HARRIS, Maj Henry Ellis D (1913-1983)

Scope and Content

Papers relating to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Middle Eastern Forces, World War Two, 1939-1945, used by Harris in his research, as assistant author, of Brig Alan Henry Fernyhough's History of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps 1920-1945 Royal Army Ordnance Corps, London, 1967), notably manuscript and typescript notes, memoranda, reports, photographs, statistical tables and graphs and related correspondence on the organisation of Ordnance Services, the supply of Middle Eastern Forces with equipment and stores and the creation of the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, 1942. One hundred and two photographs relating to Allied equipment and weaponry, and captured German and Italian clothing, equipment and armaments, 1941-1945, including series of seventeen photographs highlighting defects in the axle arm of Cruiser Tank Mk 6, 1941; series of fifteen photographs illustrating captured German clothing and equipment [1942]; eight captioned photographs of the Captured Stores Depot, Alexandria, Egypt, May 1945.

Administrative / Biographical History

Born in County Armagh, Ireland, 1913; briefly served in the Merchant Navy before enlisting in the 5 Inniskilling Dragoon Guards; commissioned into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 1939; service with British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Belgium and France, [1939]-1940; evacuated from Dunkirk, France, 1940; served in France, North Africa and North West Europe, World War Two, 1939-1945; served in Egypt and with the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), Germany, 1946-1962; postwar appointments included the Royal Army Ordnance Corps Training Centre, Andover, Hampshire and the Central Ordnance Depot, Chilwell, Nottinghamshire; retired from the Army, 1962; died 1983. Publications: Model soldiers(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1962); Harris was assistant author of Brig Alan Henry Fernyhough's History of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps 1920-1945 (Royal Army Ordnance Corps, London, 1967); Irish Regiments in the First World War (Mercier Press, Cork, Ireland, 1968); How to go collecting model soldiers (Patrick Stephens, London, 1969); Knight's battles for wargamers. The Alma, 1854 (C Knight, London, 1971); The Royal Irish Fusiliers, the 87th and 89th Regiments of Foot (Leo Cooper, London, 1972); Model soldiers (Octopus Books, London, 1972).

Arrangement

The collection forms section 15/10 of the papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart.

Access Information

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

Acquisition Information

The collection forms section 15/10 of the papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart which were acquired by the Centre in 1973.

Other Finding Aids

Summary guide entry on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iss/archives/cats/, and detailed catalogue available 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 Archive Services.

Geographical Names