The Archive & Collections Team have had another busy year – sharing the Inn’s rich heritage with members of the Inn and the public, providing access to the knowledge and information held within the collections, and undertaking the vital background work which makes all this possible.
In September, we welcomed back Fran Tate, Assistant Archivist, after her nine-month secondment to Grey’s Inn as maternity cover for their Archivist & Records Manager. In January, Victoria Hildreth, Assistant Archivist, returned from maternity leave.
2025 marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War, and to commemorate this, we mounted an exhibition in the Library, Ordeal & Triumph: Middle Temple at War 1939-1945. At the Inn throughout the war years, members, residents, and staff endured an ordeal of blackouts, bombing, shortages, and an ever-changing environment. At the same time, a doughty corps of volunteers worked ceaselessly to protect the Middle Temple and its community from danger. Meanwhile, countless Middle Templars made their own contributions to the war effort – both at home and abroad, in the law, in uniform, or civilian dress. The exhibition aimed to illuminate, through material from the Archive and Library collections, the various aspects of the Middle Temple’s wartime history, which were often unexpected and surprising. It also highlighted the involvement of Middle Temple members at the Nuremberg Trials.
An event was held to coincide with this exhibition at which Crispian Cartwright and Jane Onslow performed readings from our fascinating collection of personal accounts of the war years by members, residents and staff, selected and introduced by the Master of the Archive, Master Patric Dickinson. The evening was powerful, moving, and entertaining, and the narratives were brought to life in a characterful manner by the performers.
It was once again gratifying to be involved, in various ways, in the Inn’s calendar of events, with displays, information and imagery being contributed on occasions such as the Canadian Amity Dinner, the ‘Years Ending in 5’ Call celebration, the Disability Forum launch event, Annual Dinner, Reader’s Feasts and the Amity Visit to the Hague. Our third ‘Archive Evening’, held in March, was also a success, and we look forward to hosting members and their guests at next year’s event.
As an organisation with an extensive international community of members and friends, not everyone can visit the Inn in person to explore its heritage and learn from our collections. Therefore, early this year, we launched a new ‘Virtual Tour’. This can be found on the website and enables visitors to explore the historic spaces at their own pace, discovering a wealth of information about the Inn’s history and collections.
Our Oral History programme has continued to expand, with interviews conducted by Fran, our Assistant Archivist, with members of particularly long-standing female Readers and Treasurers, as well as disabled members. You can read more about this exciting and hugely valuable initiative elsewhere in this edition.
We have been kept busy as ever by a wealth of interesting enquiries from colleagues across the Inn, from Middle Templars and the public. These have covered an array of subjects, including 3 Temple Gardens, Pocahontas, Nigerian women students, early Japanese members, the Temple Church west door, Harmsworth Scholarships, the Treason Trial of Stephen College, the Royal Institute of Philosophy, the Temple Rowing Club, Scholarships during the Second World War, Call Ceremony traditions and Serjeant’s Inn. We also provided support for the Revels team in planning the 2024 performance and are beginning to see an increased interest in our American connections, as the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaches.
Work on caring for and preserving our precious collections continues, capably overseen by Siobhán Prendergast, our Conservator. The exemplification of the 1608 Letters Patent from King James I, which hangs in the Queen’s Room, was temporarily removed for cleaning, repairs and stabilisation, and is now back in position, looking much better for its time away.
The striking portrait of Richard Henn Collins, donated by the sitter’s descendants, has benefited from restoration work on both the frame and the canvas and is now displayed on the staircase of the Ashley Building. Henn Collins was Master of the Rolls and a Law Lord in the early 20th Century and was the judge of Wilde v Queensberry in 1895. The portrait itself, which once hung in the family home on Guernsey, is believed to have sustained considerable damage during the German occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II, when the house was used as a headquarters.
The royal armorial in the Benchers’ lobby has been cleaned, repaired, stabilised and restored, and more of the original colourful paint can be discerned. The ongoing programme of repairs to damaged and vulnerable frames has continued, with the frame of William Scott, Lord Stowell, recently returning to us in considerably better order than it left us.
The refurbishment of the cabinets in the main silver vault has been completed, representing a considerable improvement to the conditions in which this precious collection is stored. The small silver vault has also undergone a complete professional clean, and the ventilation has been improved. Several individual pieces from the silver collection have been repaired this year, following a comprehensive survey in early 2024 that identified several items in need of attention.
The box-by-box survey and triage of the entire archive collection are being carried out to assess cleaning and rehousing requirements, and will enable us to prioritise the material most in need of attention. Improvements are also being made to the housing and storage of the collection of architectural plans stored in the Estates Department, ensuring these essential records remain usable for years to come.
Meanwhile, the vital work behind the scenes to keep the show on the road goes on as ever. We continue to work closely with the IT department on the transition to a new electronic file management system, ensuring that ‘born-digital’ material of long-term or permanent archival value is captured, transferred, and secured in our digital repository.
Finally, we look forward to the year ahead. As Hall is set to close for its 10-yearly roof inspection in January, we are making plans for the removal and complete condition survey of the royal paintings hanging above High Table, which will enable us to plan and undertake any necessary work to ensure that these treasures of the collection remain in good order for generations to come. 2026 will also see the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, an event in which several Middle Templars were, of course, involved. It will, no doubt, be another exciting, stimulating and illuminating year.
Barnaby Bryan has been with the Inn since 2015. As Archivist & Head of Collections, he is responsible for the management, care and development of the Inn’s extraordinary Archive. He oversees several of our other historic collections, including paintings, silver, armour and heraldic material. Before joining the department, he undertook archival work at various institutions, including King’s College, Cambridge, and Unilever’s corporate archive in Port Sunlight.
