Jane Drew

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Dame Jane Drew DBE, FRIBA (24 March 191127 July 1996) was an English Modernist architect and town planner. She qualified at the AA School in London, and prior to World War II became one of the leading exponents of the Modern Movement in London. At the time she had her first office, with the idea of employing only female architects, architecture was a male dominated profession. She was a principled, independent and vigorous woman with the vision that architecture had to provide what was needed to improve the quality of life, and she was active in places and at times that needed this: in designing social and public housing in England and abroad, and after World War II which brought with it the need for new design. With her second husband Maxwell Fry she worked in West Africa designing schools and universities, and with Fry and Pierre Jeanneret, on the housing at Chandigarh, the new Capital of the Punjab. She designed buildings in Ghana, Nigeria, Iran and Sri Lanka, and she wrote books on what she had learnt about architecture there. In London she did social housing, buildings for the Festival of Britain, and helped to establish the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Everywhere she went she made friends and influenced all sorts of people who would remember her as much for her spontaneous kindness and interest as for her architecture. After retiring from practice she travelled and lectured abroad, receiving several honorary degrees. She received her DBE in 1996.

Contents

[edit] Life

[edit] Early Life 1911-1928

Jane Drew was born Joyce Beverly Drew in Thornton Heath, near Croydon in Surrey. Her father was Harry Guy Radcliffe Drew, an innovative designer of surgical instruments and the founder of the British Institute of Surgical Technicians: he was a humanist who 'despised the profit motive and abhorred cruelty', and his interests were music, travel and languages. Her mother was Emma Spering Jones, a school teacher, who when Jane was only four became lame for the rest of her life as the result of a road accident: but she continued to care well for her two daughters, encouraging them in her two main interests which were observation of nature and appreciation of art, and she had a keen business sense. Jane was educated at Woodford House School in Croydon then at Croydon High School. Among her friends at Woodford House were actresses Peggy Ashcroft and Diana Wynyard; and at Croydon High she was friends with the mural artist and book illustrator Barbara Jones (1912-1978), and the popular women's rights campaigner Nancy Seear, later Baroness Seear.

[edit] Pre-War 1929-1939

Jane studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (1929-1934). In 1933 she married architect James (Jim) Alliston, who had been a fellow-student at the AA. They won a competition for a hospital in Devon, after which she joined Alliston's practice. Their small practice (Alliston & Drew) was at 24 Woburn Square in London, and their principal work was housing in Winchester. Jane and Jim had twin daughters, born in 1937. Their marriage was dissolved in 1939.

[edit] Modern Movement

Jane Drew soon became involved in the Modern Movement, through the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), whose guiding spirit was the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, and became one of the principal founders of the Modern Movement in Britain, which was represented by MARS (Modern Architectural ReSearch), CIAM's British subsidiary. It was an association of architects, painters and industrialists, and its stated principle was the "use of space for human activity rather than the manipulation of stylised convention". She later said about it "we thought we could plan the world." It was through this group that she met and made great friends with Henry Moore, Le Corbusier, Elizabeth Lutyens, and most importantly Maxwell Fry (one of the co-founders of the movement) whom she married in 1942.

[edit] War Time 1939-1945

Architecture at the time was a male-dominated profession. When Jane practised alone in the war years between 1939 and 1944, her office was at 12 King Street, St. James, London. Initially she employed only female architects, though later this changed. Her work included

  • 1940 Walton Yacht Works at Walton on Thames, near London
  • 1941 Kitchen Planning Exhibition, Dorland Hall, Lower Regent Street, London
  • 1941-1943 Consultancy to the British Commercial Gas Association 'designed by women for women'
  • 1942 The 'Britain Can Make It' exhibition at Olympia, London
  • 1943 The 'Rebuilding Britain' exhibition at the National Gallery, London
  • 1944 Temporary office at 12 Bedford Square after the King Street office was bombed (with Riehm Marcus, Trevor Dannatt, K. Linden and F.I. Marcus)
  • 1944-1945 Assistant Planning Adviser to the Resident Minister for the West African Colonies

[edit] Post-War 1945-1959

After the war she into business partnership with Maxwell Fry as Fry, Drew and Partners, then later with others. They had an office at 63 Gloucester Place, London (above which she and Max had a flat which was their home), and in 1962 a second office was opened at 3 Albany Terrace. She was in practice with Max until 1977.

  • 1945-1950 Practised as Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew
  • 1946-1962 Jane was founder-editor and joint editor (with Trevor Dannatt) of the Architects' Year Book, brainchild of publisher Paul Elek
  • 1948 Ghana: Mampong Teacher's Training College and Prempeh College in Kumasi (with Maxwell Fry)
  • 1949 Hospital building for the Kuwait Oil Company
  • 1949 Harlow New Town: The Chantry and Tanys Dell estates: 3- & 4-bedroom terraced houses (with Maxwell Fry)
  • 1950 Ghana: Adisadel College and Wesley Girls' High School in the town of Cape Coast (with Maxwell Fry)
  • 1950 Passfields flats in Lewisham, London (with Maxwell Fry)
  • 1950 Interior design for the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) at 17/18 Dover Street, London (with Maxwell Fry, and the collaboration of Eduardo Paolozzi, Nigel Henderson, Neil Morris and Terence Conran). Jane played an important part in its relocation to Carlton House Terrace in 1964.
  • 1951-1958 Practised as Fry, Drew, Drake and Lasdun (with Lindsey Drake and Denys Lasdun)
  • 1951 New Schools building, the Waterloo entrance tower and the Riverside Restaurant[1] for the Festival of Britain (with Maxwell Fry)
  • 1951-1954 In collaboration with Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, Jane and Max worked as senior architects on much of the housing of Chandigarh, the new capital of western part of the divided Punjab in India. Jane had persuaded Le Corbusier to involve himself in the project and it was he who redesigned Albert Meyer's original master plan. However, Le Corbusier left most of the design to Jane, Max and Jeanneret, and they had the collaboration of a team of Indian architects (including B. V. Doshi) on this vast project.
  • 1953-1959 Buildings in Ibadan, Nigeria: the University College (with Maxwell Fry), the Cooperative Bank, and an Assembly Hall and Maisonettes
  • 1953 Flats at Whitefoot Lane, Downham Estate, Lewisham, London (with Maxwell Fry)
  • 1955 Housing at Masjid-i-Suleiman (the first oil site in the middle east) for Oil Company employees and planning of a new oilfield town at Gachsaran, South Iran
  • 1955-1958 Worked with Denys Lasdun on the design of the Usk Street Housing Estate in Bethnal Green, London
  • 1958-1973 Practised as Fry, Drew and Partners (with Frank Knight and Norman Creamer)
  • 1959 Cooperative Bank, Offices and Shop, Lagos, Nigeria
  • 1959 Cooperative Bank, Assembly Hall and Maisonettes, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • 1959 Gulf House, Gulf Oil Company, London

In the summer of 1959, one of Jane's daughters married the son of her friend Kathleen Raine. Jane was a direct descendant of the neo-platonist Thomas Taylor [2] who Kathleen studied and wrote about.

[edit] Later Years 1960-1978

[edit] Retirement 1978-1996

Max had retired in 1973, but Jane continued working until 1978. They already had a country 'retreat' called "The Lake House", at Rowfant near Crawley in Sussex, where they often spent leisure time with friends and family. It was a large house, to which they added a studio-flat which literally overlooked the fishing lake, and Jane presided over many memorable house and garden parties. Eventually they decided to sell it and find somewhere easier to manage in their retirement. They were staying with a friend in Cotherstone in Teesdale, Co. Durham when they heard that the next door house was for sale and almost immediately bought it. So in 1983 Jane and Max moved to "West Lodge". They remained active, in making a new home, with gardening and village social life. There was a studio for Max - their living room was dominated by Max's mural of the River Balder Railway viaduct. They were visited by and visited their many friends, and Jane enjoyed cooking for her guests. When she came to London she used to stay with Kathleen Raine (whose son James Madge married Jane's daughter Jenny) in Chelsea. She stayed with her friend Shireen Mahdavi in the U.S.A., with her sister Dorothy Morrison in Johannesburg, South Africa, and gave lectures.

In 1984, Jane gave a great party for Max's 85th birthday, at nearby Lartington Hall: there were over 200 guests - friends and family. Two years later she was presented with a 150-page book of gratulari inscribed "Jane B. Drew, architect. A tribute from colleagues and friends for her 75th birthday, 24th March 1986"[3]. The list of contributors is

Max died in 1987, and a few years later Jane knew she had terminal cancer, but she never lost her kindness, enthusiasm and joie de vivre. She died in 1996 and was buried next to her husband near the Saxon church of St. Romald in Romaldkirk.

[edit] Friends

Among her personal friends and associates were, to name a few: architects Alvar Aalto and Ove Arup[75]; artists Delia Tyrwhitt[76], Eduardo Paolozzi, Marcel Duchamp, Barbara Hepworth, Roland Penrose, Ben Nicholson and Lynn Chadwick[77]; art and design promoters Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Peter Gregory[78]; playwright and theatre producer Benn Levy; poet, literary critic, and philosopher of modern art Herbert Read; writers Richard Hughes and Kathleen Raine; politician-reformers Jennie Lee, Lord Goodman and Pandit Nehru; actress Constance Cummings; and composer Elizabeth Lutyens.

[edit] Reminiscences

Frank Knight (joined Max and Jane in 1947, became a partner in 1960) told this story:[79]

  • Jane always wished to be addressed as Miss Drew and never as Mrs Fry. At a lecture she was introduced by a Chairman who was ignorant of her wishes and he said 'Ladies and Gentlemen, I have great pleasure in presenting Mrs Fry who will address you on the subject of...', he got no further as Jane was tugging his coat and when he bent down she whispered in his ear. Apparently he didn't hear very well because he then announced 'Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very sorry to tell you that Mrs Fry is unable to be here this evening due to a previous appointment, but Miss Drew has kindly come in her place and I am sure she will prove a very acceptable substitute.'

She must have been thinking of Max at the end:[80]

  • ...only once, when she went to hospital for the last time, did she introduce herself as Mrs Fry, to the bewilderment of the receptionist, who had written her down under her own name.

[edit] Tribute

Extracts from the poem by Maxwell Fry[81] which introduces the 1986 "Tribute":

She was naughty when small
And has not changed at all
At over three score and ten
She is, as then.
...Let her be beautiful and kind;
Creative, managing, assertive but quite modest too;
Firm but good-hearted; skilled but not too refined;
Intent of purpose; reasonable; true.
Let her be imaginative but in judgement calm;
Careless of figures but prompt in the account;
Superior to pain, but quick to furnish balm;
Indifferent to rank or persons but a fount
Of care and inspiration for the needier kind;
Fond and protective in the family weal;...
She shall have also a unique power to understand,
A fearful energy, and a childlike faith to guide
Her through life's labyrinthine maze,
Impulses as quick as lightning, and though some fail
And miss their mark, others will soon erase
The error, and she will triumphantly prevail.
Look around you and you will see them all in action.
Turning the weak to strong, the loss to gain,
And high among them to my great satisfaction,
Blow me, if I do not see my Jane.

[edit] Awards and Honours

[edit] Positions

[edit] Publications

  • Jane and Maxwell Fry, Architecture for Children. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1944. Republished 1976 as Architecture and the Environment.
  • Jane B. Drew. ed. Architects' Year Book. London: Paul Elek, 1945 ISBN-13 978-0236154319. Jane Drew was the founder of the Architects' Year Book.
  • Jane B. Drew, ed. Architects' Year Book 2. London: Paul Elek, 1947.
  • Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, Village Housing in the Tropics with special reference to West Africa, In collaboration with Harry L. Ford. London: Lund Humphries, 1947.
  • Jane B. Drew and Trevor Dannatt, eds. Architects' Year Book 3. London: Paul Elek, 1949.
  • Jane B. Drew and Trevor Dannatt, eds. Architects' Year Book 4. London: Paul Elek, 1952.
  • E. Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone. London: Batsford, 1956.
  • E. Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, Tropical Architecture in the Dry and Humid Zones. New York: Reinhold, 1964.
  • Jane and Maxwell Fry, Architecture and the Environment. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1976. ISBN-13 978-0047200205 Republication of 1944 Architecture for Children.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Kiran Joshi, Documenting Chandigarh: The Indian Architecture of Pierre Jeanneret, Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Beverly Drew. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing in association with Chandigarh College of Architecture, 1999. ISBN-10 189020613X
  • Sile Flower, Jean Macfarlane, Ruth Plant, Jane B. Drew, architect: A tribute from her colleagues and friends for her 75th birthday 24th March 1986. Bristol: Bristol Centre for the Advancement of Architecture, 1986. ISBN 0-9510759-0-X

[edit] Sound Recordings

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mary Banham & Bevis Hillier (eds), A Tonic to the Nation: The Festival of Britain 1951 (London: Thames & Hudson, 1976), p. 103 Jane Drew The Riverside Restaurant
  2. ^ The exact line of descent is: Thomas Taylor(born 1758)>Mary Taylor(1787)>Samuel Beverly Jones(1827)>Emma Spering Jones(1873)>Jane Drew(1911)
  3. ^ Bristol Centre for the Advancement of Architecture, Jane B. Drew, architect. A tribute from colleagues and friends for her 75th birthday, 24th March 1986 Editorial Group: Sile Flower, Jean Macfarlane, Ruth Plant. ISBN 0-9510759-0-X
  4. ^ Contre-Amiral Jean Sabbagh (brother of French film actor/director Pierre Sabbagh) was a Submariner and in World War II was advisor to General de Gaulle
  5. ^ Sile Flower, BA. first met Jane at Croydon High School, worked in the Foreign Office and was in 1950-1959 official translator with the Shell Company in East Africa
  6. ^ Miss Donaldson was daughter of the sub Dean of Westminster
  7. ^ Maurice Down OBE was a cousin of Jane's father Harry Guy Radcliffe Drew, and on the death of Mr. Drew became Chairman of Down Brothers, the family firm of surgical instrument designers and manufacturers
  8. ^ Leonie Cohn, Hon.FRIBA. was a freelance audio-visual producer
  9. ^ Hugh Crallan was a contemporary of Jane's at the AA
  10. ^ Michael Thornley was a contemporary of Jane's at the AA
  11. ^ Ruth Plant, M.Litt., RIBA., AA Dip. was a contemporary of Jane's at the AA
  12. ^ Phyl Dobbs was friend of Jane's ever since her husband Richard was a young paedriatrician involved in helping Jane with her twin children
  13. ^ Ed Lewis was an architect and planner with GLC housing experience
  14. ^ Dorothy Morland was Director of the ICA (1968-1970)
  15. ^ Maud Hatmil was born in British Guyana, nanny to Jane's children and later housekeeper and family friend
  16. ^ Diana Rowntree, AA Dip., RIBA, was Architecture Correspondent to The Guardian, and first met Jane at the AA
  17. ^ Rodney Thomas was a painter. He taught at the Chelsea School of Art and other colleges
  18. ^ John Terry was an architect, the only member of Jane's staff in 1940
  19. ^ Trevor Dannatt, Dipl. Arch., MA., RA., FRIBA. was one of Jane's staff in 1943 at King Street, St. James. With Jane, he founded the Architects' Year Book
  20. ^ Riehm Marcus was an artist and illustrator, born Helen Riehm. She was the wife of architect F.I. Marcus, and together they were always known as Marcus and Riehm. They were refugees from Hitler's Germany in World War 2
  21. ^ Anthony Bell, author, worked in publishing for Lund Humphries, and for Jane at Gloucester Place
  22. ^ Norman Creamer was an RAF pilot in World War 2 and joined Max and Jane in 1946, becoming a partner in 1960. He worked entirely on the overseas projects
  23. ^ Peter Dunican, CBE., FEng., FICE., FIStructE, FiEI. was Chairman of Ove Arup Partnership
  24. ^ Luke Gertler, son of the artist Mark Gertler, stayed at the flat in Gloucester Place when he was a child, and made friends with Jane's children. He later studied music and became a teacher
  25. ^ Frank Knight, AA Dipl Hons., ARIBA., MRTPI Hons. joined Fry, Drew in 1947 and became a partner in 1960. He worked with Jane at Masjid-i-Suleiman in Iran
  26. ^ John Lomax joined Jane's office in 1948 and worked with Max and Jane on housing in Ghana
  27. ^ Dr. Rex Cheverton and his wife Joan worked with Jane in Nigeria from 1947
  28. ^ Stephen Macfarlane, AA DIPL. Hons., FRIBA. taught architecture in Bristol
  29. ^ Lleky Papastavrou and her sister Penny Hughes were daughters of the author and poet Richard Hughes. Max, Jane and the twins often stayed with the Hughes' in Wales, and the Hughes family once "borrowed" Gloucester Place when Max and Jane were abroad. Jane's twins went to the same boarding school as Lleky and Penny
  30. ^ Otto Koenigsberger was Development Planner at University College, London. He was an Architectural Scientist
  31. ^ Theo Crosby, ARA., RIBA., FSIAD. worked at Gloucester place just after the war, and as a thinker and writer showed that he was very much aware of the place and value of Max and Jane in the Modern Movement
  32. ^ Norman Starrett, B.Arch(Liverpool) and his wife Kay both started as junior partners with Max and Jane, in the 1951 Festival of Britain team
  33. ^ Geoffrey Knight, FRIBA. worked in Ghana (then the "Gold Coast") for Jane and Max 1947-1957 and 1964-1966
  34. ^ Minnette da Silva, RIBA., SLIA., from Sri Lanka met Max and Jane at a CIAM meeting and had personal recollections of Jane after Chandigarh
  35. ^ Ian Robertson, FRICS. worked with Jane on the Torbay Hospital, and later became coordinator for the interior of the liner QE2
  36. ^ Dennis Lennon, CBE., MC., FRIBA., FRSA., FSIA. had been an army major in World War 2. He worked for Max and Jane on an Officer's Club in Accra, Ghana. He later designed the sets for the Richard Strauss opera Capriccio at Glyndebourne
  37. ^ Sean Graham was a writer and film-maker, and he was in charge of the Ghana Film Unit when he met Jane
  38. ^ John Godwin, OBE., FRIBA., FNIA., AA Dipl.(Hons), AI.Arb., and Gillian Hopwood, FRIBA., FNIA., AA Dipl. both worked with Max and Jane in Nigeria, on the University College of Ibadan, using "appropriate technology", i.e. cheap local materials
  39. ^ G. D. Khosla, BA(Cantab). was a Punjab High Court Judge. He was instrumental in selecting Le Corbusier and later Jane and Max for the Chandigarh project
  40. ^ Peggy Angus, Artist and Designer
  41. ^ Mrs. Eulie Chowdhury worked with the Corbusier team on the Chandigarh project
  42. ^ Shireen Mahdavi, BSc., MA. first met Jane at her boarding school. She felt forced by the new régime to leave Iran, and is now (2008) an adjunct professor in the Department of History at the University of Utah, specialising in Iranian social and economic issues
  43. ^ Neil Wates was director of Wates, the builders
  44. ^ Mary Pickard lived near Jane and Max, in Sussex. She was a Civil Servant in the Overseas Development Administration until 1983, married to Sir Cyril Pickard, KCMG.
  45. ^ Jane Flower's husband Patrick Flower was a Civil Engineer. She recalls how Jane helped their son who had multiple sclerosis
  46. ^ Marion Gair, MA. worked for Peter Gregory at publishers Lund Humphries
  47. ^ Peter Rawsthorne was an architecture correspondent to the News Chronicle
  48. ^ Michael Raymond was a consultant psychiatrist, interested in wild life, travel and opera. He wrote a poem for Jane Rowfant Lake
  49. ^ Delia Tyrwhitt first met Jane and Max in Chandigarh in 1953
  50. ^ Sir Paul Reilly, Director of the Design Council
  51. ^ Arnold Whittick was an art and architectural historian
  52. ^ Elizabeth and Mervyn Dalley, CMG., MA(Cantab) first met Jane in Iran at Masjid-i-Suleiman, and Jane stayed with them there. They remained friends, and years later Jane converted their old rectory house in England. Mervyn wrote a note on Jane's work in Iran
  53. ^ Romi Khosla, BA(Cantab)., AA Dipl., son of High Court Judge G. D. Khosla (a friend of Jawaharlal Nehru), was an accountant who, under the influence of Jane, changed to architecture
  54. ^ Roza Jacobs was Vice President and Fashion Director of Macy's store in New York "...a good and loyal friend"
  55. ^ Noma Copley was a jewellery designer, earlier married to the painter William Copley
  56. ^ Kenane Barlow (wife of Peter Barlow) "and the five Barlows" wrote Jane an affectionate poem. Peter had met Jane on the Torbay express to London
  57. ^ Sergei Kadleigh, AA(Hons)., Dipl.ARIBS. was a Russian-born British architect
  58. ^ Maria Luisa Plant Zaccheo, Dr.Arch.(Rome), ARIBA. was an associate in Jane's office 1971-1980
  59. ^ Jean Medawar was a pioneer in family planning. Jane designed the Margaret Pyke Centre for her
  60. ^ Arun Das worked in Jane's office on the Margaret Pyke Centre
  61. ^ Jai Rattan Bhalla, FRIBA., FHS., FVI., HFAIA. was President of the Indian Institute of Architects. Although not involved in the Chandigarh project,, He wrote an appreciation of Jane's interest in the training of young Indian architects
  62. ^ Walter Laing Macdonald Perry, Lord Perry of Walton, OBE., FRSE., pharmacologist and vice-chancellor of the Open University (1921-2003). Lord Perry was instrumental in the planning of the OU, and Jane was his development architect
  63. ^ Mike Lacey was Director of Lovell Construction on the OU project at Milton Keynes
  64. ^ Nigel Wood, MA., C.Eng., MICE., MCIOB. was a craftsman builder who worked for Jane on the OU project at Milton Keynes, St Pauls Girls' School, Carlton House Terrace and Jane's own flat and offices
  65. ^ Peter Greenham, CBE., RA., PPRBA. was a renowned portrait painter
  66. ^ Sunita Kanvinde was a student of painting and graphics in Delhi and was helped by Jane when she came to England
  67. ^ Tony Forrest, DA(Edin). did a sketch of Jane in her kitchen. He was a building contractor and artist, specialising in combining architecture and landscapes with human elements
  68. ^ Frances Webb Leishman was the American wife of a retired British diplomat and merchant banker, and a freelance journalist. She once interviewed Jane for Woman's Hour
  69. ^ Robert L. Bliss, FAIA. was Dean of Architecture at the University of Utah when, in 1975, Jane visited Salt Lake City in her lecture tour of the USA
  70. ^ Viren Sahai, OBE., DipTP., ARIBA. was born in India, studied architecture, painting and town planning and was Chairman of the Bristol Centre for the Advancement of Architecture
  71. ^ Sir John Summerson, CBE., FBA. contributed an extract from an essay on Batty Langley
  72. ^ Patrick Harrison, CBE. came to know Jane when he was secretary of the RIBA
  73. ^ Ebenezer Akita, AA Dip., ARIBA., FGIA. was President of the Ghana Institute of Architects
  74. ^ Olufemi Majekodunmi, D.ARch., ARIBA., FNIA., FI.Arb. was President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, and reviewed Jane's work on the University of Ibadan
  75. ^ Jones, Peter: "Ove Arup: Master Builder of the Twentieth Century", Yale University Press, 2006
  76. ^ Delia Tyrwhitt (sister-in-law of idealist town planner Prof. Jacqueline Tyrwhitt FILA., AMPTI., SP. Dip.) first met Max and Jane in Chandigarh in 1953
  77. ^ Major English sculptor Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003) did a huge mobile for Jane and Max at the 1951 Festival of Britain
  78. ^ Eric Gregory (known as Peter Gregory) was chairman of the important publishers Lund Humphries, and provided his blessing and financial backing to many projects involving modern art and design in various forms
  79. ^ Jane B. Drew, architect, A tribute from her colleagues and friends for her 75th birthday 24th March 1986, page 42
  80. ^ The Independent (London), 1st August 1996, Obituary by Shusha Guppy
  81. ^ Jane B. Drew, architect, A tribute from her colleagues and friends for her 75th birthday 24th March 1986, page 1

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