| Description | The collection consists of papers of the British Yugoslav Society (BYS), which became the British South Slav Society (BSSS). It includes annual reports, membership papers, journals, newsletters, correspondence, publications and documents regarding the administrative history of the Society; as well as papers relating to events, meetings and membership campaigns. Additionally, the collection includes some of the Society's financial papers including accounts, bank statements and books as well as details of fundraising campaigns.
The collection also contains donated items, for example plates, plaques, a field marker and a "gusla" (string fiddle). |
| AdminHistory | The aim of the British Yugoslav Society (BYS), later to become the British Southern Slav Society (BSSS), was "the promotion of knowledge and understanding in the United Kingdom of the people, land, languages and cultures of Yugoslavia". The Society was a non-political and non-governmental registered charity. In 1998 it changed its name and aims to informing about the history, languages and cultures of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.
The Society first met at the House of Commons (until 1959) and some of the early members were MPs including Mr Ernest Davies (MP), the Chairman. Its founding president was Sir Fitzroy Maclean. Many of the Society's first engagements and events were educational and social, including excursions to Yugoslavia, language courses, wine-tastings and discussion groups, as well as an annual Dinner and Yugoslav National Day celebrations. Over the years, however, the Society increasingly became involved in fundraising, particularly when war broke out in Yugoslavia in 1991. By May 1992 the BYS had delivered £350,000 worth of medical aid to the region, with a comment in the minutes of 21 May 1992 that this was "a good result for a small Society" (see Box54b). After the collapse of Yugoslavia, the BYS changed its name to the British Southern Slav Society and attempted to continue its policy of being non-divisive.
By 1999, however, the Society considered itself no longer able to continue representing links with the six nations of the former Yugoslavia. In early 1999 the BSSS closed its offices in Weymouth Street in London; and on 8 June 1999 the Society voted to dissolve itself at a Special General Meeting (see correspondence and resolutions regarding dissolution in Box 73). The last Chairman of the BSSS was Colonel Edward Cowan OBE. |
| CustodialHistory | A full description of the origins and custodial history of the papers of the BSSS archive is available in Box 94 Folder 2 'Information Note 1'. |