Collection MESSENGER - MESSENGER, Colonel William de Lemos Milles (1913-2005)

Key Information

Reference code

MESSENGER

Title

MESSENGER, Colonel William de Lemos Milles (1913-2005)

Date(s)

  • 1945-1994 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent

4 boxes and 1 outsize file

Scope and content

Papers of Colonel William de Lemos Milles ('Toby') Messenger, 1945-1994, relating to atomic tests and British nuclear policy, 1945-1989, including Messenger's report on effects of atomic blast on a Challenger tank, Australia, 1953 (Exercise TOTEM); manuscript draft article by Messenger on observing a nuclear explosion and pamphlets on nuclear weapons, 1945-1982 and papers relating to Messenger's position as Scientific Advisor (Nuclear) to Northhampton County Council (NCC) Emergency Planning, 1980-1993, including an appreciation of Exercise WET FINGER run by the NCC, [1988]; NCC emergency plans for radiation incidents; training manual for scientific advisors; files of notes, articles and other papers on the following topics: improving methods for obtaining bomb burst data, improvised bomb data, chemical and biological warfare, meteorology, victims of disaster, public reaction to nuclear technology, nuclear electromagnetic pulse, nuclear winter, casualty prediction, chemical and biological hazard protection and health, water, food, agriculture and energy after a widespread disaster; and publications including journal Fission Fragments, 1982-1992 and Civil Protection Magazine, 1991-1994.

System of arrangement

Original order.

General Information

Name of creator

(1913-2005)

Biographical history

Born, 1913; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, -1934; 3 Battalion, Royal Tank Corps, 1934; Experimental Wing RAC Gunnery School, 1938-1942; Instructor School of Tank Technology, 1942; Ministry of Supply, 1943; Instructor RMCS Shrivenham, 1946-1948; 7 Royal Tank Regiment as Officer Commanding Specialised Armour Squadron, 1948-1950; Inspectorate of Armoured Fighting Vehicles, 1950-1953; attended Exercise TOTEM nuclear test in Australia as Royal Armoured Corps and Royal Artillery representative, 1953; Army Operational Research Group, West Byfleet, 1953; Commanded Experimental Wing of Defence Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Centre School, Winterbourne Gunner, 1956-1958; retired from the Army, 1958; Health and Safety Branch UK Atomic Energy Authority, 1958-1973; freelance nuclear consultant and technical translator, 1973; Scientific Advisor (Nuclear) to Northhampton County Council Emergency Planning, 1980-1993; died, 2005.

Custodial history

Received from the family, 2008.

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

Finding aids

This collection level description.

Related descriptions

Alternative identifier(s)

People and Organisations

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

Entry compiled by Sarah Drewery.

Accession area