Exhibition: “People don’t know about them…”

Posted on 28 October, 2016 by nspeccoll

This exhibition took place in the Marjorie Robinson Library Rooms, Newcastle University, 28th October 2016 – 15th January 2017. Click this link to see an online version of the exhibition.

Exhibition Open! “People don’t know about them…”

Ground Floor – Marjorie Robinson Library Rooms

28th October 2016 – 15th January 2017

“And then 1914, obviously the First World War is declared and she came back to England, and she’d been working as a surgeon. She offered her services to the War Office and the War Office accepted her and said yes and then she got her kit together and turned up at Victoria Station in London to join her group to go out to France to the military hospital out in France and the doctor in charge said I’m not having a woman. I’m not taking her.“

Rosemary Nicholson

The Universities at War project is a volunteer project based in the Special Collections Department at the Philip Robinson Library. Its aim is to tell the stories of the staff and students of Newcastle University who fought in the First World War.

In 2015 Sam Wagner, an archaeology student in her final year of study at Newcastle University, joined the Universities at War project as part of her Career Development Module. For her final project, Sam chose to conduct an oral history interview, and that is where our story starts …

Ruth Nicholson, Rosemary Nicholson and Sam Wagner

Rosemary Nicholson had previously contacted the Universities at War project to tell us about her husband’s aunt, Ruth Nicholson. Ruth was a Newcastle University medical graduate who worked under the direction of the French Red Cross throughout the First World War, as a surgeon in a military hospital in France.

A female medical graduate?

A military hospital staffed entirely by women?

And why the French Red Cross?

Sam’s exhibition is the result of her own historical research and interviews with Rosemary – capturing her memories of family stories about Ruth, as told through Ruth’s sister, Alison, who was still alive when Rosemary married into the family.

Panel on the Royaumont women in the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry, stitched by Andrea Cooley.

It is the fascinating story of an amazing woman, passed on by the women in her family who wanted her story to be told.

“ I felt she never got the credit she should have had, or the recognition she should have had, or Alison. People don’t know about them, I mean I write to everybody. I heard the programme on Women’s Hour about the women’s hospital in London and I rang right in to them saying, you know, What about Royaumont?! It was a matter of pride! ”

Rosemary Nicholson

Royaumont Hospital, image kindly provided by the Imperial War Museum.

All images in the exhibition have been kindly provided by the Nicholson family or other priviate owners, for the purposes of exhibition only.

The exhibition took place in the Marjorie Robinson Library Rooms, Newcastle University, 28th October 2016 – 15th January 2017.

An online version of this exhibition can be seen here.

A poster version of the exhibition can be seen here.

The Haunted House at Willington – October 2016

Posted on 26 October, 2016 by nspeccoll

Title page from the ‘Authentic account of a visit to the haunted house at Willington near Newcastle-upon-Tyne’ (W159.9612252 RIC), published 1842

“I have about 30 witnesses to various things which cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, on any other principle than spiritual agency” pg. 6.

When mysterious circumstances occur out of the corner of your eye, where unknown noises are heard and items disappear from shelves and reappear on another. Lurking in the Special Collections and Archives stores is a wealth of material that tells of haunted castles, superstitions, witchcraft, mythical tales and ghost stories. Some of the material is often frightening, others delightful, intriguing and often sinister. Whether stories of the supernatural are viewed with scepticism or disbelief, there is often a curiosity and interest in occurrences of this nature.

The story that is about to be told is therefore left to the reader to draw their own conclusion on the subject. Retrieved from a cold, dark corner of the Robert White Collection is the pamphlet; an ‘Authentic account of a visit to the haunted house at Willington‘ (W159.9612252 RIC) published in 1842.

Image of The Haunted Mill in Willington in 1887, taken from ‘The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend, 1887’ (Edwin Clarke Local Collection 2066)

Willington Mill near Wallsend in North Tyneside was owned by two Quaker cousins, George Unthank and Joseph Procter, and was the first steam-powered mill in the North East. During the 19th century it gained reputation as being haunted; said to be swamped by spectres, which included the ghost of a woman called Kitty who died during a terrible accident that occurred there. However, from about 1840, it is the haunting of the adjoining house that was occupied by Joseph Procter and his family that attracted the greatest amount of public notice. Bizarre noises, haunting apparitions and poltergeist activity shrouded the house and there were different attempts to solve the mystery. Perhaps the most famous endeavour was that of a young surgeon called Mr. E. Drury.

On the 3rd July, Drury arrived at the house to spend a night with his companion, Mr. Thomas Hudson (a chemist of South Shields). The house was locked up and every corner was searched and examined. Drury and Hudson were satisfied that there was no one else in the house apart from themselves, Mr Procter and the servant.

What followed has been recorded in the account; a noise was heard at approx. 11:50pm, a few minutes afterwards both Drury and Hudson heard a noise as if footsetaps were walking across the floor. A few minutes after, a knocking noise was heard followed immediately by a hollow cough from which the apparition proceeded from. The following events are further described in a letter from Mr. Drury dated Sunderland, July 13 1840, addressed to Mr. Procter;

“I took up a note which I had accidentally dropped, and began to read it; after which I took out my watch to ascertain the time, and found that it wanted ten minutes to one. In taking my eyes from the watch they became riveted upon a closet door, which I distinctly saw open, and also saw the figure of a female, attired in greyish garments, with the head inclined downwards, and one hand pressed upon the chest as if in pain, and the other, viz., the right hand, extended towards the floor, with the index finger pointing downwards. It advanced with an apparently cautious step across the floor towards me; immediately as it approached my friend, who was slumbering, its right hand extended towards him. I then rushed at it, giving at the time, as Mr. Procter states, a most awful yell; but, instead of grasping it, I fell upon my friend – and I recollected nothing distinctly for nearly three hours afterwards. I have since learnt that I was carried downstairs in an agony of fear and terror” pg. 7.

Further activity following this account was recorded This included a case of an apparition seen in the window of the house from the outside by four witnesses (a lady with connections to the Procter family, a man employed by the mill, his wife and daughter). This account is detailed below:

Extract taken from pg. 8 of the ‘Authentic account of a visit to the haunted house at Willington near Newcastle-upon-Tyne’ (W159.9612252 RIC), published 1842

In 1847, the Procter family vacated the house after 11 years. After the Procters had moved, local residents continued to experience hauntings. By 1890 the mill was closed and converted into a warehouse and the house was divided into apartments. The house was later torn down and for many years after there were still reportings of paranormal activity from workers at the mill.

If you are interested in coming into the reading room to see this pamphlet and others from the collection…

# This item is held in the Robert White Collection (Ref Code W159.9612252 RIC).

# You can place your order by linking to our request form. The reference code and title will be ‘W159.9612252 RIC – Authentic account of a visit to the haunted house at Willington’.

Samuel Wilson’s An Account of the Province of Carolina in America¸ 1682 – August 2016

Posted on 7 October, 2016 by nspeccoll

The title page from Wilson’s An Account of the Province of Carolina (ROB139)

‘I have here… described a pleasant and fertile country, abounding in health and pleasure, and with all things necessary for the sustenance of mankind, and wherein I think I have written nothing but truth, sure I am I have inserted no wilful falsehood…’. p.17

In 1663, King Charles II issued a charter granting an extensive expanse of land on the American continent to eight of his political allies, the Lords Proprietors. The territory, the ‘Province of Carolina’, sat between the English colony of Virginia and the Spanish territory of Florida. The first years of settlement were disappointing, but the colony slowly grew, including the settling of Charles Town in 1670. However, the colony continued to face significant difficulties, in particular the lack of new settlers and the failure of the colony to return a profit.

In an attempt to solve these problems, the Lords Proprietors launched a significant promotional campaign in 1682. A major part of this campaign was the commission and publication of promotional tracts that described Carolina and advertised the colony to potential emigrants. One such pamphlet was Samuel Wilson’s An Account of the Province of Carolina in America, published in 1682. Wilson’s account is full of the promise that Carolina offered to those willing to venture there.

Wilson was actually Secretary to the Lords Proprietors, and said that he had written his account ‘as a duty incumbent upon me’, to counter a lack of knowledge of Carolina amongst prospective settlers. However, he was keen to stress his impartiality to readers, claiming that he had ‘most strictly kept to the rules of truth, there not being anything that I have written… which I cannot prove by letters from thence now in my possession, and by living witnesses now in England’. (p.3)

Wilson was keen to show readers that voyaging to Carolina provided an opportunity for the lower sorts to improve their station in life. Wilson claimed that ‘many persons who went to Carolina servants, being industrious since they came out of their times with their masters, have gotten good stocks of cattle, and servants of their own… are now worth several hundreds of pounds, and live in a very plentiful condition’. (pp.7-8). Here we see Carolina portrayed as a land of opportunity, in language similar to the ‘American Dream’ in centuries to come.

A list of commodities traded and sold in the colony, from James Glen’s A Description of Carolina, 1761 (ROB135)

The pamphlet also made some interesting observations (and bold claims) about the environment of Carolina. According to Wilson, the very air of Carolina gave ‘a strong appetite and quick digestion, nor is it withal suitable effects, men finding themselves apparently more lightsome, more prone, and more able to youthful exercises, than in England’. He also claimed that ‘an ox is raised at almost as little expense in Carolina, as a hen is in England’. (p.13)

Wilson argued that the mild winters in the colony meant that ‘the December and January of Ashley River, I suppose to be of the same temperature with the latter end of March, and beginning of April in England’. (p.9) The mild winters also had benefits for those of his countrymen who aspired to be slaveholders, with Wilson claiming that ‘Negroes, by reason of the mildness of the winter thrive and stand much better, than in any of the more northern colonies, and require less clothes, which is a great charge saved’. (p.14) South Carolina went on to have one of the highest slave populations of the British colonies in North America, and later became one of the largest slave-owning states in the U.S.

For those readers who had been persuaded by his account, Wilson advised that ‘the passage of a man or woman to Carolina is five pound, ships are going thither all times of the year’. For those that perhaps needed a little more persuasion or had any questions, they only had to head to the Carolina Coffee House in London, where ‘some of the Lords Proprietors, or myself, will be every Tuesday at 11 of the clock’ (p.19).

Although it is unknown how many people Wilson’s pamphlet in itself inspired to emigrate to Carolina, the promotional campaign of 1682 was a success, resulting in over 500 new settlers to the colony in the next few years. Although accounts like Wilson’s may have over exaggerated the benefits and played down the dangers, these texts played a key role in explaining why so many men and women made the decision to become colonists in the New World.

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If you are interested in reading more about the settlement of Carolina, and descriptions of the colony throughout the colonial period, we have several items here in our collections:

Samuel Wilson, An Account of the Province of Carolina in America (1682) Robinson 139

John Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina (1709) Rare Books RB917.56 LAW

Thomas Nairne, A Letter from South Carolina (1718) Robinson 41

James Oglethorpe, A New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South Carolina and Georgia (1732) Robinson 163

James Glen, A Description of Carolina (1761) Robinson 135

George Milligen Johnston, A Short Description of the Province of South-Carolina (1770) Robinson 53

Showing the Way to Wallington – July 2016

Posted on 8 August, 2016 by nspeccoll

Exhibition can be seen on Level 2 Exhibition Space, Philip Robinson Library, until October 2016

The lives of Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan and Molly Trevelyan, as shown through their family photograph and ephemera albums, from the Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan Archive.

‘Showing the Way to Wallington’ gives a unique insight into the family life of Charles Philips Trevelyan and Mary Katherine Bell, who in 1928 made Wallington Hall their home until it was gifted to the nation in 1941. The images and articles showcased in the exhibition covering areas such as Arts, Politics and War, and come from the family photograph albums which Charles and Mary (better-known as Molly), compiled themselves in scrapbook form.

As part of an ongoing project, 39 Volumes are being digitised and converted into an accessible online virtual book format called ‘Turning The Pages’ by Karen Atkinson, our digitisation assistant in Special Collections. This exhibition contains some favourite and striking images along with interesting facts discovered in the course of her work.

The panel above is the first of 6 display cabinets and features a preserved ‘perfect, six-bloomed Sweet Pea’, which was pressed between the pages of Volume 10 of the Trevelyan family albums in 1922.

Volume 10 front cover (CPT/PA/9)

Here’s how the sweet pea stem looks in the album

Sweet pea stem in the album (CPT/PA/9)

Page 49 of the same Volume (image below) contains a newspaper clipping (see left) dated November 1923 and written about a gathering at the Village Hall in Cambo to honour the outgoing needlework Exhibition Secretary, Mr. Edward Keith, on his retirement. Apart from his other talents such as wood-carving and bee-keeping, Mr. Keith was also a well-respected gardener at Wallington Hall. The article pasted into Volume 10 reads, “His work is excellent and artistic. His sweet peas are famous nationally. The Wallington garden is one of the best in our country.”

Sweet peas and the beauty of Wallington are also mentioned in ‘Wallington’ by Sir Charles Trevelyan – Its’ History and Treasures [6^th ed.] published in 1950 (Edwin Clarke Local, Clarke 631).

Page 38 in the Out of Doors section in Its History and Treasures:

“In summer the place is gay with flowers. Wallington is famous for its sweet peas, and near the house they often grow in a great profusion of colour.”

Page 39 in The Garden section:

“Below may be found beds of roses, lilies, gladioli, etc, but above all sweet peas, which two generations of Wallington gardeners have made famous.”

Shew’s the Way to Wallington
The exhibition title was inspired by a border pipe version of a tune called “Shew’s the Way to Wallington”, the manuscript of which is dated 1830, and was written by Robert Elliot Bewick, son of the famous naturalist and engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828).

Below are the words to the song, found on page 3 of TREV/CET/76:

The Songster, found on page 3, TREV/CET/76

The Wallington Songster, found on page 3, TREV/CET/76

Newcastle University Open Day: Welcome from the Special Collections Team!

Posted on 2 July, 2016 by nspeccoll

A big welcome from Special Collections at the Philip Robinson Library, archives and rare books in the heart of the Newcastle University campus.

What will you be looking at in three years time?!

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #1

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #2

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #3

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #4

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #5

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #6

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #7

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #8

Ideas For Your Dissertation #9

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #10

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #11

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #12

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #13

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #14

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #15

The Fallen Fusiliers of the 1st July 1916

Posted on 30 June, 2016 by nspeccoll

The first day of one of the most well-known battles of the Great War, the Battle of the Somme, saw tremendous losses for the allied forces. The 1^st July, 1916 is documented as the day when the highest number of casualties in Britain’s military history took place. This day gravely affected the Tyneside Irish and the Tyneside Scottish battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers, who suffered some of the highest casualties, amounting to around 8,000 in total.

During my second year of my History and Archaeology course at Newcastle University, I applied for a research scheme that the university runs which takes place over the summer vacation before the final year of daunting dissertations. Students have to come up with their own project idea in which they are to research independently over a period of either 6 or 8 weeks.

Due to the centenary of the First World War, in which commemorations began in 2014, I wanted to make my own contribution to the fallen that Britain will be remembering over the next three years. Therefore, my supervisor Dr. Jane Webster and I, came up with the idea of contributing to the ‘University’s at War’ project which looks into the soldiers that are commemorated on the Armstrong War Memorial. On the memorial there are 222 names. This in itself is a mammoth task to complete detailed research on each individual in 7 weeks; therefore I have narrowed my work down to focus on those who fought for the Northumberland Fusiliers, amounting to 67 men.

The day I began my research, my second supervisor, Ian Johnson (an archivist in Newcastle University’s Special Collections and one of the founders of the ‘Universities at War’ project) showed me which materials I would be using to complete my research. These included archives such as the Durham University Journals, Roll of Service and the vast scope of the census records, military records and medal rolls which the Ancestry website provides.

Probably the most exciting archive material I looked at was the Durham University Journal. It wasn’t so much the articles in the journal that was interesting, but the advertisements for things such as medical equipment (with Durham University having its own medical school). The adverts were for shops and stores on well-known streets in Newcastle, such as Northumberland Street and Blackett Street. It made me go back in time and imagine what our bustling Geordie city centre would have looked like 100 years ago, with the vast array of marvellous merchandise for sale; a world away from what we see today.

William William - (136) - Image 1 - Source Durham University Gazette, Vol II, 1912-1929

William Nixon – (136) – Image 1 – Source Durham University Gazette, Vol II, 1912-1929

When it came to exploring the individuals of the Northumberland Fusiliers from Durham and our very own University (formerly part of Durham University and known as Armstrong College) I found that there were a total of five men who all died on the same day, the 1^st July, 1916. These individuals were John Macfarlan Charlton (whose only sibling died only six days before he did), Henry Sibbit, Arthur Cecil Young, Patrick Austin Murray and William Nixon. When I searched the date of the 1^st July 1916, I found that it was the very first day of one of the most famous battles of the War, the Battle of the Somme. Further reading highlighted to me that this was one of, if not the most devastating days in Britain’s history, in terms of the casualties sustained in battle.

Percival William Murray

Regarding the stories of our University’s fallen comrades, John Macfarlan Charlton is the only man where there are specific details about his death. On his 25^th birthday, John was killed by a bullet through the head while leading his company near La Boiselle, France. We also know that William Nixon was killed during the first wave of the attacks on the 1^st, but unfortunately all we know for the remaining three men is they were killed in action on this disastrous day.

Thank you to our ‘Universities at War’ Volunteer Rosie Setford for this piece of reseasrch.

Universities at War – The Newcastle University Digital Memory Book

Universities at War Project: The Battle of The Somme

Posted on 30 June, 2016 by nspeccoll

The 1st July marks the 100 anniversary of first day of the Battle of the Somme. Lasting from the 1 July to the 18 November 1916 it was the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front. More than one million men were wounded or killed.

Here we remember John Charlton who died on the 1^stday of the Somme, and his brother Hugh who was also killed in action in the same year. Both brothers were former students of Armstrong College (later to become part of the University of Newcastle).

John Macfarlan Charlton and Hugh Vaughn Charlton

Captain John Macfarlan Charlton was killed on July 1^st 1916, on the 1^st of July, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was 25 years old. Seven days earlier is elder brother Hugh had also been killed in action.

Charlton John Macfarlan. Image kindly provided by Alice Barrigan and available at northyorkshirehistory.blogspot.co.uk

John Macfarlan Charlton. Image kindly provided by Alice Barrigan and available at northyorkshirehistory.blogspot.co.uk

Both brothers were talented ornithologists and artists and after their death the magazine British Birds published a heartfelt obituary for both brothers, writing that:

“The writer deeply deplores their untimely death, a feeling that is shared by all who knew them, and lovers of natural history will regret that ornithology has lost two students of great promise.”

Their father John was an artist and renowned painter of rural life and many of his paintings are still held by galleries in the local area. Both sons went on to develop their own artistic careers and also to share their father’s love of the natural world. At the outbreak of World War One John Charlton Snr he completed two paintings recording the early days of the war, French Artillery Crossing the Flooded Aisne (1915 – owned by Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne) and Retreat from the Marne (1915 – owned by Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead). Shortly after his sons’ deaths however, on the 10th November 1917, he himself died at the age of 68. “He felt the loss of his two sons profoundly,” read his obituary in The Graphic.

French Artillery Crossing the Flooded Aisne and Saving the Guns,
John Charlton (Snr), 1915, Laing Art Gallery Collection

John was a Captain in the Northumberland Fusiliers, 21st Battalion (2nd Tyneside Scottish), enlisting on 11th November 1914. Hugh meanwhile received his commission in August 1915 as Second Lieutenant in the Northumberland Fusiliers, 7th Battalion and entered France on 13th March 1916. Hugh was killed in action on 24th June 1916 aged 32 in West-Vlaanderen, Heuvelland, Belgium. He was struck by a bomb from a trench mortar near Whychaate. Seven days later, John was killed in action, on his 25^th Birthday.

Family Memorial

Thank you to our ‘Universities at War’ volunteer Sam Mitchell for researching the Charlton brothers for this project.

Universities at War – The Newcastle University Digital Memory Book

Chevalier Blondin – the greatest funambulist – June 2016

Posted on 30 June, 2016 by nspeccoll

On 30^th June, 1859, Jean François Gravelet made his name as ‘Chevalier Blondin’ when he became the first person to walk across the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope suspended 160 feet (50 metres) above the water, watched by 10,000 people. This impressive yet foolhardy feat is one that he would go on to perform 17 times, each time becoming more daring.

The American Falls Daguerréotype, Niagara (DAG/2)

Blondin’s career began at just six years old when he was sent to the École de Gymnase in Lyon and performed, from age nine, under the name ‘The Little Wonder’. Later, he would take the name ‘Blondin’ from the owner of the circus, owing to his fair hair and skin. Travelling with the Ravel family of acrobats he toured in Europe before arriving in the USA and appeared in New York, in Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth. It was a visit to Niagara as a tourist that gave him the ambition to cross the waters and his exploit made him a sensation. Capitalising on his new-found fame he toured Europe during the winter of 1859-60.

He made his first UK appearance on Saturday 1^st June, 1861, at the Crystal Palace, dressed in a light-coloured, tight-fitting costume that was ornamented with beads and a large cap bedecked with a plume of ostrich feathers. This time, his rope stretched the whole length of the central transept, 180 feet (55 metres) above the concrete floor. He used a balance pole that was 28 feet (8.5 metres) long and weighed 60 pounds (27 kilograms). The incline on which he made his descent was about 1 in 15 and Blondin looked a bit shaky at first. Soon, he gained confidence and practically ran across the rope only to retrace his steps, backwards. He held a series of elegant poses and turned various somersaults, sat sideways and then astride the rope, rising on one leg. The Illustrated London News reported that at one point he was blindfolded and had a bag put over his head that reached down to his knees. On attempting to walk the tightrope his left foot slipped after a few paces. He recovered his balance. Then, his right foot slipped and there was great apprehension in the crowd but this was nothing more than “feints” to build up dramatic tension. At the end of the show “the universal verdict was that the performance was the most extraordinary and exciting of the kind that had ever been witnessed in London”.

Blondin and the rope he needed for performances at the Crystal Palace from: Illustrated London News, June 8, 1861

By this time, Blondin was handsomely paid and guaranteed to draw audiences (half-expectant of imminent accident or death). He was paid £1,200 for 12 performances at the Crystal Palace – roughly speaking, £52,000 in today’s spending worth.

Advertisement for Blondin’s shows at the Crystal Palace from: Illustrated London News, September 14, 1861

He went on to tour in the UK and continued to perform until his death (at home, in bed), aged 72.

Blondin was emulated by other funambulists: ‘The Great Farini’ carried a washerwoman along a tightrope across Niagara Falls in 1860; Maria Spelterini was the first woman to walk a tightrope across the gorge, in 1876; some others sadly died in their attempts. In August 1860, Selina Young, walked along a 600 metre- (1968 feet-) long tightrope above the River Thames, from Battersea to Cremorne. Selina was dubbed ‘The Female Blondin’.

The Female Blondin crossing the Thames from Battersea to Cremorne on a tight rope from: Illustrated London News, August 24, 1861

If you are interested in coming into the reading room to see volumes from Illustrated London News and others from the collection…

# Images seen within this blog are held within Illustrated London News as part of the 19^th Century Collection with reference code 19^TH C. Coll 030 ILL

# You can place your order by linking to our request form. The reference code and title will be 19^th C. Coll 030 ILL – Illustrated London News (followed by a volume number)

The OTC and the Plight of Jones – May 2016

Posted on 8 May, 2016 by nspeccoll

“The Boys of the OTC”

What is an OTC?

The OTC, or Officer Training Corps, was established in 1908 to ‘attract’ young men into the British army. The Corps also laid the foundation for these young men to become fully commissioned officers, which the Army sorely needed. The OTCs operated throughout the war and were vital in providing officer candidates for selection. In fact, these training corps became so critical that in 1916 new military instruction was implemented which stated that temporary commissions could only be granted if a man had been through an Officer Cadet unit.

But how did the Corps come to be?

A committee under the chairmanship of Sir Edward Ward, then permanent under secretary of state for war, was tasked with reviewing the issue of low officer recruitment numbers. He and the committee then presented a report to the British government with the following proposals:

(a) To create a system of military instruction for prospective officers, existing School 11 and University Corps should be reorganized into an “Officers Training Corps.”

(b) A selected staff should be created in the department of the War Office to supervise the organization, instruction, and examination for certificates of the Officers Training Corps.

According to Edward M. Spiers, author of COMEC OCCASIONAL PAPER. No 4: ‘The corps was to be divided into a Junior Division for public schools and a Senior Division for universities.’ These programmes trained cadets to for Certificate A and B examinations; however, only university cadets could take the latter. The examinations were divided into written and theoretical parts. Exam B was much more rigorous, with compulsory papers in elementary tactics, military law and administration as well as practical and written papers in special-to-arms training. There was also an optional paper in military history and strategy. The requirements to take Certificate B were also much more rigorous. Cadets could only take the examination if they had proved their efficiency over a two year period with mandatory attendance of special events and training camps. Possession of a Certificate B was the rough equivalent of 6 months’ residence at the Royal Military College in Sandhurst.

Was the OTC successful?

Initially, no. While thousands of University students participated, relatively few went on to earn their Certificate B status. Even fewer went on to become fully commissioned officers in the British Army.

It wasn’t until 1914 that the OTC had a measurable impact. An appeal from the British government, (published on 10 August), urgently requested for 2,000 young men to come forward and take temporary commissions in the regular army. This appeal was directed specifically towards men who were, or had been, cadets in the ‘University Training Corps’. In 1914, the university students knew what was expected of them patriotically and allegedly volunteered in such numbers that the Army struggled to find them all commissions.

Spiers claimed that ‘the military contribution of the Universities’ OTCs can be assessed as 2,298 officers gazetted as officers, including regular officers, before the outbreak of war; 9,402 commissioned from August 1914 to February 1915; and another 3,278 serving in the ranks during this period.’

University Archives – Newcastle Gazette – Vol. XV, February 1915, no. 2

The Sad Plight of Jones caught my eye while I was scanning archived copies of Newcastle University’s magazines for the WWI archival project. While humorous, it seemed to me that the cartoon could be interpreted in a rather dark manner given the date of this particular issue.

A far cry from the boyish, carefree attitude of the OTC’s beginnings, the OTC of 1915 would have likely been suffused with feelings of the impending realities of service on the front lines. The cartoon takes the reader on a quick journey through Jones and his ‘plight’: a young man sees a beautiful woman on the arm of a uniformed soldier and thus joins the OTC. As a cadet, he is expected to ‘swot’ or study hard for his examinations, but is ‘haunted’ by visions of being shelled.

If we assume the shelling is freak mishap of a summer training camp scenario gone wrong, the cartoon is rather funny indeed. But if instead it is a reference to Cadet Jones being distracted from pretty young women and his studies by visions of being shelled on the front lines of a world war… the cartoon becomes quite bleak. As a student at Newcastle University myself, I can’t help but consider my own worries in a different perspective if the latter theory is true.

How disconnected and separate must these cadets have felt from their other university peers? It certainly leads one to wonder at the degree of patriotic duty these young men must have felt to have still continued with their cadet training despite these misgivings. I feel it is important to stress that the OTC in 1915 was not contractual. Once these cadets joined, there was no legal obligation to continue… yet thousands did.

Jessica Thomas is a student at Newcastle University and a volunteer on the ‘Universities at War’ project within the Newcastle University Robinson Library Archives.

Shakespeare at the old Theatre Royal – May 2016

Posted on 26 April, 2016 by nspeccoll

Shakespeare performed by Children

May 2016 marks the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Newcastle has played host to the bard’s plays ever since – in more recent times, the Royal Shakespeare Company performed almost annually at the Theatre Royal by the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1977. Unfortunately, they will not be returning in 2016.

Our Theatre Royal Playbills (RB 792 (4282) – NEW) feature many notices for performances of Shakespeare at the old Theatre Royal on Mosley Street between 1770 and 1820, including this one by a Georgian/Victorian theatre sensation and her two sisters.

King Richard The Third playbilll (RB 792 (4282)–NEW).

Clara Fisher (b.14 July 1811, London, died 12 November 1898, Jersey, U.S.) was an Anglo-American actress who inspired an enormous following in the United States. She made her stage debut in 1817, at the age of six, in a children’s adaptation of David Garrick’s Lilliput at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. Her performance in that and in excerpts from Richard III captivated the audience. She then began a 10-year period of touring up and down Great Britain, winning popular acclaim in a variety of child’s and adult’s roles.

By the time she and her sisters Amelia and Caroline started their three-night engagement at the Newcastle Theatre Royal on 17 May 1819, Clara would have been only seven years old. On the opening night, she played the leading role in ‘Shakespeare’s Historical Tragedy, called KING RICHARD THE THIRD; Or, The Battle of Bosworth Field. Clara was known for her ‘breeches parts’ (men’s roles), including Hamlet on at least one occasion. At the Theatre Royal, her sister Amelia was Henry VI, and Henry, Earl of Richmond, was played by Caroline Fisher.

On the second night, she played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, and then, on a lighter note, performed ‘A COMIC SONG. (IN CHARACTER)’.

The third, and supposedly final, night was Shakespeare-free.

Such was the success of the Fisher girls’ engagement that they were held over for an extra performance on Friday 21 May, 1819, performing ‘some of the best scenes from the most popular Plays . . .’. This included acts four and five of King Richard the Third, with the sisters reprising their ‘breeches parts’ of the previous Monday.

Fisher went to the United States in 1827 and made her debut in New York City that same year. She was a sensation – her name was given to babies, racehorses, stagecoaches, and steamboats – and she was regarded as America’s leading stage actress. Her last performance was in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1889.

This performance, and about 240 others, is promoted by notices in one volume of our Theatre Royal Playbills collection, a bound collection of ‘posters’ for the ‘old’ Newcastle Theatre Royal in Mosley Street. The bills were printed in 1819 and 1820, and are typical of the early nineteenth century – i.e. very small compared to the modern-day concept of ‘posters’ – and utilising revolutionary display typefaces which had begun to be manufactured in about 1810 for advertising.

Fittingly, the bill was printed by Edward Humble, at the Shakespeare Press. Humble was a respected local printer, and a proprietor of the County Durham Advertiser.

If you are interested in coming into the reading room to see playbill and others from the collection…

# This item is held within a volume of our Theatre Royal Playbills (Ref Code RB792(4282) NEW.

# You can place your order by linking to our request form. The reference code and title will be RB 792 (4282) – NEW – Theatre Royal Playbills.’