Preface

PREFACE

The fourth and concluding volume of the Survey of Chelsea is mainly concerned with the buildings of the Royal Hospital. In the Appendix will be found the inscriptions on the tombstones in the Hospital Burial Ground, and also those in the other public burial grounds, which were omitted, through lack of space, in the third volume. In the preparation of the drawings the Committee is chiefly indebted to Mr. Philip S. Hudson, A.R.I.B.A., whose father, Mr. E. R. Hudson, was for many years intimately connected with the care of the buildings. Acknowledgment has again very gratefully to be made to the Architectural Association for its help, and especially to Miss Wilkinson and Mr. G. L. M. Jenkins for their drawings of the chapel.

I am deeply indebted to the Governor-General, the Rt. Hon. Sir Neville G. Lyttelton, and the Lieutenant-Governor, Major-General H. C. Sutton, for their cordial co-operation in our work, and to the Assistant Secretary, Mr. W. H. Willcox, for the great assistance he has given in regard to the history of the Foundation and the lists of officials, etc. H.M. Office of Works and the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) have also been good enough to furnish drawings and particulars for the Committee's use. The Secretary of the Moravian Church and Mission Agency too has given considerable assistance. The Bibliography is mainly the work of Mr. J. H. Quinn of the Chelsea Public Library.

A few biographical notes of special interest have been included in the lists of officials connected with the Royal Hospital, and use has been made of the Dictionary of National Biography for this purpose. The requirements of space have necessitated the making of these notes as brief as possible, and have precluded any attempt to deal with the careers of all the persons mentioned.

Following our custom, we have included a number of shields of arms, which have been selected on account of their general interest. The drawings of the arms are from the pen of the Rev. E. E. Dorling, F.S.A., the value of whose assistance we are delighted to acknowledge.

Finally I should like to express the satisfaction of our Committee in completing the task, which was begun as long ago as 1909, and, in fact, had been planned many years before, at the very beginning of our labours. The Survey of London is gradually becoming an accomplished fact, as witness the eleven volumes and twelve monographs already published. The standard of production is being steadily maintained, and every effort is being made to publish with as little delay as the nature of the subject allows.

WALTER H. GODFREY.

18 Queen Anne's Gate, S.W.