Calendar: 1985-1986 Page 12

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 11 For King's there followed two decades of change In 1903 the religious test for all teachers except teachers of Theology was abolished and in 1908 by the King's College Transfer Act all but the Theological Faculty was incorporated in the University By curious compromise the Theological Department while not part of the University remained on the Strand site holding property on that site as something of Siamese twin to the rest of the College which was then known as University of London King's College If incorporation guaranteed financial security it brought with it the requirement that the College shed number of King's long standing commitments In 1909 the Medical School severed its link and by 1913 had entirely removed to the new King's College Hospital in Denmark Hill where it came under the governance of the Hospital Management Committee King's College School similarly severed its link The Strand School moved out to Brixton where it became fully dependent on the London County Council William Braginton founded two St George's Colleges for men and women to continue provision of commercial and technical education Other departures were the schools and departments that taught Oriental Slav and African languages to the newly founded School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies in 1915 and the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1916 King's College for Women was also affected Following upon the recommendation of the Haldane Commission the Arts and Science Faculties moved to the Strand in 1915 to make the College genuinely coeducational for the first time In the same year the then Home Science Department transferred to the newly acquired site in Campden Hill as King's College for Women Household and Social Science Department where in 1928 it was constituted as separate School of the University under slightly abbreviated title At the time this disappointed those who had envisaged large multifaculty college for women in Kensington and it left some doubt in the minds of those like Sir John Atkins and Lady Meyer who had worked energetically to found the Household and Social Science Department His work as house physician at Guy's Hospital had left Sir John in no doubt about the desirability of providing course capable of training teachers of nutritional science and hygiene but he felt the very new department to be financially exposed In the event he had nothing to worry about Campden Hill flourished and developed offering courses in such subjects as biotechnology food science and physiology In 1953 the College was granted royal charter as Queen Elizabeth College The inter-war years also saw financial crisis at Chelsea Polytechnic as the South Western Polytechnic had been re-named in 1922 The Polytechnic had from the turn of the century entered candidates for the University's external examinations Its success in this area together with the social composition of its students was felt by some to compromise the ideals of improving technical education and the general educational facilities of the working man The matter culminated in the withdrawal of financial support by the City Parochial Foundation and was not finally resolved until in 1956 the College became college of advanced technology Subsequently and in common with other colleges of advanced technology Chelsea moved towards independence as university in its own right This was not to be however and in 1966 it became School of the University of London position formally established by royal charter in 1971 As Chelsea College it developed long-standing interests in pharmacy and electronics and new ones in science education and nursing studies