The History of the Parliamentary Archives, Part 3: 1946–2025

After the Second World War Parliament’s archives finally received dedicated professional management, with the establishment of the House of Lords Record Office (HLRO) led by a clerk of the records. This paper describes the history of the archives from 1946 to 1999 in detail, including the short-lived clerkship of Francis Needham, the long reign of Maurice Bond, and Bond’s successors Harry Cobb and David Johnson. It highlights some significant individual staff, including the first woman, Elisabeth Poyser, and the first person known to be from a minority ethnic background, Vincent Meerabux. Achievements include the renovation of the Victoria Tower; publications such as Bond’s Guide ; acquisitions including the Beaverbrook Library collections; the establishment of a public search room and enquiry service; exhibitions, displays and document loans; conservation of more than 1.4 million items; filming and copying of more than 5 million items; early experiments with computers; and pioneering records management surveys in the 1990s. In 1999 Stephen Ellison became clerk of the records. A postscript covers the early years of the twenty-first century when the air conditioning in the tower was completely renewed, the name HLRO was finally supplanted by Parliamentary Archives, and the archives began to look to an online and digital future.