Catalogue description Admiralty: Department of the Director of Naval Construction: Directors' Papers

A collection of semi-official papers of several directors of naval construction made by their secretaries; the papers refer to the official work of the directorate and to other professional and private concerns of the directors.

The first transfer of papers into this series mainly consists of files collected by the Director of Naval Construction's (DNC) Secretary and not registered on internal or Admiralty files. They are in two sub-series; the first consists chiefly of semi-official and private correspondence to and from three successive DNC's.
Sir William Berry    DNC 1924-1930
Sir Arthur W Johns      1930-1936
Sir Stanley V Goodall       1936-1944

The second sub-series consists of so-called 'DNC's Reports', which are in fact a collection of notes and memoranda on official and professional subjects concerning the DNC, or from 1942 and 1944 when the post of DNC was held jointly with that of Assistant Controller of War Production, the Deputy Director of Naval Construction (DDNC).

Similar papers of Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, DNC 1912-1923, are held by the National Maritime Museum. The professional diaries of Sir Stanley Goodall are in the British Library.

Board of Admiralty, Directorate of Naval Construction, 1913-1958