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Annual General Meeting, 2012
The Friends of Canons Park invited all to their AGM, was held at the Arnold House Activity Centre, Donnefield Avenue, Edgware HA8 6RH, on Wednesday 16th May starting at 8 p.m.
All those attending were invited to stay on for a short but fascinating talk about the first Duke of Chandos, by Dr. Aaron Graham. Aaron grew up on the Canons Park Estate, and was recently awarded his doctorate in history by the University of Oxford. For this he spent three years researching politics, warfare and finance in Britain during the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Much of his work focussed on James Brydges, the first Duke of Chandos, who made his fortune as Paymaster-General to the British Army between 1705 and 1713, and who subsequently built the mansion at Canons that preceded the present building, now part of the North London Collegiate School. Yet Canons was built upon massive corruption - the profits raked off the public accounts by Chandos being re-directed into expensive artwork and architecture, or re-invested in risky financial schemes. Some may be aware of how Chandos spent his money, but few know exactly how he made it. Aaron's talk will lift the veil on many of the facts - how Chandos acquired his fortune, how he spent it, and ultimately how he lost it!
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