Graphical version

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

VICKERS, Col Sir (Charles) Geoffrey (1894-1982)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Vickers C G

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

Title: VICKERS, Col Sir (Charles) Geoffrey (1894-1982)

Date(s): Created 1915-1940

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 5 files

Name of creator(s):

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1894; educated at Oundle School and Merton College, Oxford; served in World War One, 1914-1918; served on Western Front with 1/7 (Robin Hood) Bn, The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt), Territorial Force, 1915-1918; temporary Capt, 1915; awarded VC for action at Hohenzollern Redoubt, Battle of Loos, France, 14 Oct 1915 (award gazetted, 18 Nov 1915); Lt, 1916; Maj, 1918; Second in Command, 1 Bn, The Lincolnshire Regt, 1918; admitted as a Solicitor, 1923; Partner, Slaughter and May, 1926-1945; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; re-commissioned as a Col; seconded as Deputy Director General, Ministry of Economic Warfare, in charge of economic intelligence; Member, Joint Intelligence Committee of Chiefs of Staff, 1941-1945; Member, London passenger Transport Board, 1941-1946; Member, Council of Law Society, 1944-1948; Knighted, 1946; Legal Adviser to National Coal Board, 1946-1948; Member of National Coal Board in charge of manpower, training, education, health and welfare, 1948-1955; Chairman, Research Committee of Mental Health Research Fund, 1951-1967; Member, Medical Research Council, 1952-1960; Director, Parkinson Cowan Limited, 1955-1965; died 1982. Publications: The undirected society. Essays on the human implications of industrialisation in Canada (University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada, 1959); The art of judgement. A study of policy making (Chapman and Hall, London, 1965); Towards a sociology of management (Chapman and Hall, London, 1967); Value systems and social process (Tavistock Publications, London, 1968); Freedom in a rocking boat: changing values in an unstable society (Allen Lane, London, 1970); Making institutions work (Associated Business Programmes, London, 1973); Responsibility: its sources and limits [1980]; Human systems are different (Harper and Row, London, 1983); The Vickers papers, edited by Open Systems Group (Harper and Row, London, 1984); Policymaking, communication, and social learning: essays of Sir Geoffrey Vickers, edited by Guy B Adams, John Forester and Bayard L Catron (Transaction Books, New Brunswick, USA, 1987).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Copies of papers relating to Col Sir (Charles) Geoffrey Vickers and of his brother 2nd Lt William Burnell Vickers, 184 Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, killed in action, Western Front, 21 Jun 1917, including seven manuscript letters and four typescript copies of letters from William Burnell Vickers to his parents and to his brother, Jan 1916-Jun 1917, with two typescript copies of letters of sympathy from Regimental officers, Jun 1917; typescript extracts from William Burnell Vickers' diary relating to service on the Western Front, Nov 1915-Feb 1916 and Jul 1916. Three copies of photograph of (Charles) Geoffrey Vickers [1915]; sixty letters by Lt (Charles) Geoffrey Vickers, to his mother, father and brother, Western Front, Feb 1915-Feb 1917, including letters from hospital after being wounded in action, Battle of Loos, Oct 1915, and typescript copy of letter from Lt Col Arthur William Brewill, Commanding Officer, 1/7 (Robin Hood) Bn, The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt), Territorial Force, informing Vickers' father that Vickers had been recommended for the VC, 24 Oct 1915; nine letters by Vickers to his parents, France, Apr 1918-Jan 1919. Typescript copy of narrative diary detailing Geoffrey Charles Vickers' service on the Western Front, Feb-Oct 1915. Copy of printed report entitled 'Report by Colonel C G Vickers, VC, on his Mission to the British communities in certain American countries and in Portugal', including information relating to Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Cuba and Portugal, 16 Dec 1940.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English.

System of arrangement:

5 files.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied 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.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Summary guide availabel on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Copies made by the Centre from originals loaned by the family in 1983 and 1984.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

The papers of Sir Alister Hardy, Department of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, contain correspondence with Vickers, 1923-1951 (Ref: NCUACS 5/4/88). Other correspondence and papers are held privately.

Publication note:

Developments in psychiatric research: essays based on the Sir Geoffrey Vickers lectures of the Mental Health Foundation (formerly Mental Health Research Fund), edited by J M Tanner (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1977); Rethinking the future: the correspondence between Geoffrey Vickers and Adolph Lowe, edited by Jeanne Vickers (Transaction, New Brunswick, USA, 1991); Rethinking public policy making - questioning assumptions, challenging beliefs: essays in honour of Sir Geoffrey Vickers on his centenary, edited by Margaret Blunden and Malcolm Dando (Sage, London, 1995).

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Decorations: VC, Kt

Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 1999


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Armed forces | State security
Diaries | Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Diplomacy | Foreign relations | International relations
Medals | Awards | Social norms | Social behaviour
Military awards | Awards | Social norms | Social behaviour
Photographs | Visual materials
War | International conflicts
World War One (1914-1918) | World wars (events) | Wars (events)
Military organizations
Primary documents

Personal names
Brewill | Arthur William | 1861-1923 | Lieutenant Colonel
Vickers | William Burnell | d 1917 | Second Lieutenant

Corporate names
British Army

Places
Argentina | South America
Brazil | South America
Chile | South America
Colombia | South America
Cuba | Caribbean
Loos | France | Western Europe | Europe
Panama | Central America
Peru | South America
Portugal | Western Europe | Europe
Uruguay | South America
Venezuela | South America
Americas