Scholars view Monckton papers

The steady accumulation of papers of politicians, writers, diplomats, scholars, churchmen, scientists, and their families has placed the Bodleian Library in the forefront of resources for the study of twentieth-century British government and society. Among them, the archive of Walter Monckton, first Viscount of Brenchley, attracted unprecedented attention when ten boxes of his papers were released for research. The lawyer and politician was a confidant of Edward VIII during the abdication crisis of 1936 and the years immediately following. Lord Monckton's papers, given to Balliol College in 1971 and 1977, were deposited in the Bodleian in 1974, on condition that those which related to the royal family were closed, although Frances Donaldson had access to all of them for her biography Edward VIII (1974). The boxes contain nothing new, but are of considerable interest in the light they throw on the difficulties, both public and private, encountered by all parties caught up in the unprecedented circumstances of an abdication. Professor Vernon Bognador, Professor of Politics and Government (pictured left), set the papers in their constitutional context and outlined their contents at a press briefing in the Bodleian. An eleventh box, still embargoed, does not contain any letters from or concerning members of the royal family. Letters to Lord Monckton from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth had been given by Lord Monckton's trustees to the Royal Archives and never formed part of the Balliol collection deposited in the Bodleian.