Cyril Bertram Lander

The archive includes a few items relating to Cyril Lander's Continental Jewish forbears and relations (he was born Cyril Landauer, but changed his name during the First World War because of anti-German feeling), and also a small quantity of personal correspondence. The majority of the collection, however, consists of photographs taken on his travels, and snapshots of his extensive family and friends.

Documents donated by the Executors of Cyril Bertram Lander

Cyril Lander was born in Moseley on 9 May 1904, and apart from service with the British Army Intelligence Corps between 1941 and 1944, lived there all his life. He died on 6 April 1989. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and in 1923 was awarded an exhibition in French and German at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge. For family reasons, he was unable to take up this opportunity, but instead he joined the family firm of Hirsch & Stern, export merchants, where he remained until the firm ceased trading in 1933. He then read for a London University external degree in Spanish and French, and was awarded a B.A. in 1935. In the mid-1930s, Lander joined the Mond Nickel Co in Ladywood, initially as private secretary to the head of the laboratory, Dr. C.B. Pfeil, F.R.S., and after his return from war service in 1945 as a translator of scientific and technical literature, which he remained until his retirement in 1969.

As a young man, Cyril Lander travelled widely in Europe and the Near East, and after his retirement he took full advantage of the opportunities which had opened up for long distance holiday travel, visiting the Far East and the Americas on many occasions. Despite having spent most of his working life in a scientific milieu, Cyril Lander was greatly attracted to the arts. Music, painting, literature and architecture formed the basis on which he planned many of his holiday excursions. He possessed an extensive library, including much French, German and Spanish literature, and was a competent pianist. In his youth he composed a cycle of some 30 songs, "Flores de mi Primavera", which was privately recorded in 1968-69 by Gordon Clinton and Della Jones, and he also prepared an English translation from the original Spanish of the play Romance de Lobos by Ramon del Valle-Indan.