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Vaughan , (John) Keith , 1912-1977 , painter and book illustrator

Post Office

Dawson , Montagu Ellis Hawkins , 1919-2003 , Group Captain

McCreery , Sir , Richard Loudon , 1898-1967 , Knight , General

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, its members and related bodies

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded in 1888 by Dr William Wynn Westcott, Dr William Robert Woodman and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, who were all Freemasons and members of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A).

The Order was based on the rituals and knowledge lectures found in the Cipher Documents. [A series of encrypted documents containing outlines for a series of initiation rituals, see GBR 1991 GD 1/1/1-8]. Although the history and authenticity of these documents is subject to considerable debate, in general it is now agreed that they were written by Kenneth Mackenzie as outline rituals for the Society of Eight [a Golden Dawn prototype body founded by Frederick Holland in 1883 but which never developed into a membership body] or the Sat B'hai [This order, founded around 1871 by Captain J H Lawrence-Archer, using some Hindu terminology within a framework derived from masonry, had little more than a paper existence until 1875, when Mackenzie joined]. Westcott acquired these papers after Mackenzie's death, and set about transferring them into full grade rituals.

An additional paper found within the cipher documents contained the address of a woman in Germany, referred to as Fraulein Sprengel. Described as being an Adept of an occult order known as the Die Goldene Dammerung, Westcott asserted that Sprengel had authorized him in a series of letters to sign documents under her name and had granted him permission to set up a Temple in England. Researchers now believe that Westcott created this story in order to give the Golden Dawn a legitimate provenance and to attract serious occultists and freemasons to his new Order. The Order grew steadily and by the end of 1888 three temples had been set up, namely Isis-Urania in London, Osiris in Weston-Super-Mare and Horus in Bradford.

From 1888 to 1891 the Golden Dawn functioned as a theoretical school, performing the initiation ceremonies of the Outer Order from the 0°=0° Neophyte grade to the 4°=7° Philosophus grade and teaching the basics of the Qabalah, astrology, alchemical symbolism, geomancy and tarot. No practical magic was performed until 1891, when Mathers completed the ritual for the 5°=6° grade, the first grade of the Secord or Inner Order of the Golden Dawn, known as the Order of the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (the Ruby Rose and Cross of Gold). By this time Woodman had died and as a replacement was not appointed, Mathers managed to reconstruct the Order, becoming its primary Chief.

The new 5=6 ritual was based on the legend of Christian Rosenkreuz, a great spiritual teacher who was secretly buried and later found perfectly preserved within a seven sided tomb. Mathers and his wife, Moina (nee Mina Bergson), created an elaborate full-size replica of his tomb, referred to as the Vault of the Adepts, which members of the Inner Order used when performing the rituals. The Inner Order transferred theory into practice, with members making and consecrating their own magical implements. Mathers also created a formal curriculum, which included guidance on scrying, astral travel, and alchemy and a series of eight graded examinations which lead to members achieving the sub-grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor.

In 1895 the stability of the Order was threatened by the breakdown of the relationship between Mathers and Annie Horniman. This lead to her expulsion and increasing unrest among the Second Order Adepts in London. In 1897 further problems arose when civil authorities became aware of Westcott's link with the group, forcing him to resign in order to keep his position as Coroner for North East London. Florence Farr assumed Westcott's role but without his administrative supervision of the paperwork, the decline in grade work and examination system undertaken by members led the Order to decline in London.

By 1900 Mathers' domineering behaviour led to Farr suggesting that the Order should be dissolved. Fearing this was an attempt to replace him with Westcott, Mathers wrote to Farr stating that the Sprengel letters had been forged by Westcott. As Westcott declined to defend himself this shook the trust of London members in particular, leading to open rebellion after Mathers initiated Aleister Crowley, who had been refused admission as a member in the London Temple. A committee was set up to investigate Mathers' claims which led to the expulsion of Mathers, Moina Mathers, Crowley and other supporters in May 1900, despite Mathers sending Crowley as his envoy to London in an attempt to take possession of the Inner Order headquarters at 36 Blythe Road, London (subsequently referred to as the Battle of Blythe Road).

Those remaining loyal to Mathers formed a rival Isis Temple, headed by Mathers and run by Dr E. Berridge. This was later known as Alpha and Omega 1. The Paris Temple and later Amen-Ra in Edinburgh, under John W. Brodie-Innes also became part of Mathers' Alpha and Omega Order.

After Mathers' displacement, William Butler Yeats resumed responsibility for the Temple in London. Further trouble was caused by the newly reinstated Annie Horniman, who led disputes over the forgotten examination system and Farr's splinter organisation, known as the Sphere Group. A further blow came in 1901 following unwanted publicity as a result of the Horos case. An American couple, Frank and Editha Jackson, also known as Theo and Laura Horos, used the rituals, which they had duped Mathers into handing over to them in Paris, to set up their own order in London, known as the Order of Theocratic Unity. They defrauded and raped several young women persuaded to join this Order and the subsequent court case lead to the exposure of many Golden Dawn secrets in the press. Editha Jackson was also known as the Swami Vive Ananda and assumed various other names, including Anne O'Delia Diss De Bar but was born into a respectable Kentucky family, the Salomons, during a criminal career as a spiritualist and extortionist in New York and New Orleans, America. As a result of this Case, leading to the imprisonment of the American couple in London, many members left in order to distance themselves from the Golden Dawn. Remaining members changed the Order's name to the Hermetic Society of the Morgenröthe.

In 1903 a further schism occurred within the Order. Arthur Edward Waite took over the remnant of the original Isis-Urania Temple, which became known as the Independent and Rectified Rite. Waite's new Order moved away from the ritual magic present in the old Order, replacing it with a more mystical path. This Order existed until 1914 when internal disputes led to Waite closing the Temple and forming the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross the following year. This continued to exist until Waite's death in 1942.

Those members who preferred the rituals and magic developed by Mathers joined Dr Robert Felkin in his new organisation known as the Stella Matutina. Their temple, based in London was named Amoun. After lengthy negotiations, Felkin signed a concordat with Waite in 1907 to govern the relationship between the two Temples, but this agreement only lasted until 1910.

Once he became Chief, Dr Felkin communicated with several mystical individuals including the discarnate Arab teacher, Ara Ben Shemesh and the Sun Masters. Increasingly, Felkin became interested in establishing new links with the 'Secret Chiefs' and the original Rosicrucian societies in Germany, with which Westcott had claimed to have had links. Felkin's quest led him on several continental trips where he met Ruldolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian philosopher and esotericist, and claimed to have been given higher grades, the equivalent to 8=3 and 7=4 grades. Felkin also corresponded with Anne Sprengel, a patient of his, whom he claimed was the niece of Fraülein Sprengel.

While travelling in New Zealand with his family in 1912, Felkin founded a new Temple, Smaragdum Thalasses, at Havelock North, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Before his relocation to New Zealand in 1916, Felkin issued a new constitution for Stella Matutina, which included details for three daughter temples for Amoun, namely Hermes Temple, Bristol (which became independent in the early 1920's and survived until c. 1972); The Secret College, London, which was to be 'confined to members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, who have taken at least Grade 4' (this college was active in 1921 but may not have survived long beyond this date0; and finally Merlin Temple, perhaps located in London but not established successfully, which was to consist of former members of Waite's group or the Anthroposophical Society.

After Felkin's departure, the Order in London came under the control of Christina Stoddart. She became increasingly paranoid and obsessed with details about the Order's origins. After working on her paper 'Investigations into the Foundations of the Order G.D. and R.R. et A.C. and the Source of its Teachings' for four years, she concluded that the whole Order was evil. Stoddart's attitude, further internal disputes and bad publicity in the press led to the closure of the Amoun Temple, London, in the early 1920's. By 1923 a significant quantity of the Order's papers had been given by Stoddart to a colleague for safekeeping.

Royal Masonic Institution for Boys

Grand Lodge, to provide benefits to clothe and educate the sons of indigent freemasons. In 1808, a similar Institution was established by the Royal Naval Lodge of Independence, No. 59, of the Moderns Grand Lodge. In 1816, the two Institutions merged under the Patronage of HRH the Duke of Sussex following the union four years earlier between the two Grand Lodges to form the United Grand Lodge of England. Although known as the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys from 1798, its official title changed over time. Formed in 1798 as the Masonic Institution for Clothing and Educating the Sons of Deceased and Indigent Free Masons, by 1832, the suffix ‘Royal’ was added when King William IV (1765-1837) became the Patron. From 1858, the Institution operated under the name of the Royal Masonic Institution for the sons of Decayed and Deceased Freemasons, until it formally adopted the title of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys in 1868.

The Institution initially supported boys by providing grants for clothing and education at local schools, known as out-education and maintenance grants. The Institution offered support to boys in this form throughout its existence but in 1857, the Institution also opened its own School for the sons of indigent freemasons. From 1857-1902, the Royal Masonic School for Boys was located in Wood Green, London. In 1903, the School relocated to Bushey, Hertfordshire and in 1929 the Institution opened a Junior School adjacent to the Senior School. Due to a fall in pupil numbers, the Junior and Senior Schools were merged in 1970. In 1977, due to a continued fall numbers, the Royal Masonic School for Boys was closed and the Institution reverted to its initial remit of supporting boys through out-education and maintenance grants.

In 1971, HRH the Duke of Kent, as Grand Master, set up a Committee of Inquiry on Masonic charity, under the Chairmanship of the Hon Mr Justice Bagnall. In 1973, the Committee of Inquiry produced a report, known as the Bagnall Report, which recommended the merger of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls into a single Trust. In 1982, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys merged with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and the trust deed establishing the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys was signed. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys became active in 1986 and it continues to provide educational support to the children of Masonic families where required.

Royal Masonic Institution for Girls

The Royal Masonic Institution for Girls was founded in 1788, by Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini who formulated a scheme to establish a school to aid the education of the daughters of deceased and distressed freemasons. The first School was based in Somers Place East, near Euston, London and was known as the Royal Cumberland School for the Daughters of Indigent Free Masons. In 1795, the School moved to larger premises in St George’s Fields, Westminster Bridge Road, London and changed its name to the Royal Freemasons School for Female Children. The School moved to even larger premises in Clapham Junction, London in 1858 and in 1868, the Institution formally adopted the name the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls. In 1880, the Institution opened a Junior School, known as the Royal Masonic (Junior) School for Girls, at the site at Clapham Junction. In 1918, the Junior School moved to Weybridge, Surrey where it remained until its closure in 1973. The Royal Masonic (Senior) School for Girls moved to its current premises in Rickmansworth Park, Hertfordshire in 1934. Due to a fall in pupil numbers, fee-paying boarding pupils were allowed to fill vacancies from 1965 and fee-paying day-girls admitted from 1972, if they were daughters of a freemason. In September 1978, the Royal Masonic School for Girls became a limited company, The Rickmansworth Masonic School Limited and girls from non-Masonic families were accepted to fill vacancies on a fee paying basis. In 1984, the School became an entirely fee-paying independent school, with the Institution paying the fees of girls placed there as a result of petitions.

As well as providing places at the Royal Masonic Schools, from 1906, the Institution also awarded grants for girls to attend schools local to them, a procedure known as out-education. They also extended their benefits to provide special grants for girls to pursue courses in further and higher education.

In 1971, HRH the Duke of Kent, as Grand Master, set up a Committee of Inquiry on Masonic charity, under the Chairmanship of the Hon Mr Justice Bagnall. In 1973, the Committee of Inquiry produced a report, known as the Bagnall Report, which recommended the merger of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls into a single Trust. In 1982, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys merged with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and the trust deed establishing the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boy was signed. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boy became active in 1986 and it continues to provide educational support to the children of Masonic families where required.

Great Ormond Street Hospital

Post Office

The Post Office was established in 1635 by Charles I. The head of this new service was variously known as Master of Posts, Comptroller General of the Posts and Postmaster of England.

The Civil War saw the the Post Office contested by both sides. Acts of Parliament were passed during the Interregnum (1656) and later upon the Restoration (1660). These established the General Post Office as a branch of government which was to be headed by the Postmaster General.

The service at this time consisted of a number of main routes from London to the provinces. Postmasters on the routes collected and distributed mail and collected revenue.

During this period the scope of The Post Office's activities was limited and its administrative functions were largely concerned with its finances. The General Post Office was based in the City of London and was organised into three departments; the Inland Office which handled all internal letters, the Foreign Office which handled all overseas mails and the Penny Post Office which dealt with all locally posted mail for London. This building was destroyed by the Great Fire of London, which might explain why only a small number of Post Office records from that period survive. Those that have survived are largely volumes of accounts detailing levels of income and expenditure through the years. From 1667 the role of Postmaster General became a political appointment. Between 1691 and 1823, two Postmasters General were appointed, one being a Whig and the other a Tory. At the same time the post of Secretary to the Post Office was created. Over time this post developed into one which held real influence within the General Post Office; the Secretary's Office becoming the centre of decision making within Headquarters.

The eighteenth century saw much development of routes and post towns, although the Post Office continued to be run from London. It was not until 1715 that the Post Office appointed its first regional administrators, known as Surveyors. Surveyors were charged with ensuring that those at lower levels in the organisation were doing their duty and that the revenues were being correctly managed.

The nineteenth Century was a period of vast expansion for The Post Office. Postal rates were subject to a reform which resulted in the introduction of penny postage and the adhesive postage stamp. Increased adult literacy led to a dramatic increase in the volume of mail. The latter half of the century saw an explosion of new services as the Post Office moved into banking, telecommunications and set up a parcels operation. It also saw the development of a nationwide network of post offices through which these services could be accessed.

By the end of the century, Headquarters buildings had accumulated large volumes of historical material. To meet the challenge of managing this material, in 1896 The Post Office established its own record room.

The responsibilities of the surveyors had also grown during this period. They became the heads of districts of management; responsible for managing the range of Post Office activities in their areas.

The Post Office's move into telecommunications began in 1870, with the establishment of the United Kingdom telegraph service as a Post Office monopoly. From 1880, the control of the telephone service passed progressively to the Post Office, with the entire service being taken over in 1912. The Post Office also became involved in international telecommunications culminating in 1947 when, following the nationalisation of Cable and Wireless Ltd, it acquired the company's telecommunications assets in Britain. In 1904, the Wireless Telegraphy Act conferred licensing powers on the Postmaster General, and the Post Office continued to regulate radio services until the responsibility was passed to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1969. Within the field of broadcasting, the Post Office was responsible for the granting of transmission licences and the collection of radio licence fees, and for advising Parliament on questions of sound and television broadcasting services. In 1933 the Post Office's new Public Relations Division took over the Film Unit from the Empire Marketing Board, and in 1940 this unit was transferred to the Ministry of Information, later becoming the Crown Film Unit.

By the 1930s the size and complexity of The Post Office had grown so much as to lead to public criticism. The result of this was a committee of enquiry; the Bridgeman Committee, which led to a large-scale devolution of powers to provincial management and the creation of eight regions.

The Post Office Act of 1961 created a Post Office fund under the management of the Postmaster General. All income was paid into the fund and all expenditure met out of it. This enabled the Post Office to operate as a business with the financial status of a public authority. However, the Post Office remained a government department answerable to Parliament on day-to-day business.

The Post Office Act of 1969 saw the General Post Office ceasing to be a branch of government and becoming instead a nationalised industry, established as a public corporation. Under the terms of the Act, the Corporation was split into two divisions - Posts and Telecommunications - which thus became distinct businesses. The office of Postmaster General was discontinued and The Post Office, as it was now known, was headed by a Chairman and Chief Executive/Deputy Chairman. This role was directly appointed by the Post Office Board. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was created in 1969 and, in addition to sponsoring the Post Office, took over the functions previously exercised by the Postmaster General in relation to Broadcasting.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was dissolved in March 1974. Broadcasting and radio regulation became part of the Home Office, whilst Post and Telecommunications functions became the responsibility of the Department of Industry. The latter merged with the Department of Trade in 1983 to become the Department of Trade and Industry.

In 1981 the telecommunications business of The Post Office became a separate public corporation, trading as British Telecom. In 1984, British Telecom was privatised and since 1991 has traded as BT. Following the 1981 split, the Post Office was then reorganised into two distinct businesses; Post and Parcels. In 1987, there was a further separation of Post Office business as Girobank was transferred to the private sector, eventually being acquired by Alliance and Leicester in 1994.

In late 1986 The Post Office was restructured to create three businesses; SSL (Subscription Services Limited), Royal Mail and Parcelforce. A year later the network of post offices was established as Post Office Counters Limited; a limited company which was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Post Office. Although each of the above had their own Managing Directors and headquarters functions, what was now the Post Office group of businesses retained a headquarters function for group policy. Additionally this Group function continued to provide the rest of the businesses with services and support.

In 1993 the positions of Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive became two separate roles. The position of Chairman as the 'head' of the Post Office remained. The White Paper on Post Office Reform was published in 1999, with the objective of giving greater commercial freedom to the Post Office to enable it to compete and respond to changes in the market place. The paper reduces the governments' financial demands on the business and allows it to borrow from the Government at commercial rates to pay for acquisitions and joint ventures with private companies. This White Paper was followed by the Postal Services Act 2000, which put the recommendations of the White paper into action, giving the postal service the necessary greater commercial freedom. It also established Postcomm as the independent regulator of the postal service, and Postwatch as a national consumer body, which replaced the old Post Office Users National Council (POUNC).

The name Consignia was taken in Spring 2001 as part of an attempt to position the business globally. However, since November 2002, the business that carries letters and parcels and runs the mail has been known as Royal Mail.

Abel , Frederick Augustus , 1827-1902 , chemist

MCC , Middlesex County Council x Middlesex County Council

Chief Education Officer for Middlesex

Ealing Metropolitan Borough Council x Ealing London Borough Council

Under the Education Act of 1876 Ealing Educational Association was formed instead of a school board to meet current deficits and pay for building extensions to existing local schools, which were mostly church schools. Apart from an unsuccessful voluntary rate in 1880, funds were raised by subscription until 1895. Rates levied for the Association by Ealing council from 1896 were criticized because the demands did not indicate that they were voluntary, and by 1901 only one-third was collected. Average attendance at local schools under the management of the Association rose from 754 in 1878 to 2,388 in 1902 at Ealing. By the late 1890s there may have been overcrowding but a request by the Board of Education for extra places in 1901 was ignored, as responsibility under the Education Act of 1902 was to pass to Ealing Metropolitan Borough (M.B.), which duly became an autonomous part III authority.

Ealing had too few places in 1903, when the population was growing rapidly. In addition to temporary schools, permanent ones were built by the borough engineer Charles Jones: Little Ealing, Northfields, Drayton Grove, Lammas, and North Ealing, the first four containing large boys', girls', and infants' schools on a single site. Few places were needed in North Ealing, where most children were educated privately, and elsewhere the council charged fees, which at Drayton Grove were higher than the Board of Education would permit. After the First World War only Grange school replaced the voluntary schools as they closed. From 1931 school building was concentrated in the expanding north and west parts of the borough; although Jones's buildings were seen as outmoded by 1938, it was only from 1952 that they were replaced.

The county council established secondary schools for boys in 1913 and girls in 1926 at Ealing, where a selective central school was opened in 1925. Following the Hadow report, four of Ealing's council schools acquired a single-sex senior department and after the Education Act of 1944 the former central school became a grammar school. Secondary classes elsewhere used converted premises and the only change before the introduction of the comprehensive system was the transfer of two of the smaller secondary schools to the new Ealing Mead school in 1962. At Brentford the boys' and girls' senior schools and Gunnersbury Roman Catholic grammar school were the only secondary schools. Under the Act of 1944 Ealing M.B. became an 'excepted district', responsible for primary and secondary education. From 1965 they lay within Ealing and Hounslow London Boroughs.

From: 'Ealing and Brentford: Education', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 162-170.

Pinner Fire Brigade

Congregational Church of England and Wales

Wilkes , John , 1725-1797 , politician

John Wilkes was born in Clerkenwell in 1725. He was educated at the University of Leiden from 1744, where he developed life-long habits of vice and profligacy. In 1747 he returned to England to enter into an arranged marriage. The dowry was the manor of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. In London Wilkes was admitted to several clubs and moved in intellectual circles, while in Aylesbury he participated in local administration as a magistrate. In 1757 he stood for the Aylesbury Parliamentary seat in an uncontested by-election. In 1761 he again won the seat by bribing the voters. Wilkes began to write anonymous political pamphlets and in 1762 he established a political weekly, the North Briton which was highly critical of the Prime Minister Lord Bute and his successor, George Greville. In November 1763 the North Briton was declared to be seditious libel, leaving Wilkes exposed to punitive legal action. At the same time he was badly injured in a pistol duel with another MP. Wilkes fled to Paris to escape legal proceedings and was expelled from Parliament.

In January 1764 Wilkes was convicted for publishing the North Briton. He was summoned to appear at the court of the King's Bench and when he failed to appear was outlawed. Wilkes therefore stayed abroad for four years as returning to England would mean imprisonment. In Paris he moved in intellectual circles and was praised as a champion of freedom, however, he was accruing serious debts. Between 1766 and 1767 he made brief return visits to London, hoping to be pardoned. In 1768 he returned permanently, living under a false name. He announced that he would attend the King's Bench when the court next met, and declared his intention to run for Parliament. He contested for the Middlesex seat and ran a superbly organised campaign backed by popular enthusiasm, winning the seat in March by 1292 votes to 827.

Wilkes was immediately expelled from Parliament as it was assumed he would be imprisoned when he attended court in April. The decision was reversed as it was feared that Wilkes' supporters would riot. In June Wilkes was sentenced to two years imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison. On 3 February 1769 he was again expelled from Parliament, only to be re-elected on 16 February in a by-election. He was expelled again but again re-elected in March, only to be expelled. At the April by-election Parliament produced a rival candidate who was soundly defeated, but nevertheless was awarded the Parliamentary seat. The resulting controversy forced the Prime Minister to resign.

Released in 1770 Wilkes stood for election as alderman for the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. In 1771 he was elected Sheriff and in 1774 Lord Mayor. In the same year he was again elected to the Parliamentary seat for Middlesex. He held this seat until 1790. In 1779 he became the City of London Chamberlain and after leaving Parliament concentrated on this post until his death in 1797.

Southcott , Joanna , 1750-1814 , prophet and writer Hayward , James , fl 1860-1890 , follower of Joanna Southcott Baker , Edmund , fl 1809-1845 , minister and follower of Joanna Southcott

Joanna Southcott was born in Devon in April 1750, the daughter of a farmer. She promised her dying mother that she would devote her life to piety, and rejected all her suitors to work as a maid or labourer in households in and around Exeter. It was not until she was 42 years old, in 1792, that she began to experience the voices and visions which were to make her a celebrated public figure. She was spoken to by a voice which predicted future events. Joanna attempted to interest clergy of several denominations in her prophesies, sending them sealed copies of her predictions to be opened after a certain date - thus proving her foreknowledge of events. In 1801, spurred by the correct predictions she had made for 1796-1800, she spent her life savings and published a book of her prophesy entitled "The Strange Effects of Faith". Her publication was a success and began to attract followers. Joanna moved to London and received the patronage of Jane Townley, who promoted her cause, welcomed Joanna into her household and provided her with a maid to act as her amanuensis. Between 1801 and 1814 Joanna published 65 pamphlets outlining her prophesy and spiritual vision, becoming one of the most popular writers of her time. In 1815 it is estimated that her followers numbered 20,000.

At the age of 64 she claimed to be pregnant with Shiloh, the second coming of Christ. She was due to give birth in November 1814 but despite experiencing labour pains no child was forthcoming and instead Joanna died in London on 27 December 1814. An autopsy found no foetus, although the doctor noted swelling in the abdomen which could have mimicked the symptoms of pregnancy and caused pain similar to labour.

After Joanna's death a core of her inner circle kept the faith quietly, and protected the 'great box', which contained sealed prophecies that were to be opened some time in the unspecified future. In 1816 the box was passed to Jane Townley, and upon her death in 1825 to Thomas Philip Foley, and finally in 1835 to Foley's son, the Revd Richard Foley. In 1839, in order to gain control of Southcott's legacy, Lavinia Taylor Jones (niece of Lucy Taylor, one of Joanna's Exeter employers) dressed as a man to enter Richard Foley's rectory, where she tried to steal the box. Soon after that, rival boxes began to appear. As recently as 1977, the Panacea Society, a twentieth-century millenarian group dedicated to Southcott, claimed to know the secret whereabouts of the true box.

Source: Sylvia Bowerbank, 'Southcott, Joanna (1750-1814)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.

Methodist Church of Great Britain x United Methodist Church x Wesleyan Methodist Church x Primitive Methodist Church

Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus , Hampton Wick

Avis , George , fl 1821 , member of Foot Patrole

Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was born on 17 May 1768 at Brunswick, the second daughter of Karl II, duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and Princess Augusta, sister of George III. She was married to George, Prince of Wales on 8 April. The Prince was reportedly the worse for alcohol and had to be supported to go through the ceremony. This inauspicious beginning heralded a series of quarrels between the royal couple. Caroline alleged that throughout the honeymoon the Prince consorted with his drunken cronies and ignored her. On his part, the Prince took offence at Caroline's accusation that he had mistresses, refused to change his social and domestic habits for her benefit, and demanded that she should submit to his authority, which she refused to do.

The only child of this stormy marriage, Princess Charlotte Augusta (1796-1817), was born on 7 January 1796. Caroline had attempted to live on amicable terms with George, but he neglected her and she became increasingly lonely, bored, and resentful. The inevitable separation took place in 1796. Caroline left Carlton House in 1797 and went to live in a rented house near Blackheath. The Prince would have forbidden her access to her child, but King George III, who always favoured Caroline, insisted that she should be allowed to visit Charlotte.

Caroline made no attempt to exploit her situation politically. She remained prominent in society and entertained frequently at Blackheath, often in an informal and high-spirited atmosphere. During the Regency she was excluded from the court and only with difficulty could she obtain permission to see Charlotte, who was educated under the Prince of Wales's supervision. Caroline therefore decided to leave England, and set off on a series of travels, initially to Brunswick but shortly afterwards around the Mediterranean. Almost weekly reports came in of indiscreet and scandalous behaviour, improper entertainments in which she took part, and extravagant and theatrical behaviour which became a subject of scandal in the newspapers, providing further ammunition for her estranged husband in his efforts to divorce her.

As soon as George IV became king Caroline set off for England to claim her position as Queen. She was met at St Omer by Henry Brougham, whom she made her Attorney-General, and by Lord Hutchinson on behalf of the Cabinet who brought a proposal, reluctantly accepted by the King, to give her an annuity of £50,000 provided she would not cross the Channel nor claim the title of Queen. She refused, despite Brougham's plea to her to negotiate a settlement. She was now being advised by Matthew Wood, an alderman and former Lord Mayor of London, who represented a group of metropolitan radicals who wanted to use her to stir up opposition to the king and the government. The Queen's arrival became, as the government had feared, the occasion for widespread public rejoicings. She reached London on 6 June and went first to Alderman Wood's house in South Audley Street, later renting Brandenburg House at Hammersmith. Throughout the proceedings against her in the summer and autumn of 1820 she was the focus of many demonstrations, receiving over 350 addresses of support from all sections of the population, many from groups of women who saw her as a symbol of the oppression of their sex. She also had the support of The Times and many other opposition or radical newspapers. She herself had no interest in or sympathy with radicalism, but her cause was now overtly political as the nation divided into two camps.

The Cabinet, spurred on by the vengeful King, unwillingly prepared a bill of pains and penalties to strip Caroline of her title and to end her marriage by Act of Parliament. The bill was introduced into the House of Lords on 17 August. It was one of the most spectacular and dramatic events of the century. The Queen's progresses to and from Westminster to attend the 'trial', as it became known, were attended by cheering crowds; deputations by the dozen visited Brandenburg House to present addresses, the newspapers published verbatim accounts of the Lords' proceedings, and the caricaturists on both sides had a field day. So obscene were some of the prints against the King that over £2500 was spent in buying them up and suppressing their publication. Against this proof of public support for the Queen the 'trial' was doomed to failure. The witnesses were clearly unreliable and were discredited by the cross-examination of her counsel, Henry Brougham and Thomas Denman. Many of the witnesses were believed to have been bribed or intimidated, and the widespread knowledge that George himself had had several mistresses added to the belief that Caroline was a victim, if not an entirely innocent one, of royal and political persecution. In the end, though the circumstantial evidence against her was strong enough to convince many peers of her guilt, many also feared that her condemnation would spark off popular rioting or even revolution. Ministers realized that even if the Lords passed the bill the House of Commons would almost certainly reject it under intense pressure from their constituents. The bill passed its third reading in the Lords by only nine votes and Liverpool, the Prime Minister, announced on 10 November that it would proceed no further.

Caroline had not, strictly speaking, been acquitted of the charges against her, but the public verdict was in her favour as a wronged woman unjustly persecuted by a husband no better than she was. A great crowd turned out to witness her procession to a thanksgiving service organized by her supporters in St Paul's Cathedral on 29 November 1820, when the psalm ordered for the service was no. 140-'Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man'. Nevertheless, attempts to exploit her victory were unsuccessful. The Cabinet rejected her demand for a palace and the King refused to let her be crowned with him. He was supported by the Privy Council who declared that a Queen had no inherent right to coronation, which was at her husband's discretion. When she tried to force her way into the Abbey on coronation day, 20 July 1821, she was humiliated by being refused entry and she was jeered by the crowd that had so recently acclaimed her.

Caroline now accepted the Government's offer of an allowance of £50,000 a year if she went to live abroad, but less than a fortnight after the coronation she was taken ill at the theatre, and after a short but painful illness she died, apparently of an intestinal obstruction, on 7 August 1821. She wished to be buried beside her father at Brunswick, and the British government was only too anxious to get her corpse out of the country. Her funeral procession was intended to pass round to the north of the City of London to avoid public demonstrations. The cortège was intercepted by a crowd at Hyde Park Corner and forced to go through the city after a battle with the Life Guards in which two men were killed by the soldiers. The coffin was eventually embarked from Harwich, her supporters placing on it as it left British waters the inscription 'Caroline, the injured Queen of England'. Her body was taken to Brunswick and laid in the ducal vault on 24 August.

Source: E. A. Smith, 'Caroline (1768-1821)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004.

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Sunbury Urban District Council Staines Urban District Council

The Local Government Act 1894 made provision for local self-government in England and Wales in the form of parish councils for every rural parish with a population of 300 and upwards. The existing rural and urban sanitary authorities became the new district councils. Further re-arrangement of districts was carried out by review, by county councils under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1929.

Rating remained in the hands of the parish overseers in 1894, although under the Public Health Act 1875 a general district rate was levied by the urban authorities. The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 abolished the rating powers of the overseers of the poor and named the new rating authorities as the councils of every county borough and urban and rural districts. A consolidated rate - 'the general rate' - replaced the confusion of various separate rates. In addition, a new valuation list was to be made for every rating area, to come into force on either 1 April 1928 or April 1929, followed by a second list in 1932, 1933 or 1934. Instructions were given in the act for draft valuation lists and records of totals to be made.

Summary of constituencies of Sunbury and Staines District Councils:

Sunbury Urban District Council:

Sunbury UDC included Sunbury Common, Charlton and Upper Halliford, Shepperton (including Lower Halliford and Shepperton Green), Ashford Common and Littleton. By the Middlesex (Feltham, Hayes, Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames) Confirmation Order, 1930, the parish of Shepperton and parts of Ashford and Littleton were transferred to Sunbury Urban District on the dissolution of Staines Rural District. As a result of local government re-organisation in the Greater London area, Sunbury Urban District was transferred to the administrative county of Surrey with effect from 1 April 1965.

Staines Urban District Council:

Staines UDC included Staines, Ashford, Laleham, Stanwell (including Stanwell Moor and Poyle). As a result of local government re-organisation in the Greater London area, Staines Urban District was transferred to the administrative county of Surrey with effect from 1 April 1965.

Staines Rural District Council:

Staine RDC included Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Cranford, Hanworth, Harlington, Harmondsworth, Laleham, Littleton, Shepperton, Stanwell (part). On the dissolution of Staines Rural District in 1930, East Bedfont with Hatton and Hanworth were transferred to Feltham Urban District, Cranford and Harlington to Hayes and Harlington Urban District, and Harmondsworth to Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District. The remaining areas were transferred to Sunbury and Staines Urban Districts, as detailed above.

In 1974 the Urban Districts of Sunbury and Staines became part of Spelthorne Borough Council, in the administrative county of Surrey.

German Reformed Saint Paul's Church, London x German Evangelical Reformed Church

Methodist Church of Great Britain x United Methodist Church x Wesleyan Methodist Church x Primitive Methodist Church