1920
Old Manor House in Royal Fort due for demolition
The Old Manor House in Royal Fort is demolished to make space for new educational facilities.
Victoria Rooms endowed to the University
George Wills buys the Victoria Rooms and endows it to the University for use as the Students' Union.
E. F. Francis appointed acting Vice-Chancellor
Professor E. F. Francis is appointed acting Vice-Chancellor, following the retirement of Sir Isambard Owen.
Past and future Vice-Chancellors include:
Professor Conwy Lloyd Morgan
Sir Isambard Owen
Dr Thomas Loveday
Professor A. M. Tyndall
Philip Morris
Professor John Edward Harris
Professor Arthur Roderick Collar
Professor Alexander Merrison
Professor Peter Haggett
Sir John Kingman
Professor Eric Thomas
Porter starts 52-year career
Dan Scully joins the University as a porter. Thirty-two years later he is promoted to Head Porter and in 1973, after 52 years and six vice-chancellors, the longest-serving member of staff starts his well-earned retirement.
Jolly hockey sticks
Women excel on the sports field. Popular sports at the time include netball, hockey and running.
More sporting events in 1944, 1972 and 2002.
Students attend physiology lecture
A typically studious scene: students attend a physiology lecture.
See more examples of teaching in action: 1924, 1984, 1986.
Thomas Loveday appointed third Vice-Chancellor
Thomas Loveday is appointed third Vice-Chancellor of the University.
Past and future Vice-Chancellors include:
Professor Conwy Lloyd Morgan
Sir Isambard Owen
Professor E. F. Francis
Professor A. M. Tyndall
Philip Morris
Professor John Edward Harris
Professor Arthur Roderick Collar
Professor Alexander Merrison
Professor Peter Haggett
Sir John Kingman
Professor Eric Thomas
Saturday afternoon classes for miners
The University runs Saturday afternoon classes in winter for miners in subjects including mining calculations, science and mechanics.
First full-time librarian appointed
William Luther Cooper, an academic with a distinguished military career, is appointed as the first full-time paid University Librarian on a salary of £600 a year.
Explosives demonstration draws large crowd
Big bangs heard at Long Ashton on 5 February are not, as first thought, a battleship being blown up in the Bristol Channel but the Bristol University Research Institute conducting experiments in removing tree roots using explosives. The public demonstration attracts a large audience.
Kitchener Fund announces scholarships
The Council of the Lord Kitchener National Memorial Fund announces it will award 65 scholarships to the sons of officers and men of His Majesty's forces. These include Edward Thomas Frederick Elbury, an alumnus of the University.
Bristol pioneers adult education
The Department of Extra-Mural Adult Education Studies is established with first Hubert Philips, then J. H. Nicholson (the future first Vice-Chancellor of Hull University) as part-time director. In 1926, W. E. Salt is appointed as the first resident tutor for the surrounding counties.
See more examples of teaching in action: 1921, 1984, 1986.
By George!
Great George, the nine-and-a-half ton bell in the tower of the Wills Memorial Building, is cast and quickly gains a reputation as the finest E-flat bell in Europe. It remains to this day one of the deepest-toned bells in the world.
Read about Great George in 1992.
The King and Queen open the Wills Memorial Building
On 9 June, the Wills Memorial Building is opened by King George V and Queen Mary, pictured here with the University's Chancellor, Viscount Haldane. The final cost of the building work is £501,566 19s 10d (approximately £21 million in today's terms).
Staff assembly
The entire staff of the University assemble for a photograph in Royal Fort Gardens.
Work starts on the H. H. Wills Physical Laboratory
On 27 April, work starts on the Henry Herbert Wills Physical Laboratory. Reporting on the event, the Western Daily Press writes that:
'Investigations into the structure of matter, both by x-rays and other means is full of great possibilities and it is work of this kind to which this Department of the University may be expected to make great contributions.'
Official opening of the H. H. Wills Physical Laboratory
The Henry Herbert Wills Physical Laboratory is opened by the father of nuclear physics, Nobel Prize-winner Ernest Rutherford. At the time the lab was one of the largest and most completely equipped of its kind in the world.
See how our labs have developed: 1910, 1930, 1937, 1942, 1943, 1950, 1975, 1995 and 1999.
The City Museum and the Wills Memorial Building
The City Museum and the Wills Memorial Building in the 1920s
Park Street in the 1920s
A typical view of Park Street in the 1920s.
Wills Hall opened by Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill opens Wills Hall student residence. The hall was constructed in a style know as Strawberry Hill Gothic by Sir George Oatley, who also designed the Wills Memorial Building. The building was paid for by Sir George Wills, a son of Henry Overton Wills, in memory of George's brother Henry Herbert Wills.
On opening the building, Churchill signed a document that stated:
'I Winston Spencer Churchill MP, Chancellor of the University of Bristol, declare there be no finer hostel than Wills Hall among the universities of the British Empire?.
Read more about Churchill in the following years: 1929, 1941, 1945, 1949, 1951 and 1954, Empire'.
Churchill becomes the University's third Chancellor
Winston Churchill, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and future Prime Minister, is appointed the University's third Chancellor.
Read more about Churchill in the following years: 1929, 1941, 1945, 1949, 1951, 1953 and 1954,
Past and future Chancellors include:
Henry Overton Wills III
Richard Burden Sanderson Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane of Cloan
Henry Somerset, the 10th Duke of Beaufort
Professor Dorothy Hodgkin
Sir Jeremy Morse
Right Honourable the Baroness Hale of Richmond
Honorary degrees for renowned writer and composer
Writer Walter de la Mare and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams receive honorary degrees from the University.
