SIR JOHN ILOTT

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 3, Issue 2, 1 August 1970, Page 124

SIR JOHN ILOTT

We have pleasure in including as part of this record a message from Sir John Ilott as Chairman of Trustees which was published in the Jubilee programme. For reasons of health Sir John resigns from this office as well as from the positions of Chairman of the Trustees' Committee for this Library and its Endowment Trust from 31 July 1970. Sir John's lengthy association with the Library and his gifts to it are known to many. On the formation of the Friends of the Turnbull Library in 1939 he became its first President and more recently his outstanding donation to the Library of a collection of illuminated manuscripts and other works was described in an earlier issue (Turnbull Library Record [first series] no xiv March i 960, pp 4-5). During the setting up of the National Library he was concerned that appropriate safeguards for Turnbull should be made when the National Library Bill was being considered, while appreciating the need for this development and the reasons for the inclusion of the Alexander Turnbull Library in the National Library. As the first Chairman of Trustees he presided over every meeting from the first in April 1966 until that of 30 June 1970 when he formally tendered his resignation. His services to the National Library and in particular to Turnbull as Chairman of its Committee and of the Trust in the critical first years will long be remembered.