Are you a fan of needlework? Then you absolutely must visit Mrs. Evershed’s London emporia.  Step back into the 19th century and explore 7 Hanover Square, 59 South Moulton Street, or 71 Chiltern Street, and marvel at ‘rare old pieces of petit-point, quilting, crewel work, and silk work [which] mingle happily with the modern'.

Enlargement of embroidered bookbinding by Mrs Evershed on Washington Irving’s The keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall - British Library Collins 461

Ellen Evershed, widowed aged 38, was left to raise four young children, yet she thrived.  By 1913, her estate was worth the modern equivalent of £27,900.  What was her secret?  A combination of exquisite embroidery and entrepreneurial genius that could rival even the sharpest minds of today’s ‘Dragons’ Den’.

Ellen Middlebrook Cockcroft (1834-1913) came from a Leeds family of drapers.  The 1851 census records Ellen in the Brighton hosier and draper’s shop of her stepfather Thomas Sturdy.  In 1862, She married Frederick Evershed (1832-1872) from Sussex, a draper who specialised in silk.

The Eversheds owned two shops in central Rugby catering for women and men.  An adroit user of the social media of the day, Ellen advertised new stock in The Rugby Advertiser and in 1866 called for apprentices and ‘improvers’ in millinery and dressmaking, an indication of her success.

The Rugby Advertiser 9 May 1863  alerted Mrs Evershed’s patrons to new stock.  British Newspaper Archive

The Rugby Advertiser 27 January 1866 advertised Evershed's men’s accessories and celebrated flannel shirts. British Newspaper Archive

The Eversheds raised their family in Brighton.  Life was challenging after Frederick’s death but thankfully, the family had domestic and childcare help.  It seems that Ellen was driven. She certainly had her own unique talents on which to base a new future in the capital.

 

Brighton Gazette 6 February 1873 - Ellen vowed to continue the business. British Newspaper Archive

Ellen's unusual occupation in the 1891 Hampstead census was ‘Secretary of the Exhibition of Embroidery’.  She organized competitions for amateur needleworkers and showcased their creations.  While there were few formal rules, one requirement was the use of Pearsall’s threads (which, naturally, were sold by Ellen).  Embroidered book covers were offered as prizes.

The Queen of Saturday 2 February 1895 informed its readers that Mrs Evershed ‘the courteous manager of Messrs Harris' depot for embroideries in old Bond-street’ had opened a shop around the corner.  At the age of 60, she was ready for a new challenge, albeit helped by her daughter Ellen Lucas Evershed.

The Gentlewoman 3 April 1897 advertised the new designs and twice weekly classes available at Mrs Evershed’s new shop. British Newspaper Archive

 

The Queen 19 March 1904 . Mrs Evershed’s work basket featured ribbon work, a new decorative technique.  British Newspaper Archive

The shops sold an astonishing variety of traditional and modern needlework sundries.  Patrons were encouraged to embroider everything which could be embroidered including ordinary curtains, cushions, work baskets etc' and the surprising, for example ‘Natty coats for dogs’ (sorry, no images!).  Other items for sale included ‘artistic furniture,’ which combined ‘ease with tastefulness in designs’ and copperware made by Newlyn fishermen, inspired by the contemporary Arts and Crafts movement.

Weldon’s needlework old and new Needle Art Series no 9, p 5 illustrated the historic patterns available at Evershed’s

The Queen published a regular column headed ‘The Work-Table' which provided advice upon knotty (sometimes literally!) needlework problems.  Frequently answers relied upon the expertise of Mrs Evershed and her staff.

It is a testament to Ellen’s business acumen that all levels of customer’s ability were addressed and monetised.  Less skillful embroiderers could avail themselves of a service ‘to stretch to shape needlework tapestry that has pulled crookedly in working'.

Ellen saw potential everywhere. Church furnishings provided an obvious source of work, but lest non-religious customers felt overlooked, her trade ticket reminded customers of her versatility.

Trade ticket for Mrs Evershed from Washington Irving’s The keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall - British Library Collins 461

Stock was frequently refreshed.  Imports from Italy, France and even New Zealand provided constant temptation.  Evershed’s was not the only embroidery retailer in London.  There was much competition but The Queen’s estimation of Ellen as ‘the best in needlework’ has much justification.  The shop was still operating in 1945, but appears to have closed before daughter Ellen Lucas's death in 1949. 

Assurance that Evershed's was still in business - The Queen 21 March 1945 British Newspaper Archive

P J M Marks
Curator, bookbindings, Printed Heritage Collections

Further reading:
Florence Sophie Davson ‘The revival of art needlework and embroidery’ in The Girls’ Own Paper pp.798-799
Weldon’s Needlework Old and New series number 9. 
British Newspaper Archive

 

 

In a previous blog, I described how a volume of 17th century Surat records belonging to the Government of Bombay travelled backwards and forwards between India and London and was subsequently lost at sea in the wreck of the SS Oceana.

Just weeks later, on 15 April 1912, RMS Titanic famously sank in the waters of the North Atlantic, with the loss of over 1500 lives.  Many notable books, paintings and artefacts were on board (including the ‘Titanic Omar’.  But so too were fourteen Sanskrit manuscripts belonging to the Governmental Library, Deccan College Poona (Pune).  These were on loan from the Government of Bombay and were en-route from the India Office in London to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.  They had been borrowed by Franklin Edgerton, a budding Sanskrit scholar working under Professor Maurice Bloomfield.

In May 1911, Edgerton wrote to the India Office Library in London requesting assistance in locating and examining all copies of the Vikramacaritra, including those in India, for a critical study of the work.  The Library was a hub for the loan of manuscript materials, particularly those in Persian, Arabic, and South Asian languages.  It facilitated and arranged access to manuscripts in its own collections, to the Government of India’s collections, and to collections in European institutions, with the recipients being a wide range of academics and interested persons worldwide.

Letter forwarding manuscripts from Bombay to London February 1912 IOR/L/R/9/9

 

List of Sanskrit manuscripts to be loaned with values February 1912 IOR/L/R/9/9

The fourteen Sanskrit manuscripts were formally requested from Bombay and were despatched to the India Office Library in London to administer the loan, arriving in March 1912.  As was usual practice, Edgerton paid a bond for the ‘value’ of the manuscripts, said to be Rs 303.  The Library Committee proposed that Edgerton should only have three manuscripts in his possession at any one time, and the manuscripts were only to be loaned until 31 December 1912.  Unfortunately, that did not mean staggering their despatch.  They were parcelled up and sent via the forwarding agents Carter, Paterson & Co on 1 April, and placed aboard Titanic.

Letter informing the India Office of the loss of manuscripts on the Titanic April 1912 IOR/L/R/9/9

The India Office was informed of the loss on 17 April.  The Librarian Frederick William Thomas was phlegmatic in telling the Library Committee: ‘The loss is regrettable, but it cannot be said that the Mss were exposed to any greater risk when despatched to America than when en-route from Bombay.  The work contained in the 14 manuscripts was by no means a rare one, & it has been edited in print’.  The India Office had insured the parcel and received £20 in compensation, which was passed to the Government of Bombay.

Librarian FW Thomas's report of the loss to the Library Committee May 1912 IOR/L/R/9/9

Franklin Edgerton went on to borrow more manuscripts and finally published his two volume work Vikrama's Adventures; or, the Thirty-two Tales of the Throne (Cambridge Mass; 1926).  In the preface to the first volume he acknowledged both the assistance of the India Office Library, Librarian FW Thomas, and the loss of the Sanskrit manuscripts: ‘This terrible disaster deprived me of materials which would unquestionably have proved a great enrichment of the sources at my disposal for the edition; yet I cannot but recognise that my personal loss is small in comparison with the permanent loss of this large collection of manuscripts...’.

Lesley Shapland
Archivist & Provenance Researcher
India Office Records

Further reading:
Papers regarding loans to Dr Edgerton, including details of the loss of Sanskrit manuscripts on the Titanic can be found in IOR/L/R/9/9, L135/13: Library Committee Papers, 1913.

 

A recent blog post showcased the journal of the East India Company ship Rochester written by Captain Francis Stanes in 1709-1712.  Stanes illustrated his journal of the voyage to China with accomplished drawings of birds, fishes and shorelines.  The British Library holds another journal for that voyage, kept by the ship’s purser Joseph White.  This is not remarkable for its beauty.  At the front and back are pages of scribbles including East India Company balemarks, and the ‘signatures’ of Jeffery Stanes, the owner of the Rochester, and of third mate Robert Gardner.

Pages from Joseph White's journal IOR/L/MAR/B/ 137C

However, White’s journal provides extra information about the voyage.  As purser, he was responsible for the sale before the mast of the effects of men who had died or who had deserted leaving their possessions behind.

White listed six sales, stating what was sold, the buyers, and the prices paid.  Apart from clothes and personal property, the lists show items which the mariners probably hoped to sell or exchange in Asia, and goods acquired during the voyage.

Page from White's journal showing sale before the mast of John Tillington's property IOR/L/MAR/B/ 137

James Johnson, sailor, was killed on 3 March 1709/10 when working at the top of the main mast.  The sale of his belongings raised a total of £6 19s 0d – clothing; a flute and a flute book; paper; looking glasses; buttons and thread; combs and cases; buckle; a bed; and a silken rug.  Johnson also had £10 18s 0d in cash.  His will left everything to his ‘trusty friend’ Sarah Churchman of Ratcliffe.

Robert Sheppard, first mate, died on 16 March 1709/10 soon after leaving England.  He was buried at sea with eight guns ‘as customary’.  His extensive array of possessions were sold for a total of £80 9s 0d: large quantities of clothing; navigational instruments and books; pairs of pistols; swords; a punch bowl; tin cases for storing papers; several Gloucestershire cheeses; lime juice; cordial water; tobacco; French brandy; rum; ‘English spirits’; beer; and wine.  Sheppard left everything to his wife Elizabeth in his will.

Lawrence Lucrany, a cook, deserted at Batavia on 12 July 1710.  The sale of his bedding and clothing raised £4 15s 0d.  The money owed to Lucrany was paid to his wife Winifred.

John Tillington was a black man who was servant to Robert Sheppard.  He drowned on 27 August 1710, having fallen overboard ‘being in liquor’.  Apart from clothing, his belongings included thread; three razors; seven pairs of scissors; a looking glass; soap and tobacco; and a variety of coins – English, Dutch, ducatoons, rupees and ‘royales' .  A total of £12 18s 10d was collected.

James Beversham, coxswain, died at sea on 5 April 1712 during the return voyage.  He had acquired ivory fans; lacquer ware; ‘nicknax’; cups, saucers, bowls, and plates; Chinese pictures; canisters of tea; nutmegs; cloves.; a five-gallon keg of soy; and pieces of flowered silk.  These were sold together with his clothing and eighteen reading books, raising £52 1s 6d.  Beversham’s will left his entire estate to his wife Mary.

David Perismore, Captain Stane’s servant, died at sea on 9 April 1712.  His sale brought in £12 1s 0d and included clothing; a sword; eighteen old reading books; a flute, a razor; and a few items seemingly brought from Asia – China pots and silk garters.

Purser Joseph White must have died soon after the Rochester returned to England. His wages were paid to his father Richard on 27 November 1713.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading:
Journal of the Rochester written by Joseph White IOR/L/MAR/B/ 137C.
Ledger for the Rochester IOR/L/MAR/B/137D(1).
Receipt book for wages earned on the Rochester IOR/L/MAR/B/137D(2).
Will of James Johnson, dated 22 November 1709, proved 27 September 1712 - The National Archives PROB 11/528/444.
Will of Robert Sheppard, dated 3 February 1703/04, proved 30 September 1710 – The National Archives PROB 11/518/53.
Will of James Beversham, dated 20 August 1708, proved 1 December 1712 – The National Archives PROB 11/530/101. His widow Mary married Thomas Weston at Shadwell on 6 January 1712/13.

 

A newly catalogued India Office Private Papers collection is now available to view in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.  It consists of the large journal collection and private papers of William Coldstream (1841-1929), Indian Civil Servant, and his son Sir John Coldstream (1877–1954), also of the Civil Service.

William Coldstream was born in 1841 in South Leith, Midlothian, Scotland to John Coldstream (1806–1863), a Scottish physician, and to Margaret Dryborough Menzies (1812-1871).  He achieved his BA at Edinburgh University and was appointed to the Bengal Civil Service after open competitive examination in 1860.  Coldstream maintained an academic curiosity throughout his life, as he was the author of several academic papers on agriculture, as well as editor to Sir William Muir's work Records of the Intelligence Department of The Government of the North-west Provinces of India During the Mutiny of 1857.  For much of his career he was a District Commissioner in the Punjab, of which his experience is well documented in his journals.

Notebook pages showing journal entries, names of some acquaintances in Persian, and pen and ink studies of Benares streets. Mss Eur F590/2/1, pp.94-5.

The 40 journals in this collection provide a fascinating insight into his life and duties, as well as detailed records, reports, and illustrations of towns and villages.  This includes census data, notes, and illustrations of Indian individuals and groups, agriculture and arboriculture, weather and local animal life, to name just a few.  These notebooks are also inclusive of Coldstream’s personal interests, such as Indian Christian missionary works, Indian artwork promotion, Indian social reform, and Indian students in Britain.  Many of the notebooks were written during his retirement in London (1894-1927) and these display a continued close personal, academic, and official connection with the Punjab, particularly with missionary groups such as the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission.  Coldstream continued to hold a leading and respected position within what he described as ‘Anglo-Indian’ groups and felt a strong kinship with the Punjab and its people.  He appeared to take great pride in helping Indian students adapt to Britain, inviting them to his home, to join him at Church, and to social events, although there is a clear desire to dispel anti-colonial British thought among the young students, particularly following the First World War.

Notebook pages showing journal entries, a pressed ‘gadfly’ specimen, and a drawing of a religious ‘chariot’ from the annual procession ‘Rath Yatra’, as part of the festival Kullu Dussehra held in the Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Mss Eur F590/2/11, pp.172-3.

Also included in this collection are a small selection of papers of his son, Sir John Coldstream (1877–1954), who followed his father’s footsteps into the India Civil Service.  John, usually referred to as ‘Jack’, served as a High Court Judge in Lahore 1925-1937, and then Chief Minister of Kapurthala state.  During the First World War Jack for a time worked as an Indian mail censor, and in this collection there are his reports of 1914-1915, with extracts of Indian letters.  These letters provide an insight, although a greatly filtered one, of Indian soldiers' daily lives and inner thoughts.  Additional items in this collection include various family papers, correspondence, photographs, and memorabilia of the Coldstream family.

Maddy Clark
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Collection of William Coldstream (1841-1929), Mss Eur F590- a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Reading Room.

 

The India Office often borrowed documents from India for administrative purposes and frequently sent out manuscripts from its Library to scholars across the world for academic research.  Until the middle of the 20th century, there was little alternative to transporting documents by ship.  As we shall see from this and a subsequent post, 1912 was a particularly bad year for both the Government of Bombay and the India Office for losing records and manuscripts at sea.

Wreck of the Oceana from Illustrated London News 23 March 1912 Image © Illustrated London News Group, created courtesy of The British Library Board - British Newspaper Archive

On 16 March 1912, the SS Oceana was wrecked off Beachy Head on the Sussex coast after a collision with the Pisagua.  Tragically, seventeen people lost their lives when a lifeboat capsized.  The Oceana was heading for India on the run from Tilbury to Bombay and on board was the Surat Factory Inwards Letterbook, 1646-47, which was being returned to the Government of Bombay.  Part of a series of records charting the earliest years of the East India Company in Surat, it had been sent to London in November 1911 at the behest of Registrar William Foster.  Foster was working on a series of calendars of early records, published as The English Factories in India (1911 onwards).

It was the Surat volume’s second trip to London, having been previously sent by the Government of Bombay for conservation work due to its fragile state.  The volume was conserved and rebound at the Public Records Office in Chancery Lane in 1901-02 with eleven other volumes of ‘ancient records’ from Bombay.  The conservation work cost the Government of Bombay £74 10 shillings, above the original estimate of £68.  Before the volumes were finally returned to India in 1905, copies of anything not in the collection in London were made, primarily by Miss Ethel Bruce Sainsbury, who was employed by the Record Department for her archival and palaeographical skills.  For the publication though, Foster was keen to check the original against the copy, and requested the volume be borrowed again.  It is perhaps ironic that the conserved state of the volume made the loan less of a concern.

The shipping and loss of the Surat Letter Book - IOR/L/R/6/333 (R1910/12)

Foster reported the loss to Bombay on 5 July 1912.  He had hoped that as he had requested special care should be taken of the Surat volume, P&O - the owners of the Oceana – might have placed it in the ship’s safe, which was subsequently salvaged along with the ship’s cargo of gold and silver ingots.  When the safe was opened however, the Surat volume was not to be found.  All Foster could do was to send a typed copy of the transcript to Bombay as recompense.  Meanwhile, Foster’s annotated copy of the Surat Inwards Letter Book 1646-1647 survives in the India Office Records as IOR/G/36/102A.

Surat Letter Book 1646-1647 first page of typescript  IOR/G/36/102A

Lesley Shapland
Archivist & Provenance Researcher
India Office Records

Further reading:
Details regarding the conservation, copying and return of Surat Letter Book and other volumes from Bombay can be found in IOR/L/R/6/220 (R923/01), IOR/L/R/6/224 (R1566/01), IOR/L/R/6/231 (R1122/02), and IOR/L/R/6/265 (R440/05).

Details regarding Foster’s loan of the Surat Letter Book and its subsequent loss can be found in IOR/L/R/6/333 (R1910/12).

Ethel Bruce Sainsbury, daughter of Assistant Keeper of the Public Records William Noel Sainsbury, was employed by the India Office Record Department from 1899.  Her contribution to the work of the Department, including transcription, calendaring and publication can be traced through William Foster’s Departmental Annual Reports in the series IOR/L/R/6 & IOR/L/R/7.

 

What sources do you turn to when you want to write a book about a little-known member of the Georgian Royal Family who barely figures in biographies and history books of that period?

A drawing by Hugh Hamilton of Frederick William Blomberg when a child. The drawing is en suite with five others of George III and his four eldest sons, all of 1769. Royal Collections Trust/© His Majesty King Charles III 2024 RCIN 935356

Master Frederick Blomberg was the four-year-old orphan boy who was adopted into the royal household at Richmond Palace by King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1765 and brought up as a prince.  Just why would the royal couple absorb a child into their home and allow him to become a close friend and confidante to their eldest son, and heir, the then three-year-old Prince George, the future regent and King George IV?  My grandmother told me many years ago that she understood Frederick was the ‘accidental’ result of a romance between the young King George III before his marriage to Queen Charlotte, and that his equerry and best friend Frederick Blomberg, an officer in the British Army, married the girl to prevent a scandal and give the child a name and an inheritance.

Records from St Margaret’s Church Rochester contain the marriage of Lt Frederick Blomberg, HM 61st Regiment, to widow Melissa Frankland née Laing in April 1760.  Their son Frederick William was baptised at the same church in September 1761.

All was well for Frederick William Blomberg until his father died on active service in the West Indies.  Accounts of Captain Blomberg’s ghostly appearance after death add piquance to the story.  The apparition exhorted his commanding officer to seek out the son of his secret marriage and to inform King George III.

Word of Frederick’s plight duly reached the King and Queen, and they very generously took in the little boy, cared for and educated him.  Frederick studied divinity at St John’s College, Cambridge, and, once ordained in 1787, he was back within his royal family as chaplain at Windsor and also private secretary to Prince George.

I was so intrigued by this story that I decided to research it and write a novel.

Finding scant reference to Blomberg in biographies and history books, I turned to The National Archives, the Royal Archives and newspaper archives for information.  The Gentleman’s Magazine and parochial and church records were also helpful.  Scouring the publications of the day I found frequent references to Prince George and Master Frederick present at royal banquets, soirees or state events.  Best of all, I found very personal accounts of them performing violin or cello duets at royal residences or out riding together near the Brighton Pavilion.  It soon became apparent that Frederick Blomberg was frequently at the heart of court events and very often present at crucial occasions, not least during King George III’s bouts of madness.  It pleased me to find a reference to Blomberg in Fanny Burney’s diary whilst she was working as a dresser to Queen Charlotte at Windsor Castle.

Reviewing the Georgian court through a ‘Blomberg lens’ has revealed so many occasions when Frederick, the ‘adopted son’, played a crucial part in royal life.  I am thankful for the generous digitization of so many of the publications of the day for making so much fascinating detail available.

CC-BY
Rosalind Freeborn
Independent researcher
Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
Rosalind Freeborn, Prince George and Master Frederick: Royal Friends and Secret Brothers (Alliance Publishing Press, 2025)
Thomas Sedgewick Whalley, Journals and Correspondence of Thomas Sedgewick Whalley vol 2 (London, 1863)
John Mason Neale, The Unseen World; communications with it, real or imaginary, including apparitions, warnings, haunted places, prophecies, aerial visions, astrology, etc (London, 1847)
Admissions to the College of St. John, the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge Pt. IV July 1767- July 1802, edited with notes by R. F. Scott (Cambridge, 1931)
British Newspaper Archive

A recent acquisition to the India Office Private Papers has now been catalogued and is available for researchers to view in the British Library’s Asian and African Studies reading room.  The collection consists of the papers of Charles Henry Roberts (1865-1959), Under-Secretary of State for India 1914-1915.

Sketch of Charles Roberts in the Westminster Gazette July 1923 Mss Eur F770/5/9 f.8

Charles Roberts was born on 22 August 1865, the son of the Rev Albert Roberts, Vicar of Tidebrook and Ellen Wace of Wadhurst.  He was educated at Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford.  He was also a fellow at Exeter College, Oxford and taught there from 1889 to 1895.  Roberts was involved in Liberal politics from an early age and tried unsuccessfully to be elected as a Liberal Party MP to the seats of Wednesbury in 1895 and Lincoln in 1900. 

House of Commons Voting Record for Roberts 1906 Mss Eur F770/2/1 f.1

His third attempt was successful, and he became Liberal MP for Lincoln in the 1906 general election, a seat he held until 1918.  He held a number of posts in government in that time, including Under Secretary of State for India 1914-1915, Comptroller of the Household 1915-1916, Chairman of the National Health Insurance Joint Committee 1915-1916, and was a member of the Montagu Delegation to India 1917-1918.

Letter from Gandhi to Roberts about the Indian Volunteer Corps Mss Eur F770/1/23 f.32

The collection includes letters to Roberts while he was at the India Office, often relating to the routine work of the office, such as arranging meetings with visitors, requests for passes to the House of Commons and other Parliamentary business, but there are also fascinating letters from individuals requesting assistance.  Roberts was Under Secretary at the India Office at the outbreak of the First World War, and many of the letters he received dealt with military matters relating to the Indian Expeditionary Force and the hospitals for Indian soldiers.  There are also a few letters relating to Roberts’ other interests such as Liberal politics, Temperance matters, National Health Insurance and Indian constitutional reform.  Included are letters from prominent British politicians and leading Indian figures, such as Winston Churchill, H H Asquith, Edwin Samuel Montagu, Sir Charles Hardinge, Sir William Wedderburn, Gandhi, Bhupendra Nath Basu, Cornelia Sorabji, and Maharaja Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar.

Notes by Roberts for his India Budget Speech 1914 Mss Eur F770/3/1

As a prominent politician and member of the Government, Roberts was often required to make speeches, such as his 1914 speech in the House of Commons on the India Budget, and some of his rough preparatory notes survive.  The collection contains his notes for speeches and talks he gave on a variety of subjects, such as education, Indian finance, Indian and the War, constitutional reform in India, Tibet, and the Liberal Party and liberalism.  The collection also includes many official papers from his time in government, including copies of private telegrams between the Secretary of State for India and the Viceroy of India, and copies of telegrams from Sir Percy Cox, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Resident at Aden.  There are papers on subjects such as the Excise Administration in India, Indian wheat exports, the response in India to British Government policy towards Turkey, and the Government of India policy on local self-government.  There is also a report on a deputation of members of the Indian National Congress who visited the India Office in May 1914, which included Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Memo by Roberts on his meeting with the Indian National Congress Deputation May 1914 Mss Eur F770/2/9 f.17

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Papers of Charles Henry Roberts (1865-1959), Liberal Politician, Under Secretary of State for India 1914-1915, Mss Eur F770 – a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.

Roberts' papers relating to the Montagu Delegation to India 1917-1918 and the Financial Relations Committee 1919-1920 can be found at Mss Eur F170 – a list for this collection can be found on The National Archives' Discovery catalogue.

The social issues publicised in two plays by John Galsworthy suggest he should be remembered for his philanthropy, not just for writing The Forsyte Saga.

The personal papers of John Galsworthy (1867-1933) have been acquired by the British Library and are now fully catalogued (Add MS 89733).  Although relatively unknown today, Galsworthy was a big name during his lifetime, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.

John Galsworthy by an unknown photographer, circa 1929 NPG x14353 © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

John did not write for fame and financial success, but realised his popularity gave him a platform to support causes close to his heart.  Galsworthy’s compassionate nature was reflected in the subjects he was inspired to write about.  Beyond the subtle satire of the acquisitive middle class in A Man of Property and the other Forsyte novels, it was John’s plays that most obviously brought social issues to the fore.

Annotated typescript of The Silver Box giving Jones’ response to his sentence - Add MS 89733/2/10 f. 126

In 1907 his debut play, The Silver Box, utilised Galsworthy’s legal training to highlight prejudices in the British justice system.  When an unemployed labourer, Jones, takes a cigarette box as well as a purse he knows was stolen by the son of an MP, the truth is suppressed to spare the young gentleman’s reputation.  In court the case partly rests on their drunken recollections of meeting in the early hours of the morning.  Although Jones cries: 'My word’s as good as yours', his physical defence of his wife when she was arrested combines with his social status to seal his fate.

Typescript draft of Galsworthy’s report on Separate Confinement - Add MS 89733/13/2 f. 35

Galsworthy was also concerned about the overuse of solitary confinement as a punishment in British prisons and therefore requested permission to visit and interview inmates.  He then wrote to contemporary politicians including Winston Churchill, published an open letter to the Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone, and wrote a new play Justice.  First staged in 1910, its success increased public pressure on the government and resulted in a legal limit on hours prisoners could be in solitary.

Manuscript of the script of Justice showing Galsworthy’s drawing of the protagonist’s cell - Add MS 89733/2/5 f. 125

These are just two of John’s early plays and represent only a part of the social topics covered by his dramatic output.  Strife brought an industrial dispute onto the London stage, Loyalties touched on British antisemitism, and A Family Man covered the changing role of women in society.  He also wrote poems and articles on behalf of a number of charities and worthy causes, including animal rights, women’s suffrage, and the rehabilitation of disabled servicemen.

Matthew Waters
Curator, Modern Archives & Manuscripts