SHORT HISTORY OF ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 19
history of the Club, it possessed invested funds equal in value
to the liabilities represented by the twenty then outstanding
Life Compositions.
The Spring of 1916 saw the installation of Miss Gulielma
Lister, F.L.S., as the first Lady President of the Club.
In the course of this Spring, Mr. William Cole's health again
broke down, this time permanently, and he was obliged to
relinquish all work and to retire to his seaside home at St. Osyth,
which he never again quitted. In an attempt to carry on the
activities of the Club unimpaired during an illness, which was not
at the first realised as being permanent, the Council appointed
a rota of its members, in January, 1917, to attend at the Strat-
ford Museum, in an impossible attempt to carry on its routine
curatorial work, as required by the terms of the agreement
with the West Ham Corporation ; while Mr. Christy again
assumed the editorship of the Essex Naturalist. At this time,
too (January, 1917) the second Assistant Honorary Secretary,
B. G. Cole, died, and I was accordingly given plenary secre-
tarial powers. I have continued to fill the office of honorary
secretary singlehanded from then until the present time, in
addition to taking over the task of editing the Essex Naturalist
from Mr. Christy, nominally as from the end of 1919, but actually
for some little time before then.
During the early part of 1918, various members of the Club
assisted the Government, at its request, in collecting informa-
tion with regard to the prevalence or not of Anopheline Mos-
quitos ; there being some apprehension of the spread of malaria
from infected troops returning from Mesopotamia and other
tropical districts.
In 1917 and 1918 attempts were made to obtain financial
assistance for Mr. William Cole, as it had now become evident
that there was no hope of his recovery to active health. A
grant of £50 in his favour was obtained from the Royal Society,
and subscriptions from members of the Club and other friends
to a fund known as the "William Cole Pension Fund" (which
ultimately reached a total of £612. 15s. od.) resulted in an allow-
ance of £100 per annum being paid therefrom to Mr. Cole. He
thereupon resigned the curatorship of the Stratford Museum
and the present writer was appointed in his place on November