surveyed plan. Soon after the war ended, Hemp retired and Leonard Monroe moved elsewhere. In terms of experienced staff, and therefore continuance of its work, the Commission stood at a crossroads. Second World War During the war another strand of investigation and recording began that was later to be bound into the Royal Commission. This was the creation in 1940 of the National Buildings Record for England, Scotland and Wales because of concern that buildings might be destroyed by enemy action without any record ever having been made of them. With limited resources, it set about the formidable task of rapidly compiling a national architectural archive, and in a very short space of time it amassed an impressive collection of photographs and drawings, including the Courtauld Institute's already established Conway Library. Leonard Monroe was seconded to the National Buildings Record from the Royal Commission to cover south Wales. Photographers around the country were also engaged to photograph buildings in areas judged to be at greatest risk: most prolific of those working in Wales was George Bernard Mason, who produced photographs of exceptional quality. After the war the National Buildings Record photographers took to recording buildings ahead of the new threat posed by demolition, as owners of many fine houses could no longer afford to maintain them. In 1946 the Royal Commission was clear about its programme of future work: to complete the Caernarfonshire inventory along modern lines. But more immediate decisions were needed about where the Commission should be based and who was to lead its small staff. A. H. A. Hogg (died 1989) was appointed the secretary in 1949. Hogg was by profession a civil engineer, but he had strong interests and field experience in archaeology going back to his teenage years. He came to the Royal Commission from a lectureship in engineering at Cambridge University. Hogg was par excellence a field worker, who imbued two generations of investigators with the principles and practices of rigorous recording, using chain, tape and theodolite. Probably at his urging, it was decided to base the Commission in Aberystwyth rather than return to London. Aberystwyth had the advantages of a central location in Wales and scholarly facilities close by in The National Library of Wales. The Commission has remained in Aberystwyth ever since. By 1949 the rest of the Commission's staff was mostly young and inexperienced, with the singular exception of C. N.