MS 443

Reference code

MS 443

Title

Noel Blakiston papers

Level

Sub-fonds

Administrative / Biographical history

Hugh Noel Blakiston (1905-1984), OE, was a British archivist and author. He was born at Baumber, Lincolnshire, the son of the Rev. Felix Milburn Blakiston (1874-1941) and Mary Augusta Blakiston (née Fox) (1880-1962). He was educated at Eton College (a King’s Scholar) from 1920 to 1924, where he formed close friendships with contemporaries including Cyril Connolly, Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell), and Steven Runciman. He went on to Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating with a first-class degree in History.

In 1928 Blakiston entered the Public Record Office after passing the Civil Service examination. During his career there he undertook numerous cataloguing projects, most notably the Catalogue of Maps, a major contribution to archival scholarship. Between 1938 and 1973, working largely in his spare time, he also catalogued the extensive body of medieval and early modern documents and charters in Eton College's archives. In recognition of this work, the College elected him an Honorary Fellow in 1974, the first such appointment for over three centuries. He was appointed OBE for his distinguished service at the Public Record Office.

Alongside his archival career, Blakiston was a prolific writer. He published numerous short stories from the 1950s to the 1970s and maintained a lifelong interest in Italy and the Italian Risorgimento. His historical study The Roman Question (1962) was followed by many articles, reviews and lectures on aspects of the history of the Risorgimento. He was elected a Fellow of the Società Toscana per la Storia del Risorgimento and was appointed a Knight of the Italian Order of Merit.

In 1929 Blakiston married Rachel Georgiana (Giana) Russell (1903-1995), a writer and a member of the family of the Dukes of Bedford. They had two daughters, Rachel and Caroline. His close friendship with Cyril Connolly (1903-1974) endured throughout their lives and was commemorated in A Romantic Friendship: The Letters of Cyril Connolly to Noel Blakiston (1975).

Blakiston was active in a number of cultural and learned societies, including serving on the committee of the Venice in Peril Fund and as Chairman of the Chelsea Society from 1966 to 1975. He was also a member of the Society of Dilettanti and the Beefsteak Club. He died at his country home, Parsonage Farm, Bentworth, Hampshire, in 1984.

For fuller biographical details see: Blakiston, Hugh Noel (1905-1984), archivist and author | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Date

1885-1986

Extent & medium

11 boxes containing 22 volumes, 73 files and 8 items

Content description

Correspondence, personal, professional papers, writings of Noel Blakiston and papers relating to his friend Cyril Connolly

Arrangement

Artificial arrangement, imposed by the archivist. The papers have been arranged into four series:

01: Correspondence
02: Personal and professional papers
03: Papers relating to Cyril Connolly
04: Writings and related papers

Associated material

MS 462 and MS 464 Letters to Noel Blakiston from A C Benson

Finding aids

A calendared list of Cyril Connolly's letters to Noel Blakiston is available on Eton College Library's internal online Autograph Letters Catalogue.

Publication note

Noel Blakiston: The London and Middlesex estates of Eton College (1960)
Noel Blakiston: The Roman Question (1962)
Noel Blakiston: A romantic friendship: the letters of Cyril Connolly to Noel Blakiston (1975)
Noel Blakiston: The Collected Short Stories of Noel Blakiston (1977)