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The records of the Accident Offices Association largely comprise minutes (mostly unsigned) with some accounts. The latter also relate to some of the other bodies with which the association was concerned. Initially, the business of the association was conducted through its chairman, the General Purposes Committee and the Rating Committee (from 1907). Committees were subsequently established to deal with particular areas of business, for example the Motor Offices Committee and Fidelity Offices Committee (in 1913). The work of these main committees was often carried out by standing committees; sub-committees were set up to deal with particular issues and aspects of the areas of business concerned. Additional committees were established as time went on, such as the Employers' Liability Committee (in 1947). An Emergency Powers Committee was set up in August 1939 to run the association during the Second World War; it functioned until June 1947. This explains the gaps in the main series of committee minutes between 1939 and 1947.

Records of the Accident Offices Association (Overseas), association for insurers of accidents abroad, comprising minute books of general meetings, Motor Committee meetings, Workmen's Compensation Insurance committee meetings, Emergency Power Committee meetings, and Standing Committee for the Republic of Ireland meetings.

Financial records of the Aircraft Insurance Committee.

Records relating to the inquest on the victims of the wreck of the steamship "Princess Alice", 1878-1966. Records include inquisition giving names, ages, relationship and occupations of deceased; sworn statements of witnesses; verbatim report of inquest proceedings at Town Hall, Woolwich; indexes of witnesses; list of persons saved from the "Princess Alice"; correspondence; report of the Board of Trade investigation into the wreck of the "Princess Alice"; supporting documentation including maps of the area and navigation regulations.

Also items relating to the disaster including memorial cards, songs, press cuttings and notes made by Gavin Thurston in preparation for his book The Great Thames Disaster.

Records of the Corporation of Trinity House, including: copies of charters, grants and patents; Court minutes; Board minutes and agendas; minutes of various committees; financial records including ledgers, journals, cash books, salaries; correspondence; administrative files; letters patent to collect tolls; papers relating to lighthouses including committee minutes and inspection books; notices to mariners; reports by Michael Faraday and other scientists regarding improvements to lighthouses; war diaries detailing damages to beacons and buoys; papers relating to pilotage including committee minutes, pilot's registers and examinations in pilotage; reports on collisions; papers relating to management of estates and charity work; lists of elder and younger brethren; photographs; and papers relating to the Royal Trinity House Volunteer Corps.

In the mid 19th century, the Corporation of Trinity House replaced minutes of committees with "agendas". These "agendas" are not agenda papers with a list of items for discussion. They are stripped down minutes which record those elder brethren attending the committee meeting, items coming to committee, the decisions taken and further action, if any, required. They do not record any of the committee's discussions.

The papers have suffered from fire in 1666 and 1714 and from bombing in 1940. Though the court minutes survive from 1660, many other series of records only survive from the nineteenth century. Because of the many ways in which the Corporation of Trinity House has touched on British maritime life, the records which survive are still very rich and extremely varied.

There is a thirty year closure rule on the Trinity House archive and researchers must ask the Corporation for permission to consult any records less than thirty years old.

Lighthouse plans have not been deposited, although LMA holds copy catalogues of the plans which are still held by the Corporation of Trinity House (CLC/526/MS30131A, available on the library shelves in the LMA Information Area). Please ask at the enquiry desk for details or see our leaflet about lighthouse history sources.

Records of the Court of Judicature, or 'Fire Court', City of London, 1666-1673, including fire decrees (judgements of the court) and other records of court proceedings.

Papers of Admiral Dawkins, including papers of his early career consist of official service documents and three diaries, 1851 to 1858. Those concerned with the loss of the VANGUARD consist of some official publications, such as the findings of the court martial, a large collection of press cuttings, some private letters and Dawkins' own account of the disaster.

Proceedings of the Fire Judges' Court, in the case of John Wall and Sir Paul Niele and others.

Papers of the Fire Judges Court, comprising decree in the cause of Sir Richard Betenson, petitioner, against Richard Betenson, his son, and others, concerning burnt houses in Cheapside, in the parish of St Mary le Bow.

Memorandum on fires in London and other places, 1778; with inventory and valuation of furniture for Bydorp House, Hanwell, undated (late 18th century).

Staff records of Harmans Uxbridge Brewery Limited, including wages records; staff employment files; accident papers; service agreements; papers relating to pension and life assurance schemes; papers relating to the appointment of the company secretary; and telephone directory.

Subject files, 1940-1944, on a range of topics including general organisation, "H" Company (County Hall), "P" Company (Parks Department), "E" Company (Chief Engineers' Department), "C" Company (Cooper's Hill), "F" Company (Fire Brigade Department), "S" Company (Supplies Department), Public Health Company and No.2 Battalion (later 48th County of London Battalion), Mental Hospitals Company, medical organisation and equipment, food rationing and mobile canteens, Battalion Funds, Courts-martial and courts of inquiry, explosions, accidents and injuries, loss of arms and ammunition, dress regulations, storage of ammunition, revolvers, appointment of officers, adjutants and quartermasters, Permanent Staff Instructors, new conditions of service for home guards, man-power figures, attachments and locations, Women Home Guard auxiliaries, compensation for loss of earnings, casualties, discipline, Home Guard duties and civil defence, personnel over 65 years of age, transport, armoured fighting vehicles, Winter and Summer training, assaults at arms, ranges, operations, exercises, security and intelligence, mine watching exercises, anniversary parades, standing-down of Home Guard and awards and commendations.

Also Army Council Instructions; regulations for the Home Guard; Home Guard Information Circulars; Home Guard Instructions; London District Home Guard Orders; London County Council Group Orders; 47th Battalion Orders; 48th Battalion Orders; Guard report books; papers relevant to the history of the London County Council battalions, including copies of the printed histories of "3" and "C" Companies by Majors Brand and Belsham; papers relating to the formation of Old Comrades Association and Home Guard Training Manual (third edition).

Minute book of the Home Office Vehicles Pool.

Papers of Joseph Newsam Knowles, including papers relating to Knowle's command of the cutter SPEEDY, 7 Mar-4 Nov 1833 and n.d.; private correspondence received by Knowles and his father, 1 Dec 1827-17 May 1834 and n.d. mainly relating to attempts to further his career; misc. papers, 1932, 14 Jul 1834 and n.d. including a letter regarding Knowles' papers and an untitled poem; Goldsmith's Almanck, 1798, with notes on the Knowles family etc; accounts of the wreck of and the rescue of survivors from the FRANCIS AND MARY, sailing from St John's, New Brunswick to Liverpool, discovered by HMS BLONDE, taken from the Morning Herald, 28 Mar 1826 with a manuscript copy and a statement taken by Knowles from the survivors; certificate of membership of the United Grande Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of England, 28 Mar 1831 and letters advising him of meetings, 6 Jan-7 Apr 1831; Vellum cover marked '1. 15th June 1816 J.K. Checque on Bankers Book', containing a notice of recognizance for the Cornwall Quater Sessions, 30 Oct 1833 and a note, n.d.; private correspondence mainly from Mr Elliot Carrett, solicitor, regarding the sale of real estate at Dewsbury, 21 Apr-14 Jul 1834; notebook containing a list of the Royal Navy and tables relating to ordnance, sails, masts and yards etc, ca.1825, marked 'Lieutenant Edward Goodlad - Royal Navy'; Two track charts of HMS FORTE, Rio de Janeiro to cape Horn, Jul 1828.

The fifty-four letterbooks which have been acquired individually are predominantly naval, dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The Napoleonic war period and the nineteenth century are most fully represented. Unless stated otherwise, it can be assumed that the items are copy letterbooks and not bound volumes of original letters. Of the six seventeenth-century letterboooks the largest is that of official correspondence of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), 1662 to 1679, which also contains some shorthand in his own hand. (Some of these letters are reproduced in Helen Truesdell Heath, ed., The letters of Samuel Pepys and his family circle (Oxford), 1955)) There is a bound volume of 15 original letters and legal documents written by Sir Anthony Deane ([1638]-1721), shipbuilder and member of the Navy Board; the letters, dated from 1662 to 1679, are to a merchant, Sir Robert Clayton (1651-1704). For the same period there is a letterbook of George Monck, Duke of Albemarle (1608-1670), with some shorthand, written between 1665 and 1666 while he was joint Commander-in-Chief. Additionally, a small volume containing two letters by Monck, 1652 and 1663, includes some contemporary pamphlets and prints. A slim letterbook of Sir John Narbrough (1640-1688), when in command of the FORESIGHT, 1687 to 1688, consists of letters and reports written by him when recovering treasure from a Spanish wreck off Hispaniola. There is also an early eighteenth-century volume of copies of over a hundred letters written by James II to George Legge, Lord Dartmouth (q.v.) between 1679 and 1688. The earliest letterbook of the eighteenth century is that of Vice-Admiral John Baker (1660-1716), aboard the STIRLING CASTLE commanding in home waters and the Mediterranean, 1708 to 1709. A private letterbook of an officer who cannot be positively identified, kept between 1727 and 1731, includes a list of men killed and wounded at the siege of Gibraltar, 1727. It gives detailed dimensions of the ROSE at the same period, a description of travels in Italy, 1731, and of St John's, Newfoundland, 1732. Six letterbooks (some of which also contain orders) of Admiral Sir Piercy Brett (1709-1781) all relate to the Channel when Brett was in the LION, 1745 to 1746, the NORFOLK, 1757 to 1758, DEPTFORD, 1760, ST GEORGE, 1760 and the NEWARK, 1761. There is a small volume of in- and out-letters and orders to and from Prince William Henry (1765-1837). These date between 1786 and 1788 when the Prince was in command of the PEGASUS in home waters, 1786, in the West Indies from 1786 to 1787, and in Canada in 1787. Finally for this period is a letterbook of John Pearse, commander of H.E.I.C.S. EDGECOTE, 1747 to 1750. Thirty-one volumes relate to the Napoleonic Wars, the first of which is a bound volume of eighteen original letters, 1793 to 1804, from Admiral Collingwood (q.v.) to Sir Edward Blackett (d.1804). There follows a book of seven private original letters from Lord Mulgrave (1755-1831) to Collingwood , 1807 to 1809; a letterbook of Admiral George Berkeley (1753-1818) when in command on the coast of Portugal, 1809 to 1810; original letters from Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren (1753-1852) to Lord Melville (1771-1851), First Lord of the Admiralty, written mainly between 1812 and 1814 from Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he was Commander-in-Chief, North America ; a letterbook of John Jervis, Lord St Vincent for 1806 and 1807, when Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet, and a letterbook of Admiral Sir Charles Penrose (1759-1830), 1813 to 1814, when commanding the PORCUPINE. At this time the ship was off the coast of France, collaborating with the army under the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), to whom a large number of the letters are addressed. Examples of volumes belonging to officers of lesser rank include that of Lieutenant (later Captain) Robert Ramsay (fl 1779-1815), in the EURYDICE, home waters and North America, 1807 to 1808, and in the MISTLETOE.

London County Council register of tramway track lengths, recording description and lengths of route, street length, track length and remarks, such as "conversion to trolleybus", "abandoned" and so on, [1912-1952], with enclosures: photocopy of map of tramways in the London County Council area, revised to 1931; and diagrams of track lengths in Leyton and Hammersmith.

London Fire and Civil Defence Authority minutes, agendas, decision sheets, printed papers and reports, 1985-1992; minutes, agendas, decision sheets and papers of Committees including the Civil Defence Committee, Fire Brigade Committee, Personnel Committee, Planning Committee, Policy and Resources Committee, Scrutiny Sub-committee, Urgency Committee and Senior Staff Appointments Sub-committee, 1985-1992; papers relating to disciplinary tribunals and appeals, 1986-1988; papers of the Equal Opportunities Working Party, 1986-1992; papers of the Fire Prevention Working Party, 1987-1991; posters, 1988; notices of meetings; and issues of the 'London Firefighters' magazine.

Fire reports for the Operations Department, 1986-1990, and fire reports for the Western Command Headquarters, Wembley, Southern Command Headquarters, Lewisham, Eastern Command Headquarters, Stratford and the Croydon station, 1991. Also some station call registers, correspondence and Fire Investigation Team reports.

Records of the London Fire Engine Establishment, including Committee minute books; out-letter book; annual accounts and registers of fires in London, which contain information relating to fires attended by the London Fire Engine Establishment, including date, time of discovery, place, name and profession of occupier, possible cause of fire, details of insurance, who raised the alarm, who put out the fire, which engines attended, and what was damaged.

Records of the London Salvage Corps including deed of constitution, Committee minute books, annual reports, accounts, papers relating to suspicious fires, statistics, and circulars.

Papers of Walter Lord relating to the TITANIC, including orignal letters from survivors, both passengers and crew (see LMQ/7); copies of the second class dinner menu (LMQ/1/12/2, issued as postcard souvenirs) and much contemporary publicity material concerning the ship itself such as deck plans, drawings and White Star brochures, all providing a view of the the great size and splendour of this luxuriously appointed vessel (LMQ/1/9). Also present are 12 fascinating original photographs, showing TITANIC survivors in the lifeboats approaching the SS CARPATHIA at about 8 a.m. on 15 April 1912. They are the only known photographs to show survivors being picked up from the sea (LMQ/1/12/1).

Volumes of the wreck register, Marine Department of the Board of Trade, 1855 to 1898, giving the names and details of wrecks of British vessels reported to the Marine Department. The information includes the name of the vessel, its official number, port of registry, port number and year of registration, tonnage, name of managing owner, master, date and place of wreck, cause and the number of lives lost. Printed reports clipped from shipping newspapers, as well as manuscript reports from the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen are often included as well as references to Lloyd's List , Mitchell's Maritime Register and Board of Trade correspondence (see MT/9 at the Public Record Office).

Papers of George Prideaux Brabant Naish. Included are personal and research papers of the Reverend Francis Naish, some relating to his identification of the Burlesdon wreck as the GRACE DIEU. There are also papers which relate to George Naish's command of the Anti-Submarine Fixed Defence Station, Fort Agami, Alexandria, 1945-6. Papers relating to his role as Secretary to the Society for Nautical Research between 1947 and 1977 may be found in the archive of the Society at this Museum.

This class is made up of contemporary first-hand narrative accounts, contained in sixteen volumes. Narratives of naval actions include a volume of accounts of the Battle of Beachy Head, 1690, for presentation to the King; and an illustrated pocket-book of Lieutenant Lewis Stephen Davis (fl 1777-1799) containing accounts of various actions including the First of June, 1794, Cape St Vincent, 1797, and the Nile, 1798. There are five volumes relating to wrecks and salvage including an account of the loss of the merchant ship LUXEMBURGH , 1727; of the CENTAUR, 1782, by Captain John Nicholson Inglefield (1748-1828) with the verdict of the court martial, 1783. (A version of this was first published in 1782 in London as Captain Inglefield's narrative concerning the loss of His Majesty's ship the Centaur of seventy-four guns.) There is an account of wrecks and disasters on the north Norfolk Coast, 1880 to 1939, by William John Harman (1854-1944), a local fisherman; and also an account of the wreck of and salvage work carried out on the LUTINE which was sunk in 1799, written in 1898 by the salvage engineer Johan J Fletcher (fl.1893-1900). There are two foreign narratives in this section; one, a French manuscript, is 'Campagne Navale de M de Tourville' (1642-1701), which is an account of the movements of the French fleet in the Mediterranean in 1693, with pen and ink drawings and coloured illustrations of flags, probably written by Captain Longeron of the L'ORGUEILLEUX. There are also four annotated printed works, including the author's copy of the 1790 edition of A History of the late siege of Gibraltar, 1779-1783 by Colonel John Drinkwater (later Bethune, 1762-1844) with annotations and additional illustrations, and the galley sheets of The Submarine Peril, published in 1934 by Earl Jellicoe (1859-1935), with manuscript corrections and additions.

Papers of Richard Newcourt, historian and notary, comprising drafts and notes for the first volume of Newcourt's Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, (published 1708); and three maps of London, one of the City before the Great Fire of 1666 and two plans for its subsequent rebuilding; together with An Explanation of the mapps, and A letter expressing some inconveniences of the old city, and some reasons for the new modellinge of the same.

Papers of Olive North. They include Olive's account of the sinking of the RMS LUSITANIA and her rescue, correspondence shortly before and after the disaster, press cuttings relating to the RMS LUSITANIA and lists of passengers and crew.

Copies, possibly made in the first half of the 18th century and presented to the Court of Aldermen, of surveys and plans originally made 1667-1687 by John Oliver and Peter Mills, City Surveyors, after the 1666 Great Fire.

Records of the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire comprising minutes, annual reports, summaries of cases, correspondence and related papers. The minutes contain brief details of the applications for, and grants of, awards for individual acts of bravery. The surviving annual reports give further information on the incidents where awards were granted. These are arranged as numbered cases.

Records of the Thames Magistrates Court, 1804-1971, including court registers; clerk's letter books and papers; and wreck enquiry notes. Court registers record the date of the hearing, the name of the informant or complainant (often the police), the name of the defendant, a brief note of the offence and the decision of the magistrate.

Publicity material produced by the Truth and Justice for Richard Chang Campaign.

Papers collected by Henry Wellcome, comprising fifty volumes and loose papers. The largest group of items is of ships' logs. Those for the Navy include logs for the PRINCESS OF WALES, 1735 to 1737, and ROYAL GEORGE, 1744 to 1759; those for other merchant vessels include the log of the BENSON, on a voyage from Liverpool to Jamaica, 1782, and of the ESTHER, plying between Whitehaven, Hamburg and Virginia, 1794 to 1795. Of a less official nature is an account of the survival of three members of the crew of the EARL TEMPLE, East India Company ship, wrecked on the Cochin China coast, 1766; also the diary of Richard Joyce who served on board the gun brig RICHMOND, was captured, released and served as a midshipman with the East India Company, 1810 to 1816. Shore-based activities are represented by a 'common place book' kept by John Rolt, a chief clerk in the Navy Office, 1806 to 1809, and by the diaries kept by a member of the St Andrews Waterside Mission, Gravesend, working among the crews of merchant ships, 1887 to 1905. Related to education within the Navy are a handwritten copy of the rules and regulations to be observed by the students of the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, 1816; lecture notes on practical navigation, c 1855; and a notebook on gunnery as taught on the EXCELLENT, 1858 to 1859. The reports include the copy of one in Spanish on an expedition against England by Spain, ca.1588; a report on the slave trade, c 1730; and another on the settlements and slave trade on the Gold Coast, c 1824. There is also a copy of landing instructions for the troops in Egypt, 1801.

Staff records of Whitbread and Company Limited, including salary books and ledgers giving information on weekly and monthly salaries over a range of time periods along with details of annuities, pensions and superannuation funds. There are also lists of employees from as early as 1841 (some of which are organised according to occupation), attendance books and information on ex-servicemen employed after the First World War along with sick pay and accident report books, and papers from the 1960s and 1970s detailing company employment policy.

Records of Wills, Faber and Dumas Limited comprising sea casualty books, 1916-20 and 1930-50; and a register of claims, 1932-54.