IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Prentice/Wickstead
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: PRENTICE, Maj Ronald R [1913-1980] and WICKSTEAD, Capt H Arthur
Date(s): Created 1942-1945, 1989-1991
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 5 boxes or 0.05 cubic metres
Name of creator(s):
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Ronald R Prentice, born [1913]; stationed at General Headquarters, Middle East Command, Cairo, Egypt, 1942; served in Special Operations Executive (SOE), Force 133, Greece, 1943-1944; served in Parachute Regt, [1946], died [1980]. Also, H Arthur Wickstead, born in Birmingham, West Midlands, 1913; scholar of St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Double First in Classics; Henry Fellow, Yale University; School Master, Bedford School, Bedfordshire; served in Gloucestershire Regt, 1940-1943; Allied Control Commission, Palestine, 1946; government official in Cornwall and Shropshire, 1952-1974; died 1989. Prentice and Wickstead were parachuted together into Mastroganni, Greece on 10 Aug 1943 as part of the Allied Military Mission, West Macedonia. There, they set up a base of operations at Pendalophos. Under the command of Lt Col Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Special Operations Executive (SOE) forces in the Balkans, or Force 133, they sabotaged German activities in Greece, often working alongside Greek partisan movements such as Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS). Missions included actions against the retreating German Army, Operation NOAH'S ARK, Sep-Nov 1944.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Prentice's manuscript diaries, mainly detailing his services at General Headquarters, Middle East Command, Cairo, Egypt, including mention of Long Range Desert Group operations in the Western Desert, 1942; manuscript diaries and notebooks kept by Prentice and Wickstead, mainly relating to SOE operations in West Macedonia, Greece, 1943-1944; reports, mainly compiled by Allied Military Mission personnel, detailing demolition, intelligence and reconnaissance missions in West Macedonia, combined missions with Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS) 9 Div, liaison operations with Raiding Support Regiment and US Operational Group 7 personnel, sabotage targets, and administrative and operational procedures, 1943-1944; papers, in Greek, mainly relating to ELAS partisan activities in West Macedonia, including a copy of the 'National Bands Agreement', memoranda to Allied Military Mission regarding struggles with Ellinikos Dimokratikos Ethnikos Stratos (EDES) factions, political proclamations and ELAS propaganda; papers, in Greek, relating to Greek partisan forces not under the jurisdiction of the Allied Military Mission, including memoranda, propaganda and military orders from the Ellinikos Ethnikis Stratos (EES) and Kommounistiko Komma Elladas (KKE) and official Greek government notices, 1943- 1944; maps and photographs of Allied Military Mission areas of operation, 1943- 1944; correspondence between Allied Military Mission commanders and sub-area commanders, 1943-1944, including correspondence between Greek partisan commanders and Prentice, 1944; personal letters from Allied personnel to Prentice, 1946-1955; correspondence between Wickstead, Officer Commanding Signals, Area 1, and Allied personnel, 1944; papers relating to wireless/telegraphy signals, Allied Military Mission, 1943-1944; papers, relating mainly to the administration and supply of the Allied Military Mission; German papers, including German 1 Mountain Div operational orders, propaganda, personal letters from German soldiers to family members and German-language newspapers; Greek political papers, notably including propaganda newspapers and party leaflets, including letters to Maj Gen Arthur Wilmot Wadeson Holworthy, 1941-1946; Wickstead's post-war index of Allied Military Mission signals, [1989]; papers relating to post-war publications about SOE operations in Greece, including the working papers for Lt Col Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond's, The Allied Military Mission and the Resistance in West Macedonia (Institute for Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki, 1993); post-war Greek newspapers, leaflets and war memorial publications, 1945-[1991]. 3.3.4 Arrangement: Arranged in the following sections: diaries and notebooks of Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead, 1942-1944; documents and papers relating to Allied Military Mission operations, West Macedonia, 1943-1944; papers relating to Greek partisan activities, 1943-1944; maps and photographs of Allied Military Mission areas of operations, 1943-1944; correspondence between Allied Military Mission commanders, 1943-1944 and former Greek partisans, 1946-1955; papers relating to wireless/telegraphy signals, Allied Military Mission, 1943-1944; papers relating to the administration, finances and logistics of the Allied Military Mission, 1943-1944; German papers, documents and newspapers during the occupation of Greece, 1943-1944; Greek political papers, documents and newspapers, 1941-1946; Wickstead's post-war partial index of signals, Allied Military Mission, West Macedonia, [1989]; papers relating to post-war publications about the resistance movement in West Macedonia, [1989-1991]; post- war Greek newspapers, leaflets and war memorial publications, 1945-[1991].
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English, Greek and German
System of arrangement:
Arranged in the following sections: diaries and notebooks of Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead, 1942-1944; documents and papers relating to Allied Military Mission operations, West Macedonia, 1943-1944; papers relating to Greek partisan activities, 1943-1944; maps and photographs of Allied Military Mission areas of operations, 1943-1944; correspondence between Allied Military Mission commanders, 1943-1944 and former Greek partisans, 1946-1955; papers relating to wireless/telegraphy signals, Allied Military Mission, 1943-1944; papers relating to the administration, finances and logistics of the Allied Military Mission, 1943-1944; German papers, documents and newspapers during the occupation of Greece, 1943-1944; Greek political papers, documents and newspapers, 1941-1946; Wickstead's post-war partial index of signals, Allied Military Mission, West Macedonia, [1989]; papers relating to post-war publications about the resistance movement in West Macedonia, [1989-1991]; post- war Greek newspapers, leaflets and war memorial publications, 1945-[1991].
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 on-line and detailed catalogue at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, available in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The papers of Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead were placed in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives as a single collection in 1993 by Peter Wickstead, son of the late Capt Wickstead.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives holds several collections relating to SOE operations in the Balkans, most notably the papers of Lt Col Count J A Dobrski (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Dobrski); Capt Patrick Hutchinson Evans (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Evans); Brig Godfrey Pennington Hobbs; Brig Edmund Charles Wolf Myers; Maj Philip Frederick Nind (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Nind); Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead; and, Col (Hon) Christopher Montague Woodhouse. The Public Record Office, Kew, holds a substantial collection of material relating to SOE operations, most notably Political Warfare Executive correspondence (Ref: FO 898/25-28); papers relating to SOE activities, Middle East, Cairo, 1940-42 (Ref: FO 898/113-114); Quarterly Reports of Special Operations Executive, Oct 1943-Dec 1945 (Ref: PREM 3/408/1); Confidential Papers of Col William J Donovan, 1940-41 (Ref: PREM 4/25/5); and, Special Operations Executive: Balkan Files (Ref: HS 5).
Publication note:
The collection was consulted by Professor (late Lt Col) Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond for his publication, The Allied Military Mission and the Resistance in West Macedonia (Institute for Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki, 1993).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: Jun 1999