Academic literature on the topic 'Mary (Stafford, England)'

Reduced reproductive performance of dairy cows is a major challenge facing the dairy industry. Many potential replacement heifers fail to reach their first lactation because they are either born dead, die as juveniles, or fail to conceive. Perinatal mortality has previously been estimated across English herds as 7.8% (Esslemont & Kossaibati, 1996), whereas neonatal mortality in the UK has been estimated at 0 to 10% (reviewed by Mellor & Stafford, 2004). Calf mortality is often poorly documented and estimates that are available are possibly underestimated because a dead calf at birth is not always recorded at the farm level. Therefore, the objective of this study was to accurately calculate the incidence of perinatal and neonatal mortality of dairy calves on commercial farms in southern England.

ObjectiveOutpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) provides opportunities for improved cost savings, but in the UK, implementation is patchy and a variety of service models are in use. The slow uptake in the UK and Europe is due to a number of clinical, financial and logistical issues, including concern about patient safety. The measurement of patient experience data is commonly used to inform commissioning decisions, but these focus on functional aspects of services and fail to examine the relational aspects of care. This qualitative study examines patients’ experiences of OPAT.DesignIn-depth, semistructured interviews.SettingPurposive sample of OPAT patients recruited from four acute National Health Service (NHS) Trusts in Northern England. These NHS Trusts between them represented both well-established and recently set-up services running nurse at home, hospital outpatient and/or self-administration models.ParticipantsWe undertook 28 semistructured interviews and one focus group (n=4).ResultsDespite good patient outcomes, experiences were coloured by patients' personal situation and material circumstances. Many found looking after themselves at home more difficult than they expected, while others continued to work despite their infection. Expensive car parking, late running services and the inconvenience of waiting in for the nurse to arrive frustrated patients, while efficient services, staffed by nurses with the specialist skills needed to manage intravenous treatment had the opposite effect. Many patients felt a local, general practitioner or community health centre based service would resolve many of the practical difficulties that made OPAT inconvenient. Patients could find OPAT anxiety provoking but this could be ameliorated by staff taking the time to reassure patients and provide tailored information.ConclusionServices configurations must accommodate the diversity of the local population. Poor communication can leave patients lacking the confidence needed to be a competent collaborator in their own care and affect their perceptions of the service.

The Scottish Heart Health Study is a study of lifestyle and coronary heart disease risk factors in 10,359 men and women aged 40–59 years, in 22 districts of Scotland. The study was conducted during 1984–86, when Scotland had the highest national coronary heart disease mortality reported by the World Health Organisation. A self-completed questionnaire, complemented by a 40 minute visit to a survey clinic, staffed by nurses, enabled the classical major risk factors and some more newly described ones to be measured. The study emphasised quality control and representativeness, and incorporated a World Health Organisation protocol for measurement of key items to allow comparisons in place and time, and therefore also to provide a definitive baseline against which interventions can be assessed. This paper describes the overall findings. Current cigarette smokers constitute 39% of men and 38% of women, higher levels than those reported in England but lower than previous Scottish reports. Mean blood pressure levels were 134/84 mmHg for men and 131/81 mmHg in women, lower than in British studies of the 1960s and 1970s. Mean body mass index levels, 26.1 Kg/m2 in men and 25.7 Kg/m2 in women, were not high by international standards. However, mean serum cholesterol levels were 6.4 mmol/l in men and 6.6 mmol/l in women — as high as those in previous British studies and high by international standards. Levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol, non-fasting triglycerides and fibrinogen are also reported. Physical activity both at work and in leisure time was low. Many participants did not eat fresh fruit or green vegetables. High cholesterol and cigarette smoking levels provide a classical explanation for the excess of coronary deaths in Scotland, justifying action, but other factors, such as the dietary deficiencies, also merit further investigation.

Closed legal systems are gone in modern world, “mixed” legal systems have become the norm. That has made so-called “transplants” easier but, contrary to a widely held view, legal institutions cannot be transplanted. English trust rules even less, for they are not a coherent set of rules. The British attempted to legislate on trusts for their colonies, for instance for Ceylon (the present-day Sri Lanka), and were thus obliged to be coherent. That made it necessary to introduce new legal concepts with unforeseeable consequences. A wave of legislation followed the adoption of the convention “On The Law Applicable To Trusts And On Their Recognition” by the 15th session of the Hague Conference on private international law (1985); it gave birth to the “international model” of trusts that quickly became the favourite setting of the rich and ultra-rich. Jersey in the Channel Islands was the leading jurisdiction, many others followed but it was not until the establishment of the International Finance Centres in the Gulf and later in Kazakhstan where “the laws of England and Wales” are taken as a source of law and local courts are staffed by former English judges or in any event by lawyers brought up in the common law that a proper transplant of the English trust took place. A totally different legal setting witnessed attempts to create imitations that had to run against well-established civil law conceptual attitudes that did not allow the existence of more than one patrimony per person or the segregation of assets within one person’s patrimony. In 2022 France decreed that each businessman is automatically the owner of two patrimonies; that open the way to a radical re-thinking of civil law notions. Québec and Louisiana are taken as examples of civil law legislation on trusts but Québec has followed its own idea that the assets that form the object of a fiducie belong to nobody, while Louisiana’s Trust Code is a deft admixture of civil law and common law elements based on the civilian notion of “fiduciary”. Luxembourg, France and other civil law countries are then examined: the focus then is on South Africa and Scotland, two countries which have a common past in a shared period of the European ius commune and a common present in being both orphaned from a cultural lineage that provided answers to current matters by drawing on Roman law. Now they both solve the problem of the patrimony by holding that a trustee has more than one patrimony, his own and then one for each trust of which he is the trustee.

The 1950s were a period of consolidation after the upsets of the war years, and the continuing staff shortages up to the end of the 1940s. In 1952 the section of the Annual Report of the Chief School Medical Officer on child guidance in Sheffield was for the first time attributed to the Psychologist in Charge, Mr N. Whilde who had occupied the post since 1940. He notes that the referrals to the service had settled down to a pattern that changed little from one year to the next - boys were referred more than girls, a ratio of around 2:1; schools referred more than 50 per cent of cases and in terms of difficulties; Intellectual and behavioural difficulties accounted for around 80 per cent of referrals. The report also notes that for the first time in many years the service had a psychiatric social worker. The 1953 report notes that for the first time since 1945 the service was fully staffed. However, this was short-lived as two educational psychologists and a social worker resigned at the end of the year. For most of 1954 the service was one psychologist short and had no social workers. There was a vacancy for a senior psychologist, but with no suitable applicants, an assistant psychologist was appointed.At a national level in 1950 the government had commissioned a committee to look at treatment and provision for maladjusted children. Under the chairmanship of Dr Underwood, the committee produced their report that was published in 1955 (Ministry of Education, 1955). The committee consisted of 17 members, mainly medical doctors working in school medical services, a few head teachers and just one psychologist. Dr Alexander, Sheffield’s Chief Education Officer (see Chapter 1) gave evidence to the committee on behalf of the Association of LEAs, and Mr N. Whilde gave evidence on the incidence of maladjustment in the area covered by the Sheffield clinic (Sheffield, West Riding, Rotherham and Doncaster). Sheffield was well represented.Amongst its many recommendations, the Underwood Report recommended that all LEAs should have a child guidance clinic with an educational psychologist, psychiatrist and a social worker, and that each should have a school psychological service. It also wanted child guidance clinics to accept referrals of all individuals up to the age of 18, whether or not they were in full-time education. The report suggested that across England and Wales 280 educational psychologists would be needed to work in child guidance clinics, as well as those posts within school psychological services. They noted the need for an expansion of training in psychology at undergraduate level as well as in the postgraduate training of educational psychologists.The staff shortages in the Sheffield child guidance clinic and school psychological service described above continued throughout the 1950s. An advertised post for a senior psychologist in 1954 failed to attract any suitable applicants, and instead a newly qualified psychologist, Peter Portwood, was appointed as assistant psychologist. Peter remained in the service until 1959 when he moved to Cornwall to become the senior psychologist there, and eventually Principal Educational Psychologist, taking up some important posts in the BPS Division of Education and Child Psychology. His account of the Sheffield Service was written in the 1990s and appears below. Peter died in 2005.

Abstract —J. BLUNDEN, T. BOYER, AND E. BARTOW-GILLIES Earth’s global climate system is vast, complex, and intricately interrelated. Many areas are influenced by global-scale phenomena, including the “triple dip” La Niña conditions that prevailed in the eastern Pacific Ocean nearly continuously from mid-2020 through all of 2022; by regional phenomena such as the positive winter and summer North Atlantic Oscillation that impacted weather in parts the Northern Hemisphere and the negative Indian Ocean dipole that impacted weather in parts of the Southern Hemisphere; and by more localized systems such as high-pressure heat domes that caused extreme heat in different areas of the world. Underlying all these natural short-term variabilities are long-term climate trends due to continuous increases since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the atmospheric concentrations of Earth’s major greenhouse gases. In 2022, the annual global average carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere rose to 417.1±0.1 ppm, which is 50% greater than the pre-industrial level. Global mean tropospheric methane abundance was 165% higher than its pre-industrial level, and nitrous oxide was 24% higher. All three gases set new record-high atmospheric concentration levels in 2022. Sea-surface temperature patterns in the tropical Pacific characteristic of La Niña and attendant atmospheric patterns tend to mitigate atmospheric heat gain at the global scale, but the annual global surface temperature across land and oceans was still among the six highest in records dating as far back as the mid-1800s. It was the warmest La Niña year on record. Many areas observed record or near-record heat. Europe as a whole observed its second-warmest year on record, with sixteen individual countries observing record warmth at the national scale. Records were shattered across the continent during the summer months as heatwaves plagued the region. On 18 July, 104 stations in France broke their all-time records. One day later, England recorded a temperature of 40°C for the first time ever. China experienced its second-warmest year and warmest summer on record. In the Southern Hemisphere, the average temperature across New Zealand reached a record high for the second year in a row. While Australia’s annual temperature was slightly below the 1991–2020 average, Onslow Airport in Western Australia reached 50.7°C on 13 January, equaling Australia's highest temperature on record. While fewer in number and locations than record-high temperatures, record cold was also observed during the year. Southern Africa had its coldest August on record, with minimum temperatures as much as 5°C below normal over Angola, western Zambia, and northern Namibia. Cold outbreaks in the first half of December led to many record-low daily minimum temperature records in eastern Australia. The effects of rising temperatures and extreme heat were apparent across the Northern Hemisphere, where snow-cover extent by June 2022 was the third smallest in the 56-year record, and the seasonal duration of lake ice cover was the fourth shortest since 1980. More frequent and intense heatwaves contributed to the second-greatest average mass balance loss for Alpine glaciers around the world since the start of the record in 1970. Glaciers in the Swiss Alps lost a record 6% of their volume. In South America, the combination of drought and heat left many central Andean glaciers snow free by mid-summer in early 2022; glacial ice has a much lower albedo than snow, leading to accelerated heating of the glacier. Across the global cryosphere, permafrost temperatures continued to reach record highs at many high-latitude and mountain locations. In the high northern latitudes, the annual surface-air temperature across the Arctic was the fifth highest in the 123-year record. The seasonal Arctic minimum sea-ice extent, typically reached in September, was the 11th-smallest in the 43-year record; however, the amount of multiyear ice—ice that survives at least one summer melt season—remaining in the Arctic continued to decline. Since 2012, the Arctic has been nearly devoid of ice more than four years old. In Antarctica, an unusually large amount of snow and ice fell over the continent in 2022 due to several landfalling atmospheric rivers, which contributed to the highest annual surface mass balance, 15% to 16% above the 1991–2020 normal, since the start of two reanalyses records dating to 1980. It was the second-warmest year on record for all five of the long-term staffed weather stations on the Antarctic Peninsula. In East Antarctica, a heatwave event led to a new all-time record-high temperature of −9.4°C—44°C above the March average—on 18 March at Dome C. This was followed by the collapse of the critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf. More than 100 daily low sea-ice extent and sea-ice area records were set in 2022, including two new all-time annual record lows in net sea-ice extent and area in February. Across the world’s oceans, global mean sea level was record high for the 11th consecutive year, reaching 101.2 mm above the 1993 average when satellite altimetry measurements began, an increase of 3.3±0.7 over 2021. Globally-averaged ocean heat content was also record high in 2022, while the global sea-surface temperature was the sixth highest on record, equal with 2018. Approximately 58% of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2022. In the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand’s longest continuous marine heatwave was recorded. A total of 85 named tropical storms were observed during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons, close to the 1991–2020 average of 87. There were three Category 5 tropical cyclones across the globe—two in the western North Pacific and one in the North Atlantic. This was the fewest Category 5 storms globally since 2017. Globally, the accumulated cyclone energy was the lowest since reliable records began in 1981. Regardless, some storms caused massive damage. In the North Atlantic, Hurricane Fiona became the most intense and most destructive tropical or post-tropical cyclone in Atlantic Canada’s history, while major Hurricane Ian killed more than 100 people and became the third costliest disaster in the United States, causing damage estimated at $113 billion U.S. dollars. In the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Batsirai dropped 2044 mm of rain at Commerson Crater in Réunion. The storm also impacted Madagascar, where 121 fatalities were reported. As is typical, some areas around the world were notably dry in 2022 and some were notably wet. In August, record high areas of land across the globe (6.2%) were experiencing extreme drought. Overall, 29% of land experienced moderate or worse categories of drought during the year. The largest drought footprint in the contiguous United States since 2012 (63%) was observed in late October. The record-breaking megadrought of central Chile continued in its 13th consecutive year, and 80-year record-low river levels in northern Argentina and Paraguay disrupted fluvial transport. In China, the Yangtze River reached record-low values. Much of equatorial eastern Africa had five consecutive below-normal rainy seasons by the end of 2022, with some areas receiving record-low precipitation totals for the year. This ongoing 2.5-year drought is the most extensive and persistent drought event in decades, and led to crop failure, millions of livestock deaths, water scarcity, and inflated prices for staple food items. In South Asia, Pakistan received around three times its normal volume of monsoon precipitation in August, with some regions receiving up to eight times their expected monthly totals. Resulting floods affected over 30 million people, caused over 1700 fatalities, led to major crop and property losses, and was recorded as one of the world’s costliest natural disasters of all time. Near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Petrópolis received 530 mm in 24 hours on 15 February, about 2.5 times the monthly February average, leading to the worst disaster in the city since 1931 with over 230 fatalities. On 14–15 January, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcano in the South Pacific erupted multiple times. The injection of water into the atmosphere was unprecedented in both magnitude—far exceeding any previous values in the 17-year satellite record—and altitude as it penetrated into the mesosphere. The amount of water injected into the stratosphere is estimated to be 146±5 Terragrams, or ∼10% of the total amount in the stratosphere. It may take several years for the water plume to dissipate, and it is currently unknown whether this eruption will have any long-term climate effect.

BackgroundPrimary care in England is contracted to provide essential services. Many practices also provide additional services, termed ‘directed enhanced services’ (DES), for extra income. The optional nature of DES may result in inequitable service delivery.AimTo determine the range of DES activity and equity of service provision.Design & settingA cross-sectional analysis of data from general practices in England took place from 2018–2019.MethodDES were defined in terms of activity level and measured as total DES funding per registered patient. Linear regression modelling was used to explore the relationship between DES activity, practice, and population characteristics.ResultsData were available for 6873 practices providing up to 10 DES in the initial sample. Due to negative funding amounts and a list size of ≤750 registered patients, 24 practices were excluded. Of the final sample (n = 6849), highest DES provision was for influenza and pneumococcal immunisation (99.9%), pertussis immunisation (97.9%), rotavirus and shingles immunisation (99.9%), meningitis immunisation (99.7%), and childhood immunisation (99.6%); lowest provision was for extended hours access (72.4%), violent patient services (2.0%), and out-of-area urgent care (1.3%). Mean DES funding was £6.25 per patient. In deprived areas, DES funding was £0.35 lower (95% confidence interval [CI] = £0.60 to £0.10) per patient (most versus least deprived quintiles); ethnic group-related differences were not significant. DES funding was higher in practices with more GPs or practice nurses per patient. In deprived communities, there was less immunisation activity (including influenza, pneumococcal, meningitis, childhood, and rotavirus and shingles immunisation) and provision of extended hours access; however, learning disability checks provision was greater in these communities.ConclusionDES provision is lower in deprived areas (notably for immunisations and some aspects of access) but higher in better staffed practices. Voluntary quality schemes may contribute to widening health inequalities.

<p>Response to Knox, S. (2018). Helicopter EMS in Cork: a paramedicine perspective. Irish Journal of Paramedicine, 3(2). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.32378/ijp.v3i2.113</p><p> </p><p>Dear Editor,</p><p>I read Dr. Shane Knox’s commentary “Helicopter EMS in Cork” (1) in the current edition of the Journal with interest.<br /> Firstly, to be clear, I have the utmost respect for paramedics. The commencement of an EMS helicopter in Cork is a landmark step forward in prehospital care. The ‘Toyota’ reference made in the Knox article is in relation to a misquote published in the Irish Times from a recent RTE Radio interview I gave around the staffing model of a Helicopter EMS (HEMS). The reference I made to Toyota was in fact with respect to the physician-paramedic HEMS model that is the norm in Australia, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and mainland Europe. I don’t view a physician-paramedic team as a Rolls-Royce, platinum or gold standard model, but rather more like a Toyota; attainable and highly durable. In August 2015, the College of Paramedics (UK) stated “The College of Paramedics support proposals for a HEMS service in Northern Ireland, with a view that this service should be integrated within a trauma network in Northern Ireland and consist of a specialist pre-hospital Doctor and Paramedic team.” (2) The HEMS in Northern Ireland is now staffed with this model by the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS). <br /> The Irish government recently endorsed the development of a Trauma System for Ireland. Inherent to any trauma system is enhanced prehospital trauma care capability. Albeit the air ambulance will certainly bring speed, it will not bring enhanced skills without a doctor-paramedic team that will save additional lives, nor will it meet the PHECC dispatch standards for emergency calls by road (dual paramedic). The doctor-paramedic model can provide advanced prehospital critical interventions such as balanced emergency anaesthesia, mechanical ventilation, finger thoracostomy, blood transfusion and eye, life and limb-saving procedures (e.g. lateral canthotomy, resuscitative thoracotomy) as well as enhanced system activation such as prehospital massive transfusion activation and bringing a patient direct to theatre from helipad (code crimson).<br /> Recently, Mark Winter, an operations manager of Wales Air Ambulance (doctor-paramedic EMRTS team) said: “One of the things we talk about in our world is ‘unexpected survivors’-those patients who have had emergency front line treatment at the roadside or at the home who otherwise would have to be taken to the hospital, where it might have been too late.” (3) The similar EMRS in Scotland is increasing coverage as I write this to meet the demands of the newly developed Scottish Trauma Network. I’m sure the patient needs are the same in Ireland as they are in Northern Ireland or Great Britain. <br /> A doctor-paramedic team extends critical care to life-threatening prehospital and medical emergencies such as STEMI with cardiogenic shock requiring safe intubation and ventilation, central inotropic support or controlled mechanical ventilation and targeted BP control in neurological emergencies (e.g. subarachnoid haemorrhage, stroke with coma). This team responds rapidly to prehospital or hospital tasking and can provide intensive care level stabilisation and support anywhere. <br /> Certainly as Knox points out many of the interventions/skills that can be brought to the scene can also be performed by critical care paramedics (e.g. MICA in Victoria). This expertise does not occur overnight and takes years to develop. In my opinion, in Ireland a critical care paramedic model can only develop in the environment of a physician-paramedic team in terms of training, curriculum development and governance. There are excellent Irish advanced paramedics and prehospital specialist doctors in Ireland and abroad who together would make an excellent team that would serve the community and patient needs to the highest level. Now is the time. </p>

Introduction On Saturday 6 February 1954, on the third day of the Australian leg of their tour of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The specially-staged Royal Surf Carnival they witnessed—comprising a spectacular parade, surf boat races, mock resuscitations and even unscheduled surf rescues—generated extensive media coverage. Attracting attention from historians (Warshaw 134; Ford 194–196), the carnival lingers in popular memory as not only a highlight of the Australian tour (Conway n.p.; Clark 8) and among the “most celebrated events in Australian surf lifesaving history” (Ford et al. 5) but also as “the most spectacular occasion [ever held] at Bondi Beach” (Lawrence and Sharpe 86). It is even, for some, a “highlight of the [Australian] post-war period” (Ford et al. 5). Despite this, the fuller history of the Queen’s visit to Bondi, including the detailed planning involved, remains unexplored. A small round tin medal, discovered online, offered a fresh way to approach this event. 31mm in diameter, 2mm in depth, this dual-sided, smooth-edged medal hangs from a hoop on approximately 80mm of discoloured, doubled red, white, and blue striped ribbon, fastened near its end with a tarnished brass safety pin. The obverse features a relief portrait of the youthful Queen’s face and neck in profile, her hair loosely pulled back into a low chignon, enclosed within a striped symmetrical scrolled border of curves and peaks. This is encircled with another border inscribed in raised capitals: “Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Royal Visit to Waverley N.S.W.” The reverse features a smooth central section encircled with the inscription (again in raised capitals), “Presented to the Children of Waverley N.S.W. 1954”, the centre inscribed, “By Waverley Municipal Council C.A. Jeppesen Mayor”. Figs. 1 & 2: Medal, c.1954. Collection of the Author. Medals are often awarded in recognition of achievement and, in many cases, are worn as prominent components of military and other uniforms. They can also be made and gifted in commemoration, which was the case with this medal, one of many thousands presented in association with the tour. Made for Waverley Council, it was presented to all schoolchildren under 15 in the municipality, which included Bondi Beach. Similar medals were presented to schoolchildren by other Australian councils and States in Australia (NAA A462). This gifting was not unprecedented, with medals presented to (at least some) Australian schoolchildren to commemorate Queen Victoria’s 1897 Diamond Jubilee (The Age 5; Sleight 187) and the 1937 coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (“Coronation Medals” 6). Unable to discover any provenance for this medal aside from its (probable) presentation in 1954 and listing for sale in 2021, I pondered instead Waverley Council’s motivation in sourcing and giving these medals. As a researcher, this assisted me in surmounting the dominance of the surf carnival in the history of this event and led to an investigation of the planning around the Bondi visit. Planning Every level of government was involved in planning the event. Created within the Prime Minister’s Department, the Royal Visit Organisation 1954—staffed from early 1953, filling positions from within the Commonwealth Public Service, armed services and statutory authorities—had overall authority over arrangements (NAA 127, 134). National planning encompassed itineraries, travel arrangements, security, public relations, and protocol as well as fly and mosquito control, the royals’ laundry arrangements, and advice on correct dress (NAA: A1533; NAA: A6122; NAA: A9708, RV/DD Annex.15; NAA: A1838, 1516/11 Parts 1&2; NAA: A9708, RV/CD; NAA: A9708, RV/CQ; NAA: A9708, RV/T). Planning conferences were held with State officials who developed State visit programs and then devolved organisational responsibilities to Councils and other local organisations (NAA: A9708, RV/DD Annex.2; NAA: A9708, RV/DD Annex.3). Once the Bondi Beach location was decided, the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia received a Royal Command to stage a surf carnival for the royals. This command was passed to the president of the Bondi club, who organised a small delegation to meet with government representatives. A thirteen-member Planning Committee, all men (“The Queen to See” 12), was appointed “with full power to act without reference to any other body” (Meagher 6). They began meeting in June 1953 and, soon after this, the carnival was announced in the Australian press. In recognition, the “memorable finale” of a Royal Command Performance before the Queen in London in November 1953 marked the royal couple’s impending tour by filling the stage with people from Commonwealth countries. This concluded with “an Australian tableau”. Alongside people dressed as cricketers, tennis players, servicemen, and Indigenous people, a girl carrying a huge bunch of bananas, and a couple in kangaroo suits were six lifesavers dressed in Bondi march-past costumes and caps, carrying the club flag (Royal Variety Charity n.p.). In deciding on a club for the finale, Bondi was “seen the epitome of the surf lifesaving movement—and Australia” (Brawley 82). The Planning Committee worked with representatives from the police, army, government, local council, and ambulance services as well as the media and other bodies (Meagher 6). Realising the “herculean task” (Meagher 9) ahead, the committee recruited some 170 members (again all men) and 20 women volunteers from the Bondi and North Bondi Surf Clubs to assist. This included sourcing and erecting the carnival enclosure which, at over 200 meters wide, was the largest ever at the beach. The Royal dais that would be built over the promenade needed a canvas cover to shield the royal couple from the heat or rain. Seating needed to be provided for some 10,500 paying spectators, and eventually involved 17 rows of tiered seating set across the promenade, 2,200 deckchairs on the sand in front, and, on each flank, the Bondi Surf Club’s tiered stands. Accommodations also had to be provided at selected vantage points for some 100 media representatives, with a much greater crowd of 50–60,000 expected to gather outside the enclosure. Four large tents, two at each end of the competition area, would serve as both change rooms and shady rest areas for some 2,000 competitors. Two additional large tents were needed, one at each end of the lawns behind the beach, fitted out with camp stretchers that had to be sourced for the St John Ambulance Brigade to deal with first-aid cases, most of whom were envisaged to come from the crowds due to heat stroke (Meagher 6–7). The committee also had to solve numerous operational issues not usually associated with running a surf carnival, such as ensuring sufficient drinking water for so many people on what might be a very hot day (“The Queen to See” 12). With only one tap in the carnival area, the organisers had to lay a water line along the entire one-kilometre length of the promenade with double taps every two to three metres. Temporary toilets also had to be sourced, erected, and serviced. Self-financing and with costs adding up, sponsors needed to be secured to provide goods and services in return for advertising. An iced water unit was, for instance, provided on the dais, without cost, by the ElectrICE Commercial Refrigeration company. The long strip of red carpet laid from where the royals would alight from their car right through the dais was donated by the manufacturer of Feltex, a very popular Australian-made wool carpet. Prominent department store, Anthony Horden’s, loaned the intricately carved chairs to be used by the Royal couple and other officials, while The Bondi Diggers Club provided chrome plated chairs for other official guests, many of whom were the crew of royal yacht, the S.S. Gothic (Meagher 6). Fig. 3: “Feltex [Advertisement].” The Australian Home Beautiful Nov. 1954: 40. http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2985285882. The Ladies Committees of the Bondi and North Bondi surf clubs were tasked with organising and delivering lunch and drinks to over 400 officials, all of whom were to stay in position from early morning until the carnival concluded at 5 pm (Meagher 6). Girl members of the Bondi social clubs were to act as usherettes. Officials describe deciding who would meet, or even come in any close proximity to, the Queen as “most ticklish” and working with mayors and other officials a “headache” (“Socialites” 3). In Bondi, there were to be notably few officials sitting with the royal couple, but thousands of “ordinary” spectators seated around the carnival area. On her arrival, it was planned that the Queen would walk through a guard of honour of lifesavers from each Australian and New Zealand club competing in the carnival. After viewing the finals of the surf boat races, the Queen would meet the team captains and then, in a Land Rover, inspect the massed lifesavers and greet the spectators. Although these activities were not contentious, debate raged about the competitors’ uniforms. At this time, full-length chest-covering costumes were normally worn in march-past and other formal events, with competitors stripping down to trunks for surf races and beach events. It was, however, decided that full-length costumes would be worn for the entirety of the Queen’s visit. This generated considerable press commentary that this was ridiculous, and charges that Australians were ashamed of their lifesavers’ manly chests (“Costume Rule” 3). The president of the Bondi Life Saving Club, however, argued that they did not want the carnival spoiled by lifesavers wearing “dirty … track suits, football guernseys … old football shorts … and just about everything except proper attire” (ctd. in Jenkings 1). Waverley Council similarly attempted to control the appearance of the route through which the royals would travel to the beach on the day of the carnival. This included “a sequence of signs along the route” expressing “the suburb’s sentiments and loyalty” (“Queen in the Suburbs” 4; see also, “The Royal Tour” 9). Maintaining that “the greatest form of welcome will be by the participation of the residents themselves”, the Mayor sought public donations to pay for decorations (with donors’ names and amounts to be published in the local press, and these eventually met a third of the cost (“The Royal Tour” 9; Waverley Council n.p.). In January 1954, he personally appealed to those on the route to decorate their premises and, in encouragement, Council provided substantial prizes for the most suitably decorated private and commercial premises. The local Chamber of Commerce was responsible for decorating the transport and shopping hub of Bondi Junction, with many businesses arranging to import Coronation decorations from England (“Queen in the Suburbs” 4; “The Royal Tour” 9). With “colorful activity” providing the basis of Council’s plan (“Queen in the Suburbs” 4), careful choreography ensured that thousands of people would line the royal route through the municipality. In another direct appeal, the Mayor requested that residents mass along the roadsides, wearing appropriate rosettes or emblems and waving flags (“Queen in the Suburbs” 4; “The Royal Tour” 9). Uniformed nurses would also be released from duty to gather outside the War Memorial Hospital as the royals passed by (“Royal Visit” n.p.). At the largest greenspace on the route, Waverley Park, some 10,000 children from the municipality’s 18 schools would assemble, all in uniform and wearing the medal to be presented to them to commemorate the visit. Children would also be provided with large red, white, or blue rosettes to wave as the royals drove by. A special seating area near the park was to be set aside for the elderly and ex-servicemen (“Queen in the Suburbs” 4). Fostering Expectations As the date of the visit approached, preparation and anticipation intensified. A week before, a detailed visit schedule was published in local newspaper Bondi Daily. At this time, the Royal Tour Decorations Committee (comprised of Aldermen and prominent local citizens) were “erecting decorations at various focal points” throughout the municipality (“The Royal Tour” 9). On 4 February, the Planning Committee held their final meeting at the Bondi Beach clubhouse (Meagher 6). The next day, the entire beach was cleaned and graded (Wilson 40). The afternoon before the visit, the Council’s decoration competition was judged, with the winners a house alongside Waverley Park and the beachside Hotel Astra (“Royal Visit” n.p.), one of 14 Sydney hotels, and the only one in Bondi, granted permission to sell liquor with meals until the extended hour of 11.00 pm during the Royal visit (“State House” 5). On the day of the surf carnival, The Sydney Morning Herald featured a large photograph of the finishing touches being put to the official dais and seating the day before (“Stage Set” 15). In reality, there was still a flurry of activity from daybreak on the day itself (Meagher 7), with the final “tidying up and decorating still proceeding” (Meagher 7) as the first carnival event, the Senior boat race heats, began at 10.00 am (“N.Z. Surf” 15). Despite some resident anger regarding the area’s general dilapidation and how the money being spent on the visit could have been used for longstanding repairs to the Pavilion and other infrastructure (Brawley 203), most found the decorations of the beach area appealing (“Royal Visit” n.p.). Tickets to the carnival had sold out well in advance and the stands were filled hours before the Queen arrived, with many spectators wearing sundresses or shorts and others stripping down to swimsuits in the sunshine (“Royal Visit” n.p.). With Police Inspector Michael O’Neill’s collapse and death at a royal event the day before thought to be the result of heat exposure, and the thermometer reaching the high 80s°F (low 30s°C), a large parasol was sourced to be held over the Queen on the dais (Meagher 8). A little after 3:15 pm, the surf club’s P.A. system advised those assembled at the beach that the royal party had left Randwick Racecourse on time and were proceeding towards them (“Queen’s Visit to Races” 17), driving through cheering crowds all the way (“Sydney” 18). At Waverley Park, Council had ensured that the waiting crowds had been entertained by the Randwick-Coogee pipe band (“Royal Visit” n.p.) and spirits were high. Schoolchildren, wearing their medals, lined the footpaths, and 102-year-old Ernest Dunn, who was driven to the park in the morning by police, was provided with a seat on the roadway as well as tea and sandwiches during his long wait (“Royal Tour Highlights” 2; “Royal Visit” n.p.). The royal couple, driving by extremely slowly and waving, were given a rousing welcome. Their attire was carefully selected for the very warm day. The Queen wore a sunny lemon Dior-styled cap-sleeved dress, small hat and white accessories, the Duke a light-coloured suit and tie. It was observed that she wore heavier makeup as a protection against the sun and, as the carnival progressed, opened her handbag to locate her fashionable sunglasses (“Thrills” 1). The Duke also wore sunglasses and used race binoculars (Meagher 8). The Result Despite the exhaustive planning, there were some mishaps, mostly when the excitement of the “near-hysterical crowds” (Hardman n.p.) could not be contained. In Double Bay, for instance, as the royals made their way to Bondi, a (neither new nor clean) hat thrown into the car’s rear seat struck the Duke. It was reported that “a look of annoyance” clouded his face as he threw it back out onto the road. At other points, flags, nosegays, and flutter ribbons (long sticks tied with lengths of coloured paper) were thrown at, and into, the Royal car. In other places, hundreds raced out into the roadway to try to touch the Queen or the Duke. They “withstood the ordeal unflinchingly”, but the Duke was reportedly concerned about “this mass rudeness” (“Rude Mobs” 2). The most severe crowding of the day occurred as the car passed through the centre of Bondi Junction’s shopping district, where uniformed police had to jump on the Royal car’s running boards to hold off the crowds. Police also had to forcibly restrain a group of men who rushed the car as it passed the Astra Hotel. This was said to be “an ugly incident … resentment of the police action threatened to breed a riot” (“Rude Mobs” 2). Almost everything else met, and even exceeded, expectations. The Queen and Duke’s slow progress from Bondi Road and then, after passing under a large “Welcome to Bondi” sign, their arrival at the entrance to the dais only three minutes late and presence at the carnival went entirely to plan and are well documented in minute-by-minute detail. This includes in detailed press reports, newsreels, and a colour film, The Queen in Australia (1954). Their genuine enjoyment of the races was widely commented upon, evidenced in how they pointed out details to each other (Meagher 8), the number of times the Duke used his binoculars and, especially, in their reluctance to leave, eventually staying more than double the scheduled time (“Queen Delighted” 7). Sales of tickets and programs more than met the costs of mounting the event (Meagher 8–9) and the charity concert held at the beach on the night of the carnival to make the most of the crowds also raised significant funds (“Queen in the Suburbs” 4). Bondi Beach looked spectacularly beautiful and gained considerable national and international exposure (Landman 183). The Surf Life Saving Association of Australia’s president noted that the “two factors that organisation could not hope to control—weather and cooperation of spectators—fulfilled the most optimistic hopes” (Curlewis 9; Maxwell 9). Conclusion Although it has been stated that the 58-day tour was “the single biggest event ever planned in Australia” (Clark 8), focussing in on a single event reveals the detailed decentralised organisation which went into both each individual activity as well as the travel between them. It also reveals how significantly responsible bodies drew upon volunteer labour and financial contributions from residents. While many studies have discussed the warm welcome given to the monarch by Australians in 1954 (Connors 371–2, 378), a significant finding from this object-inspired research is how purposefully Waverley Council primed this public reception. The little medal discussed at the opening of this discussion was just one of many deliberate attempts to prompt a mass expression of homage and loyalty to the sovereign. It also reveals how, despite the meticulous planning and minute-by-minute scheduling, there were unprompted and impulsive behaviours, both by spectators and the royals. Methodologically, this investigation also suggests that seemingly unprepossessing material remnants of the past can function as portals into larger stories. In this case, while an object biography could not be written of the commemorative medal I stumbled upon, a thoughtful consideration of this object inspired an investigation of aspects of the Queen’s visit to Bondi Beach that had otherwise remained unexplored. References Brawley, Sean. “Lifesavers of a Nation.” 3 Feb. 2007: 82. [extract from The Bondi Lifesaver: A History of an Australian Icon. Sydney: ABC Books, 2007.] Clark, Andrew. “The Queen’s Royal Tours of Australia Remembered: Reflection.” The Australian Financial Review 10 Sep. 2022: 8. Connors, Jane. “The 1954 Royal Tour of Australia.” Australian Historical Studies 25 (1993): 371–82. Conway, Doug. “Queen’s Perennial Pride in Australia.” AAP General News Wire 26 Nov. 2021: n.p. “Coronation Medals Presented to School Children: 6000 Distributed in Rockhampton District.” Morning Bulletin 12 May 1937: 6. “Costume Rule for Queen’s Bondi Visit.” Barrier Miner 18 Dec. 1953: 3. Curlewis, Adrian. “Letter.” Bondi Surfer: Official Organ of the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club 2.7 (1954): 9. Ford, Caroline. Sydney Beaches: A History. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2014. Ford, Caroline, Chris Giles, Danya Hodgetts, and Sean O’Connell. “Surf Lifesaving: An Australian Icon in Transition.” Australian Bureau of Statistics Year Book, Australia 2007. Ed. Dennis Trewin. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007. 1–12. Hardman, Robert. Our Queen. London: Hutchinson, 2011. <https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/OurQueen/DySbU9r0ABgC>. Jenkings, Frank. “Editorial.” Bondi Surfer: Official Organ of the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club 2.6 (1954): 1. Landman, Jane. “Renewing Imperial Ties: The Queen in Australia.” The British Monarchy on Screen. Ed. Mandy Merck. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2016. 181–204. Lawrence, Joan, and Alan Sharpe. Pictorial History: Eastern Suburbs. Alexandria: Kingsclear Books, 1999. Maxwell, C. Bede. “Letter.” Bondi Surfer: Official Organ of the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club 2.7 (1954): 9. Meagher, T.W. “The Royal Tour Surf Carnival Bondi Beach, February 6, 1954.” Bondi Surfer: Official Organ of the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club 2.7 (1954): 6–9. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A462, 825/4/6, Royal tour 1954—Medals for School children—General representations, 1954. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A1533, 1957/758B, Royal Visit, 1953–1954. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A1838, 1516/11 Part 1, Protocol—Royal Visit, 1948–1954. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A1838, 1516/11 Part 2, Protocol—Royal Visit, 1954–1966. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A6122, 1861, Government Heads of State—Royal Visit 1954—ASIO file, 1953–1958. Canberra: Australian Security Intelligence Organization. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A9708, RV/CD, Fly and Mosquito Control. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A9708, RV/CQ, Laundry and Dry Cleaning and Pressing Arrangements. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A9708, RV/DD Annexure 2, Minutes of Conferences with State Directors, 22 January 1953–14 January 1954. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A9708, RV/DD Annexure 3, State Publications. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A9708, RV/DD Annexure 15, Report by Public Relations Officer. National Archives of Australia (NAA): A9708, RV/T, Matters Relating to Dress. National Archives of Australia (NAA). Royalty and Australian Society: Records Relating to The British Monarchy Held in Canberra. Research Guide. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 1998. “N.Z. Surf Team in Dispute.” The Sydney Morning Herald 6 Feb. 1954: 15. “Queen Delighted by Carnival.” The Sun-Herald 7 Feb. 1954: 7. “Queen in the Suburbs: Waverley.” Sun 21 Jan. 1954: 4. “Queen’s Visit to Races: Drive in Suburbs.” The Daily Telegraph 6 Feb. 1954: 17. “Royal Tour Highlights.” The Mail 6 Feb. 1954: 2. Royal Variety Charity. “Coronation Year Royal Variety Performance.” London: London Coliseum, 2 Nov. 1953. <https://www.royalvarietycharity.org/royal-variety-performance/archive/detail/1953-london-coliseum>. “Royal Visit to Waverley.” Feb. 1954 [Royal Visit, 1954 (Topic File). Local Studies Collection, Waverley Library, Bondi Junction, LS VF] “Rude Mobs Spoil Happy Reception.” The Argus 8 Feb. 1954: 2. Sleight, Simon. Young People and the Shaping of Public Space in Melbourne, 1870–1914. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016. “Socialites in for Rude Shock on Royal Tour Invitations.” Daily Telegraph 3 Jan. 1954: 3. “Stage Set for Royal Surf Carnival at Bondi.” The Sydney Morning Herald 6 Feb. 1954: 15. “State House Rehearses Royal Opening.” The Sydney Morning Herald 27 Jan. 1954: 5. “Sydney.” Women’s Letters. The Bulletin 10 Feb. 1954: 18. The Age 24 Jun. 1897: 5. The Queen in Australia. Dir. Colin Dean. Australian National Film Board, 1954. “The Queen to See Lifesavers.” The Daily Telegraph 24 Aug. 1953: 12. “The Royal Tour.” Bondi Daily 30 Jan. 1954: 9. “Thrills for the Queen at Bondi Carnival—Stayed Extra Time.” The Sun-Herald 7 Feb. 1954: 1. Warshaw, Matt. The History of Surfing. San Fransisco: Chronicle Books, 2010. Wilson, Jack. Australian Surfing and Surf Lifesaving. Adelaide: Rigby, 1979.

Abstract Descended from two great clans—the Asante kings of (what is now) Ghana and the family of Sir Stafford Cripps—Kwame Anthony Appiah (1954–) was educated in Ghana and Cambridge. Having previously taught at Duke, Cornell, Yale and Harvard, he is presently a professor at Princeton University. Appiah has written numerous essays in the philosophy of language (Necessary Conditionals, 1985, For Truth in Semantics, 1986). Besides being a philosopher, Appiah is also an astute historian and anthropologist. Reflecting on the scope of his family— spanning Lebanon, Norway, Kenya, Thailand, Nigeria, and England—he argues against racial and cultural essentialism on the grounds that the history of marriages, trade, conquests, and migrations has thoroughly mixed and enriched races and cultures. His In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (1992) documents the complex varieties of African cultures and their histories. While recognizing the political utility of the rhetoric of identity, the book also analyzes its dangers. With Amy Guttman, Appiah is the author of Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race (1996). With Henry Louis Gates Jr. he is the editor of Africana: Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience (1999). His novel Avenging Angel was published in 1990 and reissued in 1991.

explores tensions between each poet’s representation of school and the use of their poetry as prescribed texts in the school syllabus. Subheadings: Four Poems about School presents readings of Lochhead, ‘Kidspoem/Bairnsang’; Meehan, ‘The Exact Moment I Became a Poet’; Clarke, ‘Running Away to the Sea -1955’; Duffy, The Laughter of Stafford Girls High. Poetry by Women in the Curriculum, and the Tortured Poem examines the impoverished range of poetry taught in English schools since the introduction of the national curriculum in England in 1988; critiques methods of assessment and how these may affect students’ long term appreciation of curriculum poets. Gillian Clarke and Carol Ann Duffy in the AQA Syllabus 2004-11 (Series 4) assesses the prescribed texts by these two poets, and contrasts them with set texts by Simon Armitage and Seamus Heaney. Curriculum Interventions by Lochhead and Duffy explores controversy sparked by Duffy’s prescribed poem ‘Education for Leisure’ and her riposte, ‘Mrs Schofield’s GCSE’. It also examines Lochhead’s participation in the Scottish Studies Working Group. To conclude, Questioning Cultural Consensus, articulates the poets’ resistance against covert, consensus-building agenda of prescribed curricula and their promotion instead of education as an instrument of individuation.