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After an early career in the Army, David Heneker turned his hand to songwriting, composing several songs for revues and cabarets in the 1930s, and composing war time songs during the Second World War. In 1948 he resigned his commission from the Army and became a songwriter, while also working as a pianist at the Embassy Club. He went on to compose songs for or to contribute to several musicals. Some of his notable works include 'Charlie Girl', 'Irma la Douche', 'Phil the Fluter', 'Jorrocks', 'Popkiss', 'Expresso Bongo' and 'Half a Sixpence'. He also composed songs for films and for advertising.

Wendy Perriam is the author of several novels, often associated with suburban life. Her work includes Sin City, Absinthe for Elevenses and Broken Places. She has also published several collections of short stories and had these, poetry and other works published in magazines. After studying at a convent school Perriam studied at Oxford and Kingston School of Art before becoming a full-time author. She also teaches creative writing.

The Stephen Sondheim Society was established in 1993 to promote the works of the musical theatre composer and lyricist in the UK and elsewhere, and to build an appreciation and interest in them. The Society has a number of patrons connected to the world of musical theatre, including Sondheim himself. Their work includes running a website and forums dedicated to Sondheim, sharing news of performances of Sondheim’s shows and arranging trips to see them, and publishing a magazine on Sondheim’s work. They also run an annual competition for student performers, the Stephen Sondheim Society Performer of the Year awards (or SSSPOTY), as well as organising other events such as an annual garden party. As part of their aim to educate others on the work of Sondheim, the Society has built up an archival collection relating to him and his work. The core of the Collection was formed by antiquarian bookseller Peter Wood which was then passed to the Society, and it has since continued to be added to. The Archive will continue to grow as more items are collected.

Ernest Howard Shepard was born on December 10, 1879, in London. His father was an architect, and his mother was the daughter of a watercolorist. He was educated at St.Paul's School, Heatherley's Art School, and the Royal Academy Schools. His first picture was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1901 and in 1907 Shepard had his first piece of work accepted by Punch. In 1915 he was commissioned by the Royal Artillery and served in France, Belgium, and Italy. During this time he continued to send regular contributions to Punch. On his return to civilian life in 1919, Shepard was elected to the Punch Editorial Table, where he met E.V. Lucas, who would later introduce him to A.A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh books. The success of the Pooh books made Shepard famous and he contributed illustrations to more than fifty books, for both adults and children, among them Kenneth Grahame's classic The Wind in the Willows. He also contributed a weekly cartoon to Punch until 1949 and thereafter a monthly illustration. Although he closed his London studio in 1955 and retired to Lodsworth in Sussex, Shepard continued working into old age, completing some new Pooh drawings for a revised edition in 1968 and colouring his drawings for a special edition in 1973. He was twice married, in 1903 to Florence Chaplin (d.1927), a fellow student at the Academy, and in 1944 to Norah Carrol. He died in 1976.

Battersea College of Education was established in the department of 'Women's Studies' at Battersea Polytechnic Institute as the Training School of Domestic Economy. A special grant had been given to the Polytechnic by the London County Council to open a teacher training school in domestic economy, and the first eleven full time students started their course in 1894. The department was recognised by the Board of Education as a teachers' training school in 1895. The department flourished, and in 1903 a new block was opened to provide improved accommodation. In January 1911 the first hall of residence was opened, with further halls provided in 1914.

After the Second World War the premises of Manor House School on Clapham Common Northside were purchased by London County Council for the Department. In 1948 London County Council took over the management of the department from Battersea Polytechnic and it was re-designated Battersea College of Domestic Science. A programme of building was undertaken, including a new science block which opened in 1953, and further new buildings opened in 1960. The College acquired a new site, Manresa House in Roehampton, in 1963, which became the Battersea Training College for Primary Teachers, providing courses for mature students. The College had also become a constituent college of the University of London Institute of Education, with courses leading to a Teachers' Certificate with special reference to domestic subjects and Department of Education and Science recognition of Qualified Teacher Status. In 1965 responsibility for the college was transferred from the London County Council to the newly established Inner London Education Authority and the College became known as the Battersea College of Education.

In 1976 it was proposed that Battersea should merge with the Polytechnic of the South Bank. Manresa House was closed in 1979, and primary education students were transferred to Rachel McMillan College. Home Economics students remained at Manor House which became part of the Polytechnic of the South Bank. The teacher training certificate was phased out in 1979, and in 1981/1982 the students transferred to the Polytechnic campus.

The London County Council School of Building was opened on 26th February 1904 to provide a specialist training college for the large number of building workers in Camberwell and Lambeth. The Lambeth Polytechnic building in Ferndale Road, Brixton was renovated to contain workshops for painting and decorating, carpentry and joinery and a drawing office. When it opened in 1904, 643 students enrolled on classes covering stone carving, plasters' modelling, drawing, chemistry and physics of building materials, land surveying and levelling.

The School soon gained a world-wide reputation as a centre of excellence in the fields of town planning, building technology, estate management and building architecture. In 1906 a school of architecture was added which was organised by Professor Beresford Pite of the Royal Academy of Art. Demand for courses increased rapidly so that in 1908 the School added a Junior Day Technical College for Boys and then a Senior Day Technical School as well as a new extension in 1909.

In 1910 five-year courses were introduced in all trade subjects, followed in 1911 by a four year course in reinforced concrete and in 1912 a course in structural engineering all examined by the City and Guilds of London Institute. In 1922, Sir Robert Blair (LCC Education Officer) wrote, '…the Brixton School is easily the first and most complete school of building in the world'. The Board of Education classified the School as a College of Further Education in 1928 and the following year a three year day course was introduced leading to the Ordinary and Higher National Diploma in Building or the Intermediate Examination of the Royal Institute of British Architects or the Chartered Surveyors Institute.

In 1943 it became the Brixton School of Building and after the Second World War the School rapidly expanded so that by 1949 the number of full time students exceeded 400, studying courses in architecture, surveying and structural engineering. In 1956 Brixton was designated a regional college, and the governors decided not to concentrate on work at higher levels, but to retain its craft work and lower level teaching.

Under the government's policy for higher education, given in the White Paper 'A Plan for Polytechnics and Other Colleges', published in 1966, the higher level studies at Brixton would have to be continued within a new institution based on the polytechnic model. Brixton School of Building became part of the Polytechnic of the South Bank in 1970, along with the Borough Polytechnic, City of Westminster College and the National College for Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering. Five of the six departments from Brixton became the new Polytechnic's Faculty of Construction, Technology and Design. The sixth department, along with some work from other departments formed the Vauxhall College of Further Education. The faculty moved into a new building on the Wandsworth Road in 1972, a decade after the first draft schedule of accommodation was made.

City of Westminster College has its origins in an evening institute established in the First World War providing lip-reading classes for deafened servicemen in the vestry of St George's Church in Hanover Square, Westminster. The institute, which became known as St George's Institute, only ran evening classes and moved to a number of different sites, successively St George's Row School, Ebury Bridge and Dean Farrar Street. A further move was made to the Burdett Cookery School, with some classes held in the Townsend Foundation School, Rochester Row. The institute grew rapidly during the 1930s, becoming one of the largest commercial institutes in London, with classrooms and chemistry laboratories in Westminster City College. In 1936 an arrangement with Westminster Training College was made enabling the institute to provide more student hours than any comparable institute in London and replacing the link with Westminster City College. The institute moved again to the Millbank School, Erasmus Street. In 1939 two social studies courses were introduced, whilst languages and commercial, administrative and social studies were all well established.

The Waterloo Road School site was taken over by the institute in 1951, shared with the Law Department of Kennington College. By 1959 there were 41 full-time staff, more part-time lecturers and over 30 rooms used. Full-time courses were offered in 1959 in the institute's three departments of Civil Service, Commerce and University Entrance, with part-time and evening work. In 1954 the institute moved to Francis House, renting space from the Army and Navy Stores. Further space was rented from them in 1955, enabling matriculation work to be transferred from Regent Street Polytechnic. New departments of Science, Social Studies and Day Release work were created. Awards and courses were rationalised following the 1959 McMeeking report 'Further Education in Commerce', with the introduction of national certificates in business studies, and establishment of new departments of Economics and Arts and Science and Maths. By 1962 there were over 6000 students associated with the institute. In 1965 the work of the Arts Department was transferred to the West London College of Commerce.

In 1959 the institute was renamed City of Westminster College. In the early 1960s the first courses in Hospital Administration were organised, and part of the college moved in 1966 to Blackfriars Road where housing laboratories and the Social Studies Department were accommodated (later to become part of Southwark College). In the mid 1960s new departments of Professional Studies, later renamed Accountancy and Finance, and Business Studies were established. The publication of the White Paper 'A Plan for Polytechnics and Other Colleges', published in 1966, had announced the creation of some 30 polytechnics throughout the country to form what became called the public sector of the binary system of higher education. The 13 existing colleges managed by ILEA were to be reorganised into five. City of Westminster College joined with Borough Polytechnic, the Brixton School of Building, and the National College for Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering to become the Polytechnic of the South Bank in 1970.

David Breyer Singmaster (b.1939) is a Professor Emeritus at London South Bank University. A self-described metagrobologist, Singmaster became famous for his solution to the Rubik's cube, known as the "Singmaster notation" and his large personal collection of mechanical puzzles and books of brainteasers.

The GLAWARS was set up in April 1984 during the height of the Cold War by the Greater London Council (GLC) to investigate the impact of a nuclear or conventional war on London. To date the GLAWARS has been the most extensive scientific investigation of possibilities for civil protection and civil defence of a metropolitan area in a modern war.

During 1979 the Government's perceived lack of readiness for such attack pushed the Home Office into publishing in May 1980 a public information series called 'Protect and Survive' on civil defence. It was intended to inform British citizens on how to protect themselves during a nuclear attack, and consisted of a mixture of pamphlets, radio broadcasts, and public information films. However many thought the publication misleading when confronted by the real outcome of nuclear war. In 1983 the GLC was required to draw up civil defence plans for the city under the Civil Defence Regulations and asked the Government for more information about the scale and nature of any likely attack, but met a refusal from the Home Office.

In 1984 Ken Livingstone's GLC commissioned the GLAWARS research project to consider the effect of an attack on London and Londoners. The brief was to establish how London would cope with an all-out attack, nuclear or otherwise, and what would happen to the capital's residents, the food, the water, roads, railways, houses and hospitals. The GLC appointed an international Commission of five experts guiding the direction of the study who were Dr Anne Ehrlich (Stanford University USA), Dr S William Gunn (International Red Cross/Head of Emergency Relief Operations, World Health Organisation), Dr Stuart Horner (DMO, Croydon Health Authority/British Medical Association Council Member), Vice-Admiral John M Lee (Assistant Director, US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, retired) and Dr Peter Sharfman (US Congress Office of Technology Assessment).

At the same time, the GLC commissioned the Polytechnic of the South Bank (now London South Bank University) to carry out the GLAWARS study, under the overall direction of the Commission. In all 44 expert authors, including scientists, military experts and disaster-relief specialists, mostly from outside the Polytechnic, produced 33 separate research papers on topics such as Emergency Nursing Services, Nuclear Blast and Building Stress, Communication Destruction and Food Pollution. The researchers took as the basis of their report, five scales of nuclear attack ranging from eight megatons dropped on Britain by bombers carrying nuclear bombs and air-to-surface missiles to 10-35 megatons targeted on London alone by SS20 missiles. The report also addressed the possibilty of a conventional, non-nuclear attack on London's services.

The final horrifying results were presented to the GLC in early 1986 and were subsequently published in June 1986 in a 397-page book entitled 'London Under Attack: The Report of the Greater London Area War Risk Study'. The book was highly critical of Government and Home Office policy on civil defence and with its specific and merciless statistics destroyed the fairy tale of survival after a nuclear attack. "The prospect facing those who initially survived would be fear, exhaustion, disease, pain and long, lonely misery. Avoiding a nuclear war is still the only way of avoiding this fate", warns the Report. The depth and breadth of the conclusions of the GLAWARS went far beyond any investigation previously available to any official body, country or organization, and have since been found applicable to most major urban centres.

South West London College was founded in 1966 from the amalgamation of other educational institutions. The College specialised in degrees and diplomas in accountancy, business and management studies, with the first full time course offered in 1967. The College was designated a Higher Education Centre under the Education Reform Act 1988 but was dissolved by the Secretary of State for Education in 1991. The College's Students were dispersed to a number of colleges: South Bank Polytechnic, Thames Polytechnic, City of London Polytechnic, Kingston Polytechnic, Polytechnic of Central London and the Polytechnic of North London. Staff were combined with those at South Bank Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic.

George F Driver was a carpentry and joinery student at Woolwich Polytechnic in 1928-1929.

Mr J R Edmonds worked at Woolwich Arsenal and read papers to Woolwich Polytechnic Engineering Society.

A Training College for Technical Teachers was opened in 1946 at North Western Polytechnic in North London as part of the Ministry of Education's emergency scheme for training teachers. In 1950 the College was separated from North Western Polytechnic and maintained by London County Council. The College was renamed Garnett College in 1953 after William Garnett, a former Secretary to the London County Council's Technical Education Board. In 1963 Garnett College was moved to Roehampton, continuing to run courses for students training to work in further and higher education. The College moved into two Georgian villas: Mount Clare, which became the college's residential facility, and Downshire House, its administrative centre with a teaching block in the grounds. In 1978 Garnett became responsible for most of a further adjacent house, Manresa House, which was used for teaching.

By the 1980s Garnett College had about 500 students at Roehampton and about the same number studying part-time and attending various colleges in the south of England or Garnett's annexe in West Square near Elephant and Castle.The College ran a one year or equivalent course leading to a Teacher's Certificate for further education teachers, with some students full-time, others taking sandwich courses and some day-release students. Students were normally over 25 and already professionally qualified in the subjects they would teach or were already teaching. Garnett also offered a range of courses in teacher training unique to the College, leading to University of London diplomas, MA, or CNAA B.Ed. (Council for National Academic Awards). With a student-staff ration of 8 to 1 the college was considered expensive to maintain, and was one of only four further education teacher training colleges in the country. With the support of the Inner London Education Authority, Thames Polytechnic negotiated a merger with Garnett College in 1986. By 1990 all the students from Garnett College had been moved to Thames Polytechnic's Avery Hill site and a new site at Wapping.

Rhoda Frances Moss Herbert attended Avery Hill College, a London County Council teacher training college for women in Eltham, from 1917 to 1919. On leaving Avery Hill she was employed by London County Council, teaching at Ancona Road Boys' School. She was head teacher at Goresbrook Road Junior School, Barking in the 1920s and head teacher of the village school in Freshfield, Lancashire from 1934 to 1942. She taught at Orpington Secondary School for Girls in Kent from 1942 to 1947 and was Head of Grove County Secondary Girls' School, Gosport from 1947 to 1963.

E Myra Kellaway attended Avery Hill College, a London County Council teacher training college for women in Eltham, from 1935 to 1937. Her father owned a photographic business in Sidcup, Kent.

The sisters Margaret and Rachel McMillan were Christian Socialists active in British politics and in campaigning for better education and health for poor children. They were born in 1860 and 1859 to a Scottish family, and educated in Inverness. In 1888 Rachel joined Margaret in London, where Margaret was employed as a junior superintendent in a home for young girls. She found Rachel a similar job in Bloomsbury. The sisters attended socialist meetings in London where they met William Morris, H M Hyndman, Peter Kropotkin, William Stead and Ben Tillet, and began contributing to the magazine Christian Socialist. They gave free evening lessons to working class girls in London, and in doing so became aware of the connection between the girls' physical environment and their intellectual development.

In October 1889, Rachel and Margaret helped the workers during the London Dock Strike. In 1892 they moved to Bradford, touring the industrial regions speaking at meetings and visiting the homes of the poor. As well as attending Christian Socialist meetings, the sisters joined the Fabian Society, the Labour Church, the Social Democratic Federation and the newly formed Independent Labour Party (ILP).

Margaret and Rachel's work in Bradford convinced them that they should concentrate on trying to improve the physical and intellectual welfare of slum children. In 1892 Margaret joined Dr James Kerr, Bradford's school medical officer, to carry out the first medical inspection of elementary school children in Britain. Kerr and McMillan published a report on the medical problems that they found and began a campaign to improve the health of children by arguing that local authorities should install bathrooms, improve ventilation and supply free school meals.

The sisters remained active in politics and Margaret McMillan became the Independent Labour Party candidate for the Bradford School Board. Elected in 1894 she was now in a position to influence what went on in Bradford schools. She also wrote several books and pamphlets on the subject including Child Labour and the Half Time System (1896) and Early Childhood (1900). In 1902 Margaret joined her sister Rachel in London. The sisters joined the recently formed Labour Party and worked closely with leaders of the movement including James Keir Hardie and George Lansbury. Margaret continued to write books on health and education, publishing Education Through the Imagination (1904) followed by The Economic Aspects of Child Labour and Education (1905). The two sisters were prominent in the campaign for school meals which eventually led to the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act.

Margaret and Rachel worked together in London to obtain medical inspection for the city's school children. In 1908 they opened the country's first school clinic in Bow. This was followed by the Deptford Clinic in 1910 that served a number of schools in the area. The clinic provided dental help, surgical aid and lessons in breathing and posture. The sisters also established a Night Camp where slum children could wash and wear clean nightclothes. The Girls' Camp was at 353 Evelyn Street, and the Boys' Camp at 24 Albury Street, Deptford. In 1914 the sisters decided to start an Open-Air Nursery School and Training Centre in Peckham, and within a few weeks there were thirty children at the school ranging in age from eighteen months to seven years. As the Deptford Clinic developed, so did the the training provision for teachers and in 1919 it was accorded recognition by the Board of Education as a training centre for nursery staff.

Rachel died in 1917. Margaret continued to run the Peckham Nursery and served on the London County Council. She continued to write on teaching and schools, producing a series of influential books that included The Nursery School (1919) and Nursery Schools: A Practical Handbook (1920). The teaching at Deptford continued to expand and, with financial help from Lloyds of London, new buildings in Creek Road, Deptford, were opened to continue to train nurses and teachers. The Rachel McMillan Teacher Training College, named in honour of her sister, was opened on 8th May, 1930. Students took a three year full-time course leading to a Froebel Certificate. In 1961 London County Council took over management of the College and an annexe on New Kent Road previously occupied by Garnett College was opened. Courses at the annexe focused on nursery, infant or junior teaching, leading to a London University Certificate in Education after a four-year part-time course. In 1976 the College was incorporated into Goldsmiths' College, and courses were moved from Deptford to Goldsmiths' main building at New Cross. Courses at the New Kent Road annexe became part of the Polytechnic of the South Bank. From 1980 onwards Goldsmiths' Science Departments were moved to the old Rachel McMillan building, which was refurbished and converted into laboratories. When Goldsmiths' became a School of the University of London in 1988 Science teaching was transferred to Thames Polytechnic, and the Rachel McMillan building was given over to the Polytechnic.

Doris M Pollard attended Avery Hill College, a London County Council teacher training college for women in Eltham, from 1928 to 1930.

Thames Polytechnic was designated on 1 May 1970 as a result of the government's White Paper A Plan for Polytechnics and Other Colleges, published in 1966. This outlined the arrangements for implementing the government's policy for a dual system of higher education, divided by the binary line, first outlined by Anthony Crosland, Secretary of State for Education, in a speech at Woolwich Polytechnic in 1965. The polytechnics in the public sector would provide vocational, professional and industrially-based courses, some for degrees awarded by the Council of National Academic Awards (CNAA), some at sub-degree level, and some to provide a second chance for those who had missed the opportunity for further education on leaving school.

In 1968 three departments of Hammersmith College of Art and Building, Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Surveying had amalgamated with Woolwich Polytechnic, and the institution became Thames Polytechnic in 1970. During the 1970s Thames concentrated on the teaching of a wide range of subjects at an advanced level, although unlike universities was unable to grant its own degrees. These were awarded by the CNAA for courses which required CNAA approval, and were reviewed by a peer group drawn from industry and other polytechnics and universities. Many students took sandwich courses, and several CNAA courses were vocational in nature.

Dartford College, a teacher training college which had been founded in and specialised in training women sport and gymnastics teachers, amalgamated with Thames Polytechnic on 1 August 1976. The amalgamation was the result of government policy for reorganising teacher training colleges, set out in a White Paper in 1972 Education: A Framework for Expansion, which aimed to reduce the numbers of students training as teachers and required smaller training colleges to form closer associations with other institutions or expand their course range. Teacher training at Dartford was restructured to form the Faculty of Education and Movement Studies, but by 1979 the PE course for women teachers of sports and gymnastics was closed and by 1986 teacher training at Dartford had ceased. The Department of Landscape Architecture, previously part of Hammersmith Polytechnic, was moved to the Dartford campus in 1979, and was followed two years later by Architecture, Civil Engineering and in 1985 by the School of Surveying, creating a Faculty of the Built Environment.

During 1980-1 there was a gradual introduction of a modular scheme at Thames Polytechnic, offering a limited number of study units to be selected by students relating to their core subject, eventually becoming known as credit accumulation. The separation of full-time, part-time and sandwich students was abandoned, and by 1983-4 nearly every course admitted part-time students. Thames also aimed to increase the number of students, and in 1979-80 over 1000 first year students were recruited, the highest ever number, and recruitment for engineering, mathematics and science courses was high, against national trends.

Avery Hill College of Education, a teacher training college for women established in 1906, merged with Thames Polytechnic in 1985. Avery Hill had resisted plans for mergers and retained its independence for several years, but in line with the Inner London Education Authority's proposals and a general review of Advanced Further Education the idea of amalgamation was again raised in 1983. Thames was keen on the merger as an opportunity to improve the polytechnic's chances of becoming a university. On the merger Avery Hill became Thames Polytechnic's Faculty of Education and Community Studies.

Thames Polytechnic continued its programme of expansion by merging with Garnett College, a training college for technical teachers at Roehampton established in 1946, in 1986. With a student-staff ratio of 8 to 1 the college was considered expensive to maintain, and by 1985 the Inner London Education Authority was encouraging Garnett to merge. Thames Polytechnic was among the many institutions who had approached Garnett College with a view to merging, including South Bank Polytechnic and Roehampton Institute. With the support of the Inner London Education Authority, a merger with Thames Polytechnic was negotiated in 1986. Garnett became a new faculty of the polytechnic and then the School of Post-Compulsory Education and Training. By 1990 all the students from Garnett College had been moved to Thames Polytechnic's Avery Hill site and a new site at Wapping, and the two education faculties of the polytechnic were integrated to become one Faculty of Education.

In 1989 the science departments of the City of London Polytechnic and Goldsmiths' College were also transferred to Thames Polytechnic. Goldsmiths' had become a School of the University of London in 1988, and this was partly dependent on Goldsmiths' disposing of its science work. The City of London Polytechnic had found the numbers of students recruited to its science courses dropping and the courses became an economic liability. Thames acquired Goldsmiths' Deptford campus and City's Shadwell campus through the merger, as well as a new School of Earth Sciences from the geology departments of City and Goldsmiths'. Goldsmiths' former campus in Deptford, the Rachel McMillan buildings, was taken over by the School of Environmental Sciences in 1988-9.

In 1990 West Kent College at Tonbridge became an Associated College to Thames Polytechnic, as Thames aimed to increase higher and further education opportunities for the local community. Successful students at West Kent were to be guaranteed places at Thames and programmes of a Higher National Diploma Course in Business Studies and Finance at West Kent were validated by Thames. In 1991 parts of South West London College were transferred to Thames Polytechnic when the College was dissolved after initially seeking a merger with Thames. The transfer of staff and students enabled Thames to set up a law school within the Faculty of Business, with law degree courses at Avery Hill and business administration courses at Roehampton.

The Education Reform Act of 1988 had removed polytechnics from the control of local authorities and transferred their funding to a new body, the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council (PCFC). PCFC was replaced in 1992 when the Higher and Further Education Act created a single Higher Education Funding Council, removing any remaining distinctions between polytechnics and universities. Subsequently Thames Polytechnic became the University of Greenwich in 1992. Plans for the merger of Thames Polytechnic with Thames College of Health Care Studies, itself a merger of three local nursing and midwifery training schools, began in the late 1980s as a result of the Department of Health's objective to overhaul the training of nurses, midwives and health visitors by increasing the academic content of training. The College officially merged with the newly designated University of Greenwich on 1 January 1993, becoming a full faculty of the University.

Thames Polytechnic was designated in 1970 following the merger of Hammersmith Departments of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Surveying with Woolwich Polytechnic in 1969. Other mergers followed, Dartford College of Education in 1976, Avery Hill College of Education 1985 and Garnet College in 1987. In 1988 science teaching was transferred from Goldsmiths' (McMillan Building, Deptford) and from City Polytechnic to Thames Polytechnic to become the School of Earth Sciences. South West London College, Wandsworth was dissolved in 1991 and many staff and students transferred to Thames Polytechnic.

In 1992 Thames Polytechnic was redesignated as the University of Greenwich following the Higher and Further Education Act (1992), which created a single funding council, the Higher Education Funding Council, for England and abolished the remaining distinctions between polytechnics and universities. The transformation of the polytechnic into a university gave access to a wider range of research funding, both from government and industry. As a result the number of research projects at the university quickly rose, from 41 in 1992 to over 300 in 1995, reflecting the increase of external income from �2.5 million to over �6 million in 1995 and subsequent increase in postgraduate students. The new university had seven campuses and over 14,000 students, and various plans to reorganise the university's structure and geographical spread were considered. In 1993 the first stage of the new student village at Avery Hill was opened, and in 1994 Woolwich public swimming baths were acquired as a new Students' Union headquarters.

Discussions began in 1992 on a merger with the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) based at Chatham. A settlement was reached with the NRI in 1996 and 360 NRI staff joined the University, and a campus for the School of Earth Science and School of Engineering was established at Chatham.

After a successful partnership with West Kent College at Tonbridge during the 1990s, Greenwich established partnerships with a further seven colleges in south-east London, Kent and Essex as Associated Colleges. The university and college worked closely together to develop courses and students from the colleges were able to transfer to Greenwich at the end of their courses. Looser arrangements were also put in place with several 'linked' colleges, with the development of joint courses such as the MSc course in osteopathy developed with the European School of Osteopathy, Maidstone.

In 1995 a long leasehold was secured by the University of the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital and Devonport Nurses Home at Greenwich and the University made a bid for the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. The Government accepted the University's proposals for the Royal Naval College as the preferred option and between 1998 and 2001 the University relocated five schools to make the Maritime Greenwich Campus the principal centre of the University.

In 2002 the University decided to consolidate on three campuses, Greenwich, Avery Hill and Medway and the Dartford and Woolwich campuses were closed, although Woolwich continues as an administrative centre for the University.

The History of Anaesthesia Society was founded in 1986. Its purpose is to promote the study of the history of anaesthesia and related disciplines and to provide a forum for discussion. It holds meetings in the summer and autumn and sometimes meetings with other organisations. It publishes its Proceedings and other works on the history of anaesthesia, and funds conservation projects such as the restoration of graves of eminent anaesthetists. For further information see its website: http://www.histansoc.org.uk

Born in Liverpool, 1906; educated at Taunton School, Somerset; studied at the University of Durham College of Medicine in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; qualified as a doctor, 1927; Resident Medical Officer at the Princess Mary Maternity Hospital and subsequently at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle; purchased a share of a partnership in Southend-on-Sea; appointed general practitioner anaesthetist at Southend Victoria Hospital, 1931; appointed general practitioner anaesthetist at Southend General Hospital, 1932; became a whole-time anaesthetist in the Emergency Medical Service during World War Two (1939-1945), serving for five years at Runwell Emergency Hospital, Essex; Consultant Anaesthetist at Southend General Hospital, 1947; began at Southend the first Anaesthetic Outpatient Department in any British hospital, 1948; organised the first postoperative observation ward (recovery ward) in any British general hospital, 1955; President of the Royal Society of Medicine Section of Anaesthetics, 1959; Joseph Clover Lecturer of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, 1960; Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, 1970; Assistant Editor of the journal Anaesthesia, and Chairman of its Editorial Board, 1970-1972; retired from his NHS post at Southend, 1971; continued to teach in Britain, Holland and Baghdad after his retirement; Clinical Tutor at Southend, 1972-1976; elected President of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, 1972-1973; Honorary Member of the Association of Anaesthetists; received the Royal Society of Medicine Henry Hill Hickman Medal, 1976; Medallist of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, 1976; received the Carl Koller Gold Medal of the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia, 1984; delivered the Gaston Labat Lecture, American Society of Regional Anaesthesia, 1985; delivered the Stanley Rowbotham Lecture, Royal Free Hospital, London, 1985; delivered the T H Seldon Lecture, International Anesthesia Research Society, 1986; died, 1989. J Alfred Lee edited A Synopsis of Anaesthesia, a reference work on the history and techniques of anaesthesia, anaesthetic drugs, and professional practice, from its first edition (published by John Wright & Sons, Bristol, 1947) through subsequent editions (2nd edition, 1950; 3rd edition, 1953; 4th edition, 1959), jointly edited with R S Atkinson (5th edition, 1964; 6th edition, 1968; 7th edition, 1973); as contributing editor, with Atkinson and G B Rusham (8th edition, 1977; 9th edition, 1982; 10th edition, 1987). Subsequent editions were published after his death as Lee's Synopsis of Anaesthesia (11th edition, 1993; 12th edition, 1999). Other publications: with Sir Robert Reynolds Macintosh, Lumbar puncture and spinal analgesia: intradural and extradural (3rd edition, 1973, and subsequent editions); with C L Hewer, Recent Advances in Anaesthesia and Analgesia (8th edition, 1957); as editor, with Roger Bryce-Smith, Practical regional analgesia (1976); with Malcolm Jefferies, The hospitals of Southend (1986).

Born in New York, USA, 1907; moved with his family to Anglesey, north Wales, 1919; educated at Harrow School from 1920; Caius College Cambridge, 1926-1930; trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London; B Chir, 1933; general practitioner in Sheerness, 1930s; obtained British nationality, 1935; Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Medical Officer, 1939-1946; general practitioner in Windsor, 1947; Diploma in Anaesthetics, 1948; Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1954; Consultant Anaesthetist, Upton Hospital, Slough, Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot, King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, and Maidenhead Hospital; retired, c1984; died, 1992.

Born in Santos, state of Sao Paolo, Brazil, 1919; attended medical school, Rio de Janeiro, 1936-1943; worked in anaesthetic medicine in Brazil; intern in Chicago, USA, 1946; anesthesia residency, Madison, Wisconsin, under Ralph Waters, 1946-1948; returned to Santos and worked there, 1948-1952; returned to Madison, 1952-1954; worked in Sao Paolo from 1954; returned to Madison, 1963; returned to Sao Paolo and worked there until he retired; involved in organising the Third World Conference of Anaesthesiology, Sao Paolo, 1964; member of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) Committee on Education and Scientific Affairs, 1964; elected to WFSA Executive Committee, 1972; Vice-President, WFSA, 1980; President, WFSA, 1984.

A Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons was formed at the inauguration of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948. Following increasing specialisation in medical disciplines in the mid-20th century there was a trend for emergent disciplines to found independent academic bodies, separate from the general Colleges of physicians and surgeons, to provide for their own educational and examination requirements and maintain standards in patient care in their field. By 1970 anaesthesia was the largest single specialty in the NHS, but its Faculty did not control its own funds or award its own diplomas. During the 1970s there was debate within the profession as to whether the dependent Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England should remain, or whether an independent institution should be established. A College of Anaesthetists was eventually established, by Supplementary Charter, within the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1988. In 1989 the decision was made to become independent and funds were raised to acquire premises at nos 48-49 Russell Square, London. It was succeeded by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCOA), founded as an independent body by Royal Charter in 1992, with responsibility for setting standards for practice in anaesthesia, establishing standards for training postgraduate practitioners, administering examinations, and continuing medical education of all anaesthetists. See the RCOA website: http://www.rcoa.ac.uk

Born in Sutton, 1915; attended Swansea Grammar School from c1930; began pre-clinical medical studies at Swansea University College; entered King's College London, 1933; completed his medical education, which included clinical work at Charing Cross Hospital, and qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1939; soon after the outbreak of World War Two (1939-1945), enrolled in the Emergency Medical Service and served at Great Ormond Street Hospital; volunteered for war service with the Royal Air Force, 1940; posted to Hullavington and subsequently to RAF Hospital Bridgnorth, Shropshire, where he was designated a specialist anaesthetist; Diploma in Anaesthetics, 1941; posted to Singapore, 1945; demobilised, 1946; joined the anaesthetic staff at Ashford Hospital, Middlesex; Consultant Anaesthetist to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, and the Reading Group Hospitals, 1947-1978; a medical historian with a particular interest in the history of anaesthesia; Honorary Librarian of the Reading Pathological Society, 1949-1976; elected to the Fellowship of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of England, 1954; member of the Osler Club of London, 1956, and President, 1969; Council member of the Royal Society of Medicine Section of the History of Medicine, 1957, Secretary, 1959-1972, and President, 1970-1972; appointed Curator of the Charles King Collection of Historical Anaesthetic Apparatus of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, 1966; organised the Historical Section of the 4th International Congress of Anaesthiologists in London, 1968; appointed Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Society, 1971; President of the British Society for the History of Medicine, 1972-1974; member of Council of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, 1972-1974; elected to the Royal Society of Medicine Section of Anaesthetics Council, 1974; died, 1978. Publications include: James Douglas of the Pouch and his pupil William Hunter (Pitman Medical Publishing Co, London, 1964); Curare: its history and usage (Pitman Medical Publishing Co, London, 1964); 'The A Charles King Collection of early anaesthetic apparatus', Anaesthesia, vol xxv, no 4 (Oct 1970); The development of anaesthetic apparatus: a history based on the Charles King collection of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (published for the Association by Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1975).

MB, BS, London, 1972; Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1971; Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1976; Consultant Anaesthetist, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London; Honorary Treasurer of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland; formerly curator of the A Charles King Collection of Historical Anaesthetic Apparatus at the Association of Anaesthetists. Publications: 'A Charles King: a unique contribution to anaesthesia', Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, lxxx (Aug 1987), pp 510-14; edited, with A Marshall Barr and Thomas B Boulton, Essays on the history of anaesthesia (Royal Society of Medicine Press, 1996).

The Salvation Army's Musical Instrument Factory began at the Trade Headquarters, 56 Southwark Street, in 1889, with a staff of 2 men and a boy, and moved with the Trade Headquarters to 98-102 Clerkenwell Road in 1890. For the first three years, the factory only assembled cornets and did repairs. The factory began making valves and manufacturing all brass band instruments c1893. The first full set of instruments was made for Luton 2 corps in 1894 and the first plated set for Derby 2 (or Oldham 2) band in 1896. In 1897, the factory again moved with the Trade Department to 79-91 Fortess Road, Kentish Town, but in 1901 the instrument factory moved with the printing works to St Albans. The factory won Gold Medals at exhibitions in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1906 and 1907 and at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908. The lease of the factory transferred with 8 employees to Boosey and Hawkes Ltd on 24 February 1972.

The Royal College of General Practitioners was founded on 28 February 1952. It was decided early on to have regional faculties to relieve the College council of local responsibilies connected with activities of the College. These activities would largely deal with undergraduate education, postgraduate education and research, working in close liaison with local medical schools and universities. The faculties are a resource which generate social and professional contact with peers, and facilitates contact between GPs and those who work in local primary health care. Many faculties are seen as local providers of general practice education. In addition, many produce newsletters designed to keep members informed on local initiatives and provide a medium for members to exchange information and ideas. Faculties mirror the organisation of central Council, the governing body of the College. Each is run by a Faculty board and has a chairman, honorary secretary, treasurer and a number of elected members. At least one representative from each Faculty sits on the College Council.

The first faculty North East England was formed on 4th April 1953. On 28th March and 2 May 1953 statements were published in the BMJ and Lancet on proposed regional faculties in London, Home Counties (South); Home Counties (North); Thames Valley (Oxford); East Anglia (Cambridge); South-West (Bristol); Midland (Birmingham); North Midland (Sheffield); East and West Riding (Leeds); North-West Regional (Manchester); Merseyside (Liverpool); North-East Regionanl (Newcastle); Welsh (Cardiff); South-East Scottish (Edinburgh); West Scottish (Glasgow); East Scottish (Dundee); North-East Scottish (Aberdeen); North Scottish (Inverness) and Northern Ireland (Belfast).

By 1969 the number of faculties had grown to twenty in Great Britain and fifteen overseas and currently [2001] there are 31 faculties in Great Britain.

Patrick Sarsfield Byrne was born on 17 April 1913 in Birkenhead, son of John Stephen Byrne, butcher, and Marie Ann Byrne. He attended St Edward's College, Liverpool, between 1923-1930, having won one of two Birkenhead Town scholarships. In 1930 he won a state scholarship, to study at the University of Liverpool. In 1936 he graduated MB, ChB. During his time at Liverpool he was awarded a gold medal in surgery, won several clinical prizes, and was the first holder of a cup for debating. Byrne never lost his debating skills and in later years this, along with his political awareness, kept him ahead of his colleagues on the many committees on which he sat. After a locum tenens post with Dr Caldwell in August 1936, Byrne became a General Practitioner in Milnthorpe, Westmorland, where he practised until he moved to Manchester in 1968. He continued working as a General Practitioner, although on a much smaller scale due to other commitments, until his retirement in 1978, at the Darbishire House Teaching Health Centre.

Byrne began lecturing at Manchester University Medical School in 1965, and in 1968 became the Director of the newly created Department of General Practice, the establishment of which had been largely Byrne's responsibility. The pioneering work in medical education, initiated in the Department, led his discipline into education and training. He was the first to run courses for general practitioner teachers in 1966, and worked at emphasising the needs of medical teachers themselves. His last book, 'Doctors Talking to Patients' (1976), written jointly with B.E.L. Long, was an extremely significant piece of work which provided a scientific analysis based on a multitude of real consultations in real general practice. At the time the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners predicted that the book would act as a springboard for new discoveries for the doctor/patient relationship. In 1972 he became Chair at Manchester and so the first Professor of General Practice in England. He retired, and was made Professor Emeritus, in 1978.

Patrick Byrne was a founder member of the College of General Practitioners in 1952 (the Royal College of General Practitioners from 1967) and was Chairman and Provost of the North-West England Faculty, between 1966-68 and 1968-70 respectively. He Chaired the Education Committee of Council for six years, between 1964-70, and was subsequently Vice-Chairman of Council, 1965-66, and Chairman of the Board of Censors and Chief Examiner, 1967-73. Byrne served as President of the College from 1973 to 1976.

Byrne was arguably one of the most influential general practitioner authors in the world, producing a proliferation of articles, published in a variety of medical journals, discussing and evaluating the various teaching methods employed at the Department of General Practice. He was a member of the College Working Party which wrote the important work 'The Future General Practitioner - Learning and Teaching' (1972, RCGP). He co-authored several books, including 'The Assessment of Postgraduate Training for General Practice' (1976) and 'The Assessment of Vocational Training for General Practice, Reports from General Practice No. 17' (1976), both with J. Freeman, and 'Learning to Care' (1976), written jointly with B.E.L. Long. In addition to this he co-edited 'A Handbook for Medical Treatment' (1976, Proctor and Byrne) and 'A Textbook of Medical Practice' (1977, Fry et al.).

Byrne was also Chairman of the Working Party of the Leeuwenhorst Group, which had a membership of 11 European countries. The Group's aim was to create a definition of the role of the General Practitioner which would be acceptable to doctors in the eleven countries the group represented, and would serve as a basis for training programmes. The Working Party produced several important statements defining general practice, and more precisely the role of the General Practitioner. The definition has stood the test of time, remaining the best-known one in most European countries. Byrne was also advisor in General Practice to the DHSS in 1972, and took on the role of advisor to the British Council and many foreign governments, advising on medical education and the establishing of Departments or Colleges of General Practice, during his visits abroad.

Byrne received many awards in later life and gave numerous eponymous lectures. He delivered the first William Pickles Lecture at the Royal College of General Practitioners, and the Gale Memorial Lecture, in 1968, and in 1971 gave the W. Victor Johnston Memorial Oration, to the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Byrne was also the first general practitioner to give the William Marsden Lecture at the Royal Free Hospital London, in 1974, whilst in 1975 he was the David Lloyd Hughes Memorial Lecturer at Liverpool.

He was also honoured overseas by the awarding of the Hippocratic medal of the SIMG (International Society for General Practice) in 1963, and the Sesquicentennial medal of the Medical University of South Carolina, 1974. He was made Honorary Fellow of the College of Medicine in South Africa in 1975, and given Honorary Membership of the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 1976. At home he was appointed OBE in 1966, and CBE in 1975.

In 1937 he married Dr Kathleen Pearson, a fellow student from Liverpool University. Between 1938 and 1952 they had 2 sons and 4 daughters. Byrne died suddenly at his home, barely 18 months after he had retired, on 25 February 1980.

John Henderson Hunt was born on 3 July 1905 in Secunderabad, India, eldest son of Edmund Hunt, surgeon in charge of staff of the Nizam of Hyderabad's State Railways and Chief Medical Officer of the Railway Hospital, Secunderabad, and Laura Mary Hunt, daughter of a tea plantation owner. Hunt grew up in England with his mother and his siblings, whilst his father lived and worked in India until 1931, attending pre-preparatory school and then Temple Grove Preparatory School, Eastbourne. He was then educated at Charterhouse School from 1918. In 1923 Hunt achieved an exhibition to Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he graduated with a 2:1 in Physiology in 1927. Hunt was awarded the Radcliffe Scholarship in Pharmacology, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. He was registered BM, BCh, MRCS/LRCP with the General Medical Council in 1931.

Hunt worked as House Surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1931 and did a locum tenens at Duffield, Derbyshire. In 1933 he became second assistant at the Medical Unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital and in 1934, for two years, he was House Physician at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. In 1936 he went on to be Chief Assistant to the Consultative Neurological Clinic at St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1934 he passed the membership examination of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 1935 he obtained his DM Thesis, University of Oxford, on the subject of Raynaud's disease, a published work of the thesis appeared the following year in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine.

Hunt chose to become a general practitioner, and in 1937 joined Dr George Cregan in practice as a partner at 83 Sloane Street, London. The reaction of his teachers and colleagues was that he was 'committing professional suicide' (John Horder) as the differences in education, pay and status were indeed considerable. During the Second World War Hunt served as a neurologist in the Royal Air Force, at Blackpool and Ely, held the rank of Wing Commander. When the war was over he returned to set up independent practice at 54 Sloane Street, London. The practice had its own laboratory and x-ray department. Hunt choose not to enter the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, continuing to run a private service, having an already well-established clientele since establishing the practice at the end of the war.

Although Hunt had not entered the NHS he was acutely aware of the uncertain and unsatisfactory position of general practitioners during the crucial NHS planning stages. It was felt that there was justification for general practitioners to have a college of their own. The notion of an academic body to promote the efficiency of general practice had been proposed as long ago as 1844, but to no effect. However, over a hundred years later the ideas were again being put forward.

In October 1951 Hunt and Dr Fraser Rose wrote a letter, published in the British Medical Journal and The Lancet, proposing 'a possible College of General Practice'. Memoranda published two weeks later provoked both favourable and unfavourable responses, with many influential people, particularly the Presidents of the established Royal Colleges, expressing their opposition. Hunt brought together a group of influential figures, including former Minister of Health, Sir Henry Willink, to form a steering committee which looked into the practical aims and needs of the proposed institution. The Steering Committee, with Hunt as Secretary, persevered and on 19 November 1952 Memorandum and Articles of Association of the College of General Practitioners were signed and in December the Committee's Report was published. Within six months the College had 2000 doctors as members, and had widespread support of both medical and non-medical bodies. Hunt continued his steadfast commitment to, and hard work for, the College, displaying determined leadership as the first Honorary Secretary of Council, 1953-66, and then as President, 1967-70, and developing the College's role and influence both at home and abroad, throughout the rest of his professional life. In the College's first annual report the Foundation Council of the College put on record its appreciation of Hunt, 'in the events leading up to the formation of the steering committee, Dr John Hunt was mainly responsible for bringing together the right individuals and for enlisting the interest and support of the leaders of medical opinion everywhere... the measure of success so far achieved by the College would not have been possible without him' (1st Annual Report 1953, pp.12-13).

'A History of the Royal College of General Practitioners', edited by Hunt, along with John Fry and Robin Pinsent, tells the story of the College's first 25 years. Published in 1983 this was the last of many publications for which Hunt was responsible. A complete collection of his published papers is held at the Royal College of General Practitioners, Princes Gate, London. The writings cover many topics including the foundation of the College.

Hunt was honoured by both medical and lay organisations worldwide, he was appointed CBE in 1970 and in 1973 was given life peerage, as Lord Hunt of Fawley, in the House of Lords. He participated in many debates on medical affairs, with a voice of authority gained from his wide experience, and was responsible for steering the Medical Act of 1978 through the Upper House. It has been suggested though that the keynote speech of his life however was his Lloyd Roberts Lecture, 'The Renaissance of General Practice', delivered in 1957, which illuminated proposals for the future work of the College and of general practitioners. Hunt received many awards including the W Victor Johnson Medal, in 1973, when he was made Honorary Member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and the Gold Medal of the BMA in 1980.

Hunt was supported throughout his career by his wife Elisabeth who he had married in 1941. They had five children, two daugthers, a son who died in childhood, and two twin sons, both of whom became general practitioners. Hunt was forced to retire due to failing eye sight in 1981, and died 6 years later on 28 December 1987 at his home in Fawley, near Henley-on-Thames.

James Mackenzie (1853-1925) was born on April 1853 in Pickstonhill Farm, Scone, where his father was a tenant farmer and was the third child and second son. He attended the local school at Scone and he went to Perth Academy in 1865 but left after three years to serve an apprenticeship as a dispensing chemist at Reid & Donald chemists, George Street, Perth, for four years. After working as an assistant chemist in Glasgow for a year, he decided to study medicine. After some private tuition in Latin, he passed the university entrance examination and entered the medical school at Edinburgh University, qualifying M.B. & C.M. in 1878. He worked as a locum in a colliery practice at Spennymoor, County Durham from June of that year till November when his resident post at Edinburgh Royal infirmary became available. On completing his residency in 1879, he joined Dr. Briggs and Brown in general practice in Burnley, an industrial town in England.

He found himself in a very busy practice where the patients did not correspond to those in the teaching hospital or the textbooks. In Victorian England, infectious disease was rife, and in Burnley in 1879 there were 56 deaths from scarlet fever and the infant mortality was 205/1000 births. He saw 60 to 70 patients daily and attended an average of three deliveries a week but still he found time to complete his MD thesis on Hemi-paraplegia Spinalis in 1882.

In his spare time, he studied Greek and German, played golf and started to write a novel, which was concerned with the social deprivation prevalent at that time. In 1885, he was able to afford the time and the money for a holiday in America. The highlight of his visit was to Yellowstone Park. Two years later, he married Frances Jackson and honeymooned in Italy. He had two daughters Dorothy born in 1888 and Jean in 1893.

While engaged in this very busy practice, he made original observations and had over fifty papers published. Although many of his articles were on cardiology, he also wrote on many other topics particularly neurology and pain mechanisms. He was among the first to own a motorcar in Burnley and a photograph in one of his biographies shows him in this car with a driver.

In 1890 he made the seminal observation that the chambers of the heart could beat out of their correct order, when he discovered extra systoles. But it was not until the distinguished pharmacologist, Professor Cushny, demonstrated extra systoles experimentally in the mammalian heart that Mackenzie's findings were generally accepted. Before his discoveries were widely known, many people were made cardiac invalids by the anxiety of their doctors who, on discovering the irregularity due to extra systoles, confined the patient needlessly to bed or ordered them to curtail their activities.

By carefully following up his patients with extra systoles, Mackenzie showed their benign nature. At first he used a sphygmograph for graphically recording a peripheral pulse. The tracings were made on a smoked drum which was then varnished to preserve the record, a very time consuming process. He then developed the polygraph, a portable clockwork, ink-writing instrument with two tambours with which he was able to record radial and jugular pulses simultaneously and to measure the atrioventricular interval. He used the polygraph to diagnose the various types of heart block. This work was all done in the course of the usual busy medical practice. At this time his knowledge of cardiology was growing very fast cardiac irregularities were regarded with concern by the profession and the laity, as none knew their significance.

In 1897 he noted that in a patient with mitral stenosis, the presystolic murmur disappeared with the onset of irregularity of the pulse but he also noted that the 'a' waves in the jugular venous pulse had also disappeared and concluded that the auricle was paralyzed, which functionally it was. This disordered irregularity described by Mackenzie was later called auricular fibrillation.

Another of his discoveries was the action of digitalis on conduction in the atrio-ventricular bundle, so slowing the ventricular response in atrial fibrillation. He also devised a safer and simpler regimen for prescribing digitalis.

He managed to find the time to do an immense amount of research together with a heavy workload of family practice, he had an enormous capacity for work and was driven by an intense desire to advance his understanding of disease. Mackenzie was expert with the polygraph and painstaking in storing and interpreting those records. He filed his notes and tracings for further reference and as illustrations in his textbooks. At the age of 49, the first of his books, "The Study of the Pulse" [1902] was published after twenty-three years in general practice.

By this time he had become the world clinical authority on heart disease. His publications attracted the attention of many famous medical personages and including Weckenbach [from 1902] and Sir Arthur Keith in 1903. Mackenzie sent the hearts of patients obtained at autopsy to Keith who studied the pathology particularly the conducting system.

In 1906 he attended the BMA meeting in Toronto and the GP from Burnley became engaged in a lively debate with Dr. Morrow, professor of physiology at McGill University and it appears Mackenzie got the best of the argument. The following year saw the formation of The Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland, the membership of which was limited to 200 hospital physicians and lectures in clinical medicine. Mackenzie, although a general practitioner, was elected and opened the discussion on the heart at the first meeting.

He left Burnley for London and set up as a consultant in November 1907. He was invited to join the staff of the West End Hospital for nervous disease under Sir James Purves-Stewart and was appointed to the staff of Mount Vernon Hospital Hampstead. His second book, "Diseases of the Heart", was published in 1908. The following year, he rented consulting rooms in Harley Street and in a very short time, was very busy with private patients. Although he was he was elected FRCP in 1909 but his main objective, a place on the consultant staff of the London Hospital eluded him although he was appointed lecturer in cardiac research, in 1911 to that hospital and was allowed the use of six beds.

Mackenzie's third textbook, "Symptoms And Their Interpretation", was published in 1909 and the following year he was made an LLD of Aberdeen University. More honours followed in 1911 when he delivered the Oliver Sharpey lecture on heart failure to the Royal College of Physicians and the Schorstein lectures on auricular fibrillation to the London Hospital. In 1913 he was appointed physician in charge of the new cardiac department at the London hospital and was involved in setting up the military cardiac department at Mount Vernon hospital. In his eleven years in private consultant medicine, he did not charge excessive fees but still earned a considerable amount of money.

In 1915, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; a knighthood followed later that year. The following year he published "Principles of Diagnosis and Treatment in Heart Infections". To all intents he had made it in London, become a consultant to the prestigious London Hospital, and had done well financially. So, it seems strange that two years later, at the age of sixty-four, he decided to leave London and move to St. Andrews to set up an institute for research in general practice.

By October 1919 he had established his research institute in St. Andrews and managed to involve all the general practitioners in the town in his project. He also found the time to publish another work "The Future of Medicine". The various programmes considered at the institute included the investigation of pain, of glandular enlargement, disease of children and consumption, a somewhat daunting task for five GPs. He was very keen to get the general practitioner involved in keeping good records and in the epidemiology of the maladies occurring in practice. He was probably one of the first to think of epidemiology in terms of non-infectious diseases. In 1920 he was appointed Honorary Physician to the King and he put forward proposals for a postgraduate school for training panel doctors.

In 1923 his large output of textbooks was expanded with the two publications, "Heart Disease in Pregnancy" and "Angina Pectoris". The achievements of the institute were modest and it did not last long after his death but he did draw attention to the importance of family doctors and their need for special training. It is worth noting that three university chairs of general practice in Britain are named in his honour.

Mackenzie had suffered from angina pectoris for many years and died on a visit to London in January 1925. A postmortem examination was carried out by his former assistant, Sir John Parkinson who on Mackenzie's prior instructions, had his heart taken to the anatomy department of St. Andrews University.

C & A Ltd, clothing retailers and manufacturers, was founded by Clemens and August Brenninkmeyer in Sneek, Holland, in 1841. Their descendants continued to serve with the firm in Great Britain. The first British store opened on 376/384 Oxford Street and Bird Street in 1922 (this store was completely destroyed by a German bomb in November 1940). The company aimed to produce a wide range of quality, affordable clothing, backed by large scale newspaper and magazine advertising and attractive window and in-store displays. The firm rapidly expanded during the 1920s and 1930s; stores opened in Liverpool in 1924, Birmingham in 1926, Manchester in 1928, and Leeds and Glasgow in 1929. The first C & A factory commenced production at Wilson Street, London, in 1928, but demand quickly outstripped production, and a larger factory was opened at Goswell Road in 1930. The first suburban store was opened in Peckham, South London, in 1930; new stores in Kensington, Sheffield and Newcastle opened in 1932, and in Edinburgh and Southampton in 1936. In March 1939, a third C & A store opened on Oxford Street; this was a huge flagship store named 'Hereford House', located near Marble Arch. Following World War Two, new designs in women's fashion combined with increasing consumer spending power allowed further expansion of the company in the British market. Three new shops opened during 1946-1947, seven between 1952-1959, rising to twenty between 1960-1969, and twelve in the period 1970-1972.

During the 1990s trading difficulties grew, as competition from other clothing retailers intensified on the high street, with the company attempting to attract consumers who were disinclined to spend as freely as in the 1980s. In June 2000, the company announced that it would cease trading in the UK. Most of the 109 British stores closed in January 2001, with the last British stores at Bradford and Hounslow closing in May 2001. The C & A group, based in Brussells, continues to operate some 500 stores in eleven other European countries.

Hayes Textiles Limited of Vencourt Place, 261/271 King Street, London, specialised in high quality Jacquard Fabrics and the production of Nigerian headwear. The Directors were D A Butler, S Ryman and M J Nettleton. On the death of the founder D A Butler, the company closed.

St Mary's Training College was founded in 1850 on the initiative of Cardinal Wiseman. The Catholic Poor School Committee which was concerned with providing primary education to children of poor Roman Catholics throughout the united Kingdom, purchased a former girls school at Brook Green House, Hammersmith, and adapted it for use as a college with accommodation for 40 men students. A legal trust created on 16 Jul 1851 in connection with this property and its use as a training college for Catholic schoolmasters was confirmed in perpetuity.
The college was established on similar lines to that of the Brothers of Christian Instruction (les Freres d'Instruction Chretienne) at Ploermel, Brittany, where English students were sent between 1848-1851. A French brother, Brother Melanie was initially placed in charge of St Mary's College, until the appointment of an English principal, Rev John Melville Glennie in 1851.

The college opened with six men students who had begun their training at the novitiate of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, Ploermel, Brittany. It was expected that students would join the teaching religious order, however in 1854, in response to a shortage of suitably qualified candidates, the decision was taken to admit lay students to the college. In 1855, additional accommodation was provided for 50 lay students. By 1860 only lay students were attending the college.

With the appointment of the fourth principal Father William Byrne CM in 1899, the association of the College with the Congregation of the Mission (usually known as the Vincentians) commenced. This inaugurated a period of change and augmentation, seen in the increase in staff and student numbers, the introduction of the office of Dean, and the extension of the College premises made possible by funding from the Catholic Education Council. At the same time the College was concerned with adjusting to the requirements of the Education Acts of 1902-3 and their effect on the development of elementary education.

In 1898 Inter-College Sports were introduced between Borough Road, St Mark's, St Johns, Westminster and St Mary's colleges. The college magazine The Simmarian began a new series in 1903-4. Originally in manuscript form, it became a printed paper in 1905.

By 1924 there were 129 resident students at the College. Recognising the limitations of facilities at Hammersmith, the Principal the Very Rev Dr J J Doyle CM along with Sir John Gilbert and Sir Francis Anderton negotiated the sale of the Hammersmith site to the neighbouring Messrs J Lyons and Co. in 1922 and in 1923 the purchase of the Walpole-Waldegrave property at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, from Lord Michelham.

The College moved to its Strawberry Hill site in 1925, despite the extensive new buildings, designed by S Pugin-Powell, being yet incomplete and it was not until June1927 that they were officially opened. The new College site provided accommodation for 150 students of its 190 students.

For further information on the College following its move to Strawberry Hill see description for St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill.

John Russell was born at Wyke, in 1855, the son of a bookkeeper. He was educated at St John's College Cambridge, 1878-1882. He graduated with a second class degree in Theology, and chose a career in teaching.

He was a master at Islington High School 1882-1883 where he taught modern languages - French and German, as well as various elementary subjects, athletics and cricket. He resigned in 1883 in order ostensibly to pursue studies in modern philology in Germany, but in fact to seek out alternative educational models on the Continent, such as those that Jules Ferry, Minister of Education in the Third French Republic, was introducing in France. This model included an emphasis on modern languages, and pedagogy based on the Pestalozzian principle of observation. These reforms had distinctly secular and political goals, and were to be a significant influence in Russell's subsequent teaching career.

Returning to England in 1886, he took up a post as assistant master at the University College School, located at this time in Gower St, London. In 1901 he was appointed the second headmaster of the King Alfred School, London to whom he was recommended by a former pupil at UCS. He was appointed followed the complete deterioration of the relationship between the King Alfred School Council and its first Headmaster. A popular and successful head, he oversaw the Schools acquisition of the property at number 22 Ellerdale Rd in 1906. He was also responsible for introducing to the school a Parliament of Pupils, 1904, and the introduction of examinations as a regular part of the curriculum, 1908. He retired from teaching in 1920.

Outside school life, Russell was Warden of the Passmore Edwards settlement in Bloomsbury [1895], an active member of the Teacher's Guild and an acknowledged expert on Pestalozzi. He translated Baron Roger de Guimp's Life and works of Pestalozzi [1886], and wrote articles on modern teaching techniques and for the Guild's Journal of Education.

He was married to Elizabeth (Bess) Collins, who died in 1923. In 1925, he married Estelle Basden, who was the sister was Violet Horton, wife of Dr Horton.

The Children's Society maintained a case file for each child who was admitted to its care between 1882 and the 1970s.

The home was opened in 1902. It closed in 1968 and the building was then used for Bradstock Lockett Nursery, later Bradstock Lockett Family Centre. More information about the home can be found on the Hidden Lives Revealed website: http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/homes/SOUTH01.html

Born the son of an RAF pilot in 1946, Christopher Palmer was educated at Norwich School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Initially studying modern languages at Cambridge, he switched courses to music. His career was wide and varied: he was a writer, producing biographies, sleeve notes, radio scripts, reviews and articles, mainly on British music; he was also a talented orchestrator and arranger of film scores and classical music; and a record producer who particularly benefited unsung British composers. Palmer had an enthusiasm for Prokofiev, Ravel and Britten, and collaborated with Oleg Prokofiev on the publication of Serge Prokofiev, Soviet Diary, 1927 and other writings (Faber and Faber, 1991). His work on a new biography of Prokofiev was cut short by his untimely death in 1995.

Lina Prokofiev began life as Carolina Codina, born in Madrid on 21 October 1897. Her maternal Polish grandfather had held an important government post in Russia and spoke both Russian and Polish fluently. Lina herself became an adept linguist and so was at ease in cosmopolitan circles. Both her parents were singers, and Lina was trained by her mother to pursue the same career. When Lina was still a girl, her father brought the family from Spain to Cuba, and then to New York. Lina first met Serge Prokofiev in December 1918 following his New York symphonic concert debut at Carnegie Hall. Married in Bavaria in October 1923, they soon moved to Paris which became their main residence until the spring of 1936, when Prokofiev moved his family to Moscow. Lina's existence became particularly precarious when Prokofiev left her during the war in 1941, when he was evacuated from Moscow along with numerous artists, including Mira Mendelson, a young writer who would become his second wife in 1948. The Soviet authorities regarded their separation with a suspicion which was all the more heightened by her regular contacts with Western diplomats following World War Two. Early in 1948 she was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in labour camps. She was released in 1956 following the general amnesty after Stalin's death, though she was unable to leave the Soviet Union until 1974, when she returned to Paris. During her last years she devoted her considerable energy to promoting her husband's work.

Serge Prokofiev was born in Sontsovka, in the Ukraine, in 1891. He played the piano and composed from an early age, and studied with Reinhold Gliere in the summers of 1902 and 1903. He attended the St Petersburg Conservatory from 1904 to 1914, and studied composition, conducting and piano, though his overwhelming desire to develop his own style often brought him into conflict with his teachers. He played his first public performance on 18 December 1908 in St Petersburg at one of the 'Evenings of Contemporary Music', premiered his first full compositions, and graduated in 1914, having won the coveted Anton Rubinstein Prize for the best student pianist. Following his graduation, Prokofiev travelled widely, performing his compositions in Paris, London and the USA. He composed in a wide range of musical genres, including symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets and film music, though the modern nature of his music often led to censure on the part of the music press of the time. He moved to Paris permanently in 1923, after his marriage to Lina Codina. Tours of Soviet Russia in 1927, 1929 and 1932 contributed towards Prokofiev's decision to return to his homeland permanently in 1936, joined by his wife and two children. He developed an intense interest in writing scores for film, beginning with Lieutenant Kizhe in 1933, and for the theatrical stage - Peter and the Wolf was written in 1936 and performed by the State Children's Theatre. He also composed ballets such as Romeo and Juliet, premiered in 1938. Though Prokofiev initially conformed to Soviet ideology, the limitations imposed upon his artistic freedom proved stifling, and he was soon forbidden permission to tour outside the Soviet Union. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, all senior cultural figures were evacuated from Moscow, including Prokofiev, whose wife and children were left behind for the duration of the war. Lina Prokofiev, being Spanish by birth, was later arrested (1948) and sent to a labour camp for 8 years. In the same year her marriage to Prokofiev was annulled by the state, after which Prokofiev married Mira Mendelson. His composition remained prolific, and the works created during the War proved to be some of his most successful, notably War and Peace, Cinderella, and his Fifth Symphony. Suffering from increasing ill-health, Prokofiev died on 5 March 1953 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

The Japan Society of London was founded at a meeting of the Japanese Section of the International Congress of Orientalists held in London on 9 September 1891, when a resolution was passed calling for the formation of a society 'for the encouragement of Japanese studies and for the purpose of bringing together all those in the United Kingdom and throughout the world who are interested in Japanese matters'.

The proposal of Arthur Diosy was warmly supported by members of the Section, and Diosy along with Diagoro Goh, Chancellor of the Imperial Japanese Consulate General in London, were appointed its initial honorary secretaries. The societies objectives were the encouragement of the study of Japanese language, literature, history and folk-lore, art, science and industries, of the social life and economic condition of the Japanese people, past and present, and all Japanese matters. Diosy, Goh and Francis T Piggott (former Legal Advisor to the Japanese Cabinet) formed an organizing council which met in the Royal Society of Arts in Dec 1891. Professor William Anderson FRCS (formerly medical doctor to the Naval Medical College, Tokyo, and medical officer to the British Legation) was elected the first chairman. There were 124 original members and two corresponding members.

In 1896, the Society was involved in collecting money for the relief of sufferers in Japan from the tidal wave that struck the north-east coat of Japan, Jun 1896 - raising a total of £3, 872. It also provided some £3,000 for the Red Cross Society of Japan in 1904.

By 1897, the Society had 803 members. The Society prospered in the climate engendered by the Anglo Japanese Alliance, 1902. Their lectures proved popular with an average attendance of 200 in 1905. There was general admiration for the Japanese exploits in the Russo-Japanese was, 1904-1905, and in 1910 the Society participated in the Japan British Exhibition was held at Shepherds Bush.

The society was also involved with the visits of a number of Japanese princes and statesmen, including Marquis (later Prince) Hirobumi Ito in January 1902, Count Masayoshi Matsukata former prime minister and finance minister, with his wife in May 1902, Prince Akihito Komatsu, brother of the Emperor, in July 1902, Prince Arisugawa in July 1905, Prince Fushimi in May 1907, Prince Morimasa Nashimoto and Princess Nashimoto, in 1909, and Prince Yorihito Higashi-Fushimi and Princess Higashi-Fushimi in 1910.

The outbreak of World War One in 1914 led to a decrease in membership through resignations and death of members killed in action, as well as a general curtailment of activities. While their programme was revived following the war, membership did not reach pre-war levels and by 1930 total membership numbered 674. In 1919, the lease on the premises occupied by the society was not renewed, and the office moved to 22 Russell Square, while continuing to hold its lectures at 20 Hanover Square. The Crown Prince of Japan and the Edward, Prince of Wales, became patrons of the Society around 1921, a position which they both gave up on accession to their respective thrones.

Despite the Society's apolitical character, the lack of British public support for the policies of the Japanese government, particularly in China, during the 1930s, contributed to the decline in the Society's membership numbers. The Society's activities continued however, until suspended by a meeting of the Council 1 April 1942. The lease on the Society's offices was given up, the library put in storage and publication of the Transactions ceased, though the Society was to remain in being.
The Society was revived in 1949 at an Extraordinary General Meeting held at the Royal Society of the Arts. They produced a new publication Bulletin, in June 1950 giving news on the Society and its members. The Society welcomed the signing of the Peace Treaty with Japan, 8 Sep 1951 in San Francisco, however during the 1950s UK-Japan relations did not run smoothly in the wake of war-time atrocities and new resentments over trade, however membership gradually increased from 657 in 1956 to over 1000 in 1964-5. A new constitution was adopted in 1958 with the objective of the promotion of mutual understanding and good feeling between the British and Japanese peoples. This same year corporate membership was instituted.
The Society had a number of committees catering for interests of the members, including a Social, Programme, Library, House Entertainment, Publications, Finance and Garden Committee. In 1961, the Garden Committee established the Bonsaikai, which eventually separated from the Society in 1988. There was also a stamp group, and Ikebana group (formed 1964), two separate art circles, an Otomodachi-kai - an information group of English and Japanese ladies (formed 1961).
In 1959, the Wakatakekai was formed independently to cater for the interests of younger people who had visited Japan or were interested in its culture, as well as a growing number of young Japanese coming to work in the UK. In 1962, this independent group became the junior section of the Society.

The Society's constitution was amended between 1986-1988, removing the time limit for service of the Chairman, altering the name to The Japan Society, and rewriting its objectives to emphasise its Charitable status and purposes. The Society's centenary in 1991 was marked by The Japan Festival - over 300 events held throughout the UK.

The Society is governed by a Constitution (Articles of Association) and by decisions taken at the Annual General Meeting. The AGM also elects the Chairman and Members of its Council, which manages the affairs of the Society. The Society became a Company Limited by Guarantee in 1998.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brentwood was established in 1917, having formerly formed the eastern area of the Diocese of Westminster. It currently includes the County of Essex, as well as the London Boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham, and Havering.

After some negotiation, Brentwood was decided on as the centre of the new diocese rather than Ilford or Chelmsford, the other suggestions. Bishop Ward was appointed Administrator of the new Diocese of Essex in March 1917 and was enthroned as Bishop of Brentwood on 7 Nov 1917, and immediately faced acute shortage of funds for the Diocese, though it did benefit from the Gillow Trust. In 1917, a new Code of Canon Law had been promulgated and Brentwood became the first diocese to effect its provisions. All the missions of the Diocese were erected into canonical parishes and the Missionary Rectors being elevated to Parish Priests, Jul 1918. The Missionary Rector of Brentwood was appointed Administrator of the Cathedral and Parish Priest, a Chapter of Canons was erected with a Provost, Jul 1918, and a Vicar General appointed, Aug 1918.

The Diocese also faced a shortage of priests - some having been released to serve as military chaplains, while and others were busy working among the many troops stationed within the borders of Essex. The Catholic population was around 26,000 in 1917. By 1919, there were an estimated 35,000 Catholics in the diocese, many of Irish deccent, with 55 Secular priests, 27 Franciscans, and 3 of other orders. There were also 30 convents of nuns including Sisters of Mercy, Franciscans, Augustinians, Ursulines and others.

In the 1920s, the chief task of Bishop Doubleday, Ward's successor, was to supervise the foundation of new parishes in the rapidly developing suburbs in the east of London, where housing estates were being built and the Ford Motor Company had located a new factory. The needs of the rural Catholic population were also growing and finding priests for all these areas was a pressing task. Doubleday was also concerned for the provision of education for Catholic children, and for adequate funding to achieve this. He founded the Diocesan Schools Commission, for the purpose of planning the development of Catholic education. New schools were opened in various parts of he diocese, but especially in conjunction with the new parishes in east London.
During World War 2, the Diocese was a centre for both evacuation and reception of evacuees from urban areas. The Diocese of Brentwood was particularly effected by air raids, and many church buildings and schools sustained substantial damage and disruption.
Following the war, London and its suburbs faced a shortage of housing, and in response local government expanded and built new housing estates, as well as establishing whole new towns. This, along with the influx of Polish refugees, expanded the Catholic population. Education underwent significant reorganistion in the wake of the Education Act 1944, and Catholic schools were not exempt from this.

Under Bishop Beck, appointed Coadjutor in 1948 and who succeeded as Bishop in 1951, the administrative and financial structures of the diocese were developed. He increased the number of students for the diocesan priesthood, and reinvigorated the clergy by moving all but a few of them to new parishes within the diocese, as well as embarking on a general visitation of the diocese himself. His foremost concern was however, the provision of new schools for growing population centres. He encouraged Catholic parents to present the problems and interests of Catholic education to the parliamentary candidates for the 1951 General Election. He also chaired the Catholic Education Council, and adopted a system for levying each parish for the financing of Catholic education. New schools were opened and existing ones expanded.

As Bishop Bernard Wall took up his post in 1956, the diocese still faced a shortage of priests, and shortage of funds. The Catholic population by this time was around 107,000 and growing. New parishes were still being formed, Bishop Wall oversaw a number of diocesan celebrations during his term of office, including a pageant in 1961 to commemorate the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, a gathering in 1961 to remember John Paine, executed in Chelmsford in 1582, and a further rally in 1962 and 1964. In 1967 the Diocese celebrated its Golden Jubilee. In the area of Catholic schooling, the provisions of the Education Act 1959 for government funding for new schools stimulated growth, and the Education Act 1967 gave further impetus. The Brentwood Diocesan Commission for Education was established in 1968 to consider the content and pattern of Catholic education in the diocese and to advise the bishop on matters of education policy. Relations between the Catholic Church and Christians of other traditions began to improved in response to the Second Vatican Council's encouraging the Church to look in friendship towards other Christian communities. Catholics began to participate in inter-denominational societies and meetings, and local Councils of Churches. In 1967, the Diocesan Ecumenical Commission was formed.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was founded in 1950, the successor to the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The UNHCR is an impartial humanitarian organisation mandated by the United Nations to lead and co-ordinate international action for the world-wide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems. Based in Switzerland, UNHCR has two basic and closely related aims: to protect refugees and to seek ways to help them restart their lives in a normal environment. In the UK the UNHCR's London office offers both legal and information services.

The Refugee Council is the UK's largest organisation working for refugees and asylum seekers. It offers direct support, alongside capacity-building amongst community groups, undertaking international work, and campaigning, lobbying and researching in a bid to influence public policy in the area.

The Council was formed in 1981 through the merger of the British Council for Aid to Refugees (BCAR), and the Standing Conference on Refugees (SCOR), both of which had been established in 1951, following the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. After the merger it was originally known as the British Refugee Council and was later renamed the Refugee Council due to the establishment of various other regional refugee councils. The Refugee Council became a membership organisation in 1983.

The Girls' Commercial Secondary School for Girls opened in 1919 alongside the existing Walthamstow Technical Institute. It merged with the technical institutes of Walthamstow and Leyton and the Leyton School of Art to form the South West Essex Technical College in 1938.

The MA in Gender, Sexualities and Ethnic Studies at the University of East London aims to help students to develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of the diverse ways in which gender, sexualities and ethnic divisions are structured and interrelated.

CAST began in 1965, after founder members Roland Muldoon, Claire Burnley [later Muldoon], Raymond Levene and David Hatton were ejected from the left wing Unity Theatre as a result of a failed attempt to make its productions more politically radical. Although all four members had trained and been employed behind the scenes as technical staff, the newly formed group saw them becoming the performers.

With the addition to the group of David 'Red' Saunders who had attended Roland Muldoon's and Levene's drama classes at the Working Men's College, [1965-1966], CAST produced its first original play 'John D Muggins is Dead'(1966), a 20 minute piece inspired by the movement against US involvement in Vietnam. Their next plays, performed by a series of ever changing line ups which would become the norm, were 'Mr Oligarchy's Circus' (1967) and 'The Trials of Horatio Muggins' (1967), both of which reflected the revolutionary struggles between young idealistic socialists and the English middle class. CAST usually played in non theatrical venues, such as technical colleges, universities and political meetings, where it gained a reputation for short, fast, political comedies (usually involving a protagonist with the surname of Muggins) which always played to the audience. As well as touring Britain, the group also travelled to Holland, France and Germany.

The group split in 1972 in the middle of making the short film 'Planet of the Mugs' (after previously turning down a movie offer from Andrew Oldham, the ex manager of the Rolling Stones). Red Saunders and other members of CAST went on to found 'Rock Against Racism' and 'Kartoon Klowns'. The Muldoons, however, reformed CAST but initially found it difficult to both teach newly recruited members of the troupe CAST's particular style and to attract audiences. In 1974 CAST were awarded their first funding from the Arts Council which enabled the Muldoons to begin to perform full time and eventually tour around Britain extensively. In 1980, CAST won an OBIE award in New York for outstanding script and performance for the production 'Full Confessions of a Socialist'.

The core CAST company continued to perform political pieces but in 1982 they began to organise New Variety nights, a mixture of alternative comedy and cabaret acts. The first shows took place at the Old White Horse, Brixton Road but later, with the help of grants from the GLC, the nights expanded to at least 6 venues throughout London.

The Hackney Empire was built as a music hall in 1901, designed by the architect Frank Matcham. In 1956 the theatre was sold to ATV and it became the first commercial television studios in Britain. In 1963 MECCA purchased the theatre and converted it into a bingo hall. MECCA had made some modifications to the interior decor of the Theatre but in 1979 removed the famous turreted domes and pediment from the roof of the building. However, in 1984 the Theatre gained a Grade II* listing and MECCA were ordered to restore building's exterior to its original state. As the interior was also listed, MECCA were unable to alter the original, formal theatre seating arrangement which had become increasingly unsuitable for its bingo playing audience. MECCA then offered the theatre to CAST New Variety as a permanent London base. Assisted by the London Borough of Hackney, Hackney Empire Preservation Trust (founded by the Muldoons and others in October 1986) eventually acquired the freehold from MECCA Ltd for the price of £150,000 on the understanding that they returned the building to its former use.

The Hackney Empire opened once more as a 1000 seat theatre on 9 December 1986 as the home venue for CAST New Variety (under the name Hackney New Variety). CAST New Variety still continued to run the events in smaller locations where they encouraged new acts to perform beside more established artists. By 1986 CAST New Variety were running 250 Sunday shows a year in London.

Hackney Empire went on to establish itself as one of the leading stand-up comedy venues in Britain. In 2001, the Empire began a renovation and restoration project which was completed in January 2004.

From the mid 1990s, Roland Muldoon began to become less involved with the day to day running of Hackney Empire mostly due to the financial problems which has continually affected the Theatre. He finally retired at the end of 2005 and has since begun to organize New Variety shows outside of Hackney Empire.

South East Essex Technical College, later South East Essex Technical College and School of Art, opened at Longbridge Road, Dagenham in 1936 as one of the four regional technical colleges of Essex. Occupying nearly six acres of the 17 acre site, the College was originally comprised six departments: Industrial and Fine Arts, Commerce, Domestic Science, Engineering, Building and Allied Subjects and Science. A secondary technical school was also opened at the site, providing pupils with a less academic education than was usually offered in a secondary grammar school.

During the Second World War, the college was commandeered for the training of military personnel, with the school being evacuated to Somerset. Following the 1944 Education Act, the secondary school developed as a separate organisation although it still used the Longbridge Road buildings. The school eventually moved to its own premises around 1960, becoming the South East Essex County Technical High School in 1962. It would later merge with Bifrons Secondary Modern School to become Mayesbrooke Comprehensive School in 1970.

In 1938 a large block, comprising an indoor heated swimming pool, two gymnasia, a squash court and a sports pavilion was added. In October 1951 a large one storey block was opened as a building centre. In 1953 a two storey building printing block was added and in 1955 the one storey science block was extended. The site was then 22 acres.

In 1962 the College was designated a Regional College of Technology and reverted back to its original name of South East Essex College of Technology, the name being changed again in 1965 when it was called the Barking Regional College of Technology. At the same time control passed from the Essex County Council to the new London Borough of Barking. In 1966 a four storey engineering block was erected and two new departments were formed: Business and Management and Education.

In 1970 the North East London Polytechnic was formed, incorporating the College together with West Ham College of Technology and Waltham Forest Technical College and School of Art. The Longbridge buildings became the Barking Campus of the new Polytechnic, later the University of East London.

By the end of 2006, all of the departments of the University of East London were located at either the Docklands or Stratford Campus. The buildings of the Barking Campus were developed into luxury flats.

South West Essex Technical College and School of Art opened at Forest Road, Walthamstow in September 1938 as one of the four regional technical colleges of Essex. The College was formed by the merger of Technical Colleges of Walthamstow and Leyton, together with the Walthamstow Commercial School for Girls and the Leyton School of Art, all of which had been operating as separate institutions. It served the boroughs of Walthamstow, Leyton, Chingford, Wanstead and Woodford and the districts of Waltham Holy Cross, Epping and Ongar.

The College was given locally the title of 'The People's University' and the new building included: a 1200 seat assembly hall; two gymnasia; science laboratories; engineering workshops; architectural studios; art studios; refectory; demonstration rooms; and student and staff common rooms. The College was initially organised into the departments of: Engineering; Science; Industrial and Fine Arts; Architecture and Building; Commerce, Languages and Social Studies; Domestic Science; Music; Social and Recreational Classes; and secondary day schools for boys and girls.

During its first academic year (session 1938-1939) 6842 students enrolled, 5802 of whom were part-time evening students. This unexpectedly high number of evening students saw some classes being held temporarily in the nearby Sir George Monoux Grammar School. At Christmas 1938, these were moved to the buildings of the old Walthamstow Technical College (Grosvenor House) and Commercial School for Girls (Chestnuts) in Hoe Street which soon became a permanent arrangement.

During the Second World War, the boys' and girls' secondary schools were evacuated to Kettering, but classes continued for the senior students. However due to blackouts, problems with transport and workers undertaking overtime, many of the evening classes were moved to the weekend. After negotiations with the War Office, the College began to train military personnel in the various branches of engineering. In September 1940, it accepted its first 100 soldiers who were also billeted on College premises. As the number of service personnel (which later included members of the RAF and the Navy) being taught at the College grew to around 1000 students at a time, the Sir George Monoux Grammar School was commandeered as additional accommodation. Members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) were trained at the College from 1942, with courses expanding to cover commercial subjects such as typewriting and administration. Domestic Science was added in early 1945 as part of a rehabilitation scheme when 44 ATS members, all young married women, were given lessons in Cookery, Mothercraft and Dressmaking. By 1945 it was estimated that 12,000 service trainees had passed through the College.

After Grosvenor House burnt down in 1945, an annexe to the Forest Road building was constructed in prefabricated aluminium in 1949 to provide an additional 11 classrooms and an architectural studio. A further four storey building was added in September 1959 containing workshops, lecture rooms and laboratories for the Engineering, Architecture and Science departments. The secondary school separated from the College in 1957 and was relocated to Billet Road, Walthamstow, becoming the McEntee County Technical School.

In 1965, control of the College was transferred from Essex County Council to the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and in September 1966 changed its name to the Waltham Forest Technical College and School of Art. By then the College consisted of ten departments with approximately 7000 students enrolled on its courses.

Following the publication of the Government White Paper in 1966, proposals were drawn up for incorporating the advanced work together with corresponding staff, into the new North East London Polytechnic. A new Waltham Forest Technical College came into being simultaneously, taking over all the lower level work and acquiring premises in other parts of the borough whilst still retaining some accommodation temporarily at Forest Road.