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The Department of Palaeontology 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 Carl 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 Geology was George Robert Waterhouse (1810-1888), an entomologist, who had joined the Museum in 1843 from the Zoological Society. He was succeeded in 1880 by Henry Woodward (1832-1921), who thus had the task of supervising the move from Bloomsbury to South Kensington. By the time Woodward retired in 1901 the Department had a staff of 15.

Through the 1920s and 1930s the collections were divided into 15 units, each presided over by an Assistant Keeper or an Unofficial Worker. Subdivision of the Department into sections developed during this period, and was firmly established when the Museum got back to normal after the Second World War. An Anthropology Section, which spanned the departments of Geology and Zoology was set up in 1954. It was given the status of a Sub-Department in 1959, and was made part of Palaeontology the following year.

In 1956 the title of the Department was changed from Geology to Palaeontology.
By 1956 the Department was responsible for one of the largest and most important collections of palaeontological material in the world, and was an international centre for research in both stratigraphic and taxonomic palaeontology. Research work was supported by a rich departmental library. Staff numbered 63.

The Museum has been a publisher throughout its history, producing scholarly monographs and catalogues, expedition reports, periodicals, study guides, popular guidebooks, notes for collectors, posters, wallcharts and postcards. A bookshop opened for the sale of guidebooks and postcards in 1921, and was opened on Sundays after consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, as Principal Trustee. From the 1930s editing was the responsibility of the Keepers, permission to publish was recommended by the Trustees' Publications Sub-Committee, and arrangements for printing and the preparation of illustrations was in the hands of the Museum Accountant. When Richard J Drumm (1889-1965) retired as Accountant in 1954 he was retained as a part-time Publications Officer.

At the same time a review of publications policy led to preparation of a series of popular handbooks in addition to the Museum's scholarly output. Arthur E Baker (b 1910) was appointed the first full-time Publications Officer in 1962, and was responsible for liaison between the science departments and the Director on one hand, and printers and illustrators on the other. By 1967 there was a publications staff of ten, who included clerical officers, printers and retail sales staff. The Section was incorporated into the newly formed Department of Public Services in 1975.

The British Museum was founded in 1753 by Act of Parliament (26 George II c.22), and a Board of Trustees established. The Board consisted of Crown and Government nominees as well as elected members and representatives of the families of the founders and benefactors of the Museum. The Board met fortnightly at first, and then from 1761 four times a year at what were called 'General Meetings', which became purely formal. The Board delegated the day-to-day business of the Museum to a Standing Committee, which was established in 1755. Sub-Committees were set up by the Standing Committee from time to time as the need arose. The Chairman of the Board was always one of the three 'Principal Trustees': the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons.

From 1871 extracts from the Standing Committee minutes relating to the natural history departments were copied for the use of the departments (DF902), and from 1884, once the departments had moved, the Standing Committee met at South Kensington to transact business connected with the British Museum (Natural History) (DF900). General Meetings of the Board were likewise held at this Museum from time to time, and their minutes are held here, together with the minutes of the sub-committees concerned with natural history (DF901).
In 1963 the British Museum (Natural History) was separated from the British Museum by Act of Parliament, and a newly constituted Board of Trustees met for the first time on 11 October 1963.

The Ray Society was founded in 1844 by a group of British Naturalists which included Thomas Bell, George Johnston and Richard Owen, and it commemorates the great English naturalist John Ray (1627-1705).
The purpose of the society as then stated, was 'the promotion of Natural History by the printing of original works in Zoology and Botany; of new editions of works of established merit; of rare tracts and manuscripts; and of translations and reprints of foreign works; which are generally inaccessible.' The main object of the society remains the publication of learned books on natural history, with special emphasis on the British fauna and flora.
In its earlier days, the society was heavily reliant upon foreign, and in particular German research and material, which was regarded as the leading authority in the fields of Zoology and Botany. In an age when the advancement of science was very much in vogue, the society became an instant success, and within a year it had enrolled some 650 members. It reached a peak of 868 in 1847.
The officers of the society consist of a President, six Vice-Presidents, four Honorary Vice-Presidents, with a Treasurer, Foreign Secretary, Secretary and Assistant Secretary. Council meets twice a year.

In the eighteenth century the office of the Clerk of the Acts was responsible for drawing up Navy Board contracts, although it was noted in 1786 that it was the duty of the two assistants to the Surveyor of the Navy 'to examine and correct all contracts for building and repairing in the merchant yards'. In 1796 the Secretary's Office continued to draw up the contracts, but in 1803 an Order-in-Council created a Contract Office with two clerks from the Secretary's office. This office continued after the abolition of the Navy Board in 1832. See Bernard Pool, Navy Board contracts 1660-1832 (London, 1966).

Commissioners for the care of sick and hurt seamen were first appointed during the Dutch wars. Between 1692 and 1702 and between 1713 and 1715 their duties were performed by the Commissioners of the Register Office and from 1715 until 1717 by two Commissioners of the Navy Board. One Commissioner each from the Sick and Hurt Board and the Navy Board then conducted the business from the Navy Office until 1740, when at least two Commissioners of the Sick and Hurt Board were appointed during peace and up to five in wartime. This Board appointed ships' surgeons and their assistants, ensured that they were equipped and supplied with medicines, superintended the dispensers who issued medicines, supervised the furnishing and equipment of hospitals and hospital ships, examined and cleared accounts and made returns of the sick and wounded to the Admiralty and Navy Boards. In 1743 the Board was also made responsible for the care of prisoners of war. In 1796 this duty was transferred to the Transport Board which in 1806 also became responsible for caring for the sick and wounded seamen.

Various

Edward Bates (d 1896) spent a number of years in India where he established himself as a merchant in Bombay. In 1848 he left this business in charge of an agent, returned to England and opened an office in Liverpool as an importer of Indian produce. He also began a regular service to Bombay with chartered vessels, and in 1850 he started building up a fleet of sailing ships. Trading was soon extended to include first Calcutta and then the Far East and, when the gold rush began, passenger ships sailed direct to Australia and returned via India or South America. In 1870 the firm was renamed Edward Bates and Sons. Edward went to live in Hampshire and the eldest of his four sons, Edward Percy Bates (d 1899), took over the management of the Liverpool office. The next year Edward became an MP and a regular attender at the House; in 1886 he received a baronetcy. In earlier years Bates had bought steamers and converted them into sailing vessels, but from 1870 the partners began adding steamers to their fleet. They continued to acquire sailing ships as well up to 1884, but in 1886 they had a steel-screw steamer built to their own design, which heralded a change of direction to a smaller number of large modern steamships engaged in general tramping. The Bombay office was closed in 1898 and the business there amalgamated with Killick Nixon and Co. When Edward Percy Bates died in 1899 his son Edward Bertram Bates (d 1903) succeeded to the title and the management of the family business. He in turn was succeeded by Percy Elly Bates (1879-1946), who in 1910 joined the board of the Cunard Company. In 1911 he and his two brothers joined the board of Thomas and John Brocklebank and exchanged their largest vessel for half of the Brocklebank family's shares. By 1916 Sir Percy Elly Bates was running the Commercial Services branch of the Ministry of Shipping and his two brothers had gone to the war; as there was no one in the office to manage their ships they sold them to Brocklebank's. This was the end of their shipowning activities, but the partnership of Edward Bates and Sons continued in business as merchants and private bankers. In 1916 Bates and Brocklebank's both moved their offices into the new Cunard Building and in 1919 Cunard bought all the shares in the Brocklebank Line owned by the Brocklebank and Bates families. Sir Percy Bates became deputy chairman of the Cunard Shipping Co in 1922 and was chairman from 1930 until his death in 1946. His brother Denis (1886-1959) became chairman of Brocklebank's when Sir Aubrey Brocklebank died in 1929. The remaining Brocklebank shares (owned by the Anchor Line) were bought by Cunard in 1940.

Bax was the son of Bonham Ward Bax (q.v.). He joined the BRITANNIA in 1889, rose to captain in 1913 and saw active service in World War One. He was promoted to admiral on the retired list in 1932.

Born, 1722; probably educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, before entering Trinity College, Oxford, BA 1743; MA 1746; MB 1750; MD 1754; practiced in Birmingham, 1752-1769; founder member of Birmingham General Hospital, 1779; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1787; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1787; leading member of the Royal College of Physicians, being censor in 1789 and 1793, Harveian orator in 1790, Goulstonian lecturer in 1791, and Croonian lecturer in 1793; died, 1798.

Born, 1655; educated at Winchester College; at New College, Oxford, 1675-1682; FRS, 1684; second secretary of the Royal Society and edited the Philosophical Transactions; formed the Philosophical Society of Oxford, 1685; practised in Oxford; practised in Exeter, 1691-; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1692; died, 1721.

Caleb Burrell Rose was an East Anglian surgeon and geologist.

Faraday was born the son of a blacksmith in Newington Butts, Southwark. It is not known where he was educated as a child, but the family moved north near Manchester Square. At 13, he worked as a newspaper boy for George Riebau of Blandford Street. He then became an apprentice for seven years in bookbinding under Riebau. In 1810 and 1811, he attended lectures on science given by silversmith John Tatum (1772-1858) in the city of London and took notes. These were shown to the son of a Member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) who in turn showed them to the Member who was so impressed he gave Faraday tickets to see Humphry Davy (1778-1829) lecture at the RI in 1812. After writing to Davy to ask for a job, he was appointed as a chemical assistant at the laboratory at the RI in 1813. In 1813 he travelled with Davy to France as an assistant, secretary and valet; subsequently visiting laboratories in Italy, Switzerland and Germany until April 1815. In 1816 he began his `Commonplace Book' and was elected Member of the City Philosophical Society from 1816 to 1819 giving lectures on chemical subjects. From 1816 to 1828, he published his work results in journals such as Quarterly Journal of Science, Philosophical Magazine and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. In 1821 he was appointed Superintendent of the RI to maintain the building. In 1825 he was appointed Director of the Laboratory and in 1833 he became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the RI. In 1821 he discovered electro-magnetic rotations, the principle of the electric motor. In 1831 he discovered electro-magnetic induction; also in the early 1830s, he discovered the laws of electrolysis and coined words such as electrode, cathode, anode and ion. In 1845 he discovered the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism developing the theory of the electromagnetic field. In 1824 he was elected to the Royal Society. He gave lectures at the RI between 1825 and 1862, establishing the Friday Evening Discourses and the Christmas Lectures for the young. In 1827 he delivered a course of lectures on chemical manipulation to the London Institution and he also gave lectures for medical students from St George's Hospital from the mid 1820s onwards. In 1829 he was appointed Scientific Adviser to the Admiralty. In 1830 he was Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich until 1851. In 1836 he was appointed Scientific Adviser to the Corporation of Trinity House, the English and Welsh lighthouse authority, until 1865. During the 1850s and 1860s, he introduced electricity to lighthouses under this position. In 1844 he conducted an enquiry with the geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875), into the Haswell Colliery, County Durham, explosion.

Founder member of the Royal Society, one of the earliest Freemasons, he was devoted to the causes of the welfare of Scotland, loyalty to his monarch, and in promoting the new experimental philosophy. He was experienced in negotiating affairs of state, and an intimate friend of King Charles II. The son of Sir Mungo Moray of Craigie in Perthshire, he was educated in Scotland and in France, probably a member of the Scottish regiment which joined the French army in 1633. He made a considerable reputation for himself and was favoured by Cardinal Richelieu. In 1641 he was recruiting Scots soldiers for the French, later becoming Colonel of the Scots Guards at the French court. He was knighted in 1643 by Charles I. He was captured by the Duke of Bavaria in November 1643 whilst leading his regiment into battle for the French, and whilst in prison until 1645 was lent a book on magnetism by Kircherus, with whom he entered into correspondence. He tried unsuccessfully to arrange the escape of Charles I in 1646, and in 1651 was engaged in negotiations with the Prince of Wales to persuade him to come to Scotland, thus beginning his long friendship with the future Charles II.

After a failed Scottish rising in the Highland in 1653, his military career was over and he went into exile, in Bruges in 1656, then Maastricht until 1659, where he led the life of a recluse but spent his time in scientific pursuits. It was at this time that many of his letters to Alexander Bruce were written. Late in 1659 he went to Paris and did much, by correspondence, to help prepare for the return of the King to England, especially in relation to religious matters. After the return he was active in promoting the best interests of Scotland and was given high office. He was also provided with rooms at Whitehall Palace, the King's London residence, which included a laboratory, as the King shared his scientific interests. It was Moray who was the chief intermediary between the Royal Society and the King, and other highly placed persons at the Court such as Prince Rupert and the Duke of York. More important than his scientific work for the Society were his powers of organisation and firmness of purpose in establishing it on a sound and lasting basis, including his efforts in obtaining the three founding Royal Charters and his attempts to put the Society on a sound financial footing. In 1670 he and Lauderdale quarrelled, leading to Moray withdrawing from politics. On his death in 1673 he was buried in Westminster Abbey by personal order and expense of the king.

Norman Wingate (Bill) Pirie was born in Torrance, Stirlingshire, on 1 July 1907. After attending various schools in Scotland an England he completed his schooling at Rydal School, Colwyn Bay. He entered Emmanuel College Cambridge in 1925 to study for the Natural Science Tripos. Pirie specialised in biochemistry for Part II, attracted by the liveliness of the Biochemistry Department under Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, who had assembled a team of highly talented young biochemists including J B S Haldane, J Needham and D Keilin. He graduated BA in 1929 and was appointed Demonstrator in the Department of Biochemistry and recveived an Emmanuel College research fellowship. For the following five years Pirie worked on the purification of sulphur compounds, studying the chemistry and metabolism of compounds such as methionine and glutathione. In 1932 he began research with ASA (later Sir Ashley) Miles on the bacteria 'Brucella abortus' and 'Brucella mellitensis'. He retained an active interest in this research through the 1930's and 1940's.

In 1934 he began his longstanding collaborative research with the biochemist F C (later Sir Frederick) Bawden, then with the Potato Virus Research Unit in Cambridge, on viruses responsible for potato disease. Their work demonstrated conclusively that the genetic material found in all viruses is ribonucleic acie (RNA) and thus contradicted the view of Wendell Stanley, who had thought the viruses consisted entirely of protein. Bawden and Pirie realized that RNA might be the infective component of viruses but they were unable to confirm this experimentally, and it was not until 1956 that this was established by others. Bawden had moved to the Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, in 1936 and in 1940 Pirie moved there himself, having been appointed Virus Physiologist. He became Head of the Biochemistry Department in 1947.

Pirie's research into plant viruses had intitiated his interest in properties and uses of leaf protein. Wartime food shortages prompted investigative work on the large-scale extraction of leaf protein for human food and tests were undertaken at Rothamsted. After the war Pirie continued this line of research, with support from the Rockefeller and Wolfson Foundations and later, under the International Biological Programme, he worked on methods of extraction. Although the potential of leaves as a human protein source had first been mooted in 1773, the full significance of it was not recognized until the twentieth century. Pirie was the first to develop a practical technology for its extraction. Pirie argued that in many climates more edible protein could be obtained by cultivation of leaf crops than any other form of cultivation. Much of his attention was given to studying suitable plants and to developing equipment for efficient small scale or household production of leaf protein, particularly in the developing world. He was also interested in marketing it as suitable for human consumption through use in recipes.

Pirie was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1949 'for his researches on plant viruses, especially as regards their isolation and their chemical and physical properties. With F C Bawden he was responsible for demonstrating that tobacco mosaic virus and several other plant viruses were nucleoproteins. These two workers were the first to isolate a plant virus in 3 dimensional crystalline form. Much of the recent work on plant viruses has been stimulate4d by these important discoverie. In addition Pirie has worked on the chemistry of antigens and has also concerned himself with the assessment of purity of large molecules of bilogical interest'. Pirie gave the Royal Society Leeuwenhoek Lecture for 1963 and was awarded its Copley Medal in 1971 'in recognition of his distinguished contributions to biochemistry and especially for his elucidation of the nature of plant viruses'. In 1976 he received the first Rank Prize for Nutrition and Agronomy.

Pirie died 29 March 1997. His wife, the opthalmologist Antoinettte Pirie with whom he had a son and a daughter, predeceased him in 1991.

Born on 3 June 1873 in Frankfurt am Main, Loewi attended, 1881-1890, a Gymnasium in Frankfurt of the old style where studies were centred on classical languages, resulting in lifelong cultural interests of great width and variety. He matriculated in medicine at Strassburg where he came into contact with Nannyn in clinical medicine, Schmiedeberg in pharmacology and Hofmeister in biochemistry, working under the latter after taking a course in chemistry in Frankfurt after graduation. His first post was with the City Hospital in Frankfurt, then with Dr. Hans Horst Meyer, Professor of Pharmacology at Marburg a.d. Lahn, where his researches were concerned with biochemical problems of metabolism. In 1902 he studied with Ernest Starling, Professor of Physiology at University College London, visited Cambridge and learnt about several productive lines of research which would influence him many years later, and met Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. On his return to Marburg he concentrated on renal function and publications on other subjects which had caught his interest, such as treatment with digitalis. He and his co-workers at Graz concentrated on the chemical transmission of effects from the nerve endings of the autonomic system until 1938, when the Nazi occupation of Austria and his temporary imprisonment compelled him to leave Austria. After a visit to England and a temporary post in Brussels, he was caught in England by the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 and worked in the Pharmacology Department at Oxford under Professor J A Gunn, before moving to the Medical School of New York University as Research Professor of Pharmacology in 1940. He became an American citizen in 1946, and died on 25 December 1961. He was awarded the Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) in 1936, and elected a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society in 1954. He married in 1908 Guida, daughter of Guido Goldschmidt, Professor of Chemistry in Prague and Vienna, and had 3 sons and one daughter.

Robinson was born into a well-to-do-family of surgical dressing manufacturers (Robinsons of Chesterfield). He entered Manchester University to read chemistry in 1902 aged sixteen, and on graduation began research there under W.H. Perkin. Other lasting relationships from this period were with C. Weizmann (from 1906) and A. Lapworth (from 1909). In 1912 Robinson was appointed to his first chair at the University of Sydney and subsequently occupied chairs of organic chemistry at Liverpool (1915), St Andrews (1920), Manchester (1922), University College London (1928), and the Waynflete Chair of Chemistry, Oxford (1930-1955): the university extended his tenure for four years after the normal retirement age. In all these posts, Robinson developed productive research schools working in a wide range of chemical problems, and in retirement his activity continued in a small laboratory made available by the Shell Chemical Company, where he was consultant.

He was elected FRS in 1920 (Bakerian Lecture 1930, Davy Medal 1930, Royal Medal 1932, Copley Medal 1942, PRS 1945-1950) and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1947. The actual citation read 'for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids' though his Royal Society memorialists A.R. Todd and J.W. Cornforth suggest that 'it would have been equally, or possibly more, appropriate to have said "for his outstanding contributions to the entire science of organic chemistry".' (Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol 22, 426.) Robinson was knighted in 1939 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1949.

This system of assessment began in December 1831, and became the norm for most papers, although the Reports were not necessarily presented in person. The Statutes of the Royal Society for 1831 describe the process by which papers were judged; those failing to gain a majority vote on two meetings of the Committee were rejected, but the Committee could call upon any Fellow to present a written Report to assist the process of deliberation before the second meeting, Formal printed sheets first appeared in 1898 and continue to the present day.

The British Families Education Service (BFES) was established by the Foreign Office in 1946 to provide schooling for the children of British families stationed in the British Zone of Germany after World War Two, amidst the post-war devastation. In the winter of 1951-1952 it was taken over by the Army and became Service Children's Education. Arabella Kurdi, then Pallister, went to Germany in February 1947 and worked as School Meals and Domestic Science Organiser for the Service. As such she travelled widely within the British Zone and visited many schools and different areas of the country.

Mary Irene Anderson (more generally known by her middle name of Irene) was born in Scotland and was educated at the Girls' High School in Doncaster and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she studied geography, graduating in 1941. She worked as Geography Mistress at Kirkby Stephen Grammar school, Westmorland, 1941-1944. Wishing to work as a missionary, Miss Anderson then underwent two years of training at the Church of Scotland Women's Missionary College in Edinburgh from 1944-1946, followed by a short period running the Church of Scotland Club for Fishergirls, until December 1947. In March 1948 she then moved to the Gold Coast and took a post as Geography Mistress at Achimota School, remaining there until 1953 when she was appointed Headmistress of the Aburi Girls' Secondary School, a Scottish Mission Girls' School, where she stayed until her retirement in 1970.

Basic English was developed by Charles Kay Ogden (1889 - 1957) as an 'international language' and as a system for teaching English to speakers of other languages using a simplified vocabulary of 850 words.

In 1927 Ogden established the Orthological Institute followed by the publication, in quick succession, of 'Basic English' (1930), 'The Basic Vocabulary' (1930), 'Debabelization' (1931) and 'The Basic Words' (1932). A period of rapid expansion saw the establishment of 30 agencies connected with Basic English across the world and by 1939 there were around 200 printed works in, or about, Basic English.

In 1943 Winston Churchill established a cabinet committee looking at Basic English. Following the committee's report, Churchill made a statement to the House of Commons on 9 March 1944. The statement outlined a strategy to develop Basic English as an 'auxiliary international and administrative language'. The statement was later published as White Paper CMD. 6511 titled 'The Atlantic Charter, and the Prime Minister's Statement on Basic English of March 9, 1944; in their original form, and in Basic English, for purposes of Comparison' (DC/BEF/5/10).

Ogden assigned his copyright for Basic English works to the Crown in June 1946. In 1947, with a grant from the Ministry of Education, the Basic English Foundation was established. The Basic English Foundation was constituted as a charitable trust 'to develop the study and teaching of the system and to promote a knowledge of Basic English, and thereby of the English Language, throughout the world'. The Basic English Foundation would remain closely associated with the Orthological Institute through which a certain amount of teacher training in Basic English was conducted.

Following the Second World War those concerned with Basic English were not able to reassemble the international network of teaching agencies. However, the promotion of Basic English as a means of teaching English continued.

The Basic English Foundation's main activity was translating and publishing books in Basic English and, after a controversial history, it finally wound up its activities in the 1960s.

Brian Holmes (1920-1993) trained as a science teacher at the Institute of Education, University of London in 1946. He went on to classroom teaching in grammar schools in London, 1946-1951, and was then a lecturer in science at Durham University. He joined the staff of the Institute of Education, University of London, in 1953 and was Professor of Comparative Education at the Institute, 1975-1985. He was instrumental in the development of a number of national and international comparative education societies and had wide interests in international and comparative education and alternative philosophies of education.

John Stanley Beaumont Boyce was born in Stoney Stratford, Buckinghamshire, in 1911. He was the youngest of the three sons of E R S Boyce, Headmaster of Wolverton County School which his sons attended. In 1930 Boyce won a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford, from where he graduated in French and German. He worked as a Master at Ellesmere College, Cheltenham, until 1937 and thereafter at Coatham School, Redcar. In August 1937 he married Margaret L Nicholls of Oxford with whom he had 3 children.

Boyce had served with the OTC during peacetime. During the War he served with the Oxford and Bucks Infantry Regiment, followed by work under John Newsom in northern Germany as part of the military government. As part of the Education Branch he was involved in setting up local government and education systems. He ended the war with the rank of Major.

Following the war Boyce was employed as an assistant Chief Education Officer (CEO) in Hertfordshire Education Authority under John Newsom. In 1951 he became Deputy CEO in West Sussex and in 1957 followed this with work as Deputy CEO in Lancashire. He was appointed CEO of Lancashire in 1968, a post he held until his retirement in 1973.

In 1986 he received an Honorary LLD from Lancaster University. He died peacefully from cancer in 1992, 10 days after his 81st birthday.

The ILEA Bridging Course began as a pre-pilot scheme in 1976 with one college and two associated schools. By 1980, the numbers involved had grown to nine secondary schools and five colleges of further education in seven divisions of the ILEA. The intention of the Course was to bridge the transition from school to working life. It was part-funded by the EEC from 1978-1982.

In 1918, the recommendations of a Departmental Committee on the construction of scales of salary (Cd 8939), paved the way for the first Burnham report of 1919, which established a provisional minimum scale for elementary school teachers payable from January 1920. This initial stage was followed in 1921 by four standard scales of salary allocated by areas, which were to operate for four years. Negotiations for scales of salary to operate following the four year settlement ended in disagreement and was finally decided by arbitration, Lord Burnham acting as arbiter. Four new scales were formulated as well as some re-allocation scales for individual authorities.

In 1919, the Standing Joint Committee on Scales of Salary for Teachers in Public Elementary Schools was established at the request of the President of the Board of Education 'to secure the orderly and progressive solution of the salary question in Public Elementary Schools on a national basis and its correlation with a solution of the salary problem in Secondary Schools'. Similar committees were subsequently established concerned with the salaries of teachers in secondary schools and those teaching in technical schools. The committees became known as the Burnham Committees after the chairman Lord Burnham, and following his death in 1933 the title was officially adopted.

The Cambridge Association for the Advancement of State Education (CAASE) was formed in November 1960 by a group of parents dissatisfied with the provision of space and equipment in a local Cambridge primary school. The Association quickly developed into a county-wide discussion group. It described itself as a 'non-party, non-sectarian association of people, mostly parents' which 'aimed at making the public and government more alive and sensitive to the needs of our schools'. Its stated objects were: to collect and disseminate information about national and local educational policy and to provide a forum for discussion of this; to work for the improvement and expansion of state educational facilities; to further communication between the local education authority, parents and others interested in education; and to look at alternatives to the eleven-plus examination. Its membership was open to anyone normally resident or working in Cambridgeshire and parents of children in Cambridgeshire schools. CAASE's activities comprised running study groups and working parties, holding public meetings and lectures, lobbying the local education committee, county councillors, and participating in local and school government.

CAASE was keen to encourage similar groups in other counties. The organisation was initially brought to national public notice by an article in The Observer in June 1961. The Cambridge Association provided enquirers with information on their work and advised on the formation of local associations. CAASE was also instrumental in the development of a national federation of local associations. In January 1962, after offers of assistance from the Advisory Centre for Education, representatives of 9 local associations met to discuss plans for a national organisation. The Joint Committee for the Advancement of State Education was formed at this meeting as a preliminary step to the creation of a federal body.

The first Joint Committee meeting in February 1962 discussed issues of the publicity, financing and policy of the national organisation. After further meetings the Joint Committee was dissolved on 30 September 1962 and the Confederation for the Advancement of State Education (CASE) was formed. Its stated aims were to facilitate the exchange of information amongst the local associations, to encourage and assist the formation and functioning of associations, to publicise opinions held by a substantial majority of member associations on important educational issues, and to organise concerted action. CASE was set up solely to serve the local associations.

CASE quickly became an active organisation. By January 1963 there were 55 local associations in existence or in the process of being formed, with a total membership of approximately 3000. In 1963 CASE supported the NUT's Campaign for Education and commenced its first fact-finding project, on 'Teacher Supply'. In the same year CASE representatives met with Sir Edward Boyle, Minister for Education, to discuss school building work. This meeting was followed by the agreement of a press statement and a press conference. The Chairman's letter for 1965 describes meetings with Mr Crosland, Secretary of State for Education, and with the NUT, a BBC broadcast, and a conference and AGM to be held in Bristol. The Confederation was later renamed the Campaign for the Advancement of State Education.

The Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE) was founded in 1961 and is still active at the time of writing. The purpose of the Society is to encourage and promote comparative and international studies in education. CESE is a founding society of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES).

Ebenezer Cooke (c 1837-1913) was a drawing master interested in the theory and practice of art education, who expressed his views in conference papers and journal articles. He taught in a variety of establishments, including succeeding John Ruskin at the Working Men's College. Among other activities, he served on the Council of the Society for the Development of the Science of Education (founded in 1875 as the Education Society), and on the Committee of the Third International Congress for the Development of Drawing and Art Teaching, 1908. In 1894 he also published an English edition of Pestalozzi's How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.

Louis Christian Schiller (1895-1976), a former HMI and and important promoter of progressive ideals and child-centred teaching in primary education, was born on 20th September 1895 in New Barnet, London. He attended Tyttenhanger Lodge Preparatory School, near St. Albans as a boarder (1907-1909) and then moved to Greshams School, Holt, Norfolk (1909-1914) where he became head boy, a sprinting champion of the school and won a mathematics scholarship to attend Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. Before Schiller went up to Cambridge, World War One broke out and he volunteered and was commissioned in the Lincolnshire Regiment. He fought at Mons and had a long spell at the front. He was wounded in action in 1917 and was awarded the Military Cross. After the war he went Cambridge and studied for his Maths degree (1919-1920).
Schiller went on to teach Maths at Rendcomb School in Gloucestershire (1920-1923) a progressive secondary school run by one of his former teachers, Mr. J. H. Simpson. During this time he also carried out original work in the teaching of Geometry and was invited to join the Committee of the Mathematical Association dealing with the teaching of Geometry in Preparatory Schools and contributed to their report. He took on voluntary, part time teaching and gained experience of handicraft work and of teaching in elementary and central schools. Schiller attended the London Day Training College (1923-1924) and studied for his Teachers Diploma under Dr. T. Percy Nunn who became a very influential figure in Schiller's life. He passed with distinction. It was at this time that Schiller met his future wife who was also studying for her Teachers' Diploma. Schiller was appointed as an Assistant Inspector by the Board of Education in 1924 and spent some time in the office of the Board in Whitehall gaining administrative experience. In August 1925 he moved to Liverpool where he eventually became District Inspector. On 19 August 1925 Christian Schiller married Lyndall Handover and whilst in Liverpool their three daughters, Gerda, Meryl and Lyris were born. In 1937 Schiller was transferred to Worcestershire where the family remained until 1946 and it was during this period that the Schillers' son Russell was born. HMI organised national refresher courses for teachers and Schiller was involved in running residential courses for teachers at this time. In 1946 Schiller was appointed as the first Staff Inspector for Primary Education, following the reorganisation brought about by the 1944 Education Act. This brought him back to London and the family moved to Hadley Wood, near Barnet. Schiller spent time pursuing his interest in the primary teaching of maths and his enthusiasm for art and movement in education grew. He continued to run courses for teachers, often with the collaboration of Robin Tanner, who became a good friend, where he promoted progressive ideals and practice. Whilst at the Ministry of Education Schiller was called upon to recommend someone to run a new course for Primary Heads at the University of London Institute of Education. Schiller said he was interested himself and in 1955 he retired from the Ministry and took up the post of senior lecturer. The one year course ran between 1956 and 1963 and many of those who attended it would go on to become influential figures in the field of primary education themselves, such as Leonard Marsh, John Coe, Connie Rosen and Arthur Razzell. Schiller left the Institute of Education in 1963 but remained actively involved in education lecturing, advising, visiting schools and acting as an external examiner and assessor. He was an influential figure in the establishment and development of Goldsmiths' College's Postgraduate Primary Course and Plowden Course. At Goldsmiths College he also sat on the Plowden Committee. Schiller continued to work right up until his death on 11 February 1976 at his home in Kenton, London. Schiller had several articles published and worked on a book about numbers (which was never completed), but it was through his lectures and his involvement in courses for teachers that Schiller reached his audience and made an impact.
Lyndall Schiller, wife of Christian Schiller, was born on 18 April 1900 in Acton, London to Fredrick and Ada Handover. She was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School and went on to read English at Royal Holloway College, University of London, where she graduated with a first. She attended the London Day Training College (1923-1924) to study for her Teachers' Diploma and it was here that she met Christian Schiller. She taught English and French at Twickenham [and later at Clitheroe]. As was usual for most women at the time, on her marriage Lyndall gave up teaching. She married Christian Schiller on 19 August 1925.

CSU was established in 1972 to support the work of Higher Education Careers Services throughout the UK and Eire. Working in conjunction with the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), CSU also publish career guides and profiles for almost every possible area of work, as well as computer aided careers guidance systems and software. CSU is a registered charity which benefits Higher Education through supporting the work of careers advisory services in higher education and is an agency of Universities UK (formerly the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals (CVCP)), and the Standing Conference of Principals of Colleges and Institutions of Higher Education in the UK (SCOP). CSU consists of a publishing arm, which manages the Prospects Series of employer and postgraduate recruitment directories and vacancy publications, all of which are also online at www.prospects.ac.uk; and a Guidance and Information Services (GIS), which develops and manages information and software for careers services. It works in partnership with univeristy careers advisers to ensure careers information is widely distributed throughout the higher education system and online at www.prospects.ac.uk.

Ethel Hatchard was born in 1891and educated at the North London Collegiate School for Girls, where she held a London County Council (LCC) scholarship between 1906 and 1908. She was also awarded a bursary to train as a teacher but did not take this up, owing to the death of her mother. In 1916 she took an intensive course for teachers of young children run by the LCC at the City of London College, Moorfields. Between 1916 and 1917 she taught at the Infants' Department of London Fields School, Hackney, London, resigning to become a full-time mother. She succeeded in the preliminary examination for the [teachers'] certificate in 1919. She taught at a private school, 1927-1928, and gave lessons in singing and pianoforte from 1930-1936, returning to teaching 'at the first opportunity' at Rayleigh Infants' School, Essex where she taught from 1936 onwards. She was granted leave of absence to attend a one-year course for unqualified teachers at Wall Hall Training College, 1950-1951 and she continued teaching into the 1950s. She died in 1983.

Elsie Lane was appenticed to a wigmaker in 1912 and had a long career as a hairdresser, wig-maker and teacher of wig-making, including in her own school in Mile End Road, London.

Lucy Irwin appears to have been a pupil at No. 2 School, Marlborough Street, Dublin. Her address is given as Leinster Terrace, Aughrim Street, North Circular Road, Dublin.

Sir Fred Clarke (1880-1952) was an eminent educationist. Having qualified as a teacher and gained a degree in History from Oxford University, Clarke held a number of posts in teacher education and university departments in Britain and abroad, including as Senior Master of Method at York Diocesan Training College, 1903-1906, Professor of Education at Hartley University College, Southampton, 1906-1911, Professor of Education, University of Cape Town, South Africa, 1911-1929 and Professor of Education, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 1929-1934. In 1935, Clarke was appointed as Adviser to Oversea Students at the Institute of Education, University of London and in 1936 he became Director of the the Institute, a position which he held until his retirement in 1945. Clarke also served on numerous committees, including for the British Council and Colonial Office, and was influential in the establishment of the National Foundation for Educational Research and the McNair Committee. After his retirement he remained connected with the Institute, becoming once again Adviser to Oversea Students and also undertook other advisory roles, notably for the National Union of Teachers. Sir Fred Clarke was an influential figure in the development of teacher education, colonial and comparative education and he also promoted the application of sociology to educational theory.

The Forest School Camps were formed in the tradition of the original Forest School which dated from 1929 until World War Two. Ernest Westlake, co-founder of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, has purchased a site on which to build a Quaker-influence Forest School in Godshill, Hampshire. When he died before he could realise his plans, his son, Aubrey, set up the school, though his first attempt at running the school in 1929 was disastrous as all four of the pupils contracted scarlet fever and the school was forced to close. A year later Aubrey appointed Cuthbert Rutter as Headmaster and the school re-opened.

The Forest School was a progressive school in which children went on summer holiday camping hikes and learnt about survival skills and the environment. In due course the school moved to Whitwell Hall, Norfolk, in 1938 but the Hall was requisitioned by the military in 1940 and, despite attempts, was never reopened.

The talks about reopening the school led to a reunion camp at the Hall, organised by Arthur Cobb and run by John Glaister. This camp had around 30 children and proved to be such a success that further camps were organised in 1948 and 1949. The ensuing two-week camps had 'lodges' accommodating 60 children between the ages of 6.5 and 17. Although sleeping arrangements and activities were age appropriate, eating, the morning rally and evening entertainments were done as a single unit. Children learned many skills including cooking, and woodwork, and, were taught 'to know the world, to submit to the world and to change the world' (Cobb, c 1953). The attainment of independence was the most important achievement. Over time the Forest School Camps became a Registered Charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee whose purpose is the promotion of holidays and outdoor activities for children and young people.

Forest School, and the subsequent camps, were directly based on the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, established after World War One. Woodcraft aimed to 'create a Forest School where children might have a continuous education in natural surroundings', and, Forest School emulated this. Furthermore, at Forest School the children were organised into the same Woodcraft age-groups, referred to as 'Elves, Woodlings, Trackers and Pathfinders' and subjected to Woodcraft tests and trials.

Forest School was also heavily influenced by progressive education. At the Forest School each child was treated individually and adults were there to supervise or provide guidance, rather than as authoritative figures. It operated 'very much as a large family', in which 'the children were guided by the group feeling of the school as a whole' (Hedger, 1963), and was organised by typically progressive 'democratic form of government' (Hedger, 1963). Later, the same ethos was applied to the camps.

The organisation gained huge strength in the 1950s when a number of left-wing people joined the staff and many teachers were also recruited. The basis of the camps is still the standing camps or lodges where children are taught camping and woodcraft skills but there are also a number of adventure-style camps involving canoeing, pot holing and camping abroad.

FSC was an unincorporated body until 1967 when it became a Company Limited by Guarantee and a Charity. In 1997 there were 34 camps advertised in the programme and over 1200 places for children and today the camps continue to be run entirely by volunteers.

Dorothy Glynn was one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools and may have used these slides in her work.

The first Principal of the London Day Training College, opened in 1902, was Sir John Adams. The Principal was also a University of London Professor of Education until 1945. Percy Nunn and Margaret Punnet acted as Master and Mistress of Method who had the 'personal oversight of the men and women students respectively, will give lectures on method and school management, will supervise the attendance of students at practising schools and preside at criticism and model lessons and generally act as tutors and directors'. In 1905 these titles were replaced by those of Vice-Principal. Percy Nunn succeeded Adams as Principal in 1922, and Miss Punnett became the sole Vice-Principal.

The career of Richard Goodings (d 1992) included school teaching, educational administration and research, and lecturing in higher education. From 1965 to his death in 1992 he was on the staff of the School of Education, University of Durham. Prior to this, whilst he was a member of staff of the University of London Institute of Education in the late 1950s, he began work on a history of the Institute which was never completed.

Thomas Percy Nunn was born in Bristol in 1870, the son of a schoolmaster. He was educated and taught in his father's school. In 1903 he joined the staff of the London Day Training College where he taught mathematics and science and supervised the arrangements for teaching practice. In 1905 he was appointed Vice-Principal and was Principal of the College, 1922-1932, and Director of the Institute of Education, University of London, 1932-1936. He became a University Professor of Education in 1913, and was knighted in 1930. Nunn sat on the Board of Education's Consultative Committee, was an influential witness to the Hadow Committee, served on the Labour Party's advisory committee on education, and was a member of the Child Guidance Council. His academic interests were broad, encompassing science, mathematics, philosophy and psychology. Nunn was involved in a wide range of organisations, including the Aristotelian Society, the British Association, the British Psychological Society, the Mathematical Association and the Training College Association. His publications included The Aims and Achievements of Scientific Method: An Epistomological Essay (1907) and Relativity and Gravitation (1923), but it is for Education: Its Data and First Principles (1920) that he became most famous. Nunn died in Madeira in December 1944.

Born in Belgium, Joseph Lauwerys (1902-1981) came to England with his parents in 1914. After taking degrees in chemistry and physics at King's College, London, Lauwerys worked from 1927 to 1932 as a physics master at Bournemouth and at Christ's Hospital School. In 1932 he joined the staff of the Institute of Education, University of London, being in turn Lecturer in Methods of Science (1932-1941), Reader in Education (1941-1947), and Professor of Comparative Education (1947-1970). In 1970 he became the first Director of the Atlantic Institute, Nova Scotia. During his career he held many visiting professorships around the world and travelled widely as a consultant and observer of educational conditions. In particular, from 1944-1945 he was Director of Commission of Enquiry on Special Educational Problems, Conference of Allied Ministers of Education and, from 1945-1947, as an adviser and consultant, he played an important role in the establishment of UNESCO. He was also heavily involved in many different organisations for promoting international co-operation and understanding and comparative education, including the World Education Fellowship. For almost twenty years he was an editor of the World Year Book of Education. Building on his science background, Lauwerys also pioneered new aspects of science teaching and curriculum reform, emphasising how science should be a part of mainstream culture, and promoted the use of new educational media, including film and radio.

Katherine Bathurst, the daughter of the Rev. Frederick Bathurst, Archdeacon of Bedford, was born on the 10th May 1862 in Diddington, Huntingdonshire and educated at home, in Brighton and Dresden; taught at the Morley College for Working Men and Women and also French at the Honeywell Road Evening Continuation School, 1894-1895; attended classes and lectures in economics at the London School of Economics, 1895; appointed the third female school sub-inspector by the Board of Education (Miss R.A. Munday and Miss S.J. Willis, had been appointed in 1896), September 1897. She was initially attached to Chief Inspector Rev Francis Synge in the East End of London but they had a difficult working relationship and, in November 1897, she was transferred to the Lambeth district, first under HMI Mr W.E. Currey and then the Rev. Charles D. Du Port, with Miss Munday.

In February 1899 Katherine Bathurst was posted to the Cardiff and Barry districts under Mr A.G. Legard, Chief Inspector of Wales. Two out of three teachers in the area were women and they had requested a female inspector. During 1899-1900 she visited infant schools in the area and criticised running conditions and exercise drills in her reports. She and Legard encouraged the introduction of the kindergarten system into infant schools in the district. Bathurst also took an interest in special schools and secured regular dinners for young children in the Cardiff Blind School. During this period she made a representation to Sir George Kekewich, Secretary of the Education Department, concerning the working conditions of sub-inspectors.

In 1901 Bathurst asked for a transfer and was posted to Oxford where she worked under HMI Edmond Holmes. She entered into a number of disputes with Holmes and Board of Education officials concerning Holmes' editing of her reports, her claims for expenses and diary entries. In February 1904 she was put 'on probation' for six months following a complaint by the Oxford Education Committee.

In March 1904 the female inspectors were taken out of the regular inspectorate. Their new role was to be specialist 'Women Inspectors' under a divisional inspector. Two were to be based in London, one in the Midlands, one in Yorkshire, one in Wales. Bathurst was to be based in Manchester under HMI E.M. Sneyd-Kynnersley. They were to report on the education of 3-5 year-olds in public elementary schools, looking into the social background of the children, school organisation, teaching and discipline. Their role was to collect information, not to inspect or to give advice. A standard 'Form 61', with prescribed questions, was issued for completion on each school visit.

Bathurst visited as many schools as she could within her probation period and estimated she had inspected 91 schools and 30,000 children. She reported that the school premises were ill-ventilated, overcrowded and unhygienic, the desks were too high for small children and children were made to stand while reading and to exercise with dumb-bells. She argued that harsh discipline and a strict curriculum were unsuitable for 3-5 year olds and proposed a kindergarten system, with play space and hammocks for sleeping until the age of 6. She proposed that certified teachers should be replaced by qualified nurses with the Froebel Certificate.

Encouraged by Sir John Gorst, Bathurst submitted her preliminary report before the end of her probation period and before it was requested by the Board of Education, knowing it was likely to result in her dismissal. Sir John Gorst (1835-1916) was an MP and his wife was the cousin of Bathurst's mother. He was interested in questions of child labour and the social conditions of children and gave advice on the contents of the report and on the covering letter before Bathurst submitted it on 16th August 1904. The Board of Education criticised it for making recommendations outside the remit of the investigation, rather than presenting collected data in accordance with the prescribed questions laid out in Form 61. Bathurst was asked to resign as from 7th February 1905 and, meanwhile, to complete her report as originally requested.

Again with encouragement from Sir John Gorst, she submitted her completed report and a supplementary report on her resignation. The supplementary report attacked the system of inspection and included specific names and details as examples. After some debate, both reports were included in the series of Women Inspectors' Reports published by the Board of Education in September 1905. Bathurst's report was prefaced and footnoted by the Board to counter some of her statements and specific names and examples were omitted. There was general press and education press coverage of the Reports and particularly of Bathurst's and the Board of Education's comments. Bathurst carried on the dispute through letters and articles in the press.

After her resignation she continued to take part in debates on the system of school inspections and infant school education. She later became involved in the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT). In 1932, when she sent her papers to the NUWT, she was living in the Isle of Wight.

Martin Lightfoot (1942-1999) was educated at St. Christopher's School in Letchworth, Tiffin School in Kingston and Downing College, Cambridge University, where he read English. Having spent some years as a Director of Penguin Books Ltd and Managing Director of Penguin Education, during which time he was also a key supporter of the National Association for the Teaching of English, in 1974 Lightfoot was appointed as Deputy Education Officer (Services) at the Inner London Education Authority where he was responsible for relations with the Inner London Boroughs and the Greater London Council and community and race relations issues. In 1977 he became Director of the Schools Council Industry Project, conducted jointly with the Confederation of British Industry and Trades Union Congress. From 1981-1983 he served as Specialist Adviser to the Select Committee on Education, Science and Arts where he was responsible for the drafting of reports, including on secondary examinations and curriculum, school meals and on 16-19 education. Lightfoot then took up an academic post at Brunel University, where he was a Senior Research Fellow, Director of the Centre for the Study of Community and Race Relations (1984-1988), and Co-Director of the Education Policy Centre. At Brunel, Lightfoot lectured on law and public services in the Departments of Law and Government, and taught education policy and management, community and race relations, education policy and public service organisation on postgraduate courses in Public and Social Administration. His research projects included 'Expectations of higher education' (c.1980s) during which the perspectives of undergraduates, graduate employers, academic staff, politicians and administrators were examined and 'Recreating Education: London and Education Reform' (1990-1991), which was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and examined the process of setting up education authorities in the Inner London boroughs subsequent to the break-up of the Inner London Education Authority. During his time at Brunel, he also acted as a consultant to the London Borough of Southwark during its preparations to take over educational administration from the Inner Lonodn Education Authority. He retired from Brunel University in 1990 and then worked as an independent educational consultant. During 1992-1993 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Policy Studies, Institute of Education, University of London.

Michael Duane (1915-1997), teacher, headmaster and lecturer, was best known for his 'progressive' educational views, his belief in inclusivity and a multi-racial approach, his encouragement of informal relationships between staff and pupils and his opposition to corporal punishment.

(William) Michael Duane was born on the 25 January 1915 in Dublin, Ireland. After moving to England, he was educated at the Dominican School at Archway, North London; St Ignatius' Grammar School in Stamford Hill, London. In 1938 he graduated from Queen Mary College, London, with a degree in English Language and Literature. He trained as a teacher from 1938-1939 at the Institute of Education and afterwards took up his first teaching post at Dame Alice Owen's Grammar School, Islington, until 1940 when he started war service.

In 1941 he was promoted to Second Lieutenant and in 1942 became the Captain of the HQ Tank Squadron of the 8th Armoured Corps. He was subsequently the Staff Captain to the 20 Armoured Brigade, 6th Armoured Corps.; Staff Officer to General Richard O'Connor, Commander of the 8th Armoured Corps.; Liaison Officer to General Miles Dempsey, Commander of the 2nd Army and to Field Marshal Montgomery. In 1945 he became a Major of the 8th Corps. District, during the occupation of Germany. During the war he was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded two Belgium Medals, the 'Chevalier De L'Ordre De Leopold II Avec Palme' and 'Croix De Guerre Avec Palme'. He was demobilised in 1946 and returned briefly to Dame Alice Owen's Grammar School.

From 1946-1948 he lectured at the Institute of Education on the English Method; to teachers under the emergency scheme; and at the Workers Education Association. In September 1948 he was appoint the Head of Beaumont Boys' School, St Albans. In 1949 he became the Head of a newly opened school, Howe Dell Secondary School in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Duane's headship of Howe Dell was marked by controversy and the school closed shortly after he resigned in 1951. From 1951-1959 Duane was Head Master of Alderman Woodrow Secondary Boys' School, Lowestoft.

It was in 1959 that he took the headship of Risinghill School in Islington, a post which was to make Duane a famous figure. Risinghill opened in 1960 after the amalgamation of four pre-existing schools and under Duane's headship became the subject of much public and media attention and controversy focused on his non-authoritarian approach. There were difficulties with the London County Council and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools, Risinghill was closed in 1965 and Duane became a peripatetic lecturer mainly based at Garnett College in London.

From the 1960s he wrote and lectured widely on the topic of education. In 1995, for example, he published 'The Terrace: An Educational Experiment in a State School' (London: Freedom Press, 1995) about a joint scheme established by Royston Lambert, Head of Dartington School and Sir Alec Clegg, Director of Education for the West Riding of Yorkshire at Northcliffe Comprehensive School, Conisbrough, Yorkshire to provide non-school education for fifteen-year olds after the raising of the school leaving age in 1972-1973. Michael Duane died in January 1997.

David Medd OBE (b 1917) studied with the Architectural Association and qualified as an architect in 1941. He worked for Hertfordshire County Council Architect's Department from 1946 to 1949 and then went to work for the newly formed Architects and Building Branch of the Ministry of Education. In 1949 he married the architect Mary Crowley, with whom he worked in both Hertfordshire and at the Ministry. They were responsible for designing some notable educational buildings and for furniture and equipment design, and were influential in shaping the philosophy of the Architects and Building Branch at the Ministry. Both held strong views on child-centred learning. David Medd lectured and wrote numerous articles on architecture and educational buildings. He also travelled widely, undertaking consultancy work abroad and reporting on school buildings in many different countries.

In 1990, Sir Claus Moser gave the Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in which he drew attention to the need for 'an overall review of the education and training scene: a review which would be visionary about the medium and long-term future facing our children and this country; treating the system in all its inter-connected parts; and last, but not least, considering the changes in our working and labour market scenes.' His call for a Royal Commission was rejected by the government. Instead, the National Commssion on Education was established as an independent body set up in July 1991 under the auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and with sponsorship from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Its remit was to consider all phases of education and training throughout the whole of the United Kingdom and to identify and examine key issues arising over the next 25 years. The Commission's terms of reference were: 'In the light of the opportunities and challenges that will face the United Kingdom in a changing world over the next 25 years, to identify and consider key issues arising from: the definition of educational goals and assessment of the potential demand for education and training, in order to meet the economic and social requirements of the country and the needs and aspirations of people throughout their lives; and the definition of policies and practical means whereby opportunities to satisfy that demand may be made available for all, bearing in mind the implications for resources and institutions and for all of those involves in the education and training system; and to report its conclusions and recommendations in such manner as it may think fit.' The Commission identified seven key issues and established working groups, consisting of two Commission and two external members, to look into each of them: 1. Effective schooling 2. Schools, society and citizenship 3. The teaching profession and quality 4. Higher and further education in the twenty-first century 5. Preparing for work today and tomorrow 6. Better ways of learning 7. Resources It also undertook a wide variety of other activities including seminars, formal and informal discussion meetings, surveys, lectures and visits. It gathered advice and opinion from individuals and organisations by means of written and oral evidence, commissioned new research and analysed existing statistics and literature. Several prominent educationists and other public figures served on the Commission. The Commissioners were: John Walton, Lord Walton of Detchant, House of Lords (Chairman); John Raisman, British Telecom (Deputy Chairman); John Cassels, National Economic Development Office (Director); Averil Burgess, South Hampstead High School; Betty Campbell, Mount Stuart Primary School, Cardiff; David Giachardi, Courtaulds plc; Christopher Johnson, Lloyds Bank; Helena Kennedy, Barrister; Alistair MacFarlane, Heriot Watt University; Margaret Maden, County Education Officer, Warwickshire; Claus Moser, Wadham College, Oxford; Jenny Shackleton, Wirral Metropolitan College; Richard Staite, Beeslack High School, Penicuik, Lothian; Jeff Thompson, University of Bath; David Watson, Brighton Polytechnic; Peter Wickens, Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd.