What are these records?

These records in series WO 98 are the registers of the Victoria Cross between 1856 and 1944.

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest award available to the armed forces for gallantry in action with the enemy. It was originally made from the bronze cannon captured during the Crimean War (1854-1856). At first it was awarded only to British Army and Royal Navy personnel, but it was subsequently given to members of the other armed forces.

What information do the records contain?

The Victoria Cross registers may contain information about:

• when the award was made
• by whom and to whom the award was made
• if it was a posthumous award

The registers are heavily annotated. They were used when organising the 100th anniversary celebrations of the creation of the Victoria Cross, when many more recipients were still alive.

How do I search the records?

You can search and download (£) the records in Discovery, our catalogue, by filling in the form below.

You do not need to fill out every field to search these records.

Alternatively you can download free of charge a list of the recipients of the Victoria Cross from 1856 up to 1946 (CAB 106/320). This list was produced in 1953 and includes two awards made during the Korean War (1950-1953) and so provides a more complete picture.

Record showing Private Sidney Godley (PDF, 0.82MB)

Record showing Lieutenant G Bromhead (PDF, 0.30MB)

Why can’t I find what I’m looking for?

Of the more than 1,350 awards made, including three bars, only 1,236 people have been recorded in the registers.

Information not contained in the registers

The following table lists those recipients of the Victoria Cross whose names do not appear in the registers. These volumes include all awards gazetted to 1 September 1944.

Name	Rank	Regiment	Date	Locale
Agansing Rai	Naik	2 Battalion 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles, Indian Army	26 June 1944	Bishnpur, Burma
Ali Haidar	Sepoy	13th Frontier Force Rifles, Indian Army	9 April 1945	Fusignano, Italy
Allmand, Michael	Acting Captain	Indian Armoured Corps attached 6th Gurkha Rifles	11 June 1944	Pin Hmi Road Bridge, Burma
Archibald, Adam	Sapper	218 Field Company Royal Engineers	4 November 1918	Near Ors, France
Auten, Harold	Lieutenant	Royal Naval Reserve	30 July 1918	English Channel
Badcoe, Peter John	Major	Australian Army Training Team, Australian Forces	23 February 1967	Huong Tra, Vietnam
Baskeyfield, John Daniel	Lance Sergeant	South Staffordshire Regiment, 1st Airborne Division	20 September 1944	Arnhem, Holland
Bates, Sidney	Corporal	Royal Norfolk Regiment	6 August 1944	Sourdeval, France
Bazalgette, Ian Willoughby	Acting Squadron Leader	635 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve	4 August 1944	Trossy St Maximin, France
Beharry, Johnson Gideon	Private	1 Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment	1 May – 11 June 2004	Al-Amarah, Iraq
Bhanbhagta Gurung	Rifleman	3 Battalion 2nd Gurkha Rifles, British Indian Army	5 March 1945	Tamandu, Burma
Bhandari Ram	Sepoy	10th Baluch Regiment, Indian Army	22 November 1944	East Mayu, Arakan, Burma
Blake, Frank Gerald	Temporary Major	Highland Light Infantry attached 3 Battalion 9th Gurkha Rifles	9 July 1944	Taunghi, Burma
Boyle, Edward Courtney	Lieutenant Commander	Royal Navy	27 April 1915	Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles,Turkey
Brunt, John Henry Cound	Temporary Captain	Sherwood Foresters attached 6 Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment	9 December 1944	Faenza, Italy
Buckingham, William	Private	2 Battalion Leicestershire Regiment	10-12 March 1915	Neuve Chapelle, France
Burton, Richard Henry	Private	1 Battalion Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment	8 October 1944	Monte Ceco, Italy
Cain, Robert Henry	Temporary Major	Royal Northumberland Fusiliers attached South Staffordshire Regiment	19-25 September 1944	Arnhem, Netherlands
Cairns, George Albert	Lieutenant	Somerset Light Infantry attached South Staffordshire Regiment	13 March 1944	Henu Block, Burma
Carne, James Power	Lieutenant Colonel	1 Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment	22-23 April 1951	Imjin River, Korea
Chapman, Edward Thomas	Corporal	3 Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment	2 April 1945	Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany
Charlton, Edward Colquhoun	Guardsman	2 Battalion Irish Guards	21 April 1945	Wistedt, Germany
Cheshire, Leonard Geoffrey	Wing Commander	Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve	July 1944
Chowne, Albert	Lieutenant	2/2 Battalion New South Wales Australian Military Forces	25 March 1945	Dagua, New Guinea
Cosens, Aubrey	Sergeant	Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, Canadian Army	25-26 February 1945	Mooshof, Holland
Crowe, Joseph Petrus Hendrik	Lieutenant	78th Regiment	12 August 1857	Busherutgunge
Currie, David Vivian	Major	South Alberta Regiment, Canadian Army	18-20 August 1944	Battle of Falaise, Normandy
Curtis, Philip Kenneth Edward	Lieutenant	Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry attached 1 Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment	22-23 April 1951	Imjin River, Korea
Din, Fazal	Acting Naik	10th Baluch Regiment	2 March 1945	Meiktila, Burma
Donnini, Dennis	Fusilier	4/5 Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers	18 January 1945	Between Roer and Maas Rivers, Holland
Durrant, Thomas Frank	Sergeant	Corps of Royal Engineers attached No.1 Commando	27 March 1942	St Nazaire, France
Eardley, George Harold	Acting Sergeant	4 Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry	16 October 1944	Overloon, Netherlands
Foote, John Weir	Captain	Royal Hamilton Light Infantry	19 August 1942	Dieppe, France
Fraser, Ian Edward	Lieutenant	Royal Navy	31 July 1945	Straits of Johor, Singapore
Frisby, Cyril Hubert	Acting Captain	1 Battalion Coldstream Guards	27 September 1918	Canal du Nord, Graincourt, France
Furness, Christopher	Lieutenant	1 Battalion Welsh Guards	17-24 May 1940	Near Arras, France
Ganju Lama	Rifleman	1 Battalion 7th Gurkha Rifles	12 June 1944	Ningthoukhong, Burma
Ghadge, Yeshwant	Naik	5th Maratha Light Infantry	10 July 1944	Upper Tiber Valley, Italy
Gian Singh	Naik	15th Punjab Regiment	2 March 1945	Kamye, Burma
Gort, John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker	Acting Lieutenant Colonel	1 Battalion Grenadier Guards	27 September 1918	Canal du Nord, Flesquieres,France
Grant, John Gilroy	Sergeant	1 Battalion Wellington Regiment New Zealand Expeditionary Force	1 September 1918	Near Bancourt, France
Gray, Robert Hampton	Temporary Lieutenant	Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve	August 1945	Onagawa Wan, Honshu, Japan
Grayburn, John Hollington	Lieutenant	Parachute Regiment	17-20 September 1944	Arnhem, Holland
Gurung, Thaman	Rifleman	1 Battalion 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles	10 November 1944	Monte San Bartolo, Italy
Hancock, Thomas	Private	9th Lancers	19 June 1857 Delhi
Harden, Henry Eric	Lance Corporal	Royal Army Medical Corps attached 45 Royal Marine Commando	23 January 1945	Brachterbeek, Holland
Harper, John William	Corporal	4 Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment	29 September 1944	Antwerp, Belgium
Havelock, Henry Marsham	Lieutenant	10th Regiment	16 July 1857	Cawnpore
Hedges, Frederick William	Temporary Lieutenant	Bedfordshire Regiment attached 6 Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment	24 October 1918	North East of Bousies, France
Hunter, Thomas Peck	Temporary Corporal	43 Commando, Royal Marines	2 April 1945	Lake Comacchio, Italy
Insall, Gilbert Stuart Martin	Second Lieutenant	Royal Flying Corps	7 November 1915	Near Achiet, France
Jackson, Norman Cyril	Sergeant	Royal Air Force	26-27 April 1944	Schweinfurt, Germany
Jackson, Thomas Norman	Lance Corporal	1 Battalion Coldstream Guards	27 September 1918	Canal du Nord, Graincourt, France
Jamieson, David Auldjo	Captain	Royal Norfolk Regiment	7-8 August 1944	Grimbosq, Normandy
Jones, Herbert	Lieutenant Colonel	2 Battalion Parachute Regiment	28 May 1982	Darwin, Falkland Islands
Joynt, William Donovan	Lieutenant	8 Battalion Australian Imperial Force	23 August 1918	Herleville Wood, Chuignes, Somme, France
Judge, Karamjeet Singh	Lieutenant	4 Battalion 15th Punjab Regiment	18 March 1945	Meiktila, Burma
Kenna, Edward	Private	2 Battalion New South Wales Australian Military Forces	15 May 1945	Wewak, New Guinea
Knowland, George Arthur	Lieutenant	Royal Norfolk Regiment attached 1 Commando	31 January 1945	Kangaw, Burma
Lachhiman, Gurung	Rifleman	8th Gurkha Rifles	12-13 May 1945	Taungdaw, Burma
Lassen, Anders Frederik Emil Victor Schau	Temporary Major	General List attached Special Boat Service No.1 SAS Regiment	8 April 1945	Lake Comacchio, Italy
Leakey, Nigel Gray	Sergeant	1/6 Battalion King’s African Rifles	19 May 1941	Colito, Abyssinia
Liddell, Ian Oswald	Temporary Captain	5 Battalion Coldstream Guards	3 April 1945	Lingen, Germany
Limbu, Rambahadur	Lance Corporal	2 Battalion 10th Princess Mary’s Own Gurkha Rifles	21 November 1965	Sarawak, Borneo
Lord, David Samuel Anthony	Flight Lieutenant	271 Squadron, Royal Air Force	19 September 1944	Arnhem, Holland
MacKey, John Bernard	Corporal	2/3rd Pioneer Battalion, Australian Military Forces	12 May 1945	Tarakan Island, North Borneo
Magennis, James Joseph	Acting Leading Seaman	Royal Navy	31 July 1945	Straits of Johor, Singapore
McKay, Ian John	Platoon Sergeant	4 Platoon B Company, 3 Battalion Parachute Regiment	12 June 1982	Mount Longdon, Falkland Islands
Muir, Kenneth	Major	1 Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders	23 September 1950	Songju, Korea
Mynarski, Andrew Charles	Warrant Officer 11	419 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force	12 June 1944	Over Cambrai, France
Namdeo Jadav	Sepoy	5th Maratha Light Infantry, Indian Army	9 April 1945	Senio River, Italy
Nasmith, Martin Eric	Lieutenant Commander	Royal Navy	20 May – 8 June 1915	Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles, Turkey
Negi, Gobar Singh	Rifleman	2/39th Garhwal Rifles, Indian Army	10 March 1915	Neuve Chapelle, France
Newman, Augustus Charles	Lieutenant Colonel	Essex Regiment	27 March 1942	St Nazaire, France
Norton, Gerard Ross	Lieutenant	Kaffrarian Rifles, South African Forces attached 1 Battalion Hampshire Regiment	31 August 1944	Montegridolfo, Italy
Osborn, John Robert	Company Sergeant Major	1 Battalion Winnipeg Grenadiers, Canadian Army	19 December 1941	Hong Kong
Palmer, Robert Anthony Maurice	Squadron Leader	109 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve	23 December 1944	Over Cologne, Germany
Partridge, Frank John	Private	8 Battalion Victoria Australian Military Forces	24 July 1945	Bougainville, Solomon Islands
Payne, Keith	Warrant Officer	11 Australian Army Training Team, Australian Forces	24 May 1969	Ben Het, Kontum Province, Vietnam
Purcell, John	Private	9th Lancers	19 June 1857	Delhi
Queripel, Lionel Ernest	Captain	Royal Sussex Regiment attached 10th Parachute Battalion	19 September 1944	Arnhem, Holland
Randle, John Neil	Temporary Captain	2 Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment	4 May 1944	Battle of Kohima, North East India
Rattey, Reginald	Roy Corporal	25 Battalion Australian Military Forces	22 March 1945	Bougainville, Solomon Islands
Raymond, Claude	Lieutenant	Corps of Royal Engineers	21 March 1945	Talaku, Burma
Ritchie, Henry Peel	Commander	Royal Navy	28 November 1914	Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika
Rivers, Jacob	Private	1 Battalion Sherwood Foresters	12 March 1915	Neuve Chapelle, France
Roope, Gerard Broadmead	Lieutenant Commander	Royal Navy	8 April 1940	West Ford, Norway
Salmon, Nowell	Lieutenant	Royal Navy	16 November 1857	Lucknow
Scarf, Arthur Stewart King	Squadron Leader	62 Squadron, Royal Air Force	9 December 1941	Malaya
Shah, Sher	Lance Naik	16th Punjab Regiment	19-20 January 1945	Kyeyebyin, Burma
Simpson, Rayene Stewart	Warrant Officer 11	Australian Army Training Team, Australian Forces	6 May 1969	Kontum Provence, Vietnam
Singh, Badlu	Ressaidar	14th Lancers attached 29th Lancers, Deccan Horse, Indian Army	23 September 1918	River Jordan, Palestine
Singh, Prakash or Parkash	Jemadar	13th Frontier Force Rifles	16-17 February 1945	Kanlan Ywathit, Burma
Singh, Ram Sarup	Acting Subidar	2 Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment	25 October 1944	Kennedy Peak, Tiddim, Burma
Smith, Ernest Alvia	Private	Seaforth Highlanders	21-22 October 1944	River Savio, North Italy
Speakman, William	Private	Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) attached 1 Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers	1951	United Hill, Korea
Starcevich, Leslie Thomas	Private	2 Battalion South Australia Australian Army	25 May 1945	Beaufort, North Borneo
Stokes, James	Private	2 Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry	1 March 1945	Kervenheim, Rhineland
Sukanaivalu, Sefanaia	Corporal	Fijian Infantry Regiment	23 June 1944	Bougainville, Solomon Islands
Swales, Edwin	Captain	RAF Pathfinder Force, 582 Squadron	23 February 1945	Pforzheim, Germany
Thapa, Netrabahadur	Acting Subidar	2 Battalion 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles	25-26 June 1944	Bishenpur, Burma
Thapa, Sher Bahadur	Rifleman	9th Gurkha Rifles	18-19 September 1944	San Marino, Italy
Thompson, George	Flight Sergeant	9 Squadron Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve	1 January 1945	Over Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany
Tilston, Frederick Albert	Acting Major	Essex Scottish Regiment, Canadian Army	1 March 1945	Hochwald Forest, Germany
Topham, Frederick George	Corporal	1 Canadian Parachute Battalion, Canadian Army	24 March 1945	Rhine, Germany
Trent, Leonard Henry	Squadron Leader	Royal New Zealand Air Force	3 May 1943	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tulbahadur Pun	Rifleman	3 Battalion 6th Gurkha Rifles, Indian Army	23 June 1944	Mogaung, Burma
Umrao Singh	Havildar	33 Mountain Battery, Royal Indian Artillery	15 December 1944	Kaladan Valley, Burma
Upham, Charles Hazlitt (bar)	Second Lieutenant	New Zealand Military Forces	14-15 July 1942	Ruweisat Ridge, Egypt
Warneford, Reginald Alexander John	Flight Sub-Lieutenant	Royal Navy 1 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service	7 June 1915	Over Ghent, Belgium
Watkins, Tasker	Lieutenant	1/5 Battalion Welsh Regiment	16 August 1944	Barfour, Normandy
Weston, William Basil	Lieutenant	Green Howards	3 March 1945	Meiktila, Burma
Wheatley, Kevin Arthur	Warrant Officer	11 Australian Army Training Team, Australian Forces	13 November 1965	Tra Bong, Vietnam
Wilcox, Alfred Lance	Corporal	2/4 Battalion Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry	12 September 1918	North East of Laventie, France
Wilkinson, Thomas	Temporary Lieutenant	Royal Naval Reserve	14 February 1942	Java Sea, off Malaya
Wood, Wilfred	Private	10 Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers	28 October 1918	Casa Vana, Italy
Wright, Peter Harold	Company Sergeant Major	3 Battalion Coldstream Guards	25 September 1943	Salerno, Italy

 

This is a guide to locating records of merchant seamen in service since the end of the First World War, including records from the Second World War, and up to the last decades of the 20th century. These are records of seamen serving on British registered vessels but the seamen themselves need not have been British to appear in the records.

For service records of seamen serving after 1972 go to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

What do I need to know before I start?

Online records

Records available only at The National Archives in Kew

Records in other archives and organisations

Other resources

1. Why use this guide?

This guide explains what types of records were created as part of the Tithe Survey and how to search for them. It also refers to other records related to tithes.

This guide may be useful if you:

• are interested in an ancestor who once lived in a given parish
• wish to find out more about a particular property
• are researching local history
• require a large-scale map of an area in the mid-19th century

The records of the Tithe Survey may show where people were living and who their neighbours were in early Victorian times.  You may also find information on crop acreages, field names, house occupancy, rights of way and parish boundaries.

For information on the use of tithe records in chancel repairs research please see our research guide on Chancel repair liabilities in England and Wales.

You may be able to locate records of the Tithe Survey in other archives. See section Records held in other archives.

2. What was the Tithe Survey?

Tithes were originally a tax which required one tenth of all agricultural produce to be paid annually to support the local church and clergy. After the Reformation much land passed from the Church to lay owners who inherited entitlement to receive tithes, along with the land.

By the early 19th century tithe payment in kind seemed a very out-of-date practice, while payment of tithes per se became unpopular, against a background of industrialisation, religious dissent and agricultural depression. The 1836 Tithe Commutation Act required tithes in kind to be converted to more convenient monetary payments called tithe rentcharge. The Tithe Survey was established to find out which areas were subject to tithes, who owned them, how much was payable and to whom.

For more information on the background of the tithe survey, see Maps for Family and Local History by G Beech and R Mitchell and Tithe Surveys by J P Kain and H Prince.

2.1 How was the Tithe Survey carried out?

The first task of the Tithe Commissioners appointed to oversee the administration of the Act was to discover to what extent commutation had already taken place.

Enquiries were directed to every parish or township listed in the census returns. The results of these enquiries are in the tithe files, which cover the whole of England and Wales, and not only those places where tithes remained uncommuted by 1836. For parishes where tithes were still being paid in kind, the land had to be surveyed and valued, to arrive at total parish rentcharge figures, and to calculate each individual landowner’s liability to pay tithe. Assistant tithe commissioners travelled to these parishes to hold meetings with parishioners about valuations, and to settle the terms of the commutation of their tithes.

These terms were formalized in a document called a tithe agreement, if all parties concurred, or a tithe award, if the assistant commissioner had to arbitrate in a dispute. The agreement or award formed the basis of the tithe apportionment, which was the legal document setting out landowners’ individual liabilities. Each apportionment was accompanied by a map; both were signed by the Tithe Commissioners. Tithe rentcharge then became payable.

3. Overview of key record series

The major record series are:

• Tithe apportionments (IR 29) which provide the names of landowners and occupiers, land use and tithe rentcharge
• Tithe maps (IR 30) which show numbered plots described in the apportionments
• Tithe files (IR 18) which contain the administrative records created while the Tithe Survey was being carried out

See sections on each of the record series in this guide for more information.

3.1 How do the records relate to each other?

The apportionments contain written information about the area shown on the map. The maps provide a graphic index to the apportionments, using plot numbers to link each plot of land shown on the map to its description in the apportionment, which shows how much tithe rentcharge was due on that plot.

A tithe map and apportionment were originally kept together and technically constitute a single document, but have been separated to facilitate use and storage, while in the custody of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, long before their transfer to the Public Record Office, and now form two record series.

4. Where do I start?

Depending on your research interest you may wish to start by either consulting the tithe map first or the apportionment first.

Those looking for individuals will start by finding the relevant tithe apportionment, in which people’s names are listed. Note the plot number in the column against any names in which you are interested, and then look at the map to see where these plot numbers were located.

If you are interested in a place, look at the tithe map and find the plot number attached to the area in which you are interested. Look up the number in the key at the front of the apportionment, to find on which page this plot number is described.

You can access images of the records on The Genealogist online. See the relevant sections for more search guidance:

• apportionments
• tithe maps

5. What can I view online?

You can view the apportionments and tithe maps online at The Genealogist (£).Consult the sections on apportionments and tithe maps in this guide for more advice on how to search the records online.

6. Apportionments (IR 29)

The tithe apportionment was the main record of how tithes were to be commuted, showing how the overall rentcharge for the district was apportioned to individual landowners on the basis of identifiable pieces of land, and how much tithe had to be paid for each plot of land.  Details include names of owners and occupiers, size and use of plots of land.

6.1 How do I search the apportionments?

You can view the apportionments online at The Genealogist (£). Search them by a parish or a person’s name. If you are searching by parish, enter the parish name in the ‘keyword’ field.

You can search for a plot number by including it with the parish. Click on the ‘original image’ icon to view the image and/or browse through the apportionment.

Before you can consult the record, you will need to find the document reference using Discovery, our catalogue, searching by place name and IR 29.

For more advice on how to use our catalogue, see Discovery help.

6.2 What can I expect to find?

These documents are standard in format and content.

The apportionment opens with a preamble which usually contains the articles of agreement between landowners and the tithe owner or owners, or compulsory award made by the Tithe Commissioners.  It also gives statistics on the overall extent and state of cultivation of the lands in the tithe district, and of any lands exempted on various grounds from payment of tithes, such as commons and roads.

The detailed schedule of apportionment follows. The schedule is a written form which contains columns for:

• names of the landowners
• occupiers
• plot numbers of tithe areas
• name (if applicable), description and type of crop of each tithe area
• how much tithe rentcharge was payable on that tithe area

The summary of schedule lists the landowners alphabetically by surname; names occupiers of their holdings (not listed alphabetically, but usually by the size of the land held); and adds up the rentcharge on individual properties to the global figure due from each landowner to the tithe owner.

A key to the plot numbers

Most tithe apportionments had a numerical key added, showing the page of the apportionment on which a description of each tithe plot appears.

6.3 Altered apportionments and related maps

Changes in ownership and the way land was divided up may be recorded in altered apportionments. Sometimes these were not formally made until several years after the change in ownership, and in many cases, no formal record was made; informal and local agreements may have been made between tithe owners and landowners. Many parishes have no altered apportionment.

Some altered apportionments have maps to show where and how changes had been made. Where there were a number of changes, at different dates, series of numbers may be differentiated by letters or some other sign, either in the original apportionment or in subsequent altered apportionments, as, for example, 22, 22a, 22Aa, A22. You must observe the correspondence of the number in the apportionment with the number on the map. A table explaining the meaning of these numbers and abbreviations found in the Remarks column of the original apportionment is on page 27 of Maps for Family and Local History.

Until 1936, altered apportionments were laced up with the original apportionment; unless it was a large enough document to form a separate roll. Some are to be found with the associated maps. After 1936, altered apportionments were filed separately in the Orders for Apportionment in IR 94.

7. Tithe maps (IR 30)

The primary function of the tithe maps is to provide a graphic index or visual means of reference to the apportionments. Each piece of land liable to tithes was depicted and given a plot number, unique within that parish, by which it could be identified in the apportionment.

Tithe maps are usually manuscript, and are often earlier in date than the earliest Ordnance Survey maps. They may show details such as boundaries, roads, waterways, buildings and woodlands. Occasionally they show other details such as hedges, field names, mines and factories.

7.1 How do I search for tithe maps?

You can access images of the records on The Genealogist (£) online. The Genealogist is currently working on a project to scan the originals in colour, some of which are already available online; others are scans from black and white microfilm.

You can search by place by entering the place name in the ‘keyword’ field for some maps through thegenealogist.co.uk. Click on any map icon from the results list to view the map. Please note you may need to zoom out to view the whole map. Before you can consult the document, you need to locate the document reference using our catalogue by searching for the place name within record series IR 30.

7.2  Looking at the map

The numbers of the tithe areas on the map correspond to those in the schedules to the apportionment. These numbers are not consecutive. Most tithe apportionments of any size had a numerical key added, showing the page of the apportionment where each tithe area appears, to help the user to find the details.

Tithe maps vary in scale, accuracy and size. While water is often coloured blue, inhabited buildings are red, uninhabited ones are grey, and roads are often brown, there is no overall standard or key to conventions which applies to all the maps, and no inference can be made about the inclusion or omission of features or colouring. It must be remembered that the maps were primarily to allow for the administration of the Act to commute tithes.

7.3 Scale and accuracy of maps

At the outset, the Tithe Commissioners sought a uniform and high standard, but had to make concessions, because it was the landowners who had to provide the maps. A provision was inserted a year after the 1836 Act that a map or plan should not be deemed evidence of the quantity of the land, or treated as accurate, unless it was sealed as well as signed by the Commissioners. This created two standards of map, based on their accuracy: ‘first class’ and ‘second class’ maps.

Approximately 1,900 tithe maps (about one-sixth of the whole) were certified by the Tithe Commissioners as first class: they were considered sufficiently accurate to serve as legal evidence of boundaries and land plots.

The second class maps vary in accuracy, from those which narrowly missed a first class seal to some which are little more than topographical sketches.

7.4 Other tithe maps in our collection

A number of original tithe maps were so heavily used that they fell into disrepair. Some of these maps were copied by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, and in such cases it is these copies rather than the original maps which are now in IR 30.

The original maps, together with a few drafts and earlier versions of tithe maps, are preserved as Tithe Maps Supplementary in IR 77. Although the maps in the two series are not always identical, many of those in IR 77 are in poor condition and you should consult them only when the maps in IR 30 fail to provide the required information.

8. Can’t find a record of apportionment or tithe map?

As tithes were normally commuted as part of the enclosure process, areas covered by enclosure maps often lack tithe maps and vice versa. See our guide to records of Enclosures for more information.

For some areas no tithe maps or apportionments were made. This may have been because the amount of tithe involved was negligible, or because there was a Special Award (see section 10.1) and/or the redemption or merger of the tithe rent charges (see section 10.2). By these means the expense of a formal apportionment and of the preparation of a map was avoided. Tithe files may contain information on such matters and explain the limitations or the absence of an apportionment.

9. Tithe files (IR 18)

The tithe files contain the administrative records of the Tithe Survey.

9.1 What information do they contain?

Contents vary. Some files consist only of a cover and nothing else, apparently due to an appraisal in the early 20th century. When there was agreement between the parties, the files often contain fewer papers; whereas in cases of dispute about the commutation process leading up to an Award they may contain a large number of papers.

Papers are generally filed in a chronological order.

Contents might include:

• surviving correspondence of the Tithe Commissioners, illustrating the commutation process
• the report of the Assistant Commissioner who conducted various meetings in the district, and minutes of meetings
• drafts of the award or agreement and draft maps
• some of the files also contain correspondence and drafts relating to later proceedings under subsequent Tithe Acts; for example, the exchange of glebe land, the sale of tithe barns, and the apportionment and redemption of tithe rentcharge

9.2 How do I search for tithe files?

Search our catalogue by parish name and IR 18 in our catalogue.

Alternatively you can browse the catalogue to locate relevant document reference(s). The records in IR 18 are arranged by county and then by tithe district, broadly (but not strictly) in alphabetical order.

10. Other records

10.1 Awards and agreements

The Awards and Agreements in TITH 2 (sealed originals) generally provide little more information than can be found in the apportionment.  The preliminary documents reveal whether the parties acted by themselves or by attorney, and the signature of the parties: material that may interest family historians but has rarely any other significance.

When an award was not followed by an apportionment because the rentcharge was subsequently extinguished by merger and/or redemption (see Deeds of Merger and Redemptions below), the awards were filed separately and known as Special Awards in IR 106.

10.2  Deeds of merger

When the landowner was also the tithe-owner, a situation was created in which an individual was effectively liable to pay tithes to himself. Such a situation was usually resolved by merging the tithes (or tithe rentcharge) in the land – that is to say, extinguishing the liability to pay tithes by virtue of being also entitled to receive them. (For a more detailed explanation of the legal term ‘merger’ see, for example,  Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law, volume 2, 2nd edition, 1977).

Although unity of possession was the most common cause of merger, the Tithe Acts also provided for merger under certain other circumstances. Provision was made for mergers to be confirmed under the seal of the Tithe Commissioners. Many Declarations of Merger in TITH 3 were executed under various provisions of the Acts, thereby making the lands free of rentcharge liability, until by the Tithe Act 1936, all tithe rentcharge was extinguished (see The Tithe Act 1936 below).

A merger, whether of tithes or of tithe rentcharge, might take place before apportionment. In such cases the merger may have been effected by the original agreement or award and not by a separate deed. The instrument under which merger was effected may be important to establish liability for chancel repairs. See guide on Chancel repairs for more information.

10.3 Boundary awards (TITH 1)

Sometimes, particularly in the early stages of commutation, the commissioners had to ascertain and define ancient boundaries between parishes or townships, or to establish new boundary lines, in order to resolve disputes between landowners.

These boundary awards are in TITH 1, made under the Tithe Acts 1839 and 1840. They are usually accompanied by a plan and often include schedules of lands giving names of owners and occupiers.

10.4 Extraordinary tithe rentcharge

As the value of the produce from hops and fruit was greater than that from most other agricultural produce, lands cultivated as market gardens, orchards and so on, were subject to a separate payment in addition to the normal tithe rentcharge. This charge, called an extraordinary tithe rentcharge, was payable only during years when the land was so cultivated.

Such lands were to be found in sixteen counties, but the majority lay in Kent (almost half), Sussex and Herefordshire.

The Extraordinary Tithe Redemption Act 1886 ended this extraordinary charge and enabled its capital value to be ascertained and certified by the Commissioners. Thereafter the land was charged with the payment of an annual rentcharge at the rate of 4% per annum on the certified capital value until the charge was redeemed.

The basic documents in respect of these districts, equivalent to the tithe maps and apportionments for ‘ordinary’ districts, are known as Certificates of Capital Value in IR 95.

A list of the Certificates of Capital Value issued under the 1886 Act was published for Parliament (House of Commons 1890, LV, 353). Each certificate has a map (usually attached, but sometimes filed with the District Record Map in IR 90), which shows those lands subject to the extraordinary rentcharge.

In 1897, a further Act was passed to clarify the intentions of the 1886 Act. Payments under both these Acts were subsequently extinguished by the Tithe Act 1936 and replaced by terminable annuities.

 10.5 Redemption of tithe rentcharge

Prior to the Tithe Act 1936 (see Section 13), various Acts made provision for the extinction of liability to pay tithe rentcharge by redemption of the charge. The Tithe Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vic c73) was the first to make such provision.

Until 1918, redemption could be effected only by payment of a lump sum; such redemptions are recorded in the Registers of Certificates of Redemption of Tithe Rentcharge by Lump Sum in IR 109.

The Tithe Act 1918 (8 & 9 Geo V c54) made provision for the redemption of tithe rentcharge by means of terminable annuity payments, initially for a period not exceeding 50 years, but extended by the Tithe Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo V c87) to a maximum of 60 years.

After 1918, therefore, redemptions may be recorded either in the above-mentioned registers or on the Certificates of Redemption of Tithe Rentcharge by Annuities in IR 102. The latter are similar to tithe apportionments, and may be supplemented by the addition of later apportionments.

They are annotated to show subsequent transactions, but it does not necessarily follow that all subsequent transactions are recorded, since there was nothing to prevent the informal redemption of an annuity.

Lands subject to such annuities can generally be identified by reference to the original tithe apportionment or, where the tithe areas became divided in ownership, by the maps attached to later altered apportionments or orders for apportionment.

10.6 Special Acts

Certain areas were subject to separate Acts of Parliament for tithe purposes. Records relating to

• the London (City) Tithe Acts are in MAF 8
• the Vicar’s Rate in Halifax Act 1877 are in MAF 16 and MAF 76

The tithes payable in Kendal were commuted under the Kendal Corn Rent Act 1834, and records relating to the redemption of this corn rent after 1932 are in MAF 28 and HLG 64.

10.7 Overlap Orders

By the Tithe Act 1860, s34, the Tithe Commissioners were empowered to determine the parish in respect of which tithe rentcharge ought to have been charged, where land had been made chargeable in more than one parish. This power was later extended by the Tithe Act of 1936. Overlap Orders concerning such determinations from 1928 onwards are preserved separately in IR 96.

11. Later records (from 1936 Act)

The Tithe Act 1936 (26 Geo V & 1 Edw VIII, c43) was introduced following the Report of the Royal Commission on Tithe Rentcharge 1934 (whose records are in IR 101), and affected the position in three main ways:

• It abolished all tithe rentcharges payable on land immediately before 2 October 1936 and replaced them with redemption annuities payable for 60 years ending on 1 October 1996, unless redeemed or otherwise extinguished in the meantime These annuities were to be paid to the state by those who had formerly paid rentcharge
• It compensated the former tithe-owners out of Government stock
• It set up the Tithe Redemption Commission with the task, inter alia, of collecting the new terminable redemption annuities for the state. In 1960 the functions of the Commission were transferred to the Board of Inland Revenue

The first task facing the Tithe Redemption Commission in 1936 was to check claims submitted by tithe-owners who had hitherto been entitled to collect tithe rentcharge payable under the Tithe Act 1836. These are preserved as Particulars Submitted by Owners of Tithe Rentcharge in IR 110.

Valid rentcharges were then converted into redemption annuities and the sums to be collected from landowners were calculated.

At the same time, the Commission also undertook to prepare fresh maps for each tithe district, based on modern Ordnance Survey sheets.

Interpretations of each area as shown on the original tithe maps were plotted as accurately as possible in a limited time. Subsequently a programme was begun to check these first interpretations in detail and to establish the accuracy of the rentcharge/annuity conversions and the ownership of the properties concerned, after which the annuities were confirmed and, where appropriate, apportioned by a formal Order. This process was known as ‘District Apportionment’, and resulted in the creation of District Record Maps (in IR 90) and Orders for Apportionment (in IR 94).

The programme was interrupted by the Second World War, modified by the Tithe Act 1951, and abandoned in about 1956, by which time about 5,900 of the 11,830 tithe districts had been dealt with.

District record maps do not exist for all the original tithe districts. Maps were not prepared for districts in respect of which a claim was either not received or, on checking, was found to be invalid. Moreover, until about the early 1950s it was the practice, after an approved period, to destroy the maps of districts in which all annuities had been redeemed or otherwise extinguished.

The whole scheme as envisaged by the 1936 Act was wound up prematurely under the Finance Act 1977.

In 1976, the Government announced that as there were sufficient funds in the tithe account to service the existing redemption stock, and that because of the high administrative costs of the scheme tithe redemption annuities should be extinguished. The Government proposed a normal payment in 1976 followed by a final payment in October 1977 equal to twice the normal payment. Legislative effect was subsequently given to this in the Finance Act 1977.

12. Records of the Tithe Survey held in other archives

The Tithe Acts provided for the making of an original and two copies of every confirmed instrument of apportionment. All were signed by the Tithe Commissioners. The originals were retained in the custody of the Commissioners and are now held by The National Archives. The copies were deposited with the Registrar of the diocese and the incumbents and churchwardens of the parish.

Copies of subsequent altered apportionments and certificates of redemption were to be similarly deposited, as well as a copy of the record of ascertainments. Many of these copies are now held by local record offices.

Find contact details for archives elsewhere using Find an archive.

Many local statutory copies have suffered from neglect and accidental loss or destruction, meaning that they are rarely complete. Nevertheless, for most purposes the local copies may be found as serviceable as the originals.

Great trouble has been taken by some county archivists to create photographic copies of originals where possible and in some cases to create scans of their maps and apportionments available on their websites.  In such cases there is rarely any need to consult the originals, unless the Tithe Commission copy is required for legal reasons.

13. Further reading

These books are all available in The National Archives’ reference library.

A range of books can also be purchased from the National Archives’ shop.

G Beech and R Mitchell, Maps for family and local history, chapter 2 (The National Archives Publications, 2004)

Robert Davies, The tithe maps of Wales (Aberystwyth, The National Library of Wales, 1999)

Eric J Evans, The contentious tithe (London, 1976)

Roger J P Kain and Richard R Oliver, The tithe maps of England and Wales – a cartographic analysis and county-by-county catalogue (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

Roger J P Kain and Hugh C Prince, Tithe Surveys (Phillimore, 2000)

Roger J P Kain, An atlas and index of the tithe files of mid-19th century England and Wales (Cambridge University Press, 1986)

P W Millard, The law relating to tithes (3rd edition, London, 1938)

1. Why use this guide?

Use this guide for advice on finding records at The National Archives of:

• British and Commonwealth prisoners of war (POWs) held captive by German, Italian or Japanese forces in the Second World War
• POWs from Allied countries taken prisoner in the Second World War (we hold far fewer of these)
• life in the camps and attempts to escape, both successful and unsuccessful
• British and Commonwealth POWs taken prisoner in the Korean War

Some of these records are available to view and download online but many are not and you may therefore need to visit us in Kew to see documents.

Most of the records are of military personnel but there are some records of civilian POWs held here too.

For records of prison guards and other camp personnel who may have been tried for crimes committed in the camps read our guide to records of war crimes.

1. Why use this guide?

Use this guide for advice on how to find the records of trials held at the Old Bailey, later known as the Central Criminal Court, as well as records of prisoners and convicts tried and held there.

This guide will help you to understand:

• The types of cases heard by the Court.
• The records created, what has survived, and the sorts of information contained in the records.
• How the records were organised and filed, and how that affects how you search for them today.

Note, records relating to trials which took place fewer than 100 years ago may be closed in whole or in part. To view such records you will need to make an FOI request.

2. The history and business of the Old Bailey

The Old Bailey is a criminal court sitting in central London. Since 1834 it is properly referred to as the Central Criminal Court, but its former name, derived from the building in which it sits, remains that by which it is more commonly known.

From 1834 to 1971 the Old Bailey was Assize Court for London, in 1972 the Old Bailey became one of the Crown Courts of England and Wales. This means that it hears criminal cases which must be tried by a judge sitting with a jury. These are the most serious offences, known previously as felonies and now referred to as indictable offences.

Before 1834, the Quarter Sessions for London and Middlesex and for the City of London, dealing with a broad range of less serious offences, were also held at the Old Bailey. Records for these are at the London Archives, see section 7 below for more details.

Though the Old Bailey has always been primarily concerned with London cases, it has come to play a wider role in the Criminal Justice System where there are fears that trying a case in the local area would make it difficult to secure a prompt or fair trial. The Central Criminal Court Act 1856 (19 & 20 Vict., C.16) provided for cases to be transferred for trial at the Old Bailey in these circumstances, meaning that some of the most notorious cases in criminal justice history have been, and continue to be, heard there.

Date	Jurisdiction
Before 1834	City of London and Middlesex – NOT London south of the Thames
1834 – 1963	London, Middlesex, parts of Essex, Kent and Surrey
From 1964	Greater London area

Note, for trials of crimes committed in London south of the Thames before 1834 see the records of assize courts for Surrey.

Although the High Court of Admiralty also sat at the Old Bailey, their records are kept separately, see our research guide for more information.

3. Records of trials heard before 1972

3.1 Printed and published materials – transcripts and proceedings

The easiest place to start your research, and the richest potential source of information on specific trials, will be found in printed proceedings and accounts. Old Bailey online and online newspaper accounts are a useful way to establish if a trial was held at the Old Bailey or in another court.

Source	Information Given	Date Range	How to Search
Old Bailey Online	Printed and published proceedings providing summaries of trials and what was said in court. , from reports of a few dozen words to detailed transcripts. They will usually include the names of the defendant, prosecutor, witnesses, the charges, verdict and sentence.	1674 – 1913	By defendant name or offence.
Newspaper reports, see:   Times Digital Archive British Newspaper Archive British Library Newspapers (Free to access in our reading rooms at Kew) Alternatively, visit the British Newspaper Library	Newspapers often reported proceedings in trials in great detail.	18th – 20th centuries	By defendant name, location, offence etc.
Chadwyck Healey microfiche collection of British Trials 1660-1900 Available in The National Archives reading rooms and in some major libraries.	Unofficial contemporary accounts of selected trials which were originally published as pamphlets and sold to the general public.	1660 – 1908	Use separate but accompanying indexes

Other, similar, sources of information include:

Document Type	Information Given	Document Series	Date Range	How to Search
Printed Old Bailey Session Papers	As per Old Bailey Online	PCOM 1	1801 – 1904	By date to identify the volume and then use volume index to find the case by defendant name.
Printed shorthand notes of proceedings	Will duplicate the information in the printed sessions papers	CRIM 10	1834 – 1912	By defendant name.
Transcripts of selected trials	Transcripts of trials for selected cases concerning murder, robbery, treason and sedition.	DPP 4 TS 36	1846 – 1958 1812 – 1963	By defendant name or offence.

3.2 Finding other trial records at The National Archives

A search for trial records held at The National Archives will require a visit to our reading rooms in Kew as none of the records are viewable online – though you can begin your search in our online catalogue.

Different stages or aspects of the trial process are recorded in different types of documents, each of which will typically have been archived separately and may be searched by different means. The key document types/series are set out below.

Document Type	Information Given	Series	Date Range	How to Search
Index to Indictments	Defendant name, charge, date of conviction, sentence, appeal outcome (if applicable).	CRIM 5	1833 – 1971	Browse by year.
Indictments	As above and but includes list of jurors and full details of charges.	CRIM 4	1834 – 1971	Using the indexes or browse by date in the catalogue.
Court Books	Defendant name, victim name (not always), plea, verdict, sentence, names of jurors.	CRIM 6	1834 – 1949	Browse by year.
Depositions	Written records of oral witness statements given under oath. Typically concerned with trials for murder, sedition, treason, riot and political conspiracy and other trials deemed to be of historical interest, but includes a 2% random sample of other trials.	CRIM 1 CRIM 2	1839 – 1971 1923 – 1966	By defendant name or offence. There are alphabetical indexes of depositions in cases sent up from coroners and police courts.
Treasury Solicitor files	Case papers of different types relating to cases in which the government law officers (Attorney General and Solicitor General) were involved	Various, including: TS 11 TS18 TS 22 TS 36	Various	By defendant name or offence.
Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) files	Case papers relating to cases in which the DPP was involved from 1879.	DPP 1 DPP 2	1889 – 1930 1931 – 1997	By defendant name or offence.

 

4. Records of trials heard after 1971

For cases heard after 1971 you may find it useful to consult our research guide on Crown Courts.

4.1 Working out where records will be held

Records are not transferred to the National Archives until at least twenty years after trial and transfer may happen significantly later than this. As a rule of thumb, they remain with the court for seven years and are then transferred to storage with HM Courts and Tribunal Service.

4.2 Finding trial records held at The National Archives

Viewing trial records held at The National Archives will require a visit to our reading rooms in Kew, as none of the records are viewable online, but you can begin your search in our online catalogue.

From 1972 there are two main record types relating to trials heard at the Old Bailey – case files and indictment files. All indictment files are selected for permanent preservation, but more detailed case files are only created for a small number of cases. To understand how these case files are selected see our Operational Selection Policy for Crown Courts.

Almost all indictment files, and many case files will be closed or have closed extracts.

Search for case files in our online catalogue in J 267 by defendant name or offence.

For selected cases (typically the most serious), the records provide:

• Committal proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court
• Court logs (recording brief case histories, such as dates of hearings)
• Police statements
• Copy indictment
• Prosecution evidence
• List of witnesses and their statements and depositions
• List of exhibits produced in court
• Photographs of the crime scene
• Sentence
• Appeal details and outcome

4.3 Identifying the indictment number

You will see that, to find an indictment file, you will need to know the indictment number as indictments are filed by number and not by name. There are three ways of obtaining/working out the indictment number:

1. Search by name for a corresponding case file – this will include the case number, which can then be used to work out the indictment number.

2. If you already have a case number then this tells you the year and number of the indictment as follows:

• The first two digits represent the year of indictment.
• The remaining digits tell you the indictment number.
• So, if the case number is 721717 then the indictment was made in 1972 and the indictment number is 1717.

3. If you do not already have a case number then you can contact HM Courts and Tribunal Service who can provide you with a case number in most cases.

Note, the indictment may have been made in an earlier year than that in which the case was heard, particularly in periods where the courts were especially busy or prone to delays.

4.4 Records of the Director of Public Prosecutions

In addition, you may also be able to find a Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) file, particularly for the most serious or high profile offences/trials.

Search by date, defendant name or offence in DPP 2 , for case files of the Director of Public Prosecutions, 1931-1997. Papers relating to the prosecution of the case – may include maps, plans and photographs.

Browse by date in DPP 9 for prosecution books of the Director of Public Prosecutions, 1905-1986. These records provide:

• Defendant name
• Police officer
• Prosecuting counsel
• Police court and name of the clerk who conducted the case
• Result of the case

A note on the dates of these records:

• From 1905-mid-1965 the dates given are those of the court sitting
• From 1965-1973 the date refers to the court sessions
• From 1974-1986 the date is the date of committal

6.1 Lists of prisoners awaiting trial and criminal registers, 1782-1892

The National Archives holds the following records:

HO 16, Lists of prisoners awaiting trial at the Old Bailey, 1815 – 1849	Defendant name, charge and outcome of trial. Browse by date
HO 77, Calendars and lists of prisoners at Newgate Gaol, 1782 – 1853	Printed lists of the prisoners held at Newgate for trial at the Old Bailey. From July 1822 includes results of the trials. Browse by date – or see digital images available on Findmypast (charges apply).
HO 26 & HO 27, Criminal registers, 1791 – 1892	Lists of defendants charged with indictable offences at Middlesex Sessions – gives verdict and sentence. Search by defendant name at Ancestry.co.uk (charges apply).

1. Why use this guide?

Use this guide for an overview of records held at The National Archives that shed light on the slave trade, slavery and unfree labour in the British Caribbean and North American colonies. The guide is by no means exhaustive, but introduces and illustrates the diverse range of documents related to the transatlantic slave trade held here.

The guide covers records created throughout the trade, from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The wide range of documents, inherited from various government departments, illustrates the extent and impact of the trade at the time.

This is not a history of the transatlantic slave trade. For background history, please see suggested further reading and the Education section of The National Archives’ website.

2. A brief introduction to the slave trade and its abolition

The transatlantic slave trade was essentially a triangular route from Europe to Africa, to the Americas and back to Europe. On the first leg, merchants exported goods to Africa in return for enslaved Africans, gold, ivory and spices. The ships then travelled across the Atlantic to the American colonies where the Africans were sold for sugar, tobacco, cotton and other produce. The Africans were sold as slaves to work on plantations and as domestics. The goods were then transported to Europe. There was also two-way trade between Europe and Africa, Europe and the Americas and between Africa and the Americas.

Britain was one of the most successful slave-trading countries. Together with Portugal, the two countries accounted for about 70% of all Africans transported to the Americas. Britain was the most dominant between 1640 and 1807 and it is estimated that Britain transported 3.1 million Africans (of whom 2.7 million arrived) to the British colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America and to other countries.

Anti-slavery campaigners lobbied for twenty years to end the trade and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in Britain on 25 March 1807. It was declared that from the 1 May 1807 ‘all manner of dealing and reading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves or of persons intending to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried in, at, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa shall be abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful’. Slavery was abolished in 1834 but in reality for many of those enslaved it continued until at least 1838 through apprenticeship schemes.

3. An overview of the records at The National Archives

Records held at The National Archives reflect Britain’s involvement in the trade and its abolition through a wide range of records and record series, such was its importance to the country at the time.  These include records of the Colonial Office (CO), Board of Trade (BT), Chancery (C), Admiralty records (ADM) and Treasury records (T), among other government departments.

The most important records for the study of Caribbean slavery in The National Archives are in the records of the Colonial Office. There are separate series for each country. The important series include:

• original correspondence: official letters and reports from the governor of the territory to the Colonial Office, and may include newspapers, petitions from slave owners and freemen, reports on slave rebellions, correspondence on local and British laws affecting slaves, statistics on slave populations, reports on slave imports and exports, and court cases against slaves or owners
• sessional papers: reports of the local government on all matters affecting the country and may include grants of freedom and discussions on slave laws
• acts: these contain manuscript and printed local laws
• newspapers and early official gazettes: may contain reports of runaways, notices of slave auctions and sales of property (which may include slaves). The National Archives holds a few collections of colonial newspapers, mostly for the 1830s-1850s. These are in Colonial Office ‘miscellanea’ series, although occasional newspapers can be found as enclosures to governor’s despatches in original correspondence

The Colonial Office records are not well catalogued and will need some time and effort to work through. For further information on how to search these record series, see our research guide on records of Colonies and dependencies from 1782.

However there are relevant records in a wide range of other series. For example, the early stages of the transatlantic trade can be traced in the charters granted by the government to merchants for trade with Africa in goods and then later slaves in the Patent Rolls in C 66.

These charters include the creation of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading with Africa, the largest single British company involved in the transatlantic trade, whose settlements and papers were passed to the Treasury. They are now held at The National Archives in the T 70 series and can be searched by date and often location in Discovery, our catalogue.

Copies of the Acts passed by the British Parliament relating to slavery and the slave trade are available in the library at The National Archives and are usually in major reference libraries. Most relevant laws passed are available through www.pdavis.nl/Legislation.htm and online at Hansard. Most of the legislation relates to the slave trade rather than to slavery itself, as the latter was managed and legislated under local colonial laws.

The original manuscript parchments of the following Acts have been digitised and are available via the catalogue: Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807; Abolition of Slavery Act 1833.

Suggested documents of interest	Catalogue reference
Account of English sugar plantations	CO 1/22 no 20
Examples of Barbadian slave laws	CO 30/2
Description of licence granted to the South Sea Company	T 52/26 pp.196-206
Order in Council (1805) regarding slave licences	PC 2/168 pp.227-231

4. Records relating to transportation of slaves and goods

Ships involved in the colonial trade were first required to be registered in 1696. Registers survive from 1786 in BT 6/191-193 and BT 107 (indexes in BT 111). Only four volumes for Liverpool, 1739-1774, have survived for ships registered before 1786 because of a fire at Customs House. These registers are held by the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Prior to clearing from a British port, the master first had to obtain a pass from the Admiralty. These licenses and those relating to travelling in convoy are in ADM 7. At the port, the master of the ship had to provide the collector of customs with a written list of the cargo to calculate duty. The details were written up in Port Books (E 190). Other records may have been collected at the various customs houses (the records of customs out ports are in CUST series), however many have been lost due to fires, riots and war. In addition to customs duty, between 1698 and 1713 British merchants involved in the Africa trade had to pay 10% tax on goods exported to Africa. This tax was levied to maintain the African Company’s forts etc. The duty ledgers are in T 70/349-356.

Ships’ captains maintained log books or journals which described details of voyages. These log books were the property of the ship owners and may survive in local record offices. Very few have been found in The National Archives; those that have are the log books of Royal African Company ships in T 70.

The master also lodged a muster with the collector of customs on the ship’s return, some of these can now be found in BT 98 (for example the muster of the Otter in BT 98/68 no 127). However, only those for Liverpool survive before 1807. Some musters and crew lists may survive in the archives of port towns and cities.

Information relating to goods imported to and exported from Africa can be found in the duty ledgers, accounts and correspondence of the African companies in T 70, especially among records of their forts, factories and settlements on the West Coast of Africa. Other papers can be found in the correspondence and registers of the Board of Customs (CUST 3 and CUST 17), the Board of Trade (CO 388 to CO 391), the Treasury (T 1), and in the Port Books (E 190).

5. Campaign for abolition of the slave trade

Researchers looking at the campaign for abolition will find material in a wide variety of regional collections and personal papers. As the campaigns were organised in different towns and cities across the country, it is well worth searching for sources in local collections.

The formal abolition campaign was launched in 1787. The campaign in Parliament can be followed in printed parliamentary debates and in Parliamentary Papers via Proquest UK Parliamentary Papers. This is a subscription website you can access on TNA computers by visiting us at Kew. You may also be able to access it via a large reference library such as a university library. Parliamentary Papers includes extensive printed reports and evidence from committees investigating the slave trade.

Hansard (Parliamentary Debates) from 1803 is available online. Before 1803 there are unofficial collections of debates. It is often worth checking parliamentary debates for any large event involving the slave trade as it is likely it was mentioned, if not discussed, in Parliament.

Some unpublished Parliamentary papers such as petitions and returns survive in the House of Lords Main Papers (HL/PO/JO/10). These can be found by searching the catalogue for terms such as ‘petition’ or ‘return’ and ‘slave’. Most are not digitised. However two petitions from Manchester in 1806 have been digitised and can be viewed on the Parliament website with lists of names of signatories: Petition from the inhabitants of Manchester in support of the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill and Petition from Manufacturers and Merchants of Manchester against the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill.

Enslaved Africans played a role in abolition with regular and persistent resistance. Search our catalogue, limiting the record series to ‘CO’, and using key words such as ‘slave AND rebellion’ and ‘slave AND uprising’. The abolitionist campaign after 1791 was greatly affected by the slave revolt in Saint Domingue and, after 1793, by the war with revolutionary France. Records relating to both events can be found in The National Archives in series such as T 81, T 64, CO 137, CO 245, ADM 1, WO 1, FO 27 and FO 72.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in Britain in March 1807. But the international campaign against slavery (as distinct from the trade) continued and it was not until 1833 that legislation was passed in the British Parliament starting the process for the abolition of slavery itself. See the following section for further information.

6. Post-abolition of the slave trade

6.1 Records of the anti-slavery movement

After 1807 the British anti-slavery movement entered a new phase. The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade gave way to the African Institution. Papers on the African Institution can be found at the British Library (the Institution’s published Reports). Further research into the congresses can be pursued in FO 27; FO 84/1-2; FO 92/1, FO 92/4, FO 92/7-8, FO 92/17-22; FO 95/9/2; and FO 139/46. Other sources include personal papers that can be found at the British Library and in local archives and repositories. Find these by searching our catalogue and filtering your results to only show those from other archives.

6.2 Diplomatic efforts to suppress the slave trade

FO 84 is the main Foreign Office series relating to diplomatic efforts on the suppression of the slave trade 1816-1892. However, other material relating to Africa is to be found in FO 2 – this overlaps with FO 84 and covers the period 1825-1874 and 1893-1906. Also, each country has a separate general correspondence series in FO series, which have annual headings for the slave trade. See the research guide on Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office records from 1782 for further information. Search Discovery, our catalogue, within FO (and particularly FO 84 and FO 2) using keywords such as ‘slave’ and ‘slave AND [name of country]’.

Foreign Office treaties with other sovereign countries and colonial powers are in FO 93 with ratifications in FO 94. These series include treaties with African powers where the Foreign Office handled negotiations. You can find these treaties by searching our catalogue using such keywords as ‘Spain AND slave’ restricting the search in the series or department field to ‘FO 93, FO 94’. Treaties made by naval officers, colonial officials, or governors of chartered companies on behalf of the Crown are in the relevant correspondence series – usually by date of treaty. These are not indexed and you will usually need to know the date of the treaty and the parties involved. Many important treaties have been published in the annual series State Papers, British and Foreign. Treaties relating to Africa, including many made by naval officers and colonial officials are published in Hertslet’s Map of Africa by Treaty. Copies of some treaties have been published as Colonial Office confidential print in CO 879: search our catalogue using keyword ‘Africa’ or names of individual territories.

6.3 Naval records relating the suppression of the slave trade

The Royal Navy played a key role in Britain’s efforts to suppress the slave trade, including seizing ships believed to be involved in the illegal trade. These ships could then be tried at Mixed Commission Courts and vice-Admiralty courts.

ADM 1 contains letters and reports from captains of the several naval stations. In addition it contains correspondence from the Colonial Office, Foreign Office and the Treasury relating to anti-slaving patrols and slaving intelligence and occasionally proceedings of Mixed Commission Courts and vice-Admiralty Courts. The Commander-in-Chief papers are listed separately in our catalogue but you will need to use the registers in ADM 12 for other papers. See the research guide on Admiralty Index and Digest: ADM 12 for more details, and try keyword searches within ADM, with terms such as ‘slave’ and ‘slave AND ship’

Ships’ logs in ADM 51 and ADM 53 give accounts of sightings, chases and the capture of slavers. The musters of anti-slaving ships in ADM 37 sometimes list freed Africans in the section headed ‘supernumeraries’. These records are arranged by the name of the Royal Naval ship and then by date. See the research guide on Royal Navy: operational records 1660-1914 for further information.

Slavers found to be acting illegally were condemned and ships and their possessions could be sold. There do not appear to be many bounty or prize lists awarding payment for anti-slaving activities but occasional lists can be found in T 1, ADM 48 and ADM 1.

6.4 Records of court cases, and further records

For records of the Mixed Commission Courts across The National Archives’ collection, search our catalogue using keywords ‘mixed commission AND slave’. Records of these courts can also be found in the records of the various slave trade commissions.

The most important series relating to cases of illegal slavers outside those of the Mixed Commission Courts are the records of the Slave Trade Adviser to the Treasury. Papers from 1821 are in:

• HCA 35 – Report Book, 1821-1891
• HCA 36 – Unregistered Papers, 1837-1876
• HCA 37 – Registered Papers, 1821-1897

Most records and proceedings of vice-Admiralty courts in the colonies are to be found, where they survive, in the archives of the relevant country. However, some proceedings and other papers, especially those relating to the suppression of the slave trade can be found among the records of the High Court of Admiralty (HCA), Board of Customs (CUST) and the records of the Colonial Office (CO) from the governors, clerks of vice-Admiralty Courts and collectors of customs.

Other papers relating to the suppression of the slave trade are to be found in Treasury and Colonial Office records especially T 1 and CO 267 (for Sierra Leone), and CUST 34 (Board of Customs papers relating to the colonies). Often these are duplicates of what is found in HCA, ADM and FO series, but sometimes these contain papers that have been destroyed from the more likely series.

Examples of documents of interest	Catalogue reference
Records of the slave ship Eliza	BT 98/69, no 264; ADM 7/122 f.101; ADM 7/804; CO 33/23
Papers from the vice-Admirality Court at Sierra Leone (1808-1817)	HCA 49/97
Records of the slave ship Henriqueta (later renamed the Black Joke and used to capture illegal slavers)	ADM 51/3466; FO 84/66 f.203-209; FO 315/65/60; FO 315/31; ADM 1/1; ADM 1/74

7. Records of ex-slaves and liberated Africans

7.1 Court and customs records

There are some records relating to ‘liberated Africans’ who were found onboard illegal slavers and freed by vice-Admiralty and Mixed Commission Courts. These ex-slaves were not technically free: able-bodied men were ‘enlisted’ into the military services particularly the army, in regiments such as the Royal Africa Corps and the West India Regiment for unlimited service. Women and children were often apprenticed to local landowners, to the military and to the local government.

There is very little information on individual liberated Africans – very few vice-Admiralty Court proceedings are to be found in The National Archives (see above). Admiralty papers especially ADM 1, and CUST 34, HCA 30 and HCA 49 contain a few lists of the slaves liberated. Two Sierra Leone censuses have information relating to liberated Africans: CO 267/111 (1831) and CO 267/127 (1832-1834). Because the collectors of customs were responsible for looking after liberated Africans, information can sometimes be found in Colonial Office original correspondence series, especially in despatches from the governor, the naval office and the Board of Customs and in CUST 34. A ‘Commission of Enquiry into the state of captured Negroes in the West Indies, 1821-1830’ (CO 318/81-98) was set up to look at the treatment and conditions of liberated Africans in the West Indies and includes some lists of liberated Africans.

In 1817 collectors of customs were required to send annual reports on liberated Africans they received to the Colonial Secretary. No annual returns have been found among Privy Council or Colonial Office records although some returns which pre-date this were printed for Parliament in 1821; others may be found among the Commission of Enquiry schedules in CO 318/81-98.

7.2 Movement of ex-slaves

Schemes were proposed to move liberated Africans from the more densely populated colonies to those which needed labourers such as Trinidad and British Guiana and correspondence relating to these schemes is found in relevant CO original correspondence series, such as CO 295 for Trinidad. An agreement was also made between Britain and Spain to send some free blacks from the Spanish colony of Cuba to British possessions, especially Trinidad. Correspondence relating to this movement for the period 1835-1842 is in CO 318. Key word search these record series using terms such as ‘slave’ and ‘liberated African’, and country names.

Examples of documents of interest	Catalogue reference
Records of female slaves ‘freed’ and apprenticed as domestics	CO 28/85 f 52
Records relating to the establishment of a settlement at Kingstown, Antigua (1831), following overcrowding on Tortola due to the numbers of slaves released by the vice-Admiralty Court	CO 239/25; CO 700/virginislands6; T 1/4303; CO 239; CO 239/13; HCA 49/101; CUST 34/816; HCA 30/816; HCA 30/796; CO 318/82

8. The enslaved and resistance

It is important to note that the majority of records of the slave trade are written from the viewpoint of those generally controlling the trade, and very little information is available about enslaved Africans themselves. During transportation across the Middle Passage (the journey between Africa and the Americas), slaves were classed as ‘goods’ and would usually only be noted in ships’ logs on death, if at all. There are few records relating to the Middle Passage because the voyages were private ventures. Some information on African Company slave losses should be found in T 70 which can be searched by date and often location. Following transportation, slaves on plantations were barely noted. Until the introduction of slave registers it is usually only through court cases and correspondence that they are occasionally found.

8.1 Registers and returns of slaves

There are some registers of slaves created to monitor slave holdings and the importation of slaves into British colonies between 1814 and 1822, duplicates of which are in the series T 71. The first registration for each colony is a complete list of all slaves. Subsequent returns usually only record increases or decreases to the slave populations such as births, deaths, bequests, purchases etc. Many of the returns record where the slave was born so it is possible to identify slaves born in another country and several returns indicate if a slave was exported or imported since the last return.

Although Britain transported around 3.1 million enslaved Africans, only around 2.7 million arrived at their destination largely due to deaths while travelling the Middle Passage (the journey between Africa and the Americas). There are few records relating to the Middle Passage because the voyages were private ventures. Slaves were classed as ‘goods’ and their deaths were supposed to be accounted for and noted in the ship’s log. Some information on African Company slave losses should be found in T 70 which can be searched by date and often location.

8.2 Records of government-owned slaves

The British Army and Royal Navy owned and hired slaves as labourers and soldiers, most of whom went to the Corps of Military Labourers and the West India Regiments. CO 318/31 describes army purchases of slaves for the West Indian Regiments including the numbers purchased. There are several files in WO 1 relating to the status of slaves in the Army, especially once they were discharged.

Estates were occasionally passed to the Crown in lieu of government taxes and following court cases. An example is Greenwich Hospital (ADM 65/59), which was managed by a government department for a number of years and took over Golden Vale plantation in Portland Parish, Jamaica in 1793.

For further information on government-owned slaves, researchers should check musters for dockyards, ships, and regiments. It is also possible that some former slaves may have discharge papers or applied for pensions so there may be papers in WO 97 and ADM 29. WO 97 for the period 1760-1854 is searchable online by country of birth and by regiment through findmypast.

8.3 Resistance

It was primarily Africans newly-arrived in the Americas who rebelled against their enslavement. However it was not unknown for Creole slaves to rebel, as was experienced with Bussa’s Rebellion in Barbados in 1816 (CO 28/85) and the last great rebellion in Jamaica over Christmas 1831 and the New Year 1832 (CO 137/184).

Running away was the most common form of resistance, and Caribbean newspapers are full of notices for runaways (for example CO 7/1 – Barbados 1786 & 1789; CO 71/2 – Dominica, 1798; CO 137/14 – Jamaica, 1771-1772; CO 260/48 St Vincent, 1831).

See section 7 above for records of ex-slaves and liberated Africans.

Examples of documents of interest	Catalogue reference
Case of the Zong massacre (1781)	KB 122/479; KB 125/168; KB 168/150 f.53; E112/1528 no 173; E 127/47
First references to Africans (called ‘Negroes’) in Colonial America	CO 1/3 nos 2 and 35
Log of the James describing slave mortality in the Middle Passage	T 70/1211, f.100
‘Book of Negroes’ – a list of men, women and children bound for Nova Scotia on British ships after the American War of Independence.	PRO 30/55/100 (searchable copy available from Nova Scotia archives)

9. Records of plantations

Plantation records are the private papers of the plantation owner and their family. As with private papers in general, very few survive. Papers are to be found in local and specialist repositories in the Caribbean, the UK and elsewhere. Search our catalogue and refine your results using the filters. For further information on the whereabouts of plantation papers, see Peter Walne, Guide to Manuscript Sources for the History of Latin America and the Caribbean in the British Isles (1973).

There are few plantation accounts in The National Archives, mostly found as exhibits to equity cases resulting from disputes about land, debts or marriage settlements. These can be found in record series C 103 – C 115 : run a key word search limited to these series, using key words such as ‘plantation’. Private papers are also found in the records of two commissions: the West Indian Encumbered Estates Commission, 1854-1893 in CO 441, and the West Indian Hurricane Relief Commission, 1832-1881 in PWLB 11. Although these commissions were essentially set up after the abolition of slavery, many of the records predate emancipation and have some information on slave holdings.

Examples of documents of interest	Catalogue reference
Plantations in Antigua	CO 700/Antigua2
Map of Barbados with illustration of plantation	CO 700/Barbados9a
Martin v Bothall – account of stock including slaves	J 90/399
Blenheim and Cranbrooke plantation accounts	WO 9/48

10. Abolition of slavery

Although the slave trade was abolished in 1807, slavery was not abolished until 1834. Those already enslaved remained so, and some records exist in relation to the ongoing situation and the amelioration of slaves.

In 1823, following debates in the British Parliament to improve slave living and working conditions, the Colonial Secretary issued instructions for the governors to send returns of the numbers of slave imported or exported between colonies. These instructions were reissued on a number of occasions until 1830. Most governors sent statistical returns and a few sent nominal returns. These returns are in Colonial Office Original Correspondence series and a few were printed for Parliament and are to be found in Parliamentary Papers.

For other records relating to schemes for the ‘amelioration’ of slaves and ex-slaves, search our catalogue using the terms ‘slave AND amelioration’.

When slavery was abolished, legislation followed which awarded colonial planters twenty million pounds in compensation. Many of the records generated by the Slave Compensation Commission, set up to distribute the funds survive, among them original claims and certificates, counter-claims, commissioners’ hearing notes, and lists of awards. The records of the Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission, 1812-1851, are in T 71. AO 14/37-48 documents the awards of compensation made by the Claims Commissions, 1834-1845. NDO 4 includes registers of compensation paid to slave owners 1835-1842

11. Records in other institutions

For further records relating to the transatlantic trade, it is well worth investigating local record offices, particularly in large slave trading ports such as Liverpool, Bristol and London. Some key places to search are suggested here:

• The British Library – records of the East India Company
• Mundus (Internet archive)- missionary records in Africa
• Hakluyt Society – records of 16th and 17th century trading voyages with Africans
• Parliamentary Archives – abolitionist petitions
• Legacies of British slave-ownership database – records of slave-owners

Personal abolitionist papers, publications and plantation papers in the UK can be found by searching our catalogue and refining your results using the filters.

12. Further reading

Some of the publications below may be available to buy from The National Archives’ bookshop. Alternatively, search The National Archives’ library catalogue to see what is available to consult at Kew.

The slave trade and slavery: records at The National Archives

• Guy Grannum, Tracing Your Carribean Ancestors (third edition, Bloomsbury, 2012)
• Access Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies from colonial.chadwyck.com
• Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial series (HMSO, 1908-1912)

The enslaved and resistance

• Michael Craton, Testing the chains: Resistance to slavery in the British West Indies (Cornell University Press, 1982)

Transportation of slaves and goods

• Joseph C Miller, Mortality in the Atlantic slave trade: Statistical evidence on causality, Journal of interdisciplinary history, vol 11, 1981, pp385-423
• Bruce L Mouser’s A slaving voyage to Africa and Jamaica: The log of the Sandown, 1793-1794 (Indiana University Press, 2002)

Plantation Records

• HMSO, Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations (HMSO, 1920-1938)
• Peter Walne, Guide to manuscript sources for the history of Latin America and the Caribbean in the British Isles (Oxford University Press for the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, 1973)

Campaign for abolition

• Roger Anstey, The Atlantic slave trade and British abolition 1760-1810 (Macmillan, 1975)
• Reginald Coupland, The British anti-slavery movement (F Cass, 1964)
• Elizabeth Heyrick, Immediate, not gradual abolition (1824)
• Clare Midgley, Women against slavery: The British campaigns, 1780-1870 (Routledge, 1992)
• JR Oldfield, Popular politics and British anti-slavery: The mobilisation of public opinion against the slave trade, 1787-1807 (Routledge, 1998)

Post-abolition

• Norman Buckley, Slaves in red coats: British West India regiments, 1795-1815 (Yale University Press, 1979)
• Thomas B Howell, A complete collection of state trails and proceedings for high treason and other crimes and misdemeanors (TC Hansard for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1816-1826)
• WEF Ward, The Royal Navy and the slavers (Allen & Unwin, 1969)

Records of ex-slaves and ‘liberated Africans’

• Stephen J Braidwood, Black poor and white philanthropists: London’s blacks and the foundation of the Sierra Leone settlement 1786-1791 (Liverpool University Press, 1994)
• James W St G Walker, The Black Loyalists: The search for a promised land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870 (Africana Publishing Company, 1976), pp413-414

General history

• Roger Anstey, Liverpool, the African slave trade and abolition: Essays to illustrate current knowledge and research (Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1976)
• Black History Resource Working Group, Slavery: An introduction to the African holocaust with special reference to Liverpool – ‘capital of the slave trade’ (second edition, 1997)
• Brycchan Carey, Discourses of slavery and abolition: Britain and its Colonies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
• Madge Dresser, Slavery obscured: The social history of the slave trade in an English provincial port (Continuum, 2001)
• Paul Geoffrey Edwards and James Walvin, Black personalities in the era of the slave trade (Louisiana State University Press, 1983)
• David Eltis and David Richardson (eds), Routes to slavery: direction, ethnicity and mortality in the transatlantic slave trade (Routledge, 1997)
• Olaudah Equiano, The interesting narrative and other writings, ed Vincent Carretta (Penguin Books, 2003)
• Peter Fryer, Staying power: The history of black people in Britain (University of Alberta, 1984)
• Paul E Lovejoy, Transformations in slavery: A history of slavery in Africa (second edition, Cambridge University Press, 2000)
• Lowell J Ragatz, A checklist of House of Commons sessional papers relating to the British West Indies and to the West Indian slave trade and slavery 1763-1834 (Bryan Edwards Press, 1923)
• Edward Reynolds, Stand the storm: A history of the Atlantic slave trade (IR Dee, 1993)
• David Richardson, The Bristol slave traders: A collective portrait (Bristol Branch of the Historical Association, 1985)
• Nigel Tattersfield, The forgotten trade: comprising the log of the Daniel and Henry of 1700 and accounts of the slave trade from the minor ports of England, 1698-1725 (Jonathan Cape, 1991)
• Hugh Thomas, The slave trade: The history of the Atlantic slave trade, 1440-1870 (Simon & Schuster, 1999)
• James Walvin, An African’s life: The life and times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745-1797 (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000)
• James Walvin, Black ivory: Slavery in the British empire (second edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2001)
• James Walvin, Making the Black Atlantic: Britain and the African diaspora (Cassell, 2000)
• A checklist of House of Lords sessional papers relating to the British West Indies and to the West Indian slave trade and slavery, 1763-1834 (Bryan Edwards Press, 1932)

This is a guide to searching for records primarily of First World War British and Commonwealth prisoners of war (PoWs). There is also some advice on searching for the surviving records of British PoWs captured in previous wars going back as far as the 1790s. The guide does not cover PoWs in British hands.

There are no official or published lists of all PoWs so establishing whether a serviceman was a PoW is not always possible.

The limits of First World War records

Online records

Records available only at The National Archives in Kew

Records in other archives and organisations

Other resources

1. Why use this guide?

Use this guide for advice on how to find records of government policy on technical and vocational further education, as well as the teaching of art, between 1836 and 1997. As well as policy files, you will find advice on records covering the administration of the further education system, how it was funded and the institutions that made it. The guide does not cover records of universities.

We do not hold personnel files on teachers or students – read our guide to records of schools for guidance on this.

1. Why use this guide?

This guide will help you to find records at The National Archives of Royal Navy operations and actions that took place between 1914 and 1918. The advice in the guide can help you to:

• trace the movement of specific Royal Navy ships during the war
• find details of battles fought involving the Royal Navy
• find photographs of ships and other Royal Navy photographs
• access the official naval history of the war

The guide does not cover records of:

• personnel
• administration or supply
• technological research

See our other Royal Navy guides covering the First World War for advice on finding those records.

1. Why use this guide?

The advice in this guide will help you find records at The National Archives covering:

• naval battles
• orders and instructions issued by the Admiralty Board to commanding officers
• naval strategy and policy at times of war and peace
• correspondence sent between branches of the Royal Navy

The guide does not cover records of personnel. For these records see our guides on Royal Navy ratings before 1853, Royal Navy ratings 1853-1923, Royal Navy commissioned and warrant officers.

None of the principal operational records of the Royal Navy for this period are available online.