The College formally announces matters of interest to media 'consumers' in press statements. Initially these were issued in paper form, from 2006 they have been issued electronically on the College website.
RCOG Update was the College's monthly e-news bulletin distributed to Members and Fellows. Each email contained brief information about general issues in obstetrics and gynaecology and RCOG news items and events, with links to further information.
William Alexander Liston (1908-1962), MC, BA (Cantab), MB, ChB (Edin) 1933, MRCP Ed 1936 (F 1946), FRCS Ed 1937, MRCOG 1937 (F 1950) was born in Bombay and educated at Edinburgh, Oundle and Cambridge University, qualifying in medicine at Edinburgh in 1933. He later passed the examination for the higher diplomas of all three Royal Colleges. After war service he became a consultant at the Edinburgh Royal infirmary and also worked at the Edinburgh Medical school and for the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society. William Glen Liston, his son, worked with him in his research.
No further information at present.
Roy Samuel Dobbin FRCOG (1873-1939) graduated in medicine at Trinity College Dublin. His main interest was pathology, but he also worked in obstetrics and in 1906 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Cairo. After service during the First World War he returned to Cairo, where he spent the rest of his professional life. He established a library of books and manuscripts relating to midwifery while in Cairo and although the bulk of his collection ultimately went to the Royal College of Physicians, he also made several gifts from his collection to the College Library.
William Rotheram MRCOG (d.1977): Rotheram was born in the early years of the twentieth century. His main professional specialisation was dentistry and after obtaining the degree of BDS from the Liverpool Dental Hospital he held dental appointments at Liverpool Dental Hospital and Liverpool University. He was awarded the degree of MDS in 1937. At the outbreak of the war he joined HM Forces serving for 5½ years and reaching the rank of major as specialist maxillo-facial surgeon. After demobilisation he applied for the chair of Dental Surgery at London University, apparently without success. He also had an interest in obstetrics and gynaecology. Having taken the degrees of MB and ChB in June 1940 he held and appointment as a resident in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Leicester General Hospital. In 1953 he successfully sat the MRCOG examination. Rotheram ceased to be listed amongst the Members of the College after 1974; he died in 1977.
Kenneth Vernon Bailey (1898-1989), MC, MD, MRCP, FRCOG, was born in and studied medicine in Manchester, graduating MB ChB in 1922. He was a leading gynaecologist in Manchester holding several appointments in and around the city before concentrating his work in St Mary's Hospital, Manchester. He was a Foundation Member of the College and became a Fellow in 1938. He died on 16 February 1989 aged 91.
William Fletcher Shaw (1878-1961) was born near Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Owens College (later the Victoria University of Manchester). In 1920 he was appointed Professor of systematic obstetrics and gynaecology in the University of Manchester, where he remained until his retirement in 1943. He was married twice, with three sons by his first marriage. He was knighted in 1942.
Fletcher Shaw was a gynaecologist of considerable distinction, with particular interests in conditions of the uterus and the use of analgesics in labour. He was an active member of medical societies, including the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, Gynaecological Travellers and the Gynaecological Visiting Society. He was the joint founder, with William Blair-Bell, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, its first Honorary Secretary, from 1929-1938, and President from 1938-1943. He was also the author of the first history of the College, Twenty-five years: the Story of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1954 (J & A Churchill Ltd, London, 1954).
It would appear that Fletcher Shaw kept in his personal custody much of his correspondence and other papers relating to the foundation of the College and to his terms of office as president and honorary secretary. He preserved them for their historical value and when he ceased to be president in 1943 he returned to an earlier plan to compose a history of the foundation of the College. In November 1950 the College's Council approved a proposal that it would pay for the publication of the history. Simultaneously, however, Fletcher Shaw appears to have wished to record for a distant posterity memories, judgements, and documents that he must have recognised could not be published during the lifetimes of his own contemporaries and the following generation. In 1953 the then President A A Gemmell suggested that the history should be extended beyond the foundation years to cover the entire period up to the present and that it should be published as part of the College's silver jubilee celebrations in 1954.
Fletcher Shaw resumed work with increased energy but his text aroused opposition, partly because of its account of the role of Victor Bonney in the College's formation, and partly because of its frankness. The publishers thought it actionable. After G F Gibberd (honorary secretary 1938-1947) had declined to revise the text Fletcher Shaw contacted a former student, Harvey Flack, who, with an assistant, prepared the text for publication. It was published as Twenty-five Years: The story of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1954 (hereafter cited as Twenty-five Years). (See e.g S34/73/3, S34/85/6, S34/70/7, S34/101. See also A4/4/15, A4/4/21a-b.) In his preface Fletcher Shaw praised Flack's skilful editing. Nevertheless it would appear that he felt that while compromise was necessary to ensure publication in 1954 it resulted in an incomplete account of events. It was apparently for this reason that he continued to revise and augment his different drafts and directed that after his death all his papers should be sent to the College. These papers therefore preserve all Fletcher Shaw's drafts together with supporting documentation, research notes, and specially prepared extracts from Council, and Finance and Executive Committee minutes, and from his personal diary. In the list below no serious attempt has been made to identify the relationship of the different drafts to the published text in Twenty-five Years.
One of Fletcher Shaw's motives in writing his accounts of the history of the College was to record his own recollections and perceptions of events in contradistinction to William Blair-Bell's. Fletcher Shaw knew that Blair-Bell had composed his own account of the early years of the College and he was concerned that this account might be unduly informed by Blair-Bell's own bitterness and regrets. (See in particular S34/3, S34/69/9). It is unlikely that Fletcher Shaw ever saw Blair-Bell's history as it remained in the custody of the latter's executors until 1970 when it came into the College's possession (it is now S33/1-2 - there is some correspondence between Blair-Bell and Fletcher Shaw in A4/4/22-24 on their respective plans).
In order to assist him in his composition the College Secretary W E Mallon sent Fletcher Shaw various papers and documents. Many of these are to be found among these papers. He also corresponded with some of his contemporaries and colleagues in order to make use of their recollections.
Bibliography: Sir John Peel, The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1969, Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1975, pp 38-40.
Vivian Bartley Green-Armytage (1882-1961) was a Foundation Fellow of the College and served as its Vice President from 1949-1951. He endowed the Green-Armytage Short Term Travelling Scholarship Fund, the Green-Armytage Anglo-American Lectureship and the J Y Simpson Oration (bibliography: see Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp.179-181).
William Gilliatt (1884-1956), KCVO, MD, MS, FRCP(Lond), Hon MMSA, was the son of a pharmacist. He graduated from the Middlesex Hospital in 1908 and held various posts there. In 1916 he was appointed assistant obstetric and gynaecological surgeon at King's College Hospital, becoming full surgeon in 1925. He remained at King's until his retirement in 1946. He also held the posts of obstetric surgeon to Queen Charlotte's Hospital and consulting surgeon to Bromley Cottage Hospital, the Maudsley Hospital and St Saviour's Hospital. He served for more than 20 years as gynaecologist to the Royal Family, attending the births of Prince Charles and Princess Anne. As a result of his relationship with the Royal family, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother accepted the office of patron of the College and the Honorary Fellowship. He was married with one daughter, and was knighted in 1948. He was killed in a car accident on 27 September 1956.
Gilliatt was a foundation fellow of the RCOG, and served on the Council from 1932 until his death. He was Honorary Secretary from 1942-1945 and became President in 1946 (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp 169-172).
The aquarells were originally held in the department of Carl Joseph Gauss, Dr Buschbeck's father in law, in the University of Wurzburg. They later came into the possession of Dr Herbert Buschbeck, Gauss' son in law, and presented by Dr Buschbeck to the College in 1985.
Dr Gunther Schmidt, a gynaecologist based in Hanover and a former pupil of Dr Gauss, presented a list of descriptions, or legend, of the aquarells in 1987.
The series comprises midwifery certificates awarded in the C18 and C19.
Peter Chamberlen the elder (d.1631) was a surgeon and celebrated accoucheur, attending the queens of James I and Charles I. His name is connected with the short midwifery forceps, which he was probably the first of his family to use. His younger brother Peter (1572-1626), and grand nephew Peter (1601-1683) were also surgeons who employed and developed the Chamberlen instruments, but Peter the elder is usually credited with being their first user (Dictionary of National Biography Vol IV, OUP, 1917, pp 13-14).
Roy Samuel Dobbin FRCOG (1873-1939) graduated in medicine at Trinity College Dublin. His main interest was pathology, but he also worked in obstetrics and in 1906 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Cairo. After service during the First World War he returned to Cairo, where he spent the rest of his professional life.
Edward Protheroe-Smith was a descendant of Dr Protheroe-Smith, the founder of the Hospital for Women in Soho Square (1842).
The 'Charity for Attending and Delivering poor Married Women in their Lying in at their Respective Habitations', later known as the 'Lying-in Charity for Delivering Poor Married Women at their Own Habitations' and finally as the 'Royal Maternity Charity for Delivering Poor Married Women in their Own Habitations', was established in March 1757. Its main instigator was James Le Cour, an 'eminent jeweller' of Huguenot descent.
The Charity offered a service to 'sober and industrious' married women 'destitute of help in time of labour'. It supplied them with medicines, provided midwives for 'common cases' and surgeon accouchers or physicians for more 'difficult cases', allowing them to give birth more safely and comfortably in their own homes.
Those paying a yearly subscription became 'Governors' of the Charity, able to recommend a certain number of cases for every guinea donated. Initially, general meetings or 'courts' of Governors were held every quarter 'to receive the report of the Committee and regulate the affairs of the Charity'. A smaller Committee and Officers were elected annually to oversee day-to-day management. By the mid nineteenth century a pattern of Annual General Meetings and General Committee meetings was supplemented by those of a Medical Sub-committee, chaired by one of the Physicians, and other sub-committees, such as a Finance Committee.
Early meetings were held in various coffee houses and taverns in the City of London, mainly Will's Coffee House in Cornhill and the Bank Coffee House, Threadneedle Street. From the 1840s the Charity had its own premises in Finsbury Square, in 1918 moving to offices in John Street, and subsequently to 46 Bedford Row.
By the late nineteenth century the Charity employed the voluntary services of 'Visiting Ladies', 'for the purpose of lending material assistance in addition to medical, in cases of great necessity and destitution'. These ladies visited cases and handed out relief from the Charity's Samaritan Fund. In 1905 a further venture was a 'Training School for Midwives', preparing them for the new CMB examination. This was based at the house of the then Head Midwife in Paddington, with lectures being delivered by one of the Charity's Physicians.
By the mid twentieth century there were several other agencies providing a similar service, and the Charity was advised by the Ministry of Health to affiliate with another organisation. Its investments were transferred to the official trustee of charitable funds, and were used for grants to the Central Council for District Nursing in London. The Charity wound up its affairs in 1949.
Robert Barnes was born, 1817; apprentice to Dr Richard Griffin, Norwich, 1832; studied at University College London, and St George's Hospital; member of the Royal College of Surgeons; year in Paris; taught at the Hunterian School of Medicine and in the discipline of forensic medicine at the Dermott's School on Windmill Street; obstetrician at the Western General Dispensary; Doctor of Medicine, 1848; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1848; obstetrical assistant, 1859; obstetrician in chief, (Royal) London Hospital, 1863; obstetrician in chief, St Thomas' Hospital, 1865; obstetrician in chief, St George's Hospital, 1875; consulting obstetrician, St George's Hospital, 1885; actively involved at The Seamen's Hospital, the East London Hospital for Children and the Royal Maternity Charity; one of the founding members of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1858; President of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1865-1866; founded the British Gynaecological Society, 1884, of which he was Honorary Chairman until his death; died, 1907.
Robert Barnes was born, 1817; apprentice to Dr Richard Griffin, Norwich, 1832; studied at University College London, and St George's Hospital; member of the Royal College of Surgeons; year in Paris; taught at the Hunterian School of Medicine and in the discipline of forensic medicine at the Dermott's School on Windmill Street; obstetrician at the Western General Dispensary; Doctor of Medicine, 1848; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1848; obstetrical assistant, 1859; obstetrician in chief, (Royal) London Hospital, 1863; obstetrician in chief, St Thomas' Hospital, 1865; obstetrician in chief, St George's Hospital, 1875; consulting obstetrician, St George's Hospital, 1885; actively involved at The Seamen's Hospital, the East London Hospital for Children and the Royal Maternity Charity; one of the founding members of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1858; President of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1865-1866; founded the British Gynaecological Society, 1884, of which he was Honorary Chairman until his death; died, 1907.
John Preston Maxwell was born on 5 Dec 1871 in Birmingham, where his father, Dr James Laidlaw Maxwell, practised medicine.
He attended University College School, Hampstead and University College London, before taking his clinical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, from which he emerged with a gold medal in obstetrics and went on to work as a resident at St Bartholomew's.
Then, following his devout Presbyterian faith, Maxwell became a Medical missionary for the English Presbyterian Church and, in about 1898, went to Yungchun Hospital at Fujian in China, where he spent the majority of his professional life. He specialised in obstetrics and was a leading authority on foetal osteomalacia. He became a Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Peking Union Medical College (a teaching hospital funded by the Rockefeller Foundation), President of the Chinese Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and worked as secretary to the medical committee of the Lord Mayor's Fund for the Relief of Distress in China. He was awarded the Army and Navy Medal by the Chinese Republic and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929.
Maxwell returned to England at some point after 1935 (possibly as a result of the invasion of Beijing by the Japanese in 1937) and lived at Brinkley in Cambridgeshire. He was elected consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the nearby Newmarket General Hospital. He married and had one daughter; his wife, Lilly (who, as a proficient artist, illustrated some of her husband's research papers), predeceased him. John Preston Maxwell died suddenly near his home on 25 Jul 1961, at the age of 89.
Born, 1848; educated at Winchester College,1860-1866, and at Brasenose College, Oxford, 1866-1870, medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, 1870-1875; MD, 1888; Radcliffe travelling fellowship of Oxford University; member of the Royal College of Physicians, 1876, and fellow, 1882; member of the board for the examination of midwives of the Obstetrical Society of London (OSL), 1882; assistant obstetric physician to St George's Hospital and Obstetric Physician to the General Lying-in Hospital, York Road, 1880; Obstetric Physician to St George's, 1885; Physician Accoucheur to St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1891-1913; Chairman of the OSL, 1891-1895; President of the OSL, 1895; Chairman of the Central Midwives' Board, 1902-1930; retired 1913; died, 1930.
Born, 1762 or 1763; medical education in London and Edinburgh; graduated MD, University of St Andrews, 1797; obstetric physician, London; licentiate in midwifery, Royal College of Physicians (RCP), 1800; licentiate of RCP, 1804; physician to the maternity hospital, Brownlow Street; editor of the Medical and Physical Journal; amateur artist, exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1788-1797; died, 1849.
Born, 1834; Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1863; Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries of London, 1866; Member of the British Medical Association; Medical Ref., Pearl Assurance Company; Surgeon, St Marylebone Provident Dispensary and St James and St Anne's General Dispensaries; died, 1897.
Colin Mackenzie was born, 1697 or 1698; attended, as Calenus Makenje, Scotus, the medical courses of Herman Boerhaave at the University of Leiden, 1722; studied under Alexander Monro primus in Edinburgh, 1740 and 1742; pupil of William Smellie; taught courses in obstetrics, 1754-1775; maintained a private lying-in establishment in Crucifix Lane, Southwark; degree of MD by the University of St Andrews, 1759; died, 1775.
James Blundell was born, 1790; educated first by the Revd Thomas Thomason, and then at the United Borough Hospitals by his maternal uncle, the physiologist John Haighton, he graduated MD at Edinburgh, 1813; began lecturing in London on midwifery, 1814; soon after began to lecture on physiology; Lecturer in Midwifery and as Lecturer in Physiology at Guy's Hospital, 1818; Professor of Obstetrics and Lecturer on the Diseases of Women; left Guy's Hospital, 1834; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1838; retired, 1847; died, 1878.
Publications:
Researches Physiological and Pathological (1824)
Principles and Practice of Obstetricy (1834)
Observations on some of the More Important Diseases of Women (1837)
William Merrick gained a certificate to practice as an apothecary, 10 Nov 1831.
John Haighton was born, Lancashire, about 1755; pupil of Else at St Thomas's Hospital; Surgeon to the guards; Demonstrator of Anatomy, St Thomas's Hospital, resigned, 1789; Lecturer in Physiology, [1788], and Midwifery with Dr Lowder, St Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals; conducted numerous physiological experiments; M D; Fellow, Royal Society; presided at meetings of the Physical Society at Guy's Hospital; joint editor of Medical Records and Researches, 1798; assisted Dr William Saunders in his Treatise on the Liver, 1793; silver medal of the Medical Society of London, 1790; his nephew, Dr James Blundell began to assist him in his lectures, 1814, and took the entire course from 1818; died, 1823.
Publications include: 'An Attempt to Ascertain the Powers concerned in the Act of Vomiting,' in Memoirs of the Medical Society of London (ii. 250) (1789); A syllabus of the Lectures on Midwifery delivered at Guy's Hospital and at Dr Lowder's and Dr Haighton's Theatre in ... Southwark (London, re-printed 1799); A case of Tic Douloureux ... successfully treated by a division of the affected nerve. An inquiry concerning the true and spurious Cæsarian Operation, etc (1813).
In 1745 Bartholomew Mosse, surgeon and man-midwife, founded the original Dublin Lying-In Hospital as a maternity training hospital, the first of its kind. In 1757 the institution moved to a different location where it became 'The New Lying-In Hospital'. This is the hospital complex that is referred to today as simply 'The Rotunda'.
The Committee of Heads of University Law Schools (CHULS) sees its role as representing law schools and their management to the funding councils and other established committees in the legal sector, promoting mutual respect and active co-operation between law schools regionally, nationally and internationally, considering and advising relevant bodies on the structure, development and resourcing of legal education, disseminating information and good practice concerning legal education, assisting in the promotion of good management practice in law schools and liaising with the Association of Law Teachers (ALT), Society of Public Teachers of Law (SPTL) and other bodies on matters of mutual interest. CHULS began its active life as an SPTL committee concerned with specific issues relating to law schools and law teaching in universities. Its first meeting was held under SPTL auspices at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) on 27th September 1974, when the President of SPTL, Professor C F Parker, was appointed to the Chairmanship of CHULS. At its fourth meeting on 28th November 1975, it was agreed that CHULS should cease to be a committee of SPTL but should be constituted instead as an autonomous body, though close links with SPTL were still to be maintained. CHULS developed initially as a committee whose members represented all law schools in universities financed by the University Grants Committee which taught a law degree. Representatives of polytechnics, the Inns of Court School of Law and the College of Law were thus excluded. In September 1984 the Committee agreed on the desirability of holding joint meetings with the Heads of Polytechnic Law Schools, who had formed their own Committee to represent institutions offering Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) degrees carrying exemption from the academic stage of professional education. On February 11 1992 a meeting was held to discuss a merger of the two Committees. The merger finally took place on 30 November 1992, with the creation of a newly constituted CHULS consisting of an Executive Committee with powers to appoint sub-committees as required. Membership was open to all institutions currently in membership of the two earlier committees, and other institutions of higher education which were in receipt of funding from a higher education funding council and which offered their own law degrees recognised by the professional bodies as giving exemption from the academic stage of legal education were made eligible to apply. Officers of the reconstituted Committee consisted of a Chairman, Vice-chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. In 1996 the two latter offices were amalgamated. CHULS' activities have included gathering information on staff recruitment and student admission procedures, monitoring the impact of Law Society and Council of Legal Education (CLE) regulations and of new teaching courses, reporting on funding for legal research and law libraries, examination of copyright on legal materials and provision of advice to bodies such as the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committees on Legal Education. Some of its findings have been published.
The Commonwealth Legal Records Project (CLRP), which began its investigations in 1990, was jointly sponsored by the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers (ACARM) and the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA), and was financed by a grant from the Leverhulme Foundation. It comprised a three year programme of research into modern legal records throughout the Commonwealth. The objectives of the study were to: i) analyse questions relating to the nature, extent and potential uses of legal records of all kinds; ii) collect information about the state of legal records in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions; iii) analyse factors relevant to devising informed policies regarding the management, appraisal, preservation and destruction of legal records and suggest guidelines; iv) produce and disseminate the findings of the study in a form that would be useful to interested institutions and individuals in different jurisdictions in the Commonwealth, especially developing countries.
Publications: William Twining and Emma Varnden Quick Legal records in the Commonwealth (Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1994); Legal records in Accra (Ghana).
Produced and accumulated by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies during the course of its business.
James Read graduated in Law from the University of London in 1953 and qualified as a barrister in 1954. He has been Assistant Lecturer in law at University College London (1956-1958), Lecturer in African Law, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) (1958-1965), Senior Lecturer in Law, the University College, Dar-es-Salaam (1963-1966), Reader in African Law, SOAS (1964-1975) and Professor of Comparative Public Law with special reference to Africa at SOAS from 1974. Professor Read was Joint Honorary Secretary of the United Kingdom National Committee of Comparative Law (1969-1973), Honorary Secretary of the Society of Public Teachers of Law (SPTL) (1972-1975) and Chairman of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (1977-1983). He was also a member of the Advisory Committee on Legal Education from its inception in 1971 until 1975, representing the SPTL.
According to a statement of ethical practice in the Socio-Legal Studies Association's 1995 Directory of Members, socio-legal studies may be defined as embracing "disciplines and subjects concerned with the social effects of the law, legal processes, institutions and services". SLSA was established to promote and support the work of socio-legal scholars, to facilitate the regular exchange of ideas and information and to represent the socio-legal research interest in discussions with other bodies. SLSA grew out of an informal group of academics that met at annual conferences to discuss matters of interest. In 1988 it was decided that the group needed a higher profile, and a conference was arranged in Oxford which was attended by over 100 people. The success of the conference permitted another to be held in Edinburgh in 1989, at which the proposal was made to create a formal Association. A Steering Committee was set up to formally establish the SLSA at the 1990 conference in Bristol, using some funds from various law faculties and from the Nuffield Foundation. A newsletter was first published in March 1989; in 1990 an editor was appointed to produce a regular newsletter. Chairs of SLSA are as follows: 1990-1993 Professor Hazel Genn; 1993-1996 Professor Martin Partington; 1996-date Professor Sally Wheeler.
The United Kingdom National Committee of Comparative Law (UKNCCL) was probably established in 1956 (earliest colloquium recorded in the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library). Its object is to advance education by promoting and encouraging the study of Comparative law. Its membership is open to law schools that provide for the teaching of Comparative law, and institutions and organisations that are concerned with the promotion of the comparative study of law. It arranges regular colloquia on Comparative law; most colloquia papers have been published. The Committee is run by a Council overseen by an elected Chairman. Business is carried out by two joint honorary secretaries and a treasurer.
Born in London, 1927; Architectural Association Diploma, London, 1954; Associate, RIBA; self-employed, working mainly for clients obtaining improvement grants for small dwellings, and a new home self-builder, 1955-1957; employed, mainly by Peruvian government agencies, on improvement and self-help housing projects, and by the British Department of Technical Co-operation, setting up a Voluntary Service Overseas project for training young electricians, 1957-1965; Research Fellow at the Harvard-MIT Joint Centre for Urban Studies and subsequently a lecturer at MIT, publishing papers and developing a course on Housing in Development, and carrying out consultancies, mainly in Latin America, 1965-1973; lecturer at the Architectural Association Graduate School and subsequently at the Development Planning Unit, University College London, developing courses on Housing in Development, and carrying out consultancies in Africa and Asia, 1974-1983; received the Sir Robert Matthew Prize for Architecture, UIA, Paris, 1977; self-employed partner of AHAS, a consultancy on housing and local development, and undertook advisory work in London and Paris, 1984-1989; directed Habitat International Coalition's project for the UN International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, culminating in a conference of community activists and enablers at the Reichstag in Berlin, 1987; received the Right Livelihood Award, Stockholm, 1988; served on the Board of Hastings (local development ) Trust, 1991-2000; received the Habitat Scroll of Honour, United Nations, New York, 1992; received the Johannes Olivegren Memorial Award, Gothenburg, 1994; advised on projects at the Max Lock Centre (a research and consultancy group) at the School of the Built Environment, University of Westminster; volunteer on the Tools for Community Regeneration (TCR) project, an information and advisory service for self-managed community development initiatives, from 1997; Turner's work was influenced by the ecological, urban sociology of Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932). Publications include: edited and co-authored Dwelling Resources in South America, a special number of Architectural Design (Aug 1963); 'Barriers and Channels for Housing Development in Modernizing Countries', Journal of the American Institute of Planners, vol xxxiii, no 3 (1967); 'Uncontrolled Urban Settlement, problems and policies', International Social Development Review, no 1 (United Nations, New York, 1968); co-edited, with Robert Fichter, Freedom to Build, dweller control of the housing process (Macmillan, New York, 1972, and translated into Italian and Spanish); Housing By People, towards autonomy in building environments (London, 1976, and translated into Dutch, German, French, Italian and Spanish); 'Tools for Building Community, an examination of 13 hypotheses', in Habitat International, vol xx, no 3 (1996); 'From housing to building community, a mirror and a directive agency', in City, analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action (London, 1996); with Renate Ruether-Greaves, 'Tools for community regeneration (TCR) - a Hastings Trust project', in Building Civil Society, current initiatives in voluntary action, ed Barry Knight et al (Charities Aid Foundation, 1998).
(Cecil) Max Lock: born in Watford, 1909; attended the Architectural Association (AA) school in London from 1926; graduated, 1931; started a practice in the Watford area, 1933; its main work was housing, mostly for private clients; elected to Watford Borough Council, 1935; advocated better housing design and rent subsidies; travelled through Scandinavia for the Institute of Social Studies, 1937; commissioned to design a timber house, 1937; Unit Master at the AA, 1937-1939; a project for his students to compare residents' demands with LCC housing plans influenced his views, 1939; his timber house was featured in the RIBA Journal, 1939.
Lock influenced by Patrick Geddes's writings on town planning, began to study for town planning qualifications; served on the executive committee of the Housing Centre Trust; an active member of the Modern Architecture Research (MARS) group; his interests led him away from architecture and towards social policy and planning as a teacher, researcher, and town planner; left London for Hull and became provisional head of the School of Architecture, Hull College of Art, 1939; as a Quaker and conscientious objector, excused military service, but his views caused dispute over his permanent appointment; during evacuation to Scarborough, led a project by Hull students to design a recreation centre at nearby Scalby, 1940. In spite of the constant bombing Lock anticipated post-war reconstruction; on the School's return to Hull, a survey of Hull was started through sponsorship and grants, 1941; The Hull Regional Survey: a Civic Diagnosis was radical in its approach and novel in its presentation with visual aids, 1943; it was exhibited in London and discussed in the specialist and national press. Lock was invited by Middlesborough Corporation to draw up a master plan and moved to Middlesborough to start the survey, 1944; his Group of professionals and helpers lived communally in the suburbs, with an office in the town centre, open to all; with Jaqueline Tyrwhitt and Ruth Glass, pioneered social survey and analysis as the basis for planning; this work was carried out closely with Ministries and Departments responsible for planning, with a view to codifying the methodology of participatory social, economic and physical survey as an integral part of the emerging statutory planning process.
Lock travelled extensively, publicising the Group's work via exhibitions, the press and publications; the Middlesborough survey and plan were completed, 1945; the team was appointed to work on Hartlepool and its hinterland and, including some new members, moved to Hartlepool, with open premises in municipal buildings. This work was a test bed for the new procedures and was the first plan to go through the new statutory hurdles to receive full Ministry approval; Lock visited the Netherlands and wrote a report for the Town Planning Institute, 1946; the team was appointed to resolve conflicting interests between new county and city planning authorities in South Hampshire and moved to a house on Southampton Water, with open offices in Fareham.
Lock opposed the consequences of the Town and Country Planning Act (1947), believing it ignored social and public participation aspects essential to the planning process; the Group wound down following the completion of the Portsmouth report and co-operative working and living arrangements broke up. Lock moved to Victoria Square, London; appointed by Bedford municipality, where a locally-recruited team produced Bedford by the River, a more graphic report than previous work, for consideration by the county planning authority; formed Max Lock and Associates; the practice moved initially to Great Russell Street and finally to John Street.
Lock was elected to various Town Planning Institute committees; acted as planning consultant, including conflicts in Sevenoaks and Aberdare; undertook redevelopment plans for the centre of Salisbury - winning a public enquiry - and for Brentford's riverfront; the architectural practice flourished under his younger associates (made partners in 1954), but there was less town planning work; his reports had been well received overseas; made a lecture tour of India, Pakistan and Ceylon for the British Council, 1951. Lock met the Indian prime minister, Nehru, and wrote a report on India; visited Jordan as UN town planning advisor, 1954; spent time in the Middle East and worked on planning in Iraq, 1954-1956; visiting Professor at the Department of Town Planning and Civic Design, Harvard, 1957; appointed by the UK Overseas Development Administration to draw up a master plan for the city of Kaduna, 1964.
Lock returned to London to publish the results in a format that became an influential model, and introduced his concepts of participation and in-depth survey in the African context; instrumental in forming the Urban Development Advice Group (UDAG); UDAG drew up a report on Dunstable, 1969-1970; tried to save his team's concept for Kaduna from piecemeal aid projects in transport and drainage that disregarded the overall plan; travelled between Nigeria and the UK, where he continued work on places including Beverley and Middlesbrough. In his study of Hackney and Shoreditch he was an early advocate of rehabilitation, based on thorough social and economic survey, as against wholesale redevelopment, 1971. Lock made various trips to North and South America on planning issues; appointed by Nigeria's North Eastern State Government to draw up a master plan for Maiduguri and other provincial towns, 1972; designed an office there; with his partner, Michael Theis, formed the Max Lock Group Nigeria Ltd; influential in re-focusing planning from the edges of town, considering instead its core to its region; pioneered a multi-disciplinary approach; advocated new techniques ('Civic Diagnosis'), including surveys, public participation and graphic aids such as transparent overlays; interested in music and its relation to architecture; died, 1988.
Publications include: The Survey and Replanning of Middlesbrough (Middlesborough Corporation, 1945); The County Borough of Middlesbrough: Survey and Plan (Middlesborough Corporation, 1946); The Hartlepools: a survey and plan (West Hartlepool Corporation, 1948); The Portsmouth and District Survey and Plan (1949); Bedford by the River (1952); The New Basrah (1956); Final Report to the Council of the City of New Sarum on the Redevelopment of the City Centre (London, 1963); Kaduna, 1917, 1967, 2017. A survey and plan of the capital territory for the government of Northern Nigeria (Faber and Faber, London, 1967); contributions to RIBA Journal, TPI Journal, Town Planning Review, and others.
The Max Lock Centre at the School of the Built Environment, University of Westminster, is a multi-disciplinary research and consultancy group on development planning, continuing the tradition pioneered by the Max Lock Group. For further information see its website: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sabe/page-1148
The Polytechnic Cycling Club was founded as the Ian Bicycling Club in 1878 in the Salisbury Street, Strand, branch of the Youths' Christian Institute, and named for the infant son of the Institute's founder, Quintin Hogg. It initially comprised mainly clerks. Hogg bought some machines for the members and their activities at that period apparently consisted of recreational rides. The club was succeeded by the Hanover Bicycle Club (named from the Institute premises in Hanover Street) in 1881-1882. It organised runs and tours, and annual races were held in August each year from 1882. Following the removal of the Institute to premises in Regent Street, formerly occupied by the Royal Polytechnic Institution, in 1882, the name was changed to the Polytechnic Cycling Club in 1885.
The Polytechnic Cycling Club Gazette was started in 1891. The Club grew rapidly. Members made regular excursions on Saturday afternoons with longer trips at holiday times, and during the winter months there was a social programme in conjunction with other Polytechnic clubs. From 1893 it had a club room in no 309 Regent Street. The Club began to organise its own competitions for track and road, and a number of races and time trials were established. Members competed, individually and in teams, at home and abroad, and became successful at the highest level: Alec Watson was the first national champion in 1893, Albert Edward 'Jenny' Walters won the Bol d'Or 24-hour race in Paris in a world record time in 1899, W J ('Bill') Bayley was world champion at 1,000 metres in 1909-1913, and David Edward Ricketts (b 1920) was bronze medallist in the 4,000 metres pursuit at the Olympic Games in London in 1948. By the time the Club celebrated its 60th anniversary in 1938, members had won five world, two Olympic and 62 national and Empire championships. Several successful members went on to become professional cyclists. The Club's first president was J E K Studd, succeeded in 1944 by Lord Hailsham (grandson of the Polytechnic's founder, Lord Chancellor, and well know for cycling around London).
When Regent Street Polytechnic became the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) 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 Cycling Club lost its club room in Regent Street in 1989, but continued to use the Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground at Chiswick. In the same year the Institute of Polytechnic Sports and Social Clubs was formed to support the needs of club members and to provide a link with PCL and later with the University of Westminster.
The Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) was designated on 1 May 1970 as a result of the White Paper, 'A Plan for Polytechnics and Other Colleges' (Cmd 3006), published in 1966. This outlined the arrangements for implementing the government's policy for a dual system of higher education, divided by the binary line, first outlined by Anthony Crosland, Secretary of State for Education, in a speech at Woolwich Polytechnic in 1965. The polytechnics in the public sector would provide vocational, professional and industrially-based courses, some for degrees awarded by the Council of National Academic Awards (CNAA), some at sub-degree level, and some to provide a second chance for those who had missed the opportunity for further education on leaving school.
PCL was the result of a merger of Regent Street Polytechnic with Holborn College of Law, Languages and Commerce. The new institution was structured as a limited company, incorporated on 22 April 1970. The memorandum and articles of association (1970) defined the responsibilities and constitutional framework, including the powers of the Court of Governors and of the Academic Council. London polytechnics continued to be funded and to an extent managed by the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). Degrees were awarded by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) which both validated new courses and carried out a more general quinquennial review of institutions.
By 1970 the plan to turn Regent Street into a tri-partite federal college, first announced by the LCC in 1960, was finally implemented when the buildings on the two new sites at Marylebone Road and New Cavendish Street were finished. At a ceremony on 21 May 1971, Lord Hailsham, Lord Chancellor and grandson and namesake of the founder Quintin Hogg, combined opening the new buildings with the formal presentation of the Instrument of designation to PCL. Marylebone Road housed architecture, building, civil engineering, surveying and town planning, together with a separate block for management studies; electrical and electronic engineering, life sciences, mathematics and physics, and mechanical engineering moved to New Cavendish Street. In the early 1970s the extension building between Riding House Street and Little Titchfield Street was refurbished for the School of Communication, and Languages moved to a newly acquired building in Euston Centre in 1978. The Sidney Webb College of Education was amalgamated with PCL in 1975 and closed in 1980. In 1990 Harrow College of Higher Education merged with PCL.
Between 1970 and 1988 PCL expanded and developed to provide industrial, commercial, professional and scientific education, training and research for students at all levels of higher and technical education. By 1988 there were roughly 5,000 students on full-time and sandwich courses, the majority of whom were following CNAA degree and post-graduate courses; 6,000 students followed part-time and evening courses. PCL ran Europe's largest programme of short courses, with 17,000 people every year engaged in mid-career and personal development. Among a number of innovations was the development of one-year foundation programmes leading to degrees in engineering and science, which were subsequently adopted nationwide as a way of widening participation. Research activity increased. In 1988, PCL was awarded a total value of £3.2 million in external research awards (compared with £30,000 in 1970), although it was excluded from applying for the public research funding available to universities.
The Education Reform Act of 1988 removed polytechnics from the control of local authorities and transferred their funding to a new body, the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council (PCFC), which was itself replaced in 1992 when the Higher and Further Education Act created a single Higher Education Funding Council, abolishing the binary line by removing any remaining distinctions between polytechnics and universities. PCL became the University of Westminster in 1992.
In 1988 PCL celebrated the 150th anniversary of its predecessor, the Royal Polytechnic Institution, with a programme of special events. The Polytechnic Institute, representing the sports and social clubs characteristic of Regent Street Polytechnic, continued to function during this period, though its activities declined considerably as pressure for educational use in the buildings increased.
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
Sir Alfred Sherman was born on 10 November 1919 in Hackney, London. At seventeen he fought in the International Brigade on the republican side of the Spanish civil war. During the Second World War he worked in field security in the Middle East and after as an administrator in the enemy occupied territories. He studied at the London School of Economics after leaving the army and was a member of the student branch of the Communist Party whilst there.
He graduated in 1950 and briefly became a teacher before going on to become a journalist, working for the Jewish Chronicle. In 1965 he was recruited to the Daily Telegraph where he voiced his opinions on local government. He served as a Conservative councillor in Kensington and Chelsea between 1971 and 1978.
In April 1974 Alfred Sherman co-founded (along with Sir Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher) the Centre for Policy Studies and became its first Director. The Centre was set up to promote free market ideas and influence Conservative thinking. Sherman researched and wrote speeches for both Joseph and Thatcher, becoming her aide and speech writer until 1983. His speeches and journalism included many ideas which are thought of as key to Thatcherism, including curbing trade union powers, cutting taxes and public spending, control of the money supply and reform of the welfare system to reduce dependence on it. Sherman was most influential during the Conservative Party's period of opposition between 1974 and 1979 but he was sacked as the Centre's research director in 1984 after disagreements over the role of the Centre. Sherman believed it shouldn't be too close to the Conservative Party to give it freer range to criticise ministers. Sherman was knighted in 1983 but no longer had access to Thatcher after he left the Centre.
He later became a public adviser to the National Bus Corporation and the Bosnia Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. He died from pneumonia on 26 August 2006 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Information taken from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.
The Dagenham Film Co-operative Society was established under the patronage of the Dagenham Borough Council, in particular the Library Service in order to support cultural activities in the Borough of Dagenham in 1947. The first film made by the society, entitled 'The Seeds of Time' (1948), depicted what life was like on the Becontree Estate and went on to be awarded several national prizes. Further films followed including 'Dagenham Festival' (1951), 'Our Year' (1957), 'Time to Play' (1960), 'Help Yourself to Health' (1963) and 'Playtime' (1969). Members of the society were also involvoed in the British Film Institute, the federation of film societies, the London regional group, the federation of cine societies and the Dagenham Arts Council.
Egbert E. Smart, librarian and Borough Photograph was Honorable Secretary and active member in the early years, other members of the first Board included:
President: Alderman F. Brown ECC
Chairman: R. E. Crawley
Vice-Chairman: C. E Nicklen
Hon. Asst Secretary: T. J. H. Stevens
Hon. Treasurer: G. A. Allen
Film Production: N. Crosby
Members later formed the Fanshawe Film Society. According to the constitution this new society was conducted under the auspices of the Barking Arts Council, and the patronage of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, with the main objective to encourage interest in film and the study of films through the means of exhibitions, lectures and amateur film production. Sadly this society ceased to function in the late 1980s.
The collection was established in 1985 by Liz Ward, Librarian at Chelsea College, the result of increasing demand by students for documentation recognising the contribution to British art by artists of African-Caribbean, Asian and African descent. It has grown naturally as a part of the library's collection.
Chelsea College of Art & Design has its origins in the South-Western Polytechnic, which was opened at Manresa Road, Chelsea in 1895 to provide scientific and technical education to Londoners. Day and evening classes for men and women were held in domestic economy, mathematics, engineering, natural science, art and music. Art was taught from the beginning of the Polytechnic, and included design, weaving, embroidery and electrodeposition. Instruction in design especially adapted to various industries was an early feature of teaching in art at Chelsea. The South-Western Polytechnic became Chelsea Polytechnic in 1922 and taught a growing number of registered students of the University of London.
At the beginning of the 1930s the interests of the school of art began to widen, including courses in craft training. Teaching began to cover commercial design, with courses including package design, block-printed fabrics, knotted rugs, painted furniture and typographical lay-out introduced between 1931 and 1938. Fine art courses appeared, with a sculpture department founded under the Principal, H S Williamson. Notable teachers in the School of Art have included Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Lawrence Gowing, Norbert Lynton and Patrick Caulfield. On 1 January 1957 the college was designated a College of Advanced Technology, and became known as Chelsea College of Science and Technology. The School of Art was separated and became independent. In 1964 the School of Art merged with the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art to create a new Chelsea School of Art in purpose built premises at Manresa Road, directly managed by London County Council. Courses were reorganised leading to the new Diploma in Art and Design in Painting and in Graphic Design and Sculpture. Under the first head of the new institution, Lawrence Gowing, an option programme was introduced encompassing workshops on experimental music, poetry, artists' books, psychoanalysis, philosophy and anthropology. A basic design course pioneered by Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton developed to become the basis of the College's foundation course. An MA in Fine Art was introduced in 1974.
Hammersmith College of Art and Building was founded in 1891 by Francis Hawke, with the establishment of a few evening classes to prepare students for science and art certificates. In 1904 the school was taken over by London County Council and a new building erected at Lime Grove, which opened with an extended curriculum in 1908. A trade school for girls was erected on the same site in 1914. From the outset the College had a tradition of training and education in art closely associated with the building professions and craft. A new building was opened in 1930. Hammersmith College merged with Chelsea College of Art in 1975.
In January 1986 Chelsea School of Art became a constituent college of the London Institute, formed by the Inner London Education Authority associating its art schools and specialist colleges of printing, fashion and distributive trades into a collegiate structure. In 1989 the School was renamed Chelsea College of Art & Design. New courses since 1989 include a BA in design, an MA in History and Theory of Modern Art, and an MA in the Theory and Practice of Public Art and Design for the Environment.
Inventory magazine was first published in 1995 by an artists' collective of 3 ex-Chelsea MA students: Paul Claydon, Adam Scrivener and Damian Abbott. They published the first issue of the magazine whilst studying at the Chelsea.
Born Hanover, 1887; attended the Akademie der Künste, Dresden, 1909-1914; began military service, 1914; studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule, Hanover; influened by Kandinsky and the Dadaists began to experiment with abstract pictures in 1918 using collages, one piece had the letters MERZ and he subsequently described his assemblages as Merz; first exhibition, 1918; began his first Merzbau, a huge construction nearly filling a house (destroyed 1943); participated in the Weimar Dada Congress, 1922; edited Merz magazine, 1923-1932; first performance of Ur-Sonata, non-semantic sound collage, 1924; worked as a commercial designer and typographer for several companies, 1920s; a founder of 'circle of new commercial designers', 1927; member of Abstraction-Création, 1932; emigrated to Norway, 1937; made his second Merzbau (destroyed 1951); escaped Norway to Britain, 1940; began a third Merzbau at Ambleside, Cumbria (unfinished and moved to Newcastle University, 1965); died, 1948.
Publications include: Die Blume Anna. Die neue Anna Blume. Eine Gedichtsammlung aus den Jahren 1918-1922 (Berlin, [1923]); Merz FOLIO poems translated by Jerome Rothenburg and Pierre Joris (Morning Star Publications, Edinburgh, 1991); Die Scheuche. Märchen. typographisch gestaltet with Käte Steinitz (1975) facsimile reprint of Hannover, Aposs-Verlag, 1925.
The Women's International Art Club was founded in Paris in 1900, as the Paris International Art Club. At this time there was very little opportunity for women to exhibit their art work, and as an exhibiting society the Club was instrumental in bringing the work of women sculptors and painters to the notice of the general public. The first exhibition under its new name was held at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1900. The Club had an annual exhibition of paintings and sculptures in London until it closed in 1976, and smaller exhibitions were also shown outside London and abroad. The foreign sections of the Club also contributed work to the exhibition, including the Italian, Scottish, Dutch, American, French and Greek sections.
Members' works were submitted for selection by a selection committee, comprising officials of the club and two outsiders chosen from the artistic community, usually art critics, gallery owners etc. In the 1950s and 1960s the club continued to flourish, encouraging young experimental artists and organising exhibitions from abroad. In the 1970s the waning of interest in large exhibitions and rising costs of gallery space led to the closure of the club in 1976. Exhibitors included Gwen Barnard, Eileen Agar, Elizabeth Frink, Lee Krasner and Gwen John.
Born, London, 1943; worked at Ealing School of Art, 1962-1963; taught at Chelsea School of Art, 1960s; editor and publisher of Control Magazine, 1965-2002; Director, The Centre for Behavioural Art, London, 1972-1973; D.A.A.D. Fellowship, West Berlin, 1979-1980; Convenor of the Symposium, 'Art Creating Society', Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1990; solo and group exhibitions, 1964-2000, in the UK and Europe. Publications include: Art and social function. three projects (Latimer New Dimensions, London, 1976).
Charles William Andrews (1866-1924), a 2nd class assistant in the Department of Geology, was given special leave by the Museum Trustees to visit Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean. The Island had been annexed by the Crown in 1888, the year after a visit by Captain Pelham Aldrich in HMS Egeria, and it was leased to the Christmas Island Phosphate Company for commercial development in 1897. Sir John Murray, one of the directors of the Company, proposed and financed an expedition to study the island in advance of its commercial exploitation. Andrews left England in May 1897, and arrived on Christmas Island on 29 July. He remained on the island for ten months, studying the geology and collecting rocks and minerals, plants and animals. He spent one month on the Cocos-Keeling atoll on his way home, and finally returned to duty at the Museum in August 1898. Andrews' collections were worked on by a number of scientists at the Museum, including R Bowdler Sharpe (birds), G A Boulenger (reptiles), A G Butler, G F Hampson and Lord Walsingham (butterflies and moths) and W F Kirby (other insect groups). The results of their work was published in 1900, along with a geological report by Andrews himself, as a Museum monograph.
The Department of Botany has its origins in the Department of Natural and Artificial Productions, which was set up at the founding of the British Museum in 1756. In 1806 it was renamed the Department of Natural History and Modern Curiosities and was under the keepership of George Shaw (1751-1813) and later Charles Dietrich Eberhard Konig (1774-1851). The botanical collection at this period consisted almost entirely of the Sloane herbarium.
In 1827 the Museum acquired the herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), and with it, the services of Robert Brown (1773-1858), as 'Keeper of the Banksian Botanical Collection'. In 1835 the Sloane and Banksian collections were amalgamated to form a Botanical Branch of the Department of Natural History, and in 1856 the branch was given the status of a department, with Robert Brown as the first Keeper, and a staff of four.
Under succeeding keepers the collections held by the Department increased in size and scope, and by the time George Murray (1858-1911) retired in 1905 there was a staff of 13. A major reorganisation took place in the mid 1930s when the complement increased to 23, and the department was divided into six cryptogamic sections and five sections devoted to flowering plants, together with the library and the Keeper's Office. The Department was severely damaged during the war, and did not fully recover until the early 1960s.
Over the years the relationship of the Department with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has been scrutinised many times, on both financial and scientific grounds. Government enquiries were held in 1860, 1871, 1900 and 1960, and all recommended that the two institutions should remain independent, with the last leading to the 'Morton Agreement', which set out a division of accession and research activities.
By 1965 the Department was responsible for huge herbaria collections, and was active in research on the floras of tropical Africa, Europe, the West Indies and the Far East. The research was supported by the departmental library, which was rich in historic treasures as well as contemporary literature. The Department was also responsible, in conjunction with the exhibition staff, for displays in the botany gallery. Staff numbered 23, who between them saw to nearly 3,000 visitors, accessioned nearly 40,000 specimens, and published 30 or more papers each year.
The Department of Mineralogy has its origins in the Department of Natural and Artificial Productions which was set up at the foundation of the British Museum in 1756. In 1806 it was renamed the Department of Natural History and Modern Curiosities and was under the keepership of George Shaw (1751-1813) and later Charles Dietrich Eberhard Konig (1774-1851). In 1837 the Department was divided into three branches, of which Mineralogy and Geology was one, and in 1856 the branch became a Department in its own right, almost immediately being divided into the two departments of Geology and Mineralogy. The first Keeper of Mineralogy was M H N Story-Maskelyne (1823-1911), a lecturer and later Professor at Oxford, a Member of Parliament, and an agriculturalist and country gentleman. Thomas Davies (1837-1932) joined the Department as an attendant in 1858 and took charge of the rock collection. A chemical laboratory was provided in Great Russell Street in 1867, and Walter Flight (1841-1885) was appointed analyst.
By the time the Department moved to South Kensington in 1881, it had a staff of ten, and was responsible for a huge collection of rocks, minerals and meteorites. In South Kensington the Department initially developed around the collections of minerals, meteorites and rocks. Cataloguing and curation of the mineral collection, with the development of crystallographic and chemical techniques involved a large number of staff, including Lazarus Fletcher (1854-1921), Leonard J Spencer (1870-1959) and Jessie M Sweet (1901-1979). The meteorite collection was looked after by successive keepers, including Fletcher, George T Prior (1862-1936) and W Campbell Smith (1887-1988), while the rocks were worked on by Prior, Campbell Smith and Stanley E Ellis (1904-1986). The chemical laboratory, staffed by Prior, Max H Hey (1904-19..) and Alan A Moss (1912-1990), was involved in work on all these three collections. Many staff worked in more than one of these areas, and the Department was not formally divided into sections until the 1950s.
Two important developments came with the appointment of Frederick A Bannister (1901-1970) in 1927 to develop X-ray crystallography, and the formation of an Oceanography Section under John D Wiseman in 1935, following the transfer of the John Murray Collection from the Department of Zoology. New methods of rapid mineral analysis were developed in the 1950s, and the department's first electron microprobe was delivered in 1964.
By 1975 the Department had a staff of 37 and was divided into nine sections, including General Mineralogy, Petrology, Meteorites, Oceanography, Chemistry and the Departmental Library.