IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Street
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: STREET, Maj Gen Vivian Wakefield (1912-1970)
Date(s): Created 1932-1960
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1 box or 0.01 cubic metres
Name of creator(s):
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born 1912; educated at Wellington and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into The Devonshire Regt, 1932; Lt, 1935; service as Intelligence Officer, 14 Infantry Bde, Palestine, 1938; awarded MC, 1938; General Staff Officer 3, British Forces in Palestine and Transjordan, 1939-1940; served in World War Two, 1939-1945, with the Rifle Brigade, 1 Special Air Service Regt (SAS), and in Yugoslavia; acting Capt, 1939-1940; General Staff Officer 3, General Headquarters, Middle East, Cairo, Egypt, 1940; Capt, 1940; service in Kenya, 1940; attended Staff Course, Haifa, Palestine, 1940; General Staff Officer 3, G2, Force Headquarters, Athens, Greece, 1941; Officer in charge of beach at Port Raphtis during Allied evacuation of Greece, 1941; General Staff Officer 2, 1941; awarded OBE, 1941; General Staff Officer 2, General Headquarters, Middle East, 1941-1942; War Substantive Maj, 1942; General Staff Officer 1, 1942; acting Lt Col, 1942; service with 1 Special Air Service Regt (SAS), based at Kabrit, Egypt, and raided behind enemy lines, North Africa, 1942-1943; captured by Italians, 1942; escaped from torpedoed Italian submarine, 1943; service with Rifle Bde, Tunisia, 1943; General Staff Officer 1, 1943-1944; awarded DSO, 1944; Assistant Quartermaster General, 1944; General Staff Officer 1 and Second in Command, British Military Mission, Yugoslavia, 1944; commanded Bde, 1945; Maj, 1946; General Staff Officer 2, War Office, 1946-1947; General Staff Officer 2, Anti-Aircraft Command, 1947-1948; General Staff Officer 2, Directing Staff, Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1948-1950; General Staff Officer 1, Defence Ministry, 1950-1952; Brevet Lt Col, 1951; Lt Col, 1953; Col, 1954; temporary Brig, 1954; commanded Parachute Bde, Territorial Army, 1954-1956; Deputy Director of Staff Duties, War Office, 1956-1957; awarded CBE, 1958; Military Adviser to Hussein bin Talal, King of Jordan, 1959-1961; Brig, 1960; Maj Gen, 1961; General Officer Commanding 3 Div, 1961-1962; awarded CMG, 1962; retired 1963; Justice of the Peace, 1966; Member, National Hunt Committee, 1967; Chairman, Save the Children Fund, 1967; died 1970.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Typescript transcripts of letters home from Street, 1932, May-Sep 1938 and 1941-1944, including accounts of Allied evacuation from Greece, 1941, and Street's escape from an Italian submarine as a POW, 1943. Two narrative diaries relating to service in Palestine, Aug-Oct 1939, and Kenya, Jun-Dec 1940. Volume entitled 'Long ago and far away', typescript memoir by Annette Street, widow of Maj Gen Vivian Wakefield Street, foreword by Sir Fitzroy Hew Maclean, 1st Bt, with seven photographs, 1938-1945. Sixty one photographs relating to Street's career, 1938-1960, including rebellion in Palestine, 1938-1939, and Middle East, 1940-1943. Edition of Blackwood's Magazine, Mar 1947, with article by Street entitled 'Some men have nine lives', an account of the escape from the Italian submarine, 1943. Printed programme of official visit to Aden by Julian Amery MP, Under Secretary of State for War, and Gen Sir Geoffrey Kemp Bourne, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Land Forces, Sep-Oct 1957, with typescript itineraries of visit and four photographs. Newspaper cuttings and related papers on the award of the MC to Street, Palestine, 1938, the evacuation from Greece, 1941, and the escape from the Italian submarine, 1943.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Placed in the Centre by the family in 1994.
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 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.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Detailed catalogue available in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Placed in the Centre by the family in 1994.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Decorations: CMG, CBE, DSO, MC
Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 1999