The papers are insubstantial and consist largely of private letters to his wife and children from HMS PYLADES and HMS MONARCH. His letters as a midshipman to his parents can be found in MKH/303 and MKH/305.

Administrative / biographical background
Arthur William Acland Hood was the son of Sir Alexander Hood, 2nd Baronet (1793-1851) and grandson of Captain Alexander Hood (1758-1798). He entered the Navy in 1836 and saw early service on the north coast of Spain and afterwards on the coast of Syria and at the reduction of Acre. In January 1846 he was promoted to be lieutenant of HMS PRESIDENT on the Cape station and was in 1850 appointed to HMS ARETHUSA and served for five years in the Channel, Mediterranean, Black Sea and Crimea. In 1854 Hood was promoted to commander especially for service with the naval brigade and in 1856 went in HMS ACORN to China, where he saw action in 1857. The following year he was made a captain. After five years ashore he was appointed in December 1862 to HMS PYLADES for the North America station. In 1866 he was ordered home to take command of the gunnery training ship HMS EXCELLENT and the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth. After three years in the EXCELLENT he was appointed Director of Naval Ordnance. In 1874, still needing sea time to qualify for his flag, he was appointed to HMS MONARCH in the Channel fleet. In March 1876 he became a rear-admiral and from 1877 to 1879 was a lord commissioner of the Admiralty, following which he was appointed to the command of the Channel fleet. He became a vice-admiral in 1880 and in 1885 was made first sea lord, being promoted to admiral soon after. In 1889 he was placed on the retired list and resigned his seat at the Admiralty. He was raised to the peerage in 1892.