Born out of the Sankey Commission's identification of the appalling living and working conditions of coal miners, the Miners' Welfare Fund was established by the Mining Industry Act 1920 to improve the social conditions of colliery workers. Administered by the Miners' Welfare Committee, it was totally dependent on a levy on the ton of the national output of coal and, from 1926, the levy on mineral rights for its income. Despite industrial unrest, world economics, parliamentary legislation, parliamentary enquiries and world conflict, the Committee and, from 1939, the Commission, in collaboration with the twenty-five District Committees, doggedly pursed their statutory remits of recreation, pit and social welfare, mining education and research into safety in mines. With such a geographically dispersed organisation and a fund without precedent, there were mistakes and 'misunderstandings' but, despite these, there were great achievements, including the Architects' Branch winning international recognition for its designs of pithead baths and the Rehabilitation Service for injured miners gaining national recognition for its quality of care. With the passing of the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act and the National Health Service Act in 1946, the rationale for the Miners' Welfare Commission became less clear and a decision was taken in June 1951 that it be terminated. The Miners' Welfare Act 1952 brought the fund to an end. During the thirty-one years of the fund, nearly GBP30,000,000 had been allocated.

Grudgingly acknowledged as the main mentor for the Courtaulds in building their art collections, the London and Paris art dealer, Percy Moore Turner, is now largely forgotten in this country. Yet, in France, he was honoured by the French Government with the award of Officer and then Commander of the Legion d'Honneur and feted by the Museums of France with specially struck medals. In this, the first biography of Percy Moore Turner, his granddaughter, who has access to his few remaining business papers and unpublished autobiography, has researched his life and career. Involved with the Bloomsbury Group from before the First World War, he was actively courted by Roger Fry at the end of the War to manage an artists' association for them when Turner was still serving in the Army. Instead, Turner promoted them when he opened his London Gallery with some success until 1925 when the Group, embarrassed by the financial losses caused by them to him, 'sacked' him on friendly terms. Born in Halifax in 1877 into a family of hosiers and haberdashers, Turner's life and career spanned two World Wars and periods of economic volatility. He tirelessly promoted modern French art internationally and built up a client base which included Dr Albert Barnes, John Quinn, Charles Lang Freer, Samuel Courtauld, Russell Colman and Frank Hindley Smith. A longstanding friend of Kenneth Clark, Turner strove to ensure that his own art collection was placed appropriately in museums and galleries throughout Britain and France, considering himself merely the custodian of the pictures he owned. Contents: 1. Childhood - Halifax to Norwich 2. Getting started 3. Gallery Barbazanges 4. Starting again - The Independent Gallery 5. Exhibitions and the Oxford Arts Club 6. The War Years 1939-1945 7. The Final Years 8. Photographs and Illustrations 9. Postscript 10. Acknowledgements 11. Abbreviations 12. Index