Janus: The Papers of Julian Amery

Churchill/AMEJ 1 contains:
1	Spain, the Balkans and the Second World War
2	General political
3	United Europe
4	War Office
5	Colonial Office
6	Air Ministry and Ministry of Aviation
7	General political
8	Department of the Environment
9	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
10	General political

More information

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The Papers of Julian Amery

Title	Air Ministry and Ministry of Aviation
Reference	AMEJ 1/6
Covering Dates	1960–1967
Extent and Medium	7 archive boxes

Content and context

Papers from JA's time as Secretary of State for Air and then as Minister of Aviation, including: his ministerial correspondence; minutes as Secretary of State for Air; papers on an official visit to the Soviet Union; press cuttings on JA's visit to Australia for the Blue Streak missile tests; papers on defence collaboration with France; papers on the scrapping of the TSR-2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft.

Index Terms

Churchill/AMEJ 1/6 contains:

Letters of congratulation received on being appointed Secretary of State for Air. Correspondents include: James Armstrong, Agent General for Ontario, Canada; [?] John Jacob Astor; Lord Balfour of Inchrye; 8th Lord Bathurst; Edward Beddington-Behrens; John Biggs-Davison; Sir Robert Black, Governor of Hong Kong; John Blelloch; Lord Boothby; 1st Lord Boyd of Merton [earlier Alan Lennox-Boyd]; Sir Harry Brittain; Richard Brooman-White; Ernesto Giménez Caballero, Spanish Ambassador to Paraguay; Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi; [Frances] Joan, Lady Davidson [later Baroness Northchurch]; Patrick de Laszlo; Eliahu Elath; Neil Elles; Paul Emrys-Evans; 1st Lord Fairhaven; Anthony Fell; Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of Imperial General Staff; Nigel Fisher; Denzil Freeth; Nubar Gulbenkian; Laurence Grand; 1st Lord Hailes, Governor-General of the West Indies [earlier Patrick Buchan-Hepburn]; Sir Patrick Hannon; Sir Roy Harrod; Sir [Arthur] Vere Harvey; Stephen Hastings; Sir Clifford Heathcote-Smith; Sir Evelyn Hone; 1st Lord Howick [earlier Evelyn Baring]; Sir Edward Hulton; Sir Harry Hylton-Foster; 2nd Lord Jellicoe; Aubrey Jones; Henry [Heinz] Koeppler; Fazil Kutchuk, Vice-President of Cyprus; Sir [John] Gilbert Laithwaite; Robert Wade-Gery; Sir Guy Lloyd; John Selwyn-Lloyd, Chancellor of the Exchequer; John Lowe; Lord Lumley [later 11th Lord Scarbrough]; Geoffrey McDermott; Daniel Macmillan; Harry Oppenheimer; Gaston Palewski; Sir Edward Peacock; Maurice Petherick, Chairman of the Commonwealth and Empire Industries Association; Sir Edward Playfair; Sir Halford Reddish; [Aubrey] Geoffrey Rippon; 1st Lord Rootes; 3rd Lord Selborne; Marcus Sieff; Sir Jocelyn Simon; David Smiley, Chief of Staff of the Muscat Armed Forces; Sir John Smyth; Sir Edward Spears; Sir William Stratton; Vivian Street [Military Adviser to King Hussein of Jordan]; Sir [Gerard] Spencer Summers; 1st Lord Swinton [earlier Philip Cunliffe-Lister and Philip Lloyd-Greame]; Sir Ronald Syme; William Taylor, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Air Ministry; George Taylor; Viorel Tilea; John Tilney; [Gerald] Kennedy Trevaskis; Tony Benn; Woodrow Wyatt; King Zog I of Albania.
2 files.

Oct 1960-Nov 1960

Minutes. Copies of minutes by JA, mainly to Harold Watkinson, Minister of Defence, but also to the Prime Minister [(Maurice) Harold Macmillan, later 1st Lord Stockton] and Edward Heath [Lord Privy Seal], on subjects including: space flight; the RAF base on Addu Atoll, in the Maldives; long term requirements of the RAF; JA's impressions of the American and Canadian Air Forces; Malaysia; future defence requirements; defence of Kuwait; the airborne deterrent after 1970; RAF forces in Muscat [Masqat] and Oman. Also includes: a souvenir from JA's visit to the United States Air Force; a copy of President John F Kennedy's reports to Congress on the American defence budget; JA's memorandum to accompany the air estimates, 1961-62.
1 file.

Nov 1960-Jun 1962

Visit to Malaya: press cuttings.
1 file.

Jun 1962

"Letters of congratulation on being appointed Minister of Aviation on 17th July 1962". Correspondents include: James Armstrong, Agent General for Ontario, Canada; Lord Balfour of Inchrye; Sir William Gorell Barnes; Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens; John Bennett; John Biggs-Davison; Charles Claxton, Bishop of Blackburn; Sir Michael Blundell; 1st Lord Boyd of Merton [earlier Alan Lennox-Boyd]; Marshal of the RAF Sir Dermot Boyle; Richard Brooman-White; Sir William Robson Brown; Rex Browning; 6th Lord Carrington; Air Chief Marshal Sir Ralph Cochrane; Air Marshal Sir Kenneth Cross, Bomber Command; William Deedes; Patrick de Laszlo; Sir David Eccles; John Eden; Douglas Fairbanks; Air Vice-Marshal James Gordon-Finlayson; Nigel Fisher; Hugh Fraser, Secretary of State for Air; Queen Geraldine of the Albanians; 1st Lord Gladwyn; Victor Goodhew; Alan Green; Nubar Gulbenkian; General Sir John Hackett; 2nd Lord Hailsham [earlier Quintin Hogg, later Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone]; Alan Hare; Stephen Hastings; Air Marshal Sir Maurice Heath; Charles Hill; 14th Lord Home [Foreign Secretary, earlier Alexander Douglas-Home]; Lord John Hope [later 1st Lord Glendevon]; 1st Lord Howick [earlier Evelyn Baring]; Air Chief Marshal Sir Edmund Hudleston; Sir Edward Hulton; 2nd Lord Jellicoe; Sir Charles Johnston; Peter Kemp; 1st Lord Killearn [earlier Miles Lampson]; 1st Lord Kilmuir [earlier David Maxwell Fyfe]; 2nd Lord Kindersley; John Selwyn-Lloyd; Lord Lumley [later 11th Lord Scarbrough]; Air Chief Marshal Sir Theodore McEvoy; 1st Lord Mills; Air Vice-Marshal Charles Moore; 2nd Lord Nelson; Marshal of the RAF Sir Thomas Pike; [Henry] Chapman Pincher; Sir Edward Playfair; John Prendergast; Air Vice-Marshal Sir Walter Pretty; Sir Halford Reddish; William Rees-Davies; Juliet, Lady Rhys-Williams; [Aubrey] Geoffrey Rippon; John Rodgers; John Russell; 4th Lord St Oswald [earlier Rowland Winn]; Prince Bahaedin Sami; 10th Lord Selkirk; Sir Jocelyn Simon; Marshal of the RAF Sir John Slessor; Peter Smithers; Sir John Smyth; John Tilney; Air Marshal [George] Augustus Walker (2); Charles Waterhouse; Paul Williams; Woodrow Wyatt.
2 files.

Jul 1962-Aug 1962

Minister's office: personal correspondence: political. Correspondents include: Sir [William] David Ormsby Gore [British Ambassador to the United States, later 5th Lord Harlech]; Martin Maddan on the development costs of the Blue Water nuclear missile (2). . Also includes note of a discussion between JA and General Andre Puget on the long-term financing of Concorde.
1 file.

Sep 1962-Jan 1964

Minister's office: personal correspondence: political. Correspondents include: Ian Williams [Chief Officer, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Cyprus] on the London conference on Cyprus; R A Butler [Foreign Secretary] on non-involvement in the Yemen; 1st Lord Blakenham, Conservative Party Chairman [earlier John Hare], enclosing text of a speech by Henry Brooke, Home Secretary, on law and order and also on ministers meeting constituency workers (2); Omar Muntasser, Libyan Ambassador to Britain; Sir Arthur Vere Harvey; Peter Emery (2); Alexander Douglas-Home, Prime Minister and earlier Foreign Secretary [earlier 12th Lord Home, later Lord Home of the Hirsel] on subjects including a campaign against the Labour Party, the election manifesto and a meeting between JA and Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia (7); [George] Peter Thorneycroft, Secretary of State for Defence, commenting on a statement of Conservative policy on aviation; Sir William McLean, Colonial Office, enclosing memoranda on the new Parliaments of the Commonwealth and on colonial constitutional and agricultural development (3); John Biggs-Davison; Sir [William] David Ormsby Gore [British Ambassador to the United States, later 5th Lord Harlech] on a critical article about the end of the Skybolt ballistic missile programme; Thomas Iremonger; Hugh Fraser; Lord Lambton; [Aubrey] Geoffrey Rippon; Alan Green, Financial Secretary to the Treasury; Sir Ian Orr-Ewing on the state of the air transport industry; Paul Bryan, Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party; James Ramsden, Secretary of State for War; 6th Lord Carrington, Minister without Portfolio; Sir John Eden; Iain Macleod [Conservative Party Chairman]; [Maurice] Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister [later 1st Lord Stockton], asking ministers to report any rumours about the Profumo affair; Edward Heath (2); Hugh Fraser, Secretary of State for Air; Raymond Mawby, Assistant Postmaster General; [Henry] Chapman Pincher; Robert Turton [later Lord Tranmire]; Henry Brooke, Home Secretary. Also includes: pamphlet on Labour Party civil aviation policy; minutes from meetings of the Conservative Parliamentary Aviation Committee and Space Sub-Committee; draft parliamentary questions for JA; summary of a film on the Government's achievements in aviation; list of cancelled projects; statement of aviation policy; list of the ministry's accomplishments, 1959-64; drafts of a note on the situation in Aden [Adan], Yemen and South Arabia; record of a conference between the Ministry of Defence and British headquarters in Cyprus, Jan 1964; drafts of a statement by JA on his conversation with John F Kennedy, President of the United States, in Jan 1962; draft note on aviation policy for the Conservative manifesto; draft leaflet on defence costs; briefing from the British Air Line Pilots Association, particularly on the problems of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC); minutes on defence collaboration with France; memorandum on Kenya; suggested answer written by JA for Harold Macmillan on his treatment of John Profumo; joint minute from JA and the Minister of Defence [Peter Thorneycroft] on NATO's strike and reconnaissance aircraft requirements; note by Fitzroy McLean on the use of poison gas by the Egyptians in the Yemen; memoranda by JA on general co-operation with France; memorandum on the veto by France to Britain entering the European Community.
3 files.

Jan 1963-Jul 1964

Minister's office: personal correspondence: political. Correspondents include: R V Jones on his concerns about the costs of Concorde and also Conservative scientific policy; Neil Marten, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Aviation; William Deedes, Minister without Portfolio; R A Butler, Foreign Secretary, on the ambitions of Archbishop Makarios [President of Cyprus]; Eric Johnson; [John] Francis Boyd, Political Correspondent of the Guardian (2); Sir [Richard] Michael Fraser, Director of the Conservative Research Department. Also includes: notes by JA on aviation policy for the Conservative manifesto and other purposes; outline for a short film for Conservative Central Office on "Achievement in the Air"; transcript of a Conservative press conference during the General Election campaign, Oct 1964, with [George] Peter Thorneycroft [Secretary of State for Defence], answering questions, mainly on the nuclear deterrent; report on the Egyptian offensive in Yemen; article by JA for the Guardian on the Conservative attitude towards the aircraft industry; draft parliamentary questions for JA; outline for a film on the Government's achievements in aviation; draft memorandum on JA's concerns about the union of Cyprus and Greece (the Enosis policy).
1 file.

Jun 1964-Oct 1964

Minister's office: personal correspondence: departmental. Correspondents include: Lady Antonia Fraser; Sir [William] Miles Thomas, former Chairman of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC); 1st Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Chairman of the National Electronics Research Council; [Aubrey] Geoffrey Rippon, Minister of Public Buildings and Works; John Peyton; 1st Lord Brabazon of Tara [earlier John Moore-Brabazon]. Also includes: general briefings; draft notes on achievements of the aviation industry and the Government's attitude towards it; note on the Government's contribution to the cost of further developments to the VC10; rough speech notes on subjects including the nuclear deterrent, the TSR-2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft and a satellite system; memorandum on replacing the Hunter, the Sea Vixen and the Lightning; rough notes for an aviation policy paper.
1 file.

Aug 1963-Aug 1964

Minister's office: personal correspondence: miscellaneous. Correspondents (mainly congratulating JA on his appointment) include: Marcel Boussac; Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Slessor, asking JA to support the Multilateral Disarmament Information Centre; Kenneth Rose, Daily Telegraph; Air Marshal Sir Walter Cheshire; Mabel Strickland; General Sir Harold Pyman; Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens, Chairman of the United Kingdom Council of the European Movement; Harold Bamberg, Chairman of Cunard Eagle Airways Limited; General Paul Stehlin, Chief of Staff of the French Air Force; William Aitken; Miles Wyatt, Chairman of British United Airways Limited; 2nd Lord Caldecote, Managing Director of British Aircraft Corporation Limited; Rupert Preston, Secretary-General of the Royal Aero Club; [James] Denning Pearson, Managing Director (Aero Engine Division) of Rolls Royce Limited; Richard Sharples, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Public Building and Works; Frederick Mulley; Sir Nigel Tapp; [William] Bernard Dobbs; Sir Francis Vallat; Air Vice-Marshal Patrick Dunn; Dermot MacDermot; [Henry] Chapman Pincher; Sir Roy Dobson, Managing Director of Hawker Siddeley Group Limited; 1st Lord Rootes; Sir [William] Miles Thomas; Eugene Zuckert, Secretary of the United States Air Force; Vere Harmsworth [later 3rd Lord Rothermere]; [Michael] James Lighthill, Ministry of Aviation; John Profumo [Secretary of State for War]; Lord John Hope [later 1st Lord Glendevon]; Major-General Douglas Kendrew, Head of British Defence Liaison Staff, Australia.
1 file.

Jul 1962-Dec 1962

Minister's office: personal correspondence: miscellaneous. Correspondents include: Donald Campbell; Allen Fairhall, Australian Minister for Supply (2); R V Jones; [Maurice] Harold Macmillan [later 1st Lord Stockton] (2); 2nd Lord Jellicoe, First Lord of the Admiralty, then Minister of Defence for the Royal Navy (2); Sir Eric Mensforth; Sir Eric Harrison, High Commissioner for Australia; Oliver Philpot, Chairman of the Royal Air Forces Escaping Society (2); Neil Marten, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Aviation; Sir Michael Adeane, Private Secretary to the Queen (6); Fazil Kutchuk, Vice-President of Cyprus (2); Philip Kaiser, Minister, American Embassy in London; Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens, Chairman of the United Kingdom Council of the European Movement (3); Patrick de Laszlo; Nigel Fisher, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Colonial Office; Alexander Douglas-Home, Prime Minister [earlier 14th Lord Home, later Lord Home of the Hirsel]; 1st Lord Beaverbrook [earlier Max Aitken]; 6th Lord Gosford [earlier Lord Acheson]; Hugh Fraser, Secretary of State for Air; Air Commodore George Heycock, Air Attaché, British Embassy, Paris [France]; Marcel Boussac; Sebastian de Ferranti; Sir Francis Evans, Chairman of the Anglo-Israel Association; Sir Pierson Dixon, British Ambassador to France; 1st Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Chief of the Defence Staff; Henry Brooke, Home Secretary; Thomas Driberg on the Moral Re-Armament movement; Julian Ridsdale, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Air Ministry (2); 2nd Lord Hailsham, Minister for Science and Technology [earlier Quintin Hogg, later Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone]; Air Chief Marshal Sir [Samuel] Charles Elworthy [Chief of Air Staff]; Sir [Henry] Victor Raikes; "Louis" [Sir Edward Spears], on trying to find out the name of the pilot who flew himself and Charles de Gaulle to Britain in 1940 (2); Alison Munro; Andre Puget, Director General of Sud-Aviation; Maurice Macmillan; Nora Beloff; Sir [John] Beresford Clark, Director of External Broadcasting, BBC; Sir Roy Dobson, Chairman of Hawker Siddeley Group Limited. Also includes: itinerary for JA's visit to Canada and the United States while Secretary of State for Air, Jan 1962; briefing note on Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India; report on JA's visit to Peru, Jan 1964; rough speech notes on remarks made by Dean Acheson about Britain's loss of power; draft press statement on successes in aviation under the Conservative Government; photograph of JA at the British Embassy, Lima [Peru], January 1964.
2 files.

Jan 1962-Oct 1964

Minister's office: personal correspondence: miscellaneous. Correspondents, mainly on Labour policy towards aviation, include: [Henry] Chapman Pincher, Daily Express; Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, supporting JA in his decision not to bail out the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC); King Hussein of Jordan. Also includes: press cuttings and other papers on whether Labour would nationalise independent airlines; paper by JA on Government achievements in aviation.
1 file.

Jul 1962-Oct 1964

Minister's office: personal correspondence: routine. Correspondents include: Charles Judd, Director-General of the United Nations Association; Philip de Zulueta, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (2); Sir Martin Charteris, Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen; Hugh Fraser, Secretary of State for Air.
1 file.

Jul 1962-Dec 1962

Minister's office: personal correspondence: routine. Correspondents include: "Bob" [Sir Pierson Dixon, British Ambassador to Paris]; Anthony Royle, Parliamentary Private Secretary to JA [later Lord Fanshawe of Richmond]; Kenneth Lindsay, Director of the Anglo-Israel Association; Sir Hamilton Kerr; 2nd Lord Kindersley, Chairman of Rolls Royce Limited; Sir William McFadzean, Chairman of the Export Council for Europe; Sir Michael Adeane, Private Secretary to the Queen; Sir Philip de Zulueta, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister; Sir George Dowty, Chairman of the Dowty Group; [Arthur] John Page. Also includes: figures for aircraft production since 1951; text of a speech by the Chairman of BALPA [British Airline Pilots Association] to the Aviation Committee; report of the committee on the air traffic control officer class; briefing for the defence debate, Nov 1964.
1 file.

Jan 1963-Dec 1964

Final draft of Air League memorandum on French aviation.
1 file.

01 Mar 1963

Visit to the Soviet Union: press cuttings.
1 file.

May 1963-Jun 1963

Visit to the Soviet Union: report.
1 file.

Jun 1963-Jul 1963

Collaboration with the French. Papers and correspondence for a meeting called by the Prime Minister [Maurice Harold Macmillan, later 1st Lord Stockton] for 28 Nov, mainly relating to orders for strike/reconnaissance aircraft, including minutes by: [George] Peter Thorneycroft, Minister of Defence; Alexander Douglas-Home, Foreign Secretary [earlier 14th Lord Home, later Lord Home of the Hirsel]; R A Butler [Foreign Secretary]; JA.
1 file.

Aug 1963-Nov 1963

Visit to Australia: press cuttings. Press cuttings on JA's visit and the Blue Streak intermediate range ballistic missile tests at Woomera.
2 files.

May 1964-Jun 1964

Visit to Australia: press cuttings. Press cuttings on JA's visit and the Blue Streak intermediate range ballistic missile tests at Woomera.
2 files.

May 1964-Jun 1964

Rough notes on defence. Particularly relates to spending on the TSR-2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft, also including notes for [?] a debate on Polaris and notes on NATO.
1 file.

c 1961-c 1965

TSR-2: (1). Papers and cuttings relating to the Labour Government's decision to scrap the TSR-2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft.
1 file.

Sep 1964-Dec 1965

TSR-2: (2). Papers relating to the Labour Government's decision to scrap the TSR-2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft.
1 file.

Jan 1965

"Air and aviation". Includes: text of [? an article] on the state of the aviation industry, particularly the actions of the Labour Government; extracts from Hansard on the cancellation of the TSR-2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft; memoranda on the drive for nuclear weapons in Britain, France and China, from the Indian perspective; text of [? an article] on whether the Labour Government would keep a nuclear deterrent; draft review of "Out on a Wing", the memoirs of Sir [William] Miles Thomas; account of a speech by [James] Harold Wilson, leader of the Labour Party, at Preston [Lancashire] during the General Election campaign, particularly on the aviation industry.
1 file.

Oct 1964-May 1965

British Aircraft Corporation pamphlets on various aircraft. Includes the Jaguar, Lightning, Canberra, BAC 167 and Rapier missile.
1 file.

Mar 1967-Oct 1967

Printed material on Concorde. Record of the completion of the first Concorde prototype, 001.
1 file.

Dec 1967