The two main issues arising in the pressure groups' materials held here are those of discrimination against scheduled castes and of inter-community violence and human rights abuses reported in the early 1990s.
The majority of the materials held here are concerned with the ethnic strife between Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority. The latter considered itself discriminated against by language and university admisson policies introduced in the 1950s and 1970s respectively, as well as by the encouragement of Sinhalese settlement in the traditionally Tamil northern and eastern areas of the island, and in response a number of militant Tamil groups emerged, most notably the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Folowing the communal riots of 1981 and 1983 support for these groups increased, as the country degenerated into a state of civil war. Despite peace initiatives and intervention by India the situation continues to remain unstable, hence the continued issuance of material by the groups represented here, notably the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.
The pressure and interest group materials assembled here date predominantly from the 1970s and 1980s and their content has almost certainly been influenced by the research interests of those collecting them as well as by the prevailing issues of the time. Thus whilst the lobbying efforts of the business community are not represented in this collection a variety of women's groups and pro-labour organisations are, along with several movements concerned with human rights in general. In addition there is a wide selection of materials from different Québécois groups, dealing both with the province's constitutional status around the time of the 1980 referendum and with other domestic issues.
As the Burnham administration moved to consolidate its power in the years following independence in 1966 groups like the Civil Liberties Action Council emerged challenging the erosion of rights in Guyana and disputing the fairness of various national and local elections. This criticism provoked further repressive measures which in turn stimulated the formation of the likes of the Guyana Human Rights Association and groups affiliated to the major political parties such as the Women's Progressive Organisation (linked to the PPP) and the Women's Revolutionary Socialist Movement (linked to the PNC).
The legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism dominated Jamaican politics throughout the period that the materials held here cover, and as a consequence all the items are connected in some way with Jamaican independence, whether reflecting upon the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865, warning against the INF agreements of 1977-1978 or discussing the merits of a republican constitution.
A significant number of the materials held here are British in origin, and include both the publications of human rights pressure groups campaigning for the release of political prisoners during the presidency of Daniel Arap Moi, and the Voice of Kenya newsletter which presented the viewpoint of the European population of Kenya at the time of the Mau Mau freedom movement in the 1950s. Organisations concerned with the pre-independence constitutional debates and with the demand for increased democracy in the 1980s are also represented, and there is also a constitution originating from the main Kenyan trade union federation.
The vast majority of the materials held in this collection date from the period between UDI in 1965 and Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, and include items issued by organisations both supporting and opposing majority rule. Many of the former were based abroad, and they also include in their number several Christian groups. Materials published by the pioneering multi-racial project the Cold Comfort Farm Society are also held here.
Previously known as British Honduras, Belize finally became independent in 1981, the process having been delayed more by the unresolved sovereignty dispute with Guatemala (which did not recognise the new state until 1992) than by instransigence on the behalf of London. The colony had enjoyed universal suffrage from 1954 and was granted full internal self-government from 1964, with George Price's People's United Party (PUP) and its anti-colonial stance initially dominating the domestic political scene. From the formation of the economically more liberal United Democratic Party (UDP) in 1973 a genuine two-party system emerged, with ethnic difference threatening more recently to replace political ideology as the main distinction between the two. The views of the PUP and UDP, as well as those of more minor parties, on the developments described above are represented in the materials held here.
Canada emerged from World War Two with the power and jurisdiction of its federal government greatly enhanced by the necessity of wartime controls and centralization, and the post-war period has borne witness to a complex debate between the provinces and Ottawa as to the extent to which this power should be limited or even relinquished. Complicating the issue has been the presence within the confederation of predominantly francophone Quebec, where the desire for special status or even independence has in turn impacted upon the demands made by the other provinces and territories. This has also had an effect on the political party system, with perhaps only the Liberals (and until recently the Progressive Conservatives) consistently being able to lay claim to being a truly national party whilst other essentially regionalist parties (Social Credit, Bloc Quebecois, the Reform Party and arguably the New Democratic Party) sent representatives to the national parliament. External relations have also been a focus for debate, with concern centring on the United States and its economic and cultural influence, as well as the consequences for Canadian foreign policy of following the lead of its powerful neighbour. These issues and others are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials held here.
Although trades unions had functioned in The Gambia from the 1920s, it was not until the 1950s that the first political parties emerged. Disputes between these parties, which included the Gambia Muslim Congress, the United Party and the Protectorate People's Party (later to become the Peoples' Progressive Party), delayed agreement on the transition to independence until 1965, when Dawda Kairaba Jawara of the PPP became the country's first Prime Minister. Though Gambia had a multi-party electoral system Jawara and the PPP remained in power until the 1994 coup, during which time the country became a republic (1970), experienced its first coup (1981) and formed a confederation with Senegal (Senegambia, 1982-1989). The leader of the second coup, Yahya Jammeh, has since won two presidential elections under a new constitution with his Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (Gambia), although several opposition parties were either banned from or boycotted the polls. The materials here cover the entire period from the end of colonial rule to the Jammeh era.
Guadeloupe changed hands been France and Britain many times before settling as a French colony in 1815. Since 1946 it has been an overseas département of France.
The politics of the areas now known as Malaysia have been dominated since independence by ethnic divisions which have permeated the economic as well as the cultural and political spheres. While the Malays form a majority of the population under the British they were largely excluded from urban roles and economic ownership in favour of the large Chinese minority, while the Indian community largely worked in serflike conditions on the peninsula's rubber plantations. The Federation of Malaya was created in 1952, and the aforementioned differences were initially resolved by the formation of the Alliance Party comprising the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the Malayan - later Malaysian - Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malayan - later Malaysian - Indian Congress (MIC). This multi-racial umbrella organisation presided over independence in 1957 and the merger with Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah which created the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 (Singapore left in 1965). Yet subsuming potentially antagonistic groups inside the Alliance almost guaranteed that the challenge to one-party rule would draw on the dissatisfaction of ethnic groups which no longer felt the original parties were representing their interests, and so new parties emerged in opposition, most notably the largely Malay Parti Islam-Se-Malaysia (PAS) and the predominantly Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP). The advances of the latter in the 1969 elections led to communal rioting and the two-year suspension of parliament, which was dominated upon its recall by a new coalition, the Barisan Nasional, based upon the Alliance but with a greater Malay dominance. This party has remained in power since, presiding over the impressive Malaysian growth of the New Economic Policy period of the 1970s and 1980s but also over a democratic process which looked increasingly unlikely to offer any possibility of a change of government.
Since achieving independence in 1960 Nigeria has oscillated between periods of civilian and military rule. From the start the fact that that the three main parties (the Northern People's Congress (NPC), the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) and the Action Group (AG)) largely represented particular ethnic and linguistic groups made for a volatile political environment. Two coups in 1966 led to a suspension of electoral politics until 1979, when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) led by Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari took power following victory in the elections of that year. The result was repeated four years later, but against a background of vote-rigging allegations the military overthrew the government. Despite changes of leader, limited tolerance of political parties and aborted elections it was not until the 1999 polls that under Olusegun Obasanjo of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) the country returned to civilian administration. The vast majority of the holdings date from the periods when party politics was tolerated, and include regional and seperatist materials occasioned by the religious, tribal and linguistic divisions that have dogged Nigeria since independence. Another recurring theme is that of economic crisis and foreign exploitation, relected particularly in items originating from left-wing and nationalist political parties and in the small amount of trade union material. Besides items produced in Nigeria itself there are also a significant number of newsletters and pamphlets originating from the United Kingdom branches of parties and organisations, most of them dating from the periods of military rule.
As the Union of South Africa (1910-1961) and subsequently as a republic the country's history between independence from British rule and the 1994 elections has been dominated by the issue of relations between its different racial groups. Following the ascension to power of the Boer-dominated National Party in 1948 racial discrimination became increasingly entrenched in law as part of the 'apartheid' policy. Resistance and repression increased together, with groups representing the demands of the non-white population (notably the PAC and the ANC) being banned and subsequently conducting an armed struggle from various bases in sympathetic neighbouring countries. Legislation such as the pass laws and the ruling requiring all pupils to learn Afrikaans led to protests and subsequent massacres, in the former case at Sharpeville in 1960 and in the latter in Soweto in 1976. Domestic events were played out against a backdrop of increasing foreign condemnation of the apartheid regime and its consciousness of the vulnerability of its position as an important factor in Cold War strategy. These issues, as well as the disputes between different factions in the liberation and apartheid movements, are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials held here. In addition, newer materials deal with the political scene after the transition to majority rule and the problems such as endemic poverty and AIDS which have tempered the initial optimism of the post-apartheid era.
Sabah, previously British North Borneo, joined with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
Sierra Leone's 1951 constitution inaugurated a process of increasing self-government culminating in independence in 1961. Its first post-independence elections were won by the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) in 1962, but after an unsuccessful attempt to establish a one-party state the SLPP was defeated at the polls in 1967 by the All People's Congress (APC) of Siaka Stevens. This prompted a series of coups and counter-coups until eventually Stevens assumed the prime ministership of the country in 1968. Having himself successfully enacted a one-party state in 1978 he and his successor Joseph Saidu Momoh ruled Sierra Leone until 1992, when the combination of an armed rebellion from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and a coup overthrowing Momoh and installing a National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) plunged the country into a civil war from which it is only now tentatively emerging. The majority of the materials held here date from the period between the granting of the first constitution and the 1992 coup, and originate from both the governing party and opposition groups objecting to failures of democracy and perceived economic mismanagement. There are also a significant quantity of items produced by the country's Electoral Commission for the instruction of voters at the crucial 1967 election.
Since the independence of the Bahamas in 1973 the Turks and Caicos Islands have been a separate colony of the United Kingdom, with a 1976 constitution providing for democratic elections. These elections have seen the islands' two main parties, the People's Democratic Movement (PDM) and the Progressive National Party (PNP) alternate in power.
The sole materials currently held here originate from the United Workers' Party (UWP), which was in power in Saint Lucia for most of the period between 1964 and 1997 including the transition to independence in 1979.
By 1963 the British administration, struggling to maintain its grip on the port of Aden and the surrounding territories, had created a Federation in the hope that this would satisfy growing nationalist sentiment in the region. The ATUC pamphlet here rejects this development and instead calls for free elections which it anticipates will produce representatives committed to uniting the colony with the Yemen Arab Republic.
The union scene on the islands was dominated in the post war period by the Antigua Trades and Labour Union, formed in 1940 and led by Vere Cornwall Bird. Its political arm, the Antigua Labour Party, subsequently became the vehicle by which many erstwhile union leaders transformed themselves into politicians. The materials here mainly originate from union conferences of the 1950s and 1960s, but also include items concerning agreements struck with the oil company Esso and detailing the progress of an unfair dismissal case.
Sri Lanka had been traditionally highly unionised, particularly in the state sector, and the majority of the materials held here date from the period in the 1970s when the influence of organised labour was at its highest. Most of the items originate from umbrella organisations like the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC), whose relative militancy prior to 1977 and subsequent support for the United National Party government that came to power that year epitomises the ebbing of union power in the 1980s. Some of the material found here relates to the struggle for worker's rights in the most turbulent sector of the island's economy, tea production.
The 1950s and 1960s saw an expansion in union power and membership as the high demand for labour in a growing economy strengthened its representatives' bargaining power. At the same time the merger of the Canadian Congress of Labour and the Trades and Labor Congress, which formed the Canadian Labor Congress, both allowed labour to present a more united front and facilitated the setting up in 1961 of the New Democratic Party, a political party intended at least in part to represent union interests. Yet by the 1970s and 1980s the movement found itself on the back foot, as the Trudeau wage controls and later demands for a more flexible workforce and the loss of manufacturing jobs contributed to the erosion of hard-won rights. The materials here, mainly from union confederations, deal with their internal and external responses to the changing conditions described above.
Part of the British Windward Islands Federation until 1958, Grenada then joined the West Indies (Federation) and when that dissolved in 1962 was made part of a further federation comprising Great Britain's remaining East Caribbean dependencies. After achieving "associated statehood" in 1967 it finally became independent in 1974, with Eric Gairy of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) becoming the country's first Prime Minister. The emergence in the 1970s of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) posed a challenge to Gairy that was met by an increasingly authoritarian approach. The NJM took power in a 1979 coup and established a people's revolutionary government (PRG) with Maurice Bishop at its head, but differences between Bishop and the more radical wing of the government led by Bernard Coard led to the death of the revolutionary leader in an armed fracas and the subsequent invasion of the island by the United States. Elections following the invasion saw the return of the New National Party (NNP), and this party or offshoots of it have governed the country ever since. The materials held here all date from the period prior to independence and include constitutions produced in the 1950s during a period of expansion for the Grenadian trade union movement as well as later bulletins produced by both blue and white collar unions. Interestingly these latter publications concentrate on the industrial rather than the political sphere, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that by this time Eric Gairy's union-based GULP party was in office.
The trade union movement in India inevitably became bound up with the independence movement, with the foundation of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)in 1920 reflecting the increase in political and national consciousness following the First World War. An indication of the degree to which the economic struggle was subsumed in favour of the fight for independence can be found in the split which followed independence, with the Indian National Congress forming the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in response to communist domination of the AITUC. The struggles of these umbrella organisations to work inside and outside the system throughout a period marked by increasing socio-economic and political crisis (encompassing the curtailing of trade union freedoms during the emergency and the wave of strikes under the Janata Party administration) are reflected in the materials here, as are the more generalised protests against the erosion of civil rights in this period by the likes of the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).
The Trinidad and Tobago labour movement was particularly significant in the 1960s and 1970s, the period from which most of the materials in this collection originate. Particularly well represented are the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU), an organisation whose significance mirrored the importance of oil to the country's economy, and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factories Workers Trade Union (ATSE/FWTU), who represented the largely East Indian sugar cane workers. Though Trinidad and Tobago was unusual in the Caribbean area in that unions tended not to affiliate to political parties, this is not to say that they did not involve themselves in politics - as shown here by the polemics issued by OWTU leader George Weekes against the ruling People's National Movement (PNM), accused of selling out the workers. Also represented here are union federations, of which the most prominent were the Trinidad and Tobago Labour Congress and the Council of Progressive Trade Unions, and many smaller organisations. Following the economic downturn of the 1980s and the opening up of the previously state-dominated economy, union membership and influence declined, but a significant proportion of the workforce continues to be unionised and materials continue to be collected.
The illegitimate son of the keeper of a debtors' prison, Francis Place was apprenticed aged 14 to a breeches-maker and practised the trade for many years, eventually becoming successful. From 1794 to 1797 he was a member of the radical London Corresponding Society, which had a strong influence on his political and philosophical views. In the first two decades of the 19th century he was instrumental in the successes of radical candidates for the borough of Westminster . Place wrote extensively and his papers comprise one of the largest 19th century collections in the British Library.
Herbert Spencer was born in Derby and educated at Derby Grammar School and privately by his uncle, Rev Thomas Spencer, in Somerset. Instead of going to university, he trained as a civil engineer and spent several years working for railway companies. He dabbled in mechanical inventing and read widely before becoming a journalist for The Economist in London (1848-1853). Inheriting money on his uncle Thomas's death, he was able to pursue an independent writing career, producing several works of sociology and philosophy. His views are now seen as largely conforming to classical liberalism.
Joseph Rayner Stephens was born in Edinburgh in 1805 and was the son of the Methodist minister John Stephens (1772-1841). He was educated in Leeds and Manchester before becoming a schoolteacher and preacher. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1826 and worked in Sweden before returning to hold several posts in England. His political opinions were radical and he was much concerned with workers' rights and the condition of the poor. Stephens's expression of his strong opinions in his speeches and sermons brought him into conflict with both the Methodist hierarchy (he seceded in 1834) and the law (he once served 18 months for sedition, disturbing the peace and infractions). He took up writing for magazines in the 1840s and became a poor-law guardian in 1848. He died in Stalybridge, Lancashire in 1879.
Magnús Stephensen studied law at the University of Copenhagen before becoming a government official in Danish-controlled Iceland. He was also a prolific author in many fields and the dominant book publisher in Iceland for over 30 years. He was the first Chief Justice of the Icelandic High Court from 1800 until his death in 1833.
William Ernest Henley was born in Gloucester in 1849. He was educated at the Crypt School there, where the poet T E Brown was his headmaster. He left school in 1867 and moved to London, where he worked as a journalist. He was often in ill-health and spent nearly two years in hospital in Edinburgh, where he met both Hannah Johnson Boyle, whom he married in 1878, and the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who became a close friend and collaborator for several years. Henley spent most of his life working as a writer and editing periodicals, including the National Observer, and the New Review. He was also a poet of some note, perhaps best known for the line 'I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul'.
Louis XIV, the elder son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, succeded to the French throne in 1643 aged 4. His mother served as regent until he came of age in 1651, but he did not take personal control of the government until the death of his First Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. In 1660 he married Maria Theresa, daughter of King Philip IV of Spain; she died in 1683 and he later contracted a morganatic marriage to the Marquise de Maintenon. Throughout his reign, Louis was often involved in wars with neighbouring countries, including the War of the Grand Alliance and the War of the Spanish Succession. His lavish spending at court and patronage of the arts and academia earned him the nickname of 'the Sun King'. A large French territory in North America was named Louisiane (Louisiana) in his honour. Louis XIV died in 1715 aged almost 77. His eldest son and grandson having predeceased him, he was succeeded by his 5-year-old great grandson, who became Louis XV.
Thomas Campbell was born in 1777, the son of a Glasgow merchant who lost his fortune whilst Thomas was young. He was educated at Glasgow Grammar School, and became a classics scholar at Glasgow University, 1791-1796, where he participated in debates and undertook poetical translations from Greek. Following a short period as a tutor in Mull, 1795, and Argyllshire, 1796, he settled in Edinburgh as a law clerk and tutor. His first publication was Pleasures of Hope (Mundell and Son, Edinburgh, 1799). Pensioned by the Crown in 1805, he continued to write. He became Lord Rector of Glasgow University, 1826-1829. Campbell died at Bologne in 1844 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
John Bright was born into a Quaker family in Rochdale, Lancashire, in 1811. He was active in local politics and known as a staunch opponent of the Corn Laws before becoming MP for Durham in 1843. He was subsequently Liberal MP for Manchester (1847-1856), Birmingham (1858-1885) and Birmingham Central (1885-1887), serving as a cabinet minister for part of that time.
Jean Ingelow was born in Lincolnshire and educated at home. From 1850 until her death she lived in Kensington, London, and wrote poetry and prose for both children and adults; some of her early work was published under the pseudonym 'Orris'. Ingelow was acquainted with Alfred Tennyson, John Ruskin, Christina Rossetti and other literary and artistic figures, and was a member of the Portfolio Society of women artists and writers. Her work was particularly popular in the USA; some of her American readers petioned unsuccessfully for her to succeed Tennyson as poet laureate.
Richard Doddridge Blackmore was born in Berkshire in 1825. He was educated at schools in Devon and Somerset and at Exeter College, Oxford. After graduating, he studied law and was called to the bar in 1852; he practised law for some years but also worked as a teacher and journalist during that time. After inheriting money in 1857, he became a fruit farmer in Teddington, Middlesex, where he lived for the rest of his life. He served on the fruit and vegetable committee of the Royal Horticultural Society from 1883 until 1892. Blackmore also wrote poetry and several novels, including the bestselling Lorna Doone.
Samuel Plimsoll was born in Bristol in 1824. He was brought up in northern England. He became a clerk and later a businessman before entering parliament as Liberal MP for Derby in 1868, retaining the seat until 1880. Plimsoll was concerned with the struggles of the poor and with sailors' interests. He spoke out against the common practice of overloading ships with goods and devised the Plimsoll line, marked on ships to show the safe depth at which they may sit in the water. Plimsoll gym shoes, so-called because their outer rubber band is reminiscent of a Plimsoll line, are indirectly named after him.
Charles Babbage was born in London and educated at Trinity College and Peterhouse, Cambridge. From 1815 onwards, he was a participant in the burgeoning London scientific scene. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1816 and was active in the Astronomical Society from its foundation in 1820. Babbage published several papers and books on topics in mathematics and the philosophy of science, but is best known today for his invention of a kind of a 'difference engine' (an automated calculating machine forming a mechanical precursor to the modern computer); the machine was never built during his lifetime but staff at the Science Museum in London have since successfully constructed a working model.
Ferdinand became King of Bohemia in 1526 and succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor when his elder brother, Charles V, abdicated in 1556. His eldest son, Maximilian II, succeeded him as Emperor on his death in 1564. Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII of England, was his aunt and Phillip II of Spain (husband of Catherine's daughter Mary I of England) was his nephew.
John Burns was born in Lambeth, in 1858. He trained as an engineer and became active in the labour movement and local politics. He was a leader of the London dock strike of 1889. Burns was elected to London County Council on its inception in 1889, remaining in office until 1907. He also served as Member of Parliament for Battersea (1892-1918) and was president of the Local Government Board (1905-1913) and the Board of Trade (1914). Burns resigned from the Cabinet in protest at the British decision to declare war in August 1914.
Henry Crabb Robinson was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and educated locally and in Devizes, Wiltshire. Being from a nonconformist family, he could not attend university, instead working as a legal clerk in Colchester, and later in London. Inheriting money from an uncle in 1798 enabled him to travel in Europe and study at university in Germany. Returning to England, he became a lawyer and a journalist, and for a while editor of The Times (1808-1809). He also participated in the founding of University College London. Today he is best known for his diary, kept between 1811 and his death in 1867, of which a large portion has been published.
John Ruskin was born in London in 1819. He was educated by his mother and various tutors before attending Oxford University. His study there was interrupted for two years by illness. He embarked upon a foreign tour with his parents in 1840. After resuming his education, he received his BA in 1842 and his MA in 1843. He taught art at Working Men's Colleges and at Oxford. While at Oxford he was appointed the first Slade Professor of Fine Art in 1869. During his life he wrote many books on art, social criticism and politics. In 1871 he purchased Brantwood near Coniston in the Lake District. Ruskin died of influenza in 1900.
Henry John Pye was the son of the Poet Laureate Henry James Pye (1745-1813) and his second wife Martha. He married Mary Anne Walker in 1825 and they had 9 children, of whom the eldest, also Henry John Pye (1827-1903) became a clergyman and hymn-writer.
Henry Arthur Jones (1851-1929), British dramatist, was born at Grandborough, Buckinghamshire, England. He began working for a draper at the age of twelve, and later earned his living as a commerical traveller. After attending the theatre in London, he was inspired to begin writing one-act plays. His first play to be produced, It's Only Round the Corner, was staged at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, in 1878. His first London production, A Clerical Error, premiered the following year. The Silver King, which opened at the Princess Theatre, London, in 1882, established Jones's name as a dramatist. During his long career, he wrote numerous plays, among his most sucessful were The Middleman (1889), The Dancing Girl(1891), The Tempter (1893), The Triumph of the Philistines (1895), Michael and His Lost Angel (1896), The Liars (1897), and The Hypocrites (1906). Like the works of Arthur Wing Pinero, Jones's plays began the move away from melodrama and sentimental comedy to a more realistic treatment of social issues.
Henry George Grey was born in Northumberland and educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He first entered parliament in 1826 and was successively MP for Winchelsea (Sussex), Higham Ferrers (Northamptonshire), Northumberland, and Sunderland. On his father's death in 1845, he entered the House of Lords as Earl Grey. He served as colonial secretary from 1846 until 1852. Grey was known as a supporter of free trade and continued to take a strong interest in British and colonial public affairs after leaving office. His nephew Albert succeded him as Earl Grey on his death in 1894.
Eden Phillpotts was born in India and educated in Plymouth, Devon. He spent several years working as an insurance officer before becoming a prolific novelist, playwright and poet. He was president of the Dartmoor Preservation Association for many years and a large proportion of his works are set on Dartmoor. His daughter Adelaide (1896-1993) also became a writer and collaborated with her father on several works, including the play 'Yellow Sands'.
Oliver Elton was born in Norfolk in 1861. He was educated at Marlborough College and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He worked as a private tutor in London for several years before becoming a lecturer at the University of Manchester, 1890-1900, followed by a chair in English Literature at the University of Liverpool, 1901-1925. Elton's best known works are perhaps his 6-volume Survey of English Literature, covering 1730-1880, and for his translation of Puskin's Evgeny Onegin. His youngest son was the ecologist Charles Sutherland Elton.
William Wilberforce was born in Hull, Yorkshire in 1759. He was educated locally and in London, and at St John's College, Cambridge. He was elected Tory MP for Hull in 1780, aged 21, and later served as MP for Yorkshire and for Bramber (Sussex). Whilst in office, he campaigned heavily for the abolition of the slave trade, eventually succeeding in 1807.
Edward Hawkins was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and educated locally and in Kensington. As a young man he worked in banks in Cheshire and in Wales. He was interested in botany and history from an early age and became a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1806, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1826. His greatest interests as a scholar, however, was coins; he was a founder-member of the Numismatic Society of London and served twice as its president. In 1825 Hawkins became assistant keeper of the Department of Antiquities at the British Museum; he was promoted to keeper the following year and retained the position for 35 years.
Tenney Frank was born in Kansas in 1876. He was educated at the University of Kansas and the University of Chicago, receiving his PhD from the latter in 1903. He was Professor of Latin for many years at Bryn Mawr College and subsequently Johns Hopkins University. Frank's research into Roman history and classical literature was influential. He died in Oxford, England in 1939.
Michel Chasles studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris and later held professorships there and at the Sorbonne. He became a leading figure in the field of geometry and was awarded the Copley Medal in 1865.