Headmasters' Association (HMA), earlier the Incorporated Association of Headmasters (IAHM)

This collection includes: executive committee minutes and papers; council meeting minutes and papers; divisional records; annual conference and general meeting reports and papers; subject files; periodical and other publications.

The Incorporated Association of Headmasters was initiated at a meeting in October 1890. In 1967 its title was changed to the Headmasters' Association (although both titles seem to have been used both before and after that year). Its stated objects were to safeguard the interests of its members, their character and status and the educational principles they supported. In January 1978 the HMA merged with the Association of Headmistresses to form the Secondary Heads Association.

The IAHM/HMA and the Headmasters' Conference shared a secretariat and the distinction between the records of the two bodies is not always clear. The series of subject files received under the reference MSS.58, for instance, seem to include records of both. Some of these files include letters addressed to the secretary of both bodies. The records which seem clearly to be those of the Headmasters' Conference have been catalogued as part of that body's archive, but there are probably still some among the HMA archive because of the overlap described above.

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

The first deposit of these records was made by the Headmasters' Association in September 1974. A further two deposits were made in July 1980 after selection by A.G. Tough (references prefixed MSS.58B) and the assistant secretary of the Secondary Heads Association (references prefixed MSS.58C).

Link to full catalogue: http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/HMA

The Modern Records Centre also holds records of the Headmasters' Conference (also MSS.58), the Association of Headmistresses (MSS.188) and of the London branch of the Secondary Heads' Association (MSS.218).