John Creasey, Librarian, and James McClelland, Secretary, 1977–98: Mixed Blessings

Both Roger Thomas and Kenneth Twinn had been DWT secretary and librarian. Combining the offices in one person had brought successes and failures. DWT's openness to employing a librarian from beyond Unitarianism, but well versed in dissenting history, led to an experienced and talented man's appointment. With a Unitarian secretary overseeing the trust, clashes might have been expected. Would the secretary exercise a watching brief which the librarian would resent? New Appointments After Twinn the trustees knew that they must make two appointments, a librarian and a trust secretary. The appointments sub-committee recommended in March 1976 that the secretary, representing DWT, should have ‘overall responsibility’, while the librarian had ‘full responsibility’ for DWL. The librarian's duties included the administration of DWL, preparation of the Bulletin , reporting to library committee meetings, dealing with correspondence and manuscript accessions, publicity, printing and occasional articles, book selections, and, finally, readers’ problems. In 1976 the Unitarian minister James McClelland was appointed DWT secretary from January 1977 at £3,570 a year (£900 in lieu of accommodation) and John Creasey was appointed librarian at £2,500 with accommodation provided. Both were expected to attend DWT's general meetings. On H. J. McLachlan's resignation in December 1976, David Arthur was elected to the trust. After fifteen years, E. Anthony Wrigley also resigned and, in 1977, Revd Fred Ryde (1914–92) and Dr Barrington (Barrie) Raymond White (1934–2016) became trustees. A second library strongroom was created in late 1976 and early 1977 from the caretaker's workroom, necessitating electrical rewiring of the entire building. Fred and Rosemary Kett became caretakers in September 1977. On Gwendolen Woodward's death in March 1978, the trustees recalled her warm personality. New College London's Library NCL's offer to donate ‘a substantial part’ of its library had been welcomed in March 1975. The college, which closed in June 1977, had a library, which was the heir of several dissenting academies, broadly in the Congregational tradition. The college governors, through Geoffrey Nuttall who taught church history there, offered the basic collection to DWL, with manuscript archives and other works. Such an acquisition necessitated considerable reorganisation, although the gift was accompanied by an endowment of £10,000.

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