Former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill archive in Cambridge gets UN protection

The Winston Churchill archive is held at Cambridge University's Churchill College

Sir Winston Churchill's archive, which includes wartime speeches and letters to Stalin, has been given United Nations protection.

The archive is held at Cambridge University's Churchill College.

It has been added to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) International Memory of the World Register.

The register supports the preservation of historically important documents and includes the Magna Carta.

The archive includes a seating plan from the Potsdam conference, dedicated to Churchill and signed by President Truman and Stalin

Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Centre, said: "The archive is unique and irreplaceable. It is the evidence that underpins the story of one of the most remarkable leaders of the modern era, whose stand against fascism in 1940 helped shape the world of today.

"It includes his original annotated notes for his famous international broadcasts and correspondence with the great politicians, military leaders, authors, scientists and thinkers of his age."

Churchill's post-1945 papers were passed to Churchill College in 1969 by his widow Clementine Churchill. The college built and opened the Churchill Archives Centre in 1973 and Sir Winston's pre-1945 papers were transferred to the centre from Oxford's Bodleian Library in 1974-75.

It also includes the first page of Churchill’s earliest surviving letter, written to his mother when he was seven in 1882

Dr Alice Prochaska, chair of the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust, which owns the papers for the nation, said: "It is a fantastic privilege and a very great pleasure to see the Sir Winston Churchill Archive inscribed at as part of the Memory of the World.

"This amazing documentary resource brings benefit to scholars, schools and citizens: a legacy to future generations from one of the world's greatest leaders; and a source of endless fascination and inspiration for students and citizens in every nation."