VICE-CHANCELLOR

[‘Silly Billy’: Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh.] Autograph Signature on frank addressed to Rev. Dr [Christopher] Wordsworth, his Vice Chancellor at Cambridge University.

Author: 
Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh ['Silly Billy'] (1776-1834), great-grandson of George II, nephew and son-in-law of George III
Publication details: 
Dated from London, 27 June 1827. With frank of same date.
£25.00

See his entry and Wordsworth’s in the Oxford DNB. The Prince was Chancellor of Cambridge University from 1811 to his death. Wordsworth was Vice-Chancellor twice: 1820-1821 and 1826-1827. On 13 x 7 cm panel cut from the cover of the envelope. In fair condition, lightly aged, laid down on brown paper cut from album, with slight wear to corner of letter just touching the initial ‘W’ of the Prince’s name. Laid out in the customary fashion, and reading: ‘London June Twenty seven 1827 / The Revd / Dr. Wordsworth / Vice Chancellor of the University / of Cambridge’.

[Ruth Draper, American actress and dramatist, whose monologues influence Joyce Grenfell and others.] Autograph Letter Signed to ?Sir David [Ross]?, going into great detail about her eating arrangements while performing at Oxford.

Author: 
Ruth Draper (1884-1956), American actress and dramatist, whose monologues influenced many including Joyce Grenfell [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross], Provost of Oriel, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University]
Publication details: 
5 April [no year but presumably between 1941 and 1944]. Cambridge.
£56.00

Draper inspired characters in two of Agatha Christie?s books. Among others impressed by her work were Bernard Shaw, Thornton Wilder, John Gielgud, Katharine Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, Laurence Olivier, Henry James, Henry Adams, Edith Wharton, Joyce Grenfell, Emma Thompson, David Mamet and Maureen Lipman. See Ross?s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo, on bifolium of light-grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ?Dear Sir David? and signed ?Ruth Draper.? Presumably written during Ross?s Vice-Chancellorship, 1941-1944.

[Ernest Bevin, Labour Party politician, Minister of Labour in Churchill’s wartime coalition.] Typed Letter Signed to [Sir David Ross,] the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, regarding ‘the visit of the Greek Regent to this country’.

Author: 
Ernest Bevin (1881-1961), Labour Party politician, Minister of Labour in Churchill’s wartime coalition [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross] (1877-1971), Scottish philosopher, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford]
Ernest Bevin
Publication details: 
1 September 1945; on letterhead of the Foreign Office, S.W.1. [Whitehall, London]
£80.00
Ernest Bevin

See the entries for Bevin and Ross in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ‘The Vice Chancellor, / Oxford University’. The two lines of Bevin’s autograph valediction ascending and converging at the same time: ‘Yours sincerely / Ernest Bevin’. He was glad to receive Ross’s letter ‘about the visit of the Greek Regent to this country’. He feels sure that ‘the Regent will wish to accept an invitation to visit Oxford’. He gives tentative dates for his stay, undertaking to ‘have a day at least set aside for this purpose’.

[Alan Bullock [Lord Bullock], historian and biographer of Adolf Hitler.] Typed Letter Signed to Philip Dosse, proprietor of ‘Books and Bookmen’, explaining that he has already agreed to review Toland’s biography of Hitler for another publication.

Author: 
Alan Bullock [Alan Louis Charles Bullock; Lord Bullock] (1914-2004), historian and biographer of Hitler, Master of St Catherine’s College and Oxford Vice-Chancellor [Philip Dosse (c.1924-1980)]
Publication details: 
22 February 1977. On letterhead 'From the Master . St. Catherine's College . Oxford'.
£45.00

See Bullock's entry in the Oxford DNB. From the archives of Philip Dosse, proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of the ‘Seven Arts’ group of magazines, including ‘Books and Bookmen’ and ‘Plays and Players’. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly creased. Folded twice for postage.

['How does a wise person like yourself explain that?': Sir James Black Baillie, moral philosopher and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mrs Stopford’, waxing contemplative on her sending him a cutting.

Author: 
Sir James Black Baillie (1872-1940), moral philosopher and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds
Publication details: 
17 October 1836; on letterhead of Bardon Hill, Weetwood [Leeds, Yorkshire].
£90.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage, and in envelope with stamp and Leeds postmark addressed in autograph to ‘Mrs. Stopford / Sussex Lodge / Horsham / Sussex’. Addressed to ‘Dear Mrs. Stopford’ and signed ‘J B. Baillie’. He begins in almost philosophical terms: ‘Dear Mrs. Stopford, / How very kind of you to remember this little request. It was such a pleasure to receive the cutting.

[ Rev. Dr Richard Jenkyns, Master of Balliol College, Oxford. ] Autograph Signature ('R. Jenkyns') on part of letter.

Author: 
Rev. Richard Jenkyns (1782-1854), DD, Master of Balliol College, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Dean of Wells Cathedral
Publication details: 
Balliol College [ University of Oxford ]. 28 January 1835.
£20.00

On 5.5 x 18.5 cm strip of paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Good firm signature. Reads: 'Yrs: very faithfully | R. Jenkyns. | Balliol College | Jan: 28. 1835.' Annotated at foot in a nineteenth-century hand: 'Master | and also 1845 Dean of Wells'. Reverse reads: '[...] & hasten to inform you thhat although the Term began on Saturday last the 24th: Inst:, yet if the state of your Son's health should render it desirable for him to remain [...]'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Handley Dunelm') from Handley Carr Glyn Moule, Bishop of Durham, to Sir Michael Sadler, Vice-Chancellor, University of Leeds, regarding the use of his name by the disreputable publicist Sydney Walton, for his 'Bible Crusade'.

Author: 
Handley Carr Glyn Moule (1841-1920), Anglican Bishop of Durham from 1901 to 1920 [Sir Michael Ernest Sadler (1861-1943), Vice-Chancellor, University of Leeds; Sydney Walton (1882-1964), publicist]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 10 November 1915.
£30.00

1p., 4to. With mourning border. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper with minor wear at the beginning of one crease. Moule writes that he is 'quite prepared to receive and of course to attend to any communication from Mr. Sydney Walton', but that he must 'distinctly decline responsibility in detail [last three words underlined] for the work of the Bible Crusade'. He 'willingly expressed' his 'cordial personal sympathy with its aims when its founder [i.e.

Autograph Letter Signed ('H G Liddell') from Henry George Liddell, grandfather of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, to 'Dear Dundas', concerning the Abbotsford Subscription. With print of the 'Ape' cartoon of Liddell from 'Vanity Fair'.

Author: 
Rev. Henry George Liddell (1787-1872), father of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and grandfather of Alice Pleasance Liddell, on whom Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was based [Sir Walter Scott]
Publication details: 
Letter: Ravensworth Castle; 2 February 1833. Print: Without date or place.
£150.00

Letter: 4 pp, 12mo. Bifolium. 36 lines. Text clear and complete. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. He addresses him 'as Provisional Secretary to the Abbotsford Subscription Committee', to inform him that he has instructed his bankers in Newcastle to transmit forty pounds from his account to bankers in the Strand, 'to be added to the Abbotsford Fund - being the Amount collected in small sums between 1.£ & 1.s. by Mrs. Liddell in the town of Alnwick & vicinity'. She will forward a book of subscribers' names to the Committee.

Autograph Letter Signed from Sir Henry A. Miers, Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University, to the educationist Thomas Lloyd Humberstone, regarding his book on 'University Reform in London'.

Author: 
Sir Henry A. Miers [Sir Henry Alexander Miers] (1858-1942), Professor of Crystallography at the Victoria University of Manchester, 1915-1926 [Thomas Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957), educationist]
Publication details: 
31 May 1926; on his Manchester University letterhead.
£38.00

12mo, 2 pp. Nineteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Thanking him for his 'excellent book on University Reform in London': 'I read it carefully when it came out and was much impressed by your clear statement of the problem and the thoughtful discussion of possible solutions'. He will now prize his own copy, as it is 'a really important contribution to a subject which has naturally interested me for the past 18 years'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Richard Southwood') to 'Mr Ladkin'.

Author: 
Sir Richard Southwood (1931-2005), Professor of Zoology and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford
Sir Richard Southwood, Professor of Zoology, Letter
Publication details: 
10 October 1986; on letterhead of the National Radiological Protection Board.
£38.00
Sir Richard Southwood, Professor of Zoology, Letter

8vo, 1 p. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with a couple of punch holes to the left margin (one through a word of text). Thanking him for his 'kd letter of appreciation of my work as chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution'. He now has 'another public duty concerned with the same field'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent (Edward Frederick Lecks, Secretary, the Royal Asylum of St Ann's Society).

Author: 
Sir Lancelot Shadwell
Publication details: 
27 March 1837; no place.
£34.00

Last Vice-Chancellor of England (1779-1850). Two pages, 12mo. Good, but lightly spotted, and with the lower third ruckled by attachment of verso to piece of brown paper. He says he will have great pleasure in 'being a Steward at the Anniversary Festival of the Saint Ann's Society Schools'. He would have answered the note before, 'but it came at a time when I was much occupied & I put it by with the accompanying Papers till the Vacation arrived'. Signed 'Lancelot Shadwell'.

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