Tony Lynes worked with Richard Titmuss at the London Sschool of Economics, 1958-1965. He was advisor on social security to Labour Secretaries of State, 1974-1979, and continued to advise the Labour Party into the 1990s. His publications include the Penguin Guide to Supplementary Benefits. He also contributed a weekly column on benefits in New Society and the New Statesman. In addition, he has been secretary of the Child Poverty Action Group, an advisor to the National Pensioners Convention and has worked with pensioners' groups in Southwark, London.
James Eugene MacColl, 1908-1971, was educated at Sedbergh School, Balliol College, Oxford, and the University of Chicago. He was librarian of the Oxford Union in 1930, Commonwealth Fund Fellow, 1930-1932, and became a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1933. MacColl's political life began when he became a co-opted a member of the London County Council Education Committee, 1936-1946, and a member of Paddington Metropolitan Borough Council, 1934. He was a research assistant at the Political and Economic Planning Trust, 1945-1950, and Mayor of Paddington, 1947-1949. He was Labour MP for the Widnes Division of Lancashire from 1950 to 1971, and was Minister of Housing and Local Government, 1964-1969. MacColl's particular areas of interest were housing, local government and juvenile courts. He served on the Chairman's Panel, London Juvenile Courts, 1946-1964, on the Hemel Hempstead New Towns Corporation, 1946-1950, and on the Domestic Coal Consumers Council, 1947-1950.
Margaret Macdonald (nee Gladstone), 1870-1911, was educated largely at home. As a young woman, she was involved in various branches of voluntary social work, including working as a visitor of the Charity Organisation Society in Hoxton. By 1890, she had developed a keen interest in socialism, influenced by the Christian Socialists and the Fabian Society. She joined the Women's Industrial Council (WIC) in 1894, serving on several committees and organising an enquiry into home work in London, which was published in 1897. She met Ramsay Macdonald through this work in 1895 and they married in 1896. Margaret Macdonald's political work continued after her marriage. She was particularly concerned about the need for skilled work and training for women and the first trade schools for girls were established in 1904. She continued to work for the WIC until 1910 and was also an active member of the National Union of Women Workers. A supporter of women's suffrage, Macdonald served on the executive of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, although she was opposed to militant action. In 1906, she was involved in the formation of the Women's Labour League, retaining an interest in its work until her death.
James Ramsay MacDonald, 1866-1937, was born at Lossiemouth, Morayshire, and educated at a Board school, becoming a pupil teacher. He moved to London in 1886, working as a clerk, first for the Cyclists' Touring Club and then for Thomas Lough MP. MacDonald had a growing interest in politics and socialism. He joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1885, and the Fabian Society in 1886. He also went on to edit 'Socialist Library' and 'Socialist Review'. In 1895, he stood, unsuccessfully, as the Labour candidate for Southampton, but he went on to contest Leicester in 1900, the West Division of Leicester in 1918, and the East Division of Woolwich in 1921. He served as the MP for Leicester from 1906 to 1918. MacDonald held many posts within the Labour movement. He was Secretary of the Labour Representation Committee, 1900-1912, Chairman of the Independent Labour Party, 1906-1909, Treasurer of the Labour Party, 1912-1924, Leader of the Labour Party 1911-1914, Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party and Leader of HM Opposition, 1922, Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1924, and Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, 1929-1935. He also served on the Royal Commission on Indian Public Services, 1912-1914, as a member of the London County Council, 1901-1904, and as Lord President of the Council, 1935-1937. His particular area of interest was foreign affairs.
Ronald William Gordon Mackay, 1902-1960, was born in Australia and educated at Sydney Grammar School and Sydney University, where he obtained an LLB in 1926 and an MA with Hons in Education in 1927. In the late 1920's he lectured in Australia at St. Paul's College in New South Wales and at Sydney University in philosophy, history and economics. Throughout his career he lectured in many colleges and universities in the United States and Britain. From the 1930's to the 1950's he also broadcasted frequently on the National and Overseas Services of the B.B.C and in America and Britain. He was admitted as a solicitor in Sydney in 1926, and when he came to England in 1934, he was admitted as a solicitor there. He continued to practice as a corporation lawyer and legal adviser to a number of British, American and Australian companies. Indeed in 1950 he was serving as director of a public company in Britain and of several private companies. In 1935 he began his political career, standing first as a Labour candidate in Frome, Somerset. He remained a prospective candidate for that constituency until 1942 when he resigned from the Labour Party to fight a by-election in Llandaff and Barry as an Independent Socialist candidate in opposition to the peace policy of the Coalition Government. In 1943 he joined the Common Wealth Party and was Chairman of that party from 1943-1944. He rejoined the Labour Party in 1945 and was the Labour MP for Hull North-West from 1945 to 1950 and the Labour MP for the North Division of Reading from 1950 to 1951. During World War II, Mackay held appointments at the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Aircraft Production. After the war Mackay reportedly became known as an 'internationalist' who emphasised the dependence of Britain on the democracies of Europe on the one hand and the United States and the Commonwealth on the other; saw the solution of Britains post-war economic and political problems in European terms; and worked towards promoting good international relations between Britain and the world. He became involved in the European Union and British policy relating to Europe through participation in the activities of the European Parliamentary Union, European Movement, Federal Union and the Council of Europe. Mackay published a number of books including the following: Some Aspects of Primary and Secondary Education (New Century Press, 1928). Industrial Arbitration in Australia (New Century Press, 1930). Federal Europe: being the case for European federation, together with a draft constitution of a united states of Europe, with foreword by Norman Angell (1940) Peace aims and the new order : outlining the case for European federation together with a draft constitution of a united states of Europe, with foreword by Norman Angell (1941). Coupon or free?: being a study in electoral reform and representative government (1943). Britain in wonderland (1948). Western union in crisis : economic anarchy or political union : five papers supporting the proposition that the political solution provides the only key to our economic problems, etc (1949). Heads in the sand : a criticism of the official Labour Party attitude to European unity (1950). European unity : the Strasbourg plan for a European political authority with limited functions but real powers; with a foreword by Paul Henri Spaak (1951). Whither Britain? (1953). Towards a United States of Europe : an analysis of Britain's role in European union, with a preface by Paul-Henri Spaak (1961).
Born 1874; educated at Northampton School of Science, Oxford Central School, St Paul's College in Cheltenham, and the London School of Economics and Political Science; one of the founders of the Oxford City Branch of University Extension, 1893-1894, the Parish Register Society, 1896, and Phillimore's Marriage Registers Series, 1896; Member of Educational Staff, Hornsey, 1896-1934; also Lecturer in History, Economics, and Social Subjects, City of London Day Training College, 1897-1900, the London County Council Literary and Commercial Institutes, 1900-1932, and the Adult Education Movement, 1923-1930; served World War One, 1914-1918; 2nd Lt, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 1919; Member of Mosely Education Commission in USA and Canada, 1906; Editor of the British Record Society, 1900-1902, and London and Middlesex Archæological Society, 1921-1923; Member of Council, London Topographical Society, 1936-1939, and Society of Antiquaries, 1938-1940 (Library Committee 1938-1945); Donor of Carey Centenary Bell, Moulton, 1934, and St Alban Memorial Bell, St Albans Cathedral, 1935; FSA, 1923-1952; Honorary Assistant Keeper of the Department of Printed Books, British Museum, 1943; died 1961. Publications: Abstracts of Gloucestershire Inquisitiones Post Mortem returned into the Court of Chancery in the reign of Charles the First (British Record Society, London, 1893-1914); Abstracts of Inquisitiones Post Mortem relating to the City of London returned into the Court of Chancery during the Tudor period (British Record Society, London, 1986-1908); The early records of Harringay, alias Hornsey, form prehistoric times to 1216 AD (Hornsey, 1938); The medieval records of Harringay, alias Hornsey, from 1216-1307 (Hornsey, 1939); The origin of the name of Hornsey (London, 1936); The registers of Moulton, Northamptonshire (London, 1903); Blisland Church and its patron saints (Bodmin, 1950); Church wardens' accounts of Washfield Parish, Devon (1948); Collections relating to crown lands (Purley, 1929); Dr Madge's gift to Moulton: a memorial bell to William Carey (Purley, Surrey, 1950); England under Stuart rule (City of London Book Depot, London, 1898); Legends of Trevillet glen and waterfall (London, 1914); Materials for a history of Moulton (Campion and Sons, Northampton, 1903); Moulton Church and its bells (Elliot Stock, London, 1895); Notes on the family name of Madge (Purley, 1948); Oxford and Oxfordshire bells and bellfries (Oxford, 1894); Records of Tintagel (1867); The chapel, kieve and gorge of St Nectan, Trevillet Millcombe, Tintagel (Bodmin, 1950); The Oxford mark book (J Oliver, Oxford, 1893); editor of The Borzoi County Histories (A A Knopf, London, 1928); The church and Parish of Saints Protus and Hyacinth, Blisland, Cornwall (Liddell and Son, Bodmin, 1947); The Domesday of Crown lands: a study of the legislation, surveys and sales of Royal estates under the Commonwealth (Routledge and Sons, London, 1938); Worcester House in the Strand (Oxford, 1945); Mosely Education Commission to America and Canada, 1906-1907 (1907); editor of Gloucestershire Notes and Queries (London, 1881).
Born 1884; parentage on both sides Polish szlachta (landed gentry and nobility); educated at the King Jan Sobieski Public School and the Jagiellonian University Cracow, where he gained a PhD in Philosophy, Physics and Mathematics,1908; received the Barczewski stipend for training as a university teacher, and studied for four years in London, undertaking research at the British Museum and the London School of Economics; Lecturer at the LSE, 1913, where he gained a PhD in Science, 1916; part of the Robert Mond Anthropological Expedition to New Guinea and North-West Melanesia, 1914-1916 and 1917-1918, returning in 1918 to Australia, and in 1920 to Europe; Reader in Social Anthropology, University of London, 1924-1927; journeyed to the USA and Mexico by invitation of Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, visiting Universities and Pueblo Indians (1926); Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics, 1927-1942; undertook a trip to South and East Africa, doing survey work among Bantu tribes (Swazi, Bemba, Chagga, and Bantu Kavirondo), 1934; Delegate of London University to Harvard Tercentenary; Lecturer, Oslo Instituttet for Kulturforsknung, 1936; Corresponding Member, Polish Academy of Science, 1930; Correspondent, Italian Committee for Study of Population Problems, 1932; Member, Royal Academy of Science of Netherlands, 1933; Messenger Lecturer, Cornell University, 1933; Honorary Member, Royal Society of New Zealand, 1936; Correspondent, Institute for Comparative Study of Cultures, Oslo, 1936; Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Yale University, 1939; Fieldwork in Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, 1940-1941; died 1942. Publications: The economic aspect of the Intichiuma ceremonies (Helsingfors, 1912); The family among the Australian aborigines (University of London Press, 1913); Baloma: the spirits of the dead in the Trobriand Islands (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1916); Argonauts of the Western Pacific; native enterprise and adventure in Melanesian New Guinea (Routledge, London, 1922); 'The problem of meaning in primitive languages' in The meaning of meaning (Kegan Paul, London, 1923); Crime and custom in savage society (Kegan Paul, London, 1926); Myth in primitive psychology (Kegan Paul, London, 1926); Sex and repression in savage society (Kegan Paul, London, 1927); The father in primitive psychology (Kegan Paul, London, 1927); The sexual life of savages in North-West Melanesia (Routledge and Sons, London, 1929); Coral gardens and their magic (G Allen and Unwin, London, 1935); The foundations of faith and morals (Oxford University Press, London, 1936); A scientific theory of culture and other essays (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1944); Freedom and civilisation (Roy Publisher, New York, 1944); The dynamics of cultural change: an inquiry into race relations in Africa (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1945); Magic, science and religion and other essays (The Free Press, New York, 1948); Sex, culture and myth (Harcourt, Brace and World, New York, 1962); A Diary in the strict sense of the term (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London; printed in U.S.A., 1967).
The Management Research Group was founded in 1926 by Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, and was based on an existing group in America, the Manufacturers Research Association of Massachusetts. The aim of the management research groups in this country was to provide a vehicle for the exchange of ideas, the collation of information and the discussion of problems common to member companies in order to promote more efficient management. Nine groups were set up around the country. Group 1, which was based in London and consisted of a small number of the largest manufacturing companies, co-ordinated the activities of Groups 2 - 8, which were based in the regions and consisted of small and medium sized companies. No company was accepted as a member without the unanimous agreement of all the member companies. Group 1 remained a totally autonomous group whose members interests were represented by their trade and employers associations. During the war it was decided that if the Group's views were not put forward by the usual trade or industrial organisation appropriate contact should be made between the Group's secretary and government officials. In 1943, Group 1 changed its title to the Industrial Management Research Association to show its separate identity from Groups 2 - 8.
Violet Rosa Markham, 1872-1959, grew up near Chesterfield and maintained links with the town throughout her life. Her independent income allowed her to devote much of her time to public service, both locally and nationally, and to travel extensively. Markham's first interest was education. She was a member of the Chesterfield Education Authority from 1899 to 1934, and in 1902, she was the founder President of the Chesterfield Settlement, an educational foundation for the local community. At the outbreak of World War I, the National Relief Fund was established to alleviate distress caused by the war. The fund dispensed aid to service families and dependents, as well as civilians. The experience of serving on the Executive Committee of this organisation left Violet Markham with a lifelong interest in reducing the effects of poverty and unemployment, especially with regard to women. In 1934, she became a member of the Unemployment Assistance Board and she also worked on the Central Committee on Women's Employment. Markham was also active politically. She stood as an Independent Liberal for the Mansfield Division of Nottinghamshire in the 1918 general election, was elected as a town councillor for Chesterfield in 1924, and served as Mayor of Chesterfield in 1927.
Born 1893; educated at Rugby School, and Trinity College, Cambridge University; civilian prisoner in Germany during World War One, 1914-18; Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1919-25; Lecturer, London School of Economics, 1925; Reader in Sociology, London University, 1930; Head of German Section, Research Dept of Foreign Office; Deputy Director, Research Department of Foreign Office, 1939-44; Head of the Social Science Department, London School of Economics, 1944-50; Member, Lord Chancellor's Committee on the Practice and Procedure of Supreme Court, 1947-53; Educational Adviser in the British Zone of Germany, 1949-50; Member, UK Committee for Unesco; Member, UK Delegation to Unesco General Conference, 1952; Martin White Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, London University, 1954-56; Director, Social Sciences Department, Unesco, 1956-60; President, International Sociological Association, 1959-62; Professor Emeritus, University of London; died 1981. Publications: Sociology at the crossroads (Longmans, Green and Co, London, 1947); Citizenship and social class (University Press, Cambridge, 1950); International comprehension in and through social science (Oxford University Press, London, 1960); Social policy (Hutchinson and Co, London, 1965); Sociology at the crossroads (Heinemann, London, 1963); The approach of the utopians; Training for social work (Oxford University Press, London, 1946); Citizenship and social class (Pluto press, London, 1992); The right to welfare and other essays (Heinemann, London, 1981).
George Elton Mayo (1880-1949) was born in Adelaide, Australia. He was educated at Queen's School and the Collegiate School of St. Peter and began training in medicine. This was never completed and between 1903 and 1905 he spent time in West Africa and London where he taught English at the Working Men's College. In 1907 he returned to university in Adelaide, studying philosophy and psychology. He was appointed foundation lecturer in mental amd moral philosophy at the new University of Queensland in Brisbane and held its first Chair of Philosophy, 1919-1923.
Elton Mayo married Dorothea McConnel in 1913 and their daughters, Patricia and Gael were born in 1915 and 1921. Throughout their marriage they corresponded during their frequent and lengthy separations and a correpondence was also maintained with Patricia, while she was in England.
While at Brisbane, Mayo studied nervous breakdown and with T H Mathewson, and pioneered the treatment of shell-shock. Mayo's observation of the high level of industrial strife and political conflict in Australia led him to formulate an analogy between war neurosis and the psychological causes of industrial unrest. Arguing that the worker's morale depended on his perception of the social function of his work, Mayo believed that the solution to industrial unrest lay in sociological research and industrial management, not radical politics. Mayo travelled to the USA in 1922 where a Rockefeller grant enabled him as a research associate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to investigate high labour turnover at a textile mill. The results of the work led to his appointment as associate professor at the Harvard School of Business Administration in 1926. Mayo became Professor of Industrial Research in 1929. While at Harvard Mayo was closely involved with the investigations into the personal and social factors determining work output at the Western Electric Company's Chicago Plant (the Hawthorne experiments). The results were groundbreaking studies in modern social research.
Mayo retired from Harvard in 1947 and retired to England were he died in 1949 in Guildford, Surrey.
Born 1887; educated at University College School, London, and University College, Oxford University; entered Treasury, 1910, by open competition; Private Secretary to six successive Financial Secretaries, 1913-1917; accompanied Sir H. Lever to USA on special financial mission, 1917; served under John Maynard Keynes at the Treasury, 1917-1919; Treasury representative, Paris Peace Conference, 1919-1920; Secretary to British Delegation, Reparation Commission, 1920-1922; General Secretary to Reparation Commission, 1922-1924, and Secretary to the Dawes Committee, 1924; Commissioner of Controlled Revenues, Berlin, 1924-1930; Knighted, 1925; started new career in the City of London, as Chairman, 1934-1952 and Director, 1952-1967, of S.G. Warburg and Co; Member, Executive National Liberal Federation, 1933-1936; Joint Treasurer, 1936-1948, President, 1949-1950, and Vice-President, 1950-1960, Liberal Party Organisation; President, Free Trade Union, 1948-1959; Vice-President, Liberal International, 1954-1967; Vice-President, Anglo-Israel Association (Chairman of Council, 1950-1960); Member of Council, 1933-1967, and President, 1970, Royal Institute of International Affairs; Liberal candidate for the City of London, 1945 and Finchley, 1950; died 1974. Publications: translator of Europe must unite (Paneuropa Editions, Glarus; Plymouth printed, 1940) and The Totalitarian State against Man (Frederick Muller, London, 1938), both by Count Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi; Government and industry (Lund, Humphries and Co, London, 1944); Government intervention in industry (Lovat Dickson, London, 1935); Liberal principle and policies (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1947); Moral and political problems of economic prosperity (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1962); Recollected in Tranquillity (Pall Mall Press, London & Dunmow, 1964); Reparation Reviewed (Ernest Benn, London, 1930); The Liberal Case (Allan Wingate, London & New York, 1950).
Born 1936; educated High Wycombe School and St Anne's College, Oxford University; graduate student in sociology, University of California at Berkeley; Assistant Research Officer, Home Office Research Unit, 1961-1963; Assistant Lecturer, 1963-1965 and Lecturer, 1965-1968, in Sociology, University of Leicester; founded Leicester Campaign for Racial Equality; Member, Executive Committee, British Sociological Association, 1967-1971 (Teaching Committee, 1975-1977); Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Borough Polytechnic (now South Bank University), 1968-1972; Founder Member, National Deviancy Conference, 1968-1975; Research Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford University, 1972-1975; active member of Women's Liberation Movement; Founding Member of Editorial Board and first Editor, Economy and Society, 1972-1978; active member of the Gay Liberation Front, [1970-1973]; Lecturer, 1975-1980, and Senior Lecturer, 1980-1996, in Sociology, University of Essex; Head of Sociology Department, 1986-1989, and member of Senate, 1977-1980 and 1994, University of Essex; Member, Policy Advisory Committee to the Criminal Law Revision Committee, 1976-1985, on matters relating to sexual offences; Founding Member, Editorial Collective, Feminist Review, 1978-1994; Member, Board of Directors, Lawrence and Wishart (Publishers), 1981-1985; Visiting Professor, Carleton University, Ottowa, Canada, 1985; Visiting Lecturer, University of Kuopi, Finland, 1993. Publications: editor of Deviance and social control (Tavistock, London, 1974); editor of Sex exposed: sexuality and the pornography debate (Virago, London, 1992); co-writer of The anti-social family (NLB, London, 1982); The organisation of crime (Macmillan, London, 1975);
Professor Robert Trelford McKenzie (1917-1981) was a political affairs presenter and the author of a well-known series of election studies. The video taping was undertaken for a series of political programmes [by Vincent Hanna - possibly A week in politics] broadcast [on Channel 4] during the General Election campaign of 1992.
James Edward Meade (1907-1995) was educated at Malvern College and Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1930. 1930. He was immediately appointed to a teaching post at Hertford College Oxford. He spent a postgraduate year at Trinity College, Cambridge (1930-1931) where he became deeply involved with the Cambridge 'circus' around John Maynard Keynes and his first work, 'An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy', appeared just two years after Keynes' 'General Theory'. In 1938 Meade left teaching for the League of Nations in Geneva where he edited the World Economic Survey. He returned to Britain in 1940 to serve in the Economic Section of the Cabinet Office under Lionel Robbins. In 1945, he succeeded Robbins as Director of the secretariat and during this time worked with Richard Stone on the first Keynesian-style national income accounts for Britain, later published as 'National Income and Expenditure'. In 1947, he accepted the post of Professor of Commerce at the London School of Economics and during this time expanded his lectures into his major work, 'The Theory of Economic Policy', published in two volumes-'Balance of Payments' in 1951 and 'Trade and Welfare' in 1955. Meade became Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge in 1957, a post in which he stayed for the next ten years. He found himself involved in the controversies between American and British economists, which led to his work 'A Neo-Classical Theory of Economic Growth'. Healso pursued his concerns over income distribution with his 'Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property'. Meade and Bertil Ohlin were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1977 for 'pathbreaking contributions to the theory of trade and international capital movements.' #10,000 of the prize money was donated to the appeal for the Lionel Robbins Building at the London School of Economics, which was to house the British Library of Political and Economic Science. In 1978, he chaired the influential British committee of inquiry into the 'Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation' whose recommendations bore Meade's characteristic approach and continued concern over unemployment. During the 1980s, Meade continued to produce a large amount of scientific work and worked in an advisory role with the newly formed Social Democratic Party regarding their economic policy. His work during this period, revolved around two of his concerns and interests: unemployment, which he considered comparable to the 1930s, and profit-sharing schemes, producer co-operatives and labour-managed firms, exemplified in his work 'Different Forms of Share Economy'. In 1995, Meade completed his last major work, 'Agathiotopia: Full Employment Regained?', which was published shortly before his death.. Meade was also President of Section F of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1957, Honorary Member of the American Economic Association, Treasurere of the British Eugencis Society from 1963-1966 and President of the Royal Economic Society from 1964 to 1966.In 1971 he became an honorary foreign member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Born 1942; educated King George V School in Southport and Bradford University; Chairman, Merseyside Regional Young Liberal Organisation, 1961; Liberal Party Local Government Officer, 1962-1967; Secretary, Yorkshire Liberal Federation, 1967-1970; Assistant Secretary, Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust, 1970-1978; General Secretary, Bradford Metropolitan Council for Voluntary Service, 1978-1983; Senior Visiting Fellow, PSI, 1989; Director, Electoral Reform Consultancy Services, 1992-1994; Member, Leeds City Council, 1968-1983; West Yorkshire MCC, 1973-1976, 1981-1983; Director, Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House, 1971-1983; Chairman, Liberal Party Assembly Committee, 1977-1981; President Elect, 1987-1988, and President, 1993-, Liberal Party; Liberal candidate for Leeds West, February and October 1974, 1987, and 1992; Liberal MP for Leeds West, 1983-1987; Chairman, Electoral Reform Society, 1989-1993; has undertaken 33 missions to new and emerging democracies; Co-ordinator, UN Electoral Assistance Secretariat, Malawi, 1994, OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) International Observer Mission, Russian Presidential election, 1996, Bulgaria, 1996, and the Bosnia Refugee Vote, 1996; Advisor on Jerusalem, EU Electoral Unit, Palestinian Assembly elections, 1995-1996; Consultant, Committee for Free and Fair Elections, Cambodia, 1997; European Co-Director, EC Support to Democratic Electoral Process in Cambodia, 1998. Publications: Liberalism and social democracy (Liberal Publication Department, London, [1981]); Liberal values for a new decade (Liberal Publication Department, London, [1980]); The bluffer's guide to politics: research and reference for councillors and community activists (North West Community Newspapers Ltd, Manchester, 1976).
FIRM (Forum for Initiatives in Reparation and Mediation) was set up in 1989, and changed its name to Mediation UK in 1991. Mediation UK is a registered charity which acts as an umbrella body for a network of projects, organisations and individuals interested in mediation and other forms of conflict resolution. It acts as an information and referral service, sponsors training events and workshops, organises an annual conference, helps groups to set up mediation services and provides standards of professional conduct for mediators. A quarterly journal, Mediation, is also produced.
Born in 1879; worked as Professor of History previous to the Russian Revolution; founded an anti-Bolshevik socialist party (Popular Socialist Party), 1919; sentenced to death, then reprieved, with the sentence commuted to imprisonment; expelled from the Soviet Union, 1920; settled in Prague, Berlin and Paris, where he continued his historical researches and published works on Russian history; became editor of several émigré journals; died 1956. Publications: The Red Terror in Russia (JM Dent and Sons, London and Toronto, 1925); numerous publications in Russian.
Merlyn Rees was born into a mining family in Cilfynydd, South Wales, on 18 December 1920. In the 1920s his family moved to London. From 1933 to 1939, he attended Harrow Weald County Grammar School and later went on to Goldsmiths College (where he was President of the Students' Union) to train as a teacher. During the Second World War he joined the RAF, with the Desert Air Force. He served in campaigns in Italy, France and Austria. By demobilisation he had risen to the rank of Squadron Leader. Following the war, Rees studied economics and history at the London School of Economics. In 1949 he became a teacher at his old school in Harrow. Also in 1949, he married Colleen Cleveley, a former pupil of Harrow Weald County Grammar School. In 1955, he was awarded an MSc (Econ.) from London University for a thesis entitled, 'The economic and social development of extra-metropolitan Middlesex in the nineteenth century'. In 1960, Rees was the organiser of the Festival of Labour (held on 15-17 June 1962). From 1962-1963, he was Lecturer in Economics at Luton College of Technology. In the 1950s, Rees had a run of unsuccessful attempts as Labour parliamentary candidate for Harrow East. However, in June 1963, he successfully fought the by-election in Leeds South which had been called following the unexpected death of Hugh Gaitskell. He served as Member of Parliament for the constituency until 1992 (the seat changed its name to Morley and Leeds South in 1983). On becoming an MP, Rees became Principal Private Secretary to James Callaghan. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Army, 1965-1966; for the RAF, 1966-1968; and, at the Home Office (where he was responsible for immigration and the fire service), 1968-1970. In October 1971, Rees became opposition spokesman on Northern Ireland. The role involved shadowing Willie Whitelaw when he became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland following the announcement of direct rule from Westminster in March 1972. In opposition, Rees adopted a bipartisan approach to Northern Ireland policies, especially in support of the Government's white paper, 'Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals' (Cmnd 5259), published in March 1973. The paper proposed an elected Assembly, a power sharing executive and the establishment of 'institutional arrangements for consultations and co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland'. He also supported the Sunningdale Agreement (December 1973) which, amongst other points, agreed the formation of a Council of Ireland. When Labour regained power in March 1974, Rees became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Much of his time in this role was spent on security matters, at a time of intense terrorist activity in the province. His immediate political priority was to support the power sharing executive and implement the Sunningdale Agreement. However, Unionist opposition to Sunningdale was growing, as was evident by the fact that in the UK General Election of February 1974, 11 of the 12 Northern Ireland seats were won by anti-Sunningdale unionists. In May 1974, the Ulster Workers' Council organised a strike against the Sunningdale Agreement which crippled power supplies to the province. This led to the collapse of the executive and the restoration of direct rule from Westminster. In July 1974, the government published a white paper, 'The Northern Ireland Constitution' (Cmnd 5675). This proposed the establishment of an elected constitutional convention which, it was hoped, would enable Northern Ireland's political parties to create a workable constitution for the province. Elections were held on 1 May 1975, with Unionist parties opposed to power sharing in the majority. By the end of November 1975, the Convention recommended a return to majority rule - a position which was not acceptable to the Nationalists. Rees tried to break the deadlock by holding a series of talks with all the parties involved in the Convention. The talks failed and the Convention was dissolved in March 1976.
Other aspects of his time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland include: a ceasefire by the Provisional IRA; the end of internment (December 1975); and, ending of special category status for paramilitary prisoners (March 1976). For more details about his time as Secretary of State, see Merlyn Rees' own book, Northern Ireland: a personal perspective (1985). Following Harold Wilson's resignation as Prime Minister in 1976, Rees was manager of the successful campaign for Jim Callaghan to be the next leader of the Labour Party. In September 1976, he was appointed Home Secretary. He was Shadow Home Secretary, 1979-1981 and Opposition spokesman on energy, 1981-1983. In 1982, he served on the Falkland Islands Review Committee (Franks Committee). In 1987, he joined a deputation with Cardinal Basil Hume, Lord Devlin, Lord Scarman, and Roy Jenkins to campaign for the release of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. In 1992, he was created a life peer as Baron Merlyn-Rees. He died in London on 5 January 2006.
No information available at present.
Michael James (Lynham) was born in Northern Ireland in 1941. Following his move to London, he worked as a window dresser, an antiques dealer and a coffee shop manager. He was an active member of the London Gay Liberation Front in the early 1970s, participating in the Media Workshop which produced Come Together, and in several well publicised demonstrations including the disruption of the Festival of Light in 1971. He was also involved with radical drag and lived in the Colville House commune, which he left in 1973. Following a prison sentence, Michael James worked from 1984 onwards for Body Positive, an HIV/Aids counselling organisation, undertaking full-time hospital visiting and becoming co-ordinator of the Hospital Visitors Group. He left the organisation in 1990, but returned later that year as a centre volunteer and worked for the Gay Switchboard until 1994. He now lives in Brighton.
James Mill, 1773-1836, was educated in Edinburgh by Sir John Stuart of Fettercain, and was licensed to preach in 1798. He moved to London in 1802 and supported his family by writing. He became editor of the 'Literary Journal' in 1803 and the 'St James Chronicle' in 1805, and also wrote for the 'Edinburgh Review' from 1808 to 1813. In 1808, Mill met Jeremy Bentham, was converted to his utilitarian philosophy, and abandoned theology. Thereafter, Mill took an active part in the Bell and Lancaster educational controversy and formed an association to set up a Chrestomathic school in 1814, the outcome of this being the formation of the London University in 1825. He also contributed articles to the 'Westminster Review', which was established as the official Benthamite paper. He was also connected with David Ricardo and took part in meetings at Ricardo's house which resulted in the Political Economy Club being founded in 1820.
John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873, was educated by his father, James Mill, to a very high level at an early age. Like his father he was a staunch utilitarian and he was also active in radical causes. In 1823, he formed the Utilitarian Society, which met to read and discuss essays, in 1825, he edited Bentham's 'Rationale of Judicial Evidence' and in 1826, he assisted in the formation of the Speculative Society. By the 1830's, John Stuart Mill had become interested in the work of romantic writers such as Wordsworth and also in the French Revolution. The 1832 Reform Bill seemed to give an opportunity for the Radicals to gain influence in Parliament and much of his energy at this time was given over to this. In 1835 he founded the 'London Review' which merged with the 'Westminster Review' in 1836. As proprietor from 1837-1840 he tried to use the paper to promote the philosophical radicals and their cause in Parliament. However by 1840 he had been unable to achieve his end and so gave up proprietership of the paper. The 1840s were devoted to writing his great works on logic and economics. In 1851, he married Harriet Taylor, who died in 1858. He was elected MP for Westminster in 1865 and served as a radical. He was a supporter of the 1867 Reform Bill and was active in support of the Labour Movement, the extension of the franchise to women, cumulative voting, Irish land reforms, municipal government for London and became embroiled in the Eyre controversy. He also proposed the Hare plan as an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill but failed in an attempt to obtain the vote for women. After he lost his seat in 1868, he continued to write articles and books and completed a revision of his autobiography before his death.
Harriet Taylor (nee Hardy), 1807-1858, was the daughter of a London surgeon. At the age of eighteen, she married John Taylor, a wealthy businessman. She and her husband were both active in the Unitarian Church and held radical political views. Harriet Taylor first met John Stuart Mill in 1830. During their association she worked closely with him contributing suggestions and revisions to his work. She was particularly influential in forming his ideas on women's rights, making him aware of the hardship suffered by women. In 1833, Harriet Taylor separated from her husband. He died of cancer in 1849, and two years later, she married John Stuart Mill.
Helen Taylor, 1831-1907, the daughter of Harriet Taylor, became companion to John Stuart Mill on the death of her mother in 1858. She assisted him in his work and helped to keep alive his interest in women's rights. She also campaigned in her own right on women's suffrage, the social position and education of women. She was a member of the Moral Reform Union and a leading light in the fight to abolish school fees and provide school meals.
Born in Bucharest, Rumania, in 1888; educated at the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1912-1914; undertook war work at the Romanian Legation in London, the Foreign Office and the War Office, 1914-1918; Member, Labour Party Advisory Committee on International Affairs, 1918-1931; Editorial Staff, Manchester Guardian, 1919-1922, with special responsibility for foreign affairs; Assistant European Editor, Economic and Social History of the World War, sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1922-1929; Visiting Professor, Harvard University 1931-1933; Dodge Lecturer, Yale University, 1932; Nielsen Research Professor, Smith College, 1951; Member, British Co-ordinating Committee for International Studies, 1927-1930; Professor in School of Economics and Politics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1933-1939 and 1946-1956; Member, Foreign Research and Press Service, Foreign Office, 1939-1942; Adviser on International Affairs to Board of Unilever & Lever Brothers Ltd, 1943-1962; Member, Executive Committee, Political and Economic Planning; died 1975. Publications: The functional theory of politics (Robertson, for the LSE, 1975); American interpretations; four political essays (Contact Publications, London, 1946); The effect of the War in south eastern Europe (Yale University press, 1936); Food and freedom (Batchworth Press, London, 1954); Greater Rumania: a study in national ideals (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1917); The land and the peasant in Rumania: the War and agrarian reform, 1917-1921 (Oxford University press, London, 1930); Marx against the peasant: a study in social dogmatism (George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1951); The problem of international sanctions (Humphrey Milford, London, 1925); The progress of international government (Allen and Unwin, London, 1933); The road to security (National Peace Council, London, 1944); Rumania, her history and politics (1915); A working peace system (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1943); World unity and the nations (London, 1950).
Modern Law Review was established in 1937; its main objectives were to promote legal education, and the study of law, arts and sciences of interest to those involved in the study or practice of law; aims met through the publication of the law review, the organisation of lectures (including the annual Chorley lecture), seminars, scholarships and prizes that support legal education and scholarship. The Journal is one of Europe's leading scholarly journals and publishes original articles relating to various areas of law, book reviews, case analysis, recent legislation reports; activities undertaken by the Editorial Committee which is overseen and supported by an Editorial Board.
Edmund Dene Morel, 1873-1924, was educated in Eastbourne but moved to Liverpool in 1891. Forced to leave school at the age of 15 due to his mother's financial difficulties, Morel worked as a clerk for the shipping firm Elder Dempster, and supplemented his income with part-time journalism. Many of the articles that Morel wrote related to stories from visitors to the shipping office, including material on British trade in Africa. Morel became concerned about the consequences of such trade for African culture. In 1900, he published a series of articles concerning the Congo, and was forced to resign from Elder Dempster due to the company's involvement in the rubber trade in the Congo. In 1904, Morel founded the Congo Reform Association and took a leading part in the movement against Congo misrule. He published many pamphlets on the subject and travelled to the United States to create a similar movement there. Morel was Honorary Secretary of the Congo Reform Association from 1904 to 1912. In 1909, he took part in the formation of the International League for the Defence of the Natives of the Conventional Basin of the Congo. He was also a member of the West African Lands Committee (Colonial Office), 1912-1914, and vice-president of the Anti-Slavery Society. His interest in African affairs extended to his journalism. He published "Le Congo Leopoldien" with the French explorer Pierre Mille, and was editor of the "African Mail" for ten years before bringing out his own paper "The West African Mail" in 1903. Morel was also active in the political world. He was the Liberal candidate for Birkenhead, 1912-1914, resigning when the First World War broke out. He then formed the Union of Democratic Control, a political party that opposed the war. From 1917 to 1918 he was imprisoned for violation of the Defence of the Realm Act. After the war he joined the Labour Party and was the Labour candidate for Dundee, 1921-1922.
Born 1928; educated Ruskin College and St Catherine's College, Oxford University, and the University of Manchester; former schoolmaster and university lecturer; parliamentary candidate (Labour & Co-op), Liverpool Garston 1951; Labour MP, Manchester Wythenshawe 1964-1997; Private Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, 1964-1967, and the Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons 1968-1970; Member, General Advisory Council of the BBC, 1968-1974 and 1983-1997; Chairman, Parliamentary Labour Party Food and Agriculture Group 1971-1974 (vice chm 1970-1971); Britain's first minister for the disabled 1974-1979; Chairman, World Planning Group (appointed to draft Charter for the 1980s for disabled people worldwide) 1979-1980; Opposition front bench spokesman on social services 1970-1974 and 1979-1981, and for the disabled, 1981-1992; Chairman, Co-operative Parliamentary Group, 1982-1984; Chairman, Anzac Group of MPs and Peers, 1982-1997 (President 1997-); Joint Treasurer, British-American Parliamentary Group 1983-1997; piloted Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act (1970) through Parliament as a private member, also the Food and Drugs (Milk) Act (1970) and the Police Act (1972); first recipient of Field Marshal Lord Harding Award for distinguished service to the disabled, 1971; Louis Braille Memorial Award for outstanding services to the blind, 1972; Trustee, Crisis at Christmas and Earl Snowdon's Fund for Handicapped Students; Chairman, Managing Trustees of the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Scheme, and the House of Commons Members' Fund 1983-1997; appointed to Select Committee on Privileges, 1994-1997; President, Co-op Congress 1995; President, Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists 1998; Chairman, Haemophilia Society, 1999. Publications: The growth of Parliamentary scrutiny by Committee (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1970); Needs before means: an exposition of the underlying purposes of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act, 1970 (Co-operative Union, Manchester, 1971); No feet to drag: report on the disabled (Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1972).
Herbert Stanley Morrison, 1888-1965, left school at fourteen and had a variety of jobs, including errand boy, telephone operator, shop assistant, and deputy circulation manager of the "Daily Citizen". He became part-time secretary of London Labour Party in 1915 and entered local government in 1919, becoming Mayor and later Alderman of Hackney. He was also a member of the London County Council, 1922-1945 and leader of the council 1934-1940. Morrison entered Parliament in 1923 as the Labour member for South Hackney, and served as Minister of Transport from 1929-1931. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he became Minister of Supply in 1940, Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, 1940-1945, and a member of the War Cabinet, 1942-1945. After the war, Morrison served as Deputy Prime Minister, 1945-1951, Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, 1945-1951, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1951, and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, 1951-1955. He was also president of the British Board of Film Censors 1960.
Munich 1938 is a documentary produced by Brook Lapping Associates.
Siegfried Nadel, 1903-1956, was born in Vienna. His early studies were in philosophy, psychology and music, but he later turned to anthropology. In 1932, he was granted a fellowship by the International Institute of African Languages and Culture. He became a postgraduate student of the London School of Economics Department of Anthropology. In 1938, he was appointed as Government Anthropologist in the Sudan, to investigate the Nuba tribes. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the British Military Administration in Eritrea and, in 1945, he became Secretary for Native Affairs to the British Military Administration in Tripolitania. In 1946, he became Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at LSE and, in 1948, he became Reader in Anthropology at Durham. In 1950, he was appointed Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University.
National Family Mediation was founded in 1981. It co-ordinates the work of voluntary sector family mediation services in England and Wales to assist couples who are in the process of separation and divorce. NFM encourages the take-up of family mediation; promotes professional standards; carries out research, consultancy and training; organises conferences; liaises with government, the legal profession, advice agencies and other voluntary organisations; and provides information to the public.
The National Peace Council was founded in 1908, after the 17th Universal Peace Congress in London. It brings together representatives of numerous national voluntary organisations with a common interest in peace, disarmament and international and race relations. The primary functions of the NPC are to provide opportunities for consultation and joint activities between its affiliated members, to help create an informed public opinion on the issues of the day, and to convey to the government of the day the views of the substantial section of British life represented by its affiliated membership.
The National Council of Labour Colleges was set up for "the education of the workers from the working class point of view, through the medium of Colleges, classes and public lectures; the co-ordination and extension of this independent working-class educational work; the issuing of leaflets, syllabuses, etc, for the assistance of class tutors and students". Originally the colleges were run by the Plebs Movement but they came to be run by the Unions and affiliated to the Labour Party. In addition, the London College was run by national bodies, whilst the provincial classes were controlled by union branches. This collection appears to be a second set of minutes, kept by J P M Millar, the General Secretary.
Newfoundland and Labrador form Canada's most easterly province and in the sixteenth century a strong fishery trade developed along its western side of the North Atlantic. It served as a commercial trading output for the Basque, French, Spanish, Portuguese and the English, who became the superior power in the trade hierarchy through naval dominance. The demand for salt fish in Europe reached its height during the Napoleonic War after which time there was an economic slump in Newfoundland fishery until the outbreak of World War Two.
The Newman family, who were based in Dartmouth, began their association with Newfoundland in the fifteenth century with the import and export of cloth and wool. The trade extended in the early 1500s with the import of European wine in exchange for fish and salt. The seventeenth century saw the company establishing trading centres in Newfoundland, including one at Harbor Briton, and developing its own fleet of shipping vessels. By the late seventeenth century the firm began what was to become a three hundred year old tradition of sending shipments of port wine to mature in Newfoundland. This century proved to be a highly successful one for the company, now known as Robert Newman and Co., and it resulted in the growth of trading branches in Newfoundland, including St.John's and Little Bay. On an annual basis, the company sent skilled workers from Devon and Dorset to Newfoundland for an eighteen month apprenticeship, some being given the option of staying there or returning to England. By the mid-nineteenth century the company was effectively operating in two distinct areas, namely the wine business and the fishery trade. The latter began to suffer from competition and doubts over the quality of the produce. In 1907 this culminated with the sale of the firm's last fishery office in Newfoundland, which effectively ended the Newman family's involvement in the Newfoundland fisheries. However, the family's association with port wine continues to this day at St.John's and Vila Nova de Gaia, the latter under the guise of Hunt Constantino-Vinhos, SA. Indeed over the course of its history the firm had several name changes, in response to family deaths and expansion through partnerships. Notably, the company expanded with the Roopes family of Dartmouth in 1679 and with the Holdsworth family of Dartmouth in 1739.
The Nationalised Industries Chairmen's Group represented the views of the nationalised industries, and its representatives worked with the government, the CBI and the Trades Unions. After 1976, the structure of the group became more formalised, with the establishment of the Standing Committee, Council, Advisory Committee and Finance Panel. The Nationalised Industries Overseas Group and the European Panel undertook the co-ordination of the group's work abroad.
Born 1916; educated at Stowe School, the Institute of Actuaries and the London School of Economics; Researcher and Lecturer, Oxford University Institute of Statistics, 1941-1946; Statistician, Ministry of Home Security, 1943-1944; Statistician, 1947-1952, and Chief Statistician, 1952-1968, Central Statistical Office, 1947-1968; External Examiner in Statistics, London, 1951-1956, and Manchester, 1958-1960; Simon Research Fellow, Manchester University, 1962-1963; Chief Economic Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Security and to successive Secretaries of State for Social Services, 1968-1976; Associate Professor of Quantitative Economics, Brunel University, 1972-1974; Senior Leverhulme Fellowship, 1977; Senior Fellow, Policy Studies Institute, 1977-1983; Rockefeller Fellowship, 1984; Fellow, Royal Statistical Society, 1940 (Member of Council, 1961-1966); Member, Econometric Society, 1951-1971; died 1990. Publications: Redistribution of Income in the United Kingdom in 1959, 1957 & 1953 (Bowes & Bowes, London, 1965); The interim index of industrial production (HMSO, 1949); The assessment of poverty (HMSO, 1979).
Florence Nightingale, 1820-1910, was born in Florence and educated in nursing by the Protestant Sisters of Mercy at Kaiserwerth on the Rhine. She went to the Crimea in 1854, and made her reputation in the military hospitals there. When she returned to England she devoted a £50,000 testimonial to the foundation of the Nightingale home for the training of nurses. She spent much of the rest of her life writing and lecturing.
The NIIP was founded in 1921 by Dr C S Myers, Director of the Cambridge Psychological Laboratory. Dr Myers was backed by a group of businessmen led by H J Welch, who gave their support and encouragement. Myers became the first Director of the Institute. The NIIP was a non-profit making scientific organisation for the study of industry and commerce. It aimed to promote the application of psychology and physiology within these fields. The Institute conducted research into problems of general interest to the industrial and commercial sector, and published the results. It also undertook research into the problems of particular organisations and suggested solutions. The NIIP began to expand rapidly in the mid 1960s, following support from the Ministry of Technology. The withdrawal of this funding from the end of the decade, however, contributed to the acute problems facing the organisation by the middle of the 1970s. The NIIP suspended activity in 1973, but later, aided by the North East London Polytechnic, continued to work on a smaller scale. It finally closed in 1976.
The National Network for Teaching and Learning Anthropology was originally based at Sussex and then moved to Birmingham. It later merged into a wider network with Sociology and Politics.
T H Oakley was a stockbroker of 2 Copthall Buildings, London, c 1885. The Company became known as Oakley Norris Bros (same address), c 1888-1966; then Norris Oakley Richardson and Glover. John Kenneth Ritchie, third Baron Ritchie of Dundee (1902-1975) and chairman of the London Stock Exchange, 1959-1965, was a senior partner of the company.
The North Lambeth Divisional Labour Party was founded in 1926, when its constitution and rules were formally adopted and endorsed by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. It consisted of members of Trade Union branches, Co-operative Societies, Socialist and other societies affiliated to the Borough Labour Party, plus any other men and women willing to subscribe to the Constitution who lived within the North Division of the Parliamentary Borough of Lambeth. Its objectives were to co-operate with the Borough Labour Party and to unite the forces of Labour within the Constituency, with a view to securing the election of Labour candidates to Parliament and local government authorities.
The Division was managed by a General Council consisting of representatives of affiliated bodies and individual members, Officers elected at the Annual Meeting of the General Council, and an Executive Committee consisting of the Officers and other members elected from the General Council. It also had Ward Associations, a Women's Section and a Young People's Section.
Raymond Colin Roberts was born in Monmouthshire in 1904. Between 1917 and 1933 he worked in various coal mining jobs, including being Miner's Organiser and Sectretary to the South Wales Miner's Federation. He was a student of Social Sciences at the Labour College in Earls Court, London, between 1923-1925, having won a scholarship from the South Wales Miners.
He was Political Agent and Secretary to the North Lambeth Labour Party from May 1933 to April 1941. An accident from his coal mining days meant he was exempt from military service during World War Two and instead was appointed as a Regional Shelter Officer. He was then trained as a Factory Personnel Manager and Welfare Supervisor under a Ministry of Labour scheme and subsequently became an inspector of factories.
The New Survey of London was begun in 1928 and concluded in 1933 as a deliberate attempt to update Charles Booth's Survey of Life and Labour in London. It was directed by Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith who had been one of Booth's assistants. The Survey was based at the London School of Economics and was financed by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Trust and by donations raised by Beveridge from London organisations. Llewellyn Smith published his findings in 1930-1934 as The new survey of London life and labour (London, 1930-1935).
Michael Oakeshott was born in Chelsfield, Kent, on 11 December 1901, the second of three sons of Joseph Francis Oakeshott, a civil servant and member of the Fabian Society, and his wife, Frances Maude Oakeshott (nee Hellicar). He was educated at St George's School Harpenden, a progressive co-educational school, and then read history at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, graduating in 1923. He went on to study in Germany, including the universities of Marburg and Tubingen. He also worked briefly as an English teacher at Lytham St Anne's Grammar School. In 1925 he was elected/appointed Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. He enlisted as a gunner in the British Army in 1940 and by [1944] was in command of a squadron of GHQ Liaison ('Phantom') Regiment attached to the Canadian Second Army in Holland. He returned to Cambridge when the war ended in 1945. In 1949 he went to Oxford as a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and in 1951 he was appointed to the chair of political science at the London School of Economics. In the early 1960s he established a one-year Master's degree seminar at the London School of Economics (LSE) on the history of political thought. He retired from the LSE in 1969, although he continued to preside over the history of political thought seminars until his late seventies.
In 1927, he married Joyce Margaret Fricker. They had one son, Simon, born in 1931. The marriage was dissolved in 1938 and in the same year he married Katherine Alice Burton. They divorced in 1951. In 1965, Oakeshott married Christel Schneider. He died at his home in Acton, near Langton Matravers, Dorset, on 18 December 1990.
The creation of the London Passenger Transport Board (known as London Transport or LT) in 1933 brought all bus, tram, trolleybus and Underground services under a single body. The 1937 strike was protesting about conditions of work for the bus drivers and conductors, notably hours of work, rates of pay and a proposed speed-up of London buses.
Albert Edward Oram, 1913-1999, was educated at Brighton Grammar School and the University of London (London School of Economics and Institute of Education). He became a teacher, but left the profession to become a research officer for the Co-operative Party, 1946-1955. He was a Labour and Co-operative Party MP for East Ham South, 1955-1974, Parliamentary Secretary, 1964-1969, and a Government Whip, 1976-1978. He was greatly interested in aiding development throughout the world and was a member of the Commonwealth Development Corp, 1975-1976, co-ordinator of the development programmes of the Co-operative Alliance, 1971-1973 and Chairman of the Co-operative Development Agency 1978-1981.
Orme, Stanley (1923-2005) Lord Orme of Salford, was born on April 5th 1923 in Sale, Cheshire. He left school at 15 to work as an engineer at Trafford Park. Orme continued his education at the National Council of Labour Colleges and the Workers' Education Association, and became an active member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). Orme joined the RAF in 1942 and served an navigator in the Pathfinder Force of Bomber Command. He was demobilized in 1947 and returned to work at Budenberg Gauge Company, Broadheath. Orme had joined the Labour Party in 1944, and on return to civilian life, became an important shop steward in the AEU. He married Irene Mary Harris in 1951. Orme served on Sale Borough Council between 1958-1965, and fought unsuccessfully the Parliamentary seat of Stockport South in 1959. He was elected to the Parliamentary seat of Salford West in 1964. Orme was an important member of the Tribune Group, and its chairman during the late 1960s. Orme was made Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office in 1974 and was involved in passing a bill against religious discrimination in the Province. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1975, and then made Minister of Social Security in the Cabinet in 1976. Following the Labour election defeat in 1979 Orme took up the post of Opposition Spokesman on Trade and Industry, before moving to shadow the Minister for Energy in 1983.
Orme was very closely involved with the miners' strike of 1984-1985, and was praised widely for his persistent efforts to encourage a negotiated settlement between the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Coal Board. Following the end of the strike, Orme campaigned against privatizations, increased nuclear power supply, and the closure of collieries. Orme increased his majority in the 1987 election, and was subsequently elected chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. He retired as a Member of Parliament at the 1997, and was made a life peer, taking the title Lord Orme of Salford. He died on April 28th 2005.
The Overseas Student Trust was a pressure group formed in the 1960s to campaign for the interests of overseas students at British universities. It was dissolved in 1992 and its functions transferred to the Centre for Educational Research at LSE.
A report dealing with life and labour in West Ham, with particular emphasis on the problems of unemployment and casual labour. The 'Inquiry' was initially planned to extend to other areas of the East End once the West Ham survey was complete. However, funding was only just sufficient to produce the survey of West Ham. The findings were published as a book: West Ham: A Study in Social and Industrial Problems (J.M. Dent and Co, London, 1907), by Howarth and Wilson. Unlike Booth's investigation, there is no actual household survey. The inquiry relied upon rent books, obtained from house agents, and contains no actual survey data, being a collection of indirectly related material, including examples of analysis drawn from other surveys.
The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs aim 'to bring together, from around the world, influential scholars and public figures concerned with reducing the danger of armed conflict and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems'. The first Pugwash meeting, inspired by a 1955 Manifesto by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein, was held in 1957 in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, the birthplace of the US philanthropist Cyrus Eaton, and was attended by 22 eminent scientists. From this meeting evolved a series of conferences at locations all over the world, which continue today. International Student/Young Pugwash was formed in 1978, starting in the US and Canada and spreading to a further 18 countries. International collaborations began in 1988, with the first IS/YP conference in the Netherlands. Each IS/YP group has an independent organisational structure. The IS/YP groups coordinate a series of activities including the publication of books, conferences, curriculum materials and electronic conferences.
John Parker was born 15 July 1906 and educated at Marlborough and St John's College Oxford. He became General Secretary of the New Fabian Research Bureau in 1933 and by 1980 had been made President of the Fabian Society, emphasising his life long association with the Fabians.
He was elected as a Labour MP for Romford in 1935 and when that consituency was divided after the Second World War he held Dagenham until 1983. John Parker showed great interest in his constituency, being particularly involved with the Ford factory there and its relationship with the community. John Parker was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Dominions Office during the Government of Clement Attlee in 1945, his Parliamentary private secretary being James Callaghan. He was, however, dismissed from his position in 1946 over his views concerning South African Protectorates. This loss of office enabled John Parker to exert an influence from the back benches, serving on several Speaker's Conferences and also the Procedure Committee 1966-1973.
John Parker drew an early place in the ballot for Private Members' Bills on two occassions, being defeated in his attempt to bring in a Sunday observance measure, initiating an inquiry, and with his second bill producing the Legitimacy Act of 1959. This second bill legitimised the offspring of bigamous marriges, where one of the partners was ignorant of the situation, and also the children born while one of the partners was still married to someone else by subsequent marriage. A Bill was also introduced by John Parker, under the ten minute rule, which eventually became the Nationality (Number 2) Act of 1964, implementing the UN Convention on Statelessness. He was also a member of the Arts and Amenities Committee of the Labour Party, maintaining a particular interest in forestry and ancient buildings.
Parker frequently travelled overseas, being a member of the British-Yugoslav Parliamentary group, editing a series of Yugoslav novels in English and meeting Stalin in the Soviet Union. He also produced a selection of books which included 42 Days in the Soviet Union (1946), Labour Marches On (1947) and his memoirs entitled Father of the House, reflecting his postion as the House of Commons' longest serving, active member.
John Parker retired in 1983 and died 24 November 1987. He was married in 1943 to Zena Mimardiere, and had one son, Michael.
Beatrice and Sidney Webb were pioneering social economists, early members of the Fabian Society and co-founders of the London School of Economic and Political Science, and had a profound effect on English social thought and institutions. Beatrice Potter Webb was born in 1858, the eighth daughter of Richard Potter, a wealthy businessman, and Lawrencina Heyworth. Surrounded from an early age by her parents' intellectual and worldly friends and visitors, notably the philosopher Herbert Spencer, she was largely self-educated through copious reading, and frequently a partner for her father during business trips abroad. Following a tempestuous relationship with Joseph Chamberlain, which began in 1883 and lasted several years, Beatrice took up social work in London, acting as a rent collector for the Charity Organisation Society, and becoming steadily disillusioned by the inability of charitable organisations to tackle the basic causes of poverty. During 1886, she participated in research for Charles Booth's investigations into London labour conditions, eventually contributing to Volume I of Life and Labour of the People of London (1889). During this period she continued to write articles on social subjects, most of which were printed in The nineteenth century, and published The co-operative movement in Great Britain (1891). She met Sidney Webb in 1890 during research into economic conditions and labour unions. Sidney Webb was born in London in 1859. Educated in the local academy, he left school at sixteen to work as a clerk in a colonial brokers. By attending evening classes, he passed the civil service exams in 1881 and was appointed a clerk in the Inland Revenue. The following year, he took the Civil Service upper division examination and was appointed to the Colonial Office in 1883. He also began lecturing on political economy at the Working Men's College. Webb was a close friend of George Bernard Shaw, who induced him to join the socialist Fabian Society in 1885, where both men became leading members: Webb was responsible for putting forward the first concise expression of Fabian convictions in Facts for Socialists (Fabian Tract 5, 1887). As a member of the Fabian executive, Webb continued to write and lecture extensively on economic and social issues, and took a leading role in Fabian policy-making. For the year following their first meeting in 1890, Sidney Webb pressed Beatrice to marry him, and she finally agreed in May 1891. They were married in 1892, after the death of Richard Potter, and set up home in London. Sidney left his post in the Civil Service, and the couple lived on Beatrice's inheritance and income derived from books and journalism, in order to dedicate time to social research and political work, though Sidney retained his position on the London County Council (elected for Deptford in 1892, Chairman of the Technical Education Board) and both kept up their association with the Fabian Society, which Beatrice had joined in 1891. They formed a close personal and working relationship. The Webbs pooled their respective talents into writing joint works on economic and social issues. This partnership produced books such as The history of Trade Unionism, 1666-1920 (1894), Industrial democracy (1897), Problems of Modern Industry (1898), and their great nine-volume English Local Government from the Reformation to the Municipal Corporations Act (Longmans and Co, 1906-1929), which was produced over 25 years. Their work spread into areas such as historical and social research, educational and political reform and journalism, and much of what they produced altered the perceptions of economists and social historians, who had previously ignored the working classes. Sidney Webb's work on the London County Council (1892-1910) was equally impressive, as he was a prime mover in the reorganisation of the University of London into a federation of teaching institutions, and was closely involved in the drafting of the Conservative Educational Acts of 1902 and 1903. It was also in this period that the Webbs played a vital part in the founding of the London School of Economics. The LSE owed its existence to the will of Henry Hunt Hutchinson, a provincial member of the Fabian Society, who had left a significant sum of money in trust for 'propaganda and other purposes of the said [Fabian] Society and its Socialism and towards advancing its objects in any way they [the trustees] deem advisable'. The Chairman of the five trustees named in the will was Sidney Webb, who believed the money should be used to encourage research and study of economics. His proposal to establish a Central School of Economic and Political Science in London was accepted by the Trustees in February 1895. Sidney Webb was the driving and organising force in the establishment and early years of the School, providing funding through his connection with the LCC, acting as Chairman of the Hutchinson Trust, the School Trustees and Governors, the Administrative Committee and the Library Committee, as well as being Treasurer and Acting Librarian, and making most of the decisions concerning the choice of Director of the LSE. He was also appointed as Lecturer in Public Administration at LSE, 1895-1912, and Professor of Public Administration in the University of London, 1912-1927. Beatrice undertook the unpaid job of Honorary Visitor from 1895. Beatrice Webb was appointed as a member of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law from 1905 to 1909, and, failing to turn the Commission to her way of thinking, produced a comprehensive policy on pauperism in the form of a minority report, which advocated universal social insurance and outlined a fledgling welfare state. This report was published in 1909 and the Webbs launched a national campaign for the break up of the Poor Law, publishing The prevention of destitution in 1911. In 1912, Beatrice joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and was elected to the Fabian executive, where she set up the Fabian Research Department and promoted joint campaigns of the Fabians and the ILP. In 1917, Beatrice was appointed to the government Reconstruction Committee, to consider post-war social problems, and sat on the Committee on Women in Industry, producing a minority report in favour of equal pay. In 1913, the Webbs planned and launched the New Statesman, a political and weekly magazine, funded by themselves and subscribers from the Fabian Society. The journal quickly became a politically independent socialist forum for serious intellectual discussion, political commentary, and criticism, and was soon influential, especially within parliamentary circles. Sidney Webb acted as Director of the Statesman Publishing Company until 1922, and resigned from the Board altogether in 1924, By 1914, both Webbs were involved with the Labour Party: Sidney became a member of the executive in 1916, and drafted Labour's first policy statement, Labour and the new social order (1918), and stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for London University. He was also nominated by the Miner's Federation to serve on the Sankey Commission on the Coal Mines (1919), which led to his nomination and election as parliamentary candidate for Seaham Harbour, County Durham, in 1922. Sidney Webb held office in both Labour governments, as President of the Board of Trade in 1924 and as Colonial Secretary in 1929, when he was created Lord Passfield. Beatrice published My apprenticeship in 1926. After a visit to the USSR in 1932, where they were impressed with the Communist system, the Webbs devoted three years to the writing of Soviet Communism: a new civilisation (Longmans and Co, London, 1935). By this time they had retired to Passfield Corner in Hampshire: though Beatrice continued to write, Sidney was incapacitated by a stroke in 1938. Beatrice Webb died in 1943, Sidney Webb in 1947. Both are buried in Westminster Abbey.
The Political Economy Club was founded in 1821 to support the principles of free trade. The prime mover for the formation of the society appears to have been Thomas Tooke (1774-1858), economist, perhaps at the instigation of David Ricardo. The first meeting, on 18 April 1821, took place at the house of Swinton Holand, a partner in Baring and Co, and James Mill was given the task of preparing a draft set of rules for consideration. The first full meeting of the Club took place on 30 April at the Freemason's Tavern.
From the beginning, the Club was composed mainly of businessmen, followed by politicans, civil servants and professional economists. Each meeting was to discuss 'some doubt or question on some topic of political economy' and no official record was kept of the discussion. At first the rules of the Club stated that the remarks of the opening and subsequent speakers should not be written down, although later on opening speakers were allowed to circulate a printed synopsis of their argument. Eventually the practise of reading a written paper became the norm.
The Political Economy Club continues to meet to the present day.