| Title |
Naval: early files |
| Reference |
DRAX 1 |
| Covering Dates |
1901–1966 (The majority of files are dated 1901-22.) |
| Extent and Medium |
64 files |
|
| Churchill/DRAX 1 contains: |
|
1
|
Notes on filing and list of files.
1 file. |
1917–1966 |
|
2
|
Documents relating to battle cruisers. Including reports, remarks and notes on exercises, memoranda, and correspondence.
1 file. |
1913–1916 |
|
3
|
Battle Cruiser Orders and Battle Cruiser Fleet Memoranda. Series of printed orders and memoranda issued by Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty [later Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Beatty] for information and guidance.
1 file. |
1915–1916 |
|
4
|
Intelligence reports. On subjects including the German use of torpedoes and report of an interview with Admiral Shach of the German Navy [c. 15 July 1914].
1 file. |
1912–1915 |
|
5
|
Detailed notes on 'lessons of the war', for future text books or manuals. Including confidential monthly order, 'strategical and tactical lessons of war - embodiment in manuals and text books'.
1 file. |
1914–1918 |
|
6
|
Signal log of HMS Lion, notes on the events of the day, and proposed letter to Commander-in-Chief. Text of notes on the events of the day includes comments by another author.
1 file. |
16 Dec 1914 |
|
7
|
Appreciations and submissions to senior command, with related documents. Including reports on the naval situation, remarks on operation orders, notes on how to defend the Firth of Forth, and translation of a German memorandum from the operations department to the German Admiralty, with notes on how to respond.
1 file. |
1914–1915 |
|
8
|
Appreciations and submissions to senior command with related documents. Including notes on the naval situation, naval signals, considerations for supporting the Battle Cruiser Fleet, letter to Drax from Commander-in-Chief, Roger Bellairs, documents on 'Operation XX', and reports by other officers.
1 file. |
21 Jan 1916–17 Dec 1916 |
|
9
|
Gunnery orders, memoranda, and related documents. Including memoranda; reports, including one by Lieutenant Chalmers; remarks on operations; letters and submissions, and naval signals.
1 file. |
1913–1916 |
|
10
|
Torpedoes. Including notes on torpedo lectures; notes on torpedo battle practices; reports; memoranda; letters with correspondents including Roger Bellairs, and naval signals.
1 file. |
1907–1916 |
|
11
|
Mines and minesweeping. Including maps showing position of minefields around the British Isles in 1915; notes on subjects including the use of submarines, including notes by other officers; memoranda enclosing data, and letters.
1 file. |
1912–1916 |
|
12
|
Submarines. Including reports, letters, notes, naval signals and memoranda. Includes reports on methods of attacking enemy submarines.
1 file. |
1912–1916 |
|
13
|
Aircraft and balloons. Including reports and comments on reports, letters, notes, including notes from minutes of air committee meeting, and memoranda. On subjects including kite balloons and towing airships.
1 file. |
1912–1916 |
|
14
|
Staff work. Including memoranda, lecture notes, circular letter on the organisation and training of war staff [1912], and letters from H. B. Vesey and from Hereward Wake.
1 file. |
1909–1913 |
|
15
|
Staff work. Including list of points on which flag officers at sea and the Admiralty disagree; notes on Admiralty conference and controversies with the Admiralty; charts of command structure and duties of the staff on various ships; staff order; notes from staff conferences; chart of BCF [British Command Fleet] state.
1 file. |
1914–1916 |
|
16
|
Staff work and war policy. Including correspondence and papers regarding Drax's concerns about the naval situation and the Admiralty, with correspondents including Horace Plunkett. Also includes newspaper cuttings, draft of a paper on 'a naval offensive', letters from correspondents including Admiral Beatty, and a paper making recommendations about the Commander-in-Chief's staff.
1 file. |
1917 |
|
17
|
Strategy and war policy. Notes and papers on naval strategy, including remarks on the strategical value of wireless telegraphy, lecture notes, memorandum on general principles of staff work, and letter to Lord Esher. Papers on war policy include letter by Captain [later Admiral Sir] Herbert Richmond and papers by Lieutenant-Commander R. F. Seymour.
1 file. |
1908–1916 |
|
18
|
Battle tactics. Including notes and papers on Grand Fleet battle tactics, lessons learnt from war games, and reports on exercises.
1 file. |
1913–1917 |
|
19
|
Battle tactics. Notes and papers on battle tactics, including avoiding torpedo attacks and fighting in heavy weather. Includes correspondence from officer on HMS Hercules and from Commander [later Rear-Admiral] Roger Bellairs.
1 file. |
1916–1917 |
|
20
|
Service reforms and improvements. Including estimates of the naval situation, letters to Admiral Beatty, and consideration of German naval plans [April 1917].
1 file. |
1915–1918 |
|
21
|
Naval education. Notes, papers and correspondence on naval education, including notes on the training of lieutenants, lecture notes, book lists, and notes for works by Drax.
1 file. |
1911–1913 |
|
22
|
Naval education. Notes, papers and correspondence on naval education, including lectures to war staff qualifiers, examination papers for officers qualifying for war staff, and details of Admiral Sturdee's essay-writing competition for officers.
1 file. |
1913–1917 |
|
23
|
Education. Notes, papers and correspondence on naval education, mostly addressed to Captain [later Admiral Sir] Herbert Richmond, including on the training of staff officers, remarks on a proposed course on strategy and tactics, and educational principles in general.
1 file. |
1918 |
|
24
|
Imperial Defence. Comprising letters to Drax on subjects including Canada and Australia, notes for Royal United Service Institution prize essay, and summary of 'General principles of Imperial Defence affecting the oversea dominions and colonies'.
1 file. |
1910–1912 |
|
25
|
Draft war plans. Comprising notes and draft war plan by Drax [1913] and papers on 'a scheme for naval operations in the North Sea in the event of a war with Germany' by F. G. S. Peile [?1913] and on 'naval sieges' by A. Yeats-Brown [1915].
1 file. |
1913–1915 |
|
26
|
Preparations for war. Including papers with recommendations for preparations for war, memoranda from Rear-Admiral David Beatty, general orders, lists of books and papers with information about preparing for war, and a list of personal preparations.
1 file. |
1901–1914 |
|
27
|
Communications. Including essay by Drax on 'signalling in action'; notes, orders and papers on cyphers; memoranda on signal orders and wireless aerials, and reports on different methods of communication.
1 file. |
1908–1918 |
|
28
|
Search problems. Royal Naval War College search problem scenarios, with notes, charts, and lecture notes taken by Drax.
1 file. |
1912–1919 |
|
29
|
Essays and lectures. Including notes and drafts. Essays include 'notes on modern gunnery', 'principles of strategy' and 'with the Grand Fleet'. Also includes 'support' by F. G. S. Peile.
1 file. |
1905–1915 |
|
30
|
Press cuttings. On the First World War, the naval situation, and Empire. Includes reports on the Dardanelles and on Churchill's resignation, article in 'The Suffragette' by Christabel Pankhurst, and cartoon in Punch by Bernard Partridge.
1 file. |
1915–1918 |
|
31
|
Miscellaneous notes. Comprising: poem on 'the laws of the Navy' by Captain Hopwood; technical equations; notes of talks given by Sydney Brooks ('the press in wartime'), Commander Townsend ('mobilization' and 'war supplies') and Admiral Slade ('operations in the Persian Gulf'); service notes; reports on the Russian Baltic Squadron; seating plan.
1 file. |
1912–1914 |
|
32
|
Inventions. Proposals, notes and sketches for inventions by Drax, with related correspondence.
1 file. |
1904–1915 |
|
33
|
Duplicate memoranda and war documents. Including memorandum on the need of a General Staff in the Navy [1909]; letters to Roger Bellairs [1914-1916]; appreciation by the Naval General Staff, Berlin [13 September 1914], and reports on enemy submarines.
1 file. |
1908–1918 |
|
34
|
Records of debating societies. With memoranda and notes on the founding of debating societies at the War College. Also includes letter remarking on the watertight compartments of His Majesty's Ships, and recollections of the Battle of Jutland.
1 file. |
1909–1917 |
|
35
|
Naval Review. Correspondence and notes concerning the journal the Naval Review, founded in 1913. Including letters to Drax from Admiral W. H. Henderson and copies of correspondence between Henderson and W. Graham Greene, Vice-Admiral Frederick Sturdee, and Admiral Rosslyn Erskine. On subjects including the founding of the journal and possible censorship of the journal by the Admiralty.
1 file. |
1913–1919 |
|
36
|
Letters of congratulation on promotion. Including list of those from whom Drax received congratulations, although not all of these communications are present.
1 file. |
1916 |
|
37
|
File destroyed by Admiral Drax.
1 file. |
|
|
38
|
Letter from Imperial War Museum, photographic section. In response to letter from Drax requesting information about reproductions. With price list.
1 file. |
25 February 1919 |
|
39
|
Losses of merchant ships. Comprising: summaries of losses in 1915; letters to Drax concerning his proposed research into losses in earlier wars; copy of statement to the Houses of Parliament on measures to intercept German merchant ships; Intelligence Division translations of German lecture, magazine article, and diary concerning German shipping; and Admiralty War Office (Trade Division) report [01 October 1916] on British merchant and fishing vessels captured or destroyed since the outbreak of the First World War.
1 file. |
1914–1916 |
|
40
|
Peace and League of Nations. Including newspaper cuttings; notes; edition of War and Peace, a Norman Angell monthly, with editorial on the lesson of the Naval Crisis [February 1914]; book of Louis Raemaker's wartime cartoons.
1 file. |
1911–1918 |
|
41
|
Combined operations. War College papers, lecture notes and schemes for combined operations. Including list of contents of file, list of staff and students of the War College in 1909, and plan of beach marked for landing.
1 file. |
1908–1913 |
|
42
|
Combined operations. Including letters from B[?lanche] D[?utton], diary extracts, and copy of S. C. Colville's account of his visit to the British Expeditionary Force in France, 31 January 1916 - 05 February 1916.
1 file. |
1914–1916 |
|
43
|
German statistics. War College papers, statistics and essays. Includes Admiralty paper on the naval expenditure of the principle naval powers [August 1913] and chart of statistics for Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and the USA [November 1908].
1 file. |
1908–1913 |
|
44
|
International Law and Prize Law. Papers, notes, newspaper articles and War College lecture notes, on subjects including merchant ships in war, treaty rights and obligations, blockades, and the supply of fuel to warships in a neutral port. Also includes War Office daily review of the foreign press [11 April 1917] and Intelligence Division précis of the Prize Court judgement on the case of the 'Ophelia' [August 1915].
1 file. |
1902–1917 |
|
45
|
War records. Papers, letters, naval signals and notes concerning the First World War. Including letters to Drax from A. Vyell Vyvyan, Commander [later Rear-Admiral] Roger Bellairs and Captain [later Admiral Sir] Herbert Richmond, copies of diary extracts, technical notes, memoranda, and remarks by Drax on subjects including defence against submarines. Includes copies of preliminary telegrams on the Scarborough Raid [December 1914].
1 file. |
1914–1915 |
|
46
|
Battle of Heligoland Bight. Including reports on the battle, naval signals, and subsequent War College lectures.
1 file. |
1914–1922 |
|
47
|
Battle of Dogger Bank. Papers, reports, notes, letters and naval signals on the battle of Dogger Bank. Including diary extracts, notes on lessons learned from the battle and on ship repairs, report by David Beatty, and report on information obtained from survivors of the 'Blücher'. Also includes letter by A. H. Pollen to the editor of the New York Times, on the accusation that David Beatty purchased his promotion.
1 file. |
1915–1922 |
|
48
|
War records. Papers, letters, naval signals and notes concerning the First World War. Including letters from correspondents including Captain [later Admiral Sir] Herbert Richmond and Arthur Kemmis Betty, and Drax's views on deployment of Battle Cruiser squadrons.
1 file. |
January 1915-June 1915 |
|
49
|
War records. Papers, letters, notes and remarks concerning the First World War. Including letters from Captain [later Admiral Sir] Herbert Richmond and Commander [later Rear-Admiral] Roger Bellairs, memorandum from David Beatty, and Drax's notes on a war game.
1 file. |
July 1915-December 1915 |
|
50
|
War records and letters about the Easter Rising. Papers, letters, naval signals, notes and press cuttings concerning the First World War, and letters concerning the Easter Rising. Including letters from Commander [later Rear-Admiral] Roger Bellairs, on subjects including torpedoes [incomplete], and letter from Roger Backhouse. Also includes letters from Drax's cousin Henry Ponsonby, engaged in active service, and letter from Horace Plunkett in Dublin on the rebellion in Ireland [the Easter Rising] with report on his experiences. Also includes poster for a lecture on the Battle of Jutland by A. H. Pollen in aid of Lady Beatty's Jutland Battle fund, and transcripts of speeches by Admiral Sir David Beatty and Captain A. E. M. Chatfield on leaving HMS Lion.
1 file. |
1916 |
|
51
|
War records. Papers, letters, naval signals, reports and press cuttings concerning the First World War. On subjects including merchant shipping, food allowances, internal admiralty affairs and mine-laying. Includes petition from the junior to the senior naval ranks asking for better pay and conditions, with related correspondence; correspondence between Drax and Nabokoff on Drax's award of a Russian medal, and War Office daily review of the foreign press on the Russian Revolution.
1 file. |
1917 |
|
52
|
War records. Papers, letters, reports and press cuttings concerning the First World War. Including: report on a night attack exercise and an incident at sea; published pamphlets and speeches, including 'Smut's message', 'Kipling's message', and an article in the Bystander; programme for a pantomime put on by the crew of HMS Warspite; copies of prayers used during the First World War, and Drax's post-war list of recommendations for decorations.
1 file. |
1918–1921 |
|
53
|
The Searchlight, HMS Lion magazine. 3 issues of HMS Lion's 'The Searchlight'.
1 file. |
1916–1917 |
|
54
|
Personal war records. Papers, letters, reports and press cuttings concerning Drax's activity during the First World War. Including papers by Drax, letters in response to Drax's recommendations and inventions, operational orders and naval signals on subjects including minelaying, and letters from correspondents including A. H. Pollen and Kenneth Dewar.
1 file. |
1917–1920 |
|
55
|
Cruisers. Notes, papers, Staff College lectures, Home Fleet orders, and letter to Drax, on the subject of Cruisers.
1 file. |
1913–1915 |
|
56
|
Destroyers. Memoranda, notes, orders, papers and minutes of discussion on the subject of destroyers. Including paper by Captain Richmond on 'design of British destroyers' and letter to the Vice-Admiral Commanding the Battle Cruiser Fleet reporting on the recommendations of officers meeting to discuss the employment of destroyers after a day action.
1 file. |
1914–1916 |
|
57
|
Battle of Jutland. Notes, papers, charts, press cuttings, letters and reports concerning the Battle of Jutland. Includes around 183 naval signals sent between 14.00 on 31 May 1916 and 12.00 on 01 June 1916. Also includes copy of Vice-Admiral David Beatty's report to the Commander-in-Chief, Grand Fleet [Admiral Sir John Jellicoe], and the Admiralty Intelligence Division's German account of the battle, compiled from official material.
1 file. |
1916–1919 |
|
58
|
Submarines. Reports and letters on the sinking of submarine K1, with a series of naval signals and some notes.
1 file. |
17 November 1917–22 November 1917 |
|
59
|
Various battles and incidents. Comprising Admiralty Intelligence Division reports on the Naval Engagement off Coronel and the Falkland Islands Action, Staff College lecture by Captain C. M. Forbes on Light Cruiser Action, reports presented to the Houses of Parliament of correspondence with the German government in relation to the sinking of a German U-boat by HMS Baralong, and notes and extracts from a letter on the action off the Falkland Islands.
1 file. |
1915–1922 |
|
60
|
Letters to Commander [later Rear-Admiral] Roger Bellairs. Letters and draft letters from Drax to Bellairs, with one reply. On subjects including operational matters, torpedo attacks and supporting the Battle Cruiser Fleet.
1 file. |
1915–1916 |
|
61
|
Correspondence with Captain [later Admiral Sir] Herbert William Richmond. Letters to Drax from Richmond, with one letter from Drax to Richmond. On subjects including internal Admiralty affairs, operational matters, and comments on various papers they have each written, including Richmond's response to the draft of a letter Drax proposed to send to David Beatty. Includes the beginning of a paper by Richmond on more advanced training for naval officers.
1 file. |
1916–1918 |
|
62
|
Surrender of German Fleet. Naval signals on arrangements for surrender of the German Fleet, including exchanges of signals with the German Fleet; 'The Graphic' souvenir booklet of the German Navy's surrender; memorandum on 'Operation ZZ', to meet the ships of the German Fleet and escort them to the Firth of Forth for internment.
1 file. |
1918 |
|
63
|
Printed supplements to the monthly Navy List. With small annotations. Editions for 1915 marked by Drax as having been officially destroyed.
5 items. |
August 1914-July 1915 |
|
64
|
Files destroyed by Admiral Drax.
6 files. |
|
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