SERIES PP/1

BIOGRAPHICAL PAPERS 1829-1996

This series comprises eight files, a number of which divide into sub-files and some into sub-sub-files

PP/1/1 Ancestry 1829-1978

PP/1/2 Personal Papers 1895-1940

PP/1/3 Personal Papers 1941-1973

PP/1/4 Honours 1973-1986

PP/1/5 Articles and Photographs 1960-1996

PP/1/6 Diaries 1939-1991

PP/1/7 Obituaries 1992

PP/1/8 View From a Long Chair 1981-1984

The series covers the whole of Jack Pritchard’s personal, as opposed to public or working, life and his ancestry, his naval and university careers, correspondence with friends during and after World War I, health matters, overseas travel, family life, honours awarded to him, articles about him, his diaries, and obituaries of him.

John Craven Pritchard was born in 1899 the youngest of the four children of Clive and Lilian (née Craven) Pritchard. He was brought up in Hampstead and educated at Oundle School. During World War I he served on HMS Lion, part of the fleet which escorted the German navy to Scapa Flow. On leaving the Navy Jack Pritchard took up a place at Pembroke College Cambridge and graduated with a degree in Engineering and Economics. His first job was with Michelin, first in Clermont-Ferrand and later in Manchester. His later working life is dealt with elsewhere in the collection. Jack Pritchard died in 1992.

PP/1/1 ANCESTRY 1829-1978

This file contains six sub-files of papers relating to both sides of Jack Pritchard’s family, with the majority from his father’s side

PP/1/1/1 Pritchard Family Tree 1713-1935

PP/1/1/2 Andrew Pritchard 1829-1978

PP/1/1/3 Andrew Goring Pritchard 1910-1919

PP/1/1/4 Clive Fleetwood Pritchard and Lilian Pritchard (née Craven) 1893-1913

PP/1/1/5 Hugh W. Pritchard and William Titford 1884-1885

PP/1/1/6 Craven family 1884-19??

PP/1/1/1 Pritchard family tree 1713-1935

One item.

PP/1/1/2 Andrew Pritchard 1829-1978

The sub-file contains six items including a copy of a letter from Michael Faraday to Andrew Pritchard. Andrew Pritchard was Jack Pritchard’s great grandfather and a noted microscopist.

PP/1/1/3 Andrew Goring Pritchard 1910-1919

Andrew Goring Pritchard, Jack Pritchard’s grandfather, was a leading light of the Association of Municipal Corporations. This sub-file contains three items including newspaper cuttings of a speech by Herbert Asquith paying tribute to A.G. Pritchard and a typescript autobiography of A.G. Pritchard.

PP/1/1/4 Clive Fleetwood Pritchard and Lilian Pritchard (née Craven) 1893-1913

This sub-file on Jack Pritchard’s parents contains six items which include newspaper cuttings relating to Clive Pritchard’s election as mayor of Hampstead, a pocket notebook used by Lilian Pritchard as a diary, and a single sheet passport from 1913 signed by Sir Edward Grey.

PP/1/1/5 Hugh W. Pritchard and William Titford 1884-1885

Although Hugh W. Pritchard and William Titford were from different sides of the family and different generations (Hugh was Jack Pritchard’s uncle and Titford his great-great-grandfather) the nine items in this sub-file reveal the artistic streak present in both sides of Jack Pritchard’s family, containing as it does poems and lyrical magazines in which both men had an interest.

PP/1/1/6 Craven family 1884-19??

Contains seven items including newspaper cuttings of stories, articles and obituaries of various members of the Craven family who hailed from Yorkshire.

PP/1/2 PERSONAL PAPERS 1895-1940

This file comprises 11 sub-files

PP/1/2/1 A.F. Mummery 1895-1909

PP/1/2/2 World War I correspondence 1917

PP/1/2/3 Royal Navy 1918-1919

PP/1/2/4 Pembroke College, Cambridge 1919-1922; papers relating to Jack Pritchard’s university career

PP/1/2/5 Michelin 1922-1923

PP/1/2/6 Correspondence with Louise Goepfert 1929

PP/1/2/7 Early married life 1924-1932

PP/1/2/8 79 Platt’s Lane, Hampstead, 1926-1934

PP/1/2/9 Jack Pritchard’s health 1933-1936

PP/1/2/10 Correspondence with Cambridge University Appointments Board 1939

PP/1/2/11 Miscellaneous personal papers 1920-1940

The contents cover Jack Pritchard’s naval career, his time at university, his first job, early family life, and Jack and Molly Pritchard’s homes before they moved to Lawn Road, Hampstead.

PP/1/2/1 A.F. Mummery 1895-1909

Contains five items including obituary notices of and reviews of books by A.F. Mummery, the mountaineer. The connection with Jack Pritchard is not clear.

PP/1/2/2 World War I correspondence 1917

Contains nine items including seven letters from two friends, Bobby Buchanan and Thomas Eric Lawes, serving in France in World War I. Some of the letters are particularly poignant and one letter from Lawes is dated just seven days before he was killed in action.

PP/1/2/3 Royal Navy 1918-1919

Divided into five sub-sub-files

PP/1/2/3/1 Royal Naval College, Keyham

PP/1/2/3/2 Papers from aboard HMS Lion

PP/1/2/3/3 Correspondence with Lilian Pritchard from HMS Lion

PP/1/2/3/4 Naval aptitude tests

PP/1/2/3/5 Address delivered by Admiral Sir David Beatty, GCB, GCVO, DSO on board HMS Lion, on 24th November 1918

The contents relate to Jack Pritchard’s naval training at Keyham, conduct reports and a diary from aboard HMS Lion during the last months of World War I, and a large number of letters to his mother from on board ship.

PP/1/2/3/1 Royal Naval College, Keyham

Contains three items including a magazine illustration showing Jack Pritchard’s group of trainees, a certificate from Keyham, giving Jack’s examination results, and his orders to join HMS Lion at Rosyth as a midshipman.

PP/1/2/3/2 Papers from aboard HMS Lion

Contains seven items including certificates of Jack Pritchard’s conduct aboard HMS Lion signed by his captain, a signals book giving the meaning of flags flown by a ship, a diary for 1918, and a manuscript chronology of Jack’s naval career written much later on Isokon Control Company notepaper.

PP/1/2/3/3 Correspondence with Lilian Pritchard from HMS Lion

Contains 58 letters written from aboard HMS Lion, which Jack Pritchard joined in March 1918, and from Scottish hospitals where

he recovered from mumps and an injured knee. The letters give a basic outline of life aboard HMS Lion, the tasks Jack carried out, and the rivalry on board ship between graduates of Keyham and Dartmouth naval colleges. Jack also asks after family and friends especially his brother Fleetwood Pritchard who served in Italy with the army and was awarded the Military Cross, his twin sisters, Nancy and May, and J.A. Wagener.

PP/1/2/3/4 Naval aptitude tests

Contains two test papers, one completed and marked.

PP/1/2/3/5 Address delivered by Admiral Sir David Beatty, GCB, GCVO, DSO on board HMS Lion, on 24th November 1918

Contains four copies (three of them photocopies) of Admiral Beatty’s address to HMS Lion as she prepared to escort the German fleet into Scapa Flow. He urges the ship’s crew to treat the Germans with "cold courtesy. Every time you feel sorry, remember what they have done in the past."

PP/1/2/4 Pembroke College, Cambridge 1919-1922; papers relating to Jack Pritchard’s university career

Divided into five sub-files

PP/1/2/4/1 Correspondence received whilst at Cambridge

PP/1/2/4/2 Youth magazine

PP/1/2/4/3 Cambridge to London canoe trip

PP/1/2/4/4 The Teapots and the Pavement Club

PP/1/2/4/5 Jack Pritchard’s degree certificate

These are concerned chiefly with Jack Pritchard’s social rather than his academic activities, in the Teapots Club and the Pavement Club, with a large amount of material relating to a canoe trip by canal from Cambridge to London and back again undertaken by Jack and fellow undergraduates. Also included is his degree certificate and copies of various college magazines.

PP/1/2/4/1 Correspondence received whilst at Cambridge

Contains two letters from friends of Jack Pritchard.

PP/1/2/4/2 Youth magazine

Contains six copies of a Cambridge University student publication with articles on politics and philosophy. Contributors include W. Leslie Runciman, Arthur Henderson MP, T.G.N. Haldane, Hugh Dalton, Jerome K. Jerome, and G.D.H. Cole.

PP/1/2/4/3 Cambridge to London canoe trip

Five items including correspondence, photographs, tickets for passage through locks, and newspaper cuttings relating to a canoe trip taken by Jack Pritchard and three university colleagues from Cambridge to London by canal.

PP/1/2/4/4 The Teapots and the Pavement Club

Contains 16 items including a programme of business of The Teapots, of whom Jack Pritchard was a trustee, notices of the founding, object and activities of the Pavement Club, and newspaper cuttings and photocopies of articles from The Granta regarding the Pavement Club. Also included are photographs, a poster and an article regarding the visit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to speak about Materialisations, a hoax concocted by the Pavement Club and revealed by the unfurling of a banner to a full house on the evening of the speech which read "Arthur Conan Doyle has failed to materialise."

PP/1/2/4/5 Jack Pritchard’s degree certificate.

One item.

PP/1/2/5 Michelin 1922-1923

Contained in three sub-sub-files

PP/1/2/5/1 Correspondence with Lilian Pritchard

PP/1/2/5/2 Newspaper cuttings

PP/1/2/5/3 Notes and papers on management methods

The contents are letters to Jack Pritchard’s mother from Clermont-Ferrand where he trained, newspaper cuttings regarding unemployment insurance, and papers and notes made by, or provided for, Jack Pritchard for his training.

PP/1/2/5/1 Correspondence with Lilian Pritchard

Contains 18 letters written by Jack Pritchard to his mother while he was training with Michelin at Clermont-Ferrand. The letters deal mainly with Jack’s social life, his house-hunting, and his difficulties with the French language. He refers occasionally to his work and opportunities for other overseas postings. Mention is made of family members and friends including Nancy Pritchard, Evelyn Pritchard, Wentworth Pritchard, John Dunn, Lindsay Bennet, Julian Fry and Oswald Kanthack.

PP/1/2/5/2 Newspaper cuttings

Contains three articles: ‘Powers of Highly Organised Industries’, 8.2.23, by A.V. Sugden, Chairman of Executive of the Wallpaper Manufacturers Association Ltd; ‘Need for Committee of Investigation on Unemployment Insurance’, undated, by J. Redman Ormerod; and ‘The Third Winter: A study of British unemployment’, 1.3.23, anonymous comment on The Third Winter of Unemployment, report undertaken in the autumn of 1922. All cuttings are from the Manchester Guardian.

PP/1/2/5/3 Notes and papers on management methods

Contains five items of notes provided for, or written by, Jack Pritchard during his training with Michelin at Clermont-Ferrand.

PP/1/2/6 Correspondence with Louise Goepfert 1929

Contains eight items. Jack Pritchard met Louise Goepfert through Beatrix Tudor-Hart and kept in touch with her when he was sent to Paris for three months by Venesta Ltd.

PP/1/2/7 Early married life 1924-1932

Jack and Molly Pritchard were married in 1924, with their two sons, Jonathan and Jeremy, being born in 1926 and 1928 respectively. This sub-file contains 25 items including marriage and birth announcements, photographs of their young family, and notification of their new address.

PP/1/2/8 79 Platt’s Lane, Hampstead 1926-1934

Contains 44 items of legal and financial correspondence with solicitors, builders, and engineers, and correspondence with the McLean sisters to whom the Pritchards later rented the property.

PP/1/2/9 Jack Pritchard’s health 1933-1936

Contains three items of correspondence with J.E.R. McDonagh regarding Jack Pritchard’s health, diet, and general well-being.

PP/1/2/10 Correspondence with University of Cambridge Appointments Board 1939

Contains four items of correspondence regarding Jack Pritchard’s reply to a University of Cambridge Appointments Board survey of the usefulness of a university education for businessmen.

PP/1/2/11 Miscellaneous personal papers 1920-1940

Contains six items of correspondence regarding a trip to Sweden, a draft letter to a potential employer, and a highly revealing psychological report on Jack Pritchard by the Pelman Institute.

PP/1/3 PERSONAL PAPERS 1941-1973

The file comprises six sub-files

PP/1/3/1 The Pembroke Chair 1953-1954

PP/1/3/2 Letters of goodwill following a car accident 1956

PP/1/3/3 Health matters 1965

PP/1/3/4 Papers relating to books about Jack Pritchard 1967-1968

PP/1/3/5 Overseas travel 1968-1970

PP/1/3/6 Miscellaneous personal papers 1965-1973

This period of Jack Pritchard’s life covers his work on the commissioning of a chair for the Master of Pembroke College, a serious car accident, overseas travel, and projects for a number of books about and a biography of Jack Pritchard, none of which came to

fruition.

PP/1/3/1 The Pembroke Chair 1953-1954

Jack Pritchard and his brother, Fleetwood, commissioned David Pye of the Royal College of Art to design and manufacture a chair for the Master of Pembroke College, S.C. Roberts, for use at high table. The sub-file contains 50 items of correspondence with Pye and Roberts and photographs of the chair.

PP/1/3/2 Letters of goodwill following a car accident 1956

In 1956 Jack and Molly Pritchard were involved in a serious car accident. Jack was the more badly injured of the two, suffering a fractured pelvis. Get well letters, 77 of which are collected here, poured in from family, friends, and colleagues in the furniture and design fields.

PP/1/3/3 Health matters 1965

Contains six items of correspondence regarding a condition from which Jack Pritchard suffered called Dupuytren’s contracture which causes the fingers to curl in towards the palm.

PP/1/3/4 Papers relating to books about Jack Pritchard 1967-1968

Contains 25 items including letters, synopses, and notes for planned books about Jack Pritchard’s design career and a biography of him by Richard Carr. None of the planned books was published.

PP/1/3/5 Overseas travel 1968-1970

Jack and Molly Pritchard made a world tour after the sale of Lawn Road Flats in 1968 and travelled to Australia, Hong Kong, India, and Sweden during these years, Jack giving lectures. This sub-file contains 37 items including correspondence and miscellaneous items relating to those trips.

PP/1/3/6 Miscellaneous personal papers 1965-1973

Contains nine items relating to a naval reunion, a BBC broadcast involving Jack Pritchard, and articles referring to severe weather conditions in the 1930s.

PP/1/4 HONOURS 1973-1986

Between 1973 and 1976 Jack Pritchard was honoured by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal College of Art, and the Royal Society of Arts. Three sub-files deal with each awarding body individually

PP/1/4/1 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1973

PP/1/4/2 Honorary Doctorate of the Royal College of Art 1974-1986

PP/1/4/3 Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts 1976

PP/1/4/1 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1973

Contains four items including biographical details of the nominees (other nominees that year included Anthony Blunt and Ian McHarg) and Jack Pritchard’s fellowship certificate.

PP/1/4/2 Honorary Doctorate of the Royal College of Art 1974-1986

Contains 14 items including convocation ceremony programmes, correspondence with Lord Esher regarding the award, and letters of congratulation.

PP/1/4/3 Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts 1976

Contains 13 items including a letter of award to Jack Pritchard, press releases, and letters of congratulation.

PP/1/5 ARTICLES AND PHOTOGRAPHS

1960-1996

This file contains 26 items, being newspaper and magazine articles about Jack Pritchard, or of interest to him, including reviews of his memoirs View From A Long Chair. Further material on the latter is to be found in File PP/1/8.

PP/1/6 DIARIES 1939-1991

An incomplete series of 46 pocket diaries (the years 1940, 1941, 1944, 1946, 1949-1954, and 1989 are missing) and an address book.

PP/1/7 OBITUARIES 1992

Contains 22 obituaries of Jack Pritchard taken from a number of national and local newspapers and from professional journals, and including some unpublished personal recollections of Jack by people who knew him.

PP/1/8 VIEW FROM A LONG CHAIR

1981-1984

Contains four sub-files

PP/1/8/1 Preliminary notes and background information

PP/1/8/2 Drafts

PP/1/8/3 General correspondence concerning publication 1981-1984

PP/1/8/4 Correspondence with Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd 1981-1984

The file deals with the publication of Jack Pritchard’s autobiography, View from a Long Chair, published by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd in 1984. Jack began to work on an autobiography in the late 1970s, writing to many friends and former colleagues for help in refreshing his memory of past events. This correspondence is to be found chiefly in Series PP/2, Series PP/8 and Series PP/9. Jack was greatly assisted by Fiona MacCarthy in the preparation of the text and in dealing with his publisher.

This file contains only some of the manuscript and typescript drafts; there are fragments elsewhere in the collection which may also be draft passages or notes for the book.

PP/1/8/1 Preliminary notes and background information

Contains 11 items, all undated, which are for the most part manuscript outlines of the contents of the book and chronologies of events.

PP/1/8/2 Drafts

Contains 11 sub-sub-files

PP/1/8/2/1 Life from a Long Chair

PP/1/8/2/2 Miscellaneous pages

PP/1/8/2/3 Michelin and early career

PP/1/8/2/4 Isokon and furniture

PP/1/8/2/5 PEP

PP/1/8/2/6 Isobar

PP/1/8/2/7 USA after Lebus

PP/1/8/2/8 Sailing and the Theta Club

PP/1/8/2/9 The birth, life and death of the Furniture Development Council

PP/1/8/2/10 Sale of L.R.F. [Lawn Road Flats] The end of a chapter

PP/1/8/2/11 The Year 1968

Each usually contains a bundle or bundles of typescript text, in some cases with an earlier manuscript text. Sub-sub-file PP/1/8/2/1 contains three sets of a lengthy manuscript with this title in Jack Pritchard’s handwriting which appears to have been a preliminary joint effort by Jack and Molly Pritchard, together with a typescript transcript sub-titled ‘Jack Pritchard talking to Anthony Harris’.

PP/1/8/3 General correspondence concerning publication 1981-1984

Contains 21 items of letters and notes relating to the preparation of the manuscript, approaches to publishers, selection of photographs, preparation of the index and other pre-publication business.

PP/1/8/4 Correspondence with Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd 1981-1984

Contains 94 items dealing with the business of the publication of View from a Long Chair by Routledge. Most of the correspondence is with Elizabeth Fidlon, the editor assigned by Routledge to the book, and with Norman Franklin, director of Routledge. Included is Jack Pritchard’s copy of the contract. The relationship between author and publisher was not always harmonious.