Collection TURNER & BROWN - TURNER, Sir George Wilfred (1896-1974) and BROWN, V Adm Sir Harold (1878-1968)

Key Information

Reference code

TURNER & BROWN

Title

TURNER, Sir George Wilfred (1896-1974) and BROWN, V Adm Sir Harold (1878-1968)

Date(s)

  • 1914-1960 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent

7 boxes

Scope and content

Mainly official publications and printed reports, memoranda on rearmament and supply before and during World War Two, with some photographs and personal papers, 1938-1953; notably including typescript copy of reminiscences by Brown with press cuttings and notes relating to the Ministry of Supply and other correspondence, 1938-1960; detailed diary by Turner, 1940; private papers by Turner on his domestic life, accounts, diary summaries, some correspondence and photographs, 1914-[1946]; files containing mainly typescript memoranda, correspondence and statistics relating to the Committee of Imperial Defence, War Office and Ministry of Supply, predominantly concerning rearmament and Second World War production, including progress reports on production and preparations for war, with printed reports on tanks and anti-tank guns, 1936-1943; minutes of a Committee of Imperial Defence sub-committee meeting on the supply of war material to Portugal, 1938; typescript review of air defence, including statistics of anti-aircraft guns, factory planning, civil defence, 1939-1940; file on munitions supply preparations incorporating some minutes of the Informal Army Council on munitions, 1937-1939; papers of the Industrial Capacity Committee including on US supplies to the UK in time of war, 1941; typescript briefing papers prepared for ministers for Commons' speeches, 1942; file of typescript retrospective analyses of war production contracts, 1948; printed reports and official publications on armed forces structure and expenditure, production and ordnance factories, national expenditure, post-World War One reconstruction, Ministry of Supply on inspection regimes, Whitley Councils 1917-1955, notably including 'Investigation of the Heavy Crossbow installations in Northern France', 2 vols, (1945), Ministry of Supply booklet entitled 'Progress in scientific research' (1947),'Statistics relating to the war effort of the United Kingdom' (HMSO, 1944), 'War-time tank production' (London, 1946), 'Review of Defects Disclosed by the Czechosolvak Crisis', 1938, report of a committee chaired by Sir Percy Mills on the organisation of the Royal Ordnance Factories, Apr 1951; 'Central planning and control in war and peace' by Sir Oliver Franks (1947), 'Interdenominational Advisory Committee on Army Chaplains Services', 1953,'Contracts and Finance Copy No. 2', Jun 1948; additional papers on a Royal Institute of Public Affairs Group Research Project on Changes in the Structure of Executive Government, 1956, and Report by Sir Keith Hancock on the Official History of the War: Civil Series, 1957.

Accruals

7 accessions, 1974-2003

System of arrangement

The collection is broadly divided into the papers of V Adm Sir Harold Brown and those of Sir George Wilfred Turner, in order of accession.

General Information

Name of creator

(1878-1968)

Biographical history

Eng V Adm Sir Harold Arthur Brown, born, 1878; educated as engineering student, Royal Naval Engineering College, Devonport, 1894-1899; Deputy Engineer-in-Chief of the Fleet, 1930-1932; Engineer-in-Chief of the Fleet, 1932-1936; Director General of Munitions Production, Army Council, War Office, 1936-1939; Director General of Munitions Production, Ministry of Supply, 1939-1941; Controller General of Munitions Production, 1941-1942; Senior Supply Officer and Chairman of Armamanent Development Board, Ministry of Supply, 1942-1946; Chairman Fuel Research Board, 1947-1950; died 1968.

Sir George Wilfred Turner, born 1896; Boy Clerk, War Office, 1911-1914; Grenadier Guards, 1916-1919; returned to Civil Service, 1921; Private Secretary, 1929; Assistant Secretary, 1938; Ministry of Supply, 1939-1948, culminating in becoming Permanent Under-Secretary of State for War, 1949-1956; retired, 1956; died, 1974.

Archival history

Papers created during the service of Brown and Turner at the Ministry of Supply and in the course of compiling autobiographical papers.

Custodial history

The family of Sir George Wilfred Turner transferred the papers to the Centre between 1974 and 2003.

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. Further finding aids may be available in the Reading Room.

Existence and location of originals

Off-campus collection

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

The Centre holds some material relating to pre-World War Two rearmament, including Adam. The Stern papers include some tank-related Ministry of Supply material from the late 1930s. The Cowley and Pyman papers contain material on the Ministry of supply from the 1950s.

Related descriptions

Alternative identifier(s)

Place access points

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 Geoff Browell for the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Accession area