Sir Ivison Stevenson Macadam (18 July 1894 – 22 December 1974) was the first Director-General of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and the founding President of the National Union of Students.
He was also the editor and chairman of the advisory board of the Annual Register of World Events; a longtime member of the editorial board of the Round Table and sat on the governing bodies of King's College, London and other organisations.
Early life Born 18 July 1894 at Slioch, Lady Road, Edinburgh, he was the second son of Colonel William Ivison Macadam, (1856–1902), and Sarah Maconochie MacDonald (1855–1941). He was the grandson of Stevenson Macadam, (1829–1901).
Educated at Melville College, Edinburgh, he was the second King's Scout to be invested in Scotland, and the first Silver Wolf Scout in Scotland, awarded for "services of the most exceptional character by gift of the Chief Scout". He was invested by Chief Scout and founder Sir Robert Baden-Powell.
World War One He served in World War I, attached to the City of Edinburgh (Fortress) Royal Engineers. He was the youngest major in the British Army as Officer Commanding Royal Engineers, Archangel, North Russian Expeditionary Force, the ill-fated Allied military campaign 1918–1919 following the armistice with Germany, and the final major military action of WWI (Mentioned in dispatches [MID] three times). He was awarded the OBE in 1919Who's Who, Annual Biographical Dictionary, Adam & Charles Black, London, 1975 at the age of 24 for his service there."in recognition of valuable services rendered in connection with Military Operations in Archangel, North Russia." Dated 11 November 1919. Appointment to be an Officer to the Order of the British Empire, Military Division. Supplement to the London Gazette, 3 February 1920
University education
Ivison, like many of his generation who served in World War I, attended university at a later age than normal after his wartime service.Ivison Macadam:Who was he? Christine K Jones, Research Fellow, Dept. English, King's College, London NUS Connect, 31 January 2012. http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/nus/Ivison-Macadam-who-was-he/ He studied at King's College London and Christ's College, Cambridge.Who's Who, 1975.
National Union of Students
He was the founder president of the National Union of Students, being elected their first president in 1922 when the Inter-Varsity Association and the International Students Bureau merged at a joint meeting held at the University of London."In nine months nearly every University and University College in England and Wales had asked to join." Memorandum on the Work and History of the National Union of Students, September 1928, page 4, Ivison Macadam Archives, King's College London (KCL). He was the then president of King's College Union Society.He assumed office as president of it in 1921 (later to become the KCLSU): King's College London 1828–1978, A History Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Foundation of the College , Gordon Huellin, University of London King's College, 1978
After his experience in the First World War in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science he stated his vision of the role that the NUS would play.
The NUS's founding constitutionArticles of Association and Rules stipulated that it must operate as a non-political and non-religious student organisation as the factional differences among nations were felt to have led to the recent world conflict. The non-political stipulation was dropped in 1969.The constitution was amended after the presidential election of Jack Straw (later UK Foreign Secretary) who had campaigned for the non-political clause's elimination in order to oppose the Vietnam War.
From its outset the NUS founders were also noteworthy in ensuring that women were involved at its highest levels through a constitutional requirement."At least three women must be on both the Council and the Executive" Memorandum on the Work and History of the National Union of Students, September 1928, page 9, King's College Archives Ivison Macadam collection. For instance May Hermes was involved from the outset and became a long serving Trustee.NUS and Internationalism in the 1920s Dr Sarah Hellawell, https://www.nus.org.uk/en/who-we-are/our-history/nus-and-internationalism-in-the-1920s/
Macadam was involved in the formation Confédération Internationale des Étudiants (International Confederation of Students) bringing together student bodies from the original member countries of the League of Nations,NUS and Internationalism in the 1920s, Dr Sarah Hellawell including the US, and subsequently others.The CIE Executive Committee met in Britain in 1925 after Macadam had asked Lady Nancy Astor, the first woman MP (Plymouth), if she would lend her large country house Cliveden to accommodate it, which she readily agreed to do. The CIE inaugural conference was held in Prague in 1921.The debate there was dominated by whether German students should be allowed to participate in the new international organisation. The French delegates and number of other countries felt that since the Germans had been enemy combatants and invaders of their lands in the recent war that they should not be permitted to participate. Macadam and the British delegation felt that the stated aims of the CIE required their participation. This was ultimately agreed. He chaired until 1929 the CIE's commission responsible for International Relations and Travel.In 1922 and again in 1923 Macadam led a successful tour of British students to Germany only four years after their nations had been at war to foster the importance of former combatants not remaining antagonists, when as he stated the "national animosities in Europe still kept most people within their own frontiers." Memorandum on the Work and History of the National Union of Students, September 1928. page 25, Ivison Macadam Archives, King's College London (KCL).
He stepped down as the NUS President in December 1922 to serve as Honorary Organising Secretary, which became in effect their senior executive A Short History of the National Union of Students 1922-2011 Mike Bell until 1929. While still at Cambridge, he was able to obtain the financing for a permanent headquarters for the NUS at Endsleigh Street, London, W.C.1.(opened in 1925).Through the gift of Bertram Hawker.Hawker had written The Times to encourage the foundation of an international student organisation. Macadam had responded to the newspaper that such a body had already been formed. Hawker phoned the porter's lodge at Christ's College, Cambridge, asked to speak to Macadam and suggested they meet, where he asked in what tangible way he could help this new initiative? Macadam's response was by helping purchase a headquarters for the NUS. Bertram Hawker then donated the entire funds to acquire the freehold of two adjoining buildings at 3 Endsleigh Street, London, W.C.1. Ivison Macadam Archives, King's College London (KCL) Its headquarters remained there until the properties were sold in 2010 to acquire their new building Macadam House at 275 Gray's Inn Road, London. In 1927 Macadam spearheaded a successful fundraising appeal to endow the Union and place it on a sound financial footing."He used his impressive contacts to raise funds for NUS and provide it with a firm financial footing. The union’s fundraising appeal of 1927 was supported by many distinguished figures, including Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin; a former premier, Lord Balfour; and a future one, Ramsay MacDonald." Ivison Macadam:Who was he? Christine K Jones, Research Fellow, Dept. English, King's College, London NUS Connect, 31 January 2012. http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/nus/Ivison-Macadam-who-was-he/ He was one of the original trustees of the National Union of Students and remained one until the end of his life.
The main students' union building and Faculty of Engineering at King's College's Strand campus is named the Macadam Building in his honour (opened 1975).When the time came to name the building "two students on the Union Society, Paul Cadogan and Nigel Bamping, came forward with a suggestion...Why not call it the 'Macadam Building' and thus pay tribute to a man who had given distinguished service to King's...? The College was unanimous in accepting this,... Sir Ivison died a few months later; but his widow Lady Macadam...performed the opening ceremony: King's College London 1828–1978, A History Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Foundation of the College , Gordon Huellin, University of London King's College, 1978.
In 2004, KCLSU President Michael Champion instituted the Macadam Cup, a day of sporting excellence between medical and non-medical students at the college.
A new NUS National Headquarters was named Macadam House in 2013 at 275 Gray's Inn Road, London, WC1X 8QB.Sustainability at Macadam House, http://www.nus.org.uk/en/greener-projects/greener-nus/nus-sustainable-office/
Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House)
He was the first Secretary and Director-General of the Royal Institute of International Affairs serving as its chief executive between 1929 and 1955 based at Chatham House, 10 St. James's Square, London, S.W.1.
A London County Council blue plaque on Number 10 states "Here lived Three Prime Ministers WILLIAM PITT Earl of Chatham 1708–1778 Edward Geoffrey Stanley EARL OF DERBY 1799–1869 William Ewart GLADSTONE 1809–1898". The Grade I listed building designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1730s was named on its gifting to the institute after the first of these three Prime Ministers (Pitt the Elder) as Chatham House. Macadam oversaw the growth of the institute from William Pitt's former Cabinet Room where as Prime Minister Pitt had presided over his Cabinet overlooking St. James's Square located above the entrance hall.Chatham House: Its History and Inhabitants, C. E. Carrington rev Mary Bone, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2004.
To enable the institute to increase the breadth and range of its activities, Macadam steadily expanded office and meeting space for the Institute by acquiring the freehold properties adjoining 10, St James Square (Chatham House).These included 6, Duke of York Street in 1931, and 9, St James's Square, then the Portland Club, in 1943. With these acquisitions the Institute owned the freeholds covering a rectangle of properties fronting on 10 and 9 in St. James's Square on the south running north bordering Duke of York Street on the east to Ormond Yard on the north (the mews immediately south of Jermyn Street). Chatham House: Its History and Inhabitants, C. E. Carrington, Revised and updated by Mary Bone, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2004.