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You are in: NAS> About us> Keeper of the Records of Scotland
Friday 4 July 2008
 
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The Keeper of the Records of Scotland

The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) was established on 1 April 1993 as a Scottish Government Agency. It comes within the responsibility of the Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture.

The NAS is headed by the Keeper of the Records of Scotland, who is responsible to the Scottish Ministers for the management of the NAS and to the Lord President of the Court of Session for the efficient management of the court and other legal records in Scotland. The office of Keeper of the Records of Scotland was created in 1949, although its antecedents date back to the 13th century. The present Keeper of the Records of Scotland is Mr George MacKenzie.

The Keeper of the Records of Scotland

Antecedents

The first reference to a government official responsible for looking after the records dates from 1286. William of Dumfries was a clerk of the rolls of the royal 'chapel' or chancery. This office was later to develop into that of Lord Clerk Register. In 1806 the office of Deputy Clerk Register was created to oversee the day to day running of the office. The appointment of Thomas Thomson to the post laid the foundation of the modern record office. His thirty-five year term of office saw a programme of cataloguing and repair of the older records and the start of a series of record publications. Read more about the history of the NAS.

Mr George MacKenzie

George MacKenzie has been Keeper of the Records of Scotland since January 2001. Before that he was Director of External Relations in the NAS and worked on the Scottish Archive Network, an Internet-based project combining catalogues, online reference services and digital images. He is a member of the Programme Commission of the International Council on Archives (ICA), with responsibility for co-ordinating projects on electronic records and archive automation. He worked for ICA as Deputy Secretary General in their Paris office for two years, 1995-1996, where he was responsible for the professional programme. He carried out missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina for UNESCO, advising on the protection of archives. He has also carried out consultancy work on archives for ICA, UNESCO, and the World Bank. He has acted as external examiner for postgraduate archives and records management students at the universities of Liverpool and Aberystwyth.

Keeper of the Records of Scotland with the Speaker of the Scottish Parliament The Keeper of the Records of Scotland presenting the Speaker of the Scottish Parliament, Mr George Reid (right), with a facsimile of a William Wallace charter, at an event to mark the NAS's For Freedom Alone exhibition at the Scottish Parliament in September 2005.
   
 
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The National Archives of Scotland, H.M. General Register House, 2 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3YY; tel +44 (0) 131 535 1314; email: enquiries@nas.gov.uk