Royal Institution for its founding were given by the Society for Bettering the Conditions and Improving the Comforts of the Poor, under the guidance of philanthropist Sir Thomas Bernard and American-born British scientist Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. Since its founding it has been based at 21 Albemarle Street in Mayfair. Its Royal Charter was granted in 1800. Throughout its history, the Institution has supported public engagement with science through a programme of lectures, many of which continue today. The most famous of these are the annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, founded by Michael Faraday. The Royal Institution was founded as the
Thomas Davy (politician) Western Australia and resumed his law practice, subsequently becoming a partner in the legal firm of Northmore, Hale, Davy and Leake, and was appointed a King's Counsel in March 1932. Davy sat on the High School's Board of Governors from 1920 and as its chairman in 1929 instigated the change in the school's name to Hale School. In 1924 Davy was endorsed by the Nationalist Party to contest the Legislative Assembly seat of West Perth, against the sitting member Edith Cowan, who was herself a Nationalist. It was not unusual at the time for the Nationalist Party to endorse more