Catalogue description War Office and Ministry of Defence: Headquarters Middle East and successors: Records
Reference: | WO 386 |
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Title: | War Office and Ministry of Defence: Headquarters Middle East and successors: Records |
Description: |
This series consists of files and reports produced by Headquarters Middle East and some of its successor and associated bodies which covered British Army operations after the Second World War in the Mediterranean and Middle East as well as southern, central and East Africa. It includes intelligence reports from the Joint Intelligence Group (Cyprus). |
Date: | 1954-1974 |
Held by: | The National Archives, Kew |
Legal status: | Public Record(s) |
Language: | English |
Creator: |
Ministry of Defence, Headquarters British Forces Gulf, 1967-1971 Ministry of Defence, Headquarters British Troops Malta, 1967- Ministry of Defence, Headquarters Cyprus District, 1964-1967 Ministry of Defence, Headquarters Malta and Libya, 1964-1967 Ministry of Defence, Headquarters Middle East Land Forces, 1964-1967 Ministry of Defence, Headquarters Near East Land Forces, 1967-1976 War Office, Headquarters Malta and Libya, 1962-1964 War Office, Headquarters Middle East Land Forces (Aden and Gulf), 1961-1964 War Office, Headquarters, Cyprus District, 1962-1964 |
Physical description: | 28 files and volumes |
Access conditions: | Open unless otherwise stated |
Immediate source of acquisition: |
From 1999 Ministry of Defence |
Accruals: | Series is accruing |
Administrative / biographical background: |
In 1960 the wartime Headquarters Middle East which had withdrawn from Egypt to Cyprus in 1954, were re-named Headquarters Middle East Land Forces (MELF). In 1961 this became part of a tri-service command structure which linked British forces in the Mediterranean with those in Aden and the Persian Gulf. The headquarters in Cyprus was renamed Headquarters Near East Land Forces and the Headquarters British Forces Arabian Peninsula was renamed Headquarters Middle East Land Forces (Aden and Gulf). The arrangement was reviewed a year later when, as a response to serious inter-communal violence in Cyprus, Headquarters Near East Land Forces was divided into Headquarters Cyprus District and Headquarters Malta and Libya. In 1967 the headquarters in Cyprus became Headquarters Near East Land Forces again and the headquarters in Malta became Headquarters British Troops Malta, even though British forces did not pull out of Libya until 1970-1971. In the same year, following the four year internal security campaign in Aden, the tri-service Middle East Command, which included Headquarters Middle East Land Forces, was replaced by the tri-service Headquarters British Forces Gulf, based at Bahrein and Sharjah until withdrawal in 1971. In 1976 the headquarters in Cyprus became Headquarters Land Forces, Cyprus and in 1988 it became a tri-service headquarters: Headquarters British Forces, Cyprus. |
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