WELFARE

[Janet Beverdige, wife of Sir William Beveridge, ‘Architect of the Welfare State’.] Typed Letter Signed to V. H. Collins, regarding her sister’s death, her book on the Beveridge Plan, Sir William’s punctiliousness and ‘the kilt’.

Author: 
Janet Beveridge [born Janet Thomson Philip, later Janet Mair] (1876-1959), second cousin and wife of Sir William Beveridge (1879-1963), ‘Architect of the Welfare State’ [Vere Henry Collins, author]
Publication details: 
20 September 1954; on letterhead of Staverton House, 104 Woodstock Road, Oxford.
£120.00

See Sir William Beveridge’s entry in the Oxford DNB: 'An overbearing and temperamental Scotswoman, Mrs Mair had come to the school [the LSE] with Beveridge in 1919 (having been his secretary and aide during the war) and was highly unpopular with many of the school's professors. Throughout the 1930s there were complaints about the ‘Beveridge–Mair dictatorship’ and a general sense of relief when Beveridge decided to leave the school to accept the mastership of University College, Oxford, in 1937.' 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with one dog-eared corner. Folded twice for postage.

[Thomas Bywater Smithies, temperance and animl welfare campaigner.] Autograph Letter Signed to W. Allan, who is offering to distribute his periodical gratis.

Author: 
Thomas Bywater Smithies (1817-1883), temperance and animal welfare campaigner
Publication details: 
16 March 1861. On letterhead of 13 Barnsbury Square, London.
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded for postage. Signed ‘T. B. Smithies’ and addressed to ‘W. Allan Esq / 17 South Grove East’. The subject is Smithies’s monthly ‘improving paper’, the ‘British Workman, and Friend of the Sons of Toil’, which he had launched in 1855, and which Allan is clearly offering to distribute gratis.

[The Child Welfare Centre, St Andrews; child welfare specialist.] Three Autograph Letters Signed from Elenora Simpson of the James Mackenzie Institute, St Andrews, to her Professor David Waterston, regarding research and data.

Author: 
The Child Welfare Centre, St Andrews [Elenora Simpson of the James Mackenzie Institute for Clinical Research; Professor David Waterston (1871-1942)]
Publication details: 
26 December 1939; and 10 August and 8 October 1940. All three on letterhead of The James Mackenzie Institute for Clinical Research, St Andrews, Fife.
£180.00

As a result of her pioneering work at the Child Welfare Centre at St Andrews, Simpson was appointed to a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Committee set up by the Department of Health (see Jaqueline Jenkinson, ‘Scotland’s Health 1919-1948’, 2002). Waterston was Bute Professor of Anatomy at the University of St Andrews from 1914 to 1942. In 1913, while Professor of Anatomy at King's College, London, he was the first authority to debunk the Piltdown Man hoax.

[Sir William Beveridge, ‘Architect of the Welfare State’.] Five Typed Letters Signed to educationalist T. Lloyd Humberstone, discussing Charles Holden’s Senate House design for London University's ‘Bloomsbury Site and, the ‘Toynbee days’,

Author: 
Sir William Beveridge (1879-1963), ‘Architect of the Welfare State’, Liberal Party social reformer and economist [T. Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957), educationalist; Beveridge Report, 1942]
Publication details: 
The five letters dating from 1933, 1937, 1948, 1953, 1954. Three from Oxford (Master’s Lodgings, University College; two from Staverton House) and two from London (London School of Economics; Voluntary Social Service Report).
£250.00

See Beveridge’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Humberstone was a prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. The five items are in good condition, lightly aged. All five signed ‘W H Beveridge’. ONE: 29 June 1933; The London School of Economics and Political Science, Aldwych, London. 1p, 4to. Folded twice. Thanking him for his book on ‘the Bloomsbury Site’. He does not agree with his ‘objection to Holden’s design (so far as I can judge I think it is very remarkable and very fine)’, but thinks that ‘the stirring up of discussion and interest in the matter is a good thing’.

[Hugh Dalton, Clement Attlee’s Chancellor of the Exchequer: ‘This is a proud honour’.] Two Typed Letters Signed to educationalist T. Lloyd Humberstone, noting that he is the first University of London Chancellor, criticizing ‘Harrovian Chancellors’.

Author: 
Hugh Dalton (1887-1962), economist, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1945-7, one of ‘big five’ in Clement Attlee Labour Party postwar government [T. Lloyd Humberstone, educationist; University of London]
Publication details: 
21 September 1945 and 11 March 1946. Both from Treasury Chambers, the first from Whitehall and the second from Great George Street.
£75.00

See entry in Oxford DNB on Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton (1887-1962). Thomas Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957) was a prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. Both signed ‘Hugh Dalton’. Both in good condition and lightly aged. ONE (21 September 1945): 1p, 4to. Folded twice. He has found Humberstone’s letter ‘most interesting’, and sends delayed thanks for his congratulations (on Dalton’s appointment as Chancellor). He will also be ‘requiring a cheque in due course’, and notes the ‘suggestion of a tax rebate’.

[Mary Stocks (Lady Stocks), author and supporter of women's suffrage and social reform.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Mary Stocks') to J. Samson of the Royal Society of Arts, regretting that she is 'too senile' to chair a meeting.

Author: 
Mary Stocks [born Mary Danvers Brinton; Lady Stocks] (1891-1975), writer and worker in fields of women's suffrage, welfare state and social work; linked to Strachey, Wedgwood and Ricardo families
Publication details: 
31 August 1973. On letterhead of 'The Lady Stocks', Aubrey Lodge, Aubrey Road, W8 [London].
£60.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with pin hole to one corner. Folded twice. The surname in Stock's signature underlined in green. She is 'greatly honoured' by Samson's invitation, '& it is a thing I should have loved to do. But the sad fact is, I am getting too senile to be sure of being able to keep a discussion in hand as a competant [sic] chairman should'. The letter concludes: 'I fear I am a bad example of an 82 year-old in view of what Sybil Thorndike does at 90!'

[The Old Poor Law in the late Nineteenth Century.] Anonymous Manuscript Document, calling in forthright terms for the amending of 'The Plan of the Poor Laws of England', to weed out 'the loose Profligate and those who do not like work'.

Author: 
[The Old Poor Law; English Poor Laws; eighteenth-century poor relief]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [English, late eighteenth century.]
£450.00

2pp, foolscap 8vo. On the rectos of the leaves of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. On laid paper with indistinct watermark. The context of the document, with the capitalisation and spelling ('mechanick', 'shou'd', 'Publick', 'tyed down', 'lookt', 'Profitt'), points to a late eighteenth-century origin (certainly before the Speenhamland System and Michael Nolan's 1805 'Treatise of the Laws for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor'). No title or heading. A forthright document, whose rhetorical tone suggests that it was intended for public delivery.

[ Lady Carmichael-Anstruther and the Polish Children Rescue Fund. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('F. C. Anstruther') to 'Mr Blake', discussing the activities of the organisation.

Author: 
Lady Fay Carmichael-Anstruther [née Fay Sibyl Marie Rechnitzer], wife of Sir Windham Eric Francis Carmichael-Anstruther (1900-80) [ Polish Children Rescue Fund, London; Second World War Poland ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Polish Children Rescue Fund (British Committee for Polish Welfare), 1 Hill Street, Berkeley Square, London. 21 February 1945.
£80.00

2pp., 12mo. Written in a small close and neat hand. In good condition, on lightly aged paper.

[Welsh Working Men's Club and Institute.] Manuscript 'General Income and Expenditure Book' containing itemised and audited accounts of the Working Men's Club and Institute, Cefn, Kenfig Hill, Bridgend, and the Talbot Miners' Welfare Institute.

Author: 
[Working Men's Club and Institute, Kenfig HILL, Bridgend, South Wales, 1911-1938] [Talbot Miners' Welfare Institute.]
Publication details: 
[Kenfig Hill, Bridgend, South Wales.] 1 February 1911 to 18 January 1938.
£850.00

The present volume provides a fascinating sidelight into the operations of an archetypal Working Men's Club (Labour leader Ed Milliband was recently described as being 'more at home in Primrose Hill than Kenfig Hill') at what was perhaps the high point of such an institution, covering the period from just before the Great War to the end of the Depression of the 1930s. The accounts relate to two locations: the Cefn Institute and the Talbot Miners' Welfare Institute. The latter was founded in 1911 after a gift from the Talbot family, and closed in 1959.

[City of Cardiff Education Week, 1932.] Printed programme ('Cardiff Juvenile Welfare Council') of the 'Hobbies Exhibition'; and 'Educational Handbook for Citizens and Parents'.

Author: 
[City of Cardiff Education Week, 1932] [Cardiff Juvenile Welfare Council] [Wales; Welsh schools]
Publication details: 
Programme: Territorial Drill Hall, Newport Road, Cardiff (corner of West Grove). 29 February to 5 March 1932. Handbook: Cardiff: Priory Press Ltd., The Friary, Cardiff. [1932.]
£95.00

Both items in good condition (see separate descriptions). ONE: 'City of Cardiff Education Week. Cardiff Juvenile Welfare Council. Hobbies Exhibition and Demonstration of Voluntary Juvenile Organisations' Activities. Programme of Demonstrations and Displays, and Handbook of Stalls and Stallholders.' Cardiff: Territorial Drill Hall, Newport Road (corner of West Grove). 29 February to 5 March 1932. 20pp., 8vo. Stapled pamphlet, in printed wraps. Advertisements throughout. In good condition, on aged paper, with wear along the fore-edge. Photograph on cover of 'H.R.H.

Five items relating to the Amalgamated Engineering Union, Birmingham Branch No. 304BE, including two minute books, 1943-1956 and 1957-1980; 'Proposition and Entrance Book', 1966-1976; and two unemployment benefit books, 1956-1978 and 1966-1979.

Author: 
Amalgamated Engineering Union, Birmingham Branch No. 304BE [trades unions; welfare benefits; British labour relations]
Publication details: 
Birmingham. 1943 to 1980.
£400.00

This small archive casts invaluable light on British labour relations at a local level during a turbulent economic period in postwar British history, with specific day-to-day information about persons and events. The two minute books, 1943-1980, are both 4to, with the first of around 200 pp and the second of around 150 pp. Both texts clear and complete, and some matter loosely inserted (including a letter from an individual pursuing a complaint against the branch). In worn bindings, with the boards of the second volume detached.

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