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The Routledge Guide to
British Political Archives

This major new reference work provides an authoritative and wide-ranging guide to the many archives now becoming available for British political history since 1945. Compiled by a leading historian in association with the LSE Library, this comprehensive, easy-to-use and indispensable guide is an invaluable resource for researchers of modern British history.

Covering key aspects of British history since the end of World War II, and providing a fascinating insight into the nature and concerns of the post-war era, this guide provides details of over two thousand nongovernmental archives, including information on the history and scope of the archive, a survey of records available and notes on location and accessibility. Divided into two sections, the guide includes information on those organisations, institutions and societies that have made a significant impact on political and public life since 1945, as well as documenting the personal papers of over one thousand influential and important individuals. The first section of the book covers a remarkable range of statesmen, writers, campaigners, diplomats and generals whose papers are essential to an understanding of post-war Britain. The second section provides compact entries on a range of organisations, including the major political parties and national organisations, such as the TUC. It also includes information on a range of pressure groups, past and present, concerned with an array of social, religious, political and welfare matters.

A resource that will become a key research tool, packed with information that is unavailable elsewhere, The Routledge Guide to British Political Archives is an invaluable guide for the modern historian.

Chris Cook is former Head of the Modern Archives Unit at the London School of Economics. Editor of the best-selling Pears Cyclopaedia for over thirty years, he is also author of The Routledge Companion to European History since 1763, The Routledge Companion to World History since 1914 and The Routledge Companion to Britain in the 19th Century. He is currently compiling a major companion volume on European archives since the end of World War II.

The Routledge Guide to British
Political Archives

Sources since 1945

Chris Cook

in association with the LSE Library

First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

2006 Chris Cook and the LSE Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN10: 0415327407
ISBN13: 9780415327404

Contents

Appendix 3 Archives Relating to Northern Ireland
(compiled by Jane Leonard)

Acknowledgements

This book could not have been compiled without the help and support of Jean Sykes, Librarian at the London School of Economics Library. A special debt is also due to the staff of the archives department there, in particular to Sue Donnelly and her deputy, Anna Towlson. Thanks are also due to the many other staff there who provided secretarial and computing help so generously.

It would be impossible to thank by name all those persons in the archive world without whose help this volume either would not have appeared or would have looked very different. I am, however, especially indebted to the very many archivists who spent much time and effort in responding to numerous enquiries.

I have relied heavily on suggestions, advice and information supplied by academic colleagues and friends, both at the London School of Economics and elsewhere. On a personal level, I must particularly thank Richard Storey, Harry Harmer, James Robinson and John Stevenson.

Finally, the appearance of this volume owes much to the encouragement and practical support of Victoria Peters at Routledge. I must record my grateful thanks to her.

Chris Cook

London School of Economics

Introduction

This volume is the successor to the two-volume Longman Guide to Sources in Contemporary British History which appeared in the 1990s. Although much has changed in the past decade, its debt to my co-authors on the earlier volumes (David Waller, Jane Leonard and Peter Leese) remains high.

This new volume describes the archives (and careers) of more than 1500 individuals involved in British politics and public life after 1945 as well as the archives of numerous organisations, societies and pressure groups in the same period.

This volume has concentrated on describing those papers known to have been deposited, or where custodians of papers still in private hands have indicated their willingness to try to facilitate the needs of researchers.

The period covered by the survey starts in 1945 with the ending of the Second World War and the advent of the Attlee Government, the first-ever majority Labour government in Britain. These two events constitute a major watershed in modern British political history and thus provide a natural starting point for this volume. The volume has no final cut-off date hence it records the existence of very recent papers even though it is very rare for collections less than fifteen or twenty years old to be currently available for research. Many of the individuals included were active in politics before 1945. Others are still active. To discuss only material relating to their post-1945 careers would be misleading, and a brief account of pre-1945 records has therefore been given where appropriate. Researchers are reminded that fuller details of the pre-1945 material can frequently be found in the Sources in British Political History, 190051 series (cited in this volume as Sources).

The entries in this guide are, in general, arranged alphabetically, under the last known name of the individual concerned. Each entry has attempted to give brief career details followed by a description of the records which survive and notes on their location and availability. Most organisations are cited under their most recent name.

More detailed unpublished lists of archives both in repositories and libraries and in the custody of their originators may often be found in the National Register of Archives (NRA), now based at the National Archives in Kew. Where an NRA list is known to exist for a collection of papers described in this volume it is indicated by its NRA number. In many cases, however, researchers will want to access lists and guides electronically. Table 1 provides details of some electronic pathways. A list of useful archive websites is given on p. 448.

Any guide of this type, with its restrictions on space, can only hint at the richness of some of the specialist archive centres around the country. Table 2 below gives a quick-fire guide for some obvious first starting points.

The Longman Guide to Sources in Contemporary British History: Vol. I: Organisations and Societies

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