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Personal and military papers of Major General Sir Robert Edward Laycock, 1923-1968, chiefly relating to service with Special Service Brigade and as Chief of Combined Operations, 1940-1946. Includes papers on volunteering for Special Service Brigade, including completed application forms for volunteer Commando officers, 1940. Papers on Special Service Brigade training 1940-1941, including gas, bayonet and signalling training. Memoranda, reports, instructions and other papers, 1940-1942, relating to LAYFORCE (commanded by Laycock in the Middle East), including papers on the Folbot Section (later to become Special Boat Service). Papers on Special Service Brigade, [1941-1946], including memoranda, reports, minutes, papers on their reorganisation, disbandment and the future of Combined Operations, also including papers belonging to Lord George Jellicoe relating to Special Service Brigade in the Middle East; reports and other papers on Special Service Brigade operations, notably Operation TORCH, (the invasion of North West Africa, Nov 1942) and Operation HUSKY, (the invasion of Sicily, Jun 1943). Laycock's official and personal correspondence,1923-1968, chiefly relating to Special Service Brigade. Lectures and speeches to and on Special Service Brigade, chiefly by Laycock. Draft publications, scripts and press cuttings relating to Laycock and Special Service Brigade. Memoirs and accounts of Commando action, including parts of Robert Edward Laycock's memoirs and memoirs of members of 'G' Troop, 7 Commando. Papers on Laycock standing as Conservative parliamentary candidate for Bassetlaw in the 1945 general collection and on his refusal to stand for the 1947 bye-election. Papers relating to Laycock's time as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta. Poems by Laycock.

Typescript official correspondence relating to Allied operations in Italy, 1944-1945, between Kirkman, General Officer Commanding 13 Corps, and Lt Gen Sir Oliver (William Hargreaves) Leese, 3rd Bt, General Officer Commanding 8 Army, Mar-Oct 1944, Lt Gen Sir John Harding, Chief of Staff, Allied Armies in Italy, Aug 1944-Jan 1945, and Lt Gen Sir Richard (Loudon) McCreery,General Officer Commanding 10 Corps, and subsequently General Officer Commanding 8 Army, Sep 1944-Jan 1945. Typescript 13 Corps operational instructions and orders, Apr 1944-Jan 1945, with typescript planning notes, dated Apr 1944, for Operation HONKER, the attack to secure the Liri valley for the advance on Rome, Italy, May 1944. Four volumes of narrative diaries, covering Kirkman's career in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, North West Europe and as Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff, War Office, Apr 1943-Sep 1945. Printed booklet entitled 'Proceedings of the Royal Artillery Historical Society, 19 Apr 1968, 5 Nov 1968', containing information provided byKirkman on the planning of the Third and Fourth Battles of Cassino, Italy, 1944.

Papers, dated 1945-1963, relating to the attempt to remove Lt Gen Sir William Joseph Slim from command of 14 Army, Burma, May 1945, including typescript background notes; typescript copies of telegrams between Lt Gen Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, 3rd Bt, Commander-in-Chief, Allied Land Forces South East Asia, FM Sir Alan Francis Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and acting Adm Lord Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia, May-Jun 1945; typescript extract of unpublished chapter of Defeat into victory (Cassell, London, 1956) by Slim; letters from Gen Sir (Alexander Frank) Philip Christison, 4th Bt, (former General Officer Commanding 15 Indian Corps, Burma), FM Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck (former Commander-in-Chief, India), ACM Sir (William) Alec Coryton (former Air Commander, 3 Tactical Air Force, Burma), Maj Gen George Peregrine Walsh (former Chief of Staff, Allied Land Forces, South East Asia), Lt Gen Sir Frederick Arthur Montague Browning (former Chief of Staff, South East Asia Command), Leese and Mountbatten, 1960-1963.

Various military papers, mainly dating from the nineteenth century, including standing orders, despatches and a paper by Gen Sir Frederick Roberts on Russia, all probably collected by Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1805-1811, 1871-1885, 1918-1921. Correspondence and papers relating to Lt Gen Sir Robert Grant (see above), including material concerning his career, and correspondence from Gen Sir Henry Redvers Buller, 1900. Letters and papers of Charles John Cecil Grant, notably correspondence with Rosebery, mainly letters written whilst on active service on the Western Front, World War One, 1914-1927, French Gen Maxime Weygand, including comments on the Versailles Treaty and the death of French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, 1919-1948, and Lt Gen Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, 3rd Bt, on military operations in Italy during World War Two, 1943-1944. Copies of diary entries and notes written by Charles John Cecil Grant whilst serving as a liaison officer to French Headquarters on the Western Front, World War One, Mar-Nov 1918.

Correspondence between Nicholas Piers Eadon and US, British, French and German military and naval figures of the twentieth century, mainly relating to great moments of their lives, with many signed portrait photographs, [1968]-1980, including US Gen Omar Nelson Bradley; US Gen Mark Wayne Clark; US Gen Alfred Maximilian Gruenther; US Gen Anthony Clement McAuliffe; US Gen Carl A Spaatz; US Gen Maxwell Davenport Taylor; US Gen Albert Coady Wedemeyer. Correspondence with British military figures, including FM Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis; FM Sir Claude (John Eyre) Auchinleck; Gp Capt Sir Douglas (Robert Steuart) Bader; Maj Gen Sir Francis Wilfred De Guingand; Gen Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey; MRAF Sir (William) Sholto Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas of Kirtleside; ACM Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding of Bentley Priory; FM Sir Francis Wogan Festing; Gen Sir Richard Nelson Gale; Maj Gen Sir Miles (William Arthur Peel) Graham; FM (Allan Francis) John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton; Lt Gen Sir Brian Gwynne Horrocks; FM Sir Richard (Amyatt) Hull; Gen Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay of Wormington; Lt Gen Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese; Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart; FM Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein; AF Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma; Lt Gen (Charles) Willoughby (Moke) Norrie, 1st Baron Norrie of Wellington, New Zealand, and of Upton, Gloucestershire; MRAF Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford; FM William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim of Burma; Wg Cdr Robert Roland Stanford-Tuck; FM Sir Gerald (Walter Robert) Templer. Correspondence with French military figures, including Gen Pierre Billotte; Gen Jean Charbonneau; Adm Gensoul; Gen Gribius. Correspondence with German military figures, including Grand Adm Karl Doenitz; Gen Adolf Galland; Lt Gen Reinhard Gehlen; Col Gen Franz Halder; Gen Adolf Heusinger; Col Gen Karl Hollidt; R Adm Otto Kretschmer; FM (Fritz) Erich von Manstein; Gen Hasso von Manteuffel; Adm Wilhelm Marschall; FM Erhard Milch; Gen Enno von Rintelen; FM Ferdinand Schorner; Gen Joachim Schwatlo-Gesterding; Gen Baron Geyr von Schweppenburg; Gen Walther von Seydlitz; Albert Speer; Gen Dr Hans Spiedel; Lt Gen Helmut Staedke; Gen of Infantry Karl Strecker; V Adm August Thiele; Gen Walter Warlimont; Gen of Panzertruppe Walther Wenck, Luftwaffe Maj Gen Alwin Wolz; V Adm Karl Adolf Zenker.