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A 'Slate Club' was a group who saved money in a common fund towards a specific purpose. For example, a small amount might be paid into the club each week, to be paid back in a lump sum at Christmas. The name derives from the early practice of keeping the accounts on a slate. Such clubs were often run by churches for the benefit of their poorer congregation.

Originally built in 1820 as a Congregationalist chapel called Holland Chapel, the building which was to become Christ Church, North Brixton was taken over as a proprietary chapel by the Reverend F Crossman. It became a Chapel of Ease to Saint Mark's Church, Kennington and when in 1855 Canon McConnell Hussey became its minister, he converted the leasehold land to freehold. He also arranged to have the district formed into a separate parish and to have the church consecrated, reseated and enlarged by the addition of an apse at his own expense. The church was consecrated on 9 October 1855. In 1891 the Reverend W. R Mowll was appointed. He was responsible for the building of a parish hall and the rebuilding of the old church which, dilapidated beyond repair, was closed in 1899 and demolished. The new church was consecrated by the Bishop of Rochester on 5 December 1902.

The Cowdray Club was established in 1922 and remained in existence until 1974 when it merged with the Naval and Military Club in Piccadilly. Its original name was The Nation's Nurses and Professional Women's Club Ltd, and its accounts and legal agreements used this name throughout. The First Viscountess Cowdray did much to promote the nursing profession. As Annie Pearson, the wife of Weetmar Dickinson Pearson, a successful engineering contractor (Pearson and Son), her life had taken her to Spain, Mexico, New York, Egypt and Malta. She left her mark in her humane care for her husband's employees and in the gift of Cowdray Hospital to Mexico City. She was a supporter of district nursing, being associated with the Queen's Institute of District Nursing, and active in establishing nursing services in many rural districts of England and Scotland. She provided seven Queen's Nurses at her own expense.

Following the creation of the College of Nursing in 1916, Viscountess Cowdray became involved with fundraising for The Nation's Fund for Nurses for the Creation of a Benevolent Fund for Nurses and the endowment of the College of Nursing. This involvement led to the idea of a gift of a social club for nurses and professional women which "should provide a centre for intercourse and recreation and which should also furnish some of those creature comforts which we associate with the word 'Home'". To this end the Cowdrays purchased 20 Cavendish Square from Mr and Mrs Asquith.

The house was originally built in 1703 and possessed a staircase decorated by Sir James Thornhill. It was converted into a club by Sir Edwin Cooper and later given a new facade after the purchase of neighbouring properties by the College of Nursing in 1928-1930. The building belonged to the College of Nursing and was leased to the club.

The membership of the club was on a basis of 55 per cent nurses, 35 per cent professional women and 10 per cent women without professional qualifications. The College of Nursing had a 50 per cent representation on the council of the club. For much of its existence, the club had over 4,000 members.

Further research might perhaps establish links with other philanthropic Societies of the time, but the Association does not seem to be recorded in London Charities, 1871-72.

The Society for Organising Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity was founded in 1869. It was more commonly known by its short title, the Charity Organisation Society (COS). It was later known as the Family Welfare Association. Its formation arose out of concern over overlapping charities in London, whose activities, it was feared, led to pauperisation and a waste of resources. Its founders sought to promote a more scientific approach to charity based on the principle that relief should only be given after a thorough investigation of the applicant's circumstances and character and that relief should be sufficient to prevent him becoming a pauper. Its objects included promotion of co-operation between charitable agencies and Poor Law authorities.

In the 20th century the COS played a major role in pioneering the proper training of social workers and in the development of social work as a profession. It was responsible for the appointment of the first hospital almoner at the Royal Free Hospital in 1895. The Council appointed a Committee on Training in 1897 and arranged a series of lectures which district secretaries on probation were expected to attend. In 1903 the School of Sociology was opened as an offshoot of the COS, although an independent body; it decided to merge with the London School of Economics in 1912. In 1915 the COS began its own twelve-month course of training in social work in conjunction with Bedford College. It also provided practical experience for students from other courses. Consequently the work of the district offices became increasingly dominated by salaried professional social workers and the role of the volunteer decreased in importance. The COS also played an important role in the setting up of Citizens' Advice Bureaux (CAB), an idea developed in response to the numbers of people seeking guidance and advice during the Munich Crisis in 1938. The London Council of Social Service and the COS jointly established some 80 CAB in London by the outbreak of war in 1939. Each bureau was autonomous, with a local management committee, and there was a national central committee. The COS was responsible for the CAB in inner London. They proved so useful that the service was continued after the end of the war. In 1946 the COS was renamed the Family Welfare Association (FWA) to reflect its changed role and to emphasise its principal function as a family casework agency.

Shirley Fielding Palmer founded the Guild of Saint Alban the Martyr in 1851, probably inspired by Newman's suggestion that laymen should assist clergy in densely populated areas. It was formed from lay communicants, clergy being admitted as associates, and aimed to assist them in maintaining and extending the Catholic faith, to defend the faith against attacks of error and unbelief and to support the independence of the English Church from the jurisdiction claimed by the Church of Rome. Within the Guild were grades of fellows and brethren and an order of Sisters of the Poor. The brotherhood was divided into sections forming separate brotherhoods under the superintendence of a master e.g. the Brotherhood of Saint John the Divine, Clapham.

The National Amateur Rowing Association was founded in 1890 to cater for the large number of working class men who were prevented from joining the Amateur Rowing Association (ARA) by virtue of their manual occupations. (According to the interpretation of ARA rules these men were to be considered professionals).

This definition of "amateur" was finally resolved in the 1920's and in 1930 NARA was reconstituted, its objectives being "to foster and encourage amateur rowing and to watch over and generally protect its interests" (Articles of Association 1930). In 1939 NARA was incorporated as a non-profit making company. From about 1929 discussions took place with ARA about the possibility of meeting to form one governing body and in 1956 it was proposed to call it the British Amateur Rowing Association. NARA was dissolved in June of that year.

Many regional associations (including the Thames Amateur Rowing Association, see A/NAR/50-52) and rowing clubs were affiliated to NARA and around 90 regattas a year followed NARA rules.

Charles Bernard Stanley Tugwell: Charles Tugwell was honorary secretary of NARA for over 25 years and devoted much of his life to rowing. He was appointed National Organiser for Rowing during the short-lived National Fitness Campaign (1937-1939). At the outbreak of war the NFC was suspended and Tugwell was left unemployed. The Times (his previous employers) were unable to offer him a job and during the war he worked for the Ministry of Labour, Foreign Office and for a short time, the Red Cross. He died in Spring 1957.

The National Education Association (NEA) was formed to give effect to the resolutions of the Education Conference Committee which was held in 1888 in reaction to the report of the Cross Commission, 1886-1888. The Cross Commission was formed to look into the competing systems of education then current: School Board Schools which were supported by rates, and voluntary schools (including Church schools) which were supported only by donations and fees. The report suggested that all schools should be rate-aided.

The Association aimed to promote a "free progressive system of national education, publicly controlled and free from sectarian interest" both by publicising and advancing the School Board System and by undermining denominational and private schools. Formed in 1888 and formally constituted in 1889 under the presidency of A.J.Mundella, the NEA acted as the education sub-committee of the Liberation Society, whose aims were the disestablishment of the Church of England, the attainment of religious equality for non-conformists and the preservation of the rights of conscience.

The NEA was disbanded in 1959 and its duties taken over by the Free Church Federal Council.

In 1674 Elizabeth Newcomen, a widow of the parish of St Saviour, Southwark, died leaving a large estate in trust for her godson during his lifetime, and after his death as an endowment for charitable uses in the parish. These included charity schools for boys and girls. The earliest records surviving date from 1706. The schools were run by the Wardens and a Committee who could nominate children for places at the school. From 1808-1840 the Newcomen Schools were united with the parochial schools, but in 1840 the Boys' school separated from the parochial school and by 1849 the Girls' school had followed.

From 1887 the schools were administered by the Governors of the Newcomen Foundation, after the charity was re-established by a scheme of the Charity Commissioners. The Girls' School became Elizabeth Newcomen Secondary Technical School, which closed in 1970.

The London Council for the Promotion of Public Morality, later the Public Morality Council, was formed in 1899 to combat vice and indecency in London and to assist in their repression by legal means, already existing but neglected. Its members included representatives of the Church of England, Roman Catholic and Non-Conformist churches and of the Jewish faith, leaders in education and medicine and charitable associations and others supporting reform. It continued until 1969, concentrating latterly on opposition to sexual immorality and pornography in general and in the theatre, cinema, radio and television. Its functions were taken over by the Social Morality Council, constituted in 1969.

The organisation known as "The Ranyard Mission and Ranyard Nurses" originated as "The London Bible and Domestic Female Mission" - a lay group of Anglican bible women founded in 1857 by Mrs L. N. Ranyard. In 1868 a nursing branch was added, and the title was changed to the "London Biblewomen and Nurses Mission". In 1952 the headquarters was moved from Holborn to Kennington and the organisation was then known by the title of "Ranyard Mission and Ranyard Nurses."

"The South Lee Benevolent Society and Nurses Fund" (see A/RNY/75-84) was supplied with the services of a nurse by the Ranyard Mission. In 1965 the nurses were taken over by the Boroughs, but the Home at Lewisham is still run by trustees.

The following information was sent to the Record Office in 1976, by Mr R. Crosfield Harris, Treasurer of the Ranyard Mission Fund:-

"In 1958 the Ranyard Memorial Charitable Trust was set up by an admirer of the work of the Ranyard Nurses, Mr A.C. Parker of Lewisham, for the building of a Nursing Home for terminal illness. With assistance from the Ogilvie Charities and other donors the Ranyard Memorial Nursing Home was built in Blessington Road, Lewisham, on land leased from the Merchant Taylors Company. It is managed by a committee responsible to the Trustees of the Ranyard Memorial Charitable Trust. These Trustees also administer the Ranyard Mission Fund - the funds of the Ranyard Mission and the Ranyard Nurses - under a Scheme of the Charity Commission. The income of this Fund, after paying pensions to retired members of the staff of the Ranyard Mission and Ranyard Nurses, is available towards the maintenance of the Home".

The Society, established in February 1772 on the initiative of James Neild, jeweller, of London, drew its first funds from the proceeds of a sermon preached in the Charlotte Street Chapel, Pimlico, by the Rev. William Dodd (later notorious for his trial and execution for forgery). William Wilberforce was one of its early supporters. The Society was popularly known as the Thatched House Society' from its regular meeting place, The Thatched House Tavern in St James's Street.

The Society was at first concerned with London prisons only and the greatest number of debtors relieved came from them, but by the 1780s prisoners from gaols in other parts of the country were also being assisted. Neild was troubled about the bad state of the prisons and the minutes contain reports of visits of inspection as well as names and numbers of prisoners assisted.

The Society for the Relief of Distress was founded in 1860 for the relief of distress in London and its suburbs.

The relief was administered by accredited visitors, later known as Almoners. Money was allocated to them to be spent at their discretion leaving the Committee to deal with exceptional cases or those in which more substantial relief was required. The Society is still active in providing assistance for people in the London area, particularly in cases which for one reason or another do not come within the scope of the Welfare Services. Funds are provided by bequests, donations and voluntary contributions.

County associations came into being under 7 Edw.VII, C.9, 1907 - 'An Act to provide for the reorganisation of his Majesty's military forces and to authorise the establishment of County Associations, and the raising and maintenance of a Territorial Force'. Such associations were to be in accordance with schemes made by the Army Council, through which they were to be financed. Each association was to organise and administer its local Territorial Force and, except during actual training or military service, to provide training facilities and horses, and accommodation for arms and equipment.

In 1873 Reverend Samuel Barnett and his wife Henrietta requested to be placed in a deprived parish so that they could participate in poor relief. The foundation of Toynbee Hall in 1884 was their solution to the poverty they witnessed. The Hall was a student's residence combined with a community centre. The Hall was open to young academics who were able to rent out rooms, on the condition that they contribute to the community work. The Hall was named after Arnold Toynbee, a social philosopher and economist and friend of the Barnetts, who had died the previous year aged 31, of meningitis caused by overwork.

Although the idea that those studying poverty and unemployment should live among the poorer classes was not new, Toynbee Hall was innovatory because the students lived together like a college. This 'University Settlement' was the first of its kind in the world and the model for many others both in Great Britain and abroad. Clement Atlee and William Beveridge were among several influential residents.

The Hall carried out varied work, offering legal advice, campaigning for the rights of immigrants, hosting lectures and providing adult education.

Toynbee Hall is still active, situated on Commercial Street, E1 and providing support for the local community.

See http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/default.asp for more information (accessed August 2010).

The manor of Isleworth or Isleworth Syon seems to have included land in Heston, Isleworth and Twickenham. In 1086 it belonged to Walter of Saint Valery, one of William the Conqueror's companions. The land subsequently passed into royal possession and was granted to Queen Isabel in 1327 and Queen Philippa in 1330. In 1421 the king granted Isleworth to the newly created abbey of Syon, in whose possession it remained until 1539. The Abbey was suppressed in 1539 and in 1547 the Duke of Somerset secured a grant of the estate to himself, which he held until his execution in 1552, although his widow continued to live at the manor until ordered to leave in 1554. The Crown leased the lands to various tenants until 1598 when Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, secured the tenancy rights. In 1604 he received a grant in fee of the house and manor with the park. The property descended to his heirs including Charles, Duke of Somerset (died 1748) and his son the Earl of Northumberland. Their descendants still owned Syon in 1958.

One notable event in the later history of the manor occurred in 1656. In that year articles of agreement were drawn up between Algernon, Earl of Northumberland, lord of the manor of Isleworth Syon, and Sir Thomas Ingram and other principal copyhold tenants. These articles established certain of the customs of the manor on a firm basis. Fines and heriots were to be certain and not arbitrary, at the will of the lord. The tenure of customary and was to be by Borough English, whereby the youngest son of a copy holder inherited on the death of his father. These articles were signed on 20 May 1656 and were confirmed by a decree in Chancery, 28 June 1656 (see ACC/1379/330 and partial transcript in History of Syon and Isleworth by G. Aungier, p.206). A printed tract called Isleworth Syon's Peace was to be published in 1657 and according to Aungier was to be placed in the Isleworth parish chest. London Metropolitan Archives possesses copies in ACC/0479 and ACC/1379.

There is no unifying factor to these papers (e.g. that they relate to property owned by one estate or family or the legal work of one office), they were simply collected or preserved for their antiquarian interest before being passed to the archive.

A 'tontine' was a financial scheme by which the subscribers to a loan or common fund each received an annuity during his life, which increased as the subscribers passed away, until the last survivor enjoyed the whole income. The word is also applied to the share or right of each subscriber. Such schemes were introduced first in France as a method of raising government loans. Afterwards tontines were formed for building houses, hotels, baths, bridges and so on.

Kew Bridge was first built in 1758-1759 by John Barnard. It had seven timber arches. This was replaced by a stone bridge in 1784-1789. The present bridge was constructed in 1903, designed by John Wolfe Barry. The bridge crosses the Thames River between Kew and Chiswick.

Teddington common was part of Hounslow Heath. It was situated to the west of Park Road and Stanley Road. When enclosed in 1800 it comprised 450 acres.

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 66-69.

The precise origin of the Truman family's involvement in brewing is unclear. Although 1666 is often cited as the start date, it is more likely to have been in 1679 when Joseph Truman Senior (died 1721) acquired the Black Eagle Street brewhouse from William Bucknall. Joseph retired in 1730 and his son Benjamin (died 1780) developed the business so that in 1760 Truman's brewery was the third biggest in London, brewing 60,000 barrels of beer per annum. After 1780, James Grant (died 1788), Sir Benjamin's assistant and executor, ran the business whilst the property passed to Sir Benjamin's grandsons, General Henry Read and William Truman Read.

In 1789 Sampson Hanbury acquired James Grant's share of the business and manged the brewery until 1835. He was joined in 1811 by his nephew Thomas Fowell Buxton. Additional partners joined in 1816: Thomas Marlborough Pryor and Robert Pryor, who had previously run Proctors brewhouse, Shoreditch. Production rose from 100,000 barrels per annum in 1800 to 400,000 barrels per annum in 1850, so becoming the largest brewery in London.

Truman Hanbury Buxton and Co. Ltd was registered in 1889 as a limited liability company. The company was acquired by Grand Metropolitan Hotels Ltd in 1971 and changed its name to Trumans Ltd. In 1974 it merged with Watney Mann Ltd. Brewing at Burton ceased in 1971 but the Black Eagle Brewery at Brick Lane continued to operate until 1988. In 1991, Grand Metropolitan Hotels Ltd was taken over by Courage Ltd.

The manor of Ealing or Ealingbury was presumably the 10 hides at Ealing granted in 693 by Ethelred, king of Mercia, to the bishop of London for the augmentation of monastic life in London. The manor passed through various owners until 1906 when most or all of the land was sold to the Prudential Assurance Company.

Northumberland Park, Tottenham, was a new avenue, lined by middle-class villas, running from the High Road towards the new railway line. It was laid out and developed in the 1850s.

Source of information: 'Ealing and Brentford: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 123-128 and 'Tottenham: Growth after 1850', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 317-324 (available online).

The Bullock family first appear in this collection in the early eighteenth century as leather dressers of some substance in London. Henry Bullock was admitted in 1711 as a freeman of the City of London (ACC/0132/240). In 1715 he and his father John Bullock entered into articles of partnership for the management of leather mills at Poyle in Stanwell which they first leased, and later purchased in 1742 (ACC/0132/191, ACC/0132/243). It is title deeds to Poyle Mills, and to other properties in Stanwell which the family subsequently owned, which make up the major part of the collection. The Stanwell deeds date mainly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but the earliest is a grant of four acres dated 1366. The earliest deed which identifies the Mills is of 1612 (ACC/0132/145).

Besides title deeds the collection includes family settlements and wills of the Bullocks, and their connections the Bland and Maw families. It is clear from deposited account books of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (ACC/0132/285-286) that the family retained a connection with the City of London as well as being substantial citizens in Stanwell. Members of the family were from time to time churchwardens, as the presence of a group of Stanwell Parish Records shows, and Henry Bullock junior was appointed a trustee of the Bedfont to Bagshot, and treasurer of the Cranford Turnpike Trusts in 1760 and 1773 successively (ACC/0132/281-282). The Bland family papers include a series of commissions of Joseph Bland from practitioner engineer to lieutenant colonel in the East India Company Corps of Engineers between 1770 and 1801 (ACC/0132/288-296). There is also an extemely interesting letter from Alfred Bland describing in detail conditions in Zululand in 1879 (ACC/0132/297).

Deposited with the Bullock family papers, but having no apparent archival connection with them, is a group of three building leases of 1793 and 1794 from the Earl of Southampton to William and James Adam of Albemarle Street relating to houses in Fitzroy Square (ACC/0132/330-332).

The Office of the Armoury and the Ordnance Office both evolved in the early 15th century from the activities of the Privy Wardrobe, one of the departments of the Royal Household, with offices at the Tower of London. The Tower was the most important arsenal in the kingdom, with its own workforce of armourers, bowyers, fletchers, etc., to maintain the arms and armour stored there.

The first Master of the Ordnance was appointed in 1414, and the Ordnance Office became responsible for the supply of munitions and equipment to the army and navy. Prior to the establishment of a standing army or navy, the Ordnance Office was the only permanent military department in England. As a result the importance and status of the Master rose steadily, and from 1483 all holders of the office were knights or peers.

The first mention of an official solely responsible for armour appears in 1423, and the first use of the title Master of the King's Armoury occurs in 1462. The Office of the Armoury was responsible for the provision and maintenance of body armour, and was much smaller than that of the Ordnance. It rose in importance briefly when Henry VIII established the royal workshops at Greenwich in 1515, but with the decrease in the use of armour during the 17th century, the Office of the Armoury was abolished in 1671, and its duties were taken over by the Board of Ordnance.

The role of the Board of Ordnance continued to grow and develop during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was responsible for the issue of all guns and warlike stores to the ships of the navy and the permanent fortifications (the Sea Service), and the issue of small arms, the provision of artillery and engineer trains to the army (the Land Service). It was also responsible for the development of weapons, and in addition to its headquarters at the Tower of London, it had numerous other establishments, such as the Royal Arsenal, Royal Academy and Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, and the powder mills at Faversham and Waltham Abbey. The Board was finally abolished in 1855 and its duties merged with those of the War Office.

The Royal Armouries museum has its basis in the arsenal maintained at the Tower of London, and the royal armours of the Tudor and Stuart kings. The first displays were opened to the public in the second half of the 17th century: the Line of Kings, a display of armours dedicated to the kings of England; the Spanish Armoury, celebrating the victory over the Armada; and the Grand Storehouse, displaying captured trophies, small arms and artillery.

In the early 19th century the Board of Ordnance, which was responsible for the maintenance of the collection, began the process of re-organising the displays on a more academic basis. It also purchased important historic pieces to augment the collections. When the Board was abolished in 1855, the Armouries came under the control of the War Office. The first part-time curator, Viscount Dillon, was appointed in 1897.

In 1904 responsibility for the Armouries was transferred from the War Office to the Office of Works, which was already responsible for the buildings of the Tower of London. The first full time curator, Charles ffoulkes, was appointed in 1910, and the ancient office of Master of the Armouries revived in 1935, as the Armouries achieved the status of a national museum.

The National Heritage Act 1983 transferred control of the Armouries from the Department of the Environment (the successor to the Office of Works) to the Board of Trustees, and the Museum was granted the prefix `Royal' in 1984. Fort Nelson, the national museum of artillery, was opened in 1995, the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds in 1996, and the redisplay of the White Tower completed in 1998.

Born 26 June 1868, son of Rev. Edmund Salusbury ffoulkes, BD. He was educated at Radley School, Shrewsbury School, and St John's College, Oxford.

He left Oxford without a degree and went on to study art. His interest turned to the metalwork and the study of metallic artefacts and thence to arms and armour. He was invited to give lectures for the Oxford History Board on Armour and military subjects, gaining a Bachelor of Letters, 1911. In 1913, he was appointed Curator of the Tower Armouries, 1913-1935, and Master of the Armouries, 1935-1938. In 1917, ffoulkes obtained government approval of a plan to collect historical material relating to the current war, and was appointed First Curator and Secretary Imperial War Museum (IWM), 1917-1933, and following his retirement from the IWM he became one of its Trustees, 1934-1946. He remained in his part time post at the Tower until the age of 70, in 1938 and continued to publish his writings.

ffoulkes was also Lieutenant RNVR, 1914-1918; Major Royal Marines, unattached, 1918-1920; Member, War Office Committee on Military Museum; Hon. Freeman, Armourers' Company; Volunteer Warden, ARP, 1939; Sergeant of Pioneers, Home Guard, 20th Bn Middlesex Regt, 1940-1945; Officer of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, 1929; and was awarded Hon. DLitt. Oxon, 1936; CB 1934; OBE 1925.

In 1942, he married, Dorothy Agnes Garratt, MBE. He died 22 April 1947.

Publications:
Armour and Weapons, 1909; new edition, Gaya's Traité des Armes, 1911; Arms and Armour in the University of Oxford; The Armourer and his Craft, 1912; Ironwork, 1913; Survey and Inventory of the Tower of London, 1917; Catalogue of the Armourers' and Brasiers' Company; Notes on the Pierpont Morgan XIIIth Century Old Testament, 1927; The Gun-founders of England, 1936; Sword, Lance, and Bayonet, 1938; Arms and the Tower, 1939; Arms and Armament, 1945; many papers in Archæologia, Journal of Army Historical Research, etc.

The Runnymede Trust is one of the most influential and respected think tanks on race-relations in Britain. It was formerly established on 1 August 1968, by Deed of Trust, as an educational charity. It had developed partly as a response to the growth of racist politics, especially those of Enoch Powell, which looked at the time to be turning into a mass movement, and also as an attempt to create an equivalent to the American Anti-Defamation League in Britain. The founding members of the organisation were Jim Rose, Anthony Lester, Philip Mason, Sir Joseph Simpson, Mark Bonham-Carter, Dipak Nandy, Nicholas Deakin and Jock Campbell. The funding for its establishment came from the New World Foundation in New York, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust and the Hilden Trust. Dipak Nandy became the Trust's first Director. Since its inception, the Trust has worked to challenge racial discrimination and promote a successful multi-ethnic Britain by providing the facts of racial discrimination and the techniques for overcoming it, stimulating debate and suggesting strategies in public policy. Its principal function in the early years was to provide briefs, background papers and research data for MPs, civil servants, local government and others concerned with policy. It provided a means of responding swiftly and authoritatively on key issues as media attention to the subject of race relations increased. The Trust's Bulletin was initiated in 1969 and has been published regularly ever since. In later years, Runnymede published reports designed to interpret government policy to a wider audience at the same time as briefing government on public opinion. Through the 1990s, Runnymede's role shifted from that of providing position or interpretative papers to working more closely with government in an advisory capacity. Over the years, Runnymede has produced key reports such as Colour and Citizenship (1969) an authoritative rebuttal to Enoch Powell's anti-immigration populist stance; A Very Light Sleeper: The Persistence and Dangers of Anti-Semitism (1994), This is where I live - stories and pressures in Brixton (1996), and School Exclusions and the Race Factor (1999). The Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain was established as an independent Runnymede inquiry in 1997 culminating in the publication of The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain: the Parekh Report in October 2000. Runnymede has produced regular bulletins called Race and Immigration: The Runnymede Trust Bulletin, which became The Runnymede Bulletin in 1992. The Runnymede Trust was one of the organisations responsible for the establishment of the UK Race and Europe Network (UKREN) in 1996. A Board of Trustees decides the policies of the organisation and the Director is responsible for developing strategies.

In 1882, Charles Swinstead (1815-1890), an artist and art teacher, selected a site at Crouch End Hill, north London, and commissioned a purpose-built private school of art complete with teaching studios and an adjacent headmaster's house. Building was completed in 1882 and the Hornsey School of Art was opened officially in the autumn of the same year.At the first meeting of the Committee of the School on 18 August 1882, responsibility for its financial and administrative control was formally invested in the owner and headmaster, Charles Swinstead. At first the School was only open on three mornings and three evenings a week, later extended to a five-day week and Saturday mornings. Subjects taught included drawing, oil painting, watercolour painting, geometry and perspective. Swinstead's role was gradually taken over by his son, Frank Hillyard Swinstead, who became headmaster on his father's death in 1890.
In 1894, the management structure of the School changed. Regular annual grants from Middlesex County Council were initiated in this year, and the School's Committee was replaced by a Joint Committee with the Council. The Joint Committee acquired greater responsibility, and was soon answerable for most aspects of the running of the School. The curriculum was expanded to include subjects of industrial and practical value, such as modelling, design and wood carving. By 1904, the School was under the joint control of the Board of Education and the Middlesex County Council. Numbers were increasing, and the need for larger accommodation led to the conversion of the headmaster's house into teaching rooms.
Following World War One, when more classes relating to trade, such as lithography, etching and fashion drawing, were added to the curriculum, the County Council took over full financial responsibility for the School from the Swinstead family (1920) and appointed a reconstituted governing body. The Council bought the freehold of the property in 1925. Frank Swinstead was succeeded as headmaster in 1927 by John Charles Moody, who presided over a major development of the School buildings. A new extension was opened in 1931, and in the same year the School was renamed the Hornsey School of Arts and Crafts'. Student numbers continued to grow, and teaching subjects soon included graphics and printing. Teaching continued throughout World War Two, despite bomb damage to the buildings, and in 1944 photography was added to the curriculum. In 1947, Moody retired and J G Platt was appointed principal of the School. In 1951, the School became a constituent college of the University of London Institute of Education for the purposes of awarding the Art Teachers Certificate, and in 1952 was renamed theHornsey College of Arts and Crafts'. This was subsequently abbreviated to `Hornsey College of Art'. Platt retired in 1957 and was replaced by Harold Herbert Shelton during a period of great reforms in advanced art education, and the introduction of the Diploma in Art and Design (DipAD). The College grew rapidly, expanding into several annexes scattered around north London. In 1965, the London Government Act removed the College from the control of Middlesex County Council and made it the responsibility of the newly formed Borough of Haringey.
The 1970s saw a huge change in the life of the College, when building began at a site in Cat Hill with the intention of housing the whole College; the work was finished in 1979. In 1973, the Hornsey College of Art had merged with Enfield and Hendon Colleges to form Middlesex Polytechnic, and 1981 saw the final removal from the Crouch End Hill site.

Born, 21 January 1929; educated at Ardingly College; studied modern history at Keble College, Oxford, graduating in 1951; studied history of art at the Courtauld Institute of Art gaining a postgraduate diploma in 1954 and PhD in 1962 with his thesis on the landscape painting of Thomas Gainsborough. Appointed assistant keeper of the London Museum, 1954 and director 1970; director of the National Portrait Gallery, 1974–1994; he published and curated exhibitions on a wide range of artists , his specialist subject remaining Gainsborough. Chair of the Walpole Society 1981-1996 and Vice-President 1996-2005; elected to Society of Antiquaries, 1971, appointed CBE 1986, Died 25 December 2005. Publications: include: A catalogue of watercolour drawings by Thomas Rowlandson in the London Museum, HMSO, 1960; Landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough, Nottingham University Art Gallery, 1962; The drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, Zwemmer, c1970; Catalogue of the oil paintings in the London Museum : with an introduction on painters and the London scene from the fifteenth century, H.M.S.O, 1970; Gainsborough as printmaker, Zwemmer, c1971; Rowlandson : watercolours and drawings, Phaidon Press, 1972; Gainsborough : paintings and drawings, Phaidon, 1975; Portraits by Graham Sutherland National Portrait Gallery, 1977; The art of Graham Sutherland, Phaidon, 1980; Thomas Gainsborough, Tate Gallery, 1980; The landscape paintings of Thomas Gainsborough : a critical text and catalogue raisonné, Philip Wilson for Sotheby Publications, 1982; Gainsborough drawings : a supplement to the catalogue raisonné, Master Drawings Association, 1983; The portrait in British art : masterpieces bought with the help of the National Art-Collections Fund, National Portrait Gallery, 1991; British paintings of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, Cambridge University Press, 1993; Galinou, Mireille and Hayes, John, London in paint : oil paintings in the collection at the Museum of London, Museum of London, 1996; The letters of Thomas Gainsborough, Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 2001.

From 1963 to 1978 Honduras endured a series of military coups and disputed elections as well as the 1969 war with El Salvador and the devastation caused by Hurricane Fifi which killed an estimated 10,000 in 1974. Though the country moved towards an ostensibly civilian form of government from 1978, culminating three years later in an election win for the Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH), the growing insurgencies in neighbouring El Salvador and Nicaragua during this period led to an upsurge in regional tensions, and a growing influx of refugees. As Honduras became drawn into the US-backed Contras' struggle against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua the army used the opportunity to crack down on dissent at home, and reports of human rights abuses began to increase. When the Sandinistas lost the 1990 Nicaraguan election the significance of Honduras to the United States largely disappeared, as did the aid that had formerly been liberally provided, leaving the country facing the same economic concerns as in the 1970s. The materials held here date primarily from the late 70s to the end of the main Central American guerrilla struggle, and deal with both the country's economic situation and with the war and its human rights consequences. The material comes from trades unions and political groups, though not from the major parties, as well as from external human rights organisations and NGOs.

The coup in Chile in 1973 must rank as amongst the most important and controversial events in the history of Latin America since the Second World War. The holdings here certainly attest to that, more numerous than for any other nation and predominantly concerned with the Allende government and the junta that replaced it. There had been coups in other countries in the region (amongst others Guatemala in 1954, Brazil and Bolivia in 1964, Argentina in 1966), but none that resonated with the outside world in the same way. It was Chile's misfortune to be seen as a paradigm example, a test case for the democratic road to socialism. Following the moderate reformism of Eduardo Frei's Christian Democratic administration (1964-1970) the 1970 election was won by a narrow margin by the Popular Unity coalition led by Socialist Party leader Salvador Allende. Allende sought to increase state ownership and control in the economy (an early move being the nationalisation of the copper industry), but to do so within the constitutional bounds of Chilean democracy. The result was an increased polarisation of society between the upper and middle classes with most to lose from the expropriation of privately-owned assets and the redistribution of income and the supporters of Allende (primarily the peasants, the working class and the marginal poor). This conflict exarcerbated Chile's growing economic difficulties (blamed either on the new government's reforms or on the obstruction of those reforms by the opposition and its tacit supporters in the United States), and led to the emergence of more radical left-wing groups such as the MIR (Revolutionary Movement of the Left) and eventually to the September 11th military coup led by General Pinochet. That this succeeded was due in no small part to the divisions on the left, with the Communist Party (and through it the Soviet Union, whose limited funding of the Popular Unity government was provided increasingly reluctantly) continually urging caution in the face of the maximalist demands being put forward by the MIR and the radical wing of Allende's Partido Socialista.

The coup was significant not just for its resounding verdict on the democratic socialist approach but also for the opportunity it provided for the trial of the monetarist policies advocated by economists such as Milton Friedman. Thus the Chile of Pinochet continued to attract and divide international attention and opinion, organisations such as Amnesty and the Betrand Russell Tribunal publicising the regime's human rights abuses whilst conservative leaders in the UK and US in the 1980s supported its sound anti-communist and neo-liberal economic stances. The materials held here are predominantly from groups more concerned with torture and disappearances than with interest rates, and include items produced by expatriate branches of the Popular Unity parties, reports from external Church, UN and labour investigators and a host of materials from organisations representing those who suffered under Pinochet. There is also a sizable collection of contemporary material dating from the time of the Allende government.

In the post-war era Argentina was governed mainly by either the military (1943-1946, 1955-1958, 1966-1973 and 1976-1982) or the authoritarian populist Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1955, 1973-1974), himself a prominent army figure in the 1943 coup. Only after the Falklands War did Argentina embark on a more democratic course, and the new presidential democratic federal republic has been since been beset by severe economic problems culminating in the 2001 collapse. This collection contains two pamphlets authored by Perón himself in the 1940s, but the majority of the material covers either the torture and disapperances that occurred during the 1970's `dirty war' between the state and armed organisations of both the left and right or the attempts to account for these human rights abuses in the 1980s.

Much of the material in this collection is concerned with the climate of violence in Uruguay in the 1970s. Some documents the activities of the Tupamaros, a left-wing urban guerrilla movement whose role in the increasing unrest in the country provided the pretext for the effective takeover of power by the armed forces in 1973. The widespread human rights abuses that occurred in the period prior to the return to civilian government in 1984 are also covered.

Kristian Andrews is an animation graduate from UCA Farnham, who obtained his MA at the Royal College of Art (2008). he has won international recognition for his films, including the Silver Dove at Doc Liepzig in 2008.

The artwork is from Rabbit Punch, an autobiographical film on Kristian's life growing up, which was his MA graduate film.

Tandem Films for Animation was formed in 1986 by Daniel Greaves (animator who previously studied at the West Surrey College of Art and Design) and his business partner Nigel Pay. Tandem is located in London, Islington and the website is available here http://www.tandemfilms.com/about/

The Independent Force was established by the Royal Air Force on 6 June 1918 to conduct a strategic bombing campaign against Germany, concentrating on strategic industries, communications and the morale of the civilian population. The Independent Force was formed out of the Royal Flying Corp's Forty-First Wing which commenced operations in October 1917. This initiative was partly in response to German airship and aeroplane raids on England but it also built upon earlier, small scale attempts at strategic bombing by the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps. As its name implied, it operated independently from the land battle and struck at targets in central Germany including Cologne, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Bonn, and Mannheim. It was also intended to operate independently of the control of the Allied Supreme Commander, Marshal Foch, although this was later changed.

The Independent Force was commanded, reluctantly at first, by Major-General Hugh Trenchard who was gradually converted to the idea of strategic bombing by the operations of the Independent Force. The squadrons were based on airfields in the Nancy region, well to the south of the British sector of the Front Line. Although the effort appears miniscule compared to later bombing campaigns, four day and five night bomber squadrons dropped just 550 tons of bombs during 239 raids between 6 June and 10 November 1918, the effect on the German war effort was remarkable. The main targets were railways, blast furnaces, chemical factories that produced poison gas, other factories, and barracks to which had to be added airfields in an effort to reduce attrition from enemy fighter aircraft.

The effect on morale was out of all proportion to the size of the bomber force or the material damage caused and the air raids resulted in the movement of German air defence units away from the Front Line. Trenchard ordered statistics and records to be kept to demonstrate the work of the Independent Force and the role of strategic bombing in modern war.

Co-founder of the Dancing Times, 1911, the Association of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain, 1920, and The Camargo Society, 1930. Richardson also founded and organised the "Sunshine" Charity Matinees and the All England Sunshine Stage Dance Competitions.

As an editor, Richardson contributed to a number of books and periodicals, but in 1946 he published A History of Ballroom Dancing (1910-1945) and in 1960, Social Dances of the Nineteenth Century.

Richardson's interest in the history of dancing led him to become an avid collector of rare books on the subject. His personal library collection was bequeathed to the RAD after his death in 1963.

The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) has been described as the "cradle of British Neurology". It was founded in 1860 for the alleviation initially of epilepsy and paralysis and its early physicians included John Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911), Sir David Ferrier (1843-1928), Sir William Gowers (1845-1911), and Sir Victor Horsley (1857-1916). The National Hospital was amalgamated with Maida Vale Hospital in 1948, and the Maida Vale Hospital archives are also housed in the collection. The National Hospital now forms part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Charlotte Caroline Sowerby was the eldest daughter of the conchologist, illustrator and natural history dealer George Brettingham Sowerby (1788-1854) who was, like other members of her family, a talented natural history illustrator. Her best known published work was The illustrated bouquet, consisting of figures with descriptions of new flowers, published by E G Henderson and Son, London, 1857-1864.

One of the Geological Society's principal functions when it was formed was to hold scientific meetings where members could discuss the latest theories or discoveries in the field of geology. The original meetings were referred to as 'Ordinary General Meetings' or 'Ordinary Meetings' (see series GSL/OM), however by the 1970s the meeting format had changed, being more likely themed around a specific topic and hence developing into the 'Special' scientific meetings which are now held. These 'Special' meetings may be jointly sponsored by other bodies or held over a series of days. The series also includes national or international conferences which have some Geological Society involvement.

From the earliest years of the Society, small committees were formed with specific organisational remits. The Committee of Trustees, appointed at the end of 1807, was the first, its task was to draw up the rules for the regulation of the fledgling Society and instructions to the honorary members to accompany notice of their election. When the Council was established in June 1810, the various 'standing' (that is permanent) committees tasked with overseeing the management of the Society's apartments, maps, publications, etc were formally appointed by and therefore reported to this senior body. Additionally 'Special' committees were formed on an ad hoc basis to deal with a specific issue or project, such as the refurbishment of the Society's apartments or the appointment of new staff, which could not necessarily be dealt with in the day to day business of one of the standing committees.

As the Society grew in size and complication, the 'Special' committees were more likely to be established as permanent committees of their own, however they would report to the hierarchy of the specific major standing committee which had appointed it rather than to Council.

With various reorganisations over the years and adaptations to modern management requirements, the names and functions of the standing committees has been frequently subject to change, with committees merging or being replaced by others.

Historically the Assistant Secretary, later Permanent Secretary, was the first point of contact with the Society (besides the President and members of Council) and as the post holder also acted as editor of the Journal and occasionally the Librarian and Curator, the majority of the day to day correspondence and administration came through his office. By the late 1960s, the role had developed into what is now the Executive Secretary (essentially the Chief Executive of the Society), and although the postholder no longer has editorial duties, the office is still the central administrative department of the organisation. However it should be noted as some functions of the Society have developed, specific departments have been established to take over the running of some of these tasks, such as the Conference Office which now organises the scientific meetings. The Executive Secretary still ultimately oversees these subsidiary departments as well as sitting on most of the Society's major standing committees, therefore the Executive Secretary series still reflects most of the Society's functions.

Like other learned societies, establishing a membership body formed of like minded individuals was one of the core aims of the Geological Society of London when it was established in 1807. Up until 1825, when the Society was granted its Royal Charter, there were only two categories of membership - Ordinary Members and Honorary Members (the latter category modified to 'Foreign' Members from December 1814).

To become an Ordinary Member, a candidate had to be first proposed and recommended by at least three existing members, one of whom should personally know the prospective member. The proposal was in the form of an admission certificate, usually completed by the main proposer, which would be displayed in one of the public rooms of the Society. Voting would take place at the specified Ordinary Meeting, whereby if the candidate received approval from at least two thirds of the attendees he would be accepted as a new member. If he was not successful, his admission form would be destroyed. New members would pay a joining fee and sign a form obligating themselves to promote the aims of the Geological Society of London. Members who lived within a 20 mile radius of London would pay an additional annual fee, not applicable to those living outside of London as presumably they were less likely to use the Society's facilities.

Distinguished mineralogists and persons who had by their communications or contributions promoted the objects of the Society could be proposed as Honorary/Foreign Members. The system for proposal was similar to that of Ordinary Members but instead at least five existing members had to propose the candidate. Honorary Members did not pay the joining fee or annual subscription but could use the Society's facilities such as the Library or Museum, although they were not allowed to vote.

After the Society's official incorporation in 1826, the categories of membership were modified slightly to reflect the new Royal Charter - Ordinary Members became 'Fellows' but the honorary category of Foreign Member remained. It should be noted that it was not until the mid 20th century that formal qualifications were required for entry as a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. Additionally women were not allowed to join until 1919, the first official female Fellow being Margaret Chorley Crosfield who was elected in May of that year.

In 1863 a new category of honorary membership was introduced - Foreign Correspondent. A stage below Foreign Member, a Foreign Correspondent had to have distinguished himself as a geological investigator or communicated extensively with the Society but 'be a native of the British Dominions or of their dependencies, or be domiciliated therein'. Foreign Correspondents had no privileges at the Society, but from their rank would be elected Foreign Members who were not allowed to propose candidates, vote at general meetings or to fill any office at the Society, but were entitled to exercise all other privileges allowed to Fellows. There was a quota of 40 Foreign Correspondents and 40 Foreign Members allowed at one time, and as they didn't pay neither category of member needed to actually turn up to the Society in person. In 1974, the category was merged and renamed 'Honorary Fellow', limited to a maximum of 100, with not more than 15 coming from the UK.

Apart from Fellow and Honorary Fellow, the Society now offers another four grades of membership: Junior Candidate Fellow (for secondary school children between the ages 16-18); Candidate Fellow, previously Junior Associateship (for geology undergraduates, first introduced in 1945); Chartered Geologist (open to Fellows of the Society with no less than five years' postgraduate experience); European Geologist (licensed by the European Federation of Geologists and open to Chartered Geologists); and Chartered Scientist (licensed by the Science Council, open to those Fellows who have moved out of mainstream geological work since completing higher education, but who wish to register themselves as high calibre scientists and teachers of science).

From its earliest days, the Geological Society collected specimens. Unlike rival collections at the British Museum and other learned bodies, the Society's Museum was intended to be comprehensive. Access was restricted to members of the Society but it was to be of use to both beginners and accomplished geologists. The rudimentary Museum was first laid out in 1809, when the Society moved to its first premises at 4 Garden Court, Temple. However even after the move to a larger house in Lincoln's Inn Fields a year later there was still not enough space to adequately store the specimens.

By 1810 the Museum was in disarray, with new specimens piling up and the existing collection still not catalogued fully. At the first meeting of Council, 14 June 1810, it was resolved that Leonard Horner, Wilson Lowry, Comte de Bournon and Peter Mark Roget would form a 'Committee of Arrangement' to take charge of the collection. In 1812 it was decided to appoint the Society's first paid member of staff, Thomas Webster who had been a Member of the Society since 1809, as (part-time) Keeper of the Museum. Webster's role was not curatorial, instead he was charged with unpacking and registering the specimens which would then be catalogued by the Committee of Arrangement. Webster was overwhelmed with the workload as he also had to fit in his additional duties of honorary secretary, librarian, journal editor as well as keeping an eye on the accounts.

Originally the specimens in the Museum were arranged by country - the British specimens being then subdivided by county. From 1813 the collection began to be arranged stratigraphically, echoing the fossil theories of William Smith. However not all members of the Society agreed with the new layout, and Webster was caught between opposing scientific factions who continually criticised his work. His unpopularity amongst a number of senior Fellows of the Society such as George Bellas Greenough and Charles Lyell when added to the scandal of a clerk absconding with £63 from the sales of the 'Transactions' in 1827, meant that when the remodelled post of 'Curator' was created that year, Webster was not offered it. Webster left on 1 July 1827, later referring to the Society's officers as 'a bad lot'.

Instead the first Curator in 1829 was William Lonsdale. Like Webster, Lonsdale also acted as assistant secretary, editor, librarian and finance officer but at least was employed full time. Lonsdale's appointment was viewed by all as a great success, however he was relieved of his curatorial duties in 1836 when his health broke down from overwork. Between 1839 and 1848 there followed five Curators but this high turnover of staff meant that much of the work was either unfocused or unfinished. In order to try and sort out the ongoing problems in the Museum, various ad hoc Special Museum Committees were formed. Leonard Horner, under the aegis of one of these Special Committees finally managed to get the Museum under some sort of control by the mid 1860s but this happy state of affairs was short lived.

By 1869, it was decided to abandon attempts to form a comprehensive collection. Instead specimens should directly relate to papers read at the Society, resulting in a virtual halt in donations of any kind. The move to Burlington House gave the impetus to thoroughly weed and catalogue the collection again, but after Bernard B Woodward who had overseen the relocation resigned in 1876, the collection received only cursory attention.

In 1895, the Council accepted that a large portion of the collection should be donated to the British Museum but the decision was indefinitely postponed after a special general meeting the following year. However another special general meeting was called by a group of palaeontologists in 1901 to try and force the Council to take better care of the Museum, but their plan backfired and instead a motion was carried that the Museum should be disposed of. This caused a flurry of interest in the Museum, with a threefold increase in visitors and loan requests. John Frederick Blake even produced a catalogue of the whole Museum, published at his own expense as 'List of the Types and Figured Specimens...in the Collection of the Geological Society of London', London (1902).

Finally, after another two special general meetings held on 25 January and 14 June 1911, it was resolved that the Museum should be disposed of and the space used by the Library. The contents were divided between the British Museum (now the Natural History Museum) and the Museum of Practical Geology (part of the British Geological Survey). The British Museum received the foreign specimens, while the domestic collection was given to the other institution. A number of specimens were retained by the Society but only a few remain, notably the ichthyosaur skull found by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis (now in the entrance lobby of the Society's Apartments) and a Pleistocene rhinocerus skull given by William Buckland in 1820 (on the second floor). The Museum space became the Upper Library, but some of the supports for the specimen drawers can still be seen on a number of its shelves.

Traditionally, if a Fellow is still a member of the Society when they die they received a formal, Society obituary which was published in one of the Society's serial publications. These obituaries have not been collated as they are easily retrievable in their published form. Instead this series consists of externally published obituaries or orders of service for Fellows and some members of staff which were mostly collected from the 1990s by Library staff. There is some material which is older, found loose among the backlog of other material and which has been added for ease of use.

It should be noted that the series will include ex members of the Society who resigned their Fellowship at some point before their death, but were kept for informational reasons.

Brothers Joshua William and Francis Thomas Gregory were two of the five sons (another being Sir August Charles Gregory) born to Joshua Gregory, an army officer from Farnfield, Nottinghamshire. The family emigrated in 1829 after their father, who had been wounded in action, was granted land in the new Swan River Colony in Western Australia in lieu of a pension.

The Swan River Colony, on the Swan River, Western Australia, was a British settlement established in 1829. The area was later named officially as Western Australia after its first governor, Captain James Stirling RN, belatedly received his commission. Stirling served as governor until 1839, when he was succeeded by John Hutt.

William Kennett Loftus was born in Rye, Sussex in c 1821. He was educated at Newcastle Grammar School, a school in Twickenham and later at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he did not take a degree. Loftus' interest in geology may have been inspired by the lectures of Prof Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge, certainly it was Sedgwick who proposed Loftus as a Fellow of the Society in 1842.

Sir Henry De la Beche, Director of the Geological Survey, recommended Loftus to Lord Palmerston for the post of geologist on the staff of Sir William Fenwick Williams on the Turco-Persian frontier commission. This joint commission, consisting of representatives appointed by the British, Russian, Turkish and Persian governments, was charged with defining the border between Turkey and Persia [now Iran], the work which it undertook between 1849-1852.

The publication of the paper was delayed due to a bout of ill health and Loftus' absorption in his archaelogical digs around the biblical cities of Mesopotamia. In 1855, Loftus was appointed to the Geological Survey of India however his health, already weakened from a fever which he developed in the swamps of Assyria, completely broke down due to sunstroke. He died on the return voyage aboard the Tyburnia on 27 November 1858 from the effects of an abscess of the liver.

John MacCulloch was born in his grandparents' house in Guernsey on 6 October 1773. The third of eight children of James MacCulloch, a wine merchant, and Elizabeth de Lisle, the young MacCulloch was sent to schools in Cornwall between 1778-1790, before enrolling as a medical student at Edinburgh University in 1790. Whilst there he also read chemistry under Joseph Black and natural history under John Walker. MacCulloch graduated with an MD in 1793, but the following year his postgraduate studies were cut short by his parents' internment during the French Revolution.

MacCulloch became a surgeon's mate in the Royal Artillery on 15 August 1795, and by 1803 had risen to assistant surgeon. He was then drafted into the ordnance chemical department, becoming ordnance chemist in 1806 and retiring from the army with a small pension. He received his licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1808, and set up a private medical practice in Blackheath, south east London but had to give it up when ordnance duties demanded prolonged absences for geological surveys. He still, however, managed to be appointed physician to Prince Leopold, later king of the Belgians, in 1820. MacCulloch's main contribution to the field of medicine was his writings on fever, notably his work on malaria in the late 1820s.

MacCulloch's burgeoning interest in geology can be traced back at least to the early 1800s, notably on his tours of the Lake District (1805) and the west country (1807), when he visited mines and noted down comments on local rocks in his diary. He was elected a Member of the Geological Society on 5 February 1808, and his paper on the geology of the Channel Islands, opened the first issue of the Society's 'Transactions' in 1811.

In his search for silica-free limestone for millwheels, MacCulloch conducted geological surveys in Wessex, Wales, and Scotland, between 1809-1813, and then from 1814-1821 acted as geologist to the ordnance trigonometrical survey during which he had surveyed hundreds of Scottish peaks and produced a geological map of west Scotland. However this intense survey work affected his health, and in 1821 he developed an enlargement of the spleen. Although he returned to work in 1822, his consitution remained affected thereafter.

Between 1816-1820, MacCulloch served as president of the Geological Society and in 1820 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. When in 1824, the chemical department of the ordnance was abolished, the now retired MacCulloch instead spent his summer field seasons surveying Scotland for the geological survey. Essentially MacCulloch became the first government sponsored geological surveyor in Britain, a move which was controversial as it cost the Treasury over £1000 per annum. Despite suffering a stroke in 1831, MacCulloch still managed to draft the final reports and map before his death four years later, his geological map Scotland being issued posthumously in 1836. Although criticised for topographical and geological inaccuracies, the map was not superseded for many years.

MacCulloch was a prolific scientific author, writing not only on geology, medicine and chemistry but on varied subjects such as methods of transferring the habitat of saltwater fish to freshwater and horticulture. His most noted geological works were 'A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland' (1819), 'A Geological Classification of Rocks' (1821), 'The Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland' (1824) and 'The System of Geology' (1831). MacCulloch's 'Proofs and Illustrations of the Attributes of God' which connected theology and geology was published by his widow in 1837.

He married Louisa Margaretta White on 6 July 1835, but on whilst on honeymoon in Cornwall was thrown from his carriage and suffered severe leg injuries. Despite an operation to amputate his leg, John MacCulloch died on 20 August 1835.

John Henry Cooke was born in Weymouth on 29 November 1862, and received his education at St Vincent de Paule Roman Catholic School, Liverpool, and St Mary's Training College of Catholic Teachers, Hammersmith, London. In 1887 he travelled to Malta to take up a post of teacher of English at the Valletta Lyceum. Cooke lived in Malta for seven years, founding an editing the journal 'The Mediterranean Naturalist' after becoming interested in the natural history of the island. He also made significant contributions to the understanding of the geology of Malta, publishing papers on the Tertiary Rocks and Pleistocene deposits of the island, and collecting fossils (which he donated or sold to various European museums).

Cooke was forced to leave Malta in 1894 due to his wife's poor health, but he still produced papers on the geology of Malta on his return to England for the next few years. He became an Inspector in the Science and Art Department of the South Kensington Museum, but when that department closed he was appointed Inspector of Schools in Shropshire and Wolverhampton.

Cooke was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 3rd (Volunteer) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment in July 1901, transferring to the 1st (Volunteer) Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry (later 4th Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry) in October the same year. He rose to the rank of Captain.

After his retirement from military service and until his death on 7 December 1933, Cooke continued to investigate and write about the prehistory of his local area.

Staff College, Camberley, was inaugurated in 1862 to provide Staff training to British Army officers and remained in existence until 1997 when single-Service Staff training was ended. Staff training for the British Army is now conducted by the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

Staff College, Camberley, was inaugurated in 1862 to provide Staff training to British Army officers, and remained in existence until 1997 when single-Service Staff training was ended. Staff Training for the British Army is now conducted by the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

The British Council was founded in 1934 as the 'British Committee for Relations with Other Countries' and in 1936 it was re-named' The British Council'. The aims of the Council were:

"to promote abroad a wider appreciation of British culture and civilization, by encouraging the study and use of the English language, and thereby, to extend a knowledge of British literature and of the British contribution to music and the fine arts, the sciences, philosophic thought and political practice."

Funded by the British Government the Council's work was developed during World War Two and was particularly important during the 'Cold War' period and this is reflected in the papers in this collection. The Fine Arts Department role was to organize exhibitions of the work of British artists and send them overseas. In this work they established international relationships with overseas arts organisations and brought British art to wide and varied audiences.

The first Director of the Fine Arts Department was Major Alfred A. Longden. He was succeeded in 1947 by Lilian Somerville, who had joined the Council during the war; she was appointed as Director of the Fine Arts Section of the Visual Arts Department). In 1949 she was appointed Director of the retitled Fine Arts Department, and remained in this position until her retirement in 1970. She was succeeded by John Hulton (1971-1975) who had been her deputy. Other heads of the Department include Henry Meyric Hughes (1984-1992). The current Director is Andrea Rose.

The papers in this collection run from 1945-2003. Other documents relating to the British Council Fine Arts Department for this period have been deposited at The National Archives.

Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) was born in Cookham, Berkshire, where he spent much of his life. He attended the Slade School under Tonks, 1908-1912; returning in 1923, where he concentrated on drawing. His contemporaries at the Slade included Nevinson, Bomberg, Roberts, Gertler, Wadsworth, Carrington, Allinson, Jacques and Gwen Raverat, Lightfoot and Ihlee; the latter four being his closest friends. In 1912, Spencer exhibited in the 2nd Post-Impressionist exhibition, organised by Roger Fry, and in 1913 he met Edward Marsh who, with fellow artist Henry Lamb, supported his work. Between 1915 and 1918 he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps where he saw action in Salonika. In 1918 he was commissioned for an official war picture: 'Travoys with Wounded Soldiers' (Imperial War Museum). In 1919 Spencer met Hilda Carline (sister to Richard and Sydney), and they married in 1925. They had two children, Shirin born 1925 and Unity born in 1930. A member of the New English Art Club, 1919-27, his first solo exhibition was at the Goupil Gallery in 1927, where he exhibited 'The Resurrection, Cookham', 1924-26 (Tate). Between 1927 and 1932 he worked on the decorations for the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere, and he subsequently exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1928, 1930, 1932 and 1938, and at the Tooth, Leger and Zwemmer Galleries in London. Elected Associate Royal Academician in 1932 (resigned 1935) he was re-elected Royal Academician in 1950. In 1937 Hilda divorced Stanley so he could marry Patricia Preece. His second marriage only lasted two years and Spencer remained in love, and in close contact, with Hilda until her death in 1950.

From the 1930s he worked on a series of paintings for his unrealised Church-House scheme and in 1940 he was commissioned by the WAAC to paint shipbuilding subjects at Port Glasgow (Imerpial War Museum). 'The Resurrection, Port Glasgow' (Tate) was one of nine pictures of the Resurrection painted between 1945 and 1950. He received his CBE in 1950 and was knighted in 1959. In 1954 he visited China as part of a cultural delegation, and in 1955 the Tate held a retrospective exhibition of his work. His painting gives an autobiographical, visionary interpretation of secular and religious subjects, often depicting biblical scenes in the contemporary environment of Cookham. Influenced by early Italian painting and work by his contemporaries at the Slade, he used distortions of scale, perspective and anatomy, heightened realistic detail, cool, earthy colour and rhythmical forms to produce work of great imaginative intensity. In the 1920s and 1930s he painted urban, domestic subjects, sometimes with an erotic content. His sharply defined work was based on drawn preparation and painted in a methodical manner which rarely altered or overpainted images. In December 1958 Spencer was diagnosed with cancer and taken into hospital for a colostomy operation. The operation was a success, but Spencer's recovery was slow and painful. During 1959 Spencer limited his social engagements to allow more time for his painting. He also moved back into 'Fernlea', Cookham, his childhood home. Stanley Spencer died at the Canadian War Memorial Hospital, Cliveden, on 14th December 1959.