Reference code: GB99 KCLMA Clive G S
Title: CLIVE, Lt Gen Sir (George) Sidney (1874-1959)
Dates of creation of material: 1914-1918
Level of description: item level
Extent: 0.01m3 or 1 box of papers
Born in 1874; educated at Harrow School and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; 2nd Lt, Grenadier Guards, 1893; Lt, 1897; served in First Sudan Expedition, 1898, and Second Boer War, South Africa, 1899-1902; Capt, 1900; Staff College, 1903-1904; General Staff Officer, War Office, 1905-1909; Maj, 1909; General Staff Officer, London District, 1910-1914; served World War One, 1914-1918; Head of British Missions, General Headquarters, France, 1914-1918; Lt Col, 1915; Military Governor, Cologne, Germany, 1918-1919; commanded 1 Infantry Bde, Aldershot, 1920; British Military Representative, League of Nations, Geneva, 1920-1922; Maj Gen, 1924; Military Attaché, Paris, 1924-1927; Director of Personal Services, War Office, 1928-1930; Military Secretary to Secretary of State for War, 1930-1934; Lt Gen, 1932; retired, 1934; Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, 1934-1945; Extra Equerry to the Queen, 1952; died in 1959.
Placed in the Centre by the family in 1971.
The collection consists of extremely detailed personal diaries kept by Clive whilst Head of British Missions at the French General Headquarters on the Western Front during World War One, 1914-1918. Much of the narrative is concerned with Clive's meetings with such figures as FM Sir John Denton Pinkstone French, FM Sir Douglas Haig, Gen Sir William (Robert) Robertson, Gen Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, and French Generals Ferdinand Foch, Robert Georges Nivelle, Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain and Joseph Jaques Cesaire Joffre, and the attempts to create effective liaison between them, as well as descriptions of the preparations for and execution of the Allied operations between 1914 and 1918. The diaries also paint a detailed picture of relations between the French and British General Staffs throughout the war. Also included in the collection is an official letter book kept by Clive from 1917-1918, which gives an insight into preparations for the Nivelle Offensive of 1917, and an attempt to reorganise the British Mission.
Arranged in sections as above.
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the College Archivist.
Mostly English; with some correspondence in French.
Papers of FM Sir William (Robert) Robertson, 1st Bt, contain two letters from Clive to Robertson, 1915 and 1918 (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Robertson W R, 1/5/13 and 1/36/95); papers of Gen Sir Charles John Cecil Grant contain one letter from Clive, 1940 (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Grant, 2/4/2).