ELLIOT, ACM Sir William (1896-1971)

Papers relating to his life and career, [1914]-1971, principally comprising flying log book, 1928-1940; papers relating to his work as Assistant Secretary to Committee of Imperial Defence and War Cabinet, 1939-1941, notably including memoranda to Maj Gen Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1939-1940; papers relating to his service as Air Officer Commanding Balkan Air Force, 1944-1945, dated 1946, 1963, 1966, 1970-1971, notably including an account of the work of the British Military Mission to Yugoslav partisans by Sir Fitzroy Hew Maclean of Dunconnel, 1st Bt, 1971; correspondence and other papers relating to NATO, 1950, 1955, 1967, Army League, 1955-1957, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1957, 1958, 1960-1970, English Speaking Union, 1961, 1963, Atlantic Round Table Conference, 1957, and the Brighton Conference Association, 1957. Printed and typescript book reviews and texts of lectures and speeches given by Elliot, mainly concerning international relations, 1924, 1939, 1946, 1950-1966; correspondence and related papers, 1937-1940, 1950-1953, 1957-1971, notably including correspondence with Dean Acheson, 1961-1970, Gen (Walter) Bedell Smith, 1959-1961, Lady (Helen) Violet Bonham-Carter, 1962-1968, Ismay, 1959-1970, Gen Sir Henry Cholmondeley Jackson, 1961-1971, Gen Karel Janousek, 1968, and Capt Stephen Wentworth Roskill, 1966-1970; photographs, [1914-1960], notably relating to service in South Russia, 1919, as Air Officer Commanding RAF Gibraltar, 1944, with Balkan Air Force, 1944-1945 and as Commander-in-Chief, Fighter Command, 1948-1949, including aerial photographs of RAF actions over Yugoslavia, 1944-1945.

Born in 1896; served in Army Service Corps, [1915]-1918, joined No 142 Sqn, 1918; served with No 47 Sqn, South Russia, 1919; Assistant Secretary to Committee of Imperial Defence, 1937-1939, and to War Cabinet, 1939-1941; Fighter Command, 1941-1942; Director of Plans, Air Ministry, 1942-1944; Air Officer Commanding RAF Gibraltar, Feb-June 1944; Air Officer Commanding Balkan Air Force, 1944-1945; Assistant Chief Executive, Ministry of Aircraft Production, 1945-1946; Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Policy), 1946-1947; Commander-in-Chief, Fighter Command, 1947-1949; Chief Staff Officer to Minister of Defence and Deputy Secretary (Military) to Cabinet, 1949-1951; ADC to King George VI, 1950-1952; Chairman of British Joint Services Mission, Washington, and UK Representative on the Standing Group of the Military Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, 1951-1954; ADC to Queen Elizabeth II, 1952-1954; Chairman of Council, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, 1954-1958; died in 1971.

Arranged in sections as follows: papers and memoranda; articles and speeches by Elliot; articles by others; named correspondence files; personal correspondence; family correspondence; miscellaneous; photographs.

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

Presented to the Centre by the family in 1976.

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

Papers of Sir Henry Thomas Tizard at the Department of Documents, Imperial War Museum, include correspondence with Elliot, 1938-1957 (Ref: HTT).

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided 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.