The collection covers both Pettigrew's medical and antiquarian activities, which are intermingled in the material's arrangement. The medical items include correspondence with many medical figures, medical jurisprudence (an Anniversary Oration delivered to the Medical Society of London), corpulence, hydrophobia, medical observations by army officers in India, and an autobiographical memoir of the philanthropist and prison-reformer James Neild (1744-1814), transcribed by Pettigrew and incorporated into his life of John Coakley Lettsom M.D. The antiquarian items include material on Kett's Rebellion, Hindu deities, the library of the Duke of Sussex and correspondence with the Italian antiquary Giovanni Spano (1803-1878) and Gaetano Cara, as part of Pettigrew's role as Vice-President of the British Archaeological Society. Types of material held include notebooks, loose papers, correspondence and diplomas.

Items belonging to Iris Murdoch presented by Audi Bayley. These items were from Iris Murdoch's former home in Charlbury Road and include letters written by Iris Murdoch to Borys and Audi Villers [later Audi Bayley], a planning notebook for Jackson's Dilemma, and a range of objects. Includes:

1) Large bust of Iris Murdoch mounted on marble

2) Iris Murdoch's teddy bear 'Jimbo'

3) Painting by Iris Murdoch 1941

4) Tapestry by Iris Murdoch of fish with the initials IM and JB

5) Gold edged bowl

6) 5 stones and 9 Asian religious figurines / icons from Murdoch's writing desk

7) Letters from Iris Murdoch to Audi Bayley and her first husband Boris Villiers

8) Green box containing brooch- appears to be enamelled George IV shilling from 1820s

9) 4 replica medieval icons mounted on wood

10) Framed photographs from Iris Murdoch's study of Murdoch as a child and Murdoch's parents

11) 3 Canadian stone figurines depicting an owl, a penguin and a seal

12) 2 stone figurines of a cow and a lion, with painted and gilded details

13) 11 dress necklaces worn by Murdoch and kept in her study

14) A notebook with planning notes by Murdoch for the novel 'Jackson's Dilemma'

Pamphlets from the All India Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee, the All India Youth Federation and the Akhil Bharat Sarva Seva Sangh.

The collection comprises material on medical history: an address to the Royal Medical Society on ancient medicine (MS.1776), his inaugural lecture in the history of medicine (MS.1777) and an address on ancient Hindu medicine (MS.1778).

File of papers by Lt Col Charles Leofric Boyle on tensions between Hindu and Muslim troops on HM Troopship EMPIRE PRIDE, Oct 1947. Including report by Maj O A Mitchell, Officer Commanding 105 GPT Company, 10 Oct 1947, for Boyle as Officer Commanding Troops, HM Troopship EMPIRE PRIDE, on the morale of the Indian troops, both Muslim and Hindu (1 page); Seven telegrams between HM Troopship EMPIRE PRIDE and Bombay, 11-16 October 1947, on the worsening relations between the Muslim and Hindu troops on board, and obtaining permission to disembark Muslim troops at Karachi, instead of Bombay, as planned (7 items); report upon the diversion of HM Troopship EMPIRE PRIDE to Karachi, owing to the communal unrest on board by Boyle as Officer Commanding Troops, 19 Oct 1947; file also includes a photograph of Boyle and Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, [1940-45], standing on railway gun 'HMG Boche-Buster', near Canterbury, Kent