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Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London

MESSENGER, Colonel William de Lemos Milles ('Toby') (1913-2005)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Messenger

Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London

Title: MESSENGER, Colonel William de Lemos Milles ('Toby') (1913-2005)

Date(s): 1945-1994

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 4 boxes and 1 outsize file

Name of creator(s): Messenger | William de Lemos Milles | 1913-2005 | Colonel

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1913; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, -1934; 3 Battalion, Royal Tank Corps, 1934; Experimental Wing RAC Gunnery School, 1938-1942; Instructor School of Tank Technology, 1942; Ministry of Supply, 1943; Instructor RMCS Shrivenham, 1946-1948; 7 Royal Tank Regiment as Officer Commanding Specialised Armour Squadron, 1948-1950; Inspectorate of Armoured Fighting Vehicles, 1950-1953; attended Exercise TOTEM nuclear test in Australia as Royal Armoured Corps and Royal Artillery representative, 1953; Army Operational Research Group, West Byfleet, 1953; Commanded Experimental Wing of Defence Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Centre School, Winterbourne Gunner, 1956-1958; retired from the Army, 1958; Health and Safety Branch UK Atomic Energy Authority, 1958-1973; freelance nuclear consultant and technical translator, 1973; Scientific Advisor (Nuclear) to Northhampton County Council Emergency Planning, 1980-1993; died, 2005.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Colonel William de Lemos Milles ('Toby') Messenger, 1945-1994, relating to atomic tests and British nuclear policy, 1945-1989, including Messenger's report on effects of atomic blast on a Challenger tank, Australia, 1953 (Exercise TOTEM); manuscript draft article by Messenger on observing a nuclear explosion and pamphlets on nuclear weapons, 1945-1982 and papers relating to Messenger's position as Scientific Advisor (Nuclear) to Northhampton County Council (NCC) Emergency Planning, 1980-1993, including an appreciation of Exercise WET FINGER run by the NCC, [1988]; NCC emergency plans for radiation incidents; training manual for scientific advisors; files of notes, articles and other papers on the following topics: improving methods for obtaining bomb burst data, improvised bomb data, chemical and biological warfare, meteorology, victims of disaster, public reaction to nuclear technology, nuclear electromagnetic pulse, nuclear winter, casualty prediction, chemical and biological hazard protection and health, water, food, agriculture and energy after a widespread disaster; and publications including journal Fission Fragments, 1982-1992 and Civil Protection Magazine, 1991-1994.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Original order.

Conditions governing access:

Open. Visitors are required to provide proof of ID and sign an undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services and Information Management, King's College London.

Finding aids:

No additional finding aids.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Received from the family, 2008.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Oct 2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Civil defence | Defence | State security
Emergency planning | Disaster prevention | Safety
Nuclear energy | Nonrenewable energy sources | Energy resources
Nuclear explosions | Manmade disasters | Disasters
Nuclear warfare | Warfare | Military engineering
Nuclear weapons | Weapons | Military equipment | Equipment
Nuclear weapons testing | Weapons testing | Testing | Scientific methods
Civil defence x Defence
Explosions

Personal names
Messenger | William de Lemos Milles | 1913-2005 | Colonel

Corporate names
Northampton County Council

Places
Australia | Oceania
London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Northampton | Northamptonshire | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe