Catalogue description Foreign Office: Private Office Papers of Sir Anthony Eden, Earl of Avon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

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Details of FO 954
Reference: FO 954
Title: Foreign Office: Private Office Papers of Sir Anthony Eden, Earl of Avon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Description:

Photocopies of private office papers of Anthony Eden as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1936 to 1938 and 1940 to 1945. There are also a few papers from 1935 and 1946.

Digital copies of Sir Anthony Eden’s private office papers 1935-1946 can be searched and downloaded.
Date: 1935-1946
Arrangement:

The papers were arranged and listed in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They are grouped under the following subject headings. Within each heading they are arranged in date order.

  • Afghanistan; Africa (General); Austria;
  • Baltic States; Belgium; Bulgaria; Burma;
  • Conferences; Convoys and Supplies to Russia; Czechoslovakia;
  • Danzig; Defence; Dominions;
  • Egypt; Eire; Ethiopia;
  • Far East; Finland; Foreign Office; Foreign Policy; France;
  • Germany; Greece;
  • Hungary;
  • India; Iraq; Italy;
  • Latin America; League of Nations; Locarno Treaty;
  • Machinery of Government; Malta; Middle East;
  • Netherlands; North Africa;
  • Operations (including ANVIL, BACKBONE, BODYGUARD, BOLERO, CROSSWORD, DRACULA, DRAGOON, GRAFFHAM, HUSKY, IRONCLAD, OVERLORD, PERFORMANCE, PILGRIM, PUMA, RANKIN, TORCH, and X-RAY);
  • Palestine; Peace Settlement; Persia; Poland; Portugal; Politics; Post-War Plans and Reconstruction; Press; Prisoners of War; Propaganda and Political Warfare Executive;
  • Romania;
  • Scandinavia; Special Operations Executive; Soviet Union; Spain; Switzerland;
  • Turkey;
  • USA;
  • Vatican;
  • War (General); Windsor, Duke of;
  • Yugoslavia.

Referencing: In 2012, as part of transferring digital surrogates to The National Archives' new Discovery catalogue, the items throughout this series were temporarily numbered, starting at 1 in piece 1A and ending at 13830 in piece 34B. In November 2013 these were corrected to have their item references constructed of the piece number followed by the first folio number of the item.

Related material:

Lord Avon's personal and private papers are held by the University of Birmingham

See also papers of Sir Anthony Eden in Subseries within FO 800
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Originals held at:

University of Birmingham holds the original papers, deposited under s4(1) of the Public Records Act 1958
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, 1897-1977
Physical description: 34 volume(s)
Restrictions on use: Available in digital format unless otherwise stated.
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Selection and destruction information: These papers are official government records of Eden's Private Office when he was Foreign Secretary. This set of records included some personal or party political papers not created in this capacity. Photocopies of those papers were not accessioned by the Public Record Office and the originals were returned to Lord Avon. However, the existence of these papers is noted in the catalogue to account for what would otherwise be gaps in the foliation.
Administrative / biographical background:

Anthony Eden served as a Conservative Member of Parliament between 1923 and 1957. He was Foreign Secretary during 1935-1938, 1940-1945 and 1951-1955, and Prime Minister during 1955-1957. He was made 1st Earl of Avon in 1961.

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