Out of the box

For the last two weeks Emma Howgill has been busy cataloguing three collections here at LSE as part of her UCL archives course. The results of her labours are now available on the online archives catalogue.

The first collection to be catalogued was the archive of Lord Douglas of Barloch. Francis Campbell Ross Douglas (1889-1980) was born in Manitoba, Canada but educated in Scotland.  His national political career began in 1940, when he successfully stood for Labour in a parliamentary by-election in North Battersea against Eric Joyce, a Stop-the-War candidate.

Douglas resigned his seat on being appointed Governor of Malta in 1946 – the first Civilian Governor of the island for almost a century. He was granted the title 1st Baron Douglas of Barloch in 1949 and upon finishing his term as Governor, returned to take up his seat in the House of Lords, where he was Deputy Speaker from 1962 until his death in 1980.

Photograph of Francis Campbell Ross Douglas from a Labour Party leaflet for North Battersea Division in the 1931 London County Council election (DOUGLAS/1/1)

The Douglas collection covers most of the stages of Douglas’ political career.

DOUGLAS/1/3 and DOUGLAS/1/4 include correspondence indicating his wide range of interests, such as land taxation, the adulteration of food and use of additives, pasteurisation of milk and bomb damage in Battersea.  His correspondents include Ernest Bevin, Hugh Dalton, Lord Woolton, Herbert Morrison, James Callaghan and Clement Attlee.

DOUGLAS/2 covers his time as Governor of Malta and includes considerable insight into the role of the British governor at a time of transition between Colonial rule and the opening of the State Legislature.

DOUGLAS/1/2, /1/4 and /1/7 cover Douglas’ career in the House of Lords and, in particular his concerns over the use of food additives and the inclusion of fluoride in public drinking water.  The collection contains several speeches given on the subjects as well as pamphlets written by Douglas arguing against fluoridation, including “Fluoridation: Facts and Fancy” (1964) and “Blind Obstinacy” (c 1977-80).

Emma notes: “I’ve really enjoyed cataloguing this collection.  Lord Douglas was a man with a wide range of interests and his papers reveal some interesting insights into the workings of the UK government during the Second World War and into the governance of a British dependency.  The collection contains some interesting correspondence with political figures that I’ve previously only read about and speeches on thought-provoking issues of food additives and mass medication.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I’ve spent cataloguing this collection”.

Emma also catalogued the papers of Denis Delay (1927-2011), trade unionist.

He was Secretary of the Trades Union Congress Steel Industry Consultative Committee (TUCSICC), which was formed in 1967 on nationalisation of the steel industry. TUCSICC was formed to facilitate policy formation between the various steel unions.

Delay’s papers contain reports and briefing papers prepared for the TUC and TUCSICC, as well as publications and reports commissioned and published by the British Steel Corporation. The collection provides a fascinating insight into the workings of a major nationalised industry, as well as the minutiae of labour relations in the steel industry in the 1970s and 80s. 

The final collection was a box of papers of Russell Scott (1873-1961); teacher, linguist and federalist. These papers reflect Scott’s interest in Federal Union and other supra-nationalist movements. They mainly comprise correspondence, print and ephemera.  There is also a biography of Scott by his grandson, Dr John Russell Scott.

Thank you to Emma for all her hard work and for managing to catalogue three such diverse collections.