Born 1884; parentage on both sides Polish szlachta (landed gentry and nobility); educated at the King Jan Sobieski Public School and the Jagiellonian University Cracow, where he gained a PhD in Philosophy, Physics and Mathematics,1908; received the Barczewski stipend for training as a university teacher, and studied for four years in London, undertaking research at the British Museum and the London School of Economics; Lecturer at the LSE, 1913, where he gained a PhD in Science, 1916; part of the Robert Mond Anthropological Expedition to New Guinea and North-West Melanesia, 1914-1916 and 1917-1918, returning in 1918 to Australia, and in 1920 to Europe; Reader in Social Anthropology, University of London, 1924-1927; journeyed to the USA and Mexico by invitation of Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, visiting Universities and Pueblo Indians (1926); Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics, 1927-1942; undertook a trip to South and East Africa, doing survey work among Bantu tribes (Swazi, Bemba, Chagga, and Bantu Kavirondo), 1934; Delegate of London University to Harvard Tercentenary; Lecturer, Oslo Instituttet for Kulturforsknung, 1936; Corresponding Member, Polish Academy of Science, 1930; Correspondent, Italian Committee for Study of Population Problems, 1932; Member, Royal Academy of Science of Netherlands, 1933; Messenger Lecturer, Cornell University, 1933; Honorary Member, Royal Society of New Zealand, 1936; Correspondent, Institute for Comparative Study of Cultures, Oslo, 1936; Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Yale University, 1939; Fieldwork in Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, 1940-1941; died 1942. Publications: The economic aspect of the Intichiuma ceremonies (Helsingfors, 1912); The family among the Australian aborigines (University of London Press, 1913); Baloma: the spirits of the dead in the Trobriand Islands (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1916); Argonauts of the Western Pacific; native enterprise and adventure in Melanesian New Guinea (Routledge, London, 1922); 'The problem of meaning in primitive languages' in The meaning of meaning (Kegan Paul, London, 1923); Crime and custom in savage society (Kegan Paul, London, 1926); Myth in primitive psychology (Kegan Paul, London, 1926); Sex and repression in savage society (Kegan Paul, London, 1927); The father in primitive psychology (Kegan Paul, London, 1927); The sexual life of savages in North-West Melanesia (Routledge and Sons, London, 1929); Coral gardens and their magic (G Allen and Unwin, London, 1935); The foundations of faith and morals (Oxford University Press, London, 1936); A scientific theory of culture and other essays (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1944); Freedom and civilisation (Roy Publisher, New York, 1944); The dynamics of cultural change: an inquiry into race relations in Africa (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1945); Magic, science and religion and other essays (The Free Press, New York, 1948); Sex, culture and myth (Harcourt, Brace and World, New York, 1962); A Diary in the strict sense of the term (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London; printed in U.S.A., 1967).
Born 1893; educated at Rugby School, and Trinity College, Cambridge University; civilian prisoner in Germany during World War One, 1914-18; Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1919-25; Lecturer, London School of Economics, 1925; Reader in Sociology, London University, 1930; Head of German Section, Research Dept of Foreign Office; Deputy Director, Research Department of Foreign Office, 1939-44; Head of the Social Science Department, London School of Economics, 1944-50; Member, Lord Chancellor's Committee on the Practice and Procedure of Supreme Court, 1947-53; Educational Adviser in the British Zone of Germany, 1949-50; Member, UK Committee for Unesco; Member, UK Delegation to Unesco General Conference, 1952; Martin White Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, London University, 1954-56; Director, Social Sciences Department, Unesco, 1956-60; President, International Sociological Association, 1959-62; Professor Emeritus, University of London; died 1981. Publications: Sociology at the crossroads (Longmans, Green and Co, London, 1947); Citizenship and social class (University Press, Cambridge, 1950); International comprehension in and through social science (Oxford University Press, London, 1960); Social policy (Hutchinson and Co, London, 1965); Sociology at the crossroads (Heinemann, London, 1963); The approach of the utopians; Training for social work (Oxford University Press, London, 1946); Citizenship and social class (Pluto press, London, 1992); The right to welfare and other essays (Heinemann, London, 1981).
James Edward Meade (1907-1995) was educated at Malvern College and Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1930. 1930. He was immediately appointed to a teaching post at Hertford College Oxford. He spent a postgraduate year at Trinity College, Cambridge (1930-1931) where he became deeply involved with the Cambridge 'circus' around John Maynard Keynes and his first work, 'An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy', appeared just two years after Keynes' 'General Theory'. In 1938 Meade left teaching for the League of Nations in Geneva where he edited the World Economic Survey. He returned to Britain in 1940 to serve in the Economic Section of the Cabinet Office under Lionel Robbins. In 1945, he succeeded Robbins as Director of the secretariat and during this time worked with Richard Stone on the first Keynesian-style national income accounts for Britain, later published as 'National Income and Expenditure'. In 1947, he accepted the post of Professor of Commerce at the London School of Economics and during this time expanded his lectures into his major work, 'The Theory of Economic Policy', published in two volumes-'Balance of Payments' in 1951 and 'Trade and Welfare' in 1955. Meade became Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge in 1957, a post in which he stayed for the next ten years. He found himself involved in the controversies between American and British economists, which led to his work 'A Neo-Classical Theory of Economic Growth'. Healso pursued his concerns over income distribution with his 'Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property'. Meade and Bertil Ohlin were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1977 for 'pathbreaking contributions to the theory of trade and international capital movements.' #10,000 of the prize money was donated to the appeal for the Lionel Robbins Building at the London School of Economics, which was to house the British Library of Political and Economic Science. In 1978, he chaired the influential British committee of inquiry into the 'Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation' whose recommendations bore Meade's characteristic approach and continued concern over unemployment. During the 1980s, Meade continued to produce a large amount of scientific work and worked in an advisory role with the newly formed Social Democratic Party regarding their economic policy. His work during this period, revolved around two of his concerns and interests: unemployment, which he considered comparable to the 1930s, and profit-sharing schemes, producer co-operatives and labour-managed firms, exemplified in his work 'Different Forms of Share Economy'. In 1995, Meade completed his last major work, 'Agathiotopia: Full Employment Regained?', which was published shortly before his death.. Meade was also President of Section F of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1957, Honorary Member of the American Economic Association, Treasurere of the British Eugencis Society from 1963-1966 and President of the Royal Economic Society from 1964 to 1966.In 1971 he became an honorary foreign member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
FIRM (Forum for Initiatives in Reparation and Mediation) was set up in 1989, and changed its name to Mediation UK in 1991. Mediation UK is a registered charity which acts as an umbrella body for a network of projects, organisations and individuals interested in mediation and other forms of conflict resolution. It acts as an information and referral service, sponsors training events and workshops, organises an annual conference, helps groups to set up mediation services and provides standards of professional conduct for mediators. A quarterly journal, Mediation, is also produced.
Born in 1879; worked as Professor of History previous to the Russian Revolution; founded an anti-Bolshevik socialist party (Popular Socialist Party), 1919; sentenced to death, then reprieved, with the sentence commuted to imprisonment; expelled from the Soviet Union, 1920; settled in Prague, Berlin and Paris, where he continued his historical researches and published works on Russian history; became editor of several émigré journals; died 1956. Publications: The Red Terror in Russia (JM Dent and Sons, London and Toronto, 1925); numerous publications in Russian.
Merlyn Rees was born into a mining family in Cilfynydd, South Wales, on 18 December 1920. In the 1920s his family moved to London. From 1933 to 1939, he attended Harrow Weald County Grammar School and later went on to Goldsmiths College (where he was President of the Students' Union) to train as a teacher. During the Second World War he joined the RAF, with the Desert Air Force. He served in campaigns in Italy, France and Austria. By demobilisation he had risen to the rank of Squadron Leader. Following the war, Rees studied economics and history at the London School of Economics. In 1949 he became a teacher at his old school in Harrow. Also in 1949, he married Colleen Cleveley, a former pupil of Harrow Weald County Grammar School. In 1955, he was awarded an MSc (Econ.) from London University for a thesis entitled, 'The economic and social development of extra-metropolitan Middlesex in the nineteenth century'. In 1960, Rees was the organiser of the Festival of Labour (held on 15-17 June 1962). From 1962-1963, he was Lecturer in Economics at Luton College of Technology. In the 1950s, Rees had a run of unsuccessful attempts as Labour parliamentary candidate for Harrow East. However, in June 1963, he successfully fought the by-election in Leeds South which had been called following the unexpected death of Hugh Gaitskell. He served as Member of Parliament for the constituency until 1992 (the seat changed its name to Morley and Leeds South in 1983). On becoming an MP, Rees became Principal Private Secretary to James Callaghan. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Army, 1965-1966; for the RAF, 1966-1968; and, at the Home Office (where he was responsible for immigration and the fire service), 1968-1970. In October 1971, Rees became opposition spokesman on Northern Ireland. The role involved shadowing Willie Whitelaw when he became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland following the announcement of direct rule from Westminster in March 1972. In opposition, Rees adopted a bipartisan approach to Northern Ireland policies, especially in support of the Government's white paper, 'Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals' (Cmnd 5259), published in March 1973. The paper proposed an elected Assembly, a power sharing executive and the establishment of 'institutional arrangements for consultations and co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland'. He also supported the Sunningdale Agreement (December 1973) which, amongst other points, agreed the formation of a Council of Ireland. When Labour regained power in March 1974, Rees became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Much of his time in this role was spent on security matters, at a time of intense terrorist activity in the province. His immediate political priority was to support the power sharing executive and implement the Sunningdale Agreement. However, Unionist opposition to Sunningdale was growing, as was evident by the fact that in the UK General Election of February 1974, 11 of the 12 Northern Ireland seats were won by anti-Sunningdale unionists. In May 1974, the Ulster Workers' Council organised a strike against the Sunningdale Agreement which crippled power supplies to the province. This led to the collapse of the executive and the restoration of direct rule from Westminster. In July 1974, the government published a white paper, 'The Northern Ireland Constitution' (Cmnd 5675). This proposed the establishment of an elected constitutional convention which, it was hoped, would enable Northern Ireland's political parties to create a workable constitution for the province. Elections were held on 1 May 1975, with Unionist parties opposed to power sharing in the majority. By the end of November 1975, the Convention recommended a return to majority rule - a position which was not acceptable to the Nationalists. Rees tried to break the deadlock by holding a series of talks with all the parties involved in the Convention. The talks failed and the Convention was dissolved in March 1976.
Other aspects of his time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland include: a ceasefire by the Provisional IRA; the end of internment (December 1975); and, ending of special category status for paramilitary prisoners (March 1976). For more details about his time as Secretary of State, see Merlyn Rees' own book, Northern Ireland: a personal perspective (1985). Following Harold Wilson's resignation as Prime Minister in 1976, Rees was manager of the successful campaign for Jim Callaghan to be the next leader of the Labour Party. In September 1976, he was appointed Home Secretary. He was Shadow Home Secretary, 1979-1981 and Opposition spokesman on energy, 1981-1983. In 1982, he served on the Falkland Islands Review Committee (Franks Committee). In 1987, he joined a deputation with Cardinal Basil Hume, Lord Devlin, Lord Scarman, and Roy Jenkins to campaign for the release of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. In 1992, he was created a life peer as Baron Merlyn-Rees. He died in London on 5 January 2006.
No information available at present.
The National Peace Council was founded in 1908, after the 17th Universal Peace Congress in London. It brings together representatives of numerous national voluntary organisations with a common interest in peace, disarmament and international and race relations. The primary functions of the NPC are to provide opportunities for consultation and joint activities between its affiliated members, to help create an informed public opinion on the issues of the day, and to convey to the government of the day the views of the substantial section of British life represented by its affiliated membership.
The North Lambeth Divisional Labour Party was founded in 1926, when its constitution and rules were formally adopted and endorsed by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. It consisted of members of Trade Union branches, Co-operative Societies, Socialist and other societies affiliated to the Borough Labour Party, plus any other men and women willing to subscribe to the Constitution who lived within the North Division of the Parliamentary Borough of Lambeth. Its objectives were to co-operate with the Borough Labour Party and to unite the forces of Labour within the Constituency, with a view to securing the election of Labour candidates to Parliament and local government authorities.
The Division was managed by a General Council consisting of representatives of affiliated bodies and individual members, Officers elected at the Annual Meeting of the General Council, and an Executive Committee consisting of the Officers and other members elected from the General Council. It also had Ward Associations, a Women's Section and a Young People's Section.
Raymond Colin Roberts was born in Monmouthshire in 1904. Between 1917 and 1933 he worked in various coal mining jobs, including being Miner's Organiser and Sectretary to the South Wales Miner's Federation. He was a student of Social Sciences at the Labour College in Earls Court, London, between 1923-1925, having won a scholarship from the South Wales Miners.
He was Political Agent and Secretary to the North Lambeth Labour Party from May 1933 to April 1941. An accident from his coal mining days meant he was exempt from military service during World War Two and instead was appointed as a Regional Shelter Officer. He was then trained as a Factory Personnel Manager and Welfare Supervisor under a Ministry of Labour scheme and subsequently became an inspector of factories.
The New Survey of London was begun in 1928 and concluded in 1933 as a deliberate attempt to update Charles Booth's Survey of Life and Labour in London. It was directed by Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith who had been one of Booth's assistants. The Survey was based at the London School of Economics and was financed by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Trust and by donations raised by Beveridge from London organisations. Llewellyn Smith published his findings in 1930-1934 as The new survey of London life and labour (London, 1930-1935).
Orme, Stanley (1923-2005) Lord Orme of Salford, was born on April 5th 1923 in Sale, Cheshire. He left school at 15 to work as an engineer at Trafford Park. Orme continued his education at the National Council of Labour Colleges and the Workers' Education Association, and became an active member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). Orme joined the RAF in 1942 and served an navigator in the Pathfinder Force of Bomber Command. He was demobilized in 1947 and returned to work at Budenberg Gauge Company, Broadheath. Orme had joined the Labour Party in 1944, and on return to civilian life, became an important shop steward in the AEU. He married Irene Mary Harris in 1951. Orme served on Sale Borough Council between 1958-1965, and fought unsuccessfully the Parliamentary seat of Stockport South in 1959. He was elected to the Parliamentary seat of Salford West in 1964. Orme was an important member of the Tribune Group, and its chairman during the late 1960s. Orme was made Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office in 1974 and was involved in passing a bill against religious discrimination in the Province. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1975, and then made Minister of Social Security in the Cabinet in 1976. Following the Labour election defeat in 1979 Orme took up the post of Opposition Spokesman on Trade and Industry, before moving to shadow the Minister for Energy in 1983.
Orme was very closely involved with the miners' strike of 1984-1985, and was praised widely for his persistent efforts to encourage a negotiated settlement between the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Coal Board. Following the end of the strike, Orme campaigned against privatizations, increased nuclear power supply, and the closure of collieries. Orme increased his majority in the 1987 election, and was subsequently elected chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. He retired as a Member of Parliament at the 1997, and was made a life peer, taking the title Lord Orme of Salford. He died on April 28th 2005.
Political and Economic Planning was founded in 1931 at the height of the Great Depression to plan for British recovery in the widest sense. During the thirties it carried out a series of investigations into the operation of the British economy, and into education and health. During and after World War Two it extended its interests into policy issues in other countries and carried out many detailed investigations of social problems. In 1978 PEP merged with the Centre for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), and became the Policy Studies Institute (PSI). The present collection consists of the archives of the PEP/PSI together with the PEP papers of Leonard Elmhirst and Max Nicholson.
Sir Ernest Henry Phelps Brown, 1906-1994, was educated at Taunton School and Wadham College, Oxford. He was a Rockefeller Travelling Fellow in the USA, 1930-1931, a Fellow of New College Oxford, 1930-1947, Professor of Economics of Labour at the London School of Economics, 1947-1968, and a Fellow of Wadham College Oxford, 1969-1994. His main interests were economics and incomes, and he was a member of the Council on Prices, Productivity and Incomes, 1959, the National Economic Development Council, 1962, and the Royal Commission on Distribution of Income and Wealth, 1974-1978.
William Piercy, 1886-1966, left school at the age of 12 and took a job with Pharaoh Gane, timber brokers, of which he later became joint managing director. He studied at the London School of Economics, 1910-1913, and became a lecturer in history and public administration at the LSE in 1914. From 1914 to 1918, he worked as a civil servant, later becoming principal assistant secretary in the Ministry of Supply and Ministry of Aircraft Production, and personal assistant to Clement Attlee when he was the deputy prime minister. Piercy was also very involved in the world of finance and business. He played a leading role in organizing the first unit trusts, was a member of the London Stock Exchange, 1934-1942, and headed the British Petroleum Mission in Washington during World War Two. In 1945, he became the first chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation Ltd. He was also chairman of the Estate Duties Investment Trust, 1952-1966, and was appointed to the court of the Bank of England in 1946, 1950 and 1956. Piercy also served as a governor of the LSE and a member of the senate and court of London University, was president of the Royal Statistical Society, 1954-1955, and chairman of the Wellcome Trust, 1960-1965.
Born 1901; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford University; played rugby for Oxford University, 1921, and for England, 1922; won Middle Weight Public Schools Boxing, 1919; Bursar, Duke of York's and King's Camp, 1933-1939; Chairman, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd, 1934-1966; served World War Two as a member of the RAF 1940-1943 (Acting Squadron Leader); Director, Bank of England, 1941-1945; Director of Organisation and Methods, HM Treasury, 1943-1945; Conservative MP for Bath, 1945-1964; KBE, 1961; Chairman, Royal Society of Teachers; Chairman of Council, Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation and National Centre for Cued Speech (for the deaf child); Life President, UK Federation of ita Schools; Member of the Committee, National Foundation for Educational Research (which conducted comparative researches into reasons for reading failure in earliest stages of learning); Member, Committee advising Public Trustee under Will of late George Bernard Shaw in carrying out his wishes for design and publication of a proposed British alphabet; Charter Pro-Chancellor, Bath University; Honorary President, Parliamentary Group for World Government; Vice-President, Institute of Administrative Management, 1965-1969; Vice-President: British and Foreign School Society; Member, British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education; Member, National Union of Teachers; died 1985.
Born 1898; educated Strand School and London School of Economics and Political Science; Gerstenberg Scholar in Economics and Political Science, 1921; previously a manager in the engineering industry; Professor of Commerce and Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, University of Cape Town, 1924-1930; Professor of Commerce, LSE, 1930-1965; Knight, 1947; Vice-President of the Council, Royal Economic Society; Member, Cinematograph Films Council, 1938-1969; Chairman, Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, 1955-1967; Chairman, Advertising Standards Authority, 1962-1965; Chairman, Colonial Social Science Research Council, 1955-1962; Member, Overseas Research Council, 1959-1964; Organiser for Ministry of Information, and first Director of Wartime Social Survey, 1940; Chairman, National Service Deferment Committee for the Cinematograph Industry, Ministry of Labour, 1942-1945; temporary civil servant, 1940-1946, as Adviser to Ministerial Chairman of Interdepartmental Materials Committee and Central Priority Committee under Production Council (1940), Production Executive (1941), Ministry of Production (1942-1945), and on special duties in Cabinet Office, 1945-1946; Member, Board of Trade Committee on a Central Institute of Management, 1945-1946; Member, Ministry of Works Committee on Distribution of Building Materials, 1946; Member, Ministry of Education Committee on Commercial Education, 1946; Member, Board of Trade Committee on Film Distribution, 1949 (Chairman); Member, Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission, 1953-1956; Chairman, Ministry of Agriculture Committee on Fowl Pest Policy, 1960-1962; retired 1965; died 1978.
Private Secretary to Sir F Lugard, High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria, 1900, and subsequently a Political Officer until 1906; served Sokoto Kano Campaign, 1903 (medal and clasp), and minor operations, 1903-1905; attached to Colonial Office, East African Dept, 1906-1908. Colonial Secretary and Registrar-General, Bermuda, 1908-1915; Administrator of St Vincent, 1915-1922; acted as Administrator of St Lucia, March 1917-December 1918; Col Secretary British Guiana, 1922-1925; Colonial Secretary of Cyprus, 1926-1929; represented Cyprus at 1st Colonial Office Conference, 1927; acting Governor of British Guiana and of Cyprus for over 2 years in all; retired, 1929; Secretary R. African Society and Editor of its Journal, 1932-1938; Empire Division, Ministry of Information, March-December 1940; Red Cross Foreign Relations Department, 1941-1943; has exhibited drawings at the N. English Art Club, etc, Chairman, Surrey County Committee, Citizens Advice Bureaux.
Karl Raimund Popper, 1902-1994, was born in Vienna, Austria, and gained a PhD from the University of Vienna in 1926. From 1930 to 1935, he worked as a schoolteacher in Vienna, and from 1937 to 1945, he was senior lecturer in Philosophy at Canterbury University College, University of New Zealand, Christchurch. In 1945, he became Reader in Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics, and in 1949, he became Professor of Logic and Scientific Method, a post that he held until 1969 when he became Emeritus Professor. He also held the posts of Guest Professor in the Theory of Science at the University of Vienna and Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University from 1986, and was President of the Aristotelian Society, 1958-1959, and President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science, 1959-1961. He was a prolific author and published many works on the philosophy of science, historicism and political thought.
The Population Panel was set up by the government in 1971 to investigate signs of population growth. Professor Eugene Grebenik was a member of the Panel. Its report was published in 1973.
Alan Richmond Prest, 1919-1985, was educated at Archbishop Holgate School York and Cambridge University. He worked in the Department of Applied Economics at Cambridge, 1945-1948, became a Rockefeller Fellow, USA, 1948-1949 and was a lecturer at Cambridge, 1949-1964. He was a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1950-1964, a Tutor, 1954-1955, and Bursar 1955-1964. In 1964, he moved to Manchester University where he held the post of Professor of Economics and Public Finance, 1964-1968, and Stanley Jevons Professorship of Political Economy, 1968-1970. In 1970, he moved to the London School of Economics, where he was Professor of Economics (with special reference to the Public Sector), 1970-1984. During the post war period, Prest became interested in the problems of developing countries. This led him towards the field of national income accounting, and in the early 1950s these interests came together in his work on the national income of Nigeria. He also became interested in public finance both in the UK and in developing countries. This culminated in the work for which he is best known, "Public Finance in Theory and Practice".
Denis Noel Pritt, 1887-1972, was educated at Winchester, London University, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. He obtained an LLB from London University and was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1909, he retired from practice in 1960. He was a Labour MP for Hammersmith North from 1935-1950, despite being expelled from the Labour Party in 1940. He was also Professor of Law at the University of Ghana, 1965-1966, chairman of the Howard League for Penal Reform and chairman of the Bentham Committee for Poor Litigants. In addition his interest in peace led him to become president of the British Peace Committee and a member of the World Peace Council. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1954.
PROGRESS Campaign for Research into Human Reproduction was launched in November 1985 to campaign for the protection of human embryo research so that IVF treatment could continue. PROGRESS was wound up after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was passed in 1990, but in May 1992 Progress Educational Trust was established to carry on the educational work of PROGRESS. See http://www.progress.org.uk/ for further information.
The Political Studies Association (PSA) was founded in 1950 with the aim of developing and promoting the study of politics. The PSA organises annual conferences, publishes series of works on political subjects, offers research scholarships and prizes, and maintains contact with other similar organisations. It also publishes four periodicals: Political Studies, the British Journal of Political and Industrial Relations, Politics, and PSA News. Overall policy and administration is decided by an Executive Committee.
Thomas Thornely, 1781-1862, was educated in 'mercantile pursuits' and continued in commerce until later life, when he became a Liberal MP. He represented the borough of Wolverhampton for twenty-four years, from 1835.
Charles Pelham Villiers, 1802-1898, was educated at Haileybury and St John's College, Cambridge, becoming a barrister of Lincoln's Inn in 1827. He held Benthamite political views, and enjoyed a long career in public service and Parliament. In 1832, he was a Poor Law Commissioner, and from 1833 to 1852, an official of the court of Chancery. He served as an MP for Wolverhampton from 1835 to 1898, during which time he worked towards free trade and opposed the Corn Law and home rule for Ireland. He also served as Judge-Advocate General, 1852-1858, Privy Councillor, 1853, and President of the Poor Law board, 1859-1866.
Maud, John Primatt Redcliffe was born in Bristol in 1906. He was educated at Summer Fields School in Oxford, Eton College and New College Oxford. In 1929 he became Junior Research Fellow at University College Oxford. In 1932 he married (Margaret) Jean Hamilton (1904-1993) and undertook a Rhodes Travelling Fellowship to Johannesburg where he wrote a history of local government. Between 1932 and 1939 he also served as Fellow and Dean at Oxford University, lectured in politics and tutored the Colonial Administrative Services Course. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 Maud was summoned into public service and took up a post in Reading Jail. Although he continued to fulfil his duties as Master of Birkbeck College from 1939 until 1943, he rose quickly in the ranks of the civil service. From Principal Private Secretary Ministry of Food in 1940 to Deputy Secretary (later Second Secretary) Ministry of Food 1941-1944, Second Secretary to the Office of the Minister of Reconstruction 1944-1945 and Secretary to the Office of the Lord President of the Council 1945. In the immediate post-war years he assumed the posts of Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, 1945 (-1952); Member, Economic Planning Board, 1952 (-1958); Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1952 (-1959). In this period he was also one of the founding fathers of UNESCO. In 1959 he accepted the roles of British High Commissioner in South Africa (-1961), High Commissioner for Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland (-1963) and in 1961 became the first British Ambassador to the new South African republic (-1963). He returned to Oxford in 1963 as the Master of University College, (-1976). But he also undertook enquiries into local government. Between 1964 and 1967 he Chaired the Committee on the Management of Local Government and worked closely with the Committee on Staffing Local Government, Chaired by Sir (Howard) George Mallaby. This was followed with his Chairmanship of the Royal Commission on Local Government, 1966-1969. In 1967 he was awarded a Baronetcy and assumed the title, Baron Redcliffe-Maud. During these years he also undertook the roles of High Bailiff of Westminster, 1967 and Chairman, Prime Minister's Committee on Local Government Rules of Conduct, 1973-1974. From 1974 to 1976, with the support of the Calouste-Gulbenkian Foundation, he conducted an enquiry into funding for the arts in England and Wales. Throughout his life Redcliffe-Maud was an accomplished public speaker and made numerous speeches and broadcasts. Among his publications are: Local Government in modern England, (Thornton Butterworth, London, 1932). City Government: The Johannesburg Experiment, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1938). Johannesburg and the Art of Self-Government, (R Esson and Co, Johannesburg, 1937). Expanding horizons in a contracting world: the challenge to education, (University of Natal, Durban, 1960). Aid for developing countries, (Athlone Press, London, 1964). Leadership and democracy, Foundation Orations 1966, University of London, Birkbeck College, (London 1966). The future of the individual, Bellman Memorial Lectures (London, 1968). English Local Government Reformed, (Oxford University Press, London, 1974). Support for the arts in England and Wales : a report to the Colouste Gulbenkian Foundation (London, 1976). Experiences of an Optimist, (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1981). Redcliffe-Maud retired in 1976 but remained active as the President of Royal Institute of Public Administration, 1969-1979, and the British Diabetic Association, 1977-1982. He died in 1982.
Foundation. The Royal Economic Society (RES) was founded in 1890 as the British Economics Association (BEA) with the aim of promoting and encouraging the study of economic science and with the particular objective of publishing an economic journal in Britain. Many prominent British economists were involved in the foundation of the BEA, including Inglis Palgrave, Herbert Foxwell and Alfred Marshall. At the particular urging of Alfred Marshall, membership of the BEA was declared open to all and has been ever since, making the Society not only a learned professional body but also an open society for anyone interested in economics. Members have included prominent academics, businessmen, journalists, clergymen, politicians and civil servants.
Structure. On the initiative of Henry Higgs (Secretary of the Society, 1892-1906), the BEA applied for and was granted a Royal Charter in December 1902 and became the Royal Economic Society. The Charter specifies that there shall be a Council which will be responsible for the 'management and direction of the Society'. It also lays down that 'The Council shall consist of the President, Vice-Presidents, and not less than twenty Councillors; and the Treasurer or Treasurer and the Secretary or Secretaries if honorary'. Many distinguished economists have been associated with the RES throughout its history, as Presidents, Council members, Secretaries, Treasurers and Editors of the Economic Journal. The first two Presidents of the Society were prominent statesmen, namely George Goschen who was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and R B Haldance, another prominent politician who remained President of the Society for 22 years. In 1929 the Council re-affirmed an earlier resolution that 'it was considered advisable that as a rule the President should not hold office for more than three years'. In fact, apart from Herbert Foxwell, the term of office of the Society's Presidents was two years until 1986 when a three-year term was introduced. Past Presidents include John Maynard Keynes, William Beveridge, Lionel Robbins, James Meade, Nicholas Kaldor and Richard Stone. In its early years, the day-to-day running of the Society was left to Henry Higgs and F Y Edgeworth (Editor of the Economic Journal, 1892-1906). Among later Secretaries and Editors who also took a prominent part in the administration of the Society's affairs were John Maynard Keynes (1912-1945), Roy Harrod (1945-1961) and Austin Robinson (1945-1971). The retirement of Austin Robinson in 1971 was followed by the decentralisation of the Society's activities as well as significent changes in its administration. These changes were overseen by the then President, Sir Alec Cairncross, and they included the formation of an Executive Committee in 1975. This committee is responsible for the execution of the Society's policy as laid down by the Council (which now meets twice a year) and for the co-ordination of the activities of its officers. Other changes which have taken place include the introduction of a more direct say by members in the composition of the Council and the selection of the President.
The EJ and other Publications. The first Economic Journal (EJ) appeared in 1891. The first page of the first issue stated 'The British Economic Association is open to all schools and parties: no person is excluded because of his opinions. The Economic Journal, issued under the authority of the Association, will be conducted in a similar spirit of toleration'. The EJ has been produced ever since, even during war years, quarterly until 1991 and six times a year since then. Successive editors to 1970 (F Y Edgeworth, J M Keynes, Roy Harrod and Charles Carter) took responsibility for the articles and notes sections: book reviews were handled by separate assistant or joint editors following the appointment of Austin Robinson in 1934. From 1970 onwards the editorship became more collaborative and much greater use began to be made of referees and associate editors. In addition, the Society has produced a Newsletter since 1972; at first this contained mainly information on visiting scholars, appointments and conferences, but it now also publishes short articles of topical interest, correspondence and news about research. The Newsletter is published quarterly. One of the objectives of the Society at its foundation was to make scholarly economic works available to its members, primarily by the reprinting of early tracts, the translation of important foreign works and producing definitive editions of economic texts. Early publications included Quesnay's Tableau Economique; later more ambitious undertakings included the multi-volume editions of the Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo and the Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. The Keynes Edition was one of the Society's major undertakings from its conception in 1954 to the publication of its final volume in 1989.
Other activities. The RES continues to contribute today to the advancement and dissemination of economic knowledge. The aims and activities of the Society have, however, broadened since 1890. In addition to its publishing activities, the Society contributes to the exchange of ideas in the profession through its Annual Conference, through its support for the standing Conference of Heads of University Departments of Economics (CHUDE) established in 1987 to promote the study and teaching of economics in the UK, and through its Visiting Lectureship scheme. Support for younger members is provided through summer research workshops, the Easter School, junior fellowships and the conference grant scheme. The Society also co-operates with other economic societies both nationally and internationally. It was a founding member of the International Economic Association and of the Confederation of European Economic Associations.
Born 1898; educated Southall County School, University College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science; served World War One, 1916-1919, in the Royal Field Artillery; Lecturer, New College Oxford University, 1924; Lecturer, LSE, 1925-1927; Fellow and Lecturer, New College, Oxford University, 1927-1929; Professor of Economics, LSE, 1929-1961; Director, Economic Section, Offices of the War Cabinet, 1941-1945; President, Royal Economic Society, 1954-1955; Trustee, National Gallery, 1952-1974, and Tate Gallery, 1953-1967; Director, Royal Opera House, 1955-1981; Chairman, Financial Times, 1961-1970; Chairman, Committee on Higher Education (Robbins Committee), 1961-1964; President, British Academy, 1962-1967; Member, Court of Governors, LSE, 1968-1974; First Chancellor of Stirling University, 1968-1978; died 1984. Publications: Liberty and equality (1977); Political economy past and present (1976); Against inflation (1979); Higher education revisited (1980); (ed) Studies in Economics and Commerce (London, 1933-1948); Aspects of post-war economy (Institute of economic Affairs, London, 1974); Autobiography of an economist (Macmillan, London, 1971); The balance of payments (Athlone Press, London, 1951); Bentham in the twentieth century (Athlone Press, London, 1965); Economic aspects of federation (Macmillan, London, 1941); The economic basis of class conflict (Macmillan, London, 1939); The economic causes of war (Jonathan Cape, London, 1939); Economic planning and international order (Macmillan, London, 1937); The economic problem in peace and war (Macmillan, London, 1947); The economist in the twentieth century (Macmillan, London, 1954); An essay on the nature and significance of economic science (Macmillan, London, 1932); The evolution of modern economic theory (Macmillan, London, 1970); The Great Depression (Macmillan, London, 1934); The international monetary problem (Oxford University Press, London, 1973); Money, trade and international relations (Macmillan, London, 1971); Politics and economics (Macmillan, London, 1963); Robert Torrens and the evolution of classical economics (Macmillan, London, 1958); The theory of economic policy in English classical political economy (Macmillan, London, 1952); The university in the modern world, and other papers on education (Macmillan, London, 1966); Wages (Jarrolds, London, 1926).
William Alexander Robson, 1895-1980, was a student at the London School of Economics, gaining his BSC (Economics) First Class Honours in 1922, PhD in 1924 and LLM in 1928. He saw active service as a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps and RAF during World War One and was called to the Bar in 1922. He did not practice law for long, however, becoming a lecturer at LSE in 1926 and then a Reader in Administrative Law from 1933 to 1946. He was made a professor in 1947 and continued at the school until his retirement in 1962. From 1940 to 1942, Robson was Principal of the Mines Department before becoming Principal of the Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1942 to 1943. He was Assistant Secretary to the Air Ministry 1943 to 1945 and to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1945. He was also a member of the Council of the Town and Country Planning Association, the Committee on Training in Public Administration for Overseas Countries. From 1950 to 1953 he was chairman of the Greater London Group. In 1930 he helped to found the 'Political Quarterly' and went on to be its joint editor, 1930 to 1975 and chairman of the editorial board from 1975 to his death in 1980.
No information available at present.
Sir (Alfred) Chester Beatty was an American mining engineer, who founded Selection Trust Ltd in 1913. This remained a small company until after World War One, when Beatty embarked on the development, finance and administration of mining businesses throughout the world, notably in Siberia, the west coast of Africa, Serbia and Northern Rhodesia. Beatty built an expert team of geologists and mining engineers whom he sent abroad with specific instructions on the areas to explore: he never travelled to these places himself. Though many of these mining enterprises were later nationalised, Selection Trust had by then acquired valuable interests in other mines around the world. Beatty retired in 1950, and handed over control of Selection Trust to his son, Alfred Chester Beatty, who retired in 1968, the same year as his father's death. Beatty Senior was also well known for his philanthropic interests in cancer research, and his fascination with collecting oriental manuscripts and impresionist art. The Selection Trust Ltd was taken over by BP, and was known as, successively, BP Minerals International Ltd and BP Minerals Development Ltd. It was acquired from BP by the Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation Plc in 1989.
Charles Seligman, 1873-1940, was educated at St Paul's School. He qualified as a doctor and became Director of the Clinical Laboratory at St Thomas's hospital, and also treated shellshock victims during World War One. He became interested in tropical diseases and it was for this reason that he went on his first expedition to Borneo and the Torres Straits. Whilst there, he developed an interest in anthropology and the rest of his life was devoted to this discipline. He also attempted to combine disciplines, using psychology to explain anthropological problems. He first taught at the London School of Economics in 1910, and was appointed to the Chair of Ethnology of the University of London in 1913, the first of its kind at the University. He retired in 1934, and was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor. Brenda Seligman, d 1960, accompanied her husband on anthropological expeditions and published material in her own right. Like her husband she acquired her knowledge of anthropology whilst working in the field. She was particularly interested in kinship and the lives of women and children.
Beatrice Serota (1919-2002) was born in London on 15 October 1919, the daughter of Alexander Katz and Milly Witkower. She was educated at the Clapton county secondary school and at the London School of Economics. In 1942 she married Stanley Serota. After wartime service in the Ministry of Fuel and Power, Serota was elected as a Labour member of Hampstead Borough Council in 1945, beginning a long involvement with local politics. In 1954 she was elected to the London County Council (LCC), serving as Chairman of the Children's Committee. When the LCC was abolished in 1965, Serota was elected to the Greater London Council (GLC) which replaced it. She became the Labour Chief Whip on the GLC, and served on the Inner London Education Authority, until 1967. Serota's work for the LCC and GLC led to her being awarded a peerage for services to children in 1967. This enabled her appointment as Minister of State for Health in the Department of Health and Social Security, 1969-1970. Prior to becoming a minister, Serota had served on a number of advisory bodies and commissions. She was a member of the Longford Committee on crime, 1964; the Royal Commission on the Penal System, 1964-1966; the Latey Committee on the Age of Majority, 1965-1967; and the Advisory Council on the Penal System, 1966-1968, and 1974-1979. Following the Labour government's defeat in 1970, Serota served on the Community Relations Commission, 1970-1976; and was Chair of the Commission for Local Administration, 1974-1982; the BBC Complaints Commission, 1975-1977; and was a Governor of the BBC, 1977-1982. Serota also had an active career in the House of Lords, being Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees and a member of the European Communities Select Committee, 1986-1992. she was Deputy Speaker in the Lords from 1985 until her death in 2002.
She was also involved with the National Council for One Parent Families and the Family Service Units until her death in 2002.
Peter Shore (1924-2001) was born in Great Yarmouth, the son of a commercial sea captain. He attended Quarry Bank Grammar School, Liverpool and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied History; he served in the RAF as a flying officer from 1943-1946. In 1948 he joined the Labour Party and was employed in the Research Department, producing the tract 'Industry and Society' (1957), and becoming its head from 1959-1964. Shore stood for St Ives, Cornwall, in 1950 and Halifax in 1959 before being elected for Stepney in 1964. He retained the seat, which became Bethnal Green and Stepney, until 1997. He was Harold Wilson's private paliamentary secretary from 1965-1966, then beoming joint parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Technology (Tony Benn) from 1966-1967 and at the Department of Economic Affairs in 1967. He joined the Cabinet in 1967 upon his appointment as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (1967-1969). When the Department for Economic Affairs was dissolved in 1969 Shore remained in the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio and Deputy Leader of the House (1969-1970). While the Labour Party was in opposition Shore became opposition spokesman on Europe (1971-1974) and with the Labour Party's return to power he was Secretary of State for Trade (1974 - 1976) and Secretary of State for the Environment (1976-1979). During the Labour Party's period in opposition from 1979-1987 Shore services as opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, Treasury and Economic Affairs and Trade and Industry as well as being Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. He was a member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs (1987-1997) and the Committee on Standards in Public Life (1994-2001). He was created Baron Shore of Stepney in 1997.
Possibly Charles William Smith of Liverpool, who published a series of books and articles on international trade, including Commercial gambling: the principal causes of depression in agriculture and trade (Sampson Low and Co, London, 1893), Original theories upon and remedies for depression in trade, land, agriculture and silver (Sampson Low and Co, London, 1893); International, commercial and financial gambling in Options and Futures' (PS King and Son, 1906), and The South African war and theBear' operator: a financial revolution (PS King and Son, London, 1912).
Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Lord Treasurer, initiated a scheme for the funding of national debt through the South Sea Company, founded in 1711 to trade with Spanish America, on the assumption that the War of the Spanish Succession would end with a treaty permitting such trade. The Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, was less favourable than had been hoped, but confidence in the Company remained artificially high, eventually leading to the collapse of the stock market in 1720 (the South Sea Bubble) and the ruin of many investors. The Company, however, survived until 1853.
For a full biography, see the description for the Shaw business papers (Ref: Shaw).
No information available at present.
For a biographical history of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, see the description for the Passfield personal papers (Ref: Passfield).
For a full administrative history of the LSE, see the description for the main LSE records (Ref: London School of Economics and Political Science Archives).
John Thomson was a talented and influential photographer, who had spent ten years travelling in, and taking photographs of, the Far East. On his return to London he joined with Adolphe Smith, a socialist journalist, in a project to photograph the street life of the London poor. The volumes were published in monthly parts as Street Life in London, and were an early example of social and documentary photography.
Born 1938; educated Prince of Wales School, Nairobi, and George Watson's College, Edinburgh University; President, Edinburgh University Liberals, 1959, and the Students' Representative Council, 1960; Assistant Secretary, Scottish Liberal Party, 1962-1964; BBC television interviewer in Scotland, 1964-1965; Liberal (later Liberal Democrat) MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, 1965-1983, and Tweedale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, 1983-1997; President, Anti-Apartheid Movement of Great Britain, 1966-1969; Member, Parliamentary Delegation to the UN General Assembly, 1967; Chairman, Shelter in Scotland, 1969-1973; Liberal Chief Whip, 1970-1975; Member, British Council of Churches, 1971-1975; Council of Management, Centre for Studies in Social Policy, 1971-1976; Advisory Council, European Discussion centre, 1971-1976; Leader of the Liberal Party, 1976-1988; Rector, Edinburgh University, 1982-1985; Chubb Fellow, Yale University, USA, 1987; KBE, 1990; Co-Founder, Social and Liberal Democrats, 1988; President, Countryside Movement, 1995-; President, Liberal International, 1994-1996; created Life Peer, 1997; Liberal Democrat Member and Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, 1999-. Publications: No entry: the background and implications of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act (C Hurst and Co, London, 1969); The Liberal way forward (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1975); A new majority for a new parliament (Liberal Publications Department, London, 1978); The high ground of politics (Liberal Publication Department, 1979); A house divided: the Lib-Lab Pact and the future of British politics (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980); Labour at 80: time to retire (Liberal Publication Department, London, 1980); Partners in one nation: a new vision of Britain 2000 (Bodley Head, London, 1985); The decade of realignment: the leadership speeches of David Steel (Hebden Royd Publications, Hebden Bridge, 1986); Sharing profits: the partnership path to economic recovery (Hebden Royd Publications, Hebden Bridge, 1986); Mary Stuart's Scotland (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1987); The time has come: partnership for progress (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1987); Against Goliath (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1989); Border country (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1985).
Born [1860]; HM Senior Inspector of Factories, [1893-1897]; Member, War Office Commission of Enquiry into Concentration Camps during the Boer War, 1901-1902; Member, Royal Commission on the Civil Service; first female Organising Officer, National Health Insurance Commission, London; Member, Commission of Enquiry into the Conditions of the Women's Army Auxilary Corps in France; Member, Kent Executive Committee of the Women's Land Army; Vice-Chairman, Kent Council of Social Service; married Granville Edward Stewart Streatfeild in 1911; died 1950.
Richard Henry Tawney, 1880-1962, was born in Calcutta and educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford. After leaving Oxford, he became an assistant at Glasgow University, 1906-1908, before returning to Oxford to become a member of the Teacher for Tutorial Classes Committee, 1908-1914. He became Director of the Ratan Tata Foundation at the University of London, 1913-1914 and Professor of Economic History at the University of London, 1931-1949. After 1949, he was Professor Emeritus. Tawney was also a member of numerous committees relating to trade and education. He was a member of the executive of the Workers Educational Association, 1905-1947 and President, 1928-1944, and also a member of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education, 1912-1931. He was a member of the University Grants Committee 1943-1948. In 1919, he joined the Coal Industry Commission, and he was also a member of the Chain Trade Board, 1919 - 1922, and the Cotton Trade Conciliation Commission, 1936-1939.
Documentary produced by Brook Productions, broadcast as 'The Writing on the Wall'.
Richard Morris Titmuss, 1907-1973, was educated at St Gregory's preparatory school in Luton and at the age of fourteen went on to Clark's Commercial College for a six month course in bookkeeping. At eighteen he was engaged as a probationary clerk to the County Fire Insurance Office and he stayed there for the next sixteen years. In 1937, Titmuss married Kay Miller, who influenced his interests towards more social and political themes. He began writing articles on topics such as public health and migration, and his first book 'Poverty and Population' was published in 1938. When war broke out, Titmuss' job in war damage insurance became a reserved occupation. However, his name was added to the Ministry of Labour's Central Register of professional people. In this capacity he informally advised the Ministry of Information on some social survey reports and was statistical adviser in a voluntary capacity to the Ministries of Health and Economic Warfare on wartime German vital statistics.
In 1942, he left the County Fire Insurance Office to join a group of historians commissioned to write the civil histories of the Second World War and to cover the work of the Ministry of Health. Throughout this period he continued writing on the problems of poverty and population, publishing books, and from late 1944 working as a statistical and demographic adviser to Luton. His interest in social inequality led him to abandon the Liberal Party and join other wartime political groups. He worked with the Liberal MP Sir Richard Acland, whose publication 'Unser Kampf' demanded that steps should be taken during the war towards a new order of society. They formed a group called Forward March which then merged with other groups to become the short lived Commonwealth Party.
In 1947, Titmuss was working as Social Economist and Deputy Director of the Social Medicine Research Unit. However with the publication of his book 'Problems of Social Policy' academic employment opened up for him. He was offered the chairs of social administration at Birmingham and the London School of Economics and chose LSE, arriving in 1950. Here he continued to define and analyse social services and to establish the academic respectability of social administration until his retirement.
No further information available at present.
David Barry was born in the vicinity of Rochester, New York. He and his family moved in 1861 to Wisconsin. Barry was employed by the internant photographer O.S. Goff and joined him at his gallery in Bismarck. Between 1878-1883, Barry travelled around Dakota territory. He used a portable photographic studio to take portaits of famous Native American chiefs, women, scouts and warriors. Barry also took photographs of forts and battlefields of the Plains Wars. He moved to Superior, Wisconsin in 1890 to open a photographic studio and gallery.
Will Fancy joined the Socialist Review Group as a young man and was involved in Trotskyist politics until the early 1980s. He was active within the white-collar trade union, NALGO, playing a leading role in transforming the union into playing a more militant, campaigning organisation. Will Fancy was elected to the NALGO national executive: in the 1970s the Daily Mail described him as "the most dangerous man in Britain". In the early 1980s Will Fancy became a full-time union secretary and broke with the Socialist Workers Party.
Charles Lahr was born Karl Lahr in 1885 at Wendlesheim in the Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. During his teenage years he became first a Buddhist and later an anarchist. In 1905, to escape conscription into the German army, he left Germany for London. On arriving in London he worked as a baker and expressed his political involvement by joining and frequenting anarchist clubs. By 1914 Lahr had taken work as a razor grinder and had joined the British Section of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He began to accumulate books at around this time as he moved from residence to residence in the Kings Cross area of London. He also let rooms to people he met through his political activities. Designated an enemy alien, Lahr was interned in Alexandra Palace in London from 1915 to 1919. After the war Lahr returned to his trade and continued his involvement with the IWW, where he met his future wife, Esther Archer, whom he married in 1922. Lahr and Archer both joined the Communist party in 1920, but left in 1921. It was during this brief membership that the Lahr met and became friends with Liam O'Flaherty. In 1921 Lahr took over the Progressive Bookshop at 68 Red Lion Square, Holborn. The bookshop became a centre for new writers and political activists from around the world, and specialised in the sale of radical literature and first editionsThe Lahr's first moves into publishing came in when K. S. Bhat recommended the editors of the New Coterie to take the magazine to the Lahrs. From 1925 onwards Lahr started publishing items on his own account, often using his wife's maiden name to counter anti-German prejudice. During 1925 to 1927 these took the form of offprints from New Coterie, and then articles within the magazine itself. In the publishing world he was in close contact with writers such as D. H. Lawrence, T. F. Powys, James Hanley, A.S.J. Tessimond, Liam O' Flaherty, Paul Selver, Russell Green, George Woodcock, Rhys Davies and several others. The New Coterie ran until 1927, and in 1930 Lahr launched his Blue Moon Booklets and a year later the Blue Moon Press. However, by 1933 Lahr was having financial problems. In 1935 his difficulties came to a head when he was found guilty of receiving stolen books and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. However, after his release he continued his publishing activities although on a much reduced scale. The bookshop continued to be a focus for radicals and revolutionaries.The bookshop in Holborn was bombed in May 1941. Lahr moved the bookshop to several locations in central London before finally moving it to the headquarters of the Independent Labour Party at 197 Kings Cross Road, London. Charles Lahr died in London in 1971.
References:R. M. Fox, 'Lahr's Bookshop' in Smoky Crusade, Hogarth Press, 1938, pp. 180-188.D. Goodway, 'Charles Lahr: Anarchist, Bookseller' in London Magazine, Jun-Jul 1977, pp. 47-55.
Geoffrey Wharton Robinson was the son of Ellen Ternan and her husband, Geoffrey Wharton Robinson. Robinson was a captain in the Lancashire Fusiliers in the years before the First World War. Previously he had served in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers before being transferred after the disbandment of the 3rd and 4th battalions. By 1913, he had retired from the army and was looking for alternative employment.