The Society of Merchant Venturers continued to maintain the faculty, and when advertising for lecturers and demonstrators, the advertisement described the faculty as the:

Faculty of Engineering (provided and maintained by the Merchant Venturer's Technical College).¹

The faculty continued to receive financial support from the Society of Merchant Venturers. For example, immediately after the First World War, the Society of Merchant Venturers created ten scholarships to cover the annual course fee of 30 guineas, for the 'sons of officers killed in the war, whose mothers or guardians are in needy circumstances'.²‌ Again in 1920, Wertheimer (Faculty Dean), informed Mayor of Bristol, George Bryant Britton, that the Society of Merchant Venturers had 'on his suggestion' decided to 'establish in their College a scholarship giving free education in the Faculty of Engineering to a young man of Bethune (Bristol's adopted town)'.³‌

Throughout their working relationship, the University was eager to keep good public relations with the Society of Merchant Venturers. For example, in 1928, the editor of Nonesuch (a magazine for Bristol alumni) asked the Faculty of Engineering for a short history to include in its latest edition. The Registrar, E. Geoffrey Francis, wrote a short piece, and sent it to Professor Andrew Robertson to approve. Francis queried whether there was 'any likelihood of [him] causing offense to any persons or persons by the final paragraph which refers to the Merchant Venturers'.⁴ Indeed, Robertson advised Francis that it would be 'inadvisable to refer in any way to the rivalry which existed between the University College and the Society in the days before the University was started'.⁵ The article, entitled 'Thirty Years Ago', hence presented a more harmonious picture of the faculty's founding.⁶

In 1921, the Society of Merchant Venturers agreed that they were 'no longer able to find such large sums for the College as it had found in the past', due to the 'large increase in income tax'. It was suggested that the Society of Merchant Venturers might be 'willing to give up its absolute control of the financial arrangements of the College'. While the Society of Merchant Venturers did not give up complete control, they did acknowledge that their funds were limited and could not finance the expansion schemes of the faculty.⁷ By 1929, the Society of Merchant Venturers altered their agreement with the University originally set out in 1910. The Society of Merchant Venturers agreed to continue maintaining the buildings for the faculty, however, they reduced their support to the faculty to three quarters of its previous amount and paid any grants received due to the faculty, to the University.⁸ The University would then pay the treasurer of the Society of Merchant Venturers the amounts due to them on 'account of faculty work'.⁹

The Society of Merchant Venturers continued to support the faculty until 1949.¹⁰ Discussions surrounding the renewal of the society's support for the faculty began as early as 1944, where the University agreed with the Local Education Authority on the use of the Technical College's buildings should the Society of Merchant Venturers cease control of them.¹¹ In 1947, the Society of Merchant Venturers suggested to the Local Education Authority that it proposed to 'allow the Society's Education Trust to terminate on 31 December 1950'.¹² By May 1948 it became clear that the Society of Merchant Venturers would 'desire to terminate the agreement with the University and [would] not wish to enter into a new one'.¹³ The 1948 Dean's Report reported on the 'end of the long connection between the Society of Merchant Venturers and Faculty of Engineering'. As of September 1949, the Society of Merchant Venturers were 'no longer be responsible for the administration of the college and the faculty', and the title Merchant Venturers Technical College ceased to exist.¹⁴ While the Society of Merchant Venturers stopped supporting technical education, the buildings in Unity Street were still used by the Faculty of Engineering until the completion of Queen's Building (Figure 4).¹⁵

‌

1. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM883, 'Appointment of a Lecturer in Electrical Engineering', January 1919
2. ^ Severn, The Faculty, p.51
3. ^ 'For Bethune Students', Western Daily Press, 11 November 1920, The British Newspaper Archive
4. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM883, E. Geoffrey Francis to Andrew Robertson, 2nd November 1928
5. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM883, Andrew Robertson to E.G. Francis, 3 November 1928
6. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM883
7. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM1521 Draft of Material Which Might be Incorporated in the Remarks of the Master From the Chair in MUTC Files 1899-1950
8. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM1521 An Agreement made in 1929 between the University of Bristol, of the one part, and the Master Wardens and Commonalty of Merchant Venturers of the City of Bristol, of the other part. (1929)
9. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM1521 An Agreement made in 1929 between the University of Bristol, of the one part, and the Master Wardens and Commonalty of Merchant Venturers of the City of Bristol, of the other part. (1929)
10. ^ BA, Society of Merchant Venturers/5/6/3/1 Report as to an interview with the University Grants Committee on Tuesday, 7 June 1921
11. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM1521 Badock to H.G. Tanner, 24 February 1944
12. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM1521 'Merchant Ventures' Technical College'
13. ^ University of Bristol Special Collections, DM1521 'University, City and Merchant Venturer's Technical College', 10 May 1948
14. ^ W.H. Severn, The Faculty of Engineering, pp.71-72
15. ^ Basil Cottle and J.W Sherborne, The Life of a University, (University of Bristol, 1951) p.71
16. ^ Sarah Whittingham, The University of Bristol: A History Sarah Whittingham (Portishead Press: Bristol, 2009) p.46