The Papers of Philip Noel-Baker
Scope and Contents
The papers cover every aspect of Philip Noel-Baker's very full and varied career and include constituency papers, Labour Party material, extensive sections on domestic and international affairs, peace and disarmament, sport, books and articles, speeches and correspondence.
This collection has an 'Associated' section, consisting of material from one or more sources distinct from the main series, potentially including material about, but not created, accumulated or owned by, the subject of the collection.
Dates
- Creation: 1899 - 1990
Creator
- Baker, Irene Noel (c 1879-1956, wife of Philip Noel-Baker) (Person)
- Baker, Philip John Noel-, 1889-1982 (Baron Noel-Baker and politician) (Person)
Biographical / Historical
Nov 1889: Born, son of J. Allen Baker, MP. Educated, Bootham School, York; Haverford College, USA; King's College, Cambridge (1910, 1912). 1910-12: President of Cambridge University Athletic Club. 1912: President of Cambridge Union Society. 1914: Vice-Principal, Ruskin College, Oxford. 1914-15: First Commandant Friends' Ambulance Unit. 1915: Married Irene, daughter of Frank Noel, British landowner of Achmetaga, Greece. 1915-18: Officer First British Ambulance Unit for Italy. 1917: Mons Star. Silver Medal for Military Valour (Italy). 1918: Croce di Guerra. 1919: League of Nations Section of British Delegation during Peace Conference. 1919-22: League of Nations Secretariat. 1924: Contested (Lab) Handsworth Division of Birmingham. 1924-29: Sir Ernest Cassel Professor of International Relations in the University of London. 1929-30: Member of British Delegation to the 10th Assembly of the League of Nations. 1929-31: MP (Labour) for Coventry. 1929-31: Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 1932-33: Principal Assistant to the President of the Disarmament Conference at Geneva. 1934: Dodge lecturer, Yale University. 1936-50: MP (Labour) for Derby. 1942-45: Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of War Transport. 1945-46: Minister of State at the Foreign Office. 1945: British Delegate to UN Preparatory Commission. 1946-47: Member of the British Delegation to the General Assembly of the UN. 1946-47: Secretary of State for Air. 1947-50: Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations. 1950: Delegate to the Colombo Conference on Economic Aid. 1950-51: Minister of Fuel and Power. 1950-70: MP (Labour) for Derby (South). 1959: Nobel Peace Prize. 1960: President of the International Council on Sport and Physical Recreation, UNESCO 1960: Albert Schweitzer Book Prize. 1961: Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge 1964-70: Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Group, Parliamentary Labour Party. 1975: Olympia Diploma of Merit. 1976: Officer, Legion of Honour 1977: Papal Knight, Order of St Sylvester. Died 8 October 1982.
Extent
1044 archive box(es)
Language of Materials
English
External Documents
Arrangement
With so large a collection, the organisation of the material posed some problems. As Philip Noel-Baker was invariably engaged in a number of quite different pursuits at anyone time, it was found to be impracticable to adopt a simple chronological arrangement of the papers so they were divided into broad areas as indicated in the catalogue. The material in each section was then arranged chronologically. Within certain sections, however, a heading like "International Affairs", covering over 800 files, was divided by topic or area and then arranged chronologically. Great care was taken never to split up or amalgamate the files or bundles that had originally been single units in Philip Noel-Baker's hands and so, naturally, there is some degree of overlap in the subjects covered in different sections. Thus material relating to disarmament may well be found in League of Nations papers in Section 4 labelled "International Affairs" as well as in Section 5 "Disarmament" which is devoted entirely to that topic.
The first four sections of the catalogue had been completed by the time of Philip Noel-Baker's death in 1982. More material subsequently came to light -almost 400 boxes of papers relating to every aspect of Philip Noel-Baker's life and career. Consequently, extra files had to be added to the lists in Sections 1 to 4 using the nomenclature 1X to 4X for these "extra" papers. For the most part, the unit of description here is a whole box though some sections have been listed in greater detail.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was deposited at Churchill Archives Centre at various stages between 1978 and 1996. The bulk of the material was deposited initially by Philip Noel-Baker himself and subsequently by members of his family as well from as other sources.
The associated papers were given to Churchill Archives Centre by Holly Fletcher, daughter of Frank Field, in April 2019; and by Lorna Lloyd in July 2022 (Acc 2221), with a further addition of a notebook of interviews in January 2025 (Acc 2391) and digitised notes and interviews in May 2025 (Acc 2406).
General
When the collection was deposited at Churchill Archives Centre it was largely in good physical condition, many bundles having been carefully wrapped in newspapers and stored away during Word War II and untouched since, but most of those papers which were less tightly wrapped were full of soot and the conservator fumigated and treated bundles that had been affected by damp.
This collection and series descriptions were prepared by Natalie Adams of Churchill Archives Centre in May 2004. In 2013, the full catalogue was retroconverted and upgraded by Philip Cosgrove and Emily Morris.
36 archive boxes of Irene Noel-Baker's papers (formerly Acc 797 and Acc 814) deposited at Churchill Archives Centre have been returned to the family in two stages in 1991 and 2010. Any researchers wishing to consult this material should contact The British School at Athens in Athens, Greece, where it is being held.
Originator(s)
Baker, Philip John Noel-, 1889-1982, Baron Noel-Baker, politician
- Date
- 2004-04-27 11:51:24+00:00
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Churchill Archives Centre Repository
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB3 0DS United Kingdom
+44 (0)1223 336087
archives@chu.cam.ac.uk