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Catalogue description Foreign and Commonwealth Office and predecessors: Records of Former Colonial Administrations: Migrated Archives
| Reference: | FCO 141 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Foreign and Commonwealth Office and predecessors: Records of Former Colonial Administrations: Migrated Archives |
| Description: |
The records cover a wide range of subject matter relating to colonial administration. They represent what was happening in the territories, mostly prior to independence, and Her Majesty's Government's views at that time, complementing other records held at The National Archives. |
| Date: | 1835-2012 |
| Arrangement: |
The series contains material from the following territories, arranged alphabetically by the then name of the territory whilst under British administration.
The piece numbers assigned to individual files reflect the storage order in which they arrived at The National Archives. Therefore, the records relating to each territory do not always form a single sequence or reflect any sequences implied by former references used before transfer to The National Archives. |
| Related material: |
See also: CO 1035 |
| Held by: | The National Archives, Kew |
| Legal status: | Public Record(s) |
| Creator: |
Colonial Office, 1854-1966 Commonwealth Office, 1966-1968 Commonwealth Relations Office, 1947-1966 Dominions Office, 1925-1947 Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1968- |
| Physical description: | 19957 files and volumes |
| Restrictions on use: | Additional safe handling procedures are in place. Records must be ordered in advance. |
| Access conditions: | Open unless otherwise stated |
| Immediate source of acquisition: |
In 2012-2016 Foreign and Commonwealth Office |
| Custodial history: | In the custody of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before transfer to The National Archives. |
| Selection and destruction information: | The Migrated Archives collection was selected under The National Archives acquisition policy criteria 3.1.2 External Relations and Defence. |
| Accruals: | Records were transferred into this series in eight batches in 2012 and 2013 in line with a timetable published online by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. No further accruals are now expected. |
| Administrative / biographical background: |
This material was created by former British colonial administrations as part of their daily administration activities. As British dependent territories came to independence decisions had to be taken about which papers to destroy, which to leave for successor administrations, and which to ship back to the UK. The general rule, as set out in a Colonial Office guidance telegram of 3 May 1961 on the 'disposal of classified records and accountable documents', was that successor Governments should not be given papers which:
In addition 'There would be little object in handing over documents which would patently be of no value to the successor government'. A great many documents were destroyed on this basis, but others were returned to the UK. The content and status of the migrated archives is covered in the FCO internal review carried out by Anthony Cary (former British High Commissioner to Canada 2007-2010) and laid before Parliament in February 2011. Some files created by the Colonial Office Intelligence and Security Department (otherwise in CO 1035) and the records management branch of the FCO have been included in this series. These records provide background information on the colonial administration files and how they were managed over time, including some destruction records. Snapshots from 2013 of the timetable for transferring these records to The National Archives are available in the UK Government Web Archive. |
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