British Museum (Natural History): Unofficial Archives: Papers of Lord Macmillan (1873-1952),...

The papers that make up this series consist of correspondence, memoranda and reports relating to the Trustees and their work. DF 5008/1 and DF 5008/2 are concerned with the committee on accommodation that Macmillan chaired in 1935 and which reported to the Trustees in 1936, while later files relate to such matters as the Trustees response to the critical memorial by J Graham Kerr, MP, (1945-1946), C Forster Cooper's memorandum on the future development of the Museum (1943) and the crisis over the choice of his successor as Director (1946).

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF TRU/911/1). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 5008.

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Museums and galleries

Hugh Pattison Macmillan (1873-1952), Baron Macmillan, trained in law, and practiced as an advocate in Edinburgh from 1897, taking silk in 1912. He was appointed Lord Advocate to the Labour Government in 1924, and was made a lord of appeal in ordinary with a life peerage in 1930. Lord Macmillan sat in the House of Lords as a lord of appeal until his resignation in 1947. He sat on numerous committees and commissions throughout his career, and was chairman of, for example, the Royal Commission on Lunacy (1924-1926), the Political Honours Committee (1935), the Pilgrim Trust (1935-1952), and the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children (1928-1934). Lord Macmillan was an Elected Trustee of the British Museum and member of the Standing Committee of Trustees from 1933 until 1949.