BEEVOR, Anthony (b 1946)

Scope and Content

Papers used by Beevor during the preparation of Inside the British Army (Chatto Windus, London, 1990), including papers on Defence estimates; officer education; Army Personnel Research Establishment, with Sandhurst reports relating to social conditions; officer and other rank recruitment, bullying; the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; UK Land Forces; the Falklands Islands and BFFI (British Forces, Falklands Islands); Northern Ireland; the Intelligence Corps; women in the Army; medical and psychological services and facilities; punishment; the Army in the Field; officer careers; reduction in numbers of personnel; the Territorial Army. Papers used in the preparation of Crete: the battle and the resistance (John Murray, London, 1991), including retrospective personal accounts of operations in Greece and the evacuation of British forces in Apr 1941; the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Yak Mission to train Greek resistance forces; the defence of Crete during the German invasion, May 1941; retrospective personal testimonies of the land and sea battle for Crete, 1941, and typescript copy of the SOE final report on operations in Crete, 1945. Also, typescript text of lecture by Beevor, entitled 'The defence of Crete', given at National Army Museum, 1991, and paperback edition of Crete: the battle and the resistance (Penguin, London, 1992).

Administrative / Biographical History

Born 1946; educated at Winchester and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; commissioned into the 11 Hussars (Prince Albert's Own), 1963; served with the 11 Hussars (Prince Albert's Own), British Army of the Rhine, West Germany, 1963-1968; resigned commission, 1968; lived in Paris, France, and worked on first novel, The violent brink (John Murray, London, 1975); author and military historian, from 1973; made Chevalier de l'Orde des Artes et des Lettres by French Government. Publications: The violent brink (John Murray, London, 1975); For reasons of state (Cape, London, 1980); The Spanish Civil War (Orbis, London, 1982); The Faustian pact (Cape, London, 1983); The enchantment of Christina von Retzen (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1989); Inside the British Army (Chatto Windus, London, 1990); Crete: the battle and the resistance (John Murray, London, 1991); Paris after the liberation, 1944-1949 (Penguin, London, 1995) with Artemis Cooper; Stalingrad (Viking, London, 1998).

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in sections as above.

Access Information

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Acquisition Information

Placed in the Centre by Beevor in 1992.

Other Finding Aids

Summary guide available on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

Conditions Governing Use

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 Archives Services.

Personal Names

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