VERNEY, Maj Gen Gerald Lloyd (1900-1957)

Papers relating to role of 6 Guards Tank Brigade in Operation BLUECOAT, Normandy, Jul 1944; operations of 7 Armoured Division, Aug-Nov 1944, including capture of Ghent; 1 Guards Brigade, Feb 1944-May 1945, including Battle of River Po and situation reports, Northern Italy and Southern Austria; pamphlets, 1943-1946 including 21 Army Group reports; campaign maps, including Turkey, 1922-1923; France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, 1944 and Italy and Austria, 1945; working papers for unpublished typescript 'Airborne Forces'. Notes and draft papers of Maj Peter V Verney for Anzio 1944 An Unexpected Fury (Batsford, 1978) and planned publications on Marlborough's wars and 'The Gaiety and the Glory: the Irishman at War'.

Born in 1900; educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Camberley; commissioned into Grenadier Guards, 1919; served in Turkey, 1922-1923; ADC to the Governor of South Australia, 1928-1929; Capt, 1929; General Staff Officer, Grade 3, 1935-1938; Maj, 1937; Staff College, Camberley, 1938-1939; transferred to Irish Guards, 1939; served in World War Two, France and Belgium, 1939-1940; Instructor at Staff College, Camberley, 1940; officer commanding 2 Battalion Irish Guards, 1940-1942; commander of 32 Guards Brigade, UK, and Brig, 1942; 6 Guards Tank Brigade, UK and Normandy, France, 1942-1944; Maj Gen and 7 Armoured Division, North West Europe, 1944; 1 Guards Brigade, Italy and Austria, 1944-1945; Military Commander, Vienna, Austria, 1945-1946; commander of 56 (London) Armoured Division (Territorial Army), 1946-1948; retired 1948; published The Desert Rats (Hutchinson, London, 1954); Guards Armoured Division, a short history (Hutchinson, London, 1955); The Devil's Wind, the story of the Naval Brigade at Lucknow (Hutchinson, London, 1956); died in 1957.

Arranged chronologically in sections according to military service. Working papers and drafts for publications are grouped in separate sections, as are the papers of Maj Peter V Verney.

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

Placed in the Centre by the family in 1977 and 1991.

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

The family retains copies of the diaries of Maj Gen G L Verney relating to World War Two. Readers wishing to see these diaries should write to Maj P V Verney, son, via the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, for access.

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.