Andrew Lambert - Letters and Papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, 1830-1915

Edited by
Andrew Lambert M.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S.

PUBLISHED BY ROUTLEDGE FOR THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY 2002

This volume of correspondence and related materials is drawn from a wide variety of sources. It reflects the broad range of Laughton's interests, and the width of his correspondence. The main body of surviving Laughton MSS was deposited at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England in 1979, by his grandson. They remained uncatalogued and unsorted as MS79/067 until 2001. They are now catalogued under the call mark LGH, divided into 57 separate files, and contained in nine boxes, under which system they have been referred to in this volume. Folio numbers have been added to individual items where appropriate.

The collection originally comprised six boxes, one of which was occupied by the subject of flags - a subject that I have not addressed in this volume. Another contained letters from Mahan, all of which have been reproduced here. The other four contained what can only have been a sample of Laughton's incoming correspondence, together with draft lecture notes and other memoranda. There is also a separate collection consisting of Laughton's notebooks, filed under his name in the existing MS catalogue. These were deposited in the 1950s by his son Leonard Carr Laughton, who had used them extensively. No material from this source has been used here.

In addition to the Laughton archive a wide range of related collections have supplied letters. At Greenwich the files of Cyprian A.G. Bridge, William Laird Clowes, Julian S. Corbett, Reginald N. Custance, Geoffrey T. P. Hornby, Gerard H.U. Noel, Herbert W. Richmond and Charles Napier Robinson all yielded important material. In addition the archive of the Navy Records Society is held on deposit at the Museum. The early minute books contain much information on the nature of Laughton's work, a few pieces of correspondence and memoranda.

Laughton's service record and correspondence as a Lecturer at the Royal Naval College is contained in the Admiralty collection at the Public Record Office, Kew. The archive of King's College, London contains a Laughton file which relates to his appointment in 1885, together with other correspondence relating to his work at the College. The Naval Historical Branch, Whitehall, has a collection of his pamphlets, which were bound by his friend the Admiralty Librarian W.G. Perrin in 1916. At King's College, Cambridge, the Oscar Browning and College MS provided important additional material. The Bodleian Library, Oxford, holds the Sidney Lee MSS (including material belonging to Leslie Stephen) which explained Laughton's role with the Dictionary of National Biography. The University of London Paleography Room at Senate House holds the papers of the distinguished historians Sir John Seeley and Albert Frederick Pollard. In the British Library, Manuscript Division, the Althorp MSS, in particular the papers of the 5th Earl Spencer, were of particular importance. At the Royal Geographical Society, London the Society archives, and minute books, together with the papers and manuscript journals of Sir Clements Markham were of interest.