Tommy Norton | The National Archives blog

Posts by Tommy Norton

I joined The National Archives’ press office in April 2010 having started my career as a journalist on local newspapers and magazines. I’m now part of the team that helps the media get the most out of our new file releases - on everything from UFOs to MI5 - as well as looking for opportunities throughout the year to increase awareness of our diverse collection. Away from my desk, I’m a bowler in the archives’ cricket team, a long-suffering Nottingham Forest supporter and a new dad.

Wed May

2013

‘Winston…was complaining of a slight headache’

Posted by Tommy Norton in Records and research

I never cease to get a sense of excitement from opening newly-accessioned files for the first time. Occasionally, documents released to The National Archives will fundamentally change our view of history, but more often, they add colour and fill in the blanks to events and personalities with which we’re already familiar.

Today’s release of almost 500 files from the Foreign Office’s Permanent Under-Secretary’s Department (PUSD) is a good case in point. Among the papers, is an extraordinarily entertaining account of ‘Operation Bracelet’, Winston Churchill’s August 1942 mission to Moscow and first face-to-face meeting with Stalin.

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 (catalogue ref: INF 14/447)

The meeting came at a crucial point in the war and Churchill was there to inform Stalin of Allied plans for the invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch) as well as delivering the bad news that there would be no ‘second front’ in Europe. Accompanying Churchill on the trip was Sir Alec Cadogan, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, who later relayed his take on events in a letter to Viscount Halifax (FO 1093/247).

Thu Mar

2013

Rock of ages: Gibraltar through a lens

Posted by Tommy Norton in Records and research

Today it’s the turn of the small British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar to get the ‘through a lens’ treatment. If you’ve missed previous editions, The National Archives has been gradually releasing the contents of the Colonial Office Library’s photographic collection onto Flickr over the past two years. Our hope is that the people living there today will be able to tell us a bit more about the pictures and what they depict.

Almost 200 photos of Gibraltar, from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th, have gone online today, including rare colour photographs from the turn of the century.

Panoramic View of the Rock from the Commercial Mole (top), Gibraltar 1904 (catalogue ref: CO 1069/710)

Fri Mar

2013

‘Cardinals by candlelight’: British diplomats and the Vatican

Posted by Tommy Norton in Records and research

I imagine the past couple of weeks have been pretty busy for the British Embassy to the Holy See, but they probably have nothing on 1978, otherwise known as the Year of Three Popes.

Pope Benedict XVI’s recent decision to step down as leader of the Roman Catholic Church – the first pope to abdicate in almost six centuries – opens the way for the unusual situation of two popes living in the Vatican at the same time.

In 1978, in the space of three tumultuous months between August and October, the Roman Catholic Church had no less than three different leaders: Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II. I’ve been looking back through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) files from the period to see how British officials at the legation (as it was then) in Rome dealt with the fast-changing situation.

Poland's Cardinal Wojtyla became the third pope of 1978. (catalogue ref: FCO 33/3787)

Fri Oct

2012

James Bond, the Cold War diaries and spying in Kew

Posted by Tommy Norton in Records and research

It’s almost impossible to separate in the popular imagination the real world of espionage with the name ‘James Bond’. Ian Fleming’s hero currently stars in his 23^rd film, Skyfall,which goes on general release today; 50 years after Bond first graced our screens in Dr No.

SKYFALL © 2012 Danjaq, LLC, United Artists Corporation, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. 007 Gun Logo and related James Bond Trademarks © 1962-2012 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. SKYFALL, 007 and related James Bond Trademarks are trademarks of Danjaq, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Meanwhile, the list of real-life inspirations for Bond grows longer by the day. The latest agent to be named as the ‘real’ James Bond is Forest Yeo-Thomas, a Second World War secret agent, codenamed ‘White Rabbit’, whose Special Operations Executive file was released to The National Archives in 2003.

But the new Bond film isn’t all that’s being released today. The latest collection of Security Service (MI5) files are made public today and the undoubted highlights are the ten personal diaries of Guy Liddell, Deputy Director General of MI5 during the early Cold War.

Fri Feb

2012

MI5 file opens new chapter in Chaplin mystery

Posted by Tommy Norton in Records and research

Files released by the Security Service (better known to you and me as MI5) are among the most popular records in our collection, especially with journalists. The arrival of new material at Kew gives the press office and our colleagues in the records knowledge team the chance to delve into the secret history of our nation; a world of double agents, Bond-style gadgets and wartime intrigue.