King's College London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

Survey of the Papers of Senior UK Defence Personnel, 1900-1975

Service biography
Joined Essex Regt 1912; World War I 1914-1918; Commander, 2 Bn Essex Regt, France 1914-1917; Commander, 2 Bn Lincolnshire Regt 1917-1918; Commander, 8 Bn Leicestershire Regt 1918; Commander, 1 Bn Lincolnshire Regt 1918-1919; Commander, Abbeville District, France 1919; Company of Gentleman Cadets, Royal Military College, Sandhurst 1920-1924; Staff College 1924-1925; Bde Maj, Rhine Army 1924-1925; Maj, Border Regt 1927; General Staff Officer Grade 2, Northern Command, India 1929-1933; Chief Instructor, Royal Military College, Sandhurst 1933-1935; Imperial Defence College 1936; General Staff Officer Grade 1, British Troops in China 1937-1939; World War II 1939-1945; Commander, 6 Infantry Bde 1939-1940; Commander, 2 Infantry Div 1940; Commander, Operation MENACE, the attempted British and Free French amphibious attack on Dakar, French West Africa, Sep 1940; Commander, 4 Indian Corps, Burma 1942; General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Army, India 1942-1943; Arakan campaign, Burma 1943; Commander, East Scotland District 1944-1945; General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, West Africa Command 1946-1948; retired 1948

Papers
LIDDELL HART CENTRE FOR MILITARY ARCHIVES: The papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart include correspondence with Irwin 1934-1966 (ref: LH 1/402) CHURCHILL ARCHIVES CENTRE, CHURCHILL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY: Papers of Maj Gen Sir Edward Louis Spears include correspondence with Irwin 1947-1965 (ref: SPRS 1/180); IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON: Papers 1940-1969 (ref: P139), including; reports, notes and accounts relating to Operation MENACE, the attempted attack on Dakar, French West Africa, Sep 1940, including; reports on the origin, planning and execution of the Dakar operation (105 pages) 1940; Irwin's report on the Dakar operation (46 pages) Oct 1940; Camberley staff college lecture on the Dakar operation, given by Irwin, Sep 1941; a narrative, no date, of the Dakar operation by Anthony Irwin (son), criticising the organisation; an exchange of letters between Irwin and Maj Gen Sir Edward Louis Spears concerning the landing plans for the Dakar operation, Oct 1965; correspondence, orders, memoranda and notes 1942-1969, on the Arakan Campaign, Burma, Feb-May, 1943, including; copy correspondence between Irwin and FM Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, Commander-in-Chief, India 1942-1943; correspondence, Apr-May 1943, with Lt Gen William Joseph Slim, General Officer Commanding 5 Corps (nine items); correspondence, Mar-May 1943, with Gen Sir Alan Hartley, General Officer Commanding Army of India (11 items); Irwin's report on British policy and administration in Burma, Sep 1943 (11 pages); notes on discussions with Lt Gen Sir Henry Royds Pownall, Chief of Staff to Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, Sep 1943 on training, disease, administration and strategy (two pages); notes on discussions with Adm Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten, later 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, on morale, tactics and administration, Sep 1943 (two pages); correspondence with Maj Gen Stanley Woodburn Kirby, official historian of World War II in the Far East 1955-1956 (19 items); correspondence with Mountbatten concerning recollections of Burma 1968-1969 (11 items); also a narrative by Mountbatten, 'Highlights of the Burma Campaign', ND (16 pages)

Publications

Index terms
SUBJECTS
PLACES Senegal 1940; South East Asia 1943
NAMES FM FM Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell 1942-1943; FM William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim 1943; AF Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma 1943-1969

Last updated: