Office of the Commander-in-Chief and War Office: Adjutant General's Office: Disposition...

Records of the location and movement of troops in regiments of the Regular and Territorial Army in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Pieces 1-17 [ie the registers/fiches thereof] are thought to have originated in the Adjutant General's department of the War Office but latterly were kept in the Ministry of Defence library, where they were probably used to answer historical queries about British regiments. The information in them dates back to 1674 although the documents date from c1737. Information about earlier dispositions was added in the twentieth century.

Pieces 18-129 are cards, relating almost exclusively to infantry units from 1914 to 1967 and including both Regular and reserve (including TA) battalions. These too originated in the Adjutant General’s department of the War Office. The cards are not complete and regimental/corps names are not always consistent, as many of them changed during the long period over which they were used by the Adjutant General’s staff.

The earlier records relating to the infantry regiments continue to use the numbers by which regiments of foot were known before they were given county and other names in 1881.

The bulk of the cards in pieces 18-129 are arranged in the order of the Infantry as it existed in the late 1960s. The arrangement of the rest of the cards, which include many miscellaneous units and formations, follows no particular formal order or precedence.

See also records of auxilliary services in

For more detailed monthly returns see WO 17

• Commander-in-Chief, Adjutant General's Department, 1701-1870
• War Office, Adjutant General's Department, 1870-1964

From 1990 Ministry of Defence

Topics

Army

Armed Forces (General Administration)