G B Wood trained at Edinburgh and Manchester, later becoming senior house surgeon at Huddersfield Infirmary and practising on the Isle of Wight. MCh, MO at Jersey General Dispensary and Infirmary.
Jean-Baptiste Biot was born in Paris and educated at the Ecole Polytechnique. His fields of research included astonomy, the Earth's atmosphere, and light and optics, but he is best known for his work on electricity and magnetism; the Biot-Savart law in electromagnetics is named after him, and Felix Savart.
Born, 1872; graduated from Harvard Medical School,1902; assistant visiting physician for diseases of the skin in the Boston City Hospital, 1906; taught dermatology at Tufts Medical School, 1917; Professor of Dermatology, Tufts Medical School, 1929-1929; founder member and first Vice President of the New England Dermatological Society; died, 1929.
Unknown
Born 1583 or 1854; Stanhope paid Secretary Winwood £10,000 for the barony of Shelford, 1616; Nottinghamshire commission of the peace; earldom of Chesterfield and in December, 1628; because of his royalist support he was sent to prison, 1643 and his lands were sequestered; had his allowance withdrawn by parliament, 1654; died, 1656.
The attribution of this MS. to Stanhope is based on the internal evidence of the entries: the first on fol. E.2. which speaks of a 'remedye for ranke Styans...tryed upon my owne childe Arthur Stanhope', the second on Fol. A.4. 'A Plaister for an Ague taught me by my Sonne Ferdinandos wife'. On A.3v the name of 'K. Chesterfield' appears and is presumably that of Stanhope's first wife, the daughter of Lord Francis Hastings, who died in 1636. On fol. B.2, is a reference to my Brother [in law] George Hastings.
Thomas Buzzard was educated at King's College Hospital and joined the British Army staff in the Crimea immediately after qualifying M.D. in 1855. On his return he made his career as a neurologist. In 1873 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; a brief biography, accordingly, is to be found in William Munk's The roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London ("Munk's Roll").
Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) was born in Hanover and came to England in 1757, where he taught music in Leeds, Halifax and Bath. He devoted himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy, built his own telescope in c 1773, and with it discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 (which he named 'Georgium Sidus' in honour of George III). He was appointed private astronomer to George III in 1782 and knighted in 1816, and is regarded as the virtual founder of sidereal science.
His sister Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) discovered eight comets, receiving a salary from George III in 1787. She received the Astronomical Society's gold medal for her catalogue of Sir William Herschel's star clusters and nebulae, 1828, and was created an honorary member of the Society in 1835.
Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871), the son of Sir William Herschel, was a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and obtained his M.A. in 1816. With George Peacock (1791-1858) he translated Lacroix's Elementary Treatise on the Differential Calculus, and was elected FRS in 1813.
His son Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836-1907) was born in South Africa, and studied meteorology at the Royal School of Mines, London, 1861. He was professor of physics at Glasgow, 1866-1871 and at Durham College, Newcastle, 1871-1886. He reported on observation of meteors to the British Association, 1862-1881, observing a solar eclipse in Spain in 1905, and was elected FRS in 1884.
Martin, James (fl 1904-1913), trained as a veterinary surgeon at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgery and later became a vet in Wellington Salop.
Hedwig ('Hedy') Lehmann was born 19 August 1919. She left her home in Hamburg, Germany, in 1939, aged 19. She was amongst the last groups of Jewish people to leave Nazi Germany whilst it was still possible to safely and legitimately do so. Entering England as a refugee she initially settled in Streatham, South West London, and spent some time learning English before studying to become a nurse. She married A W F Charlton in 1945. Hedy Lehmann qualified as a State Registered Nurse (SRN) and State Fever Nurse (SFN) and practised in nursing both before and after having a family. She died in Southall, Middlesex, on 16 Jun 2002.
Mourant was born on 11 April in 1904 in Jersey. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey before winning a King Charles I Scholarship to Exeter College Oxford where he read Chemistry. He graduated with a first class degree in Chemistry (taking crystallography as his special subject) and in 1926 went on to do research under J.A. Douglas on the geology of the Channel Islands (D.Phil. 1931). In 1928 he was appointed Demonstrator in Geology at Leeds University and the following year was given a place on the Geological Survey of Great Britain mapping coal measures in Lancashire. He left in 1931. Mourant's interest in geology continued throughout his life and he continued to publish articles on geology alongside haematological and medical publications.
Mourant returned to Jersey and in 1933 established the Jersey Chemical Pathology Laboratory, which he ran for five years. He then returned to London, intending to pursue a career as a psychoanalyst. As part of the necessary preparation he underwent psychoanalysis himself and in 1939 began medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, London. On the outbreak of war Mourant continued his medical training but when Jersey was occupied by the Germans in 1940 he lost contact with his family who remained on the island. During the period 1940-1945 Mourant played an active role in Channel Island exile groups.
Mourant graduated B.M. and B.Ch. in 1943 and held a number of House posts before his appointment in 1944 as Medical Officer in the National Blood Transfusion Service. Mourant had developed an interest in haematology during his medical training and during this period pursued research into blood serum. He discovered the antibody anti-e, thus helping to establish the three-factor theory of the Rhesus system, and the Lewis factor and shared in the discovery of the Kell factor. With R.R. Race and R.R.A. Coombs he went on to develop the antiglobulin test.
In 1945 Mourant took up a post as Medical Officer with the Galton Laboratory Serum Unit before in 1946 being appointed Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC)'s newly established Blood Group Reference Laboratory, based at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, London. Mourant held this post to 1965. The Laboratory received international recognition in 1952 when the World Health Organisation named it as their International Blood Group Reference Laboratory. Mourant's interests were increasingly anthropological and his work on human blood group distribution world-wide saw publication of two major books: in 1953 the pioneering work The Distribution of Human Blood Groups and other Biochemical Polymorphisms and in 1958 The ABO Blood Groups and Maps of World Distribution. In 1952 Mourant was appointed Honorary Advisor (de facto Director) of the newly established Nuffield Blood Group Centre. It was administered by and housed in the Royal Anthropological Institute, reporting to its Blood Group Committee. From 1952 to 1962 the Centre was funded by the Nuffield Foundation but the MRC then took over responsibility for financing the Centre, which changed its name to the Anthropological Blood Group Centre.
In September 1965 Mourant retired from the Directorship of the Blood Group Reference Laboratory to become Head of the MRC's newly established Serological Population Genetics Laboratory (SPGL). This was established by the MRC as a unit that would combine the testing work undertaken in the Blood Group Reference Laboratory with the statistical and bibliographical work of the Anthropological Blood Group Centre, which was then amalgamated into the SPGL. The work of the SPGL was thus divided between two sections. The first was a testing laboratory, working principally for the Human Adaptability Section of the International Biological Programme (IBP). The second comprised the Anthropological Blood Group Centre that had been transferred to the SPGL, concentrating on preparing a second edition of The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups. The SPGL was based in premises rented by St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.
In 1971 the MRC announced that it was to close the SPGL. However, Mourant was anxious that the SPGL complete its work on The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups and other projects, including its work for the IBP. The MRC agreed to extend its support of the work on the distribution of human blood groups to 1973. Through assiduous fund-raising Mourant found support for the other projects and was able to see them through to completion. The SPGL finally closed in 1976. Mourant retired to the family home in Jersey where he continued to publish on haematology and physical anthropology as well as geology. Mourant was elected FRS in 1966. He died on 29 August 1994.
Sir Alan Sterling Parkes was an endocrinologist and Fellow of the Royal Society. Parkes worked through an epoch-making era in reproductive biology.
Charles Joseph Singer (MA, DM, D.Litt., Hon D.Sc., FRCP) was born on 2 November 1876 in London. He studied at University College London, and from 1896-99 he studied zoology at Oxford, graduating BA, BCh. In 1903 he qualified from St Mary's Hospital Medical School MRCS LRCP. He gained other degrees honours during his career: MA MD; FRCP; Honorary DSc. From 1904-1908 Singer held various hospital posts in England and abroad, including Sussex County Hospital; Brighton; Government House, Singapore; Abyssinia (Medical Officer to expedition); Malta and Salonica, where he returned during the First World War when he served with the RAMC.
Singer held various posts throughout his career: Registrar to the Cancer Hospital, London; Physician to Dreadnought Hospital; Lecturer in history of medicine at University College London, as well as work abroad, including Visiting Professor at University of California, Berkley.
He married Dorothea Waley Cohen, eldest daughter of Nathaniel L Cohen and Julia M Waley in 1910, with whom he was awarded the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society of America.
He held a number of secretaryships and presidential posts, including Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine (Historical Section), 1916-1919; President RSM (Historical Section), 1920-1922; President of Third International Congress of History of Medicine, 1922 and President of Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences. He retired in 1942.
Charles Singer died on 10 June, 1960 at home in Par, Cornwall. Dorothea Singer died on 24 June, 1964.
Charles McMoran Wilson, Lord Moran of Manton (1882-1977) had a long and active life. He was a prominent figure in the medical world, firstly as Dean of St Mary's Hospital Medical School (1920-1945), when he was responsible for rebuilding the premises and promoting the school as an undergraduate honours school. During this period he contributed to the debate on medical education, notably in his article `The Student in Irons', published in the BMJ in March 1932. He was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), London, in April 1941, narrowly defeating the traditionalist Lord Horder, and was re-elected annually until he stepped down in favour of Russell Brain in 1950. He promoted the influence of the RCP as an independent voice for the consultants in the negotiations over the introduction of the National Health Service. He was created a baron in the New Year honours of 1943 and made his maiden speech in June of that year in the debate on the Beveridge report. He spoke powerfully in many of the debates on the NHS and was also a member of the second Spens Committee, which devised the merit awards system for consultants. He was the first chairman of the Awards Committee from 1949 to 1962 and with his vice-chairman, Sir Horace Hamilton, travelled extensively every year, working on the detail of individual recommendations for awards.
In addition to his role in medical politics he published two influential books. The Anatomy of Courage, published in February 1945, a study of the psychological effects of war, was a result of his experiences as a medical officer in the First World War and his work on shell-shock at a stationary hospital in Boulogne and later in Cambridge, where he met his wife, Dorothy Dufton. Throughout the 1930s he lectured to army colleges on morale in war and eventually brought all these thoughts together in the course of the Second World War, when he was travelling with Winston Churchill as his doctor. It is probably as Winston Churchill's doctor, that Lord Moran is best remembered and his second book Winston Churchill: Struggle for Survival, published fifteen months after his famous patient's death, was the subject of much controversy about the ethics of a doctor publishing information about a patient.
For further biographical information see Churchill's Doctor : A Biography of Lord Moran, by Richard Lovell (London: Royal Society of Medicine, 1992).
Chain was born in 1906 in Berlin where his Russian-born father, an industrial chemist, had settled. Both his parents were Jewish. He graduated in chemistry and physiology from the Friedrich-Wilhelm University, Berlin, Germany in 1930 and undertook research in the chemical department of the Institute of Pathology at the Charité Hospital, Berlin, 1930-1933. He was a talented pianist and music competed with chemistry in his thoughts about a career. In 1933 Chain became one of the many refugees from Nazi Germany, finding refuge in Britain. From 1933 to 1935 he worked in Cambridge at the School of Biochemistry under Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, moving in 1935 to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford. Here he took part in the research and development of penicillin for which he shared with A. Fleming and H.W. Florey the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945. In 1948 he moved to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy as Scientific Director of the International Research Centre for Chemical Microbiology, remaining there until 1964 when, after protracted negotiations, he took up the Chair of Biochemistry at Imperial College, London. He retired in 1973 but retained Research Fellowships until his death in 1979. He was elected FRS in 1949 and knighted in 1969.
Born, 1895; Educated in Lausanne, Switzerland, 1910-1914; Studies medicine at St Mary's London, and becomes involved with Student Christian Movement, 1916-1922; sets up in general practice in Tavistock, 1922; Starts a Birth Control Clinic in Aldershot, 1932; Sets up the Aldershot and District Women's Welfare Centre and starts a Birth Control Clinic in Guildford, 1934; Sets up Sex Education Centre in Aldershot, 1936; Involved in the beginning of the Marriage Guidance Council, 1937; sets up private practice in Harley Street, 1937; Moves his practice from Harley Street to Baker Street, 1948; died, 1988.
Sir Ernest Laurence Kennaway (1881-1958) M.A., M.D., D.S.C., F.R.C.P., F.R.S, was Professor of Experimental Pathology at the Royal Cancer Hospital (Royal Marsden Hospital) and Director of the Chester Beatty Institute from 1928 to 1946.
Career summary: Born 6 June 1850, at Hornsey, son of J W Schäfer of Highgate and Hamburg; educated University College London (medal for Physiology). 1871 first Sharpey Scholar, University College London. 1874 Assistant Professor of Physiology, University College London. 1877 published A course of practical Histology. 1878 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; married Maud Dixey. 1878-1881 Fullerian Professor, Royal Institution. 1883 Jodrell Professor, University College London; published his first researches in cerebral localisation. 1885 published Essentials of Histology. 1894 discovery with George Oliver of the effect of extract of the suprarenal gland. 1895-1900 General Secretary, British Association for the Advancement of Science. 1896 death of Maud Schafer, his first wife. 1897 awarded the Baly Medal by the Royal College of Physicians. 1898-1902 edited Advanced textbook of Physiology, to which he also contributed. 1899 elected to the Edinburgh Chair of Physiology. 1900 married Ethel Maude Roberts. 1902 awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society. 1903 gave papers on artificial respiration to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 1908 founded the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology and edited it until 1933. 1909 awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the Royal Life-Saving Society (for the Schafer method' of artificial respiration). 1911 awarded the De Cyon Prize by the Accademia della Scienza, Bologna. 1912 President, British Association for the Advancement of Science: gave a controversial address onLife, its nature, origin and maintenance'; published Quain's Elements of Anatomy Vol II Pt I and Experimental Physiology. 1913 knighted; Lane Medical Lecturer, Stanford. 1915 death in action of his younger son Tom. 1916 published The endocrine organs; death of his elder son Jack at Jutland. c. 1916 death of elder daughter Marjory. 1918 added Sharpey to his name in memory of Professor William Sharpey. 1922 awarded the Neill Medal by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 1923 President, International Congress of Physiology. 1924 awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society. 1927 published History of the Physiological Society; resigned his Chair at Edinburgh: became Emeritus Professor; Volume 23 of Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology produced in his honour with papers by his former pupils worldwide. Died 29 March 1935, aged 85.
Frederick Parkes Weber (1863-1962): born in London, son of Sir Hermann Weber MD FRCP and his wife Matilda, May 8 1863; attends Temple Grove School, East Sheen, 1874-1877; educated at Charterhouse School, 1877-1881; enters Trinity College Cambridge, 1882; BA (Cantab) Medical education at St Bartholomew's, 1886; MB BCh (Cantab), 1889; MRCP, 1890; MD (Cantab), 1892; Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 1891; Appointed Physician at the German Hospital, Dalston Becomes member of Pathological Society of London, 1894; FRCP, 1898; Physician to Mount Vernon Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, 1899-1911; First edition of Aspects of Death and correlated aspects of life in art, epigram and poetry, 1910; First Mitchell Lecturer, RCP, 1921; Marries Dr Hedwig Unger-Laissle; Fourth edition of Aspects of Death, 1933; Awarded the Moxon Gold Medal of the RCP for 'distinguished observation and research in clinical medicine', 1930; Some thoughts of a doctor, 1935; More thoughts of a doctor, 1938-1947; Gives his papers to the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1958; Elected to the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine; Gives £5000 to the Royal College of Physicians to promote advance in dermatology, 1959; dies aged 99 on 2 June 1962.
There are obituaries in the British Medical Journal, 1962, i, 1630-1, and The Lancet, 1962, i, 1308-9, and an entry in Munk's Roll of Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians. Frederick Parkes Weber's collected writings in celebration of his 80th birthday and 50th anniversary as physician to the German Hospital London, edited by the Medical Staff, 1943, is held in the Wellcome Library and includes a complete bibliography of his publications to that date (update to 1958 in PP/FPW/D.10), a list of the societies and organisations of which he was a member, and tributes from colleagues.
Born, 1877; Graduated MB. BS. University of Durham, 1898; Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne; Postgraduate study at Vienna; MS, 1901; FRCS, 1903; Elected to staff of Royal Infirmary, 1906; Service with R.A.M.C. at home and overseas - for a time as consulting surgeon in Mesopotamia; 1914-1918; Council of Royal College of Surgeons, 1926-1950; Professor of Surgery in University of Durham, 1927; President of the Association of Surgeons of GB and Ireland Hunterian Professor, 1928; Orator, Medical Society of London, 1929; President Medical Society of London, 1934; Professor of Surgery in new British Postgraduate Medical School, 1935; Vice President, Royal College of Surgeons, 1937-1939; President, Medical Society of London, 1943-1944; died, 1951.
Born 7 February 1858 in New South Wales, brought to the United Kingdom in 1860; educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College under Dorothea Beale; studied painting and music in Germany; trained as nurse in Liverpool Infirmary; studied medicine in London, Glasgow and Brussels; LRCP and LRCS(Edinburgh); MD (Brux) 1890; practiced in Calcutta for some years; went to Afghanistan to recoup her health and became personal physician to the Amir; visited England 1895 in the retinue of his son the Shahzada Nasrullah; returned to England 1896 and did settlement work in Liverpool; practiced medicine in England until her health broke down; went to South Africa (where her brother Dundas became a farmer); became Warden of Studley College, Warwickshire (established to train women for careers in horticulture and agriculture and allied professions); was a member of the Women's Freedom League; c 1915 went to Montenegro under the auspices of the Wounded Allies Relief Committee and ran a hospital there: returned to Studley where her health became progressively poorer and died at Nice in January 1925.
Helena Wright was born in 1887. She trained at the London School of Medicine for Women, qualifying as MRCS (Eng.) and LRCP (Lond.) in 1914, and MB, BS in 1915. She subsequently worked at the Bethnal Green Hospital, where she met her husband Peter Wright, a Royal Army Medical Corps surgeon. After the First World War she and her husband decided to become medical missionaries in China, working at the Shantung Christian University in Tsinan until 1927. Following her return to England, Wright became an influential figure in the National Birth Control Association, later the Family Planning Association. She wrote several much reprinted works of popular sex instruction, including The Sex Factor in Marriage (1930). During her later years she became interested in alternative medicine and the paranormal, and there is a small amount of material in this collection which reflects this interest. She died in 1982.
Donald Hunter was Director of the MRC Department for Research in Industrial Medicine, at the London Hospital, and author of Diseases of Occupations. Born, 1898; Student at the London Hospital, 1915; Surgeon-probationer RNVR HMS Faulknor, 1918; MB BS London, MRCS LRCP, 1920; MD London, 1922; Member of RCP, 1923; Research fellowship, Harvard, 1926; Assistant Physician, London Hospital, 1927; FRCP, 1929; Goulstonian Lecture, RCP, 1930; Curator of London Hospital Medical School Museum, 1933-1963; Croonian Lecture, RCP, 1942; Director of the MRC Department for Research in Industrial Medicine at the London Hospital, 1943; First editor of British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1944; Hon DIH Society of Apothecaries, 1960; Retirement from London Hospital, 1963; Middlesex Hospital, lecturing on occupational diseases, 1963-1967; Guy's Hospital, lecturing on occupational diseases, 1967-1971; died, 1977.
James Randal Hutchinson (c.1880-1955) was a Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health, 1919-1947.
William Henry Bradley (1898-1975) was a Senior and Principal Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health, 1939-1963.
Born, 1920; Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Ipswich Hospital; died, 2001.
The church of Saint Alban, also known as Saint Alban the Martyr, originated in a mission run by the church of All Saints, South Acton, begun in 1882. The mission was run from halls and schools until 1887 when a permanent building was constructed. A district was formed in 1888. The patron was the bishop of London.
From: 'Acton: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 35-39. Available online.
The history of the church of Saint Mark, Noel Park, begins in 1884 when work commenced on the Noel Park Estate and services were held by Revd R.B. Dowling in a shop in Lymington Avenue. A site in Gladstone Avenue for the church, vicarage and a hall had already been purchased, with the help of the Bishop of London's Fund. The church hall was opened on 25 March 1885. The church of St Mark was consecrated on 1 November 1889, when an ecclesiastical district was assigned by the Ecclesiastical commissioners from part of Saint Michael's, Wood Green.
The Walsham-How Mission Hall was opened in 1913. It is named after Bishop Walsham-How, first Bishop of Wakefield, who encouraged the people of his native Shropshire to adopt the parish of Saint Mark as their county mission. This money was raised in Shropshire to erect the mission hall, which would be supported by the Shropshire Mission to East London.
St Mark's (Noel Park) Institute co-ordinated social societies connected with St Mark's, and their finances.
In 1615 Sir John Weld of Southgate erected a small chapel on his own land for the use of his family and local people. It was consecrated in 1615 on condition that all users took Easter communion at All Saints church and that the vicar of Edmonton should consent to baptisms and marriages there. The chapel was assigned a district chapelry in Southgate in 1851. The chapel was demolished in 1862 and replaced in 1863 by Christ Church, Southgate. The new church was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Decorated style and contains stained glass windows designed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones.
The church of Saint Peter, Page Green, Tottenham, originated in a mission hall built by the Draper's Company to serve the poor and populous district between Page Green and Tottenham Hale in 1883-4. Ten years later a permanent building was planned, which was consecrated in 1900 when a district chapelry was formed out of Holy Trinity parish. The church was declared redundant in July 1973 and the parish was reunited with Holy Trinity, Tottenham.
The medieval parish church of Perivale or Little Greenford, St Mary the Virgin, is situated in the valley of the River Brent south of Western Avenue in the south west corner of the parish. When suburban development reached Perivale in the 1930s, a mission church dedicated to St Nicholas was built on the north side of Western Avenue, where most of the development was taking place. The parish was extended to the east in 1932 to take in part of St James, Alperton and St Barnabas, Ealing. St Nicholas' Church was consecrated in 1935 and was assigned a conventional district, but was never licensed for marriages. It was placed in the care of a missioner with the intention that in time it would become a separate parish. It had its own Parochial Church Council and published its own parish magazine. In the 1950s the Bishop of London decided that Perivale should remain one parish. At the end of 1955 St Nicholas again became an integral part of the parish of Perivale and ceased to maintain separate accounts. The missioner was replaced by a priest-in-charge under the authority of the Rector of Perivale. The two parts of the parish were brought closer together at the end of 1959 when the priest-in-charge of St Nicholas, the Reverend W H Hobday, became Rector of Perivale. A new parish church was built in the early 1960s to replace both St Mary and St Nicholas. It is situated in Federal Road adjacent to St Nicholas Church, which is now the parish hall. It was consecrated in 1965 and dedicated to both St Mary the Virgin and St Nicholas. The old parish church was restored and continued in use until 1972 when it was closed and declared redundant. It is now an arts centre. St Mary's burial ground has been closed but occasional interments still take place there in private graves. The Perivale Committee was set up by St Mary's Parochial Church Council.
Until the mid 19th Century, Ashford, like Laleham, was a chapelry of Staines. Ashford Church was served by a curate appointed by the Vicar of Staines. In 1860 Asford became a perpetual curacy in the gift of the Lord Chancellor and in 1865 it bacame a vicarage. Ashford Church was at one time dedicated to St. Michael. In 1796 the church was pulled down and replaced by a brick built church on the same site. The present church of St Matthew's, designed by Butterfield, was built in 1857-59 immediately adjacent to the 1796 church which was demolished on the completion of the new church.
In 1872 the West London District Schools opened in Ashford. These were poor law schools which accommodated 800 children from Fulham, Hammersmith, Paddington and some of the Westminster parishes. The school was taken over by the London County Council in 1930 and was renamed Ashford Residential School. It closed in 1955.
The Victoria County History of Middlesex volume II (published in 1911) described late Victorian Ashford as being almost completely rural. 'Now ..... an entirely new town has arisen about the station to accommodate a population of the artisan class. To the east of the older part of the town is a group of private houses standing in their own gardens'. A new church, St. Hilda's was built in 1913 on the corner of Stanwell Road and Woodthorpe Road to serve the population living near the station. It was completed and consecrated in 1928, was assigned a conventional district and eventually in c. 1973 became a separate parish. The mission church of St Benedict in Napier Road provided for the rapidly growing district of Ashford Common to the south-east of the parish. St Hilda's is a daughter church of St Matthew, Ashford situated at the corner of Stanwell Road and Woodthorpe Road. A church hall was built on the site initially, followed by the first portion of the church in 1913. St Hilda's was completed and consecrated in 1928. It was licensed for marriages in 1939 and assigned a conventional district. It is now a separate parish.
St Benedict's mission church: A mission church had been established at Ashford Common by 1911 to serve the rapidly growing population. In 1930 a site was acquired for a permanent church in Napier Road. In 1936 a curate was placed in charge of the church. On 1 May 1940 St Benedict's ceased to be part of Ashford Parish and was handed over to the Vicar of St Saviour, Upper Sunbury.
See A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General; Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Feltham, Hampton with Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton (1911).
A priest is first mentioned in the manor of Harefield in 1086. In the late 12th century the advowson was given to the Knights Hospitallers, although the Newdigate family later became patrons of the church. The church building has some medieval features, but was restored and altered in 1768 and again in 1841. During the First World War Harefield Park became an Australian hospital, and an Australian graveyard was established in the church grounds.
From: 'Harefield: Church', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 252-256. Available online.
Saint Philip the Apostle originated in an iron mission church established in 1899 by the London Diocesan Home Mission. The permanent church was built in 1906 and a consolidated chapelry was formed in 1907 from parts of the parishes of Holy Trinity and Christ Church. The Bishop of London was patron of the living. The church was designed in the Perpendicular style and seated 800. The organ came from St. Philip, Clerkenwell.
From: 'Tottenham: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 348-355. Available online.
The church of St. Mary The Virgin has parts dating to 1130, although the church has been subsequently extended and restored. The advowson of the church was granted to the priory of the Holy Trinity, Hounslow. A vicarage was endowed by the Bishop of London in 1316, and the advowson was granted to the Bishop after the Dissolution.
From: 'Spelthorne Hundred: East Bedfont with Hatton', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General; Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Feltham, Hampton with Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton (1911), pp. 309-314. Available online.
Herbert Wilson, the rector of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the parish church of Harlington, founded a mission church at Dawley in 1910. It stood on the west side of Dawley Road and was replaced in 1934 by the church of Saint Jerome.
From: 'Harlington: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 270-273. Available online.
The church of Saint Alban the Martyr, Golders Green, was built as a chapel-of-ease to All Saints, Childs Hill, in 1910. It became the centre of a new parish taken from that of All Saints in 1922. The original church, a simple brick building, became the parish hall in 1933, when another church was built adjacent to it. The second church was by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed most of the fittings, in a Gothic inspired style. In 1979 St Alban was united with Saint Michael, Golders Green to form the new parish of Golders Green.
The church of Saint Anne originated as a mission church established by the London Diocesan Home Mission in 1899. A parish was formed in 1905 from the parishes of Christ Church, Holy Trinity and Saint John's, Kensal Green. The Bishop of London was patron. The church building, in brick with stone dressings, was completed in 1905 and seated 750.
Source of Information: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 236-241.
The chapel of Saint Mary, so called circa 1300 and in 1535, stood west of the manor house and was one of the smallest churches in Middlesex, seating around 40 people. It was rebuilt circa 1712 by Frederick Herne and in 1800 was a plain gabled building of brick with round-headed windows, a western entrance, and a bellcot. Thomas Willan and his architect William Atkinson removed the road between the church and the manor house, covering both buildings with cement to give the appearance of stone, and embellishing them with Gothic details. To accommodate a growing population, a church hall was built in 1937 and used for worship until in 1958 a new church, incorporating the old one as a Lady Chapel, was built to the design of N. F. Cachemaille-Day.
From: 'West Twyford: Church', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 175-176.
Saint Francis' Church began as a mission within the parish of Saint Andrew, High Road, Willesden in 1911. A permanent church was consecrated in 1933 and the parish became independent in December of that year. Steps towards reuniting the parish with its former parent began in 1976 when the vicar of Saint Francis' was appointed "priest in charge" of Saint Andrew's. The benefices were united in 1983 and the two parishes were formally merged in 1991, becoming known as Saint Andrew and Saint Francis of Assisi, Willesden.
The church of Saint Paul, Northfields Road, was constructed in a Gothic style in 1906 to 1907, seating 850. A parish was assigned in 1907, taken from Saint John's, Ealing Dean. The patron is the Bishop of London.
Source of information: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 150-153.
The church of Saint John was constructed in 1838 as a chapel of ease to the parish church at Norwood. A parish was assigned in 1850 and extended in 1880. The original church on Southall Green was replaced in 1910 by a larger building on Church Avenue, constructed in a Perpendicular style by C. G. Miller. The old church building was converted for use as a hall.
From: 'Norwood, including Southall: Churches', 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. 50-52.
Saint Andrew's church opened in 1865. The church was designed by George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) in an early Gothic style. Reverend Richard Croft, Vicar of Hillingdon 1856-69 was responsible for asking Sir Gilbert Scott to design a new church for Uxbridge. The builder of the church was William Fassnidge of Uxbridge. The foundation stone was laid on 29-06-1864 and the completed church was consecrated on 01-05-1865.
The original church consisted of a chancel, aisled nave, south porch and sanctuary. The tower and shingled spire were completed in 1866. There have been various alterations to the church over the years including a major restoration project on the spire between 1952 and 1957. This project was led by the company Gray's of Holborn.
A mission room dedicated to Saint Peter was built in the Greenway in 1906.
From: "Hillingdon, including Uxbridge: Churches"; A History of the County of Middlesex, Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Rusilip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 87 - 91.
All Saints, Harrow, was built in 1842 near an earlier Chapel of Ease and consecrated in 1850. Edward Munroe became the first curate. A separate parish was assigned to it in 1844 taken from St Mary's Harrow and a small part of Bushey (Hertfordshire). Two vestries were added in 1958. The church has six bells which date from 1890 and two from 1935.
Saint Mary, Willesden was the parish church for the whole of Willesden until 1867 when the rapid growth of population in the area led to the creation of new parishes. In 1811 the population was 751, by 1901 this had expanded to 100,000. The parish of Willesden has existed for over 1000 years. In 937 King Athelstan defeated the Danes at the battle of Brunanburh, and as a thank offering gave the Royal Manors of Willesden-cum-Neasden to the Dean and Chapter of Saint Paul's Cathedral (subsequently many of the vicars of Willesden have also been Canons of Saint Paul's). A church was built, possibly replacing an earlier wooden one. The earliest part of the church as it stands today dates from the thirteenth century with fifteenth and sixteenth century additions. The two Victorian restorations added a north aisle and a new south porch. Two notable fittings are the Purbeck marble font, dating from 1150 and the fourteenth century inner door to the south porch. By the sixteenth century the parish was a focus for pilgrims attracted by the shrine containing the statue of Our Lady of Willesden, popularly known as the Black Virgin of Willesden, which was supposed to possess miraculous powers. At the time of the Reformation it was seen as idolatrous and was taken to Chelsea and burned in 1538. A modern Black Virgin by C. Stern was installed in the church in 1972. During the period of the Civil War in the mid-seventeenth century, puritanical influence was strong. The parish was dominated by the Parliamentarian Sir William Roberts, a friend of Oliver Cromwell and Lord of the Manor of Neasden. He conducted marriages at his house and took charge of the registers during the Interregnum.
This list also includes records of Willesden General Hospital (DRO/113/WGH).
In 1899 Saint Mary's Church, Willesden, opened a mission in Dog Lane for railway employees. This was replaced in 1910 by Saint Raphael's, a London Diocesan Home Mission chapel for the Great Central Railway estate. Before a new church was built at Garden Way, Neasden in 1924, an iron church situated at the apex of Gresham and Woodheyes roads was used. Saint Raphael's church closed c.1972. It never became an independent parish church.
The parish of Christ Church was formed in 1867 from St Mary's Willesden; its patron and first rector being Dr Charles Williams. The Church, a limestone building in thirteenth century style, was designed by C.R.B. King and constructed between 1866-1909. It had a High Church reputation. The Church was damaged by bombs in 1940 and not reopened until 1948. During this period, services were held at Mapesbury Hall and St. Gabriel's, Cricklewood. In 1971, the parish was united with Saint Laurence, Brondesbury. In 1990 Christ Church was substantially remodelled; much of the building was converted to flats, with a reduced church remaining in operation.
Holy Trinity Church, Northwood, was founded in 1854 on a site given by Lord Robert Grosvenor. The church was constructed in a Victorian Gothic style by S.S. Teulon. Extensions were added in 1895 and 1928; while one of the stained glass windows is by Edward Burne-Jones.
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. 142-144.