| Admin/Biog History | Francis Laurence Theodore Graham-Harrison, 1914-2001 was a civil servant who dominated the upper echelons of the Home Office from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s. From 1946-49, he was assistant private secretary to the Labour prime minister Clement Attlee. He ended his career as deputy under-secretary of state at the Home Office from 1963-74.
Graham-Harrison met Nicolson at Eton and they went up to Oxford together. They socialised in the same group, forming lasting friendships with Isaiah Berlin, Jeremy Hutchinson, Philip Toynbee and many other intellectual forces of the day. Nicolson and Graham-Harrison remained close friends after Oxford, corresponding regularly. Their letters cease in 1941, following Graham-Harrison's marriage. |
| Description | Includes correspondence of a personal nature concerning travel, books, art, film and the ballet. Also includes discussion of mutual friends including, in particular, Jeremy Hutchinson and Isaiah Berlin. Later letters also include mention of how the Second World War has impacted on their lives and the lives of their friends. The final letter references Graham-Harrison's marriage. The majority of the correspondence in the archive dates from the 1930s and is best read alongside the journals of this period.
Of particular note:
-two letters, dated 18 December 1934 & 2 August 1935, concerning the choice of speakers for Florentine club
-letter, dated 8 August 1936, concerning a visit to the International Surrealists exhibition at the Burlington Galleries
-letter, dated 14 January 1939, concerning news of friends (including David Wallace and Isaiah Berlin ) and his thoughts about a career in Civil Service
Also includes one letter from Francis' father, William Graham-Harrison |