Download this summary catalogue (PDF) ›ALLENBY, FM Edmund (Henry Hynman), 1st Viscount Allenby of Megiddo (1861-1936)

Identity statement

Reference code(s)

GB0099 KCLMA Allenby

Title

ALLENBY, FM Edmund (Henry Hynman), 1st Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and of Felixstowe (1861-1936)

Date(s)

Created 1881-1950, 1955

Level of description

collection level

Extent and medium of the unit of description (quantity, bulk, or size)

14 boxes or 0.14 metres cubed

Context

Name of creator(s)

Allenby, Edmund (Henry Hynman), 1861-1936, 1st Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and of Felixstowe, Field Marshal

Administrative / Biographical history

Born in 1861; educated at Haileybury College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into 6 Inniskilling Dragoons, 1882; served in Bechuanaland Expedition, 1884-1885, and in Zululand, 1888; Adjutant, Inniskilling Dragoons, 1889-1893; served in UK, 1890-1896; Staff College, Camberley, 1896-1897; Maj, 1897; Bde Maj, 3 Cavalry Bde, Ireland, 1898; served in South Africa, 1899-1902; commanded 5 Royal Irish Lancers, 1902-1905, and 4 Cavalry Brigade, Eastern Command, 1905-1910; Inspector of Cavalry, 1910-1914; served on Western Front, 1914-1917; Commander, Cavalry Div (later Cavalry Corps), BEF, 1914; Commander, 5 Army Corps, 1915; Commander, 3 Army, 1915-1917; Commander-in-Chief, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Palestine and Egypt, 1917-1919; FM, 1919; High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan, 1919-1925; died in 1936. Placed

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Placed in the Centre by the family in 1976.

Content & structure

Scope and content

Papers relating to his life and career, 1881-1936, including letters to his family, 1890-1922, notably covering his service in UK, 1890-1896, and South Africa, 1899-1902, including operations around Colesberg, Dec 1899-Jan 1900, relief of Kimberley, Feb 1900, Battle of Diamond Hill, Jun 1900, and operations in Transvaal and Orange Free State, 1900-1902, on Western Front, 1914-1917, including the first battle of Ypres, Oct-Nov 1914, Battle of Arras, Apr 1917, and in Palestine and Egypt, 1917-1922, including third Battle of Gaza, Oct-Nov 1917, capture of Jerusalem, Dec 1917, Battle of Megiddo, Sep 1918, and fall of Damascus, Oct 1918; correspondence relating to Allenby's role as High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan, 1919-1925, including telegrams exchanged by Allenby and the Rt Hon (Joseph) Austen Chamberlain, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, over Nevile Meyrick Henderson's appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary and Allenby's resignation as High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan, 1924-1925; manuscript, typescript and printed texts of speeches, lectures and articles, [1929-1936]; newspaper cuttings, 1899-1936, including obituaries of Allenby, 1936; photographs, 1881-1936. Papers collected by Gen Archibald Percival Wavell during the writing of Allenby: a study in greatness (Harrap and Co, London, 1940) and Allenby in Egypt (Harrap and Co, London, 1943) principally comprising correspondence and notes written by Allenby's army colleagues, 1936-1943; notes and letters from Gerald Delany concerning Allenby in Egypt, [1940-1943]; letter from Gen Sir Henry George Chauvel to Director of Australian War Memorial concerning Seven pillars of wisdom by Thomas Edward Lawrence (also known as Thomas Edward Shaw) (Jonathan Cape, London, 1935), 1936, and printed appreciation of Lawrence by Allenby, 1935.

System of arrangement

Arranged in the following sections: personal papers and correspondence; Palestine and Egypt; speeches, lectures and articles; newspaper cuttings; photographs and photograph albums; correspondence received by Wavell during writing of Allenby; material collected by Wavell for Allenby in Egypt, including papers relating to Lawrence.

Conditions of access & use

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.

Language/scripts of material

Mainly English, some Hebrew, Arabic, Armenian and French

Finding aids

This detailed Catalogue, and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

Allied materials

Existence and location of originals

King's College London College Archives

Existence and location of copies

Middle East Centre, St Anthony's College, Oxford holds copies of papers relating to Allenby's service in the Middle East.

Related units of description

Papers of FM Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Bt,include official and personal correspondence with Allenby concerning operations in Egypt, 1917-1918 (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Robertson 1/14, 1/21, 1/32). Papers of Gen Sir John Stuart Mackenzie Shea include letters from Allenby concerning operations in Palestine, 1917-1918 (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Shea 4/2).

Publication note

The papers have been used by (Robert) Brian Gardner for his biography, 'Allenby' (Cassell, London, 1965), and by Thomas Pakenham for 'The Boer War' (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1979).

Notes

Note

Decorations: GCB, GCMG, GCVO

Description control

Rules or conventions

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

This catalogue is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. This catalogue may be updated from time to time in order to reflect additional material and/or new understandings of the material.