The records of Sir John Betjeman in the University of Victoria Libraries Special Collections contains the majority of the personal papers, manuscripts, and correspondence accumulated by the 17th British Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, during the years 1913-1984. University of Victoria Libraries began to acquire the Betjeman papers in 1971. They were purchased through Mr. A.T. Miller, a London antiquarian bookseller and Betjeman’s agent. The first and largest part of the archives was shipped to UVic by Blackwell’s Bookshop of Oxford and arrived in July 1971.

In 1972, Betjeman’s agent announced that a second lot of letters and manuscripts dating from 1928-1967 had been found in the basement of Betjeman’s house. These additional papers subsequently arrived through Blackwell’s.

In November 1973, a bundle of letters dating previous to 1968 was found, badly mildewed and damaged by damp, in the same basement, where they had been forgotten following the sale of Betjeman’s house. A small number of these which were deemed salvagable were sent to UVic and later another group of letters, these only slightly damaged and dating largely from the 1930s and 1940s arrived.

In April 1974, another installment of Betjeman papers was offered to the University. It followed along chronologically from the first installment and covered the years 1968-1971. It included a selection of books from Betjeman’s personal library. It was aquired and added to the existing archive at UVic.

Two years after the death of Sir John in 1984, Lady Betjeman asked the firm of Bertram Rota, a London bookseller, to offer a further large collection to UVic. Lady Betjeman wanted the material to be housed in the same facility. The new material nearly doubled the size of the collection.