First World War Collections in the UK - JISC World War One ...

First World War Collections in the UK
A preliminary horizon-scan
Holding
institution
King’s College
London: Liddell
Hart Centre for
Military Archives
(specific)
King’s College
London: Liddell
Hart Centre for
Military Archives
(specific)
King’s College
London: Liddell
Hart Centre for
Military Archives
(specific)
King’s College
London: Liddell
Hart Centre for
Military Archives
(specific)
King’s College
London: Liddell
Hart Centre for
Military Archives
(specific)
King’s College
London: Liddell
Hart Centre for
Military Archives
(specific)
Item/ collection Link to website Brief description Region Type of
organisation
Papers of Brig
Gen Sir James
Edward Edmonds
(1861-1956)
Papers of
Maj Gen John
Frederick
Charles Fuller
(1878 - 1966)
Private papers of
Captain Sir Basil
Henry Liddell
Hart (1895 - 1970)
Private papers
of Maj Gen Sir
Frederick Barton
Maurice (1871-
1951)
Papers of Lt
Col Roger Alvin
Poore (1870-
1917)
Papers of Field
Marshal Sir
William Robert
Robertson (1860-
1933)
www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/summary/ed70-001.
shtml
www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/summary/fu20-001.
shtml
www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/summary/li30-001.
shtml
www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/cats/maurice/ma90-0.
shtml
www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/summary/po65-001.
shtml
www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/summary/ro45-001.
shtml
Papers arranged in
the following sections:
early papers and papers
relating to Staff College;
correspondence; memoirs
(first draft); lectures;
writings by Edmonds;
papers relating to World
War One; miscellaneous
writings by Edmonds
and others; newspaper
cuttings; second accession
(later draft of memoirs
and photographs).
Private papers arranged
in the following sections:
tank histories and bound
volumes of documents
concerning tank strategy
and tactics, Tank
Corps operations and
the Battle of Cambrai,
correspondence
concerning Canal
Defence Light tanks;
early papers; letters to
his parents; literary and
miscellaneous; occult;
later accessions.
Private papers of
Captain Sir Basil Henry
Liddell Hart comprising
correspondence, diaries
and notebooks 1910-1925
and papers relating to
early life, later military
writings and extensive
reference materials.
Papers of Maj Gen Sir
Frederick Barton Maurice
(1871-1951) and Maj
Gen Sir (John) Frederick
Maurice (1841-1912).
Divided into four sections:
Early family papers, John
Frederick Maurice papers,
Frederick Barton Maurice
papers and the ‘Maurice
case’ papers.
Papers arranged in the
following sections: South
Africa; management of
suspense account; World
War One; miscellaneous;
photographs; Mrs Lorne
Margery Poore.
Papers of Field Marshal
Sir William Robert
Robertson are arranged
chronologically and a
large number relate
specifically to his work
during the First World
War.
London region University
archives
London region University
archives
London region University
archives
London region University
archives
London region University
archives
London region University
archives
Subject area Status Medium Key individuals Highlights or Detailed Description Hours of access Social Networking Online access Link to website Terms of use
Government and
politics
Government and
politics
Government and
politics
Government and
politics
Military service
(combat
experience)
Military service
(combat
experience)
Highly
significant
Highly
significant
Highly
significant
Highly
significant
Highly
significant
Highly
significant
Private papers James Edward Edmonds
(1861-1956)
Private papers John Frederick Charles
Fuller (1878 - 1966)
Private papers Basil Henry Liddell Hart
(1895 - 1970)
Private papers Frederick Barton Maurice
(1871-1951)
Private papers Roger Alvin Poore (1870-
1917)
Private papers William Robert Robertson
(1860-1933)
Brig Gen Sir James Edward Edmonds entered Royal Engineers in 1881 and
rose to rank of Major by 1899. He then taught in the Royal Military Academy
and Staff College before joining the Intelligence Division at the War Office
during the Second Boer War. He remained at the War Office as a General Staff
Officer until the outbreak of war. He then served at General HQ of the British
Expeditionary Force, becoming Deputy Engineer-in-Chief in 1918. After the
war he was appointed Office in charge of Military Branch, Historical Section,
Committee of Imperial Defence, in which office he served until 1949. During
that time he published official histories of the First World War. Related papers:
The papers of Gen Sir Edward Louis Spears at the Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge University, include correspondence with Edmonds, 1924-1956 (Ref:
SPRS). Cabinet Office papers held at the Public Record Office include Edmonds’
correspondence files as official historian of the First World War (Ref: CAB 45).
Fuller joined the Army as a 2nd Lt, Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
in 1898. He served with the regiment in the Second Boer War. Afterwards he
attended the Staff College at Camberley and then served as an adjutant to a
territorial battalion. Outline of war service: General Staff Officer Grade 3, 2
Army HQ, Home Forces, 1914; General Staff Officer Grade 3, 7 Corps, France,
1915; General Staff Officer Grade 2, 37 Div, 7 Corps, France, 1916; General
Staff Officer Grade 2, 3 Army HQ, France, 1916; General Staff Officer Grade
2, Heavy Branch (later Tank Corps) HQ, France, 1916; General Staff Officer
Grade 1, 1917; planned tank attack at Cambrai, Nov-Dec 1917; Lt Col, 1918;
planned tank operations for autumn offensives of 1918; devised Plan 1919 for
a full-fledged mechanised-air offensive. (After the war he became the Chief
Instructor at the Staff College, Camberley in 1922 and published Military
Assistant to Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1926. He was the commander
of an experimental brigade at Aldershot and Senior Staff Officer, 2 Div, between
1927-1930; He was awarded the rank of Maj Gen in 1930; retired pay, 1933; He
was associated with Sir Oswald Moseley’s Union of British Fascists, 1933-1934;
became military correspondent for the London Daily Mail, 1935; died in 1966.
Related papers: Papers of Sir Basil Liddell Hart include correspondence with
Fuller, 1920-1966 (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Liddell Hart 1/302). The Centre also holds
a quantity of Macleod’s papers (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Macleod and GB99 KCLMA
Liddell Hart 15/14).Special Collections Department, Rutgers State University,
New Brunswick, USA, has a more substantial collection of Fuller’s papers
including correspondence, 1893-1966, drafts of published works and scrapbooks
of newspapers and periodicals, cuttings, reviews and articles, 1920-[1966].
Royal Armoured Corps and Royal Tank Regiment Museum holds his diary,
1914-1918. The papers of Harold Montgomery Belgion at the Churchill Archives
Centre, Cambridge University (Ref: BLGN) include correspondence with Fuller.
The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regimental Museum,
Headington, holds his journal, 1917-1918. The India Office Library holds a letter
to Lt Gen Sir Alexander (Stanhope) Cobbe, Secretary of Military Department,
India Office, 1921, relating to the use of tanks in India (Ref: L/Mil/7/1/133).
The papers of Karl Van Wieganel at the Hoover Institution, Stanford, USA, also
include correspondence with Fuller.
Captain Sir Liddell Hart was commissioned into the King’s Own Yorkshire Light
Infantry in 1914. He served in on the Western Front at Ypres and the Somme.
He was selected for the Royal Tank Corps, but invalided and retired on half
pay in 1924. He retired from the army as Capt in 1927. He was the military
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph between the years 1925 and 1935 and The
Times in the years between 1935 and 1939. He was personal adviser to Leslie
Hore-Belisha, Secretary of State for War, 1937-1938. He was also a prominent
inter-war military theorist and historian.
Maj Gen Sir Frederick Barton Maurice (1871-1951) gazetted to Derbyshire
Regt (later the Sherwood Foresters) in 1892 and he was a Lt Col by 1913. In the
opening year of the war he became a General Staff Officer Grade 2, later Grade
1, 3 Div, in France, 1914-1915. Between the years 1915 and 1918 he served as
the Director of Military Operations, Imperial General Staff and was made a Major
General in 1916. In May 1918 he wrote letter to the press accusing David Lloyd
George’s government of making misleading statements about the strength of
British Army on the Western Front. Later that month he retired from Army and
became a military correspondent for The Daily Chronicle. In 1920 he helped to
found the British Legion, of which he was President between the years 1932
and 1947. Related papers: F B Maurice: Department of Western Manuscripts,
Bodleian Library, Oxford University holds his letters to Herbert Asquith, 1916-
1925 (Ref: MSS Asquith). The papers of Maj Gen Sir Edward (Louis) Spears, 1st
Bt, at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge University, include correspondence,
1919-1944. The Department of Manuscripts, National Library of Scotland, holds
correspondence with Lord Haldane, 1917-1937 (Ref: MSS 5914-6103).
Lt Col Roger Alvin Poore served in South Africa during the Second Boer War
(1899-1902). He was stationed in UK with 2 Bn, 1 Royal Wilts Yeomanry, 1914-
1917 and joined 1 Bn, 1 Royal Wilts Yeomanry on Western Front in 1917. He then
transferred to 2 Bn, Royal Welch Fusiliers and was killed in action on the 26th
of September 1917. He is buried at Poelcapelle Cemetery, Belgium (Grave ref:
LV.F.11). The Centre also holds the papers of his father, Maj Robert Poore, and
his brothers, Brig Gen Robert Montagu Poore and Philip Poore.
Robertson joined the 16 (The Queen’s) Lancers in 1877, serving in the ranks
before being promoted whilst serving in India over the next decade. He became
the first ranker officer ever to attend the Staff College, Camberley, Surrey in
1897 and later joined the War Office. During the First World War he served as
Quartermaster General of the BEF and then the Chief of General Staff of the
BEF. He next appointment was as Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1915, a
position he held until 1918. He then became General Officer Commanding the
Home Forces and supervised the process of demobilisation. He was Commander
in Chief of the British Army of the Rhine between the years 1919 and 1920, and
in that year was made a Field Marshal, the only man ever to have risen from the
ranks to that position. He retired the following year.
Page 10
Monday - Friday: 9.30am - 5.30pm None specific to the collection Full catalogue
listing available
via the National
Archives’
Access to
Archives page
Monday - Friday: 9.30am - 5.30pm None specific to the collection Full catalogue
listing available
via the National
Archives’
Access to
Archives page
Monday - Friday: 9.30am - 5.30pm None specific to the collection Searchable
catalogue
Monday - Friday: 9.30am - 5.30pm None specific to the collection Full catalogue
listing available
via the National
Archives’
Access to
Archives page
Monday - Friday: 9.30am - 5.30pm None specific to the collection Full catalogue
listing available
via the National
Archives’
Access to
Archives page
Monday - Friday: 9.30am - 5.30pm None specific to the collection Searchable
catalogue
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
a2a/records.aspx?cat=099edmonds&cid=-1#-1
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
a2a/records.aspx?cat=099kclmafuller&cid=-1#-1
www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/cats/liddell/
li0.shtml
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
a2a/records.aspx?cat=099maurice&cid=-1#-1
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
a2a/records.aspx?cat=099poorera&cid=-1#-1
www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/cats/robertson/
ro45-0.shtml
Open, subject to signature of
reader’s undertaking form.
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.
Open, subject to signature of
reader’s undertaking form.
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.
Open, subject to signature of
reader’s undertaking form and
a letter of introduction. 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.
Open, subject to signature of
reader’s undertaking form.
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.
Open, subject to signature of
reader’s undertaking form.
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.
Open, subject to signature of
reader’s undertaking form.
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.