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Special Operations Executive: Personnel Files (PF Series)
Description and record details
| Reference | HS 9 |
|---|---|
| Title | Special Operations Executive: Personnel Files (PF Series) |
| Date | 1939-1946 |
| Description | This series contains personnel files of SOE agents and staff. The files may contain papers dealing with the service records of individuals, including medical reports, appraisals of performance and suitability for particular roles, as well as passport-style photographs of the subject and reports of their activities. The contents in any individual's file can vary considerably however, and some files only contain a very brief note indicating that an individual was considered for service in SOE, but rejected. Some papers on many of the files are damaged or mutilated to some extent: many have been partly burnt; some names have been removed by being cut out from papers at some time in the past. The files also include papers in many different languages, according to the work performed by the individual concerned. Some extracts continue to be retained by the Department under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act and there are dummy sheets in place to indicate where this has happened. Many files contain passport-style photographs of the agents. Because of the sensitive nature of many of the papers on these files, they are closed during the lifetime of the individuals concerned or until they can be assumed to be deceased (i.e. their 100th birthday). Where no date of birth is known it is assumed that the youngest agents in the field in the last year of the war might have been born as late as 1930, and the 100 year closure date has been calculated from 1930. |
| Arrangement | The files are arranged alphabetically by surname, but the alphabetical arrangement is not entirely accurate (especially for individuals who share the same surname) and reflects the arrangement used by SOE. Individuals with double-barreled names are filed under the second, rather than the first part of the name (for example, the file for Lt-Col Geoffrey Gordon-Creed is found under 'c' rather than under 'g'). Aliases and codenames for agents are given in the list, but the arrangement is by the agent's true name. Where female members of staff have married and changed their surnames and this is evident from the file, both maiden and married names are given in the catalogue, but the arrangement is usually by married name. Researchers would however be well advised to look for both maiden and married names. Additionally, personal files were bundled together in the past for administrative reasons. Each piece in this series may consist of one or many PFs, and there are some PFs that are so large that they spread over two or more pieces, however over the years pieces containing the PF of multiple individuals have been split into items. |
| Held by | The National Archives, Kew |
| Legal status | Public Record(s) |
| Language |
English Miscellaneous |
| Creator |
Ministry of Economic Warfare, Special Operations Executive, 1940-1945 |
| Physical description | 1654 files and bundles of files |
| Access conditions | Open unless otherwise stated |
| Immediate source of acquisition |
In 2002-2003 Ministry of Economic Warfare, Special Operations Executive |
| Accumulation dates | 1940-1946 |
| Accruals | Series is not accruing |
| Selection and destruction information | All surviving PF files have been selected, under PRO acquisition criterion 2.2.1.3. |
| Administrative/ biographical background | These PF files are the personal files of agents and other staff of the Special Operations Executive created by the SOE headquarters in London. |
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