Minutes of Proceedings and Précis prepared for the Army Council for the Year 1905.

With Index. Foolscap 4to. Tape marks to the endpapers, otherwise very good in the red morocco-grained skiver, title gilt to the upper board, rubbed and a little scuffed at the extremities. xiv, 608pp. [For the Army Council], n.d.

Extremely uncommon, apparently a print-run of 20 copies, designated "Secret". We have been able to trace only the copy of this and the previous years' Minutes... in the Arnold-Forster Papers in the BL Manuscripts Collection. This copy has an inked inscription identifying it as the copy of the Director of [Army] Finance, Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson, who held the post until 1908 and had formerly been Kitchener's Financial Adviser in South Africa, and Assistant Under-Secretary of State for War.

Formed with great expediency on the recommendation of Esher's committee in 1904 the Army Council was intended to replace the functions of the Commander in Chief. Its first head, as Secretary of State for War, was H.O. Arnold-Forster, "never popular in the clubs" [Luvaas Education of an Army p.276], both his policies and his manner grated on those whose support he needed to rely upon, he "lectured the generals of the Army Council as if they were schoolboys and treated the House of Commons with scarcely more respect" [Hamer The British Army p.230]. His overly rapid programme of reforms "... provoked strong opposition and against which Esher [who had declined Balfour's offer of the War Office] intrigued. Arnold-Forster condemned Esher's "constant interference" by "an unauthorised and irresponsible person"." [ODNB]. With the fall of Balfour's Liberal Government at the end of 1905 Arnold-Forster was replaced by R.B Haldane who was to meet with a far greater measure of success in the drive to reform; "Able, interested, shrewd in his judgement of advice and advisers, he... siezed the initiative in army reform and provided a leadership which had previously been lacking." [Spiers Haldane. p.199]. Both men appear in the list of "Holders of Appointments".

Intriguing document of a pivotal year in the development of the Modern British Army. Each meeting is represented by the Agenda and the Decisions, the minutes themselves were considered so sensitive that they were suppressed from even this narrowly-circulated document, a paper slip tipped onto the final leaf baldly stating that "The Minutes have in view of their secrecy been omitted." However the Précis do contain the highly detailed submissions put before the Council on the whole range of Army-related matters.

Stock Code: 90386