The development of recordkeeping systems in the British Empire and Commonwealth, 1870s–1960s

1. Use of the term ‘recordkeeping’ should not be taken as an endorsement of the Records Continuum as elaborated by Frank Upward and his collaborators.

2. T Lovering, ‘British Colonial Administrations’ Registry Systems: A Comparative Study of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland’, Archival Science, vol. 10, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1–23.

3. A Delmas, ‘From Travelling to History: An Outline of the VOC Writing System during the 17th Century’, in A Delmas and N Penn (eds), Written Culture in a Colonial Context: Africa and the Americas, 1500–1900, UCT Press, Cape Town, 2011, pp. 96–107.

4. ibid., p. 99.

5. A Conde, ‘A “Gift to the Nation”: The Diaries and Notebooks of CEW Bean’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 39, no. 2, 2011, p. 59.

6. E Ketelaar, ‘Exploration of the Archived World: From De Vlamingh’s Plate to Digital Realities’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 36, no. 2, 2008, pp. 13–33.

7. Colonial Department, Rules and Regulations for the Information and Guidance of Principal Officers and Others in His Majesty’s Colonial Possessions, W Clowes and Sons, London, 1837.

8. ibid., p. 51.

9. ibid., p. 84.

10. K Hamilton and F Shaikh, Slavery in Diplomacy, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, History Note No. 17, London, 2007.

11. C Baker, ‘The Genesis of the Nyasaland Civil Service’, Society of Malawi Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, 1988, p. 35.

12. Her Majesty’s Government, Report on the Organisation of the Permanent Civil Service (Northcote-Trevelyan Report), HMSO, London, 1854, available at < http://www.civilservant.org.uk/northcotetrevelyan.pdf >, accessed 14 November 2011.

13. M Moss, ‘Archives of Business and Business of Archives’, Business Archives, vol. 91, 2006, p. 63.

14. A Trollope, The Three Clerks, Richard Bentley, London, 1858. We are grateful to Michael Moss for drawing this to our attention.

15. Properly speaking, the Colonial Office came into being in 1854, responsibility having been vested in the Board of Trade until 1782, the Home Office from 1782 until 1801 and the War and Colonial Department between 1801 and 1854. A Thurston, Records of the Colonial Office, Dominions Office …, Sources for Colonial Studies in the Public Record Office, HMSO, London, 1995, pp. 3–4.

16. Minutes from Secretary of State to Mr Fiddian, 10 November 1921. The National Archives of the United Kingdom (TNA) CO 323/874, f.81.

17. Thurston, Records of the Colonial Office, p. 11.

18.

19. ‘Registering and Filing Official Papers, 1919–23’. TNA CO 323/810.

20. A Tough, ‘Oral Culture, Written Records and Understanding the Twentieth Century Colonial Archive’, Archival Science, vol. 12, no. 3, 2012, pp. 245–65, available at < http://www.springerlink.com/content/l53256607n0r5l74/fulltext.html >, accessed 27 March 2012.

21. B Reed, ‘Records’, in S McKemmish, M Piggott, B Reed and F Upward (eds), Archives: Recordkeeping in Society, Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, 2005, pp. 101–30.

22. A Grimble, Return to the Islands, John Murray, London, 1957, pp. 210–11.

23. Sir Harry Luke, Cities and Men. An Autobiography, Volume One, 1884–1914, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1953, pp. 220–5.

24. R Furse, Aucuparius. Recollections of a Recruiting Officer, OUP, London, 1962, p. 91.

25. C Baker, Johnston’s Administration, Department of Antiquities, Zomba, 1971.

26. A Kirk-Greene, Symbol of Authority: The British District Officer in Africa, IB Tauris, London, 2006.

27. D Gilmour, The Ruling Caste. Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj, John Murray, London, 2005, pp. 63–4.

28. R Furse, Aucuparius, p. 141.

29. A Tough, ‘Records Management Standards and the Good Governance Agenda in Commonwealth Africa’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 32, no. 2, 2004, pp. 143–4.

30. A brief biography may be found at < http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/broome-sir-frederick-napier-3068 >, accessed 21 May 2012.

31. Trinidad Government, Regulations for Official Correspondence and Business, Government Printing Office, Port-of-Spain, 1892. TNA CO 295/337, ff. 174–87. We are grateful to Dr Mandy Banton for drawing our attention to this.

32. Colonial Office minutes on Trinidad Government, Regulations for official correspondence and business, Government Printing Office, Port-of-Spain, 1892. TNA CO 295/337, f.170.

33. Trinidad Government, Regulations for official correspondence and business, Government Printing Office, Port-of-Spain, 1892. TNA CO 295/337, Note between f.174 and f.175.

34. ibid., paras 20–5.

35. ibid., para 26.

36. ibid., paras 31, 54, 68 and 69.

37. ibid., para 25.

38. ibid., para 77.

39. ibid., para 46.

40. ibid., para 83.

41. Western Australia Government, Regulations for Official Correspondence and Business, Richard Pether, Government Printer, Perth, 1883. State Records Office Western Australia: Colonial Secretary’s Office, AN 24, Accession 527, item 1556a, 1882. We are grateful to Damien Hassan and Catherine Cassarchis for their enthusiastic assistance in tracing this link in the chain of evidence.

42. Government of Zanzibar, Classification and Filing of Correspondence, Government Printer, Zanzibar, 1914. We are grateful to Michael Moss for drawing our attention to the availability of this in the British Library, ref. C.S.c. 284/2.

43. ibid., pp. iii–iv.

44. S Tirmizi, Indian Sources for African History, International Writers Emporium, Delhi, 1988, pp. 13–14.

45. Government of Nyasaland, Regulations for the Conduct of Official Correspondence, 1922, National Archives of Malawi (NAM) NC 1/1/3.

46. Lovering, ‘British Colonial Administrations’ Registry Systems’, p. 10.

47. Government of Nyasaland, Regulations, para 26. NAM NC 1/1/3.

48. Nyasaland Protectorate, General Orders, Government Printer, Zomba, 4th edn, 1951.

49. B Carr, Cherries on my Plate, Howard Timmins, Cape Town, 1965, pp. 63, 67.

50. Z Aloufi, ‘The Legacy: British Mandate Record Management System in Israel’, Archival Science, vol. 7, no. 3, 2007, p. 208.

51. Western Australia Government, Regulations, para 9.

52. Trinidad Government, Regulations, para 11.

53. Sir A Campbell, ‘From Carbon Paper to E-Mail’, in G Johnson (ed.), The Foreign Office and British Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, London, 2005, p. 170.

54. Treasury Organisation and Methods Division Report in Response to Plowden Report on Representational Services Overseas, 1967. TNA PRO 58/539.

55. AC Hollis, Unpublished Autobiography, Volume 3, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, MSS.Brit.Emp.s.294, p. 37.

56. Dispatch from High Commissioner, 30 September 1937, in file ‘Palestine. Clerical Service’. TNA CO 733/329/20.

57. A Kirk-Greene, Biographical Dictionary of British Colonial Governors, vol. 1: Africa, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, p. 260.

58. GH5, ‘Papers on Labour and Emigration, 1903–20’. This is the only file from Government House from this period which has been preserved complete with its file cover. It is held in the NAM Records Centre in Zomba, currently awaiting cataloguing. We are grateful to Austin Chilanga and his colleagues for their help in retrieving files awaiting cataloguing. There is another series of records from Government House from Sir George Smith’s period in office. Unfortunately, the majority of these were destroyed by termites after being catalogued by the NAM. Those that survive lack their original covers, but appear to be coherent files, in which all papers relevant to a given topic are assembled: for instance, ‘Karonga and Sphinxhaven, 1914–15’. NAM GOA 2/4/23.

59. Memo by Mr Roper, i/c Registry, 29 March 1920. NAM S1/278/20.

60. Memo by Mr Barlow, 30 March 1920. NAM S1/278/20.

61. Personal file of William James Roper. NAM PF274A (originally MP 2904/22) held in the Records Centre in Zomba, awaiting cataloguing.

62. G Shepperson and T Price, Independent African. John Chilembwe and the Nyasaland Rising of 1915, Christian Literature Association of Malawi, Blantyre, 2000, p. 260.

63. H Duff, African Small Chop, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1932, especially Chapter 16.

64. Nyasaland Protectorate, Staff List, Government Printer, Zomba, April 1921.

65. Government of Nyasaland, Regulations, para 24. NAM NC 1/1/3.

66. Nyasaland Protectorate, Staff List, Government Printer, Zomba, January 1922.

67. Minute by Robert Rankine, 17 October 1921. NAM S1/278/20.

68. N Carr, White Impala. Story of a Game Ranger, Collins, London, 1969; N Carr, Valley of the Elephants. Story of the Luangwa Valley and its Wildlife, Collins, London, 1979.

69. O and M Survey: Secret Registry, Secretariat, March 1960. NAM OM/Secretariat/2 held in the Records Centre in Zomba, awaiting cataloguing.

70. ‘Security Arrangements, Far East: Appointment of a Registry Expert for Special Branches, Malaya and Sarawak’ (recte Singapore). TNA CO 537/4322.

71. Government of Kenya, Standing Security Instructions, KIC/S/5. (13). TNA FCO 141/6957.

72. Government of Kenya, Reorganization of Government: “Watch” Correspondence, circular from the Permanent Secretary for Defence, 7 December 1961. TNA FCO 141/6957.

73. Government of Kenya, Marking of Intelligence Reports, circular (from Permanent Secretary for Defence?), undated. TNA FCO 141/6959.

74. Government of Kenya, Guard Procedure, circular from Permanent Secretary for Defence, 2 December 1961. TNA FCO 141/6959.

75. Government of Kenya, handwritten minute on Ministry of Defence Secret Registry’s copy of circular issued by Chief Secretary’s Office, 18 February 1961. TNA FCO 141/6959.

76. B Carr, Cherries on my Plate, pp. 110–11.

77. Government of Uganda, Operation ‘Legacy’, circular from Chief Secretary’s Office, 28 February 1961. TNA FCO 141/6957.

78. I Cobain, O Bowcott and R Norton-Taylor, ‘Britain Destroyed Records of Colonial Crimes’, Guardian, 18 April 2012, available at < http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/18/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes >, accessed 29 October 2012.

79. K Bradley, Once a District Officer, Macmillan, London, 1966, p. 83, quoted in Lovering, ‘British Colonial Administrations’ Registry Systems’, p. 16.

80. Aloufi, ‘The Legacy’, p. 210.

81. A Stoler, ‘Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance: On the Content in the Form’, in C Hamilton and V Harris (eds), Refiguring the Archive, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht and London, 2002, p. 89.

82. B Carr, Not For Me the Wilds, Howard Timmins, Cape Town, 1963; C Baker, A Fine Chest of Medals: The Life of Jack Archer, Mpemba Books, Cardiff, 2003, p. 242.

83. CA Cardew, ‘Nyasaland in 1894–95’, The Nyasaland Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 1948, pp. 51–5; C Baker, ‘The Genesis of Nyasaland Civil Service’, The Society of Malawi Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, 1988, pp. 30–44.

84. Editor, ‘Extracts from Letters by FHM, an Officer in the North–Eastern Rhodesia Service’, African Affairs, vol. 2, no. 8, 1903, p. 393.

85. Government of Cyprus, Administrative Memorandum No. 11, 19 August 1937. TNA FCO 141/2525.

86. We are grateful to Noel Harvey, who served in the Nyasaland Government as Assistant District Commissioner and District Commissioner between the late 1950s and mid-1960s, for sharing with us his experiences in colonial district administration.

87. AG Tough, Oral Culture.

88. A Kirk-Greene, Symbol of Authority, p. 102.

89. P Dennis, Goodbye to Pith Helmets, p. 68, quoted in A Kirk-Greene, Symbol of Authority, p. 102.

90. P Herbert, Twilight on the Zambezi, p. 13, quoted in A Kirk-Greene, Symbol of Authority, p. 103.

91. A Adu, The Civil Service in Commonwealth Africa: Development and Transition, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1969.

92. Conference of Governors of British East African Territories June, 1939: District Books, Letter from Colonial Office. NAM, S1/23/34; A Tough, Oral Culture.

93. Conference of Governors of British East African Territories June, 1939: District Books, Letter from Colonial Office. NAM, S1/23/34.

94. P Curtin, ‘The Archives of Tropical Africa: A Reconnaissance’, The Journal of African History, vol. 1, no. 1, 1960, pp. 129–47. We are also very grateful to Colin Baker, Noel Harvey and Ian Strachan – all former colonial officers in the Nyasaland Government who served in different capacities – for kindly sharing with us, in 2010, their personal experiences in district administration as District Commissioners.

95. R Heussler, British Tanganyika. An Essay and Documents on District Administration, Duke University Press, Durham, 1971, in A Tough, Oral Culture.

96. Personal communication with Ian Strachan.

97. A Tough, Oral Culture, p. 7.

98. District Commissioners Lilongwe and Karonga to District Commissioner Mzimba on filing systems, 5 August 1937 and 11 July 1938, respectively. Central African Archives, NNM 1/1/1.

99. The Resident, Chintheche, to the Provincial Commissioner, Northern Province, 6 June 1922. Central African Archives, NC 1/1/3.

100. The Resident, Mzimba, to the Chief Secretary, 15 December, 1922. Central African Archives, NC 1/1/3.

101. The District Resident, Kasungu to the Provincial Commissioner, Northern Province, 23 April 1923. Central African Archives, NC 1/1/3.

102. Filing of Correspondence. Memo from the Provincial Commissioner, Northern Province to all District Commissioners, 7 July 1932. Central African Archives, NC 1/1/2.

103.

104. Provincial Commissioner, Lilongwe, to District Commissioner, Mzimba, 11 October 1933. Central African Archives, NNM 1/1/1.

105. ibid.

106. Proposal for system of filing for District Offices from the District Commissioner, Lilongwe to the Provincial Commissioner, Northern Province, 21 July 1932. Central African Archives, NC 1/1/2.

107. ‘O and M General: Progress Reports’. NAM, 8-1-7R/5240.

108. K Bradley, Once a District Officer, p. 82.

109. AC Hollis, Unpublished Autobiography, Volume 3, p. 39.

110. Trinidad Government, Regulations, para 55.

111. ibid., para 95.

112. I Graham and B Halwindi, Guide to the Public Archives of Zambia, Vol. 1, 1895–1940, National Archives of Zambia, Lusaka, 1970.

113. G Alexander, Tanganyika Memories. A Judge in the Red Kanzu, Blackie and Son, London, 1936, p. 190.

114. Trinidad Government, Regulations, paras 46, 77.

115. Government of Nyasaland, Regulations, para 14.

116. Trinidad Government, Regulations, para 99.

117. Government of Cyprus, Administrative Memorandum No. 9, 4 August 1937. TNA FCO 141/2525.

118. A Dechant, Chief Secretary’s Office. Review of Registry Work, Organisation and Methods Unit, Entebbe, Uganda, 1956. In NAM O and M/Gen/5 ‘Papers on Registry Assignments’.

119. Palestine Gazette, 6 August 1946. TNA CO 733/478/2.

120. Aloufi, The Legacy, p. 208.

121. Telegram from High Commissioner to Secretary of State for Colonies, 24 July 1946. TNA CO 733/478/2.

122. Letter from Iltyd Clayton, Cairo, 26 July 1946. TNA CO 733/478/2.

123. L Durrell, Bitter Lemons of Cyprus, Faber and Faber, London, 1957, pp. 180–2.

124. ‘Palestine Government Records: Disposal of Secret Papers, etc’. TNA CO 733/489/1.

125. ‘Palestine. Photography of Government Records’. TNA CO 733/494/2.

126. K Robinson, Dilemmas of Trusteeship. Aspects of British Colonial Policy between the Wars, OUP, London, 1965, pp. 54–6.

127. UK Ministry of Information, The Abyssinian Campaigns; The Official Story of the Conquest of Italian East Africa, HMSO, London, 1942; M Glover, An Improvised War. The Ethiopian Campaign, 1940–41, Hippocrene Books, London, 1987.

128. G Fraser, Quartered Safe Out Here, Harper Collins, London, 1995; J Nunneley, Tales from the King’s African Rifles, Cassell and Co., London, 2000.

129. Sir W Hancock, Wealth of Colonies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1950, p. 45.

130. A Wood, The Groundnut Affair, Bodley Head, London, 1950.

131. D Fieldhouse, Black Africa 1945–80: Economic Decolonisation and Arrested Development, Allen and Unwin, London, 1986.

132. ‘O and M in the Colonies’; ‘Assistance by Way of Training Courses and Loan of Personnel’. TNA T 222/912 and T 222/913.

133. ‘O and M in the Colonies’, memo from Mr Milner-Barry to Mr Drake, 1 September 1954. TNA T 222/912.

134. ‘O and M in the African Territories’, memo from Mr Milner-Barry, 28 May 1956. TNA T 222/912.

135. Reports by JW Foster. TNA T 222/912.

136. Letter from Mr Pearson of the Colonial Office to Mr Fletcher-Cooke of the Treasury, 12 May 1952. TNA T 222/912.

137. Circular despatch number 21/52 of 11 January 1952. TNA T 222/912.

138. Letter from D O’Donovan to Chief Akintola, 13 July 1954. TNA T 222/912.

139. E Brech, A Thomson and J Wilson, Lyndall Urwick, Management Pioneer: A Biography, OUP, London, 2010, pp. 118–26.

140. ‘Formation of O and M Survey Unit’. NAM, 8-1-6R/5237.

141. ‘O and M in the African Territories (as at 1.10.58)’. TNA T 222.913.

142. Lovering, ‘British Colonial Administrations’ Registry Systems’, pp. 17–18.

143. Minutes of Commissioner General’s meeting, 9 August 1948, in, ‘Security Arrangements, Far East’, p. 9. TNA CO 537/4322.

144. Minute of 27 October 1948, in, ‘Security Arrangements, Far East’. TNA CO 537/4322.

145. Report by Chief Inspector Coveney to Commissioner of Police, Federation of Malaya, July 1949, in ‘Security Arrangements, Far East’. TNA CO 537/4322.

146. Minute of 27 October 1948, in, ‘Security Arrangements, Far East’. TNA CO 537/4322.

147. A Tough and Y Tough, ‘Accountability and Records Appraisal’, ESARBICA Journal, vol. 31, 2012 (in press).

148. A Thurston, Records of the Colonial Office, pp. 7–8.

149. Government of the Republic of Zambia, Government Office Instructions. For Use in Ministries, Departments and District Offices. Part 1, Government Printer, Lusaka, 1967.

150. ‘Transfer from Treasury of Departmental Functions in the Technical Assistance Field’. TNA BA 18/6.

151. FCO, ‘Programme Analysis and Review 1971. Technical Assistance’, November 1971. TNA BA 26/81.

152. G Southwood, ‘Shaping the Registry’, Nigerian Archives, vol. 1, no. 4, 1993, p. 11.