Records of the Inspectorate of Electrical and Mechanical Equipment and successors

Records of the Inspectorate of Electrical and Mechanical Equipment relating to the inspection of electrical and mechanical equipment are in SUPP 26

The Inspectorate of Electrical and Mechanical Equipment (IEME) was responsible for the inspection of electrical and mechanical equipment and supplies procured by the Ministry of Supply for the fighting services. IEME was formed in 1942 when the Inspectorate of Engineer and Signal Stores, which had been transferred from the War Office to the Ministry of Supply in 1939, was expanded to include radar and variable timing (VT) fuses. IEME was split into three divisions; engineering equipment (E), telecommunications (T) and vehicles (V) and was involved with the introduction of the Bailey Bridge and the equipment for "Mulberry Harbours" used during Operation OVERLORD.

Between 1946 and the formation of the Atomic Energy Authority in 1954, IEME was also responsible for the inspection of equipment for atomic energy applications.

In 1955 a committee appointed under the chairmanship of Sir Cyril Musgrave to inquire into Ministry of Supply inspection organisation recommended that inspection should be organised by technique and that the various inspectorates be grouped together into an Inspection Division. The reorganisation of the inspectorates coincided with the reconstitution of the Ministry of Supply as the Ministry of Aviation in 1959. IEME was renamed as the Electrical Inspection Directorate (EID) and lost its responsibility for mechanical equipment to the Fighting Vehicles Inspectorate but acquired responsibility for electrical/electronic equipment in aircraft from the Aeronautical Inspectorate.

The other inspectorates in the new Inspection Division as well as EID were Aeronautical Inspection at Chessington, Fighting Vehicles and Mechanical Equipment at Kidbrooke and the Inspectorate of Armaments at Woolwich.