Showing 15887 results

After the Royal Naval War Libraries had ceased to function at the end of the Second World War, it was decided to use the large collection of non-fiction books which had formed the loan collection as the basis for a peace-time lending library to serve members of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and WRNS, both serving and retired. The organisation thus formed was called the Royal Naval Loan Library and it was financed by a capital sum partly made over from the Royal Naval War Libraries fund, with a grant from the Royal Naval War Amenities Fund and other donations. After just a year of existence the organization decided that its financial basis was not strong enough and it was wound up.

The Royal Naval College was established by Order of Council on the 1st February 1873 "to provide for the education of Naval Officers of all ranks above that of midshipman, in all branches of theoretical and scientific study bearing upon their profession" (Admiralty Circular no. 8, RNC, Greenwich). It absorbed the School of Naval Architecture, previously based in Kensington. Subjects studied included maths, mechanics, experimental sciences, hydrography, navigation, marine engineering and naval architecture. Students ranged in rank from Acting Sub-Lieutnant to Captain. There were three main groups of students studying at the College: Lieutenants studying gunnery and engineering, who had to pass nine months in the College before they could commence their practical course in the EXCELLENT: fifty to one hundred Sub-Lieutenants, who had completed five years at sea: and about one hundred volunteers of all ages and ranks attending on half-pay. Royal Marine Officers, Dockyard Apprentice Scholars, Merchant Marine Officers, private and foreign students could also study at the College.

The College was primarily a tactical school, despite the establishment of the War Course in 1900 and the renaming of the College "The Royal Naval War College" in 1907. During this period, the eminent naval historian Sir Julian Corbett lectured on history and strategy.

During World War One, the College was used partly as a barracks and also for scientific experimental work. 27,000 officers of the Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve passed through the College.

By 1939 all Sub-Lietenants went to the College for two terms for a course in general education and in the elementary study of war. At the outbreak of war, most courses ceased and the Staff College reopened in Novemebr 1943. In 1947 the Combined Staff College was instituted and ran thirty-four courses over the period January 1947 to December 1967. The Department of Nuclear Science and Technology opened in 1959 and was the largest in the College. It provided the essential qualifying courses for offciers who were to operate nuclear submarines or who would be involved in nuclear research. Only after passing the examination at the College could students procees to further training at the full-power shore based nuclear reactor at Dounreay. The Joint Service Defence College, an independent Ministry of Defence Establishment offering courses to prepare British officers of the three services, was relocated to the Royal Naval College in 1983. The JSDC and Royal Naval College were subsumed into a new Joint Service Command and Staff College based at Bracknell in 1998 and the adminstration of the Royal Naval College buildings passed to the Greenwich Foundation.

The Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital was created by the formal amalgamation of the Central London Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in Gray's Inn Road and the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat in Golden Square (near Piccadilly Circus) on 1st January 1942. The two hospitals had agreed to merge in 1939, and established a shared Committee of Management, but the formalities were delayed because of the war. The Home Office and Registrar of Companies were approached for permission to name the amalgamated hospital the "Royal National", and this was granted in 1940.

The Goodenough Report on medical education, published in 1944, resulted in the founding of the Institute of Laryngology and Otology (ILO) at Gray's Inn Road. Teaching started in 1945, and in 1949 Professor Frank C Ormerod (1895-1967), formerly an ENT surgeon at Golden Square, was appointed the first chair. The newly formed ILO trained nurses as well as doctors, including some from Hampstead General Hospital. In 1947 the Board of Management of the RNTNE was notified by the Minister for Health that it would become an NHS hospital, and in 1948 it was designated a teaching hospital. Under the terms of the 1946 NHS Act, the hospital had to form a new Board of Governors, and close its facilities for private patients. As the Ministry of Health was now responsible for funding the hospital, the Ladies Association disbanded in about 1949.

After the war, the RNTNE made great progress, partly as a result of the introduction of antibiotics and improvements to anaesthesia. By 1952 the hospital had established departments of Radiology, Physical Medicine, Rhinitis, Radiotherapy, Medicine, Dentistry, Neuro-Surgery, Audiology, Fenestration and Speech Therapy. Plastic Surgery became increasingly important in post-operative restoration of appearance, and both Moorfields Eye Hospital and the Eastman Dental Hospital contributed to this work. Plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes was also developed, and the hospital provided this service to patients on a private basis. Surgeons at the Central London and RNTNE Hospitals had for many years been adapting and inventing instruments suitable for ENT work, and in 1948 a department was established at Gray's Inn Road, specialising in the development of surgical instruments. The new department was staffed by instrument technicians, notably Robert Russell, who served the hospital between 1957 and 1982.

In 1947 the War Veterans' Clinic was converted into a Universal Deafness Aid Clinic, which distributed hearing aids. This clinic developed out of the Hearing Aid Clinic established by Edith Whetnall (1910-1965, author of The Deaf Child) at the Central London Hospital in 1934. As well as running this clinic, Miss Whetnall was responsible for encouraging the RNTNE to build two residential annexes for deaf children. The first of these, which opened in 1952, was built on the site of a convalescent home in Ealing formerly owned by the Central London Throat Nose and Ear Hospital. It aimed to provide newly diagnosed pre-school children with counselling and training to cope with their deafness. The Ministry of Health took over responsibility for the annex in 1957, although the house itself remained the property of the Board of Governors. The second of the two, aimed at children between 4 and 6 years old opened in 1960 with the financial support of the King's Fund. The Nuffield Foundation had been supporting the work of Edith Whetnall since the early 1950s, and in 1963 their financial support enabled her to open the Nuffield Hearing and Speech Centre in a new building erected next to the RNTNE on Swinton Street. She died two years later, and is commemorated by a biennial lecture held in her name at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Under Miss Wade, who was Matron from after the War until 1965, the RNTNE was approved as a nurse training school. More emphasis was placed on professionalism, and by 1951 no girls under the age of 18 were accepted for training. During the 1950s, nursing accommodation was acquired in Upper Berkeley Square and Mecklenburgh Square, a fact which probably helped to maintain recruitment levels at a time when other hospitals were having problems. In 1965 the RNTNE was approved by the GNC for specialist and postgraduate education but not for general nursing training.

Professor Ormerod retired from the Chair of Laryngology & Otology in 1963, and was replaced by Professor Donald Harrison. He spent the next three years assembling material for a museum at the Institute. Following the Flowers Report in 1980, the ILO became part of UCL medical school in 1982. During the NHS reorganisation of 1982, the RNTNE was put under the management of the Bloomsbury District Health Authority. The hospital rejected the opportunity to move into the newly built Royal Free Hospital at Hampstead, but subsequently joined the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust in 1996. In 2011, the RNTNE was transferred to University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH).

In 1905, the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital amalgamated with the National Orthopaedic Hospital and became the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.

The original amalgamation was to have included the City Orthopaedic Hospital but this did not come about until 1907 when the City became part of the site at Great Portland and Bolsover Streets. In 1909 the Nurses' Home and Outpatients Department were opened and in July of that year the new hospital at Great Portland and Bolsover Streets was opened by Edward VII. The building was designed by Roland Plumbe.

During World War I, the hospital offered the War Office beds for military cases. In 1922 the 'country' branch of the hospital was opened at Brockley Hill, Stanmore and the buildings in the centre of London were known as the 'town' branch. There were 100 patients in 1923 and by 1927 the hospital was extended to meet increasing demand.

In 1923, the hospital opened the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital School at the Stanmore site and in 1948 responsibility passed to Middlesex County Council and then the London Borough of Harrow in 1965 but the hospital's board of governors elected the governing body. The school provided full time education for children to the age of 16 and adult education from 1952. The school closed in 1998.

In the 1920s, proposals for amalgamation were received from the National Industrial Home for Crippled Boys based at Wrights Lane, Kensington. Amalgamation occurred in 1935 and the Stanmore Cripples Training College opened in 1937. Due to financial difficulties, it closed in 1949.

During World War II, the Great Portland Street basement was taken over by Marylebone Borough Council and the British Red Cross Society as a First Aid Post and Stanmore started to receive military patients in 1940. When V1 bombs started dropping in 1944, children from the hospital were evacuated, eventually returning in May, 1945.

In 1946, the Institute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Science was opened and moved to the Stanmore premises in 1948. The institute mainly conducts formal post graduate scientific research into orthopaedics and has close links with the University College of London (UCL).

In 1948, the hospital became an Independent Teaching Hospital and a Board of Governors replaced the Management Committee. In 1955, an Accident and Emergency Unit was opened at the Stanmore branch.

The Great Portland Street premises were closed in 1984. In 2008, the building at 49-51 Bolsover Street was sold for redevelopment and a new state of the art building was built at 45 Bolsover Street. This opened in December 2009 and called the London Outpatient Assessment Centre.

In 2011, approval was given for the complete redevelopment of the Stanmore Hospital which is scheduled for completion by 2014.

The Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, was founded in 1801 at the height of Britain's war with France (1793-1815). An estimated 315,000 men died during this conflict, leaving their dependents destitute. The Asylum was intended to provide a home and school for the children of fallen rank and file soldiers as an alternative to the workhouse. In 1892, the RMA was renamed The Duke of York's Royal Military School and, in 1909, moved to new premises constructed on the Downs of Dover, Kent.

Source: The Duke of York's Royal Military School website, http://www.achart.ca/york/history.html.

The Bishop of London was held to exercise responsibility for Anglican churches overseas where no other bishop had been appointed. He retained responsibility for churches in northern and central Europe until 1980, but his jurisdiction in southern Europe ceased in 1842 on the creation of the diocese of Gibraltar. In 1980, the Bishop of London divested himself of all overseas jurisdiction and a new diocese of 'Gibraltar in Europe' was established.

Prince Leopold, the Duke of Albany, was the son of Queen Victoria. He suffered from haemophilia and was an invalid for most of his life. A common symptom is joint pain and the Prince tended to avoid the English winters. In March 1884 he went to Cannes, where he slipped and fell, dying of his injuries. The Royal Memorial Church of St George, Cannes was consecrated in February 1887 as a memorial to the Duke.

The 'Charity for Attending and Delivering poor Married Women in their Lying in at their Respective Habitations', later known as the 'Lying-in Charity for Delivering Poor Married Women at their Own Habitations' and finally as the 'Royal Maternity Charity for Delivering Poor Married Women in their Own Habitations', was established in March 1757. Its main instigator was James Le Cour, an 'eminent jeweller' of Huguenot descent.

The Charity offered a service to 'sober and industrious' married women 'destitute of help in time of labour'. It supplied them with medicines, provided midwives for 'common cases' and surgeon accouchers or physicians for more 'difficult cases', allowing them to give birth more safely and comfortably in their own homes.

Those paying a yearly subscription became 'Governors' of the Charity, able to recommend a certain number of cases for every guinea donated. Initially, general meetings or 'courts' of Governors were held every quarter 'to receive the report of the Committee and regulate the affairs of the Charity'. A smaller Committee and Officers were elected annually to oversee day-to-day management. By the mid nineteenth century a pattern of Annual General Meetings and General Committee meetings was supplemented by those of a Medical Sub-committee, chaired by one of the Physicians, and other sub-committees, such as a Finance Committee.

Early meetings were held in various coffee houses and taverns in the City of London, mainly Will's Coffee House in Cornhill and the Bank Coffee House, Threadneedle Street. From the 1840s the Charity had its own premises in Finsbury Square, in 1918 moving to offices in John Street, and subsequently to 46 Bedford Row.

By the late nineteenth century the Charity employed the voluntary services of 'Visiting Ladies', 'for the purpose of lending material assistance in addition to medical, in cases of great necessity and destitution'. These ladies visited cases and handed out relief from the Charity's Samaritan Fund. In 1905 a further venture was a 'Training School for Midwives', preparing them for the new CMB examination. This was based at the house of the then Head Midwife in Paddington, with lectures being delivered by one of the Charity's Physicians.

By the mid twentieth century there were several other agencies providing a similar service, and the Charity was advised by the Ministry of Health to affiliate with another organisation. Its investments were transferred to the official trustee of charitable funds, and were used for grants to the Central Council for District Nursing in London. The Charity wound up its affairs in 1949.

Robert Barnes was born, 1817; apprentice to Dr Richard Griffin, Norwich, 1832; studied at University College London, and St George's Hospital; member of the Royal College of Surgeons; year in Paris; taught at the Hunterian School of Medicine and in the discipline of forensic medicine at the Dermott's School on Windmill Street; obstetrician at the Western General Dispensary; Doctor of Medicine, 1848; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1848; obstetrical assistant, 1859; obstetrician in chief, (Royal) London Hospital, 1863; obstetrician in chief, St Thomas' Hospital, 1865; obstetrician in chief, St George's Hospital, 1875; consulting obstetrician, St George's Hospital, 1885; actively involved at The Seamen's Hospital, the East London Hospital for Children and the Royal Maternity Charity; one of the founding members of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1858; President of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1865-1866; founded the British Gynaecological Society, 1884, of which he was Honorary Chairman until his death; died, 1907.

The Royal Masonic Institution for Girls was founded in 1788, by Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini who formulated a scheme to establish a school to aid the education of the daughters of deceased and distressed freemasons. The first School was based in Somers Place East, near Euston, London and was known as the Royal Cumberland School for the Daughters of Indigent Free Masons. In 1795, the School moved to larger premises in St George’s Fields, Westminster Bridge Road, London and changed its name to the Royal Freemasons School for Female Children. The School moved to even larger premises in Clapham Junction, London in 1858 and in 1868, the Institution formally adopted the name the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls. In 1880, the Institution opened a Junior School, known as the Royal Masonic (Junior) School for Girls, at the site at Clapham Junction. In 1918, the Junior School moved to Weybridge, Surrey where it remained until its closure in 1973. The Royal Masonic (Senior) School for Girls moved to its current premises in Rickmansworth Park, Hertfordshire in 1934. Due to a fall in pupil numbers, fee-paying boarding pupils were allowed to fill vacancies from 1965 and fee-paying day-girls admitted from 1972, if they were daughters of a freemason. In September 1978, the Royal Masonic School for Girls became a limited company, The Rickmansworth Masonic School Limited and girls from non-Masonic families were accepted to fill vacancies on a fee paying basis. In 1984, the School became an entirely fee-paying independent school, with the Institution paying the fees of girls placed there as a result of petitions.

As well as providing places at the Royal Masonic Schools, from 1906, the Institution also awarded grants for girls to attend schools local to them, a procedure known as out-education. They also extended their benefits to provide special grants for girls to pursue courses in further and higher education.

In 1971, HRH the Duke of Kent, as Grand Master, set up a Committee of Inquiry on Masonic charity, under the Chairmanship of the Hon Mr Justice Bagnall. In 1973, the Committee of Inquiry produced a report, known as the Bagnall Report, which recommended the merger of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls into a single Trust. In 1982, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys merged with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and the trust deed establishing the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boy was signed. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boy became active in 1986 and it continues to provide educational support to the children of Masonic families where required.

Grand Lodge, to provide benefits to clothe and educate the sons of indigent freemasons. In 1808, a similar Institution was established by the Royal Naval Lodge of Independence, No. 59, of the Moderns Grand Lodge. In 1816, the two Institutions merged under the Patronage of HRH the Duke of Sussex following the union four years earlier between the two Grand Lodges to form the United Grand Lodge of England. Although known as the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys from 1798, its official title changed over time. Formed in 1798 as the Masonic Institution for Clothing and Educating the Sons of Deceased and Indigent Free Masons, by 1832, the suffix ‘Royal’ was added when King William IV (1765-1837) became the Patron. From 1858, the Institution operated under the name of the Royal Masonic Institution for the sons of Decayed and Deceased Freemasons, until it formally adopted the title of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys in 1868.

The Institution initially supported boys by providing grants for clothing and education at local schools, known as out-education and maintenance grants. The Institution offered support to boys in this form throughout its existence but in 1857, the Institution also opened its own School for the sons of indigent freemasons. From 1857-1902, the Royal Masonic School for Boys was located in Wood Green, London. In 1903, the School relocated to Bushey, Hertfordshire and in 1929 the Institution opened a Junior School adjacent to the Senior School. Due to a fall in pupil numbers, the Junior and Senior Schools were merged in 1970. In 1977, due to a continued fall numbers, the Royal Masonic School for Boys was closed and the Institution reverted to its initial remit of supporting boys through out-education and maintenance grants.

In 1971, HRH the Duke of Kent, as Grand Master, set up a Committee of Inquiry on Masonic charity, under the Chairmanship of the Hon Mr Justice Bagnall. In 1973, the Committee of Inquiry produced a report, known as the Bagnall Report, which recommended the merger of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls into a single Trust. In 1982, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys merged with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and the trust deed establishing the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys was signed. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys became active in 1986 and it continues to provide educational support to the children of Masonic families where required.

Proposals for a Freemasons' Hospital and Nursing Home were made by Major Charles Heaton-Ellis, Percy Still and four other members of Malmesbury Lodge, No. 3156, London at an installation meeting in 1911, recommending that, ‘Bros A[rchibald] D Ryder, C[harles] H[erbert] Thorpe, Major K[enneth] R[obert] Balfour, Sir C[harles] Heaton-Ellis, A[ugustus] Turner and Percy Still, be appointed a Committee of the Lodge to formulate a scheme for the suggested Masonic Nursing Home, and be empowered to take such steps as may seem necessary or desirable in the promotion of the scheme.’ By 5 March 1913 the Quarterly Communications of the United Grand Lodge of England recorded that, ‘Grand Lodge views with approval the praiseworthy efforts of certain Brethren to establish a Masonic Nursing Home, and recommends the Scheme to the favourable attention of the Craft at large.’ By 1916 fundraising began for the proposed Freemasons' Hospital and Nursing Home but the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 led to a change in plans. In consequence, the United Grand Lodge of England proposed running and meeting the expenses of a hospital for the War Office, provided the government department located appropriate premises. The former Chelsea Hospital for Women, at 237 Fulham Road, Chelsea was acquired by Grand Lodge with the assistance of the War Office for £10,000. This hospital had been constructed in 1880 to 1883 on a plot of land on the south side of Fulham Road and was designed by the architect, J T Smith. The first hospital in London built especially for diseases specific to women, it offered a free ward funded by a Samaritan fund, and featured red brick facings, stone dressings and decorative elements, with spaces for sixty three beds. In 1891 Earl Cadogan led an appeal to raise funds to construct a larger hospital facility, as it was assisting 500 in patients and 12,000 out patients each year and the operating theatre was enlarged in 1899.

From 1911 the Women's Hospital relocated to a new site provided by Earl Cadogan in Arthur (later Dovehouse) Street, near the Royal Marsden and Royal Brompton Hospitals, which opened in 1916. After the relocation of the Chelsea Hospital for Women, the Fulham Road premises became the Freemasons' War Hospital and Nursing Home. The Freemasons' War Hospital opened in September 1916 and HRH King George V and HM Queen Mary visited soon afterwards. During the First World War, the Freemasons' Hospital treated over 4,000 members of the armed forces under a team of doctors, including Dr [Robert Maxwell] Chance and Dr Dobson, Red Cross nurses, Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses, led by a Matron, Miss Minnie Evelyn Windemer (1877-1923). In 1918 the Bishop of London offered additional hospital facilities at Fulham Palace, which became known as the Freemasons' Hospital No. 2, which opened on 27 April, with Mrs Maude Minnie Fox-Symons (1868-1957), wife of the military surgeon, Sir Robert Fox-Symons (1870-1932), wartime head of the Auxilliary Home Hospital Department of the British Red Cross, as Matron. Rooms at the Palace were converted into wards and a wooden sign, entitled 'Fortitude', now on display at the Museum of Fulham Palace, hung in the drawing room. In addition a third hospital opened for convalescents at Cliff House, Caversham, near Reading. Records including details about the Freemasons' War Hospital in this collection include minute books of the general committee, medical advisory committee, an investments ledger, cash books, a diary noting Matron's weekly reports and ephemera collated by Percy Still. The minute books and investment ledger continue in use after the formation of the Freemasons' Hospital and Nursing Home after the war in 1919.

By the Autumn of 1919, the premises at 237 Fulham Road re-opened as the Freemasons’ Hospital and Nursing Home, with facilities for 46 in-patients, who had to be freemasons, their wives or dependent children. The Hospital was established as an endowment fund, in order that annual appeals would not be required. Some record series, such as the Medical Advisory Committee minutes, investment ledgers and visitors' books, which commence during the years of the Freemasons' War Hospital continue, additional record series commence in the early 1920's including the minutes of governors' meetings, Board of Management minutes, House Committee minutes, Finance Committee minutes, Building and Premises Committee minutes, propaganda committee minutes and nursing staff registers. Patients were asked to pay fees according to their means and a separate Samaritan Fund was established to assist those who were unable to pay, generated by individual donations as well as Lodge collections. Lodges which contributed 100 Guineas to the Hospital Endowment Fund became known as ‘Founding Lodges’. Founding Lodges were entitled to send representatives to the Hospital management board, with numbers of representatives depending on the levels of contribution made. The first Masonic patient was Mrs Fry, wife of Arthur, a member of Berries Lodge, No. 2928, Berkshire, who was admitted on 7 June 1920. Her consultant was the gynaecologist, Victor Bonney (1872-1953). In 1924 a permanent constitution for the Hospital was adopted and a Student Nurses Association was formed in 1926-1927. Structural alterations were made to enlarge the Fulham Road premises in 1928 but a search began for a new site to erect a Hospital ‘worthy of the craft’.

In 1929 an extension fund was established to raise an endowment capital fund to ensure the Hospital was self-supporting and a permanent Commemorative Jewel was issued to fund raisers, the only jewel issued by the Hospital. It was designed by C L Doman, the artist responsible for the Armistice Medal issued after the First World War. The jewel included an image of the hospital motto, ‘Humanity tending the sick’ or in Latin, ‘Aegros Sanat Humanitas’. The jewel ribbon, dark blue with light blue strip down the centre, was attached by means of a pentalpha, or 5-pointed star, long recognised as a symbol of health. In 1931 land overlooking Ravenscourt Park was identified as a site for a new Hospital, offering accomodation for 180 beds and much improved working facilities, and an Appeal was launched to raise £250,000. On 19 May 1932 a foundation stone, connected electrically to a replica stone at Olympia, was laid by the Grand Master, HRH the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn at a significant Masonic gathering, attended by over 12,000 people, including four Royal princes. A solid block of Lunel marble, engraved with lines from the poet, Rudyard Kipling, ‘By mine own work before the night, Great Overseer, I make my prayer’, supported a bronze and crystal casket containing an illuminated Roll of the Founding Lodges of the original Hospital at Chelsea. The stone stood on a base of Hopton Wood marble from Derbyshire, with an engraving around the base with the line, ‘Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it.’ On 12 July 1933 King George V, accompanied by Queen Mary, officially opened the Hospital, announcing that it was to be known as, The Royal Masonic Hospital. The opening ceremony included a performance by the Band of HM Grenadier Guards. The first 75 patients arrived in November 1933, while thirty two patients continued to be treated at the Fulham Road premises, sold for £17,500 to pay for the proposed new Nurses’ Home at Ravenscourt Park.

The new hospital site, which occupied 10 acres, included accommodation for some 200 patients, with special departments for an X-ray unit and other facilities, costing £335,000. Nurses continued to reside at Fulham Road until Christmas 1937 and the premises were purchased and adapted for use the following year by the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute, later known as The Institute of Cancer Research. The striking architecture of the new building at Ravenscourt Park was created in a modern international Art Deco style by the architects, Sir John Burnet RA, Tait and Lorne, who won the London Architectural Medal for their work and was built by John Mowlem and Co Ltd. The site was deisgned to American hospital practice standards, comprising four principal building units linked by glass bridges on a cross-axial layout. It featured lavish decoration, influenced by the work of the Dutch architect, W Dudok, and clad with expensive hand-made red bricks. The Art Deco styled entrance featured concrete figures, representing Healing (Aesculapius) and Charity (Hygeia), on pillars designed by Gilbert William Bayes RA (1872–1953). An acid-etched window depicted Aesculapius surrounded by signs of the zodiac. The 50ft high entrance hall had the appearance of a cinema foyer, lined with Lunel, Hopton Wood and Botticino marbles. The Board and conference rooms on either side of the hall featured Australian walnut panelling, decorated with Indian Coramandel wood. A marble relief by C L Doman, included the design of the Commemorative jewel of the Hospital, ‘Humanity tending the sick’ or in Latin, ‘Aegros Sanat Humanitas’. The structural engineer responsible for the steel frame of the building was Sven Bylander, responsible for the innovative work at the Ritz Hotel and Selfridges department store.

The Hospital was designed by Thomas Smith Tait (1882–1954) and Sir John James Burnet (1857–1938), a Glaswegian who had trained in Paris, the architect of the King Edward VII extension to the British Museum. The Princess Royal Children’s wards on third floor of the Hospital included mural paintings by Reginald Lewis (girls' ward) and hand-painted tiles of animals. Kitchens on the fourth floor included special facilities for Jewish patients requiring kosher food. A nurses’ home was added to side of the Hospital site, now Grade II listed, in 1937. The following year this was opened on 25 May by the Princess Royal, providing accommodation for 200 sisters, nurses and domestic staff, with music performed by the Band of HM Grenadier Guards. Connected to the Hospital by a subway, the new Nurses Home facility included the Elford Recreation Room, a Silver Jubilee Room and roof top gardens. During the Second World War from September 1939, the Royal Masonic Hospital in London treated, at no cost to the government, 8,640 servicemen, including over 600 American officers and other allies from 1941 onwards. 150 beds were made available for service personnel, at first other ranks and then officers after the Dunkirk retreat. During the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, many fighter pilots were treated, including burns victims such as Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary (1919-1943), author of The Last Enemy, recently rewritten by Sebastian Faulkes as The Fatal Englishman. Others treated included P/O Donald Mclntosh Gray of 610 Squadron, who died in a flying accident on 5 November 1940 and General Giffard Martel, former head of the military mission to Moscow, who received eye surgery at the Hospital as he informed the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, in a letter dated 1944.

Also treated were members of the allied Resistance, some of whom had been tortured in Nazi concentration camps. Churchill visited the Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Dudley Pound, just before he died in October 1943. In the autumn of 1941, before his death, HRH the Duke of Kent visited all the patients at the Royal Masonic Hospital. In 1944 the Duchess of Kent visited the Hospital and the Nurses’ Home. One nurse, Jeanne Hyatt, recorded details about life at the Hospital during wartime as part of the BBC’s WWII People’s War, ‘I was in my last year of training at the Royal London Hospital when war broke out. I was moved to the Royal Masonic Hospital at Hammersmith in 1941, which experienced the worst of the London blitz and lasted every night for 3 to 4 months. It didn't stop us going out, we just hoped for the best. I can clearly remember the awful fires and the total devastation of huge areas of bombing, much of it residential. Travelling by tube was the safest way. One night my train was stopped because of the bombing, so a very kind stationmaster let me sleep on a couch in his little office, and even bought me a cup of tea in the morning. At least the bombing eased off a little bit the next day and I felt like a holiday so I headed off to my parents home in the Hampshire countryside.’ During Word War II the Hospital treated 8,640 casualties, a fact recorded on a plaque unveiled by The Secretary of State for War, Rt. Hon Emanuel Shinwell, MP on 10 June 1946, above the Hospital reception desk. The armed services provided a short-wave diathermy set for use in the physiotherapy department. In 1948 the School of Nursing opened, with priority given to pupils from the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls's school at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. The first nurses qualified in 1952.

After training Royal Masonic Hospital nurses wore a distinctive Masonic blue uniform, with a silver belt buckle incorporating a square and compasses motif. Miss W L Huntly, known as Peter, was appointed as the Principal Tutor. On 10 August 1949 twenty student nurses arrived but the introduction of a 10pm curfew proved an irritation to many and all male visitors were banned from bedrooms. Nurses once had to remove capes when speaking to a Sister, a rule later removed. Photographs of nursing sets taken on Prize Day from 1952 to 1976 are included in this archive collection at GBR 1991 RMH 5/2/1-24. On 17 March 1953 the Royal Masonic Hospital Convalescent Home opened at Frinton-at-Sea, Essex to ease bed pressure at the Ravenscourt Park site. The Home provided spaces for fifteen patients and remained open until 20 January 1973. By 1956 long waiting lists restricted access to Hospital facilities and an extension, known as the Wakefield Wing, was planned at a cost of £650,000. A foundation stone for the new extension, built by the same architects, was laid by the Grand Master, Lawrence Roger Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarbrough. Life Governors of the Hospital, who donated an additional amount each year or subscribed by covenant, were awarded a bar to add to the Permanent Commemorative Jewel from 1 January 1956. On 10 December 1958 HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, opened the Wakefield Wing, providing eighty additional beds and the new School of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Hydrotherapy departments, and the Bishop of London dedicated the new Chapel. In 1962 the Royal Masonic Hospital League of Nurses was founded by a former Matron, Dorothy Brand and Miss Huntly was appointed its Life President.

In 1963 a Rehabilitation Unit opened in the Wakefield Wing providing care for non-acute illnesses with specialised treatment and nursing. An Intensive Care Unit opened in 1966, which was extended at a later date to cope with demand. Close Circuit Television (CCTV) was introduced at an early date to monitor patients. In 1967 Mr Smart, appointed Chief Administrator of the Hospital, lived with his wife Isabel at Royal Masonic Hospital House until October 1976. He gave lectures to Lodges about the work of the Hospital. The Cantores Medicini, a choir comprising nurses, doctors and medical students was formed at the Hospital by Dr Roy Stoddard, a medical student at the Royal Free Hospital and later Medical Director at the Royal Masonic Hospital. The choir issued three albums of carols and sacred music of the sixteenth century which formed part of their repertoire and was performed at cathedrals countrywide. Following the establishment of the Redevelopment and Modernisation Committee in the late 1960's, an initiative driven by Frank William Radford Douglas (1897-1971), a Redevelopment and Modernisation Fund Appeal was launched on 1 January 1970, aimed at enabling the Hospital to meet the latest hospital management and medical standards. An organisation and management working party met during the 1970's to encourage efficiencies and updated working methods. A Redevelopment Fund jewel was issued by the Hospital and the Redevelopment and Modernisation Fund merged with the main Hospital appeal fund in December 1976. Due to inflation, the costs for modernisation, estimated as £2 million in 1970, rose to £4 million by 1973. This target was reached by 1976 but by that date an additional £5 million was required to upgrade Hospital facilities. In 1972 the Association of Friends of the Royal Masonic Hospital was formed, with volunteers running a Hospital shop and library, with tours provided for members on Saturday afternoons.

All the Hospital committees were reconstituted on 7 October 1975, following the Hospital modernisation and redevelopment campaign. Committees dating from this period include the Executive and Finance Committee and investment sub-committee, Building and Premises sub-committee, Treasurer's Advisory sub-committee, Patients' Services sub-committee [Minutes 1975 to 1982, see GBR 1991 RMH 1/2/14/1], Support Services sub-committee [Minutes 1975 to 1983, see GBR 1991 RMH 1/2/15/1], Nursing sub-committee, Medical Staff sub-committee, Appeals sub-committee and Building and Premises Committee. Given the distances travelled by some patients to the Hospital, limited on-site accommodation was introduced at a modest fee for patients’ relatives. By 1979, some 4,715 patients were being treated a year, 2,387 from the London area, 2,253 from the Provinces and 75 from Districts Overseas, and from 1977 some 349 non-Masons were accepted as fee-paying patients if members did not require beds. The cost of maintaining each patient had risen to £475 per week. As spiraling inflation devalued investments, capital funds had to be used to cover costs. Patient income declined, with 80% of brethren being subsidised by the Craft. By 1979 there were 7,487 Patron Lodges but only 4,869 Grand Patron Lodges, each of which contributed £420 each year. The Percy Still Wing, comprising four new operating theatres and Pathology Laboratories designed by the architects, Watkins Gray Woodgate International, were opened on 1 December 1976 by the Grand Master, HRH the Duke of Kent, President of the Hospital. Due to inflation, the costs had risen to over £6 million. In 1979 the School of Nursing became the Royal Masonic Hospital and Roehampton School of Nursing, a unique partnership between an independent hospital and a National Health Service (NHS) District.

The training programme was extended to include pupil nurse training, enabling both student and pupil nurses to gain experience at the Royal Masonic Hospital, Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton and St John’s Hospital, Battersea and within the community, with all three locations providing training venues. Frank Douglas Court was constructed to provide modern flats for nurses. By October 1980 the Hospital renovation works were completed, increasing bed capacity from 205 to 273 but £1.5 million remained to be found to complete the renovation and modernisation programme. By this date annual running costs reached £4 million, with the Hospital employing approximately 700 staff, with responsibility for numerous pensioners. The Hospital was the largest independent hospital in Britain and the only private medical facility to offer a Nurses’ Training School linked to a National Health Service hospital to facilitate experience and training. A new permanent Appeal Committee for the Hospital was established under Alan Raymond Mais (1911-1993), Lord Mais, as Chairman. In 1982 Michael Richardson MD was appointed Chairman of the Hospital and served as Governor from September 1986. In 1983 the Golden Jubilee of the Hospital was celebrated by a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring the Band of the Welsh Guards, the Band of the Irish Guards, the Basingstoke Male Voice Choir, Cantores Medicini, London Welsh Male Voice Choir, the jazz pianist Jack Dieval (1920-2012), composer and arranger Geoff Love (1917-1991), the soprano Ava June Cooper (1931-2013) and the tenor, Ramon Remedios (b.1940). In 1984 a Committee of Inquiry was established, chaired by , recommending the sale of the Royal Masonic Hospital to American Medical International with the conversion of its assets into a Masonic insurance scheme. The closure campaign was supported by Grand Lodge but failed to succeed as only 69.6% of Hospital Governors voted in favour of this scheme rather than the required 75%.

The Bagnall Report in 1974 recommended accepting fee-paying patients, the amalgamation of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution and the Royal Masonic Hospital to form the Masonic Foundation for the Aged and the Sick, which was formed in November 1979. A Committee of enquiry led by Sir Maurice Drake (The Hon. Mr Justice Drake) made further recommendations in 1984, published as the Drake Report. In consequence the High Court ordered a redrafting of the Hospital’s constitution and the election of a new board of management. In 1986 the Royal Masonic Hospital and the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution combined to form the Masonic Foundation for the Aged and the Sick. In March 1986 the Nurses’ Training School closed due to changes introduced by the General Nursing Council which stipulated a format for training facilities with which the Hospital was unable to comply. On 22 January, the Hospital Chairman and Trustees went to the High Court, where the vote for selling the Hospital was ruled invalid. As part of a campaign, led by Douglas Brooks of Oakwood, a Grand Vice-Patron of the Hospital, the proposed sale was stopped. The Board of Management of the Hospital agreed to the formation of three sub-committees, namely Policy and Resources, Premises and Estates and Finance Committee. Viscount Chelsea, Chairman of the Masonic Foundation for the Aged and the Sick, recommended the termination of this charity in December 1987 and a committee formed to consider this recommendation submitted a report from its chairman, Iain Ross Bryce (1936-2015), in March 1988. In consequence a new Chairman, Sir Bernard Chacksfield, was appointed to the Hospital in 1988.

Legal objections made by the group formed by Douglas Brooks led to a High Court judge setting specific terms for, and a date of, an election. At the same time, a Writ was issued by Richmond, Roehampton and Twickenham Area Health Authority of the National Health Service against the threat of the Royal Masonic Hospital withdrawing from its nurse training agreement commitments. The Hospital re-emerged with a new management structure and reorganisation in 1986 and records, such as minutes of a Finance sub-committee, Premises and Estates committee and Policy and Resources Committee in this collection relate to this period. In June 1989 an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinic opened at the Hospital, which was run by Professor Robert Winston (b.1940) and Raul Adolfo Margara (b.1944) in a separate wing. The Unit, which achieved excellent success rates and developed ground-breaking fertilisation techniques, transferred to Hammersmith Hospital Trust in 1996. In November 1989 the management consultants, Touche Ross, prepared an independent review of all aspects of the Hospital. By 12 June 1989, the Hospital Board decided to separate the Samaritan Fund to safeguard its charitable assets, and transferred the operation of the Hospital to a company limited by guarantee, the Royal Masonic Hospital Limited.

Grand Lodge distanced itself from the Hospital, while recommending its closure and the safeguarding of its assets. The School of Nursing and Convalescent Home were replaced by two new wings. The Hospital, influenced by the Report of the Inquiry into London's Health Service, Medical Education and Research by Sir Bernard Tomlinson in October 1992, aimed to attract private and NHS patients, as well as members. It leased out part of the Ravenscourt Park site formerly known as the R Unit as the Stamford Wing, a 26-bed unit which treated psychiatric patients, including conditions such as anorexia and other eating disorders, run by Cygnet Health Care from October 1990. The unit employed two clinical psychologists, seven mental nurses and a therapist, with treatment provided for depression and alcohol problems. In 1992 Hospital catering was outsourced to Sutcliffe Catering and Charterhouse Clinical Research, seeking to expand the number of beds available, transferred to the Royal Masonic Hospital in March 1992. Led by Dr Jorg Taubel, the Charterhouse Clinical Research Unit was an independent research organisation facilitating drugs trials. In 1993 a Diamond Jubilee Appeal Fund was launched by the Hospital to refurbish the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU), to build and equip a health centre at Sintana, Romania and to facilitate use of the Hospital by the local community and the National Health Service. A Grand Fete was held at the Ravenscourt Park site on 10 July 1993. The Hospital aimed to become the UK’s premier hospital for sports medicine, with Peter R Norman treating members of the Royal Ballet School, and negotiated the transfer of the National Sports Medicine Institute at St Batholomew's Hospital to the Royal Masonic Hospital under Professor Greg McLatchie. Plans for the Hospital site included an eye clinic, psychiatric wing and an ITU. A centre for alternative therapies, such as aromatherapy and reflexology to assist techniques and procedures, was also planned.

The International Federation of Aromatherapists​, based its department of continuing education at the Royal Masonic Hospital. Andrew T Austin, pioneered Neuro Linguistic Programming at the site from 1994 to 1995 and Stephen Brooks ran Ericksonian Hypnosis training courses. By this time 32% of patients were masons or their dependents and the Hospital sought to attract NHS patients. The Hospital employed sixty nurses, supervised by a Matron, Heather Cole, who introduced a quality assurance system of levels in patient care. A computer system introduced and an occupational health service for the London Borough of Hounslow. A laundry service was provided for Charing Cross Hospital and Ravenscourt Laboratories operated at the Hospital site on a contract basis as a clinical pathology facility, with a staff assisting pharmaceutical drug trials. In 1995 two Hospital nurses held the Guinness Book of Records' record for fastest time to make a hospital bed, 17.3 seconds, broken by Sister Sharon Stringer and Senior Staff Nurse Michel Ambler, in front of a live American audience. The Hospital site was used as a set for numerous films and television programmes including Jeeves and Wooster, Minder, Poirot, Rumpole of the Bailey, Kavanagh QC and Simon Brett’s How to be a Little Sod. The Hospital also served as a venue for Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons examinations. Despite numerous attempts to generate sufficient income to become self-financing, the Hospital proved unable to maintain its independent private status and a decision was taken to close the facility. In 1996 a consultants farewell dinner was held and the Hospital contents and equipment were sold in April 1997.

In 2001 the Charity Commission appointed a receiver, Price Waterhouse Cooper and manager to take control of the Royal Masonic Hospital Association of Friends. The building became known as the Stamford Hospital and in 2002 was acquired by the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust on a 15-year lease to help cut operation waiting times. The Ravenscourt Park Hospital, with six theatres and 105 beds, was improved at a cost of £14 million to help to cut waiting lists for operations. However the anticipated NHS shortages of capacity did not materialise and Ravenscourt Park lacked the supply of patients to make the investment work. In 2006 the NHS announced the closure of this facility. During its four years as an NHS facility, the Hospital conducted 18,500 operations, an average of about 4,500 a year. However, this proved uneconomic and the Hospital, losing about £12 million a year, proved unable to treat 11,000 to 12,000 patients each year in order to break even, despite being sent patients from other regional hospitals.

The Royal Masonic Benevolent Annuity Fund was set up in 1842 to provide financial support for elderly freemasons. In 1849 a female annuity fund was set up to provide financial support for the widows, spinster daughters and sisters of freemasons. In 1850 a home for the care of annuitants was opened in East Croydon under the control of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution, which was created at the same time through the merger of the two annuity funds. The home was moved to Hove in Sussex in 1955 and seventeen further homes were opened at locations around the country between 1966 and 1998.

In 1837 James MacQueen (1778-1870) put a plan to the Government for a steam packet service between England and the Caribbean; this was quickly followed by more ambitious proposals embodied in a 'General Plan for a Mail Communication between Great Britain and the Eastern and Western parts of the World; also to Canton and Sydney westward by the Pacific'. On MacQueen's initiative the West India Committee, an association in London of merchants and planters, gave its support to the formation of a company. Under the chairmanship of John Irving (d.1845), a merchant banker, the first meeting of the Directors of the Company was held in 1839. James MacQueen was appointed 'General Superintendent of Affairs'. In the autumn of 1839 the new company was granted a royal charter and the first mail contract was signed with the Admiralty in 1840. It provided for a service of steamships, twice in each calendar month, from a Channel port (eventually fixed as Southampton) to islands and ports in the West Indies. Connecting with this main line of steamers at the various points there was to be a feeder service of seven steamers and three sailing vessels, serving all the principal islands and countries of the Spanish Main, with an extension northwards to New York, Halifax and Nova Scotia. An annual subsidy of ?24,000 was written into the agreement. Because the contract was with the Admiralty (the first contract with the Postmaster-General was made in 1864) the Royal Navy exercised a great deal of influence over the running of the ships. In an unprecedented building operation, fourteen large steam vessels and three small sailing ships were commissioned in time to start the service in December 1841. In 1846 the service was extended to link up with the west coast of South America (served by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company) over the Isthmus of Panama. A further extension followed in 1850, when a monthly service to Brazil and the River Plate was added to the extended West Indies contract. This new service was of great importance to the subsequent development of the Company. Royal Mail tried three times between 1852 and 1869 to get a foothold in the Australasian trade via Panama, but without any long-term success. A fourth attempt was made in 1906, in conjunction with the Orient Line (q.v.), but the partnership lasted only a year, after which the latter company obtained the mail contract for itself alone. There was a short-lived attempt to acquire berthing rights to Morocco, the Canaries and Madeira. This route was abandoned in 1919. The last five-year mail contract for the West Indies, signed in 1911, was not renewed owing to the advent of the First World War. However, the Canadian mail contract, for a fortnightly service between Canada, the West Indies and British Guiana remained in force from 1913 throughout the war; thereafter it was renewed by short-term extensions, until the increasing use of Canadian Government ships on the route brought it to an end in 1927. In addition, the company known as 'R.M.S.P. Meat Transports Limited' was formed in 1914 in order to put additional refrigerated tonnage on the Plate route. At the end of the First World War, the Company was allocated fourteen standard 'War' type freighters, as well as eleven ships of the Russian Volunteer fleet. From the beginning of the twentieth century the Royal Mail offered cruises on its vessels of which the most notable were Arcadian, Atlantis and Andes. From 1903 the policy of the Company under its Chairman, Owen Cosby Philipps (1863-1937), created Lord Kylsant in 1923, was to broaden the base of its operations by acquiring a controlling interest in a great number of shipping companies in diverse trades. Before the First World War, besides other less important enterprises, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company (1910), Lamport and Bolt and Elder Dempster (1911), the Union Castle Line (1912) and the Nelson Line (1913) became members of the group, with MacIver joining in

The Company was formed in 1839 and was the principal British shipping company serving the Caribbean and the east coast of Latin America. For further details on its history, see T A Bushell, Royal Mail: a Centenary History of the Royal Mail Line 1839-1939 (London [1939]).

Sir Richard Owen was born in Lancaster, in 1804. He was educated at Lancaster Grammar School and then enlisted as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. He became interested in surgery He returned to Lancaster and became indentured to a local surgeon, in 1820. He entered the University of Edinburgh medical school, in 1824 and privately attended the lectures of Dr John Barclay. He moved to London and became apprentice to John Abernethy, surgeon, philosopher and President of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1825. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1826. He became Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in 1827, and commenced work cataloguing the collection. He set up a private practice in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He became lecturer on comparative anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital, in 1829. He met Georges Cuvier in 1830 and attended the 1831 debates between Cuvier and Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, in Paris. He worked in the dissecting rooms and public galleries of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, in 1831. He published anatomical work on the cephalopod Nautilus, and started the Zoological Magazine, in 1833. He worked on the fossil vertebrates brought back by Darwin on the Beagle. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1834; Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, in 1836-1856; and gave his first series of Hunterian Lectures to the public, in 1837. He was awarded the Wollaston gold medal by the Geological Society, in 1838; helped found the Royal Microscopical Society, in 1839; and identified the extinct moa of New Zealand from a bone fragment, 1839. He refused a knighthood in 1842. He examined reptile-like fossil bones found in southern England which led him to identify "a distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles" he named Dinosauria, in 1842. He developed his concept of homology and of a common structural plan for all vertebrates or 'archetype'. He became Joint Conservator of the Hunterian Museum with William Clift, in 1842, and Conservator, in 1849. He was elected to 'The Club', founded by Dr Johnson, in 1845. He was a member of the government commission for inquiring into the health of London, in 1847, including Smithfield and other meat markets, in 1849. He described the anatomy of the newly discovered (in 1847) species of ape, the gorilla, [1865]. He engaged in a long running public debate with Thomas Henry Huxley on the evolution of humans from apes. He was a member of the preliminary Committee of organisation for the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was Superintendent of the natural history collections at the British Museum, in 1856, and began researches on the collections, publishing many papers on specimens. He was prosector for the London Zoo, dissecting and preserving any zoo animals that died in captivity. He taught natural history to Queen Victoria's children, in 1860. He reported on the first specimen of an unusual Jurassic bird fossil from Germany, Archaeopteryx lithographica, in 1863. He lectured on fossils at the Museum of Practical Geology, and he was Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution, during 1859-1861. His taxonomic work included a number of important discoveries, as he named and described a vast number of living and fossil vertebrates. He campaigned to make the natural history departments of the British Museum into a separate museum, leading to the construction of a new building in South Kensington to house the new British Museum (Natural History), opened in 1881; [now the Natural History Museum]. He was knighted in 1884. He died in Richmond in 1892.

The Royal London Hospital and Associated Community Services formed one of the first NHS Trusts. In 1991 the Health Service split health services management between 'purchasers' and 'providers'. The RLH Trust was the provider for Tower Hamlets District Health Authority, (later East London and The City District Health Authority from 1993), which purchased services to be carried out in NHS organisations such as hospitals and mental health services. The Royal London Hospital along with St Clement's and Mile End Hospitals formed the Trust as well as other community health services. The Trust was replaced by the Royal Hospitals NHS Trust which incorporated St Bartholomew's Hospital and The London Chest Hospital from 1994.

The Royal London Militia were based at Finsbury Barracks, City Road.

The League of Nurses was founded in 1931 by Beatrice Monk, Matron of the London Hospital from 1919 to 1931. The league was established to form a bond between present and former members of the nursing staff at the London Hospital. Membership was initially open to holders of the hospital's training certificate, plus staff nurses elected by the league's executive. This was later widened to include qualified nurses, midwives or health visitors who had worked in Tower Hamlets District for one year, and former members of the Mile End League of Nurses, with which it amalgamated in 1970. A benevolent fund was established in 1945, and the league continues to help serve the professional, personal and social needs of members.

The London Hospital Pathological Institute was built in 1901 as the Sir Andrew Clarke memorial. The first Director of the London Hospital Pathological Institute was Redcliffe Nathan Salaman (1874-1955), from 1904 to 1906. He was succeeded by Hubert Maitland Turnbull (1875-1955), Director of the Institute from 1906 to 1946. Post-mortem examinations, previously performed by one of four Physicians, were henceforth conducted either by Turnbull himself, or by one of his Assistants. The whole body was dissected, and exact measurements and specimens taken for microscopic examination.

In March 1909 the Institute initiated a Surgical Department, in which material from operating theatres and the Out-Patient Department was examined. In 1919 Dr Turnbull was awarded the title of Professor of Morbid Anatomy in the University of London. In 1927 the Institute was enlarged and opened by Regius Professor Sir Humphrey Rolleston as the "Bernhard Baron" Institute. Turnbull's successor was Professor Dorothy Stuart Russell (1895-1983), who was Director until 1960. From the 1960s onwards the Institute kept records for autopsies and histological examinations carried out for other hospitals: Bethnal Green, Mile End, London Chest Hospital and St. Andrew's Hospital. The Institute opened a Cytology Department for analysis of body fluids under Christopher Brown in 1966. After 1990 the Institute was known as The Royal London Hospital Pathological Institute. The Institute conducted post mortem and surgical department examinations for Bethnal Green and Mile End Hospitals from 1969 to 1978.

The London Infirmary, as it was originally named, was established in the autumn of 1740 in Featherstone Street and occupied premises in Prescot Street 1741 to 1757. In 1752 the foundation stone of the hospital building on Whitechapel Road (later known as Front Block) was laid. The first patients were admitted in 1757, and the building of the front block was completed in 1759. There were subsequent alterations, developments and extensions, but parts of the original building remained in use until 2012. East and West Wings were added in 1770 and extended in the 1830s. Both these extensions were demolished in 2007, together with the remainder of East Wing. The Grocers Company Wing was opened in 1876 and the Alexandra Wing in 1982: the latter replaced an earlier Alexandra Wing, opened in 1866 and was opened as a Dental Hospital in 2014. In 1755 and 1772 the Governors of the Hospital were able to purchase the two moieties, or halves, of Red Lyon Farm, which lay immediately behind the Hospital, between Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road. Many of the Hospital's departments were built on parts of the former London Hospital Estate. Notable hospital buildings on the Estate included the Out Patients Department, designed by Rowland Plumbe and opened in 1902 and the Dental Institute, opened in 1965 and closed in 2014. The new Royal London Hospital building, designed by HOK Architects, was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013. The London Hospital had been granted Royal title by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its opening on the Whitechapel site, allowing it to be known as The Royal London Hospital.

Management of the Charity was originally in the hands of all the subscribers but, as they increased in numbers, this became impracticable. As early as April 1741 a Grand Committee was appointed to meet weekly, to transact the general business of the Hospital; this Committee developed into the House Committee, which exercised effective control, until its abolition in 1948. The subscriber's meetings became the Court of Governors, which normally met quarterly, and to which the House Committee reported. In 1758 the Hospital was granted a Royal Charter, which gave the Governors corporate status. Under the terms of the National Health Act, 1946, the Court of Governors and the House Committee were replaced by a Board of Governors in 1948. This Board was itself dissolved in 1974, when the Hospital became a part of the Tower Hamlets Health District in the City and East London Health Authority (Teaching).

Executive authority was at first split between several officers: the Secretary, the Steward, the Apothecary and the Chaplain; all exercised varying degrees of authority at different times. In 1806 a Superintendent was appointed and thereafter this officer, later called the House Governor, was the principal Executive Officer.

The original object of the Hospital was the "The relief of all sick and diseased persons and, in particular, manufacturers, seamen in the merchant service and their wives and children". The London Hospital has always been a general one and, by the end of the nineteenth century, was the largest voluntary, general Hospital in the United Kingdom. In the early years of the 20th Century the number of beds passed 1,000 on several occasions. In 2014 the new hospital provided 611 beds.

From the 1740's pupils had been taken on by members of the medical staff to "Walk the wards". In 1783 William Blizard and Dr. James Maddocks sought the Governors' support for the erection of a Lecture Theatre, so that both practical and theoretical education could be received on the same site. As a result a Lecture Theatre, which later developed into the Medical College, was opened in 1785. Until 1854 it remained largely independent of the Hospital but, from then until 1948, the Hospital House Committee exercised ultimate authority over the College. The College's records are kept by the College and are not included in these lists.

For many years the London Hospital had a number of Annexes and Convalescent Homes associated with it. At various times the Hospital managed the Zachary Merton Home, Banstead; the Brentwood Annexe; the Herman de Stern Home, Felixstowe; the Catherine Gladstone Home, Mitcham; the Croft and Fairfield Annexes in Reigate and the Hore and Marie Celeste Homes in Woodford. There was also Hayes Grove, a Home for Sick Nurses.

From 1945 until 1972 Queen Mary's Maternity Home, Hampstead, was managed by the Hospital. Its records are in the Royal London Hospital Archives, but are listed separately.

In 1968 Mile End and St. Clement's Hospitals were transferred to the management of the Board of Governors and were designated to the London Hospital (Mile End) and the London Hospital (St. Clement's). Some records of both these Hospitals are in the Royal London Hospital Archives, but are listed separately.

The "Marie Celeste" Samaritan Society was founded in 1791 to provide for London Hospital patients various welfare benefits, such as artificial limbs, periods of convalescence or special diets, which were beyond the resources of the Hospital. The records of this Society are in the Royal London Hospital Archives, but are listed separately.

The Mildmay Mission Hospital has its origins in the work of The Rev. William Pennefather and his team of Christian women, later known as Deaconesses, who began their work of visiting the sick of the East End during the Cholera outbreak of 1866.

The Mildmay Medical Mission was opened in 1877 by William's widow Catherine Pennefather and eleven other women, in a converted warehouse behind Shoreditch Church, in Turville Square/Cabbage Court in the Old Nichol slums. Dedicated to the memory of William, who had died in 1873, it consisted of twenty-seven beds in three wards, one doctor, three nurses and five deaconesses in training. The Hospital was recognised for the training of nurses in 1883. Although the hospital did not require letters of admission, like many other voluntary hospitals of the time, and it did not discriminate by religion, throughout its existence the Mildmay stressed its role as an evalgelical Christian centre as well as a General Hospital; prayers were held on the wards, and biblical quotations were painted on the walls. Staff regarded their work as a religious as well as a medical vocation. Despite this, the hospital had a strong tradition for treating Jewish immigrants to the East End.

The slum clearances carried out by the London County Council in the 1880s and 1890s threatened the original site, and in 1890, a foundation stone was laid for a purpose-built hospital at Austin Street and Hackney Road. In 1892 the new Mildmay Mission Hospital opened, with 50 beds in 3 wards; male, female and children's. (The Mildmay Mission itself was based from c.1870s-1950s at Central Hall, Philpot Street, close to the Royal London Hospital).

In 1948 the hospital was incorporated into the National Health Service as part of the North East Metropolitan Regional Board's Central (No. 5) Group of Hospitals and transferred in 1966 to the East London Group. In 1974 it became part of the Tower Hamlets Health District. As a hospital with less that 200 beds the hospital was regarded as uneconomic and was closed down in 1982.

In 1985, the hospital was reopened outside the NHS as a charitable nursing home, with a GP surgery attached and caring for young chronically sick patients; in 1988, it became Europe's first hospice caring for people with HIV/AIDS and their families, acquiring a worldwide reputation. It was famously visited by Princess Diana in 1991. In 2013 a new, bigger purpose built hospice was opened, which still maintains outreach work across the world.

The Royal Institution was founded in 1799 by Benjamin Thompson with the purpose of widening knowledge and facilitating the introduction of new mechanical devices or scientific advances. A house on Albemarle Street was fitted with laboratories, libraries and a lecture theatre. Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday worked there.

Founded in 1920, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (also known as Chatham House) is an independent research and membership organisation working to promote the understanding of key international issues. The Institute promotes debate and research through meetings, conferences and publications. The Chatham House Rule, which is used around the world to allow for free speech and confidentiality at meetings, originated with the Royal Institute. The Institute is funded through grants, donations, membership subscriptions and revenue from the Institute's trading subsidiary, Chatham House Enterprises Ltd. The Institute has a presence in the United States of America, where the Chatham House Foundation works to promote Anglo-American relations.

The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, is one of the world's leading institutes for the analysis of international issues. Founded in 1920, the Institute works to stimulate debate and research on political, business, security and other key issues in the international arena. It does this through its research, meetings, conferences and publications as well as through its library and information centre and expert interviews for the media.

The Royal Humane Society was founded in London in 1774 by two doctors, William Hawes (1736-1808) and Thomas Cogan (1736-1818). Both men were concerned at the number of people wrongly taken for dead - and, in some cases, buried alive; they wanted to promote the new, but controversial, medical technique of resuscitation and offered money to anyone rescuing someone from the brink of death.

The first meeting was held on 18 April 1774 at the Chapter Coffee House, St Paul's Churchyard. The founder members of the Society felt sure that the public would support them in their aim of restoring "a father to the fatherless, a husband to the widow, and a living child to the bosom of its mournful parents".

The society - then called the 'Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned' - had five key aims:

• To publish information on how to save people from drowning;
• To pay 2 guineas to anyone attempting a rescue in the Westminster area of London;
• To pay 4 guineas to anyone successfully bringing someone back to life;
• To pay 1 guinea to anyone - often a pub-owner - allowing a body to be treated in his house;

• To provide volunteer medical assistants with some basic life-saving equipment.

  The reward of 4 guineas paid to the rescuer and 1 guinea to anyone allowing a body to be treated on his premises soon gave rise to a widespread scam among the down-and-outs of London: one would pretend to be rescued and the other the rescuer - and they would share the proceeds. So monetary rewards were gradually replaced by medals and certificates, with occasional "pecuniary payments" up to a maximum of one guinea.

  A network of 'receiving houses' was set up in and around the Westminster area of London where bedraggled bodies, many of them pulled out of London's waterways, could be taken for treatment by volunteer medical assistants. A farmhouse in Hyde Park was used at first. It stood on land donated by King George III, the Society's patron. In the 19th century, a special building was erected and remained there until its demolition in 1954. Hyde Park was chosen because of the Serpentine where tens of thousands of people swam in the summer and ice-skated in the winter. To try to keep the number of drownings to a minimum, the Society employed Icemen to be on hand to rescue anyone going through the ice. Gradually, branches of the Royal Humane Society were set up in other parts of the country, mainly in ports and coastal towns where the risk of drowning was high.

  Today the aim of the Society is to recognise the bravery of men, women and children who have saved, or tried to save, someone else's life. The Society operates solely from its headquarters in London but gives awards to people from all over the country, and sometimes from overseas. Financial rewards are no longer given, only medals and certificates.

The Royal Humane Society (RHS) originated at a meeting at the Chapter Coffee House, St Paul's Churchyard, London, on 18 April 1774, when Dr William Hawes and Dr Thomas Cogan each invited sixteen friends to join them in founding an institution. Those present at this meeting included physicians, surgeons and other prominent men. The object of the Society was to promote research into techniques of resuscitation, grant pecuniary awards for successful instances of restoration of people who had apparently drowned, and to disseminate and publish information on resuscitation in general.

Similar societies were established during the 1760s-1770s in places including Amsterdam, Milan, Venice, Hamburg, Paris and St Petersburg, to treat persons variously drowned, strangled, frozen or affected by noxious gases, as well as to award prizes and publish methods of treatment.

William Hawes had for the previous year been personally rewarding rescuers who had brought ashore bodies recovered from the Thames between Westminster and London bridges. This responsibility was taken over by the new Society. In 1775 a medal was designed as a reward for successful resuscitation of people who seemed to be dead.

The Society issued pamphlets that described and evaluated various rescue apparatus. It also kept detailed case records, containing pathological observations of drowned persons. Presentations of Bible, a prayer book and religious book were also made to individuals restored from apparent drowning by the medical assistants.

William Hawes (1736-1806) was not only the founder of the Society, but one of the most active members of the Society. He petitioned Parliament for the provision of Receiving Houses for drowned and suffocated persons in every parish in England, and to establish schools where medical students could be taught the principles of resuscitation. In 1778 he was appointed Registrar for the Society, and edited the Society's Annual Reports from 1780 until his death.

In 1835 a the Hyde Park Receiving House was custom-built on the north bank of the Serpentine, in Hyde Park, on ground given to the Society by George III and extended by William IV. Previously it had, with the agreement of consenting inn-keepers, used inns along the riverside where bodies taken from the water might be brought and an attempt made at resuscitation. A superintendent and a number of other staff were employed at the Receiving House.

By 1777, the Society had recorded 167 cases, and by 1794, 2572 cases had been investigated, of which 959 persons had been restored to life by the medical assistants, 876 lives had been preserved by the Society's apparatus, and 747 cases had been unsuccessful. By 1809, more than 15,000 cases had been reported and eight receiving houses were in operation.

King George III granted his royal patronage in 1785, and in 1787, the prefix 'Royal' was added to the Society's title. Following the death of William IV, Queen Victoria agreed to be Patron. In the nineteenth century, the Society's focus broadens to include development of life-saving. It encouraged the development and testing of life-saving appliances, and a prize essay competition instituted as a result of a bequest from Dr Anthony Fothergill, the topic of which was 'The prevention of shipwreck and the preservation of lives of shipwrecked mariners'. Their work inspired the foundation of a number of similar societies in Great Britain, the Commonwealth and other places abroad.

In 1834, the Society was located at premises in 2 Chatham Place, Blackfriars. In 1841, it moved to 3, then 4 Trafalgar Square where it remained until 1930, when it relocated to Watergate House, Adelphi. It currently occupies premises located at the north end of Waterloo Bridge.

The Stanhope Gold Medal, the highest honour that the Society can bestow, was instituted in 1873 by public subscription by the friends of Captain Chandos Scudamore Scudamore Stanhope RN. Often the occasions requiring resuscitation techniques to be employed also involved courageous rescues, and the Society began to recognise and reward bravery.

By 1900 cases numbered 31,085. In 1924, the Receiving House in Hyde Park continued to have two open wards under the care of a resident superintendent. The House was severely damaged by enemy action Sep 1940, during World War Two, and despite protracted negotiations for war damage compensation and rebuilding, was never completed and the site eventually transferred to the Ministry of Works. In 1954, rebuilding plans halted, the building was demolished, and the lifesaving equipment turned over to responsibility of borough and urban district Councils.

By 1949, the Society was also maintaining approximately 400 stations containing lifesaving apparatus such as lifebuoys, within a 30 mile radius from Hyde Park. The Society was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1959. Its current object is to collect evidence, investigate, record and in suitable cases present awards to people who have shown bravery in lifesaving in the widest possible variety of circumstances. The Society accepts nominations from members of the public as well as from the emergency services who forward cases for consideration by a Committee that meets ten times a year in order to adjudicate on the most appropriate award to be made in each case.

In 1994 a merger between The Royal London Hospital and Associated Community Services NHS Trust, St Bartholomew's Hospital and The London Chest Hospital resulted in the creation of The Royal Hospitals NHS Trust. In 1999 the Trust's name changed to Barts and The London NHS Trust. The Trust continued until a further merger with Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust and Newham University Hospital NHS Trust in 2012. Management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children came under the Trust in 1995 and the hospital was formerly part of the Trust from April 1996 until the hospital's closure in 1998 whereupon services transferred to The Royal London Hospital.

The Trust initially came under the North East Thames Regional Health Authority and East London and The City District Health Authority more locally. From 1996-2002 it fell under NHS London Regional Health Authority and then North East London Strategic Health Authority until this was subsumed into NHS London Strategic Health Authority in 2006.

Thomas Holloway (1800-1883) was a highly successful pill and ointment manufacturer, who pioneered the use of product advertising. He married Jane Driver in 1840, and together they built up a large and prosperous business. Having no descendants, Holloway decided to use his fortune for philanthropic causes, and was encouraged by his wife to found a college for the higher education of women. He purchased the Mount Lee estate in Egham in 1874, and building commenced on a large scale - Holloway and his architect William Henry Crossland wanted to recreate the gothic style of the Chateau of Chambord. Jane Holloway died in 1875, and the project became a memorial to her, though Holloway left the overseeing of the building work to his brother-in-law, George Martin. Thomas Holloway died before either project was completed, but not before the composition of a Royal Holloway College Foundation Deed (Oct 1883), which assigned the management and government of the College to twelve Governors, including the three Trustees of the College Estate, appointed by Holloway. He also left a large sum of money with which to endow the College. The College was officially opened by Queen Victoria on June 30th 1886.

The College opened in 1887 with twenty-eight students. By 1890 numbers had doubled and between 1920 and 1946 there was an average of just under two hundred students a session.

When Royal Holloway was founded London University was not yet a teaching university, but women as well as men were eligible for its degrees and the foundation deed of the College allowed the students to take degrees either at London or at any other university in the United Kingdom which would admit them to degrees or to degree examinations. In 1897 the Governors of Royal Holloway College called a conference to discuss whether the College should become an independent university, part of a larger university for women or part of the proposed teaching university for London. In the event it became a School of London University and had direct representation on the Senate, but owing to the fact that it lay outside the geographical boundaries established for the University, its inclusion had to be effected by a special act of Parliament. Following the reform of the University of London's constitution in 1926, Royal Holloway College was excluded from the Committee's first list of schools which were given direct representation on the Senate and the proposed Collegiate Council and the Governors felt obliged to protest in order to have the proposals changed. The position of the College in London University was then finally established although it has frequently been criticised as being too remote from the centre of things.

The life of the College was very much disrupted by the Second World War. On the outbreak of the War London University's administrative staff were displaced from Bloomsbury by the Ministry of Information and were installed at Royal Holloway College where they occupied the Picture Gallery and about one and a half corridors on the west side of Founder's Building. They stayed until 1941 when the War Office requisitioned the entire east side of the building for an ATS unit and the University was removed to Richmond. The College staff and students were then confined to the West side and to the North and South Towers for teaching and living accomodation and all the students, as well as many of the staff, were allocated a single study/bedroom in place of the two rooms provided for in the foundation deed. In 1943 the Governors appointed a Post-War Policy Committee to discuss the question of how the College should develop after the War. The Committee interviewed a large number of external witnesses, as well as representatives of the staff and students of the College and of Royal Holloway College Association. Its fundamental recommendations were that access to London should be made easier for the students and that the College should expand and become co-educational. Stemming from these it made further recommendations on staffing and finance. Lack of funds and building restrictions made it impossible for these recommendations to be implemented at once. Men were admitted in 1946 as non-resident post-graduate students and the number of undergraduates was increased by retaining the war-time arrangement of allocating each student one room instead of two. Numbers rose from 191 at the end of the Summer term of 1946 to 270 in the Autumn and then increased more steadily to 390 in 1962. In 1964 it became possible to embark on plans for expansion so as to admit men as undergraduates in 1965 and to increase the number of students to one thousand. This involved providing extra teaching and residential accomodation, first of all in converted houses in the neighbourhood of the College and more recently in new buildings on the main College estate. It also involved an increase in staff, a re-organisation of administrative work and radical changes in the size and functions of the Student's Union.

Royal Holloway College merged with Bedford College in 1985, and the joint institution became known as the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College.

The Royal Holloway College Association was formed as a result of the first College Meeting (held in July 1890). The purpose of the Association was to enable former students and staff to keep in touch with the activities of the College and its present students. Current students and staff at the College were automatically made honorary members of the Association, which met once a year.

A Committee, consisting of the Principal and a number of members and representatives of honorary members of the RHCA, met al least once a term to discuss matters relating to the RHCA.

The College Letter, founded in 1890, contained news about the College and was issued twice a year to all members of the RHCA. A separate College Letter Committee was formed to deal with this. In 1970, a new body known as RHESUS (Royal Holloway Ex-Students Union Society) was formed as an alternative alumni association to counter the elderly membership of the RHCA. The two groups merged in 1984, retaining the original name.

The Trustees were three men who were given control of the College estate, property and picture collection. The first Trustees were appointed by Thomas Holloway in 1876 and were thereafter appointed by the Board of Governors as and when a new vacancy arose. The Trustees themselves also served as Governors.

In 1949, the Royal Holloway College Act altered the way in which the College was governed and as a result, responsibility for the estate and College property was transferred to the Council. The role of Trustee was thereafter terminated.

The Students' Meeting was the recognised channel of communication between the Principal, the administrative and domestic staff, and the students on matters affecting student welfare, discipline and domestic problems. The Senior Student (nominated by the Principal from the fourth and fifth year students, and elected by the whole student body) presided over a hierarchy of First, Second and Third Year Meetings, which reported to the main Students' Meeting, where messages were received from the Principal and other members of staff.

In 1923, the Student's Meeting reformed as the Royal Holloway College Union Society and became affiliated to the National Union of Students. In 1925 it took over the responsibilities and functions of the College Meeting, which included the administration of funds for various College societies and committees.

By 1966, the provision of a Student's Union building on the Royal Holloway Campus resulted in a bar and a shop for students. By 1968, Union activities had become increasingly demanding, leading to the creation of the first full-time President in 1969-1970. In the same year, the President and another student representative (elected by the main body of students) were given a place on the College Council.

The Staff Meeting was established in 1889 in order to discuss matters relating to teaching in the College. It originally discussed and settled the work of each student individually but this became impossible as student numbers increased. It also considered examinations and scholarships but had no power in policy-making. Meetings were usually held at least once a term, although sometimes they met more than this and sometimes less. The meeting consisted of the Principal and between 8-12 members of the Academic staff. In 1912 the Governors constituted the Academic Board which took over the functions of the Staff Meeting. It was to be composed of the Principal and senior members of staff and was to meet at least once a term. The Academic Board had the power to make recommendations to the Governors on all academic matters but did not have any executive duties. The Royal Holloway College Act (1949) stated that the Board should contain the Principal (as Chairman), all Professors of the University of London who taught at the College, and Heads of Department. It was able to regulate its own procedures and the conduct of its business, and was (with the approval of the Council) able to make standing orders for that purpose.

The Secretary acted as the administrative officer of the Governors. Responsibilities of the post included dealing with the College accounts, the ordering of supplies and the maintenance of College buildings and property, as well as taking minutes of meetings and preparing official correspondence. On the death of the first Secretary of the Governors, Mr J L Clifford-Smith, in 1898, the decision was taken that in future a woman should fill the post. The appointment of Dorothy Hustler in 1948 led to the reorganisation of the College accounts, and she was also responsible for ongoing negotiations for the purchase of surrounding properties, in order to facilitate the expansion of the College in the 1950s. 1969 saw the establishment of a separate Accounts Department. Titled the Secretary to the Governors until 1949, the postholder then became known as the College Secretary.

The various residence officers were responsible to the Principal, whom they met with on a regular basis. The Principal saw the Housekeeper, Nurse and Caretaker every morning, the Butler and the Gardener twice a week, and the Cook, Engineer and Nightwatchman when necessary. With the growth of the College in the 1960s, the numbers of residence staff increased, and such direct contact was no longer possible, though reports were still made to the Principal.

A Domestic Bursar replaced the Lady Housekeeper in 1944, and was in turn replaced by a Catering Officer (1965). A Security Officer took over the role of the Nightwatchman about the same time.

The Principal's Secretary, who was responsible for student records and examinations, initially undertook the work of the registrar. In 1944, a new Registrar's Department was created to deal with the clerical work and official correspondence of the College.

The Foundation Deed of Royal Holloway College laid down that the Principal should be an unmarried woman or childless widow, a stipulation which was adhered to until the Royal Holloway College Act of 1962. The Principal had responsibility for the entire internal management and discipline of the College (subject to the approval of the Council). Her department's administrative responsibilities therefore included student welfare and discipline, examinations, Chapel services and general administration of the Household staff. Miss E M Guinness acted as Vice-Principal from 1899-1908, entailing the transfer of her Library duties to the Principal's Department, though she was eventually replaced by an administrative assistant. The assistant's duties, already reduced by the appointment of a full-time librarian in 1935, were divided after 1937 between the Principal's Secretary and a Tutor. The latter became responsible for discipline and student welfare, while the Principal's Secretary, who was also given the title of Registrar, became responsible for student records and examinations. In 1944, with the creation of a separate Registry, the post became known as the Principal's Private Secretary. The post of Tutor, initially an experimental one, proved a success and by 1946 there were two Tutors and a Dean. The post of Vice-Principal was reinstituted in 1946, to be filled by a member of academic staff.

The Principal maintained close contact with the administrative staff, seeing the College Secretary, the Housekeeper, the Nurse and the Caretaker every morning, the Butler and the Gardener twice a week, and the Cook, Engineer and Nightwatchman when necessary. This system remained in place until the growth of the College in the 1960s.

Faculty meetings were introduced in 1897 to decide courses of study for students, matters relating to timetables and the syllabus, and recommendations for prizes and scholarships. Initially the Faculties met monthly, though this was later reduced to three times a year. The Principal acted as the Chair of all Faculty meetings. After 1937, the Arts and Science Tutors, whose role it was to advise students in connection with their courses of study and timetable, were selected at their respective Faculty meetings. All the Faculties elected the Dean, whose duties were more concerned with the social aspects of student life.

The art collection housed in the Picture Gallery at Royal Holloway College was based on the similar model at Vassar College in America. Thomas Holloway compiled the collection through purchases at auction from 1881-1883, when he bought at every Christie's sale of note. Although the initial plan was to obtain modern British paintings, examples of work by European painters were also acquired. The collection totalled 77 pictures at the time of Holloway's death in 1883. Charles W Carey was appointed to act as Curator of the Picture Gallery, a task he undertook from 1887 until his death in 1943.

His main role was to supervise the conservation of the pictures, compile the catalogue, show the collection to visitors, and correspond with artists, art historians and students concerning the works.

The various Committees were created by the Board of Governors/the Council. Standing Committees included the Library Committee, the Garden Committee and the Finance Committee. Other ad hoc committees were created according to need.

The recreations and to some extent the social lives of staff and students, were organised until 1925 through the College Meeting. This was a staff/student committee, which first met in July 1890 to consider proposals for enabling former members of the College to keep in touch with its resident members. These proposals led to the formation of the Royal Holloway College Association, but the College Meeting itself was found to be a useful forum for the discussion of College affairs, and was made permanent. It met at least once a term and was composed of the Principal and an allocated number of staff and students. Its main responsibility was the Theoric Fund from which allocations were made for Chard, the various sports clubs, and a limited number of other purposes.

In 1925 it was decided that the business conducted by the College Meeting could instead be conducted by the Union and it was therefore disbanded. Committees formed under the College Meeting became Committees of the Union.

In 1966, the College Committee was formed as a joint staff-student body, which met once or twice a term to discuss matters of mutual interest.

The Deed of Foundation for the College (October 1883) assigned the management and government of the College to twelve Governors, including the three Trustees of the College Estate appointed by the Founder, Thomas Holloway. The Board of Governors was to contain five Representative Governors, one appointed by the Lord President of the Council (or Head of the Education Department of the Government), one by the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and Senate of the University of London, one by the Court of Aldermen of the City of London, one by the Corporation of Windsor, and one by the Corporation of Reading. The remaining four Governors were to be co-optative and elected by the rest of the Governors. Each Governor was appointed for the term of seven years and was then eligible for re-election. The Governors were given the power to elect all future Trustees of the College and to remove Trustees from office. Governors could resign at any time and would cease to hold the office in cases of bankruptcy, insolvency, or absence from meetings for a stated amount of time. They could be removed from office by the votes of a majority of the Governors. Each vacancy was to be filled by the body which had nominated the retiring or deceased Governor.

The Governors held monthly meetings at the College during the academic terms. A Chairman was to be elected by a majority. The Board of Governors was given responsibility for the entire management of the College. As stated in the Deed of Foundation, this included the appointment and remuneration of the Principal and Professors, and all the teachers, officers and servants; the overseeing of the purchase of all food and other articles and things requisite in the conduct and management of the College; the framing of the curriculum and general regulations of the College, the College terms, the fees payable by students, the mode and system of examinations and of registering and awarding results; and the distribution of the Founders Scholarships and other prizes and awards. They also had the power to make and publish bylaws for the general management of the College and the terms of service of staff members. The Secretary to the Governors carried out the day-to-day administrative responsibilities of the Governors.

The Foundation Deed stated that women could not be Governors, and this was not changed until the Governors executed a Deed Poll in 1912. This provided that two of the co-optative Governors should be women, and at the same time extended the number of Governors to 19. The Principal and two other staff members were also invited to attend Governors Meetings after this point. In 1920 the Foundation Deed was amended to provide for the appointment of the Principal as an ex-officio Governor, and for two other staff Governors (who should be members of the Academic Board).

In 1949, the College Council replaced the Board of Governors as a result of the Royal Holloway College Act. The Council was to consist of 22 members, namely a Chairman, the Principal, six Co-Opted Members, and fourteen Representative Members elected by the Lord President of the Privy Council (1), the Senate of the University of London (2), the Court of Aldermen of the City of London (1), the Minister of Education (2), the Hebdomadal Council of the University of Oxford (1), the Council of the Senate of the University of Cambridge (1), the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the borough of Windsor (1), the Academic Board (4), and the Royal Holloway College Association (RHCA) (1). Women were appointed on the same condition as men. All representative or co-opted members were to hold office for five years at the end of which they were to be eligible for re-appointment. The representatives of the Academic Board, however, were to be appointed annually but were also eligible for re-appointment.

The Council was responsible for the management, control and administration of all property and income of the College, and for the government of the affairs of the College. Subject to various legal safeguards and the approval of the University, the Council was empowered to make new Statutes for the College. Among its specified powers were the rights to admit men as non-resident postgraduate students and to change or add to the curriculum. From 1949, the Secretary to the Governors became the College Secretary. In 1970, student representatives, one being the President of the Union, were allowed to sit on the Council.

The financial affairs of Royal Holloway College were administered by the College Secretary until 1969-1970, when a separate Accounts Department was instituted.

Various unofficial records collated by members of Royal Holloway College on an ad-hoc basis.

The College Letter was founded in 1890 for circulation to members of the Royal Holloway College Association. It reported on the activities of the clubs and societies of the College. Alongside this ran Erinna, an annual literary magazine, which included contributions from staff and students alike. The Letter was replaced in 1957 by Caviare.

A weekly College newspaper called Château was founded in 1968. This replaced Mr Gillie (also known as the Wall Newspaper) which had begun life as a sheet on the College noticeboard reporting on sporting and social events, and had circulated briefly as a news sheet from 1966-1967.

The number of student societies and clubs increased rapidly as student numbers rose during the 1890s. These groups, each with their own President and Committee, had high staff participation, mainly due to the residential nature of the teaching posts. Examples of the earliest societies are CHARD, the Royal Holloway College Dramatic Association (founded 1887); musical groups, including the Choir, the Band, and the Choral Society; departmental societies such as the Art History Society, at which various staff gave lectures; political and debating clubs; religious societies; and charitable organisations. Sports societies organised matches and other activities in the afternoons.

The societies and clubs were organised firstly by the College Meeting (1890-1925), which controlled the Theoric Fund from which allocations were made for Chard, the various sports clubs, and other purposes such as the College Albums Committee. The role of the College Meeting was superseded on the creation of the Royal Holloway College Union Society in 1923, which took over its responsibilities in 1925. Each Society seems to have kept its own minutes and financial records.

Photographs collected throughout the history of Royal Holloway College.

The Royal Historical Society (RHS) was founded on 23 Nov 1868, at a meeting at Somerset Chambers, the Strand, at office of Louis Charles Alexander, accountant and banker.
Those present at this meeting included Alexander's business partners Gibson and Rae, as well as Rev Dr Charles Rogers, Dr J E Carpenter, and Rev Samuel Cowdy. A constitution and laws for the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain were approved, with the objects of conducting historical, biographical and ethnological investigations. A pattern of regular meetings was established, the Archbishop of York - William Thompson, was designated President, and others proposed as Vice-Presidents and members of Council. Rogers was appointed Histroiographer and Alexander, Secretary.
The Archbishop declined the presidency, and the Society continued without a President until its first Annual general Meeting, Jan 1870, when George Grote, President of the University College and Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, was elected. At this time, its was agreed that a volume of Transactions should be published, and that permission be sought for the use of the prefix 'Royal' as described in the Society's constitution, but abandoned in practice.

There is some dispute about the validity of the minutes of the first Annual General Meeting and it appears that Rogers by underhand methods ousted Alexander from his post to consolidate his own position, was elected a life member, awarded an annual stipend and soon after took up the position of Honorary Secretary. This was followed by a public subscription in 1873 to procure the erection of a house for Rogers in recognition of his literary and public services. As well as this he was granted a gratuity for unpaid labours between 1868 and 1872, and successive salary raises and gratuities between Nov 1873 and 1876.

In Jan 1870, the Society had a membership of approximately 50, including associations, honorary members and corresponding members. That same year the Society amalgamated with the Provincial Record Association, in 1874, the English Reprint Society, and 1876, the British Genealogical Institute, in all of which Rogers had some involvement.

The Society's first publication was its Transaction, issued in two parts in 1871 and 1872, though not being strictly limited to papers read to the Society. By the end of 1872, membership had reached 100. In Nov 1872, 158 Fellows were elected at a single meeting of Council.

The society was not initially a professional society with professional standards. The average attendance at the ordinary meetings of Council from 1870-1878 was only 4, of which one was always Rogers. Papers were read to more numerous gatherings. A library collection was begun and in 1877, comprised mainly the Transactions of European and American historical societies.

Criticism of the Society's affairs was finally heard at a meeting of the Council in 1878 - that membership was too cheap, annual accounts were unsatisfactory, the subscriptions had not been invested, only one publication a year had been forthcoming, and the Society was spoken of amongst literary circles with anything but respect. Public denigration of the Society in the pages of the Atheneum, 1879-1880 sparked change, and a Committee of Enquiry was established in Jan 1881. Rogers instant resignation was demanded, and after further meetings, finally implemented. Following this upheaval the government of the society was put on a more regular footing, new regulations and financial arrangements adopted, and gradually gained the support of those interested in historical research in London, Oxford and Cambridge.

In 1886 the Society co-operated with the Public Record Office and the British Museum, in the Domesday Commemoration proceedings, and initiated a Conference of Historical Teaching in Schools.

Royal patronage was granted to the Society in 1888 and Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1889. This same year, the by-laws were revised, and in 1890 a Finance Committee appointed, followed by a Library Committee in 1891. The office of Director was also approved and Hubert Hall appointed, a post he held for 47 years.

The Society was fully involved in events for the commemoration of the centenary of the death of Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), historian and scholar in 1894, when Patrick Edward Dove, Secretary since 1882, apparently committee suicide. It was also revealed that money belonging to the RHS, as well as the Seldon Society of which Dove was both Treasurer and Hon Secretary had disappeared. However, the loyalty of the members sustained the Society, the Director took over the secretary's duties.

Falling membership of the society during the 1890s, and the approach of the Camden Society proposing amalgamation between the two societies in1896, was not unwelcome. The proposal was approved at a Special meeting on Nov 1896, and came into effect on 1 May 1897. Members of the Camden Society became Fellows of the RHS, with three of them taking seats on the Council. The RHS took over the balance of the Camden Society's funds and other assets, and it was agreed that the series of Camden volumes should continue as a publication of the RHS.

The Society took on a much more professional character in the 1890s, with a new programme of scholarly research, the selection of highly qualified members, and gave serious attention to its library. In 1897, Louis Charles Alexander, the first secretary, who had reassumed membership following the departure of Rogers, endowed the Alexander Medal and the first Alexander Prize Essay was presented in 1898.

In 1899 A W Ward was appointed President and in 1901 G W Prothero, former Professor of History at Edinburgh, was offered the Presidency. Both these men were active in attempts to establish a School of Advanced Historical Studies in London, which was without a History School, but only succeeded in establishing an annual Creighton Memorial Lecture at the University of London and temporary provision of two lectureships at LSE. In 1906 the Historical Association was founded as a valuable adjunct to this work, and was housed in the RHS for 30 years.

However the Society's primary object remained as a publisher, with two thirds of their income being devoted to this. Ward initiated plans for a larger publishing project - an historical bibliography for Great Britain and Ireland since the Middle Ages. First discussed in 1885, again in 1896, and 1903 it gained shape and form, finally in 1909 a plan for the bibliography was approved, with Prothero appointed general editor. (Bibliography of British History). The outbreak of war in 1914, brought a halt to the plans for the Bibliography of British History. On Prothero's death in 1922 a consultative committee was set up to carry on the work for the Bibliography of British History. In 1928, the 17th century volume was published in 1928, and the sixteenth century volume in [1933].

In 1929, a second Prize Essay was endowed - in Scottish history. In 1933 RHS underwent some administrative renovation, which included the creation of a new class of Associate Members. The Society inherited the bulk of Prothero's estate, following the death of his wife in 1934 a bequest of over £22 400 pounds, as well as his library. In 1968, an annual lectureship was instituted in his memory.

The Society is currently composed of over 2,500 Fellows from Britain and around the world, who are deemed to have made an original contribution to historical scholarship in the form of significant published work. The Fellows elect a Council which governs the Society's affairs. The Society is administered by a full-time Secretariat.

Samuel Rawson Gardiner (1829-1902) Born near Arlesford, 4 March 1829, the son of Rawson Boddam Gardiner and Margaret Baring Gould. He was educated at Winchester, and Christ Church, Oxford. Awarded DCL, LLD, LittD, 1st class Lit. Hum. 1851; Hon. Student of Christ Church, Oxford. He was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and Professor of Modern History at King's College London. He died on 23 February 1902.
Publications: History of England, 1603-1642; History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649; Cromwell's Place in History, 1897; What Gunpowder Plot was, 1897; History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate.

James Frederick Chance (1856-1938) Born 9 April 1856, the son of Sir James Timmins Chance, Bart. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Held the position of Honorary Secretary to the Eton War Memorial Fund since 1917. Awarded MA; Vice President, Royal Historical Society. Died 18 October 1938.
Publications: George I and the Northern War, 1909; The Alliance of Hanover, 1923; List of Diplomatic Representatives and Agents, England and North Germany, 1689-1727, 1907; List of Diplomatic Representatives and Agents, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, 1689-1762, 1909; edited for the Royal Historical Society, Diplomatic Instructions, vol. i, Sweden, 1689-1727, 1922, vol. iii, Denmark, 1689-1789, 1926; vol. v, Sweden, 1727-1789, 1928; The Lighthouse Work of Sir James Chance, Bart, 1902; A History of the Firm of Chance Brothers and Company, 1919; Chance of Birmingham and Bromsgrove, 1892; The Pattinsons of Kirklinton, 1899.

Charles Rogers (1825-1890) Scottish author. Born in Denino, Fife, 18 April 1825, the only son of James Rogers (1767-1849), the local minister, and his wife Jane Haldane. He was educated at Denino parish school, and the University of St. Andrews, matriculating in 1839. Licensed by the presbytery of St Andrews in June 1846, he was employed in the capacity of assistant successively at Western Anstruther, Kinglassie, Abbotshall, Dunfermline, Ballingry, and Carnoustie. Subsequently he opened a preaching station at the Bridge of Allan, and from January 1855 until 11 Aug. 1863 was chaplain of the garrison at Stirling Castle. In 1855 he inaugurated at Stirling a short-lived Scottish Literary Institute. In 1862 he opened the British Christian Institute, for the dissemination of religious tracts, especially to soldiers and sailors, and in connection with it he issued a weekly paper, called The Workman's Friend,' and afterwards monthly serials,The Briton' and The Recorder;' but the scheme collapsed in 1863. In 1863 he founded and edited a newspaper,The Stirling Gazette,' but its career was brief. These schemes involved Rogers in much contention and litigation, and he imagined himself the victim of misrepresentation and persecution. To escape his calumniators he resigned his chaplaincy in 1863, went to England, and thenceforth devoted himself to literary work.
Rogers's earliest literary efforts in London were journalistic, but his chief interest was Scottish history, literature, and genealogy. He also had a passion for founding literary societies. In November 1865 he originated in London a short-lived Naval and Military Tract Society, as a successor to his British Christian Institute, and in connection with it he edited a quarterly periodical called The British Bulwark.' When that society's existence terminated, he set upThe London Book and Tract Depository,' which he carried on until 1874. The most successful of all his foundations - the Grampian Club, was inaugurated in London on 2 Nov. 1868, and he was secretary and chief editor until his death. Its purpose was to issue works illustrative of Scottish literature, history, and antiquities. He also claimed to be the founder of the Royal Historical Society, which was established in London on 23 Nov 1868, for the conduct of historical, biographical, and ethnological investigations. He was secretary and historiographer to this Society until 1880, when he was openly charged with working it for his own pecuniary benefit. He defended himself in a pamphlet, Parting Words to the Members,' 1881, and reviewed his past life inThe Serpent's Track: a Narrative of twenty-two years' Persecution' (1880). He edited eight volumes of the Historical Society's `Transactions,' in which he wrote much himself.
He was awarded a the degree of LL.D from Columbia College, New York, in 1854; and D.D. by the University of St Andrews in 1881. He was a member, fellow, or correspondent of numerous learned societies, British, foreign, and colonial, and an associate of the Imperial Archæological Society of Russia. He died in Edinburgh on 18 Sept. 1890, at the aged 65. Rogers married, on 14 Dec. 1854, Jane, the eldest daughter of John Bain of St. Andrews.

Publications:
I. Historical and Biographical- Notes in the History of Sir Jerome Alexander, 1872; Three Scots Reformers, 1874; Life of George Wishart, 1875; Memorials of the Scottish House of Gourlay, 1888; Memorials of the Earls of Stirling and House of Alexander, 2 vols. 1877; The Book of Wallace, 2 vols. 1889; The Book of Burns, 3 vols. 1889-91;
II. Topographical - History of St. Andrews, 1849; A Week at the Bridge of Allan, 1851; The Beauties of Upper Strathearn, 1854; Ettrick Forest and the Ettrick Shepherd, 1860;
III. Genealogical- Genealogical Chart of the Family of Bain, 1871; The House of Roger, 1872; Memorials of the Strachans of Thornton and Family of Wise of Hillbank, 1873; Robert Burns and the Scottish House of Burnes, 1877; Sir Walter Scott and Memorials of the Haliburtons, 1877; The Scottish House of Christie, 1878; The Family of Colt and Coutts, 1879; The Family of John Knox, 1879; The Scottish Family of Glen, 1888;
IV. Ecclesiastical- Historical Notices of St. Anthony's Monastery, Leith, 1849; History of the Chapel Royal of Scotland, 1882;
V. Social- Familiar Illustrations of Scottish Life, 1861; Traits and Stories of the Scottish People, 1867; Scotland, Social and Domestic, 1869; A Century of Scottish Life, 1871; Monuments and Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland, 2 vols. 1871-2; Social Life in Scotland, 3 vols. 1884-6;
VI. Religious - Christian Heroes in the Army and Navy, 1867; Our Eternal Destiny, 1868;
VII. Poetical- The Modern Scottish Minstrel, 6 vols. 1855-7; The Sacred Minstrel, 1859; The Golden Sheaf, 1867; Lyra Britannica, 1867; Life and Songs of the Baroness Nairne, 1869;
VIII. Autobiographical and General- Issues of Religious Rivalry, 1866; Leaves from my Autobiography, 1876; The Serpent's Track, 1880; Parting Words to the Members of the Royal Historical Society, 1881; Threads of Thought, 1888; The Oak, 1868;
Rogers also edited: Aytoun's Poems, 1844; Campbell's Poems, 1870; Sir John Scot's Staggering State of Scottish Statesmen, 1872; Poetical Remains of King James, 1873; Hay's Estimate of the Scottish Nobility; Glen's Poems, 1874; Diocesan Registers of Glasgow, 2 vols. 1875 (in conjunction with Mr. Joseph Bain); Boswelliana, 1874; Register of the Church of Crail, 1877; Events in the North of Scotland, 1635 to 1645, 1877; Chartulary of the Cistercian Priory of Coldstream, 1879; Rental-book of the Cistercian Abbey of Cupar-Angus, 1880; The Earl of Stirling's Register of Royal Letters, 2 vols. 1884-5.

Cyril Saunders Spackman (1887-1963) Sculptor, painter-etcher and architect. Born Cleveland, USA, 15 August 1887, the only son of Rev. John and Adelaide Saunders Spackman. He was educated at Public schools, Cleveland, Central Foundation School, London and King's Coll., London. FRNS.

He exhibited at Royal Academy, Paris Salons, as well as in regional Britian and in the USA. He was the designer of the Masonic Million Memorial Medal (exhibited Royal Academy and RMS, 1922) as well as medals for the Corporation of Croydon and the Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors; Medal of Harding Award for Selhurst Grammar School; The Nativity, The Crucifixion, The Ascension, Altar Panels in Grosmont Church, Monmouthshire; Crucifix in Hoptonwood stone in All Saints at Selhurst; Large Relief, St George and the Dragon, Clipsham stone, Ashburton Secondary Modern School, Croydon. He was filmed by Br. Paramount News and Wallace Productions Ltd carving bust of Wendy Newbury. Other sculptures include: Emancipation, in Belgian Black Marble; (Hon. Mention Salon, Paris, 1952), Duke of Devonshire, KG, in Hadene Marble; The Hall Stone Medal for United Grand Lodge of England; Black Marble Head (in the Municipal Museum Art Gallery, Arnheim).
Spackman was also Honorary Vice-President South-Eastern Society of Architects, Member Cleveland Society of Artists, Chicago Society of Etchers, Late Art Editor of The Parthenon. Chairman, Croydon University Extension Committee; Honorary-Vice-President Croydon Symphony Orchestra; Member Committee Croydon Writers' Circle; Vice-President Croydon Camera Club; Freeman and a Citizen of London; Freedom and Livery of The Company of Masons. In 1922 he married Ada Victoria (Queenie) Sadleir. He died on 16 May 1963.
Publications:
Colour Prints of a Dream Garden, and an Old-World Garden, from the original paintings exhibited at the RBA; contributor to the Architectural Review, etc.

Frederick Solly Flood (1801-1888) Born 1801, son of Richard Solly, Portman Square, London. He was educated at Harrow School, and Trinity College Cambridge. In 1820, following the death of his father, he took by Royal Licence the additional name of his maternal grandfather, a prominent Irish politician, Sir Frederick Flood (1741-1824). In 1924, he inherited his grandfather's property, and married Mary Williamson of Stoke Damerel, Devonport, who died in 1864. Admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1824, he was called to the bar in 1828, joining the Midland Circuit, and attending Warwick an Northampton Sessions. He was attorney General of Gibraltar 1872-1877. He was elected Fellow of the RHS in 1885.

(Arthur Frederic) Basil Williams (1867-1950) historian. Born in London 4 April 1867, the only son of Frederick George Adolphus Williams, barrister-at-law, and his wife, Mary Katharine Lemon. He was educated at Marlborough and New College, Oxford. After graduating, he obtained a clerkship in the House of Commons where it was his duty to attend the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the responsibility for the Jameson raid; the appearance of Cecil Rhodes made a deep impression on him, and perhaps this accounts for his decision, many years later, to write Rhodes's biography. Williams volunteered for service in the South African war, and spent a year's campaign in the same unit with Erskine Childers. He co-operated with Childers in attempts to work out a solution of the Home Rule question, and wrote a memoir of him after his execution in 1922. Returning briefly to England, Williams went out again to South Africa as a civilian, where he served Lord Milner. He assisted Lionel Curtis, then town clerk at Johannesburg, and worked later in the education department.
On his second return to England he gave himself in earnest to his career as an historian of the eighteenth century. He distinguished himself by a series of articles on Sir Robert Walpole's foreign policy in the English Historical Review (1900-1). He was a skilled biographer, writhing the lives of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1913), and Stanhope (1932), Carteret and Newcastle (1943). He also wrote a general work on British history under the early Hanoverians, with the title The Whig Supremacy 1714-60 (1939).

During World War 1, he served as an education officer in the Royal Field Artillery and in 1919 was appointed O.B.E. for his services. He was Kingsford Professor of History at McGill University (1921-5), and then Professor of history at Edinburgh until 1937 when he retired under the age limit. He was elected Fellow, British Academy, 1935. He retained his interest in South Africa, and this became a secondary sphere of historical interest. In 1921 he published his life of Cecil Rhodes and in 1946 a book on Botha, Smuts and South Africa.

In 1905 Williams married Dorothy (died 1948), daughter of Francis William Caulfield. He died at Chelsea 5 January 1950.

The Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, accumulated case notes in the conduct of its business.

The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).