Showing 15887 results

Authority record

Granville Murray-Browne became a midshipman in March 1902, serving first in the HOGUE and from 1904 in the KENT. He became a sub-lieutenant in 1905 and, after studying at Portsmouth joined the DRAGON in 1906. He was made a lieutenant in 1907 and joined the VICTORIOUS in 1908. From 1909 he commanded TB106 (Tender to VIVID at Devonport) and, from December 1909, TB055 (Tender to HOOD at Queenstown). The ACHILLES was his next ship, in 1911, and two years later he joined the INDEFATIGABLE. In 1915 he was promoted to lieutenant-commander. He was killed in action at the Battle of Jutland when the INDEFATIGABLE was sunk on 31 May 1916.

John Browne was born in 1642, possibly in Norwich. He studied at St Thomas's Hospital under Thomas Hollyer, and then served as a surgeon in the Navy. He settled at Norwich and in 1677 published his book on tumours. After this he relocated to London, becoming surgeon in ordinary to King Charles II. The King then supported Browne in his application for a post at St Thomas's. After a disagreement with the governers at the hospital the surgeons at St Thomas's, including Browne, were replaced. His appeals for reinstatement were not successful. He continued in the service of the monarchy and was surgeon to William III. His publications included one on the method used by Charles II on touching for the King's Evil, a treatise on wounds, and a treatise on the muscles of the human body published in 1681. This consisted of six lectures illustrated by copper plates. The text of the volume is probably based on William Molins' Myskotomia (1648), and the copper plates are probably based on Giulio Casserio's Tabulae anatomicae LXXIIX (1627).

Robert Hollingworth Browne was an antiquarian researcher who made transcripts of many registers for parishes in London and Essex.

St John at Hackney: The earliest building on the site dated to around 1275. From the fourteenth century onwards the church was dedicated to Saint Augustine, but was changed to Saint John after 1660. The present benefice, created in 1971, is called Hackney, the church remaining dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. By the late 1770s it was clear that from the growing population of the area that a new and larger church was necessary. The new church was consecrated on 15th July 1797 with a wooden box-like structure. The old church was demolished except for the tower, which was left intact to hold the bells. The church was subsequenly rebuilt in Portland stone and a tower added in 1814. It suffered severe damage in the Second World War, but was repaired and re-consecrated in 1958. The old 16th century tower still stands to the south.

Born, 1883; educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; commissioned into the Royal Horse and Field Artillery, 1902; posted to South Africa and Mauritius, 1903-1907; served in the Zulu rising, 1906; returned to Britain, 1907-1909; seconded to the Colonial Office as an assistant district commissioner in the British East Africa Protectorate (later Kenya), 1909-1915; re-commissioned into the Royal Artillery and served throughout the German East Africa campaign, 1915-1918; senior commissioner, Tanganyika, 1921-1926; labour commissioner, Tanganyika, 1926-1931; retired from the colonial service, 1931; consultant member of the International Labour Office's committee of experts on native labour, 1934; in the course of this work he visited the Belgian Congo, Portuguese East Africa, and Northern Rhodesia; first labour adviser to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1938-1947, in this capacity he visited the West Indies, 1938, West Africa, 1939, Ceylon, Mauritius, and Malaya, 1941 and East Africa, 1945; died 1947.

Publications: The Vanishing Tribes of Kenya (1925)

The African Labourer (1933)

Sir William Browne was born in 1692, in the county of Durham, the son of a physician. In 1707 he entered Peterhouse, Cambridge. He graduated BA in 1711, and MA in 1714. He received a license from the University in 1716, and subsequently set up practice in Lynn, Norfolk. In 1721 he obtained his MD from Cambridge and was incorporated at Oxford.

Browne lived in Lynn for thirty years, and through his practice amassed a comfortable fortune. He was known to be an eccentric, and it has been said that `his egotism and garrulity were so great as to rivet the attention of his contemporaries' (Munk's Roll, vol II, p.95). In 1725 he was admitted a candidate at the Royal College of Physicians, and the following year was made a Fellow. In March 1738/9 Browne was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was knighted, through the interest of the Duke of Montagu, in 1748, and moved to London in 1749, setting up his home and practice in Queens Square, Bloomsbury.

Browne was closely involved with the Royal College of Physicians throughout his life, and held a number of offices. He was named one of the Elects of the College, 9 April 1750, delivered the Harveian Oration in 1751, and served as Censor, 1750-53 and in 1771. He was also elected Treasurer in 1751, and was a member of the Council in 1752, 1755, and 1762. In 1765 and 1766 he served as President. In April 1767 he presented his portrait by Thomas Hudson, depicting him in his gown as President, to the College.

It was at this time that there was a violent dispute between the College and its licentiates, over the restrictions in place on the latter. It has been said that

`Sir William Browne, a man of strong feelings, extraordinary garrulity, and utterly devoid of discretion, was wholly unfit at such a crisis to occupy the presidential chair' (ibid, p.98).

Browne was a defender of the privileges of the universities and favoured barring from practice those who did not have Oxbridge degrees. He had offended the licentiates, many of them graduates from the Scottish universities, in their quest to become more involved in the affairs of the College. A potentially embarrassing incident followed whereby a number of licentiates forced their way into a Comitia meeting, at which Browne was presiding, in an attempt to obtain a dispensation from the College. The satirist Samuel Foote consequently caricatured Browne on stage in his farce, `The Devil on Two Sticks', which was based on the whole affair (presented May 1768, published 1778). Despite a good-humoured response, Browne found it difficult to maintain his stature within the College and, fearing some future indignity, handed in his resignation as President.

He proceeded to Bath in 1767 to enjoy the spa waters, and whilst there called upon Bishop Warburton at Prior Park. Warburton described Browne in an account of his visit as having `showed all the alacrity of a boy both in body and mind' (DNB, vol. VII, p.75), despite his approaching 80 years of age.

Browne returned to London where he entered a contest for some subordinate parochial office' (Munk's Roll, p.103), opening taverns for men, and coffee house breakfasts for women, with great energy. He appeared on St Luke's Day 1771, at Batson's coffee house, to show himself to the Lord Mayor. In response to comment on his healthy appearance Browne's explanation wasthat he had neither wife nor debts' (DNB, p.76).

Browne had married and had one daughter. His wife died on 25 July 1763. His daughter Mary married William Folkes, brother of Martin Folkes, President of the Royal Society. Browne died on 10 March 1774 at his house in Queens Square, at the age of 82. He was buried at Hillington, Norfolk, where there stands a monument to his memory, written by him. He left a complicated will, containing a number of philanthropic gestures. These included three gold medals, worth five guineas each, to be given to undergraduates at Cambridge, and his founding of a scholarship of twenty guineas a year for entrance to Peterhouse.

Publications:
Dr Gregory's Elements of Catoptrics and Dioptrics, translated from the Latin original by William Browne, MD, at Lynn Regis, in Norfolk. (with some additions) (London, 1735)
Oratio Harveiana, Principibus Medicis parentans; Medicinam, Academias utrasque laudans; Empiricos eorum cultures perstringens; Collegium usque a natalibus illustrans: in Theatro Collegii Reg. Med. Lond. habita Festo Divi Lucae (London, 1751)
A Letter from Sir William Browne, deputy-lieutenant of the County of Norfolk, to his Tenants and Neighbours, Seriously Recommended at this Time to the Perusal of all the People of England (London, 1757)
Two Odes in Imitation of Horace (the second Ode addressed to the Right Hon. Sir Robert Walpole, on ceasing to be Minister, February 6, 1741 (London, 1763 & 1765)
Opuscula varia utriusque Linguae (containing the Harveian Oration, 1751) (London, 1765)
Appendix Altera ad Opuscula (his farewell oration) (London, 1768)
Fragmentum Isaaci Hawkins Browne Arm. sive Anti-Bolinbrokius. Liber Primus, translated for a second Religio Medici (London, 1768) & Fragmentum Isaaci Hawkins Browne completum (London, 1769)
Appendix ad Opuscula (a Latin Ode with translations) (London, 1770)
A Proposal on Our Coin: to Remedy all Present and Prevent all Future Disorders (London, 1771)
A New Year's Gift: a Problem and Demonstration on the XXXIX Articles (London, 1772)
The Pill Plot. To Dr Ward, a Quack of Merry Memory, written at Lynn, November 30, 1734 (London, 1772)
Corrections in Verse from the Father of the College on Son Cadogan's Gout Dissertation, containing False Physic, False Logic, False Philosophy (1772)
Speech on the Royal Society, Recommending Mathematics as the Paramount Qualification for their Chair (1772)
Elogy and Address (London, 1773)
Latin version of the Book of Job (unfinished)

Stanley George Browne (CMG, OBE, MD, FRCS, FRCP, DTM) was born on 8 December 1907 in London, and studied medicine at King's College Hospital, London, graduating in 1933. He combined house appointments at King's with postgraduate study, and became Member, Royal College of Physicians, London in 1934 and Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1935. After being accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) for work in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Browne studied French and tropical medicine at the Institute de Médecine Tropicale Prince Léopold, Antwerp, obtaining the Diploma in Tropical Medicine in 1936.

From 1936 to 1959 he worked at the BMS hospital in Yakusu, working to control trypanosomiasis and onchocerciasis in the surrounding area. His rural surveys showed a high incidence of leprosy, and he endeavoured to find the cause and cure for this disease, establishing a leprosarium at Yalisombo. While at the hospital he oversaw an area of 10,000 square miles, in which he developed a programme of community care based on 18 health centres and 36 treatment centres. This pioneering programme became a model in Africa for the control of endemic diseases.

From 1959 to 1966 Browne was Director of the Leprosy Research Unit, Uzuakoli, Eastern Nigeria (becoming known in West Africa as Mr Leprosy' and sometimesBonganga'), after which he became Director of the Leprosy Study Centre, London, 1966-1980.

Browne's outstanding skills in leprosy were in great demand throughout the world, and his very many advisory roles included Consultant Advisor in Leprosy, Department of Health and Social Security, 1966-1979, and Medical Consultant to the Leprosy Mission, 1966-1978. Similarly, he was involved with numerous leprosy organisations, including LEPRA (Medical Secretary, 1968-1973, Vice-President, 1984-1986) and the International Leprosy Association (Secretary-Treasurer, 1966-1984, Honorary Vice-President, 1984-1986). His contributions to tropical medicine were recognised by many awards, including the British Medical Association's Stewart Prize for Epidemiology, 1975, the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine's JN Chaudry gold medal, 1978, and the Fellowship of King's College Hospital Medical School, also in 1978.

He was a dedicated and active Christian, and was president of the Christian Medical Fellowship of Great Britain, 1969-1971, and of the Baptist Union 1980-1981. He married Ethel Marion Williamson (known as Mali) in 1940. He died on 29 January 1986.

For further biographical material on Browne see his obituaries in The Lancet, 22 Feb 1986, p 455 and the British Medical Journal, vol 292, 15 Feb 1986, p 491; Munk's Roll, vol 8, p 59; and Who Was Who, 1981-1990, p 98.

Stanley George Browne was born on 8 December 1907, in New Cross London; educated at Waller Road Elementary School, New Cross, 1910-1919, and Brockley Central School, 1919-1923. Browne left school early due to the illness of his father, Arthur Browne (1874-1967) and was employed as junior clerk in the New Cross' clerk's department at Deptford town hall from 1923, whilst studying at night school. Browne passed matriculation in the first division, June 1926; was awarded one of the first London County Council (LCC) non-vocational scholarships in 1927 and entered King's College London in 1928, receiving a further scholarship allowing him to follow a medical course. Browne received an MB, BS, at London University in 1933.

Browne became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, 1934 and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1935; attended the Institut de Médecine Tropicale Prince Léopold, Antwerp, gaining a diploma in tropical medicine; worked at Baptist Missionary Society Hospital at Yakusu in the Belgian Congo,1936. In 1940, a leprosarium was opened at Yakusu and the American Mission to Lepers sent out a new drug, diasone, which Browne used successfully. He also worked on the increasing rate of onchocerciasis and the control of its vector, the blackfly Simulium damnosum, 1954. This leprosarium was known internationally and Browne was urged by leprologist Robert Cochrane to continue to focus upon leprosy.

Browne resigned from the Baptist Missionary Society, 1958 and returned to England for a year; was appointed senior leprologist at the Leprosy Research Unit, Uzuakoli in eastern Nigeria, 1959 and continued his work with trials of new drugs, in particular B663 or clofazimine. Browne was invited to be chairman of the working group on the treatment of leprosy at the International Congress on Leprosy at Rio de Janeiro, 1963 and advised on the establishment of the All Africa Leprosy Training and Rehabilitation Centre, in Adis Ababa. During this time Browne published extensively in both English and French on leprosy, onchocerciasis and other tropical diseases, as well as on medical ethics and succeeded Robert Cochrane as Director of the Leprosy Study Centre, London, 1966-1980.

Browne campaigned against the stigma attached to the disease leprosy and his work in this field was recognised when he was appointed an OBE in 1965 and the CMG in 1976. He was president of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from 1977 to 1979, and president of the Baptist Union from 1980 to 1981. Brown died, 29 January 1986.

Publications include Health of the whole person: a challenge to Christians (Medical Missionary Association by Christian Medical Fellowship, London, 1985); Leprosy: new hope and continuing challenge (The Leprosy Mission, London, 1966) and Leprosy in the Bible (Christian Medical Fellowship, London, [1970]).

Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London in 1812. He was educated locally and at home, where he enjoyed reading and writing poetry from an early age. He entered the new University of London in 1828 but left after a year to study privately, with no profession in mind. His first poem was published in 1833 and during subsequent years he became well known, though not always popular with the critics. He married fellow poet Elizabeth Moulton Barrett (1806-1861), in 1846 and they lived mainly in Italy; Browning returned to London permanently after her death in 1861. During the 1870s and 1880s he became one of Britain's most famous living poets, and was a critical as well as a commercial success at the time of his death. His best known works include Porphyria's Lover (1836) and The Ring and the Book (1868-1869).

Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard was born Charles Edouard Brown on 8 April 1817, at Port Louis, Mauritius, the posthumous son of Edward Brown, of Irish descent and captain of a merchant vessel belonging to Philadelphia. He had little education early on and acted for a time as a clerk in a store. In 1838 he traveled with his Mauritius-born mother, originally of the Provencal family of Sequard, to France, first to Nantes and then to Paris. It was his intention to pursue a profession in literature, but he was persuaded to study medicine by Charles Nodier, lexicographer. His mother paid his fees, making a living as a boarding-house keeper. She died in 1842, and Brown added her maiden name to his own. In 1846, at the age of 29, he graduated MD from Paris, with a thesis on the reflex action of the spinal cord after separation from the brain.

Brown-Sequard then served as `externe des hopitaux' under the physicians Armand Trousseau and Pierre Rayer. He devoted himself to the study of physiology, labouring under conditions of extreme poverty. In 1848 he became one of the four secretaries of the Societe de Biologie. The following year, during an outbreak of cholera, he was appointed auxiliary physician at the military hospital of Gros-Caillou. In 1852 he left for America, fearing that his republican tendencies might bring him trouble in France. He settled in New York where he supported himself by giving lessons in French and attending midwifery for five dollars a case. In 1853 he returned to Paris, newly married, with his American wife Ellen.

He again left Paris in 1854, intent on practicing medicine in his native Mauritius. However on arrival he found the island was in the midst of a cholera epidemic, whereupon he immediately took charge of the cholera hospital. Once the epidemic was subdued he was presented with a gold medal, struck in his honour by his countrymen. He was appointed professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence at the Virginia Medical College in Richmond, Virginia. He took up his post in 1855, but soon after changed his mind and suddenly returned to Paris. It is said that there were irreconcilable differences; Brown-Sequard could not accept the College's pro-slavery stance, whilst the College was equally unhappy about Brown-Sequard's experiments on un-anaesthetised animals (Gooddy, p.3).

Back in Paris again he was awarded a prize by the Academie des Sciences, and between 1855 and 1857 taught at a small laboratory that he had rented. In 1858 he established the Journal de la Physiologie de l'Homme et des Animaux, which he continually published until 1864. It was also in 1858 that he came to London and delivered a course of lectures on the physiology and pathology of the central nervous system, at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He then lectured in Edinburgh, Dublin and Glasgow. In 1859 he was made a fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. It was due to the renown that these lectures brought him that Brown-Sequard was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1860. In 1859 he had also been appointed physician to the newly established National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, in Queen Square, London. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1860, and subsequently delivered both the Croonian and the Goulstonian Lectures.

Brown-Sequard became famous for his spinal cord syndrome. Through his work on the localisation of the tracts in the spinal cord, he traced the origin of the sympathetic nerve-fibres into the spinal cord. With the physiologist Claude Bernard, his old master, Brown-Sequard shares the honour of demonstrating the existence of vaso-motor nerves. He was also the first to show that epilepsy could be produced experimentally in guinea pigs. Whilst Brown-Sequard was not a philosophical thinker he undoubtedly did much to enrich physiological science. Indeed it is said that he established upon a firm scientific basis much of our present knowledge of diseases of the nervous system' (DNB, 1901, p.320). He remains however unrecognised as a pioneer of endocrinology, having demonstrated through his experiments the significance of adrenal glands. Indeed it is thought that there isstill little recognition of the immense contribution he made to modern medical thinking' (Davenport et al., 2001, p.95).

Brown-Sequard soon established a considerable practice in London, however it has been said that it `overtaxed his strength, and otherwise proved distasteful to him' (DNB, p.320). His elevated position within England's medical profession was already established though; amongst his correspondents were such figures as Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur. In 1863 he resigned his appointment at the Hospital, and was made honorary physician. He left London for America, where he had accepted the office of professor of the physiology and of pathology of the nervous system at Harvard University. At this time he managed to resume his original work in experimental medicine, although his wife died in 1864.

In 1868 Brown-Sequard returned to Paris, via Dublin. In Paris he jointly founded, with his friends Edme Vulpian, physiologist, and Jean Charcot, neurologist, the Archives de Physiologie Normale et Pathologique. Between 1869 and 1872 he held the chair of comparative and experimental pathology in the Ecole de Medecine, Paris. In 1872 he left Paris for New York, where he settled to work as a physician. In that same year he married his second wife, another American, Maria Carlisle. During this time he founded the Archive of Scientific and Practical Medicine, in which he published his first paper on inhibition.

In 1875 he left New York and returned once more to Paris, after residing for a short period in London, during which time he again lectured at the Royal College of Physicians. In 1877 however he accepted an offer of chair of physiology in Geneva, having refused a similar offer from Glasgow. About this time his second wife died, and he married an English woman, Elizabeth Emma Dakin. The following year Claude Bernard died, and Brown-Sequard was offered the vacant professorship of experimental medicine at the College de France, which he held until his own death.

In 1881 he was awarded the honorary degree of LLD from the University of Cambridge. In the same year he received the Lacaze prize from the Academie des Sciences and, in 1885, the grand prix biennal. In 1886 the Royal College of Physicians presented him with the Baly medal. He was elected president of the Societe de Biologie in 1887, which it is said `gave him more pleasure than any of the other honours he had received' (ibid). In 1889 he was awarded the Order of the Rose from the Brazilian legation in Paris. Also in 1889 Brown-Sequard became sole editor of the Archives de Physiologie Normale et Pathologique. He published numerous papers in the various journals with which he was involved, as well as contributing to the London and New York medical papers.

Brown-Sequard did not recover from the shock of his wife's death in 1894. He suffered an attack of phlebitis in January 1894, and died in Paris on 1 April the same year. He was buried in Montparnasse cemetery.

Publications:
Experimental Researches Applied to Physiology and Pathology (New York, 1853)
Journal de la Physiologie de l'Homme et des Animaux (est. Brown-Sequard, Paris, 1858-64)
Course of Lectures on the Physiology and Pathology of the Central Nervous System (Philadelphia, 1860)
Lectures on the Diagnosis and Treatment of the Principal Forms of Paralysis of the Lower Extremities (London, 1861)
Lectures on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Functional Nervous Affections (London, 1868)
Archives de Physiologie Normale et Pathologique (est. Brown-Sequard, Vulpian, & Charcot, c.1868-)
Lecons sur les Nerfs Vaso-moteurs, sur l'Epilepsie et sur les Actions Reflexes Normales et Morbides (Paris, 1872, transl. Joseph Marie Alfred Beni-Barde)
Archive of Scientific and Practical Medicine (est. Brown-Sequard, c.1872)
Notice sur les Travaux Scientifiques du Docteur C.E. Brown-Sequard (Paris, 1886)

Clarence Dalrymple Bruce was born in 1862; joined the Army, 1882 and served in India, 1883-1889; wounded during service in China, 1898-1904; Commissioner of International Police Shanghai, 1907-1914 and commanded brigade of Scottish Division, 1915. Bruce received a CBE; was Fellow of Royal Geographical Society 1901-1934 and died in 1943.

James Bruce, was born at Kinnaird House, Kinnaird, Stirlingshire, on 14 December 1730, son of David Bruce (d 1758), laird of Kinnaird; educated in the family of Councillor William Hamilton in London, and Harrow School in 1742. Although inclined to become an Anglican clergyman on leaving school in 1746, he enrolled in the law faculty at Edinburgh University, May 1747. In 1753 he left Kinnaird for London, intending to embark as a 'free trader' with the East India Company; a year later he married, though his wife died in the same year of consumption.

In July 1757 he embarked for Spain and Portugal, travelled through France, the German states, and the Netherlands. In 1758 Bruce's father died, and he returned to Scotland to assume his responsibilities as laird of Kinnaird. He signed a contract on 4 November 1760 to supply the Carron ironworks with coal from his mines at Kinnaird providing him with the capital and the leisure to travel the world.

Bruce travelled on expeditions to the Algiers and Tunis, Abyssinia and the source of the Nile, returning to England in 1774. He postponed the composition of his Travels for sixteen years and anxious to emulate the form of James Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (one of the best-selling travel books of the century), Bruce published his 3000-page Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in five quarto volumes in 1790. Bruce died in his home in 1794. Much controversy surrounded Bruce' work and although subsequent travellers did much to restore Bruce's credit, his reputation never fully recovered.

John Mitchell Bruce was born on 19 October 1846 at Keig near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, and then went to the University of Aberdeen, where he was awarded his MA in 1866. He subsequently chose to study medicine and joined the Middlesex Hospital in London, where he gained several distinctions including the gold medal in forensic medicine. He graduated MB in 1870. To complete his training, Mitchell Bruce then undertook postgraduate study in pathology in Vienna and at the Brown Institution, under the tutelage of Sir John Burdon-Sanderson and Professor Emanuel Klein. In 1872 he graduated MD and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians.

Mitchell Bruce worked briefly as resident at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary before obtaining the post of lecturer on physiology at Charing Cross Hospital, in 1871. In 1873 he was elected assistant physician at the hospital, and then full physician in 1882. He had been elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1878. He also served as physician for the East London Children's Hospital, the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, and the King Edward VII Sanatorium, Midhurst.

He relinquished his lectureship in physiology at the Charing Cross Hospital in 1877, and taught materia medica until 1890, and then medicine until 1901. It has been said that he was the most brilliant teacher of his day at Charing Cross' (Munk's Roll, vol. IV, p.255). He was also dean of the Medical School between 1883 and 1890, duringone of the most formative periods in its development' (ibid).

Mitchell Bruce also conducted his own consulting practice for many years, which grew in size throughout his professional career. He was a relatively junior doctor when he attended his most famous patient, Benjamin Disraeli, first Earl of Beaconsfield, the former Prime Minister, in the last ten days of Disraeli's life, in April 1881. The part Bruce played in attempting to prolong Disraeli's life was little known at the time as his name did not appear in the public debates about the former Prime Minister's deteriorating health and the treatments applied.

His best-known contribution to the medical profession was his publication, Materia Medica and Therapeutics (1884), of which 70,000 copies were sold during his lifetime. He was also an editor of The Practitioner, and an assistant editor of Sir Richard Quain's A Dictionary of Medicine (1882-94), writing the sections on 'heart disease' and 'acute and chronic rheumatism'. In 1899 his work The Principles of Treatment and their Applications in Practical Medicine (1899) first appeared, to be reprinted three times. The success of this work was largely due to the fact that up to this point therapeutic teaching, in the medical literature of the time, was purely empirical. In contrast Mitchell Bruce offered a sound logic and systematic methodology in his approach. He assumed no therapeutic laws but attempted to find them in the facts of aetiology, pathological anatomy and clinical characters, which he examined in order to find lines of treatment.

In 1904 he retired from the active staff of the Charing Cross Hospital and became consulting physician to the hospital. He was appointed examiner in medicine for the University of Cambridge, as well as the Conjoint Examining Board of England, and examiner in materia medica to the Universities of London and Manchester, on several occasions. He also served as Censor for the Royal College of Physicians in 1911.

His involvement with the Royal College of Physicians was long standing. In 1911 he delivered the Lumleian Lectures to the College, and the Harveian Oration in 1913. He also served as President of the Medical Society of London, and the Section of Medicine of the Royal Society of Medicine. In 1919 Mitchell Bruce was created CVO (Commander of the Royal Victorian Order). The University of Aberdeen made him Doctor of Laws (LLD) and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland gave him an Honorary Fellowship.

He had married, and had one son, during his life. He died at Harley Street, London, on 7 July 1929 at the age of 82.

Publications:
Materia Medica and Therapeutics (London, 1884)
The Principles of Treatment and their Applications in Practical Medicine (Edinburgh, 1899)
Sections in Sir Richard Quain's A Dictionary of Medicine (1882-94) and articles for The Practitioner
Lettsomian Lectures on the Diseases and Disorders of the Heart and Arteries in Middle and Advance Life (London, 1902)
Lumleian Lectures on Cardio-Vascular Degeneration (1911)
The Harveian Oration on the Influence of Harvey's Work in the Development of the Doctrine of Infection and Immunity (London, 1913)

The author was an eminent physiologist: he qualified MD at Berlin in 1842, and became Professor of Physiology at Vienna University in 1849. He was later (1879) raised to the nobility both of Austria-Hungary and of Prussia.

John Chardin was born in London in 1643, the son of a jeweller. As a jewel merchant himself he travelled extensively in Persia and India, publishing an account of his travels, before settling first in Paris and then in London. He died in 1719. Cornelis de Bruin was born in 1652. He travelled through Russia to the East Indies, publishing an account of his travels. He died in 1719. Joseph Smith was born c.1710 and matriculated at Queens' College, Oxford, in 1728. He obtained the degree of D.C.L. in 1740. He died at Kidlington, Oxford, in 1776 (this is noted in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1776, p.483).

Brunel University developed from Acton Technical College which was built by Middlesex County Council in 1928 to provide evening classes in engineering and to accommodate the Junior Technical School, founded in 1910, transferred from Chiswick Polytechnic. In the 1950s Acton College was an early developer of Dip. Tech. Courses and began building a new science block. These two factors led to the establishment of Brunel College of Technology as a separate institution in 1957. The name was taken for Isambard Kingdom Brunel who had local connections and whose Great Western Railway ran through Acton. The availability of a large site in nearby Uxbridge, already owned by Middlesex County Council, was instrumental in the designation of Brunel as a College of Advanced Technology (CAT) in 1962, with the Department of Education and Science stipulating that the new College should be there. Building began in 1965 but the move was not finally completed until 1971 although even then some buildings had not been completed. In 1966 Brunel received its charter to become Brunel University. Acton College continued to function separately and eventually merged with Ealing Tertiary College. In 1980 Shoreditch College of Education, formerly Shoreditch Training College (part of Shoreditch Technical Institute 1907-1930), became part of the University. In 1995 the West London Institute of Higher Education was incorporated into the University. The Institute, with campuses at Twickenham and Osterley, was itself an amalgamation, in 1976, of Borough Road College, Maria Grey College and Chiswick Polytechnic.

The University Court is responsible for the overall management and administration of the University. The Court receives the annual audited accounts of the previous year and a report from the Vice Chancellor. The Academic Advisory Committee advises on the standard of education and higher degrees, and the Senate is responsible for the overall academic work of the University.

Brunel University Library

Documents accumulated during the work of Brunel University Library, documenting meetings and reports.

The three successive clerks of the Dyers' Company had private solicitors' practices:

Richard Fothergill Brunskill (1854-1900) was the eldest son of Stephen Brunskill of Kendal. He graduated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1874 and became a solicitor. He was was clerk of the Dyers' Company from 1881 to 1900.

George Frederick Sutton FSA (1868-1944), son of Frederick Sutton of Northwood was educated at New College, Eastbourne and Jesus College, Cambridge, from where he graduated in 1893. He had also been apprenticed to A J Applethorpe from 1883 and gained the freedom of the Dyers' Company in 1890. He qualified as a solicitor in 1894 and practised initially at 7 King Street. He married Gertrude Land in 1898. He was clerk to the Dyers' Company, 1900-08, before becoming clerk to the Leathersellers' Company. He oversaw the rebinding of many of the Leathersellers' records, and even wrote a short early history of the Company. He died at his home at Little Hendon Cottage, Chorley Wood on 13 December 1944.

Mark Marshall Merriman (1877-1944) was the eldest son of Thomas Mark Merriman, a solictor and twice Prime Warden of the Dyers' Company, and Ellen Marshall of Highbury. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He gained the freedom of the Dyers' Company by patrimony in 1898. He qualified as a solicitor in 1903 and worked initially for his father's practice. He became clerk of the Dyers' Company in 1908, later resigning the post to join the Court of Assistants in 1937, becoming Prime Warden in 1939. He died at his home in Tunbridge Wells on 21 October 1944.

Brunstein , Esther , c 1925

Unzer Styme (Our Voice) was a monthly paper written in Yiddish and published by the Central Committee for Liberated Jews in the British Zone betwen 1945 and 1947. The articles covered here are contained in issues held at the Wiener Library.

Esther Brunstein, the author is a survivor of Bergen Belsen.

Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton obtained his MD at Edinburgh in 1867, and was physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1895, having been elected FRS in 1874. He had discovered the efficacy of amyl nitrite in the treatment of angina, and wrote a standard text-book of pharmacy and therapeutics. He received a baronetcy in 1908, having been knighted in 1900. For more biographical information see the Dictionary of National Biography (1912-1921).

Brussels Relief Committee

The Brussels Relief Committee was an organisation set up by the American Government to provide food aid to the people of Brussels during World War Two. Members include Mr Vhitlock, Honorary President and Millard K Shaler.

In 1769 Bruyard entered the Bureau of Trade, where he was trained by his father. In 1776-1777, he worked in Italy and Sicily. On 1 September 1780, Bruyard was appointed inspector of factories in Aachen and two years later (02-07-1782) he was appointed to a similar position in Paris. He lost his job after the Inspectorate was abolished following the revolution.

Herbert Bryan was Honorary Secretary of the Watford Branch of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) 1905-1909, of the City of London Branch 1909-1912, of the North London Federation 1910-1912 and of the No 6 London and Southern Counties Divisional Council 1912. From 1908 to 1920, Bryan was a clerk at ILP headquarters. He died in 1950 and at the time of his death lived at 46 Bedford Row, WC1.

Born, 1899; son of (Sir) Francis Morgan Bryant, chief clerk to the Prince of Wales and later holder of various offices in the royal secretariat and Registrar of the Royal Victorian Order, and his wife May; educated at Pelham House, Sandgate, Kent, and Harrow School; joined the Royal Flying Corps, 1917; served as a Pilot Officer on the Western Front, 1917-1918; Queen's College, Oxford, 1919-1920; taught at a London County Council school; called to the Bar, Inner Temple, 1923; Principal, Cambridge School of Arts, Crafts and Technology, 1923-1925; Lecturer in History, Oxford University Delegacy for Extra-Mural Studies, 1925-1936; Educational Adviser (later Governor), Bonar Law College, Ashridge, Hertfordshire, from 1929; Watson Chair in American History, University of London, 1935; writer of 'Our Note Book', Illustrated London News, 1936-1985; Chairman, St John and Red Cross Library Department, 1945-1974; President, English Association, 1946; Chairman, Council of Ashridge, 1946-1949; awarded CBE, 1949; Chairman, Society of Authors, 1949-1953; awarded The Sunday Times Prize for Literature for The age of elegance, 1812-1822 (Collins, London, 1950); Chesney Gold medal, Royal United Services Institution; knighted, 1954; appointed Companion of Honour, 1967; Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; President, Common Market Safeguards Campaign; Hon Freedom and Livery, Leathersellers' Company; died, 1985. Publications: Ruper Buxton, a memoir. To which are attached some poems written in his boyhood (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1926); The spirit of Conservatism (Methuen, London, 1929); Syllabus of a course of twelve lectures on biography (John Johnson, Oxford, 1930); King Charles II (Longmans, London, 1931); Macaulay (Peter Davies, London, 1932); Samuel Pepys. The man in the making (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1933); The national character (Longmans, London, 1934); The England of Charles II (Longmans, London, 1934); editor of The man and the hour. Studies of six great men of our time (Philip Allan, London, 1934); Samuel Pepys. The years of peril (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1935); editor of The letters, speeches and declarations of King Charles II (Cassell, London, 1935); George V (Peter Davies, London, 1936); The American ideal (Longmans, London, 1936); Postman's horn. An anthology of the letters of latter seventeenth century England (Longmans, London, 1936); Stanley Baldwin. A tribute (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1937); Humanity in politics (Hutchinson, London, 1938); Samuel Pepys. The saviour of the Navy (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1938); editor of In search of peace. Speeches, 1937-1938 by Rt Hon (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain (Hutchinson, London, 1939); Unfinished victory (Macmillan, London, 1940); English saga, 1840-1940 (Collins, London, 1940); The years of endurance, 1793-1802 (Collins, London, 1942); The summer of Dunkirk (reprinted from The Daily Sketch, [London], 1943); Years of victory, 1802-1812 (Collins, London, 1944); The art of writing history (Oxford University Press, London, 1946); Historian's holiday (Dropmore Press, London, 1946); Trafalgar Day, 21st October, 1948. Alamein Day, 23rd October, 1948 [1948]; The Battle of Britain (The Daily Sketch, Manchester [c1949]); The age of elegance, 1812-1822 (Collins, London, 1950); Literature and the historian (Cambridge University Press, London, 1952); The story of England (Collins, London, 1953); The turn of the tide, 1939-1943. A study based on the diaries and autobiographical notes of Field Marshal the Viscount Alanbrooke (Collins, London, 1957); Triumph in the West, 1943-1946. Based on the diaries and autobiographical notes of Field Marshal the Viscount Alanbrooke (Collins, London, 1959); Liquid history. To commemorate fifty years of the Port of London Authority, 1909-1959 (privately published, London, 1960); Jimmy, the dog in my life (Lutterworth Press, London, 1960); A choice for destiny. Commonwealth and Common Market (Collins, London, 1962); The age of chivalry (Collins, London, 1963); The fire and the rose (Collins, London, 1965); Only yesterday. Aspects of English history, 1840-1940 (Collins, London, 1965); The Medieval foundation (Collins, London, 1966); Protestant island (Collins, London, 1967); The lion and the unicorn. A historian's testament (Collins, London, 1969); Nelson (Collins, London, 1970); The great Duke, or, the invincible General (Collins, London, 1971); Jackets of green: a study of the history, philosophy and character of the Rifle Brigade (Collins, London, 1972); A thousand years of British monarchy (Collins, London, 1975); Pepys and the revolution (Collins, London, 1979); The Elizabethan deliverance (Collins, London, 1980): Spirit of England (Collins, London, 1982); Set in a silver sea: the island peoples from earliest times to the fifteenth century (Collins, London, 1984). Published posthumously: Freedom's own island: the British oceanic expansion, with a chapter by John Kenyon (Collins, London, 1986); The search for justice (Collins, London, 1990).

Sophia Willock was born on 15 Feb 1850, at Sandymount near Dublin, the daughter of Rev W A Willock, Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. She was educated by her father and private governesses. In 1863, the family moved to London where her father took up the post of Professor of Geometry at London University, and in 1866 Sophia became a student at Bedford College.

In 1869 she married Dr W Hicks Bryant of Plymouth. When he died in 1870, she obtained a teaching post at a school for ladies in Highgate, before joining the staff of North London Collegiate School (NLCS), Camden in 1875. In 1895 she was appointed the second Headmistress, succeeding the School's founder Frances Mary Buss.

Bryant was a brilliant scholar and teacher. She was one of three women members of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education. She was one of the first two women to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree, and the first to obtain a Doctor of Science, awarded in 1884. In 1898 Bryant was the first woman to be elected by the Convocation of London University to the University Senate. She also served on the Technical Education Board and its successor - the Education Committee of the London County Council, representing the Board on the London Polytechnic Council, and was also a member of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education. She also enthusiastically supported teacher training, and was a member of the Board of Studies of Pedagogy at London University, as well as a campaigner for the University's establishment of a chair of education, and chair of the Training College's Council. She was also involved with Goldsmiths' College following its transfer to the University, was honorary director of the Henrietta Barnett School, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and President of the Association of Head Mistresses.

She retired from NLCS in 1918, after 43 years of service. She died in 1922, aged 72 as the result of an accidental fall during a mountaineering holiday near Chamonix, Switzerland.

Bryant , T E , fl 1828-1835

T E Bryant was the father of Thomas Bryant (1828-1914) surgeon to Guy's Hospital, London

Born, London, 1828; educated King's College London; trained at Guy's Hospital; Surgeon, Guy's Hospital, 1871-1888; Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons; President, Medical Society of London, 1872; President, Hunterian Society, 1873; President, Clinical Society, 1885; President, Royal College of Surgeons, 1890-1893; President, Royal Society of Medicine, 1898-1899; Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria; Surgeon in Ordinary to King Edward VII, 1901-1910; Treasurer and representative of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, on General Medical Council; died, 1914.
Publications include: On the Diseases and Injuries of the Joints (John Churchill, London, 1859); Clinical Surgery (John Churchill, London, 1860-1867); The Surgical Diseases of Children (Churchill & Sons, London, 1863); The introductory address, delivered at Guy's Hospital, on the opening of the session, October 2nd, 1865 (1865); The Practice of Surgery (J & A Churchill, London, 1872); Harveian Lectures on the mode of death from acute intestinal strangulation and chronic intestinal obstruction Reprinted from the British Medical Journal (J & A Churchill, London, 1885); The Diseases of the Breast (Cassell & Co, London, 1887); Hunterian Lectures, on tension, as met with in surgical practice, inflammation of bone, and on cranial and intercranial injuries (J & A Churchill, London, 1888); The Bradshaw Lecture on Colotomy, Lumbar and Iliac (J & A Churchill, London, 1890); The Hunterian Oration (Adlard & Son, London, 1893); On Villous Growths and the common affections of the rectum (Medical Publishing Co, London, 1899).

Thomas Egerton Bryant was a General Practitioner in Kennington, Surrey. He was educated at Guy's Hospital, and was Surgeon to Lambeth Workhouse. He became a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1816, and achieved the MRCS in c1821. He wrote Essay on diseases of the Larynx and Trachea in 1835, for which he was awarded the Fothergillian medal in 1836. He became President of the Medical Society of London in 1837. His eldest son was Thomas Bryant (1828-1914) FRCS.

Wilfred Goddard Bryant was born in September 1872, the son of John (a schoolmaster) and Hope Bryant. In 1901 they were residing in St Marks Buildings Polytechnic Annexe School. Hope died in June 1901. Wilfred had two brothers and two sisters, and married in 1910 to a lady whom he met on a trip to Switzerland. In the 1891 census he is shown as a bankers clerk and in 1901 as a Clerk-Bank of England. Subsequent enquiries at the Bank of England confirmed that Wilfred Goddard Bryant was employed at the Bank's Branch Office from November 1890 until August 1937, reaching the position of cashier.

Bryce was born in Southport and educated at Manchester University Medical School from which he graduated in 1912. Apart from wartime service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1915-1919, he spent most of his professional career in the Manchester area, holding appointments at the Manchester Memorial Jewish Hospital and the Manchester Royal Infirmary where he was appointed to the honorary staff in 1934. Bryce was a founder member of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He was the Society's first Secretary and Treasurer until November 1946, when he was elected Vice-President, a position he held for three years; he served as President of the Society, 1949-1951. Bryce was also President of the Thoracic Society and of the Manchester Surgical Society. He retired in 1955.

Cassandra Willoughby was born in 1670 at Middleton, Warwickshire, the daughter of Francis Willoughby (1619-1672) and his wife Emma Barnard (1644-1725). Following Willoughby's death, Emma married Sir Josiah Child (d.1699), and moved with him and her three children to Wanstead House, Essex. In 1681, her eldest brother Francis (1668-1888) went to live with his aunt, Lettice Wendy, at Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire, his younger brother Thomas (1672-1729) following soon after. Around 1886, Francis persuaded Cassandra to join him at Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, a family property which he occupied by then. Following Francis death in 1688, she lived for a time in London with her younger brother Thomas, before returning with him to Wallaton.

In 1713, Cassandra married James Brydges (1674-1744), MP for Hereford, and Post Master General. Brydges had resigned as PMG in 1713 having acquired a fortune of £600 000. They moved, along with the surviving children from his first marriage to Canons, a property near Edgware, Middlesex, which he had acquired through his first wife, Mary Lake (c.1666-1712), and which he rebuilt over the next three years. From 1717-1720, the composer George Frederick Handel became composer-in-residence at Canons. He wrote both The Chandos Anthems and Concerti Grossi at Canons, and his opera Acis and Galatea had its first performance in the gardens there.

In 1717, Brydges inherited the earldom of Caernarvon, and in 1717 was created the first Duke of Chandos. The family lived mainly at Canons, travelling frequently to their other residences in Albemarle Street, London and Bath. Cassandra kept up a copious correspondence, was fond of horse riding, reading, painting and embroidery, as well as being a skilful household manager. Brydges lost much of his fortune in the failure of the South Sea Company, 1720. Cassandra died unexpectedly following an apoplectic fit on14 Jul 1735.

The manor of Great Stanmore was owned by St Alban's Abbey at the time of the Norman Conquest. The manor was initially known as Stanmore-the first recorded division of Stanmore into "Great" and "Little" is in the Domesday Book. The Manor of Little Stanmore was also known as Canons.

In 1709 Little Stanmore, and in 1715 Great Stanmore, were sold to James Brydges, who became duke of Chandos in 1719. He rebuilt the mansion house of Canons in ostentatious style, including marbles, rare woods, ceiling paintings and tapestries. The grounds included canals, hothouses, an aviary and sculptures. His son Henry was forced by debts to break up the Canons estate, much of the furniture and collections of fine art were sold and the house was pulled down in 1753. The family retained the lordship of the manors and kept a small amount of land in the area.

The third and last Duke of Chandos was James Brydges, son of Henry. His daughter, Lady Anna Elizabeth (1780-1836), was married to Richard Temple Nugent Grenville, (1776-1839), known as Earl Temple, the son of the Marquess of Buckingham. Richard adopted the surname Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville and was made 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1822. Their son Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville sold the manor of Great Stanmore in 1840.

Information from: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976) (available online).

BTWSC was formed in April 2002 and named after the successful 'Beyond The Will Smith Challenge' writing competition and publication, which was a Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations (CEMVO) Millennium Awards project.

As a pan-London voluntary organisation based in Brent, BTWSC has aimed to use the creative arts to raise aspirations and promote social inclusion, and promoted education or employment within the music and entertainment, and event planning, industries. BTWSC has worked mainly with minorities, socially excluded persons, and disadvantaged groups.

Alexander Peter Buchan was born in Sheffield, in 1764. His father was the physician, Dr William Buchan (1729-1805). Alexander was educated at the High School of Edinburgh and Edinburgh University. He then went to London and attended lectures by William and John Hunter, and Dr George Fordyce. He was admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1802, and was physician to the Westminster Hospital from 1813-1818 and 1820-1824. He also wrote, translated and edited various medical books. He died in 1824.

Born, 1729; educated at Jedburgh grammar school and University of Edinburgh, intending to enter the ministry; left Edinburgh University, [1758]; practised medicine in rural Yorkshire; medical officer to a branch of the Foundling Hospital at Ackworth, Yorkshire, 1759; practised in Sheffield, 1762; returned to Edinburgh about 1766; fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 1772; practised in London, 1778.

Publications: Domestic Medicine (1769)

On the Offices and Duties of a Mother (1800)

Advice to mothers on the subject of their own health, and on the means of promoting the health, strength and beauty of their offspring (1803)

Born 1958; University of Edinburgh, MB ChB, 1981; MRC Psych, 1989; University of London, MPhil (psychiatry), 1991; Senior Registrar in Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, 1992; University of Cambridge, MPhil (criminology), 1993; University of Cambridge, PhD, 1996; University of Edinburgh, MD, 1996; Honorary Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Maudsley Hospital, 1997; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Forensic Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, London; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University. 2003. Publication:Care of the mentally disordered offender in the community edited by Alec Buchanan (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002)

Buchenwald concentration camp, one of the largest in Germany with its 130 satellite camps and units, was situated 5 miles north of Weimar in Thüringen. It was established in July 1937 when the first group of 149 mostly political prisoners and criminals was received. Some 238,980 prisoners passed through Buchenwald from 30 countries. 43,005 were killed or perished there.

This release permit belonged to Erich Marmorek, born Vienna, 1907, architect.

Buchenwald concentration camp, one of the largest in Germany with its 130 satellite camps and units, was situated 5 miles north of Weimar in Thüringen. It was established in July 1937 when the first group of 149 mostly political prisoners and criminals was received. Some 238,980 prisoners passed through Buchenwald from 30 countries. 43,005 were killed or perished there.

Born 1826; educated at Cotterstock, Northamptonshire, 1835–1837); Laleham, 1837–1839, Winchester College, 1839–1844, Christ Church, Oxford, 1844-1848; studied medicine, St George's Hospital, London, 1848-1851, house surgeon, 1852-1853; assistant surgeon in the 2nd Life Guards, 1854-1863; journalist for the Field newspaper, 1856-1865; started a weekly journal Land and Water, 1865; inspector of salmon fisheries, 1867; scientific referee to the South Kensington Museum, 1865-1880; died, 1880.

Publications: Curiosities of Natural History

Francis Trevelyan Buckland was born in Oxford in 1826. He was the son of William Buckland the geologist, who was Canon of Christ Church. Buckland was educated at Winchester, Christ Church, and St Georges Hospital, London. He became house-surgeon at St Georges in 1852, as was assistant surgeon for the 2nd Life Guards from 1854-1863. During this period he discovered Hunter's coffin, just before the closing of the vaults at St Martins Church. He began to research zoology, and in 1856 he became a regular writer on natural history for the newly established Field, particularly on the subject of fish. In 1866 he started Land and Water on similar lines. In 1867 he was appointed Government Inspector of Fisheries. He died in 1880.

Buckland was born in 1784 at Axminster in Devon, educated at Tiverton School and St Mary's College Winchester, and proceeded on a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he became a Fellow in 1808, and displayed his interest in the new study of geology. This was expounded by Dr Kidd, Professor of Mineralogy, and cultivated in London by the founders of the Geological Society. Buckland had collected the sponges and fossils of the Chalk while at Winchester, and at Oxford he collected the shells of the Oolite, while walking with Mr Broderip of Oriel College, friend of the Rev J Townsend, friend and fellow labourer of William Smith. From 1808 Buckland rode over the south-west of England, collecting samples of the strata and groups of their organic contents, and then extending his travels to the north of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In 1813 he became Professor of Mineralogy in succession to Dr Kidd, and a Fellow of the Geological Society, where he delivered lectures not only on mineralogy but on the discoveries and doctrines of geology, which attracted the attention and admiration of the University. In 1818, geology was publicly recognized by the establishment of a Readership in this science, and Buckland was the first appointee to the post. He gave one course of lectures annually on mineralogy and one on geology, including always the very latest discoveries. He knew, and corresponded with, the most eminent and active inquirers into geology, such as Rev J J Conybeare and Rev W D Conybeare, both of Christ Church, and Rev Benjamin Richardson of Farleigh Castle, near Bradford, and Rev Joseph Townsend of Pewsey, friends of William Smith. In 1818 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, justifying his claim to this honour by the publication of his account of bones in Kirkdale Cave in 1821, which earned him the Copley Medal. Later reprinted as 'Reliquiae Diluvianae', it stimulated the cultivation of geology and palaeontology world wide. His travels in Europe had brought to the now celebrated Oxford Museum large and valuable collections, and observations of phenomena then little known to English geologists. As a result he was elected Chair of the Geological Society in 1824. His subsequent travels in the Alps led to the recognition of the late geological date of their great upward movement, and provided him with material for ten memoirs relating to Continental geology. This period, in association with Sir H T De la Beche, was spent in curious researches on coprolites and fossil Sepiae. His numerous publications included very largely the results of personal observation on features of physical geography, succession of strata, distribution of glacial detritus, structure, habits of life, manner of death, and mode of occurrence of extinct animals. In 1848 his labours in geology were celebrated by the award of the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society.

Born in 1784, in Axminster, Devon, William Buckland had developed an interest in natural history and geology whilst exploring the local woods and quarries with his father Charles Buckland, the rector of Templeton and Trusham. Buckland was initially home schooled by his father, but in 1797 entered Blundell's School in Tiverton, enrolling the following year at St Mary's College, Winchester.

With the help of his uncle, John Buckland, he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, as a scholar on the Exeter Foundation, obtaining his BA in classics and theology three years later. Buckland was elected Fellow of the College in 1808 when he was ordained. During this time he had been attending the lectures of John Kidd, reader in mineralogy at Oxford and when Kidd resigned in 1813, Buckland succeeded him. That same year he became a Member of the Geological Society. In 1818 he was appointed to the new readership in geology and his inaugural lecture of 1819 'Vindiciae geologicae', compiled with the help of his mentor the Rev William Daniel Conybeare, explained that the facts of geology were conversant with the record of the creation of the Earth found in the Bible - notably the presence of older gravels (diluvium) which could not be explained through normal river deposits and therefore provided evidence of a 'universal deluge', that is Noah's flood.

Buckland's most important early geological work was on fossil cave faunas, principally his excavations of the Kirkdale Cavern, Yorkshire. There he discovered the bones of hyenas and other exotic animals such as an elephant, hippomatus and rhinocerus. His theory that the cave was a hyena den and the exotic animals had been dragged in as their prey was backed up by his experiments on and observation of modern hyenas. The results were published as 'Reliquiae diluvianae' (1823), and his discoveries at Kirkdale won him the Royal Society's Copley medal in 1822.

Due to his modest income from his two readerships and teaching, by 1825 Buckland was considering leaving Oxford for a more lucrative position, such as vicar, elswhere. However with the help of influential friends such as Sir Robert Peel, Buckland managed to obtain the position of canon to Christ Church which had an income of five times his previous salary. In December of that year he married Mary Morland, who had been helping him with his work and also illustrating his papers for a number of years.

In the field, Buckland notoriously dressed in a rather eccentric manner, always wearing his academic gown and carrying a large blue bag from which he would draw out his latest finds such as fossil faeces of giant marine reptiles. Buckland had found and identified these 'Coprolites', the term he coined for fossil faeces, in Lyme Regis when he worked with the fossil collector Mary Anning.

Buckland continued to research and publish over the next two decades, notably his influential treatise 'Geology and Mineralogy' of 1836, in which he abandoned his former belief in the geological effects deriving from the biblical flood. Indeed after a visit to Switzerland to see his friend Louis Agassiz in 1838, the Swiss naturalist had convinced him that glaciation had been more extensive in the past - leading Buckland to reinterpret his early theories and observations of a universal flood as evidence instead for the new glacial theory of an ice age. Buckland was extremely active within the Geological Society, serving twice as its President between 1824-1826 and 1839-1841, and winning the Wollaston Medal (the highest award bestowed by the Society) in 1848.

In 1845, Buckland had become dissatisfied with academic life in Oxford and accepted the appointment of dean of Westminster, coupled with the rectorship of Islip, near Oxford, although he still continued to lecture on geology in the university town. However by 1850 his diminishing mental health, possibly resulting from a fall from a coach a few years earlier, prevented Buckland from performing his duties as dean or professor. He retired to Islip but was later placed in The Retreat, a mental asylum in Clapham where he died on 14 August 1856.

Born, 1984; educated: Blundell's School, Tiverton, 1797; Winchester College, 1798-1801; Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1801-1804; fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1808; ordained as a priest, 1808; reader in mineralogy, 1813; reader in geology, 1818; Royal Society's Copley medal, 1822; canonry of Christ Church, Oxford, 1825; dean of Westminster and rector of Islip, 1845; died 1856.

Publications: Geology and Mineralogy (1836)

Visiting Professor, Department of Mathematics, Royal Holloway College, University of London, 1980-1981; London Transport Executive, 1960.

Publications: Statistical assessment of the life characteristic: a bibliographic guide (Charles Griffin and Co, London, 1964); Bibliography of basic texts and monographs on statistical methods (The Hague, 1951); A dictionary of statistical terms (Oliver and Boyd for the International Statistical Institute, Edinburgh and London, 1957); Russian-English/English-Russian glossary of statistical terms (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1971); Bibliography of basic texts and monographs on statistical methods, 1945-1960 (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1963).