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.

Papers relating to his service in Italy, 1943-1944, principally comprising 1 Div, 3 Infantry Bde and 3 Field Ambulance operation orders concerning the landings on Pantelleria (Operation CORKSCREW), May-Jun 1943, and at Anzio (Operation SHINGLE), Jan 1944; report on the action at Campoleone, 30 Jan-4 Feb 1944, written by J G James, Commander, 3 Infantry Bde, 12 Feb 1944; 3 Infantry Bde intelligence summary for Operations ANT and APHIS; three aerial photographs of Anzio beaches, 1943, and plan of Blue Beach (North), Anzio, 1944; two parts of 'The First Division in action' covering the Anzio campaign, Jan-Jun 1944, written in Apr and Jul 1944.