Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1916-1984 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
2 boxes or 0.02m3
Scope and content
Papers of Ralph Thrale, 1916-1984, mainly relating to the Royal Observer Corps, including: memoir 'Seaborne', co-authored by Thrale, detailing experiences of Thrale and a colleague while Royal Observer Corps 'Seaborne' volunteers posted to merchant shipping as aircraft identifiers, 1944; Thrale's Royal Navy certificate of service, 1944, and Royal Observer Corps certificate of war service, 1946.The collection also includes publications collected by Thrale on related topics, including books: Aircraft of the fighting powers by H J Cooper and O G Thetford (Harborough Publishing Company, Leicester, 1941); Britain's wonderful Air Force edited by Air Cdre Peregrine Forbes Morant Fellowes (Odhams Press, London, 1942); Forewarned is forearmed: the authorized history of the Royal Observer Corps by T E Winslow (William Hodge & Co, London, 1948) and Observers' tale: the story of Group 17 of the ROC edited by H Ramsden Whitty, Commandant, 17 Group, Royal Observer Corps (London, 1950). Journals: The Journal of the Royal Observer Corps Club, Oct 1941-Nov 1942 and an incomplete run of Aircraft recognition Sep 1942-Sep 1984. Ministry of Information publications: The Battle of Britain, August-October 1940 (HMSO, 1941); Coastal Command (HMSO, 1943) and Combined Operations, 1940-1942 (HMSO, 1943). Also The Bystander's Fragments from France, volumes of cartoons by Bruce Bairnsfather detailing life in the trenches (numbers 1-6, c 1916-1918) and article, 'The reply to English propaganda' by Joseph Paul Goebbels, translated from German and reprinted from Völkischer Beobachter, 14 Jul 1939.
System of arrangement
In sections as in Scope and Content.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born 1905; volunteer Aircraft Identifier, Royal Observer Corps, May-Jul 1944; died 1993.
Repository
Custodial history
Presented to the Centre by the family, January 2004 and January 2008.
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
This collection level description.
Existence and location of originals
Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›
Alternative identifier(s)
Place access points
People and Organisations
- Royal Navy (Subject)
- Royal Observer Corps (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.
Script(s)
Archivist's note
Compiled by Katharine Higgon.