1930s key dates - British Council

Lord Lloyd 1937. Photograph by Howard Coster

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	1930s key dates

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

Discussions in the 1920s and the early 1930s led to the setting up of a British Committee for Relations with Other Countries in 1934, later renamed the British Council. Working at first through British Embassies and High Commissions, the British Council set up its first overseas operations in Egypt and Portugal in 1938. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Government lent increased support to the work of the British Council, in recognition of its role in winning friends and countering enemy propaganda.

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1933

Setting up of a Joint Committee by the Board of Trade and the Board of Education, which recommends the creation of a new organisation to promote British education, culture, science and technology

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1934

Sir Reginald Leeper of the Foreign Office announces the setting up of a voluntary organisation to promote British culture, education, science and technology

Inaugural meeting, at which the organisation is named the ‘British Committee for Relations with Other Countries’

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1935

The organisation is renamed the ‘British Council for Relations with Other Countries’

Advisory committees for books, fine art, music, lectures, Near East and Latin America set up

First Foreign Office grant of £5,000 agreed

Formal inauguration by the Prince of Wales

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1936

The name of the organisation is shortened to its current form, the British Council

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1937

Expansion of work in the Middle East aided by an anonymous donation of £50,000

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1938

First overseas representatives appointed in Egypt, Portugal, Romania and Poland

The British Council takes over responsibility for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

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1939

Representatives appointed in Greece, Italy and Malta

The British Council successfully resists being absorbed into the newly formed Ministry of Information

Withdrawal from Poland after the outbreak of war

Resident Foreigners Section set up to take responsibility for work in the UK with refugees and servicemen from Allied countries

Start of campaign against the British Council in the 'Beaverbrook Press'

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