Catalogue description War Office: Records of Military Headquarters

Records of the War Office Military Headquarters

The records include:

• America, 1746-1785: muster rolls and copies of proceedings of the General Assembly of Connecticut relative to military dispositions, 1746-1747; original letters, returns, memorials, etc, from field officers and others in America to the adjutant general or deputy adjutant general in Canada, 1775-1785.
• Lille, 1798: entry book of orders and other records relative to British prisoners of war at Lille, with returns of prisoners, etc.
• General orders, 1811-1857: copies of extracts of orders issued at various headquarters overseas, bound by countries.
• Spain, 1810-1814: records of the offices of the quartermaster general and the adjutant general; journals of the Cadiz Force, etc.
• Calais, 1815-1818: original letters to, and entry books of letters from, the assistant quartermaster general at Calais relative to the establishment there for communications between the British Army of Occupation and England.
• China Expedition, 1840-1844: orders, appointments, distribution returns, casualties, courts martial, etc.
• Crimea, 1854-1856: entry books of orders and memoranda; letter and précis books of headquarters and of various divisions, brigades, etc; registers and extracts of courts martial; requisition, embarkation and other miscellaneous books; reports and papers relating to the various divisions, the cavalry, engineers, transport, medical and commissariat services, prisoners of war, etc; topographical reports; adjutant general's and quartermaster general's papers, etc.
• Crimea, Army Works Corps, 1855-1864: paymaster's ledgers, receipts for wages and gratuities, pay and cash books, registers of officers, clerks, foremen and men, etc.
• India, 1857-1860: entry books of out-letters of the commander-in-chief in India.
• Uganda Expedition, 1897-1898: journal of events and diaries.
• China, Boxer Rebellion, 1900-1901: correspondence of the commander of the China Field Force and some private papers.
• Bermuda, 1865-1869 and 1905-1908: correspondence and papers on defence of the islands.

See also Records of the Judge Advocate General: Division within WO

Secretary-at-War, 1660-1855

War Department, 1855-1857

War Office, 1857-1964