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Frequently asked questions

Where can I find information about family members who used to work for the FCO/Colonial Office/India Office/Diplomatic Service?

All four organisations produced staff handbooks listing their employees:

The India Office Staff Lists are held at the British Library (Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections).

Staff handbooks for the FCO and the Colonial Office are available in The National Archives reference section. Arrangements can be made to view these along with other records at The National Archives [opens a new website].

How can I trace family members born overseas from the Colonial period?

The National Archives Family Records Centre holds the majority of certificates and other information from the British Colonial period. A free on-line booklet about relatives and tips for searching can be downloaded. The web site provides a comprehensive guide to family records with links to the various sections of records.

British Subjects/Citizens who were born, married, entered a civil partnership, or died in certain Foreign or Commonwealth countries, and whose birth, marriage, civil partnership or death was registered with the British Consulate or High Commission, may obtain copies of the registration entry from the
General Register Office [opens a new website].

One of my family was in the King’s /Queen’s Messengers. How can I find out more about this person?

Until the middle of the nineteenth century the Foreign Office received and sent dispatches by means of mail and by Foreign Service (Queen's /King’s Messengers). They were only used for the most important and secret communications. The trips undertaken by them were important and dangerous - between 1807 and 1820 two were murdered in Europe and one died of fatigue. In 1824, after the expansion of the Messenger Service by the Foreign Secretary George Canning they numbered thirty-eight.

Information on the messengers, their duties and their conduct can be found in the Chief Clerk's Papers at The National Archives in class FO 366. A list of staff who served in the King’s Messengers  for the years 1641-1932 can be found as an appendix in V. Wheeler-Holohan’s book `The History of the King’s Messengers’ (Grayson & Grayson, London, 1935).

Please note that Foreign Office records do not hold information on the King’s Home Service Messengers.

How can I view letters and reports produced by the FCO?

Government Departments hold unpublished material for a period of thirty years. After this date the files will be assessed for confidentiality and relevancy. If the files are 'unclassified' then they are sent to The National Archives [opens a new website].

Where can I find publications that were in the India Office collection?

In 1947 the India Office and Colonial Office merged. The library collection of the India Office was transferred to the British Library. The collection is housed in the Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections Department. Any queries about the collection and the material should be directed to the British Library.

The British Library
Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections enquiries
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7873
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7641
Email: apac-enquiries@bl.uk

India Office Records and Private Papers in the British Library

Where are British Embassies' files held?

While some files may be retained within the British Embassies, most are filed either within the FCO's Information Management Department or at The National Archives. Some post files may not have survived because, for example, the post was evacuated or environmental damage occurred.
The National Archives website maintains an on-line catalogue for searching the lists of files. More information is available on their web site.
http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.asp [opens a new website]

Where can I obtain information on Military Attaches who served in British embassies overseas?

Contact either the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the MOD Veterans Agency (historical data) or The National Archives [all links open a new website].

http://www.mod.uk/defenceinternet/home
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceFor/Veterans/
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.

How can I find information about an historical event connected to the British Royal Family?

The British Royal Family has an archive of historical material, including letters and papers of past monarchs. To find out about information in the Archive or if you have a specific enquiry, please contact the Royal Archives in written form only.

Further information about this service is on the Royal website but please note there may be a charge for this service:

The Registrar of the Royal Archives
Windsor Castle
Windsor
Berkshire
SL4 1NJ.
http://www.royal.gov.uk [opens a new website]

I am looking for archive photos of a relative who served in the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, etc, and images of the buildings in which they worked. Do you hold these?

Following the closure of the FCO library in 2008 some material from the FCO photographic collection has gone to The National Archives and for advice on what is available, you should contact them at: enquiry@nationalarchives.gov.uk, or 0208 876 3444. The cataloguing of the remainder of the collection is incomplete and is not publicly available.

For photos of the overseas estate, you may find what you are looking for in the old Ministry of Works files which are retained by TNA, some of which can be found in the following file series’:  WORK 10 for building histories, WORK 40 for drawings and WORK 55 for photos. These collections are not complete, but are the best available. Alternatively, you may wish to contact the FCO’s estates librarian, Mr Clive Lacey, to check what he holds – please e-mail: clive.lacey2@fco.gov.uk.

If you have a question regarding the history of the FCO’s overseas estate, you may also wish to directly contact Mark Bertram, a former member of FCO staff, who is very knowledgeable about its history. Mark can be contacted by e-mail at: mark@bertram.demon.co.uk.

Finally, if you are interested in works of art displayed in FCO buildings, in the UK and around the world, and would like to find out more about them, please contact the Government Art Collection via their website.

I am looking for archive film of royal visits, diplomatic events overseas, etc. Where are such films held and will I need to pay a copyright fee if I want to show them?

The FCO's own film unit was closed in 2007 and we do not  keep records of where archive film from either the old Foreign Office or Colonial Office are kept.

Since 2008 the British Film Institute (BFI) has held the old FCO film unit’s collection (it previously having been held by the Central Office of Information (COI). (See this press release for more information). The point of contact for film enquiries at the BFI is Tony Dykes - tony.dykes@bfi.org.uk, tel: 020 7957 8932. The Institute’s address is: BFI Archive Footage Sales Department, 21 Stephen Street, London, W1T 1LN, Tel: 020 7957 4842, Fax: 020 7436 4014.

Other potential sources of information are:

  • The Moving History Project, which is a guide to UK film and television archives in the public sector based at the University of Brighton; their contact details are as follows: The Moving History Project, Screen Archive South East, University of Brighton, Grand Parade, Brighton BN2 2JY, Tel: 01273 643213, e-mail: movinghistory@brighton.ac.uk.
  • Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire, a website containing detailed information on over 6,000 films showing images of life in the British colonies, with over 150 films available for viewing online.

As regards copyright, the material described above continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use such material if it is for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most footage or documents supplied by the FCO or its antecedents will have been produced by government officials and will be Crown Copyright. For advice on this form of copyright, please visit the web-site of the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI); in particular, you may find the section on click-use licences to be very useful.

How do I find out about Colonial and Commonwealth records?

For information on colonial and commonwealth records you should consult the British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP) [opens a new website] which holds an extensive documentary record of the final stages of Britain's association with the colonies of the formal empire.

Established in 1987 under the auspices of the British Academy and based at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the University of London, BDEEP is currently one of the UK's largest and most successful historical research projects. It was described in 1996 by the British Academy as 'an outstanding academic success, a model for other Academy Research Projects both in its scholarship and management, and fully worthy of the Academy's continued endorsement.'

How can I find out about the Special Operations Executive (SOE)?

All the operational files for the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE) have been released to The National Archives (TNA), where any member of the public can gain access to them. They are located in record series HS. The surviving SOE Personal Files (PFs) have also been transferred to TNA.

There are also some documents and oral records about SOE at the Imperial War Museum. Due to the sensitive personal nature of many of these files the Lord Chancellor has stated that SOE personnel files remain closed for the lifetime of the individual concerned (i.e. for 100 years from 1930).

If a researcher can demonstrate that the person whose file they wish to examine is deceased, or indeed if you are a living SOE agent and wish to examine your own file, then The National Archives will make the relevant record available. Enquiries should be addressed in the first instance to:

Records Management Department
The National Archives
Kew Surrey, TW9 4DU

Email: recordsmanagement@nationalarchives.gov.uk

For further information on the British Intelligence records held by TNA, please view their research guide on Intelligence Records in the National Archives.

What is the British Diplomatic Oral History Project (BDOHP)?

The British Diplomatic Oral History Programme (BDOHP) [opens a new website] can be accessed at the Churchill College Archive Centre. It comprises interviews with former diplomats or other officials who describe the role they have played in events bearing on international relations.

What is the Diplomatic Service list?

Brief biographical details of former members of the Diplomatic Service and the Colonial Service may be obtained from the Diplomatic Service List (1856 to 1996) or the Colonial Office List. Copies of these lists are held at TNA and research libraries, but are not widely available.

If you do not have easy access to them, FCO Historians may be able to help - but bear in mind that many people who worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its predecessors, the Foreign Office and the Colonial, Dominions and Commonwealth Offices, do not appear in the lists.

Information on former members of the Indian Civil Service may be found in the India Office records at the British Library (see above).

What is the British International History Group (BIHG)?

Founded in 1987 as a sub-group of the British International Studies Association (BISA), the BIHG exists to draw together all those interested in teaching and researching into the history of international relations at university level in the UK.

The BIHG committee is made up of some of Britain’s most prominent academics in this field, and also contains representatives from The National Archives and the FCO. The BIHG organises a conference each September.

More information is available from the BIHG website.

How do I find out more about medals awarded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its predecessor departments? And is it possible to have replacements issued for medals awarded by the Office to a relative who once served as a diplomat?

The FCO is responsible for the Diplomatic Service and Overseas List, one of three lists of awards within the UK honours system which recognises exceptional achievement and service to the nation. Our records for recipients only go back a decade. If you would like to make a request to find out information on a particular individual who has been honoured from within this time, please contact our Honours Secretariat team, at: honours.secretariat@fco.gov.uk. If you are interested in finding out about a medal awarded prior to 2000, and it was on the D&SO List, you should in the first instance consult the London Gazette. Further information on the Diplomatic Service and Overseas List itself can be found elsewhere on the FCO web-site.

The National Archives retains public files on only the most high-profile recipients of medals awarded by the state as part of the DS&O List. These are most likely to be found in the file series FCO 57 Records of the Protocol, Nationality, Treaty and Claims Departments: Medals and Honours.

As regards replacement medals, if you are requesting one on behalf of a family member, please contact the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood to buy a replacement insignia. Their address is as follows:

Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood
St James's Palace
London
SW1A 1BH
Tel: 020 7930 4832 (Via the Buckingham Palace switchboard).

The Central Chancery will require proof that the requestor is the correct heir.  Alternatively, in some cases (e.g. if the award insignia is not personalised in any way), you can contact a medals dealer; miniatures can be bought from any such dealer.

Finally, for further information on this subject, please consult William Spencer’s book `Medals: The Researchers Guide’ (published by the National Archives, Kew, 2006).