see the Beveridge personal papers (Ref: Beveridge).

William Beveridge, 1879-1963: William Beveridge was educated at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford. He was sub-warden of Toynbee Hall 1903-1905, and leader-writer on "social problems" for the "Morning Post" 1906-1908. From 1905 to 1908 Beveridge was a member of the Central (Unemployed) Body for London, and was also the first Chairman of the Employment Exchanges Committee. He was a member of the Board of Trade 1908-1916 and Director of Labour Exchanges 1909-1916. During World War I he was Assistant General Secretary of the Ministry of Munitions (1915 - 1916) and Second Secretary in the Ministry of Food (1916-1918). In 1919 Beveridge became Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Food. In the same year he was knighted. He then retired from the civil service and was appointed director of the London School of Economics (1919-1937). He then moved on to be Master of University College, Oxford (1937-1944). During World War II he was Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Labour (1940) and was Chairman of the Social Service Inquiry (1941-1942) he produced "Social Insurance and Allied Services", a report prepared for government which proposed a social system "from the cradle to the grave" for British citizens. This report became known as the "Beveridge Report" and became the blueprint for the welfare-state legislation of 1944-1948. Beveridge was Liberal MP for Berwick on Tweed 1944-1945, and was made 1st Baron Beveridge of Tuggal in 1946.
His publications include: Unemployment: A problem of industry (1909); Prices and Wages in England from the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century (1939); Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942) (Beveridge Report); Full Employment in a Free Society (1944); The Economics of Full Employment (1944); Report on the Methods of Social Advance (1948); Voluntary Action (1948); A Defence of Free Learning (1959).

The price and wages material was collected by Beveridge and his research assistants for a proposed four volume history which was never completed. The first volume was printed in 1939, following which work was halted by World War Two. A grant from the Nuffield Foundation in 1954 allowed research work to resume, though nothing was published, perhaps due to Beveridge's death in 1963. For a biography, see the Beveridge personal papers (Ref: Beveridge).

The Ministry of Reconstruction was set up in July 1917, and covered a wide range of economic, social and political issues, from administrative reform and improvement of industrial relations, to the position of women in society and the prevention of post-war unemployment. It was split into several committees, including the Reconstruction Committee and the Civil War Workers Committe. For a biography, see the Beveridge personal papers (Ref: Beveridge).

Sir William Henry Beveridge was Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry, 1925-1926. For a biography, see the Beveridge personal papers (Ref: Beveridge).

Black and Green Limited, tea merchants, were founded in 1899 in Manchester. In 1918 the company changed its name to Northern Tea Stores Limited; and in 1937 to Beverlys Limited. The memorandum and articles of association from 1943 describes the company as "wholesale and retail tea and coffee dealers and wine and spirit merchants" and lists stores in Manchester, Bolton, Oldham, Burnley, Preston and Southport. The registered office of the company was Palmer House, Mersey Street, Portwood, Stockport.

Lady Beversham was the administrator of the estate of Sir William Beversham who owned land in Holebrook, Co. Durham; Kesale, Suffolk and property in London.

Bevingtons and Sons Limited, leather merchants and manufacturers were based at Neckinger Mills, Bermondsey, Southwark. The Bevington family were Quakers originating from Warwickshire and neighbouring Gloucestershire and had been associated with tanning since at least the mid-seventeenth century. For most of its history, the leather industry was in the hands of numerous family firms, of which Bevington and Sons Limited is recognised as a significant example. By 1795 operations had been established under Samuel Bevington Senior at the former site of Neckinger Paper Mills. At this time his son Samuel Bourne Bevington was based in Yeovil, Somerset, another area associated with the leather industry.

From 1802, following the death of Samuel Bevington Senior, his sons Samuel Bourne, Henry, Richard and Timothy Bevington continued as partners in the family business. At the Neckinger Mills factory, Bevington and Sons produced and dealt in a wide range of leathers and leather goods, such as gloves. Products were made from foreign and domestic skins including kid, lamb, sheepskin and fine seal-skins. Light leathers, such as Morocco, were produced for making shoes and fancy goods. The company also had premises in Saint Thomas' Street, Bermondsey and in Cannon Street, City of London. The family had a home at 34 Gracechurch Street, City of London. Later business premises included Hawley Mills, Dartford, Kent. The now dissolved public limited company of Bevington and Sons (Neckinger) Limited was incorporated on 6/11/1931.

Members of the Bevington Family have been admitted to the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers. James Geoffrey Bevington, partner from 1927, became the last remaining member of the Bevington Family in the firm. The company moved to Leicester in 1980. As of 2012, Bevington Specialist Leathers exists as a division of Milton Leicester Ltd, North Street, Wigston, Leicester.

For further details see 'Bevingtons & Sons Ltd, 1795-1995' by Geoffrey Bevington, published by Bevington and Sons, 1991. Held in City of London Library Collection (Closed Access Pam 22433). An edition is also available in this collection (ACC/1616/G/01/004).

Community Health Councils were established in England and Wales in 1974 "to represent the interests in the health service of the public in its district" (National Health Service Reorganisation Act, 1973). Often referred to as 'the patient’s voice in the NHS', each Community Health Council (CHC) served the public and patients in its local area by representing their interests to National Health Service (NHS) authorities and by monitoring the provision of health services to their communities.

CHCs were independent statutory bodies with certain legal powers. CHCs were entitled to receive information about local health services, to be consulted about changes to health service provision, and to carry out monitoring visits to NHS facilities. They also had the power to refer decisions about proposed closures of NHS facilities to the Secretary of State for Health. For this reason, CHCs were sometimes known as the ‘watchdogs’ of the NHS. The co-ordinated monitoring of waiting times in Accident and Emergency departments led to ‘Casualty Watch’ which gained national press coverage. Locally, many CHCs represented patients’ views by campaigning for improved quality of care and better access to NHS services, and by responding to local issues such as proposed hospital closures.

Each CHC had around 20 voluntary members from the local area. Half were appointed the local authority, a third were elected from voluntary bodies and the remainder were appointed by the Secretary of State for Health. Members met every month to six weeks and meetings were usually open to the general public. Guest speakers or guest attendees were often invited, particularly when a specific topic or issue was under discussion.

All CHCs employed a small number of paid office staff and some had shop-front offices, often on the high street, where members of the public could go for advice and information about local NHS services. CHCs published leaflets and guidance on a wide variety of topics from ‘how to find a GP’ to ‘how to make a complaint’.

Within the guiding principles and statutory duties of the legislation, CHCs developed organically in response to the needs of the communities they served and for this reason considerable variation can be found in the records of different CHCs.

Bexley Community Health Council held its inaugural meeting on 26 April 1974, making it one of the earliest CHCs to be set up. After initially meeting at Bexley Hospital, permanent premises were found in 1977 at 11a Upton Road, Bexleyheath where the CHC continued to operate until 2003. Bexley’s slogan was "the chc - a link between Bexley health services & those who use them" (Annual Report 1995-1996).

Community Health Councils in England were abolished in 2003 as part of the ‘NHS Plan (2000)’.

Bexley Hospital was founded in 1898 in Old Bexley Lane, Bexley. (It is not the Bexley Hospital in Bexleyheath which was founded in 1884). It has also been known as Heath Asylum, Bexley Asylum, Bexley Mental Hospital and London County Asylum, Bexley. The hospital closed in around 2001.

Bexley Hospital was administered by the South East Metropolitan Hospital Board (1948 - 1974), the South East Thames Regional Health Authority (1974-), the Bexley District Health Authority (1974-) and Oxleas NHS Trust (1995-).

Source of information: The National Archives, Hospital Records Database (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords).

The British Families Education Service (BFES) was established by the Foreign Office in 1946 to provide schooling for the children of British families stationed in the British Zone of Germany after the Second World War, and amidst the post-War devastation. In the winter of 1951-1952 it was taken over by the Army and became Service Childrens' Education. The BFES Association was founded in 1967 to enable BFES teachers to keep in touch. In the 1980s it merged with the Service Childrens' Education Association (SCEA), which had changed its name to SCE, to become the BFES/SCE Association. It arranges annual reunions and publishes an annual magazine.

This company was one of the constituent companies of the Inchcape Group. The Bhooteachang Estate is situated in the district of Darrang, in Assam, India.

Thomas Herbert Bickerton (1858-1933), was a distinguished ophthamologist. He also wrote a Medical history of Liverpool from the earliest days to the year 1920 published by his son in 1936. Ophthalmic Surgeon, Liverpool Royal Infirmary, 1886-1919; President of the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, 1923; elected FRCS in 1926.

George Parker Bidder was born in Moretonhampstead, Devon. As a child, he was discovered to have an outstanding memory and a gift for mental arithmetic, which led to his being 'exhibited' throughout Britain; eventually, he was sponsored to study at the University of Edinburgh. After leaving Edinburgh in 1824, Bidder became a succesful civil engineer, working particularly on railways and telegraphs, and was an active member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the British Association of the Advancement of Science. His eldest son and grandson, both also named George Parker Bidder, were successful in the fields of law and marine biology respectively.

The most striking change in Great Stanmore between 1754 and 1865 was the building or enlargement of several gentlemen's residences. In addition to Stanmore Park and the manor-house, near the church, the village contained the head tenements of Montagues, Fiddles, Pynnacles, and Aylwards, all of which were marked in 1827 by substantial houses. Oak Villa, Townsend Villa (later Belmont Lodge), Rose Cottage, and Vine Cottage formed an extension of the village, into Little Stanmore, at the corner of Dennis Lane and the London Road. Near the crest of the hill, on the west, Hill House and Broomfield stood between the drive leading to Aylwards and the residence next to the brewery. It was at Hill House, then called the Great House, that Dr. Samuel Parr had briefly opened his school in 1771 and that the antiquary Charles Drury Edward Fortnum, who bequeathed most of his treasures to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, lived from 1852 until 1899.

From: 'Great Stanmore: Introduction', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 88-96. Available online.

Born 1835; educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; commissioned into the Royal Artillery, 1853; served in the Crimean War, 1854-1856, and was present at the Battle of the Alma, the Battle of Balaclava and the siege of Sebastopol; service in the Indian Mutiny Campaign, 1857-1859; Capt, 1860; Second China War, 1860; Maj, 1861; Lt Col, 1864; Assistant Boundary Commissioner for Reform Act, 1867; private secretary to Rt Hon Edward Cardwell, Secretary of State for War, 1871-1873; Col, 1872; Assistant Adjutant General, War Office, 1873-1878; awarded CB, 1877; HM Commissioner, Constantinople, 1879; High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief, Cyprus, 1879-1886; created KCMG, 1880; Maj Gen, 1883; appointed GCMG, 1886; Inspector General of Recruiting, 1886-1888; Lt Gen, 1887; Director General of Military Education, 1888-1893; Gen, 1892; Quartermaster General to the Forces, 1893; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Gibraltar, 1893-1900; created KCB, 1896; appointed GCB, 1899; retired, 1902; Army Purchase Commissioner, 1904; Master Gunner of St James's Park, 1914; died 1918. Publications: Lord Cardwell at the War Office. A history of his administration, 1868-1874 (John Murray, London, 1904).

The sales particulars detail properties in various locations including Mill Hill, Harrow, Hendon, Hampton, Wealdstone, Chiswick, Northolt, Chadwell Heath, Southall, Lampton, Twickenham, Teddington, Yeading, West Drayton, Yiewsley, Golders Green, Eastcote, Wembley, Ruislip Manor, Edgware, Staines, and Cranford.

Selmar Biener was born into a Jewish family in Magdeburg in 1906. Her brother, David, was born in 1904. The two of them entered into a business partnership in Magdeburg in 1935, an electrical components wholesalers. David had already worked at their parents' firm, also in Magdeburg, but having demonstrated 'an outstanding business sense' it was decided to start out on their own. In 1937 David went to Holland and from there to Palestine. Nothing is known of his fate after this period. Selmar came to London sometime before Oct 1942. The parents remained in Magdeburg. Their fate is not known.

Bikam Rubber Estate Limited: This company was registered in 1909 to acquire the Bikam (tea and rubber) estate in Perak, Malaysia. It acquired Victoria (Malaya) Rubber Estates Limited (in 1927), North Labis (Johore) Rubber and Produce Company (1934), Sungkai Chumor Estates Limited (1935) and Tebolang Rubber Estates Limited (1935). In 1952 it was taken over by Pataling Rubber Estates Limited (CLC/B/112-124).