News from The Pensions Archive

Progress continues to be made at the Pensions Archive with the cataloguing of the various collections received.

In May, Katy Johnson took up the role as Archivist to The Pensions Archive Trust. She is employed by the City of London: London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) but the Trust funds her position with donations and sponsorship from companies and firms within the pensions industry. The Trust is always pleased to receive both corporate and individual donations.

Katy studied History at the University of Manchester between 2004 and 2007 and graduated with a first class honours degree. She went on to work as an Archives Assistant at the Borthwick Institute for Historical Research, at the University of York. The experience gained in this role enabled her to obtain a place on the University of Liverpool's Masters course on archival administration, from which she graduated in December 2009. The course provided training in archival theory and practice, from appraising and access-ioning new collections, cataloguing collections to international standards, preservation methods, and facilitating access to the collections. She also completed a dissertation looking at how online learning resources have been used by archives.

Post-qualification, she returned to the Borthwick to work on a cataloguing project, centred on a collection of papers from a Quaker family in York, the Tukes. These papers were of particular significance because of the Tukes’ involvement with the reform of mental health treatment and other philanthropic work in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and their position within the Society of Friends and ownership of a coffee, tea and cocoa business in York. On taking up her new position Katy said: “I am looking forward to working with The Pensions Archive Trust to preserve the history of occupational pensions and encourage people to access and learn from these collections.”

When the Pensions Archive was established at the LMA one of the attractions was the extensive business archives (well over 1,000 collections in total) as well as many other collections relating to the history of London which could hold pension-related material. 

In June the Trust, in conjunction with the LMA, launched a major project to unlock London’s pension history and sought volunteers to work in conjunction with the Trust’s Archivist to research these collections and assist in the compilation of a guide to pension material held in them.

This work is open to all, but is likely to be of particular interest to those who have retired from the pensions profession and have an interest in historic records and the development by employers of pension provision.  The job specification can be found on the Trust’s website under
“ Administration”.

www.pensionsarchive.org

Malcolm Deering, who has been involved in the pensions industry for a number of years came forward as a volunteer on a part-time basis and has now started work with Katy Johnson identifying those business collections which have pensions material.

Anyone else interested in helping with this work should contact:
Katy Johnson, Archivist
The Pensions Archive Trust
City of London: London Metropolitan Archives
40 Northampton Road
London EC1R 0HB
Tel: 020 7332 3879
e-mail: Katy.Johnson@cityoflondon.gov.uk

 

 

Alan Herbert
Chairman
The Pensions Archive Trust
01438 869198

alanherbert@btconnect.com

 

 

Alan Herbert

Chairman
The Pensions Archive Trust
01438 869198

alanherbert@
btconnect.com