E.M. Warrick papers

The E.M. Warrick papers contain photographs, correspondence, reports, documents and ephemera, related to the military service of E.M. (Edward Manley) Warrick (1924-2015), a British Army officer assigned to the Royal Engineers, documenting his participation in the Jebel Akhdar war in Oman in 1958. In addition, the collection includes documents related to Warrick's training and initial service in the Middle East Forces in Palestine in 1946-1947.

The first, and largest, series in the collection, titled "Middle East Land Forces, School of Military Engineering," was created during the period when Warrick was sent for training at the school, located in Beit Nabala, Palestine. Much of the material relates to the training of engineers, often referred to as "sappers" in British military slang, and documents the experiences of Warrick as he gained experience in tasks such as the shipment of construction equipment, the construction of pontoon bridges and temporary structures for camps, and learning to defend against insurgents. Included are notes, movement orders, inventories of equipment, written examinations, and documents from training exercises, which taken together form a rough picture of the formation of such soldiers, who often followed combat troops in order to construct basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and shelter for troops in the aftermath of battles. Evidence that such training was not purely theoretical can be seen in reports and instructions from the commanding officer of Warrick's company, referencing armed attacks by unnamed insurgents, including one on a police command post that killed two police officers in April 1947, and instructions on identifying and removing landmines.

The next series of documents, titled "Oman, Jebel Akhdar War," records Warrick's experiences a decade later, when he was called to the interior of the Sultanate of Oman to take part in an operation against insurgents near Nizwa, at the base of the Jebel Akhdar mountain range, which included the laying of booby traps in the wadis and mountainous terrain. Documents in this series include a report from an expedition of Royal Engineers who were active in the same region the previous year, a list of personnel from Warrick's operation (with next of kin listed), a series of situation reports during the operation, and Warrick's own post-operation report and a letter of commendation from Warrick's commanding officer on the operation and subsequent activities of his squadron in Oman.

The third series, titled "Publications and Miscellany," includes printed booklets on map reading, as well as commemorative programs for events that Warrick attended, such as the victory celebration in London in June 1946 and a parade on the occasion of King George's birthday in June 1950. In addition, an issue of the military newspaper "Aden Calling" from November 1959 featured a front-page article about a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro by a group of British soldiers, which included Warrick, who was based in Nairobi by that time. Empty folders were included in this series because of the information they contained, both in relation to Warrick's activities with the Middle East Forces in Palestine and also one that contains his own title for the Jebel Akhdar operation that he led in 1958, "Operation Teddy Boy's Picnic."

The fourth, and last, series consists of photographic slides taken by Warrick during his time in Oman and Bahrain in late 1958, as well as his journey from the latter to his next posting in Nairobi, by way of Aden and Mombasa, presumably in late 1958 or early 1959. Accompanying the slides, which are color images enclosed in plastic and glass housings, is a handwritten list, with 70 images that are numbered and captioned. The first 51 images listed are from the Oman operation from September 1958, and the remaining images are from Bahrain, where Warrick was stationed at the time, and of his journey from there to his next post in Kenya, by way of Aden. All but four of the images are present, with the missing ones consisting of one of rebels in Oman (34.) and images of Warrick (51.), his commanding officer (50., Sgt. Curds) and a rebel chief (49). In addition to the images that are numbered and captioned are six additional images from his subsequent service in Kenya, and other unidentified locales, including a visit of the Queen Mother and a scene from Naivasha. In the finding aid, the captions are listed as Warrick wrote them on the slide frames and on his list, and where the captions on these two sources differ, both are added to the description.