Keyes Papers. Vol. cxxxviii. Mediterranean Fleet: organisation and exercis ...

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Keyes Papers. Vol. cxxxviii. Mediterranean Fleet: organisation and exercises; 9 June 1925– 5 May 1928

Contents:

1. Organisation; 9 June 1925– 24 April 1928. Partly printed. Contains seniority lists and a paper on the duties of staff officers. Also contains ‘Fortress Orders’ issued by the Governor of Malta, Gen. Congreve, announcing Keyes’s arrival as C-in-C and Keyes’s report to the Admiralty of his visit to French and Italian naval officials en route to Malta and copies of correspondence between the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, and the 1st Lord of the Admiralty, W. C. Bridgeman, concerning the naval estimates.

2. Exercises, training, and tactics; 12 Aug. 1925 – 5 May 1928. Partly printed. Contains papers relating to ‘Exercise MU’, Aug. 1925; papers on firing and gunnery practice; a summary of fleet training progress; the text of a lecture given by Rear-Adm. W. H. D. Boyle entitled ‘The Tactical Functions of the Cruiser’; papers on summer cruises; and a memorandum on the revision of battle instructions and manoeuvring orders.

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Archive Record|Table of contents

Keyes PapersAdd MS 82373-82578

Special CorrespondenceAdd MS 82373-82405

Keyes Papers. B. General Correspondence. Vols. xxxiv-lxxiv. 41 volumes.Add MS 82406-82446

Keyes Papers. C. Diaries. Vols. lxxv-lxxviii. Four volumes.Add MS 82447-82450

Naval PapersAdd MS 82451-82516

Certificates, appointments, and promotionsAdd MS 82451-82454

Keyes Papers. Submarines. Vols. lxxxiii- xciii. Keyes was appointed Inspecting Captain of Submarines in November 1910 and Commodore (S) in charge of the submarine service in August 1912.Add MS 82455-82465

The Dardanelles Campaign 82466-82488. Keyes Papers. Vols. xciv-cxvi. In 1915 Keyes was appointed Chief of Staff to Vice-Adm. Carden, commanding the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron in the Dardanelles. He retained the post under Carden’s successor, Vice-Adm. de Robeck.Add MS 82466-82488

Keyes Papers. Vols. cxvii-cxix. Keyes took no part in the battle of Jutland (31 May 1916), the only major naval action of the war, as he was still in the eastern Mediterranean at the time; 1916-1933.Add MS 82489-82491

Keyes Papers. Vol. cxx. 2nd Battle Squadron: Contains memoranda on searchlights and night exercises, and a pulling regatta programme;31 July 1916 – 24 May 1917.Add MS 82492

Keyes Papers. Vol. cxxi. 4th Battle Squadron: Contains papers and memoranda on gunnery exercises, a pulling regatta, night actions and the use of searchlights, distribution of fire, the use of kite balloons for reconnaissance, and courses of action open to a column of heavy ships when attacked by destroyers; 4 June 1917– 1 Sept. 1917, n.d..Add MS 82493

Keyes Papers. Vol. cxxii. Director of Plans: Contains reports of the Channel Barrage Committee, chaired by Keyes, established to investigate the most effective ways of preventing German submarines from passing through the Dover Straits. Also contains memoranda on Vice-Adm. Bacon’s views on how best to protect the Straits, papers on conferences held to discuss the possibility of an invasion of England, and a paper on a French proposal to operate in Syria; 16 March – 23 Dec. 1917, n.d.Add MS 82494

Keyes Papers. Vols. cxxiii-cxxvi. Dover Patrol: Whilst in the post of Director of Plans it became apparent that German submarines were passing through the Dover Straits unmolested. Vice-Adm. Bacon, Admiral of the Dover Patrol, suggested a huge minefield. Plans Division insisted that the mines would be ineffective unless they were patrolled by surface ships, with lights at night, which would force submarines to dive and sail into the mines. Bacon felt this would leave surface ships vulnerable to attack and also give away the location of the minefields. Bacon faced powerful opposition from the Admiralty and was relieved of his duties at Dover. Keyes took command of the Dover Patrol on 1 January 1918, as acting Vice-Admiral. See also Add. 82504 A-D.Add MS 82495-82498

Keyes Papers. Vols. cxxvii-cxxxv. Operations ZO and VS: Whilst Vice Admiral Dover Patrol Keyes led two operations to block the mouths of the canals at Zeebrugge and Ostend with blockships, preventing German submarines from entering the North Sea from their Bruges bases. Zeebrugge and Ostend were both raided on the night of 22/23 April 1918 (Operation ZO), whilst a second attempt on Ostend (Operation VS) was launched on the night of 9/10 May 1918.Add MS 82499-82507

Battle Cruiser SquadronAdd MS 82508

Deputy Chief of the Naval StaffAdd MS 82509

Keyes Papers. Vols. cxxxviii-cxl. Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean: In June 1925 Keyes assumed the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, considered by the Admiralty as the nation’s main fleet. HMS Queen Elizabeth was his flagship. Whilst C-in-C, Keyes was promoted Admiral.Add MS 82510-82512

Keyes Papers. Vol. cxxxviii. Mediterranean Fleet: organisation and exercis ... Add MS 82510

Keyes Papers. Vol. cxxxix. Papers relating to relations with Turkey and th ... Add MS 82511

Keyes Papers. Vol. cxl. Other Mediterranean Fleet papers; 9 Nov. 1925– 12 ... Add MS 82512

Keyes Papers. Vol. cxli. Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth: Contains Keyes’s l ... Add MS 82513

Keyes Papers. Vol. cxlii. Honorary Colonel Commandant, Royal Marines Ports ... Add MS 82514

Naval officers’ payAdd MS 82515

Keyes Papers. Miscellaneous naval printed material: Vol. cxliv a-l.Add MS 82516 A-L

Keyes Papers. E. Fleet Air Arm Papers: Vols. cxlv-clvii. The subject of Royal Navy control of its own air forces had exercised Keyes since the early days of World War One. In the 1920s he had co-authored, with his brother-in-law Chief of the Air Staff Hugh Trenchard, a scheme for joint control between the Admiralty and the Air Ministry. Ultimately Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence, decided the Admiralty should retain control of carrier-borne aircraft while the Air Ministry would take charge of shore-based aircraft.Add MS 82517-82519

Keyes Papers. F. Parliamentary Papers: Vols. cxlviii-clii. Keyes was elected M.P. for Portsmouth North in a by-election in February 1934 and held the seat until elevated to the peerage in 1943.Add MS 82520-82524

Keyes Papers. G. Belgium: Vols. cliii-cliv. With the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 Belgium maintained its policy of neutrality but requested that an unofficial emissary to the British government be appointed. Keyes was given the role and travelled to Belgium in October 1939, November 1939, and January 1940. In May 1940 Churchill appointed Keyes as his personal liaison to the Belgian monarch, King Leopold III. Keyes was in Belgium as the Germans over-ran the country and escaped as Belgium surrendered. For Keyes’s diary of this second of his Belgian appointments see Add. 82449-82450. The story of Keyes’s Belgian mission and his relationship with the Belgian royal family is told in a book by his son, Roger Keyes, Outrageous Fortune: The Tragedy of Leopold III of the Belgians (London: Secker & Warburg, 1984).Add MS 82525-82526

Keyes Papers. H. Director of Combined Operations Papers: Vols. clv-clviii. Director of Combined Operations; 22 Oct. 1940– 27 April 1942, n.d. Partly printed. Contains papers relating to Keyes’s appointment, remit, and eventual departure; detailed plans for commando operations; Chiefs of Staff committee minutes and memoranda; memoranda by Keyes proposing operations and commenting on decisions made by the Chiefs of Staff; notes made by Keyes during his tenure as DCO; some reports on operations carried out by commandos under Col. R. E. Laycock; and papers relating to the formation, organisation and training of commando units, and the equipment and material required for their operations. Specific operations referred to in detail include Workshop (Pantelleria), Claymore (the Lofoten Islands), Yorker (Cagliari), Irrigate (deployment to Freetown, Sierra Leone), and Pilgrim and Puma (both of which were concerned with Gran Canaria). Also contains sheet music for ‘Commandos March’ by J. E. Needham, dedicated to Keyes. Having been restored to the active list in March 1940 Keyes was appointed Director of Combined Operations by Winston Churchill in July 1940. His role was to organise and carry out raids on specific targets in German-occupied Europe using specially selected and trained men from all services. They were to become known as commandos. Inter-service rivalries, lack of men and equipment, and Keyes’s frustration at his plans being ruled out or repeatedly postponed resulted in constant tensions and in October 1941 Churchill accepted a Chiefs of Staff proposal to re-organise the planning of combined operations. Keyes was offered an advisory role and when he refused it he was relieved of his duties and replaced by Capt. Louis Mountbatten. Four volumes.Add MS 82527-82530

Keyes Papers. I. Pacific Tour: Vols. clix-clxii. In July 1944, at the suggestion of the Minister of Information, Brendan Bracken, and with the approval of Winston Churchill, Lord and Lady Keyes (as they now were, Keyes having been elevated to the peerage in January 1943) undertook a goodwill tour of Australia and New Zealand. They flew out via Canada and the United States. Whilst in Australia Keyes took advantage of the contacts he had made in the United States to witness the United States Navy in active service. He was invited aboard the flagship of the US Seventh Fleet to observe the invasion of Leyte island, in the Philippines.Add MS 82531-82534

J. Speeches and Lectures 82535-82538. Keyes Papers. Vols. clxiii-clxvi. Texts, drafts, and notes of speeches, lectures, and broadcasts given by Keyes; 14 Dec. 1918– 28 Feb.1944, n.d. For Keyes’s parliamentary speeches see Add. 82521-82522. Four volumes.Add MS 82535-82538

Papers of Clubs, Institutions, and CharitiesAdd MS 82539-82543

Literary PapersAdd MS 82544-82551

Other Printed MaterialAdd MS 82552-82557

Keyes Papers. Vol. clxxxvi. Photographs, Postcards, and Illustrations.Add MS 82558

Other PapersAdd MS 82559-82563

Keyes Papers. P. Indexes and Lists: Vol. xccii a-c. Indexes and lists to the Keyes papers; 1919, 1965-1966, n.d.Add MS 82564 A-C

Q. Envelopes 82565-82566. Keyes Papers. Vols. xcciii-xcciv. Empty envelopes addressed to Roger or Eva Keyes; circa 1914 – circa 1945. Two volumes.Add MS 82565-82566

Family PapersAdd MS 82567-82569

Keyes Papers. Vols. xccviii-ccvi. S. Papers of Capt. Charles Boswell Norman: Norman was an officer in the 90th Light Infantry who wrote books on military matters. He was Keyes’s uncle, a brother of Keyes’s mother, Katherine. Another of the Norman siblings was Field Marshal Sir Henry Wylie Norman.Add MS 82570-82578