In June 2022, INQUEST embarked on a journey to document, circulate and reflect on its over 40-year history since it was set up by a collective of bereaved families and campaigners in 1981.
INQUEST deposited parts of its organisational archive at the Bishopsgate Institute with additional donations from key people in its history, including Celia Stubbs (founder member), Kevin Blowe (NETPOL) and Joe Sim (academic and trustee).
Over the past few years, INQUEST have worked with Millipedia to make some of this dense archive accessible in a digital format. This digital archive provides a window onto a history that has previously been muddied, distorted and silenced. This is a history of how the state harms and how those that it harms have fought back in order to protect us all.
Split into three areas: EXPLORE, REMEMBER and LISTEN, the archive explores this ongoing history through time, people and testimony. On the website you will find contextual summaries, photographs, downloadable documents, audio and video.
EXPLORE
This part of the website traces the history of state violence and how INQUEST has campaigned alongside bereaved families and others to push for change. An interactive timeline, you can use filters, to try out thematic or chronological searches.
1982-83INQUEST Northern Worker Annual Report
Benjamin Zephaniah R4 Appeal postcast
From setting up INQUEST Northwest in 1983 to Benjamin Zephaniah’s Radio 4 appeal in 2004, the timeline maps a fragment of the people who have died, campaigning milestones and legal changes in our on-going pursuit of justice.
For now, it stops in 2021 (the 40th anniversary of INQUEST’s founding) with a landmark win for non-means tested legal aid for Article 2 inquests – something that INQUEST campaigned for since its founding. A living archive, we will be adding to this timeline of struggle and change.
REMEMBER
This section of the website is a memorial to 40 people who have died at the hands of the state, beginning with Blair Peach in 1979. Some of the names may be familiar, some may not be. The 40 people are a tiny portion of the people who have died in state-related deaths over the past four decades.
Over the last four decades INQUEST has worked on and monitored over 10,000 deaths where the state – be it prisons, police, mental health, immigration, or broader failures from the Hillsborough disaster (1989) to the Grenfell Tower Fire (2017) – is at fault.
Just the tip of the iceberg, the people featured include Marc Sancto, 44, a trans man who died in Holloway Prison in 1985, Orville Blackwood, 31, a father who died whilst detained under the Mental Health Act at Broadmoor Hospital, and Amy El-Keria, 14, who died in a mental health hospital run by The Priory in 2014.
Orville Blackwood and Amy El-Keria
Each page includes information about who the person was, the circumstances of their death, and campaigning and legal changes that their families have fought for. You can download archival documents, from campaign flyers to Prevention of Future Death reports (written by coroners).
LISTEN
The third area of the archive includes previews of 20 oral history interviews with key figures in INQUEST’s history. Interviews with co-founder Celia Stubbs, INQUEST director Deborah Coles, campaigner and sister of Sean Rigg, Marcia Rigg, and barrister Michael Mansfield are just a handful of the people whose oral histories are recorded for the archive.
On the website you will find summaries and clips for everyone who has been interviewed. If you would like to listen to the full oral history, you will need to visit the Bishopsgate Institute.
Another way to immerse yourself in this history is through INQUEST’s podcast. Unlawful Killingbrings the archive to life through oral history, music and conversations with those at the heart of these struggles.
VISIT
For those wanting to delve deeper into this history, the digital archive is a starting point. The archival documents available on this website represent a small part of this collection. Carefully catalogued by volunteers including Stella Burgess (member of our FRG) and Nik Wood, please visit Bishopsgate Institute to explore further.
Bishopsgate Institute is free to visit and open to everyone, located a couple of minutes away from Liverpool Street station at 230 Bishopsgate, EC2M 4QH. The Institute’s library, Researchers’ Area, Great Hall and reception are wheelchair accessible and assistant dogs are welcome. The Researchers’ Area is open 10am-5pm, Monday to Friday, with late opening on Wednesdays. If you have any enquiries about attending, email [email protected].
Make a Donation
Every year, INQUEST supports hundreds of families bereaved by deaths involving the state. We are independent of government and entirely reliant on grants and donations to continue our vital work.
Support us and bereaved families in the fight for truth, justice and accountability by becoming a regular donor today.
Donate now
Subscribe to our newsletter
To receive the latest news from INQUEST straight into you inbox please subscribe. For examples of what you will receive, see our previous newsletters.
Inquest Launches New Digital Archive
In June 2022, INQUEST embarked on a journey to document, circulate and reflect on its over 40-year history since it was set up by a collective of bereaved families and campaigners in 1981.
INQUEST deposited parts of its organisational archive at the Bishopsgate Institute with additional donations from key people in its history, including Celia Stubbs (founder member), Kevin Blowe (NETPOL) and Joe Sim (academic and trustee).
Over the past few years, INQUEST have worked with Millipedia to make some of this dense archive accessible in a digital format. This digital archive provides a window onto a history that has previously been muddied, distorted and silenced. This is a history of how the state harms and how those that it harms have fought back in order to protect us all.
Split into three areas: EXPLORE, REMEMBER and LISTEN, the archive explores this ongoing history through time, people and testimony. On the website you will find contextual summaries, photographs, downloadable documents, audio and video.
EXPLORE
This part of the website traces the history of state violence and how INQUEST has campaigned alongside bereaved families and others to push for change. An interactive timeline, you can use filters, to try out thematic or chronological searches.
1982-83 INQUEST Northern Worker Annual Report
Benjamin Zephaniah R4 Appeal postcast
From setting up INQUEST Northwest in 1983 to Benjamin Zephaniah’s Radio 4 appeal in 2004, the timeline maps a fragment of the people who have died, campaigning milestones and legal changes in our on-going pursuit of justice.
For now, it stops in 2021 (the 40th anniversary of INQUEST’s founding) with a landmark win for non-means tested legal aid for Article 2 inquests – something that INQUEST campaigned for since its founding. A living archive, we will be adding to this timeline of struggle and change.
REMEMBER
This section of the website is a memorial to 40 people who have died at the hands of the state, beginning with Blair Peach in 1979. Some of the names may be familiar, some may not be. The 40 people are a tiny portion of the people who have died in state-related deaths over the past four decades.
Over the last four decades INQUEST has worked on and monitored over 10,000 deaths where the state – be it prisons, police, mental health, immigration, or broader failures from the Hillsborough disaster (1989) to the Grenfell Tower Fire (2017) – is at fault.
Just the tip of the iceberg, the people featured include Marc Sancto, 44, a trans man who died in Holloway Prison in 1985, Orville Blackwood, 31, a father who died whilst detained under the Mental Health Act at Broadmoor Hospital, and Amy El-Keria, 14, who died in a mental health hospital run by The Priory in 2014.
Orville Blackwood and Amy El-Keria
Each page includes information about who the person was, the circumstances of their death, and campaigning and legal changes that their families have fought for. You can download archival documents, from campaign flyers to Prevention of Future Death reports (written by coroners).
LISTEN
The third area of the archive includes previews of 20 oral history interviews with key figures in INQUEST’s history. Interviews with co-founder Celia Stubbs, INQUEST director Deborah Coles, campaigner and sister of Sean Rigg, Marcia Rigg, and barrister Michael Mansfield are just a handful of the people whose oral histories are recorded for the archive.
On the website you will find summaries and clips for everyone who has been interviewed. If you would like to listen to the full oral history, you will need to visit the Bishopsgate Institute.
Another way to immerse yourself in this history is through INQUEST’s podcast. Unlawful Killing brings the archive to life through oral history, music and conversations with those at the heart of these struggles.
VISIT
For those wanting to delve deeper into this history, the digital archive is a starting point. The archival documents available on this website represent a small part of this collection. Carefully catalogued by volunteers including Stella Burgess (member of our FRG) and Nik Wood, please visit Bishopsgate Institute to explore further.
Bishopsgate Institute is free to visit and open to everyone, located a couple of minutes away from Liverpool Street station at 230 Bishopsgate, EC2M 4QH. The Institute’s library, Researchers’ Area, Great Hall and reception are wheelchair accessible and assistant dogs are welcome. The Researchers’ Area is open 10am-5pm, Monday to Friday, with late opening on Wednesdays. If you have any enquiries about attending, email [email protected].
Make a Donation
Every year, INQUEST supports hundreds of families bereaved by deaths involving the state. We are independent of government and entirely reliant on grants and donations to continue our vital work.
Support us and bereaved families in the fight for truth, justice and accountability by becoming a regular donor today.
Donate now
Subscribe to our newsletter
To receive the latest news from INQUEST straight into you inbox please subscribe. For examples of what you will receive, see our previous newsletters.