Six documents from The National Archives
The documents above may look familiar, perhaps in the ‘I know the reference’ kind of way for archivists, though more likely in a vague ‘I may have seen that somewhere before’ kind of way. These are a selection of the documents which have been filmed at The National Archives over the last year. (ADM 53/72336, AIR 19/1126, HLG 71/850, HS 5/728, E 101/411/9, E 101/44/30)
I was updating some paperwork and, after writing about Henry Tudor in one sentence and then James Bond in the next, I thought it would be good to share the breadth of documents available at The National Archives which have made it on to your screen. All the references below have been filmed.
Between June 2012 and June 2013 we hosted 43 film crews who collectively looked at about 140 documents (although not all of the shots made it through the editing stage.) Subjects go through ups and downs in popularity depending on public interest or upcoming anniversaries. For example, in August 2012 we had a flurry of enquires and crews coming in to look at documents relating to Edward VIII’s abdication and Mrs Wallis Simpson (HO 144/21070), this may be due to several book releases or just plain coincidence.
Other popular subjects to feature recently include: operations involving Ian Fleming while he was a naval intelligence officer (ADM 223/490 – Goldeneye), the suffragettes, the battle of Dieppe, the 100 year war (E 101/411/9 – Richard II treasure roll), prisoners of war, the Tower of London (SP 14/216) and MI5. There are also specific people, places and events which continue to fascinate, such as Admiral Nelson’s time serving in Antigua (ADM 1/316), Churchill and William Wallace.
One which interested me particularly is the case of the O13. The O13 is the last missing Dutch submarine from the Second World War – a film crew came to read patrol reports from the O13 before it disappeared and from the submarine Wilk which reported hitting an unidentified object in the area the O13 vanished (ADM 199/1853).
There is not only the variety in subject but also in date. The treasure roll mentioned above is dated 1398, the Antigua file 1793 and Goldeneye 1939. There are years of history at our fingertips (and on your remote control) which The National Archives has available to view.
County Londonderry. Map of 'parte of ye Baronie of Loghinisholin', 1609 (reference: MPF 1/46)
Interesting.
The Dutch submarine 013 is still being looked for but the suggestion that it was the Wilk has been reported to be discounted as the 013 did not have any armament as reported on the object attacked by the Wilk. It is slightly odd that there are only ten films in the competition rather than allowing to people to choose what they want, it seems to me that this is repeating information which is already in the public domain.
David,
If you were interested in the subject, the film crew who came to look into the O13 also looked at files ADM 199/1856, ADM 223/82 and ADM 199/373. Document references are not usually mentioned during filming and can make it hard for anyone interested to do their own research if they are not familiar with our records.
Similarly, one of the reasons that the files on film competition was restricted to ten documents is that we want the competition to be as easy for people to enter as possible. Whether they are regular archive users or not, being faced with millions of documents would be quite a challenge. Another reason is that using a multitude of documents would also prove hard to judge and would be impossible to offer internationally, as digitising everything is not feasible. We considered the documents we chose to be ‘hidden treasures’ and we hope the personal stories within them will spark peoples imagination and maybe their curiosity to carry out further research.
I was pleasantly surprised to find some information regarding the O13 and related subjects digitally in your overwhelming National Archives.
It has been used on my website about the loss of the dutch submarine O13 at:
http://home.hccnet.nl/f.rienstra/Rienstra/War%20Cabinet%20Meetings.html
Regards
Fred