Add MS 88906/16/17

Papers on army organization and military appointments. Major correspondents include Lord Salisbury, Lord Wolseley, Lord Wantage, the Duke of Cambridge, Sir Redvers Buller, A.J. Balfour, St John Brodrick and Sir Michael Hicks Beach.

1. Correspondence and papers on the reorganization of the War Office after the retirement of the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief, 1895.

2. Correspondence and papers on the appointment of Lord Wolseley to succeed Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge, as Commander-in-Chief, 1895. Includes extensive correspondence with Queen Victoria and her private secretary, Sir Arthur Bigge, regarding the Queen’s opposition to Wolseley’s appointment.

3. Correspondence and papers on military appointments, chiefly relating to the appointment of Sir Evelyn Wood to succeed Sir Redvers Buller as Adjutant-General at the War Office, 1897. Much of the correspondence relates to the Queen’s attempts to secure the appointment for her son Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught.

4. Speech at Edinburgh on 9th December 1897, by the Marquess of Lansdowne, K.G., Secretary of State for War, on Army Organization (1897). Printed.

5. Official memoranda on War Office Reorganization (1895) and the role of the Commander-in-Chief (1899), the latter annotated ‘Written for the Queen’. Printed.