The papers form part of the collection transferred from the Royal United Service Institution in 1968. They are in two parts. The first, presented by Commander Sir Thomas Holburne, consists of letters and orders received by Admiral Holburne between March 1755 and October 1766 and includes letters from Admirals Anson (1697-1762) and Boscawen (1711-1761). The second consists of Holburne's letterbooks, 1759 to 1764. There is also an Admiralty Warrant to him of 1765, presented separately.

Administrative / biographical background
Holburne entered the Navy in 1720 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1727 and to captain in 1739. Between 1740 and 1745 he served in the Channel and the North Sea, between 1745 and 1746 in the West Indies and between 1748 and 1752 was Commander-in-Chief on the Leeward Islands Station. In 1755 he was promoted to rear-admiral, sailed in 1756 to reinforce Admiral Boscawen (1711-1761) at Louisbourg and returned to the Channel to maintain the blockade off Brest. He then was a member of the court at Byng's court martial. In 1757 he was promoted to vice-admiral and again sailed to North America, in order to attack Louisbourg, but he soon returned to England. He was then immediately appointed Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, a post he occupied for eight years apart from a break, 1760 to 1762, when Sir Francis Geary (q.v.) held the post. Holburne became an admiral in 1767 and after a brief period as a Lord of the Admiralty, he accepted the post of Governor of Greenwich Hospital, 1771, but died later that year.