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It is with sadness we announce the recent death of Michael Oglesby CBE, a member (with his wife Jean) of the Lit & Phil from 2008 to 2018 – when he retired due to ill health.  During that time his Oglesby Charitable Trust most generously sponsored the production of our ‘John Dalton Selected Papers’.  125 copies of some of the papers which John Dalton presented to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society between 1794 and 1805 are in this hard-backed book, and we present them to some of our speakers when they talk on relevant subjects.

Michael Oglesby was a Manchester-based property entrepreneur, with an amazing philanthropic spirit, with much involvement in the life of the city and region.  His company Bruntwood apparently owns about 20% of the office space in Manchester, as well as being involved in similar activity in other Northern cities.  He started from scratch and became adept at using many of the old industrial buildings already in the area from the time of the industrial revolution.

He was also heavily involved in the civic life of Greater Manchester, including roles in the universities and local government.  The family’s Charitable Trust was set up in 1993, supporting a very wide range of charities all over the North West – 10% of the company’s profits still go into this Trust.  He also played a leading role at the Royal Northern College of Music, at Chetham’s School of Music, and at the Royal Exchange Theatre.  His family have now taken up the reins of his business and philanthropic commitments, continuing in Michael’s commitments to both commerce and community involvement. We send them our great sympathy for their loss.

The Lit & Phil’s annual Percival Lecture took place on Wednesday 15 May, hosted by the University of Manchester (they, along with the University of Salford and the Manchester Metropolitan University sponsor this lecture on a rotational basis once every 3 years).

We were very pleased that this year the event took place in the beautiful Grand Hall of the Whitworth Art Gallery. Indeed, we had not one, but two very prestigious speakers – Alistair Hudson, the Director of the Whitworth and Manchester Art Galleries, and Esme Ward, the director of Manchester Museum. Both had taken up their posts in early 2018 and have some very exciting plans for their respective institutions.

Their chosen title was ‘University cultural engagement in the 21-st century- case studies from the Directors of the Whitworth and Manchester Museum’ . We heard about how both the Art Gallery and the Museum are increasingly engaging with the citizens and students of Manchester, in ways which are relevant to the 21st Century, along with preserving our past heritages in both traditional and diverse ways.