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 Thornhill

3.1.2 Title: THORNHILL, Lt Col Edmund Basil (1898-1998)

3.1.3 Dates of creation of material: 1993

3.1.4 Level of description: collection level

3.1.5 Extent: 1 volume

3.2 CONTEXT

3.2.2 Biographical history: Born 1898; educated at Rosslyn House, Felixstowe, Suffolk, St Bees School, Cumberland, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; served in World War One, 1914-1918; commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery, 1916; service with 1B Reserve Bde, Royal Field Artillery, Forest Row, Sussex, 1916; service with C Battery, 93 Army Field Bde, Royal Artillery, Western Front, 1917-1918; wounded, Battle of Vimy Ridge, 1917; Lt, 1918; awarded MC, 1918; served with 31 Bde, Royal Field Artillery, Boyton Camp, Codford, Wiltshire, 1919-1920; service with 133 Battery, 20 Bde, Royal Field Artillery, Trimulgherry, India, 1920-1921; served with 41 Battery, 20 Field Regt, Royal Artillery, Trimulgherry and Bangalore, India, 1921-1924; service in Aldershot, Hampshire, 1925-1927; Adjutant, 5 Light Bde, Royal Artillery, Ewshot, Hampshire, 1927-1930; Capt, 1929; Second in Command, Z Battery, 21 Field Regt, Royal Artillery, Catterick, Yorkshire, 1930-1931; graduated from Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1933; General Staff Officer 3, Ceylon, 1935-1937; Staff Capt, Southern Command Headquarters, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1937-1939; Maj, 1938; Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, Chatham, Kent, 1939; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Headquarters 1 Corps, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Belgium and France, 1939-1940; evacuated from Dunkirk, France (Operation DYNAMO), 1940; Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, 61 Div, Ballymena, Northern Ireland, 1940-1942; Second in Command, 2 Regt, Royal Horse Artillery, 8 Army, Western Desert, 1942; Second Battle of El Alamein, Oct 1942; Commanding Officer, 121 (Self Propelled) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 1942-1943; Deputy President, Middle East Officer Selection Board, Tripoli, Libya, 1943-1944; Deputy President, War Office Selection Board, Catania, Sicily, and San Giorgio Acrimona, Italy, 1944; General Staff Officer 1, 1 District, Foligno, Italy, 1944; Lt Col, 1945; Commandant, Z POW Camp, Perugia, Italy, 1945; Assistant Adjutant General, General Headquarters, 2 Echelon, Naples, Italy, 1945-1946; served at School of Artillery, Larkhill, Wiltshire, 1947; retired 1948; Deputy Commandant, Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force, 1949-1952; Deputy Lieutenant, Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, 1956; Chairman, Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely Territorial Army and Auxiliary Forces Association, 1957-1962; Vice Lieutenant, Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, 1965-1975; died 1998.

3.2.5 Provenance/source of acquisition: Presented to the Centre by the family in 1999.

3.3 CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

3.3.1 Scope and content: Printed volume entitled 'Recollections', a memoir of Thornhill's life, 1898-1992, including service on the Western Front, World War One, 1917-1918, including the Battle of Vimy Ridge, 1917; India, 1920-1924, and North Africa and Italy, World War Two, 1942-1945, notably the Second Battle of El Alamein, Oct 1942.

3.3.4 Arrangement: 1 volume

3.4 CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE

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

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: Summary guide entry available on-line and in hard copy in the reading room.

3.5 ALLIED MATERIALS

3.5.2 Existence of copies: An edition of 'Recollections' has also been deposited at the Imperial War Museum, London, and at the Liddle Collection, Leeds University Library.

3.6 NOTE AREA

3.6.1 Date of compilation: Sep 1999

3.6.2 Decorations: MC

• Return to Summary Guide introductory page
• Return to List of Collections
• Return to home page