Churchill College is delighted to announce the creation of a new research fund in honour of renowned historian and former Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre, Correlli Barnett CBE (1927-2022), and his wife Ruth.
Correlli Barnett, known as ‘Bill’, was the Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre from 1977 until 1995. His leadership and energy transformed the institution, securing the Churchill papers in perpetuity, acquiring the Thatcher collection, and laying the firm foundations for future growth. Bill was an innovator who knew that the success of the Centre depended on its ability to attract the widest range of high-quality researchers and he was the originator of the College’s Archives by-Fellowship scheme.
Archives by-Fellowships enable those from outside Cambridge to come and live in the College community and access the archives for a temporary period.
Now a generous benefaction will endow a fund at Churchill College, to be known as the Correlli and Ruth Barnett Fund. The income from this fund will support by-fellows and research students actively using the Archives Centre by giving them a stipend, as well as accommodation in College. It will focus support on those without other means of funding and will broaden research based on the prestigious collections of the Churchill Archives, which include the papers of Sir Winston Churchill, Baroness (Margaret) Thatcher, Sir John Major and countless other prominent politicians and scientists. (More about the Archives collections here).
Commenting on the new fund, Professor Sharon Peacock CBE, Master of Churchill College, said; ‘It is wonderful to see this living link between past, present and future’. Allen Packwood OBE, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre added; ‘We are proud to have Bill’s own papers within the Archives Centre, but this is a way of continuing his legacy and of expanding the reach of all our collections’.
