BIRD, Lt Col Aylmer Douglas Wilberforce (1908-1972)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Bird
Held at	: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma ›
Full title	: BIRD, Lt Col Aylmer Douglas Wilberforce (1908-1972)
Date(s)	: Created 1857-1972
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 3 files
Name of creator(s)	: Bird | Aylmer Douglas Wilberforce | 1908-1972 | Lieutenant Colonel

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born in 1908; 2nd Lt, North Staffordshire Regt, 1929; regimental duties, 1929-1940; Lt, 1932; Capt, 1938; held various staff appointments and attended Staff College, 1940-1942; held various staff appointments and commanded 7 North Staffordshire Regt, 1942-1947; seconded to Foreign Office, 1948-1950; commanded 1 North Staffordshire Regt in Trieste, 1951-1953, and Korea General Staff Officer Grade 1 (Training), SHAPE, 1954; retired, 1956; died in 1972.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers relating to his military career, 1937-1972, principally comprising recruitment poster for North Staffordshire Regt, 1937; unsigned account of operations of 2 Bn North Staffs Regt, France, 12 May-1 Jun 1940, written in [1940]; unsigned account of operations of 6 Bn North Staffordshire Regt, France, 1 Jul-31 Aug 1944, written in [1944]; The Battle of Flanders by Kenneth Adam (Hutchinson and Co, London, 1940); papers relating to his service with North Staffordshire Regt in Trieste, 1951-1953, principally comprising press cuttings concerning protests against the Allied Military Government in Trieste, 1953, and official photographs of visit by Adm Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, [1952-1953]; copies of letters written to his family during his service in Korea, 1953-1954; press cuttings relating to evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, 1940. Papers relating to Bird's grandfather Gen James Lewis Bird, 1857- 1938, notably including copy of a letter from Gen James Lewis Bird to his sister Pamela, 2 Jun 1857, describing the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny at Meerut, India, May-Jun 1857.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

3 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.

Finding aids:

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

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented to the Centre by the family in 1997.

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
May 1997