Kelvin Smith had a career of 40 years in The National Archives (TNA), where he made a considerable contribution, particularly in the records management sphere. He also contributed greatly to the development of archival and records management policy, practice and standards in the Commonwealth and wider world.
Kelvin John Smith was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, in 1948, and attended Lowestoft Grammar School, where his particular interests were Greek, Latin and Ancient History. Whilst visiting a careers fair he was drawn to the then Public Record Office (PRO), which he joined as an Executive Officer (EO). This was to be a career-long appointment, rising by promotions to senior positions. It was PRO practice at that time to move staff about regularly between departments, including the administrative departments, as this was felt to give the broadest of experiences. Thus, before working permanently in records management, Kelvin had experience of search room duties (working in the Long Room, Chancery Lane); in Personnel (including working with the Kew Staffing Unit, which masterminded the move to the new office at Kew); and the Finance Department. In addition, he also did a stint as officer-in-charge of the Hayes Repository, and as Head of the Repository and Reprographic Departments. While working full-time he attained an Open University degree in History.
Kelvin had an early experience of records management as an EO in the then Records Administration Division (RAD), helping client government departments with their transfer of selected records, and their preparation for availability to readers. His main departments were the Department of Health and Social Security and the Department of Employment. Later, as a Senior Executive Officer, he worked in RAD as an Inspecting Officer (later called Client Managers), who worked with Departmental Records Officers (DROs) in departments on appraisal and selection of records for permanent preservation. He was very highly regarded by the DROs he worked with. In 1991 he moved to RAD’s successor – the Government Services Department, later Records Management Department, where he remained until his retirement in 2007, and wherein his reputation was principally made. He was initially the leader of a team of Inspecting Officers, with a remit for the Home Office, Department of the Environment, and transport and legal departments. In 2004 he was made the Head of the Cataloguing and Accessions Unit. He was closely involved with promoting records management standards in government, producing guidelines and policies, as well as being a regular presenter at conferences and seminars, and arranging visits to TNA. He was also a great advocate of hands-on practical training, particularly via workshops. Staff within TNA also benefited from participation in all these initiatives, as well as staff from other archives. Kelvin worked closely here with the Society of Archivists. He also published highly regarded guides and advice, including Public Sector Records Management: a Practical Guide. Increasingly his work involved taking on board the challenge of managing and preserving electronic records. In addition to all these activities he lectured to archive students at University College, London. He was very supportive of the development of the MSc in Records Management by Distance Learning at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, showing his enthusiasm for exploiting the potential of modern technology. Both archive and records management students from Aberystwyth had visits to TNA, in which Kelvin was often involved, and very helpful. He has been described as a real evangelist for records management.
Another challenge to be grasped was the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act (2000). To aid the smooth running of this Kelvin helped draft the first records management code of practice – Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice on the management of records, issued under section 46 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. He went on to produce model action plans to help central and local government bodies comply with the requirements of the Act and participated in country-wide training to this end. He later published Freedom of Information: a Practical Guide to Implementing the Act.
Kelvin possessed exactly the right qualities for both archival related and administrative roles, and these stood him in good stead throughout his career, where he was always highly regarded by colleagues and managers alike. He was very methodical and orderly, and in both spoken and written media was clear, concise and made his content professional whilst easily accessible and practical. He could hold the interest of an audience and had excellent interpersonal skills at all levels. This made him an ideal candidate for explaining, advising and training; running consultancies; and producing policy and procedure documents. As a staff manager he had high standards but was always supportive and encouraging – a very good listener.
Even before retirement, Kelvin began an engagement with records management beyond the UK which was to last until his final illness. This he achieved by working with the International Records Management Trust (IRMT) and the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers (ACARM).
Those skills and qualities above-mentioned stood him in good stead here, as well as a high degree of tact and diplomacy, and a facility for quickly understanding and empathising with local cultures and circumstances. A sense of humour was also a valuable asset! The work involved the full gamut of activities. At one end was the practical and physical – such as devising filing plans, sorting and selecting records for preservation, boxing, labelling and shelving the same, possibly in a challenging repository environment. At the other end was the dissemination of information and discussing of issues, via conference reports and papers, seminars, workshops and training sessions, as well as the preparation of advice, guidance, standards, policies and preservation strategies both for local dissemination and wider and more formal publication. This included advice to governments at a high level on archival and records management legislation.
In 1984, Kelvin began to work with Dr Anne Thurston, who would found the IRMT as its Director in 1989. Anne has said that she always felt well-supported by the reassuring way he answered the telephone with ‘Smith here’! They visited Zanzibar together, along with records professionals from other Eastern and Southern African countries. They then carried out an extensive series of study tours to identify concerns and problems in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and Guyana. Fact-finding tours were then followed up by the full range of practical and professional aid. Kelvin also carried out work with the Trust in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Nigeria, Malaysia and the Bahamas. In 2007 he wrote an invaluable guide to planning and implementing digital records management.
Sarah Tyacke, former Keeper of Public Records, has said that it is possible that ACARM, of which he was to become the Honorary Secretary, might have disappeared entirely were it not for Kelvin’s enthusiasm and hard work. This also involved him in contributing to the work of the International Council on Archives (ICA), whose annual round tables included the annual ACARM meeting. Kelvin regularly prepared reports and papers for these meetings and was also the driving force behind their newsletters. The scope of this work can be seen by the range of places he visited – from workshops and presentations on legislation in New Zealand and St Kitts, to training courses in Abu Dhabi, as well as the venues to which the ICA round tables took him.
Kelvin led a personal life no less varied. A keen sportsman from school days, he played cricket and golf for TNA as well as being a bridge player in the PRO days. It was through a mutual interest in the last that he met his wife Liz and was subsequently father to Nicola and twins Jennifer and Karen. Latterly he was also proud grandfather to Alexandra, Harry and Joe. He was a very dedicated supporter of Norwich City Football Club (driving several canary yellow cars over the years, to mark his support for ‘The Canaries’). On retirement he moved back to his native East Anglia, to the village of Oxborough in Norfolk. There he was a volunteer at the National Trust’s Oxburgh Hall, set up a local history group in the village and instituted a newsletter as well as writing a history of the village. A retirement achievement equal to any in his professional life was to visit every one of the churches in Simon Jenkin’s England’s Thousand Best Churches.
I am much indebted to TNA colleagues for contributions of information and recollections in the writing of this obituary, and also to Dr Anne Thurston of the IRMT, Michael Hoyle and Dr Laura Millar of ACARM, and Dr Susan Davies of Aberystwyth University.
A good man, generous, and liked and respected by all, he will be much missed.