KIGGELL, Lt Gen Sir Launcelot Edward (1862-1954)

Scope and Content

Letters dated 1909-1914 from FM Earl Haig, Chief of General Staff in India and Commander-in-Chief at Aldershot, including potential candidates for appointments and Indian Army policy including reorganisation and recruitment; letters dated 1914-1918 from Haig, General Officer Commanding 1 Corps and Commander-in-Chief, British Armies, France, referring to operations including Dardanelles, Verdun; letters dated 1914-1918 from FM Sir Henry Wilson, British military representative at Supreme War Council, Versailles, including French war effort; correspondence dated 1915-1921 with FM Sir William Robertson, General HQ British Armies in the Field including shortage of supplies and troops; Kiggell's demi-official correspondence when Chief of General Staff, 1916-1919, with various commanders on subjects including administration, planned operations, supply of guns and ammunition to Belgium, France and Russia and staff appointments; recollections dated 1919 of Chantilly conference, Nov 1916, to consider planned operations in 1917.

Administrative / Biographical History

Born in 1862; educated in Ireland and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; entered Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 1882; adjutant of 2 Battalion, 1886-1890; Staff College, 1893-1894; Instructor at Royal Military College, 1895-1897; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, South Eastern District, 1897-1899; served in Boer War on staff of Sir Redvers Buller, on HQ Staff at Pretoria, and as Assistant Adjutant General, Harrismith District and Natal, 1899-1902; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Staff College, 1904-1907; revised Operations of War by Sir Edward Bruce Hamley (William Blackwood and Sons, London, 1866 revised 1907); General Staff Officer Grade 1 at Army HQ, 1907-1909; Brig Gen in charge of administration, Scottish Command, 1909; Director of Staff Duties, War Office, 1909-1913; Commandant, Staff College, Camberley, 1913-1914; Director of Home Defence, War Office, 1914-1915; Chief of General Staff, British Armies in France, 1915-1918; Lt Gen, 1917; General Officer Commanding and Lt Governor, Guernsey, 1918-1920; retired, 1920; died in 1954.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically into section according to correspondent. Kiggell's correspondence while Chief of General Staff and papers relating to the conference at Chantilly, 1917, have been grouped together. The index to the papers is arranged in sections covering people, places, military service units and subjects.

Access Information

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Acquisition Information

Placed in the Centre by the family in 1966.

Other Finding Aids

Summary guide entry on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iss/archives/cats/, and detailed catalogue available in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

Conditions Governing Use

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.