Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1918-1978 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
1 box or 0.01 cubic metres
Scope and content
Photograph album with 61 photographs of RAF service in Haifa, Palestine, and Baghdad, Iraq, 1917-1918 and 1928. Three notebooks containing extracts from Pirie's diaries, 1923-1945, 1946-1966 and 1967-1976. Eight letters of thanks, relating to Pirie's success as Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, South East Asia, and Inspector General, RAF, 1947-1949, including letter from V Adm Rt Hon Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Jul 1947. Scrapbook of press cuttings relating to a visit to Canada by RAF Detachment, 1934. Edition of Oculi Exercitus. No 6 Squadron by Flying Officer C D Stewart RAF (Zavallis Press, Nicosia, Cyprus, 1963), published to commemorate 6 Sqn's Fiftieth Anniversary, 31 Jan 1964. Seventeen photographs, 1917, 1946-1947, including group of officers, 34 Sqn, Royal Flying Corps, Western Front, 1917, and Pirie's departure parade as Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, South East Asia, 1947. Personal correspondence, 1964-1978, including letter and typescript article by Eric W Cockcroft entitled 'My experience as a World War One RFC/RAF pilot', Nov 1978.
System of arrangement
The collection is arranged in sections as outlined above.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born 1896; served in World War One, 1914-1918; commissioned into 3 (Reserve) Bn, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 1914; Lt, 1915; Capt, 1916; served with Royal Flying Corps, 1916-1918; service with 34 Sqn, Royal Flying Corps, Western Front, 1917; served in Palestine, 1917-1918; awarded MC, 1918; transferred to RAF, 1918; relief of Diwaniyah, Iraq, 1921; RAF Staff College, Andover, Hampshire, 1925; service in Iraq, 1928; Wg Cdr, 1932; Air Staff Officer, Directorate of Operations and Intelligence, Department of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Ministry, 1934-1937; Gp Capt, 1937; Air Attaché, Washington DC, USA, 1937-1940; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; Air Officer Commanding Northern Ireland, 1941; Air Officer in charge of Administration, Middle East, 1941-1943; awarded CBE, 1942; awarded CB, 1943; Director General, War Organisation, Air Ministry, 1943-1945; Deputy Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, South East Asia, 1945-1946; created KBE, 1946; Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, South East Asia, 1946-1947; Inspector General, RAF, 1948; Member, Air Council for Supply and Organisation, 1948-1950; ACM, 1949; Head of Air Force Staff, British Joint Services Mission to the USA, 1950-1951; retired, 1951; created KCB, 1951; Chairman, Air League of the British Empire, 1955-1958; died 1980.
Repository
Custodial history
Presented to the Centre by the family in 1981.
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.
Existence and location of originals
Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›
Related materials
Note
Decorations: KCB, KBE, MC, DFC
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
- Armed forces
- Diaries
- Documents
- Information sources
- International conflicts
- International relations
- Literary forms and genres
- Literature
- Military organizations
- Nonfiction
- Organizations
- Photographs
- Primary documents
- Prose
- State security
- Visual materials
- War
- World War One (1914-1918)
- World wars (events)
- Wars (events)
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.