From description provided by donor:

- Private letters from wartime comrades.
- 1930 E.H. Griggs City and Guilds Grade 2 Electrical Engineering Practice (certificate and examination papers)
- Certificate in a roll (Gunner T) sent to HMS Badger.
- Certificate for Educational Test. June 1920. Able Seaman.
- Certificate of service C.P.O. (1930) Trade.
- Service Record.
- Re-call letter. September 1952.
- Folder – Harwich 1939-1942 Parkeston Quay.
- Folder – North Africa 1943-1944.
- Folder – Account of setting up of Bizerta Torpedo depot etc.
- Folder – Italy 1945 Mine and Bomb disposal
- Signal Card.
- Exceptional letter to daughter from Italy, 1945, plus letter to daughter Skegness, 1939.
- Book listing servicemen.

Administrative / biographical background
Edward Henry Griggs was a career sailor, born in 1897, who joined the Navy in 1920, and rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer – he was recalled to the service in 1952 during the Suez crisis. The papers cover his entire wartime service, from his work at Harwich during the early days of the war, to his hazardous posting to Algeria in 1943-1944, and an account of his journey from Algiers to Bismerta, and on into Italy, where he worked in mine disposal. This collection relates to the crucial role of the Navy in supporting the Army during their campaigns in North Africa and then Italy, and also the critical establishment on torpedo bases in Algeria in advance of the invasion of Italy. The private letters, including one to his daughter, give a real sense of the conditions involved in service, and his relations with Italian colleagues. There are also notebooks relating to his training and education in the 1920s at HMS VERNON.