PRAIN, Lt Col John Murray (1902-1985)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Prain
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	: PRAIN, Lt Col John Murray (1902-1985)
Date(s)	: Created [1918]-1959
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1½ boxes or 0.015 cubic metres
Name of creator(s)	:

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1902; educated at Charterhouse and Clare College, University of Cambridge; service as Capt, Cupar Section, Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, Territorial Army, 1935; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; service with the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, Territorial Army, Belgium and France, 1940; wounded in action, France, 1940; awarded DSO, 1940; transferred to Special Operations Executive (SOE), 1941; General Staff Officer 2, 1943-1944; awarded TD, 1943; Lt Col (Administration and Quartering), Royal Armoured Corps Officer Cadet Training Unit, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1944-1945; Chairman, James Prain and Sons Ltd, Dundee, 1945-1956; Member, Jute Working Party, 1946-1948; Member, Scottish Committee, Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation, 1946-1955; Director, Tayside Floorcloth Company Ltd, 1946-1969; Director, Alliance Trust Company Ltd, 1946-1973; Chairman, Jute Importers Association, 1947-1949; Chairman, Dundee District Committee, Scottish Board for Industry, 1948-1962; Director, The Scottish Life Assurance Company Ltd, 1949-1972; Chairman, Association of Jute Spinners and Manufacturers, 1950-1952; part time Member, Scottish Gas Board, 1952-1956; Member, Employers' Panel, Industrial Disputes Tribunal, 1952-1959; Director, Royal Bank of Scotland, 1955-1971; awarded OBE, 1956; Vice Chairman, Caird (Dundee) Ltd, 1956-1964; Deputy Lieutenant, County of Fife, 1958; Member, Employers' Panel, Industrial Court, 1959-1971; Member, Industrial Arbitration Board, 1971-1972; member of Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland and Royal Company of Archers; Honorary President, Fife and Kinross Area Council, Royal British Legion (Scotland); died 1985.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers and maps chiefly concerning the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, [1918]-1959, including typescript copy of war diary, 1 Armoured Reconnaissance Bde, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Belgium and France, 30 Mar-30 May 1940, with typescript recommendations for awards, 1940; typescript account, dated Jun 1942, of dispositions and operations of B Sqn, 1 Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, Belgium and France, 14 May-1 Jun 1940; typescript list entitled '1 Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, nominal roll of casualties sustained in France, 1940'; article by Maj Otho Munton Bullivant, Adjutant, 1 Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, entitled 'With the BEF [British Expeditionary Force] in Flanders', from The Tank [1941]; typescript 'Precis of activities of 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry', British Liberation Army, North West Europe, Oct 1944-Feb 1945, and 'Details of activities of 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry', 1-31 Mar 1945; correspondence with various officers concerning Regimental affairs, 1943-1945, including Col James Younger, 2nd Viscount Younger of Leckie, Honorary Col, Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 1945; correspondence, dated 1944-1945, relating to the return of the Regimental band instruments, abandoned by the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry during the retreat to Dunkirk, 1940, and kept by the local townspeople, France, 1940-1944; official correspondence concerning Prain's Army pension and war disablement compensation, 1946-1956; correspondence, dated 1947-1959, relating to the writing and publication of The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 1919-1956 by Robert James Batchen Sellar (William Blackwood, Edinburgh and London, 1960). Twenty five photographs relating to the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 1923-1945, including group photograph of Armoured Car Company, Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, Annesmuir camp, Scotland, Jul 1923; five photographs of Fife and Forfar Yeomanry Vickers Light Tanks Mark VIB and Universal carriers, France, 1940; official photograph of Infantry Tank Mark IV Churchill Crocodile flame-throwing tank, storming of the Senio river, Italy, Apr 1945.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The papers and photographs are arranged separately in 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:

Summary guide entry 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:

Placed in the Centre by the family in 1986.

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:
Nov 1999