MONTANARO, Brig Gerald Charles Stokes (1916-1979)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Montanaro
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	: MONTANARO, Brig Gerald Charles Stokes (1916-1979)
Date(s)	: 1938-1965
Level of description	: Collection (Fonds)
Extent	: 5 boxes (0.05 cubic metres)
Name of creator(s)	: Montanaro | Gerald Charles Stokes | 1916-1976 | Brigadier

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1916, educated at Bedford School, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and Cambridge University. Commissioned, Royal Engineers, 2nd Lt, 1936, Lt 1939, British Expeditionary Force, France, 1939-1940; acting Capt 1940; commanded 101 Troop, Special Service Brigade (Commando Special Canoe Troop), 1940-1942, (later Special Boat Section of the Special Service Brigade) ; DSO, 1942; acting Maj 1942, specially employed as Lt Cdr, R N, in command of MF Flotilla of submersible craft, 1942-1945; Capt 1944; General Staff Officer Middle East Land Forces, 1946-1947; acting Lt Col, 1947; Staff College, 1947; Technical Staff Course, 1948-1949; Technical Staff Officer and Military Commanding Officer, Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, 1949-1952; Maj 1949; Officer Commanding Royal Engineer Squadron and Regiment, Hong Kong and Korea, 1952-1954; General Staff Officer, War Office, 1954-1957; Lt Col 1956, Commandant, Royal Engineers, British Army of the Rhine, 1957-1960; Col 1959; Assistant Director of Development, War Office, 1960-1961, Brig 1962, Brig, General Staff, War Office, 1962-1963, Imperial Defence College, 1963-1964; Brig, Headquarters Middle East, Aden, 1964-1965; retired 1965; died 1979.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Personal and military papers of Brig Gerald Charles Stokes Montanaro, 1938-1965. Comprising pocket diaries, 1938-1946, 1948, including detailed diaries for 1941-1945, of service with 101 Troop, Special Service Brigade (Commando Special Canoe Troop), 1941-1942 and as commander of MF Flotilla of large submersible diesel-engined craft designed for anti-submarine work, 1942-1945; correspondence and papers (3 files) on administration and training and operations of 101 Troop, Special Service Brigade, 1940-1942, comprising standing and daily orders, reports on training, including landing and anti-invasion exercises, shooting, map-reading and navigational work, swimming, canoeing, mountaineering, and signalling; chart of proposed general organisation for small boat operations; notes on proposed establishments for Special Boat Squadrons attached to the Royal Navy; memorandum 'Lessons from Crete, with points of particular interest to Commandos' by Brig Joseph Charles Haydon, Commanding Officer Special Service Brigade, Jul 1941; printed leaflet 'Commando Training Instruction No.1', Aug 1940; report on 101 Troop's raid on sinking of an oil tanker in Boulogne Harbour, Apr 1942, including correspondence about the raid with Maj Gen Ridley Pakenham Pakenham-Walsh, 1950; report on reconnaissance between Gravelines and Calais, France, Nov 1941; photographs (4 albums and 15 packets of loose photos) on personal and service subjects (1940-1945), including commando training construction and operation of midget submarines and photgraphs of girlfriends and family friends; propaganda material from Korea, 1952-1954; album of photographs of Montanaro's inspection of 653 Sqn, Army Air Corps, Aden, Feb 1965

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Diaries, correspondence files and photographs, in approximate chronological order.

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:

This collection description.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited by family, September 2000

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Source: Army Lists Compiled by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Aug 2001