[Sir William Beveridge, C. E. R. Sherrington and the Railway Research Service.] Forty-one items of correspondence regarding accommodation, staff, and administrative matters, including some to and from Beveridge as Director of the LSE.

41 items from the papers of the railway economist C. E. R. Sherrington [Charles Ely Rose Sherrington] (1897-1973). Sherrington was the son of the Nobel-prize winning physiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952). Having served in France with the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and the Railway Transport Establishment of the British Expeditionary Force, Sherrington was lecturer in Economics and Transportation at Cornell University from 1922 to 1924. Returning to Britain, he was Secretary of the Railway Research Service from 1924 to 1962. The RRS had been formed in 1923 and was ‘supported by the main line railways and the Metropolitan’. It was devoted ‘to the economic study of transport developments in foreign countries and in the dominions in relation to conditions in this country’ (see Item 22 below). In 1944 Sherrington was appointed Railway Technical Adviser, SHAEF. At the start of 1929 both Sherrington and his assistant Gilbert Jocelyn Ponsonby (1904-1981) are working for the RRS while also teaching at the LSE, of which the celebrated economist Sir William Beveridge (1879-1963; ODNB) is director. CERS presents Beveridge with an ultimatum over his unsustainable workload and the inadequate conditions, and in the summer the RRS severs its ties with the LSE. Following the move from Houghton Street to Cowley Street CERS and Ponsonby are forced to choose, and the correspondence shows Sherrington leaving the LSE while Ponsonby resigns from the RRS (later becoming ‘the doyen of British transport economics of that era’). The collection also contains a CV and another career item relating to Ponsonby’s replacement at the RRS, Eric Dunbar Brant, and similar material relating to Charles Edwin Whitworth. Other topics covered are payments and ‘privilege tickets’. The correspondence contains fourteen typed items of correspondence, the rest of the material consisting of carbon copies of letters by CERS and others, many of them initialled, and a few other documents such as CVs. Two of the original letters are by Beveridge and nine by the Chairman of the RRS Managing Committee, Robert Bell, who was the Assistant General Manager, London & North Eastern Railway, based at King’s Cross Station. Among the copies are six to Beveridge and five to Bell. The material is in good overall condition, with light aging and slight wear to some items, and some rust staining from paperclips. In large envelope from the Social Science Research Council, New York, addressed to ‘Dr. C. E. R. Sherrington / Byways / 20, Queens Road / Belmont, Surrey, England’. Unless otherwise stated, items are 1p, 4to. ONE: Copy TL to Bell [from CERS], 9 January 1929, on RRS letterhead, with second copy not on letterhead. 2pp, 4to. Long letter requesting ‘some reorganisation’, as his ‘health will not stand another academic year under the present conditions’, as ‘the work of the Research Service has been steadily increasing and it has only been possible to keep abreast of it, togther with one’s work as lecturer which necessitates frequent publication, by dint of very long hours and granting one’s whole time inclusive of week-ends’. TWO: Initialled Copy TL from CERS to LSE lecturer Wilfred Tetley Stephenson (1876-1956), 9 January 1929, on RRS letterhead. Enclosing a copy of Item One. CERS discusses the ‘main difficulties facing the organisation’ (‘accommodation and telephone service’), and possible future arrangements. THREE: TLS from Bell to CERS, 16 January 1929, on letterhead of the Chief General Manager, LNER, King’s Cross. Enclosing copies of letters he has written to ‘Bushrod and Tetley Stephenson’ [Items Four and Five]. ‘I think on the whole the discussion to-day was very useful and should go some way to clear the air. It is particularly gratifying that there is no “set” on the part of any of the Companies against the Service going to Cowley Street, but, pleasant as that prospect may be, please do not count too much upon it until we get matters a stage forward’. FOUR: Initialled Copy TL from Bell to F. Bushrod, Assistant Chief Operating Superintendent, Southern Railway, Waterloo Station, SE1, 16 January 1929. 2pp, 4to. Requesting ‘tickets at a reduced rate’ for ‘four of the Railway Research people [who] live on your system’, and ‘a First Class Ticket at the quarter rate’ for CERS. Suggests a meeting at King’s Cross. FIVE: Initialled Copy TL from Bell to Stephenson, 16 January 1929. ‘As you will guess, we talked over the letter which Sherrington had written to you about accommodation and the question of his inability to carry on under existing conditions. The feeling amongst the Railway Companies - leaving the Great Western as neutral at the moment in Lean’s absence - is that on the whole it would be best for the Research Service to be located in one of our railway offices at Westminster, possibly Cowley St. if the L.M.S. sell 35 Parliament Street as seems possible.’ SIX: Copy TL to Beveridge (‘My dear Director’) [from CERS], 26 January 1929. 2pp, 4to. Long letter placing on record ‘a few of the main points at issue’ concerning ‘the future organisation of the Railway Research Service and its relationship with the School’. Explains that his ‘foreign research work [...] rests largely upon personal touch, language knowledge, and experiences abroad, which I have built up over twelve years, and which makes it impossible to delegate a great deal of the work.’ SEVEN: TLS from Bell to CERS, 28 January 1929, on LNER King’s Cross Letterhead. 3pp, 4to, including a full-page autograph postscript. The body of the letter is typed, and concerns the ‘three years “Agreement”’ regarding the RRS, which was ‘to increase our payments to the School to £1100 per annum at the time of Ponsonby’s whole time appointment. [...] As you say the original constitution lays down that the Bureau is to be controlled by a Committee which is to elect its own Chairman. In practice the administrative work, as you know better than anybody, has been practically left to the railway side of the Committee, and especially the Chairman. The whole of the communications about railway matters, with one or two slight exceptions, have also been with you as Secretary’. The postscript is more chatty, with reference to a ‘delightful evening at Byways last Tuesday’ and the news that ‘the LMS have been driven to collar our Signalling Engineer, Bound. [Arthur Frank Bound (1878-1957)] They are giving him £2000 a year to start with and are clamouring for his services. We can manage all right as we have [?] at York, who came from the “Met”, and Carslake at L’pool Street who knows all Bound’s dodges.’ EIGHT: TNS from Beveridge to CERS, 1 February 1929, on LSE letterhead. ‘As I am afraid I shall not be able to be here this afternoon to see you, I’d like you to see what I have written to Sir Josiah Stamp.’ NINE: Initialled Copy TL from CERS to Beveridge, 2 February 1929. He thanks him for sending a copy of his letter to Sir Josiah Stamp (see Item Ten), ‘regarding the future of the Research Service’. He feels that there should be ‘no difficulty in the railways coming to a mutually satisfactory agreement as to the future of the Service; I am only sorry that the present situation entails such a physical strain that the existing arrangement cannot continue indefinitely.’ TEN: TNS from the statistician Sir Josiah Stamp (1880-1941; ODNB) to CERS, 7 February 1929, on Euston Station letterhead. ‘I think the other matter that we have been discussing is now well in train; at any rate, you will be hearing from me officially before long.’ Signed ‘J C Stamp’. ELEVEN: TLS from Bell to CERS, 20 March 1929, on LNER King’s Cross letterhead. Following on from a letter he sent the previous night, telling CERS about ‘the talk with Sir William Beveridge’, he is sending a copy of a letter he has written him, whcih can be discussed ‘in earnest’ after easter. Autograph postscript: ‘You want a holiday absolutely free from railway or research work and should try to get it. A few days at Oxford tramping the by-ways would be better than nothing.’ TWELVE: Initialled Copy of Typed Circular Letter from Bell to J. F. Lean of the Great Western Railway, O. Glynne Roberts of the Midland and Scottish Railway, and F. Bushrod of Southern Railway, 20 March 1929. 2pp, 4to. He quotes a letter to Beveridge which he wrote on ‘alternative schemes’ on 5 March, continuing: ‘As Sir William has been very busy I could not get a talk with him until yesterday afternoon. He is anxious that we should give further consideration to the question of keeping the Research Service at the School’. Bell’s feeling ‘is that we should ask our General Managers not to hurry the discussion of the question until we, the Railway Representatives on the Committee, have had time to talk things over and submit a further report.’ THIRTEEN: TLS from Bell to CERS, 11 May 1927, on LNER King’s Cross letterhead. Reporting ‘some difference of opinion amongst the Companies about your proposed visit to America. The London Midland & Scottish were cordial; the Great Western lukewarm, and the Southern definitely against.’ He discusses the advantage of ‘keeping’ CERS, while assuring him that ‘the scheme is definitely dropped’. FOURTEEN: Initialled Copy TL from CERS to Beveridge, as ‘The Director, / London School of Economics’. Long formal letter. Begins: ‘Miss Nathan yesterday kindly showed me over the suggested premises for the Railway Research Service at 18 Houghton Street, and the possible alternative to those rooms in the ex-school buildings in the same street.’ He dismisses the first option as ‘out of the question’, and discusses the second. FIFTEEN: Copy TNS from Beveridge to CERS, 15 May 1929, on LSE letterhead. ‘I was just on the point of writing, and I have now written, to Mr. Bell to let him know that we can offer alternative accommodation to the Railway Research Service in the premises of the Holborn Estate School.’ SIXTEEN: TLS from Bell to CERS, 15 May 1929, on LNER King’s Cross letterhead. Headed ‘Railway Research Service Arrangements’. SEVENTEEN: TN from Bell to CERS, 16 May 1929, on LNER King’s Cross letterhead. Enclosing a copy of a letter from Beveridge and his reply (next two items). ‘We can now leave the question of accommodation until we have our meeting with the other Railway Representatives on our Committee on May 30th. I am expecting you then at the Great Northern Hotel here at 1.0 o’clock. We shall, of course, have a private room.’ EIGHTEEN: Copy TL from Beveridge to Bell, 15 May 1929, from LSE. Stating that the LSE is ‘now practically certain to acquire the premises of the Holborn Estate Grammar School just opposite to us in Houghton School’, and that it ‘could in these premises give the Service, by suitable partitions, about the same amount of space as that suggested in 17, Houghton Street, but definitely better in quality. As soon as I know that the railway companies would in principle prefer to keep the Service here rather than remove it altogether, details of space and partitions and rent can be gone into.’ NINETEEN: Initialled Copy TL from Bell to Beveridge, 16 May 1929. Undertaking to ‘bring the alternative proposal before the Railway Representatives on the Management Committee’. TWENTY: Initialled Copy TL from CERS to Bell, 16 May 1929. Headed ‘Railway Research Service Arrangements’. Reports that he has been speaking with Bushrod, who ‘seemed very greatly in favour of Cowley Street as an alternative’. TWENTY-ONE: Initialled Copy TL from CERS to Beveridge, 5 June 1929. Long letter beginning ‘My dear Director, / I have just heard from the railways that the General Managers have decided to transfer the Railway Research Service to offices at present vacant in Westminster.’ In view of ‘this re-organisation’ he tenders his ‘resignation of my appointment as lecturer. Whilst it is, of course, with considerable reluctance that I sever my connection with the School, I have understood from you that you will not wish to have lecturers who cannot give whole time service to education and in the future my office will be outside the building. Nevertheless, I have realised for some months that my health could not stand the continued strain which the combination of my two different positions has entailed.’ Although he will continue to feel ‘friendship for the School and many of its staff’, he considers ‘that the sphere of international relations and the industrial efficiency of the railway industry are types of work which offer the greatest hope of social benefit, and to which I ought to devote my whole time.’ TWENTY-TWO: Copy of undated (post 1 July 1929) Typed Notice transcribed from ‘Railway Gazette’, headed ‘Railway Research Service’ and beginning ‘We are informed that on July 1st the Railway Research Service, which had hitherto been located at the London School of Economics, was transferred to No. 4. Cowley Street, Westminster, S.W.1 in view of the need for more commodious accommodation. / The Research Service, which is supported by the main line railways and the Metropolitan, will devote its attention, as previously, to the economic study of transport developments in foreign countries and in the dominions in relation to conditions in this country.’ Details of the staff are given. TWENTY-THREE: Copy of undated Typed CV of G. J. Ponsonby. Unusually informal, including ‘Can use typewriter’ and ‘A very nice fellow personally’. TWENTY-FOUR: Initialled Copy of TL from Ponsonby to Bell, from Cowley Street, 2 July 1929. Headed ‘Removal of Railway Research Service to No. 4 Cowley Street’. Reporting the completion of the move, and placing on record ‘our sincere appreciation of the efficient and willing co-operation which has been given us by members of your Company, both with regard to organising the move, the actual removal and also the adaptation and fitting of our equipment into the new rooms’. TWENTY-FIVE: TLS from Bell to Gilbert Ponsonby, Assistant Secretary, Railway Research Service, 3 July 1929, on LNER King’s Cross letterhead. Thanking him for his ‘appreciative letter’ regarding ‘the move [from the LSE to Cowley Street]’. TWENTY-SIX: TLS from C. E. Whitworth to CERS, 12 July 1929. He understands that ‘the Railway Research Service has been reorganised and established on a broader basis, as part of the railway corporate organization’, and asks to be borne in mind should it be ‘necessary to increase the staff’, ‘as the scientific side of railway administration appeals to me’. The following four items are enclosures. TWENTY-SEVEN: Copy Typed Statement by H. P. Thorne, Headmaster, Alleyne’s Grammar School, 28 May 1925. Regarding Whitworth’s time at the school. TWENTY-EIGHT: Typed CV of ‘Charles Edwin Whitworth B. Com. (London), including a 1927 pass ‘Class I in the London School of Economics. / Examination on Traffic Problems in Railway Electrification’. TWENTY-NINE: Copy Typed Statement by Beveridge, 18 September 1928. Regarding Whitworth’s studies at the LSE. THIRTY: Copy Typed Statement by W. Tetley Stephenson, undated. Regarding Whitworth’s studies at the LSE. Undated. THIRTY-ONE: TLS from Bell to CERS, 10 July 1929 on LNER King’s Cross letterhead. Regarding payment of £150 ‘due to Mr. W. Tetley Stephenson for 1929-30’. THIRTY-TWO: Copy TL from Bell to Beveridge, 12 July 1929. Regarding a cheque for the Tetley Stephenson payment. THIRTY-THREE: Copy TN from L. Turin of the LSE to Bell, 16 July 1929. Regarding the Tetley Stephenson cheque. THIRTY-FOUR: TLS from Whitworth to CERS, 18 July 1929. Regarding ‘the vacancy caused by Mr Ponsonby joining the staff of the school’, for which ‘Brant’ (see next two items) was applying, and ‘any likelihood of the staff being further augmented in the near future’. THIRTY-FIVE: Typed CV of Eric Dunbar Brant. Undated, but up to 1928. THIRTY-SIX: Typed RRS ‘Service Record of Eric Brant’. Giving his ‘Station or Office’, ‘Grade’ and ‘Salary’ between 1928 and 1946. He joined the RRS as ‘Assistant Secretary’ in 1929, and stayed on until 1945, when he went ‘On loan to the European Central Inland Transport Organisation’. THIRTY-SEVEN: Covering note to next item initialled by Bell and addressed to CERS, 25 July 1929. THIRTY-EIGHT. Initialled Copy of Circular Letter to Bushrod, Glynne Roberts and Lean, 25 July 1929. 2pp, 4to. Headed ‘Railway Research Services: Travelling Facilities for the Staff.’ THIRTY-NINE. Covering Autograph Note to CERS for ‘Copies of letters attached, [Items Thirty-two and Thirty-three] as promised’, 21 August 1929. Signature illegible. FORTY: TLS from Bell to CERS, 22 August 1929, on LNER King’s Cross letterhead. 2pp, 4to. Headed ‘Travelling Facilities for the Staff’. Discussing at length the question of ‘privilege tickets’, and with autograph initialled postscript. FORTY-ONE: Initialled Copy of TLS from CERS to Bell, 23 August 1929. Formal financial receipt.