Hanslope Park is located about half a mile south-east of the village of Hanslope in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Once the manorial estate of the village, it is now owned by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and is also home to His Majesty's Government Communications Centre ('HMGCC') and FCDO Services.[1]
History
editThe manor was part of the jointure property of Anne of Denmark. Repairs were ordered to the lodge and barns in 1608.[2] A new manor house was built for Basil Brent in 1692.[3] It was acquired in Autumn 1764 by Edward Watts, son of William Watts, who had been a senior official in the East India Company, and of his wife, better known as Begum Johnson.[4] Having passed down the Watts family, it was the scene of a murder on 21 July 1912 when William Farrow, Edward Hanslope Watts's gamekeeper, shot his master and then committed suicide.[5] Robin Watts owned the house until 1939, when it was bought by Lord Hesketh who handed it over to the War Office when it was requisitioned in 1941.[3]
In the Second World War the Radio Security Service was based at Hanslope Park.[6] The mathematician and cryptologist Alan Turing worked there in the latter part of the war on secure speech "scrambling".[7] Today HMGCC researches, designs, develops and produces communications systems, equipment and related hardware and software.[8]
Foreign and Commonwealth Office archives
editHanslope Park gained publicity in 2011 for its extensive collection of Imperial records held as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's archive of Colonial Office papers, the papers relevant to the issue being referred to as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office migrated archives. It was described by Caroline Elkins as "the fortress-like warehouse for top-secret government files".[9]
These archives produced documentation that, unlike other papers, was never made public in the National Archives. These included details of the 1952 to 1960 Mau Mau uprising against British rule in Kenya, and their disclosure led to compensation being paid to people who had been maltreated at Hola camp and other places.[10]
In 2014, following reporting by the Guardian,[11] a group of journalists were allowed to visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's archives at Hanslope Park, and briefed on the issues relating to the declassification of the archive material, estimated to comprise roughly 1.2 million documents.[12]
The British government published guidance and a report on the scope of the task, including details of a rough timeline for the "weeding" and declassification process, originally in 2013 and updated from time to time.[13]
References
edit- ^ "FCDO Services' contact page". FCDO Services.
- ^ HMC 9 Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 20 (London, 1968), p. 128.
- ^ a b "Note from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Services prior to the Committee visit to Hanslope Park". House of Commons. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
- ^ "Hanslope Park - An Historical Background". Open University. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
- ^ "Hanslope Park: Home of Britain's 'real-life Q division'". The Register. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
- ^ Vendeville, Geoffrey (16 May 2016), "Keeper of World War secrets tells all", Toronto Star: GT2
- ^ Hodges, Andrew (1992) [1983], Alan Turing: The Enigma, London: Vintage, p. 270, ISBN 978-0099116417
- ^ HMGCC, retrieved 25 May 2012
- ^ Elkins, Caroline (29 October 2023). "King Charles, Britain already admitted to torture in Kenya, no need for you to choke on an apology". The Observer.
- ^ Dominic Casciani (12 April 2011). "British Mau Mau abuse papers revealed". BBC News. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
- ^ Ian Cobain (18 October 2013). "Foreign Office hoarding 1m historic files in secret archive". The Guardian. London.
- ^ Katie Engelhart (14 May 2014). "Will the UK Government Ever Release These Secret Files to the Public?". Vice magazine.
- ^ "Guidance: FCDO archive records". Foreign & Commonwealth Office. 22 June 2022 [First published 24 July 2013 and updated from time to time].