Focus on
Olga Gray and the Woolwich Arsenal Spy Ring
In 1938, thanks to years of work by a remarkable female agent, MI5 ensured a package of British defence plans stayed secret.
Series
British Council: National Hearths: Correspondence and Papers
Catalogue reference: BW 108
What's it about?
BW 108
Surviving files of the Resident Foreigners Section, covering the Netherlands, Polish and Yugoslav homes in London established for refugees during the Second World War.
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- BW 108
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Title (The name of the record)
- British Council: National Hearths: Correspondence and Papers
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1942-1946
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Description (What the record is about)
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Surviving files of the Resident Foreigners Section, covering the Netherlands, Polish and Yugoslav homes in London established for refugees during the Second World War.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Not Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 7 file(s)
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Selection and destruction information (Information about how the record was selected for archiving)
- The records in this series are the only ones known to have survived concerning national hearths.
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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National hearths (or houses) were set up in London, Liverpool and throughout the UK as meeting places for civilians and servicemen of the allied nations, with the aim of making visitors feel they were coming to a home away from home. The Resident Foreigners Section gave assistance in the running of these national and allied centres, each of which was run by an executive committee with a resident director and/or secretary. British Council responsibility for the centres came to an end in 1945 and the buildings were sold off in 1946.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C3511/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
13,685 records
Within the department: BW
Records of the British Council
You are currently looking at the series: BW 108
British Council: National Hearths: Correspondence and Papers
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