Tracking MOD / War Office disposals

[ajmac]

My response came back from Kew (National Records Office) yesterday that they had no information regarding disposals of Loyd Carriers to other European countries in the 1940 / 1950s. I am regretting being too specific now and have re-submitted with reference only to 'records of Military equipment sales' to foreign governments in the 1940s / 1950s. One would have thought that somewhere in Government we kept track of what we sold to whom and for how much!

 

If anyone has any bright ideas please let me know. So far all avenues have come to nothing, BMH say they have no wartime records at all and Ford gave the impression of helpfulness but didn't come up with any answer posative or negative through there email enquiry service. If I work on the law of averages my best bet would be records from Wolsley or Ford.... does anyone know the best person to speak to at Dagenham? Emails are a waste of time, I need to speak to the Ford UK archive manager or some such chap.

 

The Tank Museum got back to me a while ago, but they have no Loyd Carrier 'T' cards at all, however I don't know how exhaustive the search was.

Edited December 7, 2010 by ajmac

[John Pearson]

To take last point first: Loyds were not AFV's I think but considered softskins so Bovy probably do have nothing. Have you tried Deepcut where I think that the records from the old Beverly Museum of army transport ended up?

Concerning Kew, my limited experience is that you have to be your own 'Google' when looking for things.

Each folder has a date, title and a short description but rarely a resume or list of contents. It was only the brief description that has been put into the catalogue.

As such, if you search for , for example, "Loyd sales to foreign Governments" you may get nothing but "carrier sales 1945 to 1960" may strike gold.

You need to think of as many ways of saying the same thing, thinking where the information may be hiding and how it might be phrased and try each combination.

As an example, I was looking for war diaries of the battalion where my late father served. Each one covers a month. So far as I recall, some months were called 5 Batt SStaffs, some 5th Battalion South Staffs, some South Staffs 5 batt. etc.

Also I was looking for Valentine DD folders: Found some as Valentine DD, DD Valentine, Duplex Drive, Donald Duck, Amphibious tanks, 79 Arm Div, 79 Armoured Division, Straussler, etc etc. Not one of these titles when searched found any of the others! I am sure there are more yet to be found.

I suggest you start with the exact title of who would be doing the selling (Ministry of Supply perhaps??) and start getting creative!

[ajmac]

I should have been more accurate in my first mail. The Tank Museum said they couldn't find my chassis number on any key cards, and that the cards were 'far from complete'. So now I don't know if that means that chassis numbers aren't on key cards OR from the Loyd Carrier cards that they have, they couldn't find my chassis number. Does anyone remember that Yes Minister episode where any question will be answered, but Jim still can't get the information because 'you haven't asked the right question yet'!

 

NB: Just got off the phone to David F at the Tank Museum, he sounded interested and is going to have a deeper look!

Edited December 8, 2010 by ajmac

[ajmac]

David Fletcher got back to me this afternoon, no luck I'm afraid....