UNIVERSITY

0132 Imperial College Library

Although small, Imperial College library was well respected.  Indeed it was twinned with the Science Museum library; and eventually the two merged in much bigger premises.  Being a science library its main resource was journals not books.  It regularly took literally thousands of scientific journals. 

 Inside the library

Despite that there were still enough books arriving to occupy the time of the indexer and cataloguer -- Pat.  Amongst the others who became our close friends over the years, were Currie -- the College librarian who eventually moved to Canada and then back again to become librarian of the Ashmolean.  Then there was that sort of second-in-command Judith, who became a life-long friend.  She had the notable distinction of getting a fourth at Oxford -- and that beat my third!  This was because her boyfriend jilted her in the middle of her finals. Then there was Leonore, a Canadian who was at College with husband, John, who was PhD student.  He was in the group, working on lasers, headed by one of its Nobel prize winners --  (Denis Gabor, who obtained his Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on holography).  Finally there was the junior - Di - who later married Chester -- a lecturer at QEC and eventually a professor at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She stayed at the library (along with Judith) until retirement. 

The library staff; including Janice (on the left with the glasses), Pat, Di, Geoff, Jenny, Mr Walker, Leonore, Currie & Judith

Later still there was Jenny, Currie's secretary, who eventually married (and then divorced and then married again and divorced again!) Mike Jackson, who was then in the Parachute Brigade as an intelligence officer, He loved nothing more than jumping into the Malaysian jungle and slashing his way though the jungle for as week before he got back to base.  They were both Miles' god parents, and -- after Jenny's time -- as General Sir Michael Jacksom he went on to be the Head of the Defence Staff! 

There was also another Canadian, Janice. She was an enigma. Where Judith never found the partner to meet her exacting standards, Janice only required that hers had the same background as herself. Unfortunately, she was a Canadian Jew, whose family had come from Russia; and her uncle was the head of the Canadian Communist Party! She never did marry!

It was a very pleasant environment.  Indeed it was very cosy of an evening. Pat and I used be there alone -- and frequently made passionate love on the tables!

Pat at work in Queensgate

Later on, in my third year, they moved to temporary premises around the corner in Queensgate.  This was because the old library was being torn down as part of the building of the new C&G premises and as well as that of the new library. The old mansion house that accommodated the library in Queensgate spread over something like four floors, it was much less intimate.  Pat was on the top floor where cataloguing was done. As the work grew, and more workers joined, the family feeling of the library disappeared. That said, the original members kept in touch and even had a nostalgic reunion 20 years later.

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