King's College London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

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

Service biography
World War I 1914-1918; joined Royal Warwickshire Regt 1914; service with 9 Bn, Gallipoli 1915; Mespotamia 1916; transferred to Indian Army 1919; Adjutant, 1/6 Gurkha Rifles 1920-1926; Staff College, Quetta, India 1926; General Staff Officer Grade 2, Army Headquarters, India 1928-1930; Indian Army Instructor, Staff College Camberley 1934-1936; Imperial Defence College 1937; Commander, 2/7 Gurkha Regt, India 1938-1939; World War II 1939-1945; Commander, 10 Indian Infantry Bde, 5 Indian Div, Eritrea 1940; Maj Gen commanding 10 Indian Div, Iraq and Syria against Vichy French forces 1941; Commander, Corps Headquarters, Burma 1942; Commander, 15 Corps 1942-1943; Commander, 14 Army 1943-1945; sieges of Imphal and Kohima, Burma, Apr 1944; River Irrawaddy crossings, Burma, by 19 Div, 33 Corps and 4 Corps, Jan-Feb 1945; capture of Meiktile, Burma, Feb-Mar 1945; battle of Mandalay, Burma, Mar 1945; battle of Meiktila, Burma, Mar 1945; capture of Rangoon, Burma, May 1945; Commander-in-Chief, Allied Land Forces, South East Asia 1945-1946; Commandant, Imperial Defence College 1946-1948; retired 1948; re-appointed 1948 as Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Field Marshal 1949; Governor General of Australia 1953-1960

Papers
LIDDELL HART CENTRE FOR MILITARY ARCHIVES: The papers of Maj Gen William Alfred Dimoline include texts of talks by Slim, given in the USA 1952-1953 (ref: Dimoline 12/4); the papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart include correspondence with Slim 1947-1968 (ref: LH 1/645); the papers of Gen Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor include a single letter from Slim, May 1945, relating to his removal from the command of 14 Army (ref: O'Connor 6/9); the papers of Gen Sir Harold English Pyman include Pyman's diaries kept while serving as Chief of General Staff to Slim, Allied Land Forces, South East Asia 1945-1946 (ref: Pyman 5/1-4); the papers of Maj Gen Stanley Woodburn Kirby comprise one file relating to attempts to remove Slim from the command of 14 Army after the fall of Rangoon, Burma 1942 CHURCHILL ARCHIVES CENTRE, CHURCHILL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY: Papers 1914-1976, and correspondence of his biographers; IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON: letters to Lt Col Herbert Ronald Keith Gibbs 1942-1963; the papers of Lt Gen Noel Mackingtosh Stuart Irwin (ref: P139) include correspondence with Slim, Apr-May 1943 (nine items); the papers of Lt Gen Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese (ref: Strong Room) include letters from Slim; NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM: correspondence (12 items) with Gen Sir (Francis Robert) Roy Bucher 1949-1968 (ref: 7901/87)

Publications
: Defeat into victory. An account of the Burma campaign, 1942-1945 (Cassell & Co, London, 1956); Courage, and other broadcasts (Cassell & Co, London, 1957); Unofficial history (Cassell, London, 1959); Maj Gen Stanley Woodburn Kirby, The war against Japan (5 vols, HMSO, London, 1957-1969, in the official history of the Second World War); Lt Gen Sir Geoffrey Charles Evans, Slim as a military commander (Batsford, London, 1969); Ronald Lewin, Slim the standardbearer. A biography of Field-Marshal The Viscount Slim (Cooper, London, 1976); Col Michael Hickey, The unforgettable army. Slim's 14th Army in Burma (Spellmount, Tunbridge Wells, 1992)

Index terms
SUBJECTS high command 1942-1946; strategy 1942-1946
PLACES South East Asia 1942-1946; North America 1952-1953
NAMES

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