Sir Walter Morley Fletcher, KBE, CB, FRCP, FRS (1873-1933), was a physiologist.
ASH serves to educate the public about the dangers of smoking, to support cessation campaigns - including an annual No Smoking Day - and to campaign for legislation limiting the marketing of tobacco products. Since its foundation in 1971, it has been active in publicising the dangers of passive smoking, worked to discourage smoking by children and campaigned against tobacco marketing in the developing countries.
The MRC Blood Group Unit succeeded the Galton Laboratory Serum Unit set up in 1935 under the direction of Professor (later Sir) Ronald Fisher and financed through the Medical Research Council by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Serum Unit was based at University College, London, and re-located to Cambridge during the Second World War. In 1946, the Unit was reconstituted at the Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine as the Blood Group Research Unit, under the directorship of Dr Robert Race.
The need for safe transfusion therapy intensified blood group research in the run-up to the Second World War, and in 1940 Landsteiner and Wiener discovered the Rh factor, building on foundations laid by Levine and Stetson in 1939. From 1946 the MRC Blood Group Unit acquired an international reputation in the highly specialised field of haematology, extending its work in 1965 into the genetics of blood groups. Upon the retirement of Dr Race in 1973, Dr Ruth Sanger became director of the Unit. Under Dr Sanger's direction, the Unit continued to make a unique contribution to the identification of blood groups, and to the applications of the blood group systems to the problems of human genetics. In 1983, upon the retirement of Dr Sanger, Dr Patricia Tippett became director. The MRC Blood Group Unit moved from the Lister Institute to premises at University College, London in 1975. It was disbanded in September 1995, although its work continues in other research centres.
Dr Hugh Baron was keen to establish a society for the promotion of arts in hospital, and he and other interested parties proposed to set up a centre for this. A Steering Committee was established. Originally, negotiations were with Manchester Polytechnic funded by the Carnegie Trust (but they pulled out when staff were being appointed, as it was counter to their remit). However, the Committee found itself unable to agree on a Director, and plans to set up the centre in Manchester were scrapped. This led to some of the Committee members (notably Peter Senior, who applied for the post of Director) breaking away. Eventually, Senior established a rival institution in Manchester (Arts for Health. See D.1) and the British Health Care Arts Centre based itself in Dundee at the Duncan of Jordanstane Art College, under the Directorship of Malcom Miles. It was financed through donations from charitable trusts and foundations.
In 1993, through financial instability, the Centre was wound up. However, the English venture merged with the arts project at the United Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (at Leeds General Infirmary), whilst the Scottish arm remained in Dundee. The two institutions were separate in terms of finance and management but still retained collaborative links.
The aims of the BHCAC were: (a) to improve the environment in all health care buildings, by encouraging the development of the arts in these buildings through the provision of an advice and consultancy service, both to the health authorities and to arts organisations and projects working with the Health Service, and (b) to initiate studies and arts in health care. Every year, the BHCAC awarded the Astra Award funded by Astra Pharmaceuticals.
The British Society for the Study of Orthodontics (BSSO) was founded in 1907, and was the only orthodontics association until the emergence of others in the 1960s. In the 1970s there were attempts to co-ordinate activities with other orthodontics societies by collaborating over conferences and journals. In July 1994 the BSSO merged with the British Association of Orthodontics to form the British Orthodontic Society. The Society holds regular meetings for the presentation of papers by members discussing academic aspects of orthodontics, which were published in Transactions, 1908-1971, and thereafter in the British Journal of Orthodontics. For further details of the Society's history see the articles by Leighton and Howard (7/1 and 7/2).
In 1977 the Medical Research Council's Medical Commission on Accident Prevention held a conference with Newcastle Department of Child Health on `Children, the environment and accidents'. The conference highlighted the need for a body specifically aimed at child accident prevention, and a steering group was set up to investigate the establishment of such a body. As a result, the Joint Committee on Childhood Accident Prevention was set up in 1979 for a trial period of 3 years, with a grant from the King's Fund. The Joint Committee aimed to initiate and coordinate research into childhood accidents and their prevention, bringing together people from the fields of health services, engineering, design, standards and education. At the end of the trial period the Joint Committee obtained charitable status and became the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), funded by the Department of Health and Social Security. Originally, CAPT had six Trustees, a Council of Management of 33 members, an Executive Committee of eight members and a small full-time staff with a paediatrician as part-time Medical Secretary. In 1988 the Executive Committee was replaced by a Professional Committee and a Management Committee. CAPT disseminates information in a variety of ways: working parties, made up of Trust members and co-opted experts, undertake research and produce reports for presentation at seminars; the Trust's resource centre provides an information and advisory service to those involved in child injury prevention; and CAPT cooperates with other bodies to produce publications such as books, factsheets and videos for both general and specialist consumption. For further details of CAPT's work see their website at http://www.capt.org.uk.
The Eugenics Society was founded, under the name Eugenics Education Society, in 1907, to promote public awareness of eugenic problems, i.e. the existence of hereditary qualities both positive and negative, and the need to encourage social responsibility with respect to these qualities. Unlike the Galton Laboratory, which was also inspired by the teachings of Sir Francis Galton and founded in 1904, the Eugenics Society was a popular rather than a scientific institution, although its Aims and Objects varied during the years and in 1963 it abandoned propaganda on being granted charitable status. Besides its involvement in the theoretical aspects of eugenics the Society was also interested in the practical means by which eugenic ideals could be attained, so these records contain a good deal of material on subjects such as the treatment of the mentally and physically defective, the development of birth control methods, the legalisation of sterilisation, the use of artificial insemination, etc. (see detailed catalogue section D 'General'). A large number of people in all stations of life, some of them very distinguished, were involved with the Society (see detailed catalogue section C 'People'). The Society changed its name to the Galton Institute in 1989. For a fuller treatment of the history of the Eugenics Society, see Faith Schenck & A.S. Parkes, `The Activities of the Eugenics Society', Eugenics Review 60, 1968, pp. 142-161. For the early years of the Society see L.A. Farrall, The Origins and Growth of the English Eugenics Movement 1863-1925 (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 1970) and the file GB0121 SA/EUG/B.11 'Notes on the early days of the Eugenics Education Society' by Lady Chambers.
The UK Umbrella Group began as fairly informal meetings of members of the Association of Jungian Analysts (AJA), Jungian Section of the British Association of Psychotherapists (BAP), Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists (IGAP) and the Society of Analytical Psychologists (SAP) late in 1986, which gradually became more formal and generated joint conferences and workshops as well as a working group on archives. The Umbrella Group Newsletter was published by the London Umbrella Group from 1997 and produced by a group of people from the four UK Jungian training organisations, and the editorship rotated around the team.
The Medical Journalists' Association (MJA) was launched by a group of medical journalists in 1967 "to improve the quality and practice of medical journalism and to improve relationships and understanding between medical journalists and the medical profession". Members participate in regular briefing meetings and the annual award scheme, and the MJA will act to defend points of principle, such as the availability of information from government press offices. Membership is open to journalists working in all branches of the media.
Thomas Newborn Robert Morson (1800-1874), pharmaceutical entrepreneur, was the founder of the firm of Thomas Morson and Son Ltd, of London, which became a leading manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of pharmaceutical chemicals and proprietary medicines during the nineteenth century. After an apprenticeship to a surgeon-apothecary in London, Morson spent three years in Paris during 1818-1821, studying under the chemist Louis Antoine Planche. He was a man of wide scientific and cultural interests, with contacts and friendships throughout British and continental science. He was prominent in the foundation of the Pharmaceutical Society, and was elected President in 1848.
Thomas Morson and Son was particularly notable for the manufacture and sale of the new vegetable alkaloids which were identified in the early part of the nineteenth century in France, and was the first British producer, from 1821, of quinine sulphate and morphine. By the 1860s Morsons was producing over five hundred different chemical substances, mainly of medicinal application. By the end of the century the firm had a world-wide export business, especially to India. In 1915 the company was incorporated as Thomas Morson and Son Ltd. The peak of production was reached in about 1930, at which time the firm entered into cooperation with the German chemical company, E Merck of Darmstadt, for the manufacture of sodium glycerophosphate (a substance included in tonic formulations). This development presaged the eventual takeover of Morsons by the American pharmaceutical corporation, Merck Sharp and Dohme, in 1957.
The Medical Pilgrims were founded by Sir Arthur Hurst in 1928. There was a chosen membership of 20 and annual pilgramages were made to foreign and British cities.
The Prout Club was started by Hugh Baron (Secretary) and Michael Hobsley (Treasurer) as a dining club for people interested in the secretions of the stomach, in 1972; the inaugural meeting was held in conjunction with the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG); membership was limited to 50; the committee did not actually ever meet, but conducted its business by correspondence; Hobsley retired and was succeeded by David Ralphs in 1994; Baron retired and was suceeded by Roy Pounder in 1996.
The Association for Research into Restricted Growth was co-founded by Dr Sir William Geoffrey Shakespeare, 2nd Baronet, (1927-1996), a general practitioner who took an interest in the conditions causing restricted growth. He had achondroplasia, a genetic disorder that causes dwarfism or restricted growth. His son Sir Thomas William Shakespeare, 3rd Baronet (b 1966) also has achondroplasia. The Association became a registered charity in 1970.
Named after Henry Ernest Sigerist (1891-1957) the Swiss medical historian, the Sigerist Society was founded in 1947 by a group of left wing doctors with a strong Marxist component. They met 2 or 3 times a year to discuss medicine in society, and wider philosophical issues. Members included Philip Hart, Martin Roff, Richard Doll and Julian Tudor Hart. The Society probably ended in 1955.
The Society for the Study and Cure of Inebriety was founded in 1884 as a pressure group in response to the inadequacy of the Habitual Drunkards Act of 1879.
In 1946 the Society changed it's name to the Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and other Drugs.
The London Society for Study of Addiction is the London branch of the Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and other Drugs.
The Society's current aims are to promote the communication and spread of scientific knowledge about dependence on drugs and alcohol and other forms of dependence associated with compulsive behaviour, and to encourage the systematic study of the forms of dependence.
The Society jointly sponsors the Dent Lecture with the Department of Pharmacology, Kings College London.
The Travelling Surgical Society was founded in 1924 by twelve members keen to promote links with surgeons abroad to exchange ideas. Membership was set at 20. Annual visits lasting about a week were made, mostly abroad, but also to cities in Britain. A visit to Norway was planned for September 1939, but was cancelled due to the outbreak of war. Visits were not resumed again until 1949.
The Real Expedición Botánica was launched by the Spanish crown in the late 18th century to investigate the indigenous flora of New Spain. The expedition was led by until his return to Spain in 1803 and thereafter by Vicente de Cervantes.
Melchior Antonio de la Cadena y Sotomayor was born in 1539. He was an important figure in the ecclesiastical establishment of Mexico, serving as Canon and Dean of Tlaxcala, Maestrescuelas and Dean of Mexico cathedral and Chancellor of the University of Mexico (Rector for the term 1573/4). At the time of his death in 1607 he was Bishop-elect of Chiapas.
Born Liverpool, 25 September 1889. He was educated at Ushaw and at the Venerable English College, where he was ordained in 1916 during the First World War. He gained his Doctorate the following year. He then taught Classics, Philosophy and Theology at Ushaw for 12 years.
In 1930 he was appointed Rector of the College where during the next 8 years he watched Mussolini's rise to power. He was known affectionately to his students despite his strictness as 'Uncle Bill'.
In 1938 he became the first Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain, Gibraltar and Malta and he served in this post with such discretion that in 1953, long after the war, he became Archbishop of Liverpool and Archbishop of Westminster 1956-1962. He was created Cardinal Priest of Santi Nereo e Achilleo on 15 December 1958. He died in London on 22 January 1963 aged 73.
Born 25th August 1865, at Carlton near Selby, Yorkshire. Son of a local carpenter and an Irish mother. His Parish Priest, who assisted at Carlton Towers, a nearby residence of the Norfolk Family, sponsored his education and at the age of 11 he set off for Ushaw. Whilst a student there he secured his BA degree from London University. He then came to the Venerable English College as a student to take further degrees and was ordained in 1893, aged 28. He then returned to Ushaw to teach there for 4 years, but in 1900 he founded a Laity-sponsored School, St. Bede's Grammar School, in Bradford and became its first Headmaster. The school prospered but led to differences between Hinsley and his Bishop. Consequently Hinsley moved to Southwark Diocese. After 13 years combining parish work with lecturing at Wonersh, he was made Rector of the VEC and worked in Rome, 1917-1928. He bought Palazzola and had its swimming pool built. Created Bishop of Sardis, 1927 and sent as Apostolic Visitor to Africa where after 7 years, ill-health caused him to retire. He became a Canon of St Peter's and there expected to end his days. To the surprise of many he was called out of retirement on the death of Cardinal Bourne to become the fifth Archbishop of Westminster on 25th March 1935. He was created Cardinal Priest of Santa Susanna on 16 December 1937. He denounced the Hitler Regime, founded the Sword of the Spirit as an ecumenical venture to rally the churches against totalitarianism and became famous in all homes for his wartime radio chats and stirring encouragement when Britain stood alone. He died on 17 March 1943, at the age of 78.
Priest's registers: Before the restoration of the hierarchy many individual priests, as opposed to parishes, often kept registers covering diverse geographical areas.
During the Second World War the Wellcome Foundation laboratories at Frant, East Sussex, were engaged in work for the Ministry of Supply, producing scrub typhus vaccine for the armed forces. The project was given the wartime codename of 'Tyburn' after Tyburn Farm, the farm at the Wellcome Veterinary Research Station there. The project was organised by the bacteriologist Marinus van den Ende (1912-1957), serving with the RAMC: his obituary in the Lancet states that "his greatest achievement in England was the organisation of the laboratory at Frant for the large-scale production of scrub typhus vaccine, exacting and dangerous work which he carried out with great speed and precision"
These are the main title deeds for the West Hill Estate, Wandsworth, which extended from West Hill in the north to what are now Gressenhall Road and Granville Road in the south. Later additions extended it on the west to Tibbets Corner, and on the east and south-east into South Field. Later still, a large part of the Spencers' Wimbledon Park was added to the south. The deeds end with this purchase by the second Duke of Sutherland in 1838. In the next decade the estate was purchased by John Augustus Beaumont for building development. The estate was first purchased, as part of the demesne of the manor of Downe, from the Duke of Bedford in 1759. The new owner was Mrs Penelope Pitt, wife of George Pitt (who later became Lord Rivers) and sister and heiress of Sir Richard Atkins of Clapham Bt. She sold it in 1786 to Sir Samuel Hannay, a Scottish baronet. Mrs Pitt had built a mansion house called West Hill House on the estate, but had not extended the grounds. John Anthony Rucker, a merchant originally from Hamburg, who bought the estate in 1789, and all later owners added to the lands by purchase. In 1804 Daniel Henry Rucker inherited the estate from his uncle; it was settled in trust on his marriage to Caroline Gardiner in 1805, and eventually put on sale by public auction in 1825. The main purchaser, by private contract before the auction, was George Granville Leveson-Gower, Marquess of Stafford, later 1st Duke of Sutherland. He, through his wife the Countess of Sutherland in her own right had added most of the county of Sutherland to his vast estates in the north of England.
On his death in 1833, his son the second Duke inherited.
Cecil Tudor Davis was born in 1854 at Upton St Leonards near Gloucester. After working as the senior officer at Birmingham Reference Library, he moved to Wandsworth in 1886 to take up the position of Librarian of Wandsworth, based at West Hill Public Library. He held this position for 34 years before retiring in 1920. He died following a short illness in 1922. He lived at 55 West Hill and was married twice with five children. He was very interested in local history and wrote many articles and frequently gave lectures on the subject, as well as collecting books and documents relating to Wandsworth.
Please contact the Archive for further information.
Wilson's Garage was located on Spanish Road, Wandsworth Common.
Please contact the Archive for further information.
Councillor John Garrett was Deputy Mayor of Wandsworth in 1984-1985 and in 1998-1999. He was Mayor of Wandsworth in 1988-1989 and 2000-2001.
Herbert Thomas Charles Battcock was born around 1896. He married Gladys Matthews in Wandsworth in 1921, but was widowed before any children were born. In 1939 he married Aileen O'Callaghan, and a daughter, Celia, was born in 1944.
In a deed of 1922 (D157/3/5) his occupation is given as 'printer', and in 1927 'printers machine manager'. By the time of the Second World War he was working in the Foreign Office, and belonged to the Home Guard. He retired from the Civil Service in 1962.
Herbert Battcock was initiated into the Freemasons Lodge of Affinity in 1927, and was a founder member of the Earlsfield Lodge which was consecrated on 10 October 1938. He received honorary membership of the Earlsfield Lodge in 1979. He died in 1981.
The Battersea Field Club and Literary and Scientific Society was formed on 10th January 1895 and was a development of the University Extension Society - Battersea Students Association, which had started in 1890. In 1902 the name was changed to the Battersea Field Club and the society was affiliated to the South East Union of Scientific Societies and the Photographic Survey and Record of Surrey. In 1906 it was associated with the British Association and finally disbanded in 1944.
Arthur Wellings was an auctioneer, land and estate agent in Southfields with offices at 8 Westbourne Terrace, Garratt Lane.
The Metropolitan Borough of Battersea was created by the London Government Act 1899 from the former vestry of Battersea, and included Battersea, Battersea Park, Clapham Junction and parts of Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common. In 1965 the borough was combined with the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth to become the London Borough of Wandsworth. Battersea Town Hall, which was built by the Vestry of Battersea, was the administrative headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough, and was on Lavender Hill.
The school was founded in 1819 and amalgamated with All Saints, Putney in 1928. All Saints was founded in 1858, and was on Putney Bridge Road. St Mary's School was on Charlwood Road.
Battersea Polytechnic Institute was a purpose built college which was founded in 1891 and opened in February 1894. The building was located in Battersea Park Road on the former site of the Albert Palace and was designed by the architect Edward Mountford who also designed Battersea Library and Battersea Town Hall. The Institute took on a more scientific and technical leaning from 1920, leading it to be renamed the Battersea College of Technology in 1957. In 1966 it became the University of Surrey and moved out to premises in Guildford two years later.
Spencer Park was a secondary county school for boys which opened in 1957. On opening, the intake was made up of boys from Honeywell secondary school, Wandsworth secondary technical school as well as some students from schools in Lavender Hill and Earlsfield. The school was housed in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in Trinity Road, Wandsworth Common, which had been sold to the London County Council in 1952. The school also occupied a new building erected in 1957 specifically to house the school. The two buildings were divided by a playground. The school moved out of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in September 1976 and into the extended new buildings next door, as the building was falling in to disrepair and was unsafe to house the school. The school closed in 1986 when it was amalgamated with Wandsworth School and renamed John Archer School. The students moved to the premises in Sutherland Grove, Southfields in September 1986.
The Glengyle Preparatory School for Boys was founded in 1907 by Leonard Augustine Chope. It was originally in Cambalt Road before moving to 4, Carlton Drive in 1914. Walter Vivian Wallace was appointed as Assistant School Master in 1938 before purchasing the lease from Mr Chope and becoming the proprietor/headmaster of the school. He purchased the freehold of the property in Carlton Drive in 1960. His wife Winifred taught at the school and took over its running following the death of her husband in 1981. Mrs Wallace retired in 1986 and the school was sold. It is now the Merlin School.
The school was founded in 1850 and closed in 1985. It was on Green Lane, High Street, Battersea.
Berthold Auerbach was born into a Jewish family in Thorn in Western Prussia (now Torun in Poland). He attended school there, until his parents moved to Berlin in 1885. He had already begun studying Latin and in the next few years added French and Greek to his curriculum.
In December 1891 he began his working life by going into commercial training with the firm of H. Holde in Berlin. He remained with them until October 1894. Between 1895 and 1897 he trained in business and commerce with Albert Meyer (Speditions-, Commissions- und Bankgeschäft) but was most unhappy, realising that this type of career was not for him.
He joined the Literarische Gesellschaft in Leipzig, which had been founded by Carl Heine, and in March 1898 began work there as actor, Treasurer and Secretary. Out of this society grew Heine's Ibsentheater. The dramatist Frank Wedekind was also a member of the company. The Ibsentheater toured Northern Germany until the end of 1898 when it ceased to exist.
After a brief period as a reporter in Berlin, Auerbach started a career as a theatrical agent. He was to pursue this career for the next thirty-six years and became skilled in matching directors and companies with suitable actors and actresses, not only in Germany, but also in Austria and Switzerland. In this way many famous names in German theatre owed their careers to him through discovery by him and subsequent support and protection for their talent. Amongst these were Adolf Roff, Elsa Wagner, Emil Jannings and Carl Ebert. He was untiring in his travels to review productions and was enthusiastic about contemporary drama. His conduct and industry won him many lasting friendships in the profession: Helene Riechers, Carl Ebert, Elsa Wagner, and the Dumont/Lindemann Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.
In October 1898, Auerbach went to work for the theatre agency E. Drenker & Co. In 1907 he married Anna Pergams who came to Berlin from Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad in Russia). In 1915 he was called up for military service and sent to Königsberg for training, where the director of the Stadttheater 'Neues Schauspielhaus' gave him free tickets for all performances. His old firm of Drenker managed to secure his release from the army and he remained with them until 1929, when the firm closed. At this point the State founded an official agency for stage and film, Paritätischer Stellennachweis der Deutschen Bühnen, where the Actors' Union and the Union of Theatre Directors were represented on equal terms. Auerbach remained with them until 1933, when he was dismissed after an SA (Sturmabteilung) raid, albeit with a creditable testimonial. He was called back and re-employed for short periods four times, having become indispensable to the Agency, until Goebbels personally put a stop to this.
Despite numerous letters from the acting profession and others urging his re-employment, Auerbach remained unemployed in Berlin from 1934-1939 when he and his wife, after much heart-searching, decided to leave Germany to join their daughter in England. They were not allowed to bring out their two sons. During the first few years of the Nazi regime, Auerbach was sent free tickets for performances at most of the Berlin theatres, but this largely ceased once Jews were forbidden to enter German theatres, and he could only attend performances in the few special Jewish theatres.
After his arrival in England, Auerbach was interned in a camp on the Isle of Man for a few months. In 1945 he was invited back to Germany to take up his profession again, but he decided it was too late to start afresh. In 1951 he made his first visit to Düsseldorf and Berlin. When he revisited Germany his reception was tumultuous. He wrote an address for Helene Riecher's 85th birthday in 1954, which was read out at her memorial sevice in 1957. She died one month after Auerbach's wife.
In November 1959, Auerbach celebrated his own 85th birthday and received presents and tributes from the entire German theatrical profession, including the Unions. During his exile, he never lost touch with the German theatre scene and derived immense enjoyment not only from the letters he received but from the journals which were sent to him regularly.
Auerbach also wrote poetry, examples of which are scattered through the collection and in relevant literature.
The English Goethe Society was founded on 26 February 1886, one year after the founding of the Goethe-Gesellschaft in Weimar. The idea for such a society was first put forward by the publisher Alfred Trübner Nutt (1856-1910). At an initial meeting convened in a room at the Society of Arts, the new Society was officially constituted. Its aims were '... to promote and extend the study of Goethe's work and thought, and to encourage original research upon all subjects connected with Goethe' (English Goethe Society: First Annual Report presented at a Business Meeting 1 December 1886). It proposed to do this in three ways: (a) through publications - a volume of Transactions each year, at least one translated work, and a Goethe handbook - David Nutt was appointed the Society's official publisher; (b) through meetings and lectures - ordinary meetings were held regularly and papers read before them which were published in the Transactions - the first Ordinary Meeting was held one week after the Inaugural Meeting, on 28 May 1886; (c) through pursuit of Goethe themes in the fine arts - issue of a Goethe portrait, postcards, dramatic productions.
The formal business of the Society was to be carried out by a President (Professor F. Max Müller was the first to be elected), Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and an Assistant Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Council. A subscription of one guinea per annum was payable, roughly half of which was sent to the Goethe-Gesellschaft in Weimar in return for the privileges of affiliation. However, the Society soon found itself in financial difficulties and changed its rules to create two classes of membership: one paying the full guinea as before and the other paying a half-guinea for membership of the English Goethe Society only.
In its first few years the Society flourished and its membership, which included many distinguished scholars and public figures, rose to about 300. In 1890-1891, however, it went into a steep decline, a significant number of resignations reducing the membership by almost one third. In his autobiography Dr Eugen Oswald, a founder member and Secretary (1891-1912), writes: 'In 1891 weariness had overcome some of its leading members, and the dissolution of the English Goethe Society was formally proposed by some of its officers' (Eugen Oswald: Reminiscences of a Busy Life. London, Alexander Moring, 1911). The weariness was due to the limited scope of the Society's aims. At a special business meeting called for the purpose in 1891, Dr Oswald, backed by Dr Leonard Thorne and Ernest Weiss (later Professor of German at Manchester University), vigorously opposed the dissolution and proposed extending the Society's programme to the fields of German literature, art and science, while still keeping Goethe as the central figure.
This proposal together with the fresh injection of enthusiasm carried the day and a new Council was constituted. Membership rose again and regular meetings once again took place. The presidency passed from Professor Müller to Professor Edward Dowden and thence to a succession of distinguished people including Viscount Haldane of Cloan and Professor Elizabeth Mary Wilkinson. In addition to Ordinary Meetings, soirées were held at which interesting relics and objets d'art were displayed, many lent by Mrs Ludwig (Frieda) Mond, a constant and enthusiastic supporter of the Society. Visits were arranged to Weimar in 1909 and 1910 by Dr Oswald's daughters Lina and Ella, and special celebrations of important anniversaries were organised, e.g. Goethe's centenary and bicentenary (1932 and 1949) and the Society's silver (1911) and golden (1936) jubilees. The Society was represented at several Goethe commemorations in Weimar, Strasbourg and Vienna. The papers read before the meetings of the Society were regularly published in an annual volume, first published in 1886 through to 1912. The activities of the Society were suspended during World War One, 1914-1918. Anti-German feeling ran high for an appreciable time and the Society was not reconstituted until 1923, with the first of a new series of annual volumes appearing in 1924. The aims of the Society spread further to '... the cultivation of relationships with other countries and "world citizenship"' (Leonard Thorne: In Memoriam Dr Eugen Oswald, MA) and in particular to fostering understanding between Anglo-German nations and bringing them into closer union.
Activities were again suspended in 1939 for the duration of World War Two, although the Council continued to meet. This time hostile feeling in the United Kingdom was directed against the Nazi regime and not against Germany as a whole. The then Secretary, Professor Willoughby, was able to reconstitute the Society before hostilities ceased and on 22 February 1945, Dorothy L. Sayers gave a lecture at University College London on 'The Faust Legend and the Idea of the Devil'.
University College had received a direct hit in 1940 which destroyed all the Society's records, deposited there. What records remained in the personal possession of Ella Oswald, Dr Eugen Oswald's younger daughter, were deposited by her on permanent loan in the Archive of the Institute of Germanic Studies in 1955. By agreement of the Society's Council, the Society's library of some 373 books had been deposited in the library of the Institute on permanent loan three years previously.
In the post-war period the Society continued to flourish. By 1947 its membership had reached 75% of the pre-war numbers and continued to remain steady at 150-200. There was considerable participation in the Goethe bicentenary celebrations in 1949 when Thomas Mann delivered the Society's special lecture before an audience of 700 in the Senate House building of the University of London. The Society also contributed to the planning and execution of activities by the ad hoc British Goethe Festival Society.
A decade later, Schiller was honoured by the Society during a highly successful commemoration week at Bedford College (University of London), organised by Professors Purdie and Willoughby.
Further special activities were organised for the 150th anniversary of Goethe's death in 1982 including a translation competition which attracted 160 entries from all over the world. The Society also participated in a joint conference with the Conference of University Teachers in German at Queen Mary College (University of London). An exhibition was arranged, displayed initially at the Goethe Institute in London, and then shown in cities all over the United Kingdom.
In 1986 the Society celebrated its centenary when at a special dinner and reception Professor Siegbert Prawer gave an address on 'Dichtung und Wahrheit'. The Society is still very active and holds regular meetings at the Institute of Germanic Studies.
The Exile Archive was established at the Institute in the academic year 1996-97. The Institute already holds the papers of several individuals such as Rudolf Majut, Herbert Thoma and Berthold Auerbach, who were exiled from Germany and Austria during the 1930s as a result of persecution under the National Socialist regime. However, since the setting up of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, the Institute has attracted archival donations from several emigrés, and the Collection now has material relating to both individuals and organisations.
George B Reese was Headmaster of Toroyn School, Merioneth, Wales.
Hugo Frederick Garten: born Hugo Friedrich Königsgarten, Brünn, Moravia, Austria, 13 Apr 1904, into a Jewish family. Educated at a Gymnasium in Berlin, and the Universites of Jena (1923), Vienna (1923-1924), Berlin (1924-1926) and Heidelberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1930; free-lance writer in Berlin, 1928-1933; moved to Vienna, 1933 and London, 1938; teacher at New College School, Oxford, 1940-1945, and member of staff of Die Zeitung, London, 1941-1944; DPhil, Oxford, 1944; taught modern languages at Westminster School, 1946-1965; Lecturer at the Universities of Surrey and London 1965-. He was a member of the International PEN Club, the English Goethe Society and the Gerhart Hauptmann-Gesellschaft.
Married Anne Leonard Smith, 1952, no children.
Jethro Bithelll was born at Hindley near Wigan in 1878. He was educated at Wigan Technical School and Owens College, in the Victoria University of Manchester, where he graduated with a first class degree in modern languages in 1900. He then studied German and Scandinavian literature at the Universities of Munich and Copenhagen.
From 1902-1904 he lectured in modern languages at Salford Technical College, and from 1904-1910 he was a lecturer in German at Manchester University. In 1910 he married his first wife, Ethel Rose Fisher (d 1946) and was appointed head of the Department of German at Birkbeck College London. In 1921 he was elected Reader in the University of London, but never became a full professor. He remained at Birkbeck until his retirement in 1938.
During World War One he served as a Private in the Royal Sussex Regiment, Oct 1916-Jan 1919. In 1947 Bithell married again to Dr Alice Emily Eastlake, a long standing friend of himself and his first wife.
Bithell belonged to the group of British born Germanisten who sought to turn German Studies in a new direction, breaking away from the positevistic and philological approach perpetrated by their German-born teachers. He believed, in common with other Germanisten such as William Rose, that literature was a social phenomenon and this attitude is best exemplified by his book Germany, 1932, a collection of essays on all aspects of the artstic and intellectual life of Germany set against its climate and geography. He was aware of a wider need for text book support in language studies and compiled dictionaries, readers and grammars in German and French.
His studies embraced medieval and modern language and literature from not only Germany, but also France, Belgium (including Flemish) and Norway. In retirement he continued to act as an examiner for schools and universities in German. Marking for the Higher School Certificate prompted him to compile his Anthology of German Poetry, 1880-1940, (1941) and two other anthologies followed. He had an abiding love of poetry in several languages. His superlative translation of the Minnesingers in 1909 earned him an entry in Who's Who and his translations from the work of Henrik Wergeland were considered by many to be a "tour de force".
He worked with Professor Andrew Gillies, who was editor of the Germanic Section of the Modern Language Review. During World War Two, the numbers of Germanisten available for review work were greatly reduced, and Gillies asked Bithell to oblige, which he did. At this time he popularised the work of Carossa, and demonstrated that not all Germans were Nazis or Nazi sympathisers. Bithell was also a keen supporter and contributor to German Life and Letters, which honoured his 80th birthday (1958) with a Festschrift volume.
Publications: The Minnesingers: vol I translations, (London, Longmans Green & Co., 1909); Contemporary German Poetry: translations (London: Scott, 1909); Contemporary Belgian Poetry: translations (London: Scott, 1911); Contemporary French Poetry: translations (London: Scott, 1912); Pitman's commercial German grammar (London: Pitman, 1912); Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck (London: Scott, 1913); Gustav Vollmoeller, Turandot Princess of China: translation (Produced at the St James's Theatre by Sir George Alexander) (London: Fisher Unwin, 1913); Verhaeren/Stefan Zweig: translation (London: Constable,1914); Contemporary Belgian literature (London: Fisher Unwin, 1915); 'Emile Verhaeren: Helen of Sparta' translation in The Plays of Emile Verhaeren (London, Constable, 1916); Contemporary Flemish Poetry: translations (London: Scott, 1917); Byron i Vadmel - Byron in Homespun / H.M. Drachmann: translation (London: Harrap, 1920); (with A. Watson Bain) A German poetry book (London: Methuen, 1924); (with A.C. Dunstan) A German course for Science students (London: Methuen, 1925); A French reader for Science students (London: Methuen, 1926); (with J.H. Helweg) English-Danish commercial correspondence (London: Marlboroughs, 1927); (with A.C. Dunstan) A modern German course for students of History (London: Methuen, 1928); Norwegian-English commercial correspondence (London: Marlboroughs, 1928); (with G.M Gathorne-Hardy and I. Grøndal) Henrik Wergeland: poems: translation (London and Oslo, 1929); Advanced German composition (London: Methuen, 1929); (with W. Theilkuhl) Key to advanced German composition , (London: Methuen, 1929); Dutch-English commercial correspondence (London: Marlboroughs, 1929); Germany: a commpanion to German studies (London: Methuen, 1932); (with A.E Eastlake) A commercial German reader (London: Methuen, 1933); Modern German literature (London: Methuen, 1939); An anthology of German poetry, 1880-1940 (London: Methuen, 1941); Hans Carossa: eine Kindheit (Oxford: Blackwell, 1942); (with A Watson Bain) A French poetry book (London: Methuen, 1946); An anthology of German poetry, 1830-1880 (London: Methuen, 1947); Hans Carossa: Verwandlungen einer Jugend (Oxford: Blackwell, 1949); German pronunciation and phonology (London: Methuen, 1952); An anthology of German poetry, 1730-1830 (London: Methuen, 1957); German-English and English-German dictionary (London: Pitman, 1958). Numerous reviews ad articles for English, French, Belgian and other journals including German Life and Letters, Les Marges and the Modern Language Review.
Karl Hermann Breul was born in Hannover, 1860 and educated at Lyceum II Gymnasium, where the headmaster, W Weidasch was a Schiller scholar who believed in the compulsory teaching of foreign languages. Accordingly Breul was obliged to study Greek, Latin, French and English, and volunteered to take classes in Hebrew. His principal tutor was Adolf Ley, former French and German tutor to Lord Kitchener.
In 1878 Breul left school to enter Tübingen University. He continued to study during his military service, working on South German dialects, particularly Swabian. At Tübingen he attended the lectures of Christoph Sigwart (1830-1904) and Karl Reinhold von Köstlin (1819-1894) in philosophy and literature. In 1879 he left Tübingen for Strassbourg and spent a semester studying English and French philology under Ten Brink, Boehmer and Eduard Koshwitz (1851-1904). In the winter of that year he left for Berlin and the Friedrich Wilhelm Universität, where he remained until taking his doctorate in 1883, with a thesis on an Old English epic Sir Gowther', and a lengthy treatise on comparative literature connected with the legend ofRobert le Diable'. His tutors at Berlin included Julius Zupitza (1844-1895), Adolf Tobler (1835-1920), Karl Müllenhoff (1818-1884) and Wilhelm Scherer.
In 1884, after briefly teaching in German secondary schools, Breul left Berlin for Paris to further his studies of French and romance languages and literatures. He studied under Gaston Bruno Paulin Paris (1839-1903) and Paul Meyer (1840-1917). During this time he translated Tobler's book on French versification into French, with the assistance of his friend, Léopold Sudre (b 1855).
In 1884 Breul was appointed the first lecturer in Germanic language and literature at Cambridge University, five years later he was appointed a Reader. In 1886 he was elected a Fellow of King's College and in 1896 he was awarded a Litt.D. In 1897 he was one of the co-founders of the `Modern Language Quarterly'. In 1902 he was offered a Professorship at the University of London, but refused it. In 1910 he was appointed the first Schröder Professor of German at Cambridge. He was President of the English Goethe Society, and represented it at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Wiener Goethe-Verein in 1928.
Breul's research and publications reflect the broad base of his education and interests. However, over and above that, Breul sought to promote the higher study of German philology and literature in the United Kingdom, and to develop and strengthen the knowledge and understanding of each other's language and culture between Germany and Britain. He founded the Honours School in German at Cambridge, and was largely instrumental in re-shaping the study of German in other British universities. Many of the best modern language teaching posts in Britain were held by Breul's former students. He wrote and lectures on the training and qualification of modern language teachers, which he regarded as a high priority for British secondary schools.
Publications: (Trans. with L Sudre) A Tobler Le Vers français ancien et moderne (1885); Sir Gowther. Ein Englische Romanze aus dem XV Jahrhunert (1886); A Handy Bibiographical Guide to the Study of German Language and Literature for the Use of Students and Teachers of German (1895); Die Originisation des höhren Schuhlwesens in Grossbritannien (1897); The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools (1898); Betrachtungen und Vorschläbetreffend die Gründung eines Reichsinstituts für Lehrer des Englischen in London (1900); Cassell's New German Dictionary, (2nd ed, 1906); (Trans) Deutschland im XIX Jahrhundert (1913); Students' Life and Work in the University of Cambridge [1908]; numerous articles in European and America learned journals. He also edited seven volumes in the Cambridge University Pitt Press series: Lessing and Gellert: Fabeln und Erzählungen (1887); Benedix: Dr Wespe (1888); Hauff: Das Bild des Kaisers (1889); Schiller: Wilhelm Tell (1890); Schiller: Geschichte des dreissigjähren Buch III (1892); Schiller: Wallenstein (1894, 1896), Goethe: Iphigenie auf Tauris (1899) and Die Braut von Messina, oder, Die feindlichen Brüder: ein Trauerspiel mit Chören / Schiller (1913).
Evgenii Semenovich Mollo (1904-1985), military historian and artist was born in Ufa, Russia. He left Russia to settle in Britain in 1922, where he worked as a cinema decorator, wartime camouflage specialist and engineer.