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Aliens Registration Cards

You can search and download the registration cards for over 600 aliens from DocumentsOnline. We have outlined some points to help you understand more about the Aliens Registration Cards. Use the links below to jump to the topics you are interested in.

Introduction

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Joe Coral arrived in the UK in 1912 (Catalogue reference MEPO 35/16/2)

The series of records in MEPO 35 contains the surviving aliens registration cards for the London area. "Alien" was formerly the legal term for an immigrant to Britain. The cards also include British born wives of aliens, who lost their British status upon marriage.

The requirement for aliens aged 16 or over to register with the police was introduced under the provisions of the Aliens Registration Act 1914; it was renewed by the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919. The legislation gave to the government the power to require such individuals to register with the police and to pay a registration fee. In return the individual received a police certificate of registration.

The cards represent just over 600 cases out of the tens of thousands of aliens resident in London since 1914. Although the cards are a small sample, they do include some notable cases including Joe Coral the book maker (MEPO 35/16/2). You can see extracts below.

Some of the recent cards have been withdrawn because the people they are about could still be alive. They will be returned to DocumentsOnline 100 years after the subject's date of birth. If you want access to cards that are not open you will have to make a Freedom of Information, or FOI, enquiry.

There appears to be a heavy concentration of cases around the late 1930s, as Germans and east Europeans fled the Nazi persecutions. For example MEPO 35/29/4 consists of cards for Ernst Freud and his family. Similarly a lot of cards feature Polish migrants after the Second World War and Hungarian refugees entering the UK in 1956 following the Hungarian uprising.

There were usually four reasons why cases cards were closed: they died; they returned to their country of origin; they moved to an area outside the Metropolitan area; they became naturalised British subjects.

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What could these registration cards help me to discover?

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The information provided on the cards includes full name, date of birth, date of arrival into the UK, marital status, details of any children, address, employment history (including employer's name and address), and date of naturalisation with the Home Office reference if applicable. The cards usually include at least one photograph and for most cases there are continuation cards.

A registered person was required also to register any changes of name, address, marital status, nationality, and employment or occupation. Penalties seem to have varied for not notifying the police of changes to personal circumstances, increasing if they re-offended. That said, the majority of aliens were not fined for misdemeanours.

If a British born woman married an alien she was deemed to have become an alien herself and unless he became naturalised she would still have to register. She would have a separate card to her husband. A widow would need to apply for naturalisation in order to stop registering with the police.

Examples of the registration cards

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The cards are in different colours - blue cards were for males, yellow for females and white were continuation cards (for both males and females).

Joe Coral

Joe Coral arrived in Britain in 1912. He had various jobs before he began taking bets in a billiards club in London during the General Strike of 1926. Later he took bets at the dog racing grounds at Clapton, Harringay and White City. He operated betting pitches at a number of race courses and then in 1943 he opened a credit office in the West End of London. His alien's registration card tells us about his life up to and after this period.

The first example shows the typical head-and-shoulders photograph found in these registration cards. It also reveals that he was born in Warsaw in December 1904.

The second example is the continuation card for 1932 - 1935. It shows that in 1932 Joe Coral was fined £40 for failing to notify the police of change of address. It also gives some details about his marriage in July 1932.

The third example covers 1935 - 1943. Coral was cautioned by letter in 1935 for failing to report the marriage which took place in 1932. By 1938 he declared his occupation as Commission Agent.

The last extract from Joe Coral's cards shows that in 1943 he was cautioned again by letter for failing to notify an intended change of address. The details on the cards continue until his application for naturalisation in 1952 (you can see an extract from the file in the section Further information). Joe Coral and his brother had failed to register until 1924 and were fined £20 each at Thames Magistrates Court. Penalties might have been more serious depending on the circumstances but it is unlikely that an individual already at liberty would have been interned unless the case involved security issues.

Louise Trenton

Soprano, actress and singing teacher Louise Trenton arrived in England in 1913. The cards note that she was born Louise Githens, in Philadelphia. Her date of birth was originally given as 1887 but in the 1950s this was amended to 1882, in line with her passport. She had married Larry Trimble in 1907 and they had a daughter, Janet, who was born in 1912. However her husband remained in the United States while she settled in London. She finally divorced in Mexico City in 1940 and afterwards she was known as Louise Trenton. Her registration cards record changes of address as well as travel out of and back to the UK.

You can see two extracts from her file below.

Why can't I find an entry?

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It's possible that you might need to try searching under a number of spelling variants - see the search tips for further help.

Tens of thousands of aliens have been resident in London since 1914 and the cards in this collection represent a small fraction. It is likely that the registration card has not survived; normally cards were destroyed ten years after an alien was naturalised, departed from the UK or died, whichever first applies. However the following section suggests other possible sources.

Further information

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A common abbreviation used on the cards is "RBS" which stands for Registered British Subject. Another common abbreviation is "NBS" which stands for Naturalised British Subject. If the individual was naturalised then there will be an application for naturalisation in the series HO 144 (1879-1934) and series HO 405 (after 1934). Duplicates of certificates are in HO 334. In most cases the naturalisation certificate number is included on the registration card.

You can see original records at The National Archives. However please bear in mind that some of these files are not yet open to the public, in which case you will have to make a Freedom of Information, or FOI, request (prior to FOI these files had been subject to 100 year closure).

Many cases include enemy aliens who were interned during the Second World War. Internment cards for enemy aliens who were considered but exempt from internment are available to search and download at movinghere.org.uk. Cards for those who were interned are available in the series HO 396 which you can see at The National Archives .

Joe Coral (born Joseph Kagalitski or Kagarlitski) applied for naturalisation in 1952. The complete file has been released under FOI and is available to download (Catalogue reference HO 405/9421).

Naturalisation Catalogue descriptions for HO 45, HO 144 and HO 405 were enhanced as part of a project supported by the Friends of The National Archives, 2002-2005.

Registers of aliens for areas outside London, where they survive, can be found locally either at County Record Offices or Police Archives. Look in the A2A database which lists catalogues describing archives held locally in England and Wales. No central register of aliens survives, though for policy and administrative papers in respect of the register see:

HO 45/10831/326287 and HO 45/11522/287235

For aliens who originated from countries outside Europe and the Mediterranean area you may be able to find details of their arrival in the series BT 26 which contains ships' passenger lists inwards, 1878-1960. This series is being digitised and access to certain pieces will be disrupted from August 2007 until Autumn 2008. Before you travel to Kew please check with us that the documents that you want to order are not affected.

The Aliens Order, 1960, which came into force on 1 January 1961 paved the way for the abolition of the central register for all aliens with the exception of those who had a landing condition requiring them to leave the UK within a specified period.

Please click on the links below to see these National Archives research guides:

These books are available from The National Archives bookshop:

And there are helpful articles in these back issues of Ancestors magazine: