The alien's certificate of registration

A foreigner who settled in Britain between the wars registered with the police of his district and carried a certificate of registration. Its cover said when he had to show it: when he told the police he was about to move, when he reported his arrival in a new district, when he came to a police station about his registration, and whenever the police or an immigration officer asked. Inside were his number, his name surname first in Roman capitals, any alias, his photograph, his signature (or his left thumb print if he could not sign in English characters), his nationality, birth, occupation, address, the day he arrived in the United Kingdom, his last address abroad and the passport he held.

The police stamped every change of address on the pages of endorsements. The notice on the back told him to report a move before making it, to report to the police of a new district within forty-eight hours, to report an absence of more than two months, to sign the register of any hotel or lodging-house on arrival and on leaving, and that his children needed certificates of their own at sixteen. Failing any of it could cost £100 or six months' imprisonment.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

The alien's certificate of registration: Nikolai Ossipov
Nikolai Ossipov

Open this example in the office

The notice to the holder, as printed

  • 1. Before you change your residence (i.e. the address shown in this Certificate) you must give the Police of the district in which you reside your new address and the date on which you intend to move.
  • 2. If your new residence is in another Police district you must, within 48 hours of your arrival there, report to the Police of the new district.
  • 3. If you are absent for more than two months from your residence you must report your temporary address and all subsequent changes of address (including your return home) to the Police of the district where you are registered. This may be done by letter.
  • 4. If you stay at an hotel, lodging-house, boarding-house or other place where lodging is provided for payment, you must on arrival, write your name, nationality and the address from which you have come, and, before leaving, must write the address to which you intend to go in the register provided for the purpose.
  • 5. You must report to the Police of the district where you are registered any change in any of the personal particulars given within.
  • 6. Your children, if not British, must have separate Certificates when they reach the age of 16.

The same paper elsewhere

Still to be confirmed

  • the booklet read was printed in January 1927 and issued at Birmingham in 1928; a certificate of the first years of the Order has not been found. What would settle it: a certificate of registration issued between 1920 and 1926.
  • the number of pages is not known; sixteen are drawn. What would settle it: a certificate of registration whose pages are all photographed.
  • the notice to the holder is printed on the back of the cover in the booklet read; Bearer prints it on the last leaf. What would settle it: nothing: the booklet's cover has two faces Bearer draws, the front and its inside.
  • the police's stamp for a change of address is drawn from the one Birmingham struck ("BIRMINGHAM CITY POLICE, A.R.O., Serial No. … Arrived … Address … Date"); every force had its own. What would settle it: the stamps of other police forces.

Sources

  • Birmingham City Police; the booklet printed in January 1927 ("(23386A) Wt 20053/C832 25,000 Bks 1/27 H & J, Ld Gp 191"); scanned from the original, on Wikimedia Commons (CC0), Aliens Order, 1920: Certificate of Registration no. 336594, issued at Birmingham on 18 February 1928, front cover: No., Aliens Order, 1920., CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRATION, to be produced when the holder (a) reports that he is about to change his residence, (b) reports his arrival in a new district, (c) presents himself at a police station about his registration, (d) the Police or an Immigration Officer demand it; inside of the cover: registration certificate no., issued at, on, name (surname first in Roman capitals), alias, left thumb print (if unable to sign name in English characters), photograph, signature of holder; page 1: nationality, born on, in, previous nationality, profession or occupation, address of residence, arrived in United Kingdom on, address of last residence outside U.K., government service, passport or other papers as to nationality and identity; pages 2 on: endorsements and remarks (the police's stamp for a change of address); back cover: notice to the holder of this certificate, six rules and the penalties. (read directly)

Open the passport office · MGS Toolbox