British Army: Operational Records 1816-1913

Military Records Information 25

1. The Army

This research guide briefly describes records in The National Archives of warlike operations undertaken by the British Army from 1816, until the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. It does not deal with records of administration, supply, training or personnel.

Until 1855 the Regular Army (that is, the Guards, and the Horse and Foot regiments on the British or Irish establishments) was administered from an office at the Horse Guards, Whitehall, by the Secretary at War, the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster-General, with civilian staff. The Secretary at War was a semi-permanent civilian official with a status approximating to that of an Under-Secretary of State. The Adjutant-General and Quartermaster-General were the most senior permanent officers of the Regular Army, for whose discipline and administration they had large but ill-defined responsibilities. These three, however, had very little to do with supplying the army. Weapons and ammunition were issued by the Board of Ordnance, which was responsible through its head, the Master-General of the Ordnance, directly to the King (until 1801 Irish regiments at home were similarly supplied by the Irish Ordnance Board). The Commissariat, which was run by the Treasury, supplied food, while uniforms and necessaries were purchased for each regiment by its colonel and officers.

Besides issuing weapons and ammunition, the Board of Ordnance was also responsible for the Corps of Artillery and Engineers, and for the Waggon Train. The administration of a field force of all arms was therefore divided between at least three departments, none of which had any responsibility for discipline or the control of operations. Until well into the eighteenth century these were closely controlled by the King himself. The appointments to field commands, and all orders for field operations, were made in the King's name by one of the Secretaries of State. The principal military advisor to the Crown, however, was the Captain-General or Commander-in-Chief during the periods when one or other office was filled, and otherwise the Master-General of the Ordnance or the Adjutant-General.

In the reforms of 1854-1855 the office of Secretary at War and the entire Board of Ordnance were abolished and the administration of all arms, and of the Commissariat, was combined in a new department, the War Office, with a fourth Secretary of State, the Secretary for War, at its head. The Commander-in-Chief was from 1870 subordinated to the Secretary for War, and in 1904 abolished.

The complex administration of the land forces is reflected in the records of their operations, which are predominantly correspondence with, between and within the central departments about those operations. Only the Headquarters Records were actually compiled in the field, and there are virtually no internal regimental records in The National Archives other than of personnel. The National Army Museum (Royal Hospital Road, London SW3) or regimental museums (to which the Army Museums Ogilby Trust, 58 The Close, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 2EX may be able to direct enquirers) sometimes preserve such records.

2. The Alphabetical Guide

Most of the series described below are indexed by subject, name and regiment in the Alphabetical Guide to War Office and other Military Records (Lists and Indexes LIII, 1933, reprinted New York, 1963).

A more general guide is M Roper, Records of the War Office and Related Departments, 1660-1964 (PRO, 1998).

3. The Records

Strengths and Movements

The strength, composition and movements of units and formations of the Regular Army, and after 1855 of the whole Army, may be found in these series:

The Secretaries of State

The correspondence of the Secretary for War and the Colonies is in HO 30 into the 1830's; but after the conclusion of peace in 1815 it is generally concerned only with the Militia and other domestic military affairs.

Letters and papers addressed to the Secretary for War until 1868 (later for War and the Colonies) are in WO 1 , and include many reports and narratives of battles and campaigns.

The "Indexes of Correspondence", WO 2 , are abstracts of the letter books of the Secretary at War, 1759-1858; his surviving Entry Books of Out-Letters, 1684-1861, are in WO 4 .

The Secretary at War's copies of the Secretary for War's Out-Letters, 1793-1859, are in WO 6 .

The military correspondence of the War and Colonial Office, 1801-55, is in CO 323 . Military Correspondence of the Colonial Office from 1855, including the affairs of the King's African Rifles and the Niger and West Africa Frontier Force, which were in peacetime administered by the Colonial Office, are in CO 445 , CO 534 , CO 581 , CO 582 , CO 623 , CO 624 , CO 641 , CO 642 , CO 820 and CO 871 .

Headquarters Papers

The Headquarters Records, WO 28 , include those of the Opium War (1840-44), the Russian War (1854-56), the Sepoy Mutiny (1857-60) and several minor campaigns. The Headquarters Papers of the South African War, (1899-1902) form the class WO 108 .

The papers assembled by the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence, WO 106 , contain besides much general intelligence and information from 1837 onwards, many reports of actions and campaigns which include, though they are by no means confined to, those in which British forces participated. The Quarter-Master General's papers, WO 107 , contain reports of some campaigns of the later nineteenth century. Various campaigns are also touched on in the Miscellanea, WO 30 .

Other Records

Among mainly administrative records there is material on various campaigns in WO 3 , Out-Letter Books from the Commander in Chief and the Adjutant-General, 1765-1868; in the War Office Registered Files, WO 32 , from 1855; in the Miscellaneous Reports, WO 33 , from 1853, and in the Selected Unnumbered Papers, WO 40 , 1753-1859.

Commissariat

The Commissariat up to 1855, and the financial affairs of the Army in general, are dealt with in the Treasury Papers, T 1 ; General Out-Letters, T 27 (succeeded in 1855 by T 24 , Out-Letters to the War Office); and in the books of Warrants Relating to Money, T 53 , and Warrants not Relating to Money, T 54 .

Maps and Plans

Maps and plans will be found in WO 78 and WORK 43 . Most are of forts, barracks and other military establishments, but they include many bearings on operations.

Courts Martial

Registers, returns and records of military courts martial of all sorts will be found in WO 71 to WO 72 , WO 81-93 , WO 209 and WO 213 . All are closed for 75 years from the last date of the piece or volume.

Medals

The following classes deal with medals, rewards, promotions and decorations:

4. Private Papers

Private papers of the following army officers, or official papers they collected, are in The National Archives:

(ri2025) Last updated: 28 June 2004 | © Crown Copyright 2002