About the union:

The National Association of General Railway Clerks was formed at a meeting in Sheffield in May 1897. Two years later, the union was renamed the Railway Clerks' Association (RCA). By 1904, the union comprised over four thousand members out of a potential total of 60,000 railway clerical members, and in 1919 the threat of strike action forced the railway companies to formally recognise the RCA. The union changed its name again in 1951 to the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA).

Information about the history of the union is included on the TSSA's website.

Restriction on using the TSSA archives:

Permission is required from the TSSA research officer before any work based on these records is published. Before being given access to the records, researchers visiting the Centre will be required to sign a confirmation that they have been notified of this condition.

Records relevant to genealogical research include:

Register of benefit claims, 1915-1918 [document reference: MSS.55B/2/3]:

Names in the register are in date order of claim.

'Railway Clerk'/'Railway Service Journal, 1904, 1908-1920; 'Transport Salaried Staff Journal', 1951- :

They contain: some obituaries of members and officials, as well as information about the war deaths of members between 1914-1918 and 1939-1945.

You need to know: at least the year of death, in order to know what volume to search. The obituaries and other 'personalia' about members, such as presentations, appointments and retirements, which sometimes include photographs, are indexed by surname in at least some volumes.

Staff superannuation fund register, 1912-1953 [MSS.55B/2/2]

This contains: information about people employed by the union (not general members).

To find out more about the union:

Further information about RCA / TSSA archives held at the Modern Records Centre is included in our online catalogue.