Archives of Foreign Office

• Access and consultation: The fonds Foreign Office can be accessed during the opening hours of the reading room. Its content is freely accessible. Reservation.
• Reproduction:  The content of the fonds can be reproduced freely in our reading room. For any information about requests for a document reproduction carried out by CegeSoma staff can be found here.
• Research instruments: Inventory AA1231

Archive fonds description :

Belgium and the Foreign Office 1940-1945

Since the reign of Leopold I, Belgium had played quite a strategic role in British politics, in particular regarding the period 1940-1945. A number of British administrations therefore have produced a significant amount of documents about Belgium, among which the Foreign Office (FO), the War Office (WO) and the War Cabinet. The fonds Foreign Office comprises photocopies and microfilms from the Public Record Office (one of the three British institutions that compose the National Archives). They give an overviews of the position of the British government before, during and after the Battle of Belgium (May 1940). They also comprise paperwork from the Foreign Office and documents of the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) in charge of propaganda. Exploiting archives located abroad is essential for the Belgian historiography of the Second World War.

For more information :

• Emmanuel Debruyne, La guerre secrète des espions belges, Bruxelles : Ed. Racine, 2008.
• Étienne Verhoeyen, La Belgique occupée. De l’an 40 à la Libération, Bruxelles : De Boeck-Université, 1994.