Miss Lilian Redstone was one of a tiny group of pioneering women archivists who laid the foundations of English local archives in the early 20th century. Each of them acquired an education at a time when that was unusual for women, which enabled them to work as scholarly historical researchers and earn an independent income. Together, their work in the emerging historical, antiquarian and archival enterprises ensured that local archives were identified, preserved and used. How did Lilian Redstone, born in Woodbridge in 1885 as the youngest daughter of parents brought up in orphan asylums, acquire the education, skills and experience to found the archive services in Suffolk in the 1930s? This talk will examine her family background, her education and her work as a record agent and for some of the great historical enterprises in the early 20th century. How did she come to work for the University of Chicago on the life of Chaucer or for Prince Duleep Singh, son of the last Maharajah? Why was she awarded an MBE in 1919? And why should she be celebrated as the founder of Suffolk Archives? This talk will tell the story of this remarkable pioneering woman archivist, Lilian Redstone.

Elizabeth Shepherd, Pioneering Women Archivists in early 20th century England, London: Routledge, 2025.

Biographical note
Professor Emerita Elizabeth Shepherd, UCL. Her research interests are in rights in records, information policy compliance, and government administrative data. She led the research project, MIRRA (Memory-Identity-Rights in Records-Access), which focuses on information rights for care-experienced adults. She is an acknowledged expert on the history of the archive profession in 20th century England. She has published widely, including (with Geoffrey Yeo) the best-selling book Managing Records: a handbook of principles and practice (Facet Publishing, 2003) and the monograph, Archives and archivists in 20th century England (Ashgate, 2009)