But what is iis?
September 14, 2009 11:53 AM Subscribe
Can you help me guess the missing word from a part finished autobiography file referring to UK government actions in the 1950s...?
Does anyone have any idea what the "Director of Parts" was, and what industry could have been nationalised and denationalised between the end of the war and 1960?
[asking for my husband who is doing last minute work to a deadline]
However, in 1960, following the retirement of Keeper Harold Johnson a new era arrived at the PRO in the person of Steven Wilson. Steven had entered the Civil Service in 1928 to be posted (as I was) to the PRO. He hated it and managed to escape into the Ministry of Transport. He distinguished himself first as Deputy Director of Parts in the immediate post-war business of first nationalising the [illegible word] industry and then denationalising it. So, someone with a sense of humour, posted him back the the PRO in 1960, six years before his retirement, with a mission to reform what the Treasury regarded as an over-emphasis on the mediaeval and earlier records.The illegible bit looks like "iis", but I have no idea what it could stand for or what it could be if it's wrong.
Does anyone have any idea what the "Director of Parts" was, and what industry could have been nationalised and denationalised between the end of the war and 1960?
[asking for my husband who is doing last minute work to a deadline]
Haulage. (pdf)
As from 1 January 1948, Carter Paterson & Co,
Pickfords, Wordie & Co and the other road haulage
companies that had been purchased by the railways
before the war, became the nucleus of what was to
become the Road Haulage Executive (RHE), operat-
ing under the trading name of British Road Services
(BRS). Over the next four years the RHE acquired
3,766 undertakings, with 80,212 staff and 41,265
vehicles, but there were still several thousand small
firms waiting to be taken over when the Conservative
government, elected in 1951, brought the process to
a halt and subsequently, with its Transport Act 1953,
put it into reverse. BRS ceased to have a monopoly
of long-distance services from 1 January 1955, but
the process of denationalising its assets continued
until August 1956.
posted by zamboni at 12:07 PM on September 14, 2009
As from 1 January 1948, Carter Paterson & Co,
Pickfords, Wordie & Co and the other road haulage
companies that had been purchased by the railways
before the war, became the nucleus of what was to
become the Road Haulage Executive (RHE), operat-
ing under the trading name of British Road Services
(BRS). Over the next four years the RHE acquired
3,766 undertakings, with 80,212 staff and 41,265
vehicles, but there were still several thousand small
firms waiting to be taken over when the Conservative
government, elected in 1951, brought the process to
a halt and subsequently, with its Transport Act 1953,
put it into reverse. BRS ceased to have a monopoly
of long-distance services from 1 January 1955, but
the process of denationalising its assets continued
until August 1956.
posted by zamboni at 12:07 PM on September 14, 2009
(I intended to be a little more speculative about that, but the question mark seems to have gotten away from me.)
posted by zamboni at 12:10 PM on September 14, 2009
posted by zamboni at 12:10 PM on September 14, 2009
It's got to be road haulage:
1. Context of the quote suggests it fell under the aegis of the Ministry of Transport.
2. Many different transport services were nationalised after the war.
3. Of the main areas of transport nationalised, only road haulage was renationalised prior to when the quote says Wilson was posted back to the PRO.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 12:17 PM on September 14, 2009
1. Context of the quote suggests it fell under the aegis of the Ministry of Transport.
2. Many different transport services were nationalised after the war.
3. Of the main areas of transport nationalised, only road haulage was renationalised prior to when the quote says Wilson was posted back to the PRO.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 12:17 PM on September 14, 2009
sorry, "denationalised"/privatised, not "renationalised"
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 12:18 PM on September 14, 2009
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 12:18 PM on September 14, 2009
Haulage sounds right -- in which case, your illegible word 'iis' might be 'i.t.' meaning 'inland transport'. Is that possible?
posted by verstegan at 12:27 PM on September 14, 2009
posted by verstegan at 12:27 PM on September 14, 2009
as the husband in question, does anyone have any idea what the "Deputy Director of Parts" would be? A search on google gives this thread as one of only 3 hits for the term...
posted by twine42 at 12:33 PM on September 14, 2009
posted by twine42 at 12:33 PM on September 14, 2009
"Deputy director of parts" = reports to the guy in charge of the components that you build a lorry out of.
posted by zamboni at 12:51 PM on September 14, 2009
posted by zamboni at 12:51 PM on September 14, 2009
Sorry Zamboni - I got that it was the Deputy to the Director of Parts - I was just wondering if anyone knew exactly what that role was, or if it made it any more obvious what department the guy was in at the time.
Basically, because I personally prefer oinopaponton's Iron & Steel theory, but I can't think what the Director of Parts in something like Trade & Industry would do. The title makes the Haulage theory more likely...
posted by twine42 at 1:09 PM on September 14, 2009
Basically, because I personally prefer oinopaponton's Iron & Steel theory, but I can't think what the Director of Parts in something like Trade & Industry would do. The title makes the Haulage theory more likely...
posted by twine42 at 1:09 PM on September 14, 2009
Basically, because I personally prefer oinopaponton's Iron & Steel theory, but I can't think what the Director of Parts in something like Trade & Industry would do. The title makes the Haulage theory more likely...
You've got more informaiton than me, of course, but don't you read the paragraph quoted as meaning that the guy was at the MoT? I don't see how he could have been involved in nationalising iron and steel from a job at the MoT.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 1:43 PM on September 14, 2009
You've got more informaiton than me, of course, but don't you read the paragraph quoted as meaning that the guy was at the MoT? I don't see how he could have been involved in nationalising iron and steel from a job at the MoT.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 1:43 PM on September 14, 2009
Aha! When Stephen Wilson was appointed Keeper of the Public Records in 1960, The Times gave a summary of his civil service career to date:
He was with the Ministry of Transport from 1929 to 1947, when he became Under-Secretary to the Ministry of Supply. From 1950 to 1953 he was secretary of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain, and since 1953 has been secretary of the Iron and Steel Holding and Realization Agency. (The Times, 9 Aug 1960)
So it sounds as though Iron and Steel is right, though the writer seems to have got some of the details tangled up.
posted by verstegan at 1:52 PM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
He was with the Ministry of Transport from 1929 to 1947, when he became Under-Secretary to the Ministry of Supply. From 1950 to 1953 he was secretary of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain, and since 1953 has been secretary of the Iron and Steel Holding and Realization Agency. (The Times, 9 Aug 1960)
So it sounds as though Iron and Steel is right, though the writer seems to have got some of the details tangled up.
posted by verstegan at 1:52 PM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
And I'm guessing that the writer is Alfred Mabbs; am I right?
posted by verstegan at 2:02 PM on September 14, 2009
posted by verstegan at 2:02 PM on September 14, 2009
How wrong I was.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 2:43 PM on September 14, 2009
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 2:43 PM on September 14, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by oinopaponton at 12:00 PM on September 14, 2009