Download this summary catalogue (PDF) ›GRACEY, Gen Sir Douglas David (1894-1964)

Identity statement

Reference code(s)

GB0099 KCLMA Gracey

Title

GRACEY, Gen Sir Douglas David (1894-1964)

Date(s)

Created 1942-1958

Level of description

collection level

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

8 boxes or 0.08 cubic metres

Context

Administrative / Biographical history

Born in 1894; educated at Blundells School and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into the Indian Army as 2nd Lt, 1914; service in France with 2 Royal Munster Fusiliers, 1915; service in Iraq, Palestine, Syria and Egypt with 1 Gurkha Rifles, 1916-1920; instructor, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1925-1927; student at Staff College, Quetta, India, 1928- 1929; General Staff Officer Grade 2, General HQ, India, 1930-1934; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, Western Command, 1936-1937; Brigadier General Staff, Western Command, 1938; commandant, Queen Alexander's Own Gurkha Rifles, 1939-1940; served on North West Frontier, India, 1939; assistant commandant, Staff College, Quetta and appointed Col, 1940-1941; commander of 17 Indian Infantry Brigade and service in Iraq and Syria, 1941-1942; commander of 20 Indian Division, 1942-1946; commander of Allied Land Forces, French Indo-China, 1945-1946; officiating General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, India, 1946; commander of 1 Indian Corps, 1946-1947; Chief of Staff, Pakistan Army, 1947-1948; Commander-in-Chief, Pakistan Army, 1948-1951; retired in 1960; Chairman of Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables, Putney, London, 1960-1964; died in 1964.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Placed in the Centre by the family in 1978.

Content & structure

Scope and content

Papers including appreciations, reports and battle instructions relating to operations of 20 Indian Division in Burma including the Kabaw Valley and Kyaukchaw, Apr 1942-Mar 1944; Shenam and Kalewa, Apr-Dec 1944; Monywa and the Irrawaddy, including the capture of Kyaukse, Jan-Aug 1945. Papers including reports and operational orders relating to operations of 20 Indian Division in French Indo-China, Aug 1945-May 1947. Typescripts of and related papers for unpublished history of 20 Indian Division, 1944-1958 including accounts of operations of particular units. Translations of Japanese documents on operations in Burma, 1941-1945, including summaries of operations by particular units and war diary of Japanese 15 Army, 1943-1945. Copies of South-East Asia Translation and Interrogation Center Historical Bulletin (Jul 1946-May 1947) including history of particular units of Japanese Army.

System of arrangement

Arranged chronologically within sections according to military service in Ceylon, Burma and Indo-China, apart from papers relating to the unpublished history of 20 Indian Division, translations of Japanese documents on operations in Burma, and copies of South-East Asia Translation and Interrogation Center Historical Bulletin, which have been grouped together.

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

English

Finding aids

Summary guide entry and this detailed Catalogue, and also in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

Allied materials

Existence and location of originals

King's College London College Archives

Related units of description

The papers of Gen Hasting Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay of Wormington include official correspondence with Gracey relating to India from 1946 to 1951 (re: Ismay 3/7/1-68). Southampton University Library holds the papers of AF Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, including corespondence with Gracey relating to South East Asia Command from 1945 to 1946.

Notes

Note

Compiled Jun 1996

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.