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In 1880 a Postal Conference was held at Paris with the view to creating an International Parcel Post. At that conference the British Post Office was represented, although having no Inland Parcel Post it was unable to enter into any international agreement.

The Inland Parcel Post came into operation on 1 August 1883, and from the outset it was intended to link this service with the International Parcel Post as soon as possible.

Early in 1883 the proposals to be submitted to the forthcoming Postal Congress were being circulated and it was apparent that there would be an attempt to introduce into the Parcel Post Convention modifications which the Post Office would find very difficult to accept while its parcel post was yet in its infancy. A circular letter

was sent to all the signatories of the convention asking whether they were willing to concede to Great Britain the special terms agreed to at the Paris Conference of 1880. The replies to the circular were generally favourable but the Treasury at this time declined to allow the Post Office to proceed with negotiations until the Inland Parcel Post was more firmly established. It was not until November 1884 that authority for the establishment of a Foreign and Colonial Parcel Post was at length obtained, and the service established.

An overseas mail service has been in operation since 1580, before the establishment of the public postal service. A staff of ten Royal Couriers carried letters on affairs of State, or on the business of 'particular merchants' to Dover. In 1619 the office of Postmaster General for foreign parts was created. His couriers, who wore distinctive badges, carried letters between London and the Continent. A public office was maintained near the Exchange, where writing desks for public use were provided and where details of the Posts were displayed. Mails were despatched twice a week. By 1700 the Dover packet boats provided services to France and Flanders, and additional Packet Stations had been established. That at Harwich (established in 1660) provided a service to the Netherlands and that at Falmouth (established in 1689) provided services to Spain and Portugal. During the next century the Falmouth Station grew in importance, providing new services to the West Indies and serving British fleets in the Mediterranean. 'Packet ships/boats' is a generic term for vessels carrying mails. The contracts use the term 'packet ships' and/or vessels.

The incentive to change from sail to steam power on packets carrying the Irish mail was the need to recapture passenger income. This vital supplement to the packet captains' income from their mail carrying contracts with the Post Office was rapidly being lost to other competing Government-operated vessels and to the new fast privately-operated steamship services coming into use across the Irish Sea during 1818-1819. The Post Office's first experiments with steam power took place early in 1819, with trials of the privately owned steamers Talbot and Ivanhoe. By June 1821 - the journey time halved - the Post Office had built its own steam driven packet boats for the Holyhead station: the Meteor and the Lightening. By the end of the year steam packets were also serving the Dover Station and a revolutionary change in postal communication by sea had begun. Thus after this time the contracts often refer to 'steam vessels' rather than packet boats.

In 1823, following arguments that there would be less smuggling should the packets be under naval control, a measure that would also ensure an effective armed force in and around Channel waters, the Admiralty took control of the Falmouth Station. Management of the packet stations had become so much criticised that the remainder of the packet station were turned over to the Admiralty in 1837, where they remained until 1860 when they were transferred back to the Post Office. Thus between 1837 and 1860 the contracts were between the Admiralty and shipping companies.

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 nationalisation of the private telegraph services in 1870 created a need for a specialist department of the General Post Office devoted to engineering. The first Engineer-in-Chief, R S Culley, was appointed on 29 January 1870 and many of the technical staff formerly employed by the old private telegraph companies formed the nucleus of his new department. At this time the existing telegraph lines terminated at railway stations, usually some distance from the towns, so the first job of The Post Office engineers was to extend the lines to post offices within the towns. New routes were also added, with 740 miles of wire laid under London's streets during the first few months of 1870. The British Isles were split into divisions for the purpose of local engineering control. These divisions, each under control of a Superintendent Engineer, who was directly responsible to the Engineer-in-Chief, later became known as engineering districts. The first Engineer-in-Chief's Office was in Telegraph Street, London, at the Central Telegraph Office which had previously been owned by the Electric Telegraph Company. A move to new headquarters, GPO West in St. Martin's-le-Grand, took place in 1874. In 1881 the Government authorised The Post Office to offer the public telephone as a service, in addition to telegraph services, and the first Post Office Telephone Exchange was opened at Swansea in March. In 1912 the Postmaster General took over the National Telephone Company and for the first time a unified telephone system was available throughout most of Britain. Approximately 19,000 staff were transferred over, of which about 7,000 were employed on engineering work, adding to the 9,000 already employed in the Engineering Department. Three Engineering districts were formed in 1901 to deal with London's telephones. These were the Metropolitan North, Central and South. The North district was abolished at the transfer, but within a few months the whole of the metropolitan area was put under the control of one superintending engineer for the London Engineering District. It remained the smallest engineering district in area, but was the largest in value of plant and number of staff. The rapid expansion of the GPO's telephone services and the development of other forms of telecommunication led to an increase in the work of the Engineer-in-Chief's department. It remained primarily engaged in developing, providing and maintaining telecommunications services, but it also had responsibility for matters concerning electrical power and, as time went on, the mechanisation of postal operations. The department and the office of Engineer-in-Chief changed radically after 1969 when the engineering work of the new Post Office Corporation began to be split between the new, increasingly separate, postal and telecommunications businesses. RoMEC (Royal Mail Engineering and Construction) was formed in April 1988 as a self-contained profit centre. Its customer base extends to every part of The Post Office. The RoMEC Group comprises six core product groups in the specialist areas of security, manufacturing, maintenance, datacommns, installation and consultancy.

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.

The role of the Post Office in broadcasting began as an extension of the monopoly on telecommunications into the area of wireless telephony. Initially, the transmission of sound by radio was viewed as a new means for sending messages, rather than a potential tool for broadcasting.

The Post Office was responsible for issuing wireless licenses from the 1920s and also for the cabling relating to wireless. It derived these powers from the Wireless Telegraph Act of 1904; in this act it was provided that in order to operate an apparatus either for transmitting and receiving wireless signals, it was necessary to have a licence and also that this licence may be in a form and with conditions determined by the Postmaster General. The Broadcasting Department also afforded facilities to the Post Office for announcing policy developments, such as the introduction of reduced telephone charges.

It was also responsible in the 1950s for issuing television licenses and introduced detecting vans who 'combed' the country for illicit television receivers, i.e. those individuals who had not obtained a television licence.

Upon the creation of the new Post Office Corporation in 1969, the Broadcasting Department of the former GPO was assimilated (with its active files) into the new Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

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.

The General Post Office was, until 1969, a government department, and its expenditure was controlled by the Treasury. Prior to 1969 the treasury supervised all GPO financial management, policy, planning and development.

The Receiver General was an independent appointment, designed to remove all responsibilities for cash from the hands of the Postmaster General. There was, however, another major financial position in the Post Office, the Accountant General, who was appointed by the Postmaster General to keep an account of all revenue. This produced duplication of records. The Receiver General took receipt of all money paid into the Department, and paid costs directly from these funds.

The sources of income are mainly payments received from inland letters; window money (postage due on letters handed in by the public to the clerk behind the window of a post office); postmasters; letter receivers; returned letters; charges levied on incoming foreign letters. Expenditure includes payments for salaries of postmasters, letter carriers, sorters, window men, clerks of the roads and of the inland and foreign offices, inspectors, watchmen and other employees; ship letters; returned letters; accommodation, furnishings and equipment; travelling expenses; allowances and pensions; local taxes; contractors and tradesmen; building, hire, wear and tear of packet ships; captains fees. The balance of cash was transferred to the Exchequer.

The Post Office was established in 1635 by Charles I. The head of this new service was variously known as Master of Posts, Comptroller General of the Posts and Postmaster of England.

The Civil War saw the the Post Office contested by both sides. Acts of Parliament were passed during the Interregnum (1656) and later upon the Restoration (1660). These established the General Post Office as a branch of government which was to be headed by the Postmaster General.

The service at this time consisted of a number of main routes from London to the provinces. Postmasters on the routes collected and distributed mail and collected revenue.

During this period the scope of The Post Office's activities was limited and its administrative functions were largely concerned with its finances. The General Post Office was based in the City of London and was organised into three departments; the Inland Office which handled all internal letters, the Foreign Office which handled all overseas mails and the Penny Post Office which dealt with all locally posted mail for London. This building was destroyed by the Great Fire of London, which might explain why only a small number of Post Office records from that period survive. Those that have survived are largely volumes of accounts detailing levels of income and expenditure through the years. From 1667 the role of Postmaster General became a political appointment. Between 1691 and 1823, two Postmasters General were appointed, one being a Whig and the other a Tory. At the same time the post of Secretary to the Post Office was created. Over time this post developed into one which held real influence within the General Post Office; the Secretary's Office becoming the centre of decision making within Headquarters.

The eighteenth century saw much development of routes and post towns, although the Post Office continued to be run from London. It was not until 1715 that the Post Office appointed its first regional administrators, known as Surveyors. Surveyors were charged with ensuring that those at lower levels in the organisation were doing their duty and that the revenues were being correctly managed.

The nineteenth Century was a period of vast expansion for The Post Office. Postal rates were subject to a reform which resulted in the introduction of penny postage and the adhesive postage stamp. Increased adult literacy led to a dramatic increase in the volume of mail. The latter half of the century saw an explosion of new services as the Post Office moved into banking, telecommunications and set up a parcels operation. It also saw the development of a nationwide network of post offices through which these services could be accessed.

By the end of the century, Headquarters buildings had accumulated large volumes of historical material. To meet the challenge of managing this material, in 1896 The Post Office established its own record room.

The responsibilities of the surveyors had also grown during this period. They became the heads of districts of management; responsible for managing the range of Post Office activities in their areas.

The Post Office's move into telecommunications began in 1870, with the establishment of the United Kingdom telegraph service as a Post Office monopoly. From 1880, the control of the telephone service passed progressively to the Post Office, with the entire service being taken over in 1912. The Post Office also became involved in international telecommunications culminating in 1947 when, following the nationalisation of Cable and Wireless Ltd, it acquired the company's telecommunications assets in Britain. In 1904, the Wireless Telegraphy Act conferred licensing powers on the Postmaster General, and the Post Office continued to regulate radio services until the responsibility was passed to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1969. Within the field of broadcasting, the Post Office was responsible for the granting of transmission licences and the collection of radio licence fees, and for advising Parliament on questions of sound and television broadcasting services. In 1933 the Post Office's new Public Relations Division took over the Film Unit from the Empire Marketing Board, and in 1940 this unit was transferred to the Ministry of Information, later becoming the Crown Film Unit.

By the 1930s the size and complexity of The Post Office had grown so much as to lead to public criticism. The result of this was a committee of enquiry; the Bridgeman Committee, which led to a large-scale devolution of powers to provincial management and the creation of eight regions.

The Post Office Act of 1961 created a Post Office fund under the management of the Postmaster General. All income was paid into the fund and all expenditure met out of it. This enabled the Post Office to operate as a business with the financial status of a public authority. However, the Post Office remained a government department answerable to Parliament on day-to-day business.

The Post Office Act of 1969 saw the General Post Office ceasing to be a branch of government and becoming instead a nationalised industry, established as a public corporation. Under the terms of the Act, the Corporation was split into two divisions - Posts and Telecommunications - which thus became distinct businesses. The office of Postmaster General was discontinued and The Post Office, as it was now known, was headed by a Chairman and Chief Executive/Deputy Chairman. This role was directly appointed by the Post Office Board. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was created in 1969 and, in addition to sponsoring the Post Office, took over the functions previously exercised by the Postmaster General in relation to Broadcasting.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was dissolved in March 1974. Broadcasting and radio regulation became part of the Home Office, whilst Post and Telecommunications functions became the responsibility of the Department of Industry. The latter merged with the Department of Trade in 1983 to become the Department of Trade and Industry.

In 1981 the telecommunications business of The Post Office became a separate public corporation, trading as British Telecom. In 1984, British Telecom was privatised and since 1991 has traded as BT. Following the 1981 split, the Post Office was then reorganised into two distinct businesses; Post and Parcels. In 1987, there was a further separation of Post Office business as Girobank was transferred to the private sector, eventually being acquired by Alliance and Leicester in 1994.

In late 1986 The Post Office was restructured to create three businesses; SSL (Subscription Services Limited), Royal Mail and Parcelforce. A year later the network of post offices was established as Post Office Counters Limited; a limited company which was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Post Office. Although each of the above had their own Managing Directors and headquarters functions, what was now the Post Office group of businesses retained a headquarters function for group policy. Additionally this Group function continued to provide the rest of the businesses with services and support.

In 1993 the positions of Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive became two separate roles. The position of Chairman as the 'head' of the Post Office remained. The White Paper on Post Office Reform was published in 1999, with the objective of giving greater commercial freedom to the Post Office to enable it to compete and respond to changes in the market place. The paper reduces the governments' financial demands on the business and allows it to borrow from the Government at commercial rates to pay for acquisitions and joint ventures with private companies. This White Paper was followed by the Postal Services Act 2000, which put the recommendations of the White paper into action, giving the postal service the necessary greater commercial freedom. It also established Postcomm as the independent regulator of the postal service, and Postwatch as a national consumer body, which replaced the old Post Office Users National Council (POUNC).

The name Consignia was taken in Spring 2001 as part of an attempt to position the business globally. However, since November 2002, the business that carries letters and parcels and runs the mail has been known as Royal Mail.

No information available at present.

No information available at present.

Unknown.

No information available at present.

No information available at present.

Quebec, an important fur-trading settlement, was at the centre of struggles between France and Great Britain during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Originally founded as a French colony, Quebec was captured by the British in 1629, who held it until 1632, when the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye restored Quebec to France. In 1690 the fleet of Sir William Phipps, governor of Massachusetts, attempted to take Quebec but was beaten back with troops led by its governor, the Count de Frontenac. In 1711 a second attempt to take the city also failed when a British armada crashed on the reefs of the St. Lawrence before reaching Quebec.
The city fell to the British in 1759 (during the Anglo-French Seven Years War, 1756-1763) and was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

No information available at present.

A royal grant of Orkney and Shetland was made to the Earls of Morton in 1643, and the earls became hereditary stewards and justiciaries of the islands. There was often conflict with the thirty-some Orkney lairds who ruled over Orkney on behalf (and sometimes contrary to the will) of the Earls, as this was a time of strong Jacobite sentiment which culminated in the last Orkney Jacobite uprising of 1745. The uprising was, in part, due to the great discontent with the Earls of Morton which was felt by the lairds and Orcadians.

Philip Doddridge was born in 1702, and orphaned by the age of 13. The Duchess of Bedford decided to finance his entire education providing he would promise to become an Anglican clergyman, but Doddridge was set on becoming a Dissenting minister. Samuel Clark came to the rescue and offered to finance Doddridge's studies, obtaining for him a place at a Dissenting college at Kibworth, Leicestershire, run by John Jennings. Jennings died in c 1722?, and the college was closed down until April 1729, when Isaac Watts and several other ministers met at Lutterworth for a day of fasting and prayer and felt moved to invite Doddridge to reopen the academy in Market Harborough, which he did. By 1730, the Academy had moved to Northampton, and developed such a good reputation that Anglican clergy began to send their sons there. Doddridge died in 1751.

No information available at present.

Excise are inland duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture, notably, alcoholic drinks, but has also included salt, paper and glass. In 1643 a Board of Excise was established by the Long Parliament, to organize the collection of duties in London and the provinces. Excise duty was settled by statute in 1660. A permanent board of Excise for England and Wales was established in 1683 with separate boards for Ireland in 1682 and Scotland in 1707.

John Baynes was possibly the father of another John Baynes, also a lawyer, who lived c 1676-1736.

Possibly created by John Barton (1789-1852) an economist who lived in Chichester, was well known as a Quaker businessman and man of letters and wrote 'The influence of machinery on labour'. He was also a promoter of, and lecturer at, the Chichester Mechanics Institute (later part of the Literary and Philosophical Society).

The work may have been written by William Forbes, who was also the author of a treatise on bills of exchange published in 1703.

The City of London was divided into wards for the purpose of government as early as Norman times. The wards had responsibility to keep the peace, supervise trade and oversee sanitation, and each ward has the right to elect an Alderman and Commoners to sit in the Court of Common Council.

The easternmost of the City of London's twenty-six wards, lying outside the City wall and now wholly within the parish of St Botolph Aldgate. The ward contained one City parish church: St Botolph Aldgate.

The dockyard at Portsmouth was established in 1495. It was used throughout the reign of Henry VIII but was thereafter neglected until the Civil War when new buildings were erected and permanent officers appointed. The extension and improvement of yard facilities continued through the Dutch wars. Further periods of expansion followed between 1684 and 1690, 1694 and 1704 and 1716 and 1723. This expansion and the movement of the centre of naval operations into the Western approaches made Portsmouth the most important dockyard from the mid-eighteenth century. During the eighteenth century the area of the yard more than doubled in size; in the nineteenth century it trebled. The most notable additions were the Steam Basin, built between 1843 and 1848, and a further extension between 1863 and 1868 which added two locks, three docks and three basins. Expansion continued in the twentieth century. The dockyard remains operational today, and the Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command is based there. See H. Kitson, 'The Early History of Portsmouth Dockyard, 1496-1800', parts 1-4, The Mariner's Mirror, 33 (1947), 256-65, 34 (1948), 3-11, 87-97, 271-9.

Portland Rubber Company was registered in 1909 in England to purchase estates in India or elsewhere in the East. Harrisons and Crosfield Limited (CLC/B/112) replaced Alston, Arbuthnot and Harrisons as agents and secretaries of Portland Rubber Company in 1924. Portland Rubber Company went into liquidation in 1936.

Beilby Porteus was born in York in 1731; his parents were Virginian colonists who had moved back to England. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1752 and tutored until 1757 when he was ordained. In 1759 he won the Seatonian Prize for his poem 'Death: a poetical essay'. By 1762 Porteus had been appointed domestic chaplain to Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury; in 1769 he became Chaplain to King George III, and was created Bishop of Chester in 1776. When Porteus was appointed Bishop of London in 1787, the British overseas colonies came under his jurisdiction. He had already shown a keen interest in the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and now organised missions to India and the West Indies. He also took part in House of Lords debates which opposed the slave trade, and was foremost amongst those trying to pass Sir William Dolben's Slave Carrying Bill in 1788. Porteus also published volumes of sermons and tracts on political and spiritual topics. He died in 1808.

George Porter was born in Stainforth, Yorkshire, in 1920. He was educated at Thorne Grammar School 1931-1938, and was Ackroyd Scholar at the University of Leeds, 1938-1941. He served as a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Radar Officer in the Western Approaches and the Mediterranean from 1941 to 1945. In 1949 he married Stella Jean Brooke and they had two sons, John Brooke and Andrew Christopher George. In 1945 he went to the University of Cambridge to research chemical kinetics and photochemistry. He stayed at Cambridge until 1954 when he became Assistant Director of the British Rayon Research Association in Manchester. He studied the problems of dye fading and phototendering of fabrics. He was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield from 1955 to 1963 and became Firth Professor of Chemistry there from 1963 to 1966. He was also Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) from 1963 to 1966. In 1966 he became Director of the RI as well as Fullerian Professor of Chemistry of the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory at the RI. He researched into applying flash photolysis to the problem of photosynthesis and extended it to the nanosecond and picoseocnd regions. He remained Director of the RI until 1985 and during this time, he gave many lectures including several broadcasts on television. He published many papers and also books such as Chemistry for the Modern World, 1962 and Chemistry in Microtime, 1996. He received many awards for his work, gaining the Davy medal in 1971, the Rumford medal in 1978, the Michael Faraday medal in 1991 and the Copley medal in 1992. In 1967 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with M. Eigen and R. G. W. Norrish. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1960 and became President of the Royal Society in 1985 until 1990. He became Chairman of the Centre for Photomolecular Sciences, at Imperial College London in 1990. He was knighted in 1972, awarded the Order of Merit in 1989 and made a life peer in 1990.

Porter became a surgeon in the Navy in 1877 and after service abroad joined the SCOUT, Mediterranean Station, from 1889 to 1892. He then served at Bermuda Dockyard. In 1896 he was Staff Surgeon in the BRITANNIA and in 1897 went to the DORIS, flagship at the Cape of Good Hope, and was promoted to Fleet Surgeon there in 1898. Between 1899 and 1900 Porter was Principal Medical Officer to the Naval Brigade in South Africa and afterwards received special promotion to the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets. In 1902 he was appointed to the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham and to Gibraltar in 1905. In the next year he became Inspector-General. Between 1907 and 1908 he was Principal Medical Officer at Haslar. In 1908 he became Medical Director-General of the Navy until his retirement in 1913. During 1915 he was Principal Hospital Transport Officer for the Mediterranean Station, being much concerned with the Dardanelles campaign. He reverted to the retired list in 1917.

Joshua Henry Porter served in the 97th regiment, and was commended for his services at the siege of Sebastapol and the fall of Lucknow. He worked at the Army Medical School, Netley where he was assistant professor of military surgery. Porter was also deputy commander of the British Ambulance Service in France during the Franco-Prussian war and medical officer in charge of the Kabul force in the Afghan war. He died at Kabul in 1880.

No information available at present.

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.

Nina Popplewell (1890-1979) took the Social Science Certificate Course at London School of Economics (LSE) (1913-1914) and gained a Bsc Econ in sociology / social psychology in 1916. She was Professor Hobhouse's sole honours student and contemporary with Mary Stocks, Lord Piercy and Sir Theo Gregory. She was tutored by Clement Attlee and taught by Sidney Webb. After hearing a speech by Mrs Pankhurst in 1911, she began work at the offices of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Lincoln's Inn Fields, sorting letters, making tea and helping at fund-raising bazaars. She started her career by undertaking care committee work in Whitechapel and Stepney and became Vice-Chair of Stepney Juvenile Advisory Committee and a member of the main Employment Committee. Following her degree she worked at the Trade Boards as an assistant secretary and was the only woman on the staff. After five years in post, she was compelled to retire on her marriage to Frank Popplewell, although she was able to return for a year at the end of the First World War. She was later Secretary of the Equal Pay Campaign Committee and active in the National Council of Women and the Fawcett Society. Nina Popplewell was a volunteer in the Fawcett Library and as a lover of cricket.

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.

Poor relief was based on the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 which obliged parishes to take care of the aged and needy in their area. Parish overseers were empowered to collect a local income tax known as the poor-rate which would be put towards the relief of the poor. This evolved into the rating system, where the amount of poor-rate charged was based on the value of a person's property. Early workhouses were constructed and managed by the parish. However, this process was expensive and various schemes were devised where groups of parishes could act together and pool their resources. As early as 1647 towns were setting up 'Corporations' of parishes. An Act of 1782, promoted by Thomas Gilbert, allowed adjacent parishes to combine into Unions and provide workhouses. These were known as 'Gilbert's Unions' and were managed by a board of Guardians.

Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. Each Union was to be administered by a local Board of Guardians. Relief was to be provided through the provision of a workhouse. An amendment to the 1834 Act allowed already existing 'Gilbert's Unions' or Corporations of parishes to remain in existence, although they were encouraged to convert themselves into Poor Law Unions. Although there was some reorganisation of union boundaries, particularly in London, the majority of Unions created under the 1834 Act remained in operation until 1930. In March 1930 a new Local Government Bill abolished the Poor Law Unions and the Board of Guardians. Responsibility for their institutions passed to Public Assistance Committees managed by the county councils - in the metropolis either the London County Council or the Middlesex County Council.

Poplar Poor Law Union was constituted in 1836, consisting of the parishes of Bromley, Bow and Poplar. Poplar High Street Workhouse had been built in 1735. The Union took over management of this institution and began expansion and improvement works, with a complete rebuilding taking place in the 1850s. From 1871 onwards the workhouse accepted only able-bodied men, who were put to hard labour. Men from other Unions were accepted if spare space was available, while the aged and infirm from Poplar were sent to the Stepney Union workhouse and those in need of hospital care sent to the joint Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum. The workhouse was forced to open for all classes on inmate in 1882 due to increased demand. In 1913 the workhouse was renamed Poplar Institution.

The Poplar Union purchased the Forest Gate School from the Forest Gate School District when the latter body was dissolved in 1897. The Union used the school both for training and as an overflow workhouse. The Union also managed a farm in Dunton, Essex, which housed unemployed men and their families. The men were employed in farm labour, thought to be more productive than the usual workhouse activities of oakum picking or stone breaking. In 1906 the Union constructed a cottage homes training school in Hutton, Essex. Cottage schools were small, family-home style houses laid out like a village, which were considered better for children than a large institution.

Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.

Papers donated by the Sussex Archaeological Society.

Poplar Hospital was founded in 1855 to provide for the many accidental injuries occurring in the Docks, and was officially called the Poplar Hospital for Accidents. Many of those prominent in the foundation, such as Samuel Gurney and Money Wigram, were actively connected with the London Hospital and, in 1854, it was suggested that the proposed hospital should be attached to the London. This suggestion was again revived in 1868 but to no effect. Sydney Holland, later 2nd Viscount Knutsford, became Chairman of the Hospital in 1891 and President in 1920. The Hospital was rebuilt between 1891 and 1894, and women's wards were provided for the first time. With the advent of the National Health Service in 1948, the Hospital became part of the Bow Group of Hospitals within the North East Metropolitan Board. In 1963 the Group was amalgamated with another to form the Thames Group. Poplar Hospital closed in 1974.

On 18th January 1600 a Commission of Sewers was issued to Sir John Picton and others 'for serten lymitts betwene Lymehouse and Blackwall'. The Commission for 1620 was for 'Stebenheath alias Poplar Marsh', and this with some verbal variations was used for most of the later Commissions.

Early Commissioners of Sewers were solely concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, not with the removal of sewage in the modern sense. In 1531 an Act of Sewers was passed which set out in great detail the duties and powers of Commissioners and governed their work until the 19th century. Gradually a permanent pattern emerged in the London area of seven commissions, five north and two south of the Thames, with, after the Great Fire, a separate commission for the City of London. The London commissioners had more extensive powers than those in other parts of the country; they had control over all watercourses and ditches within two miles of the City of London as well as newly constructed drains and sewers. After 1800 the London commissioners also obtained powers to control the formation of new sewers and house drains.

Born 1878; educated at Haileybury College, Hertfordshire, and Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Surrey; 2nd Lt, Oxfordshire Light Infantry, 1898; Capt, 1904; gained additional name of Popham, by Royal Warrant, 1904; attended Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1910; gained pilot's certificate, 1911; transferred to Air Bn, Royal Engineers, commanding 2 (The Aeroplane) Company, 1912; Commander, 3 (Fighter) Sqn, Royal Flying Corps, 1912; Brevet Maj, 1913; Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General to the Royal Flying Corps, at Headquarters, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), 1914-1916; Maj, 1915; formed 3 Wing (1 and 4 Sqns), Royal Flying Corps, 1915; Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster General to the Royal Flying Corps, 1916; Controller of Aircraft Production, Air Ministry, 1918-1919; Air Cdre, 1919; Director of Research, Air Ministry, 1919-1921; Commandant of the RAF Staff College, Andover, Hampshire, 1921-1926; AVM, 1924; Air Officer Commanding Fighting Area, Air Defence of Great Britain, 1926-1928; Air Officer Commanding, British Forces in Iraq, 1928-1930, and High Commissioner and Commander in Chief of Iraq, Sep-Oct 1929; Commandant, Imperial Defence College, 1931-1933; AM, 1931; Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Air Defence of Great Britain, 1933-1935; Principal Air Aide de Camp to HM King George V, 1933-1937; Inspector General of the RAF, 1935; ACM, 1935; Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Middle East, 1935-1936; retired list, 1937; Governor and Commander in Chief of Kenya, 1937-1939; rejoined RAF as Head of Training Mission to Canada (where the Air Training Scheme was set up) and South Africa, 1939-1940; Air Commander in Chief, Far East, 1940-1941; retired list, 1942; Inspector General of the Air Training Corps until 1945; President of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute, 1944-1946; died 1953.

The income for this charity, which was also known as Poors Allotments, derived from a plot of ground called Poors Piece, containing one and a quarter acres, situated between Lower Boston Road and St Mark's Road, Hanwell. The land was let out as allotments, the rents being used to provide coal, which was distributed annually to the poor of the parish. The trustees were responsible for the management of the ground, the collection of rents and the dole.

Poors Piece was conveyed to Ealing Borough Council in 1940, for use as an open space, under the provision of the Charities (Fuel Allotments) Act 1939. The money from the sale was invested and fuel continued to be provided, in some cases logs instead of coal. After the operation of the Clean Air Act 1956 smokeless fuel or cash allowances towards electricity and gas bills were substituted.

Born in 1866; Lt, 3 Bn, Wiltshire Regiment (Militia), 1883; joined 1 Bn, 1886; transferred to 7 Hussars, 1886; served in India, 1886-1895; ADC to Governor of Bombay, 1892-1895; served in South Africa, 1895-1906; Staff Captain, Natal 1896; Capt, 1898; Provost Marshal, South African Field Force, 1899-1902; Maj, 1901; Lt Col, 1911; commanded 7 Hussars, 1911-1915; served in India, 1911-1919; Col, 1914; commanded Jhansi Bde, 1915-1919; retired pay, 1921; noted amateur cricketer; died in 1938.

W A Pool qualified as a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1911. He was in the Indian Veterinary Service 1912-1924 and was an officer during World War I. From 1930 to 1955, when he retired, he was Director of the Commonwealth Bureau of Animal Health, Weybridge. He was also editor of'Veterinary Research.

The Polytechnics Council for the Education of Teachers was founded in 1976 to provide a national forum for the exchange of information, opinions, experiences and ideas on teacher education as it concerned polytechnics. Each polytechnic sent a senior member of staff as a representative to the Council which discussed policy formation and a wide range of other issues.

Members of the Polytechnic founded by Quintin Hogg (1845-1903) and its predecessors had visited his homes, including Holly Hill in Hampshire, for holidays, but increasing numbers meant that this became impractical. In 1886 trips for members were arranged to Switzerland and Boulogne. In 1888 a party of boys from the Polytechnic School toured Belgium and Switzerland to see the mountains they were learning about in geography lessons. In 1889 arrangements were made for Polytechnic parties to visit the Paris Exhibition. Cruises to Norway began in 1892. In 1893 the Director of Education Robert Mitchell (1855-1933) acquired chalets by Lake Lucerne which were to become the most famous centre for the Polytechnic Touring Association. A notable achievement was the organisation of a series of trips to Chicago to see the World's Fair in 1893: more than 1,000 people made the month-long journey. By 1894 the total number of persons participating in Continental tours exceeded 3,000, increasing to 12,000 by 1903. The steam yacht Ceylon was purchased in 1896 for cruises of the Norwegian fjords. Polytechnic employees acted as guides. The trips pioneered cheaper travel, making it accessible to less affluent travellers, and the Touring Association, organising trips in Britain and overseas and attracting customers from among non-Polytechnic members, became a substantial business. Its office was adjacent to the main entrance of the Regent Street Polytechnic building. The tours were initially organised within the general administration of the Polytechnic, though after the Scheme of Administration in 1891, there was pressure from the auditors to separate out the accounts and administration. Robert Mitchell remained the driving force until after World War One. The continued expansion of the firm after 1918 was due largely to the leadership of Cmdr Ronald G Studd: when he left the Navy in 1921 his father, Sir Kynaston Studd, President of the Polytechnic, invited him to take over the management of the tours. He did this very successfully, expanding the range of tours to include southern Europe. When the Creative Tourist Agents Conference was formed, Studd became chair. In the 1960s the concern was taken over by the firm of Henry Lunn Ltd to form the travel retailer Lunn Poly.

Regent Street Polytechnic, founded by Quintin Hogg as the Youth's Christian Institute, encompassed members who were not students, but were involved in recreational activities via a large number of clubs. The Polytechnic Ramblers' club was founded by W K Davies and Percy Randall, who claimed they had the idea in 1885. The first reference to the club is found in 1886. It grew out of the Christian Workers Union, whose minute book mentions in March 1886 a proposal for Saturday afternoon rambles 'to promote healthy exercise and social intercourse among those who did not participate in the more athletic games on Saturday afternoons', and includes a few further references to its activities, among them a record of the first ramble in April 1886. The club claims to be the second-oldest walking club in the country. With Saturday rambles in the summer, and visits in winter, ladies were soon invited, and the club became popular. There was subsequently a separate ladies' club. The club was involved in the founding of the Federation of Rambling Clubs in 1905, which later became the Ramblers' Association. When Regent Street Polytechnic became the Polytechnic of Central London in 1970, relations with the sports and social clubs - which had been an integral part of Quintin Hogg's vision for the Polytechnic - were redefined as part of the new constitutional arrangements. They became legally separate, though some links remained. Further changes were made following the Education Reform Act of 1988. The club is now essentially independent, but retains a link as a member of the Institute of Polytechnic Sports and Social Clubs, founded in 1989. The club was variously known as the Polytechnic Ramblers and the Polytechnic Rambling Club, although no definite date for a change of name is known. It has a website at: http://www.pgould.dircon.co.uk/rambling