No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
James Cosmo Melvill was born in Guernsey and brought up there and in England. He entered the East India Company's home service as young man and rose through the company's financial arm to become Chief Secretary in 1836. He was knighted in 1853 and retired in 1858, after 50 years of service.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Charles Kay Ogden was born in Fleetwood, Lancashire, and educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He subsequently became well-known as a journal editor, translator and prolific book collector; his collection is now divided between University College London and the University of California at Los Angeles. Ogden is most often remembered as the inventor of Basic English, a limited vocabulary set devised for use as an international auxiliary language.
Hilary Jenkinson was born in London in 1882. He was educated at Dulwich College and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He began work in the Public Record Office in 1906 and, aside from war service, spent his entire career there, rising to become deputy keeper in 1947; he retired in 1954. Alongside his civil service work, Jenkinson lectured in palaeography and archives and was instrumental in the decision of University College London's school of librarianship to provide a separate diploma in archive administration. Jenkinson was also active in the British Records Association and several learned societies, and served as one of the first vice presidents of the International Council on Archives. He was knighted in 1949.
Charles Mackay was born in Perth, Perthshire, and educated in London and in Brussels. He began working as a journalist in the 1830s and wrote for several papers, including the Morning Chronicle, the Glasgow Argus (which he also edited), the Illustrated London News and The Times. Mackay also published several volume of poetry and works on Celtic philology.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
William Bence Jones was born in Beccles, Suffolk in 1812. He was educated at Harrow School and at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1838 he took over the management of the Lisselan estate, near Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland. He was a successful farmer and manager, but unpopular with the local people. He also published several books on agriculture and on religion in Ireland. Jones retired and left Ireland in 1881, spending the last 18 months of his life in London.
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth was born in Ireland and read Classics and Trinity College Dublin and Balliol College, Oxford. He subsequently studied law and mathematics in London; he was called to the Bar in 1877 but never practised. He learnt economics from his friend and neighbour William Stanley Jevons and published an influential book, Mathematical Psychics, on the subject in 1881. He held chairs in economics at King's College London (1888-1891) and All Souls College, Oxford (1891-1922) and published widely in economics and statistics.
Adeline Virginia Stephen (always known by her middle name) was born in London in 1882, and educated at home. The deaths of her parents and two elder siblings before Virginia was 25 had a profound effect on her work. She wrote from an early age and, as young women, she and her sister Vanessa were founders of the Bloomsbury Group of young writers and artists. She married fellow writer Leonard Woolf in 1912. Woolf's novels include Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), the latter partly inspired by her relationship with the writer Vita Sackville-West; she was also a prolific essayist, diarist and correspondent. She drowned herself in 1941, fearing another collapse in her often-fragile mental health. Her writing prefigured several later developments in 20th century fiction and is still acclaimed by many critics.
Esmond Samuel de Beer was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. He came to Britain in 1910 to attend Mill Hill School and subsequently studied at New College, Oxford, (interrupted by war service) and University College London. A private income from his family's clothing business enabled him to spend most of his life researching as a private scholar, living in London with his elder sisters Mary and Dora. De Beer was particularly interested in the late 17th century and produced editions of John Evelyn's correspondence and of John Locke's diaries. He was a member of several learned societies and became associated with the University of London's Institute of Historical Research and Warburg Institute. He was appointed CBE in 1969.
Henry Warburton was born in Eltham, Kent, and educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduating, he joined his family's timber business, which he directed between 1808 and 1831. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809. Warburton served as MP for Bridport, Dorset, between 1825 and 1841, and as MP for Kendal, Cumberland, between 1843 and 1847. Whilst active in politics, he espoused several radical and reforming causes, including the repeal of the Corn Laws, the introduction of the penny post, and the abolition of timber duty.
Robert Stephenson, the only son of the engineer George Stephenson, was born in Northumerland and educated at school in Newcastle upon Tyne and at the University of Edinburgh. He followed his father into the engineering profession and became a successful railway engineer in his own right, remembered particularly for his bridge designs. Stephenson was MP for Whitby from 1847 until his death in 1859, and served as president of Institution of Civil Engineers during 1856-1857.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
William Collingwood Smith was a noted watercolourist, whose work was often featured in the London Illustrated News.
Leon Maxwell Gellert was born in Adelaide, Australia, into a family of Hungarian origin. He studied at the University of Adelaide and became a teacher. During the First World War, he saw active service in the Mediterranean, but was invalided out of the army in 1916 and returned to teaching. Songs of a Campaign, Gellert's first book of poetry, was published in 1917. Gellert lived in Sydney for many years, working as a journalist. He was the co-editor of Art and Australia from 1922 and became known as a columnist in Sunday newspapers. He died in Adelaide in 1977.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Randall Carline Swingler was born at Aldershot, Hampshire in 1909. He was educated at Winchester College and at New College, Oxford. He was a poet, prose author and journalist, as a well as a flautist to professional standard. A member of the Communist Party, he also edited the Left Review and wrote for the Daily Worker.
John Edgell Rickword was born in Colchester in 1898. He was educated at Colchester Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford. He became known as a poet and literary journalist in the early 1920s. Commited to left-wing politics, Rickword joined the Communist Party in 1934 and founded the Left Review the same year. In the late 1940s he developed a new career as a bookseller. Rickword left the Communist Party following the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 but continued to regard himself as a Marxist.
John Kells Ingram was born into a Protestant family in County Donegal, Ireland in 1823. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, where he co-founded the Dublin Philosophical Society. He became a fellow of Trinity College in 1846 and a professor in 1852, later serving as librarian and vice-provost. From 1847 he was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy, serving as president from 1892 until 1896. His interests were wide-ranging, from geometry to classical literature, but he is best remembered as an economist.
Jean Joseph Louis Blanc was born in Spain in 1811. He was brought up and educated in Corsica. He moved to Paris shortly before the July Revolution of 1830 and became a journalist, historian and leading socialist thinker. Exiled from France, he lived in England from 1848 to 1870, where he became popular in Chartist and in labour circles and was in close contact with other left-wing emigres. He returned to France in 1870 and served in the French National Assembly during 1871-1876.
Alexander Macdonald was born in Lanarkshire in 1821 and worked as a coal and ironstone miner from the age of nine. He studied Greek and Latin at evening classes and was later able to attend Glasgow University (1846-1849), subsequently becoming a teacher. He became a leading trade unionist in the mid 1850s and lobbied strongly for workers' rights. Macdonald entered Parliament in 1874 as MP for Stafford, remaining in post until his death in 1881. His surname was originally spelt McDonald, but he adopted the spelling Macdonald in the 1870s.
Harry Price was born in January 1881 and educated in London and Shropshire. Between 1896 and 1898, Price founded the Carlton Dramatic Society and wrote small plays, and showed early interest in the unusual by experimenting with space-telegraphy between Telegraph Hill, Hatcham and Brockley. He also became interested in numismatics at an early age and was involved with archaeological excavations in Greenwich Park, London and Shropshire between 1902 and 1904 and in Pulborough, Sussex in 1909, culminating with his appointment as honorary curator of numismatics at Ripon Museum in 1904. He married Constance Mary Knight in August 1908.
Price's first major success in psychical research came in 1922 when he exposed the fraudulence of 'spirit' photographs taken by William Hope. During the same year, Price investigated his first séance with Willi Schneider at the home of Baron von Schrenck-Notzing in Munich and published The Revelations of a Spirit Medium. In 1923, the National Laboratory of Psychical Research was established in Bloomsbury and Price had his first sittings with mediums Stella C, Jean Guzik and Anna Pilch. Shortly after, he outlined a scheme for broadcasting experiments in telepathy for the BBC and, in 1925, was appointed foreign research officer to the American Society for Psychical Research, apposition he was to hold until 1931. In 1926, the National Laboratory of Psychical Research moved to new premises in Queensbury Place, South Kensington, and Price was to experience his first sittings with Rudi Schneider in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria, and to conduct his first experiments with Eleanore Zugun in Vienna. One year later, Price publically opened the 'box' of prophetess, Joanna Southcott at a Church Hall in Westminster.
In 1929, Rudi Schneider was brought to London for experiments into his mediumship and Price began his 10 year investigation of hauntings at Borley Rectory in Suffolk. Shortly after, the National Laboratory moved again to Roland Gardens in South Kensington. In 1932, Price, along with C.E.M.Joad, travelled to Mount Brocken in Germany to conduct a 'black magic' experiment in connection with the centenary of Goethe, involving the transformation of a goat into a young man. The following year, Price made a formal offer to the University of London to quip and endow a Department of Psychical Research, and to loan the equipment of the National Laboratory and its Library. The University of London Board of Studies in Psychology responded positively to this proposal and, in 1934, the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation was formed with Price as Honorary Secretary and Editor. Price's psychical research continued with investigations into Karachi's Indian rope trick and the fire-walking abilities of Kuda Bux in 1935. He was also involved in the formation of the National Film Library (British Film Institute) becoming its first chairman (until 1941) and was a founding member of the Shakespeare Film Society. In 1936, Price broadcast from a haunted manor house in Meopham, Kent for the BBC and published The Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter and The Haunting of Cashen's Gap. This year also saw the transfer of Price's library on permanent loan to the University of London, followed shortly by the laboratory and investigative equipment. In 1937, he conducted further televised experiments into fire-walking with Ahmed Hussain at Carshalton and Alexandra Palace, and also rented Borley Rectory for one year. The following year, Price re-established the Ghost Club, with himself as chairman, conducted experiments with Rahman Bey who was 'buried alive' in Carshalton and drafted a Bill for the regulation of psychic practitioners. In 1939, he organised a national telepathic test in the periodical John O'London's Weekly. During the 1940s, Price concentrated on writing and the works The Most Haunted House in England, Poltergeist Over England and The End of Borley Rectory were all published. He died in March 1948.
Publications: The Sceptic (psychic play), 1898; Coins of Kent and Kentish Tokens, 1902; Shropshire Tokens and Mints, 1902; Joint Editor, Revelations of a Spirit Medium, 1922; Cold Light on Spiritualistic Phenomena, 1922; Stella C.; An Account of Some Original Experiments in Psychical Research, 1925; Short-Title Catalogue of Works on Psychical Research, Spiritualism, Magic, etc. 1929; Rudi Schneider: A Scientific Examination of His Mediumship, 1930; Regurgitation and the Duncan Mediumship, 1931; An Account of Some Further Experiments with Rudi Schneider, 1933; Leaves from a Psychist's Case-book, 1933; Psychical Research (talking film), 1935; Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter, 1936; Faith and Fire-Walking, article in Encyclopædia Britannica, 1936; A Report on Two Experimental Fire-Walks, 1936; The Haunting of Cashen's Gap (with R. S. Lambert), 1936; Fifty Years of Psychical Research, 1939; The Most Haunted House in England: Ten Years' Investigation of Borley Rectory, 1940; Search for Truth: My Life for Psychical Research, 1942; Poltergeist over England, 1945; The End of Borley Rectory, 1946; film scenario of Borley hauntings (with Upton Sinclair), 1948; Works translated into eight languages; numerous pamphlets and contributions to British and foreign periodical literature.
Louis Saul Sterling was born in New York on 16 May 1879. In 1903 he left the United States for London, where he began working as a travelling representative for Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd. The following year, Sterling became manager of the British Zonophone Company, which produced playing machines and disc records. In 1905 Sterling established the Sterling Record Company, which was bought, within a few months, by the Russell Hunting Record Company. Sterling became the managing director of the firm. By 1908 Sterling had formed the Rena Manufacturing Company which produced playing machines and records. In 1909 the Columbia Phonograph Company bought Rena and Sterling was appointed Columbia's British Sales Manager. At Columbia during the First World War, 1914-1918, Sterling introduced the production of patriotic war songs and original cast recordings of songs from London shows. By the end of the war Sterling was the managing director of the Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd. When Columbia bought out its American parent company in 1927, Sterling was made chairman of its New York board. During the early 1930s Sterling became the managing director of Electrical and Musical Industries Ltd, (EMI), which had merged with Columbia. Sterling also served on the board of the merchant bank, S G Warburg. On leaving EMI he served as a director of the music publishers Chapell and Co and later became the managing director and then chairman of the electrical engineers, AC Cosser Ltd. Sterling established a number of charitable organisations including the Sterling Club in 1937 and the Sir Louis Sterling Charitable Trust in 1938. Later he became involved in Jewish charitable work and was President of the British Committee for Technical Development in Israel. Sterling's main interest outside business was collecting books. Although he started collecting books in 1917, the majority of the items in his collection were purchased in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1956 the collection had grown to over 5000 books and manuscripts. In 1945 Sterling approached the University of London about donating his collection to the library. Under the direction of John Hayward a team from the University Library catalogued the collection at the Sterling home. On 30 October 1956 the Sterling collection was in place in the University of London Library and formally opened. Sterling was knighted in 1937 and he received an honorary D. Litt from the University of London in 1947. Sterling died in London on 2 June 1958.
Masefield was born in Ledbury in 1878. Having entered the Merchant Navy Masefield deserted ship in America where he drifted for some time. Returning to England he became a journalist and his interest in writing was explored, publishing several volumes of poetry before the outbreak of World War One. During the war Masefield was a member of the Red Cross and witnessed the disaster at Gallipoli, which he later wrote about in his position as head of the War Propaganda Bureau. During the twenties and thirties Masefield wrote numerous volumes of poetry which were most successful, as well as two novels and an autobiography. Masefield continued to write until his death in 1967.
Samuel Wilderspin was the controversial self-styled founder of the Infant School System. He was born in Hornsey, North London in 1792 and was an apprentice clerk in the City before being introduced to infant education by Buchanan. He trained with Buchanan at a school in Vincent Square, London and then became master of his own school in Quaker Street, Spitalfields. From 1824 he worked for the Infant School Society and as a freelance, teaching others about his system of schooling. He ran an infant school supply depot in Cheltenham for supplying apparatus and in 1839 set up the Central Model School in Dublin which was subsequently run by Sarah Anne and Thomas Young (his daughter and son-in-law). After returning from Dublin he was heavily involved with the Mechanics' Institute movement. In 1848, having founded several hundred schools, he retired to Wakefield on a civil list pension. Wilderspin's theories on education were mainly a product of his Swedenborgian beliefs. He saw education as a life long training of the child's soul and as such approached education from social, moral and religious aspects.
Publications:
Samuel Wilderspin's publications include:
'Early discipline illustrated; or, the infant system progressing and successful' (1832)
'The importance of educating the infant poor from the age of eighteen months to seven years' (1824)
'The infant system, for developing the intellectual and moral powers of all children, from one to seven years of age' (1834)
'Manual for the religious and moral instruction of young children' (1845) co-author with Thomas John Terrington
'On the Importance of educating the Infant Children of the Poor ... Containing also an account of the Spitalfields Infant School' (1823)
'A system for the education of the young: applied to all the faculties' (1840).
Born in 1771, Fellowes was educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford, where he received a BA in 1796 and an MA in 1801. He published A Picture of Christian Philosophy of Illustration of the Character of Jesus in 1798. From 1804-1811, he edited Critical Review. Fellowes wrote and lectured on politics and religion. In 1826 he gave benefactions to encourage the study of philosophy at Edinburgh University and at London University (now University College London). He died in London on 6th February 1847.
James Hogg was born in Ettrick, Selkshire, Scotland in November 1770. Having received little formal education, Hogg taught himself to read and write in his late teens. He continued to work as a labourer and shepherd for twenty five years. Between 1794-1810 Hogg wrote songs which appeared in magazines and in two small collections. Determined to make a career as a professional writer, Hogg, aged 40, moved to Edinburgh in 1810. In Edinburgh, Hogg established a weekly paper entitled, The Spy but only managed to keep it going for a year and in 1813 he decided to return to writing poetry again. He died in 1835.
James Barrie was born at Kirriemuir, Forfarshire on 9 May 1860. He received his education from, the Glasgow Academy, Dumfries Academy, 1873-1878 and Edinburgh University, 1878-1882.
He was appointed leader writer and sub-editor on the Nottingham Journal in January 1883. In March 1885, Barrie moved to London, where he wrote for many magazines including, the British Weekly.
Barrie published his first book Better Dead in November 1887 and his first play, Richard Savage, on which he collaborated with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1891. His plays were performed in theatres in London's West End. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was published in 1906, the same year as his play, Alice by the Fire, which was produced at the Duke of York's Theatre. Barrie continued to write many plays, including Shall We Join the Ladies in 1921 and The Boy David, 1936, the last work which Barrie wrote.
He received honorary degrees from the universities of St. Andrews, 1898, Edinburgh 1909, Oxford, 1926, and Cambridge, 1930. He was appointed as Lord Rector of St Andrews University in 1919 and chancellor of Edinburgh University in 1930. He was appointed the Order of Merit in 1922. Barrie died in London on 19 June 1937.
Herbert Ernest Bates (later known to his friends and wife as 'H.E') was born in Rushton, Northamptonshire on 16 May 1905. He received his education at Kettering Grammar School and when he left at the age of sixteen he became, first, a clerk and then a provincial journalist. His first novel, The Two Sisters, was published in 1926 by Jonathan Cape after being rejected by 9 other publishers. By 1931, Cape had published three further novels.
In 1941, the Royal Air Force recruited Bates as a short story writer under the pseudonym of 'Flying Officer X'. This work included, The Greatest People in the World (1942) and Fair Stood the Wind for France. The latter was published by Michael Joseph who was to be his publisher for the rest of his life.
The Darling Buds of May (1959) began a popular series of earthy novels set in a rural context and for this work, he may be best remembered. His acclaimed autobiography was published in three volumes: The Vanished World (1969), The Blossoming World (1971) and The World in Ripeness (1972). Bates died in Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury, Kent on 29 January 1974.
Liam O'Flaherty was born in the Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland on 28 August 1896. He was educated at Rockwell College, Black Rock College and University College Dublin. From 1915 to 1917 O'Flaherty served with the Irish Guards. On returning to Ireland he became active in the Irish Civil War. Between 1918 and 1921 he worked at various jobs in London, New York and Hartford Connecticut. He started writing in 1921 and published his first novel, The Neighbour's Wife in 1924. In 1974 he was awarded a Honorary D Litt from the National University of Ireland. O'Flaherty died on 7 September 1984.
Details of William Langland's life are chiefly supplied from his work The Vision of Piers Plowman. He was born around 1330, probably in Shropshire, and is thought to have been educated in a monastery, possibly at Great Malvern. Piers Plowman was produced in three versions (1362, 1377, and 1392).
The Botanical Supply Unit was established in 1950. It was sited on land belonging to Royal Holloway College and was managed by them. It was administered on behalf of the University by the Council of the College and closed in the early 1990's.
No information available at the time of compilation
No information was available at the time of compilation.
The Institute of Commonwealth Studies was founded in 1949 as part of the University of London to promote advanced study of the Commonwealth. It became part of the School of Advance Study in 1994. The Institute offers opportunities for graduate study, houses several research projects and offers a full conference and seminar programme.
The Finance and General Purposes Committee, which was also known as the Joint Finance and General Purposes Committee between 1966 and 1983, was created in 1901. The Committee was responsible for the central administration of the University, including the appointments, and conditions of service and examination finances. Through the Services Sub-committee the Finance and General Purposes Committee was responsible to the Senate and the Court for the maintenance of the Senate House and other University buildings. Under the heading of General Purposes the Committee dealt with residual matters not falling within the purview of the Statutory Councils.
In the mid-1980s the University felt that the FGPC was not well placed to form judgements on a number of matters within its remit, particularly those dealing with the Central administration of the University and its Terms of Reference precluded consideration of the academic work of the Senate Institutes and Activities. Taking on board the recommendations of the Jarratt Report 1986, the Senate decided to dissolve the FPGC in 1987.
The Registrar's Collection is an entirely artificial collection, since the Registrar did not create it; indeed there are papers within the collection that were created after the Office of the Registrar was abolished in 1901.
This collection comprises of records brought together by Miss Dorothy Matthew, a former member of the Court Department, between 1950 and 1954 and records found in the University Library book stack in the late 1970s, early 1980s.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
In 1871 Sir Julian Goldsmid gave £1000 to the University of London so that it could establish, 'a first class University Library, which....will not only improve the position of the university, but also will be of great service to its students and graduates.' In the same year the library received 4000 volumes from Baron Overstone and a further 7000 volumes on the death of the classical historian, George Grote. In 1871 the Library Committee was appointed to devise regulations for the Library's use and to direct the Registrar to have a catalogue compiled. In 1873 the Treasury agreed to give the Library £100 per year to pay for the maintenance of the library.
The University of London Library was formally opened to readers in 1877. In 1879 the library of the British Association was presented and in 1880 the Library received a collection of Russian books from the widow of Sir John Shaw-Levre. At the reconstitution of the University of London in 1900 the library was moved from Burlington Gardens to South Kensington.
In 1901 the Company of Goldsmiths purchased Professor Foxwell's library of economic literature, some 30,000 volumes, and presented it to the University Library in 1903. This gift doubled the size of the collection. Mr L W Haward was appointed Goldsmith's Librarian in 1905. Reginald Rye succeeded him in 1906, and remained in the post until 1944.
In 1910 the Travelling Libraries began, when at the request of the Library Committee (from 1973, University Library Board) to promote the extension of University teaching, the University Library agreed to accommodate a small collection of books for issue to Tutorial Class students. Collectively known as the Travelling Libraries it was renamed the Extra Mural Library in 1955. It continued to be administered by the University Library until 1975 when it became a separate unit of the Central Library Services under the control of the Library Resources Co-ordinating Committee. In August 1981 the Extra Mural Library became part of the Department of Extra Mural Studies.
The Library grew at a tremendous rate before the Second World War. In 1924 a music library was established. The Teachers Guild of Great Britain presented the Library of R H Quick in 1929 and in 1931 the Library received the Durning-Lawrence Library. The Harry Price Collection was put on deposit in 1936 and came as a bequest on the death of Harry Price in 1946. The growth of the collection made the acquisition of new premises a matter of extreme urgency. When the University moved to the Bloomsbury Site in 1937-1938 the Library was given space in the Senate House building.
During the Second World War the tower and three stack rooms were heavily damaged, but only around 200 books were lost. The Goldsmith's Library was evacuated to the Bodleian and other valuable books were sent to the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge.
After the war the Library continued to acquire collections. Notable donations include the Sterling Library opened in 1956, the United State Information Service Library, 1965 and the Sturge Moore papers, 1963. In 1952 the Library set up the open Lending Library - hitherto nearly all books except reference and music books were housed in closed stacks. In 1961 the Depository Library was opened in the grounds of Royal Holloway College at Egham to house little used books and theses.
The University Librarian is head of the Library and is served by the following Senior Officers: Sub librarian (Academic Affairs), Sub librarian (administrative Affairs), Information Systems Manager, Head of Special Collections and the University Archivist.
Imperial College was established in 1907 by Royal Charter, by the merger of Royal School of Mines, the Royal College of Science and the City and Guilds College. All three institutions retained their separate identities after their incorporation. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was an important factor in the development of South Kensington as a centre for Science and the Arts, and consequently the establishment there of Imperial College. The Exhibitions' large profits funded the purchase of some of the land the College now stands on. Prince Albert was a keen supporter of the idea, as were Lyon Playfair and Henry Cole, Secretaries of the Department of Science and Art. The three worked closely to achieve the realisation of the scheme, and the opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1857 and the Natural History Museum in 1881 partly realised their ambitions.
The Royal College of Chemistry was the first constituent college of Imperial College to be established, in 1845. It was the result of a private enterprise to found a college to aid industry, and opened with the first Professor, August von Hofmann, and 26 students. The College was incorporated with the Royal School of Mines in 1853, effectively becoming its department of Chemistry.
The Royal School of Mines was established in 1851, as the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts. The School developed from the Museum of Economic Geology, a collection of minerals, maps and mining equipment made by Sir Henry De la Beche, and opened in 1841. The Museum also provided some student places for the study of mineralogy and metallurgy. Sir Henry was also the director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. The Museum of Practical Geology and the Government School of Mines Applied to the Arts opened in a purpose designed building in Jermyn Street in 1851. The officers of the Geological Survey became the lecturers and professors of the School of Mines. The name was changed in 1863 to the Royal School of Mines.
The Royal College of Science was formed in 1881 by merging some courses of the Royal School of Mines with the teaching of other science subjects at South Kensington. It was originally named the Normal School of Science (the title was based on the Ecole Normale in Paris), but in 1890 was renamed the Royal College of Science. Thomas Henry Huxley was Dean from 1881 to 1895, and had been a prominent figure in the establishment of the College in South Kensington.
The City and Guilds College was originally known as the Central Institution of the City and Guilds of London Institute. The Institute has its origins in a meeting of the livery companies in 1877, which led to the foundation of the City and Guilds Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education, to improve the training of craftsmen. One of the Institute's objectives was to create a Central Institution in London. As they were unable to find a site for the Institution, Finsbury Technical College was established in 1878 in Cowper Street. The College closed in 1926. The Central Institution opened in 1884, in a purpose designed building in South Kensington. It became known as the City and Guilds College after its incorporation into Imperial College in 1907.
Lord Haldane was a key figure in the establishment of Imperial College, together with Lord Rosebery and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Haldane continued Prince Albert's project to use the land owned by the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition in South Kensington to develop a centre for science and engineering. A Committee was appointed by the London County Council, and recommended the establishement of Imperial College. The support of generous benefactors, notably Sir Julius Wernher, and Sir Alfred and Otto Beit was instrumental in the development of the new College.
The remodelling of the College site from the 1950s has seen the City and Guilds building demolished in 1962, and the Imperial Institute building in 1963. The Collcutt Tower of the Imperial Institute (now Queen's Tower) was saved and became free-standing in 1968. New buildings were erected and residential student accommodation improved. The College established a residential field station in 1938 at Hurworth near Slough, and in 1947 at Silwood Park near Ascot, which remains today.
St Mary's Hospital Medical School and the National Heart and Lung Institute merged with Imperial College in 1988 and 1995 respectively.The Imperial College School of Medicine was formed in 1997 from the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, with the existing schools at the St Mary's and Royal Brompton campuses. As a result of the mergers, the College received a new Charter in 1998.In 2000 Wye College and the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology merged with the College. The Kennedy Institute became a Division of the School of Medicine and Wye College is now known as Imperial College at Wye.
The Department of Science and Art was set up by the Board of Trade in 1853 to develop science education. It later became the Board of Education, the Ministry of Education, and the Department of Education and Science.
Born, 1847; educated at Rugby, Christchurch College Oxford; Steward and senior student at Christchurch; Senior Bursar and Honorary Fellow of Balliol College Oxford; Vice-president, Committee of Council on Education, 1892-1895; MP for Rotherham, Yorkshire, 1885-1899; member of the Governing Body, Imperial College, 1907-1925; Chairman, Executive Committee, Imperial College; died, 1926.
Publications: include: A Handbook in Outline of the Political History of England ... chronologically arranged with Cyril Ransome (Rivingtons, London, 1882 [1881]); The Education of Citizens. Being the substance of lectures delivered ... to ... Co-operative Societies ... Decr 1882 and January 1883 (Central Co-operative Board, Manchester, [1883]); Working Men Co-operators ... An account of the Artisans Cooperative Movement in Great Britain, with information how to promote it Benjamin Jones (Cassell & Co, London, 1884); A Guide to the Choice of Books editor (E Stanford, London, 1891); Studies in Secondary Education edited with Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith (Percival & Co, London, 1892); The patriotic poetry of William Wordsworth. A selection, with introduction and notes (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1915).