The Papers of Lord Francis-Williams

Francis-Williams was born 10 March 1903. In 1926 he married Jessie Hopkin and they had one son and one daughter. He died 5 June 1970. He spent his early career serving on the staff of various newspapers.

Then during 1936-1940 he was Editor of the Daily Herald. In 1941 he published his first book "War by Revolution" and later published a further twelve books. He was Controller of News and Censorship at the Ministry of Information, 1941-1945. After the war (1945-1947) he became Adviser on Public Relations to the Prime Minister and then a Governor of BBC 1951-1952. He was later Regents' Professor, University of California, Berkeley (1961), a member of the Monopolies Commission on Newspaper Mergers (1966-1970) and Kemper Knapp Visiting Professor of the University of Wisconsin (1967).

Most of the collection comprises manuscripts and typescripts of books, articles, lectures and radio scripts by Lord Francis-Williams. There are also numerous newspaper cuttings of his articles and book reviews and copies of a number of his own published works. FRWS 7 contains papers relating to his visits to Mauritius and Mosul and FRWS 8 his correspondence from 1945-1972 including letters to and from Attlee, Beaverbrook, Churchill, Dalton, Eden, Gaitskell, Julian Huxley, Lord Reith and Harold Wilson. There is small section containing family papers, drawings and photographs.

The papers of Lord Francis-Williams were deposited at Churchill College Archives Centre by his widow, Lady Francis-Williams through Victor Bonham-Carter. The bulk of the collection arrived in January 1973 and further deposits were made in 1975 and 2008.

This collection is owned by the heirs of Francis-Williams.

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

Researchers wishing to publish excerpts from the papers must obtain prior permission from the copyright holders and should seek advice from Archives Centre staff.

Please cite as Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Lord Francis-Williams, FRWS

Other Francis-Williams papers are held by the Royal Institution of Cornwall (http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/ric) and the Bodleian Library, Oxford University (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/)

The collection has been catalogued and a copy of the printed catalogue is available for consultation at Churchill Archives Centre, at the National Register of Archives in London and this finding aid is available on the Janus website http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk.

This collection (fonds) level description and catalogue was prepared by Louise King of Churchill Archives Centre in December 2004. Information was obtained from Lord Francis-Williams' entry in "Who Was Who" (A&C Black) and from the original catalogue of the papers. A new accession was added by Sophie Bridges, October 2009.