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The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief was founded in the early months of 1933 by a group of Anglo-Jewish community leaders, in response to the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on a political platform of anti-Semitism. Among the founders were Anthony de Rothschild, Leonard G. Montefiore and Otto Schiff.

The fund has been through many name changes in its lifetime. It started out as the Central British Fund for German Jewry, then became part of the new Council for German Jewry in 1936 along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American United Palestine Appeal. On the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 the fund changed its name to the Central Council for Jewish Refugees, and in 1944 changed again to the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. After many years as the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, the organisation is now known as World Jewish Relief.

The Fund's mission, according to its Memorandum of Association, was 'to relieve or assist Jewish Refugees in any part of the world in such manner and on such terms and conditions (if any) as may be thought fit'. In this work the fund was aided by various organisations, including the Jewish Refugees Committee (JRC) which was founded by Otto Schiff in 1933, the Children's Refugee Movement (established by the JRC and the Inter-Aid Committee), and the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, which was established in 1943 and financed by the Central Council for Jewish Refugees (as the Central British Fund (CBF) was then known).

The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief was founded in the early months of 1933 by a group of Anglo-Jewish community leaders, in response to the appointment of Adolph Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on a platform of anti-Semitism. Among the founders were Antony de Rothschild, Leonard G. Montefiore and Otto Schiff.

The Fund has been through many name changes in its lifetime. It started out as the Central British Fund for German Jewry, then became part of the new Council for German Jewry in 1936 along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American United Palestine Appeal. On the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 the Fund changed its name to the Central Council for Jewish Refugees, and in 1944 changed again to the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief. After many years as the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, the organisation is now known as World Jewish Relief.

The Fund's mission, according to its Memorandum of Association, was "to relieve or assist Jewish refugees in any part of the world in such manner and on such terms and conditions (if any) as may be thought fit." In this work the fund was aided by various organisations, including the Jewish Refugees Committee (JRC) which was founded by Otto Schiff in 1933; the Children's Refugee Movement (established by the JRC and the Inter-Aid Committee); and the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, which was established in 1943 and financed by the Central Council for Jewish Refugees (as the Central British Fund was then known).

The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief was founded in the early months of 1933 by a group of Anglo-Jewish community leaders, in response to the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on a political platform of anti-Semitism. Among the founders were Anthony de Rothschild, Leonard G. Montefiore and Otto Schiff.

The fund has been through many name changes in its lifetime. It started out as the Central British Fund for German Jewry, then became part of the new Council for German Jewry in 1936 along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American United Palestine Appeal. On the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 the fund changed its name to the Central Council for Jewish Refugees, and in 1944 changed again to the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. After many years as the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, the organisation is now known as World Jewish Relief.

The Fund's mission, according to its Memorandum of Association, was 'to relieve or assist Jewish Refugees in any part of the world in such manner and on such terms and conditions (if any) as may be thought fit'. In this work the fund was aided by various organisations, including the Jewish Refugees Committee (JRC) which was founded by Otto Schiff in 1933, the Children's Refugee Movement (established by the JRC and the Inter-Aid Committee), and the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, which was established in 1943 and financed by the Central Council for Jewish Refugees (as the Central British Fund (CBF) was then known).

The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief was founded in the early months of 1933 by a group of Anglo-Jewish community leaders, in response to the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on a political platform of anti-Semitism. Among the founders were Anthony de Rothschild, Leonard G. Montefiore and Otto Schiff.

The fund has been through many name changes in its lifetime. It started out as the Central British Fund for German Jewry, then became part of the new Council for German Jewry in 1936 along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American United Palestine Appeal. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939 the fund changed its name to the Central Council for Jewish Refugees, and in 1944 changed again to the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. After many years as the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, the organisation is now known as World Jewish Relief.

The Committee for the Care of Children from Camps was a sub-committee of the Jewish Refugees Committee and its expenditure was covered by grants made by the Central British Fund.

The Central Catering Company, located at 100 Theobald's Road, was contracted by Whitbread in the early 1900s to supply food to its public houses. This was in response to legislation allowing magistrates to refuse license renewal to public houses that were deemed unsavoury. Whitbread decided that one of the key issues was the absence of good food in pubs and by 1905 the Central Catering Company was supplying 400 pubs daily.

Whitbread was so enthusiastic about the scheme that it decided to take over the Central Catering Company and extend the scheme to all of its tied houses. However, by the end of 1906 the company was running at a loss. The scheme had failed due to lack of background research - it has become clear that it was very difficult to supply pubs with food at the exact time that they needed it and also that many Whitbread pubs were serving their own food already. In order to prevent further financial damage it was agreed in 1907 that the company should be closed, a decision signed by Francis Pelham Whitbread (known as Frank) then company director.

The Central Unemployed Body for London was set up under the Unemployed Workmen Act of 1905 (5 Edw. VII c.18) to replace the semi-official organisation known as the London Unemployed Fund established in October 1904 to alleviate some of the distress caused by unemployment. The Act provided for the establishment of a Distress Committee of the Council of every metropolitan borough, by order of the Local Government Board. The Act also provided for the foundation of a Central Body for the administrative county of London, consisting partly of members of and selected by the Distress Committees of the London County Council and partly of coopted members. At least one member of each committee and of the Central Body was to be a woman. The Act also provided for the setting up of Distress Committees in boroughs and urban districts outside London, but the Central Body with its federated structure was unique.

The Central Body derived its funds partly from voluntary subscriptions (mainly provided by the "Queens Unemployment Fund") and partly from rates; expenditure from the latter source being strictly circumscribed. The function of the Distress Committees was to inquire into the conditions of labour in their districts and to receive and sift applications for assistance. The Central Body was empowered to supervise and co-ordinate the work of the Distress Committees, to establish, take over or assist employment exchanges and to help applicants recommended by the Distress Committees by aiding their emigration or migration or by providing or contributing towards the provision of temporary work.

By 1909 the Central Body had 25 employment exchanges distributed throughout London, but these were transferred in 1910 to the Board of Trade under the Labour Exchanges Act 1909 (9 Edw.VII c.7). Work was provided in and around London mainly in parks and open spaces and emigrants were granted loans. Several temporary working colonies were established but the only permanent colony was at Hollesley Bay, Suffolk, which was established by the London Unemployed Fund with the help of Joseph Fells in February 1905 and was taken over by the Central Body. With the outbreak of the 1914 war the Central Body became largely redundant and after the war, owing to lack of funds and support from the government, its work was much reduced. The Unemployed Workmen Organization (London) (Revocation) Order of 1930, made by the Minister of Health, abolished both the Distress Committees and the Central Body and the property, debts and liabilities of the latter were transferred to the London County Council. The Hollesley Bay Colony was administered by the Council in much the same way as by the Central Body until its purchase by the Ministry of Labour in 1937.

The Central Council for Jewish Refugees was originally called the Council for German Jewry. This was a British Jewish organisation established in 1936 with the goal of aiding German Jews to leave Germany in co-ordinated emigration. Organisationally, the CFGJ succeeded and absorbed the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF), established in May 1933. In reaction to the Nuremberg Laws of September 1935, British Jewish leaders, in consultation with German Jewish leaders, formulated an emigration plan for 100,000 German Jews aged 17-35. Half of the immigrants would settle in Palestine, and half in other countries. It was hoped another 100,000 would emigrate without assistance. The council's founders sought to forge a partnership in this endeavour with American Jewry. Personal and organisational differences nearly prevented the formation of the council. Its first meeting was held in London on March 15, 1936, but the two major American groups, the Joint Distribution Committee and the United Palestine Appeal, joined formally only in August. The council never assumed the stature its founders had hoped it would. It was hampered by British immigration policies in Palestine, emigration obstacles in Germany, the growing impoverishment of German Jewry, and the exacerbation of the situation following the Anschluss. Yet, the council did manage to help nearly 100,000 Jews emigrate by the outbreak of World War Two, and it also funded numerous vocational training programs in Germany and elsewhere.

With the outbreak of the war, the council was forced to limit its activities to refugees in Britain, and its name was changed to the Central Council for Jewish Refugees. Following the war, the needs of displaced persons and refugees brought another reorganisation and name change, to the Central British Fund for Relief and Rehabilitation. This organisation still exists in the CBF's original offices in Woburn House, London.

The Central Gurdwara (Khalsa Jatha) was founded in 1908 to serve London's Sikh community. From 1913 it was based at 79 Sinclair Road, Shepherd Bush, London. In 1969 the Gurdwara moved to the Queensdale Road site. The Central Gurdwara (Khalsa Jatha) is the oldest established Sikh place of worship in Europe.

Source: http://www.centralgurdwara.org.uk/index.htm

The Nuclear Age is a twelve part television documentary series on the history of nuclear strategy, from the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 and the Allied development of the atomic bomb, 1942-1945, to the last years of the Cold War, 1987-1989, made jointly by Central Independent Television and WGBH Boston in 1989. The series was transmitted on Central Independent Television between Jan-Mar 1989.

Birmingham Mutual Fire and General Insurance Association is the former name of Central Insurance Company (see CLC/B/192-10). Meetings were held at the company's offices at 12/13 Nicholas Lane until March 1907; thereafter at 1 Cornhill.

Meetings were held at the company's offices at 12/13 Nicholas Lane until March 1907; thereafter at 1 Cornhill.

Amon Lepold Goeth (1908-1946), SS officer, born in Vienna; joined the National Socialist Party in 1932; joined the SS, 1940, where he rose to the rank of Hauptsturmführer. Goeth was assigned to the headquarters of the SS Command and to the Lublin police. Subsequently he was transferred to Krakow, where he was in charge of liquidating the ghettos and labour camps at Szebnie, Bochnia, Tarnow, and Krakow, amongst other places. From February 1943 to September 1944 Goeth commanded the concentration camp at Plaszow, near Krakow. After the war he was extradited to Poland at the request of the Polish authorities and tried before the Polish Supreme Court on a charge of committing mass murder during the liquidation of the ghettos at Szebnie camp and Plaszow. He was sentenced to death and executed in Krakow, 1946.

The Central Labour College was established in 1909 following a strike at Ruskin College, Oxford. It was in opposition to Ruskin College and had the proclaimed aim of providing "an organisation for the training of workers for the organised labour movement controlled democratically by the representatives of organised workers". It ceased to exist in 1918.

The Central London Ophthalmic Hospital was established in Judd Street in 1843. It was amalgamated with Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1945. For information relating to the Hospital after 1948 see Moorfields Eye Hospital (H47/MR).

In June 1900 the Central London Railway (now the Central Line) opened its first section, running from Bank to Shepherd's Bush. The route was extremely busy but kept a flat fare of 2 pence a ticket, earning it the nickname 'Twopenny Tube'. Extensions were gradually added to the line: in 1920 the westward extension to Ealing Broadway was opened; while the extensions to Leyton and Ruislip were delayed by the Second World War, and finally completed in 1947. In 1948 surface lines were extended to West Ruislip and Epping, with a further shuttle running from Epping to Ongar. The total length of the line was then 52 miles.

The 1834 Poor Law Act led to improvements in the arrangements made for the education of pauper children. Unions, and parishes regulated by local acts, were persuaded to establish schools and to appoint schoolmasters. The policy of separating the children from their parents and sending them, if possible, to the country was continued and in 1866 several Middlesex metropolitan authorities were sending children to separate schools.

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1844 made possible a further development in this field which was of significance for the metropolitan area. Unions and parishes were empowered to unite and to form a school district which then set up a large separate school for the education of all the indoor pauper children of the constituents of the district. In 1849 the Central London School District (comprising the City of London, West London, and East London Unions, and Saint Saviour's, Southwark and Saint Martin in the Fields parishes) took over Aubin's School at Norwood, which had been run privately.

Three years later the Board consented to the removal of the school to Hanwell in Middlesex, where a site had been bought at Hanwell Park Farm (previously Cuckoo Farm in the Manor of Hanwell). The buildings were started in 1856, in which year the children began to be transferred there, and were completed in 1861. The history of the school was marred by failure to deal with the recurrent problem of ophthalmia (a contagious eye disease which could result in blindness), which may in part have been owing to disagreement amongst the authorities of the District. By 1890, however, the Ophthalmic Institution was completed and also made available to the other London unions and parishes. In the same year, structural alterations to the original building were carried out, and in the following year the new school-house was finished. By 1897 there were 1,033 children at the school. This number sank to 746 when the L.C.C. assumed responsibility for its administration in 1930. Two years later the accommodation was for 650 children. On the recommendation of the Education Committee, Hanwell Residential School was scheduled for closure because of obsolescent buildings - this closure being finally carried out on 30 June 1933.

Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.

The 1867 Metropolitan Poor Law Act gave authority to the Poor Law Board to order the combination of unions and parishes within the metropolis to provide asylums for the sick poor other than the workhouse. The Central London Sick Asylum District comprised the Westminster and Strand Unions and the parishes of Saint Giles in the Fields and Saint George's Bloomsbury. In 1869 the parish of Saint Pancras was added. The District was dissolved in 1913.

The Cleveland Street Infirmary had been the Strand Union Infirmary. Before being taken over by the Strand Union it was the Saint Paul's Covent Garden parish workhouse. The appalling state of the wards and terrible standard of care in the Cleveland Street Infirmary was one of the factors which led to the introduction of the Metropolitan Poor Law Act. Cleveland Street runs betweeen the Euston Road and Goodge Street.

Highgate Asylum had been the Saint Pancras Union Infirmary, built in 1881. The Hendon Asylum, Colindale, was built by the Central London District between 1898-1900. It was sold in 1913 to the City of Westminster Union. In 1919 it was passed to the Metropolitan Asylums Board. It was still used as a hospital in the 1990s but is now closed.

The Central London Throat Nose and Ear Hospital was founded in 1874 by Lennox Browne (who had previously served as assistant to Dr Morell Mackenzie at the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat in Golden Square), Llewellyn Thomas (a physician who had worked with Lennox Browne at Golden Square), Captain Alfred Hutton (a friend of Lennox Browne), George Wallis (a dentist), and Ernest Turner (architect of the hospital).

The hospital initially opened as a dispensary in Manchester Street (now Argyle Street), but demand for its services was such that in 1875 it moved across the road to its current location on Gray's Inn Road. The very poor were treated free of charge; however, other patients were expected to contribute towards the cost of their treatment. The hospital was also financed by subscriptions, grants from the King's Fund, and fundraising events supported by the actors and singers who benefited from the expertise of its staff.

The Central London Throat Nose and Ear Hospital published its first Annual Report in 1876, in order to publicise its work and encourage new subscribers. The report included a report of the ceremony to lay the foundation stone of the hospital (reprinted from The Times 17th September 1875) and an article describing the work of the hospital which had appeared in All The Year Round (25th July 1874).

By 1885, it was clear that the hospital needed to expand its premises, and in 1893 the Committee were able to purchase some adjoining land. Building work began in 1895. In 1904, the King's Fund put forward a proposal to merge the five ENT hospitals in London: the Central London Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in Gray's Inn Road, the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat in Golden Square, the Royal Ear Hospital in Huntley Street, the London Throat Hospital in Portland Street, and the Metropolitan Ear Nose and Throat Hospital in Fitzroy Square. The Central London Hospital did not support the proposal, partly because it would have resulted in the sacking of Richard Kershaw, and in 1905 its grant from the King's Fund was removed. Negotiations were opened with the Royal Ear Hospital and the London Throat Hospital, but by 1913 these had broken down, and the latter had agreed to merge instead with the Golden Square Hospital. Further plans for expansion had been drawn up in 1902, and the Central London Hospital decided to proceed in the hope that the increased numbers of patients which would result from larger premises would secure the future of the Gray's Inn Road site.

Despite losing many of its staff to active service during the First World War, the Central London managed to continue its work. In 1916 a 20 bed annexe was opened to treat soldiers suffering the effects of shellshock and deafness caused by explosions. At the end of the war the annexe remained, increasing the number of in-patient beds to 43. The hospital expanded further in 1929, when the new Princess Louise wing opened, containing an out-patients department, operating theatre, dispensary, pathology laboratory and rooms for the students. The hospital had been hiring St Jude's church hall for over 20 years, and when the church closed in 1935, the Central London Hospital put forward a proposal to acquire the site. Nos. 57-67 Wicklow Street had been purchased for the Central London Hospital in 1903, with a view to providing accommodation or nurses. A house in Coram Street was also purchased for this purpose after the First World War, and furnished with the assistance of the Ladies' Association (the Association's President Lady Riddell provided a piano).

The General Nursing Council was established in 1919, and soon afterwards it recognised the Central London Hospital as a Preliminary Training School for nurses. Probationers spent 2 years at the hospital, before moving down the road to the Royal Free to complete their training. The School of Nursing was established in 1930, and offered 12 month courses and 6 month courses (to train as an SRN and SEN respectively).

Referring doctors had always been encouraged to attend the hospital, and observe the operations performed on their patients, and it was perhaps inevitable that this tradition should develop into more formal postgraduate teaching. From 1885 Lennox Browne and his Dundas Grant were giving lectures on otology, rhinology and laryngology to doctors and medical students (many of whom offered their services to the hospital in return for practical instruction). By the mid-1890s, a more systematic syllabus of lectures had been arranged, with Dr Wyatt Wingrave (formerly the hospital's pathologist) providing teaching in anatomy, physiology and pathology. Although Dundas Grant retired in 1913, the Central London continued to provide teaching throughout the First World War, and found space for a lecture theatre and classrooms. When the Royal College of Surgeons instituted a Diploma in Laryngology and Otology in 1919, the Central London Hospital was the only institution to provide the specialist practical instruction necessary to qualify for it, drawing students from Guys Hospital and elsewhere.

The hospital benefited from the long service of several men: Lennox Browne who worked as surgeon to the hospital until 1900 (and consulting surgeon until his death in 1902), Alfred Hutton, who served as Chairman of the Committee 1874-1905 and Treasurer 1874-1904, and Richard Kershaw, who served as Secretary 1877-1927 (and also Dispenser/Almoner for several years).

From its early days, the Central London Throat Nose and Ear Hospital also had a Royal Patron, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. His sister Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll also showed great interest in the hospital, and became President in 1909. In 1928, she laid the foundation stone of the new wing to be named in her honour. She also opened a convalescent home at Ealing (in a house left to the hospital by its Vice President, Col. Sir John Young) in 1933, and laid the foundation stone for the new nurses' home in Swinton Street in 1939.

In 1939, the decision was taken to amalgamate with Golden Square, with the approval of the King's Fund. The outbreak of war delayed the merger in practical terms, but a joint Committee of Management was formed immediately. The Gray's Inn Road site was fortunate not to be damaged during the war, and provided a temporary home for the Hospital for Nervous Diseases, whose premises had been badly damaged.

The company originated in an agreement for working manganese ore in the Central Provinces, India, 18 December 1899, between Patrick Macfadyen, Henry Gribble Turner and George Henry Glass. The partnership became known as the Central Provinces Prospecting Syndicate, with offices at 305 Winchester House, Old Broad Street, EC2, and was registered as a limited company of that name on 30 January 1908. The name was changed to the Central Provinces Manganese Ore Company on 15 May 1924. Its head office moved to 308 Winchester House in 1926, 120 Winchester House in 1954, 4-7 Chiswell Street EC1 in 1965, and 99-101 Regent Street W1 in 1974. In June 1962, all the company's mines except one (Balapur Hamesha, Dongri Buzurg) and its fixed assets and consumable stores were transferred, by agreement with the Government of India, to the newly-constituted Manganese Ore (India) Limited in return for 49% of the latter's share capital, the balance being held by the Indian Government and the Government of the states of Maharastra and Madhya Pradesh. The company's right to renew its options on its one remaining mine was refused by the former state in September 1971, but it eventually resumed work at the mine in accordance with a staying order of the High Court of Bombay.

In June 1973, the company's articles of association were amended to enable it to operate in general investment. Its quotation on the London Stock Exchange was cancelled in October 1975. Its holdings in Manganese Ore (India) Limited were purchased by the Government of India on 21 December 1977 and from that date the company has carried on investment business only. The company owned 50% of the share capital of the United Kingdom Ferro-manganese Company which it formed together with a group of English ferro-manganese makers in 1926 to buy, sell and refine various ores. Its office was at 328 Winchester House, EC2. It appears to have ceased trading in 1975.

Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design was formed in 1989 by the merger of the Central School of Art and Design and St Martin's School of Art. Both were constituent colleges of the London Institute which had been formed in 1986 by the Inner London Education Authority associating its art schools and specialist colleges of printing, fashion and distributive trades into a collegiate structure. In 1999 the Drama Centre London, founded in 1962, merged with Central Saint Martins, adding performing arts to the range of courses offered by the College.

Central Saint Martins comprises three Schools; Art, Fashion and Textiles and Graphic and Industrial Design, with approximately 450 to 700 students within each school. The College operates on two major sites, on Charing Cross Road, Soho and Southampton Row, Holborn.

The Central School of Arts and Crafts was established in 1896 by London County Council to provide specialist art teaching for workers in craft industries. The school was intended to be a centre at which art scholars and students from local schools could be brought under the influence of established artists in close relation with employers, and was a direct outcome of the Arts and Crafts movement sponsored by William Morris and John Ruskin. The architect, educationalist and conservationist William Richard Lethaby was a key figure in the foundation and joint principal of the school with George Frampton from 1896 to 1911. It was decided that teaching should be limited to definite crafts and so cover different ground to existing schools rather than compete with them. London County Council rented Morley Hall from the governors of the Regent Street Polytechnic and in 1896 part-time classes in architecture, drawing and design, modelling, stained glass, cabinet design, silversmithing, lead work, enamelling, structural mechanics and masonry for people engaged in trade began. The curriculum was soon extended and additional accommodation in the adjacent house and in Union Street taken. Under Lethaby the Central School was innovatory in both its educational objectives and teaching methods. The majority of teachers were part time and successful practitioners of their crafts, and provided the school with a variety of practical skills and valuable contacts with the professional world of the designer and craftsman.

In 1903 it was decided to purchase a site for the school in Southampton Row, Holborn, and at the same time classes were organised into schools in preparation for the move to the new building. The schools comprised architecture and building crafts, silversmiths' work and allied crafts, book production, cabinet work and furniture, drawing design and modelling, needlework and stained glass. The work of the Drawing, Designing and Modelling school, which included life drawing and modelling, was regarded as ancillary to the work of the other sections. Emphasis was always firmly on the craft basis of subjects taught, with mural painting or sculptural decoration preferred to painting or sculpture. It was not until 1941 that a School of Painting and Sculpture was formed. In 1908 the school moved to the new building in Southampton Row, which was designed and built to be shared with the London Day Training College. Most classes were held in the evening, with students working by day in their professions. Workshops were open during the day to those who could use them. Day art and crafts classes were held and day technical schools established for silversmiths' and jewellers' work and book production. The Royal Female School of Art (established 1842) was transferred to the London County Council and incorporated into the Central School in 1908. In 1912 the London Day Training College moved from the premises, and day classes were reorganised on lines suitable for building a scheme of advanced and specialised work.

Teachers at the Central School included the architect Halsey Ricardo and Eric Gill, a former student at the Central School who taught stone carving. Douglas Cockerell, J H Mason, Edward Johnston and Noel Rooke, innovators of the private press movement, were employed for book production training, which encompassed bookbinding, typography, calligraphy, letterform and illustration. Embroidery and Needlework were taught and, also in this area of study, costume design. In 1919 ceramic design became part of the syllabus under Dora Billington. By 1920 students ranged from trade apprentices to professional artists and advanced students of design, with nearly 1800 students in eight departments comprising silversmiths' work and allied crafts, textiles (including tapestry, stained glass and mosaic), painted, sculptural and architectural decoration, book production, furniture, dress design, engraving and ancillary study in drawing, and painting, design, modelling and architecture. In 1926-7 the Central School encompassed the School of Arts and Crafts with 1791 'ordinary' students and 31 University of London students, a Junior Day Technical School of Silversmithing and Book Production with 128 students, and Art classes at Upper Hornsey Road with 96 students. In 1930 the School of Textiles and Costume, which had grown out of the Embroidery and Needlework section, was divided. The design of theatrical settings became as important as costume, whilst printed and woven fabric were developed in the Textile section. Subjects previously taught in the school of Architecture and Building Crafts were absorbed by other sections. A course of Design for Light Industry, the forerunner to the Department of Industrial Design, was established in 1938. A post-war reorganisation of the Central School took place under the innovative principal William Johnston, who introduced the concept of basic design taught by Fine Artists to all students and developed the design elements in subjects such as ceramics, textiles, theatre and industrial design.

The school continued to develop and expand during the 1960s, with a programme of reorganisation begun in 1960 prior to the school receiving recognition as a centre for the new Diploma in Art and Design by the National Council for Diplomas in Art and Design (NCDAD). The reorganisation led to the transfer of some purely craft courses to other colleges in order to make way for a greater concentration on approaches more in line with modern industrial methods. On May 1 1966 the school was renamed the Central School of Art and Design. In 1967 the National Council for Diplomas in Art and Design designated a joint centre for postgraduate studies composed of Chelsea School of Art, for Fine Art, and the Central School, for design subjects. The school continued to expand, with the move of the Textile and Ceramic Design Departments into new premises in Red Lion Square in 1962 and the opening of the Jeanetta Cochrane theatre, named after the founder of the Theatre Design course. In 1973 the library and Department of Liberal Studies were re-housed in a bridge in the school's main complex which was built to link the Southampton Row and Red Lion Square buildings. In 1974 the Weaving and Knitting sections of the Textile Department moved into an annexe in Proctor Street. Responsibility for the validation of diplomas was passed to the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) in 1974. In January 1986 the school became a constituent college of the London Institute, formed by the Inner London Education Authority associating its art schools and specialist colleges of printing, fashion and distributive trades into a collegiate structure. St Martin's School of Art, another constituent college of the London Institute, merged with the Central School of Art and Design in 1989 to form Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.

The Central Small Holdings Society was formed at the New Reform Club, 10 Adelphi Terrace, London. The Society was amalgamated with the Land Club League, the Rural Development Society and the Rural Housing and Sanitation Association in 1911.

The Association was founded in 1896.

Central Sumatra Rubber Estates Limited was registered in 1915 to re-constitute a firm of the same name (which had been registered in the Padang Raja area of Sumatra in 1910). It held the Bah-Boelian and Nagaraoja estates. In 1961 the firm was acquired by London Sumatra Plantations Limited (CLC/B/112-110), and in 1982 it became a private company.

The Central Synagogue was opened in 1855 on Great Portland Street, as a branch of the Great Synagogue on Duke's Place, and was initially administered by that Synagogue. It became independent in 1870, and was one of the five original synagogues which grouped together to form the United Synagogue in 1870. The Synagogue building was destroyed by enemy action in 1941, but was rebuilt from 1955 and reconsecrated in 1958. It remains a Constituent member of the United Synagogue.

The Technical Services departments at the Greater London Council (GLC) provided a fully comprehensive building service from design and construction to maintenance. The departments included Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Architecture, Valuation, Project Management and London Community Builders. The Technical Services Group allowed the GLC to sustain major programmes of work such as housing renovation and the construction of industrial buildings.

The Central-Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (CV) was founded by German Jewish intellectuals on 26 March 1893 in Berlin, with the intention of opposing the rise of Anti-Semitism in the German Empire. Shortly after its founding it had 1,420 members and in 1926 approximately 60,000 members.

The CV's aim was to unify German citizens of Jewish faith, to fight for the Jews' rights as citizens and to combat rising Anti-Semitism. Commitment to the German Nation was an important part of the CV's agenda, the members saw themselves primarily as German citizens with their own religion. Consequently, the CV repudiated Zionism.

Beginning in 1922, the CV published a weekly newspaper, called C.V.-Zeitung (C.V.- Newspaper) and continued fighting the rising Anti-Semitic threat. Through publications and conversations with Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg and economic leaders the CV tried to call attention to the threat.

In 1928 the 'Büro Wilhelmstrasse' (Wilhelmstrasse Office) was created with the instrumental support of Alfred Wiener. It documented Nazi activities and issued anti-Nazi materials until 1933, when Hitler came to power.

During the Nazi era, the CV was forced to change its name several times. From 1936 onwards it was called 'Jüdischer Central Verein' (Jewish Central Association). After the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass or November Pogrom) in 1938 the CV had to stop publishing its newspaper and the association was prohibited a short time later.

The Centre for Policy Studies was established by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph in 1974 as an independent centre-right think tank with a remit to develop and publish public policy proposals and arrange seminars and lectures on topical policy issues, with a view to influencing policy world-wide. It became a limited company on 20 June 1974 with Sir Keith Joseph, Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Vinson as directors, employing paid staff and advisors and based at 8 Wilfred Street, London. According to its mission statement, the core principles upon which the Centre bases its policy proposals include the value of free markets, the importance of individual choice and responsibility, and the concepts of duty, family, respect for the law, national independence, individualism, and liberty. The Centre has concerned itself particularly with such issues as the National Health Service, the privatisation of industry, the economy, and defence. Amongst the policies it claims to have helped to initiate are privatisation, trade union reform, council house sales, pensions deregulation, education reform, free trade, health service reform, and the restructuring of the tax system in favour of 'traditional' families. CPS advisors also produce speeches and articles for politicians and maintain close, though informal, links with the government, politicians, policy makers, civil servants and the press, in Britain and abroad.

The Centre for Reform is a public policy think tank concerned with the values of the Liberal Democrats, also accessible to any person interested in debating social, economic and political reform.

The Centre serves two primary functions: one, to provide an arena for Liberal Democrats to participate in discussion outside the constraints of the formal policy - making structures; two, to introduce ideas from outside the party into Liberal Democrat debates and discussions. The Centre for Reform was created at the Southport Federal Conference in March 1998 and announced its first programme of activities in June 1998. Its structure consists of a full-time Directer, supported by part-time administrative and research support.

The Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health Research forms part of Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The Centro di Documentazione sui Bibelforscher, Centre for the Documentaion of Jehovah's Witnesses, is based in Italy and has no affiliation to any religious denomination.

Henri Cernuschi was born in Milan in 1821. He became involved in the Revolutions of 1848 when still student. In 1850 he left Italy for France, where he became a successful banker and writer on economics, known for his advocacy of bimetallism. He was expelled from France in 1870 during the last days of Napoleon III's rule, but returned a few months later when the Imperials regime collapsed. During the 1870s Cernuschi travelled in East Asia and collected many examples of Asian art. On his death, he bequeathed his collection to the City of Paris, where today it is open to the public as the Musée Cernuschi.

The Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers, were established in 1881 by proclamation of the lieutenant governor. This new volunteer force was commanded by British officers, while the ranks were filled out largely with Burghers, a highly Westernized group that adapted well to the demands of volunteer service. A mounted infantry company was added in 1892, and in 1900 this contingent was called to South Africa to assist the British army in the Boer War.
In 1910 the volunteer corps was redesignated as the Ceylon Defence Force. Although Sri Lankan units were not deployed outside the island in either of the world wars, individual soldiers served in the British and British Indian armies. In World War II, the British crown took direct control of the island's armed forces from the colonial government. During this period, the Ceylon Light Infantry grew from 1 battalion to 5 battalions, while the total number of troops in uniform increased to 12,000. Most of these were engaged in maintenance and transport functions. Their most direct contact with the war came in April 1942 when the Japanese launched an air attack on Colombo.

The Ceylon Observer was first published as the Colombo Observer in 1834, changing its name in 1867. It published several special series including the Pictorial, and the Handbook and Directory of Ceylon.

Wreck is flotsam, jetsam, derelict and lagan found in or on the shores of the sea or any tidal water. It includes any vessel, cargo or equipment. It may be of antique or archaeological value such as gold coins, or a yacht or dinghy abandoned at sea, or items such as drums of chemicals, or crates of foodstuffs. It is a legal requirement that all recovered wreck is reported to the Receiver of Wrecks. The Ceylon Receiver of Wrecks was based at Galle until 1882, when the office was moved to Colombo.

Unknown

Chadwick was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1823. In 1832 he was appointed Assistant Commissioner to the Poor Law Enquiry and the following year Royal Commissioner to the same Enquiry, and to enquire into the employment of children in factories. In 1834 he was appointed Secretary to the Poor Law Commission, and in 1836 Royal Commissioner to enquire into a rural constabulary. In 1842 Chadwick published the Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population (known as the 'Sanitary Report'). In 1847 he lost his position as Secretary of the Poor Law Commission, but was appointed Royal Commissioner on London sanitation, and Metropolitan Commissioner of Sewers. In 1848 he was created CB and was appointed Commissioner to the General Board of Health. He resigned from the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers in 1849 and from the General Board of Health in 1854. In 1857 he became interested in standing for Parliament and in 1859 stood as candidate for Evesham. In 1865 he stood as candidate for London University but withdrew before the poll. In 1868 he stood for Kilmarknock Burghs. He was created KCB in 1889. See also S E Finer, The life and times of Sir Edwin Chadwick (London, 1952).

John Hill Burton was born in Aberdeen in 1809; educated at Aberdeen grammar school from 1819, and went with a bursary to Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1823. After graduating MA in 1826, he applied himself to the law, reading for the bar in Edinburgh. He was an Adovcate by profession, and as a young man compiled various legal works and was associated with various movements, not only law reform but also political economy and public health. Later his aptitude led him along literary and historical lines. Edinburgh at this period was the centre of intellectual activity and Burton Hill became an intimate friend of many of the notabilities of the day. Burton Hill died of bronchitis at his home, Morton House, in the Pentland Hills on 10 August 1881.

Sir Edwin Chadwick was born at Longsight, near Manchester, on 24 January 1800; educated at a village school in Longsight and then boarded briefly at Dr Wordsworth's school in Stockport and moved to London. Edwin clerked until 1823, when he shifted towards the bar. This acquainted him with the social problems of prisons, hospitals, and slums.

Chadwick was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1823. In 1832 he was appointed Assistant Commissioner to the Poor Law Enquiry and the following year Royal Commissioner to the same Enquiry, and to enquire into the employment of children in factories. In 1834 he was appointed Secretary to the Poor Law Commission, and in 1836 Royal Commissioner to enquire into a rural constabulary. In 1842 Chadwick published the Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population (known as the 'Sanitary Report'). In 1847 he lost his position as Secretary of the Poor Law Commission, but was appointed Royal Commissioner on London sanitation, and Metropolitan Commissioner of Sewers.

In 1848 Chadwick was created CB and was appointed Commissioner to the General Board of Health. He resigned from the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers in 1849 and from the General Board of Health in 1854. In 1857 he became interested in standing for Parliament and in 1859 stood as candidate for Evesham. In 1865 he stood as candidate for London University but withdrew before the poll. In 1868 he stood for Kilmarknock Burghs. He was created KCB in 1889. Chadwick died on 5 July 1890.

The Chadwick Trust was set up in 1895 under the provisions of the will of Sir Edwin Chadwick (d 1890), who bequeathed money to promote research into public health engineering. Sir Edwin Chadwick, born in 1800, was a pioneering sanitary reformer; secretary to Jeremy Bentham; appointed Assistant Commissioner to the Poor Law Enquiry, 1832; appointed Royal Commissioner to the Poor Law Enquiry, and to enquire into the employment of children in factories, 1833; Secretary of the Poor Law Commission, 1834-1847; Royal Commissioner to enquire into a rural constabulary, 1836; published his report on the sanitary condition of the labouring population, 1842; appointed Royal Commissioner on London sanitation, 1847; Metropolitan Commissioner of Sewers, 1847-1849; Commissioner of the General Board of Health, 1848-1854. At his death he also bequeathed money to University College London to create the Chadwick Professorship of Municipal Engineering, first occupied by his son Sir Osbert Chadwick from 1898. The Chadwick Trust gives prizes and medals to students researching into both the medical and engineering aspects of sanitary science. It also funds lectures on related subjects. The Trust was set up under a Board of Trustees and was later associated with the Royal Society of Health, on whose premises its office was situated. In 1980 negotiations began with University College London to house the Trust in the Civil Engineering Department, and the Trust was subsequently administered by a committee of University College London.

No biographical information available at time of compilation.

Paul Belloni du Chaillu was born in France on 31 July 1835. He accompanied his father to Gabon at a young age and in 1852 travelled to United States and was entrusted by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia with a mission to West Africa, setting out in 1855 to Gabon. Du Chaillu was, or claimed to be the first European to kill a gorilla in the wild. In 1867 he again travelled to Africa and hoped to reach the Congo and the Nile. The map accompanying the account of the expedition 'A journey to Ashango Land' (London, 1867) is based upon 15 observed latitutes and 7 longitudes and until his obituary was published in 1903, was the only authority on the geography of the greater part of the country delineated. He was rewarded with honorary membership of the Royal Geographical Society. Following this he spent a few years in United States and wrote books for children including 'Stories of the Gorilla Country' (1867), he died in 1903.

Chain was born in 1906 in Berlin where his Russian-born father, an industrial chemist, had settled. Both his parents were Jewish. He graduated in chemistry and physiology from the Friedrich-Wilhelm University, Berlin, Germany in 1930 and undertook research in the chemical department of the Institute of Pathology at the Charité Hospital, Berlin, 1930-1933. He was a talented pianist and music competed with chemistry in his thoughts about a career. In 1933 Chain became one of the many refugees from Nazi Germany, finding refuge in Britain. From 1933 to 1935 he worked in Cambridge at the School of Biochemistry under Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, moving in 1935 to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford. Here he took part in the research and development of penicillin for which he shared with A. Fleming and H.W. Florey the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945. In 1948 he moved to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy as Scientific Director of the International Research Centre for Chemical Microbiology, remaining there until 1964 when, after protracted negotiations, he took up the Chair of Biochemistry at Imperial College, London. He retired in 1973 but retained Research Fellowships until his death in 1979. He was elected FRS in 1949 and knighted in 1969.

Herbert Davies Chalke worked as a Medical Officer of Health (MOH) in North Wales, Dorset, Hampstead and Camberwell from 1930-1963, and was in charge of the 1933 investigation into tuberculosis in South Wales. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps as Assistant Director of Medical Services to the Allied Forces in North Africa, and Senior Hygiene Officer, Italy. In 1945 returned to his job as MOH in Hampstead. After his retirement in 1963 he became involved in work on alcoholism, and was one of the founders and the first editor of The Bulletin of Alcoholism in 1963.

Raymond "Ray" Challinor was a distinguished Marxist historian of the British labour movement, particularly in the North East of England. Initially a member of the Independent Labour Party, he was an early member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and then the Socialist Review group and was also a member of the group which succeeded it, the International Socialists. For a period in the 1960s he was a councillor in Newcastle-under-Lyme on the Labour Party ticket in which party IS was then resident, later writing an article in International Socialism on how the experience was politically dispiriting. Born in Stoke-on-Trent, and a conscientious objector, working on the land, after the Second World War, Challinor was educated at Keele and Lancaster Universities and became principal lecturer in history at Newcastle Polytechnic. While a member of the Socialist Workers Party, he wrote his best known work, a classic history of the Socialist Labour Party, The Origins of British Bolshevism (1977). He served as chairman of the Society for the Study of Labour History and president of the North East Labour History Society.

George Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, Scotland, in 1742. He received his education from the parish school at Fochabers and from King's College Aberdeen. He went on to study law in Edinburgh and then in 1773 put these skills into practice as a lawyer in Baltimore, USA in 1773. He returned in 1775 to settle in London, where he devoted his life to writing books about Ireland, affairs of America and the British monarchy. In 1786 he was appointed chief clerk of the committee of the Privy Council for trade and foreign plantations. Chalmers wrote numerous biographies and in 1807 his first volume of Caledonia, a work intended to record the history and antiquities of Scotland was published. Volumes 2 and 3 of Caledonia were published in 1820 and 1824 but Chalmers died, on 31 May 1825, before he could finish the series although he left a manuscript collection intended for its completion. Chalmers was a prolific writer on history throughout his life as well as a collector of books and manuscripts. His library was sold in three parts between September 1841 and November 1842, yielding £6189 in total. Publications: An Answer from the Electors of Bristol to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. on the affairs of America (T. Cadell, London, 1777); An Appeal to the Generosity of the British Nation, in a statement of facts on behalf of the afflicted widow and unoffending offspring of the unfortunate Mr. Bellingham (M. Jones, London, 1812); An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Britain during the Present and Four Preceding Reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution (C. Dilly and J. Bowen, London, 1782); An Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the Colonies (Baker and Galabin, London, 1782); Another Account of the Incidents, from which the title, and a part of the story of Shakspeare's Tempest, were derived; and the true era of it ascertained (R. & A. Taylor, London, 1815); Caledonia: or, an Account, historical and topographic, of North Britain; from the most ancient to the present times: with a dictionary of places, chorographical and philological (T. Cadell, London, 1807-24); Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain and Ireland; as it was, before the war; as it is, since the peace (T. Egerton, London, 1817); Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, Circulation and Exchanges; with a view to our present circumstances (J. J. Stockdale, London, 1811); Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, Fisheries, and Commerce, of Great Britain (Reed and Hunter, London, 1814); Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and Commercial Policy; arising from American independence (J. Debrett, London, 1784); Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, from their Settlement to the Peace of 1763 (J. Bowen, London, 1780); Proofs and Demonstrations, how much the projected Registry of Colonial Negroes is unfounded and uncalled for (Thomas Egerton: London, 1816); The Life of Daniel De Foe (John Stockdale, London, 1790); The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots; drawn from the State Papers(John Murray, London, 1818); The Life of Thomas Ruddiman (John Stockdale, London, 1794); Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland: being a collection of his pieces relative to that country, with historical notices, and a life of the author (Longman & Co, London, 1817); A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers (John Stockdale, London, 1790); Parliamentary Portraits (T. Bellamy, London, 1795); Facts and Observations relative to the coinage and circulation of counterfeit or base money; with suggestions for remedying the evil (London, 1795);The Arrangements with Ireland considered (John Stockdale, London, 1785); editor of The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay (Longman, London, 1806); An Apology for the believers in the Shakspeare Papers [forged by W. H. Ireland], which were exhibited in Norfolk Street (T. Egerton, London, 1797); A short view of the proposals lately made for the final adjustment of the commercial system between Great-Britain and Ireland (John Stockdale, London, 1785); A Vindication of the privilege of the people, in respect to the constitutional right of free discussion, with a retrospect to various proceedings relative to the violations of that right (London, 1796); Thoughts on the present Crisis of our Domestic Affairs (London, 1807).

George Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, Scotland, in 1742. He received his education from the parish school at Fochabers and from King's College Aberdeen. He went on to study law in Edinburgh and then in 1773 put these skills into practice as a lawyer in Baltimore, USA in 1773. He returned in 1775 to settle in London, where he devoted his life to writing books about Ireland, affairs of America and the British monarchy. In 1786 he was appointed chief clerk of the committee of the Privy Council for trade and foreign plantations. Chalmers wrote numerous biographies and in 1807 his first volume of Caledonia, a work intended to record the history and antiquities of Scotland was published. Volumes 2 and 3 of Caledonia were published in 1820 and 1824 but Chalmers died, on 31 May 1825, before he could finish the series although he left a manuscript collection intended for its completion.

Chalmers was a prolific writer on history throughout his life as well as a collector of books and manuscripts. His library was sold in three parts between September 1841 and November 1842, yielding £6189 in total. Publications: An Answer from the Electors of Bristol to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. on the affairs of America (T. Cadell, London, 1777); An Appeal to the Generosity of the British Nation, in a statement of facts on behalf of the afflicted widow and unoffending offspring of the unfortunate Mr. Bellingham (M. Jones, London, 1812); An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Britain during the Present and Four Preceding Reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution (C. Dilly & J. Bowen, London, 1782); An Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the Colonies (Baker & Galabin, London, 1782); Another Account of the Incidents, from which the title, and a part of the story of Shakspeare's Tempest, were derived; and the true era of it ascertained (R. & A. Taylor, London, 1815); Caledonia: or, an Account, historical and topographic, of North Britain; from the most ancient to the present times: with a dictionary of places, chorographical and philological (T. Cadell, London, 1807-24); Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain and Ireland; as it was, before the war; as it is, since the peace (T. Egerton, London, 1817); Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, Circulation and Exchanges; with a view to our present circumstances (J. J. Stockdale, London, 1811); Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, Fisheries, and Commerce, of Great Britain (Reed and Hunter, London, 1814); Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and Commercial Policy; arising from American independence (J. Debrett, London, 1784); Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, from their Settlement to the Peace of 1763 (J. Bowen, London, 1780); Proofs and Demonstrations, how much the projected Registry of Colonial Negroes is unfounded and uncalled for (Thomas Egerton: London, 1816); The Life of Daniel De Foe (John Stockdale, London, 1790); The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots; drawn from the State Papers(John Murray, London, 1818); The Life of Thomas Ruddiman (John Stockdale, London, 1794); Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland: being a collection of his pieces relative to that country, with historical notices, and a life of the author (Longman & Co, London, 1817); A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers (John Stockdale, London, 1790); Parliamentary Portraits (T. Bellamy, London, 1795); Facts and Observations relative to the coinage and circulation of counterfeit or base money; with suggestions for remedying the evil (London, 1795);The Arrangements with Ireland considered (John Stockdale, London, 1785); editor of The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay (Longman, London, 1806); An Apology for the believers in the Shakspeare Papers [forged by W. H. Ireland], which were exhibited in Norfolk Street (T. Egerton, London, 1797); A short view of the proposals lately made for the final adjustment of the commercial system between Great-Britain and Ireland (John Stockdale, London, 1785); A Vindication of the privilege of the people, in respect to the constitutional right of free discussion, with a retrospect to various proceedings relative to the violations of that right (London, 1796); Thoughts on the present Crisis of our Domestic Affairs (London, 1807).

George Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, Scotland, in 1742. He received his education from the parish school at Fochabers and from King's College Aberdeen. He went on to study law in Edinburgh and then in 1773 put these skills into practice as a lawyer in Baltimore, USA in 1773. He returned in 1775 to settle in London, where he devoted his life to writing books about Ireland, affairs of America and the British monarchy. In 1786 he was appointed chief clerk of the committee of the Privy Council for trade and foreign plantations. Chalmers wrote numerous biographies and in 1807 his first volume of Caledonia, a work intended to record the history and antiquities of Scotland was published. Volumes 2 and 3 of Caledonia were published in 1820 and 1824 but Chalmers died, on 31 May 1825, before he could finish the series although he left a manuscript collection intended for its completion. Chalmers was a prolific writer on history throughout his life as well as a collector of books and manuscripts. His library was sold in three parts between September 1841 and November 1842, yielding £6189 in total.

Publications: An Answer from the Electors of Bristol to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. on the affairs of America (T. Cadell, London, 1777); An Appeal to the Generosity of the British Nation, in a statement of facts on behalf of the afflicted widow and unoffending offspring of the unfortunate Mr. Bellingham (M. Jones, London, 1812); An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Britain during the Present and Four Preceding Reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution (C. Dilly and J. Bowen, London, 1782); An Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the Colonies (Baker and Galabin, London, 1782); Another Account of the Incidents, from which the title, and a part of the story of Shakspeare's Tempest, were derived; and the true era of it ascertained (R. and A. Taylor, London, 1815); Caledonia: or, an Account, historical and topographic, of North Britain; from the most ancient to the present times: with a dictionary of places, chorographical and philological (T. Cadell, London, 1807-24); Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain and Ireland; as it was, before the war; as it is, since the peace (T. Egerton, London, 1817); Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, Circulation and Exchanges; with a view to our present circumstances (J. J. Stockdale, London, 1811); Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, Fisheries, and Commerce, of Great Britain (Reed and Hunter, London, 1814); Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and Commercial Policy; arising from American independence (J. Debrett, London, 1784); Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, from their Settlement to the Peace of 1763 (J. Bowen, London, 1780); Proofs and Demonstrations, how much the projected Registry of Colonial Negroes is unfounded and uncalled for (Thomas Egerton: London, 1816); The Life of Daniel De Foe (John Stockdale, London, 1790); The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots; drawn from the State Papers (John Murray, London, 1818); The Life of Thomas Ruddiman (John Stockdale, London, 1794); Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland: being a collection of his pieces relative to that country, with historical notices, and a life of the author (Longman and Co, London, 1817); A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers (John Stockdale, London, 1790); Parliamentary Portraits (T. Bellamy, London, 1795); Facts and Observations relative to the coinage and circulation of counterfeit or base money; with suggestions for remedying the evil (London, 1795); The Arrangements with Ireland considered (John Stockdale, London, 1785); editor of The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay (Longman, London, 1806); An Apology for the believers in the Shakspeare Papers [forged by W. H. Ireland], which were exhibited in Norfolk Street (T. Egerton, London, 1797); A short view of the proposals lately made for the final adjustment of the commercial system between Great-Britain and Ireland (John Stockdale, London, 1785); A Vindication of the privilege of the people, in respect to the constitutional right of free discussion, with a retrospect to various proceedings relative to the violations of that right (London, 1796); Thoughts on the present Crisis of our Domestic Affairs (London, 1807).

George Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, Scotland, in 1742. He received his education from the parish school at Fochabers and from King's College Aberdeen. He went on to study law in Edinburgh and then in 1773 put these skills into practice as a lawyer in Baltimore, USA in 1773. He returned in 1775 to settle in London, where he devoted his life to writing books about Ireland, affairs of America and the British monarchy. In 1786 he was appointed chief clerk of the committee of the Privy Council for trade and foreign plantations. Chalmers wrote numerous biographies and in 1807 his first volume of Caledonia, a work intended to record the history and antiquities of Scotland was published. Volumes 2 and 3 of Caledonia were published in 1820 and 1824 but Chalmers died, on 31 May 1825, before he could finish the series although he left a manuscript collection intended for its completion. Chalmers was a prolific writer on history throughout his life as well as a collector of books and manuscripts. His library was sold in three parts between September 1841 and November 1842, yielding £6189 in total.

Publications: An Answer from the Electors of Bristol to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. on the affairs of America (T. Cadell, London, 1777); An Appeal to the Generosity of the British Nation, in a statement of facts on behalf of the afflicted widow and unoffending offspring of the unfortunate Mr. Bellingham (M. Jones, London, 1812); An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Britain during the Present and Four Preceding Reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution (C. Dilly and J. Bowen, London, 1782); An Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the Colonies (Baker and Galabin, London, 1782); Another Account of the Incidents, from which the title, and a part of the story of Shakspeare's Tempest, were derived; and the true era of it ascertained (R. and A. Taylor, London, 1815); Caledonia: or, an Account, historical and topographic, of North Britain; from the most ancient to the present times: with a dictionary of places, chorographical and philological (T. Cadell, London, 1807-24); Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain and Ireland; as it was, before the war; as it is, since the peace (T. Egerton, London, 1817); Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, Circulation and Exchanges; with a view to our present circumstances (J. J. Stockdale, London, 1811); Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, Fisheries, and Commerce, of Great Britain (Reed and Hunter, London, 1814); Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and Commercial Policy; arising from American independence (J. Debrett, London, 1784); Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, from their Settlement to the Peace of 1763 (J. Bowen, London, 1780); Proofs and Demonstrations, how much the projected Registry of Colonial Negroes is unfounded and uncalled for (Thomas Egerton: London, 1816); The Life of Daniel De Foe (John Stockdale, London, 1790); The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots; drawn from the State Papers (John Murray, London, 1818); The Life of Thomas Ruddiman (John Stockdale, London, 1794); Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland: being a collection of his pieces relative to that country, with historical notices, and a life of the author (Longman and Co, London, 1817); A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers (John Stockdale, London, 1790); Parliamentary Portraits (T. Bellamy, London, 1795); Facts and Observations relative to the coinage and circulation of counterfeit or base money; with suggestions for remedying the evil (London, 1795); The Arrangements with Ireland considered (John Stockdale, London, 1785); editor of The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay (Longman, London, 1806); An Apology for the believers in the Shakspeare Papers [forged by W. H. Ireland], which were exhibited in Norfolk Street (T. Egerton, London, 1797); A short view of the proposals lately made for the final adjustment of the commercial system between Great-Britain and Ireland (John Stockdale, London, 1785); A Vindication of the privilege of the people, in respect to the constitutional right of free discussion, with a retrospect to various proceedings relative to the violations of that right (London, 1796); Thoughts on the present Crisis of our Domestic Affairs (London, 1807).

James Alexander Chalmers (known as Hamish) was born in Inverness in 1912 and qualified in medicine in Edinburgh in 1934. Following service in the Air Force Medical Branch during the Second World War and posts at Bath, Birmingham, Inverness and Edinburgh, he was senior consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester from 1951-1977. He obtained his MRCOG in 1940 and became an FRCOG in 1954.

Chalmers is best known for introducing the vacuum extractor (ventouse) to British obstetric practice, as an alternative to forceps. He was introduced to the method by Professor Snoeck during a visit to Belgium in 1957 and went on to undertake vacuum deliveries at Worcester and to become an advocate for the apparatus.

He also researched widely on the history, development and current use of the procedure and accumulated a collection of publications from around the world on the topic. He visited key practitioners abroad, including V Finderle in Yugoslavia and T Malmstrom in Sweden. In 1971 he published a key work on the technique: The Ventouse-The Obstetric Vacuum Extractor (London: Lloyd-Luke, 1971).

Chalmers died in 1998.