Alfred SERLE b1913 Plymouth

[Huntleys71]

I'm looking for info on Alfred Serle specifically on Plymouth College. Admission registers, exam results When did he start there? When did he leave? What house was he in? Was he a boarder or day border?
I have contacted the records office at Plymouth and they have told me that I can view their records BUT, no notes, photographs or recordind by any means.  Not having a photographic memory I don't know how much value this would be. I have also contacted the College itself but they say all their records are with the records office. I have also tried old newspapers and the old plymothian magazine.
I'm interested in how other people have dealt with this problem. I do appreciate that within the record there may be people who are still alive and they have a right to privacy.  Why are school records from 1920's so difficult to obtain? Bearing in mind that the 1939 census is available on line?

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

[KGarrad]

Welcome to RootsChat!

You seem to have a very narrow research field?
Not sure I understand what you hope to gain by such research.

What you have to do is to take a notepad and pencil, and write notes.
This is standard practice at most repositories.

[cemetery friends]

As they told you no notepad / pencil is I presume to protect people under data protection but by allowing visual access surely they are not fully protecting an individual's privacy. Over many years ago the same record office produced a workhouse register for me to inspect and placed large white envelopes with elastic bands to seal off other pages and asked for an undertaking not to peek into those pages. Times have changed and for some reason they are not allowing 'selective' inspection. There seems to be no way around this so eventually such records will not be available to inspect for 100 years but as many are now living to 100+ I guess the 100 year rule will be extended!

[Huntleys71]

This is the reply I got from pwdro when I wrote to them earlier this year.

The surviving admission registers for Plymouth College are held by us but are subject to a restriction on access for a period of 100 years.
This means that registers which are over 30 years old but not yet 100 years old can only be viewed in our Public Search Room and no notes of any kind or photographs can be made of them.

Alfred (Alan) was my father and there are obviously parts of his life that I am familiar with but his early life is proving difficult to research. Both my parents are now long passed and I represent a dwindling blood line. I do remember my mother telling me that he went to Plymouth College and that it was regarded as a minor Public School ?  He was very good at hockey and may have represented the school/county? He excelled in chemistry. But where did he go prior to 1936? He was in the Palestine Police Force and the RAF and I have his service records from that time.

Does anyone know when the 1921 census will be released? presumably not until 2021? but then why have they released the 1939 one  or does that not count?

[KGarrad]

There was no census in 1939!

What was released, with restrictions, was the 1939 National Register.
It was then continuously updated until the 1970s as the NHS Register.

[chempat]

Plymouth College has a Foundation Office/Archive - have you been in contact with them?  (One of the pictures looks like a hockey team - of 10 men, though.)