Sir Joseph Swan – A Light that Never Goes Out – June 2014

Posted on 27 June, 2014 by nspeccoll

Sir Joseph Swan's, Hughes Medal (left) and Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (right). — Sir Joseph Swan’s, Hughes Medal (left) and Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (right).

27 May 2014 marked the centenary of the death of Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (31 October 1828 – 27 May 1914), Sunderland-born scientist, pioneer, and inventor of early electric light bulbs, photographic processes, and synthetic fibres.

Swan was very much a local man working on Grey Street Newcastle for a firm of manufacturing chemists Mawson, Swan and Morgan, and going on to live at Low Fell in Gateshead. It was here, in a large conservatory, that Swan conducted many of the experiments that led to his creation of the first partial vacuum, carbon filament incandescent light bulb in 1850.

Unsatisfied with the lamps short lifespan and inefficiency, Swan continued to work on his invention until he finally presented it to the public on 3 February 1879 when over seven hundred people viewed it in action at the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle. This time, the lamp used a carbonized thread and a better vacuum, but Swan improved on it again with ‘parchmentised thread’ before he began to install his invention in homes across England. His own house was the world’s first to have electric lighting installed.

By 1881, the Savoy Theatre in London (the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electric light) and both the House of Commons and the British Museum were illuminated using Swan bulbs. In 1883, Swan went into business with Thomas Edison, famed for similar but independent developments in electric lighting, to form Edison and Swan United Electric, producing lights commercially.

Having exhibited the electric light bulb in Paris in 1881, Swan was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, the highest decoration in France. In 1904, he became only the third person to receive the Royal Society’s Hughes Medal. He was also honoured locally with the Freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, only a few months before his death in 1914.

These original honours (pictured above), donated by his descendants, are now on permanent display in the Special Collections Reading Room on level 1 of the Philip Robinson Library.

Newcastle Illuminated, 1814 – May 2014

Posted on 27 May, 2014 by nspeccoll

*Illumination of Newcastle, 1814: Newspaper cutting, posters etc. concerning the celebrations of 1814 to mark the end of the Napoleonic Wars* (**Clarke (Edwin) Local Collection,** **Clarke 2013**)

Two hundred years ago this month, on the evening of 10th May 1814, the town of Newcastle was flooded with light in celebration of the defeat and abdication of Napoleon and his exile to Elba, perceived to signal the end of the Napoleonic Wars which had seen the country at war for more than ten years.

This broadside advertised the illumination event. It was seemingly well-organised by town officials who were anxious to preserve the peace and ensure safety, forbidding the letting-off of guns and fireworks and appointing Peace Officers to patrol the streets. Participants were also warned not to harass any Quakers who might abstain from the celebrations on religious grounds, being pacifists.

The event was universally held to be a great success. Local newspapers printed lengthy and effusively-worded accounts. The Newcastle Advertiser said, “At half-past eight o’clock in the evening the signal was given from the castle for lighting up, and, as if by magic, the whole town appeared in a few minutes one blaze of light”. People from all classes of society took part by lighting up their home or premises, “every one striving to excel his neighbour in testifying his joy at the return of peace, after a sanguinary war of unusual duration”.

All of the light displays were patriotic and many incorporated transparencies, pictures made from translucent paints on materials like calico, linen or oiled paper and lit from behind with candles.

Highlights included Messrs Farrington of the Bigg-market who filled the arched gateway in front of their warehouse with a large transparency of the Duke of Wellington attired as Mars, presenting Peace to Britannia; and Messrs Brumwell and Dobson, chemists, Sandhill who exhibited a large painting representing the inside of a laboratory and the Devil pounding Bonaparte to powder in a mortar. Mr Waters’ Floor-cloth manufactory was singled out as being especially brilliant, incorporating a giant lit image of an anchor, nearly 40 feet high. The doorway of the Theatre Royal was lavishly lit and occupied by the Newcastle arms with a Latin inscription which in translation means, “May Newcastle flourish into eternity, nourished by abundance and peace”. Also mentioned is a certain Mr Dobson, architect, of Mosley Street who displayed a transparency of Britannia seated, with the British Lion defiantly pacing the shore. Displays such as that at the Dun Cow public house on the Quayside, “a neat, though small transparency, exhibiting the Sailor paid off, and the Soldier returned to this wife and family” hint at the social and economic disruption that the Wars had brought.

It would seem the town officials’ precautionary measures paid off, as the Advertiser reported, “We did not hear of a single disturbance or accident”. According to the Chronicle, the only negative element to the proceedings was “the carelessness and indifference of the coachmen, who were driving the carriages of those who chose to view the exhibition of the evening in that manner; as, by their negligence, were often endangered the lives and limbs of the pedestrians.”

Of course, these celebrations would prove to be a year premature, as ten months later Napoleon escaped from Elba and reassumed power over France until his eventual defeat at Waterloo in June 1815.

Cold Calling Churchill: The British North Greenland Expedition 1952 – 1954 – March 2014

Posted on 31 March, 2014 by nspeccoll

Message form from the North Greenland Expedition **(North Greenland Expedition Archive)**

An archive recently gifted to Special Collections from the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology offers a unique insight into this pioneering, sub polar expedition through transcripts of the radio communications between the ground team and the US Air Force. Among its participants was Hal Lister; a Geography lecturer at Newcastle University who served as a Glaciologist here and later on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955 – 1958), led by Vivian Fuch and supported by Sir Edmund Hilary.

The archive is nationally significant and documents the first large-scale British expedition and scientific exploration of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The archive captures significant events, achievements (e.g. the crossing of the ice sheet), and logistical challenges of undertaking such a large-scale expedition at a time when polar logistics were inherently difficult and dangerous. It represents a unique day-to-day’ record of a large-scale, but little-documented, Cold-War era British scientific exploration.

The purpose of this expedition, led by Commander James Simpson, was primarily scientific studies in glaciology, meteorology, geology and physiology, but also so the armed services could gain experience working in polar conditions.

In his second spell as Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill was very proud to be Vice-Patron of the expedition and offered his best wishes to the team before their departure in July 1952 from Deptford (right). Among the pencil-written messages conveying both scientific messages, details on supplies, and jokes between the expedition and support team, is this particular message from Simpson. In it, he offers congratulations to Churchill on receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953, where he beat writers such as Ernest Hemingway for his numerous historical accounts of both World Wars.

Greenland was a successful venture and amongst the team’s achievements included two pioneering ascents in the Barth Mountains and Dronning Louise Land. Sadly, there was one fatality, in 1953 when Captain H. A Jensen of the Danish Army fell to his death. The entire team were awarded the Polar Medal in November 1954.

Conservation at work

The documents arrived at Newcastle University Special Collections and Archives and a bundle of papers.

We then sent this archive off to Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums to work their conservation magic, to flatten and preserve the papers. Here’s the conservation in progress…

“Following the Fashion”: The Satirical Cartoons of James Gillray – February 2014

Posted on 27 February, 2014 by nspeccoll

Depicts the figure-type which was most flattered by the newly popular high-waisted dresses. It also mocks the perception that the lowly class of merchants and their families, associated with the Cheapside district of London (on the right), unsuccessfully copied the on-trend aristocracy associated with the St. James' district (on the left). In the captions ""giving the TON"", was a colloquial phrase for setting the style, and Gillray also plays on the word ""body"" to mean both a soul without a bodice in the case of the woman on the left and, more disparagingly, an actual body without a soul on the right. — *Following the Fashion,* 1794, **(Gillray (James) Prints, JG/2/7)**

James Gillray (1756-1815) was an English caricaturist known for his satirical and daring cartoons, lampooning politicians, the aristocracy and society at large during the volatile and exciting Age of Revolution. He was himself something of a revolutionary, turning his pen on his subjects with a freedom and grotesqueness that was unprecedented and, in doing so, helping to shape popular opinion.

Like many artists, however, he was primarily motivated by commercial interests and the particular needs of those who commissioned him. Private customers would very often wish only to be amused and for prints, when hand coloured, to look attractive in portfolios and on the walls of less grand rooms of houses, coffee houses and pubs.

Following the Fashion (1794) is an example of such an irreverent and risqué poke at everyday culture. It satirizes the figure-type which was most flattered by the newly popular high-waisted dresses. It also mocks the perception that the lowly class of merchants and their families, associated with the Cheapside district of London (on the right), unsuccessfully copied the on-trend aristocracy associated with the St. James’ district (on the left). In the captions “giving the TON”, was a colloquial phrase for setting the style, and Gillray also plays on the word “body” to mean both a soul without a bodice in the case of the woman on the left and, more disparagingly, an actual body without a soul on the right.

Interested in seeing more James Gillray prints? Take a look on CollectionsCaptured.

Professor Pybus and the Origins of Lucozade – October 2013

Posted on 27 October, 2013 by nspeccoll

Short description of Pybus’ involvement in the production and use of Lucozade at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in 1908 **(Pybus (Professor Frederick) Archive,** **FP/3/1/3)**

Esteemed surgeon and Emeritus Professor Frederick Charles Pybus (1883-1975), is perhaps best known to Newcastle University as a collector, donating his internationally significant library of some 2000 books on the history of medicine to the library in 1965. This remains one of Special Collections’ most impressive and prestigious resources of rare and unique published material, dating from the 15th Century with particular reference to anatomy, surgery and medical illustration and including influential works by luminaries such as William Harvey and Andreas Vesalius.

Photograph of Frederick Charles Pybus, c.1905 (**Professor Frederick) Archive, FP/3/4/32**)

But Pybus himself is also remembered as a giant of the medical community and an influential figure both locally and nationally. A graduate of the Newcastle College of Medicine gaining his MS (Masters in Surgery) in 1910, Pybus’ long and varied career and lifelong associations with the Royal Victoria Infirmary and Newcastle University meant he is remembered as an authoritative voice on cancer research, surgical education and paediatrics. What is perhaps more surprising, and a story which has almost passed into folklore, is his hand in the creation of a household name; the energy drink Lucozade.

Pybus himself explains this story in this note present in his papers, which were donated shortly after his books. He describes how, during his student days working as a House-Surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in 1908, he lost a young patient following a seemingly successful operation. It was felt that this was because the child was starved, leading to them not being able to break down the chloroform used as an anaesthetic and resulting in a slow poisoning of the liver. This tragic event clearly affected the young Pybus and when he became surgeon at the Fleming Memorial Hospital for Sick Children following his graduation, he made sure patients drank a glucose drink he devised prior to surgery and when they had a fever to stop this happening again.

An enterprising chemist in Barras Bridge called William Owen provided the ingredients as a prescription, but noticing its popularity started making it himself and indeed perfected the recipe, with Pybus admitting his had “a taste of sulphur bi-oxide which most glucose had in order to prevent fermentation”.

Owen called this drink Glucozade, but, in 1938, Beecham pharmaceutical company realised the commercial potential and bought the formulae for the then princely sum of “about £10,000”, and Lucozade was born. Pybus admits in this note that although he had no share in this “I sometimes wish I had”. However, it was clearly a comfort that, in respect of the child that died, Pybus felt on his wards the Lucozade prototype “prevented this happening so far as I know for ever afterwards”.

News of the Battle of Flodden, 1513 – September 2013

Posted on 27 September, 2013 by nspeccoll

Five hundred years ago this month, one of the bloodiest battles between England and Scotland took place when the English army defeated the Scots army on Flodden Field near Branxton in Northumberland. James IV of Scotland had crossed the border in late August 1513 with an army of about 30,000 men, to honour the “auld alliance” with France and divert troops from the main English army which was then in France under Henry VIII. He was met by Henry’s lieutenant, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who opposed him with an army of about 20,000 men. The Battle took place on 9th September 1513 in the afternoon; it was over by nightfall as the Scots succumbed to the superior weaponry of the English. There were an estimated 10,000 Scottish deaths, including members of almost every noble family and James IV himself. About 5,000 English soldiers also lost their lives.

This is the first page of a nineteenth-century reprint of the earliest surviving English news pamphlet on the Battle of Flodden, believed to have been printed in the same year. Original sixteenth-century copies of the pamphlet are rare, being held only at the National Library of Scotland, Lambeth Palace Library and Cambridge University Library, in varying states of completeness. Although later reprints such as that held here in Special Collections at Newcastle are more commonplace, they are no less appealing.

This edition, held in the White (Robert) Collection, was reprinted in London in 1809 and faithfully reproduces the original, including its attractive woodcut illustration and distinctive “Black Letter” typeface. The woodcut depicts soldiers in a camp on the battlefield. The figure on the right is probably the Earl of Surrey; the soldiers are handing him a crown, which likely represents the crown of the fallen James IV. The illustration is particularly noteworthy as it appears to show the long bill (a staff ending in a hook-shaped blade) used by the English army, which out-performed the spears of the Scots army and, along with the English longbows, secured the English victory.

Our copy of this edition carries the bookplate of John Trotter Brockett (c. 1788-1842) and the later inscription of Robert White (1802-1874), both local antiquaries and collectors. Brockett is known to have sold off a portion of his collection of books, coins and medals at Sotheby’s in 1823 and this may well be how this particular book later found its way into Robert White’s possession.

Special Collections also holds several copies of another, slightly later reprint of the pamphlet, held in the Clarke (Edwin) Local Collection and 19th Century Collections. Printed by the Newcastle Typographical Society in 1822, the later edition is in a smaller format than the 1809 edition and bears a printed dedication from its editor, William Garret, to John Trotter Brockett. Garret thanks Brockett for the loan of “the book from which the following sheets are printed” and explains that this reprint is smaller than the tract from which it was taken; we can speculate that our copy of the 1809 edition bearing Brockett’s bookplate is the very book to which Garret refers here in the 1822 edition, highlighting an example of the links which can exist across our holdings in Special Collections.

The Appointed Day (or 50 going on 179) – August 2013

Posted on 27 August, 2013 by nspeccoll

Photograph of the Ceremony on the official establishment of Newcastle University. Shows The Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Alderman Harry Simm, and the Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University Charles Bosanquet shaking hands on the day the University of Newcastle upon Tyne formally became a separate entity to Durham University. — *Photograph of the Ceremony on the official establishment of Newcastle University* **(University Archives, NUA/029090-390)**
Shows The Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Alderman Harry Simm, and the Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University Charles Bosanquet shaking hands on the day the University of Newcastle upon Tyne formally became a separate entity to Durham University.

Thursday 1st August 1963 was the “Appointed Day”. In 1908 the federal University of Durham was set up by an Act of Parliament when the existing colleges of the University of Durham were formed into two divisions – the colleges located in Durham became the Durham Division and the College of Medicine (founded in 1834) and Armstrong College (founded as the College of Physical Sciences in 1871) in Newcastle, the Newcastle Division. In 1937 Durham College of Medicine and Armstrong College were amalgamated to form King’s College in the University of Durham. With two centres 15 miles (24 kilometres) apart there were several strains in the relationship between the two divisions over the years, and this led to several calls for the establishment of a University, or University College, in Newcastle, none of which came to fruition. However on 29th January 1960 the Academic Board of the Newcastle Division at an Extraordinary General Meeting passed the following motion: “That this Board is of the opinion that the healthy development of this Division of the University makes desirable the establishment of a University of Newcastle in place of King’s College.”

Photograph of the first meeting of Senate of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 8th August 1963. — ***Photograph of the establishment of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1963*** **(University Archives, NUA/029091)**
First meeting of Senate of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 8th August 1963.

Surprisingly there was little real opposition, in either division, to the proposal and eventually a Bill was presented to Parliament which became the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963. As the “Appointed Day” dawned the newly created University of Newcastle upon Tyne came into existence. However as E.M. Bettenson remarks in The University of Newcastle upon Tyne: Historical Introduction:

Photograph of The Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Alderman Harry Simm, and The Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University, Dr. C.I.C .Bosanquet, holding the Lindisfarne silver salver presented to the University by the City — *Photograph of the establishment of the University of Newcastle, 1963* **(University Archives, NUA/029090/11)**
The Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Alderman Harry Simm, and The Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University, Dr. C.I.C .Bosanquet, holding the Lindisfarne silver salver presented to the University by the City

Photograph of Dr. C.I.C. Bosanquet, Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University (left) and Dr. D.G. Christopherson, Vice-Chancellor of Durham University with the gifts exchanged between the Universities of Durham and Newcastle. — *Photograph of the establishment of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1963* **(University Archives, NUA/029042/1)**
Dr. C.I.C. Bosanquet, Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University (left) and Dr. D.G. Christopherson, Vice-Chancellor of Durham University with the gifts exchanged between the Universities of Durham and Newcastle.

“Apart from changes in the notepaper headings and signs on the buildings it was difficult to tell that anything had happened… No member of staff found his conditions of service altered, no student whether graduate or undergraduate varied his studies, degree regulations and instructions to examiners remained the same.” The only events of note on this the “Appointed Day” were a visit to the new University by Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Alderman Harry Simm, accompanied by the Sheriff and the Town Clerk ; and the formal meetings of the Court, Council and Senate of the new University. During his visit the Lord Mayor presented the University with a “noble salver of Lindisfarne silver”.

At the final meeting of the Court of the federal University of Durham on 29th July 1963 gifts were exchanged between the old and the new universities.

George Otto Trevelyan (1838-1928) – July 2013

Posted on 27 July, 2013 by nspeccoll

Photograph of George Otto Trevelyan **(Trevelyan (George Otto) Archive, GOT 184)**

George Otto Trevelyan was born on 20th July 1838, in Rothley Temple, Leicestershire to Charles Edward and Hannah Trevelyan. He was educated at Harrow and then Cambridge University – both institutions that nurtured his pre-existing interests in history and literature.

George had endeared himself to the childless Sir Walter Calverley and Pauline, Lady Trevelyan as a young visitor to Wallington Hall, Northumberland. Walter was so impressed with the scholarly boy and his inexhaustible quests for knowledge and fulfilment that he secretly changed his will so that Wallington would pass to his cousin, Charles Edward, and then to George.

Meanwhile, George fell in love with Caroline Philips, the daughter of Robert Needham Philips – an M.P. and wealthy merchant. Their hasty engagement was blocked by Caroline’s uncle for two years while she rejected all other suitors and, after they married in 1869, they were seldom apart and died within eight months of each other. G.M. Trevelyan said of his parents that “they grew into one another by mind and habit”. George inherited Wallington in 1886 and he and Caroline made Wallington their summer home for the rest of their long lives and their three sons spent hours playing there.

George particularly delighted in the library. He wrote to his sister, Alice, in June 1887, that; “We are extremely busy fitting up the house … Especially I have been spending an immense deal of time over the books”.¹ When he wanted to give himself a holiday he retreated into the library to read the likes of Cicero and Theocritus and he has left behind marginalia that capture the dates when he finished reading, or re-reading, books; provide contextual information; and which signal his favourite volumes. George often read aloud to Caroline and the children: the library was the room in which the family assembled. He told Alice; “We have read ‘Persuasion’ aloud. The scene of Captain Wentworth writing the letter is absolutely perfect”.² In other letters he talks of communal readings of the works of Edward Gibbon and Thomas Hogg’s The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

In his public life, George was an historian, man of letters, politician and the first biographer of his uncle Lord Macaulay. He began his long political career as a radical Liberal with his election as M.P. for Tynemouth in 1865. He served in all of W.E. Gladstone’s administrations, including as Chief Secretary to Ireland after the assassination of the previous incumbent, Lord Frederick Cavendish, in Dublin in May 1882 and as Secretary of State for Scotland (1886 and 1892-95) although he was to split, briefly, from the Gladstonians over Irish issues in 1886. He retired from parliament in 1897 and devoted the rest of his life to his estates at Wallington and Welcombe. As well as estate business he continued to write as an historian on the American War of Independence, becoming a close friend of the President, Theodore Roosevelt. In 1911 he received the Order of Merit from Asquith’s Liberal Government.

The Trevelyan Family Papers, which include the papers of George Otto Trevelyan, are held by Newcastle University Library. Although they had been deposited here in 1967, the papers were formally gifted to the library in 2012.

ootnotes:
¹ Letter to Alice from George Otto Trevelyan, June 1887 in: Sir George Otto Trevelyan: a Memoir by G.M. Trevelyan (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1932) p.130. Clarke (Edwin) General, Clarke 1649.
² Letter to Alice from George Otto Trevelyan, January 11th 1888 in: George Otto Trevelyan: Memoir, p.130. Clarke (Edwin) General, Clarke 1649.

Silhouette depicting George Otto Trevelyan, cutting in: *An Account of the Parish of Hartburn in the County of Northumberland* by John Hodgson (Newcastle upon Tyne: Printed by E. Walker, 1827) with *Handbook of the Pictures in the Hall at Wallington, Northumberland and miscellaneous illustrations and cuttings relating to Wallington* (**Edwin (Clarke) Local,** **Clarke 604**)

Marching On Together: Ethel Williams’ Suffragist Banner – June 2013

Posted on 27 June, 2013 by nspeccoll

Suffragette Marching banner with 'Newcastle on Tyne' across the top and 3 castles in a reddish background — Suffragette Marching banner **(Williams (Ethel) Archive, EWL/3/5)**

The 8th June 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the suffragette Emily Davison. A militant suffragette, whose family originated from Longhorsley in Northumberland, Emily infamously ran in front of the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby on 4th June 1913. She was seriously injured and died of her injuries in hospital four days later. It has long been speculated whether Emily was actually trying to kill herself in order to draw attention to the suffragette cause. Analysis of newsreel from the day now suggests that she may have been simply trying to attach a suffragette banner to the horse.

This is Ethel Williams’ suffragist banner. Ethel was the first woman to found a general medical practice in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1906. She was also reportedly the first woman to drive a car in the North of England that same year. She attended the London School of Medicine for Women and graduated in 1891, but had to gain her hospital experience abroad in Paris and Vienna due to male prejudice against women training in British hospitals. Such obstacles and her belief in the need to supplement medical care with social reform led to her active involvement in the suffrage movement.

Ethel was an active member of the National Union of Woman’s Suffrage Societies (also known as the NUWSS or the Suffragists). Unlike the Suffragettes, the Suffragists aimed to achieve women’s suffrage using lawful and peaceful methods. Ethel took part in the ‘Mud March’ of 1907 in London, the first large procession organised by the NUWSS, so-called due to the terrible weather conditions on the day. Despite this, over 3,000 women from all walks of life took part. There is a good chance that she may have used this banner during the march as women from across the country brought banners to show which area they represented. Red and white were the official colours of the NUWSS and both colours can been seen in the banner. She was also often seen in suffrage processions along Northumberland Street in Newcastle. During World War One she formed the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

She co-founded the Northern Women’s Hospital in 1917 and, when she retired in 1924, she left her practice to another female doctor, Dr Mona MacNaughton. By this time there were 14 female doctors practicing in Newcastle. Ethel died in 1948 and Ethel Williams’ Halls of Residence were opened in her memory in 1950 at Newcastle University.

Letter to Sir Liam Donaldson from Prime Minister Gordon Brown on his retirement from the role of Chief Medical Officer – May 2013

Posted on 27 May, 2013 by nspeccoll

Not all of the materials held in Special Collections are old, and that is particularly true of archives. A good example of unique but fairly recent material can be found in the Sir Liam Donaldson Collection.

As well as being the present Newcastle University Chancellor, Sir Liam Donaldson was the 15th Chief Medical Officer for England from 1998 to 2010, an historic role dating back to 1858 as a means of affecting sanitary reforms in the wake of the early cholera epidemics. Their remit developed into being the Government’s top medical advisor on all elements of health policy as well as representing their profession and the public health at the very highest level as the Nation’s doctor.

In this letter, written on 17th December 2009,the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, expresses his sadness at Sir Liam’s decision to step down as Chief Medical Officer and touches on some of the landmark campaigns made possible through his leadership.

He thanks him first for remaining in post to help respond to the H1N1 “Swine Flu” influenza epidemic. Sir Liam had intended to step down in November 2009 but delayed his decision because of the expertise he could bring in responding to such a crisis. Sir Liam had warned as early as 2004 that such new strains of influenza were inevitable and put in place contingencies such as writing infectious disease strategies, establishing the Health Protection Agency to monitor and respond to such outbreaks and major public awareness campaigns. These steps helped to considerably minimise the impact of the severity of this disease in the UK.

The Prime Minister goes on to recognise Sir Liam’s input into NHS reform, with his personal campaigns enacting a quality and patient safety ethos in the organisation; something Sir Liam continued to do on a Global scale as founding Chair of the World Alliance for Patient Safety at the World Health Organization from 2004 onwards.

Gordon Brown finishes by touching on Sir Liam’s efforts to increase the take up of organ donation and his most celebrated achievement in leading on the smoking ban in public places on 1st July 2007: a public health milestone. He tirelessly targeted such modern, self-made epidemics in his influential annual reports which led to action through policy and legislation. Similar efforts based on his concerns over the consumption of alcohol and calls for minimum pricing in 2009 were not greeted as favourably, but speak for the independence of the role of Chief Medical Officer, acting for the greater good rather than political gain.
The full catalogue for the Donaldson (Sir Liam)Archive is hosted on the Archives Hub. It includes archival material on this significant public health reformer’s many campaigns as Chief Medical Officer, his early roots in the North East, and on-going attempts to tackle the world’s most devastating health issues.

The archive has also been selectively digitised and these images can be searched and browsed via CollectionsCaptured.

You can also view an online version of the complementary exhibition, Root and Branch: Public health under the Nation’s doctors, on the Special Collections web pages