Wood was a student at the Royal College of Science from 1906 to 1909. From 1910 to 1960 he was a member of staff of the Physics Department at University College London.
Wood's studies of x-ray and radium therapy at the Royal Cancer Hospital, Fulham Road, London, led to her appointment in 1934 as Director of Radium Beam Therapy Research at the London Radium Institute, using radium from the Belgian Congo. In 1941 the work was moved to Hammersmith Hospital and renamed the Radiotherapeutic Research Unit, responsible solely to the Medical Research Council. Wood remained the Director and also directed the Hospital's radiology department until her retirement in 1962. Under her, the unit carried out trials of teleradium, introduced the use of the electron linear accelerator for supervoltage therapy and developed the first medical cyclotron for studies with short-lived radio-isotopes, for neutron radiobiology and neutron therapy. Further biographical details can be found in the obituaries in the British Medical Journal and the Lancet.
Charles Wood was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire in 1800. He was educated at Eton and at Oriel College, Oxford. He entered Parliament as Liberal MP for Great Grimsby in 1826, subsequently serving as MP for Wareham, Dorset (1831-1832), Halifax (1832-1865) and Ripon (1865-1866). He also held several cabinet posts, being successively Chancellor of the Exchequer (1846-1852), President of the Board of Control (1852-1855), First Lord of the Admiralty (1855-1858) and Secretary of State for India (1859-1866). He was created a baronet in 1846 and entered the House of Lords as Viscount Halifax in 1866. In general his policies were progressive but not radical. His wife, Mary (1807-1884), was the daughter of the 2nd Earl Grey.
W C Wontner-Smith was a resident of Thaxted, Essex.
Mr Wong Hoi Wah is in his fifties and now retired. He lives in London with his family. Mr Wong's father was one of the seamen who worked on the British merchant cargo ships supplying Hong Kong and Europe before the Second World War. The photograph was taken on board the ship on which the late Mr Wong senior worked.
The Women's Trade Union League was established by Mrs Emma Patterson in 1874, as the Women's Protective and Provident League. By the 1890s ten London Unions, and over thirty provincial unions were affiliated, from Bookbinding, Shirt and Collar Making, Tailoring, Dressmaking and Milinery, Cigar Making, Match and Matchbox Making, Ropemaking, Weaving, Laundry, Boot and Shoe Making, Silk Working, Upholstery, Lace Making, Pottery, Paper Making and Shop Working. The League was absorbed into the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1921.
The Tax Resistance League was established in 1909 with the aim of organising female resistance to taxation levied without any correspondent representation through voting rights. The organisation carried on a form of protest that dated back to 1870 when the Priestman sisters refused to pay income tax. The foundation occurred at a meeting held by Louisa Garrett Anderson that was attended by supporters of the Women's Freedom League including Cicely Hamilton and Dr Kate Aslam. By July 1910 the League had 104 members. Those who followed its principles, and whose actions extended to refusing to pay for certain types of licences, Inhabited House Duty, dog licenses, servants licences, etc were liable to have goods seized or be put in prison. House clearances by bailiffs were used as an opportunity to hold open-air suffrage meetings and the group was also involved in resistance to the census in 1911. The League held meetings in the premises of both the National Union for Women's Suffrage Societies and the Women's Social and Political Union, but overtures to many local organisations were refused due to opposition to the illegality of their actions. It held conferences in 1911 and 1912 and became part of the Federated Council of Women's Suffrage in 1912. At the outbreak of the First World War, an urgency committee ordered that the League's activities be suspended and a subsequent meeting of members confirmed this resolution, though the resolution was only passed by one vote. No more meetings were held until 1916 when they took part in the Consultative Committee of Constitutional Women's Suffrage Societies established by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in response to the government proposed changes to the national electoral register at the end of the war. A final meeting was held in 1918 after the vote was granted to women in order to officially wind up the organisation and dispose of its assets.
The Women's Research and Resources Centre (WRRC) was established in Jul 1975 as a library, information service and meeting place for people interested in developing Women's Studies, feminist research and the questions surrounding issues of sex equality and discrimination. In 1983 the name was changed to the Feminist Library.
The Women's Publicity Planning Association (WPPA) (1939-1946) was formed after a meeting of representatives from existing women's organisations in Dec 1939 led by Margery Corbett-Ashby and Rebecca Sieff. Its aim was to increase the flow of information and views between women's groups both nationally and internationally. A planning committee chaired by Corbett-Ashby commissioned articles by and about women which were sent to the Ministry of Information for publication in government news sheets. However, when, in 1940, this proved unsatisfactory, the group took over the newspaper of the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship, the International Women's News (which had ceased running due to war conditions).
The aim was to 'enable women to make their work known to others as an encouragement and rouse all women to a sense of individual and collective responsibility in the planning of a new world.' For the purposes of publication, the WPPA was incorporated as a company in Jul 1940 and Seiff was appointed both Chair of the company and of the Executive Committee at this time. Throughout the war, the WPPA acted as an umbrella group and mouthpiece for the whole range of wartime women's issues. In the early years the group supported new types of work which women were undertaking or could aspire to, but at the same time they raised issues concerned with evacuation problems, and from 1941 the newspaper's 'After the war' column raised reconstruction topics such as education and childcare. Other activities included involvement in the campaign for Equal Compensation for War Injuries in 1941 and in the Equal Citizenship Campaign Committee. In Jan 1942 a sub-committee was established after a meeting with Dr Edith Summerskill which would later become the independent Women for Westminster group Jun 1943. The group also commissioned and published Vera Douie's survey 'The Lesser Half'. On 31 Dec 1945 the assets and running of the International Women's News was handed back to the International Alliance of Women. After the war ended the WPPA was not actively involved in any further campaigns but was never formally wound up.
The first meeting of the Women's Provisional Club (1924-1984) took place at the Samson Clark Building, Mortimer Street, London, on 8 Feb 1924. Many of the founding members were business and professional women. The founder, Mrs Ethel Wood CBE (d 1970), was the Director of Samson Clark Co. from 1921-1928 and then Director and Chair of Super Garages Ltd. The firs Chair of the Club was Margaret Haig Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda (1883-1958), who was the owner-editor of the political magazine Time and Tide. Mrs Helen Archdale (1876-1949) was a journalist and militant suffragette. Dr Winifred Cullis (1875-1956) became Professor Emeritus of Physiology at the Royal Free Hospital, University of London from 1903. She was the founder of the British Federation of University Women in 1907.
Although, individually, these women wanted to achieve equal status with their professional male counterparts, the WPC was not overtly a political group. The objectives of the Club were to:
a) encourage and foster high ethical standards in business and professions.
b) encourage and foster the 'ideal of service' as the basis for enterprise.
c) quicken an interest in public welfare and to co-operate with others in civic, social and industrial developments.
Any business or professional women of British nationality could be members. There was also honorary membership status. The Club arranged fortnightly meetings, with a speaker, at various restaurants in London. These were initially luncheon gatherings and then became dinner functions. An Annual General Meeting was held in the early spring. The Executive Committee met at least four or five times a year. Summer outings and Christmas parties were also arranged.
The Constitution was heavily based on the by-laws of the Rotary International, a civilian service club founded in 1905. The original plan was that the WPC would amalgamate with the Rotary International and so the reason for the word 'Provisional' in the title. However, such an aim would mean changing the Rotarian's constitution because they were a male-only group. This plan was abandoned in 1930 after five years of negotiations, and the Club decided to continue as they were.
Some members of the WPC were involved with other groups which promoted women's interests. For example, Miss Kathleen Mary Halpin (1903-1999) (7KAH) was one of the founders of the Soroptimist Housing Trust, involved with the Business & Professional Women's Club Ltd., and a member of the Sub-Committee of the Fawcett Society (2LSW/JC), which was concerned with women's suffrage, amongst other matters. In 1935, Caroline Harriet Haslett (1895-1957), an electrical engineer and founder of the Women's Engineering Society in 1919, became the first President of the British Federation of Business & Professional Women, an organisation which campaigned for women's equality. In the following year, she advocated that the WPC should merge with this Federation and, hopefully, its international equivalent. The members of the WPC voted against this move at the AGM of 1937.
After this, the WPC continued as a social club until the 1980s, attracting many eminent women. Amongst their members was the architect, Gertrude Leverkus (1899-1976) (7GLE); Miss Sybil Campbell, magistrate and fundraiser in 1922 for converting Crosby Hall in Chelsea into an international centre for postgraduate students; and Dame Adeline Genée (d. 1970), one of the founders of modern British ballet.
At the AGM of Apr 1980 a special resolution was passed stating that the Club would be ceasing to operate through its normal constitutional procedures. The Club met occasionally until its last meeting in Mar 1984.
The Women's National Anti-Suffrage League (1908-1918) was established in 1908, at a time when there was a resurgence of support for the women's suffrage movement. An Anti-suffrage correspondence had taken place in the pages of the Times through 1906-1907, with further calls for leadership of the anti-suffrage movement being placed in the Spectator in Feb 1908. Possibly as early as 1907, a letter was circulated to announce the creation of a National Women's Anti-Suffrage Association and inviting recipients to become a member of the Central Organising Committee or a member. It was issued under the names of thirty peeresses who would become prominent anti-suffragists, as well as a number of peers and MPs. However, the first meeting of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League only took place on the 21 Jul the following year at the Westminster Palace Hotel with Lady Jersey as the Chair. Seventeen others were nominated to the central committee at this meeting, including Mrs Humphrey Ward as the chair of the Literary Committee, Gertrude Bell as the secretary, and Mrs Frederick Harrison, Miss Lonsdale, Violet Markham and Miss Beatrice Chamberlain as other members. Its aims were to oppose women being granted the parliamentary franchise, though it did support their having votes in local and municipal elections. The group established the Anti-Suffrage review from Dec 1908, gathered 337,018 signatures on an anti-suffrage petition, and founding the first local branch in Hawkenhurst in Kent. The first London branch was established in South Kensington under the auspices of Mary, Countess of Ilchester. Whilst soon after in May 1910 a Scottish branch was organised into the Scottish National Anti-Suffrage League by the Duchess of Montrose. By Dec of that year there were 26 branches or sub-branches in the country, a total which grew to 82 by Apr 1909 and 104 in Jul 1910. Similarly, it was announced that 2000 subscriptions had been received by Dec 1908, rising to 9000 in Jul 1909. In 1910, the group amalgamated with the Men's National League for Opposing Women's Franchise to form the National League for Opposing Women's Suffrage with Lord Cromer as president and Lady Jersey as Vice-President. In 1912 Lord Curzon and Lord Weardale became joint presidents and the organisation continued its activities and the publication of the Anti-Suffrage Review until 1918 when both came to an end as women's suffrage was granted.
The Women's Media Action Group (WMAG) was a voluntarily run feminist collective which campaigned against sexism and stereotyping of women in the media. It grew out of a previous organisation, Alliance for Fair Images and Representation in the Media, (AFFIRM), which was established in 1977. WMAG dissolved itself in 1989 due to lack of support. The organisation felt that the reason for this was that they had a negative mission, i.e. they campaigned against an issue instead of promoting a positive viewpoint. Meetings were held fortnightly and a newsletter was produced six times a year.
The Women's Local Government Society (also called the Society for Promoting Women as County Councillors) was founded in the late 1880s by Annie Leigh Browne as a network of Liberals, suffragettes and other like-minded women who believed that women should be allowed to play a greater part in political life, and who wished to challenge confusion created by the Local Government Act, 1888, which gave women the right to vote in local council elections but not to stand in them. Women had been given the right to stand for election to Boards such as School Boards, but the 1888 Act absorbed these bodies into the new Councils, meaning that women lost their places on the Boards. The Society was founded in London but encouraged the formation of regional branches.
The Society was involved in campaign work, legal challenges and lobbying which resulted in the 1907 "Qualification of Women" Act which allowed women ratepayers to be elected to Borough and County Councils. Following the passing of the 1907 Act the Society gave practical support to women standing for election. In December 1907 Reina Emily Lawrence, London's first female councillor, was elected on to Hampstead Borough Council after winning a by-election with a majority of 319 votes. She was supported by the Hampstead branch of the Society.
The Society stopped operating during the First World War, although it was revived in 2006-07 to celebrate the centenary of the 1907 legislation.
Some information from the website of the Women's Local Government Society, http://www.womeninlocalgovernment.org.uk/index.php?action=background (accessed June 2010).
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was formed in 1915, when a group of women met in an International Congress at The Hague to protest against World War One and to suggest ways of ending it and preventing future wars. The organisers of the Congress were prominent women in the International Suffrage Alliance who assembled more than a thousand women from both belligerent and neutral countries to work out the principles on which the war could be stopped and a permanent peace constructed. The Congress established an International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace, which four years later became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The organisation continues to function as an NGO, working for peace and disarmament, social and economic justice, and the full enjoyment of human rights. Its international headquarters are in Geneva and it has branches in around 50 countries.
The Women's International Art Club was founded in Paris in 1900, as the Paris International Art Club. At this time there was very little opportunity for women to exhibit their art work, and as an exhibiting society the Club was instrumental in bringing the work of women sculptors and painters to the notice of the general public. The first exhibition under its new name was held at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1900. The Club had an annual exhibition of paintings and sculptures in London until it closed in 1976, and smaller exhibitions were also shown outside London and abroad. The foreign sections of the Club also contributed work to the exhibition, including the Italian, Scottish, Dutch, American, French and Greek sections.
Members' works were submitted for selection by a selection committee, comprising officials of the club and two outsiders chosen from the artistic community, usually art critics, gallery owners etc. In the 1950s and 1960s the club continued to flourish, encouraging young experimental artists and organising exhibitions from abroad. In the 1970s the waning of interest in large exhibitions and rising costs of gallery space led to the closure of the club in 1976. Exhibitors included Gwen Barnard, Eileen Agar, Elizabeth Frink, Lee Krasner and Gwen John.
The club named the Women's Institute (1897-1928) predated the more famous National Federation of Women's Institutes by almost two decades and was of a very different character. It was founded in 1897 at 15 Grosvenor Crescent by Mrs Nora Wynford Philipps and was intended to be a centre for women involved in the professions, education, social and philanthropic work. It was also intended to make other societies' work better known through its information bureau and co-operated with the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women regularly. It initially held weekly debates and 'at homes' run by the Executive Committee and organised a musical society, an art society, a recreational department, a circulating library, and a voluntary workers' society for philanthropic work. It also organised a secretarial department that undertook the training of typists and book keepers as well as an employment service for its members. At the same time it acted as a centre for the organisation of social and educational activities and a centre for research and dissemination of information on various subjects. It was responsible for the publication of several works such as Mrs Sidgwick's 'The Place of University Education in the Life of Women', pamphlet versions of lectures and the 'Dictionary of Employments Open to Women'. By the turn of the century it had over 800 members and maintained links with over 45 other groups, making it necessary to move to its second location at 92 Victoria Street from where a large range of other feminist organisations operated. In 1916 it was responsible for the opening of the Women's Club for the wives and mothers of servicemen and during the First World War gave rooms to the British Women's Patriotic League, the London School of Needlework, the Women's Local Government Society and the Head Mistresses Association amongst others. After the war, it was the location of meetings of the Dexter Club, the Censorship Club and the association for former members of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. While is appears to have still been active in 1925, activities ceased some time around 1928.
The club named the Women's Institute (1897-1928) predated the more famous National Federation of Women's Institutes by almost two decades and was of a very different character. It was founded in 1897 at 15 Grosvenor Crescent by Mrs Nora Wynford Philipps and was intended to be a centre for women involved in the professions, education, social and philanthropic work. It was also intended to make other societies' work better known through its information bureau and co-operated with the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women regularly. It initially held weekly debates and 'at homes' run by the Executive Committee and organised a musical society, an art society, a recreational department, a circulating library, and a voluntary workers' society for philanthropic work. It also organised a secretarial department that undertook the training of typists and book keepers as well as an employment service for its members. At the same time it acted as a centre for the organisation of social and educational activities and a centre for research and dissemination of information on various subjects. It was responsible for the publication of several works such as Mrs Sidgwick's 'The Place of University Education in the Life of Women', pamphlet versions of lectures and the 'Dictionary of Employments Open to Women'. By the turn of the century it had over 800 members and maintained links with over 45 other groups, making it necessary to move to its second location at 92 Victoria Street from where a large range of other feminist organisations operated. In 1916 it was responsible for the opening of the Women's Club for the wives and mothers of servicemen and during the First World War gave rooms to the British Women's Patriotic League, the London School of Needlework, the Women's Local Government Society and the Head Mistresses Association amongst others. After the war, it was the location of meetings of the Dexter Club, the Censorship Club and the association for former members of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. While is appears to have still been active in 1925, activities ceased some time around 1928.
The Women's Industrial Council was set up following a conference at Holborn Town Hall in November 1894, and merged with the Women's Trade Union Association, which Clementina Black had helped to form five years earlier. The Women's Industrial Council was incorporated as a non-profit-making organisation in 1910. Its main activities involved making investigations into women's work in order to improve their industrial conditions; monitoring parliamentary reports and legislation; educating industrial workers; work in the fields of unemployment and retraining; the publication of various reports and pamphlets, and the journal 'Women's Industrial News'; and reporting breaches of Factory and Public Health Acts.
The Women's Forum grew out of organisations that came into existence during the Second World War. In 1939, the refugee situation prompted the National Council of Social Service to call a conference of concerned organisations. The group which emerged from this event was the Women's Group on Problems Arising from Evacuation, with Margaret Bondfield as Chairperson. The National Council of Social Service would continue to provide the new organisation with secretariat and accommodation throughout its existence. The following year the group changed its name to the Women's Group on Public Welfare in order to reflect its widened scope of interest into all aspects of the welfare of women and children. It was constituted solely by representatives all the major women's and female-voluntary organisations including the National Union of Townswomen's Guilds and the National Federation of Women's Institutes and action could only be undertaken by the constituent groups themselves. Strong links were formed with foreign, especially Eastern-European, organisations while the main work of the group was undertaken by subcommittees. During the war, these included those on education and leisure, the under-fives, hygiene, working class credit, the organisation of women's clubs, women's work in the regions, conditions on air-raid shelters, planning, welfare in the Women's services, fuel economy (later superseded by the Women's advisory Council on Solid Fuel), food education, and a sub-committee to examine the Beveridge Report. After the war, the focus of the work changed as other sub-committees were formed: one related to social insurance, another on the shortage of craft and cookery teachers, a committee on home making, clean food, and in the Sixties, a committee on public questions. Working groups were also set up to deal with the social aspects of loneliness, advertisements, education for girls as well as the situation of homeless families.
During the war, this work at the national level was complimented by the activities of purely local groups and the local branches of organisations. At the time, these were co-ordinated by regional Group Action Councils established by the Federation of Soroptimist Clubs in 1942. These local forums had to be linked to the national efforts, however, and the Women's Group on Public Welfare provided the gateway between individual Group Action Councils as well as between local groups and national organisations. When the Group Action Councils became Standing Conferences of Women's Organisations, the WGPW both held joint biannual conferences with them and sent representatives to sit with them on the SCWO advisory committee.
In the post-war period, the home making committee set up a sub-committee of scientific home management; in 1951 the committee and sub-committee merged to become the Council of Scientific Management in the Home (COSMITH). However, the major achievement of the group in the post-war period, however, was the publication of the report 'The Neglected Child and His Family' in 1946, which led to the establishment of a new child welfare service through the Children Act of 1948. By 1960, 850 clubs totalling 27,500 members had been set up through its efforts. These activities continued until 1975 when the National Council of Social Service was restructured in the wake of 1970's Social Services Act which had resulted in increasing confusion between the welfare activities of statutory and voluntary bodies. At this point the Women's Group on Public Welfare changed its name to The Women's Forum. When the NCSS became the National Council of Voluntary Organisations in 1980, it decided to end its secretarial and financial support of the Women's Forum. It was decided that the organisation could not continue to function and the group was wound up at the Annual General Meeting that took place in December of that year.
The Sheffield branch of the Women's Freedom League (1908-1919) was founded in Dec 1908, a year after the beginning of the parent body. That, in turn, had been constituted by dissenting members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). All levels of the overall group classed themselves as a militant organisation, but refused to attack persons or property other than ballot papers, unlike the WSPU. Furthermore, they operated on the basis of party democracy that had been the initial cause of the break from the WSPU. The body continued its activities until the 1918 bill granting women limited franchise. The organisation was wound up in May 1919.
The Women's Freedom League (WFL) (1907-1961) was formed in Nov 1907 by dissenting members of the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU). The cause was the WSPU's lack of constitutional democracy, an issue that came to a head on the 10 Sep 1907. Mrs Pankhurst announced the cancellation of the annual conference due on the 12 Oct 1907 and the future governance of the party by a central committee appointed by herself, effectively overturning its original constitution. Several members, including Charlotte Despard, Edith How Martyn, Teresa Billington-Greig, Octavia Lewin, Anna Munro, Alice Schofield and Caroline Hodgeson, broke away and continued with the conference. Here, the new constitution was written which encoded a system of party democracy. Its first committee consisted of Despard as president and honorary treasurer, Billington-Greig as honorary organising secretary, honorary secretary Mrs How Martyn, and Mrs Coates Hanson, Miss Hodgeson, Irene Miller, Miss Fitzherbert, Mrs Drysdale, Miss Abadam, Mrs Winton-Evans, Mrs Dick, Mrs Cobden Sanderson, Mrs Bell, Mrs Holmes and Miss Mansell as members. The following month, They renamed themselves the WFL, having used the title of the WSPU until that time: this had prompted Mrs Pankhurst to add 'National' to the name of her own organisation for this brief spell. They classed themselves as a militant organisation, but refused to attack persons or property other than ballot papers, unlike the WSPU. Their actions included protests in and around the House of Commons and other acts of passive civil disobedience. Their activities in 1908 included attempts to present petitions to the king and have deputations received by cabinet ministers while further protests were held in the House of Commons such as Muriel Matters, Violet Tillard and Helen Fox chaining themselves to the grille in the Ladies gallery. That same year, they were the only militant group to be invited by the National Union of Women's suffrage Societies to take part in the Hyde Park procession on 13 Jun 1908. Despard was the first woman to refuse to pay taxes as a protest, an action which quickly inspired others to form the Women's Tax Resistance League. These activities were expanded upon in Apr 1911 when women householders either spoilt or failed to complete their census forms. This escalation of action did not prevent them joining a Conciliation Bill committee with other suffrage groups in 1910 in response to Prime Minister Asquith's offer on a free vote on extensions to the franchise. A truce was called with the government until the failure of such a bill for the third time, but by 1912 the organisation had already announced that it would support Labour Party candidates against any of the government's Liberal candidates at elections. This practice of working with other groups was one which the WFL supported, having ongoing links with the International Women's Franchise Club, the International Women Suffrage Alliance and the Suffrage Atelier. During the early part of the First World War, like most of the other suffrage organisations, the League suspended its practical militant political action and began voluntary work, though not the 'war work' of the type advocated by other suffrage groups. The group formed a number of women's police services and a Woman Suffrage National Aid Corps that provided some help to women in financial difficulties and limited day care for children. Furthermore, in 1915, the WFL founded a National Service Organisation to place women in jobs. However, the following year, political activity began again when they joined the WSPU in a picket of the Electoral Reform Conference. When women were granted suffrage after the war, they continued their activities with a change of emphasis. The organisation now called for equality of suffrage between the sexes, women as commissioners of prisons, the opening of all professions to women, equal pay, right of a woman to retain her own nationality on marriage, equal moral standards and representation of female peers in the House of Lords and they continued with this programme of social equality until the dissolution of the group in 1961.
The Women's Engineering Society (WES) (1919-) was founded in 1919 and largely financed by Lady Margaret Eliza Parsons, who acted as its first President while Dame Caroline Haslett served as first General Secretary between 1919 and 1929. Lady Moir acted as President between 1928 and 1930, followed by Verena Holmes between 1930 and 1932, Amy Johnson (1934-1937) and Caroline Haslett (1939-1941). The WES emerged from the Engineering Committee of the National Council of Women. This had been set up to look at the position of women employed in munitions. In spite of the restoration of Pre-War Practices Act, compelling many employers to dismiss women workers, enough women remained in engineering and enough women wanted to enter the profession to make the WES worthwhile.
The Society was initially based in London, but other branches soon followed in Newcastle, Manchester and the Midlands. The objectives of the organisation were: to promote the awareness of engineering as a prime creator of wealth in society and the contribution women can make to it; to promote the training and education of women engineers, to ensure women engineers can influence the process of policy formation and decision-making in government and other organisations; to foster good practice in the employment of women engineers in order to enable them to progress equally with male colleagues; to provide a network of members and support.
The first Annual Conference was held in Birmingham in 1923. The Council met four times per year. Additionally, the society launched the Verena Holmes Lecture Fund in 1969 to encourage young people to join the engineering profession and to give career advice. The Caroline Haslett Memorial Trust awards university scholarships. The official organ of the society, since 1919, was 'The Woman Engineer', published quarterly.
The WES launched and kept close links with the Electrical Association of Women. In 1925 the Society, with outside help, organised the Conference of Women in Science, Industry and Commerce held at the Empire Exhibition, Wembley. In 1934, the WES persuaded the International Labour Organisation to amend the Washington Convention on the issue of women working during the night.
Ira Rischowski (fl 1899-1977) was born in Germany in 1899 and trained as an engineer receiving a Dipl. Ing. VDI, a German degree which corresponds to the English B.Sc. She was an active member of the German anti-Nazi and socialist group 'Org.' in the 1930s and after having been shortly imprisoned in 1935 she emigrated to Britain with her husband. When she came to Britain she worked as a draughtswoman and planning engineer at Tuvox Ltd., Middlesex from 1942 to 1944, but then transferred to James Gordon Ltd, London where she made a career from draughtswoman to Head of Projects Department in 1956 and where she worked until her retirement.
She became an Association member of the WES London Branch on 27.11.1939, a full member in 1949 and an Honorary member in 1977. She served on the London Branch Committee, was a member of Council from 1948, was Chair of the Equal Pay Sub-Committee and of the Training and Opportunities Sub-Committee.
The Women's Employment Publishing Company Ltd (1913-1974) was established by the Central Employment Bureau for Women around 1913-1914 in order to deal with its publications. The Central Bureau had been issuing the twice-monthly journal 'Women's Employment' since 1899 and other occasional publications in connection with their work and the Women's Employment Publishing Company continued this work from the head office in Russell Square. In addition to the main periodical, the press was also responsible for the publication of numerous editions of 'Careers (later, and 'Vocational Training'): 'A Guide to the Professions and Occupations of Educated Women and Girls', 'The Finger Post', 'Hints on how to find work' and 'Open Doors for Women Workers'. The directors just before the outbreak of the Second World War were H John Faulk (Chair), Miss ER Unmack (Managing Director) and Miss AE Hignell (secretary). Despite problems caused by this disruption and a decline in the number of readers in this period, the company survived and continued publishing 'Women's Employment' until 1974. The Bureau seems to have ceased functioning at around the same date.
The Women's Department of King's College London was incorporated into the University of London as a distinct College in 1910 and renamed 'King's College for Women'. In the session 1914-1915, however, the work of the College diverged as Divinity, Arts and Science subjects were transferred back to King's College on the Strand. In 1915 the remaining Home Science Department became the 'Household and Social Science Department', which was still part of King's College for Women, but which was now situated in new premises in Campden Hill. The College achieved independence in 1928 as the newly styled King's College of Household and Social Science and was known as Queen Elizabeth College from 1953 until the merger with King's College in 1985.
The Women's Department of King's College London was incorporated into the University of London as a distinct College in 1910 and renamed 'King's College for Women'. In the session 1914-1915, however, the work of the College diverged as Divinity, Arts and Science subjects were transferred back to King's College on the Strand. In 1915 the remaining Home Science Department became the 'Household and Social Science Department', which was still part of King's College for Women, but which was now situated in new premises in Campden Hill. The College achieved independence in 1928 as the newly styled King's College of Household and Social Science and was known as Queen Elizabeth College from 1953 until the merger with King's College in 1985.
The Women's Department of King's College London was incorporated into the University of London as a distinct College in 1910 and renamed 'King's College for Women'. In the session 1914-1915, however, the work of the College diverged as Divinity, Arts and Science subjects were transferred back to King's College on the Strand. In 1915 the remaining Home Science Department became the 'Household and Social Science Department', which was still part of King's College for Women, but which was now situated in new premises in Campden Hill. The College achieved independence in 1928 as the newly styled King's College of Household and Social Science and was known as Queen Elizabeth College from 1953 until the merger with King's College in 1985.
The Co-operative Women's Guild was formed in 1883 following the first inclusion of a women's page in Co-operative News. Its aim was to spread the knowledge of the benefits of co-operation and improve the conditions of women with the slogan "co-operation in poor neighbourhoods"; changed its name to the Women's Co-operative Guild, 1885; Margaret Llewelyn Davies becomes General Secretary and Lilian Harris appointed Cashier to the Guild, 1889; under their direction the organisation expanded rapidly from 51 branches and a membership of 1700 in 1889 to a peak of 1500 branches and a membership of 72000 in 1933. By this time the name of the organisation had again been changed to the Co-operative Women's Guild.
The Co-operative Women's Guild was formed in 1883 following the first inclusion of a women's page in 'Co-operative News'. Its aim was to spread the knowledge of the benefits of co-operation and improve the conditions of women with the slogan "co-operation in poor neighbourhoods". In 1885 the organisation changed its name to the Women's Co-operative Guild. In 1889 Miss Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861-1943) became General Secretary on a voluntary basis and Miss Lilian Harris was appointed Cashier to the Guild. Under the direction of these two women the organisation expanded rapidly from 51 branches and a membership of 1700 in 1889 to a peak of 1500 branches and a membership of 72,000 in 1933. By this time the organisation had again been changed to the Co-operative Women's Guild. Margaret Llewelyn Davies was the daughter of Reverend John Llewelyn Davies, a Christian Socialist and supporter of women's rights. She ran the Guild's affairs from her father's vicarage at Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria. Under her leadership the Guild became a campaigning body. After carrying out an investigation into the working conditions of the 2000 women employed in co-operative stores, the Guild advocated the introduction of a minimum wage. By 1912 the Co-operative Wholesale Society and 200 other retail stores had complied with the Guild's policy on wages.
Llewelyn Davies was a member of the National Union of Suffrage Societies, and she took part in several peaceful demonstrations, including a sandwich-board picket of the House of Commons in 1912. She also gave evidence to the Royal Commission on divorce reform and the Guild created great controversy by urging that divorce by mutual consent after two years separation should be legalised. Other campaigns instigated by Llewelyn Davies included an attempt to reduce the high infant-mortality rates by the introduction of improved ante-natal, natal, and post-natal care. Her publications include: 'Maternity' (1915); 'Life as We Have Known It' (1931).
The Women's Art Library began in 1976 when a small group of women artists began to collect slides from other women artists to establish a record of their work. The Library first opened its collection to the public in 1982 as the Women Artists Slide Library during the 'Women Festivities' held in London. The Library was then housed in Battersea Arts Centre, Battersea, London. In 1987 the Library moved to Fulham Palace at the invitation of the Women's Unit of Hammersmith and Fulham Council. In 2000 the Library relocated to the Central Saint Martin's School of Art and Design, Charing Cross Road, London. In 1993 the Library was relaunched as the Women's Art Library to reflect the broader range of materials, for example published and unpublished written documentation and photographs which the Library acquired in addition to the slides. The name of the Library was changed in May 2001 to MAKE, the organisation for women in the arts. The aim of the organisation was to enhance public knowledge of the practice, impact and achievement of women in visual culture. A serial publication was produced from 1983-2002, firstly as a newsletter 'The Women's Artists Slide Library Newsletter', becoming a bimonthly 'The Women Artists Slide Library Journal', then quarterley magazine 'The Women's Art Magazine', and finally 'MAKE, the magazine of women's art'. In addition the organisation produced numerous other publications in different formats, catalogues linked with exhibitions organised by WASI, (Women in Humour, Second Viewing), a Women's Art Diary, a calendar DATRES, a Women's Art Library Slidepack (1994) which includes teacher's notes, and two anthologies of critical writings based on group exhibitions of women's art. 'Contemporary Arab Women Artists: Dialogues of the Present', 2000 and 'Private Views: spaces in Britain and Estonia', 2001.
Women in Libraries (1979-1990) was founded in 1979, relatively late in the history of women working in libraries. In 1909 a survey found that 41 percent; of librarians were women. By the 1960s, however, 70%; of the profession were female. Despite this rise, women's wages in the area remained lower than those of both their male colleagues and women in other professions. In 1979, Sheila Ritchie undertook research into the positions and pay of female librarians and produced an article entitled '2000 to 1: a sex oddity' which was published in 'Assistant Librarian' in Mar 1979. It contained a statistical analysis of figures on women in the field and highlighted the fact that though women staffed most public libraries, it was male staff that dominated senior positions in the profession. In response to this, and together with Sherry Jesperson, Avril Rolph, Jane Little, Jane Allen and Briony Vitow, she helped found the first feminist group for women working in this field. In 1979 a meeting of 20 women was held at the Polytechnic of Central London and an inaugural conference was held in the spring and attracted over 200 women that arrived at three principle points. These were: firstly, the rights of women as employees in the profession and as library users were not being given proper attention; secondly, a movement was needed to put this right; thirdly, it should not be restricted to feminist librarians, but open to all women, staff and users. Following a meeting in Sep 1980 organised by Avril Rolph and Sherry Jespersen, a group of around 10 women, initially known as 'The Feminist Library Workers' Group', held regular meetings to organise a conference, which was held in Feb 1981 at the Polytechnic of Central London. It was based on two main themes: women's position as workers in libraries and women's role in libraries as those both choosing and using books. Workshop sessions were held to discuss related topics. Sheila Ritchie and Jane Little (one of the organising group) were guest speakers. At the end of the meeting, a group was formally brought into being, entitled 'Women in Libraries', and a majority vote decided that it should be open to women only.
This group was initially put forward as the Library Association Group for Women's Interests and Education but was rapidly changed to Women in Libraries. The subscription was £5 and a newsletter entitled WiLPower was issued on a regular basis. Quarterly meetings were held, though changes were soon made to the structure of the group, which would move it from being a traditionally structured organisation to a looser collective framework. Initially it was also decided not to affiliate to the Library Association so as not to exclude non-members of the Association from the group. Their attempts to be accepted as a Group of the Library Association (LA) failed because of their policy of restricting membership to women only and because of the perception that their aims were political rather than professional. In order to be able to affiliate, they opened up membership at all members of the Library Association and other interested parties. They then redefined themselves as a body in existence to provide a forum for members to identify and work towards the solution of problems common to women in libraries and the library profession by several means. Those were: collecting and disseminating information relevant to the personal development of women in libraries and the profession; working with members to identify continuing educational needs for women library workers and provide appropriate educational opportunities; to provide mutual support and assistance to women library workers; to provide advice to library workers of either sex who felt they had been subject to sexual discrimination; and to promote the involvement of women in the Library Association.
Through the national management and new local sub-groups, they continued to encourage writing on women in libraries and held workshops which were later published as well as running career development programmes and monitoring of stereotyping in library stock. Additionally, they were active in raising and discussing areas of interest such a job-sharing that later became official practice, later became official practice. It ceased its work in the early 1990s.
The first meeting of Women in Gynaecology and Obstetrics (WIGO) was held in December 1982 in response to a call from the Women in Medicine organisation to establish specific groups for specific branches of medicine. Membership was open to all women obstetricians with part 1 MRCOG, MRCOG or FRCOG and that women planning to move into other specialities, such as genito-urinary medicine, family planning or community health should be eligible as long as they were members of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. A membership subscription was charged on a sliding scale. The aims of the organisation were to provide a support group for junior doctors working for the MRCOG part II to provide a careers advisory service for junior doctors contemplating a career in obstetrics and gynaecology to provide support and advice for overseas women doctors in obstetrics and gynaecology to encourage the participation of women in the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Officers of the society were comprised of a secretary, a treasurer and a co-ordinator who would also act as a press relations officer. In 1984 two other aims were added, to increase the proportion of women actively practising obstetrics and gynaecology and to increase the representation of women in the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and other official bodies. Founding members were Susan Bewley MD MRCOG, Wendy Savage MRCOG and Melanie C Davies MRCP MRCOG. The group closed in [1997] due to lack of interest.
Women for Westminster (1943-1949) was established in 1943. In 1940 Edith Summerskill raised the issue of women in parliament within the Six Point Group. This produced an initiative with the aim of returning 100 women to parliament. However, the war and other concerns meant that it was not until Mrs Rebecca Sieff and Teresa Billington-Greig established a committee within the Women's Publicity Planning Association (WPPA) to deal with the issue in Jan 1942 that attention was paid to this area by a single issue group. The committee eventually became an independent organisation the following year with the name of Women for Westminster. It was a non-party organisation with a number of local branches which aimed to encourage women in individual constituency parties to nominate a woman candidate, thus avoiding the hostility aroused when outside women's organisations attempted to apply pressure. Summerskill, Tate, Cazalet-Keir and Corbett Ashby were all members but the group had limited success: in 1945, out of 87 women candidates, only 12 were returned and they already held seats. Despite having 46 branches, financial problems beset the organisation, which received only £1,000 in 1946. By the end of the decade, they were under pressure to amalgamate with other organisations. They refused an approach from the Six Point Group but accepted a merger with the National Women's Citizenship Association in 1949.
The second wave of the feminist movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement, began in the 1960s. It moved beyond the action for social and economic equality with men that earlier liberal activists had focused on to undertake the theoretical study of social relationships and ways in which they created the oppression of women. Its emergence occurred at the same time as that of anti-imperialist, left-leaning political movements in the United States and Great Britain and was influenced by them. Large numbers of those involved in the women s liberation movement began to make a connection between working class oppression and women's oppression, resulting in the formation of socialist or Marxist feminism that aimed at a general social transformation which would also encompass a radical change in women's status.
The first Women's Liberation conference was held in 1970, at Ruskin College, Oxford and from it emerged four demands: equal pay, equal education and job opportunities, free contraception and abortion on demand and free 24hr nurseries. They did not, however, emphasis the end of capitalism as a means of achieving their objectives. Soon, however, socialist feminists began to predominate in the British Women's Liberation Movement, influenced by a strong British socialist tradition and recent events such as the strike at the Ford car factory in Dagenham by female workers campaigning for equality with male colleagues. Their analysis of women's situation as a combination of male domination and class exploitation came to dominate the movement in the early part of the decade and led many to call for the end of the conventional family as a key step towards women's liberation within communism.
Activists in both the feminist and the socialist movements shared aspects of their working methods . Both sought to develop strategy through both local groups and national conferences and carried out their analysis of the family and women's role in those contexts. In 1969 the Women's Liberation Workshop begun in London, publishing the SHREW newsletter. This was followed the next year by the first National Women's Liberation Conference in Oxford. In 1972 National Women's Liberation Conferences were held in London and Manchester, with one in Bristol the following year. It was largely from these events that future agendas for discussion of women and their roles evolved. Subsequently, the Conference on the Family took place at the Leeds Polytechnical University on the 12th and 13th May 1973. It included sessions on the History of the Family including work on the family in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century, the Family under Capitalism and the Family in the Post-Capitalist Society. Papers were read which also examined the socialist position on abortion and homosexuality in a capitalist society from a Marxist perspective. Another, more feminist-centred event took place in London that same year. The second conference on Women's Liberation and Socialism was held at the Conway Hall on the 22nd-23rd September. It was intended as a follow-up to the first conference that had been held in Birmingham at the request of a local political study group holding on-going discussions of the issue. Both were intended for feminists of a Marxist orientation within the movement and consisted of three workshops dealing with different subject areas raised at the Birmingham event. Areas treated were the history and development of the Women's Liberation Movement and its future organisational development. A follow up workshop to deal with the issues raised was held the following November.
Frederick Cornwallis was born in 1610, the younger son of Sir William Cornwallis of Brome, Suffolk. He succeeded his half-brother to the family estates in 1626, was created a baronet in 1627 and knighted in 1630. Cornwallis acted as M.P. for Eye from March-May 1640, and from October 1640 to September 1642. He distinguished himself on the royalist side during the English Civil War, especially at Cropredy on 30 June 1644, and followed Charles II into exile. Upon Charles's restoration in 1660, Cornwallis was made Treasurer of the Household and a Privy Councillor. He also acted as M.P. for Ipswich from October-December 1660. He died in January 1662, shortly after his creation as Baron Cornwallis of Eye (20 April 1661).
Wolton and Attwood Limited, wholesalers in beer and spirits, of Rosemary Road, Clacton on Sea, Essex, was incorporated in 1938. It was acquired by Courage Barclay and Simonds in 1968-1969 to be used by Courage (Eastern) Ltd.
Hans Woltär was born in Aussig an der Elbe in 1915 and deported to a work camp in Posen, Poland in 1942.
Alfred Wolmark was born in Warsaw, Poland, and moved to England as a child in 1883. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools, where he won a silver medal for drawing, between 1895 and 1897. His first one-man show was at the Bruton Galleries in London in 1905. In 1911, he produced designs for Serge Diaghilev's ballets. He married Bessie Tapper in 1911 and they had two sons and a daughter. In 1915 Wolmark was one of the founders of the Ben Uri Art Society, where a memorial exhibition was held in 1961. Wolmark was influenced by the Post-Impressionists and knew Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (who modelled a bust of him). He died in London in 1961. Biographical information is included in the exhibition catalogues, 'Alfred Wolmark, 1877-1961: Memorial Exhibition of Paintings' (Ben Uri Art Gallery, 1961) and 'Alfred Wolmark' (Fine Art Society, 1970).
Richard Arthur Wollheim was born in London on 5 May 1923, the second son of Eric Wollheim (b. 1879) and Constance, née Baker (b. 1891). Although of German Jewish descent, Wollheim was raised to be Christian and later became an atheist. He was educated at Westminster School and at Balliol College, Oxford. His university studies were interrupted by the Second World War; he joined the Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1942, participated in the Normandy landings, and was captured by the Germans in August 1944, but managed to escape within a few days. After the war he returned to Balliol and achieved first-class degrees in history (1946) and philosophy, politics, and economics (1948). He joined the philosophy department at UCL in 1949 initially as an assistant lecturer. He became Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic and head of department in 1963. After retiring from University College in 1982 he moved to the United States, first as professor at Columbia University, from 1982 to 1985, and then as professor at the University of California, Berkeley, until 2002. He was also visiting professor in philosophy and the humanities at the University of California, Davis (1989-96). Wollheim married Anne Barbara Denise Toynbee (1920-2004) on 15 August 1950. They had twin sons, Bruno and Rupert. The marriage was dissolved in 1967, and two years later he married Mary Day Lanier, a potter. They had one daughter, Emilia. He died after a short illness at his home in London on 4 November 2003. He was survived by Mary Day and his three children. Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The Wolley family lived in Clifton, Bristol; although there was a branch at Hampton Court. The records reflect the concerns of family life: finances, legacies, marriages and family connections.
Hans Werner Wollenberg passed his final school exam in 1910 and studied medicine at Munich from 1911. The collection includes Wollenberg's account of a journey to Italy, which he had undertaken with a few friends. Later he had to spend a few weeks in hospital in Copenhagen, unable to shake off an infection. In 1912 he apparently lived with his parents and studied at Königsberg. In 1913 he spent a semester at Berlin University, continuing his medical studies and becoming a member of a student corporation.
William Hyde Wollaston: born at East Dereham, Norfolk, 1766; third son of the author Francis Wollaston and his wife, Althea Hyde; educated at a private school at Lewisham for two years and then at Charterhouse, 1774-1778; a pensioner of Caius College Cambridge, 1782; scholar of Caius College Cambridge, 1782-1787; appointed a senior fellow, 1787; retained his fellowship until his death; while at Cambridge, became intimate with John Brinkley and John Pond and studied astronomy with their assistance; graduated MB, 1788; on leaving Cambridge, worked as a physician in Huntingdon, 1789; subsequently went to Bury St Edmund's; became acquainted with the Reverend Henry Hasted, a close friend and lifelong correspondent; MD, 1793; elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1793 and admitted, 1794; admitted candidate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1794; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1795; went to London and set up practice at no 18 Cecil Street, Strand, 1797; censor of the Royal College of Physicians, 1798; increasing devotion to various branches of natural science, including physics, chemistry, and botany, led him to retire from medical practice, 1800; looked to support himself by chemical research; took a house, no 14 Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, and set up a laboratory, 1801; innovations relating to platinum including the discovery of palladium and of a process for producing pure platinum and welding it into vessels, c 1804; awarded the Copley medal, 1802; Secretary of the Royal Society, 1804-1816; Fellow of the Geological Society, 1812; suggested in evidence before a committee of the House of Commons the replacement of the various gallons then in use by the 'imperial gallon' (adopted in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824), 1814; served as commissioner of the Royal Society on the Board of Longitude, 1818-1828; a member of the Royal Commission on Weights and Measures that rejected the adoption of the decimal system of weights and measures, 1819; frequently elected a vice-president of the Royal Society; declined a proposal to be nominated president of the Royal Society, but consented to act as president until the election, 1820; elected a foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences, 1823; elected to the Royal College of Physicians, 1824; suffered occasional partial blindness in both eyes from 1800; attacked by symptoms said to be signify a fatal brain tumour, 1827; set about dictating papers on his unrecorded work, many of which were published posthumously; transferred £1,000 to the Geological Society (which formed 'the Wollaston Fund' from which the society awards annually the Wollaston medal and the balance of the interest), 1828; transferred £2,000 to the Royal Society to form the `Donation Fund', the interest to be applied in promoting experimental research, 1828; awarded a royal medal by the Royal Society for his work, 1828; elected a member of the Astronomical Society, 1828; died, 1828; his house was afterwards inhabited by his friend Charles Babbage. Publications: fifty-six papers on pathology, physiology, chemistry, optics, mineralogy, crystallography, astronomy, electricity, mechanics, and botany, the majority read before the Royal Society and published in the Philosophical Transactions.
Leslie R. Wolfson was born in March 1911. Between 1928 and 1932 he attended the Liverpool Dental School of Liverpool University, and in 1933 he bought a small dental practice at Priory Road, Anfield, Liverpool, where he worked until August 1934. He then became employed by the Co-operative Dental Association, being placed in charge of a surgery at Enfield Wash, Middlesex.
In 1935 he married Dr. Estelle Roekin and they moved to 1 The Grangeway, Grange Park, Winchmore Hill N21 where Dr. Roekin set up in medical practice. However, due to illness she had to close the practice in 1944. Mr. Wolfson opened his own dental practice in the vacant rooms at Grange Park. He was asked to help Mr. Grimshaw, a registered dentist, who had fallen ill, and worked partly at 340 Baker Street, Enfield. By 1949 Mr. Grimshaw became to ill to work and Mr. Wolfson eventually bought the practice from him, thus transferring his whole practice from Grange Park to Baker Street. He remained there doing only National Health work until his retirement in 1978.
Nelly (Elenore) Wolffheim, born 29 March 1879, the second and youngest child from a relatively well to do Jewish family in Berlin; mainly taught privately on account of serious childhood illness; at the end of the 19th century she graduated from 'Pestalozzi-Fröbelhaus', a kindergarten teacher-training school and went on to work in a number of other training schools. Renewed illness meant that she had to spend the following several years in various sanatoriums. In 1914 she opened a private kindergarten in Hallensee, Berlin, which was run according to the philosophy of the Fröbel school, the central idea of which was to treat the school like a large family. In 1921 Nelly Wolffheim suffered another serious set back regarding her health; thereafter she commenced psychoanalysis and after several years of training, she began running the first kindergarten in Germany on the lines of depth psychology; developed an interest in the study of infant sexuality, and was disappointed by the lack of interest shown by anyone else in the field on the subject. She had to stop running the kindergarten again in 1930 on account of her health, but also because she felt too old to work with small children; gives up her publishing activities and discontinues her lecture tours after the Nazi seizure of power, 1933; ran the only remaining Jewish Kindergärtnerinnenseminar, 1934-1939, of which the document in this collection is an account. Emigrated to England, 1939, and lived in Oxford and London; published works again in Germany after the war, in particular her book Kinder aus Konzentrationslagern was well received; died in London, 2 April 1965.
The principal editor (and probable creator) of this collection, Richard Wolff, is thought to have been one time chairman of the Paulus Bund, a representative organisation for Jewish mixed-race Germans (See Werner Cohn, 'Bearers of a Common Fate? The Non-Aryan Christian Fate-Comrades of the Paulus-Bund, 1933-1939' in Leo Baeck Yearbook XXXIII 1988). He was born in 1886, emigrated in 1938 and since 1947 was a naturalised British citizen. He lived in Nairobi during the mid 1950s. He died 9 March 1985.
Moses Mendelssohn was born in 1729 and was a creative and eclectic thinker whose writings on metaphysics and aesthetics, political theory and theology, together with his Jewish heritage, placed him at the focal point of the German Enlightenment for over three decades. While Mendelssohn found himself at home with a metaphysics derived from writings of Leibniz, Wolff, and Baumgarten, he was also one of his age's most accomplished literary critics. His highly regarded pieces on works of Homer and Aesop, Pope and Burke, Maupertuis and Rousseau, to cite only a fraction of his numerous critical essays, appeared in a series of journals that he co-edited with G F Lessing and Friedrich Nicolai. Dubbed The Jewish Luther Mendelssohn also contributed significantly to the life of the Jewish community and letters in Germany, campaigning for Jews' civil rights and translating the Pentateuch and the Psalms into German. Mendelsohn died in 1786.
In the early 1960s Dr Wolff appears to have gone to work in the USA, where he held posts at Johns Hopkins and in New York and Washington DC. His name disappears from the British Medical Directory and Medical Register in 1972, but was still in the index of the USA Medical Directory in 1979.
The Wolfenden Committee on Voluntary Services was set up by the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust and the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, who jointly financed it. Chaired by Sir John Frederick Wolfenden. The report was published as "The Future of Voluntary Organisations".
Nathanael Mattheus von Wolf was born in Danzig (Gdansk), Poland on 24 January 1724; elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1777; died, 15 December 1784.
Lucien Wolf (1857-1930) was the British born son of Bohemian Jewish refugees. He had a career as journalist and diplomat for the Jewish cause. He wrote for a number of publications in the Jewish and national press. He was an early exponent of Anglo-Jewish history. Between 1912-1914 he was the editor of "Darkest Russia: a weekly record of the struggle for freedom". This was a propaganda paper directed against the Russian Government and concerned particularly with Jewish rights. As well as reporting on international affairs, Wolf had an advisory role as he had many diplomatic contacts. He was a leading member of the Conjoint Foreign Committee of British Jews. He was an exponent of the Balfour declaration of 1917 and a co-architect of the Minorities Treaties after the First World War which set the framework for the rights of European Jewry.
Lucien Wolf was born on 20 January 1857 in London. He was educated at private schools, the Athenee Royale in Brussels, and in Paris. He worked as a sub-editor and leader-writer for Jewish World, 1874-1893, and was later Editor there, 1906-1908. He also worked as an assistant editor for Public Leader, 1877-1878; foreign editor for the Daily Graphic, 1890-1909; and was London correspondent for Le Journal, Paris, 1894-1898. He was President of the Jewish History Society of England eight times. In 1919 he represented the Anglo-Jewish community at the Paris Peace Conference. He was Secretary of the Jewish Joint Foreign Committee from 1917. He was founder of and delegate to the Advisory Committee of the High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations. Wolf's many publications are mainly concerned with Jews and Judaism. Wolf died on 23 August 1930.
Abraham Wolf was educated at University College London and St John's College Cambridge. He went on to become Professor Emeritus of Logic and Scientific Method in the University of London, which incorporated being Head of the Department of History and Method of Science at University College London (1921-1941), and Head of the Department of Logic and Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He retired in 1941. He was a member of the Senate and of the Academic and External Councils of the University of London till 1944. Wolf was Co-editor of the 14th edition of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica'. In his lifetime, he published many books about philosophers, logic and scientific method. He died on 19 May 1948.