The collection consists of operational orders, signals and letters relating to the Mediterranean, including fleet narratives and reports on operations in the Western Desert, 1940 to 1941; and the Dover Command war diaries, 1940 to 1944.

Administrative / biographical background
Pridham-Wippell was born at Bromley in Kent, the first son of Pridham Henry Pridham-Wippell, a barrister, and Clara Pridham-Wippell née Ascroft. He entered the Navy as a cadet in 1900 and was a midshipman on the cruiser HMS DIADEM (1896) in the following year. He passed for lieutenant in 1907 and was serving on the battleship HMS AUDACIOUS (1912) when she was mined off Lough Swilly in 1914. He was promoted to commander in 1919 and captain in 1926. He was made Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (C.V.O.) following the high speed dash made by the cruiser HMS ENTERPRISE (1919) from Dar-es-Salaam to Brindisi, carrying the Prince of Wales homewards, when King George V became seriously ill in 1928. Following other seagoing appointments and two spells at the Admiralty, he was promoted to rear-admiral in 1938. He played a leading role in the naval campaign in the Mediterranean, being vice-admiral in command of the First Battle Squadron and second-in-command of the Mediterranean Fleet from 1940 to 1941. Flying his flag in HMS ORION (1932), he led the cruiser squadron that lured Italian ships towards the main British fleet during the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941. For his role in this victory, and also in the evacuation of Allied forces from Greece, he was made a K.C.B. Later in the same year, Pridham-Wippell was among the survivors after his flagship HMS BARHAM (1914) was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. He was flag officer in charge at Dover from 1942 to 1944, in which year he was promoted to admiral. From 1945 to 1947 he was commander-in-chief at Plymouth. He retired in 1948 and died at Kingsdown, near Deal, in 1952.