Constituents Correspondence Files

Scope and Content

This series of records contains one year's correspondence only, selected as a sample of Weatherill's work. The common pattern of these files is an initial letter from the constituent, an acknowledgement by Weatherill, a letter from Weatherill to the appropriate department in central or local government and a copy of their reply being sent onto the constituent with a covering letter from Weatherill. Some files also contain notes about a surgery interview. Letters to Weatherill are answered speedily; only a handful stretch over the whole year.

The most common cases deal with issues such as entitlement to benefit, immigration and housing problems and delays in sorting out claims about the poll tax.

Arrangement

The files are arranged alphabetically by the name of the name of the constituent. There is a strong link with the engagement file series, reference number WEA/PP E, which cover the same period with many letters being sent from the Speaker's Office in the House of Commons, rather than his constituency office. There are also letters in these files for engagements at Speaker's House that appear to have no connection with the constituency, indicating some pragmatism about the timing of letter writing.

Election Files

Scope and Content

These files contain material relating to Weatherill and the General Elections of 1964, when he first stood and was elected as MP for Croydon North East until 1987, when he was re-elected for the last time. He stood at all these elections for the constituency of Croydon North East. He was a Conservative candidate, except in 1987, when as the Speaker of the House of Commons, he was required to stand as an Independant candidate. The file for this year contains some interesting election material for previous Speakers, who had to follow a similar line of disassociating themselves from political parties during an election.

The content of the files varies, but includes publicity material, returns of election expenses, briefing notes issued by the Conservative and the occasional pamphlet issued by other political parties. They show the change in style of election material, including the publication of information in languages other than English and the approach of the party to elections. Some of the items appear to have been generated at the local Conservative Association offices, rather than by Weatherill.

Miscellaneous Constituency Files

Scope and Content

These files relate to various issues within the constituency, usually issues or organisations which Weatherill particularly associated himself with. They appear to have been assembled by him as a series of reference files as there is little correspondence from Weatherill other than acknowledgement of receipt. There is also an interesting series of newsheets and pamphlets issued by the local Conservative Association.

Conservatives Whip Office

Scope and Content

The material in these files reflects Lord Weatherill’s many responsibilities. They split into two groups with a series of chronological files containing a mixture of items covering his parliamentary duties as both a constituency MP and a member of the Whips Office, with some private material and a small group of topical files. As usual Weatherill frequently adds annotations and comments to items giving some interesting insights and background to issues.

Administrative / Biographical History

Weatherill joined the Conservative Whips Office early in his parliamentary career, in January 1967, having come to the attention of Willie Whitelaw when leading a group of back benchers to vote with the Opposition on sanctions in Rhodesia. During his years in the Whips Office the Conservative Party was in Government only from June 1970 to February 1974 and so most of his experience was in Opposition. He had special responsibility for trade, power and labour affairs and held various appointments in the Royal Household. From 1970-1979 he was a member of the Services (House of Commons) Committee and in 1974 became Deputy Chief Whip and so was in a prominent position at the time of the leadership election in 1975, when Margaret Thatcher replaced Edward Heath as leader of the Conservative Party.

Vice Chamberlain of the Royal Household

Scope and Content

In these telegrams, Weatherill makes summaries of the main speeches, describes how they are received by other members of the House and, with touches of irony, evaluates the speakers.

Administrative / Biographical History

Weatherill held the post of Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household from October 1971 to April 1973. The duties of the post holder included writing a daily letter of about 500 words to the Queen, giving her an account of the proceedings in the House of Commons. This account was for the monarch's eyes only but Weatherill kept carbon copies usually of his hand written draft, which survive for the period November 1971 to October 1972. There are also a few copies for 1973, when presumably Weatherill performed this duty for an absent colleague.

Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker Files

Scope and Content

The surviving files for this period resemble the later 'engagement files' and contain a variety of material relating to Weatherill's personal and business life as well as his political one. One of the files covers the whole of his period in office as the Chairman of Ways and Means and appears to be a series of useful documents about his duties, particularly those of the Deputy Speaker. Otherwise the files are in rough chronological order and apparently chance survivals rather than systematically compiled.

Administrative / Biographical History

Following the General Election in May 1979 when the Conservative Party was voted into office, Weatherill was appointed as Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker. He held this post until the next General Election in June 1983.

Privy Counsellor

Scope and Content

These files consist of letters, telegrams and greetings cards containing congratulations from colleagues, friends and family. They are split into various files according to the category of the sender, but are otherwise in no particular order.

Administrative / Biographical History

Weatherill was appointed a Privy Counsellor in the New Year's Honours list in January 1980.

Speaker of the House of Commons

Scope and Content

The files in this section cover a variety of issues and functions. The bulk of Lord Weatherill’s work is covered in the Engagement File and Hansard Files series (WEA/PP E and WEA/PP H). Some files in this section appear to have been extracted from these two series to cover a particular theme or to form a reference file with constant additions. Several items have attached notes of explanation added by Weatherill as he left office, and, as always, there are contemporary annotations in his hand.

Administrative / Biographical History

In 1983 Weatherill was chosen by his fellow Members of Parliament as the Speaker of the House of Commons. He quickly gained a reputation for being fair and even-handed, in particular protecting the rights of back-benchers to speak in debates. He was re-elected as Speaker in 1987 following the General Election, and resigned prior to the General Election of 1992.

Hansard Files

Scope and Content

This is a series of Hansard reports on the debates in the House of Commons and for the later years in the House of Lords. The sequence does not include every copy of Hansard for his political career, but Weatherill has retained copies of particular interest.

There are annotations in pen, biro and pencil. Loose items are enclosed, and are usually handwritten letters and notes or newspaper cuttings.

Administrative / Biographical History

These are Weatherill's own copies, which he frequently annotated with comments and, during his period as Speaker of the House of Commons in particular, include notes and letters from officials and Members of Parliament.

Engagement Files

Scope and Content

The Engagement Files consist of diary sheets and correspondence files. The diary sheets list the engagements, official and semi-official of Weatherill as Speaker of the House of Commons (1983-1992). The lists include meetings at Westminster with his staff, with Members of Parliament, with individuals and groups from his consistuency and with the media and with foreign dignitaries on official and state visits to London. The diary also includes his lunchtime, evening and weekend engagements in London and elsewhere, with notes on the attendance of Mrs Speaker, travel arrangements and dress.

In addition to the timings for Weatherill sitting in the Speaker's Chair, parliamentary business is indicated by annotations in Weatherill's hand, of the bills, expected divisions and topics for question time. The correspondence files to which the diary sheets are attached contain programmes, menus, invitations, guest lists, briefing notes and correspondence about the engagements for the week. Included, for the period of parliamentary sessions, are daily diary sheets for Weatherill's engagements together with a copy of the Conservative Party Whip and notices for the week. As with the diary sheets, papers are frequently annotated by Weatherill and others. Material included also reflects Weatherill's private, personal and business interests.

Travel Files

Scope and Content

These files contain material about Weatherill's visits during the parliamentary recesses to other countries and consist of printed, typescript and manuscript material, including correspondence, invitations, photographs, press cuttings, business cards, postcards, cartoons, minutes, brochures, programmes, maps, menus and magazines.

The contents of are similar in range to the material found in his Engagement Files (WEA/PP E), with many items supplied by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the political and economic background of the country visited and outline biographies of the individuals Weatherill is due to meet. The arrangement of the information becomes more orderly and is more complete after 1988, and is often annotated in Weatherill's hand. Some of the travel files have been formed by removing items from the series of engagement files, where they formed files within files. Where this has occurred, it has been indicated by inserting the original or previous file number.

Administrative / Biographical History

Lord Weatherill’s visits to other countries were often undertaken in his capacity as Chairman and member of the commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers or as a member of the EEC Speakers of National Assemblies. On these visits he was usually accompanied by his wife Lyn and often was in company with Lord Mackay of Clashfern in his capacity as Speaker of the House of Lords. There are some interesting feedback accounts of how the visits are received in these files, which indicate that Weatherill was able to take on the role of a diplomat, as an impartial figure within Parliament. His other role was to represent parliament and the democratic processes in countries struggling to establish the credibility of their own democratic processes.

Video Tapes

Scope and Content

The majority of these tapes are video recordings of television programmes on the theme of politics and the workings of the House of Commons. Many include interviews with Lord Weatherill. Most of the recordings are at the time of the introduction of televising proceedings or on Weatherill's retirement as Speaker.

The other videos include some educational videos on parliamentary government, Weatherill on his tours abroad and various items about Croydon.

Books

Scope and Content

This series falls into several distinct divisions:

• Reference works: these consist of parliamentary companions with lists of MPs, various guides to the Houses of Parliament and its workings and pamphlets which include articles written by Weatherill and party manifestos. Some of these have been annotated by Weatherill.
• The Illustrated London News: these are odd issues with only one or two for most years
• Punch: these are odd issues with each issue having particular pages marked with a slip of paper.
• Loose pages from various periodicals: these are all pictures or cartoons on political themes.
• Presentation books: these books were presented to Weatherill on various trips abroad. They are often signed and are mostly art books. They have been catalogued as part of the Special Collections printed series and details can be found on the Library catalogue

Family Correspondence

Scope and Content

The majority of the letters in these bundles are for the war years, and give a fleeting glimpse of the war and its effects on one family, both of those who were in the services and also Weatherill's father, left to run the family business. None of the letters is detailed but it is clear that the war brought great changes for all of them. Some of Lord Weatherill's letters are numbered and show every sign of having been read and re-read, but they are all in good condition. Several items, particularly notes from friends in the services appear to be chance survivals. Only the letters from Bernard Weatherill are a complete series.

Administrative / Biographical History

Bernard Weatherill spent his months of training based in Oxfordshire and then entered the Indian army, travelling out there in the spring of 1942. He was posted to Bengal in 1944 at the time of the famine. His twin sister, Jill, was a medical student in London studying to be a doctor and his younger sister, Bar, although at school at the beginning of the war, joined the Wrens: she was in a unit of motor cycle messengers, based at Porchester in Hampshire.

Miscellaneous Family Papers

Scope and Content

This file contains various materials about members of the Weatherill family and a bundle of 'letters to treasure'.

Army Papers

Scope and Content

This is an assortment of army manuals, standard forms and more personal material relating to Weatherill's years in the army and his contact with regimental colleagues.