FIRE BRIGADE DEPARTMENT: STAFF

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: LCC/FB/STA
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: FIRE BRIGADE DEPARTMENT: STAFF
Date(s)	: 1866-1945
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 0.67 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: LCC | London County Council x London County Council

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Council, on its creation in 1889, assumed responsibility for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade maintained by its predecessor, the Metropolitan Board of Works. On 15 August 1904 the name of the brigade was changed to the London Fire Brigade by virtue of Section 46 of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1904.

As part of the Second World War emergency organisation, a Regional Fire Officer with a small staff was appointed to co-ordinate the work of fire brigades in the Greater London area. From 18 August 1941 to 31 March 1948, under emergency legislation, the Brigade and the wartime London Auxiliary Fire Service, in common with the brigades of other local authorities, were merged into a National Fire Service under the direction of the Home Office. The Council resumed control of the Brigade from 1 April 1948.

1833: London Fire Engine Establishment began to operate, being a union of brigades formerly run by individual insurance companies.
1836: Society for the Protection of Life from Fire set up, a voluntary society maintaining and manning fire escapes at a number of stations throughout London.
1865: Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act placing responsibility for extinguishing fires and protecting life and property upon MBW. Thus on 1 Jan 1866 Metropolitan Fire Brigade came into existence, commanded by Captain Eyre Massey Shaw (the new brigade was combination of two bodies described above)
1866: London Salvage Corps established by leading insurance companies to protect property rather than life at metropolitan conflagrations.
1889: LCC take over Metropolitan Fire Brigade
1904: Name changed to London Fire Brigade.
1938: Threat of war leads to formation of Auxiliary Fire Service to augment existing brigade; equipment and finance provided by Home Office, training and day to day management closely supervised by London Fire Brigade.
1941: National Fire Service created to unify fire services of entire country; London became one of 11 regions of this Service, the London Fire Brigade and Auxiliary Fire Service being superseded.
1947: Fire Services Act - responsibility for fire brigades placed upon County Councils and County Boroughs nationally.
1948 1 April: London Fire Brigade resumed operations.
1948 1 April: Middlesex County Fire Service came into operation. Before war fire services in county of Middlesex were responsibility of Urban District and Borough authorities, and at an earlier date parish vestries occasionally provided fire engines for local fires.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the London County Council Fire Brigade Department relating to staffing, 1866-1945.

Subject and policy files on staffing matters, including petitions concerning pay; duties of pilots in the River Service; salary of Chief Officer; rates of pay; arbitration before the Industrial Court on question of free medical treatment for firemen; retirements and resignations; appointments; Sub-Officers Staff Committee; Station Officers Staff Committee; trade union membership; pension arrangements; allowances for dependants of men killed on duty; medical treatment of firemen; medals and decorations; Departmental Committee on the Hours, Pay and Conditions of Service of Firemen (Middlebrook Committee); discipline policy and procedure; personnel statistics.

Subject and policy files relating to training including examinations for promotion; educational classes for firemen; drill instructions and diagrams; technical examinations; lectures by Fire Brigade staff; training and promotion schemes.

Also informative booklets used for recruiting purposes; 'The Fire Service Drill Book' (first edition, 1949); minutes of meetings of Fire Brigade Departmental Committee of the LCC Staff Association; register of disciplinary cases; register of candidates for enrolment in the Brigade; record sheets of regular London Fire Brigade personnel serving at date of nationalisation in 1941, register listing alphabetically all London Fire Brigade regular personnel absorbed into the National Fire Service in 1941 with their dates of subsequent discharge, and printed notice for information of prospective recruits.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

LCC/FB/STA/01: Subject and policy files; LCC/FB/STA/02: Training; LCC/FB/STA/03: General.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent body, the London County Council.

Allied Materials

Related material:

For records of the London Fire Brigade Widows and Orphans Fund 1906-1980 see ref ACC/730, for the London Fire Engine Establishment see ref LFE. For the Metropolitan Fire Brigade 1866-1889 see records of the Metropolitan Board of Works (ref MBW). For Middlesex County Fire Service 1948-1965 see Middlesex County Council (ref MCC).

For the Auxiliary Fire Service 1938-1941 and National Fire Service 1941-1948 see also records at the National Archives.

Publication note:

For detailed accounts of the history of the London Fire Brigade, see: London's Fire Brigades - W. Eric Jackson (Longman's 1966) and A History of the British Fire Service - G. V Blackstone (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957). For further information on the history of the LCC please see Achievement: A Short History of the London County Council by W Eric Jackson (1965), LMA Library reference 18.0 1965, The London County Council 1938, LMA Library reference 18.7 SER 4, and The Youngest County: A description of London as a county and its public services, 1951, LMA Library reference 18.0 1951.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
April to June 2009