Author Archives: Tim Powell

Religious Archives Group 2014 Annual Conference

As usual, the Annual Religious Archives Group conference offers an extremely interesting programme, this year on the general theme of religious archives and the universities. Topics include Methodist archives, the Dissenting Academies Project, and religious buildings and archives.

The meeting is at Pusey House, Oxford, on Thursday 8 May, with registration from 10.20. But booking closes on 18 April, so don’t delay!

You can find information about the day and a booking form at https://religiousarchivesgroup.org.uk/welcome/conferences/conferences/

How to start a church archive

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Again, looking at useful religious archives advice from outside the UK, there is helpful elementary advice for starting to create a congregational archive where none exists is given at this Texas Baptists webpage:

http://texasbaptists.org/partners/texas-baptist-historical-collection/history-helps/how-to-start-a-church-archive/

It draws on these more detailed pieces from the Southern Baptist Convention Historical Library and Archive website http://www.sbhla.org/articles.htm

Although intended for a US and Baptist audience, much of the advice is more widely applicable.

Letters from the Western Front

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“Socks are in great demand when the weather is bad and mud is everywhere, and the mitts and woollen headgear are desirable if not essential, when the weather is cold”, Private R.V. Palmer

The Archive of the Month of the Church of Ireland Representative Church Body Library in Dublin for December 2012 tells the story of letters from the Western Front received by Revd Arthur Barton, Rector of Dundela parish in Belfast, from parishioners serving in the Army who had received Christmas parcels through a parish scheme.

More at http://ireland.anglican.org/about/158

The Jewish Experience of War

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A forthcoming exhibition at the Jewish Museum in London, ‘For King and Country?’ will present personal stories of the First World War, including those of some of the over 50,000 Jewish soldiers who fought for Britain, as well as those who experienced war away from the battlefield.

The exhibition opens on 19 March. For more information see

http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/kingandcountry

Jewish Immigrants in Scotland during World War One

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During the First World War, there were around 12,000 Jews in Scotland, many of them immigrants from the Russian Empire (mostly present-day Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine). The majority of the foreign-born Jews were not naturalised, and many of them had surnames which sounded at best foreign and at worst German or Austrian (indeed the British royal family at that time felt the need to change their name from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor). Foreign-born Jews were anxious to show that they were loyal to their adopted country and many served in the forces.

The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre has a collection of certificates issued to non-naturalised Jews to state that they were from a friendly country (Russia), rather than enemy Germany or Austria-Hungary. The documents were issued by the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, City of Glasgow Police and the Imperial Russian Vice-Consulate.

(Harvey Kaplan, Director, Scottish Jewish Archives Centre. www.sjac.org.uk)