THE CHIEF

When I joined the Library Association in 1935 Lionel Roy McColvin was its Honorary Secretary. He was also Chief Librarian of Hampstead, a post I was myself to occupy some twenty‐five years later. During that quarter century, McColvin was the dominant figure in British public librarianship and became a world leader in our profession but, for nearly half the period, I knew little of him. The names that mattered to me in the late 1930s were those of tutors, examiners and the authors of textbooks and then, for six years, the important people were the generals, admirals and air chief marshals. After the war I had not had time to learn much about McColvin before I met him in 1947, when I was interviewed for a job in the City of Westminster Libraries.