Trustees and Governance
The London Library is a self-supporting, independent institution. It is a registered charity whose sole aim is the advancement of education, learning, and knowledge.It was originally incorporated by Royal Charter on the 13 June 1933, which a supplemental Royal Charter granted on 21 October 1988. On the 6 July 2004, the Queen granted the Library a new Royal Charter, which revoked both the 1933 and 1968 charters It has its own byelaws and the power to make or amend its rules. It has a royal patron, an elected president and vice presidents, and is administered by an elected board of a maximum of 15 trustees, including the Chairman and the Hon. Treasurer. The Earl of Clarendon was the library's first president, Thackeray was its first auditor and Gladstone and Sir Edward Bunbury were on the first committee. The Belgian freedom fighter and former Louvain librarian Sylvain van de Weyer was a vice-president from 1848-1874. (Van de Weyer's father-in-law Joshua Bates was a founder of the Boston Public Library in 1852.)
A vigorous and long-serving presence in later Victorian times was Richard Monckton-Milnes, later Lord Houghton, a friend of Florence Nightingale. Dickens was among the founder members. In more recent times, Lord Clark and T. S. Eliot have been among the library's presidents, and Sir Harold Nicolson, Sir Rupert Hart-Davis and the Hon Michael Astor have been Chairmen.
In 1956 the Library suddenly received a demand from the Westminster City Council for rates (despite being registered as a tax-free charity), and the Inland Revenue was also involved. Most publishers then donated free copies of their books to the library. The final appeal was turned down by the Court of Appeal in 1959, and a letter in The Times of 5 November from the President and Chairman (T. S. Eliot and Rupert Hart-Davis) appealed for funds. An auction of manuscripts from many authors on 22 June 1960 raised £17,000 and £25,000 respectively; enough to clear debts and legal expenses of £20,000. At the sale T. E. Lawrence items from his brother fetched £3,800, Eliot’s The Waste Land fetched £2,800, and Lytton Strachey’s Queen Victoria £1,800, though 170 inscribed books and pamphlets from John Masefield fetched only £200, which Hart-Davis thought "shamefully low". The Queen and Queen Mother both gave some rare and valuable old books.
In 1981 the patron was HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Lord Annan was president. The vice-presidents have included Lord Lyttelton, Sir Isaiah Berlin, Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, Lord Kenyon, Lord Rayne, Hon. Sir Steven Runciman, Dame Veronica Wedgwood, and Dame Rebecca West. The chairman was Philip Ziegler, and the committee included: Correlli Barnett, Bamber Gascoigne, Lewis Golden, John Gross, Duff Hart-Davis, Sir Charles Johnson, Sir Oliver Millar, Anthony Quinton, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, and Claire Tomalin.
The current president of the Library is Sir Tom Stoppard. The Chairman of the Trustees is Bill Emmott.
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