Comments on: Third update 17 Sept 2009

By: Johnathan Percy

Johnathan Percy — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:53:48 +0000

I agree with Barry. Some of the managers are bullying and targeting specialist staff to reduce staff . Imcompetant thiefs have taken over the National Archives.

By: Dr Colin Tite

Dr Colin Tite — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:05:50 +0000

I agree with all of these comments and especially those given by Barry Fleming. As a historian who has used the National Archives for research in the past, I am very concerned about the changes their management is making. I complained to TNA directly some weeks ago and did not have a convincing reply. Far too many of the managers of these organisations have very little interest in their collections and treat badly their specialist staff, such as their curators. They should not be permitted only to offer contracts and especially short-term ones to newly employed curators and they themselves should be removed from their posts, to which they should not have been appointed.. TNA should not accept the changes they are proposing.

I have writtent to my MP recently on another subject and will now contact him on this issue.

By: Rosemary Birch

Rosemary Birch — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:52:20 +0000

I tried the general military search: too many results and not just for George Charles, but also for Charles George and others. Then I tried the three WWI search engines separately. When I used exact searches there were no results. When I unclicked the ‘exact’ box I had too many results form all over the country. I gave up in frustration after 20 minutes.

By: Barry Fleming

Barry Fleming — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:35:00 +0000

The management of the Nationals Archives has been financially incompetent and self-serving (to the highly paid Management Board and senior staff) and the Board’s activities and self-proclaimed aims totally disregard what the National Archives is all about to us – members of the public, tax-payers. In my view, the Management Board is putting this nation’s heritage in danger.

The members of the Board must be made accountable. They must also listen to other views, even when those views conflict with their own (that is not a suggestion, it is part of the Civil Service Code of Practice which this Board seems so arrogantly to disregard). Until that happens they will manage our National Heritage to suit themselves and their (flawed) view of the future, and they will continue with their unnerving incompetence. Having been shown to be deceitful and incompetent to such a degree, why should they retain their jobs while those who directly assist the public are at risk of redundancy as a direct result of management’s incompetence?

Closing the Archives on a Monday thus significantly shortening the hours when the public can visit, reducing the staff who directly help us when we are researching while increasing the number of highly paid management members, and making it more difficult to peruse documents, cannot possibly be in the public interest.

By: David HOLMAN

David HOLMAN — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:34:15 +0000

I tried for 30 minutes for medal records but to no avail

I then tried the two service records again to no avail. I gave up after an hour.

His number is clearly not recorded correctly and his name if it is there is deep in a long list of Georges George C’s etc that it is too time consuming.

I did find a George COAKER with the same number and a first glance his name looked like COOKE but it was not him!!!