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Series

Ministry of Information: Home Intelligence Division (HI) Files

Catalogue reference: HO 262

What's it about?

HO 262

Home Intelligence Division files of the Ministry of Information. Although originating in the Ministry of Information, these files came into the possession of the Home Office and have therefore been treated as a Home Office series.

Full description and record details

Reference

HO 262

Title
Ministry of Information: Home Intelligence Division (HI) Files
Date

1939-1946

Description

Home Intelligence Division files of the Ministry of Information. Although originating in the Ministry of Information, these files came into the possession of the Home Office and have therefore been treated as a Home Office series.

Related material

Other Home Intelligence Division Files of the Ministry of Information are in:

Held by
The National Archives, Kew
Former department reference

HI series files

Legal status

Public Record(s)

Language

English

Creator(s)
Ministry of Information, 1939-1946
Physical description

17 file(s)

Access conditions

Subject to closure for periods up to 75 years

Administrative / biographical background

The Ministry of Information was formed in 1939, taking over some of the powers of the Home Secretary: its Home Intelligence Division was responsible for reporting on public attitudes and morale and was in close touch with the Intelligence Branch of the Ministry of Home Security which had itself grown out of the Air Raid Precautions Department of the Home Office and which continued to depend on the Home Office for legal, establishment and public relations services.

This close contact between the two sections and the relationship each had to the Home Office may explain why when the two ministries wound up in 1945-6 and their functions were in part reintegrated into the Home Office, some of the Home Intelligence files remained distinctly Ministry of Information and some that were possibly expected to be of continuing interest to the Home Office were reregistered there.

Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C9126/

Catalogue hierarchy

Over 27 million records

This record is held at The National Archives, Kew

1,719,919 records

Within the department: HO

Records created or inherited by the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related...

You are currently looking at the series: HO 262

Ministry of Information: Home Intelligence Division (HI) Files