Catalogue description War Office and Ministry of Defence: Royal Armoured Corps: Correspondence and Reports

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Details of WO 341
Reference: WO 341
Title: War Office and Ministry of Defence: Royal Armoured Corps: Correspondence and Reports
Description:

This series comprises correspondence and reports of the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC).

The papers consist of liaison letters issued by the Director, Royal Armoured Corps; reports of conferences; trials reports and assessments of new vehicles and equipment etc, most of which originate from the RAC Centre at Bovington in Dorset.
Date: 1947-1985
Related material:

For similar material, in the records of the Fighting Vehicle Research and Development Establishment, see WO 194

For records of the Clothing and Equipment Physiological Research Establishment see WO 352
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Ministry of Defence, 1947-

War Office, 1857-1964
Physical description: 214 files and volumes
Access conditions: Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

from 1992 Ministry of Defence
Accruals: Series is accruing.
Publication note:

A number of published sources, but especially the quarterly and annual Army Lists from 1939, give annual details of the constituent regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps. Copies of the Army Lists are available in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.
Unpublished finding aids:

An organization chart (copied from WO 32/14081 - charters for RAC training establishments 1952-1964) of the RAC Centre (1962) is in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.

Administrative / biographical background:

The Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) was formed in April 1939 to group together the mechanized regiments of cavalry of the army, and the Royal Tank Corps (immediately re-designated the Royal Tank Regiment). The RAC is third in the army order of precedence, after the Household Cavalry and the Royal Horse Artillery. Although the regiments of Household Cavalry (The Life Guards and The Blues & Royals) are now armoured, they are not part of the RAC.

Since the creation of the RAC, the army has undergone several periods of reorganisation and amalgamation, including that dictated by the government's Options for Change programme of the early 1990s.

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