The collection includes official service documents; logs, 1872 to 1877, 1884 to 1888; a diary, 1882; official and private letters and memoranda, relating mainly to the China command, 1913 to 1915. There are some papers for the Vitu expedition, 1890, and for Jerram's time in the Grand Fleet, 1915 to 1916, and a few post-Jutland reports, and some photograph albums.

Administrative / biographical background
Jerram was born at Chobham, Surrey, in 1858 and entered the Navy as a navigating cadet in 1871. As a midshipman he served in home waters in HMS VALOUROUS, 1873, and HMS HERCULES, 1873 to 1874, and was then in HMS MONARCH, 1874 to 1877, in the Mediterranean. He received the Royal Humane Society's Bronze Medal following an act of lifesaving while he was serving as a lieutenant on HMS SEAFLOWER in 1881. From 1882 to 1883 he was in HMS IRON DUKE, flagship on the China station. In 1884 he took out to Australia the new torpedo boat CHILDERS, built for the government of Victoria. He was then appointed to the screw sloop HMS REINDEER on the East Indies station, and in 1889 to HMS CONQUEST, initially on the China station. In the following year Jerram commanded a battalion of the naval brigade during the punitive expedition against the Sultan of Vitu in east Africa. While in command of HMS PIGEON in 1891 he was called upon to act as vice-consul at Biera and Mpanda, until the British South Africa Company's expedition to Mashonaland had disembarked. After returning home in 1892 he became first lieutenant on HMS RUBY in the training squadron. Jerram was promoted to commander in 1894, captain in 1899, and rear-admiral in 1908. He was second-in-command in the Mediterranean, from 1910 to 1912. He was commander-in-chief on the China station at the beginning of the First World War and had to counter the German squadron under the command of Von Spee. To make best use of his ships, Jerram shifted his flag on shore at Singapore. From 1915 to 1916 he commanded the Second Battle Squadron, Grand Fleet, and led the line at Jutland. He handed over his command when Beatty became commander-in-chief. Jerram retired in 1917 and soon after the First World War he was made chairman of the committee which investigated naval pay scales and allowances for all ranks and ratings (the Jerram Committee). He was also made president when a permanent naval welfare committee was set up in 1919. Among his honours and orders, he was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1914 and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG) in 1919. He died at Alverstoke in Hampshire in 1933.