Paddington Technical College (which originated in 1903) took over the Chelsea School of Chiropody in 1957 and in 1967 moved into new blocks on the north side of Paddington Green. The Biological Science Department of Paddington Technical College joined the Polytechnic of Central London as the School of Biological and Health Sciences in 1990, following the abolition of the Inner London Education Authority. The School moved from the Paddington campus in 1993.
The Polytechnic Institution was opened in August 1838 to provide the public with (in the words of its prospectus of 1837) 'a practical knowledge of the various arts and branches of science connected with Manufactures, Mining Operations, and Rural Economy'. The idea was that of Charles Payne, former manager of the Adelaide Gallery in the Strand. William Mountford Nurse, a builder, provided the initial capital. Sir George Cayley (1773-1857), landowner and aeronautical scientist, became chairman of the provisional committee and later of the directors. His influence helped to raise the necessary share capital. A house at no 5 Cavendish Square was purchased, and a new gallery building (designed by James Thompson) added, with an entrance on Regent Street. The Institution received its charter of incorporation in 1839. The Gallery housed a large exhibition hall, lecture theatre, and laboratories. Public attractions included exhibitions, working machines and models, scientific lectures, rides in a diving bell - a major attraction - and, from 1839, demonstrations of photography.
In 1841 Richard Beard opened the first photographic studio in Europe on the roof of the building. The Polytechnic became known for its spectacular magic lantern shows, pioneered by Henry Langdon Childe (d 1874), and a new theatre was added in 1848. John Henry Pepper (1821-1900) was appointed lecturer and analytical chemist in that year. He was its most famous showman, also expanding the teaching role of the Polytechnic, which began evening classes in 1856 under the auspices of the Society of Arts. By the 1870s these were formalised under the Polytechnic College. By 1841 the Institution was calling itself the Royal Polytechnic, probably due to the patronage of Prince Albert. Expansion gradually gave way to financial difficulty, reflecting a long-standing tension between education and the need for profit. A fatal accident on the premises in 1859 caused the first company to be wound up and a new one formed. Various regeneration schemes were considered, but in 1879 a fire damaged the roof, precipitating the final crisis. By 1881 the Royal Polytechnic Institution had failed, the assets sold at auction and the building (no 309 Regent Street) put up for sale. It was purchased by the philanthropist Quintin Hogg (1845-1903), and the RPI succeeded by his Young Men's Christian Institute (later known at the Regent Street Polytechnic), which opened in 1882. Hogg lived for some years in the house in Cavendish Square. See also Richard Altick, The Shows of London (1978); and, on the Polytechnic and the history of photography, Helmut Gernsheim and Alison Gernsheim, The History of Photography (1969); Brenda Weeden The Education of the Eye (2008).
The Coton Collection originated in the personal library of the late Edward Haddakin (1906-1969), the eminent ballet and dance critic who wrote under the name of A V Coton. This library, consisting of the books, periodicals, programmes, souvenir items, and photographs collected by Edward Haddakin during his career as a ballet and dance critic from 1938-1968, was donated to Royal Holloway by his wife, Dr Lillian Haddakin (1914-1982), formerly Senior Lecturer in English at University College, London. The Collection also includes some additional programmes that were donated by Lorraine Williams, a former employee of Westminster Music Library.
The following biographical note about A.V. Coton is extracted from Writings on Dance, 1938-68, by A. V. Coton, (selected and edited by Kathrine Sorley Walker and Lillian Haddakin and published in London by Dance Books in 1975).
";A. V. COTON (EDWARD HADDAKIN) was born at York on 16 February, 1906; son of a railwayman; of mixed Irish and English extraction. He was educated at St. Michael's College, Leeds. From 1922 to 1924 he was a merchant seaman, and he served in the Metropolitan Police Force from 1925 to 1937, mainly in Bethnal Green. He began writing ballet criticism in 1935 and became a full-time freelance writer in march 1937. He published his first book, A Prejudice for Ballet (Methuen) in 1938; in the same year he married Lillian Turner. He was also active in the organising and management of Antony Tudor's London Ballet, which was launched in 1938; and he worked with Peggy van Praagh and Maude Lloyd when the company was revived in 1939-40. From 1940 to 1945 he served in the Civil Defence (Light Rescue Division) in the City of Westminster, (Light Rescue workers went into action during air raids, rescuing as many still-living persons as they could). After the war he returned to freelance writing, diversified by lecturing (mainly evening courses in the London area) and by radio and television work; he was a founder-member of the London freelance branch of the National Union of Journalists. He published The New Ballet: Kurt Joos and His Work (Denis Dobson) in 1946. From 1943 to 1956 he was London correspondent for the American Dance News. He was best known in journalism as dance critic of The Daily Telegraph, a position he held from 1954 to 1969; but he also acted as assistant drama critic for the same newspaper from 1957, and throughout his career he was deeply interested in drama and the theatre generally. He was part author of Ballet Here and Now, published by Denis Dobson in 1961, and in the same year, President of the Critics' Circle, London. He travelled extensively in Europe and North America for the purpose of seeing ballet and other forms of dance, in performance and in teaching; he visited the U.S.S.R. in 1960. He died of cancer on 7 July, 1969."
Barking Abbey was founded in the later part of the seventh century by St. Ethelburga. The earliest charter of the Abbey, relates to a gift of land being made by Hodilred, King of Essex. Although all the places mentioned in this charter cannot be identified with certainty, it is fairly certain that it is referring to all the land between the River Roading and Dagenham Beam River. Barking is not appears to be identified as Beddanhaam or Budinhaam, while Dagenham is called Deccanhamm. It is not known when Dagenham became a separate parish. Although it is likely to be fairly early due to the date of the dedication of the Parish Church St. Peter and St. Paul's.
For secular purpose the land granted by the charter remained in the hands of successive abbesses of Barking, and formed part of the large Manor of Barking until the Dissolution. It remained a royal manor until 1628, when it was mortgaged to Sir Thomas Fanshawe. On his death it was passed to his daughter who sold it to Sir Orlando Humphreys in 1717. In turn it was brought by Smart Lethuillier and then inherited by the daughter of his brother Charles, who was also the wife of Sir Edward Hulse.
The parish of Barking, included parts of Ilford, as well as Barking. These two areas were separated for ecclesiastical purposes in 1830, but remained one civil parish until 1888. Before this division, the parish was about thirty miles in diameter. It is probable that the early inhabitants would have worshipped at Barking Abbey and then St. Margaret's Church, which was located on the southern edge of Barking Parish. Those that lived north of this towards Ilford, would have attended the Chapel of the Leper Hospital, and later the Chapel at Aldborough Hatch, built in 1653.
The rapid urbanisation during the beginning of the nineteenth century caused problems in the administration of public health and welfare, which the vestries of such districts were incompetent to deal with. The bad name of the town vestries, meant reformers ignored the spirit of local patriotism and the historic descent of local government. After the Poor Law of 1834, ad hoc bodies were continually being created to carry out different tasks that were previously undertaken by the local vestry. Barking, for example found itself within the Romford Poor Law Union. The maintenance of the highways was taken over by the 6th Highway District in 1867. In addition to this the provision of education was put into the hands of an elected School Board in 1889. Barking also had its own Board of Health from 1853 to 1855.
However unity was restored with the establishment of the Barking Urban District Council under the Local Government Act of 1894. The vestry of the parish of Barking, continued to meet despite its diminished power in order to discuss church and secular business, as well as to receive charity accounts after 1895. The overseer also remained in office until the introduction of the Rating and Valuation Act in 1925.
This administrative history was largely based on a book by J. E. Oxley, entitled Barking Vestry Minutes (1955).
Becontree Heath was the meeting place of the Becontree Hundred, which was a court that governed on local matters until 1465. The Lord of the Manor had some jurisdiction also and Manorial Courts for the Dagenham Manors were held regularly here or in the Leet House at Barking. The Poor Law Act of 1601 set up the 'Vestry', the first unit of Local Authority. The members of the Vestry, later known as the Parish Council, were responsible for a number of local affairs put principally the care of the poor.
Ecclesiastical and secular affairs came under the same body, and were carried on in this war for two hundred years. There were also other special bodies, such as Trustees of the Turnpike Roads and the Commissioners for the Levels. In 1836 the union of Parishes was enforced for the care of the poor and Dagenham elected members to the Romford Board of Guardians and ceased to keep a village workhouse. The poor rate was collected by the Vestry, and the earliest surviving rate book dates back to 1839.
In 1840, the parish became part of the Metropolitan Police Area. The Local Board of Health was established in 1851. This body was responsible for local sanitary matters. Dagenham School Board was founded and five schools erected under the new compulsory Education Act of 1872. In 1902 the School Board was abolished and the management of schools in Dagenham was taken over by Essex County Council. During the same year a drainage scheme was undertaken, and then enlarged in 1910.
The parish remained mainly rural until 1921, when the London County Council started to build the great Becontree Estate. Modern industries, notably the Ford Motor Works, soon followed the new population. Dagenham became an urban district in 1926 and a borough in 1938.
Born, 1923; as a Roman Catholic he was educated at St Brendan's Grammar School, Bristol; St Edmund's Seminary, Ware, 1938; ordained priest, 1946; Gregorian University, Rome, licentiate in sacred theology, 1948; taught fundamental theology and apologetics, St Edmund's, 1949-1952; Professor of Dogmatic Theology, St Edmund's, 1952-1964; Heythrop College, 1964-; attended the third session of the Second Vatican Council, 1964; first Roman Catholic to present the Maurice lectures at King's College, London, 1966; announced publicly that he had resolved to break with the Roman Catholic church, 1966; Clare College, Cambridge, -1967; head of a new religious studies department at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1967-1970; Professor of Religious Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, 1970-1991; editor of the periodical Studies of Religion / Sciences Religieuses, 1977-1985; Principal of Lonergan University College in Montreal, 1987-1991; retired, 1991; returned to Britain, 1993; died, 1999.
Publications: A Question of Conscience (1967)
Theology and Political Society (1980).
Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts was opened on 10 January 1898 in premises adjoining the South London Art Gallery. It was established by the Technical Education Board of the London County Council in a building provided by the Vestry of Camberwell, and aimed 'to give the best artistic and technical education to all classes in the district', 'supplement knowledge gained by craftsmen in workshops' and 'help the craftsman become the designer of his own work'. The philanthropist John Passmore Edwards gave a substantial sum of money for the erection of the building in memory of Lord Leighton. The school and gallery were the fruition of a movement for the foundation of an artistic centre in Camberwell, supported by Edward Burne-Jones, Lord Leighton, Walter Crane and G F Watts. The school enrolled 198 students, mostly part-time, for the first session. The school offered evening technical classes in architecture, cabinet design, embroidery, wood carving, wood block and stencil cutting; trade classes in masonry and stone carving, plasterwork, house painting and decorating and an evening art school giving classes in elementary drawing and design, life classes and modelling. A day art and technical school was also held from 10 to 4, offering life classes, preliminary drawing, painting and design, modelling, wood carving and embroidery. The demand for places in the school grew continuously and an extension was opened in 1904 enabling further courses to be added including brickwork, plumbing and typography. A further major extension was completed in 1913 providing rooms and studios for a wide range of courses, including sculpture, pottery, drawing and painting and a new library.
Between its foundation and the Second World War the school provided a wide range of courses, mainly for those employed in the building and printing trades and in the manufacture of pottery and furniture. By 1913 courses offered by the school were divided into four, mainly vocational areas, comprising printing and book production, construction and decoration of buildings, embroidery and dressmaking and jewellery, silversmithing and enamelling. All the trade courses were taught with the co-operation of the relevant trade organisations, and afternoon and evening courses for apprentices were established by the 1920s. After 1913 there was a gradual movement away from the trade courses (with the exception of printing and typographical design) to an increasing emphasis on the fine arts and design, with the establishment of the Fine Art Department in the inter-war years. A number of building trade subjects were dropped from the curriculum between 1913 and 1930, and under Stanley Thorogood, Principal from 1920 to 1938, the study of drawing and painting, commercial art and crafts such as pottery, dressmaking and embroidery was extended.
A Junior Art School (later known as the Secondary Art School) was established in 1920, providing preliminary training courses for students from the ages of 14 to 16 before moving to full-time senior courses. As well as teaching trade, technical and art subjects students were given instruction in English, science and physical training. It was closed in 1958 when the policy of separating secondary and further education was established.
During the Second World War the Junior Art School was evacuated to Chipstead and later to Northampton along with other students from the school. Printing continued at Camberwell throughout the war. The number of full-time students (apart from the Secondary Art School) increased from about 40 before the war to nearly 400 by 1948. After the war the school concentrated on providing courses on fewer subjects, with the main fields of study being painting, sculpture, illustration, graphic design, printed and woven textile design, pottery, printing and bookbinding. A new sculpture building was opened in 1953, providing new workshops for modelling in clay, bronze casting, plaster casting, stone and wood carving. By 1963 the work of the school was organised into three departments, Painting and Sculpture, Design and Crafts and Printing and Bookbinding. A course in foundation studies was begun in 1962, and in 1963 the former courses for the National Diploma in Design were superseded by those for the Diploma in Art and Design. These were approved in 1974 as leading to the BA honours degrees of the CNAA, with main studies in painting, sculpture, graphic design, printed and woven textiles and ceramics. Courses in paper conservation were started in 1970.
By 1968 the School was organised into eight departments, Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Design, Ceramics and Metalwork, Textiles, Foundation Studies, Art History and Printing. Between 1966 and 1971 additional accommodation was opened in Meeting House Lane and Lyndhurst Grove, and a purpose-built sculpture annexe was completed in 1969. A new building on an adjoining site was opened in 1973, providing a further 42 studio workshops and classrooms, new assembly and lecture halls, library and common rooms. In 1976 the former premises of Wilson School was taken over by the school, allowing a number of smaller annexes to be relinquished. Degree courses in silversmithing and metalwork were introduced in 1976. The vocational courses in printing and typographical design were discontinued in 1981 and the department closed, and in 1983 the textiles degree course was closed. In 1982 a new Department of Art History and Conservation was established, offering Higher Diploma and BA honours degree courses.
In January 1986 the school became a constituent college of the London Institute, formed by the Inner London Education Authority associating its art schools and specialist colleges of printing, fashion and distributive trades into a collegiate structure. In 1989 Camberwell was renamed Camberwell College of Arts, and the courses were organised into two schools, one of Applied and Graphic Arts and the other of Art History and Conservation. In 1993 the London Institute was granted the right to award degrees in its own name, and in 1998 the college launched a new framework for its BA courses, offering students the opportunity to focus on a specialist discipline supplemented by chosen elective subjects.
Teachers at Camberwell have included William Coldstream, Rodney Burn, Lawrence Gowing, John Minton, W T Monnington, Victor Pasmore, Claude Rogers, William Townsend, Nigel Walters, Edward Ardizzone, Martin Bloch, Norah Braden, Helmut Ruhemann, Gilbert Spencer, Karel Vogel, Berthold Wolpe, John Buckland Wright and Dennis Young.
Born in Nassau, Bahamas, 1925; returned to Scotland as a child; educated at boarding school; poverty in Glasgow; education ended at the age of thirteen with the outbreak of war and evacuation to the Orkneys; briefly attended Glasgow School of Art; army service, 1942-1945; sergeant in the RASC, saw service in Germany; became friendly with the artists Colquhoun, MacBryde, Hohn Minton; worked as a shepherd in the Orkneys, 1945; agricultural labourer; wrote short stories and plays, some broadcast by the BBC; moved to Edinburgh, 1950s; labourer in the Orkneys, working on rhyming poems; founded the Wild Hawthorn Press with Jessie McGuffie, 1961; produced the periodical Poor. Old. Tired. Horse., 1962-1968; produced the broadside Fishsheet for concrete poetry, 1963; publication of Rapel, collection of concrete poems, and of Standing Poem I, 1963; Canal Stripe Series 3, first published booklet-poem, 1964; settled at Stonypath, 1966, and began work on the 4 acre garden; Scottish representative on the Comité International of the concrete poetry movement, 1967; contributor to the International concrete poetry exhibition, 1967 Brighton Festival; first one-man exhibition at the Axiom Gallery, London, 1968; published the Weed Boat Masters Ticket booklet, first question booklet, 1971; retrospective exhibition, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 1972; started a series of works for the Max Planck Institute Garden, Stuttgart, 1974; ceramic works in collaboration with David Ballantyne, 1975-1976; Collaborations exhibition, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 1977; exhibited at the Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Battersea Park, London, 1977; exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery, London, 1977; cancelled exhibition in Edinburgh as a protest against actions of Scottish Arts Council officials, 1978; Stonypath renamed Little Sparta, 1978; corresponded with Albert Speer, 1978; beginning of the 'Free Arts' project, 1978; worked on Japanese Stacks with John R Thorpe, 1978-1979; Nature Over Again After Poussin travelling exhibition, 1980-1981; exhibited at the Sculpture Show, Hayward Gallery, London, 1983; collaboration with the architect Andrew Townsend, 1983-1984; garden and temple at Little Sparta reopened to visitors, 1984; exhibitions at Merian-Park, Basel, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh and British Council's British Show in Australia; touring exhibition organized by Southampton Art Gallery, 1984; exhibitions with Sarkis at the Espace Rameau-Chapelle Sainte-Marie, Never, France and at the Eric Fabre Gallery, Paris; outdoor sculpture exhibitions at Geneva, and Wageningen, Holland, 1985; shortlisted for the Turner Prize, 1985; exhibited Osso in Paris, 1987; honorary professorship, University of Dundee, 1999.
Born, 1942; educated bath Academy of Art, Corsham, 1960-1963; member of 'Systems' group of artists, 1968-1975; taught, Department of Art, Bulmersche College, Reading, 1969-1988, head of department, 1980-1988; member of 'arbeitskreis' international workshop for systematic constructive art, 1977-1998; member, Southern Arts Regional Arts Association Art Panel, 1981-1983; Tutor and Secretary, Slade School of Fine Art, 1988-; one-person exhibitions 1965-, including at London, Paris and Amsterdam; died 1998.
A British Museum expedition to collect dinosaur bones from Tendaguru in Tanganyika was first proposed in 1918 as a result of information received from the geologist C W Hobley. The site had been discovered by a German palaeontologist in 1907 and systematically excavated from 1909 until 1912. A S Woodward, Keeper of Geology, pressed the case, suggesting that the German work had been poor, and that important material must remain to be discovered. Final approval for the expedition was given by Trustees in October 1923. The costs were paid by the Trustees, the Treasury and by a public subscription, which raised enough to buy one motor lorry. William Edmund Cutler, a Canadian with experience of collecting dinosaurs, was appointed leader, and he travelled to Africa in February 1924, accompanied by an undergraduate from Cambridge, L S B Leakey. Leakey returned at the end of the year, and Cutler worked largely on his own until his sudden death from malaria in August 1925.
Frederick William Hugh Migeod, 'an intrepid and experienced traveller', replaced Cutler as leader of the expedition, with Major T Deacon as his assistant. Neither of these two men had any geological or palaeontological training, and some alarm was expressed in London at the lack of proper scientific control over the collecting. A team of forty labourers worked on the site and 431 boxes or packages of bones were sent back to the Museum during 1926 alone. Migeod and Deacon returned to England at the end of 1926, leaving G W Parrett and W Kershaw, two big game hunters, in charge of the site.
A geologist, Dr John Parkinson, replaced Migeod in May 1927, but results during 1928 were disappointing, partly due to illness. Migeod resumed his place as Leader for the years 1929 and 1930, assisted by F R Parrington, and financed by the governments of Tanganyika, Nyasaland and Kenya. The expedition finally closed in January 1931.
Overall the results of the expedition were disappointing. Although a large number of bones had been discovered and returned to London, few appeared to belong to new genera or species, and it was many years before they were all even unpacked. No scientific report of the expedition was ever published.
Mervyn Herbert Nevil Story-Maskelyne was born at Basset Down House, near Wroughton, Wiltshire, on 3 September 1823. He was educated at Bruton and graduated in mathematics from Oxford in 1845. He studied law, but abandoned this for science in 1847, attending lectures at the Royal Institution given by Michael Faraday (item 16). He lectured on mineralogy at Oxford from 1850, and was appointed Professor of Mineralogy in 1856. Story-Maskelyne became Keeper of Mineralogy at the Museum in 1857, and although he moved to London, he retained his Oxford professorship until 1895. At the Museum he worked with Thomas Davies on the proper documentation of mineral specimens in the collection, and in 1875 he started work on a 'Scientific Catalogue of the Whole Collection ...', containing both crystallographic and chemical data. He pressed for the establishment of a chemical laboratory, and studied and published papers on meteorites.
Outside his Museum work, Story-Maskelyne was a man of wide antiquarian and classical interests. He published papers on ancient mineralogy and, as papers in the class show, made detailed study of the history of the Koh-i-noor diamond. He was also a popular lecturer, and gave a notable series to the Chemical Society in 1874 (item 13). He inherited the family estate of Basset Down in 1879 and resigned from the keepership in 1880 to devote himself to its management. However, he continued to work and publish in mineralogy, and was elected Member of Parliament for Cricklade.
Miss Jacqueline Palmer was born in London in 1918. Having trained at the Froebel Educational Institute, Roehampton, she gained her diploma in 1939 and taught throughout the war. Later she went up to Cambridge University to read geography at Newnham College, graduating with honours in 1948.
Having joined the Museum on a part-time basis in the Autumn of 1948, Miss Palmer proposed the development of a Children's Centre as an attempt to encourage and direct the interest of children in the natural world and the Museum. Inaugurated on an experimental basis during the school holidays, the Centre was located on the west side of Central Hall, near to the main entrance. It was an area where children could draw, make models and receive instruction. Miss Palmer was seconded to the Museum by the London County Council who paid her salary.
In 1948 she inaugurated the Junior Naturalists' Club for children aged 10 to 15 who were regular visitors to the Centre and who proved their commitment by producing a piece of fieldwork. The Club had its own committee and met once a week with occasional extra activities. The Club had a small library and programmes of activities were devised by the Committee, under Miss Palmer's guidance. In 1950 a Country Club was started at the suggestion of Sir Norman Kinnear for children aged 13 to 16 living outside London who wanted help with their studies of the natural world.
This generated considerable correspondence and subsequently the work of the Country Club was incorporated within that of the Field Observer's Club. This was formed in 1953 as a senior group for young people over the age of 15 so that more appropriate work could be provided for older Centre members. It too had its own committee, programme and selection procedure. An Argus Club for scientific illustration, intended for children aged between 13 and 17, was also formed but was later incorporated into the Field Observer's Club. Close ties were always maintained between these two clubs and both continued their work after Miss Palmer left the Museum in 1956. The Junior Naturalists' Club was linked to the Chelsea Physic Garden while the Field Observer's Club became independent of any other organization. The latter was affiliated to the International Youth Federation for the Study and Protection of Nature and the former to the Council for Nature, an alliance resulting in productive exchanges. Miss Palmer left the Museum in 1956 and died from cancer on 3 January 1961.
Tring Museum originated as the private museum of the wealthy aristocrat and banker, Lionel Walter Rothschild (1868-1937), 2nd Baron Rothschild of Tring, in Hertfordshire. Walter began collecting natural history specimens at the age of seven, and converted a garden shed into his first museum a few years later. He visited the natural history galleries at the British Museum as a boy, and started a thirty-year correspondence with Albert Gunther, the Keeper of Zoology. Rothschild studied at Bonn University and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he came under the influence of the Professor of Zoology, Alfred Newton.
As a 21st birthday present his father built him a splendid museum on the edge of Tring Park for Walter's ever-growing zoological collections and library. Alfred Minall acted as caretaker and taxidermist, and the museum was opened to the public for the first time in 1892.
Rothschild made use of a great number of professional collectors to build up his museum, including A F R Wollaston in North Africa, William Doherty in what is now Malaysia and Indonesia, and A S Meek in New Guinea. He also undertook one major expedition himself, spending nearly six months collecting in Algeria in 1908. He kept live animals in Tring Park, including emus, kangaroos, zebra and giant tortoises. Rothschild appointed two curators in 1892 and 1893: Ernst Hartert (1859-1933) as ornithologist and Karl Jordan (1861-1959) as entomologist. Hartert retired as Director of the Museum in 1930, and was succeeded by Jordan until his own retirement in 1938. By 1908, when Rothschild retired from banking, the museum had an establishment of eight, including Arthur Goodson who assisted Hartert, and Fred Young who had succeeded Minall as taxidermist. The museum also published its own journal, Novitates Zoologicae, which eventually ran to 42 quarto volumes rich in hand-coloured lithographs. Rothschild added two wings to the museum to house the collections of birds and insects in 1910 and 1912.
In spite of his family's great wealth, Rothschild was often short of money. He sold most of his beetles to raise funds for the Museum, and in 1931 a crisis forced him to sell his collection of birds to the American Museum of Natural History. The remainder of his museum remained intact until his death in 1937, when it was bequeathed in its entirety to the Trustees of the British Museum. This, the largest bequest ever received by The Natural History Museum, consisted of 3,000 mounted mammals, reptiles and amphibians, 2,000 mounted birds and about 4,000 skins, a vast collection of butterflies and other insects, a library of 30,000 volumes, the buildings and the land on which they stood. An Act of Parliament in 1938 allowed the Trustees to accept the bequest.
A succession of Natural History Museum staff acted as Officer-in-charge of Tring including T C S Morrison-Scott (1938-1939), J R Norman (1939-1944) and J E Dandy. Collections were evacuated to Tring from South Kensington during the war, but it wasn't until the end of the 1960s that major changes took place. The display galleries were modernised in 1969-1971, though they still retain a Victorian flavour, and the Bird Section moved into a new building on the site in 1971, providing space in South Kensington for Rothschild's insects to join the other entomological collections there. The Zoological Museum, Tring, now comprises a public display of stuffed animals with associated educational programmes, the Rothschild Library, and the staff and collections of the Bird Section.
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) traveller and naturalist, independently of but at the same time as, Charles Darwin, identified Natural Selection as the key to evolutionary change.
Alfred Russel Wallace was born on January 8th, 1823, near the town of Usk in Monmouthshire, to Thomas Vere Wallace (died May 1843) and Mary Anne Wallace (née Greenell; died 15 November 1868). The family moved to Hertford, Essex, in about 1826. Their father, originally a gentleman of independent means and a non-practicing solicitor, lost money in unsuccessful financial speculation and took up a series of low-paid jobs, and the family moved several times for economic reasons.
When Mrs Greenell, Mary Wallace's stepmother, died in 1826, the family moved to her home-town, Hertford, in Essex. Here ARW met another child, George Silk, who became a lifelong friend and correspondent. The Wallaces lived first in a house in Andrews Street, next at an address in Old Cross, a short distance away.
Other members of the family included Aunt Wilson, Mary Anne Wallace's sister, wife of Thomas Wilson, lawyer, who in 1826 lived in Dulwich. Thomas Wilson was controlling trustee of a Greenell family legacy which paid for, among other things, John Wallace's board, and held money in trust for the other Wallace children. When Thomas Wilson was declared bankrupt in 1834, the legacy became involved and the Wallace's income was drastically reduced.
ARW was educated at Hertford Grammar School and then Hertford School where in his final year he was a pupil-teacher. In 1837, aged 14, he went to London where he stayed with his brother John (an apprentice builder) and became an apprentice surveyor as pupil to his brother William. His parents moved to Rawdon Cottage, Hoddesdon, in the same year.
ARW began collecting insect specimens found during his surveying trips, and became increasingly interested in natural history. In 1848 he went with fellow enthusiast H W Bates to the Amazon on a collecting expedition, hoping to make a living as a collector of natural history specimens. His brother Herbert (usually known by his second name, Edward) subsequently joined him, but died of Yellow Fever in 1851. ARW returned to England in 1851, losing his journals and collection of specimens when the ship in which he was sailing caught fire and sank.
Still hoping to make a living as a collector and naturalist, ARW sailed for Malaysia in 1854 with a young assistant, Charles Allen. He spent eight years in the Malay Archipelago, collecting birds and insects and studying and writing on the local flora, fauna and people. It was here that he began writing scientific papers, formed his ideas on the natural selection and geographical distribution of species, and began corresponding with Charles Darwin.
At a meeting of the Linnean Society on July 1st, 1858, Wallace's paper "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type", written in early 1858 while he was at Ternate in the Moluccas, was presented jointly with an unpublished essay of 1844 on the subject by Darwin.
ARW returned to England in 1862, and subsequently published widely on a variety of scientific and other subjects, and gave public lectures. He travelled to America and Canada for a lecture tour in 1886-1887. He was member of a number of scientific societies, was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1892 and was awarded the Order of Merit by the King in 1908.
ARW married Annie Mitten, the daughter of pharmacist and bryologist William Mitten, in about 1866. They had three children, Herbert Spencer, (1867-1874), William Greenell (born 1871) and Violet, (born 1869).
ARW died at home in Broadstone, Dorset, on 8 November, 1913.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century a Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Pipon, founded an import-export business in Mauritius. In 1817 Joachim Henri Adam (1793-1856) arrived in Mauritius from Rouen to take up work on a sugar estate; in 1825 he married Jean-Baptiste's daughter and joined the Pipon business thereafter. Henri Adam played a prominent part in the island campaign for an indemnity to owners of slaves emancipated under the Abolition Act of 1832. The firm, which for more than a century was one of the island's three most important firms of merchants and commission agents, traded successively under the names of F Barbe and Adam (1829-1837); Henry Adam and Co (1837-1848); Pipon Bell and Co (1848-1863); Pipon Adam and Co (1863-1897); Adam and Co (1897-1945); and Adam and Co Ltd (1945-1969). The Adam family was important in local administration. Charles Felix Henri (fl 1830-1900) was a member of the Council of Government in the 1880s. His brother Louis Gustave (d 1894) established himself in Paris to watch over the European side of the business. In 1969 the business was sold to the Blyth, Greene, Jourdain and Company Group; a condition of the sale was that the Adam name should be kept. Both the Pipon and Adam families were involved in the production as well as in the marketing of sugar, the main export industry of Mauritius. Through a network of correspondents and agents the firm sold sugar, mostly on consignment, to Britain, France, India, Australia, Malaya, Dutch East Indies, Indo-China and South Africa: it imported rice and jute (gunny sacks) from Calcutta; chemical fertilizers and machinery from Europe and guano from Peru; mules from Montevideo, and a great diversity of consumer goods. An important part of the company's operations from the late 1830s onwards was connected with the transport and allocation of Indian immigrant workers under contract to the sugar plantations. It was also active in the chartering market, acting as agent both for chartered vessels and for regular liners, notably the Clan Line. There was also an insurance business, the Mauritius Marine Insurance Company, which looked after the affairs of a number of overseas insurance companies as agent and claims assessor, besides representing the Bureau Veritas classification society in Mauritius.
The Navy Office occupied various sites in the vicinity of Tower Hill prior to 1654. At this time the office moved to a building at the junction of Crutched Friars and Seething Lane. This building was burnt down in 1673 but a new office on the same site was completed in 1682. The Navy Office remained at Tower Hill until 1786 when it was moved to more spacious accommodation at Somerset House. The Navy Board was composed of sea officers and civilians known as the 'Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy'. The Comptroller of the Navy presided over the Board, generally superintended the business of the Navy Office, and was responsible for the offices dealing with bills, accounts and wages; though theoretically of equal standing, the Comptroller tended to exercise seniority over his colleagues owing to the variety of business which he conducted. The Clerk of the Acts arranged the business of the Board and conducted its correspondence. The Surveyor, appointed from among the Master Shipwrights at the dock-yards, examined all survey reports on ships at the yards, considered what to repair, was responsible for the design and construction of ships and ensured the yards had sufficient stores and equipment. The Comptrollers of Victualling Accounts, of Storekeepers' Accounts and of Treasurers' Accounts respectively examined the accounts of bills made out by the Victualling Hoard, of the stores received in the dockyards and of the money received and paid by the Treasurer of the Navy. In 1796 the offices of Clerk of the Acts and the three Comptrollers of Accounts were abolished and the Board reconstituted, the business of the Navy Office being placed under the supervision of three Committees, of Correspondence, Accounts and Stores. Sir Charles Middleton and Sir Thomas Byam Martin (1773-1854) each held the office of Comptroller. Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) and Charles Sergison (1654-1732) each held the position of Clerk of the Acts whilst notable Surveyors included Sir Thomas Slade (d 1771) and Sir Robert Seppings (1767-1840). The number of clerks in the Navy Office fluctuated according to the pressure of business and especially to whether the country was at war. The clerical establishment nevertheless grew steadily from the time of the Restoration until the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Until 1796 the great majority of clerks were employed in one of eight Offices: the Offices for Bills and Accounts and for Seamen's Wages, the Ticket Office, the Surveyor's Office, the Clerk of the Acts Office, the Offices for Examining Treasurer's Accounts, for Examining Victualling Accounts and for Examining Storekeepers' Accounts. The reorganization after 1796 involved the formation of several new offices: a Secretary's Office in 1796, an Office for Stores in 1796, an Allotment Office in 1797, a Contract Office in 1803 and an Office for Foreign Accounts in 1807. In 1808 the Naval Works Department was transferred to the Navy Office to become until 1812 the Office of the Architect and Engineer. A Ticket and Wages Branch was formed in 1829.
The lieutenants' logs were kept by the lieutenants of a ship in commission, recording details of weather, navigation and the routine of the ship, as well as incidents that occurred during the commission. Printed formats appeared from about 1799, different printed forms being sold by various printers in Portsea and in Plymouth. A standard form was laid down by the Admiralty in October 1805 when the practice of starting the day's log at noon was altered to coincide with the civil calendar, by beginning the log at midnight. At the completion of each year a lieutenant's log was required to be deposited in the Admiralty Office, accompanied by a certificate stating that the officer had complied with the printed instructions and not been absent from his ship. At the Admiralty the chief clerk abstracted details of the voyage and, in return for a fee, sent the log to the Navy Office where a clerk in the office of the Clerk of the Acts made out a certificate entitling the lieutenant to be paid. At the Navy Office individual logs were bound into volumes. It was the practice to bind them according to the name of the ship, not that of their keeper, but during a period in the mid-eighteenth century logs were collected by year, as well as by name of ship, and logs for four or five ships, beginning with the same letter, were bound in one volume.
The Albyn Line was founded as a private company in Sunderland in 1901 with Sir William Allan (1837-1903) as its chairman. After his death, Sir James (later Lord) Joicey (1846-1936) succeeded him. From then until the dissolution of the company in 1966 the office of chairman was filled by members of the Joicey family. Following a management contract in 1901 between the new company and the already existing firm of Allan Black and Company, the latter's managing director and managers took over these posts in the new company as well. The pattern of Albyn Line trade was South Welsh or Tyne coal outwards to the Continent or Port Said, and after discharge in ballast through the Dardanelles to Odessa to load grain for London or the Continent. Other areas served occasionally were the River Plate and the Gulf of Mexico. At the outbreak of the First World War the company owned four vessels. Apart from one which was detained by the Turks for the duration of the war, all the others were lost in 1917. Until 1924 the Albyn Line operated with only one ship and the voyages tended to be of longer duration. During this period its income was supplemented by the profits of its shipping agency business. Two ships were built in 1924 and 1925, and in 1928 and 1929 four more new ships were immediately laid up because of the depression. As in 1914, the Albyn Line entered the Second World War with four ships, only one of which survived. In the 1950s three motor ships were built and they were chartered to liner or tramp companies. From 1961 trading conditions became less and less profitable and in 1966 the firm went into voluntary liquidation.
Roger Charles Anderson (1883-1976), was a founder member of the Society for Nautical Research and, from its foundation until 1962, a Trustee of the Museum and Chairman of Trustees from 1959 to 1962. He was a frequent contributor to The Mariner's Mirror, of which he was editor for several periods and the author of numerous publications on maritime subjects.
Colin Atkinson appears to be a researcher into the HMS BOUNTY mutineers.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
Henry Bonham Bax was in the Navy from 1813 to 1817, after which he entered the service of the East India Company. In 1844 he became an Elder Brother of Trinity House. See Arthur Nesham Bax, A Bax family of east Kent (published privately, 1951).
Captain Bonham Ward Bax was the son of Henry Bonham Bax (q.v.). He entered the Navy in 1851 and specialized in surveying. From 1871 to 1875 Bax commanded the survey ship DWARF on the China Station and published an account of the voyage. From December 1876 until his death in July 1877, he commanded the SYLVIA, also on the China Station. He published The Eastern Seas (London, 1875).
Robert Nesham Bax was the son of Bonham Ward Bax (q.v.). He joined the Britannia in 1889, rose to captain in 1913 and saw active service in World War One. He was promoted to admiral on the retired list in 1932.
Born in 1912; educated at Wesley College Dublin and Dublin University; commissioned into RAF, 1933; served in flying boats with 230 Sqn, Egypt and Far East, 1935-1938; commanded night fighter squadron, UK, 1939-1940, and day fighter squadron, 1940; Officer Commanding 266 (Fighter) Wing, Dutch East Indies, 1942; POW, Java, 1942; Staff College, 1947; FighterCommand Staff Duties, 1948-1950; Officer Commanding RAF Odiham, 1950-1952; Senior Air Staff Officer, HQ No 11 Group, RAF, 1958-1959; Air Officer Commanding No 13 group, 1959-1961; Air Officer Commanding No 11 Group, Fighter Command, 1961-1962; Senior Air Staff Officer, Far East Air Force, 1962-1964; Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Intelligence), 1964-1965; Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Intelligence), 1965-1968; retired, 1968; Director General of Intelligence, Ministry of Defence, 1968-1972.
Born in Zomba District, Nyasaland (Malawi), 1926; conscripted into 2 Bn, D Company, Nyasaland King's African Rifles, 1939; stationed in Egypt, 1940-1943; Corporal, 1942; stationed in India, 1943-1945; Sergeant, 1943; Staff Sergeant, 1944; discharged, 1945; trained as a teacher, 1958.
Born in 1871; gazetted to Derbyshire Regt (later the Sherwood Foresters), 1892; served in Tirah Expeditions, India, 1897-1898; Capt, 1899; Special Service Officer, South Africa, 1899-1900; entered Staff College, 1902; General Staff Officer Grade 2, War Office, 1902; General Staff Officer Grade 2, 1908; Maj, 1911; Instructor, Staff College, 1913; Lt Col 1913; General Staff Officer Grade 2, later Grade 1, 3 Div, France, 1914-1915; Director of Military Operations, Imperial General Staff, 1915-1918; Maj Gen, 1916; wrote letter to the press accusing David Lloyd George's government of making misleading statements about the strength of British Army on the Western Front, May 1918; retired from Army and became military correspondent for The Daily Chronicle, May 1918; helped to found British Legion, 1920; Principal, Working Men's College, London, 1922-1933; Professor of Military Studies, London University, 1927; President of the British Legion, 1932-1947; Principal of Queen Mary College, University of London, 1933-1944; died in 1951. Publications: The Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878 (Special Campaign Series, 1905); Sir Frederick Maurice: a record of his work and opinions (Edward Arnold, London, 1913); Forty days in 1914 (Constable and Co, London, 1919); The last four months (Cassell and Co, London, 1919); The life of Lord Wolseley (with Sir George Compton Archibald Arthur) (William Heinemann, London, 1924); Robert E Lee, the soldier (Constable and Co, London, 1925); Governments and war (William Heinemann, London, 1926); An aide-de-camp of Lee (Little, Brown and Co, London, 1927); The life of General Lord Rawlinson of Trent (Cassell and Co, London, 1928); British strategy (Constable and Co, London, 1929); The 16th Foot (Constable and Co, London, 1931); The history of the Scots Guards (Chatto and Windus, London, 1934); Haldane (Faber and Faber, London, 1937, 1939); The armistices of 1918 (Oxford University Press, London, 1943); The adventures of Edward Wogan (G Routledge and Sons, London, 1945). Also contributed to John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron Acton's Cambridge modern history planned by (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1902-1911).
Born in 1841; educated Addiscombe College and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; commissioned into Royal Artillery 1861; passed through Staff College, 1870; Private Secretary to FM Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley in Ashanti Campaign, 1873-1874; served in South Africa, 1879-1880, Egypt, 1882, and the Sudan, 1884-1885; also served in Intelligence Department, War Office; Professor of Military History, Staff College, 1885-1892; Aldershot, 1892-1893; commanding Royal Artillery, Eastern District, 1893-1895; Maj Gen, 1895; commanded Woolwich District, 1895-1902; died in 1912.
Born in 1911; studied Medicine and Surgery at University of Glasgow; Lt, Indian Medical Service, 1939; posted to Indian Medical Hospital, Rawalpindi, India, 1939; appointed Anti-Malaria Officer, Rawalpindi, 1940; Medical Officer-in-Charge, Indian Medical Hospital, Abbottabad, 1941; Deputy Assistant Director of Hygiene, Iraq, 1941-1942; Deputy Assistant Director ofHygiene, Kermanshah, Persia, 1942-1943; Deputy Assistant Director of Hygiene, Persia, 1943-1944; Deputy Assistant Director of Hygiene, Iraq, 1944; Assistant Director of Hygiene, later Deputy Director of Hygiene, Agra, India, 1944-1945; Maj, 1945; Assistant Director of Hygiene, South East Asia Command, 1945; Assistant Director of Hygiene, General HQ, India, 1945-1946; Deputy AssistantDirector of Medical Services, Delhi District, India, 1946-1947; transferred to Royal Army Medical Corps, 1947; Deputy Assistant Director of Army Health, South West District, UK, 1947-1949; posted to HQ Canal South District, Egypt, 1949; posted to HQ 17 Infantry Bde District, 1949-1952; Lt Col, 1954; Assistant Professor in Army Health, Royal Army Medical College, 1954-1957; attended 'Buffalo' British nuclear weapons tests, Maralinga, Australia, 1956; entomologist, School of Health, Far East Land Forces, Singapore, 1957; Senior Instructor, Army School of Health, Ashvale, 1961; Col, 1961; Consultant in Army Health, 1963; Chief Medical Officer, Cyprus, 1964;Deputy Director of Army Health, Far East Land Forces, Singapore, 1965; Assistant Director of Army Health, Ministry of Defence, 1967; retired, 1971; died in 1983.
Born in 1916; 2nd Lt, Royal Scots, 1939; Lt, 1941, served with 4 Indian Div, Western Desert, 1941-1942; member of 'A' Force, special unit involved in escape operations in Western Desert, 1942, Italy, 1943-1944, and Austria, 1945; Capt, 1945; Maj, 1950; died in 1981.
Born in 1899; commissioned into Royal Engineers, 1919; Lt, 1921; Capt, 1930; Maj, 1938; served in World War Two in Malaya; held as POW by Japanese, 1942-1945; died in 1986.
Born in 1893; educated at Eton College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; 2nd Lt, Indian Army, 1913; joined 9th Hodson's Horse, 1914; served in World War One in France, Palestine, and Syria; Lt, 1915; Capt, 1917; served in India, 1919-1938, at regimental duty, as Bde Maj, 1 Risalpur Cavalry Bde, and as an instructor at Staff College, Quetta; attended Staff College,Camberley, 1925-1926; Maj, 1929; Lt Col, 1938; commanded 13th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers, India, 1938-1939; Col, 1939; General Staff Officer Grade 1, 5 Indian Div, 1939-1940; Col 1939; commanded Gazelle Force, Sudan and Eritrea, 1940-1941; commanded 9 IndianInfantry Bde, Keren, Eritrea, 1941; commanded 4 Indian Div, Western Desert and Cyrenaica, 1941-1942; commanded 1 Armoured Div, Cyrenaica, 1942; commanded 7 Armoured Div, Western Desert, 1942; Deputy Chief of General Staff, General HQ, Middle East Force, 1942; commanded 43 Indian Armoured Div, 1942-1943; Director of Armoured Fighting Vehicles, General HQ, India Command, 1943; Maj Gen, 1943; commanded 7 Indian Div, and later 4 Corps, Burma campaign, 1944-1945; Lt Gen, 1945; General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Malaya Command, 1945-1946; General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, India, 1946-1947; Commander-in-Chief,Pakistan Army, 1947; retired, 1948; died in 1974.
Born 1928; educated at Harrow County Grammar School and Imperial College London; National Service with RAF Airborne Radar Service, 1946-1948; joined Bristol Aeroplane Company, 1951; helped develop the Bloodhound Surface-to-Air Missile, 1957; Chief Aerodynamicist, Bristol Aeroplane Company, 1958; worked on development of Rapier Surface-to-Air Missile, 1971; Group Director, Naval Weapons, Hawker Siddeley, 1978; Managing Director, Hawker Siddeley's Bristol site, 1980; Managing director, Hawker Siddeley's Hatfield site, 1981; Director of British Aerospace, 1982; Deputy Chief Executive, British Aerospace, 1984-1988; Gold Medal of Royal Aeronautical Society, 1984; served on Council of the Society of British Aerospace Companies; President of Royal Aeronautical Society, 1989; Chairman of Bristol Heritage Trust Aero Collection, 1992; died 2002.
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the approximate US counterpart of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and Special Operations Executive (SOE), with which it co-operated throughout World War Two and its immediate aftermath. The OSS was created by Presidential Military Order on 13 Jun 1942 and it functioned as the principal US intelligence organisation in all operational theatres. Its primary function was to obtain information about enemy nations and to sabotage their war potential and morale. From 1940-1942, the US had no central intelligence agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information bearing on national security, these services having been dispersed amongst the armed services and regional desks in the US State Department. In Jul 1941 Maj Gen William Joseph Donovan was appointed by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the civilian post of Co-ordinator of Information (COI) and was instructed to consolidate a regular channel of global strategic information. Under Donovan's leadership, the COI claimed the functions of information gathering, propaganda, espionage, subversion, and post-war planning. The overt propaganda functions of the COI were eventually severed and the COI was re-organised as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942. The OSS was instructed by the President to collect and analyse such strategic information as might be required to plan and operate special military services in theatres of operation directed by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The headquarters of the OSS were in Washington, but is also maintained overseas outposts which engaged in information gathering and liaison operations with Allied intelligence services, most notably Special Operations Executive (SOE). Chief among the overseas units was the London Outpost, established at the end of 1941 to facilitate co-operation between the Allied intelligence services, and to serve as a base of operations for Allied intelligence, espionage and operational activities in Europe. The Special Operations (SO) Branch, OSS, London, was charged with conducting sabotage operations, support and supply of resistance groups, and guerrilla warfare in enemy-occupied territories. The 'London Group' of SOE was its British counterpart. On 10 Jan 1944, the SO Branch and the London Group were integrated into Special Forces Headquarters, under which they were charged with carrying on their operations. Thus, from Jan-Sep 1944, 93 Jedburgh teams, consisting of one British SOE soldier, one American OSS soldier, and one officer native to the country in which the team would operate, were parachuted into occupied Western Europe to supply resistance movements and co-ordinate operations. The purpose of the Secret Intelligence (SI) Branch, OSS, London, was to collect and analyse strategic intelligence as was required by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. The OSS was terminated by Executive Order 9620 on 20 Sep 1945, its functions later assumed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Throughout the Cold War, the US Department of Defense issued official statements to the general public and the media. Also, speeches were made by the Secretary of Defense and official press conferences were devised to relay imperative national security information and to keep the American public abreast of national and international affairs. This was standard policy for successive Secretaries of Defense, designed both for purposes of increased public relations coverage and for the dissemination of reliable defence information. In an era of potentially contentious defence-related issues, the Pentagon considered such public statements essential. Increased military spending, increased US-Soviet rivalry, the steady rise in the lethality of nuclear technology, the perceived spread of communism, US interventions abroad, and the war in Vietnam, all provide the backdrop to Public Statements by the Secretaries of Defense, 1947-1981. Over the span of 35 years, the US Department of Defense compiled statements and press releases issued by the following Secretaries of Defense: James Forrestal, 17 Sep 1947-27 Mar 1949; Louis Arthur Johnson, 28 Mar 1949-19 Sep 1950; George Catlett Marshall, 21 Sep 1950-12 Sep 1951; Robert Abercrombie Lovett, 17 Sep 1951-20 Jan 1953; Charles Erwin Wilson, 28 Jan 1953-8 Oct 1957; Neil H McElroy, 9 Oct 1957-1 Dec 1959; Thomas S(overeign) Gates, Jr, 2 Dec 1959-20 Jan 1961; Robert Strange McNamara, 21 Jan 1961-29 Feb 1968; Clark McAdams Clifford, 1 Mar 1968-20 Jan 1969; Melvin Robert Laird, 22 Jan 1969-29 Jan 1973; Elliot Lee Richardson, 30 Jan 1973-24 May 1973; James Rodney Schlesinger, 2 Jul 1973-19 Nov 1975; Donald H Rumsfeld, 20 Nov 1975-20 Jan 1977; Harold Brown, 21 Jan 1977-19 Jan 1981.
The Times is a daily newspaper published in Britain since 1785.
Born 1861; educated Clifton, Bristol, Gloucestershire, 1875-1880, Brasenose College, Oxford, 1880-1884, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1884-1885; commissioned into 7th Queen's Own Hussars, 1885; Lt, 1885; Adjutant, 1888; Capt, 1891; served in Sudan, including Atbara and Khartoum, 1898; Chief of Staff to Brevet Lt Col Robert George Broadwood, Egyptian Cavalry; Brevet Maj 1898; served in Second Boer War, South Africa, 1899-1902; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Cavalry, Natal, South Africa, 1899; Chief Staff Officer to Maj Gen John Denton Pinkstone French during the Colesberg operations, South Africa, 1899; Assistant Adjutant General, Cavalry Division, 1900-1901; Lt Col, Commanding Officer, 17th (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers, 1901-1903; Brevet Col, 1902; Aide de Camp to HM King Edward VII, 1902-1904; Inspector Gen of Cavalry, India, 1903-1906; Maj Gen, 1904; Director of Military Training, Headquarters, British Army, 1906-1907; Director of Staff Duties, Headquarters, British Army, 1907-1909; Director of Staff Duties, War Office, 1907-1909; Chief of Staff, India, 1909-1912; Chief of General Staff, India, 1909-1912; Lt Gen, 1910; created KCIE, 1911; General Officer Commanding, Aldershot, 1912-1914; Aide de Camp to HM King George V, 1914; Gen, 1914; General Officer Commanding 1 Army, British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) in France and Flanders, 1914-1915; Commander- in-Chief of British Armies in France, 1915-1919; appointed GCB, 1915; appointed GCVO, 1916; Lord Rector, St Andrews University, Scotland, 1916-1919; FM, 1917; created KT, 1917; Commander-in-Chief Forces in Great Britain, 1919-1920; Col of Royal Horse Guards, King's Own Scottish Borderers, and 14th County of London Bn (London Scottish), The London Regt, Territorial Army, 1919-1928; Chairman of the Council of the United Services Fund, 1921-1928; President British Legion, 1921-1928; Chancellor of St Andrews University, Scotland, 1922; died 1928.
When World War Two began for Britain on 3 Sep 1939, Prime Minister Rt Hon (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain appointed an eight member strong War Cabinet. It consisted of the Prime Minister, who was the Chairman; the Chancellor of the Exchequer; the Foreign Secretary; the three service Secretaries; the Lord Privy Seal; the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence; and the Minister without Portfolio. This number increased when select non-War Cabinet Ministers were invited to attend meetings and when the Chiefs of Staff and the Permanent Under Secretary to the Treasury attended, bringing the Cabinet numbers to fifteen members. The War Cabinet met daily during the first year of the war and, as the war progressed, often met more than once a day to deal with a range of issues from military planning to food rationing. The Cabinet Minutes from Sep 1939 to May 1940 were devoted almost exclusively to the situation on the Western Front, which remained decidedly unchanged throughout the period. From May 1940, Rt Hon Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill, who had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty at the outbreak of war, criticised the Chamberlain government's handling of the war and urged a more offensive British approach to the Western Front. In addition, the Allied campaign in Norway ended in disaster. Consequently, and following a debate in the House of Commons, at which 200 members voiced a non- confidence against Chamberlain, Churchill became Prime Minister and Chairman of the War Cabinet. Following the defeat of France in Jun 1940, the United Kingdom faced a severe defensive crisis and thus the War Cabinet was enlarged. Rt Hon Clement Richard Attlee; Rt Hon Arthur Greenwood; Rt Hon Robert Anthony Eden; and Rt Hon Sir John Anderson immediately entered, as would eventually Rt Hon Ernest Bevin, as Minister of Labour and National Service; Rt Hon William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, as Minister of Aircraft Production; Rt Hon Sir Kingsley Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer; Capt Rt Hon Oliver Lyttelton, Minister of State in the Far East; Rt Hon Sir (Richard) Stafford Cripps as Lord Privy Seal; Rt Hon Herbert Stanley Morrison as Secretary of State for Home Affairs and Minister of Home Security; and Rt Hon Frederick James Marquis, 1st Baron Woolton of Liverpool, as Minister of Reconstruction. At the end of 1940, the War Cabinet was preoccupied with the planning a unified British strategy for the waging of war, with Gen Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, often acting as a refrain to Churchill's more unconventional ideas about strategy. By mid-1941, concentration turned from the defence of Britain to intervention in Balkans, the war in North Africa, plans for providing armed forces to Europe to draw German forces from the Soviet Union, and the prospect of bringing the United States into the war. In 1942, the British persuaded US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to authorise a combined invasion of North Africa. In 1943, the War Cabinet remained pre-occupied with strategic affairs, but began to think increasingly about the post-war reconstruction of Britain and general social security measures for the British population. With a firm schedule for the Allied invasion of France firmly in place in 1943, the War Cabinet turned its attention to the post-war settlement of Europe, an Allied occupation strategy for Germany and Austria, and the post-war rehabilitation of Britain. As the war drew to a close, there began to appear increasing signs of strain between the two major parties in the British Coalition Government, which ultimately affected the War Cabinet's ability to operate effectively. On 23 May 1945, Churchill resigned as Prime Minister. On 30 May 1945, the first meeting of the new British Cabinet took place, marking the end of the War Cabinet and the return to peace-time civil procedures.
Documents included in the collection relate to the US government's internal decision making process during the Berlin Crisis, 1958-1962. The collection is primarily a record of executive decision making during the presidential administrations of Dwight David Eisenhower and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and includes material generated by a broad range of agencies within the US national security bureaucracy. Particularly significant are those materials that chronicle the actions of the primary decision making bodies in the US government during the Berlin Crisis, 1958-1962, the Office of the White House, the US Department of State, the US Department of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During the Eisenhower administration the Department of State played a central role in policy making because of the president's close working relationship with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his successor, Christian Archibald Herter. During the Kennedy administration, the State Department's role became more operational while the direction of Berlin and German policy shifted to the White House and the national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy. As the co-ordinating and policy making structure for the US military, the US Department of Defense was responsible for developing US nuclear and conventional force structures. During the Eisenhower administration, Secretaries of Defense Neil McElroy and Thomas S(overeign) Gates worked with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in providing recommendations on contingency planning which the President and the Secretary of State could synchronise with budget priorities. Under the Kennedy administration, Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara worked to integrate conventional forces options into Allied military planning on Berlin as well as to ensure more centralised control over US nuclear weapons in Western Europe in order to prevent accidental use. After the US occupation of West Berlin, the Central Intelligence Agency used the city as a base for intelligence operations and covert activities aimed at the Soviet bloc. The CIA tasked its Office of National Estimates (ONE) and Office of Current Intelligence (OCI) with analysing and reporting on German and Berlin developments. ONE prepared National Intelligence Estimates and Special National Intelligence Estimates on the Berlin situation which were circulated among senior officials at the Departments of State and Defense and the White House. OCI prepared weekly intelligence reports that were less analytical and included reporting on recent Berlin-related developments.
The collection includes copies of the Soviet military theory journal Voennaia Mysl', an authoritative journal published with the authority of the Soviet General Staff. Established in 1937, the journal was classified 'For Generals, Admirals, and Officers Only' from 1947-1989.
Harry S Truman was born in Lamar, Barton County, Missouri, 8 May 1884. From 1906 to 1917 he operated the family farm near Grandview, Missouri. During World War One he served as 1st Lt, Battery F, and Capt, Battery D, 129 Field Artillery, 35 Div, US Army, and served in the Battles of St Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne, Aug- Nov 1918. He was discharged with the rank of Maj. In 1922, Truman sought the Democratic nomination as county judge, thus beginning a ten-year judicial career. In 1934, Truman became a candidate for the US Senate, won the election, and took office in Jan 1935. Re-elected in 1940, Truman headed the Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, a senate committee which investigated fraud in recent US military procurement policies. In 1944, leaders of the Democratic Party replaced Vice President Henry A Wallace with Truman as the party's vice presidential nominee on the 1944 election ticket alongside President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Upon Roosevelt's death on 12 Apr 1945, Truman became President of the United States. Unfamiliar with recent foreign policy developments, Truman initially retained all of his predecessor's cabinet appointees, including US Secretary of State Edward R Stettinius, Jr. Shortly thereafter, Truman's foreign policy developed as he announced preparations to continue for the detonation of an atomic test device in New Mexico on 16 Jul 1945, and attended the conference at Potsdam, Germany, with Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, which would shape post-war Europe. In Aug 1945 he ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and accepted the surrender of all Japanese forces in the Far East. In the post-war years and throughout the Korean War, Truman espoused a foreign policy designed to allay the Cold War. In 1947, he announced what became known as the 'Truman Doctrine', which stated that the United States would support any nation threatened by Soviet-sponsored communism, and signed the presidential order creating the US foreign intelligence organisation, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Also announced in 1947 was the European Recovery Plan, or 'Marshall Plan', named after Gen George Catlett Marshall, US Secretary of State, which would see appropriations of US funds to support the European economies until 1952. Under Truman, the US and its allies organised in Apr 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1950, Truman committed US armed forces to the Korean War. After an initial period of public support, however, criticism quickly grew over US involvement in the region. The intervention of the People's Republic of China and the recall of Gen Douglas MacArthur, brought to the Truman administration additional pressures to alter its foreign policy direction. In 1952, Truman refused to seek re-election for President of the United States and left Washington for Independence, Missouri, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He died on 26 Dec 1972. Starting in 1961, the Harry S Truman Library's Oral History programme began to conduct interviews with some of the men and women who had made contact with Harry S Truman during his professional career. Interview subjects ranged in their professional experience, and included US armed forces personnel, international leaders, and political advisers and associates. All of the interviews were transcribed and made available in transcript form, ranging in length from fewer than 10 to over 1,000 pages.
The Korean War suggested to US Army senior personnel the need to gather systematically information on the activities of major American military units. The value of historical accounts had been demonstrated during World War Two, when US Army historians followed the progress of American soldiers by conducting extensive interviews and compiling records of combat actions. While conducting interviews and collecting related materials for historical purposes, US Army investigators during World War Two also compiled combat information in After-Action Reports designed for immediate war-time use. When the Korean War began, the Assistant Chiefs of Staff, US Department of the Army, were responsible for recording and transmitting 'lessons learned' within respective spheres, while the US Army Historical Detachments were allowed to create a detailed record that could be used after the conflict to write official histories. Eventually eight US Army Historical Detachments were organised and committed to Korean between 15 Feb and 22 Jul 1951. Early operations of the Historical Detachments lacked centralised planning, however. Originally, a central organisation was improvised by activating US 8 Army Historical Service Detachment (Provisional). Personnel for this unit were drawn from other detachments in Korea, while the historical officers who conducted the interviews were drawn from the Reserves. The Provisional Detachment was eventually superceded by the first US Army Historical Detachment Headquarters. Despite the suddenness of the Korean conflict and the and the logistical problems caused by the rapidly changing military situation, the Historical Detachments were able to reconstruct many major battlefield operations through interviews, supplemented with recourse to conventional documentary sources.
Born in Karvinna, Teschen, Austrian Silesia, 1904; education included the Schiller-Gymnasium, Teschen, Oberrealschule, Kaschau, and the Imperial Military College; enrolled as a Cadet, Ludovika Military Academy, Budapest, Hungary [1924]; conscripted into Czechoslovakian Army [1927]; service as a Reserve Officer in an artillery regiment, Kosice and Mukacevo, Slovakia [1927-1930]; Lt, 1930; served in the International Brigades, Spanish Civil War, Spain, 1936-1939; Capt, 1936; Maj, 1938; commanded artillery battalion, Battle of the Ebro, 1939; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; evacuated from France to UK with Czech Legion, 1940; appointed Capt in the British Army [1940]; service with the Czechoslovak Independent Bde Group, 1940-1941; joined Free French forces as a Maj, 1941; served on personal staff of Free French Brig Gen Charles de Gaulle, and in the Troisième Bureau, assisting in the development for the planned invasion of Normandy, France, 1941-1944; author and military strategist, 1941-1992; awarded French Légion d'Honneur, 1944; Assistant to the Czech Military Mission, and adviser on central European affairs to the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), 1945; awarded US Medal of Freedom, 1946; Czechoslovakian Military Attaché, Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, 1946-1947; joined French Army, 1948; Lecturer in Tactics, Instituto de Altos Estudos Militares, Caxias, Portugal, 1950-1955; awarded Order of the Portuguese Empire [1955]; died, 1992. Publications: Blitzkrieg (Faber and Faber, London, 1941); Paratroops. The history, organisation and tactical use of airborne formations (Faber and Faber, London, 1943); Is bombing decisive? (Allen and Unwin, London, 1943); Blitzkrieg. Étude sur la tactique allemande de 1937 à 1943 (Harmondsworth, New York, USA, 1944); War between continents, with François Pierre Edmond (Faber and Faber, London, 1948); Les erreurs stratégiques de Hitler (Payot, Paris, France, 1945); Secret forces. The technique of underground movements (Faber and Faber, London, 1950); Unconditional surrender. The roots of World War III (Faber and Faber, London, 1952); Danubian Federation. A study of past mistakes and future possibilities in a vital region of Europe (published by author, printed by Kenion Press, Slough, Berkshire, 1953); Donauföderation (Forschungsinstitut für Fragen and Donausraumes, Salzburg, Austria, 1953); Atomic weapons and armies (Faber and Faber, London, 1955); Tactique de la guerre atomique (Payot, Paris, France, 1955); La faillite de la stratégie atomique (Presses de la Cité, Paris, France, 1958); The failure of atomic strategy and a new proposal for the defence of the West (Faber and Faber, London, 1959); Kapitulation ihne Krieg (Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, West Germany, 1965); Die Zukunft der Bundeswehr (Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, West Germany, 1967); Rüstungswettlauf (Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, West Germany, 1972); Vom Kriegsbild (Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, West Germany, 1976); Bis 2000 (Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, West Germany, 1979); Moskaus indirekte Strategie: Erfolge und Niederlage (Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, West Germany, 1983); Das Ende der Gegenwart (Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, West Germany, 1991).
Served with Royal Tank Regt and 23 Armoured Bde; tested TOG heavy tanks for Tank Design Department, Farnborough, [1940-1945].
Lt Col Ferdinand Otto Miksche, 11 Apr 1904-23 Dec 1992, was a soldier and a diplomat, an expert in central European politics, a military strategist, and a prolific writer on military affairs. Miksche's reputation as a military theorist flourished with the publication of Blitzkrieg (Faber and Faber, London, 1941) and Is bombing decisive? (Allen and Unwin, London, 1943). In London, he was a staff officer with Gen Charles André Joseph Marie De Gaulle's Free French forces and a regular military commentator for the London Times. His book Is bombing decisive?, or Contra Seversky as it was known in the United States, attracted attention in Britain and the United States due to its condemnation of the air power theories of Russian-American author Maj Alexander Prokofiev Seversky.
Letter, written in Afrikaans, by A J Tapper, during the Siege of Ladysmith, Second Boer War, 1899-1900, and acquired by Sgt Dodderidge, who served with the Rifle Bde during the Second Boer War