Catalogue description War Office and Associated Departments: Submissions for Royal Approval

This series consists of submissions for royal approval made by the Commander-in- Chief, the Secretary of State for War and the Minister of Defence.

The records originated in the Ordnance Office and War Office but were brought together in the Ministry of Defence Library.

The series contains entry books, signed original submissions, and copies, for royal approval of commissions, promotions, appointments of officers, regimental establishments and troop movements, and rewards for meritorious service. From the end of the nineteenth century, submissions for individual appointments (at least in the surviving records) are replaced by block submissions. The source of the submissions is not always clear.

The regular practice of publishing commissions in the London Gazette is reflected in annotations to submissions from 1876.

The series includes a retrospective record of aides-de-camp to the sovereign since 1749.

For Army Clothing Department registers see WO 359

For the warrants of approval subsequent to the submissions, and some miscellaneous submissions, see WO 370

Commander-in-Chief, 1795-1870

Commander-in-Chief, Adjutant General, 1680-1870

Ministry of Defence, 1947-

War Office, 1857-1964

War Office, Commander-in-Chiefs Military Department, Adjutant General's Division, 1870-1895

War Office, Military Department, Military Secretarys Division, 1870-1904

There is a key to the contents of the series in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.