IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Pakenham-Walsh
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: PAKENHAM-WALSH, Maj Gen Ridley Pakenham (1888-1966)
Date(s): 1917-1965
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 2½ boxes
Name of creator(s): Walsh | Ridley Pakenham | Pakenham- | 1888-1966 | Major General
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born 1888; educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; commissioned into Corps of Royal Engineers, 1908; Instructor, Royal Military College, Duntroon, Australia, 1914-1915; served in World War One, 1914-1918; service at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, 1915-1918; Brevet Maj, 1919; British Representative, International Commission, Teschen, Czech-Polish frontier, 1919-1920; Instructor in Tactics and Bde Maj, School of Military Engineering, Chatham, Kent, 1923-1926; General Staff Officer 2, War Office, 1927-1930; Brevet Lt Col, 1928; Imperial Defence College; Assistant Adjutant General, War Office, 1934-1935; Brig, General Staff, Eastern Command, 1935-1939; Maj Gen, 1939; Commandant, School of Military Engineering, Chatham, Kent, and Inspector, Corps of Royal Engineers, 1939; Engineer in Chief, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), France, 1939-1940; awarded CB, 1940; General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland District, 1940-1941; Corps Commander and acting Lt Gen, 1941; Commander, Salisbury Plain District, 1942; Controller General, Army Provision (EG), 1943-1946; Vice Chairman, Harlow New Town Development Corporation, Essex, 1947-1950; President, Cheltonian Society, 1948-1949; died 1966. Decorations: CB, MC. Publications: Outline history of the Russo-Japanese War [1924]; Elementary tactics (Sifton, Praed and Company, London, 1926); History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Volumes VIII and IX (Longmans, London, 1959).
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Carbon out-letter book, dated Mar 1917-Jan 1920, mostly relating to Pakenham-Walsh's service as British Representative, International Commission, Teschen, Czech-Polish frontier, 1919-1920. Seven manuscript, narrative diaries, Nov 1927-Apr 1939. Fifteen manuscript narrative diaries, containing photographs, newspaper cuttings, letters and reports, 19 Nov 1939-3 Feb 1947. Correspondence received by Pakenham-Walsh, 1940-1965, notably including letters from Prime Minister Rt Hon Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, 25 Dec 1940, Gen Sir John Greer Dill, 7 Dec 1941, FM Sir Cyril John Deverell, 21 Dec 1942, FM (William) Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and of Ironside, 25 Dec 1942, FM Hon Sir Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 17 Dec 1944, and Col Roderick Macleod, Jun-Aug 1960. Transcript of message from Rt Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha to Gen John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, delivered verbally by Pakenham-Walsh, 25 Nov 1939, relating to the concern of Prime Minister Rt Hon (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain at weakness of the Army under Gort.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English.
System of arrangement:
The collection is arranged in sections as outlined in scope and content.
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 entry available on-line and in hard copy in the reading room.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Presented to the Centre by the family in 1980, 1982 and 1995.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives also holds papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, containing correspondence with Pakenham-Walsh, Dec 1935 (Ref: LH2P/4/1-2); correspondence relating to Europe in arms by Liddell Hart (Faber and Faber, London, 1937)(Ref: LH 9/15/7); obituary for Pakenham-Walsh, 1966 (Ref: LH 15/6/5/16). The papers of Col Roderick Macleod include newspaper cuttings relating to Pakenham-Walsh and the working relationships between the Rt Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha, FM (William) Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and of Ironside, and FM John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, during 1939-1940 (Ref: Macleod 2/2/2).
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: Oct 1999