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The Princes Street Presbyterian Chapel was founded when Thomas Cawton received a licence for Presbyterian meetings at his house in Saint Anne's Lane, Westminster, in 1672. A few months later he gained a licence for newly-built meeting-house in the nearby New Way, Westminster. Cawton was minister until 1677, succeeded by Vincent Alsop until 1703, and Doctor Edmund Calamy from 1703 to 1732. Alsop claimed he had been required to divide his congregation into two because of its size, administering communion to each group alternately. The congregation moved to a chapel in Princes Street, Westminster, in 1703, and to another in Princes Street in 1799. It closed 1818, and the congregation joined that of St Thomas's Street Chapel, in Southwark.

Source: Protestant Nonconformity: City of Westminster, A History of the County of Middlesex.

Educated at Whitgift School; London School of Economics (BSc (Econ). Temporary Civil Servant, 1940-1942; RA, 1942-1946; commissioned 1943; served in Italy and Austria, 1944-1946. Student at LSE, 1946-1949; Member, staff of Transport and General Workers' Union, Assistant to Legal Secretary; in charge of Union's Advice and Service Bureau, 1950-1957. Labour MP: East Ham N, May 1957-1974, Newham NE, 1974-October 1977; Conservative MP: Newham NE, October 1977-1979; Daventry, 1979-1987; Minister of State, Department of Education and Science, 1964-1966; Minister of Public Building and Works, 1966-1967; Minister of Overseas Development, 1967-1969; Opposition Spokesman on Employment, 1972-1974; Section of State for Education and Science, 1974-1975; Minister for Overseas Development, 1975-1976; Minister of State (Minister for Social Security), DHSS, 1979-1981. Executive Member Committee, National Union of Cons. Assocs, 1988-1990. Alderman, GLC, 1970-1971. JP County Borough of Croydon, 1961-1964.

His publications include: Right Turn (1978).

Mollie Prendergast (1907-fl 1977) was born in 1907, in Hallthwaites, Cumberland, the daughter of George Shaw, a farm labourer and Mary Shuttleworth. She grew up near Boughton in Furness, Lancashire. Mollie left school in 1920 and went into service in Ambleside and later at Malton in Yorkshire. She then moved to London and held several positions there. In 1928 she married Wesley Packham, a chauffeur and subsequently gave up work. During the Second World War she joined the ARP and trained with the St. John's Ambulance Brigade. In 1942 she joined the Communist Party. During the War she also took evening classes and went to work as a clerk in the insurance conglomeration Amalgamated Approved Societies that became part of the Ministry of National Insurance after the War. She was amongst the first tourists to visit East Germany after the War and she also travelled to Switzerland, Austria, Spain, France, Australia, Czechoslovakia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Her husband died in 1951. After this Mollie Prendergast became involved in political action in health and housing, especially locally in Marylebone and St. John's Wood, and went on political marches and demonstrations, including with CND. In 1958 she married for a second time, to Jim Prendergast, a railway guard at Marylebone Station. He died in 1974. Mollie then became secretary to Joan Maynard MP, a position from which she retired in 1977.

Kristallnacht, also known as Reichskristallnacht, Reichspogromnacht, Crystal Night and the Night of the Broken Glass, was a pogrom against Jews throughout Germany, 9-10 November 1938. Jewish homes along with 8,000 Jewish shops were ransacked in numerous German cities, towns and villages as civilians and both the SA (Sturmabteilung) and the SS (Schutzstaffel) destroyed buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in shards of glass from broken windows, the origin of the name 'Night of Broken Glass'. Jews were beaten to death, 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps and 1,668 synagogues ransacked, with 267 set on fire.

Not known.

John Thomas Pratt was born on 13th January 1876, sixth son of Edward Pratt who worked for the Indian Salt Revenue Service. He was educated at Dulwich College. In 1905 he was called to the Bar, Middle Temple. Between 1898 and 1924, he served with the British Consular Service in China, holding various posts including Student Interpreter from 1898; British Assessor in Mixed Court at Shanghai Consul from 1909; Vice-Consul in China from 1910; Consul at Tsinan from 1913 and Consul-General from 1919; Nanking 1922 and Shanghai 1924. In 1925 he was transferred to the Foreign Office, acting as Adviser on Far Eastern Affairs. He remained in this post until 1938. From 1939 to 1941 he served as Head of Far Eastern Section of the Ministry of Information.

For twenty years he served as the Foreign Secretary's representative on the Universities China Committee. He was also Chairman of the British and Chinese Corporation, Member of the Scarborough Commission and Vice-Chairman of the Governing Body of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

John Thomas Pratt was married twice, to his first wife Edith Violet Houson Parker in 1914 (d 1937), and his second wife Dorothy Barker in 1943. He died on 23rd January 1970.

He had authored several works including Great Britain and China; Japan and the Modern World, 1942; War and Politics in China, 1943; Before Pearl Harbour, 1943; China and Japan; China and Britain, 1944; Expansion of Europe into the Far East, 1947; and several pamphlets.

The land comprising Camden Estate is situated to the east of the High Road in what is now known as Camden Town. The western boundary being the High Road from Crowndale Road in the south, continuing northwards up Kentish Town Road as far as Bartholomew Road in the north. The northern boundary continued across until it met Brecknock Road just north of Camden Road. The western limits being York Way as far as Agar Grove, eastwards across Agar Grove to St Pancras Way rejoining Crowndale Road in the South. The land was originally part of the manor of Cantelowes, which was in the possession of the Canons of St Paul as prebendaries. In 1649 the Commonwealth sold the land and Manor house. However, by 1660, during the Restoration the rights of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's were reinstated together with the original lessees or their representatives.

In 1670 the lease was purchased by John Jeffreys and passed, by the marriage of his granddaughter, Elizabeth, to Charles Pratt, who was born in 1713 and created Baron Camden in July 1765 and Viscount Bayham and Earl Camden in May 1786.

Initially, very little stood on the land other than the 'halfway house,' the Mother Red Cap, and the Manor house. Shortly before his death in October 1794 Earl Camden started to develop the land. Building leases were granted in 1790 for the land in the south of the estate, abutting west onto High Street Camden Town. The building was continued by his son John Jeffreys (Pratt) 2nd Earl of Camden, who was created Marquess of Camden and Earl Brecknock in September 1812. By his death 1840 urbanisation was complete. Earl Camden laid out his buildings along the eastern side of the High Street. They contrasted greatly with those on the western side on Lord Southampton's estate. They were more generous in their proportions. Many of the streets and roads on the remainder of the estate took names which reflected the personal and family connections of the Earl, including Pratt Street, Brecknock Road, Bayham Street and Georgiana and Caroline Street (two of his daughters). His son married Harriet Murray (Murray Street), daughter of the Bishop of Rochester (Rochester Square) and his builder was Augustine Greenland (St Austine's Road and Greenland Street).

Geoffrey Pratt was a geophysicist on the 1955-1958 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition team.

Benjamin Pratt was born on 9 August 1853. After working as a designer-draughtsman with the family firm, he studied for the ministry at Richmond College and was ordained in 1880. He was sent by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society to Hyderabad, India, where he learned Telugu. In 1883 he established a station at Karim Nagar. The following year he married Mary Newsholme. She died in 1885, and in 1887 he married Edith Amelia Ball, with whom he had five children. In 1896 he became District Superintendent and moved to Secunderabad. In 1907 he returned to England after suffering a stroke. In 1920 he moved to Alberta, Canada. He died on 7 June 1931.

Terry Pratchett published his first novel in 1971. A prolific novellist in the fantasy genre, he was the best-selling British author of the 1990s. His comic Discworld series, in particular, has been widely celebrated. Terry Pratchett was knighted in the New Year Honours list of 2009.

This company was registered in 1921 as P.B. Estate Limited. It was purchased by Harrisons and Crosfield Limited (CLC/B/112) in December 1925, to develop, produce and sell improved rubber planting material. It was an important experimental rubber estate. The company owned estates in Selangor and Negri Sembilan, Malaya. In 1962 it was acquired by Golden Hope Rubber Estate Limited (CLC/B/112-054), and in 1969 it went into voluntary liquidation.

Born, 1869; educated at Marlborough School; studied medicine at University College, Bristol and St Mary's Hospital; qualified, 1893; Assistant Physician at Great Ormond Street, 1900; Assistant Physician, in charge of the children's wards, at University College Hospital, 1903; full Physician at UCH, 1910; full Physician at Great Ormond Street, 1919; First World War captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps; Bradshaw lecturer at the Royal College of Physicians, 1924; Lettsomian lecturer at the Medical Society of London, 1927; President of the British Paediatric Association, 1931; Long Fox Lecturer at Bristol, 1934; retired from his hospital appointments, 1934; died, 1943.

Mount Pelée began its eruptions on 23 April 1902, the main eruption occurring on 8 May 1902 which destroyed the nearby town of Saint-Pierre, killing or injuring most of its 30,000 inhabitants. The eruption is considered to be the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century.

Theodore Francis Powys was born at Shirley, Dorset in 1875. He was educated at Dorchester Grammar School. He published his first work An Interpretation of Genesis in 1908. During his writing career, Powys wrote many novels and short stories. His last novel published during his lifetime was Goat Green in 1937. Powys remained in Dorset for the rest of his life. He died on 27 November 1953.

Richard Powys was born in 1844; he was first Secretary of the Royal Veterinary College, 1876-1913; he died in 1913.

Sir D'Arcy Power was surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital and a distinguished medical historian.

John Ward was vicar of Stratford-on-Avon and a medical practitioner.

No further information available at present.

William Hunter was born, 1718; attended the local Latin school; Glasgow University, 1731-1736; medical apprenticeship in Hamilton; went to London to learn midwifery from William Smellie, 1740; John Douglas's anatomy assistant and tutor to Douglas's son William George, 1741; surgical pupil of David Wilkie at St George's Hospital; studied anatomy and surgery, Paris, 1743- 1744; began building a surgical and midwifery practice, London; set up an anatomy course, 1746; member of the Company of Surgeons, 1747; temporary man-midwife at the Middlesex Hospital, 1748; man-midwife to the new British Lying-in Hospital, 1749-1759; member of the Society of London Physicians, 1754; licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1756; consultant physician, British Lying-in Hospital, 1759; physician-extraordinary to the queen, 1762; steward, then treasurer, and finally president of the Society of Collegiate Physicians; fellow of the Royal Society, 1767; professor of anatomy, Royal Academy of Art, 1768; died, 1783.

William Cumberland Cruikshank was born in Edinburgh in 1745. He attended both Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities and graduated in 1767. He was the pupil of John Moore, and became assistant to William Hunter. He moved to London in 1771, and gave anatomy demonstrations. He was later made a partner in the Windmill Street School by Hunter, and after Hunter died Cruikshank continued with Hunter's nephew, Matthew Baillie. Cruikshank attended Dr Johnson during his last illness. He received an honorary MD from Glasgow University in 1783. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1797. He published The Anatomy of the Absorbing Vessels of the Human Body, in 1786. He died in 1800.

Arnold Danvers Power was a publisher with Hutchinsons and the London manager for Sir Isaac Pitman, he became a partner in W.H. Smith in 1911. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1918-1959.

N J Powell and Company are listed in the 1873 Post Office London Directory as based at 101 High Street, Whitechapel. They are described as wholesale stationers and makers of account books.

Raphael Powell was educated at Oxford University from 1922 to 1929. In 1931 he was appointed Assistant in Law at University College London. He left in 1932 to become Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds until 1936. He was Head of the Law Department at University College Hull from 1937 to 1949. In 1949 he returned to University College London where he held the position of Reader in Law until 1955. From 1955 to 1964 he was Professor of Roman Law at University College London.

Ifor Ball Powell was born on 12 September 1902, at Llanfihangel Talyllyn, Brecon. He was a student at Aberystwyth in the early 1920s, where he came under the influence of C. K. Webster and Sidney Herbert in the then newly founded department of International Politics. A Rockefeller fellowship took him to the University of Michigan to study American history. While there he became interested in the Far East. Powell became particularly interested in the Philippines, when he arrived there as a Rockefeller scholar in 1926. He spent three years visiting islands in the central and southern Philippines, collecting a vast amount of information and material on the government, economy and history of the islands. He was particularly interested in the history of the British in the Philippines and collected material on British firms and society. After his return to Britain, and for the rest of his life, Ifor Powell continued his interest in and links with the Philippines, writing to many Filipino friends and colleagues and maintaining an extensive collection of press cuttings.

During the 1930s, Ifor Powell taught history at Barry County Grammar School for Boys. In 1940 he took up wartime duties as a temporary civil servant in the Ministry of Labour. He also visited the United States as a representative of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In 1945 he was appointed to the Department of History, University College, Cardiff, to teach modern European history. In this position he introduced courses on the expansion of Europe, Far Eastern and American history. From 1949 his teaching was entirely in these fields. Cardiff was thus among one of the first history departments in the UK to widen its syllabus to accommodate new areas of interest created by the Second World War.

He married Anne Nora Lewis (d. 9 March 1983) on 18 August 1931. There were no children. Ifor Ball Powell died on 11 December 1986, at Barry, Glamorgan.

Dora Mary Powell, née Penny, born 8 Feb 1874, daughter of Rev Alfred Penny and Dora Mary Heale. Following the death of her mother, she lived at Highfield with her grandmother while her father served in missionary work in the Melanesian and Solomon Islands. She rejoined her father at Wolverhampton, where he had been appointed Rector in 1895. Soon after he married Mary Frances Baker, who was a childhood friend of Caroline Alice Roberts, whom Edward Elgar married in 1889. As well as being stepmother of Dora, she was the sister of William Meath Baker, sister-in-law to Richard Baxter Townshend, and a close friend of Isabell Fitton, all of whom feature in Elgar's 'Enigma Variations'. In this way Dora Penny became acquainted with the Elgars and was to be characterised as 'Dorabella' (Variation X) of the Variations. She also became a close friend of A J Jaeger ('Nimrod' of the Variations). She took singing lessons, sang in the Wolverhampton Choral Society, and kept diaries during her years at Wolverhampton which record in passing this circle of friends. She lost regular contact with the Elgars after their move to Hampstead in 1912, paying a penultimate visit in 1913. She made her final visit to the Elgars shortly after her marriage to Richard Crofts Powell in Jan 1914. The couple moved to East Grinstead, Sussex. Richard Powell died in 1962 and Dora Powell died in 1964.

Dorothy Shakespear was the daughter of the novelist Olivia Shakespear. She married the poet Ezra Pound in 1914.

In the City of London each Sheriff was responsible for a Compter, a city prison for debtors and other civil prisoners. The Poultry Compter was the oldest of the three City compters. The prisoners here were mainly committed by the Lord Mayor. The compter was demolished in 1817. Wood Street Compter was a medieval foundation with room for 70 inmates. It was divided into three sections for the rich, the comfortable and the poor. The Wood Street Compter was amalgamated with the Giltspur Street Compter in 1791.

Alan Poulton is a scholar and musician who has researched and written books relating to musical theatre.

The Poulterers' Benevolent Institution had similar purposes to the Fishmongers' and Poulterers' Institution, but there was no administrative connection between them : see A H Eason The story of the Fishmongers' and Poulterers' Institution, pp.12-21.

Stephen Jeffrey-Poulter was educated at St Albans Grammar School for Boys and atttended Southampton University. He worked in the media and regularly lectured and wrote on the British media. In 1991, Jeffrey-Poulter undertook a national lecture tour on the subject of the history of gay law reform. In July 1995 he presented Coming Together at the National Film Theatre for the British Film Institute's Out of the Archives season - a 90 minute talk featuring clips from archive television documentaries on gay issues from 1957 to 1973. At the Museum of the Moving Image in July 1996 he interviewed television playwright Howard Schuman (Rock Follies and Nervous Energy) about his 23-year career for the fifth Out of the Archives season.
He was the producer of the television documentary 'A Bill Called William' which was broadcast on Channel 4 television in July 1997.

The Pottlitzers were a German Jewish family which settled in Great Britain just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Lisa Pottesman (1881-1959) was born in Romania in 1881 and came to London as a member of a theatre troupe. In 1903 she married Wolf Pottesman and in the early 1920s became a patient of Dr Harold Burt White, who in 1932 was subsequently struck off the Register for ' improper conduct with a lady patient' . Lisa's campaign for his re-instalment brought her into contact with Sylvia Pankhurst and a friendship developed between the two women. After Lisa's organisation of a petition to the General Medical Council, and her seeking of public support for Dr Burt White, he was reinstated in 1937. Restrictions on his practice however caused Lisa again to plead his cause with County Hall (London County Council) in 1939. He died in 1952, Lisa died in 1959.

Potter's Ferry, also known as the Isle of Dogs Ferry, connected Garden Stairs, Greenwich, with the Isle of Dogs. In 1550 Edward VI granted to Sir Thomas Wentworth (1501-1551) the lord-ships and manors of Stepney and Hackney which included rights of running the ferry. Pepys recorded that he used the ferry twice in 1665. In 1762 the ferry was purchased by the Potter's Ferry Society set up by a number of Greenwich watermen. Potter's Ferry was limited to foot passengers only until in 1812 a horse ferry was established by Act of Parliament, creating a statutory ferry for horses and vehicles in favour of the Poplar and Greenwich Ferry Company. The nineteenth century saw the Ferry Society involved in a great deal of litigation. In 1826 an act was passed confirming its rights. The ferry was leased to the Thames Steamboat Company and from them to the London and Blackwall Railway Company which became part of the Great Eastern Railway Company. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the ferry was said to be transporting 1,300,000 passengers annually. Its long history ended with the completion of the Greenwich to Millwall foot tunnel in 1902.

Born 1917; physics student of King's College London, c. 1936-1940; Hon Secretary and President of the Students' Union at King's, c. 1938-39.

Richard Potter MP (1778-1842) was the brother of Sir Thomas Potter (1773-1845), MP and first Mayor of Manchester (1838). They grew up on their father's farm at Tadcaster, North Yorkshire and collaborated both in business and politics in Manchester. They helped found the Manchester Guardian newspaper in 1821, which became The Guardian in 1959 to reflect its national distribution and news coverage. The Potter brothers also founded the Times(Manchester), later called the Examiner and Times, and established the wholesale house in Manchester trade which became known as "Potter's". This place became a rendezvous for political and philanthropic reformers. In 1830 Richard Potter joined a group campaigning for parliamentary reform. The group proposed that the seats of rotten boroughs convicted of gross electoral corruption should be transferred to industrial towns. In 1831 Absalom Watkin (fl 1807-1861) drew up a petition asking the government to grant Manchester two Members of Parliament. As a result of the 1832 Reform Act Manchester had its first two Members of Parliament. Richard Potter was returned as Liberal MP for Wigan in 1832, 1835 and 1837. He later unsuccessfully contested Gloucester. His political views earned him the nickname "Radical Dick". Richard Potter's son, also called Richard, was President of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada and Chairman of the Great Western Railway (1817-1892),and his granddaughter Beatrice Webb (1858-1943), daughter of his son Richard, was a prominent social reformer and wife of fellow reformer Sidney Webb, Baron Passfield (1859-1947). His publications include: "To the independent inhabitants of the Borough of Wigan" (1831).

Born, London, 1714; educated, educated privately at 'Darne' (Darenth), Kent; apprentice to Edward Nourse, assistant-surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 1729-1736; admitted to the Barber-Surgeons' Company, 1736; lecturer on anatomy, 1753, master, 1765, Corporation of Surgeons; assistant-surgeon, 1744, surgeon, 1749, senior surgeon, 1765-1787, St Bartholomew's Hospital; introduced many improvements to surgery; became the leading surgeon of his time, and perhaps the earliest 'modern' surgeon; thrown from his horse, and suffered a compound fracture of the leg, 1756, that type of fracture becoming known as a 'Pott's fracture'; fellow of the Royal Society, 1764; instituted a course of lectures for the pupils at St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1765; honorary fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 1786; honorary member, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 1787; Governor, St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1787; died, 1788.
Publications include: A Treatise on Ruptures (C Hitch & L Hawes, London, 1756); An Account of a particular kind of Rupture, frequently attendant upon children, and sometimes met with in adults; viz. that in which the intestine, or omentum, is found in the same cavity, and in contact with the testicle (London, 1757); Observations on that Disorder of the Corner of the Eye, commonly called Fistula Lachrymalis second edition (L Hawes & Co, London, 1763); Remarks on the disease commonly called a fistula in ano (L Hawes, London, 1765); A Treatise on the Hydrocele, or Watry Rupture, and other Diseases of the Testicle second edition (L Hawes, London, 1767); Observations on the nature and consequences of those injuries to which the head is liable from external violence, etc (L Hawes, London, 1768); Some few General Remarks on Fractures and Dislocations second edition (L Hawes, London, 1773); Chirurgical Observations relative to the Cataract, the polypus of the nose, the cancer of the scrotum, ... ruptures, and the mortification of the toes, etc (London, 1775); The Chirurgical Works of Percival Pott (London, 1775); Farther Remarks on the useless state of the lower limbs in consequence of a Curvature of the Spine, being a supplement to a former treatise on that subject (London, 1782); Observations on Chimney Sweeper's Cancer [London, 1810?].

Percivall Pott was born in London, in 1714. He was educated at a private school in Darenth, Kent. He became apprenticed to Edward Nourse in 1729, preparing dissections for demonstration at Nourse's anatomy and surgery lectures. Pott built a good professional reputation, and received the freedom of the Barber-Surgeons' Company in 1736, and also passed the grand diploma examination, without actually being in attendance. Pott was appointed assistant surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1745, and became full surgeon in 1749. He challenged some long established treatments, for example the use of hot iron cauteries. Pott and William Hunter were elected the first lecturers in anatomy to the new Surgeon's company, in 1753. Pott became a member of the court of examiners in 1763, and master of the company in 1765. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1764. He had a large practice, with patients including David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, and Thomas Gainsborough. He was made honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1786, and an honorary member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1787. He resigned from St Bartholomew's Hospital aged 73, was made a hospital governor and continued in private practice until his death in 1788.

Born 1833; wrote under the name Mrs Henry Pott and became a prominent Shakespeare scholar and proponent of the theory that Francis Bacon was Shakespeare; died 1914.
Publications include: The promus of formularies and elegances, by Francis Bacon (1883); Did Francis Bacon write "Shakespeare"? (1884); Francis Bacon and his secret society: An attempt to collect and unite the lost links of a long and strong chain (1891).

Malachy Postlethwayt was born c 1707. He spent twenty years compiling The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, 1751-1774. Between 1745 and 1758 Postlethwayt published other works on trade and commerce, including The African Trade the Great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade in America, 1745 and Considerations on the Revival of Royal-British Assiento, 1749. Postlethwayt died in London on 13 September 1767.

Raymond William Postgate was born in Cambridge, 6 November, 1896, the eldest son of Professor J P Postgate, a classical scholar. He was educated at Perse School Cambridge and Liverpool College and attended St John's College, Oxford. During World War One he sought exemption from military service as a conscientious objector but without the defence of a religious objection, was jailed for two weeks during 1916. In 1918, he married Daisy Lansbury, daughter of Labour politician George Lansbury. They later had two sons John and Oliver. Postgate formed socialist connections through the Lansbury family and also through his sister Margaret, who married the Socialist economist and historian G D H Cole. Postgate became a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920, but broke from the party in 1922 to join the Labour Party. Postgate started his career in 1918 as a journalist and writer, working on the Daily Herald, and Lansbury's Weekly, where he covered the General Strike of 1926. He became department editor for Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1927-1928, was a European representative for Alfred A Knopf publishers from 1929-1949 and edited Tribune from 1940-1942. He used his socialist beliefs to write mystery novels within a social and economic context, and his crime novel Verdict of Twelve became a best-seller in 1940. Among Postgate's other works were three detective stories, a novel, short stories, many articles about labour and radical history and biographies including one of his father-in-law George Lansbury. From 1942 to 1949, Postgate worked at the Board of Trade and Ministry of Supply. In 1949, due to his life-long passion for good food and wine, Postgate decided to make an effort to raise standards by editing the reports of a band of volunteers on their visits to British hotels and restaurants. The highly influential Good Food Club was born as a result, of which he was president. He became editor of the Good Food Guide and wrote many articles and books as a food critic and wine writer. He was awarded the OBE in 1966. Raymond Postgate died on March 29, 1971.

Until 1934, Post Office headquarters consisted of the Secretary's Office; the Solicitor to the Post Office's Office; The Chief Medical Officer's Office; three financial services (the Accountant-General's department; the Savings Bank and the Money Order Office); and two technical services (the Engineering Department and the Department of the Controller of Stores). The Secretary of the Post Office was the permanent head of the Post Office and the principal adviser to the Postmaster General. Assisted by the Second Secretary and the staff of the Secretary's Office, he was responsible for the policy and organization of the entire department and the efficient working of its various services. Control of the mail services and the telegraph, telephone and wireless services were the responsibility of the Director of Postal Services and the Director of Telegraphs and Telephones respectively, who reported directly to the Secretary. The Secretary's Office was divided into seven adminstrative divisions, each headed by an Assistant Secretary. These dealt with mail (inland and foreign); inland telegraphs; overseas telegraphs, including wireless services; telephones; establishments (ie the numbers, organization and pay of Post Office staff); staff (ie personnel matters); and buildings and supplies. The Secretary's Office also consisted of an inspectorate: the Chief Inspector of Postal Traffic, the Chief Inspector of Telegraph and Telephone Traffic and the Inspector of Wireless Telegraphy and their staffs. The office also included a small detective staff, known as the Investigation Branch, which investigated suspected offences against the Post Office.

In 1934, a new structure was introduced for the organization of the Post Office following the recommendations of the Bridgeman Committee. The new posts of Director General and Assistant Director General were created to replace the positions of Secretary and Second Secretary (who had been perceived as having too much autonomy), and the Secretary's Office was disbanded and replaced by three administrative departments: the Postal Services Department (comprising the Mails branch and the Postal Traffic Section); the Telegraph and Telephone Department (comprising Telephone, Inland Telegraph and Overseas Telegraph Branches, Telegraph and Telephone Traffic Section and Wireless Telegraphy Section); and Personnel Department (comprising the Chief Clerk's, Establishments, Staff, Medical, Investigation and Buildings Branches, Architectural Staff and Registry). In addition, a further Department called the Public Relations Department was set up comprising a Sales and Publicity Section and a Film Unit and Library. As part of this reorganisation, a Post Office Board was also established to direct the actions of the Director General, although the Postmaster General continued to have the power to overrule the Board in matters of policy. At the same time, the organisation of the Post Office was decentralised: regions were established, with their own Regional Directors and Boards.

The General Directorate oversaw the policy and general management of the Post Office. The Director General was responsible for carrying out the directions of the Post Office Board (which was first appointed in 1934), following the abolition of the position of Secretary. The Secretary had effectively been allowed to run the Post Office, dealing with all matters of policy as well as maintaining a general managerial control.

Sir Thomas Gardiner chaired a departmental committee tasked with the applying the increased decentralisation recommended by the Bridgeman Committee report of 1932 which advocated that the Post Office should be organised along more commercial lines. The Gardiner Committee's recommendations, published in its report of 1936, led to eight regions being established in the provinces, each in the charge of a Regional Director responsible for the control and co-ordination of all Post Office services within his region. Additional to these eight provincial regions, two further regions were set up in London - one for Posts and one for Telecommunications. The provincial regions were divided into Head Postmasters' districts for the management of the postal and the telegraph services (in practice these were already in existence).

The telephone service regions were divided into telephone Areas under Telephone Managers, of which there were ultimately 57 for the provinces and nine in London. Telephone Managers, with Head Postmasters acting as their agents on certain matters, were to be responsible for the day-to-day control of all aspects of the telephone service (engineering, traffic, sales and accounts). They were also to be accountable to the Regional Director for the overall efficiency of the telephone service in their territory.

The first two regions (Scotland and North East) were set up in 1936, followed by the two London regions (Telecommunications and Postal), and the changes throughout the country were in place by 1940. (The records note that Midlands telecommunications region was due to be established in 1940 but its formation was formed in haste on 2 September 1939, the day before the declaration of the Second World War.)

The system of "minuting" papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (ie numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a "minute" into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.

Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use with telecommunications and postal issues within the same filing system for England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32).

In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the "minuting" of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.

Following the decentralisation of the registry in 1955, the previous minuted papers sequence was closed and a new sequence set up for the listing of both the central registry's files and the decentralised registries' files from 1955 (POST 122). In addition, there are two classes which reflect later creations of classes to accomodate papers which had, for various reasons, not been assimilated into the main classes (TCB 2 and POST 121).

The Post Office Engineering Department was created in 1870. As a consequence, many local linesmen's associations developed. In 1886 a number of the associations merged to form the Postal Telegraphs Linesmen's Movement. In 1896 the name was changed to the Amalgamated Association of Postal Telegraphs, and the union opened its ranks to unskilled workers, construction hands and storemen. In 1901 it changes its title again, to the Post Office Engineering and Stores Association. In 1915 the Association merged with the Amalgamated Society of Telephone Employees to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Stores Association. The title of Post Office Engineering Union (POEU) was adopted in 1919. In 1985 the Union amalgamated with the Post and Telecommunications Group of the Civil and Public Servants Association fo them the National Communications Union (now the Communication Workers Union).

A system of outside consultation of Post Office administration was initiated by Herbert Samuel, the Postmaster General, as early as 1913 in the form of local telegraph and telephone committees. These were set up by chambers of commerce, trade or, in their absence, by local authorities. In 1921 Frederick G Kellaway, the Postmaster General, under pressure from the Federation of British Industries, set up a national body known as the Post Office Advisory Committee. This was the direct ancestor of bodies still operating today. These committees had only a limited effect, mainly on particular details of the running of the service, and they did not have much impact. By the early 1930s, the national council was meeting very infrequently. In the years immediately following World War Two the local committees were revamped to cover all aspects of Post Office work.

In August 1969 it was decided to establish a Users Council. This was titled the Post Office Users National Council (POUNC). Its aim was to represent at national level the interests of the users of Post Office services, to ensure the existence of adequate consultative arrangements at local level, to receive proposals from the Postmaster General, and to make recommendations to him about the services.

These powers were established under the 1969 Post Office Act. POUNC was an independent statutory body, funded by the Department of Trade and Industry. It was modelled on the consultative or consumers councils of the major nationalised industries. It covered the whole of the British Isles, and three country councils covering Scotland, Wales and Monmouthshire and Northern Ireland. These councils were independent from The Post Office. An independent chairman, (although appointed by the Postmaster General), sat with thirty two members who were unpaid, except for reasonable out of pocket expenses. All members were appointed on 1 January 1970 and would serve, initially for three years. These members formed a cross section of Post Office users, and, as they served in a personal not a delegate capacity, were free to express their own views, and to represent the views of the ordinary Post Office user. Some of its work was delegated to individual committees, one for postal matters, one for telecommunications, other committees were formed as the need arose. From its establishment the Post Office provided a secretary and premises. The work of the council would arise from matters put to it by the Post Office, the public, and local advisory committees. This gave the local advisory committees a direct link to Post Office headquarters, something not previously available to them. POUNC maintained close liaison with Advisory Committees, receiving regular reports of their meetings, and circulating a periodic POUNC newsletter.

Between 180 and 200 Post Office Advisory Committees existed in 2000 throughout the United Kingdom. New committees were often formed and existing committees merged, when for example, a Head Postmaster's area of responsibility was enlarged. Membership was drawn from local authorities, commercial organisations, local voluntary bodies, and individuals. The committees were non-statutory. Post Office managers attended meetings to explain Post Office policy and answer questions about local issues. The aim was to increase the confidence of the business community in the Post Office. Advisory Councils acted as liaison points between the Post Office and the local community on matters of mutual concern. Prior to the enactment of the Post Office Act of 1969 Advisory Committees were sponsored and, in some cases, financially supported by bodies such as the Post Office itself, Chambers of Commerce, Chambers of Trade and Local Authorities.

On 1 January 2001, the Secretary of State transferred all the property, rights and liabilities of the Post Office Users' National Council to Postwatch. The following was based on information taken from the Royal Mail Group website (http://www.royalmailgroup.com) in November 2006:

Postwatch (initially called the Consumer Council for Postal Services) was established to promote the interests of users of postal services within the framework of the Postal Services Act 2000. It replaced the Post Office Users' National Council (POUNC) and had a more extensive regional structure.

Postwatch was responsible for monitoring postal service standards and acts as a focus for consumer issues and complaints. It was consulted on key decisions including variations in the services for which postal licences were required, the granting and modification of licences, and the enforcement of licence conditions. Together with the Postal Services Commission (Postcomm), Postwatch also monitored and advised on the network of Post Office branches.

Postwatch stated that its role was to protect, promote and develop the interests of all customers of postal services in the UK. It campaigned for a better overall postal service for customers, advising Government, the Regulator and Royal Mail Group on consumer views, demands and needs.

Postwatch had a network of nine regional committees around England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The chairman of each committee sat on the National Council. The regional committees included; Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England, Wales, Midlands, East of England, Greater London, South East England, and the South and West. Postwatch also established the Counters Advisory Group 'to identify, consider and act on consumer concerns about issues affecting the post office network and to inform Postwatch's national policy development and campaigning work.' Postwatch also conducted research into consumer views.

According to information taken from Postwatch's website (http://www.postwatch.co.uk/) in September 2009, the body was merged with energywatch and the National Consumer Council (including the Welsh and Scottish Consumer Councils) on 1 October 2008 to create Consumer Focus, an organisation established to support the rights of consumers in England, Scotland, Wales and, for post, Northern Ireland.

The origins of the Post Office factories go back to 1870 when the Post Office telegraph system was established. One of the properties acquired was a factory previously run by the Electrical and International Telegraph Company. In 1892 a factory at Bolton was taken over, part of which was transferred to London. Later, the National Telephone Company's factory at Nottingham was acquired, the work and staff being subsequently transferred to Birmingham. The Factories department was a separate division of the Stores Department. The work of the factories was reviewed by a committee in 1910-1911. The committee's report (See POST 77/4) recommended that the factories should be placed under the control of the Stores Department, and factories were absorbed into the department in 1912. The factories were again removed from the control of the Stores Department in 1941 and a separate department was established under H A Thomas who acted as Controller of the department. The main functions of the Factories Department altered during the period covered by the material listed below. Broadly speaking its work covered the repair, reconditioning, assembly and manufacture of all Post Office equipment and machinery.

The Contracts Department was established on 1 April 1941 to take over all the contracting functions previously performed by the Personnel, Engineering and Stores Department. The Department became responsible for making specialised studies of contractual arrangements for the execution of works, the purchase and sale of supplies and for placing the relative contracts. It did not, however, deal with contracts for the transportation of mails, small buildings and local installation works. The department also liaised in respect of all matters pertaining to contracts with other departments of the Post Office and government purchasing departments. These departments existed until the early 1970s, when contracting work was no longer centralised and was instead managed partly by Purchasing and Logistics and partly by individual departments.

The Post Office annual accounts, like those of other government departments, were liable to examination by the Public Accounts Audit Commissioners. One of the main duties of the accountant General was to superintend the making out and examining of the general accounts of Post Office revenue and to certify their validity before the Exchequer.

The first Agency Service to be provided by the Post Office on behalf of the government was the Post Office Insurance and Annuity Scheme introduced at selected post offices in 1865. The payment of Old Age Pensions at post offices was introduced in 1909 and in 1912 Health Insurance and Unemployment Insurance Stamps began to be sold. In 1915, through the medium of the Post Office Savings Bank, the Post Office helped to float the 'War Loan,' and in the same year it began to issue War Savings Certificates through its Money Order Department.

Accounts created during the transaction of Post Office business.

POST 9 consists of the following series: statements and accounts of gross and net produce of the General Post Office revenue; Receiver or Accountant General's cash account journals; accounts of daily, monthly, quarterly or annual receipts and payments, inland foreign and colonial services; District Surveyors' incident expense accounts, England and Wales; District Surveyors' monthly accounts of provincial riding work payments to contractors, England and Wales; Account of provincial postmasters' allowances and payments, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; detailed returns of provincial post offices in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; ledgers and lists of old debts of postmasters and other officers; salary schedules and authorities, GPO London, Twopenny Post Office and London District Post Office accounts; accounts of individual post offices, inland and overseas; miscellaneous accounts.

POID was founded in 1793, when the Postmaster General accepted some responsibility for the detection of domestic crime. The first records mention that an Anthony Parkin, private solicitor, acted regularly on behalf of the Postmaster General detecting offences committed by clerks, sorters and letter carriers, who had committed crimes such as taking bank notes and bills of exchange out of letters or other fraudulent practices.

The Post Office investigation work remained the responsibility of the Solicitor until 1816, when it was transferred to the Secretary's Office. It was later to be called 'The Missing Letter Branch'. As early as 1823, the Post Office investigators were seconded by chimney-hatted Bow Street Runners. Shortly after 1829, when the Police force was founded by Sir Robert Peel, Metropolitan Police officers were seconded to Post Office detective work and remained so until 1976. In 1848, an office was especially created for investigations duties. Investigations became the role of the Post Office Inspector General who could call on the assistance of a clerk in the Inland Office. The Missing Letter Branch continued to operate but, as before, its duties were restricted to missing letters only. Ten years later, in 1858, the post of Inspector General was abolished and the Missing Letter Branch was reorganised as well as strengthened by four Travelling Officers in charge of investigations seconded by two Police Constables acting as Assistants. By 1861, there were five officers who were given permanent status. In 1869, the Missing Letter Branch underwent another reorganisation and the department was put under the principal Travelling Officer - who became Clerk for Missing Letter Business - and made a distinct unit of the Secretary's Office.

In 1883, the Missing Letter Branch was renamed 'the Confidential Enquiry Branch' and the officer in charge given the title of 'Director'. By 1901, the duties of the Confidential Enquiry Branch were restricted to 'enquiries' only and any other duties were transferred to other branches of the Secretary's office; the staff comprised then solely of the Travelling Officers, managed by their Director. In 1908 the unit once again changed its name to 'the Investigation Branch'. The Secretary's office ceased to exist and the post of Secretary was replaced by that of 'Director General'. In 1934, the Post Office underwent a radical reorganisation which eventually affected the Investigation Branch in 1935. The Secretary thus became one of the administrative departments of the new Headquarters structure. In 1946, the name of the head of the Investigation Bureau changed from Director to 'Controller'. In 1967 the Investigation Bureau became known as 'Investigation Division' or 'Post Office Investigation Department' dealing with the investigation of Post Office crime and in particular theft from mail, by the deployment of civilian detectives with the full knowledge and approval of Parliament, the Home Office and the Courts.