SERIES I: 1938-1945 (plus strays 1892-1937)

This subseries (known as 'Series I') like other parts of ADM 1 contains a wide range of documents sent to, or created by, different departments within the Admiralty.

Between 1969 and 1973 the pieces in this subseries were transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the Public Record Office in 14 tranches. Tranche 1 (ADM 1/9444-9749) largely covered papers registered in 1938, tranche 2 (ADM 1/9750-10235) 1939, tranche 3 (ADM 1/10236-10975) 1940, tranche 5 (ADM 1/10985-11669) 1941, tranche 6 (ADM 1/11670-12641) 1942, tranches 7-12 (ADM 1/12642-15624) 1943, tranche 13 (ADM 1/15625-17224) 1944 and tranche 14 (ADM 1/17225-19191) 1945. Tranche 4 (ADM 1/10976-10984) is an anomalous set of documents captured from the German Military Attaché to Washington in 1916.

In addition to papers registered between 1938 and 1945 each tranche included significant numbers of stray documents from outside this period. Likewise, stray documents dating from 1938-1945 are found elsewhere within ADM 1.

The files are grouped into subsubseries that largely reflect the year when the file number was registered. Each subseries corresponds to one or more tranches of records transferred together. Within each subseries, files originating from the same Admiralty Department (eg Naval Intelligence Department, Air Warfare Directorate etc) tend to be grouped together. However, it is unlikely that this has any significance other than the order in which the files were boxed up prior to despatch to the Public Record Office. Most subseries include a significant number of files registered in other years, including strays registered before 1938.

The original paper catalogue was arranged differently. After the allocation of archival reference numbers but before the release of these documents to the public, it was decided to arrange the catalogue by 1964 Admiralty Secretariat Digest Code Number. Each number relates to a different subject from (1) for 'Academy and Education' to (104) for 'Regattas and Yachts'. Many files were catalogued under two or three different codes and hence appear more than once in the subject catalogue. These subject headings have been included in the online catalogue entries to facilitate searching.

For other registered papers from this period, see:

Papers used in the Official History of the War at Sea ADM 199

'Cases' containing a number of registered files ADM 116