Metadata: Papers of Sir Robert Waley Cohen and Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- University of Southampton Special Collections
- Holding institution (official language):
- University of Southampton Special Collections
- Postal address:
- Hartley Library, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ
- Phone number:
- 02380 592721
- Web address:
- https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives
- Email:
- archives@soton.ac.uk
- Reference number:
- MS 363 A3006
- Title:
- Papers of Sir Robert Waley Cohen and Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen
- Title (official language):
- Papers of Sir Robert Waley Cohen and Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen
- Creator/accumulator:
- Cohen, Waley; Waley-Cohen family
- Date(s):
- 1882/1990
- Language:
- English
- Extent:
- 12.4 linear metres: 107 boxes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The papers of Sir Robert Waley Cohen are divided into three series: personal and family papers, 1882-1952; a small series of speeches and publications by Robert Waley Cohen; and alphabetical sequences of files that form the bulk of this part of the archive.
The personal and family papers include correspondence, papers relating to Alice Waley Cohen's death, Waley Cohen's illness and death and estate, pension and financial papers.
Text of speeches and articles by Waley Cohen, 1914-52; correspondence, answers to queries relating to biography, 1931-8, 1962; correspondence regarding a paper by William Napier Shaw and Robert Waley Cohen to the Royal Society, c. 1900-1.
Alphabetical series of files relating to business, Shell, oil, Admiralty, fuel contracts, the War Office and different corporations and companies.
Files of individuals including: Sir Oswald d'Avigdor Goldsmid, Sir Basil Henriques and Jewish Fellowship, Rothschild family, Isidor Salmon and Lord Samuel, Charles Singer, Sir Arthur Wauchope and Chaim Weizmann.
Organisation and subject files including Cambridge Synagogue, Cambridge University, Clifton College Bristol, Council of Christians and Jews, and topics relating to the First World War, Second World War and Palestine.
The papers of Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen contain general personal papers and correspondence, 1860, 1920-90; papers regarding Bernard Waley-Cohen's schools and colleges, 1930s-1977; the 1928 Rodney Term at Dartmouth Britannia Royal Naval College, 1946-86; the Waley-Cohen Honeymead estate, field sports, farming and horses, 1860, 1930s-80s; the Portsoken Ward and Lodge and St. Botolph-without-Aldgate, the Portsoken Ward Church, 1921-88; papers as sheriff and alderman of the City of London, 1954-6; papers as Lord Mayor of London, 1960-2; papers regarding Bernard Waley-Cohen's magistracy, 1957-79; papers about the Wisdom Trust, 1944-66; Bernard Waley-Cohen's property companies, 1957-65; Waley-Cohen's work in Jewish communal leadership, 1940s-1990 and many photographs, mostly from Waley-Cohen's mayoralty year but also family photographs.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Sir Robert Waley Cohen (1877-1952) was born in London in 1877, the second son of Nathaniel Louis Cohen and his wife, Julia Matilda Cohen. Waley Cohen was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and then on a science scholarship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Initially, after Cambridge, Waley Cohen took unpaid research work at the Meteorological Office, but in 1901 began working for Shell. The following year Shell and Royal Dutch joined forces and in 1903 they formed the Asiatic Petroleum Company. Waley Cohen was appointed as assistant manager. He was to remain working with the company until his retirement in 1928. Waley Cohen was involved in various international negotiations and deals on behalf of Shell, including with Egyptian government concerning exploration rights and the building of a refinery at Suez and, in 1910, to purchase the Shanghai-Langkat Oil Company in the Far East, greatly expanding Shell's influence in that area of the world. During the First World War, Waley Cohen was appointed petroleum adviser to the Army Council. He was appointed KBE in 1920 in recognition of this work.
Waley Cohen was involved in Anglo-Jewish community activities throughout his life. For nearly forty years he was a leading figure in the United Synagogue and still held the office of President at his death. He was a founder member of the Council for Christians and Jews and played an active role in the organisation. Although opposed to Zionism, he helped to create the Palestine Corporation. Waley Cohen supported the educational institutions which he had attended, and he was involved in the Sir William Ramsay centenary appeal at University College, London. In 1904 Waley Cohen married his kinswoman, Alice Violet Beddington (1882-1935). They had three children, but she died as a result of a motor accident in Palestine in 1935. Waley Cohen died at his London home in November 1952.
Sir Bernard Nathaniel Waley-Cohen, first Baronet, (1914-1991) was born in May 1914, the elder son of Sir Robert Waley Cohen and Alice Violet Beddington. He was educated at: Wellesley House, Broadstairs, HMS Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Clifton College, Bristol, where he became head of Polack's, the Jewish House founded by his great uncle, Lionel Cohen, and Magdalene College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge, Waley-Cohen helped to found the undergraduate newspaper Varsity Weekly. From 1932 to 1933, he was a member of the Public Schools Empire Tour to New Zealand; he represented Clifton at Duke of York's Camp, Southwold in 1932 and from 1933 to 1936 he was a member of staff of Duke of York's Camp. From 1936 to 1939 he was active in London Boys Club Movement.
In 1937 he joined the Honourable Artillery Company but was discharged after an accident the following year. During the Second World War, he served as an executive officer attached to the Port of London Emergency Service, in the Home Guard and, from 1940-7, as principal at the Ministry of Fuel and Power, concerning with building up emergency stocks of coal at strategic positions throughout the United Kingdom.
Waley-Cohen's career in the city began at Lloyds in 1936. He became chairman of Simo Properties Ltd and Subsidiary and Associated Companies in 1955 and from 1955-9, he was chairman of Abbotsbury Investments Limited and Subsidiaries. In addition, he became a director of O M Kleeman Limited in 1957, director of Teetgen and Company Limited in 1958 and chairman of Carlisle Property trust Limited and Subsidiaries in 1959. He became a director of the Palestine Corporation; in 1947 he was made Vice Chairman, and in 1952 Chairman of the Palestine Corporation and Associated Companies (Merchant Investment Banking in the Middle East).
In 1936 Waley-Cohen became a liveryman of the Clothworkers' Company. In 1949, he was appointed one of HM Lieutenants for the City of London and elected as 98th alderman for the Portsoken Ward; in 1955 he was elected sheriff and in 1957 created KBE. Waley-Cohen was elected Lord Mayor in 1960. In 1961 he was elevated to a baronetcy and ten years later, in 1971, he was appointed a commissioner and deputy chairman of the Public Works Loans Commission.
He held numerous positions on Anglo-Jewish organisations including: Vice President of the United Synagogue; Treasurer of the Jewish Welfare Board; Honorary Treasurer of the Jewish Welfare Board; Honorary Treasurer of the Jewish Board of Guardians, 1948-53; a member of the Finance Committee and Council of Clifton College and a member of the College Committee and Chairman of the University College, London, 1971-80. In 1952, Waley-Cohen inherited from his father the Honeymead Estate at Simonsbath on Exmoor, where he bred prize winning cattle and sheep. He also was a member of the General Purposes and Finance Committee of the British Field Sports Society.
- Access points: locations:
- Cambridge
- Great Britain
- London
- Portsoken
- Access points: persons/families:
- Goldsmid, Oswald d’Avigdor
- Henriques, Basil
- Rothschild
- Salmon, Isidor
- Samuel
- Singer, Charles
- Waley Cohen
- Waley Cohen, Robert
- Waley-Cohen, Bernard
- Wauchope, Arthur
- Weizmann, Chaim
- Subject terms:
- Personal records
- Trade and commerce
- World War I
- World War II
- Access, restrictions:
- Access to the archive requires a prior written appointment. https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/about/access.page
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/cataloguedatabases/webguide1.page
- Yerusha Network member:
- University of Southampton Special Collections