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RefNoK1383/A/24
AltRefNo1383/24
TitleRecords of Thomas Johnson, Secretary, Papworth Village Settlement
DescriptionThe first secretary of the Tuberculosis Colony at Bourn, then Papworth, was Elsbeth (Mrs Marcus) Dimsdale. Her involvement arose from being one of the representatives of the County Insurance Committee on the County Council's Consultative Committee set up in accordance with government guidelines to run the Tuberculosis Dispensary. Her position in 1915 was merely 'Secretary pro tem.' [1383/6/3/43-7] and an honorary one, but she carried on until May 1931. She was then succeeded by Elizabeth Gordon, wife of the Superintendent of the University Engineering workshops, an existing member of the Committee of Management, and preseumably therefore also an unpaid honorary officer.

By the 1930s the Secretary's office itself had become largely concerned with the formal meetings of the Committee of Management and the annual meeting of the Settlement, and there is little in these papers to suggest the involvement of Elizabet Gordon in particular cases or operational details. This work lay with Varrier-Jones and his personal staff, Thomas Johnson and Peter Fraser. The former, T.C.M. Johson, has been known to Varrier-Jones as early as the Bourn period, and was successful in securing a post as his personal secretary c.1927 [see F. Jordan, Papworth Stories, nos. 3-4 (CRO(C) Library) and Papworth oral history interview 34 (Patricia Brand, Johnson's daughter)]. The following records show that by the mid-1930s he was effectively building up his own distinct office, to which in 1938 were added the administrative duties of the committee of management and the formality of the title of Secretary of the Papworth Village Settlement.
CreatorNameVarrier-Jones Papers
RepositoryCambridgeshire Archives
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