John Ignatius McDonough, also known as 'Jack' or 'Mac' was from a Liverpool Irish background. After leaving school he became an engineering apprentice at Lever Brothers in Liverpool. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1943 aged 18 and served as Flight Engineer in Squadron 625 in 1944. After leaving 625 he was commissioned and posted to Egypt, by 1946 he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant.
He had a long and successful career in the RAF as an administration officer and also served in the USA and Germany. He was promoted to Wing Commander when he was Officer Commanding Provost & Security Services (OC PSS) at RAF Lyneham. He also worked for the Ministry of Defence in uniform procurement and was asked to model prototype uniform designs wearing his service medals.
Established the Reading Circle in 1893 and accompanied many Polytechnic Touring Association tours to Europe as a guide, including trips to Central Europe, Norway,
Normandy, the Mediterranean and the Tyrolean Alps.
He was also involved with the French Society, Rambling Club, German Society, Mutual Improvement Society and continued Quintin Hogg’s Sunday afternoon lecture series on Egypt, which Hogg died before completing.
His career included work as a clerk at the India Office from 1879–97, an income-tax assessor between 1903–13 and in 1919 he became Deputy Accountant-General. In 1921 he was awarded a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. He was also clearly esteemed by Hogg, who, in 1896, after only three years of the Circle, presented him with two bronze busts of Cromwell and Carlyle.
Educated at Whitgift Grammar School, Croydon and Lycée, St Omer. Graduated from London University with Honours in French in 1888. Also obtained an MA in Classics.
Carlo Brandelli was born in London and launched his first project Squire in 1992. It was a concept space that brought together design, art and fashion, including menswear. In 2003 he became Creative and Design Director of Savile Row tailor Kilgour. He was responsible for the brand concept, design and campaigns. He was voted Menswear designer of the year in 2005 by the British Fashion Council.
In 2015 he was guest designer for Pitti Uomo in Florence and designed an installation with a menswear presentation. Examples of his Unstructured Tailoring work were included in the 'Suit' section of the exhibition Items: Is Fashion Modern? at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 1 October 2017- 28 January 2018.
Started at the Polytechnic as a research assistant to Mr Howard Farmer and went on to join the teaching staff of the School of Photography.
Member of staff for 38 years.
Was awarded the National Cyclists' Union's Gold Badge of Honour.
1912 appointed manager of British Olympic Road Team and also managed teams at the World Championships.
Made an associate member of the Polytechnic in 1911.
A memorial clock, funded by donations was installed in the Cyclists' room.
Head of the Polytechnic's School of Music. Specialised in teaching piano.
In August 1929 the Governors decided to discontinue the school and Mr Bayliss took over the School as a private venture, called the Regent College of Music.
Geoffrey Davies was a Principal Lecturer in Journalism and Joint International Director for the School of Media, Arts and Design. He joined the University of Westminster on staff teaching journalism and television in 2002.
After Oxford University he trained with the Thomson Organisation in Newcastle on The Journal daily newspaper and then moved to broadcast journalism with Thames News, working as producer. After a brief spell in children’s television he was the original producer of Frost on Sunday at TV-am, a format that ran on several channels for the next 21 years. Moving to cable television he worked for Music Box (a British precursor of MTV), becoming Head of Production for the company, later working at BSB directing live studio for business television.
In his freelance career Geoffrey has worked at ITN (now ITV News) as a producer, as a business manager in a broadcast television services company, made corporate videos, conducted media training and marketed satellite delivery services to business, as well as writing about the industry and technology for national and trade press. Immediately before working at Westminster as a visiting lecturer, he was at the BBC at the start of what became BBC Three.
Formerly an External Examiner for media courses at Singapore Polytechnic, he has been a judge for the RTS News Awards and has chaired the Multimedia panel. He has recently re-joined the committee of The Media Society, on which he sat for several years from 2008.
Between 2008 and 2015, he was the Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, until the School was restructured. Between September 2015 and December 2016 he spent a semester teaching in each of Beijing and Hong Kong. In May 2017 he was elected by colleagues as the Teaching Staff Representative on the University Court of Governors. Davies left the University in January 2021 to take up a teaching post in China.