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Papers, 1814, 1857-1963, of Field Marshal Sir John Greer Dill and his family. Papers relating to Dill's family and family estates date largely from 1857-1953, but include press cuttings, 1814. The collection mainly comprises papers, telegrams and photographs relating to Dill's life and military career, dating from 1901-1944 but particularly from 1914 onwards, and includes correspondence and other papers concerning his service as General Staff Officer 1, 37 Division, and General Staff Officer 1, Operations Branch, General Headquarters, British Armies in France, Western Front, World War One, 1917-1918, notably instructions to 37 Division, 1917; 15 Division Operational Orders for the Battle of Arras, 1917. Official and some personal correspondence and notes, 1916-1939, including record of the advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, 1919; lecture notes relating to Dill's service as Chief Instructor, Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1920, and to his promotion to Lt Gen, 1936; letters from Captain Basil Henry Liddell Hart, Maj Gen Sir Sydney Frederick Muspratt, Maj Gen Arthur Cecil Temperley, and Maj Gen John Dudley Laverack, 1926-1939; correspondence with Field Marshal Sir Cyril John Deverell, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, relating to Dill's service as General Officer Commanding, Palestine and Transjordan, Sep 1936-Jul 1937. Official correspondence relating to Dill's command of 1 Army Corps France and Belgium, 1939-1940, principally including correspondence between Maj Gen Sir Henry Royds Pownall, Chief of General Staff British Expeditionary Force (BEF), and Lt Gen Ronald Forbes Adam, General Officer Commanding 3 Army Corps, Sep-Oct 1939; correspondence between Dill and Maj Gen Hugh Royds Stokes Massy, Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff. and Chief of General Staff Maj Gen Henry Royds Pownall, Oct 1939; correspondence with US Gen George Catlett Marshal, Chief of Staff US Army, relating to Joint Planning Committee, Mar 1940; correspondence on liaison arrangements between the French and British armies in France, Oct 1939, and letter to Dill as Chief of Imperial General Staff, from Lt Gen Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, General Officer Commanding in Chief, Southern Command, Nov 1940. Typescript report relating to imposition of economic sanctions against Ireland due to the refusal of permission for the use of Irish ports by the Royal Navy, Nov-Dec 1940, with letter from Maj Gen Hubert Jervoise Huddleston, General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland District, to Gen Bernard Paget, Chief of Staff, Home Forces, explaining the need for an appreciation of the political situation in Ireland, Jun 1940. Semi-official letters, diaries and notes to Dill as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, War Office, London, 1940-1941, including letter from Rt Hon (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain, Lord President of the Council, Aug 1940, official diary of tour of the Mediterranean, Feb-Apr 1941, correspondence congratulating promotion to Field Marshal, 1941; copy of personal minutes of Prime Minister, Rt Hon Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill, May 1941; notes on Dill's visit to Paris, France, with Prime Minister Churchill, including diary of events, May 1940; typescript notes on telephone conversation with Rt Hon (Robert) Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for War, Nov 1940; correspondence with Field Marshal Rt Hon Jan Christian Smuts, Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Pretoria, South Africa, Nov 1941,Gen Bernard (Charles Tolver) Paget, Commander in Chief Home Forces, Nov 1941, Lt Gen Arthur Nugent Floyer-Acland, Secretary to the Secretary of State for War, Nov 1941. Letters and notes relating to Gen Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, Commander-in-Chief India, including notes on operations in Greece, the defence of Egypt, Palestine and Crete, Sep 1941, and personal letter from Lt Gen Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Command, regarding Prime Minister Churchill's negative attitude to Gen Wavell, May 1941. Four albums of photographs relating to Placentia Bay Conference, Newfoundland, Canada, Aug 1941, official visit to Canada, Aug-Sep 1943, and the Casablanca Conference, code name SYMBOL, Jan 1943, including the Prime Minister, Churchill, aboard HMS PRINCE OF WALES and aboard USS AUGUSTA 1941.

Bound ts diary of his service chiefly on the Western Front with the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery, 4 Aug 1914 – 25 Apr 1919.

Bound volume of items relating to his service as ADC to Gen Lord Rawlinson, Commander-in-Chief, British Military Mission to North Russia, Aug-Oct 1919, including: ts diary, 30 Jul – 14 Oct 1919; pasted-in samples of Russian banknotes and stamps; captioned photographs including Rawlinson, Col (William) Edmund Ironside and other British officers, Russian troops, Bolshevik prisoners, refugees, and views of the railway at Archangel and of the River Dvina (Severnaya Dvina).

Also loose items, including: US War Office printed briefing notes on North Russia, 1918; a War Office printed report, ‘Appreciation of the internal situation in Russia, April 1919’; a propaganda leaflet in English signed V Bourtzeff (Vladimir Burtsev), imploring Allied troops to aid Russia, Sep 1919; a nominal roll of officers in the British Mission to North Russia; ts notes, ‘Operations of the naval flotilla on the Dvina river, 1919’; ts text of a despatch by Rawlinson on Allied operations in North Russia, Aug-Oct 1919; sketch maps of Archangel; printed maps of Russia, some detailing Allied and Bolshevik positions, 1919; a printed report, ‘The evacuation of North Russia, 1919’ (HMSO, 1920).

Notes and papers relating to his military career, 1939-1940, written in [1939-1940], principally comprising: 'A record of visits to France and Belgium in May and June 1940 as DDMO', dated [1940]; written accounts of his work as Deputy Director of Military Operations, 1939, and his role in the British Military Mission to Turkey, May- Jun 1939, dated [1939-1940]; drafts of these three texts, heavily annotated by Daisy Allenby, wife of 2nd Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and of Felixstowe (then Mrs Daisy Neame), 1939-1940. Also: notes of anecdotes concerning Adolf Hitler, written by Lady Allenby in [1939-1940]; correspondence and papers concerning Sir Winston Churchill's 80th Birthday Presentation Fund, 1954, notably an account [by Lady Allenby] of a meeting with Churchill and his family on 29 Nov 1954, dated 1954.

Papers relating to his work with the military police, Provost Service, 1939-1945, notably including official notes and operation orders concerning the evacuation of the BEF from France and Belgium, 1940.