Keyes Papers. G. Belgium: Vols. cliii-cliv. With the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 Belgium maintained its policy of neutrality but requested that an unofficial emissary to the British government be appointed. Keyes was given the role and travelled to Belgium in October 1939, November 1939, and January 1940. In May 1940 Churchill appointed Keyes as his personal liaison to the Belgian monarch, King Leopold III. Keyes was in Belgium as the Germans over-ran the country and escaped as Belgium surrendered. For Keyes’s diary of this second of his Belgian appointments see Add. 82449-82450. The story of Keyes’s Belgian mission and his relationship with the Belgian royal family is told in a book by his son, Roger Keyes, Outrageous Fortune: The Tragedy of Leopold III of the Belgians (London: Secker & Warburg, 1984).

This material is held atBritish Library Manuscript Collections

Reference
- GB 58 Add MS 82525-82526
Alternative Id.
Dates of Creation
- [1939-1945]
Language of Material
- English
Physical Description
- 2 items

Scope and Content

Belgium General: Adm. Keyes's papers on the Belgian Campaign in World War Two: 1939-1945.

Access Information

Unrestricted

Not Public Record(s)

Archive Record|Table of contents

Keyes PapersAdd MS 82373-82578

Special CorrespondenceAdd MS 82373-82405

Keyes Papers. B. General Correspondence. Vols. xxxiv-lxxiv. 41 volumes.Add MS 82406-82446

Keyes Papers. C. Diaries. Vols. lxxv-lxxviii. Four volumes.Add MS 82447-82450

Naval PapersAdd MS 82451-82516

Keyes Papers. E. Fleet Air Arm Papers: Vols. cxlv-clvii. The subject of Royal Navy control of its own air forces had exercised Keyes since the early days of World War One. In the 1920s he had co-authored, with his brother-in-law Chief of the Air Staff Hugh Trenchard, a scheme for joint control between the Admiralty and the Air Ministry. Ultimately Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence, decided the Admiralty should retain control of carrier-borne aircraft while the Air Ministry would take charge of shore-based aircraft.Add MS 82517-82519

Keyes Papers. F. Parliamentary Papers: Vols. cxlviii-clii. Keyes was elected M.P. for Portsmouth North in a by-election in February 1934 and held the seat until elevated to the peerage in 1943.Add MS 82520-82524

Keyes Papers. G. Belgium: Vols. cliii-cliv. With the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 Belgium maintained its policy of neutrality but requested that an unofficial emissary to the British government be appointed. Keyes was given the role and travelled to Belgium in October 1939, November 1939, and January 1940. In May 1940 Churchill appointed Keyes as his personal liaison to the Belgian monarch, King Leopold III. Keyes was in Belgium as the Germans over-ran the country and escaped as Belgium surrendered. For Keyes’s diary of this second of his Belgian appointments see Add. 82449-82450. The story of Keyes’s Belgian mission and his relationship with the Belgian royal family is told in a book by his son, Roger Keyes, Outrageous Fortune: The Tragedy of Leopold III of the Belgians (London: Secker & Warburg, 1984).Add MS 82525-82526

Keyes Papers. H. Director of Combined Operations Papers: Vols. clv-clviii. Director of Combined Operations; 22 Oct. 1940– 27 April 1942, n.d. Partly printed. Contains papers relating to Keyes’s appointment, remit, and eventual departure; detailed plans for commando operations; Chiefs of Staff committee minutes and memoranda; memoranda by Keyes proposing operations and commenting on decisions made by the Chiefs of Staff; notes made by Keyes during his tenure as DCO; some reports on operations carried out by commandos under Col. R. E. Laycock; and papers relating to the formation, organisation and training of commando units, and the equipment and material required for their operations. Specific operations referred to in detail include Workshop (Pantelleria), Claymore (the Lofoten Islands), Yorker (Cagliari), Irrigate (deployment to Freetown, Sierra Leone), and Pilgrim and Puma (both of which were concerned with Gran Canaria). Also contains sheet music for ‘Commandos March’ by J. E. Needham, dedicated to Keyes. Having been restored to the active list in March 1940 Keyes was appointed Director of Combined Operations by Winston Churchill in July 1940. His role was to organise and carry out raids on specific targets in German-occupied Europe using specially selected and trained men from all services. They were to become known as commandos. Inter-service rivalries, lack of men and equipment, and Keyes’s frustration at his plans being ruled out or repeatedly postponed resulted in constant tensions and in October 1941 Churchill accepted a Chiefs of Staff proposal to re-organise the planning of combined operations. Keyes was offered an advisory role and when he refused it he was relieved of his duties and replaced by Capt. Louis Mountbatten. Four volumes.Add MS 82527-82530

Keyes Papers. I. Pacific Tour: Vols. clix-clxii. In July 1944, at the suggestion of the Minister of Information, Brendan Bracken, and with the approval of Winston Churchill, Lord and Lady Keyes (as they now were, Keyes having been elevated to the peerage in January 1943) undertook a goodwill tour of Australia and New Zealand. They flew out via Canada and the United States. Whilst in Australia Keyes took advantage of the contacts he had made in the United States to witness the United States Navy in active service. He was invited aboard the flagship of the US Seventh Fleet to observe the invasion of Leyte island, in the Philippines.Add MS 82531-82534

J. Speeches and Lectures 82535-82538. Keyes Papers. Vols. clxiii-clxvi. Texts, drafts, and notes of speeches, lectures, and broadcasts given by Keyes; 14 Dec. 1918– 28 Feb.1944, n.d. For Keyes’s parliamentary speeches see Add. 82521-82522. Four volumes.Add MS 82535-82538

Papers of Clubs, Institutions, and CharitiesAdd MS 82539-82543

Literary PapersAdd MS 82544-82551

Other Printed MaterialAdd MS 82552-82557

Keyes Papers. Vol. clxxxvi. Photographs, Postcards, and Illustrations.Add MS 82558

Other PapersAdd MS 82559-82563

Keyes Papers. P. Indexes and Lists: Vol. xccii a-c. Indexes and lists to the Keyes papers; 1919, 1965-1966, n.d.Add MS 82564 A-C

Q. Envelopes 82565-82566. Keyes Papers. Vols. xcciii-xcciv. Empty envelopes addressed to Roger or Eva Keyes; circa 1914 – circa 1945. Two volumes.Add MS 82565-82566

Family PapersAdd MS 82567-82569

Keyes Papers. Vols. xccviii-ccvi. S. Papers of Capt. Charles Boswell Norman: Norman was an officer in the 90th Light Infantry who wrote books on military matters. He was Keyes’s uncle, a brother of Keyes’s mother, Katherine. Another of the Norman siblings was Field Marshal Sir Henry Wylie Norman.Add MS 82570-82578