This section comprises important documents which were not incorporated into the LSE Central Filing System, and mainly comprises minutes and papers of smaller or short-lived committees, and printed material.
Born 1884; parentage on both sides Polish szlachta (landed gentry and nobility); educated at the King Jan Sobieski Public School and the Jagiellonian University Cracow, where he gained a PhD in Philosophy, Physics and Mathematics,1908; received the Barczewski stipend for training as a university teacher, and studied for four years in London, undertaking research at the British Museum and the London School of Economics; Lecturer at the LSE, 1913, where he gained a PhD in Science, 1916; part of the Robert Mond Anthropological Expedition to New Guinea and North-West Melanesia, 1914-1916 and 1917-1918, returning in 1918 to Australia, and in 1920 to Europe; Reader in Social Anthropology, University of London, 1924-1927; journeyed to the USA and Mexico by invitation of Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, visiting Universities and Pueblo Indians (1926); Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics, 1927-1942; undertook a trip to South and East Africa, doing survey work among Bantu tribes (Swazi, Bemba, Chagga, and Bantu Kavirondo), 1934; Delegate of London University to Harvard Tercentenary; Lecturer, Oslo Instituttet for Kulturforsknung, 1936; Corresponding Member, Polish Academy of Science, 1930; Correspondent, Italian Committee for Study of Population Problems, 1932; Member, Royal Academy of Science of Netherlands, 1933; Messenger Lecturer, Cornell University, 1933; Honorary Member, Royal Society of New Zealand, 1936; Correspondent, Institute for Comparative Study of Cultures, Oslo, 1936; Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Yale University, 1939; Fieldwork in Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, 1940-1941; died 1942. Publications: The economic aspect of the Intichiuma ceremonies (Helsingfors, 1912); The family among the Australian aborigines (University of London Press, 1913); Baloma: the spirits of the dead in the Trobriand Islands (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1916); Argonauts of the Western Pacific; native enterprise and adventure in Melanesian New Guinea (Routledge, London, 1922); 'The problem of meaning in primitive languages' in The meaning of meaning (Kegan Paul, London, 1923); Crime and custom in savage society (Kegan Paul, London, 1926); Myth in primitive psychology (Kegan Paul, London, 1926); Sex and repression in savage society (Kegan Paul, London, 1927); The father in primitive psychology (Kegan Paul, London, 1927); The sexual life of savages in North-West Melanesia (Routledge and Sons, London, 1929); Coral gardens and their magic (G Allen and Unwin, London, 1935); The foundations of faith and morals (Oxford University Press, London, 1936); A scientific theory of culture and other essays (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1944); Freedom and civilisation (Roy Publisher, New York, 1944); The dynamics of cultural change: an inquiry into race relations in Africa (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1945); Magic, science and religion and other essays (The Free Press, New York, 1948); Sex, culture and myth (Harcourt, Brace and World, New York, 1962); A Diary in the strict sense of the term (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London; printed in U.S.A., 1967).
Born 1893; educated at Rugby School, and Trinity College, Cambridge University; civilian prisoner in Germany during World War One, 1914-18; Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1919-25; Lecturer, London School of Economics, 1925; Reader in Sociology, London University, 1930; Head of German Section, Research Dept of Foreign Office; Deputy Director, Research Department of Foreign Office, 1939-44; Head of the Social Science Department, London School of Economics, 1944-50; Member, Lord Chancellor's Committee on the Practice and Procedure of Supreme Court, 1947-53; Educational Adviser in the British Zone of Germany, 1949-50; Member, UK Committee for Unesco; Member, UK Delegation to Unesco General Conference, 1952; Martin White Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, London University, 1954-56; Director, Social Sciences Department, Unesco, 1956-60; President, International Sociological Association, 1959-62; Professor Emeritus, University of London; died 1981. Publications: Sociology at the crossroads (Longmans, Green and Co, London, 1947); Citizenship and social class (University Press, Cambridge, 1950); International comprehension in and through social science (Oxford University Press, London, 1960); Social policy (Hutchinson and Co, London, 1965); Sociology at the crossroads (Heinemann, London, 1963); The approach of the utopians; Training for social work (Oxford University Press, London, 1946); Citizenship and social class (Pluto press, London, 1992); The right to welfare and other essays (Heinemann, London, 1981).
George Elton Mayo (1880-1949) was born in Adelaide, Australia. He was educated at Queen's School and the Collegiate School of St. Peter and began training in medicine. This was never completed and between 1903 and 1905 he spent time in West Africa and London where he taught English at the Working Men's College. In 1907 he returned to university in Adelaide, studying philosophy and psychology. He was appointed foundation lecturer in mental amd moral philosophy at the new University of Queensland in Brisbane and held its first Chair of Philosophy, 1919-1923.
Elton Mayo married Dorothea McConnel in 1913 and their daughters, Patricia and Gael were born in 1915 and 1921. Throughout their marriage they corresponded during their frequent and lengthy separations and a correpondence was also maintained with Patricia, while she was in England.
While at Brisbane, Mayo studied nervous breakdown and with T H Mathewson, and pioneered the treatment of shell-shock. Mayo's observation of the high level of industrial strife and political conflict in Australia led him to formulate an analogy between war neurosis and the psychological causes of industrial unrest. Arguing that the worker's morale depended on his perception of the social function of his work, Mayo believed that the solution to industrial unrest lay in sociological research and industrial management, not radical politics. Mayo travelled to the USA in 1922 where a Rockefeller grant enabled him as a research associate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to investigate high labour turnover at a textile mill. The results of the work led to his appointment as associate professor at the Harvard School of Business Administration in 1926. Mayo became Professor of Industrial Research in 1929. While at Harvard Mayo was closely involved with the investigations into the personal and social factors determining work output at the Western Electric Company's Chicago Plant (the Hawthorne experiments). The results were groundbreaking studies in modern social research.
Mayo retired from Harvard in 1947 and retired to England were he died in 1949 in Guildford, Surrey.
Born 1936; educated High Wycombe School and St Anne's College, Oxford University; graduate student in sociology, University of California at Berkeley; Assistant Research Officer, Home Office Research Unit, 1961-1963; Assistant Lecturer, 1963-1965 and Lecturer, 1965-1968, in Sociology, University of Leicester; founded Leicester Campaign for Racial Equality; Member, Executive Committee, British Sociological Association, 1967-1971 (Teaching Committee, 1975-1977); Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Borough Polytechnic (now South Bank University), 1968-1972; Founder Member, National Deviancy Conference, 1968-1975; Research Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford University, 1972-1975; active member of Women's Liberation Movement; Founding Member of Editorial Board and first Editor, Economy and Society, 1972-1978; active member of the Gay Liberation Front, [1970-1973]; Lecturer, 1975-1980, and Senior Lecturer, 1980-1996, in Sociology, University of Essex; Head of Sociology Department, 1986-1989, and member of Senate, 1977-1980 and 1994, University of Essex; Member, Policy Advisory Committee to the Criminal Law Revision Committee, 1976-1985, on matters relating to sexual offences; Founding Member, Editorial Collective, Feminist Review, 1978-1994; Member, Board of Directors, Lawrence and Wishart (Publishers), 1981-1985; Visiting Professor, Carleton University, Ottowa, Canada, 1985; Visiting Lecturer, University of Kuopi, Finland, 1993. Publications: editor of Deviance and social control (Tavistock, London, 1974); editor of Sex exposed: sexuality and the pornography debate (Virago, London, 1992); co-writer of The anti-social family (NLB, London, 1982); The organisation of crime (Macmillan, London, 1975);
James Edward Meade (1907-1995) was educated at Malvern College and Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1930. 1930. He was immediately appointed to a teaching post at Hertford College Oxford. He spent a postgraduate year at Trinity College, Cambridge (1930-1931) where he became deeply involved with the Cambridge 'circus' around John Maynard Keynes and his first work, 'An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy', appeared just two years after Keynes' 'General Theory'. In 1938 Meade left teaching for the League of Nations in Geneva where he edited the World Economic Survey. He returned to Britain in 1940 to serve in the Economic Section of the Cabinet Office under Lionel Robbins. In 1945, he succeeded Robbins as Director of the secretariat and during this time worked with Richard Stone on the first Keynesian-style national income accounts for Britain, later published as 'National Income and Expenditure'. In 1947, he accepted the post of Professor of Commerce at the London School of Economics and during this time expanded his lectures into his major work, 'The Theory of Economic Policy', published in two volumes-'Balance of Payments' in 1951 and 'Trade and Welfare' in 1955. Meade became Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge in 1957, a post in which he stayed for the next ten years. He found himself involved in the controversies between American and British economists, which led to his work 'A Neo-Classical Theory of Economic Growth'. Healso pursued his concerns over income distribution with his 'Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property'. Meade and Bertil Ohlin were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1977 for 'pathbreaking contributions to the theory of trade and international capital movements.' #10,000 of the prize money was donated to the appeal for the Lionel Robbins Building at the London School of Economics, which was to house the British Library of Political and Economic Science. In 1978, he chaired the influential British committee of inquiry into the 'Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation' whose recommendations bore Meade's characteristic approach and continued concern over unemployment. During the 1980s, Meade continued to produce a large amount of scientific work and worked in an advisory role with the newly formed Social Democratic Party regarding their economic policy. His work during this period, revolved around two of his concerns and interests: unemployment, which he considered comparable to the 1930s, and profit-sharing schemes, producer co-operatives and labour-managed firms, exemplified in his work 'Different Forms of Share Economy'. In 1995, Meade completed his last major work, 'Agathiotopia: Full Employment Regained?', which was published shortly before his death.. Meade was also President of Section F of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1957, Honorary Member of the American Economic Association, Treasurere of the British Eugencis Society from 1963-1966 and President of the Royal Economic Society from 1964 to 1966.In 1971 he became an honorary foreign member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Born 1942; educated King George V School in Southport and Bradford University; Chairman, Merseyside Regional Young Liberal Organisation, 1961; Liberal Party Local Government Officer, 1962-1967; Secretary, Yorkshire Liberal Federation, 1967-1970; Assistant Secretary, Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust, 1970-1978; General Secretary, Bradford Metropolitan Council for Voluntary Service, 1978-1983; Senior Visiting Fellow, PSI, 1989; Director, Electoral Reform Consultancy Services, 1992-1994; Member, Leeds City Council, 1968-1983; West Yorkshire MCC, 1973-1976, 1981-1983; Director, Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House, 1971-1983; Chairman, Liberal Party Assembly Committee, 1977-1981; President Elect, 1987-1988, and President, 1993-, Liberal Party; Liberal candidate for Leeds West, February and October 1974, 1987, and 1992; Liberal MP for Leeds West, 1983-1987; Chairman, Electoral Reform Society, 1989-1993; has undertaken 33 missions to new and emerging democracies; Co-ordinator, UN Electoral Assistance Secretariat, Malawi, 1994, OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) International Observer Mission, Russian Presidential election, 1996, Bulgaria, 1996, and the Bosnia Refugee Vote, 1996; Advisor on Jerusalem, EU Electoral Unit, Palestinian Assembly elections, 1995-1996; Consultant, Committee for Free and Fair Elections, Cambodia, 1997; European Co-Director, EC Support to Democratic Electoral Process in Cambodia, 1998. Publications: Liberalism and social democracy (Liberal Publication Department, London, [1981]); Liberal values for a new decade (Liberal Publication Department, London, [1980]); The bluffer's guide to politics: research and reference for councillors and community activists (North West Community Newspapers Ltd, Manchester, 1976).
Born in 1879; worked as Professor of History previous to the Russian Revolution; founded an anti-Bolshevik socialist party (Popular Socialist Party), 1919; sentenced to death, then reprieved, with the sentence commuted to imprisonment; expelled from the Soviet Union, 1920; settled in Prague, Berlin and Paris, where he continued his historical researches and published works on Russian history; became editor of several émigré journals; died 1956. Publications: The Red Terror in Russia (JM Dent and Sons, London and Toronto, 1925); numerous publications in Russian.
Merlyn Rees was born into a mining family in Cilfynydd, South Wales, on 18 December 1920. In the 1920s his family moved to London. From 1933 to 1939, he attended Harrow Weald County Grammar School and later went on to Goldsmiths College (where he was President of the Students' Union) to train as a teacher. During the Second World War he joined the RAF, with the Desert Air Force. He served in campaigns in Italy, France and Austria. By demobilisation he had risen to the rank of Squadron Leader. Following the war, Rees studied economics and history at the London School of Economics. In 1949 he became a teacher at his old school in Harrow. Also in 1949, he married Colleen Cleveley, a former pupil of Harrow Weald County Grammar School. In 1955, he was awarded an MSc (Econ.) from London University for a thesis entitled, 'The economic and social development of extra-metropolitan Middlesex in the nineteenth century'. In 1960, Rees was the organiser of the Festival of Labour (held on 15-17 June 1962). From 1962-1963, he was Lecturer in Economics at Luton College of Technology. In the 1950s, Rees had a run of unsuccessful attempts as Labour parliamentary candidate for Harrow East. However, in June 1963, he successfully fought the by-election in Leeds South which had been called following the unexpected death of Hugh Gaitskell. He served as Member of Parliament for the constituency until 1992 (the seat changed its name to Morley and Leeds South in 1983). On becoming an MP, Rees became Principal Private Secretary to James Callaghan. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Army, 1965-1966; for the RAF, 1966-1968; and, at the Home Office (where he was responsible for immigration and the fire service), 1968-1970. In October 1971, Rees became opposition spokesman on Northern Ireland. The role involved shadowing Willie Whitelaw when he became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland following the announcement of direct rule from Westminster in March 1972. In opposition, Rees adopted a bipartisan approach to Northern Ireland policies, especially in support of the Government's white paper, 'Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals' (Cmnd 5259), published in March 1973. The paper proposed an elected Assembly, a power sharing executive and the establishment of 'institutional arrangements for consultations and co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland'. He also supported the Sunningdale Agreement (December 1973) which, amongst other points, agreed the formation of a Council of Ireland. When Labour regained power in March 1974, Rees became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Much of his time in this role was spent on security matters, at a time of intense terrorist activity in the province. His immediate political priority was to support the power sharing executive and implement the Sunningdale Agreement. However, Unionist opposition to Sunningdale was growing, as was evident by the fact that in the UK General Election of February 1974, 11 of the 12 Northern Ireland seats were won by anti-Sunningdale unionists. In May 1974, the Ulster Workers' Council organised a strike against the Sunningdale Agreement which crippled power supplies to the province. This led to the collapse of the executive and the restoration of direct rule from Westminster. In July 1974, the government published a white paper, 'The Northern Ireland Constitution' (Cmnd 5675). This proposed the establishment of an elected constitutional convention which, it was hoped, would enable Northern Ireland's political parties to create a workable constitution for the province. Elections were held on 1 May 1975, with Unionist parties opposed to power sharing in the majority. By the end of November 1975, the Convention recommended a return to majority rule - a position which was not acceptable to the Nationalists. Rees tried to break the deadlock by holding a series of talks with all the parties involved in the Convention. The talks failed and the Convention was dissolved in March 1976.
Other aspects of his time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland include: a ceasefire by the Provisional IRA; the end of internment (December 1975); and, ending of special category status for paramilitary prisoners (March 1976). For more details about his time as Secretary of State, see Merlyn Rees' own book, Northern Ireland: a personal perspective (1985). Following Harold Wilson's resignation as Prime Minister in 1976, Rees was manager of the successful campaign for Jim Callaghan to be the next leader of the Labour Party. In September 1976, he was appointed Home Secretary. He was Shadow Home Secretary, 1979-1981 and Opposition spokesman on energy, 1981-1983. In 1982, he served on the Falkland Islands Review Committee (Franks Committee). In 1987, he joined a deputation with Cardinal Basil Hume, Lord Devlin, Lord Scarman, and Roy Jenkins to campaign for the release of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. In 1992, he was created a life peer as Baron Merlyn-Rees. He died in London on 5 January 2006.
Munich 1938 is a documentary produced by Brook Lapping Associates.
National Family Mediation was founded in 1981. It co-ordinates the work of voluntary sector family mediation services in England and Wales to assist couples who are in the process of separation and divorce. NFM encourages the take-up of family mediation; promotes professional standards; carries out research, consultancy and training; organises conferences; liaises with government, the legal profession, advice agencies and other voluntary organisations; and provides information to the public.
The New Survey of London was begun in 1928 and concluded in 1933 as a deliberate attempt to update Charles Booth's Survey of Life and Labour in London. It was directed by Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith who had been one of Booth's assistants. The Survey was based at the London School of Economics and was financed by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Trust and by donations raised by Beveridge from London organisations. Llewellyn Smith published his findings in 1930-1934 as The new survey of London life and labour (London, 1930-1935).
The Overseas Student Trust was a pressure group formed in the 1960s to campaign for the interests of overseas students at British universities. It was dissolved in 1992 and its functions transferred to the Centre for Educational Research at LSE.
John Parker was born 15 July 1906 and educated at Marlborough and St John's College Oxford. He became General Secretary of the New Fabian Research Bureau in 1933 and by 1980 had been made President of the Fabian Society, emphasising his life long association with the Fabians.
He was elected as a Labour MP for Romford in 1935 and when that consituency was divided after the Second World War he held Dagenham until 1983. John Parker showed great interest in his constituency, being particularly involved with the Ford factory there and its relationship with the community. John Parker was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Dominions Office during the Government of Clement Attlee in 1945, his Parliamentary private secretary being James Callaghan. He was, however, dismissed from his position in 1946 over his views concerning South African Protectorates. This loss of office enabled John Parker to exert an influence from the back benches, serving on several Speaker's Conferences and also the Procedure Committee 1966-1973.
John Parker drew an early place in the ballot for Private Members' Bills on two occassions, being defeated in his attempt to bring in a Sunday observance measure, initiating an inquiry, and with his second bill producing the Legitimacy Act of 1959. This second bill legitimised the offspring of bigamous marriges, where one of the partners was ignorant of the situation, and also the children born while one of the partners was still married to someone else by subsequent marriage. A Bill was also introduced by John Parker, under the ten minute rule, which eventually became the Nationality (Number 2) Act of 1964, implementing the UN Convention on Statelessness. He was also a member of the Arts and Amenities Committee of the Labour Party, maintaining a particular interest in forestry and ancient buildings.
Parker frequently travelled overseas, being a member of the British-Yugoslav Parliamentary group, editing a series of Yugoslav novels in English and meeting Stalin in the Soviet Union. He also produced a selection of books which included 42 Days in the Soviet Union (1946), Labour Marches On (1947) and his memoirs entitled Father of the House, reflecting his postion as the House of Commons' longest serving, active member.
John Parker retired in 1983 and died 24 November 1987. He was married in 1943 to Zena Mimardiere, and had one son, Michael.
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.
Playing the China Card was made in 1999 by Brook Lapping Productions Ltd in conjunction with Channel 4 and PBS.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Possibly Charles William Smith of Liverpool, who published a series of books and articles on international trade, including Commercial gambling: the principal causes of depression in agriculture and trade (Sampson Low and Co, London, 1893), Original theories upon and remedies for depression in trade, land, agriculture and silver (Sampson Low and Co, London, 1893); International, commercial and financial gambling in Options and Futures' (PS King and Son, 1906), and The South African war and theBear' operator: a financial revolution (PS King and Son, London, 1912).
Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Lord Treasurer, initiated a scheme for the funding of national debt through the South Sea Company, founded in 1711 to trade with Spanish America, on the assumption that the War of the Spanish Succession would end with a treaty permitting such trade. The Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, was less favourable than had been hoped, but confidence in the Company remained artificially high, eventually leading to the collapse of the stock market in 1720 (the South Sea Bubble) and the ruin of many investors. The Company, however, survived until 1853.
David Ricardo, 1772-1823, was born in London, the third son of a Portuguese Jewish family that had moved to London from Amsterdam. After attending school in London, Ricardo was sent to Amsterdam for two years, probably to continue his education at the Talmud Tora. On his return to London he was educated under private instruction until his father took him into his business on the Stock Exchange. He showed great talent on the Stock Exchange and when his marriage to Priscilla Wilkinson caused a rift with his family and a severance from the family business, many members of the Stock Exchange promised him their support. Ricardo became a very successful contractor, bidding on behalf of the Stock Exchange for the successive government loans issued to finance the Napoleonic War. This culminated in a final loan of £36 million four days before the battle of Waterloo. From 1814, Ricardo progressively retired from his business, and in 1819 he entered the House of Commons as a member for Portarlington. His first published writing on economics appeared in 1809, and consists of three letters to the Morning Chronicle on the price of gold. His first pamphlet, 'The High Price of Bullion', was published in 1810, and it was at this time that his correspondence with James Mill commenced. His correspondence with Malthus starts in 1811. Ricardo published a number of pamphlets between 1811 and 1816, and 'Principles of Political Economy' in 1817. He continued to write and publish pamphlets to the end of his life.
No information available at present.
John Thomson was a talented and influential photographer, who had spent ten years travelling in, and taking photographs of, the Far East. On his return to London he joined with Adolphe Smith, a socialist journalist, in a project to photograph the street life of the London poor. The volumes were published in monthly parts as Street Life in London, and were an early example of social and documentary photography.
No further information at present.
The Tariff Commission was an unofficial body set up in 1903 under the auspices of the Tariff Reform League. W A S Hewins (at that time Director of the London School of Economics) was Secretary and Sir Robert Herbert was Chairman, by invitation of Joseph Chamberlain. The aims of the Commission were to examine and report on Chamberlain's proposals for tariff reform and their probable effects on British trade and industries; to suggest the best ways to harmonise the various conflicting interests involved and to work out what import duties should be recommended. The Commission collected extensive data from British business through interviews and questionnaires. It was the intention of the Commission to publish reports on every industry that they investigated and bring these together into a final report that would lay out a full tariff scheme. Seven volumes were published, but lack of funds caused the eventual abandonment of publishing. The Commission was a pioneer in the use of indexing methodology in economic research, but intending users should note that the long interval between the winding up of the Commission's activities and the deposit of its papers has caused significant losses particularly to the indices.
Richard Henry Tawney, 1880-1962, was born in Calcutta and educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford. After leaving Oxford, he became an assistant at Glasgow University, 1906-1908, before returning to Oxford to become a member of the Teacher for Tutorial Classes Committee, 1908-1914. He became Director of the Ratan Tata Foundation at the University of London, 1913-1914 and Professor of Economic History at the University of London, 1931-1949. After 1949, he was Professor Emeritus. Tawney was also a member of numerous committees relating to trade and education. He was a member of the executive of the Workers Educational Association, 1905-1947 and President, 1928-1944, and also a member of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education, 1912-1931. He was a member of the University Grants Committee 1943-1948. In 1919, he joined the Coal Industry Commission, and he was also a member of the Chain Trade Board, 1919 - 1922, and the Cotton Trade Conciliation Commission, 1936-1939.
The United Nations Association came into being in 1948 with the help of money from the League of Nations Union, which continued as a parallel organisation. After the demise of the League of Nations Union, the UNA took over many of its functions and staff. The UNA describes itself as a "critical fan club of the United Nations" and has always reflected the concerns of the United Nations. Initially, it focussed on the issues of world peace and the danger of war through hunger, and whilst these have remained central issues, the agenda has expanded to include human rights, third world development and the environment as issues of major importance. The range of activities that the UNA undertake has also changed. Initially, it concentrated mainly on lobbying government and meeting civil servants and ministers. However it gradually expanded into campaigning in its own right and educating the public about issues of concern.
Education has become an increasingly significant part of the work of the UNA. It strives to educate the public about the role and activities of the United Nations and how the UNA is involved in these. It also publishes leaflets on various key issues.
The UNA itself is divided into various branches, which are largely independent of the centre, with co-ordinating regional officers who are in touch with both the centre and the branches, committees relating to single issues such as human rights, and a general council which meets once a year to debate issues raised by the branches. Information from the central organisation is sent out to the branches via the Branch Letter and campaign packs are sent out for the annual nationwide UNA campaign. The UNA Trust is the funding arm of the UNA. This body gives grants to projects that conform to the ideals of the UNA and the UN. It is a registered charity. UNA Youth is an organisation that is part of the UNA but has its own constitution and its own structure, which mirrors that of UNA. The UNA is also a members of other organisations that conform to its ideals, such as the National Peace Council.
Possibly the Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, owned and run by Bill Butler, a US beat poet and occultist.
Graham Wallas, 1858-1932, was born in Sunderland and educated at Shrewsbury School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he obtained a second class in Literae Humaniores in 1881. After leaving Oxford, he became a schoolmaster, 1881 - 1890, University Extension Lecturer, 1890, Lecturer at the London School of Economics, 1895-1923, London University Professor of Political Science, 1914-1923 and Professor Emeritus, 1923. He combined an interest in education with politics and was a member of the Fabian Society, 1886-1904, the London School Board, 1894-1904, Chairman of the School Management Committee, 1897-1904, a member of the Technical Education Board of the London County Council, 1898-1904, and a member of the Education Committee of the London County Council, 1908-1910. He was also a member of London County Council 1904-1907.
Born 1886; educated Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and King's College, Cambridge; Professor of Modern History, Liverpool University, 1914-1922; served World War One as a Subaltern in the Royal Army Service Corps, 1915-1917 and on the General Staff of the War Office, 1917-1918; Secretary, Military Section, British Delegation to the Conference of Paris, 1918-1919; Wilson Professor of International Politics, University of Wales, 1922-1932; Ausserordentlich Professor, University of Vienna, 1926; Nobel Lecturer, Oslo, 1926; Reader, University of Calcutta, India, 1927; Professor of History, Harvard University, USA, 1928-1932; Stevenson Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1932-1953; Foreign Research and Press Service, 1939-1941; Director, British School of Information, New York, 1941-1942; Foreign Office, 1943-1946; Member of British Delegation, Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco Conferences, 1944-1945; Member, Preparatory Commission and General Assembly, United Nations, 1945-1946; Ford Lecturer, Oxford University, 1948; President, 1950-1954, and Foreign Secretary, 1955-1958, British Academy; retired 1953; died 1961. Publications: The European alliance, 1815-1825 (University of Calcutta, 1929); The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815 (Foreign Office Historical Section, London, 1919); editor of Britain and the independence of Latin America, 1812-1830 (Ibero-American Institute of Great Britain, London, 1938); The art and practice of diplomacy (LSE, London, 1952); British Diplomacy, 1813-1815 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1921); British Foreign Policy since the Second World War; The Congress of Vienna, 1814-15, and the Conference of Paris, 1919 (London, 1923); The foreign policy of Castlereagh, 1815-1822 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1925); The foreign policy of Palmerston, 1830-1841 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1951); The founder of the national home (Weizmann Science Press of Israel, 1955); The League of Nations in theory and practice (Allen and Unwin, London, 1933); The pacification of Europe, 1813-1815 (1922); Palmerston, Metternich and the European system, 1830-1841 (Humphrey Milford, London, 1934); Sanctions: the use of force in an international organisation (London, 1956); Some problems of international organisation (University of Leeds, 1943); What the world owes to President Wilson (League of Nations Union, London, 1930); The strategic air offensive against Germany, 1939-1945 (London, 1961); editor of British diplomatic representatives, 1789-1852 (London, 1934); editor of Some letters of the Duke of Wellington to his brother, William Wellesley-Pole (London, 1948).
George Wigg was born in 1900 and after an early career in the Army entered Parliament as Labour MP for Dudley in 1945. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Emanuel Shinwell between 1945 and 1951 and on the election of Harold Wilson's first government in 1964 was appointed Paymaster General with a special interest in defence and security. Wigg retained the post of Paymaster General until 1967 when he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Wigg of the Borough of Dudley. Throughout his career, Wigg maintained a close interest in defence, security, African and Middle Eastern politics. Lord Wigg had a lifelong interest in horseracing reflected in his involvement in the organisation of the sport. Career Chronology: born 1900; served in the regular army, 1919-1937 and Royal Army Education Corps, 1940-1946; MP for Dudley, 1945-1967; Parliamentary Private Secretary to Emanuel Shinwell, MP as Minister of Fuel and Power, Secretary of State for War and Minister of Defence, 1945-1951; Opposition Whip, 1951-1954; Member of the Racecourse Betting Control Board, 1957-1961; Member of the Totalisator Board, 1961-1964; Paymaster General, 1964-1967; Chairman, Horserace Betting Levy Board, 1967-1972; President, Betting Office Licensees Association, 1973-1983. Throughout his career Wigg maintained a close interest in defence and security issues.
No information available at present.
No further information available at present.
Born, 1889; served the China Inland Mission, 1910s-1940s; teacher at Chefoo Girls' School; unmarried; died after 1974.
The origins of the London Missionary Society (LMS) lie in the late 18th century revival of Protestant Evangelism. A meeting of Independent Church leaders, Anglican and Presbyterian clergy and laymen, held in London in November 1794, established the aims of the Missionary Society - 'to spread the knowledge of Christ among heathen and other unenlightened nations'. The Missionary Society was formally established in September 1795 with a plan and constitution. This governed the establishment of a Board of Directors and the conduct of business, outline the powers of the Directors and the conduct of business, established an annual meeting of Members to be held in May, and defined the role of trustees. The Missionary Society was renamed the London Missionary Society in 1818. Although broadly interdenominational in scope, the Society was very much Congregationalist in both outlook and membership.
Mission activity started in the South Seas, with the first overseas mission to Tahiti in 1796. Missionary work expanded into North America and South Africa. Early mission activities also centred in areas of eastern and southern Europe including Russia, Greece and Malta. There was also an LMS 'mission to Jews' in London. However, during the 19th century, the main fields of mission activity for the LMS were China, South East Asia, India, the Pacific, Madagascar, Central Africa, Southern Africa, Australia and the Caribbean (including British Guiana, now Guyana). The LMS was not always successful in gaining a hold in the overseas mission field. Western missionaries were refused entry to China until after 1843, and in Madagascar, early missionary success was countered by a period of repression and religious intolerance lasting from 1836 to 1861, and which included the deaths of many local converts.
In terms of organisational structure, the LMS was governed by a Board of Directors. The workings of the Board were reorganised in 1810 when separate committees were appointed to oversee particular aspects of mission work, including the important foreign committees. The administrative structure of the LMS relied upon the work of salaried officials such as the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary, together with the workings of the various committees, including the Examinations Committee, which appointed missionaries to the field. Directors themselves were unpaid. The constitution of the LMS was revised in May 1870, as a direct result of financial pressures and the expansion of overseas mission work; the work of the Investigation Committee (1866) in turn led to a new administrative policy and the emphasis on the development of the self-governing and self-financing indigenous church. In 1966 the LMS merged with the Commonwealth Missionary Society, to form the Congregational Council for World Mission (CCWM), which in turn was restructured to create the Council for World Mission in 1977.
Further information on the history of the London Missionary Society can be found in the official histories: Richard Lovett, The History of the London Missionary Society 1795-1895 (2 volumes, Oxford University Press, London, 1899); Norman Goodall, A history of the London Missionary Society, 1895-1945 (Oxford University Press, London, 1954); Gales of change: responding to a shifting missionary context: the story of the London Missionary Society, 1945-1977, ed Bernard Thorogood (WCC, Geneva, 1994).
Born in Ormiston, East Lothian, Scotland, 1795; moved to England, 1813; under-gardener at High Leigh, near Liverpool; came under Methodist influence; moved to the employment of James Smith, a Scottish nonconformist, near Manchester, 1815; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary, ordained at Surrey Chapel, and sailed to South Africa, 1816; arrived at Cape Town, 1817; travelled in southern Africa, 1818; gained fame for his conversion of a bandit, Jager Afrikaner, on the northern frontier; visited Cape Town and married Mary Smith (1795-1871), sister of the missionary John Smith, 1819; they worked together among the Tswana; Moffat accompanied the deputation of the Rev John Campbell on his visit to the interior, 1820-1821; travelled in southern Africa, 1823-1825; settled at Kuruman (which was to become an important mission station), 1826; visited Mzilikazi (Moselekatse), chief of the Ndebele (Matabele), 1829; visited Cape Town to publish his version of St Luke's Gospel and elementary books in the Tswana (Sechuana/Bechuana) language, 1830; returned to Kuruman, 1831; proposed a mission among the Ndebele, 1835; visited towns on the Yellow and Kolong Rivers, 1836; attempts to print his Tswana version of the New Testament in Cape Town proved abortive and he sailed to England to publish it, 1839; a pioneering linguist, his Tswana translations - which also included Pilgrim's Progress and hymns - were important in the growth of Christianity in southern Africa; met David Livingstone in London, 1840; returned to Kuruman, 1843; made a long tour to the interior, 1854; completed the Tswana version of the Bible, published at Kuruman, 1857; visited the Ndebele to arrange a mission, 1857; returned to Kuruman, 1858; travelled to Cape Town to meet new missionaries appointed to the interior and returned with them to Kuruman, 1858; accompanied the missionaries to Inyati in Matabeleland, 1859; the trip resulted in the establishment of an LMS mission near Bulawayo; returned to Kuruman, 1860; undertook no further long treks; with his wife, returned to England for health reasons, 1870; Doctor of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, 1872; received a testimonial, 1873; attended Livingstone's funeral, 1874; remained active in promoting foreign missions; retired from public speaking, 1878; died at Leigh, Kent, 1883; buried in Norwood cemetery. Publications include: Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa (1840 and subsequent editions).
The Moffats' children included Mary (1821-1862), who married the missionary David Livingstone (1813-1873) in 1844, and John Smith Moffat (1835-1918), also an LMS missionary in southern Africa, who published The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat (1885).
James Sibree: born in Hull, England, 1836; son of the Rev James Sibree, Congregational minister, and Martha Goode Aston; educated at Hull Collegiate School; articled to a civil engineer; Assistant Surveyor, Local Board of Health, Hull, 1859-1863; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) architect of four large stone churches in Madagascar, each a memorial to a martyr of persection, and was sent to Antananarivo, 1863-1867; worked on the churches at Ambatonakanga, Ambohipotsy, Andohalo and Manjakaray, and other mission buildings; trained for the Congregational ministry at Spring Hill College, Moseley, Birmingham, 1868-1870; also carried out deputation work for the LMS; ordained in Hull, 1870; married Deborah Hannah (d 1920), daughter of the Rev J Wilberforce Richardson, Congregational minister, in London, 1870; two sons and three daughters; LMS missionary in Madagascar, 1870-1877; led the extension of mission work outside the capital, founding the first country station, at Ambohimanga, and settling there, 1870; chosen one of the LMS delegates to revise the Malagasy Bible and began work on it, 1873; accompanied the LMS deputation to Antsihanaka province, 1874; took an explorative and evangelistic journey to south-eastern Madagascar, 1876; moved to Antananarivo to work at the theological college, 1876; difficulties with the government in Madagascar forced him to withdraw, 1877-1883; undertook LMS deputation work in England, 1877-1879; appointed missionary to South India, superintending the LMS high school as Vizagapatam, 1879; returned to England owing to his wife's ill health, 1880; LMS deputation work in England, 1880-1883; returned to Madagascar as principal of the LMS theological college and with his wife engaged in other missionary activities, 1883-1915; architect of almost 100 mission buildings, including c50 churches; in the years leading up to the French invasion (1895) an outspoken supporter of Malagasy independence; chief English authority on Madagascar; received Sir G Back's Grant for his work on the geography and bibliography of Madagascar, 1892; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; Fellow of the International Society of Philology; Membre de l'Académie Malgache from 1902; honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, University of St Andrews, 1913; returned to England owing to his wife's ill health, 1915; resigned as a missionary, 1916; continued deputation work for the LMS and Bible Society, 1920s; died following an accident, 1929. Publications include: Madagascar and its People (1870); South-east Madagascar (1876); The Great African Island (1880); A Madagascar Bibliography (1885); Madagascar before the Conquest (1896); The Madagascar Mission (1907); Our English Cathedrals (2 volumes, 1911); A Naturalist in Madagascar (1915); Things Seen in Madagascar (1921); edited Register of Missionaries and Deputations of the LMS (1923); Fifty Years in Madagascar (1923), his autobiography; works in the Malagasy language; articles on Madagascar for several editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Chambers's Encyclopaedia.
James Sibree's children included several other missionaries:
James Wilberforce Sibree: born at Ambohimanga, Madagascar, 1871; studied at Cheshunt College; ordained, 1896; appointed LMS missionary to Samoa and married Gertrude Helps (d 1900), 1897; sailed to Samoa, 1898; married Lucy Phoebe Johnson (d 1937) at Apia, 1905; resigned as missionary owing to his wife's ill health, 1921; subsequently pastor at Epping, near Sydney, Australia; died there, 1927.
Mary Amelia Sibree: born at Ambohimanga, Madagascar, 1874; assistant teacher at the Girls' Central School, Antananarivo, from 1892; appointed LMS missionary and became head mistress of the school, 1898; returned to England, 1899; married the Rev Percy Milledge (1874-1907), who was appointed to the Madagascar mission, 1901; took charge of the mission following her husband's death, 1907-1908; re-appointed missionary to Madagascar, 1909; undertook deputation work in England for the LMS, 1915-1919; resigned, 1919; appointed to new work in Madagascar, 1922; at the theological college, Antananarivo, 1925-1926; returned to England for health reasons and died, 1926.
Alice Deborah Sibree: born at Antananrivo, Madagascar, 1876; studied at the London School of Medicine for Women; appointed to the Maternity Hospital, Hong Kong; dedicated and sailed, 1903; returned to England and resigned from the LMS, 1909; subsequently returned to Hong Kong and undertook voluntary medical mission work; married C C Hickling; awarded MBE for services during World War One; decorated as Sister of the Order of St John of Jerusalem; died at Hong Kong, 1928.
Elsie Isabel Sibree: born in Catford Bridge, Kent, England, 1881; educated at Walthamstow Hall; French Government Teachers' Diploma (brevet); accompanied her parents to Madagascar, 1901; became assistant French teacher at the Girls' Central School, 1902; Girls' High School, Ambatonakanga, 1904-1907; head mistress of the Girls' Central School, Antananarivo, 1907; lived in England, 1921-1930; returned to Madagascar and was appointed warden of the theological college, Ambohipotsy, also superintending the district of Ambohiptsy from 1938; engaged in other missionary work alongside her educational work; retired, 1954; died in Sevenoaks, 1969.
James Sibree's niece, Dorothy Sibree, was born in Hull, England, 1882; trained at Cheltenham Women's Training College; appointed to Mirzapur, India, and sailed, 1915; transferred to the Benares mission, 1921; married the Rev W G Murphy of the Gopijang mission, 1923; transferred with her husband to Travancore, 1927; died at Neyyoor, 1927.
The World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches was founded at Constance in 1914 with the help of the Church Peace Union, with which it remained closely associated. It was supported by church leaders in Europe and America and national groups from a number of different countries were federated to it. It was an ecumenical movement working for peace. After World War Two attempts to re-establish the Alliance were unsuccessful and, as the World Council of Churches and International Missionary Council set up the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches was formally dissolved in 1948.
The archive dates from the period after the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910. The Conference of British Missionary Societies was founded in 1912 with over 40 member missionary societies of various denominations. The International Missionary Council was founded in 1921 and its members comprised interdenominational associations of missionary societies in various countries and interdenominational field bodies. The two bodies shared premises at Edinburgh House, near Sloane Square, London, until the IMC became part of the World Council of Churches in 1961.