Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett was born in Brooklyn in 1849, of American parents. He was educated at Torquay and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with 1st class honours in Law and Modern History in 1872 and was President of the Union, defeating H.H. Asquith in a famous contest. He was an examiner of the Education Department, 1874-80. He was called to the bar in 1877. In the same year he founded the Patriotic Association, which aimed to counter pro-Russian feeling in the country. His obituary in the Times (20 Jan 1902) reported that he was a fine orator and attracted large crowds - for a time his popularity "with provincial audiences" was second only to that of Lord Randolph Churchill - though his style was not so suited to the House of Commons, where he was often regarded as an eccentric figure. He was MP (Con) for Suffolk (Eye) - a seat in the gift of Lord Beaconsfield - from 1880 to 1885, and for Ecclesall Division, Sheffield, from 1885 until his death in 1902. He was Civil Lord of the Admiralty in Lord Salisbury's governments in 1885-86 and 1886-1892 and was knighted in 1892.
Throughout Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett's political career his main theme was Britain's imperial role; he believed that Turkey's security was crucial to the Empire and was well known as a supporter of Turkish interests. Another long-term concern was that Swaziland should become a British, rather than Boer, territory. In 1880 he began to publish a weekly newspaper, England, which lasted until 1898 but was never very successful - its demise led to bankruptcy proceedings that were only settled in 1901. In April-May 1897 he travelled to Greece and Turkey with his son (see below) as a guest of the Sultan; he observed events in the Graeco-Turkish War, and described them in The Battlefields of Thessaly (1897).
Who Was Who 1897-1915 (London, 1935) records that he served in the South African war in 1900, but it was his son who served there in the Bedfordshire Regiment, though Sir Ellis was at one time a Lieutenant in the West Yorkshire Regiment, a militia unit. He did, however, visit South Africa and Swaziland (where he had been negotiating with rulers) in 1900-01, meeting his son by chance in Bloemfontein's main street (A/2/1/71). He died on 18 January 1902.
Publications: Shall England keep India? (W. H. Allen & Co.: London, 1886); Union or Separation ... Also an Analysis of Mr. Gladstone's "Home Rule" Bill (7ed., National Union: London, 1893); British, Natives & Boers in the Transvaal ... The appeal of the Swazi people (McCorquodale & Co.: London, 1894); The Transvaal Crisis. The case for the British-Uitlander-residents in the Transvaal (3ed., Patriotic Association: London, 1896); The Battlefields of Thessaly. With personal experiences in Turkey and Greece, etc. (John Murray: London, 1897).
Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett was the eldest son of Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett (1849-1902). Born in 1881, he was educated at Marlborough College. In 1897, at the age of 17, he accompanied his father to Turkey as the guest of the Sultan and followed the Turkish army in its campaign against the Greeks. At one point the party was arrested by the Greeks as spies. Ashmead-Bartlett had begun studying to become a barrister when he left with his regiment for the South African War in February 1900. At the end of May he was taken ill, sent home and spent 7 months in hospital. By early in 1901 he was in Marseilles and Monte Carlo, supposedly for recuperation (A/3), and in May 1901 he returned to London to stay with his uncle and aunt, the Burdett-Coutts, and continued his legal studies.
It was not until 1904 that he began his career as a war correspondent by covering the siege of the Russian port of Port Arthur by the Japanese, entering the city with the victors. His account, Port Arthur: the siege and capitulation (London 1906) was well received. For the next few years he mixed a full social life in London and the country and in Paris (as described in his diaries) with periods as a war correspondent and writer and a developing political career. As Reuters' special correspondent he accompanied the French army in Morocco (1907-08), the Spanish in Morocco (1909) and the Italians in Tripoli (1911). At home he fought the safe Labour seat of Normanton in Yorkshire for the Conservatives in January 1910 and the Liberal seat of Poplar in December 1910. He was then employed by the Daily Telegraph to be its correspondent in the Balkans and he covered the two Balkan wars of 1912-1913.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 Ashmead-Bartlett returned from Bucharest to volunteer for his old regiment, but was turned down for medical reasons. He was selected by the National Press Association (Lord Burnham, proprietor of the Daily Telegraph, was the chairman) as the London Press representative on the Dardanelles Campaign, which began in March 1915. He was soon critical of the conduct of the campaign by the Allied commander Sir Ian Hamilton and the General Staff. Returning to London in June 1915 (having survived the sinking of the 'Majestic' on 26 May) he discussed the campaign with senior ministers and politicians (Asquith, Balfour, Carson, Bonar Law, Churchill, Kitchener) and presented a memorandum on the subject to the cabinet.
Ashmead-Bartlett returned to the Dardanelles at the end of June, his equipment now including a movie camera which he used to make the only moving pictures of the campaign. Further disastrous landings and assaults in August and, in his view, the continued mismanagement of the campaign led him to make another attempt to influence the government, by sending a letter to the Prime Minister with Australian correspondent Keith Murdoch. Though the letter was seized by the military authorities, Murdoch wrote another version from memory, and this was delivered to Asquith via the Australian PM Fisher. Ashmead-Bartlett was dismissed as a war correspondent in the Dardanelles on 30 September 1915 (he had already unsuccessfully applied to the NPA to be relieved).
Exactly how much effect his interventions had will probably remain unclear, but Ashmead-Bartlett might have been partly responsible for the withdrawal from Gallipoli in 1915 and the subsequent resignation of Churchill. The issue of Ashmead-Bartlett's role in the campaign continued to be raised well after it ended. He was invited to give evidence to the Dardanelles Commission in 1917 and the publication of his books, Ashmead Bartlett's Despatches from the Dardanelles (1916) and The Uncensored Dardanelles (1928), and those of Sir Ian Hamilton and others usually caused a flurry of articles and letters in the press. Even in 1933, after his death, his family were prompted to defend him in the Daily Telegraph following more allegations from Hamilton (E/30). (For an account of his involvement in the Dardanelles campaign and its aftermath, see K. Fewster, 'Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett and the Making of the Anzac Legend' in Journal of Australian Studies No.10, June 1982, pp.17-30)
Ashmead-Bartlett claimed that the War Office persecuted him after his dismissal and in 1916 attempted to prevent him delivering a series of lectures on the Dardanelles campaign in England, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Certainly he was never permitted to accompany British or Dominion troops again, and on his return to Britain he worked for the Daily Telegraph as one of the British Press group attached to the French Army at the headquarters of Marshal Joffre. In 1918 he sought a post as a correspondent with the American Army in France, but was rejected, apparently as a result of War Office objections.
In 1919 Ashmead-Bartlett was again employed by the Daily Telegraph, reporting on events in Central Europe. He spent several months in Austria, Poland, Romania and Hungary, and was horrified by the threat of Bolshevism in the region. In Budapest he became directly involved in political intrigue during the Hungarian revolution, working with an anti-Bolshevik faction and lobbying British ministers on their behalf.
Despite being based in Paris he re-entered British politics and was narrowly defeated by the Labour candidate in North Hammersmith in 1923, but won the seat in 1924. As an MP his main concern was foreign policy. In 1926 he was obliged to resign his seat because of bankruptcy. He returned to work as a special correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, reporting on, inter alia, the civil war in China in 1927, Soviet Russia in 1928, Palestine in 1929, and India in 1930. At the same time he continued to publish books based on his newspaper writings.
He became ill while covering the Spanish Revolution and died at Lisbon on 4 May 1931.
Publications: Port Arthur: the siege and capitulation (W. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh & London, 1906); The Immortals and the Channel Tunnel. A discussion in Valhalla (W. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh & London, 1907); Richard Langhorne. The romance of a Socialist (W. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh & London, 1908); The Passing of the Shereefian Empire (W. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh & London, 1910); in collaboration with Seabury Ashmead-Bartlett, With the Turks in Thrace (William Heinemann: London, 1913); Ashmead Bartlett's Despatches from the Dardanelles (George Newnes: London, 1916); Some of my Experiences in the Great War (George Newnes: London, 1918); The Tragedy of Central Europe (Thornton Butterworth: London, 1923); The Uncensored Dardanelles (Hutchinson & Co.: London, 1928); The Riddle of Russia (Cassell & Co.: London, 1929).
Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett's younger brother and Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett's uncle was Rt. Hon. William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett Burdett-Coutts (1851-1921). He married Angela, Baroness Burdett-Coutts (1823-1906), and assumed her surname. He was also an MP (Con, Westminster, 1885-1921).
The Committee was set up in December 1961, to advise the Secretary for Technical Co-operation on the training facilities in public administration and related subjects provided in the UK for government servants and other public employees from overseas, and the arrangements for assistance from the UK in building up local facilities in this field; and report on their adequacy for present and forseeable future demand. It met several times over the next year, receiving written and oral evidence from numerous parties, and reported back at the end of 1962.
St Kitts-Nevis comprises the islands of St Kitts or St Christopher, in 1623 the first West Indian island to be settled by the British, and Nevis which was colonised in 1628. The two islands, together with Anguilla were united in 1882, and became an independent state in association with the United Kingdom in 1967. There were objections by Anguilla to the administration, which it considered to be dominated by St Kitts, and independence was declared by Anguilla later that year. Negotiations to resolve the dispute failed, and after being placed directly under British control in 1971, Anguilla was granted its own constitution in 1975 and union with St Kitts and Nevis formally severed in 1980.
There was a Constitutional Conference in London in 1982 to discuss the independence of St Kitts and Nevis. Despite disagreements over special provisions for Nevis in the proposed constitution, the independence process continued and was formally achieved on 19 September 1983. The objections came principally from the Labour Opposition, which until recently had dominated the administration and was still the largest party. Since 1980, however, the Government had consisted of a coalition of the People's Action Movement and Nevis's Reform Party, which held the balance of power and which the Opposition felt was instrumental in achieving Nevis's strong position in the new constitution.
This small and disparate collections of material reflects more on the absence of powerful pressure groups from the Barbadian political scene than on the importance of the issues, such as the value of the work ethic, which are being espoused.
The majority of the materials held here relate to the 1974 coup in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish military intervention. Both Greek and Turkish Cypriot expatriate groups are represented, and there is also older material arguing for an independent Cyprus.
Although democracy in India soon brought forth a huge range of political parties Western-style pressure groups were slower to emerge. Those groups featured here are concerned with the predominant issues of the 1970s: the growth of communalism, India's foreign policy and the social and political crisis which culminated in the 1975 state of emergency.
The materials held here reflect the growth in New Zealand in the 1970s and 1980s of pressure and interest groups, for whom the major issues were the rights of women and the Maori people, apartheid and nuclear weapons. These last two constitute the majority of the materials in this collection, with the anti-apartheid movement coalescing (to form HART : The New Zealand anti-apartheid movement) over the issue of South African sporting links and producing country-wide demonstrations and disorder during the 1981 Springbok tour. The strength of anti-nuclear feeling led to the nuclear weapon-free-zone movement in which various areas (soon constituting a majority of the country) declared themselves to be such zones, and contributed strongly to New Zealand's de facto expulsion from the ANZUS alliance in 1985 after the refusal by the Labour government to allow entry to the USS Buchanan when the United States refused to confirm that the vessel was free of nuclear weapons. Other less prominent groups include those representing the interests of farmers and civil rights organisations protesting against the alleged erosion of those rights under the Muldoon National government (1975-1984).
The bulk of this collection dates from the period in the history of Namibia (formerly South West Africa) after 1977 when the UN, the Western Contact Group (including France, West Germany, Canda, the United States and Great Britain) and the front-line states increasingly sought to bring about a resolution to the ongoing struggle between SWAPO and apartheid South Africa's armed forces in the country. Thus the materials can be roughly divided into those emanating from groups representing the German-speaking minority, such as the Interessengemeinschaft Deutschsprachiger Südwester (IG), and those campaigning on behalf of organisations opposed to South African rule, like the Namibia Support Committee and the SWAPO Women's Solidarity Campaign. Both sought to interpret and influence the discussions as they progressed. Some of the items are particularly interesting for the connections drawn between uranium mining in Namibia and the 1984 miners' strike in Great Britain.
The pressure group materials held here vary from labour market analyses produced by the Caribbean Employers' Federation to broad critiques of Trinidad and Tobago's political and economic system from a variety of groups, including the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) and the New Beginning Movement (NBM). The majority of the materials date from the 1970s and 1980s, the period in which the ruling People's National Movement increasingly lost credibility with civil society.
The materials held here mainly originate from groups opposed to the regime of Idi Amin, based both in Uganda and abroad. They include the National Resistance Movement (NRA), which later went on to take power in 1986 following the failure of Obote's Uganda People's Congress (UPC) to improve the economic and human rights situation in the country.
Despite attempts to reconstitute the administration of the colony and its surrounding protectorate as the Federation of South Arabia, direct British control required an increasingly large army presence in the face of national armed movements and in 1967 Aden was abandoned to the forces of the National Liberation Front. The materials here date from the mid-1960s and relate the trade union-based PSP's conflicts with the British authorities and contacts with left-leaning supporters in Britain itself.
In the course of the 1960s three major guerrilla organisations emerged in opposition to Portuguese rule over Angola. The MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) had its headquarters in Zambia and was Marxist in outlook whilst the FNLA (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola) was based in the Congo. The other group, founded in 1966 under the leadership of Jonas Savimbi, was UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola). Materials from all of these parties are held here, relating primarily to their roles in the liberation struggle (before the 1974 coup in Portugal hastened its departure from its colonies), but also dealing with their part in the civil wars and repeated foreign interventions which have subsequently dogged Angola.
Though Antigua and Barbuda had to wait until 1981 for full independence within the Commonwealth there had been a multi-party political system since the islands were given associated statehood status in 1967. Prior to this politics had been dominated by the Antigua Trades and Labour Union and its political offspring, the Antigua Labour Party, but a multi-party system now emerged with groups such as the Antigua People's Party and the Progressive Labour Movement splitting off from the ALP. Despite this the latter has only once been out of power, and with Lester Bird succeeding his father Vere Cornwall as prime minister there has also been a dynastic element to Antigua's governance. The effect that these two factors have had on Antigua's democracy and the various attempts to create a viable alternative party are the major themes of the materials in this collection.
In 1901 the previously self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania came together to form the Commonwealth of Australia, and the struggle for authority between these states (and the later admitted Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory) and the federal centre has remained an issue ever since. Other issues that have dominated the post-war political scene include debates over republicanism, the perennial emergence of third party forces to challenge the hegemony of the ALP and the Liberal-National Party coalition and the fear of the other, most often evoked by immigration but also by the perceived threat of communism pre-1989. Possibly the most controversial episode of the recent political past was the 1975 Whitlam dismissal crisis, which provoked still unresolved arguments over the constitution and the relationship between the House of Representatives and the Senate. All of these issues are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials here held.
From the 1950s political power in the Bahamas had been contested between the white dominated United Bahamian Party and the Progressive Liberal Party, which represented the interests of the emerging black middle class. The latter gained control of government in 1967 and guided the country to independence by 1973. Critics alleged that the transfer of political power had made little difference to the lives of ordinary Bahamians, and that governments continued to prioritise foreign capital investment and the promotion of the Bahamas as a tax haven to the detriment of spending on social welfare or any attempt at wealth redistribution. Furthermore, by the time long-term PLP leader Lynden O. Pindling was defeated at the polls in 1992 he was facing charges of corruption and of supporting drug trafficking. The items here deal with all these inter-related issues, with the bulk of the material devoted to the pre-independence elections of the 1960s during which the transition to black-led governments occurred.
The Bermuda Islands are a British overseas territory with internal self-government, universal suffrage having been introduced in 1968. Prior to 1998 power resided with the United Bermuda Party (UBP), traditionally the more conservative of the two main parties and therefore the one more likely to attract white support. Although the Progressive Labour Party now in government had been enthusiastically pro-independence there has been no referendum since 1995, when the idea was rejected. The relationship with Britain and arguments between the parties over economic competence in these generally prosperous islands are the main subjects discussed here.
Fiji became independent in October 1970, adopting a constitution which in practice involved a compromise between the principles of parliamentary democracy and the racial divisions within the country. This constitution (which guaranteed the minority Fijian population a majority of seats) kept the Alliance Party in power for seventeen years, until the Indian-dominated National Federation Party joined in coalition with the new Labour Party and won the 1987 elections. An army coup followed which restored control to the leaders of the indigenous population and set the tone for politics up to the present day, with the native Fijians attempting through constitutional changes and further coups to prevent the assertion of majority rule. The material in this collection deals mainly with the electoral struggles prior to 1987, the main issues being race, the constitution and the labour movement.
The political history of Gibraltar in the period covered by these materials has been defined by the three-way relationship between Britain, Spain and the actual inhabitants of the Rock. While Spain has continued to claim sovereignty over Gibraltar (closing the land frontier between 1969 and 1985 and continuing to refuse to recognise the colony as part of the European Union) a more ambiguous position has been taken by successive British governments. The 1967 referendum saw 95% of Gibraltarians opt to remain under British rule, and led to the 1969 constitution which guaranteed Gibraltar would not be handed to another state against the wishes of its inhabitants. Yet the British military presence has gradually been reduced, with concomitant economic consequences, and the mother country has been seen to be reluctant to confront Spain on behalf of the colony. Thus while the discourses in the materials held here are resolutely anti-Spanish, they reveal autonomist as well as pro-British leanings.
Jamaican politics, like those of many nations in the region emerging from British rule, has been dominated by parties with close trade union links. The founder of the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) gave his name to its main affiliated union, the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), while its leading rival, the People's National Party (PNP), is supported by the National Workers' Union (NWU). The JLP won the first elections conducted under full universal adult suffrage in 1944 and later the 1962 elections to determine which party would lead Jamaica to independence (following four years in which the country was part of the Federation of the West Indies). In 1972 the PNP's Michael Manley (son of the party's founder Norman Manley) was elected on a programme of social reform whose attempted implementation led to conflict with vested interests on the island (now increasingly represented by the JLP and Edward Seaga) and with the United States. The PLP won the following elections but were defeated at the polls in 1980, both campaigns being marked by violence between the supporters of the two parties. Following a decade of JLP rule Manley and the PLP, having essentially abandoned their previous political stance, returned to power in 1989 and have remained the governing party since.
The materials predating independence from Portugal in 1975 include reports detailing the progress of the conflict, appeals for international solidarity and letters and statements relating to the intercine disputes within the movement. Later items include reports from party congresses and legislative documents issued jointly by party and state. Also contained here are materials critical of FRELIMO issued by other Mozambican anti-colonialist movements.
Pakistan gained its independence in 1947 and its political system has since been characterised by instability and frequent reversions to military rule (from 1958-1970, 1977-1988 and 1999 onwards). The political parties covered here include the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), which provided the country's early leaders and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of Zulfikar Ali and Benazir Bhutto. The failure of the latter party to form a coalition government with the Awami League of East Pakistan after the 1970 elections led to civil war and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, but also to the resignation of the military's Yahya Khan and the promotion of Zulfikar Ali to president, the country's first non-military chielf martial law administrator, but following the 1977 elections he was deposed by General Zia and executed. In the 1990s both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif (of the PML) were removed from the prime ministership, though they did not face the same draconian fate. The majority of the materials held here orgininate from the 1950s and 1960s, during the first period of democratic government and reflecting the protests against the imposition of military rule, but there are also items dating from before partition and later materials concerned with the dispute with India over Kashmir.
In 1946 Papua and New Guinea were combined to form the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, administered by Australia under the aegis of the United Nations. The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of political parties such as the All People's Party (APP) and gradual moves towards increasing self-government, a trend hastened in 1972 by the election of the pro-independence Michael Somare of the Papua New Guinea United Party (Pangu). He presided over independence in 1975 and won the first elections after this in 1977.
Tanganiyika became independent in 1961, with Julius K. Nyerere as first its Prime Minister and then its President. In 1964 it merged with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, soon renamed the United Republic of Tanzania. Nyerere dominated Tanzanian politics until stepping down in 1985, turning the country first into a two-party state (led by his Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Afro-Shirazi Party of Zanzibar) and in 1977 into a one-party one through the combination of these two to form Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
The British Virgin Islands were granted a limited form of self-government in 1967, and following the extension of these rights with the introduction of a new constitution in 1977 the British-appointed governor is now responsible for little more than security and the administration of the courts. Its political history has generally been short of controversy, with the two main parties (the United Party and the Virgin Islands Party) alternating in power with the support of a variety of independent candidates until the emergence of the National Democratic Party which eventually took power in 2003. The material here mainly dates from the 1986 election and reflects the significant role of the independent candidates and the genteel electioneering atmosphere.
The 1950s and 1960s saw an expansion in union power and membership as the high demand for labour in a growing economy strengthened its representatives' bargaining power. At the same time the merger of the Canadian Congress of Labour and the Trades and Labor Congress, which formed the Canadian Labor Congress, both allowed labour to present a more united front and facilitated the setting up in 1961 of the New Democratic Party, a political party intended at least in part to represent union interests. Yet by the 1970s and 1980s the movement found itself on the back foot, as the Trudeau wage controls and later demands for a more flexible workforce and the loss of manufacturing jobs contributed to the erosion of hard-won rights. The materials here, mainly from union confederations, deal with their internal and external responses to the changing conditions described above.
Part of the British Windward Islands Federation until 1958, Grenada then joined the West Indies (Federation) and when that dissolved in 1962 was made part of a further federation comprising Great Britain's remaining East Caribbean dependencies. After achieving "associated statehood" in 1967 it finally became independent in 1974, with Eric Gairy of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) becoming the country's first Prime Minister. The emergence in the 1970s of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) posed a challenge to Gairy that was met by an increasingly authoritarian approach. The NJM took power in a 1979 coup and established a people's revolutionary government (PRG) with Maurice Bishop at its head, but differences between Bishop and the more radical wing of the government led by Bernard Coard led to the death of the revolutionary leader in an armed fracas and the subsequent invasion of the island by the United States. Elections following the invasion saw the return of the New National Party (NNP), and this party or offshoots of it have governed the country ever since. The materials held here all date from the period prior to independence and include constitutions produced in the 1950s during a period of expansion for the Grenadian trade union movement as well as later bulletins produced by both blue and white collar unions. Interestingly these latter publications concentrate on the industrial rather than the political sphere, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that by this time Eric Gairy's union-based GULP party was in office.
All the materials held here were produced by the Ghana Trades Union Congress, and are concerned both with internal administrative matters and with the union reaction first to one-party rule and then to government by the military.
The majority of the materials currently held in this collection originate from the Singapore National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), a union federation loyal to the state and geared more towards guaranteeing productivity than fighting for worker's rights. A large part of their output here comprises reports on tripartite meetings with government and employers, as well as pamphlets designed to inform their membership of relevant legislation or of changes in economic policy.
Christmas Island came under British rule in 1888 following the discovery of phosphate, and was administered as part of the Colony of Singapore until 1958, when it was first made a seperate colony and then transferred to Australian sovereignty. Throughout this period and thereafter phosphate mining dominated the island, and the Union Of Christmas Island Workers was created in 1975 to protect the interests of those working in the industry. The materials here document the birth of the union as well as its grievances with the Australian government, most notably with regard to wage policies which the UCIW saw as discriminating against non-European workers.
Born in Gloucester, 1909; educated at the Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester, 1920-1928; graduated from St John's College Cambridge with a first class degree in both parts of the Natural Science Tripos (Part ll Biochemistry); began postgraduate research in the Biochemistry Department at Cambridge, receiving his PhD for 'Some comparative studies on phosphagen', 1934; principal research interest was comparative biochemistry; Fellow of St John's College Cambridge, 1936-1941; worked under Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins as Demonstrator in Biochemistry, 1936-1943; also worked for periods at marine biological stations in France and at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Plymouth, in the 1930s; undertook a series of investigations of the pharmacology and physiology of Ascaris lumbricoides, 1940-1949; Lecturer in the Biochemistry Department at Cambridge, 1943-1950; Senior Fellow of the Lalor Foundation, USA, carrying out research into the phosphagen of the invertebrates at the Marine Biological Laboratories at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 1948; as Joint Honorary Secretary and member of the Congress and Executive Committees, active in the organisation of the First International Congress of Biochemistry, in Cambridge, 1949; Professor of Biochemistry at University College London (UCL), 1950-1969; his reputation as an educator was one of the principal reasons for his appointment; established the first undergraduate biochemistry course at the College and orientated the biochemistry department as a branch of biological rather than chemical science; awarded the Cortina Ulisse Prize for the Italian edition of Dynamic Aspects of Biochemistry, 1952; after his move to UCL, his principal research interests were the comparative biochemistry of nitrogen metabolism and water shortage effects on the ureotelic metabolism; carried out research on ureogenesis in elasmobranch fishes during a period as Visiting Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, University of California, 1956-1957; author of several influential books on biochemistry; died, 1969. Publications include: An Introduction to Comparative Biochemistry (1937); Dynamic Aspects of Biochemistry (1947); The Nature of Biochemistry (1962).
This company was the last of the great Argentine railway companies to be liquidated.
Members of the Brougham family of Brougham, Westmorland, included Henry, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868), who served as Lord Chancellor, 1830-1834; James (1780-1833); John Waugh (1785-1829); and William, 2nd Baron Brougham and Vaux (1795-1886).
Colombia's mineral resources include coal, iron, and other metals.
Davis was born on 30 April 1915. He was educated at the London School of Economics, 1946-1950. He then became a Lecturer and Reader in Economic History at the University of Hull, 1950-1954. He became Professor of Economic History at the University of Leicester in 1964, and in 1976 he was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor there. Davis was a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum from 1968 to 1975. He published articles and books, mainly on trade and the shipping industry. Davis died on 30 September 1978.
Peter Davison was editor of The Complete Works of George Orwell and Professor and Senior Research Fellow in English and Media, De Montfort University, Leicester. Davison was originally commissioned in 1981 to produce corrected versions of Orwell's nine separate books. He also edited the Facsimile of the Manuscript of Nineteen Eighty-Four and was commissioned in 1982 to produce a collected edition of Orwell's shorter writing which developed into the production of The Complete Works. He was President of the Bibliographical Society, 1992-1994, whose journal, The Library, he edited for 12 years. He was also a Shakespeare expert on whose plays he published a number of works.
Publications:
The Complete Works of George Orwell editor
Songs of the British Music Hall: A Critical Study
Popular Appeal in English Drama to 1850
Contemporary Drama and the Popular Dramatic Tradition
Hamlet: Text and Performance
Henry V: Masterguide
Othello: The Critical Debate
George Orwell: A Literary Life
Unknown.
Born, 9 April 1906; educated, Winchester and New College Oxford, First Class Hons Philosophy, Politics and Economics, 1927; Workers' Educational Association lecturer, 1927; Assistant, Department of Political Economy, University College London, 1928; joined 1917 Club, 1929; founded Tots & Quots, a left-wing discussion group, 1930; Assistant Honorary Secretary and Chairman of the Economics Section of the New Fabian Research Bureau, 1931; awarded Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship and spent next academic year studying in Vienna, Austria, 1933; Secretary, XYZ Club, 1934; stood as a Labour Party candidate in Chatham, Kent, in General Election, defeated by Conservative, 1935; adopted as prospective candidate for Leeds South, 1937; promoted to Readership at University College London, 1937; co-opted onto National Executive Committee, Finance and Trade Sub-committee, 1937; joined war-time Civil Service at newly founded Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1939; Principal Private Secretary to Hugh Dalton, Minister of Economic Warfare, 1940-1942; Principal Assistant Secretary to Dalton at Board of Trade, 1942-1945; elected as member for Leeds South, General Election, 1945-1963; Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1946-1947; Minister of Fuel and Power, 1947-1950; Minister of State for Economic Affairs, 1950; Chancellor of Exchequer, 1950-1951; Treasurer of Labour Party, 1954-1956; Leader of Labour Party, 1955-1963; Vice-Chairman, Labour Party Executive Committee, 1962; died, 18 January 1963. Publications: Chartism (Longmans & Co, London, 1929); Money and everyday life (Labour Book Service, London, 1939); In defence of politics (London, 1954); The high cost of Toryism (Labour Party, London, 1955); Recent developments in British Socialist thinking (Co-operative Union, London, 1956); The challenge of co-existence (Methuen & Co, London, 1957); Britain and the common market (Labour Party, London, 1962); various articles written for publications such as New York Times Magazine, Reynolds News, The Birmingham Post, Leeds Weekly Citizen, The Observer, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Social Commentary and New Statesman and Nation.
Born in Bucharest, eldest son of Abraham Emanuel Gaster, who was attached to the Netherlands legation in Bucharest, and his wife Phina Judith Rubinstein, 1856; Bachelier dès lettres et sciences, University of Bucharest, 1873; PhD, Leipzig, 1877; returned to Rumania, 1880; Rabbinical Diploma, Theological Seminary, Breslau, 1881; lecturer on Rumanian language and literature and comparative mythology, University of Bucharest, 1881-1885; a versatile scholar, his publications included the first translation of the Jewish liturgy into Rumanian, 1883, and his seminal work on the study of Rumanian language and literature ('Chrestomatie Românk'), 1891; his agitation on behalf of persecuted Jews in Rumania led the government to expel him, and Gaster became domiciled in England; Ilchester Lecturer on Slavonic and Byzantine literature at Oxford, 1886, 1891; appointed Chief Rabbi (Haham) of the Sephardic community in England, 1887; married Leah Lucy, only child of Dr Michael Friedlander (d 1910; Principal of Jews' College, London, 1865-1907), 1890; chosen Principal of the Judith Lady Montefiore College at Ramsgate, 1890; naturalized, 1893; a prominent member of Anglo-Jewry and active in many of its principal institutions; serious differences of opinion over the management of the College at Ramsgate led him to resign as Principal, 1896; for a time after his arrival in England he continued to support the Choveve Zion movement in which he had been active in Rumania, but later supported Theodor Herzl's Zionist movement, and was a founder and President of the English Zionist Federation and Vice-President of Zionist congresses in Basel and London, 1898-1900; his house was the venue for talks between prominent Zionists and the Foreign Office before the issue of the Balfour declaration, 1917; failing eyesight compelled him to retire his rabbinate, 1919; honorary member of the Rumanian Academy, 1929; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 1930; Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society, Anglo-Jewish Association, and Jewish Historical Society of England; Vice-President and President of the English Folk Lore Society; holder of Rumanian Orders "Bene merenti" 1st class, for literary achievements, and Commander of Rumanian Crown; an outspoken leader in public causes, often involved in controversy, and an arresting orator; as an eminent Jewish linguist, literary historian, folklorist, and pioneer of the study of Rumanian literature, accumulated a large library of printed and manuscript material in his fields of interest, namely Hebraica and Judaica, Samaritana, and Rumanian and related studies; died, 1939. Publications include: 'Literatura Populara Romana' (1883), on Rumanian popular literature; 'Ilchester Lectures on Greeko-Slavonic literature' (1887); 'Chrestomatie Românk' (2 volumes, 1891); reports of the Montefiore College (1891-1896); 'The Sword of Moses' (1896); 'The Chronicles of Jerahmeel' (1899); 'Geschichte der rumanischen Literatur', in 'Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie', vol ii (1900); 'Hebrew Illuminated Bibles of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries and a Samaritan Scroll of the Pentateuch' (1901); 'History of the Ancient Synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, the cathedral synagogue of the Jews in England, situate in Bevis Marks ... 1701-1901' (privately printed, 1901); edited 'The Book of Prayer and Order of Service according to the custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' (6 volumes, 1901-1907), a new edition of the Sephardic service books with revised English translation; 'The Hebrew Version of the "Secretum Secretorum"' (1907-1908); 'Das Buch Josua' (1908), on the Samaritan Book of Joshua; 'Rumanian Bird and Beast Stories' (1915); 'Children's Stories from Roumanian Legends and Fairy Tales' [1923]; 'The Exempla of the Rabbis' (1924); 'The Samaritans' (Schweich lectures, 1925); 'The Asatir: the Samaritan Book of the Secrets of Moses' (1927); 'The Story of Chanucah' (1928); 'The Tittled Bible' (1929); 'The Story of Passover' (1929); 'The Story of Purim' (1929); 'The Story of Shavuoth' (1930); 'The Story of the High Festivals and the Feast of Tabernacles' (1931); 'Ma'aseh Book' (1934), translated from the Judeo-German; various Biblical Apocrypha in 'Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archæology'; contributions to the 'Encyclopædia Britannica', 'Hastings' Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics', and other journals and reviews. 'Gaster Centenary Publication' (1936) provides a 'List of Publications of Dr M Gaster', by Bruno Schindler.
Orphaned at an early age, George Bellas was brought up by his maternal grandfather Thomas Greenough, a successful apothecary. The boy was sent to Mr Cotton's school at Salthill at the age of six, and to Eton at the age of ten. He stayed there only a year, and in September 1789 entered Dr Thompson's school at Kensington. While he was at school he took the name Greenough at the request of his grandfather who had adopted him. In 1795 his grandfather died leaving him a fortune which enabled him, for the rest of his life, to devote himself wholeheartedly to his many interests without the necessity of earning a living. In that year too, he went up to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, but he did not take a degree, and in September 1798 he went to the University of Göttingen where he became interested in geology. In 1799 Greenough made at least two tours of the Harz: one in the Easter vacation with Clement Carlyon and Charles and Frederic Parry; and the other in the late summer with Carlyon. During these tours he collected many minerals, and also studied geological collections in the towns he visited. His interest in geology deepened when in 1801 he travelled over England with Carlyon and met Humphry Davy in Penzance. Later he attended Davy's lectures, and in 1802 went to France and Italy and 'noted what I saw of geology on my way'. He went on a geological tour of Scotland with James Skene in 1805, and of Ireland with Davy in 1806: in Ireland he also made a study of social conditions. In 1807 he became associated with a group of mineralogists to which Davy referred in a letter to William Pepys, dated 13th November 1807, when he said 'We are forming a little talking Geological Club'. This club rapidly developed into a learned society devoted to geology. Greenough was to be the first president of the Geological Society from its inception in 1807 until 1813. When the future Royal Geographical Society was founded in 1830 Greenough was once again an early interested member and he was its president in 1839 and 1840. Greenough's interests were very varied, and he travelled extensively. His many journals and notebooks bear witness to the close attention which he paid not only to geological and geographical detail, but also to architecture, sculpture, painting, history and politics. He gave practical effect to this last by sitting as the MP for the pocket borough of Gatton in Surrey, from 1807 to 1812. A list in which he briefly noted some of the societies to which he belonged mentions 37, and against many of these he wrote the words 'original life member'. Greenough wrote a good deal, but he published very little, and his main achievement was the publication in 1820 of his geological map of England and Wales. This map was the culmination of many years of work during which he had noted and plotted the location of the various strata of areas visited by him and other travellers, and had gleaned information from books or from a questionnaire sent to anyone who might have local knowledge. A second edition of the map was published in 1839 together with an introduction in which he set out his theory on the manner in which geological structures should be represented on a map. In 1854 his large scale geological map of the whole of British India appeared - once again he had relied on information from questionnaires, books and travellers: in this instance they were his only sources, for he did not visit India himself. His only book, A critical examination of the first principles of geology, in a series of essays was published in 1819. He derived much pleasure from the building and design of his home, Grove Lodge, in Regent's Park, London, where he entertained members of his family from Dripsey in Ireland, and also his wide circle of friends.The diaries of his last years show his health beginning to fail in the early 1850s, and Greenough died in 1855 while travelling in Italy.
Frederick Huth first established his own business in Corunna, Spain, in 1805. He came to London in 1809 and set up business as a merchant. In 1814 he took John Frederick Grüning into partnership and the resulting firm, Huth & Company, was formed. Throughout the 19th century the firm is described in London directories as 'merchants'; only from 1904 is the description 'bankers' added, although it is clear that the business always included banking. From 1912 the firm had a fur warehouse; it also had a tea warehouse from 1921. In 1936 the company was dissolved: the banking business was acquired by British Overseas Bank Ltd, and the fur business by C M Lampson & Co Ltd.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, 1911; University of Leipzig, MD 1934; emigrated to London, 1935; Biophysical research, University College London (UCL), 1935-1939; Carnegie Residential Fellow, Sydney Hospital, Sydney, 1939-1942; served in Second World War in the Pacific with RAAF, 1942-1945; Assistant Director of Research, Biophysics Research Unit, UCL, and Henry Head Research Fellow (Royal Society), 1946-1950; Reader in Physiology, UCL, 1950-1951; Professor and Head of Biophysics Department, UCL, 1952-1978; Vice-President, Royal Society, 1965; Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, 1970; Emeritus Honorary Research Fellow, 1978; died, 2003.
Ker was born in Glasgow, the eldest son of William Ker, a merchant, and Caroline Agnes Paton. He was educated at Glasgow Academy and Glasgow University, then in 1874 he went to Balliol College Oxford with a Snell exhibition. He was elected to a Fellowship of All Souls, Oxford, in November 1879. In 1878 Ker was appointed assistant to William Young Snellar, Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh University. In 1883 he was appointed Professor of English Literature and History in the new University College of South Wales, Cardiff. In 1889 he became Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London, where he remained until his retirement in 1922. In 1900 Ker was appointed Chairman of the Modern Languages Board and later of the English Board in the University of London. A department of Scandinavian studies was founded in London University in 1917 and Ker was its first director. Ker died walking in Italy in July 1923 and was buried in the old churchyard at Macugnaga, Italy. Ker wrote numerous books, articles and lectures, mainly on literature and poetry, many of which are listed in John Pafford's bibliography 'W.P. Ker, 1855-1923: a bibliography' (University of London Press, 1950). Ker's successor as Quain Professor of English at University College, R.W. Chambers, wrote a number of biographical studies of Ker.
Raymond Wilson Chambers studied at University College London, 1891-1899, and was appointed Quain Student in English there in 1899. He stayed at University College and was Librarian from 1901 to 1922. He was also Assistant Professor in the English Department, 1904-1914. In 1915 he became Reader in English. From 1915 to 1917 he served for a time with the Red Cross in France, and with the Y.M.C.A. with the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium. In 1922 he became Quain Professor of English at UCL in succession to W.P.Ker. In 1933 he visited the U.S.A. to deliver the Turnbull lectures in Baltimore. He published 'Thomas More' in 1935 and 'Man's unconquerable mind' in 1939. Chambers retired in 1941 and died in 1942.
Unknown.
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore: born in Leghorn (Livorno, Italy), 1784; eldest son of Joseph Elias Montefiore, a Jewish merchant of Italian descent whose father had settled in London, by Rachel, daughter of Abraham Lumbrozo de Mattos Mocatta, of an ancient family of Spanish Jews; educated in London; married Judith (1784-1862), second daughter of Levi Barent Cohen, 1812; spent some time in a mercantile house; acquired for £1,200 the right to act as a broker on the London Stock Exchange, where the number of Jewish brokers was limited to twelve; rapidly amassed a fortune; retired from much of his business, 1824; retained some business interests, but devoted himself to the service of the Jewish race at home and abroad; on his way to Jerusalem, visited Egypt and had a private audience with Muhammad 'Ali Pasha, 1827; became a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and was active in the struggle for emancipation; President of the Board of Deputies, 1835-1874; chosen sheriff of London and was knighted when Queen Victoria visited the Guildhall, 1837; submitted a scheme for establishing Jewish colonies in Syria to Muhammad 'Ali Pasha, but despite the Sultan's promise to give it favourable consideration it fell through, 1839; intervened on behalf of some Jews who had been arrested and tortured at Damascus for using Christian blood for religious rites and, as head of a deputation from the English and French Jewish communities, pleaded the prisoners' cause before Muhammad 'Ali Pasha, convincing him of their innocence and obtaining their release, 1840; proceeded to Constantinople and obtained from the Sultan a firman, placing Jews on the same footing as other aliens throughout the Ottoman empire, 1840; on his return to England, was presented to the Queen, who granted him the privilege of bearing supporters to his arms with `Jerusalem' inscribed in Hebrew characters; the Jewish community recognised his services by appointing a day of thanksgiving; when Tsar Nicholas of Russia issued an order for the removal into the interior of Jews domiciled on Russia's western frontier areas near Germany and Austria in 1844, Montefiore made representations to the Russian ambassador, Count Brunnow, which resulted in its suspension; on its threatened reissue, Montefiore was admitted by the Tsar to a private audience in St Petersburg and obtained its abrogation, 1846; toured Eastern Russia and made notes of the condition of the Jewish population, which he communicated to the Russian ministry; created baronet, 1846; following a revival of anti-Semitic feeling in Syria in 1847, Montefiore obtained a private audience with Louis-Philippe whom he asked, as protector of the Christians in Syria, to repress the agitation, which was granted; prominent in the collection and distribution of the relief fund for victims of the Syrian famine, 1855; founded a girls' school and hospital in Jerusalem, 1855; became involved in the celebrated Mortara case in which a Jewish child in Bologna was secretly baptised by his Catholic nurse and subsequently removed from his parents by the papal police and placed in a convent to be educated as a Christian, an affair which created a panic among the Jewish population in Italy and aroused indignation elsewhere, 1858; since remonstrances addressed to the papal government were ineffective, Montefiore attempted a personal appeal to Pope Pius IX in Rome, which was refused, and although the Pope consented to receive Montefiore's petition through Cardinal Antonelli he remained inflexible, 1859; raised funds for the relief of Jewish refugees brought to Gilbraltar by apprehension of war between Spain and Morocco and for Christian survivors of the massacre of the Lebanon, 1860; visited Constantinople and obtained confirmation by the new Sultan, Abdul-Aziz, of all firmans granted by his predecessor in favour of the Jews, 1863; in response to an outbreak of anti-Semitic fanaticism in Tangier, travelled on HMS Magicienne from Gibraltar to Mogador and, under an escort provided by the Sultan, crossed the Atlas desert to Morocco, where the Sultan issued an edict placing the Jews upon an equal footing with his other subjects, 1864; went to Syria, distributing alms to the victims of a plague of locusts and cholera epidemic, 1866; visited Bucharest and interceded with Prince Charles on behalf of the persecuted Jews of Moldavia, and was well received by the prince, but was threatened by a mob which he managed to quieten, 1867; carried to St Petersburg an address from the British Jewish community congratulating Tsar Alexander II on the bicentenary of the birth of Peter the Great, 1872; made a seventh and final pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 1875; spent his later years in comparative seclusion at his seat, East Cliff Lodge, Ramsgate, where he died, 1885; a strict Sephardic Jew, orthodox in his religious opinions and observance; on his death without issue the baronetcy became extinct. See also Lady Montefiore, Private Journal of a Visit to Egypt and Palestine by way of Italy and the Mediterranean (privately printed, London, 1836); Meyer ben Isaac Auerbach and Samuel Salant, An Open Letter addressed to Sir M Montefiore ... on the day of his arrival in ... Jerusalem. Together with a narrative of a forty days' sojourn in the Holy Land ... by Sir M Montefiore (Wertheimer, Lea & Co, London, 1875); Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore: comprising their life and work as recorded in their diaries from 1812 to 1883, ed L Loewe (2 volumes, Griffith, Farran & Co, London, 1890; facsimile edition introduced by Raphael Loewe [1983]). Dr Nathaniel Mayer Montefiore: born, 1819; second son of Abraham Montefiore and his second wife Henrietta Rothschild; nephew of Sir Moses Haim Montefiore; married Emma (1819-1902), daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, 1850; had issue Alice, Leonard (1853-1879), Charlotte, and the biblical scholar and philanthropist Claude Joseph Goldsmid (1858-1938); Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; died, 1883.
Born, 1913; read Modern History at Oxford University; served in World War Two; joined University College London as Lecturer in Ancient History, 1948; founder and first editor of Past and Present, 1952; visited India as a lecturer for the Indian University Grants Commission, 1968-1969; Senior Lecturer, University College London, 1969; involved in several socialist organisations, particularly the Institute for Workers' Control; died, 1977. Publications: The Age of Arthur (1973); co-editor and translator of the Phillimore edition of The Domesday Book; co-editor with A H M Jones and J R Martindale of the Prospography of the Later Roman Empire (from 1971); Londinium: London in the Roman Empire (1982), revised by Sarah Macready and published posthumously.
Born, 10 June 1866; educated at University College School and University College London (UCL); graduated with honours in English Language and Literature, 1888; awarded the degree of PhD by Strasburg University for a thesis on the old English poem 'Judith', which was also published, 1892; taught in the English department at UCL as Quain student, 1894-1899; also Professor of English Language and Literature at Bedford College for Women, London, 1897-1900; Assistant Professor at UCL, 1900-1904; appointed Secretary to UCL, 1900; elected Principal, 1904; the title was changed to Provost, 1907; knighted, 1917; Vice-Chancellor of London University, 1928-1930; created a baronet, 1930; died in London, 24 September 1931.
No information could be found at the time of compilation.
Unknown.
John Thomas Graves: born in Dublin, 1806; undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin; distinguished himself in science and classics; a contemporary and friend of Sir William Rowan Hamilton; researches respecting exponential functions led him to important results, 1826; graduated BA, 1827; printed in the Philosophical Transactions the discovery of two arbitrary and independent integers in the complete expression of an imaginary logarithm, and considered it a solution for various difficulties that had perplexed mathematicians, believing that he had elucidated the subject of the logarithms of negative and imaginary quantities, 1829; removed to Oxford and became an incorporated member of Oriel College, 1830; entered the King's Inns, Dublin, 1830; MA, Oxford, 1831; MA, Dublin, 1832; called to the English bar as member of the Inner Temple, 1831; for a short time went on the western circuit; since his mathematical conclusions were not at first universally accepted by contemporaries such as Sir John Herschel, he communicated to the British Association a defence and explanation of his discovery, supported by Sir William Rowan Hamilton's paper published in the British Association's Report, 1834; corresponded for many years with Hamilton, also interested in algebraical science and imaginaries, who communicated his discovery of quaternions to Graves first of all, and acknowledged his debt to his friend for his stimulus in 1843; Graves continued his mathematical investigations; stimulated Sir William Rowan Hamilton in the study of polyhedra, and received from him the first intimation of the discovery of the icosian calculus; contributed various papers on mathematical subjects to the Philosophical Magazine, London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and others, 1836-1856; member of the committee of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; elected a member of the Royal Society, 1839; subsequently sat on its council; Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London, 1839-1843; elected an examiner in laws in the University of London; twelve lectures on the law of nations were reported in the Law Times from 1845; a member of the Philological Society and of the Royal Society of Literature; appointed an assistant Poor Law Commissioner, 1846; appointed a poor-law inspector of England and Wales, 1847; died, 1870. Publications: articles on Roman law and canon law for the Encyclopædia Metropolitana; articles in Sir William Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography (3 volumes, London, 1844-1849), including lives of the jurists Cato, Crassus, Drusus, Gaius, and an article on the legislation of Justinian; various scientific papers.
George Grote was born in Kent in November 1794, the eldest of eleven children. His father was a banker. At school George had a genuine love of learning which survived the plunge into business at the bank that his father imposed on him at the age of sixteen. He pursued his interest in classical reading, took up German and philosophy, and extended his view of political economy. He was also musical. From 1822, Grote was committed to the project of writing a history of Greece. From 1826 to 1830 he was one of the promoters of the new University College London. Grote became interested in political reform when he visited Paris in 1830. He became known as a man of business and this helped him when he entered politics. He sat through three parliaments till 1841, when he refused to be nominated again. He wished to return to studying and finish his History of Greece which was completed in 1856 and consisted of twelve volumes. In 1843 he left the bank permanently. Grote published other writings during his lifetime, mainly about politics and philosophy. In 1849 he was re-elected to the University College London Council and in 1868 he became president of the University. During his life Grote received many honours: D.D.L. of Oxford in 1853; LL.D. of Cambridge in 1861; fellow of the Royal Society in 1857; and honorary Professor of Ancient History to the Royal Academy in 1859. He also received honours from other countries. He was offered a peerage by Gladstone in 1869 but declined it. He died in June 1871 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Harriet Grote née Lewin, biographer and wife of the historian George Grote (1794-1871), was born near Southampton in July 1792. She married George Grote in 1820. During their engagement Harriet studied hard so that she could share Grote's intellectual interests. Mrs Grote devoted herself to managing her husband's life, both practically and socially. They lived mainly in London and Surrey. Harriet Grote was always a diligent keeper of diaries and notebooks, as well as a good letterwriter, and having accumulated an abundance of materials, began to write a biographical account of her husband while he was still alive. This work was rapidly pushed forward on his death in 1871, and she herself had already reached her eightieth year, when it was published in 1873 as The personal life of George Grote. She had printed and published other material previously in her lifetime. She died at Shiere in Surrey, aged eighty-seven.
No information about Jessie Lewin could be found at the time of compilation.