Foreign Office Records from 1782

Overseas Information Leaflet 14

1. Introduction

The Foreign Office, formed in 1782 and merged into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1968, was the department responsible for the conduct of British relations with nearly all foreign states between those dates. The greater part of its records is arranged in seven major categories, General Correspondence, Registers and Indexes, Embassy and Consular Archives, Confidential Print, Treaties, Private and Private Office Papers, and Archives of Commissions and Conferences, together with certain additional subsidiary series, all of which are described below.

2. General Correspondence

The General Correspondence consists of the original papers accumulated in London, that is the original despatches from British representatives abroad with any enclosures; drafts of outgoing despatches; minutes; domestic correspondence with foreign representatives in this country, with other branches of the British government and with private individuals and bodies.

Records earlier in date than 1906 are to be found in the series FO 1-90 , and FO 95-111 . For the most part, they are arranged by country. In addition, there are some series of a general or miscellaneous nature not related to a particular country.

From 1906 the general correspondence covering all countries is arranged in a small number of subject series as follows:

Of these the Political (FO 371 ) is by far the largest and generally most important.

3. Registers and Indexes

Departmental diaries and registers, and general registers, 1817 to 1920, are in the series Registers of General Correspondence (FO 566 ), and for the most part record the arrival and handling of individual papers and the despatch of replies. Earlier departmental diaries and registers, 1782 to 1817, are in Miscellanea, Series I (FO 95 ). The Registers (Library Series) and Indexes of General Correspondence, 1808 to 1890, are in the series FO 802 , and represent the general correspondence as now arranged and bound up, according to the country series in the pre-1906 correspondence. Each register for each country has an index. There are microfilm copies in FO 605 . Indexes to the departmental registers in FO 566 for the years 1891 to 1905 are in FO 804 . There are photographic copies in FO 738 .

Numerical (Central) Registers of the subject series of general correspondence from 1906 to 1920 are in FO 662 . There is a card index in the Open Reading Room to these series for the same years, annually arranged, referring to subjects, persons and places. Indexes (Printed Series) to General Correspondence, 1920 to 1951, are in FO 409 . Reprints of these, referring to subjects, persons and places are also available in the Open Reading Room.

Where an entry is found in a Register or an Index this does not necessarily mean that the papers to which it refers have been selected for permanent preservation.

4. Embassy and Consular Archives

These consist of the original despatches received from the Foreign Office by British diplomatic and consular posts abroad, draft despatches to London, local correspondence with the government and other authorities of the foreign state, with other British representatives and agents and private individuals. Among this category will also be found such other local records as registers of births, deaths and marriages of British subjects abroad, consular court records, commercial records of many sorts, papers about British churches and cemeteries and the estates of British subjects.

From many missions abroad registers of correspondence survive from the 1820s onwards and many kept entry books of correspondence until the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. There are many gaps in the series of correspondence itself, occasioned by accidental losses, deliberate destruction in time of emergency to avoid the possibility of papers falling into hostile hands or rejection for permanent preservation. For some posts no records, or only registers, have been permanently preserved.

5. Confidential Print

From the late 1820s papers of particular significance began to be printed in several copies and distributed to officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet, other Departments and to British missions abroad as Confidential Print. From the 1850s the practice grew until by 1906 nearly every important despatch or telegram was routinely printed.

Confidential Print, which vary from a single document to a substantial volume of papers, are numbered individually, roughly in order of printing. A set of Confidential Print, arranged numerically, from 1827 to 1914, is in FO 881 . There are parallel series, in some 94 further series, duplicating the numerical series for the period it covers but extending to a much more recent date, arranged variously by country, geographical area or subject.

6. Treaties

Before a treaty is made, the parties exchange the Full Powers or authorisations granted to their plenipotentiaries. The document reciting the agreed terms of the treaty, signed and sealed by the plenipotentiaries of each side is the Protocol. The Full Powers of other parties to treaties, with the Protocols and any subsidiary documents are in the series of Protocols of Treaties (FO 93 ). Those of British plenipotentiaries are in the series Great Britain and General (FO 83 ). Following the signing and sealing of the Protocol, ratifications were drawn up, and signed and sealed by the head of state of each party and exchanged, or sometimes deposited in an agreed place if there were several parties. Ratifications of Treaties, signed and sealed by foreign heads of state, are in FO 94 . Protocols and ratifications of Multilateral Treaties to which the United Kingdom was a party from 1969 are in FO 949 and those of the European Economic Community from 1953 in FO 974 .

7. Private and Private Office Papers

Until this century many Foreign Secretaries, diplomats and officials took away as their own property unregistered papers on official business. There are nearly thirty series of Foreign Office records consisting of such private collections later returned to the Foreign Office and transferred to the Public Record Office, now The National Archives. They also include a series (FO 954 ) of photocopies of the papers of Anthony Eden first Earl of Avon, Foreign Secretary 1936-1938 and 1940-1945, whose originals are at the Birmingham University Library.

During this century Foreign Secretaries, diplomats and officials have been required to surrender official papers on retirement and a series of Private Collections: Ministers and Officials: Various (FO 800 ) contains over seventy such collections of papers as well as general private office material.

Certain collections given to the Public Record Office directly, or deposited there, are now to be found among the series of Gifts and Deposits (PRO 30/1 to PRO 30/10 ), and also contain or consist of official Foreign Office records.

8. Archives of Commissions and Conferences

The Foreign Office records contain the archives of a large number of international commissions, both those established to deal with matters of international importance on which several countries were represented in addition to the United Kingdom, and also those established to deal with issues between Britain and one other country. Some consist of the papers of the British Commissioner only, others of papers of the Commission as a whole.

The archives of some British delegations to International Conferences are to be found before 1906 in the appropriate country series, or in the Great Britain and General series (FO 83 ). There are also papers concerning various conferences during World War I, of the 1919-1920 Peace Conference, and of several inter-war conferences among records of the Cabinet Office (CAB 25 , CAB 28 ). Papers relating to conferences during the Second World War are in War Cabinet: Commonwealth and International Conferences (CAB 99 ), Operations Papers (PREM 3 ) and Confidential Papers (PREM 4 ). Further Cabinet Office records relating to conferences will be found in Cabinet Minutes (CAB 23/65 , CAB 23/12 ), Memoranda (CAB 24/66 , CAB 24/129 ).

Other archives of conferences form separate Foreign Office series, such as those of the 1919-1920 Peace Conference (FO 373 , FO 608 , FO 893 ), of the Lausanne and other inter-war Conferences ( FO 839 ) and of the 1945 Potsdam Conference (FO 934 ).

9. Other Record Categories

The Chief Clerk :The archives of the Chief Clerk's Department form a separate series (FO 366 ). They reflect the Chief Clerk's responsibilities for financial and establishment matters concerning the internal Foreign Office, and the Diplomatic and Consular services, the Foreign Office Messengers, for audit of accounts and for accommodation matters.

Wartime Series: Both world wars resulted in the creation of bodies of records of administrative organisations or local missions, which now form separate record series. Among the former are the Restriction of Enemy Supplies Department, 1915-1919 (FO 902 ) and the Foreign Trade Department 1916-1919 (FO 833 ), and the Second World War Ministry of Economic Warfare (FO 837 ), Political Warfare Executive (FO 898 ) and Consular (War) Department (FO 916 ).

Among the latter are the Jedda Agency (FO 686 ) and Arab Bureau Papers (FO 882 ) from the First World War, and the British Mission to the French National Committee (FO 892 ) and records of various Ministers Resident etc (FO 660 ), the Minister of State, Cairo (FO 921 ) and the British Middle East Office, Cairo (FO 957 ), from the Second.

Passport Office Records: The records of the Passport Office, including Correspondence and Registers of Correspondence (1815-1949), and Registers of Passports issued with indexes of names (1795-1948), are in FO 610 . Representative examples of passports issued are in FO 655 and representative case papers in FO 637 .

Records concerning Germany and Austria from 1945: The Foreign Office inherited the records both of the Control Office for Germany and Austria, based in London, and of the British Element of the Allied Control Commissions in Germany and Austria. These include material also of the Allied Control Authority and Control Council and of some of the bipartite and tripartite organisations through which the United Kingdom and the USA, and later France, co-operated in administering what are now the Federal Republics of Germany and Austria.

The Control Office, the department in London responsible for the exercise of British control in Germany and Austria, succeeded the Economic and Industrial Planning Staff administered by the War Office in 1945, and in 1947 became the German Section of the Foreign Office. Its records are in FO 935 .

In Germany the allied powers assumed supreme authority following the unconditional surrender, this authority being exercised from 1945 to 1949 by the Commanders in Chief both separately, each in his own zone of occupation, and jointly through a Control Council. In 1949 a Basic Law, or Constitution, was enacted in the three Western zones, and Civil High Commissioners replaced the military governors. The records of the British Commissioner and of his predecessor military authority, of his local administration in the British Zone and of the joint organisations referred to above are in FO 1005 , FO 1008 , FO 1010 , FO 1012 , FO 1023 , FO 1046 , FO 1049 , FO 1056 .

There is also information about the post-war administration of Germany in Cabinet records, Treasury records, War Office records and in the contemporary subject series of Foreign Office General Correspondence.

10. Published and Unpublished: Means of Reference

The Foreign Office records are described in volumes II and III of the published Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office (HMSO, 1963, 1968) and in Parts I (section 802) and II of the Current Guide. They are more fully treated in Public Record Office Handbooks No. 33, The Records of the Foreign Office, 1782-1968 (Kew, 2002), which gives a history of the Foreign Office and a detailed account of its office practices, paperkeeping, registration, filing and allied subjects. Students of all but the most straightforward subjects should consult the Handbook to ascertain for themselves the range of possible sources on their subject within the Foreign Office series of records, and for guidance on the best use of the various finding aids available.

The exact modern TNA reference to individual pieces within a given series of records is found from the series lists, which for most FO series depend on being used in conjunction with the original Foreign Office Registers and Indexes rather than giving a precise description of the subject of the contents of each piece.

In a separate binder at the start of the FO lists, labelled FO INDEX, will be found a two part index to the titles of FO series. The first part is arranged alphabetically by name of country (or geographical area), listing any series of General Correspondence, Embassy and Consular Archives or Confidential Print, and also any consular or consular court records for that country. The second part shows the same series arranged in alphabetical order of series title under the following subject headings:

11. Miscellaneous

In Part I of the Current Guide the four appendices to section 802 also list alphabetically the country series of General Correspondence before 1906, the Confidential Print series, the Embassy and Consular Archives (by country and then by place), and the consular court and supreme court records.

Certain of the FO lists were published in the series of Public Record Office Lists and Indexes, as No LII, List of Foreign Office Records to 1878 (HMSO, 1929). This has been reprinted by Kraus International Publications, together with volumes in the series of Supplementary Lists and Indexes, No XIII, volumes 1 to 28, covering General Correspondence, Embassy and Consular Archives, Confidential Print and various other series down to 1947. Details are given in the pamphlet, HMSO Sectional List 24, British National Archives, of which reference copies are available at The National Archives.

The volumes of the printed Indexes to Foreign Office General Correspondence, 1920 to 1951, have also been reprinted by Kraus International Publications in 131 volumes, 4 for each year, volumes 77, 82 and 87 being additional indexes to the "Green" or secret papers for 1921 to 1938, 1939 and 1940 respectively. After 1951 reference to the General Correspondence can be made through the detailed series lists and a selective set of printed Foreign Office Indexes.

12. Access

Under existing legislation British government records are, with a few exceptions, open to public inspection 30 years after their creation. Certain records may be closed for 50 or 75 years under s.5(1) of the Public Records Act or may be retained under s.3(4) if they are concerned with intelligence or security matters or have a high security content. If whole pieces are closed or retained their unavailability will be noted in the lists. Where papers from within files are withheld, a dummy sheet will be found replacing them.

(ri2068) Last updated: 10 March 2008| © Crown Copyright 2002