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 McNeill's career, 1942-1946, notably on Army-Air collaboration, 1942-1945, including typescript 'Eighth Army training memorandum No 1' by Lt Gen Bernard Law Montgomery, General Officer Commanding 8 Army, Middle East Forces [1942]; typescript memorandum by McNeill 'Recommendations for reorganisation of AASC (Army-Air Support Control)',1942; printed 'Middle East training pamphlet No 3B (Army and RAF). Direct air support', issued by General Headquarters, Middle East Forces and Headquarters, RAF, Middle East, 1943; typescript war diary of Detachment A, Air Support Control, 5 Corps, Italy, Mar-Jun 1944; typescript report produced by Headquarters 21 Army Group, British Liberation Army, North West Europe, entitled 'Notes on airsupport, June-October 1944', Nov 1944; typescript notes by McNeill entitled 'Offensive air support in the Burma campaign, 1944-1945'; two typescript draft chapters for a projected book entitled 'Air support in North Africa, Pantellaria, and Sicily, 1942-1943' and 'Air support in the Italian campaign, 1943-1945' [1946]; typescript account by Roy Smith entitled 'Air support in the desert: an account of the use of air forces in support of the Army from the Gazala battles in 1942 to the end in Tunisia', 1988.

Papers relating to Watts' RN career, training of RN Engineers and meteorology, 1945-1990, including three telegrams relating to the German and Japanese surrenders, May and Aug 1945, and to the signing of the Japanese surrender, Tokyo Bay, Japan, Sep 1945; lectures and talks by Watts relating to RN Engineer training, 1960-1962; typescript lecture notes entitled 'The Instructor Branch' [1961]; typescript address to Royal Naval Reserve Instructor Officers, [1964]; correspondence with R Adm Sir William (Alfred) Bishop, R Adm Christopher John Howard, Capt John Athol Burnett, RN, Capt Arthur Ernest Johnston, RN, Capt Alexander Malcolm Morrice, RN, Cdr William Nimmo Bowman, RN, and Richard J Ogden, Apr-Nov 1988, relating to research for a lecture by Watts on 'Meteorology in the Royal Navy in World War Two' to the History Group of the Royal Meteorological Society, Oct 1988, with edition of Meteorology and World War II. Second conference, October 1988, edited by Brian Douglas Giles (Royal Meteorological Society, School of Geography, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, 1989); typescript account of German bombing of HMS ILLUSTRIOUS off Pantelleria, Mediterranean, 10 Jan 1941, entitled 'A day to remember', with two sketch maps of the operation [1990]; typescript lecture notes on the organisation of the RN Meteorological Service in World War Two [1990].

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.