{{Short description|British efforts to destroy records of wrongdoing}} '''Operation Legacy''' was a programme of the British Colonial Office (later Foreign Office) to destroy or hide files that would implicate the British Empire in wrongdoing, as to prevent them from being used by their ex-colonies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jacobinmag.com/2016/11/british-empire-kenya-oman-ireland-state-secrecy/|title=Erasing Empire|last=Gilbert|first=Rosa|date=3 November 2016|website=Jacobin}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cobain |first=Ian |title=The history thieves: secrets, lies and the shaping of a modern nation |date=2016 |publisher=Portobello Books Ltd |isbn=978-1-84627-584-5 |location=London |author-link=Ian Cobain}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Elkins |first=Caroline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3icqEAAAQBAJ |title=Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire |date=2022 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday |isbn=978-0-593-32008-2 |pages=618 |language=en}}</ref> It ran from the 1950s until the 1970s, when the decolonisation of the British Empire was at its height,<ref name="WHO">{{cite web|url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/operation-legacy-britain-destroyed-thousands-colonial-files.html|title=Operation Legacy: How Britain Destroyed Thousands Of Colonial Files|date=9 January 2014|last=Bowman|first=Craig|work=War History Online|accessdate=26 July 2017|language=en-US}}</ref> and involved at least 23 countries.<ref name="independent" />
==Methods of operation== MI5 or Special Branch agents were required to vet all secret documents in the colonial administrations to find those that could "embarrass" Britain or show "racial prejudice or religious bias."<!-- other wording also used in the source - gave rise to "risk of compromise and embarrassment."--><ref name="independent" /> Some 8,800 files were consequently stored in Britain.<ref name="independent">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/revealed-how-british-empire-s-dirty-secrets-went-up-in-smoke-in-the-colonies-8971217.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160122192944/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/revealed-how-british-empire-s-dirty-secrets-went-up-in-smoke-in-the-colonies-8971217.html |archive-date=2016-01-22 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Revealed: How British Empire's dirty secrets went up in smoke in the colonies|last=Milmo|first=Cahal|work=The Independent|date=29 November 2013|access-date=12 March 2022}}</ref> Precise instructions were given for methods to be used for destruction, including burning and dumping at sea.<ref name="independent" /> Some of the files detailed torture methods used against opponents of the colonial administrations, such as during the Mau Mau Uprising.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/apr/18/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes|title=Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes|first1=Ian|last1=Cobain|first2=Owen|last2=Bowcott|first3=Richard|last3=Norton-Taylor|date=17 April 2012|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>
As decolonisation progressed, British officials were keen to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment that had been caused by the overt burning of documents<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.rarebooksocietyofindia.org/book_archive/196174216674_10154461599996675.pdf |title=Wavell: The Viceroy's Journal |editor-first=Penderel |editor-last=Moon |date=1973 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |pages=346–347 |chapter=The Interim Government (July-October 1946): September 5 |language=en}}</ref> that took place in New Delhi in 1946, which had been covered by Indian news sources. On 3 May 1961, Iain Macleod, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies, wrote a telegram to all British embassies to advise them on the best way to retrieve and dispose of sensitive documents.<ref name="WHO"/> To prevent post-colonial governments from ever learning about Operation Legacy, officials were required to dispatch "destruction certificates" to London. In some cases, as the handover date approached, the immolation task proved so huge that colonial administrators warned the Foreign Office that there was a danger of "celebrating Independence Day with smoke."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-06-29-the-horror-the-horror-the-long-colonial-hangover/|title=OP-ED: The horror! The horror! The long colonial hangover|last=Rostron|first=Bryan|date=28 June 2020|accessdate=18 January 2021|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref>
==Research== Academic study of the end of the British Empire has been assisted in recent years by the declassification of the ''migrated archives'' in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) 141 series. After the UK government admitted in 2011 that it had secret documents related to the Mau Mau Uprising, it began to declassify documents and by November 2013 some 20,000 files had been declassified. These documents can be accessed at the National Archives in Kew, London.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sato|first=Shohei|date=11 April 2017|title='Operation Legacy': Britain's Destruction and Concealment of Colonial Records Worldwide|journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History|volume=45|issue=4|pages=697–719|doi=10.1080/03086534.2017.1294256|issn=0308-6534|doi-access=free}}</ref>
==See also== * Historical negationism * Cover-up * Post-colonialism * Foreign and Commonwealth Office Migrated Archives
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{Cite journal |last=Badger |first=Anthony |date=28 September 2012 |title=Historians, a legacy of suspicion and the 'migrated archives' |journal=Small Wars & Insurgencies |volume=23 |issue=4–5 |pages=799–807 |doi=10.1080/09592318.2012.709761 |issn=0959-2318 |doi-access=free}} * {{Cite thesis |last=Herbert |first=Joel |title=The Sun Never Sets: Rethinking the Politics of Late British Decolonization, 1968 to the Present |date=2019 |degree=Doctor of Philosophy |publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |doi=10.17615/acph-1a93}} * {{Cite book |last=Whittle |first=Matthew |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1057/978-1-137-54014-0 |title=Post-War British Literature and the "End of Empire" |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-137-54013-3 |location=London |language=en |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-54014-0}}
==External links== * {{cite web | url = http://www.radiolab.org/story/mau-mau/ |title = Mau Mau | date = 3 July 2015 | website = Radiolab | publisher = WNYC | access-date = 1 August 2017}}
{{Authority control}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Use British English|date=January 2025}}
Category:1950s establishments in the United Kingdom Category:1970s disestablishments in the United Kingdom Category:Decolonization Category:Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Category:History of the British Empire Category:Information operations and warfare Category:MI5 Category:Government documents of the United Kingdom Category:Secret government programs Category:United Kingdom government information Category:Cover-ups Category:Historical negationism
{{Falsification of history}}