Catalogue description Records of United Kingdom regional organisation

The British Council first established a regional organisation in the United Kingdom during the Second World War, following Treasury approval (given in 1940) for the British Council to spend money on British subjects from overseas who had come to this country either as refugees or as part of the war effort. This approval was extended in 1942 to include United States servicemen based in the United Kingdom. The work was organised on a regional basis with four officers being appointed to oversee the activities in their own regions: one each for Scotland; for North England and North Wales; for South West England and South Wales; and for London, the home counties and East Anglia.

The work undertaken was the teaching of English and the provision of cultural facilities (including organising concerts and lectures and the provision of instruments and materials), using premises and teachers initially provided by local education authorities, but later provided by the British Council itself.

As well as working closely with the education authorities, the British Council's regional offices also co-operated with the Ministry of Shipping's Allied and Neutral Seamen's Committee and the Ministry of Labour's Port Welfare Officers, and national hostels and club rooms were provided for foreign merchant mariners and fishermen in most main ports. From July 1940, a number of national centres were opened in London and other major cities. Central control of the regions was exercised by the Home Division.

At the end of the war, the national centres were closed, and the properties that had housed them were sold, but the regional offices remained open, to serve the continuing stream of students from overseas who came to the United Kingdom to study. The numbers of students visiting Great Britain under British Council sponsorship grew considerably after the war (for example, there were 1,000 in 1946, but some 8,000 in 1954), all of whom were looked after by the regional offices, whose services included meeting students at the dockside and later at the airport, transporting them to student hostels which were often British Council run (the British Council also ran three student hostels and a student centre in London, plus additional student hostels in Newcastle, Leeds and Edinburgh) and providing general welfare services.

The initial network of four regional officers was quickly expanded: representatives of the British Council with national headquarters offices were established in Cardiff and Edinburgh; area offices were established at fourteen sites in England, with three more in Scotland and one each in Wales and Northern Ireland. The number of regional offices has varied according to administrative needs in the intervening years.