Jane received an Honours Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the Society for Home Students (later St. Anne's College), Oxford. Following graduation Jane became Sub-editor of the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, when E.J. Carter was editor. This work was cut short by the outbreak of war in 1939 and she then joined the Ministry of Shipping (afterwards War Transport) as a temporary administrative Officer with the rank of Assistant Principal. Later she was promoted to Principal.

Of her success in the Ministry this anecdote may amuse the reader. It was written by Eric Lidderdale to his uncle Hector, Eric never having seen Jane.

"Two very senior officials of the War Transport dined with me last night (Calcutta, 2-4th May 1945) and talked with unstinted praise of one Jane L. They were amazed I should not know such a beautiful, talented member of the clan. Can you help? After all that I heard I feel that one of my first duties on my next visit home should be to meet her. They more or less implied that the only reason that the troops got any supplies was because of Jane. They also said that she had been offered a permanent post in the Civil Service."

Her experience in the Planning Section of the Allocation of Tonnage Division (by then a temporary Principal) led to her transfer in 1946 to the Office of the Lord President of the Council, then Herbert Morrison. He had been asked by the Labour P.M., Clement Attlee, to think out how best to get the country on its feet again and was gathering round him a few Administrative Class Civil Servants with planning experience. Jane was the most junior. Varied and fascinating work, much of it done as secretary or joint secretary of several Cabinet Committees.

While at the Office, during the fuel crisis of the severe winter of 1946-1947 Jane had the privilege, unusual for a woman, of sharing with the Secretary of the Cabinet, Sir Norman Brook, the Secretaryship of the Prime Minister's Fuel Committee. Later she was appointed by the Prime Minister Secretary of the Committee of Enquiry into the law and practice relating to Charitable Trusts (the Nathan Report on Trust Law).

She again worked with Herbert Morrison on the organization of the Festival of Britain, which took place in 1951. For this work she was awarded the OBE in 1952. She was appointed secretary and head reseracher for the Nathan Report on Trust Law in 1952 before leaving the Civil Service the next year. From 1953-1960 she undertook commissioned enquiries into the education and employment of graduates, and two reports on employment and, later, one on education followed.

Since then she has gave most of her time to voluntary work in Kensington. Jane joined the council of management of the Byham Shaw School of Art in 1961, and became its chairman in 1970. In 1963 founded and became chairman of The Kensington Day Centre for frail old people. Only in 1988, at the age of 79, did she resign from these Chairmanships.

In 1970 Faber published Dear Miss Weaver, a biography, written with a friend, Mary Nicholson, of her godmother, Harriet Weaver, the patroness of James Joyce. Jane was also guardian (1962-1982) of his schizophrenic daughter, Lucia, succeeding her godmother.

Reprinted from:

• Lidderdale, Robert Halliday, An Account of the Lowland Scots Family of Lidderdale, 1950 unpublished manuscript.
• Lidderdale, Halliday Adair, The Descendants of John Lidderdale 1783-1845, 1988 unpublished manuscript.

Jane Lidderdale was brought up in Hampstead, England, and was graduated from Oxford in 1934. In 1952 she was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) for work done in the Civil Service. A London resident for the past thirty years, she spent eight of them writing and researching of this biography. She confesses that ne of her more special skills is "playing patience." Even so, when other commitments threatened to hold up the book, she enlisted the aid of her friend, mary (Crawford) Nicholson, a novelist and teacher.

Reprinted from flyleaf of her book, Dear Miss Weaver, Harriet Shaw Weaver 1876 - 1961, published by the Viking Press in 1970.

Click on each picture below for a larger version.

Front cover of Dear Miss Weaver	Rear cover of Dear Miss Weaver	Inscription from Jane Lidderdale to Marshall Best, Viking's editor-in-chief

Papers collected by Jane Lidderdale during her work on the biography of Harriet Shaw Weaver and letters from Lucia Joyce are maintained in the James Joyce Collection at the University College London (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/special-coll/joyce.htm).

The papers of Jane Lidderdale, 1962 - 1969, comprising her correspondence with Margaret Storm Jameson and Rebecca West regarding Jane's memoir of Harriet Shaw Weaver are held at Women's Library, London (reference GB 0106 7/JLI) (http://www.aim25.ac.uk/).

Jane H. Lidderdale was Secretary to the British Association Study group on "The Education of the Graduate Scientist in School and University," sponsored by The British Association, supported by the Leverhulme Trust. Papers are held by London University, Imperial College Archives: Papers of Sir Patrick Linstead CBE FRS (1902-1966). (http://www.Ancestry.com).

Other Sources:
• Daniel Morgan's Genealogy Pages, Descendants of Thomas Morgan (http://www.mit.edu/~dfm/genealogy/morgan.html) and Descendants of William Lidderdale (http://www.mit.edu/~dfm/genealogy/lidderdale.html)