Collection EATON - EATON, V Adm Sir John Wilson Musgrave (1902-1981)

Key Information

Reference code

EATON

Title

EATON, V Adm Sir John Wilson Musgrave (1902-1981)

Date(s)

  • 1945-1972 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent

3 boxes or (0.03 cubic metres)

Scope and content

Papers relating to V Adm Sir John Wilson Musgrave Eaton's life and career, 1945-1972, including typescript copy of Night Order Book, HMS SHEFFIELD, May-Jun 1945; photographs, press cuttings and printed material relating to Eaton's service as Capt of HMS ST VINCENT, RN Boys Training Establishment, Gosport, Hampshire, 1947; typescript volume entitled 'Naval Staff Handbook', Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich, 1950; texts of lectures by Eaton, RN Staff College, Greenwich, including 'Grand strategy: its background and application in a future war' and 'The principles of war', 1950-1951; typescript texts of speeches and lectures, [1952]-1960, including Empire Day speech to the Royal Yacht Sqn, Australia [1952], and lecture on the capture of Gibraltar, 1704, to the RN Club, 1960; newspaper cuttings relating to the Court Martial of Able Seaman James McNiven McSporran for an assault on V Adm Eaton during an inspection, 1955; Civil Defence manuals and naval publications, 1956-1958; edition of Log of the President's cruise in the USS CANBERRA (CAG2), edited by Capt E P Aurand, US Navy, Naval Aide to US President Dwight David Eisenhower, 14-20 Mar 1957; photographs of Eisenhower with Eaton and US Adm Jerauld Wright, Supreme Allied Commander's Headquarters, Norfolk, Virginia, USA [1957]; typescript letters to retired senior officers from the First Sea Lord 1959, 1970 and 1972, from AF Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 23 Apr 1959, Adm Sir Michael Le Fanu, 1 Jun 1970, and Adm Sir Michael (Patrick) Pollock, 2 Nov 1972; printed plan of Admiralty organisation, Jan 1960; typescript statement of evidence by Eaton, as then commanding destroyer HMS SOMALI, on Cdr (Jack) John Egerton Broome's command of convoy PQ.17, 4 Jul 1942, statement prepared for a libel action brought by Broome against David John Cawdell Irving, Jan 1970, in relation to his book The destruction of convoy PQ.17 (Cassell, London, 1968).

System of arrangement

The papers are arranged in sections according to chronology and subject matter.

General Information

Name of creator

(1902-1981)

Biographical history

Born 1902; educated at Temple Grove, Eastbourne, Royal Naval College Osborne and the Royal Naval College Dartmouth; Midshipman, HMS BARHAM, Flagship of V Adm Sir William Coldingham Masters Nicholson, commanding 1 Battle Sqn, Atlantic Fleet, 1919-1922; Promotion Course, Portsmouth, 1922; HM Destroyers, 1922-1925; Sub Lt, 1923; served on HMS WIVERN, 3 Destroyer Flotilla, Mediterranean Fleet, 1924-1926; Lt, 1925; HM Submarine H50, 6 Submarine Flotilla, 1926-1929; HMS MALAYA, 2 Battle Sqn, Atlantic Fleet, 1929-1930; HMS BOREAS, 4 Destroyer Flotilla, Mediterranean Fleet, 1931-1933; Lt Cdr, 1933; commanded HMS RESTLESS, Portsmouth,1934-1935; commanded HMS WESTMINSTER, 21 Flotilla, Home Fleet, 1935-1936; commanded HMS BOREAS, 4 Flotilla, Home Fleet, 1936-1939; Cdr, 1937; Student, RN Staff College, Greenwich, 1939; commanded HMS VENETIA, Reserve Fleet, Devonport, 1939; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; service in HM Destroyers, including HMS MOHAWK, HMS SOMALI and HMS ESKIMO, 1939-1943; awarded DSC, 1941; awarded DSO, 1941; Capt (Destroyers), HMS SOMALI, 6 Destroyer Flotilla, Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, 1942; commanded HMS SOMALI, attached to 1 Cruiser Sqn, the covering force for convoy PQ17, Jul 1942; Admiralty, 1944; Capt of HMS SHEFFIELD, 1945; Capt of HMS ST VINCENT, RN BoysTraining Establishment, Gosport, Hampshire, 1946-1948; Imperial Defence College, 1948-1949; Admiralty and Ministry of Defence, 1949; Director, RN Staff College, Greenwich, 1949-1951; R Adm, 1951; Flag Officer Commanding HM Australian Fleet, HMAS AUSTRALIA, 1951-1953; awarded CB, 1953; Flag Officer Commanding Reserve Fleet, HMS CLEOPATRA, 1954-1955; Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station, HMS KENYA, 1955-1956; Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, 1955-1957; created KBE, 1956; retired 1958; died 1981.

Custodial history

Presented to the Centre by the family in 1982.

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 from open material for research purposes only.

Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Existence and location of originals

Off-campus collection

Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›

Related descriptions

Alternative identifier(s)

Place access points

Genre access points

Rules and/or conventions used

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.

Script(s)

Archivist's note

Compiled by Iain Mutch

Accession area