Macleod introduction

Reference code: GB99 KCLMA Liddell Hart
Title: MACLEOD, Col Roderick ('Rory') (1891-1984)
Dates of creation of material: 1918-1968
Level of description: file
Extent: 0.01 m³ or 1 box

Related pages

Papers of Col Roderick ('Rory') Macleod (1891-1984), 1918-1968

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

Born in 1891; educated at Rugby and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery, 1911; posted to 80 Battery, Royal Field Artillery, Kildare, Ireland, 1911; participated in the Curragh incident, 1914; served World War One, Western Front and Italy, 1914-1918; served with the British Expeditionary Force in 80 Battery, 15 Bde, Royal Field Artillery, 5 Div, 1914; wounded at Battle of Le Cateau, 1914; Lt, 1914; served with V Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, 2 Indian Cavalry Div, at Neuve Chapelle, Festubert and Aubers Ridge, 1915; served with X Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, 1915-1916; appointed liaison officer between 4 Army, Royal Artillery and 4 Bde, Royal Flying Corps, 1916-1917; Capt, 1916; commanded A Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, 240 Bde, Royal Field Artillery, 1917; awarded MC, 1917; commanded C Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, 241 Bde, Royal Field Artillery, 48 (South Midland) Div, Territorial Force, at Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) and Vimy Ridge, 1917; served in Italy, 1917-1918; awarded DSO, 1919; posted to UK with 1 Battery, Royal Field Artillery, 1919-1921; Adjutant, 36 Bde, Royal Field Artillery, 1921-1922; Adjutant, 1924-1925; graduated from Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1927; commanded 27 Battery, Royal Artillery, Allahabad, India, 1928; General Staff Officer 3, Headquarters, Meerut District, India, 1929-1930; Maj, 1929; General Staff Officer 2, Headquarters, Meerut District, India, 1930-1933; commanded 60 Battery, Royal Artillery, 1933; General Staff Officer 2, 47 (2 London) Div, Territorial Army, 1934-1936; Brevet Lt Col, 1935; General Staff Officer 2, 48 (South Midland) Div, Territorial Army, 1936-1938; Substantive Lt Col, 1938; Col, 1938; commanded 6 Medium Regt, Royal Artillery, Muttra, India, 1938-1939; appointed acting Brig, Royal Artillery, Headquarters Eastern Command, Naini Tal, India, 1939; appointed General Staff Officer 1 and Military Assistant to Gen Sir (William) Edmund Ironside, Inspector General of Overseas Forces, 1939, and Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1939-1940; served World War Two, 1939-1945; commanded 4 Army, a fictitious unit employed in deceiving German forces on Allied strength and invasion targets, 1944; retired 1945; appointed literary executor to the estate of FM (William) Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and of Ironside, 1959; died 1984.

Publications:

• The Ironside diaries, edited by Macleod, (Constable, London, 1962).

PROVENANCE

The collection was given to Liddell Hart during their years of correspondence, 1935-1970, and was incorporated into Liddell Hart's reference material. The Liddell Hart collection was purchased by King's College London in 1973.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The papers mainly relate to Macleod's life and career, 1918-1968, and to the life and career of FM (William) Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and Ironside, 1902-1959, principally comprising correspondence with Ironside 1921-1959 (15/14/9-10), including copies of annual reports on Ironside by senior officers, 1919-1934, and copies of annual reports on Macleod, 1918-1939 (15/14/10).

The collection also contains unpublished memoirs by Macleod. 'An artillery officer in the First World War' on Macleod's World War One experiences, include accounts of the Curragh incident, Mar 1914, the retreat from Mons, Aug 1914, the Western Front, 1914-1917 and the Asiago Plateau, Italy, 1918 [1965] (15/14/1). 'A Secret Service agent in South West Africa' is an account of Lt (William) Edmund Ironside's service in South Africa, German South West Africa and British Bechuanaland, 1902-1904 [1965].

The papers also contain the typescript text of a lecture by Macleod on the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), 1968.

ARRANGEMENT

The papers of Col Roderick ('Rory') Macleod constitute section 15/14 of the papers of Capt Sir Basil Liddell Hart. The original order was retained by Liddell Hart and subsequently when the whole of the Liddell Hart archive was originally catalogued by Stephen Brooks between 1973 and 1975. This arrangement has been retained in the present catalogue, Jan 1998.

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE

Access

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

Copyright

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

English

RELATED MATERIAL

Related units of description

The papers of Col Roderick ('Rory') Macleod are also in a separate collection (Ref: Macleod), containing mostly duplicates of the material in LH 15/14, deposited between 1964-1966. General correspondence with Capt Sir Basil Liddell Hart, 1935-1970 (Ref: LH 1/481). The papers of Maj Gen Ridley Pakenham Pakenham-Walsh include correspondence from Capt George Alexander Eugene Douglas Haig, 2nd Earl Haig, and FM Ironside to Macleod, 1939-1945 (Ref: Pakenham-Walsh).

Associated material

The National Army Museum holds correspondence and papers, 1908-1970 (Ref: 8502/32) and a typescript account of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres), 1917 (Ref: 9405-4/275).