Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1891-1945 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
54 boxes or 0.54 cubic metres
Scope and content
The papers of FM Sir Archibald Amar Montgomery-Massingberd cover the period, 1891-1945, and include papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's education at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, including sketches and notes on fortification, 1891-1900; papers relating to his education at Staff College Camberley, including essays on nineteenth century military history, 1903-1907; papers relating to his service as General Staff Officer, Grade 3, Aldershot Command, including reports on Army manoeuvres, 1909-1911; papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's service as General Staff Officer, Grade 2, Staff College, Quetta, India, and at Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, including copies of lectures delivered by Montgomery- Massingberd, 1912-1914; papers on his service during World War One as General Staff Officer, 4 Div, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), incuding operational orders, war diary detailing operations of 4 Div, reports on the Battle of the Aisne, Sept 1914, the first Battle of Ypres, Oct-Nov 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Mar 1915, the Second Battle of Ypres, Apr-May 1915, 1914-1915; papers on Montgomery-Massingberd's service during World War One as Chief of Staff, 4 Corps, BEF (British Expeditionary Force) including war diary detailing operations of 4 Corps, particularly in Battle of Loos, 25 Sep-9 Nov 1915, 1915; papers on Montgomery-Massingberd's service during World War One as Chief of General Staff, 4 Army, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), including war diary detailing operations of 4 Army, particularly in Battle of the Somme, 1 Jul-18 Nov 1916, Amiens Offensive, Aug 1918, Battle of Beaurevoir Line, 3-5 Oct 1918, Second Battle of Cambrai, 8-9 Oct 1918, the Battle of the Selle, 17-25 Oct 1918, occupation as part of the Allied Armies of Occupation, Nov 1918-Mar 1919; pamphlets and papers relating to training of units 1915-1920; papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's service as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Indian Army, including correspondence with Gen Sir Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson of Trent, Commander in Chief India, Lt Gen Sir Philip Walhouse Chetwode, Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Maj Gen Louis Ridley Vaughan, Commandant Staff College, Quetta, India, on subjects such as civil unrest in Waziristan, India, the Indianisation of the Indian Army, the effect of Russian influence on the foreign policy of Afghanistan, the coal strike in the UK, the Anglo-Irish War and Irish War of Independence, 1920-1921; papers on Montgomery- Massingberd's service as General Officer Commanding, 53 (Welsh) Territorial Div, Western Command, Shrewsbury; 1 Div, Aldershot; Southern Command, Salisbury Plain, including papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's chairmanship of the Committee on the re-organization of the Royal Regiment of Artillery; papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's Chairmanship of the Committee on the re-organization of the Cavalry, and correspondence with Lt Col Kenneth Wigram, Quarter Master General, Northern Command, India, Col Sydney Frederick Muspratt, Officer Commanding 4 Indian Infantry Bde, Officer Commanding 4 Indian Infantry Bde, Capt Basil Liddell Hart, military correspondent, and Maj Gen John Francis Stanhope Duke Coleridge, Military Secretary, Army Headquarters, India, on such matters as the Indianization of the Indian Army, civil unrest in Waziristan and the General Strike in UK, 1922-1927; papers concerning Montgomery-Massingberd's later career, including his service as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1933-1936; draft of memoirs by Montgomery-Massingberd entitled 'The Autobiography of a Gunner', [1946]; correspondence with FM Sir John Greer Dill, describing Dill's work in World War Two with the Combined Chiefs of Staff, Washington, USA, 1939-1944; correspondence with Viscount Halifax, Secretary of State for War, on defensive fortifications of France, 1935; and correspondence with FM Sir Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander and 1st Baron Alanbrooke, FM Sir Alan Francis Brooke, on Allied victory in World War Two, 1928-1944; Maps, mostly showing positions of 4 Army during World War One, 1914-1920.
System of arrangement
Arranged mainly chronologically in sections reflecting military service.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born Archibald Armar Montgomery, 1871; educated at Charterhouse School, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; 2nd Lt, Royal Artillery, 1891; Lt, 1894; served with Royal Field Artillery in Second Boer War, 1899-1902; Capt, 1900; Adjutant, 1904-1905; attended Staff College, 1905-1906; Special Employment, Army Headquarters, 1905-1906; Staff Capt to the Inspector of Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery, 1907-1908; General Staff Officer, Grade 3, Aldershot Command, 1908-1911; Maj, 1909; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, Staff College, Quetta, India, 1912-1914; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1914; temporary Lt Col, 1914; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, 4 Div, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), 1914; General Staff Officer, Grade 1, 4 Div, and temporary Col, 1914-1915; Brevet and substantive Lt Col, 1915; Brig Gen, General Staff, and Chief of General Staff, 4 Corps, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), 1915-1916; Brevet Col, 1916; Maj Gen, General Staff, and Chief of General Staff, 4 Army, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), 1916-1919; Maj Gen, 1917; Chief of General Staff, British Army of the Rhine, 1919; Deputy Chief of General Staff, India, 1920-1922; Commander, 53 (Welsh) Territorial Div, Western Command, 1922-1923; Commander 1 Div, Aldershot Command, 1923-1926; Lt Gen, 1926; assumed additional name of Massingberd (when his wife Diana inherited the Massingberd family estate), 1926; General Officer Commanding in Chief, Southern Command, 1928-1931; Gen, 1930; Adjutant General to the Forces, 1931-1933; Aide de Camp General to HM King George V, 1931-1935; Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1933- 1936; FM, 1935; Col Commandant, Royal Artillery, 1927-1941; Col Commandant, Royal Tank Corps, 1934-1939; Col Commandant, 20 Burma Rifles, 1935; Col Commandant, Royal Malta Artillery, 1937-1941; Honorary Col, 46 (Lincoln Regt) Anti-Aircraft Bn, 1937; died, 1947.
Publications: The story of the Fourth Army in the battles of the hundred days, August 8th-November 11th, 1918 (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1920).
Repository
Custodial history
Placed in Centre by the family in 1971 and 1976.
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 and detailed catalogue.
Related materials
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
Place access points
People and Organisations
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.