Hans von Dohnanyi was a Jewish 'Mischling', a term used during the Third Reich for a person deemed to have partial Jewish ancestry. He was born in Vienna, Jan 1902 and was a lawyer from 1929-1938. He worked in the Reichsjustizministerium, 1938 and as Reichsgerichtsrat at the Reichsgericht, Leipzig, 1939-1943. Whilst he was head of the political section of the Abwehr des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht he was implicated in the resistance movement and on 5 Apr 1943 was arrested, and is reported to have died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 8 Apr 1945.
Max Landenberger and his wife Frieda owned a house at Burgschmietstrasse 12, Nürnberg, which was mortgaged for RM 40,000. In Nov1938 Max was arrested and sent to Dachau. Frieda was forced to go to the 'Brown House', the Nazi Headquarters, where she was made to sign a contract for the sale of their house to Gauleiter Hölz for the sum of RM 4,000. This they achieved by making her do physical exercises for several hours to break her will to resist. Her husband also signed the contract after his release from Dachau. The 'purchase price' of RM 4,000 was never paid.
Otto Bendix was born in Wilmersdorf, Berlin, 1878, of Jewish heritage. He married a non-Jew and was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on one of the 'old people's transports' on 3 October 1942, where he died on 8 January 1943.
The Regent's Park School was founded by Dr Bruno Schindler and his wife, Alma in 1933, mainly for Jewish refugee children from Germany. It was the aim of the Schindlers to make the children as independent as possible as they knew that a number of them would probably never see their parents again. There was a strong emphasis on Judaism and Dr Schindler made it a rule that every Friday evening he would give a talk about the history of the Jews and Judaism. There were also many discussion groups on a variety of subjects led by the matron of the school. The aim of the school was thus to encourage independent thinking, an ability to act independently and a feeling that, despite adversity, it was possible for all to achieve the kind of life and standard of living from which most of the children had come. The fact that the school produced an exceptionally large number of men and women in the professions is testimony to this.
The Hay internment camp was located outside of the town of Hay in the Riverina district of southern New South Wales. It was constructed in 1940. The first arrivals were 2036 Jewish internees from Nazi Germany and Austria - mostly professionals who had simply fled for their lives - along with 451 German and Italian POWs. They were transported from England on-board the HMT Dunera, and they became known as 'the Dunera Boys,' which was applied, in particular to the Jewish refugees.
The refugees (and POWs) were transported to Hay via train and then placed in the camps behind barbed wire. They remained active, holding physical education courses and concerts, teaching the children and printing their own money.
The Bing family was a German Jewish family from Berlin some of whose members died in the Holocaust and others managed to escape to Great Britain.
Klara Rosenzweig was born in 1890 in Altleiningen, Rheinland Pfalz, and was deported to France from Mannheim in October 1940. She was imprisoned at Gurs in the Basses Pyrenées from 22 October 1940 to 20 Jan 1942. She was then transferred to de Noé in the Haute Garonne until 3 August 1942. From there she was moved to Recebedon and thence to Drancy. Her name appears on the transport list of 'Convoy' No. 18 which left Drancy on 12 August 1942 and arrived at Auschwitz on 14 August 1942. It is assumed that she died very shortly after her arrival. The letter of 16 March 1941 carries a postscript signed by Bert Franck. The transport list of 12 August 1942 includes the name Bertha Franck, born 4 August 1875, Hunfeld, Germany.
Kurt Sabatsky was District Syndicus of the Centralverein Deutscher Staatsbürger Jüdischen Glaubens, who later worked for the Wiener Library.
Werner Rüdenberg, export merchant and sinologist was born in Hanover, November 1881. He married Anni née Pincus. He spent 16 years in Shanghai spread over a 30 year period. He compiled a Chinese/ German dictionary, first published in 1924, with a second edition in 1936. He arrived in Great Britain in 1938 and taught for a few months at the School of Oriental Studies, whilst working on an English/ Chinese dictionary (Shanghai dialect). He received a grant for this work. In 1940 he was interned in a camp on the Isle of Man. He later taught German at Westfield College and continued his merchant activities with China.
[Lotte] was a resident of Prague; interned at Theresienstadt concentration camp, Nov 1941-Aug 1945; returned to Prague, 1945; emigrated to Canada, 1947.
Olga Benario was born into a family of Jewish intellectuals in Munich in 1911. At the age of 16 she was already a member of the Communist party. In 1926 she, along with others, stormed the Berlin-Moabit district gaol in order to free some comrades, later going into hiding. In 1928 she went to Moscow and in 1934 she accompanied the Brazilian revolutionary, Luiz Carlos Prestes (whom she later married), to Brazil where she took part in the resistance to the regime of President Vargas. However, such was the affinity between Hitler and Vargas that once captured, she was deported back to Nazi Germany where she was interned in the concentration camp Lichtenburg. She was gassed in the concentration camp at Bernburg an der Saale in 1943 at the age of 34.
This collection of copies of papers deals with the project of a group called the Langham Committee, whose object was to put to work several hundred German, Austrian and Czech Jewish refugees on the renovation of a dilapidated manor house and grounds, Tythrop House, Leicestershire.
Paul Dickopf was born in 1910 in Müschenbach in Oberwesterwaldkreis. After studying law and administration he joined the criminal police and later the security service. From September 1942 he went into hiding in Belgium (the circumstances of which are unknown) and later fled to Switzerland where he lived as a refugee until the end of the war. In 1947 he returned to Germany and joined the Federal German Police where he progressed to become head of the Bundeskriminalamt, Wiesbaden, and from 1968 was president of Interpol. Dickopf died in Bonn in 1973.
The Zentralvereinigung österreichische Emigranten was a non-political organisation with no party or religious affiliations, the objective of which was to help all Austrians in exile after the outbreak of war. It was based in Paris and the advisory council comprised Alfred Polgar, Frederike Zweig and Berthe Zückerkandl. Its principal activities were to provide assistance for immigrant internees; to assist their wives and children, many of whom ended up in homes; and to procure residency permits.
Paul Hollander was born in Cologne in 1908. After leaving school he decided to work abroad to improve his language skills. He spent time in London, Rotterdam and France where in 1938 he stumbled into a career in journalism.
At the outbreak of war he volunteered for the French forces but as a German he was immediately interned. His only alternative was to volunteer for the French Foreign Legion where he served for a little under a year as engagé volontaire pour la durée de la guerre. After which time he spent the next two and a half years in various camps including Kenadsa. In the Spring of 1943 he managed to bluff his way out of the camp and arrived in Algiers where he joined the British Alien Company.
Hampstead Garden Suburb Care Committee for Refugee Children has a connection with the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany (British Inter-Aid Committee). Nothing is known about the origin or background of the Hampstead Garden Suburb Care Committee for Refugee Children. The Inter-Aid Committee was founded in March 1936 by agreement between the Central British Fund, Save the Children Fund and the Society of Friends with the special object of looking after Christian Children of Jewish extraction. The Inter-Aid Committee sought out children whose anti-Nazi parents had been arrested or were in danger of incarceration. This committee re-formed under the title of the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany in 1939.
Siegfried Kessler was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1879; he was married with two sons who all accompanied him to England in 1939; and when he left Czechoslovakia he was a retired senior civil servant.
He was a member of the Jewish Social Democratic Workers' Party Poale Zion for 30 years. He was also vice president of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (Jewish cultural community), Brno for which organisation he managed the provision of assistance to prospective Jewish emigrants in the late 1930s. It was in this capacity that he was arrested by the Gestapo on the day that the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia. After release and continual harassment he eventually managed to secure visas for himself and his family and arrived in England in June 1939.
Whilst in England he maintained contact with the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, Brno and applied himself to assisting with the expatriation of Czech Jews. He was involved with such organisations as the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, the Jewish Agency Group, the Self Aid Association and the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
The bulk of the material in this collection was collected on the initiative of the Wiener Library in 1939. Former rabbis of synagogues in Germany who had managed to escape to Great Britain were asked to supply information on the fate of their synagogues. 985/1 consists of these responses, most of which are dated November or December 1939. In addition, there is a list of respondents. The project's results comprised a set of statistics on the fate of Germany's synagogues.
Club 1943, in Hampstead, was founded as a weekly rendezvous for refugees from Nazi oppression. Its membership was first confined to writers and scientists, but later opened up to all those interested in literature, politics and other intellectual subjects. Lectures were in German or English and were usually attended by between 40 and 75 people. They covered political theory, literature, music, art, science, history, medicine, psychology, ethics and religion. The first president was H J Rehfisch, one of the co-founders of the club with Karl Wolff, Monty Jacobs and others.
In the wake of its triumphal consolidation of power, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) decided to establish an archive to preserve for posterity its own records and those of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront. On Jan 15, 1934, at the suggestion of Reichsschulungsleiter (Reich Education Director) Otto Gohdes, headquarters for an archive and library under the name 'NSDAP Hauptarchiv' were established in Berlin. There was a forerunner to the archive established Aug 1926. A press archive for the party in Munich was founded by Mathilde von Scheubner-Richter, widow of Max von Scheubner-Richter at the behest of Hitler with the following functions: to collect material on hostile personalities; to scan and make cuttings from the Communist press and the Nazi press. Around 1928 the organisation was taken over by the Reichspropagandaleitung of the NSDAP, which also collected posters, leaflets, pamphlets and other propaganda and election material for the use of various Nazi organisations.
The NSDAP Hauptarchiv's first director was Dr Erich Uetrecht from the Reichsschulungsamt. The archive moved in October 1934 from the Maerkisches Ufer in Berlin to its permanent location in Munich, 15 Barerstrasse. The already existing records of the Reichspropagandaleitung were incorporated with it. In mid 1935 the entire organisation was made directly responsible to Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.
The purpose of the archive was no longer that of acting as a central clearing house of information for the various party organisations. In addition to collecting books, periodicals, newspapers and government publications, operating a reference service for party and government figures, and presenting occasional exhibits, the party archive was to be the main depository for documents relating to the party's history from its earliest days.
As a relatively new institution, the Hauptarchiv had great difficulties in finding original material. With the help of newspaper advertising, leaflets and questionnaires, the archivists appealed to old party members to donate their memorabilia of strife-torn days and to write down their personal reflections.
The old established state archives were unwilling to turn over their collections of party material. Only the Munich police and the Bavarian political police gave the Hauptarchiv their pre-1933 documentation on the NSDAP. In 1938, Dr Uetrect wrote an elaborate memorandum discussing the re-organisation of all German archives and assigning the Hauptarchiv a central place in the scheme. The eventual result of this memorandum was a circular signed by Rudolf Hess and sent in July 1939 to the various state agencies, directing them to collaborate fully with the Hauptarchiv. In response these agencies drew up lists which enabled the Hauptarchiv to ascertain the location of files pertinent to NSDAP history, although the documents themselves were not transferred.
In 1939 the Hauptarchiv was designated as depository for the Fuhrer's deputy, the Reich Chancery and the Reich Leadership of the NSDAP. It was also given jurisdiction over the various Gaue (districts) archives and of the NSDAP 'Gliederungen' (formations) (eg Stormtroopers, SS, Hitler Youth).
By 1943, it had become apparent that Munich was no longer safe from aerial attack and that the most precious holdings of the Hauptarchiv would have to be moved. Three Bavarian sites were chosen: Passau-Feste-Oberhaus, Neumarkt-St Veit, and Lenggries-Schloss Hohenburg. The material transferred consisted mainly of the archival section proper. The library under its new head, Dr Arnold Bruegmann, continued to operate in Munich until it was wiped out by bombing in January 1945. Records for material stored at Neumarkt-St go up to March 1945. At the end of the war the American army seized what archives it could find in Passau and Neumarkt-St Veit. (The fate of the Lenggries material is unknown). The confiscated documents were then reassembled at the Berlin Document Center in early 1946.
Established by law in 1933, the Reichskulturkammer (RKK) was created to enable the Reichsministerium fuer Volksaufklaerung und Propaganda (RMfVP)(Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) to control virtually all aspects of organised cultural life in Germany. The RKK was closely linked to the RMfVP under Joseph Goebbels, who also served as president of the RKK. The card index relates to some 185,000 members and applicants of the RKK and its affiliated organisations, including staff members of the RMfVP. For those whose livelihood derived from the arts, membership was compulsory in the RKK and its subordinate chambers of literature, music, film, theatre, radio, graphic arts and the press. Those denied membership were effectively prevented from practising their profession.
The Central-Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (CV) was founded by German Jewish intellectuals on 26 March 1893 in Berlin, with the intention of opposing the rise of Anti-Semitism in the German Empire. Shortly after its founding it had 1,420 members and in 1926 approximately 60,000 members.
The CV's aim was to unify German citizens of Jewish faith, to fight for the Jews' rights as citizens and to combat rising Anti-Semitism. Commitment to the German Nation was an important part of the CV's agenda, the members saw themselves primarily as German citizens with their own religion. Consequently, the CV repudiated Zionism.
Beginning in 1922, the CV published a weekly newspaper, called C.V.-Zeitung (C.V.- Newspaper) and continued fighting the rising Anti-Semitic threat. Through publications and conversations with Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg and economic leaders the CV tried to call attention to the threat.
In 1928 the 'Büro Wilhelmstrasse' (Wilhelmstrasse Office) was created with the instrumental support of Alfred Wiener. It documented Nazi activities and issued anti-Nazi materials until 1933, when Hitler came to power.
During the Nazi era, the CV was forced to change its name several times. From 1936 onwards it was called 'Jüdischer Central Verein' (Jewish Central Association). After the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass or November Pogrom) in 1938 the CV had to stop publishing its newspaper and the association was prohibited a short time later.
The World Jewish Congress (WJC), is an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. Its headquarters are in New York City, USA; its research institute is located in Jerusalem. It maintains international offices in Paris, France, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Geneva, Switzerland and most recently, Miami, Florida.
The WJC includes Jewish organizations from across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Israel and the Pacific. It attempts to build consensus between different Jewish groups of varying political and religious orientations; it works to act as a diplomatic envoy for the worldwide Jewish community. It is a Zionist organization, strongly supporting the State of Israel.
In 1951, Nahum Goldmann, then president of the WJC, cofounded the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany -the Claims Conference, as a body to engage the German government in negotiations for material compensation for Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. The World Jewish Congress designate two members to the Board of Directors of the Conference.
In 1992 the WJC established the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) as an organization for the restitution of Jewish property in the rest of Europe (outside Germany). It has been active in the claims against Swiss banks.
In 2000 the World Jewish Congress shaped the policy debate about looted art by criticizing museums for waiting for artworks to be claimed by Holocaust victims instead of publicly announcing that they have suspect items.
The WJC is involved in inter-faith dialogue with Christian and Muslim groups. One of its major new programmes is concerned with the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab lands.
The papers include a printing correspondence course of Walter Rankin (1892-1965). He was apprenticed as a printer to C Joscelyne, Printers, of Braintree, Essex, in 1907. In 1913 he moved to J G Hammond and Co, of Birmingham, and after taking his printing correspondence course, sat the examinations of the City and Guilds London Institute in 1915 and 1916. He worked at Manifoldia of Birmingham, 1916-1924; Century Press, Fulham Rd, London, 1924-1927; Manager of South Western Press, Fulham Rd, London, 1927-1928. He was appointed Manager of Alfred Couldrey and Chas Pearson, Aldgate, London, in 1928, and worked later for McGlashen Greogry, Stanhope Press of Rochester, Vacher and Sons of Westminster, Baird and Tatlock, and McCann Erickson.
Edward Bawden was born in Braintree, Essex in 1903. He was educated at Braintree High School, the Friends' School in Saffron Walden, Cambridge School of Art. From 1922-1925, he studied under Paul Nash at the Royal College of Art (RCA), and was a contemporary student and friend of Eric Ravilious and Douglas Percy Bliss. Bawden continued to study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and worked as tutor in the School of Graphic Design at the RCA, as well as teaching at the RA Schools and Goldsmiths' College. He exhibited watercolours at the St George's Gallery, 1927, and held his first on-artist show at the Zwemmer Gallery in 1934. In 1925 he was commissioned by Harold Curwen to illustrate a booklet, Pottery making in Poole, and together with Ravilious was designing patterned paper, borders and fleurons for Curwen Press. From 1928-50, he illustrated a number of other publications. Curwen became his friend, sponsor and teacher, and encouraged him to draw directly on the stone. In 1947, he illustrated The Arabs, for the Puffin Picture Book series, published by Penguin.
As an official war artist from 1940-1945, he was sent on a number of expeditions to the Middle East and other sectors, finally visiting Italy. He considered this period as the time when he "really learned to draw". During 1949 and 1950 he visited Canada as a guest instructor at Banff School of Fine Arts, Alberta.
He was a most skilful artist in black and white and colour, using several techniques in his work, including woodcuts, line drawing, linocutting and auto-lithography. As well as illustrating many books and book jackets, he painted in watercolour and gouache, painted a number of successful murals, designed wallpaper and ceramic wall tiles, produced linocut prints and did commercial work, including poster designs.
His work is represented in the Tate Gallery, London, and by water-colour drawings in several London, Dominion and provincial galleries; exhibitions at: Leicester Galleries, 1938, 1949, 1952; Zwemmer Gallery, 1934, 1963; Fine Art Society, 1968, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1987, 1989; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1978; Imperial War Museum, 1983; V&A, 1988, 1989; retrospective touring exhibition, 1988-1989.
As printmaker and graphic designer, he designed and cut blocks for a series of wallpapers printed by Messrs Cole & Son, and painted mural decorations for the SS Orcades and SS Oronsay, also for Lion and Unicorn Pavilion on South Bank site of Festival of Britain.
In 1932 he married Charlotte Epton of Lincoln (died 1970). Bawden died on 21 November 1989.
He held the positions of Trustee of Tate Gallery, 1951-1958, Honorary Dr RCA; DUniv Essex; Honorary RE, RWS. He was awarded CBE 1946; RA 1956 (ARA 1947); RDI 1949.
Books written and illustrated: Hold fast by your teeth, Routledge, 1963; A book of cuts, Scolar Press, 1979.
Illustrated books include: The Histories of Herodotus, Salammbô, Tales of Troy and Greece, The Arabs, Life in an English Village, and many others.
Until 1934, Post Office headquarters consisted of the Secretary's Office; the Solicitor to the Post Office's Office; The Chief Medical Officer's Office; three financial services (the Accountant-General's department; the Savings Bank and the Money Order Office); and two technical services (the Engineering Department and the Department of the Controller of Stores). The Secretary of the Post Office was the permanent head of the Post Office and the principal adviser to the Postmaster General. Assisted by the Second Secretary and the staff of the Secretary's Office, he was responsible for the policy and organization of the entire department and the efficient working of its various services. Control of the mail services and the telegraph, telephone and wireless services were the responsibility of the Director of Postal Services and the Director of Telegraphs and Telephones respectively, who reported directly to the Secretary. The Secretary's Office was divided into seven adminstrative divisions, each headed by an Assistant Secretary. These dealt with mail (inland and foreign); inland telegraphs; overseas telegraphs, including wireless services; telephones; establishments (ie the numbers, organization and pay of Post Office staff); staff (ie personnel matters); and buildings and supplies. The Secretary's Office also consisted of an inspectorate: the Chief Inspector of Postal Traffic, the Chief Inspector of Telegraph and Telephone Traffic and the Inspector of Wireless Telegraphy and their staffs. The office also included a small detective staff, known as the Investigation Branch, which investigated suspected offences against the Post Office.
In 1934, a new structure was introduced for the organization of the Post Office following the recommendations of the Bridgeman Committee. The new posts of Director General and Assistant Director General were created to replace the positions of Secretary and Second Secretary (who had been perceived as having too much autonomy), and the Secretary's Office was disbanded and replaced by three administrative departments: the Postal Services Department (comprising the Mails branch and the Postal Traffic Section); the Telegraph and Telephone Department (comprising Telephone, Inland Telegraph and Overseas Telegraph Branches, Telegraph and Telephone Traffic Section and Wireless Telegraphy Section); and Personnel Department (comprising the Chief Clerk's, Establishments, Staff, Medical, Investigation and Buildings Branches, Architectural Staff and Registry). In addition, a further Department called the Public Relations Department was set up comprising a Sales and Publicity Section and a Film Unit and Library. As part of this reorganisation, a Post Office Board was also established to direct the actions of the Director General, although the Postmaster General continued to have the power to overrule the Board in matters of policy. At the same time, the organisation of the Post Office was decentralised: regions were established, with their own Regional Directors and Boards.
The General Directorate oversaw the policy and general management of the Post Office. The Director General was responsible for carrying out the directions of the Post Office Board (which was first appointed in 1934), following the abolition of the position of Secretary. The Secretary had effectively been allowed to run the Post Office, dealing with all matters of policy as well as maintaining a general managerial control.
Sir Thomas Gardiner chaired a departmental committee tasked with the applying the increased decentralisation recommended by the Bridgeman Committee report of 1932 which advocated that the Post Office should be organised along more commercial lines. The Gardiner Committee's recommendations, published in its report of 1936, led to eight regions being established in the provinces, each in the charge of a Regional Director responsible for the control and co-ordination of all Post Office services within his region. Additional to these eight provincial regions, two further regions were set up in London - one for Posts and one for Telecommunications. The provincial regions were divided into Head Postmasters' districts for the management of the postal and the telegraph services (in practice these were already in existence).
The telephone service regions were divided into telephone Areas under Telephone Managers, of which there were ultimately 57 for the provinces and nine in London. Telephone Managers, with Head Postmasters acting as their agents on certain matters, were to be responsible for the day-to-day control of all aspects of the telephone service (engineering, traffic, sales and accounts). They were also to be accountable to the Regional Director for the overall efficiency of the telephone service in their territory.
The first two regions (Scotland and North East) were set up in 1936, followed by the two London regions (Telecommunications and Postal), and the changes throughout the country were in place by 1940. (The records note that Midlands telecommunications region was due to be established in 1940 but its formation was formed in haste on 2 September 1939, the day before the declaration of the Second World War.)
The City Polytechnic was formed in 1891 by a Charity Commissioners' scheme linking Birkbeck Institute, The City of London College and a proposed Northampton Institute in Finsbury (now City University), to facilitate funding for these institutions by the City Parochial Foundation. Whilst each institute was to be managed by its own governing body, the institutes were to organise their educational and recreational work cooperatively to economise on resources and avoid duplication. There was to be a Council of twelve for the City Polytechnic comprising three members from the Trustees of the London Parochial Charities and three members from each of the constituent institutes' governing bodies, all serving a six year term of office. However, no real links were ever established between the three institutions and the name "City Polytechnic" was rarely used by the individual institutions on their prospectuses and annual reports. The Technical Education Board of the London County Council noted that Birkbeck Institute and The City of London College acted as though no formal federated structure existed and the Board itself treated the Northampton Institute as an independent polytechnic in the later 1890s. Efforts to dissolve the City Polytechnic were eventually successful in 1906.
Born in 1840; educated at Littlemore Village School, Oxfordshire; worked in a blacksmith's shop, then as a stonemason until 1872; Secretary, Labour Representative League, 1875; Secretary, Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress, 1875-1890; MP for Stoke-on-Trent, 1880-1885, Bordesley, 1885-1886, Nottingham, 1886-1892, and Leicester, 1894-1906; Under-Secretary of State, Home Department, 1886; served on Royal Commissions, including Reformatory and Industrial Schools, Housing of the Working Classes, and the Condition of the Aged Poor; offered and refused Inspectorship of Factories and Workshops, 1882, and the Inspectorship of Canal Boats, 1884; JP and Alderman, County of Norfolk; Poor Law Guardian, Erpingham Union; member of Cromer Urban District Council; Chairman, Lifeboat Committee; founder of Tooting Common Club; founder of the Golf Links, Cromer and Sheringham, Norfolk; died 1911.
Publications: Henry Broadhurst, M.P: the story of his life from a stonemason's bench to the Treasury bench told by himself (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1901); Handy book on household enfranchisement (1885).
The Daily Herald was set up by striking printers in 1911 as a temporary newssheet to publicise their cause. It remained in publication after the end of the strike and was taken over by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Labour Party. It ran as an independent newspaper supporting the workers of Britain. It survived until taken over by Odhams Press in 1929. In 1964 it changed ownership again and immediately changed its name to The Sun.
In 1923 the Daily Herald observed that there `had not yet been established a method of recognising the bravery of the toilers, though scarcely a day passes without some example of valour or self-sacrifice in the industrial field.' In an effort to address this omission, the newspaper took the decision to establish its own award, The Daily Herald Order of Industrial Heroism.
The award, designed by Eric Gill, and popularly known as the `Workers' VC' was always given for the highest levels of bravery, many of the awards being given posthumously. In many cases the recipients also received medals from the Crown, such as the George Medal, Sea Gallantry Medal, British Empire Medal as well as awards by the Royal Humane Society, Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society and the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire.The Order was awarded on 440 occasions between 1923 and 1964, and was discontinued after the sale of the TUC's interest in the Daily Herald.
Emilia Frances Dilke: Born Ilfracombe, Devon, 2 Sep 1840, daughter of Major Henry Strong; educated privately; married firstly Mark Pattison, Rector of Lincoln College Oxford (d 1884) in 1862, secondly Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke Bt, MP, in 1885; contributed articles and reviews on art history to many periodicals including to The Westminster Review, The Saturday Review, Academy, The Art Journal and the Gazette des Beaux Arts.
In 1876 she joined the Women's Protective and Provident League (later the Women's Trade Union League) which had been founded by Emma Patterson in 1874. She spoke at annual meetings of the League in 1877 and in 1880, when she urged the need for technical education for women. She founded a branch in Oxford and was also an active member of the Women's Suffrage Society at Oxford. From 1889-1904 she attended the Trades Union Congress as a representative of the League, and frequently spoke at meetings throughout the country on labour questions affecting women, particularly the cause of unskilled workers in dangerous trades. She died at Pyrford Rough, Woking, 24 Oct 1904.
Publications: Renaissance of Art in France (1879); a critical biography of Lord Leighton in the series Dumas' Modern Artists (1881); Art in the Modern State or the Age of Louis XIV , (1884); Claude Lorrain, d'apres des documents inedits (1884); French Painters of the Eighteenth Century(1889); French Architects and Sculptors of the Eighteenth Century (1900); French Engravers and Draughtsmen of the Eighteenth Century (1902) and two volumes of short stories The Shrine of Death, and other Stories (1886) and The Shrine of Love, and other Stories (1891).
The H G Wells Society was founded in 1960, to promote widespread interest in the life, work and thought of Herbert George Wells, to encourage active implementation of his ideas, and generally to stimulate a Wellsian outlook on the many old and new problems facing humanity. The society produces an annual Journal The Wellsian, and a quarterly Bulletin.The Collection also contains papers relating to an earlier H G Wells Society, founded in 1934, for the discussion, study, research and propaganda of the sciences of social biology and the effective application of their principles. The society grew out of the Federation of Progressive Societies and Individuals, founded in 1930. In November 1934 the name was changed to the Open Conspiracy, and in November 1935 to Cosmopolis. By 1936 there were nearly 500 members, a central office and a paid full-time secretary.
The archive was begun by the Irish in Britain History Group, and was donated to the Irish Studies Centre at the University of North London in 1991, who have continued to develop and expand the collection. The aim is to create a representative record of the experiences of the Irish in Britain.
In June 1888, Clementina Black gave a speech on Female Labour at a Fabian Society meeting in London. Annie Besant, a member of the audience, was horrified when she heard about the pay and conditions of the women working at the Bryant & May match factory.
The next day, Besant went and interviewed some of the people who worked at Bryant & May. She discovered that the women worked fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than five shillings a week. However, they did not always receive their full wage because of a system of fines, ranging from three pence to one shilling, imposed by the Bryant & May management. Offences included talking, dropping matches or going to the toilet without permission. The women worked from 6.30 am in summer (8.00 in winter) to 6.00 pm. If workers were late, they were fined a half-day's pay.
Annie Besant also discovered that the health of the women had been severely affected by the phosphorous that they used to make the matches. This caused yellowing of the skin and hair loss and 'phossy jaw', a form of bone cancer. Although phosphorous was banned in Sweden and the USA, the British government had refused to follow their example, arguing that it would be a restraint of free trade.
On 23rd June 1888, Besant wrote an article in her newspaper, The Link. The article, entitled White Slavery in London, complained about the way the women at Bryant & May were being treated. The company reacted by attempting to force their workers to sign a statement that they were happy with their working conditions. When a group of women refused to sign, the organisers of the group were sacked. The response was immediate - 1400 of the women at Bryant & May went on strike.
William Stead, the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, Henry Hyde Champion of the Labour Elector and Catharine Booth of the Salvation Army joined Besant in her campaign for better working conditions in the factory. So also did Sydney Oliver, Stewart Headlam, Hubert Bland, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw. However, other newspapers, including The Times, blamed Besant and other socialist agitators for the dispute.
Besant, Stead and Champion used their newspapers to call for a boycott of Bryant & May matches. The women at the company also decided to form a Matchmakers' Union and Besant agreed to become its leader. After three weeks the company announced that it was willing to re-employ the dismissed women and would also bring an end to the fines system. The women accepted the terms and returned in triumph. The Bryant & May dispute was the first strike by unorganized workers to gain national publicity. It also helped to inspire the formation of unions all over the Country.
Annie Besant, William Stead, Catharine Booth, William Booth and Henry Hyde Champion continued to campaign against the use of yellow phosphorous. In 1891 the Salvation Army opened its own match-factory in Old Ford, East London. Only using harmless red phosphorus, the workers were soon producing six million boxes a year. Whereas Bryant & May paid their workers just over twopence a gross, the Salvation Army paid their employees twice this amount. William Booth organised conducted tours for MPs and journalists round this 'model' factory. He also took them to the homes of those "sweated workers" who were working eleven and twelve hours a day producing matches for companies like Bryant & May.The bad publicity that the company received forced the company to reconsider its policy. In 1901, Gilbert Bartholomew, managing director of Bryant & May, announced it had stopped used yellow phosphorus.
Marjorie Nicholson was born in 1914. She attended Oxford University in the 1930s and, after graduating, taught before becoming an extra-mural organising tutor with Ruskin College. Whilst on a working trip to Nigeria in 1949 she became convinced that to help develop democratic self governing institutions she had to work full time from within the labour movement. Firstly, she worked as secretary at the Fabian Colonial Bureau. Here she was involved in producing pamphlets and memoranda and editing its monthly journal Venture. The Fabian Society took a special interest in the Colonies, founding its Colonial Bureau in 1940, thanks to the knowledge and enthusiasm of Nicholson and Rita Hinden. They not only provided expert advice to members of both Houses of Parliament, but befriended many young colonials, mainly students, on their first visits to London. Through her work at the Bureau Nicholson met and assisted India's Jawaharlal Nehru and Krishna Menon, Eric Williams from Trinidad, Hugh Springer from Barbados, Siaka Stevens from Sierra Leone, Tom Mboya from Kenya, Lee Kuan Yew from Singapore and Kwame Nkrumah from Ghana, who were to become leaders of the National movements in their own countries. During this period she also stood three times, unsuccessfully, as the Labour candidate for Windsor. From 1955 she worked in the International Department of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), one of the few women working in policy development employed by the trade union movement. After her retirement in 1972, she began writing up the history of the TUC's involvement overseas from her own papers and cuttings collection. The first volume, The TUC overseas: the roots of policy, was published in 1986 and she was still working on a second volume at the time of her death in July 1997. Publications: The TUC overseas: the roots of policy, London (1986).
The National Society of Plate Glass Silverers, Siders, Cutters and Fitters was established in 1891, and had 236 members by 1892. In 1893 it amalgamated with the National Plate Glass Bevellers Trade Union to form the Amalgamated Plate Glass Workers' Trade Union. The partnership between the two organisations lasted only until 1895 when they agreed to separate and resume their former independent existence. The Union resumed with 313 members in 1895, numbers fell to 201 by 1902. The organisation was dissolved in 1903.
The Workers' Educational Association (WEA) was founded in 1903 under the title Association to Promote the Higher Education of Working Men following a scheme proposed by Albert Mansbridge (1876-1952). He became its general secretary in 1905 when the name was changed to The Workers' Educational Association and the first constitution was established in the following year. After a conference on the WEA and Oxford University in 1907, the WEA Central Joint Advisory Committee was established and three year university tutorial classes were started with the close involvement of R H Tawney (1880-1962). The WEA was also linked to the trade union movement and formed the Workers' Education Trade Union Committee in 1919 to strengthen and give cohesion to the educational work with trade unions. The WEA was closely involved in campaigns for better state education and in particular the campaign preceding the 1944 Education Act. The WEA is now a national voluntary organisation existing primarily to provide adults with access to organised learning. It is a registered charity and is non-party in politics and non-sectarian in religion. The WEA is one national organisation in England and Scotland, organised into 13 districts in England and a Scottish Association. It has over 650 local branches and 28 local organisations including 23 national trade unions are affiliated at national level.
The Central Labour College was established in 1909 following a strike at Ruskin College, Oxford. It was in opposition to Ruskin College and had the proclaimed aim of providing "an organisation for the training of workers for the organised labour movement controlled democratically by the representatives of organised workers". It ceased to exist in 1918.
The Workers Educational Association (WEA) was founded in 1903 under the title Association to Promote the Higher Education of Working Men and in 1905 the name was changed to The Workers Education Association. The Central Organisation of the Association dealt with its executive functions, various committees and the general administration as well as the organisation of the annual and national conferences.
The Women's Trade Union League was established by Mrs Emma Patterson in 1874, as the Women's Protective and Provident League. By the 1890s ten London Unions, and over thirty provincial unions were affiliated, from Bookbinding, Shirt and Collar Making, Tailoring, Dressmaking and Milinery, Cigar Making, Match and Matchbox Making, Ropemaking, Weaving, Laundry, Boot and Shoe Making, Silk Working, Upholstery, Lace Making, Pottery, Paper Making and Shop Working. The League was absorbed into the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1921.
Jane Lidderdale (1909-1996) was born in Hampstead in Jul 1909, the granddaughter of the painter C S Lidderdale. She was educated at the Society for Home Students (later St Anne's College), Oxford, where she studied PPE. After briefly working at the Royal Institute of British Architects, she moved to the Ministry of Shipping in 1940 where she became the secretary to a number of cabinet committees during the Second World War and its aftermath. She was appointed secretary to the Fuel Committee during the crisis of the winter 1946-7 and went on to work closely with Herbert Morrison during the organisation of the Festival of Britain which took place in 1951, for which she was awarded the OBE the following year. She was then appointed secretary and head researcher for the Nathan Report on Trust Law in 1952 before leaving the Civil Service the following year. After her withdrawal from the service, Lidderdale opened Ray House with Rachel Alexander to provide care for older women. She went on to help found the Kensington Day Centre in 1963 and remained its chair until 1988. She also became involved with the Byham Shaw School of Painting and Drawing in this period and was elected to its council of management in 1961, becoming its Chair nine years later. In 1962 she became one of the guardians of James Joyce's daughter Lucia. Her connection with the Modernists was emphasised in the 1960's when Lidderdale was invited by to write a memoir of Harriet Shaw Weaver, her own godmother and the patron of Joyce, Eliot and Pound. This was published in 1970. She died in Sep 1996.
The Architectural Association (AA) was founded in London in 1847 by a group of young articled pupils led by Robert Kerr (1823-1904) and Charles Gray (1828-?). Inaugurated primarily as a reaction against the prevailing conditions under which architectural training could be obtained, the AA has since developed into one of the most important and influential architectural schools in the world. The first formal meeting under the name of the Architectural Association took place in May 1847 at Lyons Inn Hall, London, immediately following a merger with the Association of Architectural Draughtsmen. Principal amongst the AA's early aims was the development of a system of mutual aid by 'the association on the largest scale, of the entire body of our professional youth, for the end of self education.' Initially, Friday evening meetings were held, alternating between papers given by invited speakers and design sessions (later named AA Class of Design) at which members would bring solutions to design problems. Affording the opportunity for the forging connections, these meetings also acted as a forum for discussion, debate and campaigning for reform in architectural education and practice. In 1859 the AA left Lyons Inn Court and moved to 9 Conduit Street, Westminster, which it shared with the Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA) and the Architectural Union Company. The AA's Class of Design was there supplemented by the Voluntary Examination Class (1862), later named the Class of Construction & Practice (1867), an Elementary Class of Design (1869) and a Class for Instruction in Surveying and Levelling (1869). To these core classes, were added a Class for the Study of Colour Decoration (1872) and a Class for the Study of Architectural Science (1874). The AA's prospectus or 'Brown Book' was published annually from 1861 and a library was formed, its first catalogue being published in 1869.
Following the introduction of the RIBA's compulsory exam in 1882, the AA experienced a vast increase in student numbers and an expansion in the number of classes held. This growth, coupled with the demands of the new examination system, prompted the AA to re-examine its 'mutual' system of study. Under Leonard Stokes (AA President 1889 -1891), the AA underwent a major structural re-organisation which laid the groundwork for a systematic, methodical course of study and the eventual founding of a day school in 1901. The immediate success of the Day and Evening Schools were such that in 1906 the RIBA granted exception from its Intermediate Examination to all students who successfully passed two years in the Day School and two years in the Evening School. During this period, the AA began to move away from an Arts and Crafts influenced approach (the AA had also operated a short-lived School of Handicraft and Design from 1895 - 1909), towards a Beaux Arts curriculum, influenced by French and American educational models. In 1903 the AA was gifted the premises of the Royal Architectural Museum, at No. 18 Tufton Street, Westminster, where it was to remain until 1917 when it moved to Nos. 34-35 Bedford Square, Bloomsbury. The war period also saw women permitted to enter the school for the first time, with the first female students graduating in 1922.
Following the closure of the Evening School in 1920, the AA Day School course consisted of 5 years of study, the completion of which meant exception from part 1 of the RIBA's Final Examination. 1920 also saw the Association incorporated as a Limited Charitable Company and carry out the purchase, the following year, of the lease on No. 36 Bedford Square. Subsequent re-modelling and construction work in Bedford Square including a first floor Memorial Library (1921), designed by Robert Atkinson (1883-1952) and dedicated to the 96 AA members killed in the war and a Studio Block (1926-8) designed by Easton & Robertson. Whilst interest in American educational practice continued after the war, the AA increasingly came under the influence of Dutch and Scandinavian architectural developments and it was not until the late 1920s that the first serious debates over the continental, French and German, Modernism took place within the school. However, by late 1930s a series of internal clashes resulted in the banishment of the classical orders and the replacement of the Beaux Arts curriculum with team work, the unit system and an approach based upon modernist ideals and theories. The Second World War saw the school re-locate to Mount House, Barnet, before returning to Bedford Square in January 1945, under Raymond Gordon Brown (1912-1962). The student population shot up to an unprecedented 461 by January 1947, as service-men and women were gradually decommissioned, and the AA took over a bombed site on Tottenham Court Road, (No. 4, Morwell Street), erecting a 40 foot Nissen hut and establishing a Practical Training Centre). Robert Furneaux Jordan (1905-1978) replaced Gordon Brown as Principal in 1948 and succeeded in raising the AA's profile internationally as a progressive, modernist school, with Prime Minister Clement Attlee, and Frank Lloyd Wright addressing successive AA Prize-giving ceremonies. Other visitors attracted to the school in this period included Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius (1883-1969), with Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), Ernesto Rogers (1909-1969) and Enrico Peressutti (1908-1976) all teaching short courses. Permanent AA staff included a significant contingent of leading young British modernists, including Peter Smithson (1923-2003), James Gowan (1923-) and John Killick (1924-1972), teaching alongside established figures such as Ove Arup, Arthur Korn and Sir John Summerson. An important development from this period was the 1954 formation of the AA Department of Tropical Architecture (Department of Tropical Studies, from 1961). Under the leadership of Otto Koenigsberger the department arguably founded the field of climatically responsive, energy conscious 'Green Architecture'. With the advent of the 1960s, graduates including Cedric Price and Peter Cook joined the teaching staff and the school became perceived as the hub of Archigram - arguably the pre-eminent architectural neoavant-garde of the 1960s and early 1970s. This influence combined with the work of students such as Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Piers Gough and Michael Gold conspired to produce what Peter Cook has termed the 'Electric Decade'. Negotiations were begun by the AA Council in the early 1960's to incorporate the AA into the state education system by merging with Imperial College of Science and Technology. In the face of vociferous student and staff protests Imperial broke off negotiations in February 1970 citing concerns at the nature and intentions of the AA school community. The AA Principal, Michael Lloyd, and the AA Council, led by Jane Drew and John Denny, prepared for closure and the winding up of the school. Nevertheless, students and staff mobilised and a search committee for a new Chairman was established, resulting in the election in 1971 of Alvin Boyarsky, director of the International Institute of Design, an itinerant architecture summer school. From 1971 until his death in 1990, Alvin held autocratic sway over Bedford Square, transforming the AA into a major international cultural institution. With the removal from the AA of UK student grants in the early 1970s, Boyarsky focussed upon making the school a global concern. A highly ambitious programme of exhibitions and publications were embarked upon and the annual Projects Review and Prospectus initiated - all designed to publish and promote the school on the international stage. Boyarsky also made changes to the AA's unit system, modifying and extending it to create a competitive market-place, where tutors, all on one year contracts, had to 'sell' their units to students - who in turn underwent a gruelling process of interviews by the tutors before acceptance into their choice. Over a twenty year period Boyarsky succeeded in creating a hot-house atmosphere, attracting and nurturing outstanding academic staff, including Robin Middleton, Charles Jencks, Elia Zhenghelis, Bernard Tschumi, Peter Cook, Dalibar Vasely and Daniel Libeskind. Talented students were co-opted onto the staff, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid and Nigel Coates all following this route.
The AA's Graduate School flourished, following its inauguration in May 1971, and by 1977/8 was offering six courses consisting of Housing Studies, Energy Studies, Social Institutions and Theory, History Studies, Conservation Studies and Graduate Design. Also serving post-graduate students during this period was the AA's Planning Department (1964-1984) and the Professional Practice course (1976-). Following Boyarsky's death in 1990, Alan Balfour was elected to the post of Chairman, to be succeeded 5 years later by Mohsen Mostafavi, who was to remain in the position until 2004. During this decade the finances of the AA were placed on a secure, stable footing and the Graduate School was developed and enlarged with the addition of the Design Research Laboratory (DRL) in 1997, followed in 1999 by the Landscape Urbanism programme, and the Emergent Technologies and Design (EmTech) programme, in 2001. With the accession of Brett Steele to the position of Director in 2005 the school has expanded to a student population of over 650 full time equivalent students, over 80% of which are from overseas. Alongside the AA's Intermediate and Diploma School, the Graduate School has continued to grow, currently contributing one third of all AA students. Similarly, the AA has also seen a considerable development in its global programme of short term Visiting Schools, which now take place annually in nearly 2 dozen cities worldwide. In terms of property, the AA has also expanded, acquiring Hooke Park in 2002 and from 2005 purchasing leases on no. 16 Morwell Street and nos. 32, 33, 37, 38 and 39 Bedford Square, thereby consolidating the AA onto one campus. Alongside the school, the AA's global membership association flourishes, with over 3000 members supporting the AA's high-profile public programme of lectures, symposia, conferences, exhibitions, site visits and events. Today, the AA remains the only private architecture school in the UK and operates as a participatory democracy with students, staff and members electing a governing Council and taking an active role in the selection of the AA Director. The AA's fiercely guarded independence has permitted the school great freedom and flexibility, nurturing a climate of experimentation and cutting edge architectural practice, which maintains the AA's reputation as one of the leading international architecture schools.
Brunel University developed from Acton Technical College which was built by Middlesex County Council in 1928 to provide evening classes in engineering and to accommodate the Junior Technical School, founded in 1910, transferred from Chiswick Polytechnic. In the 1950s Acton College was an early developer of Dip. Tech. Courses and began building a new science block. These two factors led to the establishment of Brunel College of Technology as a separate institution in 1957. The name was taken for Isambard Kingdom Brunel who had local connections and whose Great Western Railway ran through Acton. The availability of a large site in nearby Uxbridge, already owned by Middlesex County Council, was instrumental in the designation of Brunel as a College of Advanced Technology (CAT) in 1962, with the Department of Education and Science stipulating that the new College should be there. Building began in 1965 but the move was not finally completed until 1971 although even then some buildings had not been completed. In 1966 Brunel received its charter to become Brunel University. Acton College continued to function separately and eventually merged with Ealing Tertiary College. In 1980 Shoreditch College of Education, formerly Shoreditch Training College (part of Shoreditch Technical Institute 1907-1930), became part of the University. In 1995 the West London Institute of Higher Education was incorporated into the University. The Institute, with campuses at Twickenham and Osterley, was itself an amalgamation, in 1976, of Borough Road College, Maria Grey College and Chiswick Polytechnic.
The University Court is responsible for the overall management and administration of the University. The Court receives the annual audited accounts of the previous year and a report from the Vice Chancellor. The Academic Advisory Committee advises on the standard of education and higher degrees, and the Senate is responsible for the overall academic work of the University.
Collectivité
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Since 1611 (traditionally since 1537)
The Honourable Artillery Company is the oldest regiment in the British Army, traditionally dating back to 1537 during the reign of Henry VIII. Throughout our history we have had strong connections with the City of London and have also played our part in the South African War (1899-1902) and the two World Wars, as well as more recent conflicts. We have an interesting history and a range of traditions, as well as important collections of archives and artefacts.
In October 1985 Charles Graham-Dixon, then Vice-President of the Corporation of the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences, offered to lend his personal collection of paintings to be exhibited at the Hall. On his death in 1986, Charles Graham-Dixon bequeathed a total of 33 paintings from his collection to the Royal Albert Hall, half of which are on permanent display in the Prince of Wales Room. In 2006 five of the paintings were cleaned and restored by Maria Greenley, and hung in the then newly created Clive Room; from September 2008 to May 2009 she restored the rest of the collection, two of which now hang in the lobby of the Clive Room. The rest have been glazed and hung in the Hall's Prince of Wales Room, this project having been achieved through the generosity of former President of the Corporation Charles Fairweather. The pictures are drawn mainly from the 17th century schools of the Netherlands, Italy and one English work. The finest pictures are the Dutch pieces which were acquired with the help and guidance of one of Londons leading dealers, the late Alfred Brod.
Following the 1851 Great Exhibition (May 1-Oct 15 1851), the Commissioners of the Exhibition spent the bulk of the profits together with money from the government to buy the Kensington Gore Estate, in South Kensington, which lay opposite the Exhibition's location in Hyde Park. Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, proposed that a permanent series of facilities be built on the site for the enlightenment of the public including a 'music hall' . Progress on the scheme was slow and sadly in 1861 Prince Albert died without having seen his ideas come to fruition. The following year, Sir Henry Cole was given H.M. Queen Victoria's blessing to build the music hall if built in conjunction with a memorial to Albert. Sir Henry Cole directed the project and Captain Francis Fowke's drew up the Hall's designs, but unfortunately died in December 1865 leaving the design work to Colonel Henry Scott R.E. In 1867 the Commissioners granted the lease of 999 years on the site of the Hall at an annual rental of one shilling. To fund the Hall's construction private investors could buy seats at 100 pounds each - two of the first buyers were Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales. In April Queen Victoria signed the Royal Charter under which the Hall operates and Lucas Brothers began building the foundations of the Hall. In April Queen Victoria laid the Hall's foundation stone and declared the building would from then on be known as the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences. The Hall's official opening ceremony was on 29 March 1871, at which the Hall's aim was described as, to be the 'finest in Europe for seeing, hearing and convenience', which its still aims to be today.
The list of famous performers, sports people, and world figures who have appeared at the Royal Albert Hall since it opened in 1871 is unrivalled. Wagner, Verdi and Elgar conducted the first UK performance of their own works on its concert platform, Rachmaninov played his own compositions and nearly every major classical solo artist and leading orchestra has performed at the Hall. The list of popular music artists includes Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Oscar Peterson, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Sting and Elton John and from a younger generation Adele, Jay Z, Kaiser Chiefs and the Killers. Sports men and women from a wide array of disciplines including boxing legend Mohammed Ali, tennis player John McEnroe and Sumo grand champions have entertained the Hall's audiences. Among leading world figures who have spoken at the Hall are Her Majesty The Queen, Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton. The Hall hosts several annual events including Cirque du Soleil, Teenage Cancer Trust concerts, the Royal Bristish Legion Festival of Remembrance, English National Ballet and the Henry Wood Promenade concerts every summer.
The Independent Force was established by the Royal Air Force on 6 June 1918 to conduct a strategic bombing campaign against Germany, concentrating on strategic industries, communications and the morale of the civilian population. The Independent Force was formed out of the Royal Flying Corp’s Forty-First Wing which commenced operations in October 1917. This initiative was partly in response to German airship and aeroplane raids on England but it also built upon earlier, small scale attempts at strategic bombing by the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps. As its name implied, it operated independently from the land battle and struck at targets in central Germany including Cologne, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Bonn, and Mannheim. It was also intended to operate independently of the control of the Allied Supreme Commander, Marshal Foch, although this was later changed.
The Independent Force was commanded, reluctantly at first, by Major-General Hugh Trenchard who was gradually converted to the idea of strategic bombing by the operations of the Independent Force. The squadrons were based on airfields in the Nancy region, well to the south of the British sector of the Front Line. Although the effort appears miniscule compared to later bombing campaigns, four day and five night bomber squadrons dropped just 550 tons of bombs during 239 raids between 6 June and 10 November 1918, the effect on the German war effort was remarkable. The main targets were railways, blast furnaces, chemical factories that produced poison gas, other factories, and barracks to which had to be added airfields in an effort to reduce attrition from enemy fighter aircraft.
The effect on morale was out of all proportion to the size of the bomber force or the material damage caused and the air raids resulted in the movement of German air defence units away from the Front Line. Trenchard ordered statistics and records to be kept to demonstrate the work of the Independent Force and the role of strategic bombing in modern war.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has been in existence since 1841. Initially as the Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals of the Insane, then as the Medico-Psychological Association (1841-1865). In 1926 after receiving the Royal Charter it became the Royal Medico-Psychological Association, and in 1971, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, when it received the Supplemental Charter.
The Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals of the Insane was the brainchild of Dr Samuel Hitch, who was resident superintendent of the Gloucestershire General Lunatic Asylum. In a circular letter dated 19 June 1841 which was addressed to eighty three visiting physicians and resident superintendents of twenty asylums and hospitals in England, seven in Scotland and eleven in Ireland he suggested the formation of the association. The respondents to the letter held a preliminary meeting at his hospital on 27July 1841, where they agreed to form the association. At this meeting there were present Dr Shute, Visiting Physician of the Gloucester Asylum (in the chair); Mr Gaskell, Medical Superintendent of Lancaster Asylum; Dr Hitch , Resident Medical Superintendent of Gloucester Asylum; Mr Powell, Resident Medical Superintendent of Nottingham Asylum; Dr Thurnam, Resident Medical Superintendent of York Retreat; and Mr Wintle, Resident Medical Superintendent of Oxford Asylum (Warneford). The stated objective of the association was that medical men connected with asylums should communicate more freely the results of their experience and assist each other in improving the treatment of the insane.
During the early years attendance at the irregular meetings was very poor. However, it is important to note that despite these difficulties there were a few who managed to overcome them, and came to be regarded as heroes of British psychiatry. These were: John Conolly (Hanwell), Samuel Hitch (Gloucester), Samuel Gaskell (Lancaster), John Thurnam (The Retreat, York) and John Bucknill (Exeter). The first annual meeting was held at Nottingham Asylum on 4 November 1841. In 1843 the Association met for the first time in London at Morleys Hotel in Trafalgar Square and on subsequent days at Hanwell, the Surrey Asylum (Springfield Hospital) and St Lukes Hospital. It was only in 1851, under the great leadership of John Conolly that the Association had a very successful meeting which was held at the Freemason`s Tavern in London and drew an attendance of twenty six. In 1852 an even more successful meeting was held at Oxford.
In 1847 members of the Association met in Oxford at the Warneford and Littlemore Asylums. It is at this meeting that the idea of publishing a journal was first mooted. The Asylum Journal of Mental Science as it was originally called was only published in November 1853 under the editorship of Dr John Bucknill. This journal became the forerunner of todays British Journal of Psychiatry. At the 1851 meeting a committee including John Conolly, Forbes Winslow, John Bucknill, and Corsellis was appointed to examine the lunacy acts and to report thereon. A request from Dr Wiliams of Gloucester for the establishment of a central criminal asylum was generally supported and a petition in favour of it was ordered to be drawn up and forwarded to the Secretary of State. At the London Meeting of 1854 a decision was taken to form a permanent Parliamentary Committee, the first positive step designed to influence legislation affecting the control of asylums and the welfare of patients committed to them. During the same year it was also decided to institute the office of President, and during that year Dr A. J Sutherland of St Lukes Hospital, London was elected the first President of the Association.
In the late 1860s it was decided that Quarterly Meetings be held in addition to Annual Meetings. The suggestion was approved and implemented in 1883 when Quarterly Meetings were introduced in Scotland and Ireland. The meetings were the forerunners of the Divisional Meetings of today.
In 1865 the name of the Association changed to The Medico-Psychological Association. The change of the title reflected a growing confidence of its membership, and recognition that the role of the Association needed to be strengthened and its influence extended outside the confines of asylums. Membership of the Association was no longer limited to medical officers of public and private asylums and hospitals for the insane, but was extended to all legally qualified medical practitioners interested in the treatment of insanity. The affairs of the Association were now being run by the Council, which comprised of the president, treasurer, general secretary, the secretary for Scotland, the secretary for Ireland, the editor of the journal, two auditors, and eight ordinary members. These officers of the Association were to be elected by ballot at each annual meeting.
In 1855 the membership of the Association was a mere 121, but as new county asylums were opened under the provisions of the 1845 and 1853 Acts, membership rose to 250 in 1864, and by 1894 to 523.
The Parliamentary Committee which was formed in 1854 lay dormant until 1882 when it became involved in active lobbying in an attempt to get some of the objectionable clauses removed from the Lunacy Act Amendment Bill, which was going through Parliament, and was eventually enacted as the Lunacy Act of 1890.
From 1865 the Association was also involved in discussions aimed at improving the education of doctors and nurses concerned with mentally ill patients. For example Henry Maudsley in 1865 was instrumental in persuading the convocation of the University of London to resolve that instruction in mental diseases should be required in the curriculum for the final MB. And in 1885 as a result of pressure by the Association, the General Medical Council added mental diseases as a separate item to the curriculum and, furthermore, ruled that it should be tested. During the same year the Association founded the Certificate of Proficiency in Psychological Medicine. This was replaced by a Diploma in Psychological Medicine in 1948. From 1891 the Association started to organise examinations for nurses employed in hospitals for the mentally ill. The qualification was known as the Medico-Psychological Association Certificate of Proficiency in Nursing. The certificate was the first to be awarded to nurses nationally as opposed to those awarded by individual hospitals.
In 1894 a number of developments took place concerning the administration of the Association. The constitution of the Association was re-drafted and new activities defined including the establishment of Divisions delineated on territorial lines, each with its own chairman and secretary. The Divisions were empowered to arrange for meetings to be held in their own areas. Educational and Parliamentary Committees were made Standing Committees of Council. The rules also established that women doctors were eligible for membership. The first woman to be elected a member was Dr Eleanor Fleury of Richmond Lunatic Asylum in Dublin. A Library Committee was established, and in 1895 after the death of Dr Daniel Hack Tuke, the great grandson of the founder of the York Retreat and the Associations first Honorary Member, his widow presented to the Association his invaluable library. These books form the core of the Colleges antiquarian book collection.
The early years of the twentieth century were a period of consolidation. The Association campaigned through its Parliamentary Committees for reforms in legislation relating to the care of the mentally ill, particularly for powers to admit voluntary patients to mental hospitals; for facilities for early treatment and for the establishment of out-patient clinics. The impact of the First World War had an effect on the direction of the Association. The high incidence of "shell-shocked" soldiers, and others with hysterical conversion symptoms, together with other varieties of neurotic breakdown, attracted medical practitioners whose roots were in neurology, internal medicine and general practice. This development together with the upsurge of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy resulted in the emergence of a new breed of psychiatrists.
In 1926 the prestige and dignity of the Association were enhanced when it received a Royal Charter which entitled it to change its name to the Royal Medico-Psychological Association. As a result of the Royal Charter the Association was able to exercise more political clout. For instance it played an important part in the formulation of Mental Treatment Act, 1930 and the Mental Health Act of 1959. The Association also played an important role by giving evidence before various Royal Commissions concerning issues relating to divorce, suicide, homosexuality and abortion.
On 16 June 1971 the Royal Medico-Psychological Association became the Royal College of Psychiatrists after being granted a Supplemental Charter.
For further information on the history of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, see Thomas Bewley, Madness to Mental Illness: A history of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (London, 2008), and:
The early educational work of the Northampton Institute reflected the trades found in the Clerkenwell district of London. Thus the six departments of the 1890s were Mechanical Engineering and Metal Trades (including the building and furniture trades), renamed Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering in 1918; Artistic Crafts (for industrial applications), which closed in 1916 and was transferred to the London County Council Central School for Arts and Crafts; Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering; Horology, which developed into a National College of Horology and Instrument Technology in 1947; Electro-Chemistry (renamed Technical Chemistry in 1900, and later Applied Chemistry); Domestic Economy and Women's Trades. The Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering department, under the direction of the Principal, was the largest department and included telegraphy and optics, and introduced pioneering sandwich courses in engineering in 1904-1905. In 1903-1904 Technical Optics emerged as a department in its own right, renamed the Department of Applied Optics in 1926, Ophthalmic Optics in 1946, and Optometry and Visual Science in 1977. In 1909 the Institute started classes in Aeronautics, with Frederick Handley Page arriving as lecturer in the following year, though Aeronautical Engineering remained with the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering until 1958, when it became a separate Department of Aeronautics. In 1925 Electrical Engineering became a department in its own right. Physics and Mathematics became separate departments in 1937 and 1931 respectively. A Computer Unit emerged as a separate department from Mathematics in 1976. A Department of Production Technology and Control Engineering was introduced in 1959 (renamed Automation Engineering in 1968 and Systems Science in 1973), following redesignation of the Institute as a College of Advanced Technology.
Upon conversion to The City University, Civil and Mechanical Engineering became separate departments in 1966. A Department of Management Studies commenced in 1966, developing into the City University Business School in 1976. A Centre for Information Science was started in 1970. A Department of Social Science and Humanities was developed and a City University Business School evolved in 1975 from the Department of Management Studies. A Centre for Arts and Related Studies was inaugurated at the same time to cater for courses in Arts Administration, Music, Journalism and Adult Education.