Description
Very Rare 1939 WWII Northern Command Official Directory 5,000+ entries inc RAF
This is an amazing and rare survivor – we have not come across one of these in over thirty years of antiques trading and on searching – we cannot locate another copy (please let us know if you have seen another copy).
It was released for April/May 1939 and is numbered “50”, with a statement on the front cover that states it was:
“PUBLISHED THE FIRST WEEK IN EACH MONTH”.
It must have been ‘top secret’ and not allowed out of military hands as that is the only explanation we can come up to explain it’s scarcity. We used to specialise in antiquarian and collectable books in the late 1980’s and have spent many years in bookshops and online and we have never seen another copy which is unusual as it was a MONTHLY publication.
On the front cover it also states:
“Published by the Authority of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, from returns furnished from each Corps.
Containing the Organisation and Distribution of all Troops in the Command,
the Composition of Command Headquarters, Divisional and Brigade Staffs,
and the names and addresses of all Officers in the Command, Regular Army, Territorial Army, Supplementary Reserve, Officers’ Training Corps, affiliated Cadet Units,
and Royal Air Force”.
This little directory is PACKED – it is CRAMMED full of information. Just the A-Z listing of all military personnel contains over 3,000 entries with name, rank, address and often a telephone number!
The other contents sections are just as detailed in the total of 320 pages.
You can see from the image of the contents page that just about every aspect of the British Army in Northern England on the eve of World War Two is covered in this directory.
Each of the sections is printed on different coloured paper to make it easy to ‘thumb’ through and locate the number/personnel required.
The RAF section runs to 15 pages and there is even an anti aircraft section with wonderful local sounding names such as:
“The 40th (Sherwood Forresters) Anti Aircraft Battalion R.E.”
“The 42nd (The Robin Hoods) Anti Aircraft Bn., R.E.”
With listing of such highly sensitive information, I have no doubt that these directories were only intended to be used by military personnel and hence their rarity.
This directory appears to have been printed to be portable as it is pocket size measuring:
7 inches x 5 inches.
The information in this directory would be very useful for family history, military research AND Local history as it contains so many addresses and locations.
You should not judge a book by it’s cover: if it looks like it has been through the war that is because it HAS been through the war! It clearly has been heavily used and bruised during the war years. You also have to consider that this book is just over 80 years old!
The covers are tatty with sections missing on front, back and spine.
The red covers have ‘bled’ onto the first and last few pages.
This must have been rain as the rest of the contents do not show any evidence of having been wet / exposed to water. Our view is that it was used in rain – well we are in the North of England here chaps and we do get a little bit of the wet stuff now & again!
Internally, most of the sections are in very good, clean and complete condition.
The “Auxillary Territorial Service” section is also printed on red paper which has bled onto a few pages on either side. However, all sections are present and correct: fully legible.
The full A-Z listing of EVERY single military person active in 1939 runs to 135 pages and apart from a couple of pages at the start, all the pages look almost as fresh and clear as the day they were printed 80 years ago.
Price includes UK insured postage with signature on delivery.
Non UK: ask for shipping cost