Stories from the collection

A life of charm, high-stakes, and duplicity saw Elvira Chaudoir play a cunning role in the Allied victory at D-Day.

When can a lemon have fatal consequences? If it proves you are, in fact, a wartime spy…

Security Service files paint a vivid picture of what happened when Anthony Blunt – then employed in the royal household – admitted spying for the Soviet Union.

On the Atlantic coast of Morocco are two cities that became one of the most substantial Islamic ports of the 17th Century.

Henry Savage Sweetman published the Calendar which translated over 8,000 Irish medieval records. But who was Sweetman and why did he complete this project?

This affidavit is testament to the lengths enslaved African people went to in seeking their freedom.

These Victorian railway wheel models demonstrate the diverse, and often unexpected, character of exhibits preserved in court records at The National Archives.

This photo shows an African American student choir who toured the UK and whose performances were attended by Queen Victoria and the Prime Minister.

This is one of hundreds of letters in police files claiming to have been written by the infamous Whitechapel Murderer – otherwise known as 'Jack the Ripper'.

These record books reveal the substantial dangers to passengers – and for those operating trains – in the first decades that public railways existed.

Records of a coroner’s inquest on the body of the sailor Thomas Aird reveal details of a little-known seamen’s strike that was brutally suppressed.

In August 1976, a group of migrant workers led by Jayaben Desai took a historic stand against racism, low pay and limited workers’ rights.

After six years of brutal global conflict, this document marked the end of the Second World War.

The oldest complete document at The National Archives, this charter recording a grant of land dates back over 1,000 years.

In 1938, thanks to years of work by a remarkable female agent, MI5 ensured a package of British defence plans stayed secret.