Barclay & Company Limited was created as a new joint stock bank in 1896, by the merger of 20 distinct banking compnaies, all but one being private partnerships. This was reported at the time as the largest banking merger then known. The principal bank in the merger was Barclays itself, which traces its beginnings from a private goldsmith-banking partnership in Lombard Street founded in 1690 by John Freame and Thomas Gould. The first Barclay to enter the partnership was James in the early 1730s.
Between 1896 and 1919 Barclays experienced rapid growth, both organic and by the acquisition of provincial banks with the aim of achieving national coverage: by 1920 Barclays had become one of the 'big five' clearers.
In 1925 Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial & Overseas) was created from three existing London-based overseas banks that Barclays had acquired, thereby securing a major presence fior the Group in Africa, the Caribbean, and Egypt and the Mediterranean. From the 1920s onwards the Barclays Group extended its operations into France, Italy, Germany and North America, and, from the 1980s onwards, to Iberia. From the 1970s onwards Barclays entered the international corporate and investment banking markets of Asia and the Middle East. In 1968 it also acquired another major UK clearing bank, Martins.
In the post-World War Two era Barclays became a leader in banking innovation: examples include staff training programmes (1945), ordering a mainframe computer for branch accounting (1959), introducing the UK's first universal credit card (Barclaycard 1966), pioneering the first street cash machines (Barclaycash 1967), and introducing the UK's first debit card (Connect 1987).
The company name was changed in 1917 to Barclays Bank Limited, and again in 1982 to Barclays Bank PLC. In 1985 the Group underwent a major reorganization, adopting its present structure with Barclays PLC as the holding company.
This collection comprises the administrative records of head office departments, from the formation of the joint stock company (some series are continuations of pre-1896 records), to the reorganization of the Group under the Barclays Bank Act of 1984.
The departments whose records are represented include:
Records are arranged and described to reflect the departmental structure of the company during the period.
Barclays had a historical records section in head office from at least the 1960s, managed by staff in the company secretary's office with the title of archivist. In 1989 the first professionally trained archivist was appointed with the remit of centralising the historical records and collecting additional material deemed worthy of permanent preservation.
Head office departments
see also GB 2044 B BARCLAYS 1896-1985 for the highest level in Barclays Group Archives, being the records of the main board, chair and senior management
Barclays Group Archives is open to access for research visitors throughout the year, by appointment. E-mail:
Customer records are subject to extended closure/access conditions
Most management and administrative records are open to research when 30 years old; access to some material may additionally be restricted or closed for reasons of customer, commercial or third-party confidentiality.
Reproduction or publication of records subject to the written permission of an archivist.
Searchable catalogue available locally on BGA's 'Archives' database; bespoke lists may be generated from specific search requests.
Barclays Group Archives [can be abbreviated as BGA]: individual document reference number obtained from local catalogue
The official published histories of Barclays are to a greater or lesser extent based upon the archives: