Catalogue description FILES ON INDIVIDUALS: FILES LABELLED 'ALIASES AND BEGGING LETTERS PA TO S'

The files are listed in three alphabetical sequences; the first group consists of miscellaneous files on individuals; the two other groups consist of two surviving box files from an alphabetical series labelled 'Aliases and Begging Letters'.

FILES ON INDIVIDUALS ARE CLOSED TO CONSULTATION. Permission for access may be obtained from the Director of the Family Welfare Association.

The files on individuals originally formed part of the main series of Enquiry Department files on charities and were numbered in the same series. In the 1930s the files on individuals seem to have been separated from the main series and arranged alphabetically.

Most of the files on individuals relate to the writers of begging letters or to the promoters of spurious charitable appeals. Some of the files on individuals do, however, relate to charitable appeals which were entirely bona fide. The cases of people writing begging letters were investigated by the C.O.S. district committee for the area in which they were living, who would assist them if they considered they were deserving of help. Only files on notorious writers of begging letters were retained by the Central Enquiry Department.