Highfield Campus 100: 1930s

Despite the 1930s being coloured with the economic depression, the College managed to achieve stability and progress. Treasury grants were raised again by the Grants Committee, and student numbers reached a peak at 474 in the academic year 1931-2, and were to reach 500 in the session 1932-3. The opening of New Hall was approaching, and a sense of self-assurance and shared determination infused on campus amongst staff and students.

New Hall, University College, Southampton Halls of Residence, c.1930 [MS224 A908/5, pp. 12-13]

As a result of generous benefactions, the College was able to construct and develop better facilities for its growing disciplines. At first housed in one small room in the main building and afterwards in two huts, Zoology was moved to the “Science Block” after a gift of £8000 was made by an anonymous donor. Completed in 1931, the building provided facilities for work that was impossible to conduct in the huts. The building also enabled the College to accept treasured zoological and geological collections, such as the Cotton Collection of British Birds, which was formerly housed by the Corporation of Winchester and transferred in 1936.

Corridor in the zoological laboratory, University College Southampton Prospectus, 1934 [MS224/22]

The College was also involved in city projects, which in turn led to the development of its courses. An example was the Dock Extension Scheme project. This involved construction on land regained from the higher part of Southampton Water of those docks which now expand along to Millbrook Point. The extension was completed in 1934 by many engineers who were former students of the College. It was expected that this docks extension would lead to more shipping companies using the port, and therefore more projects for the College to supply young engineers. Professor Eustice’s retirement as Chair of Engineering in 1930 was taken by the College as an opportunity to think about the future of its Engineering faculty, and to create a clear strategy, in time for Professor Eustice’s successor.

Southern Railway – Southampton Docks. Proposed Dock Extensions – Western Shore, Wessex, Volume 2, 1931-33 [LF789.9 Univ. Coll.]

Southampton’s location near large engineering works made it a suitable place as a hub for engineering studies in the south of England. In the interests of engineering education, it would be beneficial for the training department to be part of a Higher Education institution, where it could be in close proximity to pure sciences with which engineering had numerous connections. Moreover, the College possessed the only engineering department of Higher Education standard on the south coast. This led to the Chair of Engineering’s salary being substantially increased, and an agreement that £5000 would be spent on equipment during the next two or three years, with a similar amount being saved for further accommodation.

The next Chair of Engineering appointed in 1931 was Wing-Commander T.R. Cave-Browne Cave. His career experience included serving in the Navy as an engineer-officer, and transferring to the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force. He also had been responsible for the design, construction, and trial of non-rigid airships, and had conducted research at the Admiralty, and the Air Ministry, as well as serving on the Aeronautical Research Committee. Alongside his Chair of Engineering duties, Cave-Brown-Cave gave informal talks on aeronautical engineering at the halls of residence. Here is an account of a talk he gave at Stoneham House, featured in an issue of the West Saxon.

“We were fortunate last term in hearing Commander Cave-Brown-Cave give us what amounted to a racy and entertaining history of airships in England… I remember most vividly the thrilling account of the destruction of the R 33 over the Humber, the enthusiastic description of speed trials over the Channel in the R 100, and the wonderful impression of speed to be gained when racing only eighty feet above the clouds.” [The West Saxon, Summer Term 1931, p.91]

Letter written by Commander Cave-Brown-Cave, 19 May 1936 [MS1/4/126]

The effects of the 1930s economic crisis led to the College experiencing a temporary drop in the grants received from the local authorities and the Board of Education, causing a small reduction in income. Cuts were also made to staff salaries. The biggest blow to the College, however, was the sudden dip in the number of students due to the changed policy of the Board of Education, and the damage this incurred on the College revenue. In 1929 a 5-year agreement was made between the Board of Education and the College over the supplementary two-year students. Before the crisis, the total numbers accepted to the Education Department was 375 (200 four-year, 150 two-year and 25 one-year postgraduate students), and this number had been almost fully reached. As a result of the economic crisis however, the Board first reduced the permitted total by 12.5%. They then announced in 1932 that under the current situation, the agreement on the College admitting two-year certificate students until 1934 would have to be terminated, except on conditions that hindered rather than benefitted the College.

Faculty of Education course of study slip, 1933-1934 [MS104 LF780 UNI 5/374/122]

To meet this situation several staff appointments were terminated. Full-time members of staff were asked to take evening classes for which part-time teachers had been previously employed, cuts were made on funds for apparatus and equipment, and the administrative personnel was condensed. In spite of all these measures, deficits of £1873, £2882, and £6050 arose in 1933-4 and the two subsequent sessions; and in order to meet bank charges, some of the College’s investments had to be sold.

Advertisement for University College, Southampton, Wessex, Volume 3, 1933-36 [LF789.9 Univ. Coll.]

These deficits were the result of the necessary building programme required to provide the Engineering Department with new facilities, which included lecture rooms, drawing-offices, and workshops. In 1931-2, a new engineering block housing all of these and a new boiler house was constructed. Under a new regulation of London University’s External Council, no candidates for engineering degrees could be admitted to the examination unless they had studied in an approved institution. This meant that the new block required an inspection by London University, to which it passed with flying colours.

Bay of the engineering laboratories, University College Southampton Prospectus, 1934  [MS224/22]

The development of the Engineering Faculty included the introduction of the Aeronautical Studies at the College. This was made possible by the development of a wind tunnel in 1934. To begin with, the tunnel was of a temporary nature and housed in an old hut. In 1941, it was rebuilt in more substantial form and filled with modern machinery. Initially, instruction in aeronautical work was provided to students in addition to their normal degree course. As a result of aircraft being increasingly demanded at a fast pace, and the resulting huge development of the mechanical staff of manufacturing companies, there was now an upward need for instruction of a standard, which would qualify students to take the aeronautical papers of the London degree examination. This led to University College Southampton appointing Mr T. Tanner as Lecturer in Aeronautical Engineering in 1936.

Students studying a model in the 7 x 5 wind tunnel, University of Southampton 1862-1962 Centenary Appeal [MS224/22 A952/6]

By 1931 the insufficiency of the library facilities was deemed so great that a special committee of Senate believed it was halting the effectiveness of the College. The state of finances could offer no solution, until a Mr Edward Turner Sims, a member of the Council who died in 1928, left a generous legacy. In his will he expressed his wish that some sort of memorial to him would be placed in the College. Mr Edward Turner Sims’ daughters, Mary and Margaret, made this wish come true by presenting to the College £24,250 for the construction of a library. In October 1935 H.R.H. the Duke of York (later King George VI) opened the Turner Sims Library. Holding a commodious reading room, a stack room for 12,000 volumes, and six seminar rooms for classics, modern languages, English, philosophy, history and economics, the library was an attractive space for students. So distinguished, the library was provided a prized location in the centre part of the main block on Highfield Campus. Soon after, donations were presented to the library, including in 1938 the collection of Claude Montefiore. The donation consisted of 4500 volumes, of which most focused on theology, Judaica, classical texts, and ancient history. This donation would later become part of the Parkes Library within the Library, which is now one of the largest Jewish documentation centres in Europe.

Interior of the main reading room at Edward Turner Sims Library, c.1938, Wessex, Vol 4, 1937-1938 [LF789.9 Univ. Coll.]

The formation of a School of Navigation had been one of Lyon Playfair’s ideas for the work of the Hartley Institution, and it was finally put into action in 1932, through the Council taking over Gilchrist Navigation School. The Council decided to operate it for an initial 2 years in South Hill. In 1935, the School was made permanent with the support of the local, educational, municipal, and shipping authorities. The appointed Director of the same year was Captain G.W. Wakeford. Restructured and expanded, the School received the recognition of the Board of Trade and the Board of Education. Extending over one year, a residential cadet course was opened in 1937.

Department of Navigation, Wessex, Volume 3, 1933-36 [LF789.9 Univ. Coll.]

Despite the development of new facilities, student numbers were falling in the middle and later thirties, and there was a drop in the standard of examination results. Occurring predominantly in the Education Department, where the number of staff members almost matched the number of full-time students, the number of full-time students went from 375 in the session 1934-5 down to 269 in the session 1938-9. Student numbers dipped so low, that the College decided during the session of 1939-40 to have only two halls of residence open – Highfield and Connaught.

Female residents and sub-warden sat in front of Highfield Hall, 1930-31 [MS224 A919/1]

It should be noted that this fall in students was not specific to the College, but in fact a countrywide problem. Some institutions however, suffered more than others. One general cause of the fall in students that was known to all higher education institutions was that in times of high employment parents preferred their children to grasp employment opportunities when they existed, rather than to spend time on Higher Education.

Graduates of University College, Southampton, May 1930 [MS224/12 A919/7]

A Committee was eventually set up to discuss the how the numbers and quality of students could be improved again. They reported in 1939 measures to be taken, which focused on methods of motivating the less reactive students and steps to make the College’s work and resources more widely recognised. The outbreak of World War Two gave little time for these to be put into action however, and the war’s aftermath created a very different situation. Look out for our next Highfield 100 Campus blog post, which will take you through the forties at the University!

“Southampton War Cry”, Wessex Student Song Book [MS224 A917/10]

World Poetry Day

For this year’s World Poetry Day, we’re celebrating the work of the little-known Hampshire poet, Burnal Charles Lane.

B.C.Lane was born at Hordle, near New Milton, Hampshire in 1900.  His father worked on a market garden belonging to Miss Anna Bateson and she instilled in Lane a love of nature, an interest in literature and also taught him to speak French.

Burnal Charles Lane aged 20 [MS 16 A655/5]

Lane wrote his first poem aged 16. He was called up for National Service in 1918 and, once it was discovered he could speak French, he worked as a interpreter, including in France and Belgium for the War Graves Commission.

This verse by Lane feels appropriate for the time of year. Note his aside; he must have been interrupted half way through!

[MS 16 A655/1/3]

Lane married Mabel in 1930 and they had one daughter, Sarah E. Lane, born in 1945.

Lane pictured with his wife Mabel and baby daughter Sarah in 1945 [MS 16 A655/5]

Following Miss Bateson’s death, Lane’s father bought the market garden and Lane became a partner.  Lane retired in 1965 which enabled him to devote much of his time to his biggest interest, poetry.  The five boxes of material housed in our strongroom attest to the fact that Lane spent as much time as he could writing!  He also loved walking in the New Forest, usually with his cairn dog.

Lane published some of his poems privately in 1975 with an introduction by the English poet and translator, John Heath Stubbs, of whom Lane had been a fan:

These are the poems of a countryman who was devoted very many years with a single-minded devotion to the making of verse… the best of them seem to me to be lyrics of the purest water.

A fitting close feels to be this rousing verse which Lane penned in about 1924, ode to his beloved home county.

My Own Hampshire

Rich county, I hail thee! the gem of the South!

Southampton, Winchester and sunny Bournemouth!

Thy forest, thy meadows, hills valleys and streams

Are a source of delight to all who dream dreams.

And, if not a dreamer or poet, you’ll find

That Hampshire folk know what is best for mankind.

So come, drink your glass of wine or good ale 

Or, if you prefer it fresh milk from the pail,

And then all together, O come let us sing:

“Of all England’s counties Hampshire is king!”

Fair mistress of England, where Alfred the Great

In Winchester city established his state;

Where stout-hearted Saxon fought Norman and Dane,

And Williams, called Rufus a-hunting was slain.

O, England remembers, remembers thee yet!

Can England her once royal county forget?

So come, drink your glass…

[MS 16 A655/1/1]

 

In the company of Wellington

On St Patrick’s day we mark the anniversary of the arrival of the Wellington Archive at Southampton in 1983. Since then, the Special Collections has acquired a wide range of material that relates to this archive and we take the opportunity to explore some of these.

Part of Wellington Archive

The Wellington Archive [MS61] represents the political, military and official papers of Wellington, so collections that provide a more personal perspective on the Duke are always of interest. Christopher Collins entered Wellington’s service in 1824 and worked as his confidential servant for the remainder of the Duke’s life. Amongst the papers in this collection [MS69] are notes and letters from the Duke issuing instructions about ordering straps with buckles and boots, arrangements for mending razors, for preparations for his room at Walmer Castle and the cleaning and maintenance of uniforms.

Note from Wellington to Collins sending instructions for preparing his room at Walmer Castle, 13 September 1839 [MS69/2/15]: “have some fire in my room; some hot water for tea; and some boiling sea water for my feet”.

Collins kept a notebook listing the Duke’s diamonds, ceremonial collars, field marshal batons and coronation staves, 1842 [MS69/2/1] and amongst the objects in the collection are the blue ribbon of the Order of the Fleece and the red ribbon of the Order of the Bath which belonged to Wellington [MS69/4/11-12].

Red ribbon of the Order of the Bath [MS69/4/11]

Collins also kept notes on Wellington’s health [MS69/2/3] and the collection includes a number of recipes, such as one for “onion porage” to cure “spasms of the chest and stomach”, 1850, below.

Recipe for “onion porage” [MS69/4/19]

Three letters from Wellington to William Holmes, Tory Whip, in December 1838 [MS272/1 A9231/-3], likewise deal with the Duke’s health and in particular reports in the Morning Post about this. The Duke complained in a letter of 22 December 1838: “If people would only allow me to die and be damned I should not care what the Morning Post thinks proper to publish. But every devil who wants anything writes to enquire how I am.”

A small series of correspondence of Wellington, and Deputy Commissary General William Booth, which is a more recent acquisition, provide some insight into the management of Wellington’s estates at Waterloo, 1832-52 [MS414].

Illustration of the Duke of Wellington [MS351 A4170/9]

A number of military archive collections, including some of officers who served with Wellington, now join company with the Wellington Archive at Southampton. Papers of Sir John Malcolm, 1801-16, [MS308] provide important evidence for Wellington in India, at a formative stage of his career, in comparatively informal and personal correspondence with a friend and political colleague; it includes Wellington’s letters written in the field throughout the Assaye campaign. MS321 is composed of seven volumes of guardbooks of correspondence and papers of Lieutenant Colonel John Gurwood, who was editor of Wellington’s General Orders and Dispatches. The collection relates to Gurwood’s military career as well as his editorial work.

Letter from Gurwood to his mother in which he reports he led the “forlorn hope” at Ciudad Rodrigo, 20 January 1812 [MS321/7]

Sir Robert Hugh Kennedy served as Commissary General of the forces commanded by Wellington in the Iberian Peninsula, with Sir John Bisset serving in Kennedy’s stead in 1812, and their collection of letter books, accounts and other papers cover the period 1793-1830 [MS271], providing evidence of the work of this department during military campaigns over this period. An order book of the general orders of Sir Edward Barnes, Adjutant General of the army in Europe, 10 May 1815 – 18 January 1816, covers the period of the battle of Waterloo and the allied occupation of France [MS289]. And the diary of George Eastlake, recording a visit to northern Spain with Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin in September 1813 to discover Wellington’s requirements for naval assistance, provides details of Wellington’s headquarters at Lesaca as well as the army camp at Bidassoa [MS213].

A journal sent by General Francisco Copons y Navia to the Duke of Wellington details the operations undertaken by the Spanish First Army for the period 2-20 June 1813 in relation to those of General Sir John Murray. Murray had landed with a British force at Salou in Catalonia on 3 June and laid siege to Tarragona [MS253].

‘Journal du blocure de la place de Barcelonne’ [MS360/1]

Formerly part of a larger series of documents, Special Collections holds two booklets, signed by F.Mongeur, the Commissaire Ordonnateur for Barcelona, at Perpignan on 3 June 1814, that relate to the administration of Barcelona in 1814. The first, the ‘Journal du blocure de la place de Barcelonne’ has a daily record from 1 February to 3 June 1814 of the French forces [MS360/1]. The succeeding document in the series is a general report, in French, on the administration of the siege of Barcelona by the armée d’Aragon et de Catalogne, between 1 January and 28 May 1814, which gives details of the period of the evacuation of the place, as well as of the food and consumption of foodstuffs and expenditure on supplies during this period. There is a detailed analysis of the composition of the forces, the different corps of troops, companies and detachments making up the garrison at Barcelona [MS360/2].

Signature of Daniel O’Connell, 1815 [MS64/17/2]

Material relating to politics in the Wellington Archive is paralleled by that within a number of significant other collections at Southampton. The archive of the Parnell family, Barons Congleton [MS64] which contains extensive material relating to Irish politics. Amongst the papers of Sir John Parnell, second Baronet, is material for the Union of Ireland and Great Britain, whilst the papers of the first Baron Congleton include material about Roman Catholic emancipation.

Letter from Daniel O’Connell to Sir Henry Parnell, 13 June 1815, relating to Catholic emancipation [MS64/17/2]

The Broadlands Archives [MS62] also contain much on British and Irish politics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as well as papers of two nineteenth-century Prime Ministers in the form of Lords Palmerston and Melbourne. A collection of correspondence between John Wilson Croker and Palmerston for the period 1810-56 [MS273] includes much on political, military and official business. Papers of Wellington’s elder brother, Richard, Marquis Wellesley, include material relating to his tenure as ambassador in Spain, 1809, and as Foreign Secretary, 1809-12 [MS63].

Letter from Simon Bolivar to Lord Wellesley, 22 January 1811 [MS63/9/7]

Since its arrival in 1983, which also heralded the development of the Archives and Manuscripts as a service, the Wellington Archive has acted as an irresistible draw to other collections to join its company.

To find out more about Wellington, or research that has drawn on the collections held at Southampton, why not join us at this year’s Wellington Congress. Registration is open until the end of March.

Robert Morrison, his Chinese Dictionary and Hampshire Connections

Members of a group of Chinese teachers visiting Special Collections recently were very taken with the Library’s copies of Robert Morrison’s Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1815-1823) and Grammar of the Chinese Language (1815). Both books, the first publications of their kind, were given to the Library by John Bullar, a friend of Henry Robinson Hartley, the founder of the Hartley Institution. Intriguingly, the Grammar contains a note from the author to Bullar describing where the language was used, raising the question of how they knew each other – Morrison having spent most of his adult life in China and Bullar being a lifelong resident of Southampton.

The Chinese Language is read in Cochin china, Corea, the Loochoo Islands & in Japan; as well as in China proper, Chinese Tartary and the colonies of Chinese in the Archipelago South of China, note from Robert Morrison in his Grammar of the Chinese Language (1815) Rare Books quarto PL 1107

The fact that Morrison was a missionary and his interest in the Chinese language arose from his undertaking to translate the Bible, suggests that the link between the two men was the British and Foreign Bible Society. As the Secretary of the Southampton Branch, Bullar, a Deacon of Southampton’s Above Bar Chapel, would have known of Morrison’s work and of the grants the Society made towards his publication of the Chinese New Testament in 1814 and the Bible in 1823.

Prior to leaving for China, Morrison had attended David Bogue’s Missionary Academy at Gosport and their paths may well have crossed at this time.  A speech Bullar made in Southampton in October 1827 was reported in the Evangelical Magazine and confirms that he and Morrison were acquainted, ‘I can add, from my personal knowledge of the great, the good, the devoted Dr Morrison, that he told me incidentally that such had been his application to the Chinese language … he had scarcely the pen out of his hand from six in the morning till ten at night.’

Robert Morrison, from Eliza Morrison Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison (1839) Rare Books BV 3427.M

Another Hampshire resident, Sir George Staunton of Leigh Park, provided crucial support for Morrison after he arrived in Canton in 1807. Staunton had had a lifelong interest in China, accompanying his father, also Sir George, on the first British Embassy to China in 1793 and later becoming chief of the East India Company’s factory at Canton. In his memoirs, Staunton wrote that from the time of Morrison’s arrival they were in constant communication, either personally or by letter.

Sir George Staunton, from his Memoirs of the Chief Incidents of the Public Life of Sir George Thomas Staunton (1856) Cope 95 STA

Staunton helped Morrison to find language tutors, it being illegal for the Chinese to teach their language to a foreigner, and later gave him employment as a translator for the Company. When it became know that Morrison had published the translation of the New Testament, it was Staunton’s intervention which enabled him to keep his job – both the East India Company and the Chinese Government prohibiting the work of foreign missionaries. The Company did, however, recognise the value of Morrison’s Dictionary, not least to its own employees, shipping a printing press to Macau so that it could be published.

Robert Morrison Dictionary of the Chinese Language v.1 pt.1 (1815) Rare Books quarto PL 1071

Leaving Morrison to his translating and missionary work, Staunton returned to Britain in 1817, settling at Leigh Park in 1819 and pursuing a political career. His love of China was reflected in his house and the development of the estate, though much had still to be done when Morrison, back in Britain for two years, paid a visit in September 1825. According to his wife this was the ‘longest interval of rest that Dr Morrison allowed himself to indulge in during the two years of his sojurn in England’. Morrison was able to admire the Temple which commemorated several friends from China whom he and Staunton had in common, but the Chinese bridge, Chinese boathouse and Chinese summerhouse described in Edward Lloyd’s Notices of Leigh Park Estate (1836), had yet to be built.

The Chinese Boathouse from Edward Lloyd Notices of the Leigh Park Estate near Havant (1836) Rare Books Cope HAV 72

After this visit, Morrison never returned to Britain, dying in Canton in August 1834, and leaving as his legacy the contribution he made to the opening up of cultural relations between Britain and China, through his pioneering publications on the Chinese language.

Robert Morrison A Grammar of the Chinese Language (1815) Rare Books quarto PL 1107