IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Liddell Hart 15/12
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: LINDSAY, Maj Gen George Mackintosh (1880-1956)
Date(s): 1916-1948
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 0.08 cubic metres (8 boxes)
Name of creator(s): Lindsay | George Mackintosh | 1880-1956 | Major General
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born, 1880; educated at Sandroyd and Radley; joined the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia), 1898; commissioned into the Rifle Brigade, 1900; served in Second Boer War, South Africa, 1900-1902; Lt, 1901; Capt, 1906; Adjutant, Customs and Docks Rifle Volunteers, 1907-1908; Adjutant, 17 (County of London) Bn, London Regt, 1908-1911; Instructor, School of Musketry, Hythe, Kent, 1913-1915; served in UK, France and Flanders, World War One, 1914-1918; Maj, 1915; Instructor, Machine Gun School, Wisque, France, 1915; General Staff Officer 2, Machine Gun Corps Training Centre, Grantham, Lincolnshire, 1915-1916; Bde Maj, 99 Infantry Bde, 2 Div, Western Front, 1916-1917; posted to the Machine Gun Corps, 1917; awarded DSO, 1917; Chief Instructor, Machine Gun School, France, 1917-1918; Army Machine Gun Officer, 1 Army, France, 1918; Commanding Officer, 41 Bn, Machine Gun Corps, Germany, 1919; awarded CMG, 1919; graduated from Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1920; commanded 1 Armoured Car Group, Iraq, 1921-1923; transferred to the Royal Tank Corps, 1923; Lt Col, 1923; Chief Instructor, Royal Tank Corps Central Schools, 1923-1925; Col, 1925; Inspector, Royal Tank Corps, War Office, 1925-1929; member of the Mechanical Warfare Board, 1926-1929; Aide de Camp to HM King George V, 1928-1934; Brigadier General Staff, Egypt Command, 1929-1932; commanded 7 (Mechanised Experimental) Infantry Bde, Southern Command, 1932-1934; Maj Gen, 1934; General Officer Commanding Presidency and Assam District, India, 1935-1939; awarded CB, 1936; Col Commandant, Royal Tank Regiment, 1938-1947; retired, 1939; re-employed by Army, 1939; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; General Officer Commanding 9 (Highland) Div, 1939-1940; Deputy Regional Commissioner for South Western Civil Defence Region, 1940-1944; retired from Army, 1944; Commissioner for the British Red Cross and Order of St John, North West Europe, 1944-1946; awarded CBE, 1946; died, 1956. For details of Lindsay's influence in the development of armoured warfare in the British Army, see B H Liddell Hart, The Tanks: the History of the Royal Tank Regiment (Cassell, London, 1959; Praeger, New York, 1959). Publication: The war on the civil and military fronts. (The Lees Knowles Lectures on Military History 1942) (University Press, Cambridge, 1942).
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers, 1916-1948, mainly relating to the life and career of Maj Gen George Mackintosh Lindsay, notably his service as Chief Instructor, Royal Tank Corps Central Schools, Bovington, Dorset, 1923- 1925, Inspector, Royal Tank Corps, War Office, 1925-1929, and Commander of 7 (Mechanised Experimental) Infantry Bde, Southern Command, 1932-1934. From the 1920s and 1930s there is a rich series of correspondence with Col Charles Noel Frank Broad, Lt Col Frederick Elliot Hotblack, Brig Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart and Capt Basil Henry Liddell Hart, all of whom were leading figures in the development of British armoured forces, the mechanisation of the Army, tank design and improvements to military training. The series includes original notes and memoranda by both Lindsay and his correspondents. Lindsay's correspondence with Gen Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, 1935-1944, covers armoured tactics, the mechanisation of cavalry and Wavell's visit to the USSR to observe Red Army manoeuvres, Sep 1936. Papers on Lindsay's appointment as Brigadier General Staff, Egypt Command, 1929-1932, include memoranda by Gen Sir George Francis Milne, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Maj Gen Sydney Capel Peck on the future organisation of mechanised units in Egypt. Notable photographs in the collection include a series on Lt Col Giffard Le Quesne Martel's 'mechanical coffin' one man armoured carrier, 1934.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The original order was retained by Liddell Hart and subsequently when the whole of the Liddell Hart archive was catalogued by Stephen Brooks between 1973 and 1975 and parts recatalogued between 1995 and 1998. The papers comprise files on various subjects.
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:
Collection level description and detailed catalogue available online and in hard copy in the reading room at Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Maj Gen George Mackintosh Lindsay gave his papers to Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, with whom he corresponded 1926-1956, and they were incorporated into Liddell Hart's reference material.
Immediate source of acquisition:
The collection forms section 15/12 (private papers of Maj Gen George Lindsay mainly concerning mechanisation, 1916-1948) of the papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, which were purchased by the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives in 1973.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
King's College London, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, holds papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, including correspondence with Lindsay, 1926-1956 (Ref: Liddell Hart 1/448); papers of Maj Gen Robert Clive Bridgeman, 2nd Viscount Bridgeman, including lecture texts and notes by Lindsay on armoured support for infantry, 1933-1934 (Ref: Bridgeman 5/1-10).
The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, holds official papers, 1915-1935.
Publication note:
The papers were used by Liddell Hart in his research for The Tanks: the History of the Royal Tank Regiment (Cassell, London, 1959; Praeger, New York, 1959).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Compiled by Iain Mutch; revised by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.
Date(s) of descriptions: Nov 1999, Mar 2001