The London-based guarding firm Corps Security has hired an archivist, to examine and catalogue the records of its 161-year history. Dorota Pomorska-Dawid, archivist at London Metropolitan Archives has been delving through more than 20 metres of records held in the City of London’s archives centre.
Among the highlights are letters from Florence Nightingale; Victorian Prime Minister William Gladstone; and royalty, who up to the present day retain a link with the Corps. HM the Queen is Chief Life Governor. The archive also includes records of each former soldier who joined the Corps, including their personal family information, the regiment they served in and any medals they were awarded, a boon for family historians, who do contact Corps Security about ancestors who worked for the firm (if of interest, send an email to [email protected]).
Pomorska-Dawid reports to Diz Sollesse at Corps, who acts as the archive custodian. The aim is for the artefacts to be digitised so that they can be viewed by historians and all those interested in Corps’ history. The work will be completed by the autumn. Pomorska-Dawid has worked for the LMA for more than 18 years; and worked on a similar project with the Guildhall School of Music’s archives.
Meanwhile, the history of the Corps of Commissionaires – the organisation’s previous name – will form part of Dr David Churchill’s, Associate Professor in Criminal Justice, Leeds School of Law, latest research on the history of physical security into the 20th century, as featured in the January 2019 print issue of Professional Security magazine. The project, which could see a co-authored booklet about the organisation’s history, is scheduled to begin in the autumn.
Mike Bullock, CEO of Corps Security, said: “We are immensely proud of our 161-year history and Dorota and David’s work will enable us to share artefacts with all those interested in military history and Corps’ own past.”
Background
The Corps has a unique history since the demise of Legion Security – which arose like the Royal British Legion out of the 1914-18 war; as it happens the Corps’ base in Cowcross Street in rapidly-developing Farringdon is only a few streets away from the LMA.
The Corps dates from efforts to give work to veterans of the Crimean War. The founder Captain Edward Walter was knighted in 1885. In 1882 the then Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, inspected the Corps on June 18, 1882; ‘the strength was then 1242’, a handwritten ‘memorandum’ now at the LMA relates: “It rained hard, and the Parade was in consequence very soon dismissed.”
The Corps rebranded to Corps Security in 2008. Visit https://www.corpssecurity.co.uk/about-corps-security/corps-security-history/. Also novel about the Corps is its burial plot at Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey.
More about the Corps’ history at https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/products/guarding/corps-in-1914/.
