Political and Economic Planning was founded in 1931 at the height of the Great Depression to plan for British recovery in the widest sense. During the thirties it carried out a series of investigations into the operation of the British economy, and into education and health. During and after World War Two it extended its interests into policy issues in other countries and carried out many detailed investigations of social problems. In 1978 PEP merged with the Centre for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), and became the Policy Studies Institute (PSI). The present collection consists of the archives of the PEP/PSI together with the PEP papers of Leonard Elmhirst and Max Nicholson.
Sir Ernest Henry Phelps Brown, 1906-1994, was educated at Taunton School and Wadham College, Oxford. He was a Rockefeller Travelling Fellow in the USA, 1930-1931, a Fellow of New College Oxford, 1930-1947, Professor of Economics of Labour at the London School of Economics, 1947-1968, and a Fellow of Wadham College Oxford, 1969-1994. His main interests were economics and incomes, and he was a member of the Council on Prices, Productivity and Incomes, 1959, the National Economic Development Council, 1962, and the Royal Commission on Distribution of Income and Wealth, 1974-1978.
William Piercy, 1886-1966, left school at the age of 12 and took a job with Pharaoh Gane, timber brokers, of which he later became joint managing director. He studied at the London School of Economics, 1910-1913, and became a lecturer in history and public administration at the LSE in 1914. From 1914 to 1918, he worked as a civil servant, later becoming principal assistant secretary in the Ministry of Supply and Ministry of Aircraft Production, and personal assistant to Clement Attlee when he was the deputy prime minister. Piercy was also very involved in the world of finance and business. He played a leading role in organizing the first unit trusts, was a member of the London Stock Exchange, 1934-1942, and headed the British Petroleum Mission in Washington during World War Two. In 1945, he became the first chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation Ltd. He was also chairman of the Estate Duties Investment Trust, 1952-1966, and was appointed to the court of the Bank of England in 1946, 1950 and 1956. Piercy also served as a governor of the LSE and a member of the senate and court of London University, was president of the Royal Statistical Society, 1954-1955, and chairman of the Wellcome Trust, 1960-1965.
Born 1901; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford University; played rugby for Oxford University, 1921, and for England, 1922; won Middle Weight Public Schools Boxing, 1919; Bursar, Duke of York's and King's Camp, 1933-1939; Chairman, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd, 1934-1966; served World War Two as a member of the RAF 1940-1943 (Acting Squadron Leader); Director, Bank of England, 1941-1945; Director of Organisation and Methods, HM Treasury, 1943-1945; Conservative MP for Bath, 1945-1964; KBE, 1961; Chairman, Royal Society of Teachers; Chairman of Council, Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation and National Centre for Cued Speech (for the deaf child); Life President, UK Federation of ita Schools; Member of the Committee, National Foundation for Educational Research (which conducted comparative researches into reasons for reading failure in earliest stages of learning); Member, Committee advising Public Trustee under Will of late George Bernard Shaw in carrying out his wishes for design and publication of a proposed British alphabet; Charter Pro-Chancellor, Bath University; Honorary President, Parliamentary Group for World Government; Vice-President, Institute of Administrative Management, 1965-1969; Vice-President: British and Foreign School Society; Member, British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education; Member, National Union of Teachers; died 1985.
Born 1898; educated Strand School and London School of Economics and Political Science; Gerstenberg Scholar in Economics and Political Science, 1921; previously a manager in the engineering industry; Professor of Commerce and Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, University of Cape Town, 1924-1930; Professor of Commerce, LSE, 1930-1965; Knight, 1947; Vice-President of the Council, Royal Economic Society; Member, Cinematograph Films Council, 1938-1969; Chairman, Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, 1955-1967; Chairman, Advertising Standards Authority, 1962-1965; Chairman, Colonial Social Science Research Council, 1955-1962; Member, Overseas Research Council, 1959-1964; Organiser for Ministry of Information, and first Director of Wartime Social Survey, 1940; Chairman, National Service Deferment Committee for the Cinematograph Industry, Ministry of Labour, 1942-1945; temporary civil servant, 1940-1946, as Adviser to Ministerial Chairman of Interdepartmental Materials Committee and Central Priority Committee under Production Council (1940), Production Executive (1941), Ministry of Production (1942-1945), and on special duties in Cabinet Office, 1945-1946; Member, Board of Trade Committee on a Central Institute of Management, 1945-1946; Member, Ministry of Works Committee on Distribution of Building Materials, 1946; Member, Ministry of Education Committee on Commercial Education, 1946; Member, Board of Trade Committee on Film Distribution, 1949 (Chairman); Member, Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission, 1953-1956; Chairman, Ministry of Agriculture Committee on Fowl Pest Policy, 1960-1962; retired 1965; died 1978.
Playing the China Card was made in 1999 by Brook Lapping Productions Ltd in conjunction with Channel 4 and PBS.
Born in 1938, Maureen Caine received her Bachelors degree in 1959 and her Doctorate in 1969. She was Professor of Sociology at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. At present she is a Reader in the Sociology of Law and Crime at the School of Law, Birmingham University. Publications: With Kalaman Kulesar (ed) Disputes and the Law (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest for the European Coordination Centre for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences, 1983); (ed) Mark and Engels on law (Academic Press, London, 1979); with Christine Harrington (ed) Lawyers in a postmodern world: translation and transgression (Open University Press, Buckingham, 1994); Growing up good: policing the behaviour of girls in Europe (Sage, London, 1989); Society and the policeman's role (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1973); Conflict and its solution: an examination of an urban and rural police division (1969).
Private Secretary to Sir F Lugard, High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria, 1900, and subsequently a Political Officer until 1906; served Sokoto Kano Campaign, 1903 (medal and clasp), and minor operations, 1903-1905; attached to Colonial Office, East African Dept, 1906-1908. Colonial Secretary and Registrar-General, Bermuda, 1908-1915; Administrator of St Vincent, 1915-1922; acted as Administrator of St Lucia, March 1917-December 1918; Col Secretary British Guiana, 1922-1925; Colonial Secretary of Cyprus, 1926-1929; represented Cyprus at 1st Colonial Office Conference, 1927; acting Governor of British Guiana and of Cyprus for over 2 years in all; retired, 1929; Secretary R. African Society and Editor of its Journal, 1932-1938; Empire Division, Ministry of Information, March-December 1940; Red Cross Foreign Relations Department, 1941-1943; has exhibited drawings at the N. English Art Club, etc, Chairman, Surrey County Committee, Citizens Advice Bureaux.
Karl Raimund Popper, 1902-1994, was born in Vienna, Austria, and gained a PhD from the University of Vienna in 1926. From 1930 to 1935, he worked as a schoolteacher in Vienna, and from 1937 to 1945, he was senior lecturer in Philosophy at Canterbury University College, University of New Zealand, Christchurch. In 1945, he became Reader in Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics, and in 1949, he became Professor of Logic and Scientific Method, a post that he held until 1969 when he became Emeritus Professor. He also held the posts of Guest Professor in the Theory of Science at the University of Vienna and Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University from 1986, and was President of the Aristotelian Society, 1958-1959, and President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science, 1959-1961. He was a prolific author and published many works on the philosophy of science, historicism and political thought.
The Population Panel was set up by the government in 1971 to investigate signs of population growth. Professor Eugene Grebenik was a member of the Panel. Its report was published in 1973.
Raymond William Postgate was born in Cambridge, 6 November, 1896, the eldest son of Professor J P Postgate, a classical scholar. He was educated at Perse School Cambridge and Liverpool College and attended St John's College, Oxford. During World War One he sought exemption from military service as a conscientious objector but without the defence of a religious objection, was jailed for two weeks during 1916. In 1918, he married Daisy Lansbury, daughter of Labour politician George Lansbury. They later had two sons John and Oliver. Postgate formed socialist connections through the Lansbury family and also through his sister Margaret, who married the Socialist economist and historian G D H Cole. Postgate became a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920, but broke from the party in 1922 to join the Labour Party. Postgate started his career in 1918 as a journalist and writer, working on the Daily Herald, and Lansbury's Weekly, where he covered the General Strike of 1926. He became department editor for Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1927-1928, was a European representative for Alfred A Knopf publishers from 1929-1949 and edited Tribune from 1940-1942. He used his socialist beliefs to write mystery novels within a social and economic context, and his crime novel Verdict of Twelve became a best-seller in 1940. Among Postgate's other works were three detective stories, a novel, short stories, many articles about labour and radical history and biographies including one of his father-in-law George Lansbury. From 1942 to 1949, Postgate worked at the Board of Trade and Ministry of Supply. In 1949, due to his life-long passion for good food and wine, Postgate decided to make an effort to raise standards by editing the reports of a band of volunteers on their visits to British hotels and restaurants. The highly influential Good Food Club was born as a result, of which he was president. He became editor of the Good Food Guide and wrote many articles and books as a food critic and wine writer. He was awarded the OBE in 1966. Raymond Postgate died on March 29, 1971.
Educated at Whitgift School; London School of Economics (BSc (Econ). Temporary Civil Servant, 1940-1942; RA, 1942-1946; commissioned 1943; served in Italy and Austria, 1944-1946. Student at LSE, 1946-1949; Member, staff of Transport and General Workers' Union, Assistant to Legal Secretary; in charge of Union's Advice and Service Bureau, 1950-1957. Labour MP: East Ham N, May 1957-1974, Newham NE, 1974-October 1977; Conservative MP: Newham NE, October 1977-1979; Daventry, 1979-1987; Minister of State, Department of Education and Science, 1964-1966; Minister of Public Building and Works, 1966-1967; Minister of Overseas Development, 1967-1969; Opposition Spokesman on Employment, 1972-1974; Section of State for Education and Science, 1974-1975; Minister for Overseas Development, 1975-1976; Minister of State (Minister for Social Security), DHSS, 1979-1981. Executive Member Committee, National Union of Cons. Assocs, 1988-1990. Alderman, GLC, 1970-1971. JP County Borough of Croydon, 1961-1964.
His publications include: Right Turn (1978).
Alan Richmond Prest, 1919-1985, was educated at Archbishop Holgate School York and Cambridge University. He worked in the Department of Applied Economics at Cambridge, 1945-1948, became a Rockefeller Fellow, USA, 1948-1949 and was a lecturer at Cambridge, 1949-1964. He was a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1950-1964, a Tutor, 1954-1955, and Bursar 1955-1964. In 1964, he moved to Manchester University where he held the post of Professor of Economics and Public Finance, 1964-1968, and Stanley Jevons Professorship of Political Economy, 1968-1970. In 1970, he moved to the London School of Economics, where he was Professor of Economics (with special reference to the Public Sector), 1970-1984. During the post war period, Prest became interested in the problems of developing countries. This led him towards the field of national income accounting, and in the early 1950s these interests came together in his work on the national income of Nigeria. He also became interested in public finance both in the UK and in developing countries. This culminated in the work for which he is best known, "Public Finance in Theory and Practice".
Denis Noel Pritt, 1887-1972, was educated at Winchester, London University, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. He obtained an LLB from London University and was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1909, he retired from practice in 1960. He was a Labour MP for Hammersmith North from 1935-1950, despite being expelled from the Labour Party in 1940. He was also Professor of Law at the University of Ghana, 1965-1966, chairman of the Howard League for Penal Reform and chairman of the Bentham Committee for Poor Litigants. In addition his interest in peace led him to become president of the British Peace Committee and a member of the World Peace Council. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1954.
PROGRESS Campaign for Research into Human Reproduction was launched in November 1985 to campaign for the protection of human embryo research so that IVF treatment could continue. PROGRESS was wound up after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was passed in 1990, but in May 1992 Progress Educational Trust was established to carry on the educational work of PROGRESS. See http://www.progress.org.uk/ for further information.
The Progressive League was formed in 1932 by H G Wells, C E M Joad and others to unite progressive organisations against fascism. It is concerned with social and economic developments, reforms consistent with human freedom, and initiatives designed to reduce poverty, ill health and intolerance. The League has given evidence before the Royal Commissions on Abortion, Divorce, and Homosexual and Prison Reform, and has campaigned for greater sexual freedom and contraception. The Progressive League is affiliated to and supports many organisations concerned with peace, asylum seekers, human rights, pensioners, civil liberties and environmental issues. There are ten groups, which hold meetings every month. These are the history group, forum (a group which discusses recent events), and the play reading, country dancing, writers, poetry, arts, religion, philosophy and psychology groups. Two residential conferences outside London are held each year.
The Political Studies Association (PSA) was founded in 1950 with the aim of developing and promoting the study of politics. The PSA organises annual conferences, publishes series of works on political subjects, offers research scholarships and prizes, and maintains contact with other similar organisations. It also publishes four periodicals: Political Studies, the British Journal of Political and Industrial Relations, Politics, and PSA News. Overall policy and administration is decided by an Executive Committee.
Born in 1840; studied economics at the Universities of Prague and Vienna, 1859-1863; became a prominent economic journalist, as well as writing a number of novels and comedies; gained a doctorate in law, 1866, and worked as an apprentice lawyer until granted a law degree from the University of Krakow, 1867; returned to work as a journalist, and developed Mengarian economics, which reconstructed price theory; published The principles of economics, 1871; joined the civil service, in the Press Department of the Austrian Cabinet, 1870-1873; appointed Lecturer, 1872, and Associate Professor, 1873-1876, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Vienna; tutor of Crown Prince Rudolph von Hapsburg, 1876-1878; Professor of Political Economy, Faculty of Law, University of Vienna, 1879-1903; published Investigation into the method of social sciences with special reference to economics, 1883; publication of The errors of historicism in German economics, 1884, began a lengthy debate between the Austrian School and the German Historical School; Member of a Commission charged with the reformation of the Austrian monetary system, 1888-1892; died 1921.
Thomas Thornely, 1781-1862, was educated in 'mercantile pursuits' and continued in commerce until later life, when he became a Liberal MP. He represented the borough of Wolverhampton for twenty-four years, from 1835.
Charles Pelham Villiers, 1802-1898, was educated at Haileybury and St John's College, Cambridge, becoming a barrister of Lincoln's Inn in 1827. He held Benthamite political views, and enjoyed a long career in public service and Parliament. In 1832, he was a Poor Law Commissioner, and from 1833 to 1852, an official of the court of Chancery. He served as an MP for Wolverhampton from 1835 to 1898, during which time he worked towards free trade and opposed the Corn Law and home rule for Ireland. He also served as Judge-Advocate General, 1852-1858, Privy Councillor, 1853, and President of the Poor Law board, 1859-1866.
The RCCP was set up in 1978 to examine the duties and powers of the police and the rights and duties of suspects in respect of the investigation of criminal offences and the procedure for prosecution in criminal cases. The Commission reported in 1981.
Margaret Helen Read, 1889-1991, was educated at Roedean and Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1919, she travelled to India, where she was involved in social work in hill villages and developed an interest in social anthropology. After her return to England in 1924, she embarked upon a career lecturing in international affairs in both Britain and America, and entered the London School of Economics to study anthropology in 1930. She studied under Malinowski and was influenced by his theories of functional anthropology. She embarked on ethnographic fieldwork in east central Africa and was appointed as assistant lecturer at LSE in 1937. In 1940 she left the LSE to join the staff at the Colonial Department of the Institute of Education where her main interest was the effect of Western education in Africa. In 1949, Read was appointed as the first Professor of Education "with special reference to colonial areas" at the Institute of Education. Here she played an important role in shaping post war attitudes in Whitehall towards colonial education policy. She retired in 1955 and was appointed to the University of Nigeria at Ibadan as a Visiting Professor of Education. She became a consultant to the World Health Organisation in 1956, and chairman of the World Health Organisation committee of experts on the training of medical and auxiliary staffs.
Born in 1920; educated at Taunton School and Jesus College, Cambridge University; served World War Two, 1939-1945, in India and Burma with the Royal Signal Corps; research assistant to Charles Wilson during the writing of Wilson's history of Unilever, 1947-1954; worked for Unilever, 1950-1964, in advertising, market research and public relations; began career as a historical writer; left Unilever in 1964 to write a history of ICI, which was published in 1970 and 1795; wrote a series of business histories; Texaco Visiting Fellow, Business History Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1979-1985; died 1990. Publications: Birds Eye: the early years (Walton on Thames, 1963); Imperial Chemical Industries: a history (Oxford University Press, London, 1970, 1975); Architect of air power: the life of the first Viscount Weir of Eastwood (Collins, London, 1968); Life in Victorian England (Batsford, London, 1964); Professional men: the rise of the professional classes in nineteenth-century Europe (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1966); Hard roads and highways: S.P.D. Ltd, 1918-1968 (Batsford, London, 1969); Unilever plantations (Unilever Ltd, London, 1961); The Weir Group: a centenary history (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1971).
Maud, John Primatt Redcliffe was born in Bristol in 1906. He was educated at Summer Fields School in Oxford, Eton College and New College Oxford. In 1929 he became Junior Research Fellow at University College Oxford. In 1932 he married (Margaret) Jean Hamilton (1904-1993) and undertook a Rhodes Travelling Fellowship to Johannesburg where he wrote a history of local government. Between 1932 and 1939 he also served as Fellow and Dean at Oxford University, lectured in politics and tutored the Colonial Administrative Services Course. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 Maud was summoned into public service and took up a post in Reading Jail. Although he continued to fulfil his duties as Master of Birkbeck College from 1939 until 1943, he rose quickly in the ranks of the civil service. From Principal Private Secretary Ministry of Food in 1940 to Deputy Secretary (later Second Secretary) Ministry of Food 1941-1944, Second Secretary to the Office of the Minister of Reconstruction 1944-1945 and Secretary to the Office of the Lord President of the Council 1945. In the immediate post-war years he assumed the posts of Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, 1945 (-1952); Member, Economic Planning Board, 1952 (-1958); Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1952 (-1959). In this period he was also one of the founding fathers of UNESCO. In 1959 he accepted the roles of British High Commissioner in South Africa (-1961), High Commissioner for Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland (-1963) and in 1961 became the first British Ambassador to the new South African republic (-1963). He returned to Oxford in 1963 as the Master of University College, (-1976). But he also undertook enquiries into local government. Between 1964 and 1967 he Chaired the Committee on the Management of Local Government and worked closely with the Committee on Staffing Local Government, Chaired by Sir (Howard) George Mallaby. This was followed with his Chairmanship of the Royal Commission on Local Government, 1966-1969. In 1967 he was awarded a Baronetcy and assumed the title, Baron Redcliffe-Maud. During these years he also undertook the roles of High Bailiff of Westminster, 1967 and Chairman, Prime Minister's Committee on Local Government Rules of Conduct, 1973-1974. From 1974 to 1976, with the support of the Calouste-Gulbenkian Foundation, he conducted an enquiry into funding for the arts in England and Wales. Throughout his life Redcliffe-Maud was an accomplished public speaker and made numerous speeches and broadcasts. Among his publications are: Local Government in modern England, (Thornton Butterworth, London, 1932). City Government: The Johannesburg Experiment, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1938). Johannesburg and the Art of Self-Government, (R Esson and Co, Johannesburg, 1937). Expanding horizons in a contracting world: the challenge to education, (University of Natal, Durban, 1960). Aid for developing countries, (Athlone Press, London, 1964). Leadership and democracy, Foundation Orations 1966, University of London, Birkbeck College, (London 1966). The future of the individual, Bellman Memorial Lectures (London, 1968). English Local Government Reformed, (Oxford University Press, London, 1974). Support for the arts in England and Wales : a report to the Colouste Gulbenkian Foundation (London, 1976). Experiences of an Optimist, (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1981). Redcliffe-Maud retired in 1976 but remained active as the President of Royal Institute of Public Administration, 1969-1979, and the British Diabetic Association, 1977-1982. He died in 1982.
William Rees Jeffreys was born in London in 1871. He worked for the Board of Trade until 1903, when he became Administrative Secretary to the Royal Automobile Club and Secretary to the Motor Union. In the same year, Rees-Jeffreys secured the appointment of a Departmental Committee to inquire into Highway Administration in England and Wales. From 1910, to its demise in 1918, he was Secretary of the Road Board. Rees Jeffreys also wrote and campaigned extensively on road transport and motoring in the United Kingdom, Europe and many other countries. He died in 1954.
John Kenyon Vaughan-Morgan was a member of Chelsea Borough Council, 1928 and of London County Council for Chelsea, 1946-1952. He was Chairman of East Fulham Conservative and Unionist Association, 1935-1938, and its President in 1945. He was Conservative MP for Reigate, Surrey, 1950-1970; Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Health, 1957; and, Minister of State at the Board of Trade, 1957-1959. He was created Baron Reigate of Outwood, Surrey in 1970 (life peer). He was also President of the Royal Philanthropic School, Redhill.
Foundation. The Royal Economic Society (RES) was founded in 1890 as the British Economics Association (BEA) with the aim of promoting and encouraging the study of economic science and with the particular objective of publishing an economic journal in Britain. Many prominent British economists were involved in the foundation of the BEA, including Inglis Palgrave, Herbert Foxwell and Alfred Marshall. At the particular urging of Alfred Marshall, membership of the BEA was declared open to all and has been ever since, making the Society not only a learned professional body but also an open society for anyone interested in economics. Members have included prominent academics, businessmen, journalists, clergymen, politicians and civil servants.
Structure. On the initiative of Henry Higgs (Secretary of the Society, 1892-1906), the BEA applied for and was granted a Royal Charter in December 1902 and became the Royal Economic Society. The Charter specifies that there shall be a Council which will be responsible for the 'management and direction of the Society'. It also lays down that 'The Council shall consist of the President, Vice-Presidents, and not less than twenty Councillors; and the Treasurer or Treasurer and the Secretary or Secretaries if honorary'. Many distinguished economists have been associated with the RES throughout its history, as Presidents, Council members, Secretaries, Treasurers and Editors of the Economic Journal. The first two Presidents of the Society were prominent statesmen, namely George Goschen who was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and R B Haldance, another prominent politician who remained President of the Society for 22 years. In 1929 the Council re-affirmed an earlier resolution that 'it was considered advisable that as a rule the President should not hold office for more than three years'. In fact, apart from Herbert Foxwell, the term of office of the Society's Presidents was two years until 1986 when a three-year term was introduced. Past Presidents include John Maynard Keynes, William Beveridge, Lionel Robbins, James Meade, Nicholas Kaldor and Richard Stone. In its early years, the day-to-day running of the Society was left to Henry Higgs and F Y Edgeworth (Editor of the Economic Journal, 1892-1906). Among later Secretaries and Editors who also took a prominent part in the administration of the Society's affairs were John Maynard Keynes (1912-1945), Roy Harrod (1945-1961) and Austin Robinson (1945-1971). The retirement of Austin Robinson in 1971 was followed by the decentralisation of the Society's activities as well as significent changes in its administration. These changes were overseen by the then President, Sir Alec Cairncross, and they included the formation of an Executive Committee in 1975. This committee is responsible for the execution of the Society's policy as laid down by the Council (which now meets twice a year) and for the co-ordination of the activities of its officers. Other changes which have taken place include the introduction of a more direct say by members in the composition of the Council and the selection of the President.
The EJ and other Publications. The first Economic Journal (EJ) appeared in 1891. The first page of the first issue stated 'The British Economic Association is open to all schools and parties: no person is excluded because of his opinions. The Economic Journal, issued under the authority of the Association, will be conducted in a similar spirit of toleration'. The EJ has been produced ever since, even during war years, quarterly until 1991 and six times a year since then. Successive editors to 1970 (F Y Edgeworth, J M Keynes, Roy Harrod and Charles Carter) took responsibility for the articles and notes sections: book reviews were handled by separate assistant or joint editors following the appointment of Austin Robinson in 1934. From 1970 onwards the editorship became more collaborative and much greater use began to be made of referees and associate editors. In addition, the Society has produced a Newsletter since 1972; at first this contained mainly information on visiting scholars, appointments and conferences, but it now also publishes short articles of topical interest, correspondence and news about research. The Newsletter is published quarterly. One of the objectives of the Society at its foundation was to make scholarly economic works available to its members, primarily by the reprinting of early tracts, the translation of important foreign works and producing definitive editions of economic texts. Early publications included Quesnay's Tableau Economique; later more ambitious undertakings included the multi-volume editions of the Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo and the Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. The Keynes Edition was one of the Society's major undertakings from its conception in 1954 to the publication of its final volume in 1989.
Other activities. The RES continues to contribute today to the advancement and dissemination of economic knowledge. The aims and activities of the Society have, however, broadened since 1890. In addition to its publishing activities, the Society contributes to the exchange of ideas in the profession through its Annual Conference, through its support for the standing Conference of Heads of University Departments of Economics (CHUDE) established in 1987 to promote the study and teaching of economics in the UK, and through its Visiting Lectureship scheme. Support for younger members is provided through summer research workshops, the Easter School, junior fellowships and the conference grant scheme. The Society also co-operates with other economic societies both nationally and internationally. It was a founding member of the International Economic Association and of the Confederation of European Economic Associations.
Born 1927; educated at Eton; served in Welsh Guards, 1946-1948, as a Lieutenant; worked for ICI Ltd; contested Pontypridd, 1959, and Ebbw Vale, 1960 and 1964; Assistant director, Spastics Society, 1962-1963; Consultant, Management Selection Ltd, 1963-1971; Conservative MP for Kensington South, 1968-1974 and Kensington, 1974-1988; Member, British Delegation to the Council of Europe, 1970-1972; Nominated Member, European Parliament, 1973-1979; Member of the European Parliament for London South-East, 1979-1984; Vice-Chairman, European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, 1973-1979; died 1988. Publications: The new social contract (Conservative Political Centre, 1967); More power to the shareholder (1969); 'Redistributing income in a free society' from Economic Age, Sep 1969. Stepping stones to independence: national insurance after 1990 (Aberdeen University Press, 1989) was published after his death.
Lady Juliet Rhys Williams, 1898-1964, began her political career as private secretary to the Director of Training and Staff Duties at the Admiralty in 1918, becoming private secretary to the Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Transport, 1919-1920. As a member of the Liberal Party, she contested Pontypridd (1938) and Ilford North (1945), holding the post of Honorary Secretary of the Women's Liberal Federation in 1943. Her ideas on income tax reform were taken up by the Liberal Party and published as a Liberal Party Yellow Book. She left the Liberals in 1945 and joined the Conservative Party, becoming an influential member of the Monday Club. During this time she corresponded with many politicians including Harold MacMillan about political and economic issues.
Following World War Two, Lady Rhys Williams became Honorary Secretary of the Economic Section, Congress of Europe and the Hague in 1948, Honorary Secretary of the United Europe Movement, 1947-1958, and Chairman from 1958. She believed in uniting and strengthening Europe through trade and joined the European League for Economic Co-operation in 1948 . However she was against signing the Treaty of Rome and campaigned vigorously against joining the Common Market, which she thought would hand over British sovereignty to Europe and betray the Commonwealth. She also corresponded with a variety of people about the economic and political issues relating to Europe and European Union.
Lady Rhys Williams was a governor of the BBC, 1952-1956. During this time she joined discussions on the breaking of the BBC's monopoly and the setting up of a new commercial channel. She also experimented on systems for colour television and broadcast on Women's Hour. She was also interested in film. Together with her husband Sir Rhys Rhys Williams she formed a company that filmed her mother, Elinor Glyn's, books. She was also involved in the development of colour film. Lady Rhys Williams was also concerned with health issues. She was Honorary Treasurer of Queen Charlotte's Hospital Anaesthetic Fund, 1928-1939, Honorary Secretary of the Joint Council of Midwifery, 1934-1939, and a member of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Abortion, 1937-1938. She was also a member of the National Birthday Trust Fund. As her husband's estates were in Wales, Lady Rhys Williams spent much time there, and became involved with Welsh issues. She was a member of Bishop Llandaff's committee, which sought ways to alleviate poverty in the Rhondda valley in the 1930s, and she was also chairman of the Cwmbran Development Corporation 1955-1960. She also wrote articles and books on politics, economics, philosophy and religion and had novels and plays published.
Dr Audrey Richards, 1899-1984, was the daughter of Sir Henry Erle Richards, a legal member of the vice-regal council of India. She attended Downe House School near Newbury and read Natural Sciences at Cambridge. After graduating, she worked as an assistant to Gilbert Murray, and from 1924 to 1928 was Secretary of the Labour Department of the League of Nations Union. Richards registered as a PhD student at the London School of Economics in 1928 under C G Seligman. She carried out anthropological fieldwork among the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, from 1930 to 1931, returning to the School to become lecturer in Social Anthropology, 1933-1934. The major subjects of her Bemba research were food production and nutrition and, because women were the principal farmers, women's work and women's lives. She also investigated Bemba politics and government. From 1937 to 1949 she was senior lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. During the Second World War, Richards worked for the Colonial Office and was closely connected with the Colonial Social Science Research Council. She returned to the LSE in 1946 as a Reader in Social Anthropology, going on to become director of the East African Institute of Social Research, Makerere University in 1950. Here she carried out extensive research, partly in co-operation with her colleagues, into Ugandan and particularly Bugandan affairs. This research concentrated on political and economic organisation. From 1956 to 1966, she was Fellow of Newnham College Cambridge, and from 1966 she held the Smuts Readership.
No further information available at present.
Born 1898; educated Southall County School, University College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science; served World War One, 1916-1919, in the Royal Field Artillery; Lecturer, New College Oxford University, 1924; Lecturer, LSE, 1925-1927; Fellow and Lecturer, New College, Oxford University, 1927-1929; Professor of Economics, LSE, 1929-1961; Director, Economic Section, Offices of the War Cabinet, 1941-1945; President, Royal Economic Society, 1954-1955; Trustee, National Gallery, 1952-1974, and Tate Gallery, 1953-1967; Director, Royal Opera House, 1955-1981; Chairman, Financial Times, 1961-1970; Chairman, Committee on Higher Education (Robbins Committee), 1961-1964; President, British Academy, 1962-1967; Member, Court of Governors, LSE, 1968-1974; First Chancellor of Stirling University, 1968-1978; died 1984. Publications: Liberty and equality (1977); Political economy past and present (1976); Against inflation (1979); Higher education revisited (1980); (ed) Studies in Economics and Commerce (London, 1933-1948); Aspects of post-war economy (Institute of economic Affairs, London, 1974); Autobiography of an economist (Macmillan, London, 1971); The balance of payments (Athlone Press, London, 1951); Bentham in the twentieth century (Athlone Press, London, 1965); Economic aspects of federation (Macmillan, London, 1941); The economic basis of class conflict (Macmillan, London, 1939); The economic causes of war (Jonathan Cape, London, 1939); Economic planning and international order (Macmillan, London, 1937); The economic problem in peace and war (Macmillan, London, 1947); The economist in the twentieth century (Macmillan, London, 1954); An essay on the nature and significance of economic science (Macmillan, London, 1932); The evolution of modern economic theory (Macmillan, London, 1970); The Great Depression (Macmillan, London, 1934); The international monetary problem (Oxford University Press, London, 1973); Money, trade and international relations (Macmillan, London, 1971); Politics and economics (Macmillan, London, 1963); Robert Torrens and the evolution of classical economics (Macmillan, London, 1958); The theory of economic policy in English classical political economy (Macmillan, London, 1952); The university in the modern world, and other papers on education (Macmillan, London, 1966); Wages (Jarrolds, London, 1926).
William Alexander Robson, 1895-1980, was a student at the London School of Economics, gaining his BSC (Economics) First Class Honours in 1922, PhD in 1924 and LLM in 1928. He saw active service as a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps and RAF during World War One and was called to the Bar in 1922. He did not practice law for long, however, becoming a lecturer at LSE in 1926 and then a Reader in Administrative Law from 1933 to 1946. He was made a professor in 1947 and continued at the school until his retirement in 1962. From 1940 to 1942, Robson was Principal of the Mines Department before becoming Principal of the Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1942 to 1943. He was Assistant Secretary to the Air Ministry 1943 to 1945 and to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1945. He was also a member of the Council of the Town and Country Planning Association, the Committee on Training in Public Administration for Overseas Countries. From 1950 to 1953 he was chairman of the Greater London Group. In 1930 he helped to found the 'Political Quarterly' and went on to be its joint editor, 1930 to 1975 and chairman of the editorial board from 1975 to his death in 1980.
Cecil Rolph Hewitt, 1901-1994, had two careers. He was a member of the City of London Police Force from 1921 to 1946, rising to become Chief Inspector. After leaving the Police Force he became involved in journalism. He was a member of the editorial staff of The New Statesman, 1947-1970, and editor of The Author, 1956-1960. He was also involved in the publishing of many books and articles. Hewitt worked under the professional name of C H Rolph.
Born in 1901; educated in London state schools; officer in the City of London Police, 1921-1946 (reaching Chief-Inspector); Editorial Staff, The New Statesman, 1947-1970; Editor, The Author, 1956-1960; Director, The New Statesman, 1965-1980; Member of the Parole Board, 1967-1969, and the Council of the Society of Authors; contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Chambers Encyclopedia, Punch, The Week-End Book, The New Law Journal, the Times Literary Supplement, The Author, and The Nation. Hewitt wrote under the professional name of Cecil Hewitt Rolph, and was well-known as a crusading journalist on issues such as censorship and capital punishment. Publications: Police Duties. 200 points in police law with an appendix of examination questions (Police Review Publishing Co, London, 1936); A Licensing Handbook (Police Review Publishing Co, London, 1947); editor of Women of the Streets. A sociological study of the common prostitute (Secker & Warburg, London, 1955); Hanged by the Neck: an exposure of capital punishment in England (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1961); The Trial of Lady Chatterley: Regina v. Penguin Books Limited. The transcript of the trial (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1961); Before the Beak (Newman Neame Take Home Books, London, 1958); Believe what you like. What happened between the Scientologists and the National Association for Mental Health (Andre Deutsch, London, 1973); Books in the dock (André Deutsch, London, 1969); Common Sense about Crime and Punishment (Victor Gollancz, London, 1961); editor of Does Pornography matter? (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1961); Kingsley: The life, letters and diaries of Kingsley Martin (London, Gollancz, 1973); Living twice: an autobiography (Victor Gollancz, London, 1974); Mental Disorder: A brief examination of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Law relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency, 1954-1957 (National Association for Mental Health, London, 1958); Personal Identity (Michael Joseph: London, 1957); The Law is yours (Daily Mirror, London, 1964); The Police and the Public (Heinemann, London, 1962); Letters to both women (Wilton 65, Bishop Wilton, 1990); As I was saying (Police Review, London, 1985); The Police (Wayland, Hove, 1980); The Queen's pardon (Cassell, London, 1978); London particulars (Oxford University Press, 1980); Further particulars (Oxford University Press, 1987); Mr Prone: a week in the life of an ignorant man (Oxford University Press, 1977). AEGIS (Aid to the Elderly in Government Institutions) was a pressure group set up by Barbara Robb (d 1976) in 1965 to campaign about the treatment of elderly people in the psychiatric and geriatric wards of British hospitals.
The Romney Street Group is a small London-based luncheon club, with no political or religious alignment, which has met regularly since 1917 for the discussion of public affairs. It has maintained a membership of working and retired professionals with a range of backgrounds in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Its discussions are open to members and their guests, and are conducted according to so-called 'Chatham House rules' - that is, on the understanding that all contributions to the discussion remain confidential to the participants, except with express permission to the contrary. Women were first admitted as guests in 1926, and as members in 1959 or 1960. The Group was founded by Joseph Peter Thorp, then dramatic critic of Punch magazine. Its first Chairman was Thomas Jones, Deputy Secretary to Lloyd George's Cabinet. Its immediate purpose was to provide a forum in which to discuss, and a means by which to influence, the conduct of post-war public affairs. It met in a house in Romney Street, Westminster, for the first year of its existence only. Meetings have since taken place in many venues, mostly in London.. At first, topics for discussion were taken up on an 'ad hoc' basis, depending upon the interests of members and guests present, and the immediate events of the day. Since the 1950s, however, a formal programme of speakers and topics for discussion has been drawn up and circulated in advance by the Group Secretary. Administration has been informal for most of the Group's history.
Professor Michael Rose is a Visiting Professor in Social Research on Economic Life at the University of Bath. He has published numerous books and articles on subjects including employee satisfaction, trade union support in the UK, and skill and the work ethic, including Industrial behaviour (Allen Lane, London, 1975), Reworking the work ethic (Batsford, London, 1985), and French industrial studies (Saxon House, Farnsborough, 1977). The research in this collection, which was funded by the ESRC, was published as Servants of Post-Industrial Power? Sociologie du Travail and Modern French Socio-Political Structure (Macmillan, London, 1979). The purpose of the study was to present, characterise and explain the organisation and structure of the sociology of industry, work and organisations in postwar France.
The Regional Studies Association was founded in 1965. Its objects are: (1) to promote education in the field of regional studies by the exchange of ideas and information; and, (2) to stimulate and aid studies and research into regional planning, development and functions and to disseminate the results of such research. Since 1967, the Association has published a quarterly journal, Regional Studies.
Born in 1873; nephew of C P Scott of the Manchester Guardian; studied at Balliol College, Oxford University, and founded the Oxford Branch of the Fabian Society; in 1907 began an interest in universal language which would last his whole life, including the active use of the German phonetic alphabet Sprechspur (developed in the 1940s) to teach children to read, the founding of the Phonetic Alphabet Association, and an active promotion of alphabet reform; enjoyed a varied career as a language teacher; first Headmaster, Junior Department, Bedales School; emigrated to the USA, 1912; Professor of French, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee; returned to the UK, 1920; worked as an examiner for the Oxford and London Examining Boards; active federalist, including membership of the Federal Union and the World Federation Movement; died 1961.
The Russian Refugees Relief Association was set up in 1946 to care for people forced to leave Russia and eastern Europe by the spread of Communism. As well as supporting refugees in the UK, the RRRA provided food parcels and other aid to Russians in Germany and Europe. The organisation generally acted to promote Russian issues and provide a service to those trying to locate family and friends. As the refugees in Britain became elderly, the Association purchased two houses in Earls Court, London, as hostels. They also provided a Russian language library. As its income gradually decreased, the Association's work was gradually superceded by other agencies, and it was wound up in 1968. Its assets were passed on to the Russian Benevolent Society.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Neville Devonshire Sandelson was Member of Parliament for the Hayes and Harlington constituency 1971-1983 (Labour MP 1971-1981, Social Democratic Party MP 1981-1983).
Sandelson was born in 1923 and joined the Labour Party in 1939. He was a member of the London County Council for Stoke Newington and Hackney North, 1952-1958. He unsuccessfully contested eight General Elections and by-elections as a Labour Party candidate in six different constituencies: Ashford (Kent) (1950, 1951 and 1955), Beckenham (by-election, 1957), Rushcliffe (1959), Heston and Isleworth (1966), South West Leicester (by-election, 1967) and Chichester (1970).
He was elected as MP for Hayes and Harlington in a by-election in 1971. He was a moderate Labour MP and opposed the activities of extreme left-wing organisations inside and outside the Labour Party. His relationship with left-wing members of the Hayes and Harlington Constituency Labour Party was a stormy one, and various attempts were made to de-select him as MP. He was a founder member and Treasurer of the Labour Party Manifesto Group (1975-1980). In 1981 he was one of the founding members of the SDP, and continued to represent Hayes and Harlington as MP until losing his seat in the General Election of 1983. Sandelson never held government office but he did hold office in various parliamentary groups, including being Secretary of the British Gibraltar Parliamentary Group and Vice-Chairman of the Afghanistan Parliamentary Support Committee.
After 1983, Sandelson continued to be active in politics outside parliament. He remained a member of the SDP until 1987, when he allowed his membership to lapse. He campaigned in support of the return of a Conservative government in the 1987 General Election. In 1988 he and Stephen Haseler co-founded the Radical Society, a cross-party forum for debate on political and other issues. In 1996 he re-joined the Labour Party.
As well his career in politics, Sandelson worked in a wide variety of areas, including as a barrister, a deputy circuit judge and assistant recorder, a political and business consultant and a producer of television programmes.
Isaac Schapera was born in 1905 in Garies in Little Namaqualand, south of the Orange River in the Northwestern Cape. Here he acquired a fluency in Afrikaans and an interest in the peoples around him. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town where he intended to study law, but after attending a course of lectures by A R Radcliffe-Brown, he changed to anthropology. After completing his masters degree in 1925, Schapera was accepted as a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics. He joined Malinowski's seminar and was for a time his research assistant. His supervisor was C G Seligman. He held an assistant lectureship at LSE for a year, 1928-1929, and then returned to South Africa. He lectured for a year at the University of Witwatersrand and then returned to the University of Cape Town, where he was made Professor in 1935.In 1950, he returned to the LSE where he accepted a chair in anthropology. He retired from teaching in 1969. Over the years, Schapera made many trips to Botswana and had a deep interest in the history of the Tswana people. As part of his historical research, he made a study of missionary records, and undertook the editing of Robert Moffat's journals and letters and the unpublished writings of David Livingstone.
No information available at present.
Section F of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was founded in 1833 by the British Association, which had itself been founded in 1831. The idea of a section of the British Association which could concentrate on economic and social problems was developed principally by Charles Babbage, Thomas Malthus and Adam Sidgwick. The first meeting was held in 1834 under the presidency of Sir Charles Lemmon.
At its inception the Section became known as the Statistical Section, and became known in addition as Section F in 1835. In 1856 its title was changed from the Statistical Section to the Section of Economic Science and Statistics. Finally in 1948 Section F became the Economics Section of the British Association.
The principal focus of Section F was the annual conference of the British Association and, from 1966 onwards, the publication of its proceedings at these conferences, although it has in the past run its own research projects through standing committees.
Section F is currently still extant. The principal officers in Section F are the President, the Vice President and the Recorder. The president is appointed annually by the Council of the British Association and is not eligible for re-election. The president has been the editor of the proceedings of Section F at the annual conferences of the British Association since they began to be published.
Born 1913; educated Croyden High School, Newnham College at Cambridge University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science; Personnel Officer, C & J Clark Ltd, 1936-1946; seconded as part-time member of staff, Production Efficiency Board, Ministry of Aircraft Production, 1943-1945; Teacher of, and Reader in, Personnel Management, LSE, 1946-1978; contested Hornchurch, 1950 and 1951, Truro, 1955 and 1959, Epping, 1964, Rochdale, 1966, and Wakefield, 1970, as a Liberal; President, Liberal Party, 1964-1965; President, Fawcett Society, 1970-1985; Top Salaries Review Board, 1971-1984; created Life Peer, 1971; Member of Council, Industrial Society, 1972-1984; President, British Standards Institute, 1974-1977; President, Women's Liberal Federation, 1974; Hansard Social Commission on Electoral Reform, 1975-1976; President, Institute of Personnel Management, 1977-1979; Visiting Professor of Personnel Management, City University, 1980-1987; Leader of the Liberal Party, House of Lords, 1984-1988; Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, House of Lords, 1988-1997; died 1997. Publications: Women in the penal system (Report for the Howard League for Penal Reform, 1986); Training: the fulcrum of change (British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education, London, 1976); Interdependence and survival: population policies and environmental control (Wyndham Place Trust, London, 1976); A career for women in industry (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1964); Policies for incomes (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1967); Education: a quantum leap? (Hebden Royd Publications, Hebden Bridge, 1988).
Sir (Alfred) Chester Beatty was an American mining engineer, who founded Selection Trust Ltd in 1913. This remained a small company until after World War One, when Beatty embarked on the development, finance and administration of mining businesses throughout the world, notably in Siberia, the west coast of Africa, Serbia and Northern Rhodesia. Beatty built an expert team of geologists and mining engineers whom he sent abroad with specific instructions on the areas to explore: he never travelled to these places himself. Though many of these mining enterprises were later nationalised, Selection Trust had by then acquired valuable interests in other mines around the world. Beatty retired in 1950, and handed over control of Selection Trust to his son, Alfred Chester Beatty, who retired in 1968, the same year as his father's death. Beatty Senior was also well known for his philanthropic interests in cancer research, and his fascination with collecting oriental manuscripts and impresionist art. The Selection Trust Ltd was taken over by BP, and was known as, successively, BP Minerals International Ltd and BP Minerals Development Ltd. It was acquired from BP by the Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation Plc in 1989.
Charles Seligman, 1873-1940, was educated at St Paul's School. He qualified as a doctor and became Director of the Clinical Laboratory at St Thomas's hospital, and also treated shellshock victims during World War One. He became interested in tropical diseases and it was for this reason that he went on his first expedition to Borneo and the Torres Straits. Whilst there, he developed an interest in anthropology and the rest of his life was devoted to this discipline. He also attempted to combine disciplines, using psychology to explain anthropological problems. He first taught at the London School of Economics in 1910, and was appointed to the Chair of Ethnology of the University of London in 1913, the first of its kind at the University. He retired in 1934, and was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor. Brenda Seligman, d 1960, accompanied her husband on anthropological expeditions and published material in her own right. Like her husband she acquired her knowledge of anthropology whilst working in the field. She was particularly interested in kinship and the lives of women and children.
Born 1912; educated Manchester Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford University; joined editorial staff, Manchester Guardian, 1937-1960; served World War Two, 1939-1945; free-lance writer, 1960-1988, on subjects including gardening, architecture, town planning and local government; Member, Royal Commission on Local Government in England, 1966-1969, for which he wrote a Memorandum of Dissent; member, Basildon Development Corporation, 1975-1979; died 1988. Publications: A guide to the Cambridge Plan (Planning Department, Cambridge County Council, 1956); (ed) The regional city: an Anglo-American discussion of metropolitan planning (Longmans, London, 1966); City of Manchester Plan (Jarrold and Sons, Norwich and London, 1945); Central redevelopment: the Eldon Square area (Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council, 1964); Your architect (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1964).
Beatrice Serota (1919-2002) was born in London on 15 October 1919, the daughter of Alexander Katz and Milly Witkower. She was educated at the Clapton county secondary school and at the London School of Economics. In 1942 she married Stanley Serota. After wartime service in the Ministry of Fuel and Power, Serota was elected as a Labour member of Hampstead Borough Council in 1945, beginning a long involvement with local politics. In 1954 she was elected to the London County Council (LCC), serving as Chairman of the Children's Committee. When the LCC was abolished in 1965, Serota was elected to the Greater London Council (GLC) which replaced it. She became the Labour Chief Whip on the GLC, and served on the Inner London Education Authority, until 1967. Serota's work for the LCC and GLC led to her being awarded a peerage for services to children in 1967. This enabled her appointment as Minister of State for Health in the Department of Health and Social Security, 1969-1970. Prior to becoming a minister, Serota had served on a number of advisory bodies and commissions. She was a member of the Longford Committee on crime, 1964; the Royal Commission on the Penal System, 1964-1966; the Latey Committee on the Age of Majority, 1965-1967; and the Advisory Council on the Penal System, 1966-1968, and 1974-1979. Following the Labour government's defeat in 1970, Serota served on the Community Relations Commission, 1970-1976; and was Chair of the Commission for Local Administration, 1974-1982; the BBC Complaints Commission, 1975-1977; and was a Governor of the BBC, 1977-1982. Serota also had an active career in the House of Lords, being Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees and a member of the European Communities Select Committee, 1986-1992. she was Deputy Speaker in the Lords from 1985 until her death in 2002.
She was also involved with the National Council for One Parent Families and the Family Service Units until her death in 2002.
George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856; attended a Weslyan school, but was largely self educated through visits to the National Gallery of Ireland and wide reading; worked as a cashier, 1872-1876; moved to London in 1876 to join his mother and sister; wrote but failed to publish five novels, 1878-1883; joined and became a leading member of the Fabian Society, 1884, and edited Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889); worked as a book, drama and music critic for the Pall Mall Gazette, 1885-1888, the World (1886-1889), the Star (1888-1890), and the Saturday Review (1895-1898); published The quintessence of Ibsenism, 1891; wrote Widowers' Houses for performance by Independent Theatre, 1892, attacking slum landlords and allying Shaw with a realistic and political movement in the theatre; this was followed by The Philanderer (1893), Mrs Warren's Profession (1893, concerning prostitution and banned until 1902), Arms and the Man (1894), Candida (1897) and You Never Can Tell (1899); obtained first successful production of a play with The Devil's Disciple, New York, 1897; married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, 1898; wrote Captain Brassbound's Conversion for Ellen Terry, 1900; completed Caesar and Cleopatra, 1899, which was produced by Mrs Patrick Campbell in 1901; established as a playwright of international importance, with the completion and performance of Man and Superman (1901-1903), John Bull's Other Island (1904), Major Barbara (1905) and The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), which were produced by Harley Granville-Barker for the Royal Court Theatre; wrote his most popular play, Pygmalion, in 1913 (he later adapted it for the screen, winning an Academy Award in the process); during World War One, made numerous anti-war speeches; his postwar plays include Heartbreak House (1920), Back to Methuselah (1922), and St Joan (1923); won the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1925, but refused the award; established the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation for the translation of Swedish literature into English; wrote extensively on social, economic and political issues, notably The intelligent women's guide to socialism and capitalism (1928), and Everybody's political what's what (1944); his later plays, produced at the Malvern Festivals, included The Apple Cart (1929), Too True to be Good (1932) and Geneva (1939); retired, 1943; left residue of his estate to institute a British alphabet of at least 40 letters; died 1950.