Armed forces
Subject
Subject Source: UK Archival Thesaurus
Found in 991 Collections and/or Records:
File
Public and Political: General: Correspondence, A-B., Jan 1929 - Oct 1934
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/572A-B
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Edward Marsh on an expression used by WSC; Cyril Alington, Headmaster of Eton College, on the education of Randolph Churchill (2); [1st] Lord Beatty on subjects including criticism of an obituary of Admiral Franz Hipper (5); Julian Amery; Nancy, Lady Astor on a disagreement with WSC; John Astor; Wilfrid Bailey; Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister, on subjects including WSC's "Marlborough: His Life and Times", WSC's health, Free Trade, India and political affairs (14);...
Dates:
Jan 1929 - Oct 1934
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Correspondence, L-M., May 1929 - Sep 1934
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/575A-B
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Oliver Locker Lampson on subjects including an invitation to give a lecture (2); Sir John Lavery on the Artists' General Benevolent Institution; Nathan Laski requesting an invitation with the Home Secretary; Shane Leslie on WSC's "Marlborough: His life and times" and on family news (3); Commander Augustus Agar on a possible lecture by WSC; Leonie Leslie [earlier Leonie Jerome]; Frederick Lindemann [later 1st Lord Cherwell] on subjects including the Conservative Party,...
Dates:
May 1929 - Sep 1934
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Defence., 08 Jan 1938 - [1940]
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/336
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on defence issues include: 5th Lord Munster [earlier Geoffry FitzClarence] (2); Robert Cary on developments in Japanese naval armaments and the implications for Singapore; Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister, on WSC's notes on aircraft types (2); Sir Henry Strakosch (3); F A Lindemann [later 1st Lord Cherwell] on Strakosch's figures for the air raids on Barcelona [Spain]; [Eric] John Hodsoll [Inspector-General], Home Office ARP Department, on the state of the ARP programme,...
Dates:
08 Jan 1938 - [1940]
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Defence., 06 Nov 1936 - 20 Jan 1942
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/371A-B
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on defence issues include: Sir Thomas Inskip [Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, later 1st Lord Caldecote]; Harry Sellar, Private Secretary to Inskip (2); Leslie Hore-Belisha, Secretary of State for War, on subjects including the arming of the Guards Battalions; Sir Kingsley Wood, Secretary of State for Air, on showing WSC [air construction graphs]; 1st Lord Swinton [former Secretary of State for Air, earlier Philip Cunliffe-Lister and Philip Lloyd-Greame] on the formation...
Dates:
06 Nov 1936 - 20 Jan 1942
Conditions Governing Access:
Open.
File
Public and Political: General: Defence: Correspondence and papers., 09 Jan 1937 - 23 Feb 1938
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/302
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Sir Philip Gibbs on the inefficiency of the RAF; Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt [former Vice-President of the Tank Board] (2); Sir William Beveridge [Director of London School of Economics and Political Science]; Oswald Frewen on working with German and Italian sailors, German fanaticism, Italian aid to Franco and how the policies of Neville Chamberlain [Prime Minister] encourage Germany and Italy; Leo Amery; Basil Liddell Hart; Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson...
Dates:
09 Jan 1937 - 23 Feb 1938
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Defence: Correspondence etc., 12 Jan 1936 - 27 Nov 1936
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/266A-B
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Basil Liddell Hart [Military Correspondent to the Times] on the troop system used in India; "Harold R" [1st Lord Rothermere, earlier Sir Harold Harmsworth] on subjects including 1st Lord Weir's position in defence [as Adviser to the Air Ministry], the likely stop to any battleship programme, pilot training, the likelihood of a quick German victory against Britain and France, German contempt for the British Government, and the Government's refusal to discuss the...
Dates:
12 Jan 1936 - 27 Nov 1936
Conditions Governing Access:
Open, (folio 93 opened as a 'sanitised' photocopy, original closed on advice of Cabinet Office).
File
Public and Political: General: Defence: Correspondence etc., 09 Feb 1920 - 28 Dec 1936
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/267
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Frederick Beaumont-Nesbitt [Military Attache, Paris, France] on WSC's visit to see French military manoeuvres at Aix-en-Provence and the Maginot Line (2); "George L" [1st Lord Lloyd of Dolobran]; Alan Herbert, introducing Major-General Sir Percy Hobart [Inspector, Royal Tank Corps, and Commander, Tank Brigade] (2); Desmond Morton on subjects including meeting the representative of the Spanish Nationalists, the Marques del Moral, Communist atrocities in Spain, the...
Dates:
09 Feb 1920 - 28 Dec 1936
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Defence: Inventions and suggestions., Nov 1935 - 31 Jul 1936
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/278
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on defence inventions and suggestions from the general public include: Richard Powell [Assistant Private Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty] (3); Desmond Morton [Director, Industrial Intelligence Centre]; Sir Christopher Bullock [Permanent Secretary], Air Ministry; Ralph Assheton [later 1st Lord Clitheroe]; Colonel George Turner [former Superintendent, Design Department, Royal Arsenal]; Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Thoroton on the advantages of Admiralty control of the...
Dates:
Nov 1935 - 31 Jul 1936
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Defence: Inventions and suggestions., 09 Mar 1936 - 31 Dec 1936
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/279
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on defence inventions and suggestions from the general public include: K N Coates [Assistant Private Secretary to the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence] (4); Vernon Bovenizer, Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for War (2); [Edward] Jerome Dyer; Harry Sellar [Private Secretary to the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence] (2); P Warburton, [Assistant Secretary], Committee of Imperial Defence (4); Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh Elles, Master General of the...
Dates:
09 Mar 1936 - 31 Dec 1936
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Defence: Inventions and Suggestions., 22 Dec 1936 - 28 Dec 1937
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/310
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on defence inventions and suggestions from the general public include: Laurence Boutwood, Secretary to the 3rd Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy; Brigadier-General Sir Henry Page Croft on the [installation of a munitions plant by the Plessey Company Limited]; Allen Clark [Joint Managing Director, Plessey Company Limited] on the installation; Richard Powell [Private Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty]; Rear-Admiral Bertram Ramsay [Chief of Staff, Home Fleet] on...
Dates:
22 Dec 1936 - 28 Dec 1937
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Defence: Memoranda etc., 14 Feb 1936 - 26 Oct 1936
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/268
Scope and Contents
Includes: memorandum by Desmond Morton on subjects including German propaganda on French military aviation and the Soviet army, and notes [added to file in January 1996] on a speech by the Minister for Co-ordination of Defence [Sir Thomas Inskip, later 1st Lord Caldecote], rebutting Inskip's claims for military production; memorandum by Sir Philip Gibbs on the inefficient state of the RAF, and its need for expansion; press cuttings from the Figaro, with an article on the Anglo-French crisis...
Dates:
14 Feb 1936 - 26 Oct 1936
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Fleet Air Arm., 25 Jan 1937 - 28 Apr 1937
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/305
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on the Fleet Air Arm include: Brigadier-General Percy Groves; Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, 3rd Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, on subjects including the need for the RAF to specialise (2); Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes; Lord Louis Mountbatten [Admiralty, Naval Air Division] on the need for a unified service in defence of trade and recommending Captain Cosmo Graham as a source of information; Marshal of the RAF 1st Lord Trenchard on reasons for the Air...
Dates:
25 Jan 1937 - 28 Apr 1937
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Germany: Military and Economic Intelligence., 22 Feb 1939 - 15 Jun 1939
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/374
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on Germany include: Sir Henry Strakosch on Germany's spending on armaments, 1938 - 9, comparative British spending, petrol and oil consumption by German aircraft, the German oil supply and the case for destroying the Romanian oil wells on the outbreak of war (4); Anthony de Rothschild; "Edward" [Lord Halifax, Foreign Secretary, earlier Edward Wood and Lord Irwin]; Sir Keith Price [former Council Member, Ministry of Munitions] on the capacity of explosive production during the...
Dates:
22 Feb 1939 - 15 Jun 1939
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Germany: Military Intelligence., 10 Jan 1937 - 02 Sep 1938
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/341
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on military intelligence include: Ian Colvin on the impending German occupation of Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic and Slovakia]; John Morgan on German rearmament and his projected book on the subject; Desmond Morton [Director, Industrial Intelligence Centre] on French estimates of German air strength (2); Edouard Daladier [French Prime Minister] on his agreement with WSC about German military strength.Other subjects include: a visit by William Deakin to Prague; Czech...
Dates:
10 Jan 1937 - 02 Sep 1938
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Germany: Political Intelligence and Rearmament., 08 Jan 1937 - 09 Dec 1937
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/307
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on Germany include: Desmond Morton [Director of the Industrial Intelligence Centre] on subjects including the "Black Front" against Hitler, Czechoslovakia's internal policy on Nazism and intelligence received by WSC (6); Bernhard Reichenbach; Harcourt Johnstone; Prince Hubertus Loewenstein; Pierre Cot, French Minister for Air; [?] Sir Frederick Butler [Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]; Heinrich Bruning [former Chancellor of Germany] on articles by WSC on...
Dates:
08 Jan 1937 - 09 Dec 1937
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Germany: Rearmament intelligence., 07 Mar 1936 - 16 Nov 1936
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/274
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Brigadier-General John Morgan; 1st Lord Rothermere [earlier Sir Harold Harmsworth] on claims by Air Chief Marshal Hermann Goering for German air strength and the attitude of Yugoslavia [later Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia], Poland and Italy to war, and on French air strength; Eleanor Rathbone on pro-German sympathy among her constituents, and WSC's attitude to France's insistence on continuing sanctions...
Dates:
07 Mar 1936 - 16 Nov 1936
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Minister for Co-ordination of Defence: Correspondence with., 21 Dec 1936 - 20 Apr 1937
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/306
Scope and Contents
Correspondence between WSC and Sir Thomas Inskip [Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, later 1st Lord Caldecote] on subjects including: the case of British Timken Limited supplying armaments to Germany instead of Britain; general priority for Government armament orders in industry; the state of first-line air strength; changes in the RAF's expansion targets.Also includes: letter from Michael Dewar [Chairman, British Timken Limited] on supplying armaments to Germany, control of armaments...
Dates:
21 Dec 1936 - 20 Apr 1937
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: miscellaneous correspondence., Mar 1941 - Dec 1941
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/415
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Queen Mary asking WSC to autograph a photograph; [6th] Lord Hood [Private Secretary to the Minister of Information] on supplying a F Hourani with information on WSC's ancestor Colonel Charles Churchill; [Emmanuel] Tsouderos, Prime Minister of Greece, and James Gardiner, Canadian Minister of Agriculture, sending Christmas and New Year greetings. Also includes notes and copies of correspondence from Prime Minister's Private Secretaries "J R C" [John Colville], "E M W"...
Dates:
Mar 1941 - Dec 1941
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: New Commonwealth., 02 Feb 1938 - 20 Dec 1938
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/344
Scope and Contents
Correspondents on the New Commonwealth Society include: N B Foot, General Secretary, New Commonwealth Society, on subjects including requests for WSC to give speeches, meetings of the society and New Commonwealth Parliamentary Group, press statements and a visit by Edouard Herriot, President of the French Chamber (14); 1st Lord Davies [Chairman, New Commonwealth Society] asking WSC to lead a campaign for the society, and on funding for the United States branch (3); Nicholas Murray Butler...
Dates:
02 Feb 1938 - 20 Dec 1938
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Pamphlets., Feb 1936 - Jul 1936
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/293
Scope and Contents
Pamphlets, mainly on Germany, including: Friends of Europe monthly survey of German publications, and pamphlet on "The Racial Conception of the World", from Hitler's "Mein Kampf"; report from the Anglo-German Information Service on hygiene and the community in Germany; extract from the Contemporary Review with an article on the financial crisis in Germany by Bernhard Reichenbach ("Herman Hermes"); Trustees for Freedom (also Hands off Britain) pamphlets, including "Hitler's Claim for...
Dates:
Feb 1936 - Jul 1936
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Patronage: 615 Squadron., 01 Feb 1939 - 17 Jan 1945
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/568A-B
Scope and Contents
Correspondents concerning WSC's role as honorary air commodore of the 615 squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force (part of the RAF) include: several commanding squadron leaders reporting on activities and achievements including K Collard, Thomas Meyer, R Holland (3), David McCormack (3), Denys Gillam, J Kayll (4), R Simmons, P Hugo, R Mouchette, W Stern and Vere Harvey, the founder of the 615 County of Surrey squadron (11); Sir William Lindsay Everard; Sholto Douglas, Commander in Chief Fighter...
Dates:
01 Feb 1939 - 17 Jan 1945
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Personal Office correspondence, H-K, many congratulating WSC on becoming Prime Minister and praising his speeches and leadership., Sep [1939] - Dec 1940
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 2/395
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: [Lord] Halifax [earlier Edward Wood and Lord Irwin, Foreign Secretary] (3) including (1) on the War Cabinet and (1) on Neville Chamberlain's health; Nina, [Duchess of] Hamilton [and Brandon] giving advice on speeches; [2nd Lord] Hamilton of Dalzell on defending Brittany, France; Captain [Cecil] Harcourt on his receiving an honour; [Saville] Garner [Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for the Dominions] on Sir Edward Harding's collection of autographed...
Dates:
Sep [1939] - Dec 1940
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Political: Correspondence A-C., Jun 1950 - Oct 1951
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHUR 2/113A-B
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Sir Richard Acland on the "Churchill Arch" in the House of Commons; Commander Peter Agnew withdrawing his candidacy at Ormskirk [Lancashire]; Patrick Kinna (Foreign Office); representatives of the Conservative Research Department including [Richard] Michael Fraser [later Lord Fraser of Kilmorack] (4); Garry Allighan on his expulsion from the House of Commons; Cuthbert Alport; Leo Amery on Persian [Iranian] oil; 1st Lord Woolton [earlier Frederick Marquis, Chairman,...
Dates:
Jun 1950 - Oct 1951
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Political: correspondence and papers, mainly from Field Marshal [1st Lord] Montgomery of Alamein [Chief of Imperial General Staff]., Feb 1948 - May 1950
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHUR 2/31
Scope and Contents
Includes copies of: various notes and memoranda by Montgomery for the War Office or Chiefs of Staff Committee on the British Army, Western European defence, and his 1948 visits to France and Austria; addresses by him to the "Ecole Superieur de Guerre" and senior officers of the Brussels Treaty Powers, Fontainebleau [France].Other correspondents include: Leslie Hore-Belisha sending on notes of his conversation with the Spanish High Commissioner [to Morocco] General Valera and a translation of...
Dates:
Feb 1948 - May 1950
Conditions Governing Access:
Open
File
Public and Political: General: Political: correspondence and papers on defence, atomic weapons and energy., Nov 1945 - Apr 1954
File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHUR 2/28
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include: Prime Minister Clement Attlee (6); Anthony Eden [later 1st Lord Avon] on the strength of the army and RAF; [1st] Lord Cherwell [earlier F A Lindemann] (3); President Harry Truman (2); Walter Gifford, United States Ambassador to Great Britain. Also includes notes and copies of correspondence from WSC's secretaries "N S" [Jo Sturdee, later Lady Onslow], "J P" [Jane Portal, later Lady Williams of Elvel], "L M M" [Lettice Marston, later Lettice Shillingford], and "C G"...
Dates:
Nov 1945 - Apr 1954
Conditions Governing Access:
From the Fonds:
The Churchill Papers are made available to researchers using Churchill Archives Centre and worldwide in digital format. The digital edition of the Churchill Papers is published by Bloomsbury Academic and is available online to subscribing institutions at churchillarchive.com. The Churchill archive is freely available in our reading rooms and onsite at Churchill College (via the Churchill College wireless network). Researchers can download images of documents directly from churchillarchive.com and so are encouraged to consider bringing a laptop or other device for this purpose. For conservation reasons, the fragile originals are no longer issued to researchers.
This digital edition is open to researchers unless otherwise marked in the catalogue. Some material has been closed by the Cabinet Office or by Churchill Archives Centre in accordance with data protection legislation.