War Office: Headquarters British Forces Caribbean Area: Files

WO 336

1948-1962

This series consists of selected files of British Army HQ relating to Caribbean area for the period following the end of the Second World War up to the granting of independence to the British West Indian territories in the 1960s.

These papers deal with the organisation of the military forces within the area, including the West India Regiment, as well as particular problems encountered during this period, especially the internal security (IS) operations in British Guiana (later Guyana) during 1962-1964; the dispute with Guatemala over British Honduras (later Belize) starting with deployments there in 1948; and plans to maintain the security of the area.

Public Record(s)

English

37 file(s)

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Topics

Army

Caribbean

Conflict

Americas

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Operations, battles and campaigns

A British military presence in the West Indies was maintained, more or less continuously, from the mid-seventeenth century up to the second half of the twentieth century.

Headquarters Caribbean Area was formed in January 1948 to replace the war-time HQs North and South Caribbean Areas. The post-war Army HQ continued at Up Park Camp, Kingston, Jamaica, until disbandment in August 1962, being replaced at the same time by a new joint service HQ British Forces Caribbean Area in Nassau, Bahamas, and separate Army Garrison HQs in British Honduras and British Guiana. The former (in another guise) continued to exist during the second half of the twentieth century but the latter, having become for a short while HQ British Forces Guyana, was disbanded in 1966.