UK Parliamentary Archives

• Held At: Parliamentary Archives: GB-061
• Catalogue Reference: FEL
• Accession Number: 3666
• Accession Number: 3742
• Ref No: FEL
• Date: 1890-1955
• Level: Fonds
• Extent: 6 series; 89 files
• Creator Name: Bryan H Fell
• Administrative or Biographical History: Bryan Fell assumed his first position in the House of Commons in 1893 as a Junior Clerk, he then became Assistant Clerk in 1906, Senior Clerk in 1920 and finally Principal Clerk in the Public Bill Office, in 1931. During his employment at the House of Commons he researched and compiled 'The Palace of Westminster. A Guide to the Houses of Parliament,' for which he received enormous praise. The first edition was published in 1930 and the sixth edition in 1950. He also wrote numerous articles on the Empire Parliaments for various publications. He retired in 1934 after 41 years of service. After retirement from the House of Commons, Fell worked as a part-time consultant for the BBC on Parliamentary matters.
• Acquisition: The Record Office bought the papers at auction through Stride and Son, Auctioneers, in Oct 1999 and Mar 2000. Accession numbers 3666 and 3742. Further papers which offered for sale through Sotherbys in July 2000 were not purchased.
• Category: Personal/Political Papers
• Description: The collection is comprised primarily of material collected by Fell for the writing and revising of his Guide to the Houses of Parliament [FEL/1] and various articles he wrote on Empire Parliaments [FEL/2]; general correspondence from MPs and other notable people [FEL/5] and other papers and newspaper cuttings of special interest to Fell [FEL/6].
• Terms:
  • Palace of Westminster,
  • Parliament,
  • Colonialism,
  • Colonial countries,
• Appraisal Information: The records were appraised and ephemeral items destroyed in May 2003.
• Language: English
• System of Arrangement: The material has been sorted into series by subject, largely as Bryan Fell had kept it. The correspondence was kept together by Fell, but has now been put into chronological order and separated into decades to allow for easier access. Material relating to Parliament has been separated into sub-series of papers of both Houses and papers of the Houses of Lords and Commons respectively, again to allow for easier access. Other papers could not be so easily defined and thus were put into a mixed series of papers of special interest to Fell.
• Access Status: Open

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