King's College London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

Summary Guide

Note: The item numbers represent a subset from ISAD(G) rules (General International Standard Archival Description) promulgated by the International Council on Archives to standardise archival description world-wide. Only item numbers relevant to our specific archive are included here.

3.1 IDENTITY STATEMENT
3.1.1 Reference code: GB99 KCLMA Adam
3.1.2 Title: ADAM, Gen Sir Ronald, 2nd Bt (1885-1982)
3.1.3 Dates of creation of material: 1939-1960
3.1.4 Level of description: collection level
3.1.5 Extent: 5 boxes or 0.05m3

3.2 CONTEXT
3.2.2 Biographical history: Born in 1885; educated at Eton College and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; served in France, Flanders and Italy, World War One, 1914-1918; General Staff Officer Grade 1, Staff College, Camberley, 1932-1935; General Staff Officer Grade 1, War Office, 1935- 1936; Deputy Director of Military Operations, War Office, 1936; Commander, Royal Artillery, 1 Div, 1936- 1937; Commandant of Staff College, Camberley, 1937; Deputy Chief of Imperial General Staff, 1938-1939; Commanding 3 Army Corps, 1939- 1940; General Officer Commander-in-Chief, Northern Command, 1940-1941; Col Commandant of Royal Artillery and Army Educational Corps, 1940-1950; Adjutant General to the Forces, 1941-1946; Gen, 1942; Col Commandant, Royal Army Dental Corps, 1945-1951; retired, 1946; President of Marylebone Cricket Club, 1946- 1947, Library Association, 1949, National Institute of Adult Education, 1949-1964; National Institute of Industrial Psychology, 1947-1952; member of Council, Institute of Education, London University, 1948-1967; member of Miners Welfare Commission, 1946-1952; Chairman and Director General, British Council, 1946-1954; Executive Board, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 1950-1954 and Chairman, 1952-1954; Principal of Working Men's College, 1956-1961; died in 1982.
3.2.5 Provenance/source of acquisition: Placed in the Centre by Maj Gen Sir Ronald Adam and his family in 1973, 1976 and 1980.

3.3 CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
3.3.1 Scope and content: Notebooks detailing Adam's service with The Royal Artillery in World War One in the Western and Italian Fronts; maps of France and Belgium used in World War One and of England from Adam's time as General Staff Officer at Staff College, Camberley, Hampshire, 1932-1935; note on the development of the Army rearmament programme, 1937- 1939; notes for the estimates speeches in 1941 and 1943 by the Secretaries of State for War, Capt the Rt Hon David Margesson and the Rt Hon Sir James Grigg, including formation of new corps, Home Guard, Dominion troops and prisoners of war; official paper entitled 'The Use of Manpower in the Army', 1941; printed circular letters from Adjutant General to Corps District, Divisional and Area Commanders, Dec 1942-Dec 1943; papers on Army education for the Armistice and Post War Planning Committee, 1945; reports to Army Council on overseas tours by Adjutant General, 1942-1946; typescript narrative on administrative aspects of World War Two, 1960.
3.3.4 Arrangement: Arranged chronologically in sections as above

3.4 CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE
3.4.2 Access: Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of a letter of introduction.
3.4.3 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.
3.4.4 Language: English.
3.4.6 Finding aids: Detailed catalogue available on line and also in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

3.5 ALLIED MATERIALS
3.5.3 Related units of description: The Liddell Hart collection contains a great deal of correspondence between Adam and Capt Sir Basil Liddell Hart (Liddell Hart, 1-4, 1937-1960); including a note by Liddell Hart on discussion with Adam and Col Bernard (Charles Tolver) Paget of Military Operations and Intelligence at the War Office on the reorganisation of the army to provide a co-ordinated defence (Liddell Hart, 11/1935/101, 1935 Nov 15); a note by Liddell Hart on further discussions with Paget and Adam, on the German threat and the problem of co- ordination between the services (Liddell Hart, 11/1936/64, 1936 May 15); a note by Liddell Hart on discussions with Adam, -then Commandant of the Staff College at Camberley - on army education (Liddell Hart, 11/1937/79, 1937 Oct 25); reflections by Liddell Hart on Adam's refusal to consult with him (Liddell Hart, 11/1938/7, 1938 Jan 9); and a note by Liddell Hart on discussions with Maj Gen Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart, 7 Armoured Div, Egypt, 1938-1939, on Hobart's difficulties in Egypt, with comments on Adam, at the time Commander, 3 Army Corps (Liddell Hart, 11/1940/5, 1940 Jan 17). The collection of FM Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, contains a letter from Adam congratulating Brooke on the award of his KCB, Jun 1940 (Alanbrooke, 8/4/1/-17, 1939-1941); telegrams, 8-9 Dec 1944, between Gen Sir Claude Auchinleck, Alanbrooke and Adam, 2nd Bt, Adjutant General to the Forces, concerning implementation of the PYTHON scheme for repatriation of overseas forces and the decision to postpone return from India of certain Royal Corps of Signals personnel (Alanbrooke, 6/12/15, 1943 Feb 20 - 1944 Dec 15). Also, letters to Brooke from friends and associates including Adam, commenting on Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant's The turn of the tide (Collins, London, 1957), (Alanbrooke, 12/8/1-18, 1957). The Alanbrooke collection also contains correspondence and papers relating to custody and future use of Brooke's papers notes made by Marian C Long, research assistant to Royal Regiment of Artillery and Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant, mainly correspondence between Brooke's wife, Benita Blanche Brooke, and others including Adam (Alanbrooke, 12/15, 1963-1968). The papers of General Sir Richard O'Connor, contain a letter to Adam at the War in appreciation of his visit on 1 Jun 1944 (O'Connor, 5/2/57, 1944 Jun 2).
3.5.4 Associated material: The Imperial War Museum holds the papers of FM Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, including correspondence with Adam as Adjutant General from 1944 to 1945 (10 items, ref: BLM 119-121; one item, ref: BLM 97/38). Southampton University Library hold the papers of AF Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma including correspondence with Adam from 1943 to 1946 (ref: MB1/C2).

3.6 NOTE AREA
3.6.1 Date of compilation: June 1996

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