Sir August Manns, born Stolzenberg, 12 March 1825; played in the Danzig regimental band and theatre orchestra as a clarinettist at age 20; member of Gungl's orchestra in Berlin, 1848; served eight years in the Prussian army and arranged classical repertoire for military band and conducted concerts; appointed Assistant Conductor at Crystal Palace, London, 1854; appointed by the Secretary, George Grove, as Conductor at the Crystal Palace, 14 Oct 1855; between 1855-1901 Grove and Manns made the Saturday concerts at the Crystal Palace the principal source of classical music at popular prices; Manns transformed the existing wind band into a renowned orchestra, and was estimated to have conducted 12,000 orchestral concerts during his 42 years at the Crystal Palace; the programmes included Schubert and Schumann symphonies, works by Berlioz and Wagner, many previously seldom-performed works and first London performances; conductor of the Handel Festival, 1883-1900; naturalized as a British citizen, 1894; knighted, 1903; died, Norwood, London, 1 March 1907.
Henry Cope Colles, born Bridgnorth, Shropshire, 20 Apr 1879; entered Royal College of Music at age of 16 and studied music history under Sir Hubert Parry, the organ under Walter Alcock and counterpoint under Walford Davies; won an organ scholarship at Worcester College, Oxford; graduated, 1902; appointed music critic of The Academy and assistant music critic of The Times, 1905, and appointed chief critic, 1911; taught at Cheltenham Ladies College; joined RCM to lecture on music history, analysis and interpretation; joined the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music as an examiner; Fellow and Governor of St Michael's College, Tenbury; chairman of the Church Music Society and of the School of English Church Music; appointed freeman of the Musicians' Company, 1934; Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, 1936; died London, 4 Mar 1943. Publications: Brahms (London, 1908); The Growth of Music (Oxford, 1912-1916); edited Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians Third edition (London, 1927); Voice and Verse: a Study of English Song (London, 1928); The Chamber Music of Brahms (London, 1933); The Royal College of Music: a Jubilee Record, 1883-1933 (London, 1933); edited Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians Fourth edition (London, 1940); On Learning Music and Other Essays (London, 1940); H. Walford Davies (London, 1942); with MF Alderson History of St Michael's College, Tenbury (London, 1943).
Edward George Dannreuther, born in Strasbourg, 4 Nov 1844; family moved to Cincinnati, where his father established a piano factory, 1846; took lessons from Frederick L Ritter and entered the Leipzig Conservatory, 1860; made first complete performance in England of Chopin's F minor Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto to critical acclaim, 1863; toured USA with Carl Rosa and Euphrosyne Parepa and wrote an account of his travels for Charles Dickens' journal All the Year Round, 1865; with Karl Klindworth, Frits Hartvigson, Walter Bache and Alfred Hipkins, formed the Working Men's Society, 1865; founded the London Wagner Society, 1872; conducted two of its series of concerts, 1873-1874; became a close friend of Richard Wagner and did much to promote the London Wagner Festival, 1877; produced numerous writings and lectures on Wagner, 1870s-1880s; became President of the London Wagner Society, 1895; wrote numerous articles on German music, particularly that of Wagner; gave a series of semi-private chamber concerts held at his home at Orme Square, London, which introduced works by Brahms, Scharwenka, Sgambati, Tchaikovsky, Rheinberger, Stanford, Parry and Richard Strauss to English audiences for the first time, 1876-1893; taught Hubert Parry, J A Fuller Maitland, Frederick Dawson, William Hurlstone and James Friskin. took over from Ernst Pauer as a piano professor at the Royal College of Music, 1895; died in London, 12 Feb 1905.
Charles Thornton Lofthouse, born York, 12 Oct 1895; chorister, St Paul's Cathedral, 1904-1910; attended Royal Manchester College of Music; after World War One, studied the organ with Walter Parratt and conducting with Adrian Boult at the Royal College of Music; studied the piano with Alfred Cortot in Paris and the harpsichord with Aimee van der Wiele and Gustav Leonhardt; B Mus, 1930; D Mus, Trinity College, Dublin, 1935; accompanist to the London Bach Choir, 1921-1939; developed art of continuo playing, for which he was the first person to use a harpsichord in the Royal Albert Hall; professor at the RCM, 1922-1971; Director of Music at Westminster School, 1924-1939, and Reading University, 1939-1950; appointed examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, 1923, and acted as external examiner in music for several university institutes of education; created and conducted the University of London Music Society, 1934-1959; performed as a continuo, chamber or solo harpsichordist throughout Europe and in the USA; died London, 28 Feb 1974. Publications: Commentaries and Notes on Bach's Two- and Three-Part Inventions (London, 1956).
Ivor L Foster was a Welsh baritone, active in the period 1905-1925, who studied at the Royal College of Music.
Jenny Lind was born in Stockholm, 6 Oct 1820. The Swedish soprano (nicknamed 'the Swedish nightingale') enrolled at the Royal Opera School, Stockholm in 1830. She made her debut in 1838 as Agathe in Der Freischutz. After numerous performances in Sweden, she made her German debut in Berlin in 1844, and her Viennese debut in April 1846. After further touring in Germany and Austria, she made London debut at Her Majesty's in May 1847, as Alice in Robert le diable, followed by success appearances in La sonnambula, La fille du regiment and I masnadieri. She sang in Sweden during the winter, and made her last Stockholm appearance in April 1848. She then sang for a second season at Her Majesty's followed by an extensive tour of Great Britain. She continued to sing in concerts and oratorios, both in Germany and in England, where she lived from 1858 until her death. In 1883, the year of her last public performance, she became Professor of Singing at the Royal College of Music. She died at Wynds Point, Herefordshire on 2 Nov 1887.
William Henry Havergal, born 1793; educated Merchant Taylors' School, London, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford (BA, 1815; MA, 1819); ordained, 1816; curate at Bristol, Coaley (Gloucs.), 1820, and Astley (Worcs), 1822; appointed rector of Astley, 1829; rector of St Nicholas, Worcester, 1845; retired to the vicarage of Shareshill (Staffs.), 1860; commenced publishing cathedral music in the 1830s; in 1844 he began to produce a series of publications aimed towards the improvement of psalmody; wrote hymns, sacred songs and carols for the periodical Our Own Fireside and selected, harmonized and arranged vocal music; published two volumes of Sermons (London, 1853) and A History of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune (New York, 1854) as well as other sermons and religious essays; died 1870.
John Law Dennison, born 1911; educated, Brighton College; entered Royal College of Music, 1932; played the horn in various major orchestras in London and Birmingham, 1933-1939; served in the army, World War Two; appointed Assistant Director of the British Council's music department, and Music Director of the Arts Council, 1948; made CBE, 1960; appointed General Manager of the Royal Festival Hall, 1965; Director of South Bank Concert Halls, 1971-1976.
Hill was born c1850, and educated at Winchester and Magdalene College, Oxford. He was the incumbent of the parish of East Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, for many years. After his retirement in the 1920s, he lived at Northchurch, Berkamsted, Herfordshire, where he financed and organized the re-hanging of the church bells, and trained a team of handbell ringers.
Born Aberdeen in 1874; trained in Chicago and Paris; a leading operatic soprano in the 1900s, renowned for her operatic performances in France, particularly at the Opera-Comique. For further details see Grove Dictionary of Music.
Born 1 Nov 1970; a pupil of Charles Wood at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; student at Royal College of Music, 1925-1927; music master at Stowe School; assisted Mrs Wood and S P Waddington, Wood's literary executor, in a posthumous publication of much of Wood's work; after marriage moved to Texas, where he combined a full professional career as a lecturer, conductor, festival adjudicator, critic and composer together with ranching; died Corpus Christi, Texas, 4 Jul 1970.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) studied composition at the Royal College of Music, 1890-1897. He enjoyed frequent public performances of his music, including concerts at the RCM and in Croydon, Surrey, during this period. He received his first commission, from the Three Choirs Festival, in 1898. This work, the Ballade in A minor for orchestra, was well received at its first performance. His best known work, the cantata 'Hiawatha's Wedding Feast' was given its first performance in the same year and became widely acclaimed in England and the USA. The period 1897-1903 saw prolific composition by Coleridge-Taylor, particularly for festival commissions and incidental music for plays. He was active as a conductor: he worked for the Handel Society, and became their permanent conductor in 1904 until his death. He was also conductor of the Westmorland Festival, 1901-1904, and of many choral and orchestral societies. He also undertook much teaching in and around Croydon, and was appointed professor of composition at Trinity College of Music, London, in 1903. Edith Carr was an amateur violinist in South Croydon and aged in her twenties around the time of the correspondence with Coleridge-Taylor. She appears to have played in musical ensembles under Coleridge-Taylor's conduction.
It is thought that some of this material may have been acquired by Sir George Grove on one of his research trips to Austria and Germany, particularly for material relating to his 'favourite trio', Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert. He wrote significant monographs on the three composers for the first edition of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, first published in 1879. Two occasions are particulary likely to have provided him some of these letters. In 1867 he made a memorable journey to Vienna with the composer Arthur Sullivan to search for material on Schubert's life and works, and visited Berlin and Leipzig in the autumn of 1879 for research on Mendelssohn.
Basil Lam died on 4 Mar 1984 at the age of 69. He played the harpsichord in various ensembles, and was best known for his BBC radio broadcasts on early and baroque music, in particular for his series, `Plainsong and the rise of European music'.
Since the opening of the Royal College of Music (RCM) building in 1894, the College has undergone a series of extensions and additions. Of particular note are the extension block, constructed 1963-1964, and officially opened in November 1965, and the new Dining Room, Library, and Britten Opera Theatre designed by the Casson Condor Partnership, 1982-1986. The bulk of the plans held by the RCM pertain to this latter scheme, but also represented are drawings by Norman and Dawbarn of the Concert Hall, existing floor plans and plans of extensions to the RCM, squash court [proposed but never built], vault practice rooms and Parry Opera Theatre, opera school and students' recreation room, 1960-1973; a new Opera School staircase by Building Design Workshop North West, 1979; the refurbishment of the RCM Concert Hall by the Essex Goodman Design Company, 1990.
The first Registrar of the Royal College of Music (RCM), George Watson, was appointed in 1882, to manage student admission, administration and awards. The post has since been held as follows: Frank Pownall, 1896-1913; Claude L C Aveling, 1914-1935; Basil C Allchin, 1935-1939; Hugo V Anson, 1939-1958; John R Stainer, 1959-1975; Michael Gough Matthews, 1976-1984; Jasper L Thorogood, 1984-1988. The registers of students of the RCM form the chief source of information on students for the period prior to 1977, giving details of student's background and academic progress and accomplishments. The registers of Scholarship applications give details of name, address, age, subject, and results of those who competed for open scholarships of the RCM. The registers of student applications give details of those who applied for admission as students of the RCM, and give addresses, subject of examinations taken and application fees.
Marion Margaret Scott, born London, 16 Jul 1877; studied violin at the Royal College of Music, 1896-1904; published poetry as Violin verses (Walter Scott, London, 1905); composed music and led her own string quartet; organised concerts of British chamber music, 1900-1920; founded with Gertrude Eaton and Katharine Eggar the Society of Women Musicians, 1911, and served as its President, 1915-1916; published edition of Haydn's Quartet Opus 1 no 1 (Oxford University Press. 1931); published Beethoven, (J M Dent, London, 1934); published editions of songs of Ivor Gurney, 1938, 1952; wrote numerous articles on the life and works of Joseph Haydn; died London, 24 Dec 1953.
Harold Watkins Shaw, born Bradford, 3 April 1911; read history at Wadham College, Oxford, 1929-1932; studied at the Royal College of Music, 1932-1933; awarded the Oxford University Osgood Memorial prize for his dissertation on John Blow, 1936; taught in London; appointed music organizer to Hertfordshire County Council, 1946; appointed Honorary Librarian of St Michael's College, Tenbury, 1948; appointed lecturer at Worcester College of Education, 1949 (retained until retirement); published books on the teaching of music in schools at primary and secondary levels, 1950s; edited his edition of Messiah, 1957-1965; Keeper of the Parry Room library, Royal College of Music, 1971-1980; awarded DLitt in the faculty of music by Oxford University; awarded OBE, 1985; died, Worcester, 8 Oct 1996. Publications (a selection): Music in the Primary School (London, 1952); The Three Choirs Festival c1713-1953 (Worcester and London, 1954); Music in the Secondary School (London, 1961); The Story of Handel's 'Messiah', 1741-1784 (London, 1963); A Textual and Historical Companion to Handel's 'Messiah' (London, 1965); A Study of the Bing-Gostling Part Books in the Library of York Minster together with a Systematic Catalogue (Croydon, 1986) ;The Succession of Organists of the Chapel Royal and the Cathedrals of England and Wales from c.1538 (Oxford, 1991).
Born 26 June 1868, son of Rev. Edmund Salusbury ffoulkes, BD. He was educated at Radley School, Shrewsbury School, and St John's College, Oxford.
He left Oxford without a degree and went on to study art. His interest turned to the metalwork and the study of metallic artefacts and thence to arms and armour. He was invited to give lectures for the Oxford History Board on Armour and military subjects, gaining a Bachelor of Letters, 1911. In 1913, he was appointed Curator of the Tower Armouries, 1913-1935, and Master of the Armouries, 1935-1938. In 1917, ffoulkes obtained government approval of a plan to collect historical material relating to the current war, and was appointed First Curator and Secretary Imperial War Museum (IWM), 1917-1933, and following his retirement from the IWM he became one of its Trustees, 1934-1946. He remained in his part time post at the Tower until the age of 70, in 1938 and continued to publish his writings.
ffoulkes was also Lieutenant RNVR, 1914-1918; Major Royal Marines, unattached, 1918-1920; Member, War Office Committee on Military Museum; Hon. Freeman, Armourers' Company; Volunteer Warden, ARP, 1939; Sergeant of Pioneers, Home Guard, 20th Bn Middlesex Regt, 1940-1945; Officer of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, 1929; and was awarded Hon. DLitt. Oxon, 1936; CB 1934; OBE 1925.
In 1942, he married, Dorothy Agnes Garratt, MBE. He died 22 April 1947.
Publications:
Armour and Weapons, 1909; new edition, Gaya's Traité des Armes, 1911; Arms and Armour in the University of Oxford; The Armourer and his Craft, 1912; Ironwork, 1913; Survey and Inventory of the Tower of London, 1917; Catalogue of the Armourers' and Brasiers' Company; Notes on the Pierpont Morgan XIIIth Century Old Testament, 1927; The Gun-founders of England, 1936; Sword, Lance, and Bayonet, 1938; Arms and the Tower, 1939; Arms and Armament, 1945; many papers in Archæologia, Journal of Army Historical Research, etc.
The Runnymede Trust is one of the most influential and respected think tanks on race-relations in Britain. It was formerly established on 1 August 1968, by Deed of Trust, as an educational charity. It had developed partly as a response to the growth of racist politics, especially those of Enoch Powell, which looked at the time to be turning into a mass movement, and also as an attempt to create an equivalent to the American Anti-Defamation League in Britain. The founding members of the organisation were Jim Rose, Anthony Lester, Philip Mason, Sir Joseph Simpson, Mark Bonham-Carter, Dipak Nandy, Nicholas Deakin and Jock Campbell. The funding for its establishment came from the New World Foundation in New York, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust and the Hilden Trust. Dipak Nandy became the Trust's first Director. Since its inception, the Trust has worked to challenge racial discrimination and promote a successful multi-ethnic Britain by providing the facts of racial discrimination and the techniques for overcoming it, stimulating debate and suggesting strategies in public policy. Its principal function in the early years was to provide briefs, background papers and research data for MPs, civil servants, local government and others concerned with policy. It provided a means of responding swiftly and authoritatively on key issues as media attention to the subject of race relations increased. The Trust's Bulletin was initiated in 1969 and has been published regularly ever since. In later years, Runnymede published reports designed to interpret government policy to a wider audience at the same time as briefing government on public opinion. Through the 1990s, Runnymede's role shifted from that of providing position or interpretative papers to working more closely with government in an advisory capacity. Over the years, Runnymede has produced key reports such as Colour and Citizenship (1969) an authoritative rebuttal to Enoch Powell's anti-immigration populist stance; A Very Light Sleeper: The Persistence and Dangers of Anti-Semitism (1994), This is where I live - stories and pressures in Brixton (1996), and School Exclusions and the Race Factor (1999). The Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain was established as an independent Runnymede inquiry in 1997 culminating in the publication of The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain: the Parekh Report in October 2000. Runnymede has produced regular bulletins called Race and Immigration: The Runnymede Trust Bulletin, which became The Runnymede Bulletin in 1992. The Runnymede Trust was one of the organisations responsible for the establishment of the UK Race and Europe Network (UKREN) in 1996. A Board of Trustees decides the policies of the organisation and the Director is responsible for developing strategies.
In 1882, Charles Swinstead (1815-1890), an artist and art teacher, selected a site at Crouch End Hill, north London, and commissioned a purpose-built private school of art complete with teaching studios and an adjacent headmaster's house. Building was completed in 1882 and the Hornsey School of Art was opened officially in the autumn of the same year.At the first meeting of the Committee of the School on 18 August 1882, responsibility for its financial and administrative control was formally invested in the owner and headmaster, Charles Swinstead. At first the School was only open on three mornings and three evenings a week, later extended to a five-day week and Saturday mornings. Subjects taught included drawing, oil painting, watercolour painting, geometry and perspective. Swinstead's role was gradually taken over by his son, Frank Hillyard Swinstead, who became headmaster on his father's death in 1890.
In 1894, the management structure of the School changed. Regular annual grants from Middlesex County Council were initiated in this year, and the School's Committee was replaced by a Joint Committee with the Council. The Joint Committee acquired greater responsibility, and was soon answerable for most aspects of the running of the School. The curriculum was expanded to include subjects of industrial and practical value, such as modelling, design and wood carving. By 1904, the School was under the joint control of the Board of Education and the Middlesex County Council. Numbers were increasing, and the need for larger accommodation led to the conversion of the headmaster's house into teaching rooms.
Following World War One, when more classes relating to trade, such as lithography, etching and fashion drawing, were added to the curriculum, the County Council took over full financial responsibility for the School from the Swinstead family (1920) and appointed a reconstituted governing body. The Council bought the freehold of the property in 1925. Frank Swinstead was succeeded as headmaster in 1927 by John Charles Moody, who presided over a major development of the School buildings. A new extension was opened in 1931, and in the same year the School was renamed the Hornsey School of Arts and Crafts'. Student numbers continued to grow, and teaching subjects soon included graphics and printing. Teaching continued throughout World War Two, despite bomb damage to the buildings, and in 1944 photography was added to the curriculum. In 1947, Moody retired and J G Platt was appointed principal of the School. In 1951, the School became a constituent college of the University of London Institute of Education for the purposes of awarding the Art Teachers Certificate, and in 1952 was renamed theHornsey College of Arts and Crafts'. This was subsequently abbreviated to `Hornsey College of Art'. Platt retired in 1957 and was replaced by Harold Herbert Shelton during a period of great reforms in advanced art education, and the introduction of the Diploma in Art and Design (DipAD). The College grew rapidly, expanding into several annexes scattered around north London. In 1965, the London Government Act removed the College from the control of Middlesex County Council and made it the responsibility of the newly formed Borough of Haringey.
The 1970s saw a huge change in the life of the College, when building began at a site in Cat Hill with the intention of housing the whole College; the work was finished in 1979. In 1973, the Hornsey College of Art had merged with Enfield and Hendon Colleges to form Middlesex Polytechnic, and 1981 saw the final removal from the Crouch End Hill site.
Born, 21 January 1929; educated at Ardingly College; studied modern history at Keble College, Oxford, graduating in 1951; studied history of art at the Courtauld Institute of Art gaining a postgraduate diploma in 1954 and PhD in 1962 with his thesis on the landscape painting of Thomas Gainsborough. Appointed assistant keeper of the London Museum, 1954 and director 1970; director of the National Portrait Gallery, 1974–1994; he published and curated exhibitions on a wide range of artists , his specialist subject remaining Gainsborough. Chair of the Walpole Society 1981-1996 and Vice-President 1996-2005; elected to Society of Antiquaries, 1971, appointed CBE 1986, Died 25 December 2005. Publications: include: A catalogue of watercolour drawings by Thomas Rowlandson in the London Museum, HMSO, 1960; Landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough, Nottingham University Art Gallery, 1962; The drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, Zwemmer, c1970; Catalogue of the oil paintings in the London Museum : with an introduction on painters and the London scene from the fifteenth century, H.M.S.O, 1970; Gainsborough as printmaker, Zwemmer, c1971; Rowlandson : watercolours and drawings, Phaidon Press, 1972; Gainsborough : paintings and drawings, Phaidon, 1975; Portraits by Graham Sutherland National Portrait Gallery, 1977; The art of Graham Sutherland, Phaidon, 1980; Thomas Gainsborough, Tate Gallery, 1980; The landscape paintings of Thomas Gainsborough : a critical text and catalogue raisonné, Philip Wilson for Sotheby Publications, 1982; Gainsborough drawings : a supplement to the catalogue raisonné, Master Drawings Association, 1983; The portrait in British art : masterpieces bought with the help of the National Art-Collections Fund, National Portrait Gallery, 1991; British paintings of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, Cambridge University Press, 1993; Galinou, Mireille and Hayes, John, London in paint : oil paintings in the collection at the Museum of London, Museum of London, 1996; The letters of Thomas Gainsborough, Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 2001.
From 1963 to 1978 Honduras endured a series of military coups and disputed elections as well as the 1969 war with El Salvador and the devastation caused by Hurricane Fifi which killed an estimated 10,000 in 1974. Though the country moved towards an ostensibly civilian form of government from 1978, culminating three years later in an election win for the Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH), the growing insurgencies in neighbouring El Salvador and Nicaragua during this period led to an upsurge in regional tensions, and a growing influx of refugees. As Honduras became drawn into the US-backed Contras' struggle against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua the army used the opportunity to crack down on dissent at home, and reports of human rights abuses began to increase. When the Sandinistas lost the 1990 Nicaraguan election the significance of Honduras to the United States largely disappeared, as did the aid that had formerly been liberally provided, leaving the country facing the same economic concerns as in the 1970s. The materials held here date primarily from the late 70s to the end of the main Central American guerrilla struggle, and deal with both the country's economic situation and with the war and its human rights consequences. The material comes from trades unions and political groups, though not from the major parties, as well as from external human rights organisations and NGOs.
The coup in Chile in 1973 must rank as amongst the most important and controversial events in the history of Latin America since the Second World War. The holdings here certainly attest to that, more numerous than for any other nation and predominantly concerned with the Allende government and the junta that replaced it. There had been coups in other countries in the region (amongst others Guatemala in 1954, Brazil and Bolivia in 1964, Argentina in 1966), but none that resonated with the outside world in the same way. It was Chile's misfortune to be seen as a paradigm example, a test case for the democratic road to socialism. Following the moderate reformism of Eduardo Frei's Christian Democratic administration (1964-1970) the 1970 election was won by a narrow margin by the Popular Unity coalition led by Socialist Party leader Salvador Allende. Allende sought to increase state ownership and control in the economy (an early move being the nationalisation of the copper industry), but to do so within the constitutional bounds of Chilean democracy. The result was an increased polarisation of society between the upper and middle classes with most to lose from the expropriation of privately-owned assets and the redistribution of income and the supporters of Allende (primarily the peasants, the working class and the marginal poor). This conflict exarcerbated Chile's growing economic difficulties (blamed either on the new government's reforms or on the obstruction of those reforms by the opposition and its tacit supporters in the United States), and led to the emergence of more radical left-wing groups such as the MIR (Revolutionary Movement of the Left) and eventually to the September 11th military coup led by General Pinochet. That this succeeded was due in no small part to the divisions on the left, with the Communist Party (and through it the Soviet Union, whose limited funding of the Popular Unity government was provided increasingly reluctantly) continually urging caution in the face of the maximalist demands being put forward by the MIR and the radical wing of Allende's Partido Socialista.
The coup was significant not just for its resounding verdict on the democratic socialist approach but also for the opportunity it provided for the trial of the monetarist policies advocated by economists such as Milton Friedman. Thus the Chile of Pinochet continued to attract and divide international attention and opinion, organisations such as Amnesty and the Betrand Russell Tribunal publicising the regime's human rights abuses whilst conservative leaders in the UK and US in the 1980s supported its sound anti-communist and neo-liberal economic stances. The materials held here are predominantly from groups more concerned with torture and disappearances than with interest rates, and include items produced by expatriate branches of the Popular Unity parties, reports from external Church, UN and labour investigators and a host of materials from organisations representing those who suffered under Pinochet. There is also a sizable collection of contemporary material dating from the time of the Allende government.
In the post-war era Argentina was governed mainly by either the military (1943-1946, 1955-1958, 1966-1973 and 1976-1982) or the authoritarian populist Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1955, 1973-1974), himself a prominent army figure in the 1943 coup. Only after the Falklands War did Argentina embark on a more democratic course, and the new presidential democratic federal republic has been since been beset by severe economic problems culminating in the 2001 collapse. This collection contains two pamphlets authored by Perón himself in the 1940s, but the majority of the material covers either the torture and disapperances that occurred during the 1970's `dirty war' between the state and armed organisations of both the left and right or the attempts to account for these human rights abuses in the 1980s.
Much of the material in this collection is concerned with the climate of violence in Uruguay in the 1970s. Some documents the activities of the Tupamaros, a left-wing urban guerrilla movement whose role in the increasing unrest in the country provided the pretext for the effective takeover of power by the armed forces in 1973. The widespread human rights abuses that occurred in the period prior to the return to civilian government in 1984 are also covered.
Kristian Andrews is an animation graduate from UCA Farnham, who obtained his MA at the Royal College of Art (2008). he has won international recognition for his films, including the Silver Dove at Doc Liepzig in 2008.
The artwork is from Rabbit Punch, an autobiographical film on Kristian's life growing up, which was his MA graduate film.
Tandem Films for Animation was formed in 1986 by Daniel Greaves (animator who previously studied at the West Surrey College of Art and Design) and his business partner Nigel Pay. Tandem is located in London, Islington and the website is available here http://www.tandemfilms.com/about/
The Independent Force was established by the Royal Air Force on 6 June 1918 to conduct a strategic bombing campaign against Germany, concentrating on strategic industries, communications and the morale of the civilian population. The Independent Force was formed out of the Royal Flying Corp's Forty-First Wing which commenced operations in October 1917. This initiative was partly in response to German airship and aeroplane raids on England but it also built upon earlier, small scale attempts at strategic bombing by the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps. As its name implied, it operated independently from the land battle and struck at targets in central Germany including Cologne, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Bonn, and Mannheim. It was also intended to operate independently of the control of the Allied Supreme Commander, Marshal Foch, although this was later changed.
The Independent Force was commanded, reluctantly at first, by Major-General Hugh Trenchard who was gradually converted to the idea of strategic bombing by the operations of the Independent Force. The squadrons were based on airfields in the Nancy region, well to the south of the British sector of the Front Line. Although the effort appears miniscule compared to later bombing campaigns, four day and five night bomber squadrons dropped just 550 tons of bombs during 239 raids between 6 June and 10 November 1918, the effect on the German war effort was remarkable. The main targets were railways, blast furnaces, chemical factories that produced poison gas, other factories, and barracks to which had to be added airfields in an effort to reduce attrition from enemy fighter aircraft.
The effect on morale was out of all proportion to the size of the bomber force or the material damage caused and the air raids resulted in the movement of German air defence units away from the Front Line. Trenchard ordered statistics and records to be kept to demonstrate the work of the Independent Force and the role of strategic bombing in modern war.
Co-founder of the Dancing Times, 1911, the Association of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain, 1920, and The Camargo Society, 1930. Richardson also founded and organised the "Sunshine" Charity Matinees and the All England Sunshine Stage Dance Competitions.
As an editor, Richardson contributed to a number of books and periodicals, but in 1946 he published A History of Ballroom Dancing (1910-1945) and in 1960, Social Dances of the Nineteenth Century.
Richardson's interest in the history of dancing led him to become an avid collector of rare books on the subject. His personal library collection was bequeathed to the RAD after his death in 1963.
The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) has been described as the "cradle of British Neurology". It was founded in 1860 for the alleviation initially of epilepsy and paralysis and its early physicians included John Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911), Sir David Ferrier (1843-1928), Sir William Gowers (1845-1911), and Sir Victor Horsley (1857-1916). The National Hospital was amalgamated with Maida Vale Hospital in 1948, and the Maida Vale Hospital archives are also housed in the collection. The National Hospital now forms part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Charlotte Caroline Sowerby was the eldest daughter of the conchologist, illustrator and natural history dealer George Brettingham Sowerby (1788-1854) who was, like other members of her family, a talented natural history illustrator. Her best known published work was The illustrated bouquet, consisting of figures with descriptions of new flowers, published by E G Henderson and Son, London, 1857-1864.
One of the Geological Society's principal functions when it was formed was to hold scientific meetings where members could discuss the latest theories or discoveries in the field of geology. The original meetings were referred to as 'Ordinary General Meetings' or 'Ordinary Meetings' (see series GSL/OM), however by the 1970s the meeting format had changed, being more likely themed around a specific topic and hence developing into the 'Special' scientific meetings which are now held. These 'Special' meetings may be jointly sponsored by other bodies or held over a series of days. The series also includes national or international conferences which have some Geological Society involvement.
From the earliest years of the Society, small committees were formed with specific organisational remits. The Committee of Trustees, appointed at the end of 1807, was the first, its task was to draw up the rules for the regulation of the fledgling Society and instructions to the honorary members to accompany notice of their election. When the Council was established in June 1810, the various 'standing' (that is permanent) committees tasked with overseeing the management of the Society's apartments, maps, publications, etc were formally appointed by and therefore reported to this senior body. Additionally 'Special' committees were formed on an ad hoc basis to deal with a specific issue or project, such as the refurbishment of the Society's apartments or the appointment of new staff, which could not necessarily be dealt with in the day to day business of one of the standing committees.
As the Society grew in size and complication, the 'Special' committees were more likely to be established as permanent committees of their own, however they would report to the hierarchy of the specific major standing committee which had appointed it rather than to Council.
With various reorganisations over the years and adaptations to modern management requirements, the names and functions of the standing committees has been frequently subject to change, with committees merging or being replaced by others.
Historically the Assistant Secretary, later Permanent Secretary, was the first point of contact with the Society (besides the President and members of Council) and as the post holder also acted as editor of the Journal and occasionally the Librarian and Curator, the majority of the day to day correspondence and administration came through his office. By the late 1960s, the role had developed into what is now the Executive Secretary (essentially the Chief Executive of the Society), and although the postholder no longer has editorial duties, the office is still the central administrative department of the organisation. However it should be noted as some functions of the Society have developed, specific departments have been established to take over the running of some of these tasks, such as the Conference Office which now organises the scientific meetings. The Executive Secretary still ultimately oversees these subsidiary departments as well as sitting on most of the Society's major standing committees, therefore the Executive Secretary series still reflects most of the Society's functions.
Like other learned societies, establishing a membership body formed of like minded individuals was one of the core aims of the Geological Society of London when it was established in 1807. Up until 1825, when the Society was granted its Royal Charter, there were only two categories of membership - Ordinary Members and Honorary Members (the latter category modified to 'Foreign' Members from December 1814).
To become an Ordinary Member, a candidate had to be first proposed and recommended by at least three existing members, one of whom should personally know the prospective member. The proposal was in the form of an admission certificate, usually completed by the main proposer, which would be displayed in one of the public rooms of the Society. Voting would take place at the specified Ordinary Meeting, whereby if the candidate received approval from at least two thirds of the attendees he would be accepted as a new member. If he was not successful, his admission form would be destroyed. New members would pay a joining fee and sign a form obligating themselves to promote the aims of the Geological Society of London. Members who lived within a 20 mile radius of London would pay an additional annual fee, not applicable to those living outside of London as presumably they were less likely to use the Society's facilities.
Distinguished mineralogists and persons who had by their communications or contributions promoted the objects of the Society could be proposed as Honorary/Foreign Members. The system for proposal was similar to that of Ordinary Members but instead at least five existing members had to propose the candidate. Honorary Members did not pay the joining fee or annual subscription but could use the Society's facilities such as the Library or Museum, although they were not allowed to vote.
After the Society's official incorporation in 1826, the categories of membership were modified slightly to reflect the new Royal Charter - Ordinary Members became 'Fellows' but the honorary category of Foreign Member remained. It should be noted that it was not until the mid 20th century that formal qualifications were required for entry as a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. Additionally women were not allowed to join until 1919, the first official female Fellow being Margaret Chorley Crosfield who was elected in May of that year.
In 1863 a new category of honorary membership was introduced - Foreign Correspondent. A stage below Foreign Member, a Foreign Correspondent had to have distinguished himself as a geological investigator or communicated extensively with the Society but 'be a native of the British Dominions or of their dependencies, or be domiciliated therein'. Foreign Correspondents had no privileges at the Society, but from their rank would be elected Foreign Members who were not allowed to propose candidates, vote at general meetings or to fill any office at the Society, but were entitled to exercise all other privileges allowed to Fellows. There was a quota of 40 Foreign Correspondents and 40 Foreign Members allowed at one time, and as they didn't pay neither category of member needed to actually turn up to the Society in person. In 1974, the category was merged and renamed 'Honorary Fellow', limited to a maximum of 100, with not more than 15 coming from the UK.
Apart from Fellow and Honorary Fellow, the Society now offers another four grades of membership: Junior Candidate Fellow (for secondary school children between the ages 16-18); Candidate Fellow, previously Junior Associateship (for geology undergraduates, first introduced in 1945); Chartered Geologist (open to Fellows of the Society with no less than five years' postgraduate experience); European Geologist (licensed by the European Federation of Geologists and open to Chartered Geologists); and Chartered Scientist (licensed by the Science Council, open to those Fellows who have moved out of mainstream geological work since completing higher education, but who wish to register themselves as high calibre scientists and teachers of science).
From its earliest days, the Geological Society collected specimens. Unlike rival collections at the British Museum and other learned bodies, the Society's Museum was intended to be comprehensive. Access was restricted to members of the Society but it was to be of use to both beginners and accomplished geologists. The rudimentary Museum was first laid out in 1809, when the Society moved to its first premises at 4 Garden Court, Temple. However even after the move to a larger house in Lincoln's Inn Fields a year later there was still not enough space to adequately store the specimens.
By 1810 the Museum was in disarray, with new specimens piling up and the existing collection still not catalogued fully. At the first meeting of Council, 14 June 1810, it was resolved that Leonard Horner, Wilson Lowry, Comte de Bournon and Peter Mark Roget would form a 'Committee of Arrangement' to take charge of the collection. In 1812 it was decided to appoint the Society's first paid member of staff, Thomas Webster who had been a Member of the Society since 1809, as (part-time) Keeper of the Museum. Webster's role was not curatorial, instead he was charged with unpacking and registering the specimens which would then be catalogued by the Committee of Arrangement. Webster was overwhelmed with the workload as he also had to fit in his additional duties of honorary secretary, librarian, journal editor as well as keeping an eye on the accounts.
Originally the specimens in the Museum were arranged by country - the British specimens being then subdivided by county. From 1813 the collection began to be arranged stratigraphically, echoing the fossil theories of William Smith. However not all members of the Society agreed with the new layout, and Webster was caught between opposing scientific factions who continually criticised his work. His unpopularity amongst a number of senior Fellows of the Society such as George Bellas Greenough and Charles Lyell when added to the scandal of a clerk absconding with £63 from the sales of the 'Transactions' in 1827, meant that when the remodelled post of 'Curator' was created that year, Webster was not offered it. Webster left on 1 July 1827, later referring to the Society's officers as 'a bad lot'.
Instead the first Curator in 1829 was William Lonsdale. Like Webster, Lonsdale also acted as assistant secretary, editor, librarian and finance officer but at least was employed full time. Lonsdale's appointment was viewed by all as a great success, however he was relieved of his curatorial duties in 1836 when his health broke down from overwork. Between 1839 and 1848 there followed five Curators but this high turnover of staff meant that much of the work was either unfocused or unfinished. In order to try and sort out the ongoing problems in the Museum, various ad hoc Special Museum Committees were formed. Leonard Horner, under the aegis of one of these Special Committees finally managed to get the Museum under some sort of control by the mid 1860s but this happy state of affairs was short lived.
By 1869, it was decided to abandon attempts to form a comprehensive collection. Instead specimens should directly relate to papers read at the Society, resulting in a virtual halt in donations of any kind. The move to Burlington House gave the impetus to thoroughly weed and catalogue the collection again, but after Bernard B Woodward who had overseen the relocation resigned in 1876, the collection received only cursory attention.
In 1895, the Council accepted that a large portion of the collection should be donated to the British Museum but the decision was indefinitely postponed after a special general meeting the following year. However another special general meeting was called by a group of palaeontologists in 1901 to try and force the Council to take better care of the Museum, but their plan backfired and instead a motion was carried that the Museum should be disposed of. This caused a flurry of interest in the Museum, with a threefold increase in visitors and loan requests. John Frederick Blake even produced a catalogue of the whole Museum, published at his own expense as 'List of the Types and Figured Specimens...in the Collection of the Geological Society of London', London (1902).
Finally, after another two special general meetings held on 25 January and 14 June 1911, it was resolved that the Museum should be disposed of and the space used by the Library. The contents were divided between the British Museum (now the Natural History Museum) and the Museum of Practical Geology (part of the British Geological Survey). The British Museum received the foreign specimens, while the domestic collection was given to the other institution. A number of specimens were retained by the Society but only a few remain, notably the ichthyosaur skull found by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis (now in the entrance lobby of the Society's Apartments) and a Pleistocene rhinocerus skull given by William Buckland in 1820 (on the second floor). The Museum space became the Upper Library, but some of the supports for the specimen drawers can still be seen on a number of its shelves.
Traditionally, if a Fellow is still a member of the Society when they die they received a formal, Society obituary which was published in one of the Society's serial publications. These obituaries have not been collated as they are easily retrievable in their published form. Instead this series consists of externally published obituaries or orders of service for Fellows and some members of staff which were mostly collected from the 1990s by Library staff. There is some material which is older, found loose among the backlog of other material and which has been added for ease of use.
It should be noted that the series will include ex members of the Society who resigned their Fellowship at some point before their death, but were kept for informational reasons.
Brothers Joshua William and Francis Thomas Gregory were two of the five sons (another being Sir August Charles Gregory) born to Joshua Gregory, an army officer from Farnfield, Nottinghamshire. The family emigrated in 1829 after their father, who had been wounded in action, was granted land in the new Swan River Colony in Western Australia in lieu of a pension.
The Swan River Colony, on the Swan River, Western Australia, was a British settlement established in 1829. The area was later named officially as Western Australia after its first governor, Captain James Stirling RN, belatedly received his commission. Stirling served as governor until 1839, when he was succeeded by John Hutt.
William Kennett Loftus was born in Rye, Sussex in c 1821. He was educated at Newcastle Grammar School, a school in Twickenham and later at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he did not take a degree. Loftus' interest in geology may have been inspired by the lectures of Prof Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge, certainly it was Sedgwick who proposed Loftus as a Fellow of the Society in 1842.
Sir Henry De la Beche, Director of the Geological Survey, recommended Loftus to Lord Palmerston for the post of geologist on the staff of Sir William Fenwick Williams on the Turco-Persian frontier commission. This joint commission, consisting of representatives appointed by the British, Russian, Turkish and Persian governments, was charged with defining the border between Turkey and Persia [now Iran], the work which it undertook between 1849-1852.
The publication of the paper was delayed due to a bout of ill health and Loftus' absorption in his archaelogical digs around the biblical cities of Mesopotamia. In 1855, Loftus was appointed to the Geological Survey of India however his health, already weakened from a fever which he developed in the swamps of Assyria, completely broke down due to sunstroke. He died on the return voyage aboard the Tyburnia on 27 November 1858 from the effects of an abscess of the liver.
John MacCulloch was born in his grandparents' house in Guernsey on 6 October 1773. The third of eight children of James MacCulloch, a wine merchant, and Elizabeth de Lisle, the young MacCulloch was sent to schools in Cornwall between 1778-1790, before enrolling as a medical student at Edinburgh University in 1790. Whilst there he also read chemistry under Joseph Black and natural history under John Walker. MacCulloch graduated with an MD in 1793, but the following year his postgraduate studies were cut short by his parents' internment during the French Revolution.
MacCulloch became a surgeon's mate in the Royal Artillery on 15 August 1795, and by 1803 had risen to assistant surgeon. He was then drafted into the ordnance chemical department, becoming ordnance chemist in 1806 and retiring from the army with a small pension. He received his licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1808, and set up a private medical practice in Blackheath, south east London but had to give it up when ordnance duties demanded prolonged absences for geological surveys. He still, however, managed to be appointed physician to Prince Leopold, later king of the Belgians, in 1820. MacCulloch's main contribution to the field of medicine was his writings on fever, notably his work on malaria in the late 1820s.
MacCulloch's burgeoning interest in geology can be traced back at least to the early 1800s, notably on his tours of the Lake District (1805) and the west country (1807), when he visited mines and noted down comments on local rocks in his diary. He was elected a Member of the Geological Society on 5 February 1808, and his paper on the geology of the Channel Islands, opened the first issue of the Society's 'Transactions' in 1811.
In his search for silica-free limestone for millwheels, MacCulloch conducted geological surveys in Wessex, Wales, and Scotland, between 1809-1813, and then from 1814-1821 acted as geologist to the ordnance trigonometrical survey during which he had surveyed hundreds of Scottish peaks and produced a geological map of west Scotland. However this intense survey work affected his health, and in 1821 he developed an enlargement of the spleen. Although he returned to work in 1822, his consitution remained affected thereafter.
Between 1816-1820, MacCulloch served as president of the Geological Society and in 1820 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. When in 1824, the chemical department of the ordnance was abolished, the now retired MacCulloch instead spent his summer field seasons surveying Scotland for the geological survey. Essentially MacCulloch became the first government sponsored geological surveyor in Britain, a move which was controversial as it cost the Treasury over £1000 per annum. Despite suffering a stroke in 1831, MacCulloch still managed to draft the final reports and map before his death four years later, his geological map Scotland being issued posthumously in 1836. Although criticised for topographical and geological inaccuracies, the map was not superseded for many years.
MacCulloch was a prolific scientific author, writing not only on geology, medicine and chemistry but on varied subjects such as methods of transferring the habitat of saltwater fish to freshwater and horticulture. His most noted geological works were 'A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland' (1819), 'A Geological Classification of Rocks' (1821), 'The Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland' (1824) and 'The System of Geology' (1831). MacCulloch's 'Proofs and Illustrations of the Attributes of God' which connected theology and geology was published by his widow in 1837.
He married Louisa Margaretta White on 6 July 1835, but on whilst on honeymoon in Cornwall was thrown from his carriage and suffered severe leg injuries. Despite an operation to amputate his leg, John MacCulloch died on 20 August 1835.
John Henry Cooke was born in Weymouth on 29 November 1862, and received his education at St Vincent de Paule Roman Catholic School, Liverpool, and St Mary's Training College of Catholic Teachers, Hammersmith, London. In 1887 he travelled to Malta to take up a post of teacher of English at the Valletta Lyceum. Cooke lived in Malta for seven years, founding an editing the journal 'The Mediterranean Naturalist' after becoming interested in the natural history of the island. He also made significant contributions to the understanding of the geology of Malta, publishing papers on the Tertiary Rocks and Pleistocene deposits of the island, and collecting fossils (which he donated or sold to various European museums).
Cooke was forced to leave Malta in 1894 due to his wife's poor health, but he still produced papers on the geology of Malta on his return to England for the next few years. He became an Inspector in the Science and Art Department of the South Kensington Museum, but when that department closed he was appointed Inspector of Schools in Shropshire and Wolverhampton.
Cooke was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 3rd (Volunteer) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment in July 1901, transferring to the 1st (Volunteer) Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry (later 4th Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry) in October the same year. He rose to the rank of Captain.
After his retirement from military service and until his death on 7 December 1933, Cooke continued to investigate and write about the prehistory of his local area.
Staff College, Camberley, was inaugurated in 1862 to provide Staff training to British Army officers and remained in existence until 1997 when single-Service Staff training was ended. Staff training for the British Army is now conducted by the Joint Services Command and Staff College.
Staff College, Camberley, was inaugurated in 1862 to provide Staff training to British Army officers, and remained in existence until 1997 when single-Service Staff training was ended. Staff Training for the British Army is now conducted by the Joint Services Command and Staff College.
The British Council was founded in 1934 as the 'British Committee for Relations with Other Countries' and in 1936 it was re-named' The British Council'. The aims of the Council were:
"to promote abroad a wider appreciation of British culture and civilization, by encouraging the study and use of the English language, and thereby, to extend a knowledge of British literature and of the British contribution to music and the fine arts, the sciences, philosophic thought and political practice."
Funded by the British Government the Council's work was developed during World War Two and was particularly important during the 'Cold War' period and this is reflected in the papers in this collection. The Fine Arts Department role was to organize exhibitions of the work of British artists and send them overseas. In this work they established international relationships with overseas arts organisations and brought British art to wide and varied audiences.
The first Director of the Fine Arts Department was Major Alfred A. Longden. He was succeeded in 1947 by Lilian Somerville, who had joined the Council during the war; she was appointed as Director of the Fine Arts Section of the Visual Arts Department). In 1949 she was appointed Director of the retitled Fine Arts Department, and remained in this position until her retirement in 1970. She was succeeded by John Hulton (1971-1975) who had been her deputy. Other heads of the Department include Henry Meyric Hughes (1984-1992). The current Director is Andrea Rose.
The papers in this collection run from 1945-2003. Other documents relating to the British Council Fine Arts Department for this period have been deposited at The National Archives.
Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) was born in Cookham, Berkshire, where he spent much of his life. He attended the Slade School under Tonks, 1908-1912; returning in 1923, where he concentrated on drawing. His contemporaries at the Slade included Nevinson, Bomberg, Roberts, Gertler, Wadsworth, Carrington, Allinson, Jacques and Gwen Raverat, Lightfoot and Ihlee; the latter four being his closest friends. In 1912, Spencer exhibited in the 2nd Post-Impressionist exhibition, organised by Roger Fry, and in 1913 he met Edward Marsh who, with fellow artist Henry Lamb, supported his work. Between 1915 and 1918 he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps where he saw action in Salonika. In 1918 he was commissioned for an official war picture: 'Travoys with Wounded Soldiers' (Imperial War Museum). In 1919 Spencer met Hilda Carline (sister to Richard and Sydney), and they married in 1925. They had two children, Shirin born 1925 and Unity born in 1930. A member of the New English Art Club, 1919-27, his first solo exhibition was at the Goupil Gallery in 1927, where he exhibited 'The Resurrection, Cookham', 1924-26 (Tate). Between 1927 and 1932 he worked on the decorations for the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere, and he subsequently exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1928, 1930, 1932 and 1938, and at the Tooth, Leger and Zwemmer Galleries in London. Elected Associate Royal Academician in 1932 (resigned 1935) he was re-elected Royal Academician in 1950. In 1937 Hilda divorced Stanley so he could marry Patricia Preece. His second marriage only lasted two years and Spencer remained in love, and in close contact, with Hilda until her death in 1950.
From the 1930s he worked on a series of paintings for his unrealised Church-House scheme and in 1940 he was commissioned by the WAAC to paint shipbuilding subjects at Port Glasgow (Imerpial War Museum). 'The Resurrection, Port Glasgow' (Tate) was one of nine pictures of the Resurrection painted between 1945 and 1950. He received his CBE in 1950 and was knighted in 1959. In 1954 he visited China as part of a cultural delegation, and in 1955 the Tate held a retrospective exhibition of his work. His painting gives an autobiographical, visionary interpretation of secular and religious subjects, often depicting biblical scenes in the contemporary environment of Cookham. Influenced by early Italian painting and work by his contemporaries at the Slade, he used distortions of scale, perspective and anatomy, heightened realistic detail, cool, earthy colour and rhythmical forms to produce work of great imaginative intensity. In the 1920s and 1930s he painted urban, domestic subjects, sometimes with an erotic content. His sharply defined work was based on drawn preparation and painted in a methodical manner which rarely altered or overpainted images. In December 1958 Spencer was diagnosed with cancer and taken into hospital for a colostomy operation. The operation was a success, but Spencer's recovery was slow and painful. During 1959 Spencer limited his social engagements to allow more time for his painting. He also moved back into 'Fernlea', Cookham, his childhood home. Stanley Spencer died at the Canadian War Memorial Hospital, Cliveden, on 14th December 1959.
The Artist Placement Group (APG) emerged in London in the 1960s. The idea of artist placements took its focus from the group of UK artists, including John Latham and Barbara Steveni, who were experimenting with new art forms. Initiated and directed by Steveni, the APG pioneered the concept of art in the social context; from the outset her concept of 'placement' directly acknowledged the isolated and marginal position that artists held within society and was an effort to overcome this situation. The APG acting outside the conventional art gallery system, attempted to place artists, through negotiation and agreement, within industry and in government departments. Artists such as Keith Arnatt, Ian Breakwell, Stuart Brisley, and Barry Flanagan, had important placements or early associations with the APG.
Today the organisation exists as Organisation and Imagination (O + I), and describes itself as 'an independent, radical international artist initiative, a network consultancy and research organisation'. Its board of directors, members and specialist advisors include leading artists, senior civil servants, politicians, scientists, and academics from various disciplines. The name was changed in 1989 in order to distinguish the initiative from arts administrative placement schemes set up following the APG example.
Keith Vaughan 1912-1977, born on the 23rd August 1912 at Selsey Bill, Sussex, was an English painter and writer. After attending Christ's Hospital school, he worked at Lintas advertising agency until he abandoned his career in advertising in 1939 to pursue painting. When the Second World War broke out Vaughan joined the St John's Ambulance as a conscientious objector. In 1941, Vaughan was attached to the Pioneer Corps and was periodically moved from camp to camp around southern England, generally working on the land until he was transferred north in 1943 to Yorkshire. His drawings of army life attracted attention and he entered the circle of Peter Watson in London. During the war Vaughan formed friendships with the painters Graham Sutherland and John Minton, with whom, after demobilization in 1946, he shared a studio. Through these contacts he formed part of the Neo-Romantic circle of the immediate post-war period. During the 1950s, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse were major influences, but most important was that of Nicolas De Stael, who enabled him to reconcile figurative and abstract elements. After 1945 Vaughan travelled in the Mediterranean, North Africa, Mexico and the USA, where he was resident artist at Iowa State University in 1959. He taught in London at Camberwell School of Art (1946-1948) and the Central School of Arts and Crafts (1948-1957) and was a visiting teacher at the Slade School of Fine Art (1959-1977). Vaughan is also known for his journals which he began writing in August 1939, selections from which were published in 1966 and more extensively in 1989 (Keith Vaughan Journals 1939-1977, Alan Ross, London, John Murry, 1989). Vaughan had considerable success, including the award of a CBE in 1965. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1975 and committed suicide on the 4th November 1977.
Naum Gabo was born Naum Pevsner in Russia, in 1890. He was the younger brother of the sculptor Antoine Pevsner. Gabo went to Munich University in 1910 to study medicine and natural sciences, but also attended art history lectures by Heinrich Wölfflin. In 1912 he transferred to an engineering school in Munich. In 1913 he joined Antoine, then a painter, in Paris and whilst there he met Kandinsky. After the outbreak of war, Gabo moved from Paris to Copenhagen and then to Oslo. From 1915 he began to make constructions under the name Naum Gabo. Between 1917 and 1922, Gabo was in Moscow with his brother. Whilst there, they jointly wrote and issued a 'Realistic Manifesto' on the tenets of pure Constructivism. In 1922 Gabo moved to Berlin, where he lived in contact with artists of the de Stijl group and the Bauhaus. In 1926 he co-designed with Antoine, costumes for Diaghilev's ballett 'La Chatte'. In 1932 Gabo moved back to Paris and became a member of Abstraction Création. In 1936 he left Paris, moved to London and married Miriam Franklin (née Israels) in 1937. Gabo edited 'Circle: International Survey of Constructivist Art' along with J.L. Martin and Ben Nicholson. Gabo became good friends with Nicholson, and in 1939 he moved to Carbis Bay, Cornwall, where Nicholson was also based. In 1944 Gabo joined the Design Research Unit and in 1946 he moved to the USA, settling in Conneticut in 1953. He became a US citizen in 1952. Between 1953 and 1954, he was a professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Harvard University. From 1950 onwards, Gabo took a number of sculpture commmissions, including one for the Bijenkorf store in Rotterdam. In 1971 Gabo was awarded an Honorary KBE. He died in Conneticut in 1977.
Born 1919; joined RAF Volunteer Reserves, 1939; navigator, No 78 Squadron and No 79 Squadron, 1940-1941; Pilot Officer, 1941; navigation instructor, 1942; Navigation Leader, 196 Squadron, 1943; Pathfinder Squadron, Sept 1944; Flight Lieutenant, 1946; RAF Transport Command, 1946-1948; Air Ministry, 1948-1950; Staff College, 1950; Exchange Officer, Washington DC, USA, 1953; Wing Commander (Operations), 1957; Singapore, 1960; staff appointments, Ministry of Defence; Group Captain, 1969; commander, RAF Gaydon, Warwickshire and RAF Finningley, Yorkshire, 1969-1971; chairman, Tactical Air Group, Mutual Balanced Force Reduction talks, NATO, Brussels, 1971-1974; retired, 1974; worked for British Aerospace, Lancashire, 1974-1986; died 2003.