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Sixty-five years after the Committee of Inquiry into Railway Pay published its Final Report, the Committee’s archive collection is now listed to box level and accessible to readers.
Find out more about the collection and how we catalogued it below.
Origins of the collection
The Committee of Inquiry into Railway Pay, also known as the Guillebaud Committee, originated due to a 1958 pay settlement between the British Transport Commission and three trade unions; namely A.S.L.E.F, N.U.R and the T.S.S.A.
One of the agreements of the settlement was that there should be discussions about launching an investigation into railway wages and salary structure. On the 25th of August 1958, after discussions between the British Transport Commission and the three trade unions, an agreement to form an Independent Body and Sub-Committee to conduct the investigation was reached.
The experienced economist Claude William Guillebaud was nominated to be the Secretary, or Chair, of Committee. Guillebaud had previously adjudicated wage disputes, both in the private and public sector, and would continue to do so in the UK and abroad.
The Committee of Inquiry into Railway Pay’s report was finished on the 2nd of March 1960 and published two days later.
The collection at Nuffield College
Details of the collection’s deposit at Nuffield College Library are unknown. Original collection restrictions stated that papers were only to be used with permission of a Committee member. However, the collection is now open for consultation and considered public records.
Collection Contents
The collection consists of documents which record the Committee’s activities and is housed in 27 foolscap boxes. Document dates range from 1958 to 1960, from when the Committee was formed to when it published its Final Report.
Collection contents are as follows:
- Boxes 1A to 1E: administrative documents from the Committee such as memoranda, meeting notes, general notes, correspondence and reports.
- Boxes 2A to 2D: reports, employee handbooks and general information on working conditions supplied by outside industries.
- Boxes 3A to 3F: Investigation Officers’ reports on outside industries.
- Boxes 2A to 2D: reports, employee handbooks and general information on working conditions supplied by outside industries.
- Boxes 4A to 4H: Investigation Officers’ reports on jobs in the Railways.
- Boxes 5A to 5D: Investigation Officers’ reports on clerks’ jobs in the Railways.
Cataloguing the collection
It seems that the original file order may have been shuffled up at some point in the past. To improve the collection’s accessibility and intellectual arrangement, the folders were rearranged and the box numbering was altered.
The collection was listed to box level; section indexes and folder titles were used as aids to fill the handlist’s scope and content section.
Collection care work
Light collection care work was undertaken to preserve the material. This included:
- removing dried out and cracked rubber bands that were used to hold some folders together
- using archive-grade cotton tying tape to tie all folders
- adding archive-grade boards under thicker folders before tying them. This added a safe structure for the tying tape, stabilising the centre of gravity and preventing the tape from warping the shape of the folders
- dusting boxes and folders
If you would like to access the Committee of Inquiry into Railway Pay handlist you can click here.
Lastly, if you have any questions or would like to arrange a visit to see the collection, please email the Archives team at library-archives@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.
Sources
Committee of Inquiry into Railway Pay Collection, 1958-1960. Nuffield College Library Archives, University of Oxford, https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/media/enjagjiq/guillebaud-committee-2025.pdf, (date accessed: 18/07/2025)
Description of ‘Guillebaud, Claude William (1890-1971) Economist and academic, Papers of Claude William Guillebaud, 1919-1972. St John’s College Library Special Collections, University of Cambridge. GB 275 GUILLEBAUD’ on the Archives Hub website, [http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb275-guillebaud], (date accessed: 18/07/2025)
Hansard HC Debate, 10 March 1960, vol. 619, col. 1960, (date accessed: 18/07/2025)
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