Papers of James Lumsden

Comprises papers regarding Lumsden's his work as the first non-medical HMI for special schools for handicapped children, a two-week placement for the Foreign Office investigating the work of the BFES in Germany after the Second World War; and his post-retirement employment at the Institute of Education as Senior Lecturer in the 'Education of Physically Handicapped Children'.

Born 3 October 1904 in Dundee; attended Dundee High School 1910-1922; attended University of Edinburgh 1922-1928 (English Literature and Language 1926; BEd 1928; teacher training for primary and secondary certificates of Scottish Education Department 1927); awarded a one year scholarship by the Scottish National Committee for the Training of Teachers to attend the University of Columbia 1928-1929 where he studied comparative education and educational psychology; taught at Moray House School (English and Language in the Secondary Department); appointed HMI 1931 as the first non-medical Inspector of Special Schools for handicapped children; in 1945 became Staff Inspector; served on Minister of Education's Advisory Committee on Handicapped Children; Assessor on the Examination Boards of the National College of Teachers of the Deaf and College of Teachers of the Blind; Liasion Inspector for various training colleges and University Departments of Education; served as a UNESCO representative on a joint World Health Organisation and UNESCO Working Party on 'mentally subnormal' children; member of the British Psychological Society (Fellow from 1944); reviewed the work of the BFES in Germany after the Second World War; completed a five-month visit to Australia and New Zealand at the request of their governments in 1954; spent three months in USA to survey teaching practices in deaf schools in 1959. In 1965 was appointed Senior Lecturer at the IOE in the Education of Physically Handicapped Children

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Collected by James Lumsden's family and given to the archives.

The Institute of Education also holds the records of the BFES (Ref: BFE), the records of the Institute Archives (Ref: IE), the papers of Arabella Kurdi (Ref: AK) and Mimi Hatton (Ref: MH) and the records of the Jack Kitching Archive (Ref: KIT). 'The Young Handicapped Child' by Mary Sheridan and James Lumsden issued by the Nursery School Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1965-1968 (Ref: AF/3/20).

The National Archives will hold records relating to Lumsden's work as an Inspector for special schools for handicapped children