Government installation in England
Hanslope Park
is located about half a mile south-east of the village of
Hanslope
in the
City of Milton Keynes
,
Buckinghamshire
, England. Once the
manorial estate
of the village, it is now owned by the UK
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
, and is also home to
His Majesty's Government Communications Centre
('HMGCC') and
FCDO Services
.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
The manor was part of the
jointure
property of
Anne of Denmark
. Repairs were ordered to the lodge and barns in 1608.
[2]
A new
manor house
was built for Basil Brent in 1692.
[3]
It was acquired in Autumn 1764 by Edward Watts, son of
William Watts
, who had been a senior official in the
East India Company
, and of his wife, better known as
Begum Johnson
.
[4]
Having passed down the Watts family, it was the scene of a
murder
on 21 July 1912 when William Farrow, Edward Hanslope Watts's
gamekeeper
, shot his master and then committed
suicide
.
[5]
Robin Watts owned the house until 1939, when it was bought by
Lord Hesketh
who handed it over to the
War Office
when it was requisitioned in 1941.
[3]
In the
Second World War
the
Radio Security Service
was based at Hanslope Park.
[6]
The mathematician and
cryptologist
Alan Turing
worked there in the latter part of the war on secure speech "scrambling".
[7]
Today HMGCC researches, designs, develops and produces communications systems, equipment and related hardware and software.
[8]
Foreign and Commonwealth Office archives
[
edit
]
Hanslope Park gained publicity in 2011 for its extensive collection of Imperial records held as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's archive of
Colonial Office
papers, the papers relevant to the issue being referred to as the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office migrated archives
. It was described by
Caroline Elkins
as "the fortress-like warehouse for top-secret government files".
[9]
These archives produced documentation that, unlike other papers, was never made public in the
National Archives
. These included details of the 1952 to 1960
Mau Mau uprising
against British rule in Kenya, and their disclosure led to compensation being paid to people who had been maltreated at
Hola
camp and other places.
[10]
In 2014, following reporting by the
Guardian
,
[11]
a group of journalists were allowed to visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's archives at Hanslope Park, and briefed on the issues relating to the
declassification
of the archive material, estimated to comprise roughly 1.2 million documents.
[12]
The British government published guidance and a report on the scope of the task, including details of a rough timeline for the "weeding" and declassification process, originally in 2013 and updated from time to time.
[13]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"FCDO Services' contact page"
.
FCDO Services
.
- ^
HMC 9 Salisbury Hatfield
, vol. 20 (London, 1968), p. 128.
- ^
a
b
"Note from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Services prior to the Committee visit to Hanslope Park"
. House of Commons
. Retrieved
31 December
2013
.
- ^
"Hanslope Park - An Historical Background"
. Open University
. Retrieved
31 December
2013
.
- ^
"Hanslope Park: Home of Britain's 'real-life Q division'
"
. The Register. 5 July 2013
. Retrieved
31 December
2013
.
- ^
Vendeville, Geoffrey (16 May 2016),
"Keeper of World War secrets tells all"
,
Toronto Star
: GT2
- ^
Hodges, Andrew
(1992) [1983],
Alan Turing: The Enigma
, London: Vintage, p. 270,
ISBN
978-0099116417
- ^
HMGCC
, retrieved
25 May
2012
- ^
Elkins, Caroline (29 October 2023).
"King Charles, Britain already admitted to torture in Kenya, no need for you to choke on an apology"
.
The Observer
.
- ^
Dominic Casciani (12 April 2011).
"British Mau Mau abuse papers revealed"
. BBC News
. Retrieved
16 March
2014
.
- ^
Ian Cobain (18 October 2013).
"Foreign Office hoarding 1m historic files in secret archive"
.
The Guardian
. London.
- ^
Katie Engelhart (14 May 2014).
"Will the UK Government Ever Release These Secret Files to the Public?"
.
Vice magazine
.
- ^
"Guidance: FCDO archive records"
. Foreign & Commonwealth Office. 22 June 2022 [First published 24 July 2013 and updated from time to time].
52°06′18.0″N
00°48′32.4″W
/
52.105000°N 0.809000°W
/
52.105000; -0.809000