X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Public Record Office


Joseph Burtt

Burtt began working in the public service in 1832 at the Chapter House in Westminster Abbey under Sir Francis Palgrave, and in 1840 became a member of staff at the Public Record Office.

Public Record Office

Under the 1958 act, most documents held by the PRO were kept "closed" (or secret) for 50 years: under an amending act of 1967 this period was reduced to 30 years (the so-called "thirty year rule").

The 1958 act transferred responsibility for the PRO from the Master of the Rolls to the Lord Chancellor; and the title of the chief executive was changed to Keeper of Public Records.

The growing size of the archives held by the PRO and by government departments led to the Public Records Act 1958, which established standard procedures for the selection of documents of historical importance to be kept by the PRO.

Ralph Neville

They are currently in the National Archives of the United Kingdom, having previously formed part of the Public Record Office.


Josiah Symon

In 1907 he visited the Public Record Office in London while on a holiday, and campaigned for the logs of Captain James Cook's ships HM Bark Endeavour and HMS Resolution to be brought to Australia, in the same way that the log of the Mayflower had been taken to Boston in the United States.

State paper

State papers are often kept in a country's National Archives, State Paper Office or Public Record Office.

Surrey Record Society

The Society was established in 1912, largely on the initiative of Hilary Jenkinson (1882-1961), then an archivist at the Public Record Office and also honorary secretary of the Surrey Archaeological Society.


see also

Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation

Etterlin’s Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation is interesting from a historical standpoint because its author seems to have been familiar with an older version of the White Book of Sarnen than the one that is preserved in the public record office of the canton of Obwalden.

Momčilo Ninčić

Such were the views expressed by George William Rendel, British ambassador to the Yugoslav government (to Howard, 16 September 1942), D. Howard, head of the southern department (to Campbell, 3 March 1942; O. Sargent, deputy under-secretary (minute, 12 November 1942; and to Campbell, 16 July 1942) and Anthony Eden (minute, 17 May 1942): London Public Record Office.

Sarah Tyacke

It included the building of a greatly expanded repository on the office's site at Kew in 1995, and the subsequent removal of services from the old Public Record Office building in Chancery Lane; the opening of the Family Records Centre for family historians in 1997; and the merger of the office with the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts in 2003 to form the new National Archives.