Military Archives » The Collection

The John F Kennedy National Security Files, 1961-1963, reproduces in microfilm memoranda, cables, intelligence projections, telegrams, conversations, correspondence and special studies relating specifically to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Central Europe, Asia and the Pacific and Western Europe. The collection provides documents maintained and organised by NSC adviser McGeorge…

Papers relating to Kennedy's service as Capt of the battlecruiser HMS INDOMITABLE during World War One, including brief diary of the war training of the British Mediterranean Fleet, 1913-1914; narratives describing the shadowing, chase and escape of the German battlecruiser GOEBEN and its companion ship BRESLAU from the British Mediterranean Fleet, Aug 1914; apersonal description of the first bombardment…

Papers relating to Kennedy's career, 1911-1972, notably narrative diaries of his service on the Western Front during World War One, narrative diaries of his service with the British Military Mission to South Russia, 1919-1920; narrative diaries and papers relating to his senior planning role at the War Office during World War Two; typescript of, and papers relating to, an unpublished memoir of his…

Papers of Sir Alexander Keown-Boyd comprising correspondence, 1920-1922, from FM Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and of Felixstowe, then High Commissioner for Egypt, to Keown-Boyd, Oriental Secretary, discussing proposals to change staff at the Foreign Office, September 1921; the assassination of Henry Wilson by Irish Republicans, June 1922; and comparison of Anglo-Irish and Anglo-Egyptian…

Three scrapbooks containing newspaper and magazine cuttings, invitations, envelopes, menus, postcards, programmes, telegrams and correspondence, 1839-1906, notably including manuscript orders for Keppel, commanding Nile flotilla, from Lt Col Francis Reginald Wingate, ordering HM Gunboats SULTAN and ABU KLEA to Fashoda, Sudan, and for Keppel to communicatethe intentions of any Europeans found there…

Scrapbook of his service in France and Belgium, 1914-1917 and Italy, 1917-1918, compiled in 1923 and 1927, including a detailed account of the period Oct 1914-May 1915, notably the first Battle of Ypres, Oct-Nov 1914, written up from letters to his wife, 1914-1915; typescript copies of notes on the operations of 7 Div, Oct-Nov 1914, compiled by the General Staff, 7 Div in [1917-1918]; typescript copies…

Letters dated 1909-1914 from FM Earl Haig, Chief of General Staff in India and Commander-in-Chief at Aldershot, including potential candidates for appointments and Indian Army policy including reorganisation and recruitment; letters dated 1914-1918 from Haig, General Officer Commanding 1 Corps and Commander-in-Chief, British Armies, France, referring to operations including Dardanelles, Verdun; letters…

Copies of papers relating to the life and military service of Colonel Sir Ralph Kilner Brown, 1944-1945, 1994, 2003, including: front page and flyleaf of A collection of Field Marshal Montgomery's personal messages to 21 Army Group, Normandy to the Baltic, 6 June 1944 - 8 May 1945 (21 Army Group, 1945) featuring signatures of FM Bernard Law Montgomery and other staff; HQ 21 Army Group Q Cavalcade,…

Bound editions of the K-H News-Letter, 1936-1941, the National News-Letter, 1941-1957, and the King-Hall News-Letter, 1958-1959. Bound editions of Personal letters, 1946-1954. Editions of seven books and pamphlets by King-Hall, World history. An outline from the earliest times to the present day for the young of all ages (K-H Services, London, 1948), North Americandiary (K-H Services, London, 1949),…

Papers relating to his service in 4/5 East Lancashire Regt, dated 1931, principally comprising battalion orders and instructions for training exercises.

Photocopy of report entitled 'The enemy side of the hill: the 1945 background on interrogation of German commanders' by Maj Kenneth William Hechler, Historical Section, US Army, including accounts of interrogations of captured senior German officers including Col Gen Johannes Blaskowitz, Grand Adm Karl Dönitz, Reichsmarschall Hermann William Göring, Gen ofArtillery Alfred Josef Jodl, FM Wilhelm Keitel,…

Papers, dated 1945-1963, relating to the attempt to remove Lt Gen Sir William Joseph Slim from command of 14 Army, Burma, May 1945, including typescript background notes; typescript copies of telegrams between Lt Gen Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, 3rd Bt, Commander-in-Chief, Allied Land Forces South East Asia, FM Sir Alan Francis Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and acting Adm Lord…

This collection consists of papers relating to Gen Sir Walter Mervyn St. George Kirke's military career after World War One as Deputy Director of Military Operations, as Colonel on the Staff, General Staff Aldershot, Director-General of the Territorial Army and as Commander-in-Chief of Home Forces and his work during and after World War Two as a public speaker and broadcaster. The collection includes…

Typescript official correspondence relating to Allied operations in Italy, 1944-1945, between Kirkman, General Officer Commanding 13 Corps, and Lt Gen Sir Oliver (William Hargreaves) Leese, 3rd Bt, General Officer Commanding 8 Army, Mar-Oct 1944, Lt Gen Sir John Harding, Chief of Staff, Allied Armies in Italy, Aug 1944-Jan 1945, and Lt Gen Sir Richard (Loudon) McCreery,General Officer Commanding 10…

Papers of Sir Laurence Kirwan, relating chiefly to his military service in World War Two, including Kirwan's call up notice as a reserve officer, 1939; papers relating to the travel, administrative and accommodation arrangements for the QUADRANT Conference, Quebec, Canada, Aug 1943; programme for 'The Army Show: Canada's all-soldier stage show', c 1943; paper, 'Operation Overboard appreciation' parodying…

Five letters to Knowles from Capt Basil Henry Liddell Hart, Mar-Apr 1954, Jun 1955 and Dec 1957, principally relating to Lawrence of Arabia. A biographical enquiry (Collins, London, 1955), Richard Aldington's critical biography of Lawrence.

Photocopies of papers relating to his internment as a POW in Thailand, 1942-1945, principally comprising diary of events in Tamnan Camp 25-27 Aug 1945; sketches of life in a Thai POW camp, 1942-1945; diary describing his evacuation from the camp and voyage back to the UK, 1945; newspaper cuttings relating to POWs in South East Asia, 1944-1945; map of the area betweenBangkok and Rangoon, 1945

3 copies, 1 original sepia and two modern, of photograph, probably taken by Maj Edward Warren Caufeild Sandes, of Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia, before the siege of the British garrison, 1916