Private office papers and private collections

Division within WO

1709-1990

Private office papers and private collections containing the papers of various Secretaries of State for War, army officers and other War Office and Army staff.

Secretaries of State for War:

• Murray, 1828 to 1830, WO 80
• W H Smith, 1885 to 1887, WO 110
• Derby, 1922 to 1924, WO 137
• Hore-Belisha, 1937 to 1940, and Grigg, 1942 to 1945, WO 259
• Kitchener, WO 159

Army officers:

• Alexander, WO 214
• Amherst, WO 34
• Brownrigg, WO 133
• Buller, WO 132
• Colvin, WO 136
• Daly, WO 255
• Dempsey, WO 285
• Dill, WO 282
• Erskine, WO 236
• Haig, WO 256
• Hart, WO 211
• Peacocke, WO 134
• Roberts, WO 105
• Rothwell, WO 273
• Scovell, WO 37
• Harry Smith, WO 135
• Wolseley, WO 147

Other:

• Permanent under secretaries of state of the War Office, Second World War, WO 258
• Various private collections, WO 79
• Thomas Archer, principal clerk of Treasury Commissariat Department, WO 77

For private war diaries of officers, 1939 to 1945, see WO 217

Public Record(s)

English

26 series

Topics

Army

Conflict

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Operations, battles and campaigns

Personal and family papers

Until more stringent rules were introduced comparatively recently, Secretaries of State for War (and the colonies) took their Private Office papers away with them on leaving office.