Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1945-1994 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
4 boxes and 1 outsize file
Scope and content
Papers of Colonel William de Lemos Milles ('Toby') Messenger, 1945-1994, relating to atomic tests and British nuclear policy, 1945-1989, including Messenger's report on effects of atomic blast on a Challenger tank, Australia, 1953 (Exercise TOTEM); manuscript draft article by Messenger on observing a nuclear explosion and pamphlets on nuclear weapons, 1945-1982 and papers relating to Messenger's position as Scientific Advisor (Nuclear) to Northhampton County Council (NCC) Emergency Planning, 1980-1993, including an appreciation of Exercise WET FINGER run by the NCC, [1988]; NCC emergency plans for radiation incidents; training manual for scientific advisors; files of notes, articles and other papers on the following topics: improving methods for obtaining bomb burst data, improvised bomb data, chemical and biological warfare, meteorology, victims of disaster, public reaction to nuclear technology, nuclear electromagnetic pulse, nuclear winter, casualty prediction, chemical and biological hazard protection and health, water, food, agriculture and energy after a widespread disaster; and publications including journal Fission Fragments, 1982-1992 and Civil Protection Magazine, 1991-1994.
System of arrangement
Original order.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born, 1913; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, -1934; 3 Battalion, Royal Tank Corps, 1934; Experimental Wing RAC Gunnery School, 1938-1942; Instructor School of Tank Technology, 1942; Ministry of Supply, 1943; Instructor RMCS Shrivenham, 1946-1948; 7 Royal Tank Regiment as Officer Commanding Specialised Armour Squadron, 1948-1950; Inspectorate of Armoured Fighting Vehicles, 1950-1953; attended Exercise TOTEM nuclear test in Australia as Royal Armoured Corps and Royal Artillery representative, 1953; Army Operational Research Group, West Byfleet, 1953; Commanded Experimental Wing of Defence Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Centre School, Winterbourne Gunner, 1956-1958; retired from the Army, 1958; Health and Safety Branch UK Atomic Energy Authority, 1958-1973; freelance nuclear consultant and technical translator, 1973; Scientific Advisor (Nuclear) to Northhampton County Council Emergency Planning, 1980-1993; died, 2005.
Repository
Custodial history
Received from the family, 2008.
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
This collection level description.
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
- Defence
- State security
- Nuclear energy
- Nonrenewable energy sources
- Energy resources
- Nuclear explosions
- Manmade disasters
- Disasters
- Nuclear warfare
- Warfare
- Military engineering
- Nuclear weapons
- Weapons
- Military equipment
- Nuclear weapons testing
- Weapons testing
- Testing
- Scientific methods
- Civil defence x Defence
- Emergency planning
Place access points
People and Organisations
- Northampton County Council (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.
Script(s)
Archivist's note
Entry compiled by Sarah Drewery.