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War Office and Ministry of Defence: Royal Armoured Corps: Correspondence and Reports

Description and record details

Reference WO 341
Title War Office and Ministry of Defence: Royal Armoured Corps: Correspondence and Reports
Date 1947-1985
Description

This series comprises correspondence and reports of the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC).

The papers consist of liaison letters issued by the Director, Royal Armoured Corps; reports of conferences; trials reports and assessments of new vehicles and equipment etc, most of which originate from the RAC Centre at Bovington in Dorset.

Related material

For records of the Clothing and Equipment Physiological Research Establishment see WO 352

For similar material, in the records of the Fighting Vehicle Research and Development Establishment, see WO 194

Held by The National Archives, Kew
Legal status Public Record(s)
Language

English

Creator

Ministry of Defence, 1947

War Office, 1857-1964

Physical description 214 files and volumes
Access conditions Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition

from 1992 Ministry of Defence

Accruals Series is accruing.
Unpublished finding aids

An organization chart (copied from WO 32/14081 - charters for RAC training establishments 1952-1964) of the RAC Centre (1962) is in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.

Administrative/ biographical background

The Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) was formed in April 1939 to group together the mechanized regiments of cavalry of the army, and the Royal Tank Corps (immediately re-designated the Royal Tank Regiment). The RAC is third in the army order of precedence, after the Household Cavalry and the Royal Horse Artillery. Although the regiments of Household Cavalry (The Life Guards and The Blues & Royals) are now armoured, they are not part of the RAC.

Since the creation of the RAC, the army has undergone several periods of reorganisation and amalgamation, including that dictated by the government's Options for Change programme of the early 1990s.

Publication note

A number of published sources, but especially the quarterly and annual Army Lists from 1939, give annual details of the constituent regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps. Copies of the Army Lists are available in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.