The Papers of Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, KT PC CMG...

THRS I

Box 1: Correspondence with Churchill family, 1915-1920

Box 2: Miscellaneous letters to Archibald Sinclair, 1913-1921

Box 3: Miscellaneous letters to Archibald Sinclair, 1916-1918

Box 4: Miscellaneous letters to Archibald Sinclair, 1915-1922

Box 5: Business and Personal letters and Papers, 1913-1919

Box 6: Peace Conference and Press Cuttings, 1919-1922

Box 7: Official Correspondence, 1908-1928

Box 8: Parliamentary and Constituency Affairs, 1923-1924

Box 9: Constituency Correspondence, 1923-1925

Box 10: Parliamentary and Constituency Affairs, 1923-1924

Box 11: Constituency and Personal Correspondence, 1928-1930

Box 12: Constituency Correspondence, 1924-1931

Box 13: Constituency Correspondence, 1928-1931

Box 14: Constituency and Air Ministry, 1928-1931

Box 15: Parliamentary and Civil Aviation, 1923-1931

Box 16: Constituency Correspondence, 1928-1932

Box 17: Constituency and Parliamentary Correspondence, 1925-1932

Box 18: Constituency Correspondence, 1928-1932

Box 19: Constituency Correspondence, 1930-1931

Box 20: Constituency Correspondence, 1930-1931

Box 21: Constituency Correspondence, 1930-1932

THRS II

Boxes 1-9 Political Correspondence, 1932

Boxes 10-16: Political Correspondence, 1933

Boxes 17-20: Political Correspondence, 1934

Boxes 21-26: Political Correspondence, 1935

Boxes 27-32: Political Correspondence, 1936

Boxes 33-36: Political Correspondence, 1937

Box 37: Political Correspondence, 1937-1938

Box 38: Political Correspondence, 1938

Box 39: Political Correspondence, 1937-1939

Box 40: Political Correspondence, 1938

Box 41: Political correspondence and miscellaneous papers, 1930-1938

Box 42: Speeches, 1925-1927

Box 43: Speeches, 1932

Box 44: Speeches, 1933

Box 45: Speeches, 1934

Box 46: Speeches, 1935

Box 47: Speeches, 1936

Box 48: Speeches, 1948-1951

Boxes 49-53: Captain Keith's correspondence files, 1928-1937

Boxes 54-62: Liberal Organisation: General papers 1932-1937

Boxes 63-67: Liberal Organisation: Particular Files 1938-1939

Boxes 68-74: Scottish Liberal organisation and Federation, 1931-1938

Box 75: Miscellaneous Liberal papers 1928-1934

Boxes 76-79: League of Nations Union, 1936-1939

Boxes 80-83: Political and Constituency papers 1928-1936

Box 84: British Council 1938-1939

Boxes 85-87: Personal and Local papers 1924-1952

THRS III:

Boxes 1-27: General Correspondence 1930-1938

THRS IV:

Boxes 1-19: General Correspondence 1932; 1940-1951

Boxes 20-23: Press cuttings 1920-1963

Box 24: Letters of Congratulation 1931

THRS V:

Boxes 1-13: Scottish Office, Scottish Board of Health, Secretary of State for Scotland 1923-1937 (NRA, Scotland, List 189 Additional)

THRS VI:

Boxes 1-35: Damaged papers - Constituency, Young Liberal and League of Nations Union Correspondence 1921-1929 (Listed by Michael Hart, Merton College, Oxford, in 1979)

Boxes 36-37: Constituency and General Correspondence (damaged) 1928-1931

THRS VII

Box 1: Liberal Party and Scottish Federation

For the most part, the collection is made up of constituency, parliamentary and Liberal party correspondence of the 1920s and 1930s.

There is virtually no wartime material but Section IV contains correspondence (arranged alphabetically by correspondents' names) and press cuttings from 1945 on into the 1950s. The papers transferred from the Scottish Record Office form a separate and coherent group, consisting of papers of 1923-1937 relating to the Scottish Office, the Scottish Board of Health and Thurso's period as Secretary of State for Scotland. The papers in the first box of Section I are also particularly noteworthy as they include Thurso's correspondence with Winston Churchill from 1915 to 1920.

The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. Individual closures of files are indicated in the catalogue. Churchill Archives Centre is open from Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. A prior appointment and two forms of identification are required.

The papers of Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, came into Churchill Archives Centre through the good of offices of his son, the 2nd Viscount, in several batches between April 1972 and September 1973.

The collection had incurred two major misfortunes before its transfer to Cambridge. During the War, the bulk of the Thurso papers that were being stored in Liberal Party headquarters in London were destroyed by an incendiary bomb. After the War, a large portion of the remaining papers were destroyed in a fire that broke out at Thurso East Mains where they were being kept in a room above the laundry. Most of the papers that were rescued from this second blaze were severely damaged both by the flames and by water from the firemen's hoses. Section VI of the collection contains the charred remains of this accident which are too fragile to handle whilst those damaged files which have already been repaired by the Conservationist have been placed in their appropriate places within the collection.

In Viscount Thurso's own lifetime, he was asked by the Scottish Record Office (in 1966) if he would deposit there the papers relating to his tenure of the office of Secretary of State and these papers were consequently deposited in Edinburgh early in 1972. At the same time, Viscount Thurso's son began the transfer of the residue of his late father's papers (the 1st Viscount had died in June 1970) to Churchill College. These papers are our Sections I and II.

In January 1973 the Scottish Record Office agreed to transfer their Thurso papers, relating to his time as Secretary of State for Scotland, to Churchill College, having first xeroxed them. This collection was catalogued in the National Register of Archives (Scotland) Survey 189 (Additional) and comprises Section V of our Thurso collection.

By the spring of 1973, Viscount Thurso's secretary, Miss Cynthia Metcalf, was sorting and listing the papers that were to be deposited here in May and September that year as Sections III and IV.

Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso

KT PC CMG

1890-1970

Born 22 October 1890 son of Clarence Granville Sinclair

Educated at Eton and Sandhurst

1910 Entered the Army

1918 Married Marigold Forbes (2 sons, 2 daughters)

1919-1921 Personal Military Secretary to Secretary of State for War.

1921-1922 Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Colonies.

1922 CMG

1922-1945 MP (Lib) Caithness and Sutherland.

1925-1930 Temporary Chairman of Committees, House of Commons.

1927-1930 Member of Empire Marketing Board.

1930-1931 Chief Liberal Whip

1931 PC

1931-1932 Secretary of State for Scotland

1940-1945 Secretary of State for Air.

1935-1945 Leader, Liberal Parliamentary Party

1941 KT

1942-1949 Hon Air Commodore AAF

1938-1945 Lord Rector of Glasgow University

1953-1968 President Eighty Club

1956-1958 President Air League of British Empire

1954-1961 Political Honours Scrutiny Committee

1970 Died 15 June