Download this summary catalogue (PDF) ›PAKENHAM-WALSH, Maj Gen Ridley Pakenham (1888-1966)

Identity statement

Reference code(s)

GB0099 KCLMA Pakenham-Walsh

Title

PAKENHAM-WALSH, Maj Gen Ridley Pakenham (1888-1966)

Date(s)

1917-1965

Level of description

Collection (fonds)

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

2½ boxes

Context

Name of creator(s)

Walsh, Ridley Pakenham, Pakenham-, 1888-1966, Major General

Administrative / Biographical history

Born 1888; educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; commissioned into Corps of Royal Engineers, 1908; Instructor, Royal Military College, Duntroon, Australia, 1914-1915; served in World War One, 1914-1918; service at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, 1915-1918; Brevet Maj, 1919; British Representative, International Commission, Teschen, Czech-Polish frontier, 1919-1920; Instructor in Tactics and Bde Maj, School of Military Engineering, Chatham, Kent, 1923-1926; General Staff Officer 2, War Office, 1927-1930; Brevet Lt Col, 1928; Imperial Defence College; Assistant Adjutant General, War Office, 1934-1935; Brig, General Staff, Eastern Command, 1935-1939; Maj Gen, 1939; Commandant, School of Military Engineering, Chatham, Kent, and Inspector, Corps of Royal Engineers, 1939; Engineer in Chief, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), France, 1939-1940; awarded CB, 1940; General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland District, 1940-1941; Corps Commander and acting Lt Gen, 1941; Commander, Salisbury Plain District, 1942; Controller General, Army Provision (EG), 1943-1946; Vice Chairman, Harlow New Town Development Corporation, Essex, 1947-1950; President, Cheltonian Society, 1948-1949; died 1966. Decorations: CB, MC. Publications: Outline history of the Russo-Japanese War [1924]; Elementary tactics (Sifton, Praed and Company, London, 1926); History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Volumes VIII and IX (Longmans, London, 1959).

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Presented to the Centre by the family in 1980, 1982 and 1995.

Content & structure

Scope and content

Carbon out-letter book, dated Mar 1917-Jan 1920, mostly relating to Pakenham-Walsh's service as British Representative, International Commission, Teschen, Czech-Polish frontier, 1919-1920. Seven manuscript, narrative diaries, Nov 1927-Apr 1939. Fifteen manuscript narrative diaries, containing photographs, newspaper cuttings, letters and reports, 19 Nov 1939-3 Feb 1947. Correspondence received by Pakenham-Walsh, 1940-1965, notably including letters from Prime Minister Rt Hon Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, 25 Dec 1940, Gen Sir John Greer Dill, 7 Dec 1941, FM Sir Cyril John Deverell, 21 Dec 1942, FM (William) Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and of Ironside, 25 Dec 1942, FM Hon Sir Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 17 Dec 1944, and Col Roderick Macleod, Jun-Aug 1960. Transcript of message from Rt Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha to Gen John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, delivered verbally by Pakenham-Walsh, 25 Nov 1939, relating to the concern of Prime Minister Rt Hon (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain at weakness of the Army under Gort.

System of arrangement

The collection is arranged in sections as outlined in scope and content.

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 available online and in hard copy in the reading room.

Allied materials

Existence and location of originals

King's College London College Archives

Related units of description

The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives also holds papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, containing correspondence with Pakenham-Walsh, Dec 1935 (Ref: LH2P/4/1-2); correspondence relating to Europe in arms by Liddell Hart (Faber and Faber, London, 1937)(Ref: LH 9/15/7); obituary for Pakenham-Walsh, 1966 (Ref: LH 15/6/5/16). The papers of Col Roderick Macleod include newspaper cuttings relating to Pakenham-Walsh and the working relationships between the Rt Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha, FM (William) Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and of Ironside, and FM John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, during 1939-1940 (Ref: Macleod 2/2/2).

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.

Date(s) of descriptions

Oct 1999