Annie Yorke (1844-1926) is the subject of the first of our blog posts marking Women’s History Month. Better known as “The Hon. Mrs Eliot Yorke”, she has the distinction of featuring in several of our collections. As a Rothschild she is mentioned in the Jewish collections, as a part-time resident of Netley she appears in the local studies collection and as a member of the Councils of Hartley University College and University College Southampton, she is also found in our University Collections.
Annie Yorke from: Lucy Cohen Lady de Rothschild and her Daughters 1821-1931 (1935) Cope 95 MON
The younger daughter of Sir Anthony and Lady Louise de Rothschild, Annie and her elder sister Constance (later Lady Battersea) spent much of their childhood at Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire where their mother ensured that from an early age, they were aware of their philanthropic obligations. Both girls taught from time to time at the village schools built by their father and later took some classes at the Jews’ Free School in London. Being dissatisfied with a textbook in use, they published their own, History and Literature of the Israelites (1870).
The History and Literature of the Israelites, vol.2 by Annie Yorke (1870) Parkes BZ 1651.F66
Although Constance and Annie were given a sound Jewish education, their social circle was largely Christian and unusually for members of the Rothschild family, they both married out. In 1873, with the reluctant approval of her father, Annie married Eliot Yorke, the fourth son of the Earl of Hardwicke. She retained her Jewish faith but despite this, the depth of feeling at the time is evident in her obituary in the Jewish Chronicle some fifty years later:
“This incident caused great pain to the Jewish community, and Sir Anthony de Rothschild indicated his own sense about the marriage by offering to resign from some communal offices which he held, particularly that of President of the United Synagogue. It is significant that the Jewish Chronicle of the time made no mention of, and entirely ignored, the alliance.”
Jewish Chronicle 26 November 1925
It was her marriage that brought Annie Yorke to Hampshire where Netley provided a base for her husband’s yachting activities. The couple divided their time between their London home in Curzon Street, Netley Castle and their yacht. After only five years, Annie was left a widow when Eliot Yorke died from pneumonia and thereafter she devoted much of her time to good works. She moved to Hamble Cliff, a house adjacent to the Royal Victoria Hospital, and this became her Hampshire base for the rest of her life.
Hamble Cliff from: P. Campion A Recent History of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset (1922) Cope quarto 95
Annie Yorke’s primary interest was in the temperance movement and she was active both locally and on the national stage. At Netley, she set up the White Rose Coffee Room as a base for temperance meetings and other entertainments designed to provide an alternative attraction to Netley’s many public houses. In Southampton she worked closely with Rev. Basil Wilberforce, Rector of St Mary’s 1871-1894, and president of the St Mary’s Church Temperance Society. Local newspapers record the meetings held in the town and events at the White Rose Coffee Room and Hamble Cliff, the latter venues often visited by the distinctively named “Blue Cross Abstainers Cycling Brigade” of which Annie Yorke was the patron. Nationally, she was a member of the British Women’s Temperance Association and then of the breakaway Women’s Total Abstinence Union, serving as its president for terms of three, five and seven years. She was also president of the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union.
From: Hampshire Advertiser 10 June 1893 (Cope Collection microfilm)
Education at all levels remained a lifelong interest. An active member of Hound School Board which was responsible for Butlocks Heath, Sholing Boys and Netley Infants Schools, Annie Yorke was also a member of Hampshire County Council’s Education Committee. Through this she was appointed to the Council of the Hartley University College, later, University College, Southampton, and for many years was the only female member. She is credited with introducing her cousin, Claude Montefiore, to the institution, which proved crucial to its survival and success, Montefiore going on to serve as Acting President and then President from 1913 to 1934. Like many other members of the Council, Annie Yorke was also a benefactor of the College and in 1917 her contribution towards the establishment of a hostel for female students led to it being named Yorke House in her honour.
Extract from University College, Southampton Council Minutes 11 June 1971 MS1/MBK1/5
Locally, Annie Yorke was involved in many good works or as her obituary in the Hampshire Advertiser put it “As president, vice-president, or patroness, Mrs Eliot York was probably associated with more organisations in Southampton than any other woman.” Newspaper reports bear this out. She is recorded laying the foundation stone of the Gordon Boys Brigade Headquarters in 1889 and a memorial stone at the Emigrants Home in 1893, she supported the work of the YMCA, the YWCA, the Travellers Aid Society, the Royal South Hants Hospital, the Eye Hospital and the Soup Kitchen amongst many others. A well-practised opener of horticultural shows and fetes, she was remembered at Netley and Hamble for her support of the local community which included financing a district nurse.
From: Hampshire Advertiser 27 November 1926 (Cope Collection microfilm)
According to the Hampshire Advertiser, “Every religious community, no matter how small, found in her a firm friend” and this included the small Jewish community in the local area. The statement in the Jewish Chronicle, that after her marriage “Although remaining a Jewess, she took no part in communal affairs”, was corrected by her cousin, Arthur R. Moro, in a letter published in the next issue. In this he referred to her support of the Jewish Board of Guardians and the Jewish Association for the Protection of Women and Girls, which had been founded as the Jewish Ladies’ Society for Preventive and Rescue Work, at a meeting at her house in 1885. Her sister, Constance was for many years its honorary secretary, whilst Annie was an active member of the committee of the Sara Pyke Lodging House.
Minutes of the first meeting of the Jewish Ladies’ Society for Preventive and Rescue Work MS173/2/1/1
Away from her charitable works Annie Yorke moved in high society, hosting royal visitors and visiting W.E. Gladstone whilst on a temperance speaking tour. She took extended cruises each year on her yacht, the Garland, developed the gardens at Hamble Cliff and was an accomplished artist. Whilst the University’s Yorke House hostel is long gone, Annie Yorke’s contribution to local life is commemorated locally by Yorke Way in Hamble.
A century ago, University College, Southampton was beginning a new phase in its campaign to become an independent University. The move to Highfield in 1919 had brought the opportunity to develop a purpose-built campus and to provide more halls of residence, both essential to the university experience. With the campus consisting of two wings of the central block, three laboratories, a building for Engineering and the wooden huts bequeathed by the War Hospital, such ambition required vision and funding at a time when the College’s finances were already in a precarious state.
Plan of the College from the Open Day Programme (1926) Rare Books Univ. Coll. c LF 783.9
Existing sources of finance included the Board of Education and the University Grants Committee, whilst County and Borough Council grants supported the higher technical education which the College undertook. It being unlikely that increases from these bodies would be forthcoming, in 1920, the College launched an appeal for financial support from local organisations, businesses, and individuals. Casting its geographical net as widely as possible, the project was framed as creating a ‘University for Wessex’ and initially included a proposal for a tripartite federal university in which Portsmouth and Bournemouth’s technical colleges would be upgraded to become equal partners with University College, Southampton.
The appeal made little impact for the first few years and as predicted by Kenneth Vickers, who was appointed Vice-Chancellor in October 1922, the idea of a federal university was soundly rejected by the University Grants Committee. In 1924 a UGC visit highlighted the need for increased local funding as a condition for any additional central funds, bringing more urgency to the appeal and in the shape of Major J.A. McGrath, the appointment of an Appeal Director.
Kenneth Hotham Vickers, Principal of the University College 1922-46 [MS1/Phot/39 ph3415]
With a target of £500,000 to improve facilities, staff pay and to secure a Charter, McGrath planned to create local committees throughout the region and, following tailored publicity campaigns, to hold large public meetings in the main centres of population. Although the idea of a federal university was no longer in play, the appeal retained its ‘University for Wessex’ branding with a suggestion that faculties might be sited in different areas such as Schools of Aesthetics or Music in Bournemouth. Whilst the proposed change of name had advantages for fundraising, it was not universally popular, straying from the tradition of naming universities after towns and cities and incurring the ire of the Principal of University College, Reading, which found itself excluded from Wessex.
From: University Education for Wessex (c.1926) Univ. Coll. LF 785.8
The appeal was successful in gaining coverage in both the local and national press and publicity brochures were distributed locally highlighting the College’s importance to the region and the costs of the developments proposed. In May 1925, the first public meeting was held at Winchester, with addresses by members of the College and by Austen Chamberlain, the Foreign Secretary. With an attendance of over a thousand it was deemed a success at the time but produced few contributions to the appeal, Vickers later suggesting that many people had been there only to hear Chamberlain speak.
List of suggestions for named endowments from: University Education for Wessex (c.1926) Univ. Coll. LF 785.8
Despite the flurry of activity, the appeal suffered setbacks. McGrath resigned as Director after two years, as did his replacement, Sir Mark Hunter, at which point, Vickers was asked to head the campaign. His approach was to hold frequent, small meetings of representatives of the local industrial, professional and commercial communities through which links to potential donors might be made. A public meeting already planned for Southampton went ahead in October 1928 at which donations pledged included those by the department store Tyrrell & Green and the Southampton Gas Light and Coke Company but these made little impact on the £100,000 target set for Southampton.
Cover of: University of Wessex: an Appeal to Southampton (1928) Univ. Coll. LF 785.8
Former students were another potential source of income and their magazine Goblio featured pleas for members of the Society of Old Hartleyans to take out subscriptions of £1 a year for seven years. Although only about a tenth of their target of £10,000 was raised, some former students were prepared to become actively involved in fundraising as the programme for the play ‘Milestones’ attests.
Rare Books Univ. Coll. c LF 784.6T4
Two features of the appeal widely publicised at the time were the proposed Thomas Hardy Chair of English Literature and the publication of the periodical Wessex. The Chair, endorsed by Thomas Hardy, who had also lent his support to the idea of the University for Wessex, was never to be, despite support from many in the literary world. In contrast, Wessex was regarded as one of the appeal’s successes. Published from 1928 to 1938 as an ‘annual record of the movement of the University of Wessex’, it contained articles of a high standard by members of staff and former students, the first issue being devoted to the memory of Thomas Hardy. Wessex (available on Internet Archive) remains one of the few legacies of the ‘University for Wessex Appeal’, its pages providing a glimpse College life at that time.
Transcript of a letter to the College from Florence Hardy, included in the first issue of Wessex (1928) Univ. Coll. LF 789.9
Ultimately, the Appeal fell far short of its financial target, raising only around £110,000 of the £500,000 required and the idea of the University for Wessex itself died a natural death – another of Vickers’ predictions. Where the campaign did succeed was in raising awareness of the work of the College and its potential for benefitting the region. On his arrival in Southampton, Vickers described finding a background of rivalry with other educational institutions and a certain amount of apathy and suspicion in Southampton following the College’s removal from the town to Highfield. This improvement in understanding and appreciation of the work of the College was to be important in its development during the 1930s and in the long-awaited achievement of university status in 1952.
And so we move to T. For this week’s instalment in our Special Collections A-Z we had the reins over to Roger Ottewill.
A Northumbrian by birth, Temple Patterson was described in a newspaper report covering the publication of one of his major works on the history of Southampton as ‘a Hampshireman by adoption’ (Southern Evening Echo, 2 July 1970). In the years following the Second World War and until his death in 1983, Patterson or ‘Pat’, as he was affectionately known, was one of Southampton’s foremost historians (see obituary contributed by Edwin Course in Hampshire Field Club Newsletter, Vol 1, 1984, p.18). Indeed his reputation was such that when he died in 1983 he was honoured with an obituary in The Times (27 October 1983).
Temple Patterson’s obituary from The Times
In this blog it is intended to provide a brief overview of his life and works; to review his approach to researching and writing history; and to assess his contribution to the study of local history, in general, and that of the history of Southampton and, to a lesser extent, Portsmouth, in particular.
Life and Works
Arthur Temple Patterson, to give him his full name, was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 27th November 1902. His higher education was undertaken at Armstrong College, from where he graduated in 1924 with a University of Durham first class degree in history. Armstrong College had been founded jointly by the University of Durham and the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineering in 1871.
Initially a schoolmaster, his first higher education appointment was in pre-Second World War Hampshire ‘at Portsmouth Municipal College, where he directed a small honours school of London external degree students’ (The Times, 27 October 1983). From Portsmouth he moved to University College, Leicester, where he was Head of History during the Second World War and immediate post-war years. It was here that his love of local history took root and he undertook research on a variety of topics, including electoral corruption in Leicester in the years following the 1832 Reform Act (History, Sept 1946, XXXI, pp.113-121); Luddism, Hampden Clubs and trade unions in Leicester 1816-17 (English Historical Review, April 1948, pp.170-188); and canals (‘The Making of the Leicestershire Canals 1766-1814’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological Society, 1951 XXVII, pp.1-35).
Map IV from The Making of the Leicestershire canals 1766-1814 [HE436.L4 PAT]
All of these publications were early examples of Patterson using the experience of what was happening at local level to amplify national developments. Off-prints are held in Special Collections (ref MS111 A691/1). In addition, they underpinned, to some extent, his first major publication, Radical Leicester: A History of Leicester 1780-1850. Although this was not published until 1954, a few years after he had returned to Hampshire, it ‘was a seminal work which helped to lay the foundations of the University of Leicester’s pre-eminence in urban history.’ (The Times, 27 October 1983).
In 1949 he had joined the History Department of University College, Southampton (University of Southampton from 1952), where he remained until his retirement in 1968. Initially listed in the University Yearbook as a Lecturer, from 1951/52 to 1956/57 his title was that of ‘Lecturer in Economic History’. Although it is not known for certain, it is probable that he was instrumental in preparing the syllabus for, and teaching, a special subject: ‘The town and port of Southampton in the sixteenth Century’, which was listed in the University Yearbooks from 1954/55 to 1956/57 inclusive . This combined his two main lines of research – ‘regional studies and naval history’. He was appointed ‘Reader in Regional History’ in 1960 and ‘Professor of Regional History’ in 1968. For most of the time that he was on the staff of the University, he and his wife lived in Brockenhurst, moving to Chichester shortly before his retirement.
Temple Patterson with a group of History students; he is seated in the front row, fourth from the left [MS310/23 A1048/8]
With respect to Patterson’s publications in the sphere of regional history, arguably his magnum opus was his three volume history of Southampton covering the years from 1700 to 1914. Volume I subtitled “An oligarchy in decline” focussed on the period 1700 to 1835 and was published in 1966; volume II, “The beginnings of modern Southampton”, 1836 to 1867, in 1971; and volume III, “Setbacks and recoveries”, 1868 to 1914, in 1975. All appeared in the Southampton Records Series.
Cover of part 1 of Patterson’s History of Southampton [Cope SOU 06]
Another publication of particular significance was The University of Southampton: a centenary history of the evolution and development of the University of Southampton 1862-1962, which was published in 1962 (ref 378.42276). This is an extremely detailed and meticulously researched account with Patterson drawing upon a wide variety of primary sources, including minute books, annual reports, local newspapers and personal testimony. With respect to the latter, he acknowledged his indebtedness ‘for recollections, comments, criticism and general guidance to a large number of former and present members of the academic and administrative staff, former students and public figures in the town and neighbourhood of Southampton.’
Patterson’s The University of Southampton [LF 780 Univ Coll]
Throughout, an underlying theme is that of the financial challenges the University to be faced. As Patterson puts it in relation to the period just after the First World War:
… [when] it was still confronted with its perennial problem of finance – the all-too-familiar need of raising more money in order to expand its premises, staff and equipment.
The University of Southampton: a centenary history of the evolution and development of the University of Southampton 1862-1962, p. 144
In some ways, it was a ‘victim of its own success’ as increasing numbers of students led to growing pressure on existing facilities.
The publication is well illustrated with photographs of leading figures, such as Sir Richard Wood, the Principal from 1946 to 1952 and first Vice-Chancellor. In addition, there is a sketch by the architect Sir Basil Spence of his projected design for the University campus in 1980. Patterson concludes, by looking backwards and outwards:
The University owes its existence to Henry Robinson Hartley. The benefaction he made to the citizens of Southampton has made possible the development in the town, and in the region which was once the core of the ancient Kingdom of Wessex of an institution, which must surely play a notable part in the great educational advance of the nation in the twentieth century.
The University of Southampton: a centenary history of the evolution and development of the University of Southampton 1862-1962, p. 225
Intriguingly, some of the content of the first edition of the history caused offence, perhaps because Patterson highlighted shortcomings and personal disputes as well as positive aspects of the institution’s history. Consequently, in the 1970s with assistance from the then Librarian, B.N. Bland, he produced what he described as a ‘de-bowdlerised version’ (see MS111 LF780UNI/8/520). Sadly, nobody has been willing or able to build on Patterson’s foundations and take his narrative forward.
Following his retirement, in 1970 Macmillan published Southampton: a biography while in 1976 two further works of local history, Portsmouth: A History and Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, were published by Moonraker Press and Batsford respectively.
It is also worthy of note that Patterson played a leading role in establishing the Portsmouth Papers series, serving as General Editor for a number of years. He also researched and wrote four papers in the series namely:
no.3 “Palmerston’s folly” the Portsdown and Spithead Forts, published in 1967;
no.5 The Naval Mutiny at Spithead 1796, in 1968;
no.10 Portsmouth: a French Gibralter?,in 1970; and
no.14 Portsmouth’s nineteenth-century literary figures, in 1972.
Cover of Portsmouth Papers no. 3 [Cope 45]
In addition, he co-authored two further papers:
no. 19 with Margaret Hoad, Portsmouth and the Crimean War published in 1973; and
no 21 with Jean Stanford, The condition of the children of the poor in mid-Victorian Portsmouth, in 1974.
The series covers a wealth of subjects from churches to theatres and from law and order to transport. As Editor it is probable that he encouraged, and probably mentored, a number of aspiring local historians. It is a great pity that he did not pursue a similar initiative for Southampton.
The Practice of History
As a historian, Patterson was a dedicated interrogator of primary source material. This required, in pre-internet and often pre-microfilm days, visits to archives and newspaper offices. Indeed, as recorded in a newspaper report from 1963, ‘Mr Temple Patterson is a familiar figure in this office, where he does research on the files of the “Hampshire Advertiser” and the “Hampshire Independent” ’ (27 November 1963). Today, he would undoubtedly be an avid user of the British Newspaper Archive. He was also fulsome in his praise of archivists. He regarded them as far more than ‘mere keepers of records’ (Patterson, Local History and Southampton, University of Southampton 1968, p.6). In his view, they made an invaluable contribution through their facilitation of historical research.
In presenting the results of his research Patterson sought to allow the narrative to emerge ‘naturally’. As it was put in his obituary: ‘he wrote with discipline and restraint, seeking to enable the facts to tell their own story, without the imposition of an extraneous interpretation upon them’(The Times, 27 October 1983). Moreover, he sought to combine accessibility with academic rigour, thereby enabling the Southern Evening Echo to exclaim in 1970: ‘At last a popularly written, yet scholarly history of Southampton’ (2 July 1970). While such attributes are commendable qualities for historians in general they have a particular resonance for local historians. Thus, unsurprisingly, it is in this field of endeavour that Patterson made his principal contribution.
A Local Historian par excellence
Temple Patterson’s commitment to local history was reflected in the title of his inaugural professorial lecture, “Local History and Southampton”, which was delivered on 23 January 1968. He began by outlining what might be described as the ‘historiography of local history’, with pride of place inevitably being given to the developments at Leicester University, to which he had contributed, and the work of W.G. Hoskins and G. Finberg in particular. Quoting Finberg, who had described ‘local history’ fifteen years earlier as ‘the Cinderella among historical studies’, Patterson went on to suggest that although progress had been made, it still awaited ‘an academic Prince Charming’ to raise it to ‘the rank and status of a princess among disciplines’ (Patterson, Local History, p.3). Arguably this is still the case.
In charting the development of local history, Patterson made reference inter alia to the contribution of antiquarians. That said, he went on to draw a distinction between antiquarians who it had ‘been said collect facts [and] historians [who] discuss problems’ (Patterson, Local History, p.5).
Another issue Patterson addressed was the vexed relationship between local and national history. In his view, local history did ‘not merely illustrate national history but … [was] the stuff of much of it’ (Patterson, Local History, p.5). However, ‘It … [was] when, and only when, the historian … [was] thoroughly grounded in the history of his country that he … [could] write the history of his town or parish as it should be written.’ (Patterson, Local History, p.5).
By the late 1960s, local historians had considerable resources at their disposal. They could take advantage of the development of county archives and a burgeoning literature, which included bibliographic aids. Indeed, Patterson himself had produced for the Southampton Historical Association: “A Handlist of Materials Available Locally for the Study and Teaching of Local History” (Cope 01). This included material in the Southampton City Reference Library; Civic Record Office; University Library; and University Geography Department.
Having set the scene with his ‘general’ observations concerning ‘local history, Patterson turned his attention to the ‘particular’, Southampton. In so doing he applied his maxim that “History is about People” and selected a variety of individuals upon whom ‘the light had fallen’. This was a reference to a phrase of Lord Vansittart who had referred to:‘ “All sorts and conditions of men and women”, emerging from one obscurity and passing into another … but catching the light for a little in this ancient town of Southampton’ (Patterson, Local History, p.7). Those who emerged were known as “the Mist Procession”. For Southampton, Patterson’s procession began with Christopher Ambrose, born Christoforo Ambruogi, a Florentine incomer arriving in 1462 and subsequently developing extensive commercial interests and, following naturalisation, twice being elected mayor. He was followed by Henry Huttoft, a prosperous local merchant; Robert Reneger, another merchant and seaman; Sir James Lancaster, a notable Tudor seafarer; Richard Taunton, who took issue with the offspring of Huguenot refugees associated with the French churches in the town; John Speed, the cartographer; Elizabeth and Jane Purbeck, together with Alicia Mant, all of whom were novelists; Thomas Baker, ‘bookseller, coach-proprietor, merchant and leader of the town’s opposition’(Patterson, Local History, p.12); Stephen Collins, the manager of Southampton’s first theatre, who died in 1828; Nathaniel Ogle, ‘one of the less successful pioneers of steam locomotion’ (Patterson, Local History, p.13); Captain Edward Stephens, the designer of the Royal Victoria Pier, which was opened in 1833; and last but by no means least in Patterson’s procession, Richard Andrews, coach builder par excellence and leader of the Liberal Party in the town during the mid-nineteenth century.
How his lecture was received does not appear to have been recorded. Moreover, charting Patterson’s legacy, with respect to the practice of local and regional history within the University, would be worthy of a future blog.
Conclusion
At a civic event held in 1970 to launch his biography of Southampton and attended by the mayor, council members and officers, plus representatives of the publishers and of the University, Patterson is quoted as saying:
“Southampton is a remarkable city with a remarkable history of which the whole country ought to be proud … Again and again Southampton has successfully surmounted danger and difficulty, decline even partial destruction, and emerged again and again, to rise greater than before – though usually in some new form” (Southern Evening Echo, 17 July 1970).
Clearly his study of the history of the town had made a deep impression on him and enabled him to engage fully with the source material. His academic works serve as a testament to his rigour as a local historian. As Edwin Course wrote in his obituary of Patterson, Hampshire had lost ‘one of its most distinguished local historians’(HFC Newsletter, Vol 1, 1984). Patterson appears to have been a delightful colleague and companion, with ‘colourful’ and ‘warm hearted’ being words used to describe his personality(The Times, 27 October 1983). Moreover he enjoyed a relatively long and active retirement, enabling him to continue to pursue his love of history, through membership of such organisations as the Hampshire Field Club & Archaeological Society.
In this week’s blogpost we celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, marked on 11th February each year by taking a look at the life and career of Annie Mary Trout (fl. 1905-1969), who taught mathematics at University College, Southampton and whose papers are now held in our Special Collections.
Annie attended Royal Holloway College, University of London, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours in mathematics in 1907. The following year she received a University of Cambridge Certificate of Efficiency in Teaching. On 1st April 1916 the Teachers Registration Council issued a certificate recognising Annie as a professional teacher, which was renewed in 1925.
Annie Trout’s Teachers’ Registration Certificate, issued 1st April 1916 and renewed in 1925 [MS112/A4267/1]
Annie was affiliated with the Royal Aeronautical Society, as shown by copies of her notes sent to their journal at the time of the centenary of the society in 1966. In these notes she reveals that she worked for the aircraft manufacturer Avro: “The Avro 504K […] was the standard training machine for some time after monoplanes were in general use, as it was considered fool proof. (I worked in the Avro design department after the 1st War till the Slump).”
[Notes on centenary volume of the Aeronautical Journal, 28th April 1966: MS 112 LF 780 UNI 2/7/75/77]
Avro designed some of the most recognisable planes of the twentieth century, including the Lancaster Bomber of the Second World War and the Vulcan Bomber, a jet plane of the Cold War era.
Her work at Avro included the investigation of “accident prone” machines and inspecting crashed airplanes. She also reflects a little on the role women played at the company and the differences between their work and the men’s. Women were deemed far better than the men at working with small rivets and they finished at 5pm, rather than 6pm when the men finished. Apparently, this was so that the women could beat the rush-hour traffic at 6pm, enabling them to feel a little more refreshed for when they started the next morning. One wonders what the men got up to in the last hour of their working day…
Annie recalls attending a secret and confidential show in Islington in 1918: “Early in 1918 a show was held in Islington of captured German aircraft. The variety in structure was far in advance of our own, which had remained as far as wing structure was concerned very much the same in fundamentals as in 1914.”
Annie also recollects the early years of the library at the University College, Southampton: “The three volumes of Cantor’s History of Mathematics in the University Library came from his [personal] library. After his death [Professor Arthur Berry], his widow sold them to us at far less than their market value, as we were such an ill endowed University institution. I believe that this was owing to Professor Howland (Professor of Mathematics at the time) who was deeply involved in the study of aerodynamics at the time.”
Annie’s papers include a mixture of notes from her life as a mathematics teacher as well as her work with Avro, the aircraft manufacturer. They include many notes on various mathematical problems, including the Theorem of three moments.
As I’m sure our regular readers will know, in civil engineering and structural analysis Clapeyron’s theorem of three moments pertains to the relationship among the bending moments at three consecutive supports of a horizontal beam.
Annie Trout’s notes on the Theorem of three moments [MS112 LF 780 UNI 2/7/75/31]
Annie’s mathematical work and interests are also reflected in the various scientific and technical publications in her papers, such as the ‘Handbook of Strength: calculations’ issued by the Ministry of Munitions’ Technical Department – Aircraft Production, published in February 1918 and marked ‘Secret and Confidential’
Annie Trout’s copy of ‘Handbook of strength calculations, produced by the Ministry of Munitions [MS 112/LF 780 UNI/2/7/75/39]
There are many intriguing aeronautical notes throughout her work, including calculations for ‘wing tip corrections’ marked Miss Hudson (who appears to have worked with Avro too), ‘engine torque’, and a note on ‘Flying Experience for Technical Personnel’ issued by a Lt. Col. Assistant Controller (Design) dated 13th September 1918.
Special Collections also hold the papers of another mathematics teacher here at the University, Dr Frank Rhodes.
Annie’s interests, however, extended far beyond the cerebral world of mathematics and aeronautics, as shown by her membership of the Southampton University College Gramophone Club, for whom she kept the committee minutes.
At a meeting held 26th October 1925 it was decided that gramophone records were to be played in the music studios once per week after lunch, the particular day to be fixed by the Students’ Council. At the following meeting one could expect to hear Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, Schubert and other classical composers. Later, Gilbert and Sullivan would make an appearance.
A catalogue book of records held by the Gramophone Club is also part of the collection. Annie was still enjoying classical music in the late 1930s, as shown by her programme for the 13th season of the Southampton Chamber Music Club for 1937-8.
Annie Trout’s programme for the Southampton Chamber Music Club, 1937-8 [MS112 LF 780 UNI 2/7/75/60]Programme for the Southampton Chamber Music Club, February-March 1938 [MS112 LF 780 UNI 2/7/75/60]
Annie also enjoyed cooking and was a keen foodie, her papers include various recipes, such as this one for pineapple cream:
2oz custard powder
1 ½ litres [?] of milk
1 gill condensed milk
1 gill of pineapple syrup
¾ oz gelatine
1 dried pineapple
3oz sugar
Whites of 2 eggs
Evidently, Annie had a sweet tooth, as her papers also include recipes for coconut ice and Turkish delight!
There are also numerous poetic pieces dotted throughout her papers, including a rather satirical example by a D.A. Lloyd titled ‘Keeping up the UCS Tradition’ from December 1948 (UCS being University College Southampton), which mentions the efforts to acquire a royal charter and university status:
They say the college policy is constantly reviewed
Keeping up the UCS tradition
They keep on adding clauses which are often misconstrued
Keeping up …
We’re striving for a charter which we trust will soon appear
And if we work quite hard, we’re told, that day will soon be here
But the feeling of the Union is to stick to darts and beer
Keeping up the UCS tradition
Certain pious student-types dislike our college songs
But they really are quite harmless and possess no evil wrongs
We don’t know what offended, was it ‘Moses in the Nile’
We cannot find a thing in it that’s even mildly vile,
It’s them wot’s done impromptu as is sure to raise the smile
The Beadle’s a majestic figure – part of college life,
The basis of all UCS tradition;
He evidently thought it best to lead a single life,
Keeping up …
They tell us Charlie’s been around for over fifty years,
A busy man by all accounts but somehow it appears
He finds the time at dances to knock off a few free beers
[…]
[MS 112 LF 780 UNI 2/7/75/76]
In one of Annie’s notebooks we find some of her own poetry, written whilst at Royal Holloway College and divided into three sections: ‘Aboriginal’, ‘Contemporary’, and ‘Strictly personal’. The following is an example from the ‘Aboriginal’ category:
The rule for the fresher is easy, the code of the College is plain
But a new year is rising among us, so let us expound it again.
There are rules for the fresher at meal-times, there are rules for the fresher at prayers.
There are proper remarks in the passage & telling [?] salutes on the stairs.
There are rules for accepting a cocoa & rules for returning a call.
There are jokes that it’s proper to laugh at & some she must not see at all.
There is slang to be used on occasions, (discarded with care the next day),
But for every occasion in College, there is only the quite correct way.
`A.M. Trout, Royal Holloway College. College Poems’ [MS112/LF 780 UNI/1]
In one of her ‘contemporary’ poems Annie gets political, extolling the virtues of a Liberal candidate (B. E. Miles) and his anti-protectionist policies over the Conservative candidate (E. V. James).
In 1929 Annie travelled through Italy, as demonstrated by her pass-card issued by the Ministry of Education – Directorate-General for Antiquities and Fine Arts, giving her free entry to the museums, galleries, monuments and ancient excavations.
Annie Trout’s pass-card for entry to Italian cultural and historical sites [MS112/A4267/1]
It is through the papers of Annie Trout that we learn of another woman of science. In 1969 Annie made corrections to the obituary for Miss Freda Mary Loader, which appeared in the bulletin of the University of Southampton Society. Freda was a student of University College, Southampton and took an Honours degree in Botany, becoming an employee of that department near the outbreak of the First World War. The college was closed for the duration of the War but she returned as a lecturer in September 1920. She was Secretary to the Botany Section of the British Association when it met in Southampton in 1925 and arranged their excursions to the satisfaction of everyone involved. Freda was also Secretary to the Science Faculty Board for many years: ‘her mind was orderly and exact to a degree’. She was also Treasurer for several years to the local branch of the British Federation of University Women. She was Warden of Montefiore Hall for some years and in September 1939 Freda was appointed Vice Warden of Highfield Hall.
In at least two places in Annie Trout’s papers we find references to a fifteenth century poem by (or about) the poet John Audelay:
This week’s blog post takes a look the development of the History department here at the University. The Special Collections maintains a close relationship with History, as you might imagine, and we’re delighted to be sharing their story.
Hartley Institution
The University started life in 1862 as the Hartley Institution. It had a library, reading room and museum and offered public lectures and evening classes; the first Principal, Francis Bond, produced a plan for classes which included History as well as English, French, German, mathematics, chemistry and mechanics.
Bond enlisted a number of part time teachers. The minimum age for admission was 14 but the classes were mainly intended for people who “having left school and being occupied in business” wanted to take the examinations of the Civil Service or Science and Art Department at South Kensington.
Outside view of the Hartley Institution, High Street, Southampton [MS1/7/291/22/1/3
Day training department
A Day Training department was sanctioned in July 1898: a maximum of 30 men and 30 women were admitted for 2 years training. They were all required to pass an entrance examination. Miss Eva Blaxley came to the College in 1897 as a lecturer in History and English. She also acted as Lady Superintendent for two adjacent houses on Avenue Place provided for the female students.
In October 1900, Professor F.J.C. Hearnshaw was appointed as a lecturer on English History. He stayed in Southampton for 10 years and was key in founding the Southampton Record Series.
The following is taken from the Appointment contracts book:
The Lecturer on English History will be required to undertake the work in English History as detailed in the College prospectuses. He will also be required to lecture to a few classes in English Language and to take charge of a class of beginners Latin. He will be expected to give instruction in both Day and Evening Classes. He will not, however, be expected to lecture on more than two Evenings a week.
The Lecturer will be required to lecture for not less than 20 or more than 25 hours per week.
The Lecturer will be expected to give his whole time to the work of the College, and be responsible to the Principal for the arrangement and efficient working of the Classes in the subjects which he undertakes.
The Salary of the Lecturer on English History will be £140 per annum, rising by yearly increments of £5 to £150 per annum. The engagement shall be terminable by a term’s notice on either side.
Applications giving particulars of age, training, qualifications and experience accompanied by copies of 3 recent testimonials must be sent to the Principal before 10 AM on Saturday Oct 26th 1900.
Appointment contracts book [MS1/MBK7/1]
In 1902 the Hartley Institution became a University College. In the 1904-5 session, History was one of nine departments, staffed by one person. At this point, the University College had a total of 20 full time teaching staff.
History class and tutor, c. 1913/1915 from an album belonging to G. Payme [MS1/Phot/39/ph3178]
In 1911, Edward S. Lyttel was appointed Professor of History on a salary of £300 per annum. He was still teaching here in 1925 and his salary had risen to £650. In 1912, Professor Lyttel was joined by History lecturer J.W. Horrock (£150 pa). A job description comes from the Appointment contracts book:
The Lecturer will be required to deliver lectures to and conduct classes for Day and Evening Students in History and generally to assist the Professor of History in the work of the Department of History. The Lecturer may be expected to give a few lectures in another of the Arts Departments.
Appointment contracts book [MS1/MBK7/1 p. 35]
The department of History, c. 1919. This photographs comes from a series which may have been taken for a promotional prospectus. The caption reads: “a lecture on history which is the data of past human experience, on which we must to a great extent base our theories of social, national and international conduct. The prevention of future wars will depend on the right interpretation of the causes of past war.”
The move to Highfield
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century the University College was located on the High Street in Southampton’s city centre but it was quickly running out of space. A new site was found to the north of the city in an area called Highfield. The buildings were completed by 1914 but relocation didn’t take place until after the First World War.
Miss I Plunket, M.A. joined the History Department in 1921. Her contract makes note of the Superannuation Scheme (pension) and the expectation she should engage in research:
The Council of the College agree to appoint Miss I Plunket, M.A., Lecturer in History and Miss I Plunket agrees to accept the office as from October 1st 1921 upon the following terms:The salary to be at the rate of £250 per annum plus the College contribution of 10% under the Superannuation Scheme.The holder of the office is expected to engage in some definite research or other original work in her spare time, but not to undertake any other paid work unless with the consent of the Council.The tenure of the office to be subject to a full term’s notice on either side, the Summer Vacation reckoned as a term.
Appointment contracts book [MS1/MBK7/1]
As the years passed, so the department grew. There were various new appointments including Mr Vincent T Harlow, BA., B Litt. who was appointed as assistant lectureship in Modern History in 1923; the University and Mr Harlow were required to contribute 105 and 5% respectively to the Superannuation scheme. Five years later, in October 1928, Mr James Rutherford BA (Durham), PhD (Mich) was appointed as assistant lecturer.
The Second World War
The advent of the Second World War brought changes as illustrated by the appointment contract book when on 1 October 1940 Miss A.A. Ruddock, Institute of Historical Research, was appointed as Temporary assistant lecturer in History for the duration of the War at a salary of £270 per annum (without superannuation benefit). Mr Hay had been called for service.
In 1942, Nicolai Rubinstein and Miss M. M. Morgan were both appointed as temporary lecturers in History.
Post-war expansion
The University College expanded significantly in the years following World War Two, and the History department was no exception. In 1945 the department gained a new chair when Dr H. Rothwell was appointed Professor of History. He was joined by Professor J.S.Bromley in the Chair as Professor of Modern History in 1959. Between 1949 and 1968 Arthur Temple Patterson also pursued his academic career in the History Department of Southampton University. He was appointed a Reader in Regional History in 1960 and Professor in 1967. While on the staff of the University he published a three part history of Southampton and a centenary volume of the history of the University.
History study room in the Library, c. 1950. Can you spot where this space is in the current Hartley Library? [MS1/Phot/39/ph3448]
Although some records relating to the teaching of History date from the early days, for the first half of the twentieth century “the Arts” (in the broad sense of a BA) had been a small part of what was primarily a science, engineering and teacher training college.
In the 1960s, the General Degree was replaced with a new Combined Honours Degree. The decade also saw many new buildings designed by the architect Basil Spence as part of his “master plan” for the Highfield Campus. In 1963, Arts 1 Building was completed as part of the “Nuffield complex” (now Building 4, Law). Up until this point the faculty had been housed in the “main building” (what is now the Hartley Library); the new building meant the faculty was not only united but offered the possibility of expansion. A one-year MA programme was launched in 1966. Arts II building (Building 2, Management and Music since 1996) was built in 1968.
Students who wished to study History at the University of Southampton starting in the 1957-58 session could choose between medieval (400-1500) and modern history (1500-1940). They would have 3 hours of classes in the first year and 4 hours in the second and third. Applicants were expected to have an ‘O’ level in Latin. “Instruction will be primarily by the tutorial method and essay writing” and from time to time visits to sites and institutions of historical interest. The Final Honour examination consisted of 9 papers, each three hours long; candidates were also normally expected to present a prepared thesis.
Special subjects included:
The Age of Dante, 1265-1321;
England and France at War, 1422-53;
the town and port of Southampton in the 16th century;
the age of the chartists, 1830-54
aspects of British Empire and Commonwealth Relations since 1880.
If we look again approximately 10 years later, we learn that entry requirements were now 2 ‘A’ level passes and ‘O’ levels in two languages other than English; one of these should normally be Latin, but exceptions could be made. The Special Subject options had become more varied and now included
the Third Reich;
the British Economy, 1919-1939;
the emancipation of Spanish America, 1808-1830
rural England in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Latin was still a preferred course requirement for those joining the University for 1979-80. “Acceptable alternatives to Latin” were General Classics; Latin with Classical Studies; CSE Grade 1 in Classical Studies (with Latin). By this point there was also an option to study Modern European and American History.
IBM visit concerning the “HIDES project”, December 1989 [MS1/Phot/3/25/1]
A significant change occurred in 1996 when the Faculty of Humanities, including History, moved to its Avenue Campus location, where it can still be found today.
In 2022 the History Department is ranked 3rd in the UK for the quality of its research (REF 2014). As well as writing new and challenging histories, the University’s staff advise governments, the media, and cultural institutions. Southampton History research happens at the university, but goes far beyond it.
To mark the return of visitors to Avenue Campus for Hands-on Humanities Day this Saturday, we are taking a look at earlier examples of community engagement, the University Open Days.
Unlike today’s Open Days for prospective students, previous Open Days focused on promoting the University in the local community by publicising its work to businesses and organisations and enabling local residents to see inside the “ivory tower” at a time when fewer people had experience of university life.
Open Day programmes [Univ. Coll. LF 788.8]
Most of the Open Day programmes in University Collection date from the 1960s and 70s but there are also examples from the 1920s – the copy of the 1926 programme having been handed in during the 1985 Open Day. By the later 1920s, University College, Southampton as it was then, was becoming more remote from the town in terms of governance and location. Its incorporation as the Hartley University College in 1902 had made it independent of the Borough Council, the beneficiary of the Hartley Bequest in 1850 and its 1919 move from the High Street to Highfield meant that it was in danger of becoming out of sight out of mind. With the College’s financial security relying in some part on grants from local authorities and its goal of becoming an independent university yet to be achieved (degrees were awarded by London University), the support of the town was an important consideration.
Exterior view of the University College, north wing, c. 1925 [MS1/Phot/39 ph3099b]
The Open Days of the late 1920s were part of the wider campaign for a “University of Wessex” which began in earnest at this time. There were interviews in the press and lectures by staff explaining the work of the College whilst Thomas Hardy’s endorsement of the plan shortly before his death in 1928, was well publicised. The campaign highlighted the advantages a University would bring to Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight, “the four counties” in terms of educating young people, increasing the prosperity of the region and adding to its cultural life – all aspects of University life which might be demonstrated at an Open Day.
Plan showing location of Open Day 1926 activities in the main building and huts of University College, Southampton [Rare Books Univ. Coll. c LF 783.9]
So what was on offer in 1926? The programme shows that apart from some short concerts in the Music Hut (U.C.S. then being less of an ivory tower and more of a collection of wooden huts), the emphasis was on the sciences. There were demonstrations of oil, petrol and gas engines, displays of wireless receiving apparatus, not to mention exhibitions of slide rules and calculating machines. By the time of the 1929 Open Day, lectures had been added to the programme, including “Greek Art” (with lantern) by Professor Forsey, “Town Planning” by Percy Ford and “Poetry of the War” by Professor Pinto. In the Economics Room, charts and diagrams relating to housing, trade and transport were displayed, the Library exhibited its rare books, and tea was available at eight pence a head.
Programme for Open Day 1929 [Rare Books Univ. Coll. LF 783.9]
The next set of programmes begin in 1962, ten years after the University had achieved its ambition to become an independent institution, and when it was celebrating the centenary of its opening as the Hartley Institution. The following year, an Open Day was held as part of Southampton Education Week and thereafter for many years it was an annual event.
The programmes show that there was usually a central exhibition on the University, with the Departments choosing their own displays and themes. Not surprisingly the exhibition for the centenary Open Day was on “The First Hundred Years”. In subsequent years the architecture of the University was a popular theme, new buildings appearing in rapid succession on the Highfield site as Sir Basil Spence’s master plan Proposals for Development was implemented.
The west side of the campus from the programme for Open Day 1967 [Univ. Coll. LF 788.8]
Other perennial attractions were glass blowing demonstrations in Chemistry, the display of fossils in Geology, an exhibition of material from the Library’s Cope Collection on Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Civil Engineering’s working tidal model of Southampton Water, and the chance to see the latest University computer system – an ICT 1909 (designed for universities which found the ICT 1905 too expensive) in 1967. Buildings such as the Nuffield Theatre and even the boiler house were opened for inspection whilst University clubs staged displays and demonstration matches in the Sports Hall.
Part of the Geology Museum from the programme for Open Day 1973 [Univ. Coll. LF 788.8]
The Open Days of the 1970s did not get off to a good start. Student unrest in the form of sit-ins, of the Administration Block in 1970 and the Nuffield Theatre in 1971 caused the event to be cancelled, and the 1972 Open Day had to be postponed from March to May for fear of power cuts resulting from the miners’ strike. Keen to put on a good show and improve its reputation, the University invested more in the Open Days of the early 1970s, producing glossy, illustrated programmes before worries about the costs saw the publicity scaled back and the introduction of a ten pence charge for the programme. Attractions of this period included demonstrations of the Language Laboratory, lung capacity and heart rate measurements in Physiology as well as the opportunity to beat both the breathalyser and the lie detector. Destructive tests of concrete were popular and by 1973 the computer on show was the ICL 1907 which allowed direct communication from as far away as Plymouth.
The ICL 1907 Computer in University Computing Service from the programme for Open Day 1973 [Univ. Coll. LF 788.8]
That the University was not entirely sure who was coming to Open Day is seen in a questionnaire in which suggested categories of visitor included current students, prospective students, members of staff, teachers and landladies of Southampton students. It was becoming clear that the all-purpose Open Day had run its course and with the financial difficulties of the 1980s there were moves to make it a biennial event. The last programme in the collection dates from 1993 and from the later 1990s annual Preview Days were instituted, providing a more focused introduction to courses and life at Southampton for prospective students.
Photos of (1) a microcomputer in the Faculty of Education, (2) demonstration of bearing stability (3) I.S.V.R. Data Analysis Centre in New Reporter 23 May 1985 [Univ. Coll. LF 787.62]
The University did not neglect the wider interest in its activities. For almost twenty years it has held a Science and Engineering Festival, coinciding with British Science Week and concluding with Science and Engineering Day, Social Science has the ESRC Festival of Social Science and this week the Arts and Humanities Festival is running. All these events would meet with the approval of earlier Open Day organisers whose focus was the University’s “continuing contribution to its hinterland” in terms of employment, links with industry and medicine, the positive contribution of students, continuing education and the many cultural and historical links.
The Special Collections has just acquired a small collection of material relating to the Southampton University Officers Training Corps providing additional information on the formation and workings of this Corps in the 1930s to 1951.
Southampton University Officers Training Corps archive material [MS416/26 A4348]
The Southampton University Training Corps traces its origins to November 1902 when around 20 students, mainly from the Education Department of Hartley University College, formed a Company for the Second (Volunteer) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. Foot drills were performed at the College Assembly Hall on a Saturday night after the Choral Society meetings and weapons training was held at the Drill Hall in Carlton Place.
In 1908 the Volunteers became part of the Territorial Force and joined the Fifth Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. By 1912 the Company was formed of approximately 100 men and was considered to be one of the best in the battalion. It was the county champion in the first Battalion Annual Sports meeting of 1912.
At the outbreak of the First World War members of the Company were immediately commissioned. Those who remained in the Company were sent to India as part of the Hampshire Regiment.
The Fifth and Seventh Battalions were merged in 1922 and, in 1929, a College Platoon of the Hampshire Regiment was formed. This latter was to form the nucleus of the University College Southampton Senior Division Officers’ Training Corps that was established in 1937. With this new Corps the long association with the Hampshire Regiment ended and it became the responsibility of the Rifle Depot at Winchester.
Memorandum on the proposed OTC, 1937 [MS416/26 A4348]
The new archive contains the memorandum on the proposed OTC by J.W.Ackroyd, University College, Southampton, 27 January 1937, in which he sets out the main items of expenditure required to support a Corps of 30 cadets, including for grants, certificates, uniforms at £3 each, office expenses, a miniature rifle range, drill hall, office, armoury and clothing store.
The War Office accepted the proposal and in their letter to the Registrar of University College, Southampton of 13 May 1937 replied that “I am commanded by the Army Council to acknowledge your letter No 916 of 20th April, 1937, and to inform you that they gratefully accept the offer of the authorities of the University College, Southampton, to furnish an infantry continent of the senior division, Officers Training Corps, and that an announcement to this effect will be made in Army Orders in due course.”
The OTC had over seventy cadets by 1939, but at the declaration of war that year all Officers Training Corps at Universities were abolished and replaced by Senior Training Corps.
Senior Training Corps, 1942 [MS1/7/291/22/3]
Wartime undergraduates had to spend a considerable time in military training with compulsory parades at lunchtime and once per week. All cadets from the STC also were automatically enrolled into the Home Guard. Many hundreds of cadets served in the Corps between 1940 and 1944 and were commissioned into all branches of the armed forces. In 1944, the Ministry of Labour excused students from compulsory military training at University, with recruitment for the Senior Training Corps reverting to the voluntary system. This led to a drop in numbers, but the Southampton Corps continued although contingents in London, Exeter and Reading all closed. The University Training Corps replaced the Senior Training Corps in 1948. This change meant that for the first time cadets were enlisted in the Territorial Army, received pay for parades and were clothed and equipped at public expense.
However, this new status did not halt the dwindling strength of the Corps and in April 1951 it was placed in suspended animation. It was re-established in 1979, at the request of the University Military Education Committee, with Carlton Place becoming its permanent accommodation.
The new archive material for the OTC covers the period 1936-51. It is composed of a series of record books and parade rolls that provide details of the cadets, their training and service. The record books, 1937-48, provide a detailed account of the training and drills undertaken by the recruits in the Corps. Each cadet is listed by their name, with their date of birth, date of enrolment, number of years previously reported efficient – which applied to cadets who have joined the Senior Division at University from Junior Divisions at school – numbers of years attending camp, numbers of drills attended, their musketry level and certificates. At the end under remarks there are notes relating to resignation, promotion or commission in military service.
Extract of the first pages of the OTC record book 1939/40 [MS416/26 A4348]
The two first names in the 1939/40 record book, for instance, relate to cadets who were commissioned as Second Lieutenants in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. Others in the same volume were commissioned in the Royal Marines, the RAF and the Wiltshire Regiment with quite a number also called for military service under the Military Service Act, which related to the conscription of men between the ages of 18 and 41 years in the armed forces.
The archive also contains a small quantity of correspondence and papers relating to the formation and history of the Corps. Of particular interest are papers from 1936-7 relating to discussions for the foundation of the Corps.
This archive provides a valuable addition to our holdings chronicling the history of the University. For more information on the development of the University why not look at our Highfield 100 blog series. And look out for future blogs detailing other new collections.
As part of Women’s History Month, this week we focus on Charlotte Chamberlain (1878-1956), a major benefactor of the University of Southampton, keen supporter of New Forest life and more unusually, champion goat-breeder.
University Fine Art Collection
A member of the well-known Chamberlain family of Birmingham – Austen Chamberlain was her uncle and Neville her cousin – Charlotte, her six sisters and two brothers were brought up to value the importance of both education and service to the community. Her father, Arthur, a prominent industrialist, had himself been involved in setting up the School of Commerce at Birmingham University, of which Austen was the first Chancellor.
Charlotte read Geology at Newnham College, Cambridge, returning to Birmingham to study for an MSc. which she received in 1903. It was whilst at Birmingham that she first became involved in a scheme to provide a hall of residence for female students, becoming secretary of a committee set up to raise funds for that purpose. As a result of the committee’s work, University House, which provided accommodation for 80 women, opened in 1908.
It fell to Charlotte to help care for her father, an invalid for the last six years of his life, and after his death in 1913 she made the move to the New Forest in Hampshire with her sister Mary. This was an area she knew well from visits to an old college friend and outings with the New Forest Hunt. The sisters moved into Westons, near Lyndhurst where they both became actively involved in the local community, Charlotte also carrying out welfare work in London during World War I.
Postcard of Highfield Hall [MS 310/78/6]
It was a fortunate day for the University College of Southampton when the Chamberlains settled close by. Maintaining their interest in higher education, in particular in relation to women, they were generous donors to many college initiatives. Both their first and last associations with the college were to support the building of halls of residence for women. The journal Wessex recorded that the new Highfield Hall building, opened in 1930 by the Duke of York and providing accommodation for 104 women, was “largely made possible by Miss Charlotte Chamberlain” whilst in the 1950s, Charlotte and Mary each contributed £50,000 to the building of Chamberlain Hall, though sadly neither sister lived to see it open in 1961.
Programme for laying the Foundation Stone at Chamberlain Hall, 1958 [Rare Books Univ. Coll. c LF 789.6C63]
Less well known is their support for the construction of a Physics Laboratory in the late 1930s – they provided an initial £15,000, also making up a shortfall in funds and they donated £20,000 towards the Union Building which opened in 1940 providing common rooms and a new refectory for students.
Union Building [MS 1/22/5 p.9]
Charlotte Chamberlain’s support for the college went far beyond the provision of timely financial gifts. She played an important part in college life, being a member of the Halls and Refectory Committee which she chaired for twenty years, also representing it on the Finance Committee and on University Council. In his memorial address, the Vice-Chancellor, D.G. James, recalled that at committee meetings she was known for her passionate speaking on issues she considered important whilst remaining somewhat reserved in other circumstances.
Changes requested to plans for the first hall of residence at Glen Eyre by the Halls of Residence Accommodation Sub-Committee [MS 1/MBK/4/H2]
Beyond the college, Charlotte and Mary were involved in many aspects of New Forest life. They supported the New Forest Agricultural Show, Charlotte being President in 1939, and were members of the New Forest Association which worked to counter threats to both the New Forest landscape and to the rights of residents. They were also keen members of the Emery Down and Bank Women’s Institute, buying land and financing the building of a hall for its meetings, even transforming the “goat van” into a bus to take members to meetings.
It was as a result of her welfare work and the possibility of using goat’s milk as an alternative to cow’s milk that Charlotte first established her herd of goats at Westons. Joining the British Goat Society in 1917, she became a well-regarded show judge and served as President from 1945-1947. She was also a founder member and first chair of the Hampshire Goat Club in 1948. Charlotte’s herd produced many prize-winning goats and their certificates are still on show in her goat house which can be seen on New Forest Knowledge which also features film of Charlotte.
New Forest Agricultural Show, 1925 [Cope c 97.08]
Prizes awarded by Charlotte Chamberlain at the New Forest Agricultural Show, 1925
As D.G. James remarked at the end of his memorial address, life had given Charlotte Chamberlain many advantages and having had instilled in her from an early age the importance of helping others, she used her wealth and abilities to advance the causes which she held important – much to the benefit of the University of Southampton and the local area.
We continue celebrating Women’s History Month, by focusing on a key personality around the University in the early part of the twentieth century, Miss Eleanor Aubrey.
Portrait of Eleanor Aubrey [MS310/71/2/3]
Miss Eleanor M. Aubrey was a student of the University when it was the Hartley Institution, and was one of the College’s first graduates in arts.
She later became Senior Lecturer in English at the University when it was named University College Southampton, and taught for 35 years.
As well as teaching, Miss Aubrey took on positions in the residential services, such as Supervisor of Women Students and in 1917, Warden of the Yorke House Hall of Residence, where she undertook excellent preparations for the beginning of the next academic year despite the wartime difficulties. Miss Aubrey continued as Warden even when the women’s hall of residence was transferred from Yorke House to Highfield Hall. Here she was responsible for 70 women.
Highfield Hall from the front [MS224/6 A913]
The green study in Highfield Hall [MS224/6 A913]
Women students in front of Highfield Hall, 1920s [MS224/6 A913]
Miss Aubrey retired from the University in 1931. K.H. Vickers spoke the following words on Miss Aubrey’s retirement:
“Miss Aubrey has been a lecturer in the English department for 35 years, and in addition to that, she laid the foundations of the residential system on the women’s side.”
She had also been member of the Senate, and secretary for the Southampton Historical Record Society for many years:
“Miss Aubrey in particular has earned the gratitude of all interested in local history by her masterly edition of ‘Speed’s Manuscript History of Southampton.’” [Southampton Record Society, Hartley University College Magazine, Summer 1914 Vol.15, No.41, p.16]
As well as refereeing hockey matches and acting as accompanist for many musical programmes given by students, Aubrey took on committee positions and membership in many other University societies, including as President of the Tennis Club; member of the Literary and Debating Society; President of the Christian Union Women’s Branch; member of the University College Magazine Committee; and President of the Choral Society. She was also President of the Soiree Committee, of which we found the following commemorating her contribution:
“We must also thank Miss Aubrey, our President, both for her music and her unflagging enthusiasm in all matters connected with the social life of the College; without her help it would be almost impossible to carry on our work successfully.” [Soiree Notes, Southampton University College Magazine, Winter 1914 Vol.16, No.42, p.55]
Residing in Ryde, during her retirement, Miss Aubrey took an active position in the public activity of the Isle of Wight.
Miss Aubrey and her dog in the grounds [MS224/6 A913]
Join us next week, when we will continue our celebration of the women in our collections by focusing on Charlotte Chamberlain.
So you join us at the start of a new century and a new beginning for the institution, at this point in its history renamed as the Hartley University College. Our previous post The Hartley Institution and Hartley College, 1862-1902 ended with the last days of the Hartley College. The change in legal status was confirmed in 1902 with the establishment of a Court of Governors, Council and a Senate. A design for a College seal with the motto Strenuis ardour cedunt (the heights yield to endeavour) was chosen.
The object of the College was set out as follows:
The provision of a liberal education, and such instruction as may enable residents in Southampton and Hampshire, the Isle of Wight Dorset and Wiltshire … and the county boroughs of Portsmouth and Bournemouth, and others to qualify for degrees at any university in the United Kingdom: the giving of such legal, medical technical or other instruction as may be of service in professional, commercial or industrial life; the spread of higher education by providing instruction in the form of lectures, combined with class teaching and examinations, at such places and in such subjects as shall be determined from time to time by the Statutes of the College; and generally the promotion and increase of knowledge.
Temple Patterson, University of Southampton, pp.109-110
The University College was affiliated to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge for awarding degrees. The College calendar, which made its first appearance at this time – listed day classes preparing students for London University degrees in arts, science and engineering, for the medical and teaching professions, the civil service, or advance study at Oxford of Cambridge. This period marked the end of the Department of Art.
The earliest College Calendar in the University Collection dates from the 1903-4 session
A significant proportion of the University College’s students were in the engineering department. Instruction in engineering made its appearance almost at the very start of the Hartley’s teaching activities; the department’s continuous history dates from the arrival of John Eustice in 1892. The Physics and Chemistry departments also date from these early days.
On the humanities side, Professor Hearnshaw, key in founding the Southampton Record Series, taught history. Professor Mason gave instruction in Latin and English. Terms averaged 12 weeks in duration. A college cap, maroon with gold edging and a badge was supposed to be worn by all male students. A committee of staff and students formed the Students’ Union. This controlled the men’s and women’s common rooms, created in 1902. The annual membership fee was 10s 6d, for men, or 7s 6d for women.
Women’s common room. The men’s, for which we do not have an image, was intriguingly known as “the Den”.
During this period there were fairly numerous and frequent meetings of societies and the playing of games. The lack of a college playing field was a handicap to sports clubs and outside these formal opportunities, social intercourse was restricted. Each term would see about 12 functions called “soirees” which featured music, games, dancing and perhaps a short topical play or charade. These included the Welcome Soiree given by the seniors to the freshers at the beginning of term and the “At Home” of the hostel residents at the end of the first term. It’s reported that the Welsh students had an annual outing on St David’s Day; whether students from Wales were allowed out on other days is not recorded! There were very occasional Whit Monday picnic excursions to the New Forest by cycle and train.
Windsor House, 1906 [MS1/7/291/22/1/17]
A second hostel for women, Windsor House, soon joined Bevois Mount House. Strict restrictions were placed on social intercourse between male and female students: female students residing in the hostels were forbidden to converse with male students outside the College grounds except at recognised college functions. Female students could attend evening functions only if chaperoned by the Supervisor of Women, Miss Aubrey (a former student and one of the College’s first graduates in Arts, who also lectured in English and was joint secretary of the Southampton Record Society), or some other female member of staff. Hostel residents had to obtain their lady superindent’s permission before arranging excursions or accepting evening invitations of any kind. They were not allowed to be out without permission later than 6pm on winter and 8.30pm on summer weekdays, or 8.45 on Sundays and had to retire to bed by 10. Finally, they must not go boating without an experienced boatman! It appears that the rules were not always strictly enforced.
Female students, 1903 [MS1/7/291/22/1/13]
Not long into its life as a University College the institution was yet again beset by both financial issues and internal politics. The College’s newly acquired status was threatened in two ways and from two directions – as a day training college by criticisms of the Board of Education and as a university college by the University Commissioners and the Treasury. Internal disputes became very spiteful and public which was dangerously detrimental to the College’s already uncertain future. In 1905, the Board of Education inspectors’ were critical of the piecemeal construction of the accommodation and buildings which had resulted in “dirty dinginess and decorative disrepair”. They also felt that the crowded part of town was ill-chosen for the work of a training college. There was a genuine danger it could relapse into a local technical college. Student numbers were still gradually increasing and so the College buildings got even more cramped. In 1904-5, there were only 20 full-time teaching staff; three of the nine departments (History, Modern Languages and Biology combined with Geology) were still staffed by just one person.
Students’ Council, 1906 [MS1/7/291/22/1/15]
By 1909 it was clear that any further extension or improvement of the existing college buildings, even if the money could be found, would no longer satisfy the Board of Education or Treasury. Therefore the University College started to explore the possibility of obtaining an entirely new site somewhere on the outskirts of the town with room for subsequent expansion. In June 1909 an eleven-acre site on the Highfield Court Estate was secured for sale at a price of £5,000. There was a campaign to raise funds. Prominent local people subscribed and both Southampton Town Council and Hampshire County Council put forward financial support which gave the College a stronger footing to move forwards.
Bust of Claude G.Montefiore
Around this time, two individuals joined the College’s leadership who were to be instrumental in steering the course of the institution for many years to come. The first was Mr Claude G.Montefiore, elected as Acting President in January 1910. Temple Patterson describes him “as unselfish a benefactor and as wise and great leader as any modern university institution has ever had.” He was made President in 1913 and was active in the College’s life for the next 25 or 30 years.
Dr Alex. Hill [MS1/7/291/22/1/05]
The second individual is Dr Alex. Hill who was appointed Principal In January 1913. An increase in salary meant that for the first time in it’s history, the Principal was an individual of more advanced years, with high academic standing and wide experience. One of his first actions in the piecemeal transfer of the College from the High Street to the Highfield site was to secure a lease on Highfield Hall. It opened it 1914, partly as a home for his family and party as a hall of residence for a limited number of members of staff and students, with himself as warden. Mr Montefiore had warned that as long as the College lacked a hall of residence for men which could serve as a social centre, it would remain disadvantaged in competition with other colleges.
1913 [MS1/7/291/22/1/23]
These interventions – the increase in funds and strong leadership – gave the College a respite which enabled it to begin turning a corner. The financial difficulties, however, were not fully resolved. A serious increase in buildings costs had made it necessary to modify the plans for the new buildings at Highfield. The administration block had to be postponed and only 2 wings of the proposed Arts building, without its centre, could be constructed with the money available. A gradual transfer from the High Street site was no longer an option and there was therefore no possibility of continuing using any of the premises. Quasi-temporary or stopgap labs and engineering shops were hastily erected at Highfield.
The following extract comes from a letter sent from Montefiore to a meeting of the Court of Governors in early 1914:
There is a need for a strong university college in the southern counties, which shall ultimately develop into a local university… A natural seat of such a university or university college is Southampton, and since a university college already exists there, it is eminently desirable that this growing concern should be that strong university college, that future university of which the southern counties stand in need… To make the College a full success, to enable to do all that it should do, all that I will truly help the large area it serves by doing, it must now forge rapidly ahead. it must have its one big site, its classrooms and its laboratories and workshops; it must have its hostels and social opportunities, it must have its library and its hall and its playing fields. All these are needful for the full academic life, and this full academic life is not only necessary for the students whom we already have, but is essential to draw hither the many more students whom we want to have and ought to have.
Early in the summer of 1914, the first instalment of the new buildings at the newly renamed University College of Southampton were ready to be opened. The “Arts Block” included 28 large and many small lecture rooms, private rooms for professors and labs for biology, chemistry, physics and engineering.
The architect presenting the keys to Lord Haldane at the official opening of the Highfield buildings, 1914 [MS1/2/5/17]
The Lord Chancellor, Viscount Haldane, presided over the opening ceremony on 20 June. After performing their “Gobli” or war dance with its accompanying “Goblio” or war cry around the Chancellor, the students staged a mock attack on his car by two of their number dressed as militant suffragettes waving hatchets – real suffragettes had recently thrown a hatchet at the Prime minister. After a moment of – not unjustified – alarm, Haldane too the “rag” in good part.
![The architect presenting the keys to Lord Haldane at the official opening of the Highfield buildings, 1914 [MS1/2/5/17]](https://specialcollectionsuniversityofsouthampton.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/ms1_2_5_17_the-architect-presenting-the-keyscrop.jpg)
![Men's football team, 1953-4 [photo_MS1_7_291_22_4]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50089268168_f26eed63ef_s.jpg "Men's football team, 1953-4 [photo_MS1_7_291_22_4]")
![Women's rowing team, 1961-2 [MS1_7_291_22_4]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50090079577_3b7acbde42_s.jpg "Women's rowing team, 1961-2 [MS1_7_291_22_4]")
![Men's rugby team, 1953-4 [MS1_7_291_22_4]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50089268523_4f2c587220_s.jpg "Men's rugby team, 1953-4 [MS1_7_291_22_4]")
![Women's hockey team, 1953-4 [MS1_7_291_22_4]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50090079692_28114e9c7d_s.jpg "Women's hockey team, 1953-4 [MS1_7_291_22_4]")
University of Southampton Special Collections 