Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Notes on Dates, Money, Welsh Place Names and Publications
- Prologue
- 1 Dr Williams and His Will
- 2 Benjamin Sheppard, Receiver 1721–31: Faith, Fitness, and Diligence
- 3 Constructing the Library Building 1725–30: A Proper Plan
- 4 Francis Barkstead, Receiver 1731–47: Piety and Charity
- 5 John Cooper, Receiver 1748–62: Liberty and Liberal Dissent
- 6 Richard Jupp junior, Receiver 1762–95: A Very Respectable Body
- 7 Richard Webb Jupp, Receiver 1795–1850, and David Davison, Receiver 1850–7: Fashionable Sympathies Amid Increasing Light
- 8 Walter D. Jeremy, Receiver 1857–93: The Scrupulous Observer
- 9 Francis H. Jones, Secretary and Librarian 1886–1914: Introducing Order
- 10 Robert Travers Herford, Secretary and Librarian 1914–25: Application and Imagination
- 11 Stephen Kay Jones, Librarian 1925–46, and Joseph Worthington, Secretary 1925–44: A New Age with Old Strains
- 12 Roger Thomas, Secretary 1944–66 and Librarian 1946–66: Trusted Innovator
- 13 Kenneth Twinn, Secretary and Librarian 1966–76: Modest Dependability
- 14 John Creasey, Librarian, and James McClelland, Secretary, 1977–98: Mixed Blessings
- 15 David Wykes, Director 1998–2021: Past, Present, and Future
- 16 Dr Williams’s Trust: An Assessment
- Appendix 1 Trustees in 1723
- Appendix 2 Lists from Short Account (with later additions)
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - Roger Thomas, Secretary 1944–66 and Librarian 1946–66: Trusted Innovator
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Notes on Dates, Money, Welsh Place Names and Publications
- Prologue
- 1 Dr Williams and His Will
- 2 Benjamin Sheppard, Receiver 1721–31: Faith, Fitness, and Diligence
- 3 Constructing the Library Building 1725–30: A Proper Plan
- 4 Francis Barkstead, Receiver 1731–47: Piety and Charity
- 5 John Cooper, Receiver 1748–62: Liberty and Liberal Dissent
- 6 Richard Jupp junior, Receiver 1762–95: A Very Respectable Body
- 7 Richard Webb Jupp, Receiver 1795–1850, and David Davison, Receiver 1850–7: Fashionable Sympathies Amid Increasing Light
- 8 Walter D. Jeremy, Receiver 1857–93: The Scrupulous Observer
- 9 Francis H. Jones, Secretary and Librarian 1886–1914: Introducing Order
- 10 Robert Travers Herford, Secretary and Librarian 1914–25: Application and Imagination
- 11 Stephen Kay Jones, Librarian 1925–46, and Joseph Worthington, Secretary 1925–44: A New Age with Old Strains
- 12 Roger Thomas, Secretary 1944–66 and Librarian 1946–66: Trusted Innovator
- 13 Kenneth Twinn, Secretary and Librarian 1966–76: Modest Dependability
- 14 John Creasey, Librarian, and James McClelland, Secretary, 1977–98: Mixed Blessings
- 15 David Wykes, Director 1998–2021: Past, Present, and Future
- 16 Dr Williams’s Trust: An Assessment
- Appendix 1 Trustees in 1723
- Appendix 2 Lists from Short Account (with later additions)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Roger Thomas had the courage to innovate, making several improvements without losing DWL's old-world atmosphere. As a Unitarian minister, he understood the fears of cautious trustees and the risks of being patronised by those ignorant of one's views. As a former trustee, he knew DWT well and was able to convince the trustees of the need for change. He also appreciated the demands of scholars. The creation of the Friends of DWL in 1947 was a masterstroke.
Secretary, Librarian, and New Trustees
The ‘sudden death’ in June 1944, after nineteen years as secretary, of Joseph Worthington, was a shock. He was described as having ‘splendidly assisted’ the trustees ‘to relieve the needy and promote the spread of learning and enlightened scholarship’. That same month Miss Shepherd, the assistant secretary, announced her wish to retire. The need to replace them led to a special committee being appointed, while Ernest George Lee (1896–1983), editor of The Inquirer 1939–62 and a trustee, deputised as honorary acting secretary. Lee was soon supplanted when, in August, 1944 Revd Roger Thomas (1900–80), having resigned as a trustee, was chosen DWT secretary from October, intending to continue part-time as minister of the Free Christian Church, Croydon.
A special library post-war committee was set up in March 1945, consisting of no more than six members. It advised on the staffing, use, and running of DWL, on negotiations with the Hibbert Trust, and on the advisability of asking the Charity Commission for modifications to the 1910 scheme. It also applied to the commission for a pension of £300 a year for Stephen Kay Jones, whose retirement date was fixed for 31 March 1946. After his retirement, the librarian's and secretary's posts merged, with Roger Thomas filling the joint position. The committee recommended that the secretary's salary should be increased by £200 a year, that the scheme for raising voluntary subscriptions to DWL should be adopted, and that help be requested from the Hibbert Trust. Roger Thomas's salary remained at £450 plus residence until 1954, when it grew to £600 plus residence.
Stephen Kay Jones was thanked in 1946 for forty years’ service, twenty as DW librarian. His family's associations with the trust extended over sixty years, with his father secretary and librarian from 1886, Stephen having lived in Grafton Street from the age of six, and first helping at DWL in January 1904.
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- Dr Williams's Trust and Library , pp. 219 - 250Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022