Police administrative files

From around the 1920s onwards, many types of record previously kept in book form began to be kept in series of files (normally lever arch files to begin with, and, later, modern cardboard files). Memoranda, circulars and so on were kept in administrative files. Correspondence files, including letters in and copies of letters out, replaced letter books. Case investigation files replaced, to some extent, the case/information books kept by individual stations or headquarters. However, although large series of administrative, correspondence and case files survive for many local and central government bodies, the equivalent records for police forces are generally no longer extant or are otherwise not available for public use. Among the records of Glasgow City Constabulary deposited with Glasgow City Archives, for example, only one case file survives: SR22/42/1 Report re murder of Constable James Campbell, 18 Jan 1919. Research using correspondence files is among the most time-consuming and unrewarding, except perhaps to the most dedicated of police historians and academic historians. The general paucity of case files is invariably a disappointment to journalists and local historians.

Letter books

Letter books are normally bound volumes containing copies of letters sent by a person or corporate body. Sometimes the letters were copied by hand and sometimes each original letter was pressed against flimsy copy paper while the ink was still wet – these are referred to as wet-copy letter books. Less common are bound volumes of letters received by an individual or corporate body.

Letter books have great limitations. Often the researcher sees only one side of the correspondence (e.g. letters sent but not letters received). The handwriting can be very difficult to read, especially in wet copy letter books. If there is no index or contents list it can be very difficult to find information about a subject quickly. Letters relating to important matters are bound among letters relating to trivial matters. In general, therefore, letter books are seldom used by any but the most dedicated researcher, usually those researching the administrative history of the corporate body or the life of the individual who kept the letter book.

Police Chief Constable’s reports

In the mid-19th century, chief constables (or the equivalent title, depending on the force) made annual reports to the committee which supervised them (police commissioners in most burghs, and police committees or standing joint committees in counties). To begin with these may be recorded in the minute books of the committee, and may give statistics for certain types of crime, as well as an account of the work of the police over the previous year. By the late 19th century, the chief constables of cities, counties and larger towns had the annual reports printed and made more publicly available. By the early 20th century most forces issued printed reports, and these contained tables of statistics.

Some local studies libraries and local authority archives keep runs of chief constables’ annual reports for forces in their areas. The National Records of Scotland hold a small sample of annual reports for a variety of burgh and county forces for the period 1890-1930, and 1969-1988 (HH4/239-297, 301-313). Annual reports by Chief Constables are one of the key sources of information on the history of the police and on crime in Scotland, especially for academic historians, historians of the police, and local historians.

In addition to annual reports, chief constables sometimes made other reports and submissions, such as separate annual or quarterly statistical returns, or particular instance reports. The survival of these is patchy, although they can usually be found in the minute books of the relevant police committee etc. Occasionally separate bound tabulated annual returns of crimes and offences survive, such as those printed by the Superintendent of the Ayr Burgh police, 1859-1885, which survive among the records of Strathclyde Police at Glasgow City Archives (SR22/71/8), and similar monthly returns by the Inverness-shire Constabulary for 1942-68 at Highland Council Archives (R91/D/3/2).

Police Authority Minutes

The local authorities which supervised police forces between 1800 and 2013 produced minute books of their meetings. These local authorities were police commissioners and, later, town councils in burghs; and standing joint committees and police committees in counties; and police boards or joint police boards between 1975 and 2013. In 2013 these local bodies were replaced by the Scottish Police Authority.

Minute books of police committees, commissioners or boards contain information about the provision of policing in the county or burgh concerned. They should contain discussion of the setting up of the force, how big it should be and what the salaries of officers and constables should be. Policy matters will be discussed, such as whether constables should be recruited primarily from outside the county/burgh, or whether special constables should be enrolled during times of crisis. They may include annual and reports and statistical returns of chief constables (and other reports and returns of senior officers) and financial statements. It is quite common to find copies or summaries of reports by HM Inspector of Constabulary engrossed in the minutes. For the first few years, or where the force was quite small, there may be details of the appointment of personnel, even down to the level of constables, but as the force increases in size minutes from the second half of the 19th century onwards usually deal with the appointment of senior officers only, such as chief constables and their assistants or deputies.

Those communities in Scotland who claimed the right to be police burghs after 1857 in order to prevent control of the burgh police going to the commissioners of supply of the county, such as Stirling, created a body known as the commissioners of police, which sat alongside the town council and was made up of many of the same people. The powers extended to the commissioners included overseeing building standards regulations as they existed then as well as watching, cleansing and lighting. As a consequence, the minutes produced by these commissioners include the discussion of matters relating to building standards as well as policing and other matters.

The primary value of the minutes of police authorities is for the academic study of policing or for local history. For researching the careers of individual policemen police authority minutes are not valuable, except in the case of senior officers.

In Scotland, minutes of police committees, commissioners or authorities are generally held by local authority archives and more recent minutes may be held as electronic records. As with any minute books they require many hours’ or days’ research, especially for 19th century minute books, which are invariably manuscript and not indexed.

Passports

Passports developed from letters of introduction and safe conduct passes in medieval times. Until 1915, when they became mandatory for British subjects re-entering the country, there were few practical restrictions on individuals who wished to enter the UK or travel abroad (provided they could afford to do so). Documents similar to passports were issued by the Scottish crown (prior to the Union of Crowns in 1603) and by burghs, senior churchmen and noblemen. These were letters of introduction or safe conduct for individuals (mainly aristocrats or their agents) travelling in Europe, sometimes on official business. Examples of these precursors of the modern passport can be found in collections of private family papers deposited in Scottish archives and libraries, and an examination of these gives an indication of how passports developed from the 17th century to the 20th century. 17th century passes appear to have been rudimentary single page documents, often in Latin. By the early 19th century some travellers appear to have carried more elaborate folders containing a passport issued by the Foreign Office (countersigned or stamped or sealed by consuls, police departments and other civil authorities of the cities and states visited). In 1846 regulations were drawn up regarding applications for passports issued by the Foreign Office. These could be contained in wallets specially made by stationers, which look very like modern passport holders. British passports, in the modern sense, were introduced in 1915.

Contributors: Robin Urquhart (SCAN, 2002), David Brown (National Archives of Scotland, 2002), Olive Geddes (National Library of Scotland, 2002).

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Passports

How can I find out if someone who travelled abroad from Scotland was in receipt of a passport or letter of safe conduct issued in Scotland?

The National Archives (TNA) in London has records of passports issued for the period 1795-1948 (indexed for the periods 1851 – 1862 and 1874 – 1898), in Foreign Office records (reference: FO610-611). For details go to the TNA website <http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C7912> [accessed 26 April 2024]

For passports issued in Scotland before the 18th century, first try published sources, such as the register of the Privy Seal (Registrum secreti sigilli regum Scotorum), the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, and the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland (Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum), or published minutes or acts of the burgh concerned, if the individual came from a town. The family papers of the individual concerned might be with the National Records of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, or with a local archive or university library, or held privately. You should ascertain from the National Register of Archives for Scotland where, if anywhere, the relevant family papers are held. You might also search the National Records of Scotland’s catalogues, using the terms ‘passport’, ‘safe conduct’ etc, for examples occurring in family papers.

Passenger Lists

Ships’ passenger lists are a key source for the study of emigration, but most passenger lists went with the ship and were handed in at the port of arrival. For further information, and the answers to frequently asked questions about passenger lists, see below.

Ships’ passenger lists were drawn up by shipping companies to identify passengers on particular voyages. The information contained in passenger lists varies, depending on the recording habits of the company involved. Tracking down passenger lists for specific voyages or the names of individual passengers can involve time-consuming and painstaking research. In terms of ease of access, the whereabouts of a particular passenger list should be sought from (a) the relevant record office in the country of arrival; (b) the National Archives in London for departures to non-European ports after1890; (c) the records of the shipping company concerned. Very few passenger lists survive in Scotland.

(a) Tracking down the list or manifest handed in to the port authority at the country of arrival is your best chance of locating a passenger list. For vessels arriving in countries outside the UK you should check the relevant record office in the country concerned. Details on those in North America, Australia, and New Zealand are given in the answers to Frequently Asked Questions below. For vessels arriving in the UK from non-European ports, The National Archives in London holds passenger lists for the period 1878-1960.

(b) The National Archives in London holds passenger lists for vessels leaving the UK for destinations outside Europe for the period 1890-1960. They are not indexed, many are in a fragile condition, and require a lot of research time.

(c) Occasionally the records of a shipping line survive, but these rarely include passenger lists. Details of shipping company records held by archives throughout the UK can be accessed via the Discovery website <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/> [accessed 26 April 2024]. If you know the name of the shipping company you can search for it by name. Alternatively, you can enter the term “shipping co” or “shipping line” for shipping company records. You can also enter “passenger list” to see cataloguing information about some passenger lists held in various archives throughout the UK.

Contributors: Alison Rosie, Tristram Clarke, David Brown, Jane Jamieson (all National Archives of Scotland, 2002), Robin Urquhart (SCAN, 2002).

Related Knowledge Base entries

Emigration

Passports

Bibliography

Coldham, Peter W., Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1660 (Genealogical Publishing Co, 1987).

Coldham, Peter W., Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775 (Genealogical Publishing Co, 198?)

Dobson, David, Directory of Scottish Settlers in North America, 1625-1825 (Genealogical Publishing Co, 1993).

Dobson, David, Directory of Scots Banished to the American Plantations 1650-1775 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1983) 2^nd edition (Clearfield, 2010) –

Filby, P W & others, ed., Passenger and Immigration Lists Index (Gale Research Co, 1981 – present, 21 volumes, continuing) is an index of names in published passenger lists and other lists of arrivals in North America in the 17^th, 18^th and 19th centuries.

Whyte, Donald, Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to the USA (Magna Carta Book Co, 1972)

Whyte, Donald, Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to the USA Vol 2 (Magna Carta Book Co, 1986)

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Passenger lists

Where will I find the passenger list for someone who emigrated to America?

The basic rule of thumb is that, for the period prior to 1890, expect the passenger list to have gone with the passenger and ended up in the port of arrival. This means that you should not expect to find a passenger list for an outgoing ship in Scotland and you ought to check sources in the United States first.

First you may be lucky enough to find a record of your ancestor in published passenger lists (which account for about 1% of emigrants to North America).

Next try the US National Archives and Records Administration where all surviving passenger lists for vessels arriving in the United States are kept. They are divided into two types of record: Customs Passenger Lists, 1800-1890, which give the name, age, sex, occupation, country of origin and country of destination of each passenger, but do not cover all American ports; and Immigration passenger lists, from 1890, giving all of the above information, along with place of birth, last place of residence and sometimes the address of a relative in the country of origin. <https://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/overview> [accessed 26 April 2024].

The UK National Archives in London holds passenger lists for vessels leaving the UK between 1890 and 1960 (among the records of the Board of Trade). For further details consult the Discovery website. <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/> [accessed 26 April 2024].

Where will I find the passenger list of someone who emigrated to Canada?

First, you may be lucky enough to find a record of your ancestor in published passenger lists (which account for about 1% of emigrants to North America).

Next try Library and Archives Canada, who hold passenger manifests from 1865 (and some earlier records). For further details consult <https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/passenger-lists/Pages/introduction.aspx> [accessed 26 April 2024].

If your ancestor emigrated from Lewis or Harris to Manitoba in the period 1888-1889, it may be worth searching the records of a state-aided scheme, which survive in the records of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department records (AF51), held in the National Records of Scotland. These record various details of each applicant and members of his or her household. The records are not indexed.

Where will I find the passenger list for someone who emigrated to Australia?

The basic rule of thumb is that, for the period prior to 1890, expect the passenger list to have gone with the passenger and end up in the port of arrival. This means that you should not expect to find a passenger list for an outgoing ship in Scotland and you should instead check sources in the Australia first.

Emigrants to Australia were categorized according to the method by which their passages were paid and the arrangement of surviving records reflects this categorization:

Free (passage paid by government)
Assisted (fare partly paid by authorities)
Unassisted (passage paid by passenger)
Bounty (fee paid by agent, who received a bounty from the government)
Nominated/remitted (friends/relatives in Australia paid for passage)

Passenger lists for ships arriving in Australia are held by the various state record offices [all links accessed 26 April 2024]:

State Records of New South Wales

Public Record Office of Victoria

State Records of Western Australia https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/state-records-office-of-western-australia

Queensland State Archives

State Records of South Australia

Passenger lists after 1924 are held by the National Archives of Australia https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/immigration-and-citizenship/passenger-arrival-records

The National Archives in London holds passenger lists for vessels leaving the UK between 1890 and 1960 (among the records of the Board of Trade). For further details consult the Discovery website. <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/>

If your ancestor emigrated from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland to Australia as an assisted passenger between 1852 and 1857, there is a chance that there may be details of the emigrant’s origins in the records of the Highland and Island Emigration Society. These are held by the National Records of Scotland among the records of the Highland Destitution Boards (HD4/5) and can be viewed on the ScotlandsPeople website <www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk>

Where will I find the passenger list of someone who emigrated to New Zealand?

Answer: The basic rule of thumb is that, for the period prior to 1890, expect the passenger list to have gone with the passenger and end up in the port of arrival. This means that you should not expect to find a passenger list for an outgoing ship in Scotland and you ought to check sources in the New Zealand first.

Surviving passenger lists of ships arriving in New Zealand are held by the National Archives of New Zealand.

The UK National Archives in London holds passenger lists for vessels leaving the UK between 1890 and 1960 (among the records of the Board of Trade For further details consult the Discovery website. <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/> [all links accessed 26 April 2026].

Where will I find the passenger list of someone who emigrated to New Zealand?

Surviving passenger lists of ships arriving in New Zealand are held by the National Archives of New Zealand.

Parochial board & parish council records

Parochial boards and parish councils had similar functions and often, parish councils continued to use the same physical volumes of minutes or other records as their predecessor parochial board. The minutes are usually manuscript; begin with a sederunt and then deal with board business. This may include (after 1867) public health issues, such as the regulation of lodging houses, removal of nuisances, construction of sewers, water supply and the control of infectious diseases. Most meeting minutes will include cases of applications for poor relief, brought to the board by the inspector of the poor, who was in charge of the day-to-day administration of relief. Reports by medical and sanitary inspectors may be included. From 1894 parish council minutes may include references to the acquisition of buildings for public offices and ground for recreational purposes; the administration of rights of way; and the administration of some parish trusts.

The survival of records at a parish level is complicated by the overlapping responsibilities of kirk sessions, heritors and parochial boards. In kirk session records after 1845 it is possible to find poor relief accounts (either separately or within minute books) recording collections and payments to paupers. Heritors’ minutes after 1845 sometimes include records relating to poor relief and, occasionally, the minutes and other records of parochial boards. Parochial board records sometimes include pre-1845 material, which began life as heritors’ or kirk session records. Examples are minute books (of the heritors or of a heritors’ committee on the management of the poor’s fund), poor rolls, registers of poor persons, and accounts. Anyone researching poor relief (and other parochial matters) in this period is strongly advised to look at the catalogues to the records of all three of these bodies (kirk sessions, heritors and parochial boards) for any given parish.

Parliamentary papers after 1707

Many classes of record produced by, or presented to, the British Parliament have been made public since the early 1800s in printed volumes, normally referred to as parliamentary papers. They fall into several categories: Debates (Hansard), Journals, and Sessional Papers. All of these contain material for those researching parliamentary activity affecting Scotland and, especially, evidence presented to parliamentary committees and royal commissions on Scottish subjects.

DEBATES: normally referred to as Hansard, these attempt to publish a verbatim record of debates in parliament. Since 1803 Hansard has been printed and widely published. Before this, there is a variety of unofficial accounts of debates, usually edited from newspaper accounts. The most well-known of these is William Cobbett’s Parliamentary History of England…to 1803 (36 volumes, 1806-1820).

JOURNALS: these constitute the official record of parliamentary proceedings, recording decisions taken (but not everything said in debates).

SESSIONAL PAPERS: from 1801 onwards the papers produced and presented to the House of Commons have been printed and published as ‘sessional papers.’ (i.e. all the papers for one session of parliament are bound together). Until 1979 sessional papers were arranged and referred to by sessional volume and page number. From 1922 onwards some reports and papers began to be printed separately by HMSO as non-parliamentary publications. Sessional papers include parliamentary bills, reports from parliamentary committees, and a wide range of documents presented to parliamentary committees by ministers and officials (e.g. HM Inspectors of Constabulary) called Command Papers. Reports from Committees and Royal Commissions contain evidence presented on specific subjects: these include 19th century investigations on child labour, education, poor relief and prisons.

Much information on prisons and related matters in the 19th century is to be found in the evidence presented to parliamentary commissions. Haythornthwaite (see bibliography) lists eighteen different sets of parliamentary papers relating to Scottish prisons between 1818 and 1899. Among these are returns from 49 royal burghs giving information in jails (1818), and reports of the select committees on Scottish gaols and prisons in 1819, 1826, and 1845, and Scottish evidence in the report of the select committee on penal servitude 1878-98.

Bibliography

The best guide to material in parliamentary papers relating to Scotland is:

Haythornthwaite, J. A., N. C. Wilson and V. A. Batho, Scotland in the Nineteenth Century: an analytical bibliography of material relating to Scotland in Parliamentary Papers, 1800-1900 (Scolar Press, 1993)

Other useful works are:

General Index to the Reports from Committees of the House of Commons, 1715-1801, printed but not inserted in the Journals of the House, 1803 (Chadwyck-Healey, 1973)

Cockton, P, Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900 (5 vols), (Chadwyck-Healey, 1988)

A General Index to the Sessional Papers Printed by Order of the House of Lords or Presented by Special Command, 1801-1859; 1859-1870; 1871-1885 (3 vols.), (HMSO, 1938, 1872, 1890)

Ford, P. and G. Ford, Select List of British Parliamentary Papers, 1833-1899 (Basil Blackwell, 1953)

Ford, P. and G. Ford, A Guide to Parliamentary Papers (Irish University Press, 1972)

Pemberton, J. E., British Official Publications (Pergamon Press, 1973)

Rodgers, F. A., A Guide to British Government Publications (H. W. Wilson, 1980)

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Parliamentary papers after 1707

Where can I find copies of parliamentary papers in Scotland?

Copies of Parliamentary Papers come in different formats – mainly bound volumes and microfilm. The National Library of Scotland, the Mitchell Library in Glasgow and other large reference libraries hold sets. Some university libraries also hold sets and a few local authority reference libraries hold partial sets. Parliamentary Papers are also available online through ProQuest which is a subscription service used by university libraries and some large reference libraries.

For other options go to <https://archives.parliament.uk/online-resources/parliamentary-papers/> [accessed 26 April 2024].

How can I find Scottish evidence in parliamentary papers on particular subjects?

Look at J.A. Haythornthwaite N. C. Wilson and V. A. Batho, Scotland in the Nineteenth Century: an analytical bibliography of material relating to Scotland in Parliamentary Papers 1800-1900 (1993). This describes the content of evidence presented to parliamentary committees and commissions and is arranged thematically in broad subject groupings (e.g. ‘agriculture’, ‘crime and punishment’, ‘education’, ‘industry’ etc), and an index. In each case there is a reference to the year, volume, sessional number etc.

Where in parliamentary papers is the (oft-quoted) evidence relating to child labour in Scottish mines?

The evidence is contained in the First Report of the Commissioners on Children’s Employment (Mines) and appendices, 1842. Vol. XV, 269p. (Sessional no. 380), Vol XVI, 886p. (Sessional no. 381), and Vol. XVII, 937p. (Sessional no. 382).

Where in parliamentary papers are the ‘returns’ giving information about each school in Scotland in 1838?

the returns are in the Abstract of Answers Made by Schoolmasters in Scotland to Queries Circulated, in 1838, by order of the Select Committee on Education in Scotland. Accounts and Papers, 1841. Vol. XIX, 1109p. (Sessional no. 64).

Minute books

Origins of minute books

The term ‘minute book’ is a name given to two distinct types of historical record in Scotland. The first is a record of a meeting of a corporate body (such as a local authority committee or private company). The second type of minute book is a digest of a legal register or court record. The origins of both lie in the medieval Latin term ‘minuta scriptura’, meaning ‘small writing’, especially applied to the first draft made by a clerk of court proceedings (a more modern term is ‘scroll minutes’). These would be used later as an aid to finding a full entry in a register after the full ‘official’ version of the court business had been compiled (in the form of an act roll, register, or book of sederunt). By the 17th century the term ‘minute books’ was used in relation to the official record of the meetings of corporate bodies, such as commissioners of supply and kirk sessions, but separate minute books for legal registers and court records (either in the form of drafts from which official act books etc were compiled, or as digests compiled from official records to allow quicker searching) continued to be made by court officials.

Minute books to registers and court records

Examples of these survive from the 15th century. The most important, and frequently used for historical and legal purposes, are minute books to registers of sasines and registers of deeds. Their value is derived from two characteristics:

(a) they may contain references to documents not recorded in the full register.

(b) they are easier to search through than the full register (especially if the latter is not indexed).

Minute books of corporate bodies

Minute books of this type survive from the 16th century in Scotland, but large series of minute books are a 19th and 20th century phenomenon, due to the proliferation of local and central government and commercial companies. Minute books usually begin with the date and place of meeting, and a list of those present. This is called ‘the sederunt’, and another term for a minute book is ‘sederunt book’, which is more commonly applied to court records. (For a specific type of legal record in Scotland see the Knowledge Base entry for the Trust Sederunt Book). Thereafter the style can range from quite terse (merely recording formal decisions taken) to voluminous (summarising discussions among those present with other documents, such as reports and legal papers engrossed).

Related Knowledge Base entries

To find out more about some of the most important types of minutes used by Scottish historians click on one of the following entries:

Kirk Session records

School Board minutes

Commissioners of Supply minutes

Parochial Board and Parish Council records

Poor relief – Board of Supervision and Local Government Board minutes

Police authority minutes

Compilers: Andrew Jackson, Robin Urquhart (both SCAN 2002); Olive Geddes (National Library of Scotland, 2002).

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Minute books

How can school board minutes help me trace the title to a school building?

if these survive for the parish concerned back to 1873, the opening pages usually list the schools being taken over by the Board and their status beforehand (for example, if the school was run by a church), and sometimes the owner of the property). Any subsequent dispositions in favour of the School Board (for example, land for a playground or an extension to the school) are often engrossed in the minutes. In searches of this kind, it is quite common to find that no title was drawn up, i.e. that neither the owner of the property on which the school building stood nor the school board went to the trouble of drawing up or registering a title deed. In other cases, where a formal conveyance was made, the title deed may include restrictions as to the use, such as a reversion to the previous owner if the building is no longer required for educational purposes.

What is a scroll minute book?

a scroll minute book is a book of minutes in rough draft, to be written up later for the official version. Occasionally both the scroll and official minutes survive for corporate bodies (e.g. kirk sessions), and slight discrepancies can be found between them.

Do parochial board/parish council minutes contain information about individual paupers?

they contain a brief record of new applications brought to the board by the inspector of the poor for each parish. Typically, these contain the name of the applicant, the reason for the application (e.g. old age, illness, injury at work) and the decision of the parochial board. In some cases, there will be additional information, such as the age and residence of the individual. It is rare to find detailed information on the family of the individual claimant. However, if poor relief applications do not survive for that parish, then the minute books of the board/council may be the only record of a pauper’s application.

What does the word ‘sederunt’ mean?

‘Sederunt’ is a Latin word, meaning ‘there sat down’, i.e. when a record of a meeting begins ‘sederunt’ followed by a list of names, it indicates that those named sat down to hold a meeting or to form a court.

Medical Officers of Health records

The annual reports of county and burgh medical officers of health comprise one of the most frequently used sources of information relating to health, disease and social conditions in Scotland from the late 19th century until the early 1970s. The last reports by most authorities were for 1972 (the health service changes on 1 April 1974 meant that there was not enough time to produce reports for 1973, the last full year of the medical officers of health). The annual reports contain information (especially statistical information) about births, deaths, infant mortality, prevention and notification of infectious diseases, the distribution of population, industries, offensive trades, working class housing, water supply, river pollution and the provision of some local hospitals and health services. All sorts of researchers use them, such as school pupils undertaking research on disease, public health and living conditions in their local area, local historians, academic social historians, and researchers into the history of medicine and health. The annual reports do not mention individual patients by name.

Annual reports were made to the Local Government Board for Scotland and to the local authorities in the county or burgh involved. These have ended up, respectively in the National Records of Scotland, local authority archives, health service archives, reference and local studies libraries and university libraries. It is unusual to find a complete run of annual reports for a particular county or burgh in one archive or library. The National Records of Scotland hold runs of annual reports from 1891 to 1972 for counties and burghs (in the Home & Health Department records, HH62, HH63 and HH72), but there are gaps for certain years for certain counties and burghs. In some cases, this is because a particular county or burgh may not have produced a formal report for certain years: for example, Aberdeen County made no formal report after 1958 but did make the necessary statistical returns to the Scottish Home and Health Department.

Local authority archives or health board archives often hold incomplete runs of annual reports for counties and burghs in their areas and may hold other surviving records of medical officers of health.

The Wellcome Collection has digitised reports of Medical Officers of Health for some burghs and counties in Scotland. <https://wellcomecollection.org/collections > [accessed 26 April 2024]

Contributors: Fiona Watson (Northern Health Services Archive 2002), Andrew Jackson, Jo Peattie, Robin Urquhart (all SCAN 2002).