Catalogue description War Office: General Sir George Scovell, Intelligence Branch of Quartermaster General in Spain, later Chief Cipher Officer: Papers

These papers consist largely of intercepted despatches, reports and maps, captured during the Peninsular War by General Sir George Scovell, then of the Intelligence Branch of the Quartermaster General in Spain, later Wellington's chief cipher officer.

The collection includes Sir Charles Oman's correspondence with the then owners of the papers, 1908 to 1922. A diary and four other documents were added to the collection by Sir Charles Oman in 1930.

Sir George Scovell, Knight, 1774-1861

An interesting account of the capture, deciphering, etc., of the intercepted dispatches - most of which are wholly or partly in cipher - appears in Sir Charles Oman's History of the Peninsular War, Vol. V, pp. 611-618.