Skip to main content

First World War (1914-1918)

 Subject
Subject Source: UK Archival Thesaurus

Found in 1483 Collections and/or Records:

 File

Royal Society: Special General Meeting re expelling foreign enemy members, July - Aug. 1918

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0012/MS Add.8634/G.18
Scope and Contents

A Special General Meeting was held on 31 July 1918 to consider the advisability of expelling enemy foreign members from the Society. The file includes a printed notice of the meeting; two letters from Thomas R.R. Stebbing to Bateson re a note in Nature which appeared to ignore the fact that the proposal was rejected at the meeting; and related notes in Bateson's hand.

Dates: July - Aug. 1918
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Fonds

Ruth Darwin: correspondence and papers

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0012/MS Add.9790
Scope and Contents

The collection consists primarily of letters from Ruth Darwin to members of her family but predominantly to her sister (Emma) Nora Darwin, and correspondence and papers arising out of Ruth's work with the British Committee of the French Red Cross in France in 1917-1919.

Dates: 1890-1944
Conditions Governing Access: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 File

Salamis [Σαλαμίς, Negatives], 1916-12 - 1917-03

 File
Reference Code: GBR/3437/AJBW/3/64
Scope and Contents

10 negative prints, all of ships anchored around the island of Salamis in the Saronic Gulf. On the envelope which originally housed this negatives, AJBW wrote 'Mother boat, La..?/ Men with ?/ Men / Mt Cave with us / Implacable at anchor'.
The last was the pre-Dreadnought battleship HMS Implacable. The other vessels in these images merit futher investigation in order to ascertain precise identiies.

Dates: 1916-12 - 1917-03
 Fonds

"Scottish Soldier": the Autobiography of Major-General Douglas Wimberley

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0014/WIMB
Scope and Contents

Churchill Archives Centre holds excerpts from volume one and a complete copy of volume two of the autobiography. Subjects covered include Wimberley's service in the First World War, between the wars and during the Second World War.

Dates: 1973
Conditions Governing Access: The autobiography is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 Unknown

"Shall we all commit suicide?", Sep 1924

 Unknown
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 8/200B/202-206
Scope and Contents Press cutting of article by WSC published in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine, illustrated with a portrait photograph of WSC. Covers progress and developments in knowledge, technology and science and their use in World War I; the potential for extermination of the human race; possibility of another war in Europe; speculation on the development of explosive weapons "Might not a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power", and of pilot-less aircraft, chemical and biological...
Dates: Sep 1924
Conditions Governing Access: Open
 File

Sir Winston Churchill's letters to Lady Churchill, 1914-02 - 1914-11

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CSCT 2/7
Scope and Contents Subjects include: debates in Parliament on 'the Ulster Pogrom' [moving ships to the coast of Ireland in case it became necessary to move troops to Northern Ireland]; the grief of John Seely [later 1st Lord Mottistone] [following the death of his wife]; a suggestion of a vacancy [? at the India Office]; Churchill's concerns about their finances; the reception of the Budget; Clementine's anxiety about Churchill's flying and the death of the pilot Gustav Hamel; the health of Jack [John S...
Dates: 1914-02 - 1914-11
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: With the exception of the staff wages books in CSCT 9/1, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

Sir Winston Churchill's letters to Lady Churchill, 1915-05 - 1915-12

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CSCT 2/8
Scope and Contents Subjects include: Churchill’s departure for Paris to take part in negotiations on Italy’s part in the war, May 1915; the Dardanelles campaign; a successful engagement by the Royal Naval Division, May 1915; Churchill’s instructions to Clementine regarding his finances and papers in the case of his death; being offered command of a brigade by Field Marshal Sir John French [Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Forces in France, later 1st Lord Ypres], November 1915; the prospects of going...
Dates: 1915-05 - 1915-12
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: With the exception of the staff wages books in CSCT 9/1, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

Sir Winston Churchill's letters to Lady Churchill, 1916-01 - 1916-05

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CSCT 2/9
Scope and Contents Subjects include: Churchill’s frustration with the direction of the war; the importance of Clementine keeping up relations with David Lloyd George [Minister of Munitions]; Churchill’s new battalion, the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers, with ‘Archie’ [Archibald Sinclair, later 1st Lord Thurso] as his second in command; Churchill’s disillusionment with Herbert Asquith [Prime Minister, later 1st Lord Oxford and Asquith]; slow progress on ‘the caterpillars’ [tanks] recommended by Churchill in his...
Dates: 1916-01 - 1916-05
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: With the exception of the staff wages books in CSCT 9/1, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

Sir Winston Churchill's letters to Lady Churchill, 1917-05-29

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CSCT 2/10
Scope and Contents

Letter written from Paris during Churchill's visit to the front, on subjects including: meetings with General [Marie] Emile Fayolle, Commander of the 6th Army and Philippe Pétain, General-in-Chief; the need to replace Sir Francis Bertie [British Ambassador to France]; the inescapable thoughts of carnage and ruin caused by the war, despite the pleasantness of Churchill's trip.

Dates: 1917-05-29
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: With the exception of the staff wages books in CSCT 9/1, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

Sir Winston Churchill's letters to Lady Churchill, 1918-02 - 1918-12

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CSCT 2/11
Scope and Contents Subjects include: Churchill's wish to send Clementine and the children out of London, because of the risk of Zeppelin raids; visit to France for talks on munitions supplies, February 1918; returning to see his old military position at 'Plugstreet' [Ploegsteert, Belgium], the Ypres salient, Glencorse Wood and Polygon Wood; the success of Jack [John S Churchill]; a meeting with Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston; visit to headquarters in France, March 1918 [during the German Spring...
Dates: 1918-02 - 1918-12
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: With the exception of the staff wages books in CSCT 9/1, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 Fonds

Sister E. B. Tayloe: Album Amicorum

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0012/MS Add.10331
Scope and Contents

Album Amicorum compiled by Sister E. B. Tayloe during the First World War, while serving at the First General Hospital, Cambridge, and at the 16th General Hospital, Le Treport.

Dates: 1915-1917
Conditions Governing Access: The item is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 File

Special correspondence: Jan Smuts, 1903-09 - 1950-10

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/AMEL 2/2/24
Scope and Contents Correspondence with Smuts on subjects including: accounts of military operations on the Tugela River [South Africa]; the Irish Convention (1917); the Palestine Campaign; the need for a separate Air Staff; costs of the separate war fronts; peace negotiations following the First World War; migration to South Africa; the Locarno Pact; the Imperial Conference (1926); LSA's Empire Tour; the proposal that Smuts should become High Commissioner of Palestine; the South African flag; the League of...
Dates: 1903-09 - 1950-10
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The papers are open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

Speeches, 1918-12-15 - 1922-12-01

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/BRDW I Press 21 A
Scope and Contents

Cuttings of articles on WSC’s speeches on Britain’s peace terms, Female Suffrage, Russia and Socialism, Irish Question; photos of WSC at polo matches with CSC.

Dates: 1918-12-15 - 1922-12-01
Conditions Governing Access: Available as digital surrogates only, to protect the fragile original.
 File

Speeches, 1953-04 - 1955-11

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/SPRS 7/20
Scope and Contents

Manuscript and typescript speech notes on subjects including: Roger Bannister; the success of the Institute of Directors; ELS’s own writing work; the mistake of being bound too closely to France; has France a future?; Winston Churchill, including a review of the final volume of his war memoirs; a review of Major-General Gerald Verney’s history of the Seventh Armoured Division, the 'Desert Rats'; Marshal Philippe Petain and the 1917 mutinies in the French army.

Dates: 1953-04 - 1955-11
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

Staff College lectures, 1931 - 1932

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CRES 3/1
Scope and Contents

Comprimising: "The Operations of 19th August 1916", 17 June 1931; "The Grand Fleet, 1917-1918", 26 June 1931; "The Battle of Heligoland Bight, 28 August 1914", 2 May 1932; and "The Scarborough Raid", 9 May 1932.

Dates: 1931 - 1932
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

Staff College lectures, 1932

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CRES 3/2
Scope and Contents

Including: "The Battle of the Dogger Bank", 13 May 1932; "Mediterranean 1914 I", 8 February 1932; "Mediterranean 1914 II", 15 February 1932; "Mediterranean 1914 III", 18 February 1932; "The Battle of the Dogger Bank", for the Junior Officers' War Course, 11 July 1932.

Dates: 1932
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 Unknown

"The artillery at Passchendaele: (From Artillery Accounts)", [1926]

 Unknown
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAR 8/190/2
Scope and Contents Transcript account of conditions at the [3rd Battle of Ypres, Flanders, Belgium] and the effect of wet weather and terrible mud causing great difficulties moving artillery and supplies of ammunition and locating guns; the use of tin baths to keep men dry while asleep; attacks by enemy guns on British gunners by day and by night on roads and tracks. Concludes "It was put tersely by one artillery general that if the battle was continued there would be 'no artillery for the spring offensive'"....
Dates: [1926]
Conditions Governing Access: Open
 Fonds

The Bickersteth War Diaries and the Papers of John Burgon Bickersteth

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0014/BICK
Scope and Contents

The 17 volumes cover both World Wars and comprise letters home from the front, accounts of particular events by individual family members, photographs and postcards as well as newspaper clippings and telegrams. They provide a unique perspective on the war years both from those who fought abroad and those who remained at home in Canterbury.

The papers of John Bickersteth are photocopies of correspondence and reports to Maurice Hankey on Canadian affairs (1932 - 1940).

Dates: 1914 - 1972
Conditions Governing Access: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

The General's Stories, 1925-08 - 1970

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/SPRS 8/45
Scope and Contents Texts of stories, some included in "The Picnic Basket" and many relating to the First World War: "A Dream"; "Prayer"; "With de Gaulle from Bordeaux to Dakar"; "La Fete a Jean le Bon" on the Battle of Poitiers; "Nery"; "A Perfect Thing Apart"; an account of 1st Lord Bertie of Thame, British Ambassador to France, in 1917-18; "The Marquis de Castellane"; "This is the story of a little watch", on General...
Dates: 1925-08 - 1970
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

"The German Chancellor and the Outbreak of War", 1917

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/HDLM 3/92
Scope and Contents From the Series: Includes: JWHM's early work as a student, lecturer, classicist and historian; numerous articles and book reviews; several works on Bismarck and 19th century Germany; JWHM's writing on South Africa in association with 1st Lord Loch; entries for the Encyclopaedia Britannica; articles on Germany in the First World War and the Versailles Treaty; material on the posthumous publication of JWHM's "Studies in Diplomatic History"; some articles by Kenneth Headlam-Morley, mainly relating to the Saar...
Dates: 1917
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 Item

'The Great War and How it arose', 1915

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/1058/COL/11/12/Lawrence/2
Scope and Contents

Pamphlet produced by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee.

Dates: Publication: 1915
 Fonds

The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-18.

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0014/TRAV
Scope and Contents

Annotated typescript.

Dates: 1986-08
Conditions Governing Access: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

"The Maurice Case": A J P Taylor and Sir Dingle Foot, 1964 - 1967

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/SPRS 8/58
Scope and Contents

Correspondence between Nancy Maurice [later Nancy, Lady Spears], Taylor and Foot, with cuttings of letters to the press by Taylor and Foot on the Maurice case. Other correspondents include John Junor, Editor of the Sunday Express.

Dates: 1964 - 1967
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

"The Maurice Case": biographical material, 1918 - 1968

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/SPRS 8/61
Scope and Contents

Cuttings etc on the life and career of Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice and the Maurice case, including copies of cabinet papers on the military situation, December 1917- January 1918.

Dates: 1918 - 1968
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
 File

"The Maurice Case": copies from John Terraine, 1967

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/SPRS 8/59
Scope and Contents

Includes draft of chapter 3, "The Story of the Crisis of May, 1918", and the foreword, corrected by Terraine, with copies of source material.

Dates: 1967
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.