Catalogue description Military Home Correspondence

There are three sub-series of Military Home Correspondence:

Two main sub-series comprise:

[1] letters to which no answer was sent, or which were answered in printed form:

L/MIL/2/1-720 Military Home Correspondence: Letters Received 1830-1860. The letters are arranged in the order of the date on which they were disposed of. In order to trace a particular letter this date must be found in the series Z/L/MIL/2/5-71 Memoranda of Military References, and see also Z/L/MIL/2/1-4 Registers and Indexes 1816-1858.

The sub-series continues in L/MIL/2/721-1048 Military Home Correspondence: Letters Received 1861-1881. The letters are arranged in the order of the register number given to all incoming letters. In order to trace a particular letter this number must first be found in the series Z/L/MIL/2/5-71 Memoranda of Military References.

[2] letters to which an answer was returned :

L/MIL/2/1049-2069. Copies of out-going letters were divided into four groups, according to destination (Horse Guards, War Office, Admiralty and Miscellaneous). Each group was allocated a set of register numbers and the correspondence was arranged and bound in the order of these numbers.

L/MIL/2/1049-1229 Letters to the Horse Guards 1859-1881

L/MIL/2/1230-1400 Letters to the War Office 1859-1881

L/MIL/2/1401-1446 Letters to the Admiralty 1873-1881

L/MIL/2/1477-2069 Miscellaneous Letters Out 1859-1881

Thirdly, L/MIL/2/1447-1476 - thirty volumes of Military Secretary's Draft Letters Out 1858-1859 have also survived.

Additional information on each sub-series will be found below

For earlier Home Correspondence on military affairs, see IOR:E/1, Miscellaneous Letters Received, and Miscellanies. Home Correspondence received from 1882 appears in IOR: L/MIL/6 Departmental Papers.

Open

Anthony Farrington, Guide to the records of the India Office Military Department IOR L/MIL and L/WS (London 1982), p.p. 7-18.

Military Home Correspondence refers to letters on military matters received by the East India Company and India Office from individuals and institutions in Britain, Europe and occasionally from places outside the 'East Indies'; and the Company or India Office's replies to the in-coming letters. The Home Correspondence reflects the work of the East India Company's Political and Military Committee 1834-1858 and the India Office Military Department to 1858-1881 as well as those out-letters drafted by the Military Secretary.