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A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.

Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.

A bargain and sale was an early form of conveyance often used by executors to convey land. The bargainee, or person to whom the land was bargained and sold, took possession, often referred to as becoming 'seised' of the land.

Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

The firm of Collyer Bristow and Company, solicitors of 4 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4DF, has been in existence, albeit under different names, since the late 18th Century. The earliest document in this collection dates from 1781, when the partners were Dyneley, Bell and Dyneley.

In the mid-19th Century a member of the Collyer Bristow family joined the company, at which time it was known as Coverdale, Lee and Collyer Bristow. Between 1876 and 1922 a succession of partners passed through the firm, it became first Collyer Bristow, Withers and Russell, then Collyer Bristow, Hill, Curtis and Dodds and Collyer Bristow, Curtis, Booth , Birks and Langley, before setting on Collyer Bristow and Company in 1922.

The firm of Collyer Bristow and Company, solicitors of 4 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4DF, has been in existence, albeit under different names, since the late 18th Century. The earliest document in this collection dates from 1781, when the partners were Dyneley, Bell and Dyneley.

In the mid-19th Century a member of the Collyer Bristow family joined the company, at which time it was known as Coverdale, Lee and Collyer Bristow. Between 1876 and 1922 a succession of partners passed through the firm, it became first Collyer Bristow, Withers and Russell, then Collyer Bristow, Hill, Curtis and Dodds and Collyer Bristow, Curtis, Booth , Birks and Langley, before setting on Collyer Bristow and Company in 1922.

William Collyns (d [1863]), physician

The company was established in 1872 at 11 Old Jewry Chambers. It moved in 1875 to 148 Gresham House, from 1958-63 at 167 Gresham House, and from 1964 at 69 Old Broad Street. It went into voluntary liquidation in 1974 and the liquidation was completed in 1982.

The fund was established in 1866 under the control of the trustees who were incorporated in 1899 and took over the business of the fund as the Colonial and Foreign Banks Guarantee Corporation. The business of the Corporation was transferred to the Alliance Assurance Company in 1920. The fund was based at 86 King William Street (1866-1900), 94 Gracechurch Street (1900-8) and 16 St Helen's Place (1908-20).

The fund was established in 1866 under the control of the trustees who were incorporated in 1899 and took over the business of the fund as the Colonial and Foreign Banks Guarantee Corporation. The business of the Corporation was transferred to the Alliance Assurance Company in 1920, which merged with the Sun Insurance Office to form Sun Alliance. The fund was based at 86 King William Street (1866-1900), 94 Gracechurch Street (1900-8) and 16 St Helen's Place (1908-20).

Colonial Research covers the papers relating to various councils and committees concerned with colonial research. The Colonial Social Science Research Council was established by the British Government at the end of World War Two to undertake research into the economic development of the colonies. The records held at the LSE appear to represent private sets of the Council's papers collected by its leading members, specifically Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders and Sir Arnold Plant. The Council was superceded by the Overseas Development Committee and various other councils and committees, represented by each section of the collection. Official Colonial Office records deposited at The National Archives may contain the Council's central archive.

The Colonial Intelligence League (1910-1919) was founded on the 23 Feb 1910 as the Committee of Colonial Intelligence for Educated Women, partly to deal with the perceived problem of 'surplus' women and partly to colonise South Africa with British citizens after the Boer War. Its aim was to investigate demand for services and personnel in diverse areas and provide relevant information for those women wishing to undertake careers abroad as domestic staff, teachers or clerical workers. The League was to work alongside other organisations such as the British Women's Emigration Association and the South African Colonisation Society that provided the machinery of emigration and its committee included members drawn from their ranks, as well as representatives of the Central Bureau of Employment for Women. However, in 1911 it became closely associated with the Headmistresses' Association. On the 2 Mar 1911 of that year, it was decided to dissolve, the League and re-establish the body under the name of the Colonial Intelligence League with an executive committee that was half constituted by members of the association. Branches were established in Edinburgh and Glasgow and local secretaries were also appointed in the provinces. In Dec 1915, finance, literature and county organisation subcommittees were established. The activities of the league were concentrated on emigration to Canada until 1914 and a farm settlement was established in the Okanagan Valley as a training centre - 'The Princess Patricia Ranch'. Prominent officers of Colonial Intelligence League included the Hon. Mrs Norman Grosvenor and Mrs John Buchan. Emigration dwindled during the First World War and in 1917 it was decided to form a federation with the British Women's Emigration Association and the South African Colonisation Society to be named the Joint Council of Women's Emigration Societies. This was to be a central body which co-ordinated women's emigration after the war and liase with the government. Full merger of the Colonial Intelligence League with the two other organisations did not occur until 1919, after government pressure was applied to centralise funding of the schemes and widen the scope of their activities. The amalgamation resulted in the creation of the Society for the Overseas Settlement of British Women.

Proposals to introduce income tax to Kenya Colony and to the Straits Settlements were made in 1933 and 1940 respectively. In the case of Kenya there was strong opposition from colonists working in trade and commerce, who viewed the proposed legislation as detrimental to their economic viability and a removal of one of the material benefits of living and working in the colony. The petition was spearheaded by Lord Francis Scott, a son of the Duke of Buccleuch, and a Member of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council.
In the Straits Settlements, while an increase in taxation was accepted in principle because of the outbreak of war, the petitioners viewed income tax as a method impossible to implement efectively and fairly, because of widespread corruption in the colony. They suggested (but did not specify) an alternative method of taxation which would be self-assessing.
In Fiji, schools for the large Indian community provided (in accordance with legislation) teaching of and in the Indian language of Hindustani only, despite there being significant numbers speaking the languages of South India, namely Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam. There had been moves to widen the teaching to include these languages in the 1930s, instigated by the then Governor, Sir Arthur Richards. Following Sir Arthur's transfer from the Colony, the matter remained in abeyance, and the petitioners sought to reactify this by appealing directly to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Archibald Campbell of Clathick took the additional family surname and arms of Colquhoun on his father's death in 1804, succeeding to the estate of Killermont. He was appointed Lord Advocate of Scotland in 1807, a post which he held until 1816. He died in 1820.

Patrick Colquhoun (1745-1820) was appointed a police magistrate in 1792 and posted to the office in Worship Street, Finsbury Square. In 1797 he was requested by the West India merchants to protect their property on the Thames from pillage. He put into operation a scheme projected by John Harriott, and in 1798 the marine police office was established at Wapping, with Harriott as resident magistrate and Colquhoun as receiver. The office was unpopular at first, and a riot took place at Wapping in October 1798. However, the establishment quickly proved effective in bringing law and order to the river.

The history of meteorological observations in Ceylon, in the form of rainfall measurement, dates back to year 1850. Systematic recording of observations started during 1866-1883 under the Survey General of Ceylon. The Colombo Observatory was set up in 1907 on Bullers Road (Bauddhaloka Mawatha) in Colombo. Since 1948 it has been part of the Government Department of Meteorology.

George Combe was born and educated in Edinburgh before practising as a lawyer. He first encountered phrenology in 1815 and, though initially sceptical, he and his brother Andrew soon became two of its leading exponents, co-founding the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820. George Combe lectured extensively on phrenology and its relationships with religion, science, education and social systems, and wrote several books, including The Constitution of Man (1828). The actress Sarah Siddons was his mother-in-law.

Harvey Trewythen Brabazon Combe was born in 1852, served in the East Sussex Regiment 1876-1897; JP for Sussex and Country Mayo; travelled widely in Europe, Asia and Australia; Fellow of the Royal Geogographical Society, 1881 and died in 1923.

Ralph Combes of Shepperton was a fisherman who died in 1719. His land seems to have passed to his relatives Richard Coombs of Sunbury, a malster and Ralph Coombs of Shepperton, a fisherman.

The British Chiefs of Staff (COS) and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, the supreme Anglo-American military strategic and operational authority during World War Two. The committee advised the governments of Britain and the US on matters of strategy, and also implemented the strategic decisions taken by them. In its highest capacity, the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee controlled operational strategy in the Mediterranean and European theatres, and during the Battle of the Atlantic, and held jurisdiction over grand strategic policy in all other areas where operational strategy was controlled by the COS or the JCS. The Combined Chiefs of Staff committee issued directives to its supreme commanders by acting through the chiefs of staff of the country that provided the commander. The decision to form the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) came in Dec 1941 at the ARCADIA Conference in Washington, DC, where the British Joint Staff Mission headed by Gen (later FM) Sir John Greer Dill developed with American representatives a combined office, secretariat, and planning staff. Eventually, a number of sub-committees were constituted as the war progressed, the most important of which were the Combined Intelligence Committee and the Combined Planning Staff. With the emergence of the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, it became necessary in the United States to form an American agency with comparable decision making structure to that of the British Chiefs of Staff (COS). This was formally inaugurated in Feb 1942 as the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee, its first members being Gen George Catlett Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff , Adm Harold Raynsford Stark and Adm Ernest Joseph King, US Navy, and Lt Gen Henry H 'Hap' Arnold, US Army Air Forces.

Born 28 August 1897; BA honours, University of Cambridge; MSc with distinction, Mathematics, King's College London, 1925; Assistant Lecturer, and Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, King's College London, 1926-1937; Assistant to the Secretary of King's College London and King's College for Women, London, 1937-1947; Registrar, King's College London, 1947-1962; President, King's College Rowing Club; died 1986.

Publications: Editor of Count me in: numeracy in education (Queen Anne Press, London, 1968); Mathematics in education and industry. A survey of regional reports prepared by the chairman [ie J T Combridge] for the Schools and Industry Committee of the Mathematical Association (London, 1969).

Born in London, 1920; educated at Highgate School, Trinity College Cambridge (Robert Styring Scholar, Classics, and Senior Scholar, Natural Sciences), and the London Hospital (Scholar); visited Buenos Aires and West Africa, 1936; refused military service in World War Two, 1939-1945; 1st Class Natural Science Tripos, Part I, 1940; 2nd Class Natural Science Tripos, 1st Division (Pathology), 1941; BA, 1943; married Ruth Muriel Harris, 1943; Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Cambridge, 1944; Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and Licentiate, Royal College of Physicians, London, 1944; MA, Cambridge, 1945; Diploma in Child Health, London, 1945; one son, Nicholas, born, 1946; Lecturer in Physiology, London Hospital Medical College, 1948-1951; PhD in Biochemistry, London, 1949; Honorary Research Associate, Department of Zoology, University College London, 1951-1973; DSc in Gerontology, London, 1963; Director of Research in Gerontology, Zoology Department, University College London, 1966-1973; President, British Society for Research on Ageing, 1967; first marriage dissolved and married Jane Tristram Henderson (d 1991), 1973; Clinical Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University, 1974-1983; Professor, Department of Pathology, University of California School of Medicine, Irvine, 1976-1978; Consultant psychiatrist, Brentwood VA Hospital, Los Angeles, 1978-1981; Adjunct Professor, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California at Los Angeles, from 1980; Consultant, Ventura County Hospital (Medical Education), from 1981; member of the Royal Society of Medicine; member of the American Psychiatric Association; a prolific author, best known for books on sexual behaviour - in which he advocated greater sexual freedom, including the bestselling and widely translated The Joy of Sex and its sequels - but wrote on a diverse range of subjects; an anarchist, and published works on anarchy; a pacifist, and active in the movement for nuclear disarmament; died in Banbury, Oxfordshire, 2000. Publications include: Fiction: No Such Liberty (1941); The Almond Tree (1943); The Powerhouse (1944); Letters from an Outpost (1947); On This Side Nothing (1949); A Giant's Strength (1952); Come Out to Play (1961); Tetrarch (1980); Imperial Patient (1987); The Philosophers (1989). Poetry: France and Other Poems (1942); A Wreath for the Living (1943); Elegies (1944); The Song of Lazarus (USA, 1945); The Signal to Engage (1947); And All But He Departed (1951); Haste to the Wedding (1961); Poems (1979); Mikrokosmos (1994). Plays: Into Egypt (1942); Cities of the Plain (1943); Gengulphus (1948). Songs: Are You Sitting Comfortably? (1962). Non-fiction: The Silver River (1938); Art and Social Responsibility (1946); First Year Physiological Technique (1948); The Novel and Our Time (1948); Barbarism and Sexual Freedom (1948); Sexual Behaviour in Society (1950); The Pattern of the Future (1950); Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State (1950); The Biology of Senescence (1956); Darwin and the Naked Lady (1961); Sex in Society (1963); Ageing, the Biology of Senescence (1964); The Process of Ageing (1964); Nature and Human Nature (1966); The Anxiety Makers (1967); The Joy of Sex (1972); More Joy (1974); A Good Age (1977); as editor, Sexual Consequences of Disability (1978); I and That: Notes on the Biology of Religion (1979); A practice of Geriatric Psychiatry (1979); The Facts of Love (1980); What is a Doctor? (1980); Reality and Empathy (1984); with Jane T Comfort, What about Alcohol? (1983); The New Joy of Sex (1991); Against Power and Death (1994). Translation: The Koka Shastra (1964).

Created (or rather re-activated) in 1942 by the Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, the Commission des prisonniers, internés et civils (Commission PIC) was mandated to deal with all questions relating to the treatment of POWs and civilian internees (which included victims of racial persecution and political detainees). It was incumbent upon the PIC to pass on all necessary instructions to those around the world tasked by the CICR to deal with POWs and internees. The PIC acted in the name of the CICR with respect to the practical execution of the latter's directives. It also had to take initiatives in numerous cases where conventional arrangements either no longer existed or had become inooperatve. During the Second World War the PIC worked closely in collaboration with the Division d'assistance spéciale (DAS) to provide material and moral assistance to victims of racial persecution not protected by the Geneva Convention.

In effect up to 1942-1943, questions relating to the persecution of Europe's Jews as well as hostages and political detainees had been dealt with by a variety of different agencies. From 1942 the PIC was charged with the principal questions relating to victims of racial and political persecution. Its activities continued up to the immediate post war period where it became involved with repatriation of deportees.

In addition the Service des colis aux camps de concentration (Service CCC) was created in 1943 and integrated into the DAS in 1944. This organisation worked specifically towards providing assistance for Jews and other civilians in Nazi concentration camps.

The Comité voor Bijzondere Joodsche Belangen (the Committee for Special Jewish Affairs) was founded in Spring 1933 by Dr David Cohen with the object of bringing together all the various Jewish interest groups to co-ordinate protest activities against the persecution of Jews in Germany and to deal with the burgeoning refugee problem. Out of this organisation was born a second, the Comité voor Joodsche Vluechtlingen (the Committee for Jewish Refugees), which was responsible for the day to day running of the relief effort in Amsterdam. Its remit grew to include assisting Jewish refugees nationwide and representing their interests to the government.

This collection includes microfilmed documents compiled by Peter Nash, a post-graduate student in the Department of War Studies, King's College London, from the Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC, relating to US naval operations in Europe, 1941-1946. In 1946, the Commander, US Naval Forces Europe, submitted to the Director of Naval History, draft chapters of an official history of US Naval Forces in Europe that came under the command of the Special Naval Observer, London; the Commander US Naval Forces in Europe; and, the Commander US 12 Fleet. US naval representation in Britain evolved rapidly from 1941 to 1946, and eventually resulted in a close collaborative effort between the Royal Navy and the US Navy. In 1940 US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt arranged to exchange fifty over-age destroyers for US rights to establish naval bases in British possessions in the Western Hemisphere. With the ABC-1 Plan, Jan-Mar 1941, American, British, and Canadian representatives agreed that if the US entered the war a joint strategy would be pursued in which Germany would be the prime target. The Plan also provided for a US Northwest Escort Group and for US submarines for Gibraltar. Anglo-American naval strategy unified further still with the Navy Basic War Plan, or Rainbow 5. This plan envisaged the US working closely with Britain to effect the decisive defeat of Germany and Italy, while a defensive strategy would be maintained in the Pacific until success against the European Axis powers had been assured. Advanced by US Rear Adm Kelly Turner, the plan formulated the Atlantic-first argument and thus ensured a close US co-ordination with Britain. In addition, Rainbow 5 gave detailed directions for the deployment of US forces to their respective military stations if the US entered the war against Germany. For example, a Special Naval Observer in London was designated the 'Prospective Commander of US Naval Forces in North European Water' on 11 Mar 1941 and from Apr-Sep 1941, a series of Special [US] Naval Officers were posted throughout Britain to liase with British naval officers on matters of naval co-operation and security. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941, elaborate plans for US naval bases in Britain were modified and many of the forces originally assigned to Europe were directed to the Pacific. Throughout 1942, however, Anglo- American discussions decided the policy control and command structure for the Allied powers in the common struggle against Germany. The Combined Chiefs of Staff would be established in Washington, DC, to determine grand strategy, and high ranking officers would represent the US whilst stationed in London. On 17 Mar 1942, Adm Harold Raynsford Stark was detached as the Chief of Naval Operations and assigned as Commander, [US] Naval Forces in Europe. As Chief of Naval Operations since 1939, he had taken the initiative in bringing about the military staff conversations between the US and British Chiefs of Staff in 1941 and was therefore considered by Adm Ernest King, Commander in Chief, US Fleet (later Commander in Chief, Atlantic Command), the most logical choice for liaison duties in Britain. From 1942 to 1946, COMNAVEU closely determined naval strategy and operations with Admiralty and created an effective diplomatic and military liaison office, which would represent US and Allied forces in Europe. This collection includes microfilmed documents from an official history of US naval administration in the European theatre. It was written by historians selected by COMNAVEU and the Director of Naval History, based primarily on official American and British documents collected and disseminated during the war. When completed in 1946, copies of the history were sent to the US Secretary of the Navy; the US Chief of Naval Operations; the Allied-US Naval Attaché in London (ALUSNA); Commander [US] Naval Forces in Europe (COMNAVEU); Commander [US] Naval Forces Germany (COMNAVFORGER); and Commander [US] Naval Forces Mediterranean (COMNAVMED).

The Commercial Gas Light and Coke Company was formed in 1837 to combat the British Gas Light and Coke Company after it had obtained a monopoly. Commercial later bought the British's London district for a knockdown figure. Deed of settlement, 1839. Incorporated by Act of Parliament, 1847. Nationalised 1949, placed under control of North Thames Gas Board.

The Royal Commercial Travellers' Schools at Pinner derived from a small school for the orphans of commercial travellers founded on the initiative of John Robert Cuffley in 1845 at Wanstead, then in Essex. In 1855 the foundation stone of a larger school with accommodation for 140 was laid by the Prince Consort on a site in Hatch End. The building, in red brick with stone dressings in the Gothic style, was enlarged in 1868, 1876-7, 1878, 1905, and 1907. There were 365 boys and girls, all of them boarders, in 1937. The school, which provided a grammar school education, was renamed the Royal Pinner School, Hatch End, in 1965. By this date it was in financial difficulties and it was closed in 1967, although a Royal Pinner School Foundation was set up to help pupils who had been receiving a free education. The buildings were divided between Harrow College of Further Education and a Roman Catholic primary school

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 265-269 (available online).

The Royal Commercial Travellers' Schools at Pinner derived from a small school for the orphans of commercial travellers founded on the initiative of John Robert Cuffley in 1845 at Wanstead, then in Essex. In 1855 the foundation stone of a larger school with accommodation for 140 was laid by the Prince Consort on a site in Hatch End. The building, in red brick with stone dressings in the Gothic style, was enlarged in 1868, 1876-7, 1878, 1905, and 1907. There were 365 boys and girls, all of them boarders, in 1937. The school, which provided a grammar school education, was renamed the Royal Pinner School, Hatch End, in 1965. By this date it was in financial difficulties and it was closed in 1967, although a Royal Pinner School Foundation was set up to help pupils who had been receiving a free education. The buildings were divided between Harrow College of Further Education and a Roman Catholic primary school

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 265-269 (available online).

Commercial Union Assurance Company Limited was based at 24-26 Cornhill (in 1901). Established in 1861, it transacted fire, life and marine insurance.

Commercial Union acquired the following companies (with the date of acquisition in brackets):
Accident Insurance Company Limited (1906);
Edinburgh Assurance Company Limited (1918);
Guardian Plate Glass Insurance Company (1953);
Hand-in-Hand Fire and Life Insurance Society (1905);
Imperial Live Stock and General Insurance Company Limited (1912);
Liverpool Victoria Insurance Corporation Limited (1913);
North British and Mercantile Insurance Company Limited (1959);
Northern Assurance Company Limited (1968);
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation Limited (1910);
Palatine Insurance Company Limited (1900);
Union Assurance Society (1907);
World Auxiliary Insurance Corporation Limited (1971).

Lord Lovat took part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and was impeached by the House of Lords. He was executed on Tower Hill, London, on 9th April 1747. His son, whom he had involved in the rebellion was pardoned in 1750 and was granted his father's forfeited lands in 1774.

The remit of the Commission of Enquiry into the Facilities for Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies (Scarborough Commission) was to research facilities available in Britain and elsewhere for Oriental, East European and African studies, surveying existing facilities using questionnaires, and discussing potential needs with individuals, companies, government departments, trade associations and other organisations, including universities in South Africa and North America. Its Chairman was the Earl of Scarborough and the Secretary was Mr R T D Lechard. Its members included Dr B Ifor Evans. The Commission was appointed on 14 December 1944, and reported in 1945.

The Commission on the Future of the Voluntary Sector was initiated [in 1994] by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations with the objective of identifying the distinctive nature of voluntary organisations and determining the range of work which they might be expected to achieve, and thus allowing the Commission to influence public policy. A Commission of 12 individuals with experience in the voluntary sector was appointed, with Jane Kershaw as the secretary. It collected written and oral evidence and also arranged local meetings and visits. Meeting the challenge of change: voluntary action into the 21st century was published in Jul 1996.

The earliest surviving mention of a public official charged with auditing government expenditure is a reference to the Auditor of the Exchequer in 1314. The Auditors of the Imprest were established under Queen Elizabeth I in 1559 with formal responsibility for auditing Exchequer payments. This system gradually lapsed and in 1780, Commissioners for Auditing the Public Accounts were appointed by statute. From 1834, the Commissioners worked in tandem with the Comptroller of the Exchequer, who was charged with controlling the issue of funds to the government.

The Commissioners for the Victualling of the Navy were responsible for providing supplies for navy ships. They constructed breweries, slaughterhouses, and bakeries to provide beer, salted meat and ship's biscuit.

The term 'customs' applied to customary payments or dues of any kind, regal, episcopal or ecclesiastical until it became restricted to duties payable to the King upon export or import of certain articles of commerce. By ordinance of 21 January 1643, the regulation of the collection of customs was entrusted to a parliamentary committee whose members were appointed commissioners and collectors of customs forming a Board of Customs. This and succeeding committees appointed by Parliament until 1660 and thereafter by the Crown, functioned until 1662, when those who had been serving as commissioners became lessees of a new form of customs. This continued until 1671 when negotiations for a new farm broke down and a Board of Customs for England and Wales was created by Letter Patent.

Early Commissioners of Sewers were solely concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, not with the removal of sewage in the modern sense. In 1531 an Act of Sewers was passed which set out in great detail the duties and powers of Commissioners and governed their work until the 19th century, amended by various local acts. Gradually a permanent pattern emerged in the London area of seven commissions, five north and two south of the Thames, with, after the Great Fire, a separate commission for the City of London. The Commissioners had responsibility to undertake the construction of sewers and drains as well as the paving, cleaning and lighting of the City streets. Its powers were greatly extended by subsequent Acts of Parliament.

Under the City of London Sewers Act 1897, the Commission was dissolved with effect from January 1898 and its duties and responsibilities transferred to the Common Council of the Corporation of London and subsequently exercised by a separate Public Health Department until 1947 when the department was merged in the Town Clerk's Office.

The licences were for one year, and were issued by the Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes in accordance with 50 Geo. III. c.41: the Hawkers Act 1810.

Licences for hawkers and pedlars were first introduced in 1697. They were managed by the Board of Commissioners of Hawkers, Pedlars and Petty Chapmen. In 1810 this Board was replaced by the Board of Hackney Coach Commissioners, and then in 1832 the licencing work was taken over by the Board of Stamps and Taxes.

William Cubitt (1791-1863) was a building contractor and Member of Parliament. He also became involved in the City of London, where his building firm had offices. He was sheriff in 1847, followed by alderman for Langbourn ward in 1851. In 1860-1 Cubitt was elected Lord Mayor of London. He was so popular that he was re-elected for a second term. He was noted for generous hospitality and dedication to fundraising for charities supporting working people, including coal miners and those affected by the problems to the cotton trade caused by the American Civil War.

The UK Committee for Freedom in Mozambique was formed in 1968 at the request of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), which had launched an armed national liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in 1964. It expanded a year later to cover Angola and Guine-Bissau, where armed struggle was also under way, renaming itself as the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guine (CFMAG).

CFMAG operated as a campaigning pressure group, aiming to build broad based political support for FRELIMO, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the African Independence Party of Guine-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC). It worked with all political parties, the labour and student movements, churches, NGOs and many others. It had close relations with the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and encouraged a regional perspective for the future of Southern Africa. It organised visits by liberation movement representatives and various specific political and material aid campaigns, culminating in the End the Alliance Campaign of 1972/3.

Following the 25 April coup in Portugal in 1974 and the subsequent negotiations between the new Portuguese government and the liberation movements, the right of the colonies to full and immediate independence was acknowledged. CFMAG organised a victory party at St Pancras Town Hall on 25 June 1975, Mozambique's Independence Day, and closed down, its objectives achieved.

During the following phase the Mozambique, Angola and Guine Information Centre (MAGIC) was established with support from the independent governments to carry out educational and information work. Political solidarity work continued through first the Angola Solidarity Committeee and then the Mozambique-Angola Committee, with particular emphasis on supporting MPLA during its second war of liberation against the South African army.

The Comité de defense de Juifs (Committee for Jewish Defence, CJD) worked with the national resistance movement and was the largest Jewish defence movement in Belgium during World War Two. The organisation hid Jews, fought as partisans, forged identity papers and food ration tickets, obtained funds and set up escape routes. In the cultural realm, CJD distributed information and propaganda material, established a lending library, and maintained a Jewish press, printing in Yiddish, French and Flemish.

The Committee for Peace in Nigeria (CPN) was an all-party, representative committee established as a result of concern raised by the conflict between Biafra and Nigeria, in the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). The Committee acted as an independent body, but was closely associated with the work of the Movement for Colonial Freedom (MCF). Lord Fenner Brockway chaired both the MCF and the CPN. Members of the CPN included leading figures from all three political parties, representatives from the missionary societies (Anglican, Catholic and Free Church) working in Nigeria, former members of the Colonial Service in Nigeria including two ex-Governors General, business representatives and other notable figures. The CPN also included Africans from both the Federal and the Biafran sides of the conflict.

The Committee was active from 1968, campaigning for the intervention of the British Government and international governments in the Nigerian conflict. Representatives of the CPN met with both sides of the conflict and representatives from the British Commonwealth Office, and in 1968 sent an all-party deputation to the British Prime Minister. A result of the deputation was that the Rt. Hon. James Griffiths MP and Lord Brockway met with Colonel Ojukwu of Biafra (3-12 December 1968) and General Gowon of the Nigerian Federal Government (18-22 December 1968) to put forward their practical proposals for a ceasefire.

The CPN forwarded a set of practical proposals around which a ceasefire should be based. These included the presence of an international peace-keeping force; the cessation of the supply of arms by the British Government to either side in the conflict; that the government should take the initiative in securing the agreement of other countries to stop supplying arms; the demilitarisation of routes for relief supplies and an international relief effort to be planned on a government and UN level, for those areas suffering from starvation.

The Committee of Plundered Ministers was set up by the Puritan party in 1643, during the English Civil War, for the purpose of replacing those clergy who were loyal to the King. THese displaced clergy were described as 'scandalous', though this mainly related to their political and theological views. The Committee heard evidence, often from local parishioners, of the misdeeds of the parish priest. If the allegations were proved, the rector would be removed from his position, and his goods and monies sequestrated.
Dr Henry Watkins was the Rector of Sutton-upon-Brailes, Gloucestershire (transferred to the county of Warwickshire in 1844).

See the corporate history for Committee for Promoting the Higher Education of Women, 1869-1871

The creation of the Committee for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (1869-1871) was part of a wider debate about gender and education. Until the end of the nineteenth century, most middle-class girls were educated at home by the family, unlike their brothers who routinely attended university, and the schools which did cater for them were generally of a very poor academic standard, with emphasis on 'accomplishments' such as embroidery and music. However, some such as Louisa Martindale, tried to start her own schools for girls with more academically demanding curricula. Despite the failure of Martindale's exercise, Mary Francis Buss followed in her footsteps, however, when, at the age of twenty-three she founded the North London Collegiate School for Ladies with similar aims while in 1858 Dorothea Beale became Principal of Cheltenham Ladies College and transformed it into one of the most academically successful schools in the country. In 1865 Beale began collaborating with Emily Davis, Barbara Bodichon, Helen Taylor, Francis Buss and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson in forming a debating society which became known as the Kensington Society. There, these women who would be crucial in the development of these schools met for the first time to discuss this and other topics. At the same time, they also began researching the question of the entrance of women into higher education. The Queen's College in London had already opened in 1847 to provide a superior level of education to governesses and had proved a success without being an accredited institution of higher education itself. In this context and influenced by the London group, a large number of Ladies' Educational Associations sprang up throughout the 1860s and 1870s. Those in Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, etc were brought together in 1867 by Anne Clough as the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women and its members included Josephine and George Butler as well as Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy. This council began setting up a series of lectures and a university-based examination for women who wished to become teachers and which would later develop into a university Extension Scheme, despite most universities' continued general refusal to open their degree examinations to women. In the South, other small groups were formed to work for the entrance of women into tertiary education. One of these was the Committee for Promoting the Higher Education of Women, which met from 1869. Its committee included Lady Monteagle, Mrs Blunt, Mrs Brookfield, Mrs Stair-Douglas, Misses Foude, Crawford and Legge and the Rev Blunt. Amongst its activities it carried our social lobbying and, more practically, organised a series of lectures on subjects such as science and the classics. It may have been the establishment in 1871 of the residence of Newnham College for women who were attending lectures at Cambridge by Henry Sidgewick that prompted the cessation of that particular group's activities in that year, though the overall movement for educational parity continued well into the twentieth century.

The Committee for Jewish Refugees in Holland was created out of the Committee for Special Jewish Affairs, an organisation established to represent the interests of all Jewish interest groups. Dr David Cohen, a leading member of the Dutch Jewish community and Professor of Ancient History at Amsterdam University, was founder of both organisations.

The Worshipful Company of Pewterers is one of the oldest livery companies in the City of London. The earliest reference to it dates from 1348, though the members of the craft had probably formed a guild some time before this. The Company's own records are extant from 1451, and its first Royal Charter was granted by King Edward IV on 20th January 1474. In the Middle Ages, the use of pewter was unrivalled as a material for plates, dishes and drinking vessels. The height of its popularity was the late seventeenth century, after which the trade slowly declined.

This miscellaneous collection of reports document the situation of German Jewish refugees in Portugal in the 1930s. Reference is made to the Committee for the Aid of Jewish Refugees and to its founder Augusto d'Esaguy.

The prosecution of what became known as the 'Riga Ghetto Case' (LG Hamburg vom 29.12.1951, [50] 14/51) was significant because it signalled a change in policy on the prosecution of war crimes trials in Great Britain. The British originally planned to prosecute the five defendants accused of the most serious crimes, in a Control Commission Court (ie for crimes against humanity) and let the 11 lesser accused be tried in a German Spruchkammer for membership of illegal organisations. After some delay, the decision was made in Spring 1948 by the Foreign Office to hand over the prosecution of all the defendants in the Riga Ghetto case to the German authorities, stating that the German courts were perfectly capable of undertaking the work.

The Committee for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes in Baltic Countries, (made up of former inmates of camps in Riga/ Buchenwald and formerly known as the Group of Baltic Survivors in Great Britain), formed a sub-committee, which met in London, to assist in the investigation of crimes for this trial. Its activities consisted of contacting potential witnesses and gathering statements and affidavits in support of the prosecution. At one point, the General Secretary of the Committee, Josef Berman, a Latvian Jew and former inmate of Riga and Buchenwald, was asked to go to Hamburg to meet the investigating judge in the case. Much to the latter's dismay, most of the statements which had been gathered over the past years could not be used by the investigating judge because they apparently did not meet the rigorous criteria demanded by German courts.

The trial outcome consisted of the following: two defendants were given life sentences, one was acquitted, one was given 1 year 8 months. Whilst many potential defendants had already died, or in certain cases had escaped - such as Herbert Cukurs, who fled to Brazil in 1946 and was, in 1965, killed by an Israeli Mossad hit squad - some escaped after being released from custody by the British, the most important of whom was Viktor Arajs, who was finally convicted at the Hamburg Landesgericht in 1979 and sentenced to life imprisonment for mass murder. An additional barrier to prosecutions for crimes committed in Riga, was the fact that much of the relevant documentation had been appropriated by the Russian authorities, and was therefore inaccessible. Many potential defendants would have out-lived the period of the statute of limitations (in the cases of offences that carried a sentence less than life imprisonment) or would have died by the time this material was made available. A reluctance, for political reasons, to extradite suspects to Eastern Block countries presented a further barrier to prosecutions.

A militia force was raised from the civilian population of a county, in order to supplement the regular army in cases of emergency. In Middlesex they were called out at times of unrest.

The Committee for the Survey of the Old Memorials of Greater London (known as the London Survey Committee and founded in 1894) was entrusted, following a conference in December 1896, with the task of publishing, with the assistance of the London County Council, a series of volumes describing buildings of historic and architectural interest in London. Volume 1 dealing with Bromley-by-Bow appeared in 1902 but the arrangements for LCC co-operation fell into abeyance and Volume 2 dealing with part of Chelsea was published in 1909 at the Survey Committee's own expense. Later that year, an agreement was arrived at between the Council and the Committee, the details of which will be found in the Council minutes for 21 December 1909, pp. 1511-1512, and 26 October 1910, p. 782. This involved the setting up of a joint publishing committee consisting of three representatives of the London Survey Committee and four representatives of the London County Council.

In 1952 (see Council minutes for 21 October 1952, pp. 475-576), the Survey Committee indicated that, for various reasons, it was unable to continue its participation in the work and the continued publication of volumes became the sole responsibility of the London County Council. The Joint Publishing Committee was accordingly discontinued and its functions transferred to the Town Planning Committee. The London Survey Committee was dissolved as from 1 July 1965.

The Survey of London is currently organised by English Heritage.

The Committee for War Foster Children (Commissie voor Oorlogspleegkinderen) was established by the Dutch government on 13 August 1945. The committee's objective was to ensure that the fate of the children orphaned as a result of the war and the Holocaust be secured in the children's best interest. The stance taken by the committee was controversial from the outset.

Jewish groups felt that they were under represented on the Committee given that 84% of the children were Jewish. They argued that Jewish children, instead of being allowed to go to Jewish foster parents, were encouraged to stay with their existing (non- Jewish) foster parents. The committee, determined to be non-denominational, argued that if the children were happy in their adopted, non-Jewish environment, and it could not be proven that they came from orthodox family backgrounds, it would be in their best interests to stay put.

The Committee of Inquiry was established in March 1993 "to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into the policies and practices of the Council of Legal Education (CLE) and the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL). The creation of the Committee was partly in response to a large disparity in pass rates between black and ethnic minority students and white students on the Bar Vocational Course (BVC), uncovered by ethnic monitoring of the 1991/1992 intake, and partly in response to the large body of complaints about the course which had been lodged with the General Council of the Bar, and the CLE itself." (Final Report, Apr 1994, Introduction 3.1 p.8). The Inquiry was chaired by Dame Jocelyn Barrow (Deputy Chairman, Broadcasting Standards Council), from whom the short title "Barrow Inquiry" derives. Its members were Ruth Deech (Principal, St Anne's College Oxford), Jo Larbie (Director of Legal Education and Training of the Legal Resources Group), Rajeev Loomba (course leader for the Legal Practice Course, University of Northumbria) and David J Smith (Senior Fellow, Policy Studies Institute). The Inquiry's terms of reference were to identify the reasons for disparities in the level of performance of ethnic minorities on the BVC from 1991/92, to investigate allegations of racial discrimination and to investigate and make recommendations on teaching, assessment and pastoral care of students and for the further development of an equal opportunities policy by the CLE. The Inquiry employed a number of research methods as follows: 1. Statistical analysis, using as a starting point Dr Christopher Dewberry's 1991/1992 analysis of disparities between white and ethnic minority student pass rates; the Inquiry conducted further similar surveys and analyses; 2. Qualitative research, including oral hearings of evidence such as interviews with students, staff, assessors, CLE and General Council of the Bar members, written submissions from interested parties, and comments from students, followed by an analysis by Dr Robin Oakley; 3. Direct observation of teaching and assessment; 4. Collection and analysis of teaching materials relating to the BVC; 5. Following the Interim Report of September 1993, provision of a formal submission from the ICSL/CLE on teaching, assessment and pastoral care; 6. Consideration of the complaints of 29 individual students; 7. Comparison of the BVC with other jurisdictions, in the UK and abroad.

Publications: Equal Opportunities at the Inns of Court School of Law: the Final Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Equal Opportunities on the Bar Vocational Course (April 1994).

The Committee of Inquiry into Reading and the Use of English, chaired by Sir Alan Bullock, was appointed by the then Secretary of State for Education, Margaret Thatcher, against a background of anxiety over falling standards. Its remit was to consider all aspects of teaching the use of English, including reading, writing and speech. It reported in 1974 and the final report was published in 1975 as A Language for Life (London, 1975).

The Committee of Inquiry into Statutory Smallholdings was established by the Ministry of Agriculture in July 1963. Its members were: Professor Michael Wise (chairman), Professor of Geography at the London School of Economics, Alfred W H Allen, General Secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, D Ll Carey Evans, farmer and member of the National Farmers' Union County Executive, Major D J Cowen, land agent, W A Shail, Treasurer of the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington and Hugh T Williams, Vice-Principal and Bursar of the Seale-Hayne Agriculture College, Devon. H W Durrant was appointed as Secretary, D J Palmer as Assistant Secretary and D A Hole as Assessor. The Committee's terms of reference were to report on the working of existing legislation relating to smallholdings provided by County Councils and other smallholdings authorities and to investigate the economic position of smallholdings estates. It was also asked to advise on the future provision that should be made for smallholdings, on the form of future financial support and on the division of administrative responsibility between central and local government or other smallholdings authorities. The Committee's enquiry included an investigation of the origins of smallholdings policies and the results of smallholdings legislation; a study of the financial position of the smallholdings authorities based mainly on questionnaires; a study of the management costs of smallholdings estates; a survey of the social and economic position of smallholders; a study of the geographical distribution of the smallholdings estates; visits to the smallholdings estates of 14 local authorities; a critical review of written and oral evidence submitted.

The Committee's First Report (First Report: Statutory smallholdings provided by local authorities in England and Wales, HMSO, Cmnd 2936, 1966) dealt with statutory smallholdings managed by the County Councils. Their Second Report (Final Report Statutory Smallholdings provided by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, HMSO, Cmnd 3303, 1967) was concerned with the cooperative smallholdings of the Land Settlement Association.