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National Maritime Museum

Laughton, Leonard G Carr (d 1956)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0064 LAU

Held at: National Maritime Museum

Title: Laughton, Leonard G Carr (d 1956)

Date(s): [1900-1937]

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 81/2ft: 260cm

Name of creator(s): Laughton | Leonard G Carr | d 1956 | historian

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Leonard G Carr Laughton, son of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton by his first wife, shared his father's passion for maritime history. Little is known of his early life including his date of birth or details of his education. He seems to have worked alongside his father, collecting many notes and references on a vast variety of naval subjects from documents kept at the Public Record Office, British Museum, Pepysian Library and many other repositories. He also studied archaeology and etymology. He made a study of ship decoration and published Old Ship Figureheads and Sterns in 1925. He was involved in the restoration of HMS VICTORY and wrote a 'Report to the Victory Technical Committee', 1927-32, giving information that would help in restoring her to her condition at the time of Trafalgar. He was the prime mover, alongside others such a Harold H Brindley, Cdr C N Robinson, Sir Alan Moore, William Wyllie and Harold Wyllie, in the formation of The Society of Nautical Research in 1928. He had always wanted to produce a 'Nautical Encyclopaedia or Dictionary', and was one of the Society's main objectives, but L G Carr Laughton was never satisfied he had found out enough to justify publication. He died in 1956.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Leonard G Carr Laughton, consisting of mainly notebooks, both in his hand and that of his father's, containing their research at the Public Record Office, British Museum and other repositories, relating to various aspects of nautical history. Among these are notes on Nelson, extracts from Pepys' diary and notes for articles on HMS VICTORY. There are also blueprints used in the restoration of HMS VICTORY, together with the Technical Committee minutes of meetings, 1927-8 and the Advisory Committee minutes, 1929. There are a series of notes on lectures given by Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, including those given at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich in the early 1900s. The collection contains a typed copy of L G Carr Laughton's 'Nautical Dictionary'; a card index for Dictionary of National Biography entries; a number of albums containing newspaper cuttings; and various correspondence including letters with Dr R C Anderson, 1925-37. Finally, there are some manuscripts written by others including Harold H Brindley and a copy of a personal logbook kept by Dudley Stone on board the ship MONKBARNS, 1913, Buenos Ayres to Australia.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue online at the: National Maritime Museum website .

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The papers came in two parts, the first was presented in 1956 by Dr RC Anderson, executor to L G Carr Laughton; and in 1964 by Laughton's niece, Isabella Dunning.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Edited by Sarah Drewery, Sep 2011.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 2010-08-26


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Naval affairs | Military affairs | Military science | Social sciences
Naval history | History
Ships logs | Primary documents | Documents | Information sources

Personal names
Nelson | Horatio | 1758-1805 | 1st Viscount Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe | Vice-Admiral
Pepys | Samuel | 1633-1703 | naval official and diarist

Corporate names
HMS Victory
Royal Naval College | Greenwich

Places
Australia | Oceania
Buenos Ayres | Trinidad and Tobago | Caribbean