The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (LHCMA) at King's College London was set up in 1964. The Centre holds the private papers of over 700 senior British defence personnel who held office since 1900. Individual collections range in size from a single file to the 1000 boxes of Captain Sir Basil Liddell Hart's papers. To these are now being added research materials, notably interview transcripts, collected in connection with television documentaries and academic projects.
The scope of the holdings is vast, from high level defence policy and strategic planning as, for example, in the papers of Field Marshal Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke and General Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay down to the command of individual units in the field. The Second Boer War is strongly represented and subsequently almost every major campaign in which British troops have fought, including the Korean and Falklands Wars and the Gulf Crisis; the latter two are covered by contemporary interview transcripts.
Many significant collections reflect the revolution in weapon technology in the 20th century and the re-evaluation of tactics and strategy which necessarily followed on from the invention of the tank and the development of air power. There is also much on the debate over nuclear issues.
The Centre's web site hosts the Location Register of Twentieth Century Defence Personnel, a database of some 3000 British defence personnel who achieved the ranks above and including Major General, Air Vice Marshal and Rear Admiral between the years 1900-1975.
The archives are open to readers able to demonstrate the seriousness of their interest in the papers. Military studies have been taught at King's College since 1927 and in 1953 a department of War Studies, the only university department of its kind in Great Britain, was established.
Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha, PC was a British Liberal, then National Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister. He later joined the Conservative Party. He proved highly successful in modernizing the British road system in 1934–1937 as Minister of Transport. As War Secretary, 1937–1940, he feuded with the commanding generals and was removed in 1940. Some writers believe anti-semitism played a role in blocking his appointment as Minister of Information although considering Churchill's close relationship with Duff Cooper and Brendan Bracken this seems unlikely. His biographer compares his strong and weak points:
He was a brilliant speaker, a warm and engaging personality, a go-getter and a persistent driver, a master of the unconventional or indirect approach, a patriot and a man of moral and physical courage, not a great intellect but an original with a flair for imaginative gestures and for public relations. He also had personal weaknesses. He was extremely self-centred and had a fine conceit of himself. At times he was accused of sharp practice. ... Sharp practitioner or not, [his] quickness of mind and tongue, and transparent ambition to be seen to succeed, made him vulnerable to smears. ... His over-assertiveness ... led him to appear inconsiderate of the feelings and views of others.
Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay, was a diplomat and general in the British Indian Army who was the first Secretary General of NATO. He also was Winston Churchill's chief military assistant during the Second World War.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Henry Robert Moore Brooke-Popham, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. During the First World War he served in the Royal Flying Corps as a wing commander and senior staff officer. Remaining in the new Royal Air Force (RAF) after the war, Brooke-Popham was the first commandant of its Staff College at Andover and later held high command in the Middle East. He was Governor of Kenya in the late 1930s. Most notably, Brooke-Popham was Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Command until being replaced a few weeks before Singapore fell to Japanese troops.
Admiral Sir Harold Martin Burrough was a senior Royal Navy officer and Assistant Chief of Naval Staff to the Royal Navy during World War II.
Lieutenant-General Sir James Moncrieff Grierson, ADC (Gen.) was a British soldier.
Henry Spenser Wilkinson was the first Chichele Professor of Military History at Oxford University. While he was an English writer known primarily for his work on military subjects, he had wide interests. Earlier in his career he was the drama critic for London's Morning Post.
William Stephen Richard King-Hall, Baron King-Hall of Headley was a British naval officer, writer, politician and playwright who served as the member of parliament for Ormskirk from 1939 to 1945.
Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Grice Sturges was a senior Royal Marines officer who fought in both the First World War and Second World War.
Brian James Bond is a British military historian and professor emeritus of military history at King's College London.
The Maughan Library is the main university research library of King's College London, forming part of the Strand Campus. A 19th-century neo-Gothic building located on Chancery Lane in the City of London, it was formerly the home to the headquarters of the Public Record Office, known as the "strong-box of the Empire", and was acquired by the university in 2001. Following a £35m renovation designed by Gaunt Francis Architects, the Maughan is the largest new university library in the United Kingdom since World War II.
Lieutenant-General Sir Lionel Vivian Bond, was a senior officer in the British Army.
Air Vice Marshal John Lindsay Barker was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and the following years. He was the second Commander of the Royal Ceylon Air Force during the early 1960s.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Alfred Earle, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War who later served as Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff (1964–66), and Director General of British Defence Intelligence (1966–1968).
Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian and military theorist. He wrote a series of military histories that proved influential among strategists. Arguing that frontal assault was bound to fail at great cost in lives, as proven in the First World War, he recommended the “indirect approach" and reliance on fast-moving armoured formations.
Lieutenant General Sir James Ronald Edmondston Charles, was a senior British Army officer in the Royal Engineers.
Lieutenant General Sir George Lloyd Reilly Richardson was an officer in the British Indian Army from 1866 to 1909. He served across South East Asia, becoming a veteran of the Second Anglo-Afghan War and Boxer Rebellion, and later as commander of the Ulster Volunteer Force in Ireland.
The Department of War Studies (DWS) is an academic department in the School of Security Studies within the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy at King's College London in London, United Kingdom. Along with other politics and international studies units at King's College London, it ranks amongst the top places for international relations in the world. The department is devoted to the multi-disciplinary study of war and diplomacy within the broad remit of international relations.
The Royal Army Medical College (RAMC) was located on a site south of the Tate Gallery on Millbank, in Westminster, London, overlooking the River Thames. The college moved from the site in 1999 and the buildings are now occupied by the Chelsea College of Arts. The area around the college including the Tate, former military hospital and other adjacent areas is a conservation area. The former college buildings are now listed.
Air Vice Marshal William Foster MacNeece Foster, was a senior Royal Air Force officer who was a member of the Combined Chiefs of Staff from 1942 to 1943. He later became a member of Oxford City Council and Lord Mayor of Oxford.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
