UK Parliamentary Archives

• Held At: Parliamentary Archives: GB-061
• Catalogue Reference: DAV
• Former Archival Reference: Historical Collection 187
• Ref No: DAV
• Date: c1911-1979
• Level: Fonds
• Extent: 368 files
• Creator Name: Davidson, John Colin Campbell (1889-1970) MP, 1st Viscount Davidson
• Administrative or Biographical History: John Campbell Davidson, (1889-1970) was born in Scotland, trained in law, joined the Civil Service and went on to become an active Politician. He was MP for Hemel Hempstead, Parliamentary Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Unionist Party.
  
  More information on the life of Davidson and a comprehensive analysis of the content of the collection is in K V Bligh, 'Descriptive List of the Papers of John Colin Campbell Davidson, MP, 1st Viscount Davidson' Parliamentary Archives memorandum 78 (London, 1990), pp ii-ix. The list in that volume is reproduced here.
• Acquisition: DAV/1-DAV/326 were deposited by 2nd Viscount Davidson and the Dowager 1st Viscountess Davidson in 1975. In 1980 a second deposit was made from Canning House, the Latin American Centre in London, (now DAV/327-366), and a further deposit of DAV/367 in 1990. Accession Numbers 1458, 1505, 1970
• Category: Personal/Political Papers
• Description: The political and private papers of John Colin Campbell Davidson, Viscount Davidson from 1911-1979. The Davidson Papers are of particular interest, not only because of Davidson's work as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party, but also on account of his close association successively with Lewis Harcourt, Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin, which resulted in some of their office papers passing into Davidson's hands. In addition, there are the papers relating to South America arising from Davidson's family estates in Argentina and from his work for the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Councils, based at Canning House in London, which he founded.
  
  DAV/1covers his time as private secretary in the Colonial Office to Lord Crewe 1908-1911; DAV/2-DAV/13 to Lord Harcourt in 1911-1915; and DAV/14-DAV/150 to Bonar Law 1915-1923. The files DAV/151-DAV/169 relate to his time as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1923-1924, and DAV/170-DAV/174 to his role as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty in 1924-1926. His files as Conservative Party chairman 1926-1930 are in DAV/175-DAV/190.
  
  There are two files relating to his time out of office are in DAV/191 and DAV/190. The files DAV/193-DAV/230 relate to his time as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for the second time in 1931-1937. Files DAV/207-DAV/219 dated between April 1934 and December 1934 are thirteen files relating to Davidson's work as Investigator of the Depressed Area of West Cumberland. The groundwork was completed in June 1934 and the report written by August and finally published by the Government early in November, together with reports from Investigators of three other depressed areas.
  
  DAV/231-DAV/266 contain papers as Viscount and businessman 1937-1940. Files DAV/238-DAV/256 dated between 1937 and 1939 are nineteen files on the work of the Advisory Committee appointed by the Minster of Labour to consider applications for financial assistance from local authorities in depressed areas, in compliance with Section 5 of the Special Areas (Amendment) Act 1937. Each local authority could be considered singly or in groups. The files of each case contain a statement from the local authority, observations from the local Ministry of Labour Office and comments by W H Hardman, the secretary to the Committee. The final conclusions of the Committee are in the reports at the end of this series. The original numbering of the files is indicated in brackets (three general files are unnumbered).
  
  Ministry of information and business advisory council papers 1939-1946 are in DAV/267-DAV/296; papers as businessman, political and historical observer 1944-1966 are in DAV/297-DAV/315.
  
  Some papers of Lady Davidson are included at DAV/320-DAV/1/326. The Canning House Papers, 1927-1979, are in DAV/327-DAV/366. Correspondence about Westminster School is in DAV/367. DAV/368 contains family and personal correspondence.
• Terms:
  • Politicians,
  • Conservatism,
  • Political Leadership,
  • South America,
  • Civil servants,
  • Colonialism,
• Language: English
• System of Arrangement: It has proved impossible to restore the papers in this collection to their original order. Some files had obviously remained undisturbed at the Beaverbrook Library, but others had been entirely separated and rearranged. The papers were arranged chronologically on their arrival at the House of Lords Record Office, except that Cabinet papers and official telegrams were separated from ordinary correspondence and series of letters on one topic have been kept together. The despatches from Munro Ferguson, Sydney Buxton and Lord Liverpool were all in their original files which fortunately remained intact, and were placed in chronological sequence after general correspondence files of the same period. In the Bonar Law section it has not always been possible to separate Bonar Law from Davidson letters especially where there are not enough of either to make up a reasonable file. There were a large number of undated documents which were not in original files. Approximate dates were found for most of them and they were placed in appropriate files or at the end of a section. The remainder have been placed at the end of Davidson's political papers. With most files overlapping in date, they have been listed according to the first date in each file.
• Related Material: The Bonar Law papers (BL) are in the Parliamentary Archives. The papers of Stanley Baldwin (Reference: Baldwin) are held at Cambridge University Library. The papers of Lewis Harcourt are held at Oxford University: Bodleian Library (Reference: MSS Harcourt). Duplicate government records where they survive will be at the Public Record Office, Kew. Other Davidson papers are also at the Bodleian (see BOOK/5200).
• Access Status: Open
• Reproduction Conditions: Permission to reproduce the Davidson Papers should be sought from the Parliamentary Archives, London SW1A 0PW.
• Physical Description: This collection was declipped and conserved by NADFAS volunteers in 2002-2004.
• Publication Notes: Davidson's earlier political papers have already been extensively used in two historical works, namely Robert Rhodes James "Memoirs of a Conservative" (London, 1969) and Keith Middlemas and John Barnes "Baldwin: a biography" (London, 1969). Middlemas made further use of the Davidson papers in "Politics in industrial society: the experience of the British system since 1911" (London, 1979), while G. A. Phillips found some useful material for "The General Strike: the politics of industrial conflict" (London, 1976).

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