Catalogue description War Office and Ministry of Defence: Headquarters Middle East and successors: Records

In 1960 the wartime Headquarters Middle East which had withdrawn from Egypt to Cyprus in 1954, were re-named Headquarters Middle East Land Forces (MELF).

In 1961 this became part of a tri-service command structure which linked British forces in the Mediterranean with those in Aden and the Persian Gulf. The headquarters in Cyprus was renamed Headquarters Near East Land Forces and the Headquarters British Forces Arabian Peninsula was renamed Headquarters Middle East Land Forces (Aden and Gulf).

The arrangement was reviewed a year later when, as a response to serious inter-communal violence in Cyprus, Headquarters Near East Land Forces was divided into Headquarters Cyprus District and Headquarters Malta and Libya.

In 1967 the headquarters in Cyprus became Headquarters Near East Land Forces again and the headquarters in Malta became Headquarters British Troops Malta, even though British forces did not pull out of Libya until 1970-1971. In the same year, following the four year internal security campaign in Aden, the tri-service Middle East Command, which included Headquarters Middle East Land Forces, was replaced by the tri-service Headquarters British Forces Gulf, based at Bahrein and Sharjah until withdrawal in 1971.

In 1976 the headquarters in Cyprus became Headquarters Land Forces, Cyprus and in 1988 it became a tri-service headquarters: Headquarters British Forces, Cyprus.