Stories from the collection

Until 2021, the census did not ask for information about sexuality. One letter in our collection gives a personal perspective on why this data was needed.

In December 1978, Vietnamese refugees seeking asylum aboard the Huey Fong were refused entry to Hong Kong. Records we hold document the 34-day standoff.

Did you know that the word ‘camp’ was used by members of the LGBTQ+ community as early as 1868?

How did an Indian prince come to play at the highest level of England’s national sport?

This unexpected gem is a document granting land in Ireland to a John Farrell. Attached is the Great Seal of Ireland, indicating approval from King Charles II.

A life of charm, high-stakes, and duplicity saw Elvira Chaudoir play a cunning role in the Allied victory at D-Day.

In July 1940 the Arandora Star was torpedoed by a German submarine. More than 800 people were killed, many of them Italian civilians being deported to Canada.

Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1912) was a physician and campaigner who fought for women’s access to university education.

Singer and broadcaster Evelyn Dove (1902–1987) achieved a number of firsts including, in 1925, becoming the first woman of African heritage on BBC Radio.

The first Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea was prompted by the sinking of RMS Titanic. Signed in 1914, it established international shipping standards.

This letter details the circumstances of the strange disappearance of famous author Agatha Christie in 1926.

14-year-old cabin boy John Giles Hipkin became Britain's youngest Second World War prisoner of war in 1941 after he was captured at sea.

This ordinary will from 1587 gives us a glimpse of an Elizabethan woman’s concerns on her deathbed.

In 1888, the women and girls employed by Bryant & May in the East End of London went out on strike. Why did these workers feel so driven to remove their labour?

How do you reward a medieval poet? This document granted the author of the Canterbury Tales an unusual royal gift: a daily allowance of wine.

The founding years of Chiswick Women’s Aid saw the opening of the world's first women's refuge, disputes with local government, and creating change in the UK.

How did the founder of the Tudor dynasty reach and use her position of power?

Roger Bushell (1910–1944) was a pilot, prisoner of war (POW), and mastermind of the ‘Great Escape’ from Stalag Luft III in March 1944.

Who lived in the real Albert Square and what can their lives tell us about 19th-century London life?

This deed reveals some of the animals kept to perform on the Tudor stage or in arenas. It includes ‘an old she bear called Nan’, some bulls, a horse and an ape.

Discover how this guerrilla group played a significant role in opposing Japan and aiding Allied prisoners of war around Hong Kong.

Death duty records can reveal a great deal about a person’s true feelings. What can we learn about the loves and friendships of author Virginia Woolf from hers?

Ravenser Odd was a short-lived island in the mouth of the River Humber. It rose from the sea in the early 13th century and had sunk beneath the waves by 1360.

This document sets out the laws its signatory nations agreed to follow around the treatment of prisoners of war, those in medical need, and civilians.

During the Second World War, some British prisoners of war were able to send secret messages and intelligence back home via creative and unusual ways.

Judy's remarkable story is one of capture, survival and courage, and offers a unique tale of internment during the war.

Lady Malcolm’s elaborate Servants’ Balls allowed queer, working-class staff to forge a unique space for themselves. But these events became plagued by scandal.

LGBT+ Switchboard is one of the oldest telephone helplines supporting queer communities in the UK. Its journey to register as a charity was not easy.

Nancy Wake (1912–2011), an agent for the Special Operations Executive, was the most wanted woman in France during the Second World War.

War diaries were historical records created by units in the British Army during wartime. This one is unusual: it contains posters and Christmas cards.

Stale ale, ground nutmeg and mustard seeds – would you try these medieval cures for headaches and congestion? They give surprising insights into global trade.

Sir John Fielding grew to become one of England’s first and greatest police detectives. And for his entire crime-fighting career, he was blind.

What was the everyday reality for LGBTQ+ people in the 80s and 90s living under the infamous Section 28, and how was it eventually repealed?

WÃSÙ was the journal produced by the West African Students’ Union (WASU) and distributed across Europe and Africa from 1926.

Virginia Hall (1906–1982) was an American who served with the British Special Operations Executive in France in 1941–1942 and built a career in espionage.

Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act negatively affected LGBTQ+ lives for decades. How did such a seismic piece of legislation come about?

This debated document officially ended the First World War and set out the terms and conditions for peace, and determined the course of the 20th century.

John Blanke was a trumpeter at the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. He is one of the earliest people of colour in England we have records about.

These handwritten pages offer a window onto a Prime Minister’s thinking about the issues of the day. In 1978, they ranged from education to the environment.

Described by the Birmingham Post as the ‘queen of Jamaican theatre’, Louise Bennett-Coverley (1919–2006) was a poet, performer, folklorist, writer and educator.

The Treason Act defined the crime of ‘high treason’ in law for the first time. It is one of the oldest pieces of legislation still on the statute book today.

This previously unknown set of records from an 18th-century galleon shines a light on one of history's most significant trade routes.

Our collection includes many weird and wonderful records – one of the weirdest is undoubtedly a small box containing the remains of two long-dead rats.

Copyright photographs of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor provide us with a unique insight into his status in early 20th-century British society.

These photographs, captured through police investigations, give a unique insight into the heart of the early British Black Panther movement.

Artist and illustrator Louis Wain (1860–1939) achieved great fame for his whimsical drawings of cats, but his story is also a sad one of personal tragedy.

This parchment records John Blanke, a Black Tudor in the royal court, asking King Henry VIII for a pay rise and a promotion in his role as a trumpeter.

Robert Wedderburn (1762–1835) was a British-Jamaican radical preacher, abolitionist and writer.

This angry letter offers a rare view of the words of ordinary people at the time, threatening violence in response to falling living standards in rural England.

This map was provided to soldiers during the first operation by the Chindits, special forces serving in Japanese-occupied Burma during the Second World War.

Sir Learie Constantine (1901–1971) was a renowned cricketer, author, politician and persistent campaigner for racial equality and justice.

The Imperial Typewriters dispute in Leicester saw over 500 workers, largely from South Asia, go on strike over discrimination in 1974.

In 1866, a British luggage manufacturer attempted to capitalise on the expansion of railway lines with a unique and royal travel bag.

The Irish author completed this form to register ownership of a play titled ‘Dracula; or the Un-Dead’, and thus his seminal novel. It would prove important.

Christine Granville, Special Operations Executive agent extraordinaire, was Churchill’s favourite spy. How did this document possibly save her life?

More than a thousand people who supported women’s right to vote were arrested for their activism. This document records them – and includes some famous names.

Is this the most famous anonymous letter in British history? Perhaps it should be. Without it, the Gunpowder Plot might have succeeded.

In 1920, hundreds of members of the National League of the Blind (NLB) marched 200 miles to campaign for support. This printed circular explains what happened.

A handwritten letter written by sewing machinists working at Dagenham car plant who famously went on strike for equal wages in the late 1960s.

Ivor Cummings (1913–1992) greeted the iconic arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury in 1948. He became known as the 'gay father of the Windrush generation'.

Explore the foundations of the NHS, one of Britain's most well-known and loved institutions.

Was a woman arrested for murder in Victorian Liverpool an unfortunate person caught up in a series of ill-fated events, or something much more sinister?

Passenger lists for the ships that carried post-war migrants from the Caribbean to Britain can be crucial resources for people tracing their family history.

The National Archives has a wealth of documents, photographs and art work collected during the planning and running of the influential 1951 Festival of Britain.

Insaaf was a film made by the government, filmed partly in Urdu, to promote employment rights under the 1968 Race Relations Act.

Margaret Bondfield (1873–1953) was a trade unionist and Labour politician. In 1929 she became Britain’s first female cabinet minister.

Through documents held in The National Archives, we can gain an incredible insight into the life of one of the world's most famous playwrights.

On the Windrush passenger list, white socialite Nancy Cunard (1896–1965) is described as a 'writer', but she was also a staunch activist for Black civil rights.

The police raid on a secret queer nightclub in 1933 gives an insight into the lives of gay men in interwar London and their defiance in the face of persecution.

Through documents held at The National Archives, we can piece together a great deal about the life and reign one of Britain's most infamous medieval monarchs.

Maud Allan (1873–1956) was a celebrated West End dancer in the early 20th century until she became entangled in one of the most sensational trials of the 1920s.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) was a tireless political activist, who led the WSPU – the militant faction of the movement for women’s suffrage.

Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) lived relatively openly as a lesbian in an era that condemned such relationships. Today she is an icon of LGBTQ+ literature.

One of the first MPs of Indian heritage, Shapurji Saklatvala (1874–1936) was an agitator for change, which led to his surveillance by the Security Service.

Alice Hawkins (1863–1946) was a working class suffragette and trade unionist, who boldly campaigned for the rights of women.

William Cuffey (1788–1870) was a disabled, working-class campaigner. He was a leading figure in the Chartism movement, famed for his powerful oratory.

The trial of nine black protestors who were arrested while demonstrating in Notting Hill in the early 1970s became a public platform to criticise police racism.