‘Death of Admiral Ramsay’ (Admiralty/British Paramount News film, b/w, mute, 02.10, 2 January 1945). Film: IWM (ADM 431), courtesy of Imperial War Museum, London.

For those like Third Officer WRNS Fanny Hugill (Gore-Browne) who worked for Admiral Ramsay (first in London, then at Southwick Park in Hampshire, and after D-Day in Normandy and Saint-Gemain-en-Laye near Paris), his untimely loss, in an aircraft accident that also claimed the lives of four of his staff, lived long in the memory.

Whilst Ramsay had the satisfaction (which he wore lightly) of Overlord’s success, he was denied his rightful share in the ultimate victory. It has been for others, like Hugill, to honour his memory, as she continued to do throughout her life (she died at the age of 100 in 2023), notably at the symposium on ‘D-Day’s Forgotten Man’ held at Churchill College on 6 June 2014.

It is appropriate that Hugill’s own papers now sit at the Churchill Archives Centre with those of her late husband, John Antony Crawford Hugill, whom she met whilst working for the Allied Naval Commander Expeditionary Force (ANCXF) at Saint-Germain. While these include the warm tribute to their lost leader paid by Rear-Admiral Creasy, published in the The Times of 5 January 1945, they also reveal a much later private confession, from Ramsay’s regular pilot, Lieut. Cdr. Edward Brett.

An extract from a piece written by Rear-Admiral Creasy to mark the death of Admiral Ramsay, published in the The Times of 5 January 1945. Source: The Papers of Fanny Hugill, HUGL 14.

A pilot’s confession

Brett had been given leave that fateful day to visit his sister-in-law in Cannes and was due to depart for the Gare de Lyon after seeing Ramsay’s flight safely off. His place at the controls had been taken by Lieut. Cdr. Sir George Lewis, accompanied by his radio operator, P.O. David L. Morgan. Ramsay also had with him his staff officers Commander G.W. (‘Bill’) Rowell and Flag Lieut. Derek M. Henderson.

In the mid-1990s Brett gave his account of the tragic incident.

“On the night of 1-2 January it had snowed and all our planes were still blanketed with snow when I reached the airfield, but work had already begun on the [Lockheed] Hudson [AM-550] under the direction of my highly conscientious [Air Engineer Officer] Jack Tolley. He had made pretty good time, and the Admiral arrived just as Tolley was carrying out the engine run-up checks and testing the variable pitch of the propellers….

Sir George and his radio operator [Morgan] took their seats in the aircraft, followed by the Admiral and his two aides. After a further run-through by the pilot, the chocks were pulled away and the plane taxied towards the head of the runway…. The weather was fine, visibility moderate with a slight breeze. The pilot opened the throttle and the plane accelerated very slowly. Judging by the sound of the engine I had the impression that its condition was normal and I detected nothing irregular.

Even so, I was uneasy and I was relieved to see the plane leave the ground. It rose at a shallow but not unusual angle. At between four and five hundred, before levelling out, it went into a slight turn to port. Then suddenly a violent stall, an almost vertical downward spiral, and a fireball…. Without question all the occupants must have been killed instantly and the only consolation was my certainty than no-one had suffered.…

Even now, fifty years later, the sequence of events that morning and the visual memories it has left remain intact…. I went back to St. Germain, where of course I found everyone completely devastated and prostrate with grief. …

It was only when I read The Year of D-Day [Ramsay’s 1944 diary edited by Robert W. Love Jr. and John Major, 1994], that I learned that Sir George Lewis had asked Admiral Ramsay if he could rejoin him as his pilot. Sir George was known to be closely involved with Kay Summersby, General Eisenhower’s ATS driver, and it was said that they had become lovers. That is perhaps the real reason why Sir George wanted to come to Paris.”

By Professor Justin Smith, De Montfort University, Author of The Birds That Wouldn’t Sing: Remembering the D-Day Wrens.

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Correlli Barnett, known as ‘Bill’, was the Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre from 1977 until 1995. His leadership and energy transformed the institution, securing the Churchill papers in perpetuity, acquiring the Thatcher collection, and laying the firm foundations for future growth. Bill was an innovator who knew that the success of the Centre depended on its ability to attract the widest range of high-quality researchers and he was the originator of the College’s Archives by-Fellowship scheme.

Archives by-Fellowships enable those from outside Cambridge to come and live in the College community and access the archives for a temporary period.

Now a generous benefaction will endow a fund at Churchill College, to be known as the Correlli and Ruth Barnett Fund.  The income from this fund will support by-fellows and research students actively using the Archives Centre by giving them a stipend, as well as accommodation in College.  It will focus support on those without other means of funding and will broaden research based on the prestigious collections of the Churchill Archives, which include the papers of Sir Winston Churchill, Baroness (Margaret) Thatcher, Sir John Major and countless other prominent politicians and scientists. (More about the Archives collections here).

Commenting on the new fund, Professor Sharon Peacock CBE, Master of Churchill College, said; ‘It is wonderful to see this living link between past, present and future’. Allen Packwood OBE, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre added; ‘We are proud to have Bill’s own papers within the Archives Centre, but this is a way of continuing his legacy and of expanding the reach of all our collections’.

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Closing date: 7th  January 2025, midday, UK time 

Project overview 

This Collaborative Doctoral Award invites applicants to consider Britain’s foreign relations during the transformative period between ca 1940 and 1990. While in 1940 Winston Churchill spoke of the British Empire lasting another thousand years, within decades the empire had come to an end, with different relations developed with newly independent countries. This period also saw the development of the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the United States and, in the context of the Cold War, the creation of NATO and the development of nuclear weapons in Britain. This era was equally marked by the process of European integration, with successive British governments navigating relations with, and ultimately membership of, the European Community.

New historical research in these areas has the potential not only to make a significant contribution to the academic literature but equally to timely public debates in the UK and beyond. The histories and legacies of the British Empire, decolonisation, and migration in an increasingly multicultural Britain have been the subject of significant scholarship and public debate. In the wake of Brexit, the UK’s involvement in European integration has similarly become a central focus on scholarly and public attention. In the face of growing international threats, meanwhile, the role of NATO and of the ‘special relationship’ are equally being re-examined. This CDA will invite the successful applicant to contribute to some of these debates through original historical research on an aspect of Britain’s foreign relations ca 1940 – 1990.

The successful applicant will draw upon the rich collections of the Churchill Archives Centre, which include the papers of former prime ministers Winston Churchill (1940-45; 1951-55) and Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and former foreign secretaries including Ernest Bevin (1945-51), John Selwyn Lloyd (1955-1960) and Michael Stewart (1965-66; 1968-70). These and the hundreds of other collections at the Centre cover a wide range of material, including personal correspondence, meeting minutes, briefing papers and photographs. Making use of these and other primary sources, the applicant may choose to explore one or more of the following themes, although we would be happy to consider suitable topics not listed here:

• Decolonisation, the development of the Commonwealth and Britain’s relations with newly independent countries
• migration and multiculturalism in the UK
• Britain’s relations with third countries, e.g. the United States, France, Germany
• the UK and European integration
• Britain’s defence policy, including NATO and its independent nuclear deterrent

Given the breadth of the collections, applicants are invited to develop a research project on any aspect of Britain’s foreign relations between ca 1940 and 1990, provided the research project would make use of the collections of the Churchill Archives Centre. The successful project need not deal with the entire period, but could instead focus on a more specific timeframe between ca 1940 and 1990. Similarly, proposals are not expected to address the full breadth of British foreign policy during this period, but are instead encouraged to focus on a specific bilateral relationship, Britain’s role in specific international or supranational institutions, and/or a specific aspect of larger phenomena such as decolonisation or migration. Interdisciplinary projects are welcome, and depending on the proposal it would be possible to appoint a co-supervisor from another discipline to support interdisciplinary research.

Supervision 

The candidate will be co-supervised between The Open University and the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. The lead academic supervisor will be Dr Luc-André Brunet, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary International History, whose expertise includes British foreign policy ca 1940-1990, transatlantic relations, European integration and nuclear history ca 1940-1990. The student would also have a second supervisor from the Open University, who will be appointed based on the topic of the successful application. Co-supervision will be provided by Sophie Bridges, Archivist at the Churchill Archives Centre.

The candidate shall have access to all Open University doctoral training opportunities, in addition to which the Churchill Archives Centre will provide the successful applicant with unique training, facilities and expertise. The student will receive one-on-one training on handling, organising and interpreting archives, with exceptional access to the collections of the Centre. They will also be given training and experience in cataloguing collections and/or providing enhanced descriptions to existing catalogues. This will provide the student with inside knowledge of archives and the cataloguing process, which will equip them with invaluable skills and experience for careers in archives, museums, libraries and other cultural collections, in addition to more conventional academic posts.

The CDA student will also be expected to contribute to the public engagement activities of the Centre, with relevant training and mentoring provided by expert staff at the Centre. Activities may include organising public lectures and events, curating an online or physical exhibition, authoring blog posts, and/or producing research guides or teaching materials based on the collections. Students will also be provided with desk space at the Centre and have access to additional facilities at Churchill College and Cambridge University, such as dining halls and libraries.

Further details are available on the DTP’s studentships page.

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It is ever so germane that we recognise the month of Black History by reaffirming the continuing partnership between Cambridge University’s Churchill Archives Centre, and the University of Fort Hare (UFH)’s National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre (NAHECS).

Recently, from 21 August to 22 September 2024, the Churchill Archives Centre offered two by-fellowships, enabling us a month’ s visit at the Churchill College. I went with Ayodele Ladokun, one of NAHECS Archivists, who also had prospect to return to the Churchill Archives Centre after having visited there for the first time during 2023, with one UFH student intern, Ayabonga Meyi.

Luvuyo Wotshela and Ayodele Ladokun

Despite our visit this year overlapping with late summer holiday break, it was yet a prolific trip, and we were thrilled by the amount of work and further collaborations we were able to accomplish. We spent most of our visits doing own works at the Churchill Archives Centre – Ayodele focused on enhancing his expertise on records’ conservation, which is essential in this partnership since there will be eventually shared archival resources between our two Centres.

At the same time, I did an archival search on the Churchill collection for a paper I will contribute to a Special Issue devoted to a 150-year Memorial of Sir Winston Churchill. The Special Issue, expected for 2025, will be coedited by the Director of Churchill Archives Centre, Allen Packwood, and another British Historian, Jayne Gifford, from the University of East Anglia. My paper will add a South African context to the life and legacy of Winston Churchill. That contribution is also expected to crystallise the growing partnership between the Churchill Archives Centre and the NAHECS.

During our month stay, Ayodele and I were also introduced by the Churchill Archives Centre to more members, and various chattels of Cambridge University, as well as those of other bodies that can potentially augment this collaboration. These included Southern African papers kept at the main Cambridge University, shown to us by Sally Kent, and the collections from the African Studies Centre revealed to us by Jenny Skinner.

We were also shown by Eva Namusoke some pertinent displays of the Archeological and Anthropological Museum. In one of the trips, we made to the Foreign Office in London, we were also welcomed to the British Diplomatic Oral History Programme (BDOHP) that also works with the Churchill Archives Centre in this venture.

Luvuyo Wotshela presenting at a symposium in Cambridge.

Our trip was rounded with a symposium on 18 August, attended by most participants whom we had already met. We had special honour of being joined by Lord Paul Boateng, the British High Commissioner in South Africa for the years 2005 to 2009, who initiated the idea of this partnership and prospect of sharing collections between our two centres. A representative attended from the Office of the South African High Commission in the United Kingdom, which has also pledged support for the partnership.

Luvuyo Wotshela and Ayodele Ladokun with Tabitha Mwangi, Programme Director of the Mastercard Foundation Programme.

With the NAHECS being vital in the UFH’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities’ new program on Liberation Studies, the importance of this collaboration remains very high. Its relevance and continued significance to the month and overall endeavour of Black History remains decisive.

Finally, we learnt there are even greater prospects for emergent scholars to attain Cambridge postgraduate qualifications, as evidenced by the Mastercard Foundation Programme that is managed by Tabitha Mwangi. Caroline Trotter also explained to us about grants aligned to Research Africa that allow research partnerships between Cambridge academics and those from the African continent. All of these, which we became aware of during our trip, have potential to grow this partnership as we move forward.

Ayodele Ladokun and Luvuyo Wotshela with Caroline Trotter, the Director of Cambridge Africa.

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MRDN 1/1, Track chart showing the positions of HMS Southampton at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916

One-hundred-and-eight-year-old blood is rather brown, and it could be easily overlooked by the casual observer. But this chart was donated to the Archives together with its story.

Charles Victor Salomon Joseph Marsden was a young Navigating Plotting Officer, who had recently joined the Southampton. He was born in 1894, and on the day of Jutland he was a couple of months shy of his twenty-second birthday.

On the afternoon of the first day of the battle, his task was to keep track of the ship’s position, marking it on the chart every ten or fifteen minutes. This job required calm, competence, and precision under fire. His track starts at 2.35pm (left hand side) and ends, abruptly, at 10.15pm.

We know from other accounts that that is the moment when the Southampton came under heavy German fire. Marsden was hit in his left leg by shrapnel, but he survived.

MRDN 1/3, The Papers of Captain Charles Marsden, Photograph album
of HMS Southampton, 1916 – 1918, f. 3r. This photograph likely shows the aftermath of the battle. Marsden is sitting, with his leg covered.

The Southampton was heavily damaged, as some photographs in Marsden’s album vividly show.

MRDN 1/3, The Papers of Captain Charles Marsden, ‘Photograph album
of HMS Southampton, 1916 – 1918’, f. 3v.

Even more striking is a chunk of the charthouse plating, which Marsden kept as a souvenir: the shrapnel tore the heavy brass to shreds.

MRDN 1/4, Brass plate from the charthouse of HMS Southampton, 1916.

What immediately struck me about this chart is the sense of duty and discipline it conveys. The minute pencil line of the ship’s track encapsulates a lot of the essence of how surveillance worked at sea, before the rise of modern digital tracking: admiralties relied on self-surveillance, diligent self-tracking on the part of servicemen, regardless of the circumstances.

I discuss the historical (and specifically naval) origins of geosurveillance, together with many other similar episodes, in an academic article and in my most recent book, Tracks on the Ocean: A History of Trailblazing, Maps and Maritime Travel, which is out with Profile Books in the UK and will also be published by The University of Chicago Press in the US. Tracks on the Ocean follows the historical trajectory of ship tracks, and discusses the origins and implications of our convention of representing journeys as lines on maps and charts.

The Churchill Archives are a wonderful place not just because of their collections, but because of the lovely staff. Here is a typical example of their kindness: photographing charts and metallic plaques isn’t straightforward, and they helped me move the Marsden materials repeatedly across the room, to try and get the best angle and light. That really is going the extra mile!

I am very excited to return there for future projects soon.

Sara Caputo

Dr Sara Caputo is the Director of Studies in History and a Senior Research Fellow at Magdalene College, as well as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. She specialises in maritime history, and can be found on X.com (formerly Twitter) at the handle @SarCaputo.

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Vic Brown binding volumes in the old conservation lab.  College archives, CCAR 999 2.

Paula Laycock

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Jeremy Bray was born to missionary parents in British Hong Kong in 1930. He and his siblings Denis, Barbara and Elenor grew up in southern China speaking Cantonese and English. Denis would become Secretary for Home Affairs in the colonial Hong Kong Government (1973-1977 and 1980-1984). Although Jeremy would spend much of his life in Westminster as a Labour Member of Parliament (1962-1970 and 1974-1997), given his upbringing and his family connections to China, it is unsurprising that some Chinese-language items are amongst his papers.

Front cover – the book opened from right-to-left in the traditional Chinese style (BRAY 1318).

One such item is a palm-sized notebook titled ‘baby weight book’ (Ting’er ti liang ce, 嬰兒體量冊). It dates from the 1930s – a fascinating decade in China’s history. In the 19th Century, foreign companies and militaries forced their way into China. They carved out enclaves for trade and designated areas as being under extraterritorial law for the comfort of expatriates. The Qing Empire fell in 1912 and was replaced by an uneasy Republic hampered by factionalism and undermined by rampant warlordism. With China weak, foreign forces expanded their footholds in the country. By the 1930s, one could find foreign goods, people and ideas in many Chinese cities.

The book encouraged record-keeping (BRAY 1318).

Ostensibly, the baby weight book had a medical purpose: it provided a space for parents to track their baby’s measurements over time. In Making it Count: Statistics and Statecraft in the Early People’s Republic of China, Arunabh Ghosh charts the adoption of statistical methods by successive Chinese governments and shows how ideas about record-keeping from Europe and America were imported into China. The very notion of measuring a baby’s growth using standardised units, represented also by the depiction of weighing scales on the back cover, would have been a fairly new one for 1930s China.

A page for personal information; the company name is written along the bottom right-to-left (BRAY 1318).

The notebook was also an exercise in advertising and was probably given to parents for free. It features images of the milk powder product Lactogen and the name of its producer, Qigong Milk Company (Qigong Niunai Gongsi, 企公牛奶公司), a Nestlé company, emblazoned on multiple pages. While the notebook itself is bilingual, the text on the depictions of Lactogen cans is only in English and proudly states ‘Prepared in Australia’. This was no mistake: the manufacturers were likely capitalising on the fact that imported goods came with a certain cachet.

Back cover (BRAY 1318).

In the 1930s, cosmopolitan cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Hong Kong (under British colonial administration) mixed foreign fashion, architecture and ideas with the traditional. Out of the window depicted on the back cover, for instance, there are high-rise buildings – associated more with 1930s New York than 1930s China. Also on the back cover, two women sport shingle-style bob haircuts which originated in Europe in the late 19th Century. The presumptive mother on the front cover wears a bouffant, a French pouf-style hairdo. These European imports occasionally intermingle with traditional Chinese styles: the mother figure, for instance, wears a traditional qipao (旗袍) dress with her hair. The medical professionals on the back, meanwhile, wear recognisably medical uniforms which we might associate with sanitation.

The notebook included seven instructions for keeping a baby healthy (BRAY 1318).

Beyond changes to China’s appearance, the notebook also reflects conceptual epochal shifts. In the book Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China, Ruth Rogaski traces the journey of germ theory from Germany to China via Japan and the resulting in revolution in hygiene or weisheng (卫生). We see this reflected in the baby weight book. Several pages list tips for keeping a baby healthy. Tip six (liu, 六), for instance, says that children should be kept separately from ill people as disease can be infectious or contagious (chuanran, 傳染): this would have been a relatively new concept. More broadly, around this time Traditional Chinese Medicine was slowly being replaced by Western medicine, represented by the two uniformed female figures.

Penultimate page (BRAY 1318).

The baby weight book was designed to sell milk powder by promoting something far more aspirational: a vision of a modern, scientific form of parenthood where Western concepts and appearances were displacing traditional Chinese ones. From imported hairdos and skyscrapers to changing ideas about sanitation and statistics, the baby weight book is emblematic of 1930s China and its relations with the wider world. While it is perhaps surprising that this object was found in the papers of a British Labour MP, there are doubtlessly many other delights to be discovered amongst the Churchill Archives Centre’s many collections.

— Matthew Hurst, July 2024

The research for this article was supported by WRoCAH as part of the AHRC Researcher Employability Project.

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Just in time for the 2024 Olympics, Churchill’s long-overlooked speech supporting an appeal to assist British athletes training for the 1924 Olympics, also held in Paris, has come back to light at Churchill Archives Centre. In response to an inquiry made by the International Churchill Society, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, Allen Packwood, found the complete notes of a speech Churchill delivered at the Mansion House in July 1923 supporting a fund appeal chaired by his close friend Lord Birkenhead.  

Although Churchill’s speech was reported in The Times, which summarised some of his remarks, the full text has never been published. The speech notes were long ago catalogued as part of the holdings of the Churchill Archives but appear to have been neglected by historians.   

“Churchill made the speech during a two-year period when he was out of Parliament,” explained Allen Packwood, “which may be the reason for the oversight.” He added that “the centenary of the 1924 Olympics, immortalised in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, makes this a perfect moment for recovering Churchill’s thoughts about the world’s most prestigious athletic competition.” 

An excerpt from a long-overlooked speech by Winston Churchill supporting an appeal to assist British athletes training for the 1924 Olympics. The Papers of Sir Winston Churchill, CHAR 9/67. © Churchill Estate, courtesy of Curtis Brown.

In his remarks, Churchill notes that British athletes were busy preparing themselves for Paris and that “the only question at issue is whether they are to be properly supported by their fellow-countrymen and given a fair chance to do credit to the British name.”  He goes on to observe that Britain’s record of performance in past Olympic Games did not compare well with other nations. 

Especially noteworthy is that Churchill believed that Britain needed to raise: “the funds necessary to secure an equal opportunity for our men ….  We must be in a position to make sure that when our country competes in Olympic Games, real native merit shall not be excluded from our representation because those who prove that merit are poor.” 

In a particularly stirring passage, Churchill extols the virtues of sportsmanship and gives good reason for supporting the modern Olympics:

“The ideal conception of the sportsman-athlete curbing his passions, denying himself indulgences, leading a strict, clean, temperate life, enduring with fortitude the trials of the contest, loyal even in moments of intense strain […] surely that ideal is one which it is worthwhile to raise high above the confusion of this crowded modern age, and surely in that work our countrymen should bear their part.” 

An excerpt from a speech in 1923 where Sir Winston Churchill extols the virtues of sportsmanship. The Papers of Sir Winston Churchill, CHAR 9/67. © Churchill Estate, courtesy of Curtis Brown.

 “This previously overlooked gem written by my great-grandfather more than a century ago is the perfect message for our nation and the world to hear at this time,” said Randolph Churchill, President of the International Churchill Society. “It perfectly illustrates his love of country and the virtues he championed.” 

 This is a shortened version of a longer article published by the International Churchill Society in the Churchill Bulletin. 

 Quotations from Sir Winston Churchill reproduced courtesy of Curtis Brown, London (to which all media inquiries should be directed) on behalf of the Estate of Winston S. Churchill. 

Notes for Editors  

 Churchill Archives Centre is a world-leading collection of 20th century history, holding a wide range of documents by more than 570 political, military & scientific figures from the Churchill era and beyond.  

 Churchill Archives Centre is part of Churchill College, Cambridge and is located on the College campus. For information on the collections and on how to access them, in person or remotely, see https://archives.chu.cam.ac.uk or email archives@chu.cam.ac.uk.   

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChuArchives  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuarchives/  

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Born to missionary parents in India in 1888, Brockway initially worked as a journalist, and soon joined the Independent Labour Party, editing the ILP journal, the Labour Leader, from 1912-17.  For part of this time he was actually working from prison, as during the First World War Brockway served four terms of imprisonment, the last eight months of which were in solitary confinement, as a conscientious objector.

Flyer for the Resist the War Committee, c 1918, FEBR 1/2

Brockway became a leading light in the ILP and was elected as MP for East Leyton in 1929, but as the ILP moved further and further to the left, away from the official Labour Party, he became an increasingly radical figure, losing his seat in 1931.  Under his chairmanship, the ILP finally broke with Labour in 1932, something which Brockway later admitted had been a serious mistake.  Observing Communism from close quarters during the Spanish Civil War, Brockway’s radical socialism became a little more pragmatic, while the rise of fascism and the Second World War caused him to modify his views on pacifism, and he returned to the Labour Party in 1945.

Brockway became MP for Eton and Slough in 1950, and while remaining a leading figure on the left, after the war his energies were mainly channelled into campaigning.  He had been an early supporter of women’s suffrage; now he became best-known as an anti-colonial activist, or “the member for Africa”.  He helped to establish the People’s Congress Against Imperialism in 1948, was a founder and Chairman of the Movement for Colonial Freedom (later Liberation) and worked tirelessly against racism.  Brockway’s early pacifism found expression in his support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and in 1979 he and his fellow octogenarian Philip Noel-Baker founded the World Disarmament Campaign.  If anti-colonialism and campaigning for nuclear disarmament were his two main concerns, Brockway also fought on behalf of many other causes, including penal reform and he took a particular interest in prison conditions and civil rights in Northern Ireland during the 1970s.  Having lost his Eton and Slough seat by a whisker in the 1964 General Election, he accepted a life peerage (not without some misgivings) and remained a vigorous campaigner from the Labour benches of the House of Lords for the rest of his long life.

Fenner Brockway in 1977, FEBR 7/69

Most unfortunately, most of Brockway’s early papers were lost during the war when the ILP headquarters in London were bombed, so that his archive mainly dates from the 1960s onwards, though there is some earlier material, including a fascinating correspondence with his old friend George Bernard Shaw.  There is also a whole series on the World Disarmament Campaign and a large literary section, mostly covering Brockway’s 1973 work The Colonial Revolution as well as two autobiographical volumes.  Much of the archive, however, consists of Brockway’s political correspondence, which covers an amazingly wide range of issues, but is in particular a splendid source for studies into immigration, race relations, civil rights, prison conditions and former colonial countries during the 1960s-80s.

Katharine Thomson, Archivist, June 2024

Catalogue to the Fenner Brockway papers

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To mark our anniversary, some researchers joined us at our two-day conference, where some of our earliest researchers met some of our recent academic friends and By-Fellows. Others enjoyed the delights of our new digital Access Portal launched on the anniversary of our opening in July 2023. 

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