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 Teachers Registrations

The Education Act of 1899 made provision for the establishment of a register of teachers and the Teachers' Registration Council was accordingly set up in 1902. The register was not well received by teachers and the Council was withdrawn in 1907 and not reconstituted until 1912. Independent of the Board of Education, the Teachers' Registration Council issued lists of teachers. However registration was voluntary and as neither the Board of Education nor the local education authorities used it for selecting candidates for promotion, registration was not universal. Registration was abandoned in 1948 and the Council the following year.

The registers chronicle the careers of the teachers who registered with the Council and include the name of the institution where they trained and details of the schools where they taught. Although the registrations only started in 1914, since people already teaching registered, the records cover teachers who started their careers from 1870-1948. Over 100,000 people are listed, over half of these being women.

The Department for Education and the Public Record Office (now The National Archives) approved permanent deposit of the registers with the Society of Genealogists in 1997.

The original registers comprise one main alphabetical series and a second, smaller, series of registrations of deceased registered teachers (often stamped with the date of "notification of death"). The digitised images do not distinguish between the two series, though you can identify records from the "deceased" series for they will contain a note that the person has died. There will often be further information provided regarding evidence of the death. Eg. “Vide Press cutting” relates to a press notice, "Vide returned voting card" relates to a returned Teachers Registration Council voting card, and "Vide letter from H.M." relates to official correspondence.

Please note that the first volume of the main series, covering names Aaron to Aleflower, is missing, and also the first volume of the second series, A to Boait. It is fairly certain that these do not now survive.

The records provide the following information:
o teacher's name (and for married women teachers often their maiden name as well)
o Date of Registration
o Register Number
o (Professional) Address
o Attainments
o Training in Teaching
o Experience

The Address is generally that of the latest institution where the person was teaching, but quite often is the home address (if the word "Professional" is deleted). In the latter case it is likely that the teacher was retired, and this is usually confirmed from the Experience section, where the last position shown will have a termination date.

The Attainments section may contain information on certificates, degrees, etc, which need not be directly related to teaching, whilst the Training in Teaching section will identify the institution where the person received formal teacher training. The Experience section is particularly valuable as it includes the establishments and places where they taught. Some teachers taught all over the country, and their movements can be traced over long periods

Though most registrants were from England and Wales, there were some from Scotland, India and elsewhere.

Many records for men who were teaching before and after World War I contains a note referring to their absence on war service.

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Teachers Registrations Index
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