King's College London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

Papers of FM Sir Archibald (Armar) Montgomery-Massingberd, GCB, GCMG (1871-1947)


Reference code: GB99 KCLMA Montgomery-Massingberd
Title: MONTGOMERY-MASSINGBERD, FM Sir Archibald (Armar), GCB, GCMG, (1871-1947)
Dates of creation of material: 1891-1945
Level of description: collection level
Extent: 54 boxes or 0.54 cubic meters of papers

Introduction

Brief List



Papers of FM Sir Archibald (Armar) Montgomery-Massingberd, GCB, GCMG (1871-1947)


INTRODUCTION

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

Born 1871; educated at Charterhouse School, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; 2nd Lt, Royal Artillery, 1891; Lt, 1894; served with Royal Field Artillery in Second Boer War, 1899-1902; Capt, 1900; Adjutant, 1904-1905; attended Staff College, 1905-1906; Special Employment, Army Headquarters, 1905-1906; Staff Capt to the Inspector of Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery, 1907-1908; General Staff Officer, Grade 3, Aldershot Command, 1908-1911; Maj, 1909; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, Staff College, Quetta, India, 1912-1914; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1914; temporary Lt Col, 1914; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, 4 Div, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), 1914; General Staff Officer, Grade 1, 4 Div, and temporary Col, 1914-1915; Brevet and substantive Lt Col, 1915; Brig Gen, General Staff, and Chief of General Staff, 4 Corps, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), 1915-1916; Brevet Col, 1916; Maj Gen, General Staff, and Chief of General Staff, 4 Army, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), 1916-1919; Maj Gen, 1917; Chief of General Staff, British Army of the Rhine, 1919; Deputy Chief of General Staff, India, 1920-1922; Commander, 53 (Welsh) Territorial Div, Western Command, 1922-1923; Commander 1 Div, Aldershot Command, 1923-1926; Lt Gen, 1926; assumed additional name of Massingberd, 1926; General Officer Commanding in Chief, Southern Command, 1928-1931; Gen, 1930; Adjutant General to the Forces, 1931-1933; Aide de Camp General to HM King George V, 1931-1935; Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1933-1936; FM, 1935; Col Commandant, Royal Artillery, 1927-1941; Col Commandant, Royal Tank Corps, 1934-1939; Col Commandant, 20 Burma Rifles, 1935; Col Commandant, Royal Malta Artillery, 1937-1941; Honorary Col, 46 (Lincoln Regt) Anti-Aircraft Bn, 1937; died, 1947.

PROVENANCE

Presented to the Centre by the family in 1971 and 1976.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

Papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's life and career, 1891-1945, including Montgomery-Massingberd's education at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, including sketches and notes on fortification, 1891-1900; papers relating to his education at Staff College Camberley, including essays on nineteenth century military history, 1903-1907; papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's service as General Staff Officer, Grade 3, Aldershot Command, including reports on Army manoeuvres, 1909-1911; papers relating to his service as General Staff Officer, Grade 2, Staff College, Quetta, India, and at Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, including copies of lectures delivered by Montgomery-Massingberd, 1912-1914; papers on his service during World War One as General Staff Officer, 4 Div, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), incuding operational orders, war diary detailing operations of 4 Div, reports on the Battle of the Aisne, Sept 1914, the first Battle of Ypres, Oct-Nov 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Mar 1915, the Second Battle of Ypres, Apr-May 1915, 1914-1915; papers on Montgomery-Massingberd's service during World War One as Chief of Staff, 4 Corps, BEF (British Expeditionary Force) including war diary detailing operations of 4 Corps, particularly in Battle of Loos, 25 Sep-9 Nov 1915, 1915; papers on Montgomery-Massingberd's service during World War One as Chief of General Staff, 4 Army, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), including war diary detailing operations of 4 Army, particularly in Battle of the Somme, 1 Jul-18 Nov 1916, Amiens Offensive, Aug 1918, Battle of Beaurevoir Line, 3-5 Oct 1918, Second Battle of Cambrai, 8-9 Oct 1918, the Battle of the Selle, 17-25 Oct 1918, occupation as part of the Allied Armies of Occupation, Nov 1918-Mar 1919; pamphlets and papers relating to training of units 1915-1920; papers papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's service as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Indian Army, including correspondence with Gen Sir Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson of Trent, Commander in Chief India, Lt Gen Sir Philip Walhouse Chetwode, Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Maj Gen Louis Ridley Vaughan, Commandant Staff College, Quetta, India, on subjects such as civil unrest in Waziristan, India, the Indianisation of the Indian Army, the effect of Russian influence on the foreign policy of Afghanistan, the coal strike in the UK, the Anglo-Irish War and Irish War of Independence, 1920-1921; papers on Montgomery-Massingberd's service as General Officer Commanding, 53 (Welsh) Territorial Div, Western Command, Shrewsbury; 1 Div, Aldershot; Southern Command, Salisbury Plain, including papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's chairmanship of the Committee on the re-organization of the Royal Regiment of Artillery; papers relating to Montgomery-Massingberd's Chairmanship of the Committee on the re-organization of the Cavalry, and correspondence with Lt Col Kenneth Wigram, Quarter Master General, Northern Command, India, Col Sydney Frederick Muspratt, Officer Commanding 4 Indian Infantry Bde, Officer Commanding 4 Indian Infantry Bde, Capt Basil Liddell Hart, military correspondent, and Maj Gen John Francis Stanhope Duke Coleridge, Military Secretary, Army Headquarters, India, on such matters as the Indianization of the Indian Army, cvil unrest in Waziristan and the General Strike in UK, 1922-1927; later papers concerning Montgomery-Massingberd's career, including his service as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1933-1936; draft of memoirs by Montgomery-Massingberd entitled 'The Autobiography of a Gunner', [1946]; correspondence with FM Sir John Greer Dill, describing Dill's work in World War Two with the Combined Chiefs of Staff, Washinton, USA, 1939-1944; correspondence with Viscount Halifax, Secretary of State for War, on defensive fortifications of France, 1935; and correspondence with FM Sir Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander and 1st Baron Alanbrooke, FM Sir Alan Francis Brooke, on Allied victory in World War Two, 1928-1944; Maps, mostly showing positions of 4 Army during World War One, 1914-1920.

ARRANGEMENT

Arranged mainly chronologically in sections reflecting military service.

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE

Access

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Copyright

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 Director of Archive Services.

Language

English.

RELATED MATERIAL

Related units of description

Papers of Lt Col Archibald Leslie Gracie include a copy of The story of the Fourth Army in the battles of the hundred days, August 8th-November 11th, 1918, (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1920). Papers of Maj Gen Sir Frederick (Barton) Maurice include letters from Montgomery-Massingberd relating to World War One operations, 1914-1918. Papers of Gen Sir William Henry Bartholomew include correspondence, 1935, with Montgomery-Massingberd (Ref: 2/4/6-10), and a copy of a report by Montgomery-Massingberd on Bartholomew, 1933 (Ref: 2/6/5). Papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart include correspondence, 1925-1928, with Montgomery-Massingberd (Ref: 1/520); an article by Liddell Hart in the Daily Telegraph on Montgomery-Massingberd's appointment as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1932 (Ref: 10/1932/186); notes by Liddell Hart on 4 Army and the Somme, 1933 (Ref: 11/1933/35); notes by Liddell Hart on Montgomery-Massingberd, principally on World War One and on the latter's apparent devaluing of the historical and future role of tank warfare, 1934 (Ref: 11/1934/64-70); notes by Liddell Hart on a talk with Lt Col Gifford le Quesne Martel about Montgomery-Massingberd, 1935 (Ref: 11/1935/120); Liddell Hart 11/1940/15e includes a comment by Gen Sir William Edmund Ironside on Montgomery-Massingberd, 1940; a reply by Liddell Hart to an accusation by Montgomery-Massingberd that he was responsible for the inadequate state of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force), 1940 (Ref: 11/1940/29); notes by Liddell Hart on a discussion with Maj Gen George Mackintosh Lindsay, including the comments of the latter on a feud between Montgomery-Massingberd and Gen Sir John Theodosius Burnett-Stuart, 1947 (Ref: 11/1947/19); Liddell Hart 13/30/1 includes notes on comments by Montgomery-Massingberd on Liddell Hart's criticism of the failure of the War Office to create a mechanical force, 1927; Liddell Hart 15/3/179 includes extracts from a memorandum by Montgomery-Massingberd on the effects of defence policy on army estimates, 1934; Liddell Hart 15/3/81 includes papers concerning training operations of the Southern Command under Montgomery-Massingberd, 1930; Liddell Hart 6/1940/5-8 comprises correspondence in the Lincolnshire Echo and the Lincolnshire Standard between Liddell Hart and Montgomery-Massingberd relating to the latter's call on the British Legion to help stop seditious talk and literature, 1940.

Associated material

Correspondence with Maj Gen Sir Edward Louis Spears, 1st Bt, 1932-1933, is held at the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge University, (Ref: SPRS).

Last modified: Monday, 08-Aug-2005 13:19:59 BST

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