O'REGAN, Capt Patrick Valentine William Rowan (1920-1961)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA O'Regan
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	: O'REGAN, Capt Patrick Valentine William Rowan (1920-1961)
Date(s)	: 1940-1981
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 4 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: O'Regan | Patrick Valentine William Rowan | 1920-1961

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1920; Marlborough; Merton College Oxford, 1939; Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), 186 Field Ambulance Service in Middle East, 1940; Intelligence Corps (Field Services Wing), GHQ, Middle East, from May 1942, and Political Warfare Executive Military Training School, from Oct 1943; transferred to Special Operations Executive (SOE), 1944; organised French Resistance in southern France; No 1 Special Force with partisans in Italy, 1944; Force 136, Ceylon, 1945; Foreign Office, 1946; died 1961.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers mainly relating to the war service of Patrick O'Regan in France and northern Italy, especially with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), 1940-1981; including papers on SOE operations in Italy with details of partisan staff, operations, equipment, enemy strength, propaganda, personal correspondence with partisans and SOE members, photographs of street fighting, mountain warfare, groups of British and Italian soldiers, victory parades, funerals, operational maps of northern Italy and south-eastern France published and produced by Michelin and the War Office, memorabilia and printed guides to Italy and the German Army, including false identity papers, 1944-1945; papers on the service of O'Regan in France and northern Italy, 1943-1945; manuscript, typescript and copy correspondence between O'Regan and his mother and others including his wife and brother, mainly relating to his service with the 186 Field Ambulance Service, Intelligence Corps and from Ceylon, preparations for a parachute drop into France, the Political Warfare Executive, training in Algiers, account by O'Regan of his experiences with partisans near Turin and other parts of northern Italy, O'Regan's post-war political views, letters to Italian partisans in the aftermath of World War Two, application to Foreign service, 1940-1952; proceedings of a conference in Bologna relating to No 1 Special force and the Italian Resistance during World War Two, 2 vols, 1981; obituaries, 1961.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English, Italian and German

System of arrangement:

A series of files and books as described above in the Scope and Content section. Most correspondence, some photographs, obituaries and the Bologna conference proceedings constitute the 2nd and 3rd accessions.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form, apart from one letter, O'Regan 2/6, which remains closed.

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 on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm and at hard copy in the Centre reading room. A typescript list of the 2nd and 3rd accessions is available in the Centre.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The family deposited the papers, 1980-1991.

Allied Materials

Related material:

LHCMA: SOE related papers include: Dobrski, Evans, Microform: OSS/London: Special Operations Branch and Secret Intelligence Branch War Diaries, Mockler-Ferryman, Myers, Nind, Prentice/Wickstead, Willert, Woodhouse.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Sources: obituaries. Entry compiled by Geoff Browell for the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Rules or conventions:
National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997; ISAD(G), Second Edition, 2000.

Date(s) of descriptions:
June 2003