The Ministry of Justice is consulting on digitising and then throwing away about 100 million paper originals of the wills and testaments of British people dating back more than 150 years in a bid to save £4.5m a year.
But Tom Holland, the classical and medieval historian and co-host of the Rest Is History podcast, told the Guardian the proposal to empty shelves at the Birmingham archive was "obviously insane". Sir Richard Evans, historian of modern Europe, said: "To destroy the original documents is sheer vandalism in the name of bureaucratic efficiency."
Ministers believe digitisation will speed up access to the papers, but the proposal has provoked anger among historians and archivists who decried it on social media as "bananas" and "a seriously bad idea".
The government is proposing to keep the originals of some wills of "famous people" - likely to include Diana, Princess of Wales; Charles Darwin; and Charles Dickens - but others would be destroyed after 25 years and only a digital copy would be kept.
It is feared that the wills of ordinary people, some of whom may become historically significant in the future, risk being lost forever.
Wills are considered essential documents, particularly for social historians and genealogists, as they capture what people considered important at the time and can reveal unknown family links.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 19, 2023-Ausgabe von The Guardian.
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