Military Collections

A particularly vast, valuable and accessible assembly of documents on all aspects of military policy and administration. The Military Collections, amounting to almost 20,000 files, represent stage 4 of the disposal alternatives outlined in the introduction to IOR/L/MIL/6. Collection 447 is lacking; Collection 286 is cancelled. They are listed in detail in the registers IOR/Z/L/MIL/7/1-2. The list of IOR/L/MIL/7 below merely gives the sub-series titles of the Military Collections as they appear in the registers, plus covering dates and the overall IOR reference number. Copies of the registers and associated indexes IOR/Z/L/MIL/7/3-4, with modern IOR reference number marked against each file in the registers, are available in the Reading Room to provide access to individual files. The index gives references to collection and file numbers, which must be checked in the Register of Military Collections in order to obtain the current IOR reference number. The index was not compiled upon modern principles but is arranged according to the criteria which seemed important to the clerks of the Military Department Registry, ie. it is used as a way into broad areas of precedent but it is of little use in following individual points. For the latter it is necessary to use the various Registers and Indexes of the Military Correspondence, from which the collections were made up [see the introduction to IOR/L/MIL/6]. Collection 258, the opinion of legal advisers on various questions between 1882 and 1908, consists of cross references to other files in a number of collections -see IOR/Z/L/MIL/7/1-2

From 1882, each paper coming into the Military Department was registered in an annual numerical sequence and in most cases a file, with a subject or nominal heading, was opened for it. The registered files were later subject to one or other of the following forms of disposal: destruction as 'ephemera' ('weeding'); permanent retention and location under their original register numbers and years of registration; 'brought up', i.e. permanently placed with other papers on the same subject which had been registered in the same, a previous, or a subsequent year; retention and transfer to a Military Department Collection; retained but transferred to another India Office department. The files which were transferred to a Military Department Collection now form the series IOR/L/MIL/7. The Collections were not compiled according to archival principles but on an ad hoc basis as needed for current business. The series IOR/L/MIL/7 comprises the Military Collections which remain after weeding in the twentieth century. Some Collections have been heavily weeded e.g. Collection 425 on the First World War. The loan books IOR/Z/L/MIL/7/5-6 record the disposal of many of the files no longer present in the Collections. Some files were transferred to other departments of the India Office. The IOR/L/MIL/7 files are listed in detail in the registers IOR/Z/L/MIL/7/1-2. Copies of the registers and associated indexes IOR/Z/L/MIL/7/3-4, with the modern IOR reference number marked against each file in the registers, are available in the Reading Room. The index gives references to collection and file numbers. The principal subjects covered in the index include: Abors; Abyssinia; Academies; Accidents; Accommodation, quarters, on transports etc; Accountant-General's Department; Accountants; Accounts: Military Accounts Department; defalcations and irregularities, etc; Active Service; Addiscombe; Addresses; Aden: administration, defences, garrison etc; Adjutants; Adjutants-General; Administration; Admiralty; Advances of pay; Advertisements; Afghanistan, operations etc; Africa; Age; Agreements; Aides-de-Camp, appointments; Air Ministry Weekly Orders; Aliens; Allotments; Allowances; Amalgamation; Ambulances and Ambulance Corps; America; Ammunition; Anglo-Indians; Annuities; Ante-date; Appeals; Appointments: questions as to authority for making; Arabia; Arbitration; Architects; Armament, artillery, coast, inland and frontier, RIM vessels etc; Armour; Armourers and Armament Artificers; Arms; Army Act; Army Council; Army Council Instructions; Army Department; Army Headquarters (India); Army Hospital Corps; Army Instructions India; Army legislation; Army List, British and Indian; Arrears; Arsenals; Artificers, armament, civil, for ordnance factories and RIM dockyards etc; Artificial limbs; Artillery, officers and other ranks; Artillery (Field and Horse); Artillery (Mountain); Assam; Assignment; Asylums; Attaches; Attachments; Attestation; Auditor and auditing; Auxiliary Force (India); Aviation: equipment, RAF officers, other ranks, miscellaneous; Badges; Baggage; Baluchistan; Bands; Banks; Barrack Department; Barracks; Batta; Beer; Bengal Army; Bhootan; Bodyguards; Bombay Army; Bonus; Books, Admiralty and War Office publications; Boots; Bounty; Boys; Brevets; Brokerage; Bulls and bullocks; Burial; Burma; Cables; Cadets, King's and Queen's India Cadets; Cadet Colleges; Camels; Camps; Canada; Canteens; Cantonments; Cantonment Department; Caps; Capitation: allowances and rates; Caste; Casualties; Cavalry, British and Indian; Censors and censorship; Ceremonies; Certificates; Ceylon; Chaplains; Charge pay and allowance; Chargers; Chelsea Hospital; Chemists; Children; Children's allowances; China; Chitral; Cholera; Cinemas and cinematography; Civil; Civil employ; Class composition of regiments; Clerks; Clothing; Coal; Codes; Coinage; Colleges; Collisions; Colonels; Colonel's allowances; Colonial; Colours; Command: power of; Command pay; Commandants; Commander-in-Chief; Commands, divisional, higher, district, brigade, regimental etc; Commissions (Formal); Committees, Army in India (Esher), Indian Sandhurst (Skeen), Chatfield, Imperial Defence, Braithwaite etc; Commutation; Compassionate allowance, special grants; Compensation, e.g. to relatives, injuries, ships and transport; Conferences, Indian Round Table, League of Nations Disarmament; Confidential reports; Contracts; Controversies with War Office; Conventions; Cooking; Coronation; Cost (incidence of); Courts martial; Cyphers; Defence Force (Indian); Defences, coast; Earthquakes: Quetta 1935; Education: Army Educational Corps; Effects; Egypt; Electric light and electrification; Embarkation and disembarkation; Employers on Imperial duty of troops on Indian establishment; Engineers (RE officers, e.g. leave, pay, pensions; Engineers (RE other ranks); Engineers (RE): e.g. administration, establishment; Engineers, civilians; Enlistment; Equipment, machine gun etc; Establishments; Estates; Exchange, rate of; Exchange compensation allowance; Exhibitions; Expenditure; Explosives; Families; Farms; Farriers; Fees; Field allowance; Fines; Flags; Fodder, forage etc; Followers; Foreign; Funds, Military Service Family Pension Fund, relief funds; Funerals; Garrison, outside India; Gas (poison); Gazette (London); Gazette of India; General List; General officers; Gifts; Gratuity; Graves, memorials etc; Guarantee; Guardians; Gurkhas; Half-pay; Harbours; Health; Helmets; High Commissioners; History; Hong Kong; Honorarium; Honorary rank; Honours, e.g. Regimental, Birthday and New Year, DSC; Hospitals in England; Hospitals in India, station hospitals etc; Hospitals, miscellaneous; Hospital treatment; Income Tax; India Office; Indian Army, establishments, organisation, training etc; Indianisation; Infantry; Inoculation; Inspections; Institutes; Instruction (officers), IMS, RE etc; Instruction (other ranks); Insurance; Intelligence; Intemperance; Interchange; Interpreters; Inventions; Investments; Iraq; Japan; King (HM); Kit; Kit allowance; Kohat; Lance rank; Languages, Eastern, European; Lascars; Last pay certificates; League of Nations; Leave: officers, other ranks etc; Leave pay, officers, other ranks; Legal adviser: decisions; Legislation; Levies; Local allowances; Lodging, fuel and lighting allowances; Machine guns and Machine Gun Companies; Maintenance; Majors; Manoeuvres; Marine (RIM and RIN): officers, warrant officers, pay, pensions etc; Marriage and marriage allowance; Married establishment; Meat; Mechanical transport, personnel, equipment; Medals, British War, India, Meritorious Service etc; Medical (IMS), establishment, leave, pay etc; Medical (IMD), leave, pay etc; Medical (RAMC), establishment, leave, pay etc; Medical: miscellaneous; Medical Board (India Office); Medical Boards; Medical treatment: Indian Army officers and families, British Service officers, Indian Army other ranks etc; Memoranda; Messes and messing; Military Department (India Office); Military Secretary (India Office); Military Works Service; Mobilisation; Mules and muleteers; Munitions; Murders; Museums and exhibitions; Musketry; Mustering-out; Mutiny; Nationality; Naturalisation; Naval (RN): officers, vessels etc; Naval, miscellaneous; Newspapers; Non-Effective List; North-West Frontier, defences etc; Notice of termination of agreement etc; Nurses (QAMNS India etc.), establishment, leave, pay etc; Nurses, domestic etc; Officiating appointments; Oil; Operations; Orderly Officers; Ordnance, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Indian Army Ordnance Corps, Indian Ordnance Department, Ordnance Corps Officer and Army Ordnance Corps Officer; Osborne Convalescent Home; Outfit; Outfit allowance; Over-issues of pay; Over-issues of pension; Parliamentary; Passages, officers, families of officers, other ranks etc; Paupers; Pay, British Service officers, WOs, NCOs and men, Indian Army officers, Indian officers etc; Pay Masters; Penalties; Pensionary contributions; Pensions, officers, good service, WOs, NCOs and men etc; Persia; Persian Gulf; Personal allowance; Personal staff; Petitions; Photographs; Pioneers; Plague; Police; Port Officers; Postal; Posting; Precedence; Princes; Prisoners; Prisoners of war, in India, in foreign countries etc; Probation; Procedure; Promotion, officers and other ranks; Public Works Department; Publication; Quarter Masters; Quartermaster-General; Railways; Range-finders; Rank, acting, honorary, temporary etc; Rations; Ration allowance; Recall; Recoveries; Recruitment and recruits; Red Cross; Re-employment; Reforms; Regulations, Army in India, Marine, Pay, Passage etc; Reinforcements; Reinstatement; Reliefs; Religion; Remand; Remounts; Rent; Reports, progress, miscellaneous; Reserve, British Army, IARO, AIRO; Reserves; Resignation; Restoration to pension; Retention; Retirement: British and Indian Army officers, WOs and NCOs; Retrenchment; Reversion; Rosters; Royal Family; Royal Warrants; Russian; Salutes; Sanatoria; Sanitary; Sappers & Miners; Schools; Schoolmasters and mistresses; Searchlights; Seconding; Secretaries of State; Selection Boards; Seniority; Separation; Separation allowance; Sergeants; Service: for pension and increases of pay, for promotion etc; Services: appreciations of; Shipwreck; Shore allowance; Siam; Signals, Corps of: officers etc; Signals, miscellaneous; Silladar; Somaliland; Specialists; Staff; Staff allowance; Staff appointments; Staff College; Staff pay; Stationery; Status; Stores; Stores (India Store Department); Storekeepers; Study; Study leave; Subsistence; Subsistence allowance; Supernumerary; Supernumerary List; Supplies; Supply & Transport: RASC officers and other ranks, S&T, RIASC officers and other ranks; Surplus officers; Surveys and surveying; Telegrams and telegraphy; Telephones and telephony; Temperance; Tents; Tenure; Territorial Force; Territorial Force (India); Time; Time-expired; Tours of duty; Training; Transfer: to Indian Army and IMS etc; Transport, land and sea; Travelling; Travelling allowance; Troop Service; Trophies; Unattached List: other ranks etc; Unemployed List; Unemployed Pay; Unemployment; Uniforms; Uniform allowance; Universities; Vaccinations; Vagrancy; Veterinary Department; Viceroy; Voyage pay; Voyages; War Office; Water supply; Waziristan; Wireless telegraphy; Wound pensions: officers, other ranks, Indians etc; X-rays; YMCA.

For registers and indexes see IOR/Z/L/MIL/7

Available for research unless otherwise stated