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Plimsoll, Samuel and Lushington, Godfrey: letters, 1873-1878

Identity Statement

Reference code(s): GB 0096 AL135
Held at: Senate House Library, University of London
  Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/our-collections ›
Full title: Plimsoll, Samuel and Lushington, Godfrey: letters, 1873-1878
Date(s): 1873-1878
Level of description: fonds
Extent: 2 items (2 sheets)
Name of creator(s): Plimsoll | Samuel | 1824-1898 | politician and shipping reformer
Lushington | Sir | Godfrey | 1832-1907 | Knight | civil servant

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Samuel Plimsoll was born in Bristol in 1824. He was brought up in northern England. He became a clerk and later a businessman before entering parliament as Liberal MP for Derby in 1868, retaining the seat until 1880. Plimsoll was concerned with the struggles of the poor and with sailors' interests. He spoke out against the common practice of overloading ships with goods and devised the Plimsoll line, marked on ships to show the safe depth at which they may sit in the water. Plimsoll gym shoes, so-called because their outer rubber band is reminiscent of a Plimsoll line, are indirectly named after him.

Godfrey Lushington was born in Westminster in 1832. He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford. His father, Stephen, was a judge and his twin brother, Vernon, was an eminent lawyer; both twins were strongly influenced by Auguste Comte's positivist philosophy. An early supporter of the labour movement, Godfrey Lushington was one of the first teachers at the Working Men's College in London, founded in 1854. He became a civil servant, rising to permanent under-secretary at the Home Office in 1885, and was knighted in 1892. On his retirement, Sir Godfrey became an alderman of the London County Council from 1895 to 1898.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

(1) Letter from Samuel Plimsoll, of Royal Hotel, Sheffield, to [J E] Davis, Esq [?of the Home Office], 29 Nov 1879. 'I would gladly come to you but I am so well known in Sheffield that there is great danger of frustration of my object if I do. Could you come here for a little while? ...'. (2) Letter from Godfrey Lushington, [Under-Secretary], Home Office, to J E Davis, Esq, 25 Oct 1878. Both letters are autograph, with signatures.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

See hard copy catalogue.

Conditions governing access:

Access to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Please contact the University Archivist for details. 24 hours notice is required for research visits.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

Finding aids:

Typescript catalogue available in the Library's Palaeography Room.

Archival Information

Archival history:

See archivist

Immediate source of acquisition:

Found inserted in a copy of Plimsoll's Shipping Survey Bill - classmark: [G.L.] 1873

Allied Materials

Related material:


Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.

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:
Aug 2008

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