Elisabeth Poyser - Assistant to the Clerk of the Records - 1950-1965

A common characteristic of modern Archives across the country is the high percentage of women who have qualified in the profession and play a prominent role in the growing influence of archival practices across many institutions, ranging from commercial to political.

One of the female pioneers in this field was Elisabeth Poyser (1924-2010) who was part of the ‘second wave' of Archivists that emerged in the 1950s. Poyser was recruited by Maurice Bond to the House of Lords Record Office in August 1950 as Assistant to the Clerk of the Records. Such was the novelty of her employment that it attracted the attentions of the national press. Above is a brief article from the Evening Standard who gave Poyser the moniker of ‘Records Girl'. 

She remained with the office into the 1960s as part of the team that administered the Victoria Tower Repository reconstruction project before being appointed by Cardinal Heenan in 1965 as Archivist for the Westminster Archdiocesan Archives.