The Committee on Scientific Research on Human Institutions was set up by the Division of the Social and International Relations of Science of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in order to consider how the results of scientific research on human institutions and human needs and their interrelations could be co-ordinated and brought to bear on the formation of public policy. The Association is a nation-wide organisation and holds an annual festival of science. It is also involved in running activities for young people and science communication projects. It has an open membership policy and currently has approximately 2,100 members. It produces a monthly newsletter "The Banter" which provides details of forthcoming events, and "Science & Public Affairs".
Arthur Cooke was a member of Working Men's College, Great Ormond St, and a trade union official for 30 years. He was an active member of the Society of Lithographic Artists, Designers, Engravers and Process Workers.
Born 1865; joined Fabian Society, 1889; received into the Roman Catholic Church, 1897; Editor, Surrey Mirror, 1892-1900; Editor, Review of the Week, 1900-1902; Acting Editor, The Connoisseur, 1902-[1906]; settled in Paris as a journalist and picture dealer, 1906, where he remained throughout the war; Paris correspondent, Manchester Guardian; expelled from France, 1918; Foreign correspondent for the Manchester Guardian and other newspapers in Geneva, 1920-1921, Berlin, 1922-1924, Paris, 1925-1932, and Geneva, 1932-1939; his writings were controversialist from a variously Catholic modernist, socialist, pacifist and anti-fascist perspective; died in New York, 1940.
Publications: Anglo-French relations: the policy of the Union of Democratic Control (Union of Democratic Control, London, 1920); Germany unmasked: on Germany under the National-Socialist regime (Martin Hopkinson, London, 1934); My second country, France (John Lane, London and New York, 1920); Socialism and personal liberty (Leonard Parsons, London, 1921); The Catholic Church and the social question (Catholic Press Co, London, 1899); translator of Disestablishment in France (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1906); The left bank of the Rhine (Union of Democratic Control, 1919); The Geneva racket, 1920-1939 (Robert Hale, London, 1921).
Ely Devons, 1913-1967, was educated at Hanley High School, Portsmouth Grammar School, and North Manchester Municipal High School. He went on to study at Manchester University, where he obtained a degree in Economics in 1934 and an MA in Economics in 1935. His career in statistics began when he was appointed economic assistant to the Joint Committee of Cotton Trades Organisations in Manchester, 1935-1939. He was subsequently a statistician for Cotton Control at the Ministry of Supply, 1939-1940, and for the Economic Section of the War Cabinet Offices, and Chief Statistician for the Central Statistics Office, 1940-1941. From 1941 to 1945 he was Chief Statistician, Director of Statistics, and Director General of Planning, Programmes and Statistics at the Ministry of Aircraft Production. After World War II, Devons returned to Manchester University, becoming Robert Ottley Reader in Applied Economics in 1945 and became Robert Ottley Professor of Applied Economics, 1948-1959. He then moved to the London School of Economics, where he held the post of Professor of Commerce, 1959-1965. He was a member of the council of the Royal Economic Society 1956-1964, and a member of the Local Government Commission 1959-1965.
Charles Vickery Drysdale, 1874 - 1961, was educated at Finsbury Technical College and Central Technical College, South Kensington. He became the Associate Head of the Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics Department at the Northampton Institute 1896 - 1910. After a brief period as a partner in the firm of H. Tinsley and Co from 1916 to 1919, he joined the Admiralty Experimental Station at Parkston Quay in 1918. From there he went on to become Scientific Director at the Admiralty Experimental Station, Shandon, 1919-1921, Superintendent at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington, 1921-1929 and Director of Scientific Research at the Admiralty 1929-1934. From 1934 onwards he was a member of the Safety in Mines Research Board. This collection focuses on Drysdale's interests in population and birth control. He was Honorary Secretary of the Malthusian League and Editor of 'The Malthusian', 1907-1916, and president of the Neo-Malthusian Conferences in London 1921 and New York 1925. He was the author of a number of works on population control and eugenics, and was also the first witness to be called before the National Birth-Rate Commission in 1913. He married Bessie Ingman Edwards in 1898.
Most of the letters in the collection were collected by Charlotte Erickson and the staff of the Survey of Sources for American Studies during their work in the 1950s, whilst others were donated or purchased.
Stephan R. Epstein, 1960-2007, was brought up in Switzerland and graduated cum laude from the University of Siena. He obtained his PhD in History from Cambridge University and continued there as a postdoctoral research fellow until 1992, when he was appointed to a lectureship on Economic History at the London School of Economics. By 1997 he had been promoted to a readership and he became Professor of Economic History in 2001. At the time of his death he was Head of the Department. Epstein's field of expertise was the economic history of medieval and early modern Europe. He established a formidable reputation in this area early in his career, and left an impressive publication record. He is the sole author of Alle origini della fattoria toscana. L'ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala di Siena e le sue terre, c.1250-c.1450 (Salimbeni, Florence, 1986); An island for itself. Economic development and social transformation in late medieval Sicily Past and Present (Publications Series: Cambridge, 1992); and Freedom and Growth, Markets and states in Europe, 1300-1750 (London: Routledge, 2000). He edited four volumes including Town and country in Europe, 1300-1800 (Cambridge, 2001). He is also the author of dozens of articles in journals and books.
Sir Thomas Henry Farrer, 1819-1899, was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He received his BA in 1840 and became a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in 1844. He became Assistant-Secretary of the Marine Department of the Board of Trade in 1850, assistant secretary to the Board in 1854, and was Permanent Secretary from 1865 to 1886. In addition he was a member (and for several years Vice-Chairman) of the London County Council, 1889-1898, and published writings on economic subjects. He was created baronet in 1883 for his public service, and raised to the peerage in 1893.
Born 1926; educated at the City of London School; founder chairman, Mansfield Young Conservatives 1946-1947; national chairman, Young Conservatives 1954-1957; member, Executive Committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations 1953-1979; chairman of the Greater London Area Conservative Local Government Committee 1972-1975; vice-chairman of the Conservative Party Organisation 1975-1979 and 1983-1987; borough councillor, Hampstead Borough Council 1949-1964; borough councillor, Camden Borough Council 1964-1974 (leader, 1968-1970); deputy chairman, Association of Municipal Corporations 1969-1971, and vice-president 1971-74; parliamentary candidate (Conservative), Islington East 1955; Conservative MP, Hampstead 1970-1983; Conservative MP, Hampstead and Highgate 1983-1992; member, Executive Committee 1922 Committee 1974-1975; member, Parliamentary Select Committee on Expenditure 1970-1979; Opposition spokesman on Greater London 1974-1979; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Education 1979-1981; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security 1981-1983; member, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 1983-1992 (President 1991-1992); member, Western European Union 1983-1992 (leader, British delegation 1987-1992); deputy chairman, Commission for New Towns 1992-1996; Controller of Personnel and Chief Industrial Relations Adviser, Great Universal Stores 1968-1979; Deputy Chairman, South East Regional Board of the Trustees' Savings Bank 1986-1989; member, Council of the Confederation of British Industry 1968-1979; member, Post Office Users National Council 1970-1977; Joint National Honorary Secretary, Council of Christians and Jews; patron, Maccabi Association of Great Britain; trustee, Marie Curie Cancer Foundation; governor, University College School; JP, Inner London 1962-1996; MBE 1959; Knight 1984; life peer 1992.
Sir Raymond Firth was born in 1901 in New Zealand. He was educated at Auckland University College, where he specialised in economics and wrote his MA thesis on the local kauri gum industry. In 1924 he came to the London School of Economics to work for a higher degree in economics, but on arrival changed his subject to anthropology and completed a PhD on the primitive economics of the New Zealand Maori under the supervision of Malinowski. After obtaining his PhD, Firth returned to New Zealand and in 1928-1929 made his first and longest visit to the island of Tikopia. On his return he joined the staff of the department of anthropology at the University of Sydney, first as a lecturer and then as acting professor. In 1932 he returned to London to take up a post under Malinowski at the LSE. He was a lecturer in anthropology 1932-1935, and a reader 1935-1944. During the Second World War, Firth was posted to the Admiralty's Naval Intelligence Division, where he was responsible for compiling the geographical handbooks relating to the Pacific islands. Following Malinowski's death in 1942, Firth was appointed Professor of Anthropology of the University of London in 1944. He retired from this post in 1968, but remained professionally active right up until his death at the age of 100 in 2002. Firth had a wide range of research interests, but is best remembered for his work on Tikopia and Malaya. He wrote extensively about Tikopia society and culture throughout his career, and returned to do further fieldwork there in 1952, 1966, 1973 and 1978. He first visited Malaya in 1939-1940 to study the economics and social conditions of peasant communities in the coastal region of Kelantan, and visited again in 1947 and 1963 to continue his research. He also made a significant contribution to the field of kinship studies, leading several projects on kinship in London in the period 1947-1965.
Born 1870; educated Harrow and New College, Oxford University; Fellow, New College, 1892-1899; Arnold Essay Prize, 1893; called to Bar, Lincoln's Inn, 1894; practised until the War at the Chancery Bar; Liberal Candidate for Oxford City, December 1910; CBE, 1917; Assistant Legal Adviser, Home Office, 1918-1920; British Legal Representative on the Reparation Commission under the Treaty of Versailles, 1920-1930; KC, 1920; Kt, 1923; Chairman, Royal Commission on Tithe Rent Charge, 1934; British Member of Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, 1936-[1947]; Governor, Fisheries Organisation Society; Member, Institute of International Law; died 1947.
Publications: Aspects of Modern International Law (Oxford University Press, London, 1939); Chapters on Current International Law and the League of Nations (Longmans & Co, London, 1929); Harrow (1901); International Change and International Peace (Oxford University Press, London, 1932); International Law and International Financial Obligations arising from Contract (1924); International Law and the Property of Aliens; Life Insurance of the Poor (P. S. King & Son, London, 1912); Proportional Representation and British Politics (John Murray, London, 1914); Some Aspects of the Covenant of the League of Nations (Oxford University Press, London, 1934); The Geneva Protocol of 1924 (G. Allen & Unwin, London, 1924); The Reform of Political Representation (John Murray, London, 1918).
Born 1910; Open Exhibitioner, Magdalen College, Oxford University, 1928; Assistant Lecturer, University College London, 1934-1936; Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, Merton College, Oxford, 1936; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; 1st King's Dragoon Guards, 1939; Historical Section, War Cabinet Office, 1943; Chichele Professor of the History of War, University of Oxford, 1953-77; former Chairman, Naval Education Advisory Committee; former Member, International Council of the Institute for Strategic Studies; Member of the Council, Royal United Service Institution; Research Associate, Center for International Studies, Princeton, USA, 1965-66; Visiting Professor, University of New Brunswick, 1975-76, the US Military Academy, West Point, 1978-79, and the National University of Singapore, 1982-84; US Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, 1979; Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 1977; died 1990.
Publications: The origins of Imperial defence (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1955); Makers of England (Oxford University Press, London, 1935); The British Cabinet system (Stevens & Sons, London, 1952); Grand strategy: rearmament policy (H.M.S.O, 1976).
No further information available at present.
Formed c 1972, in abeyance 1998. No further information available at present.
The Conservative Group for Homosexual Equality was a voluntary organisation founded in 1976 to lobby Conservative Party opinion in favour of gay rights and to provide a political balance within the gay movement. The group was revived in 1980, and a constitution drawn up and adopted on 28 March 1981, establishing an elected Executive Committee to oversee the running of the Group. CGHE was succeeded by TORCHE (Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality), which now has upwards of 400 members within the Conservative Party.
Edward John Routh was born in Canada to a British father and French-Canadian mother. He came to Britain aged 11 and was educated at University College School, University College London (where he studied mathematics under Augustus De Morgan) and Peterhouse, Cambridge, from which he graduated as senior wrangler in 1854. From 1855 to 1888 Routh worked successfully as a mathematics coach at Peterhouse and he wrote several mathematical books. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1872.
Benjamin Thompson was born in Massachusetts in 1753. He became interested in science when young. In 1772 he married Sarah Rolfe, a well-connected heiress, and became a landowner and a major in the New Hampshire militia. He fought for the British during the American Revolution and moved to London in 1776, where he continued to serve in the British army, spending much of his time in Bavaria and taking part in the French Revolutionary Wars. He carried out scientific work throughout his army career, concentrating particularly on thermodynamics and inventing several devices relating to heat retention. Thompson was knighted in 1784 and created Count Rumford in the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire in 1792. With Sir Joseph Banks he established the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1799, and he endowed a professorship at Harvard University. In later life Sir Benjamin settled in Paris. Sarah Thompson having died in 1792, he married Antoine Lavoisier's widow, Marie-Anne, as his second wife in 1804, but they separated a few years later. He continued his scientific work until his death in 1814.
Thomas Perronet Thompson was born in Kingston upon Hull in 1783. He was educated at Hull Grammar School and Queens' College Cambridge. He joined the navy in 1803, transferring to the army three years later and rising though the ranks of officers steadily to lieutenant-colonel by the time of his retirement from active service in 1829. After retiring he received several more promotions by brevet and was made a general the year before his death. Firmly opposed to slavery and exploitation, Thompson introduced extensive reforms whilst colonial governor of Sierra Leone (1808-1810). He was also interested in economics and politics, being active in the Anti-Corn Law League, writing several books, and serving as radical MP for Hull (1835-1837) and for Bradford (1847-1852, 1857-1859). He died in Blackheath, Kent in 1869.
Arthur Young was born in London and educated at Lavenham, Suffolk. After attempts at working in commerce and in publishing, he took up farming on the family estate as Bradfield Hall, Suffolk. He became a successful farmer on several properties, was appointed to the Board of Agriculture in 1793, and wrote several books on farming and agricultural methods. He also travelled widely and the published accounts of his journeys through Britain, Ireland and France contain much social and political observation.
Matthew Arnold was born in Middlesex in 1822. He was educated at Rugby School (where his father was headmaster) and Balliol College, Oxford. As a young man he published several books of poetry and was appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford. After the age of forty he wrote less poetry and turned to literary and cultural criticism; his most famous poem, Dover Beach was published in 1867 but was probably written some years earlier. From 1851 until 1886 he also worked as a school inspector.
Henry Peter Brougham was born and educated in Edinburgh and practised as a lawyer in Scotland and England. He served as Whig MP for Camelford (1810-1812), Winchelsea (1815-1830), Knaresborough (1830) and Yorkshire (1830) before receiving a peerage. He was Lord Chancellor from 1830-1834.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
John Russell was Whig MP for Tavistock from 1788 until 1802, when he succeeded his elder brother Francis as Duke of Bedford. He had little active interest in politics after becoing a peer, prefering botany and horticulture, but his country house at Woburn was fashionable among the political elite. He was married twice and had 13 children, among them Lord John Russell (1792-1878), afterwards 1st Earl Russell.
Robert Owen was born in Newtown, Wales in 1771. He was apprenticed to a draper in Stamford, Northamptonshire. In 1787 Owen moved to Manchester, where he set up a small cotton-spinning establishment, and also produced spinning mules for the textile industry. He became a manager for several large mills and factories in Manchester. In 1794 he formed the Chorlton Twist Company with several partners, and in the course of business met the Scots businessman David Dale. In 1799, Owen and his partners purchased Dale's mills in New Lanark, and Owen married Dale's daughter. At New Lanark, Owen began to act out his belief that individuals were formed by the effects of their environment by drastically improving the working conditions of the mill employees. This included preventing the employment of children and building schools and educational establishments. Owen set out his ideas for model communities in speeches and pamphlets, and attempted to spread his message by converting prominent members of British society. His detailed proposals were considered by Parliament in the framing of the Factories Act of 1819. Disillusioned with Britain, Owen purchased a settlement in Indiana in 1825, naming it New Harmony and attempting to create a society based upon his socialist ideas. Though several members of his family remained in America, the community had failed by 1828. Owen returned to England, and spent the remainder of his life and fortune helping various reform groups, most notably those attempting to form trade unions. He played a role in the establishment of the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union in 1834, and the Association of All Classes and All Nations in 1835. Owen died in 1858.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Sophia Elizabeth Frend was the eldest daughter of the nonconformist writer William Frend. She married the mathematician Augustus De Morgan in 1837 and they had 7 children, including the novelist and ceramicist William Frend De Morgan. Sophia collaborated with her husband on studies of psychical mediumship and wrote several books, including memoirs of her father and her husband.
Francis Albert Rollo Russell, 3rd son of Lord John Russell (afterwards Earl Russell), was born in Richmond, Surrey, and educated at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford. He worked for the foreign office for more than 15 years but was more interested in meteorology and environmental science, on which he wrote several books and pamphlets. He became a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society aged 19 and served twice as its president. The philosopher Bertrand Russell was his nephew.
William Warde Fowler was born in Somerset in 1847. He was educated at Marlborough College and at New and Lincoln Colleges, Oxford. He became a fellow of Lincoln College in 1872 and continued to work and teach there until his retirement in 1910, holding at various times the positions of dean, librarian and lay sub-rector. His central academic interest was Ancient Rome during the republican period, but he also wrote published works on such diverse subjects as Mozart and bird migration. Fowler was President of the Classical Association in 1920.
Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, and educated locally. From the age of 13 he worked unsuccesfully as a draper's assistant and chemist's assistant, before beoming a pupil teacher Midhurst Grammar School. In 1884 he began studying under Thomas Huxley at the Normal School (later the Royal College) of Science in South Kensington, but left without a degree; he finally gained a University of London BSc in 1890. Wells became a teacher and freelance journalist before branching out into novels and short stories. He was married twice and had several other ongoing liaisons with women, including the writer Rebecca West (afterwards Dame Cicily Andrews). Today he is best known for his science fiction works, including The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898); during his lifetime he was also known as a non-fiction writer and a committed socialist.
John Edward Masefield was born in Ledbury, Herefordshire in 1878. He entered the Merchant Navy and deserted ship in America, where he drifted for some time. Returning to England he became a journalist. He published several volumes of poetry before the outbreak of World War One. During the war Masefield was a member of the Red Cross and witnessed the disaster at Gallipoli, which he later wrote about in his position as head of the War Propaganda Bureau. During the 1920s and 1930s Masefield wrote numerous successful volumes of poetry, as well as two novels and an autobiography. Masefield continued to write until his death in 1967.
George Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, Scotland, in 1742. He received his education from the parish school at Fochabers and from King's College Aberdeen. He went on to study law in Edinburgh and then in 1773 put these skills into practice as a lawyer in Baltimore, USA in 1773. He returned in 1775 to settle in London, where he devoted his life to writing books about Ireland, affairs of America and the British monarchy. In 1786 he was appointed chief clerk of the committee of the Privy Council for trade and foreign plantations. Chalmers wrote numerous biographies and in 1807 his first volume of Caledonia, a work intended to record the history and antiquities of Scotland was published. Volumes 2 and 3 of Caledonia were published in 1820 and 1824 but Chalmers died, on 31 May 1825, before he could finish the series although he left a manuscript collection intended for its completion. Chalmers was a prolific writer on history throughout his life as well as a collector of books and manuscripts. His library was sold in three parts between September 1841 and November 1842, yielding £6189 in total. Publications: An Answer from the Electors of Bristol to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. on the affairs of America (T. Cadell, London, 1777); An Appeal to the Generosity of the British Nation, in a statement of facts on behalf of the afflicted widow and unoffending offspring of the unfortunate Mr. Bellingham (M. Jones, London, 1812); An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Britain during the Present and Four Preceding Reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution (C. Dilly and J. Bowen, London, 1782); An Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the Colonies (Baker and Galabin, London, 1782); Another Account of the Incidents, from which the title, and a part of the story of Shakspeare's Tempest, were derived; and the true era of it ascertained (R. & A. Taylor, London, 1815); Caledonia: or, an Account, historical and topographic, of North Britain; from the most ancient to the present times: with a dictionary of places, chorographical and philological (T. Cadell, London, 1807-24); Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain and Ireland; as it was, before the war; as it is, since the peace (T. Egerton, London, 1817); Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, Circulation and Exchanges; with a view to our present circumstances (J. J. Stockdale, London, 1811); Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, Fisheries, and Commerce, of Great Britain (Reed and Hunter, London, 1814); Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and Commercial Policy; arising from American independence (J. Debrett, London, 1784); Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, from their Settlement to the Peace of 1763 (J. Bowen, London, 1780); Proofs and Demonstrations, how much the projected Registry of Colonial Negroes is unfounded and uncalled for (Thomas Egerton: London, 1816); The Life of Daniel De Foe (John Stockdale, London, 1790); The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots; drawn from the State Papers(John Murray, London, 1818); The Life of Thomas Ruddiman (John Stockdale, London, 1794); Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland: being a collection of his pieces relative to that country, with historical notices, and a life of the author (Longman & Co, London, 1817); A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers (John Stockdale, London, 1790); Parliamentary Portraits (T. Bellamy, London, 1795); Facts and Observations relative to the coinage and circulation of counterfeit or base money; with suggestions for remedying the evil (London, 1795);The Arrangements with Ireland considered (John Stockdale, London, 1785); editor of The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay (Longman, London, 1806); An Apology for the believers in the Shakspeare Papers [forged by W. H. Ireland], which were exhibited in Norfolk Street (T. Egerton, London, 1797); A short view of the proposals lately made for the final adjustment of the commercial system between Great-Britain and Ireland (John Stockdale, London, 1785); A Vindication of the privilege of the people, in respect to the constitutional right of free discussion, with a retrospect to various proceedings relative to the violations of that right (London, 1796); Thoughts on the present Crisis of our Domestic Affairs (London, 1807).
John Fisher was born at Hampton, Middlesex, in 1748. He was educated in Peterborough and London before entering Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was ordained Deacon in the Church of England in 1771 and ordained Priest in 1773. He also became a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge in 1773. From 1781-1785 Fisher became Chaplain to King George III and took charge of educating some of the royal children for several years. He became a Canon at Windsor in 1786, Bishop of Exeter in 1803, and Bishop of Salisbury in 1807. In 1819 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. After his death in 1825, Fisher was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor.
Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad was born in Durham and educated at Balliol College, Oxford. He joined the Fabian Society whilst still a student. After graduating, he joined the civil service and worked for the Board of Trade for more than 15 years; during this time he wrote many articles and reviews, and several books on philosophy. In 1930 he left the Board of Trade to become head of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, a position he held for many years. Joad's personal life was unconventional: he left his wife after 6 years of marriage and subsequently had many short-term relationships. His left-wing political views, support for divorce, abortion and Sunday trading, and opposition to war and religion made him controversial during his lifetime, though many of his views changed during the last 5 years of his life. He became well known to the public as a regular panellist on the BBC radio programme The Brains Trust.
Gordon Bottomley was born in Yorkshire in 1874, and educated at Keighley Grammar School before becoming a bank clerk. Illness in his late teens forced him to give up work; subsequently spending long periods as an invalid, he took up writing. He was prolific and his theatrical works, including Gruach (1921), were often poetic and experimental.
William Henry Davies was born into a working class family in Monmouthshire, in 1871. He was brought up by his grandparents. He travelled in North America for several years as a young man, where his right leg was partly amputated after a railway accident. Subsequently, Davies lived and worked in London, writing poetry and several novels. His work was acclaimed by several of his leading contemporaries, including Arthur Symons and George Bernard Shaw; Shaw wrote the preface to Davies's autobiography.
John Yates was born in Bolton, in 1755. He became a Unitarian minister in Liverpool and was noted for his support of radical politics and opposition to slavery. He married Elizabeth Bostock, a doctor's widow, and they had eight children. His eldest son, Joseph Brooks Yates, became a well-known businessman and antiquary, and his fourth son, James Yates, followed him into the Unitarian ministry.
James Yates was born in Liverpool and educated at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and at Manchester College in York. Like his father, John Yates, he became a Unitarian minister (though unordained), working in Glasgow, Birmingham and London. He was also known as a scholar, active in diverse fields including geology, archaeology and classical philology.
Thomas Bernard was born in Lincolnshire in 1750. He was brought up partly in North America, where his father was colonial governor of Massachusetts, and educated at school in New Jersey and at Harvard University. Returning to England as a young man, he studied law at the Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1780. Bernard gained a fortune through his legal career and marriage to an heiress and devoted much of his life to philanthropy. He was a governor and treasurer of the London Foundling Hospital and much concerned with improving the conditions of child labourers. He was active in the debate over poor law reform and campaigned against the tax on salt. Much of his work was driven by his evangelical Christian beliefs. Bernard succeeded his brother to the baronetcy in 1810. After his death in 1818 he was buried beneath the Foundling Hospital chapel. His nephew, the Rev James Baker, was his biographer. The author Frances Elizabeth King was his sister.
Henry Peter Brougham was born and educated in Edinburgh and practised as a lawyer in Scotland and England. He served as Whig MP for Camelford (1810-1812), Winchelsea (1815-1830), Knaresborough (1830) and Yorkshire (1830) before receiving a peerage. He was Lord Chancellor from 1830-1834.
Charles Jenkinson (1727-1808) became private secretary to the 3rd Earl of Bute, favourite of George III, in 1760. In 1763, having been elected to Parliament, Jenkinson was appointed Joint Secretary of the Treasury. Chosen as Vice-Treasurer for Ireland in 1773, he became a member of the Privy Council. Later he was Master of the Royal Mint (1775-1778) and, during the American Revolution, Secretary at War (1778-1782). During the first ministry (from 1783) of the William Pitt the younger, Jenkinson proved an invaluable adviser. In 1786 he was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and president of the Board of Trade. A member of the Cabinet from 1791, he became an invalid around 1801, ceased to attend Cabinet meetings, and by the middle of 1804 had resigned all his offices. He was created Baron Hawkesbury in 1786 and 1st Earl of Liverpool in 1796.
Thomas Clarkson was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, in 1760. He was educated locally and in London before entering St John's College Cambridge. Whilst researching for an essay competition in 1785, he was appalled to discover the cruelty involved in the Atlantic slave trade and became an abolitionist. Along with his younger brother John, he researched and campaigned vigorously on behalf of the anti-slavery movement. After the Abolition Act was passed in 1807, he continued to campaign for its enforcement and for emancipation of those already enslaved (achieved in 1833). Brought up in the Church of England, Clarkson became close to many Quaker friends that he met through the anti-slavery movement but did not join the Society of Friends himself.
Silas Kitto Hocking was born in Cornwall in 1850, and educated locally. He was ordained as a minister in the United Methodist Free Church in 1870 and subsequently held pastorates in various parts of England and Wales. Hocking's first novel was published in 1878 and he subsequently wrote several other books for children and adults, the best known being Her Benny (1880). He resigned from the ministry in 1896 to concentrate on writing and Liberal politics. His younger brother, Joseph Hocking, was also a novelist and minister.
Wilfred Howell Whiteley was born in Liverpool, on 19 November 1924. He was educated at King Edward's High School, Birmingham, with the last two years at Lancaster Grammar School. His education was interrupted by a period of National Service, which took him to East Africa for a time. This lasted until the end of the War, when he became a student at the London School of Economics, graduating in Anthropology in 1949. He was appointed as Research Assistant at the International African Institute, but after a short time accepted the post of Government Anthropologist, Tanganyika. His duties took him mainly to the Southern province, where he became interested in the local Bantu languages. During this period, he was also in touch with the East African Institute of Social Research at Makerere, Uganda. When his contract as Government Anthropologist ended in 1952, he was appointed Research Fellow of the Institute, and continued in this post until 1958.
During his time in East Africa, Whiteley concentrated on linguistic research. After discussing his plans with Malcolm Guthrie at the School of Oriental and African Studies, he focused on the languages to the east of Lake Victoria in both Tanganyika and Kenya. He collected a great deal of material, which he used in his thesis, awarded by the University of London in 1955. He had also become competent in Swahili, and was asked to become the Secretary of the East African Swahili Committee, formed in 1930 at Kampala to co-ordinate work on Swahili throughout then British East Africa. Under his leadership, this committee played an important role in raising the status of Swahili at a time when many East African territories were gaining independence.
In 1959, the University of London established the Readership in Bantu Languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Whiteley was appointed as its first incumbent, focusing on teaching and research into Swahili. He also began his investigations into the Yao language, and was granted overseas research leave 1961-1962, which was spent partly in Nyasaland working on Yao, and partly in Kenya working on Kamba. From 1963 to May 1964, he was seconded to the University of Wisconsin as Visiting Professor. At this time, plans were finalised to establish a Department of African Languages and Linguistics at University College, Dar es Salaam, and Whiteley was seconded as Professor and Head of the Department, 1964-1967. He also became Director of the Institute of Swahili Research, which was established on his recommendation to take over the functions of the East Africa Swahili Committee. In 1965, the University of London conferred the title of Professor of Bantu Languages on him, and in 1967 he returned to SOAS. In 1968, he succeeded Malcolm Guthrie as Head of the Department of Africa. However, he was prevented from taking up the post until October 1969, because of his involvement in the Survey of Language Use and Language Planning in East Africa, under the auspices of the Ford Foundation. From 1968-1969, he was Director of the team dealing with the Kenya section of the survey. When Guthrie retired in 1970, Whiteley also succeeded him to the Chair of Bantu Languages.
Whiteley's main interest and field of work was socio-linguistics, but he also made significant contributions to the study of Swahili syntax. He died suddenly on 16 April 1972 at the age of 47, whilst on a lecture tour to Indiana University.
Around fifty of Whiteley's works have been published, including: Studies in Iraqw - an Introduction (Kampala, 1953); A Practical Introduction to Kamba (OUP, 1962); A Study of Yao Sentences (Clarendon Press, 1965); Some Problems of Transitivity in Swahili (SOAS, 1968). Articles include: 'Some problems in the syntax of a Bantu languages in East Africa', in Lingua, IX, 2 (1970); 'Notes on the syntax of the passive in Swahili', in African Language Studies, X (1970); 'Focus and entailment, further problems of transitivity in Swahili', in African Language Review, VIII (1969).
Archibald Norman Tucker was born in Cape Town on 10 March 1904. He was educated at South African College School. He obtained his MA from the University of Cape Town in 1926, his PhD from the University of London in 1929, and later also his DLit, in 1949.
He worked as Linguistic Expert of non-Arabic languages for the Sudan Government from 1929 to 1931. In 1932 he became Reader at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He was an active member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and a Conscientious Objector during World War II.
Much of his language work was concerned with orthographic research, which he undertook in both Uganda and Kenya (on Ganda and Kikuyu respectively). He organised and directed an orthography conference in Western Uganda in 1954, and, prior to that, in 1949-1951, he supervised a Bantu line expedition in the Belgian Congo for the International African Institute. Archibald Tucker was married. He died on 16 July 1980.
His publications include Suggestions for the Spelling of Transvaal Sesuto (1929); The Eastern Sudanic Languages, Vol. 1 (1940); Swahili Phonetics (1942); M. A. Bryan & A. N. Tucker, Distribution of the Nilotic ad Nilo-Hamitic Languages of Africa (1948); A Maasai Grammar with Vocabulary (1955); Linguistic Survey of the Northern Bantu Borderland, Vol. 4 (1957); A. N. Tucker & M. A. Bryan, Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa (1966); The Comparative Phonetics of the Suto-Chuana Group of Bantu Languages (1969); A Grammar of Kenya Luo (Dholuo) (1994); and Tribal Music and Dancing in the Southern Sudan (Africa), at Social and Ceremonial Gatherings.
Abraham Nahum Stencl (Avrom-Nokhem Shtentsl): born in Tsheladzh, in south-western Poland, 1897; arrived in Berlin, 1921; a leading Yiddish literary figure in Germany, he wrote expressionist poetry and associated with other literary figures including Else Lasker-Schüler (Schueler) and Thomas Mann; he was a pioneer of the modernist form in Yiddish poetry, but his themes and imagery drew on Jewish tradition; fled to Britain in the mid-1930s; following his arrival his best-known works were on Whitechapel, where he settled, and which he admired as the last Yiddish 'shtetl' (place); edited Loshn un Lebn (Language and Life), a Yiddish literary journal, for over 40 years; chaired the literarishe shábes-nokhmîtiks (literary Sunday afternoons) meetings; lived in Greatorex Road, off Whitechapel High Street; died, 1983. An annual lecture at the University of Oxford was founded in his name.
Henry Marion Durand was born in 1812. He went out to India in 1829, arriving in May 1830, as Second Lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers. He was involved in the Indian Mutiny of 1857, as Agent to the Governor General of central India 1857-1858. By 1870 Durand was Lieutenant General of the Punjab. His prestigious career was unfortunately ended on 1 January 1871, when he died following an accident when he fell from an elephant whilst entering the town of Tank, with the local Maharajah.
Henry Mortimer Durand was born in 1850. He was educated at Blackheath School, Eton House, Tonbridge and at the Bar, Lincoln's Inn. He entered the Indian Civil Service, arriving in India on 1 February 1873. Durand rose up through the ranks of the Indian Civil Service, and from 1884 to 1894 was Foreign Secretary to the Government of India. This was followed by a period of service as British Envoy, at the Court of the Shah of Persia. In 1900 Durand was appointed British Ambassador to Spain, a post which he held until 1903. In 1903 he became British Ambassador to the United States of America, but was recalled at the end of 1906. Durand stood as Conservative and Unionist candidate in the election of 1910 for Plymouth, with Waldorf Astor, but failed. In addition to his work as a civil servant and diplomat, Durand wrote a number of novels and other works, including a biography of his father. Durand married Ella, daughter of Teignmouth Sandys, in 1875. They had two children, a son and daughter, Amy Josephine (Jo). Josephine accompanied her father on many official duties owing to her mother's ill health. Lady Durand died in May 1913, aged 60. Sir Henry Mortimer Durand died in 1924.
James Trenchard Hardyman was born in Madagascar in 1918. He was the son of Arnold Victor Hardyman and Laura Hardyman (née Stubbs), who both worked as missionaries in Madagascar with the London Missionary Society from 1916-1938 and 1944-1950. As a child, James was sent to England to be educated under the guardianship of the Rev. and Mrs J. H. Haile. He became a missionary with the London Missionary Society in 1945. In the same year he married Marjorie Tucker.
From 1946-1974 they lived in Imerimandroso, Madagascar. In addition to his missionary work within the Antsihanaka area Hardyman became the Principal of the Imerimandroso College, training Malagasy pastors. Following his return to England, Hardyman worked as Honorary Archivist of the Council for World Mission at Livingstone House (1974-1991) and for the Conference of British Missionary Societies (1976-1988). In this capacity he oversaw the deposit of both archives at the School of Oriental and African Studies. From 1974-1983 he also worked for the Overseas Book Service of Feed the Minds.
At the age of eleven, Hardyman was given a second-hand copy of a book on Madagascar by Haile. The book, published anonymously in the 1840s, began his collection of published and unpublished material relating to Madagascar, which was to become the largest personal collection on Madagascar in existence. Hardyman used much of the material in his thesis, for which St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, awarded him a B.D. in 1952. He continued to collect information on the subject throughout his life. James Trenchard Hardyman died on 1 October 1995.
D W Arnott was Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Publications include: The nominal and verbal systems of Fula (1970); supplementary bibliography in Diedrich Hermann Westermann and Margaret Arminel Bryan's The languages of West Africa (1970).
The Restatement of African Law Project was a research initiative based at the Department of Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), active from the 1950s to the 1970s. Dr Antony N Allott (1924-2002), successively Lecturer, 1948, Reader, 1960, Professor, 1964, and Emeritus Professor, 1987, of African Law at SOAS, was involved in the project and edited the resulting series of publications (published by Sweet and Maxwell from 1968).
Towards the end of 1857 representatives of four British missionary societies working in India - the Baptist Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society, the London Missionary Society and the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society - put forward proposals for a new society, to be named the Christian Vernacular Education Society for India. The proposers did not, according to its First Annual Report, intend the new society to compete with 'existing educational establishments which employ the English language and literature and which are chiefly attractive to the higher classes of Hindu youth ... but rather to reach the village populations, and the masses of the lower orders in towns throughout the country, exclusively through the vernacular of each district'. The new society was formally instituted in May 1858 as a memorial to the Indian Mutiny. John Murdoch was appointed 'Representative and Travelling Secretary in India'. In 1891 the name of the Society was changed to the Christian Literature Society for India and in 1923 the words 'and Africa' were added when the Society extended its work to that continent. The organisation merged with the Religious Tract Society in 1935 to form the United Society for Christian Literature (USCL) For further information see G Hewitt, Let the People Read (London, 1949).