The papers consist of official service documents; a log, 1860 to 1866; a personal notebook, 1867 to 1869; an order book, 1873 to 1878; five out-letterbooks, 1889 to 1896, and accounts, estimates, memoranda, plans, personnel lists and proposed social reforms for Devonport Dockyard; also for this period, 1902 to 1905, are two out-letterbooks to the Admiralty. Among Henderson's letters received, dating from his schooldays to his death, are copies of those from Lloyd George, written during the First World War. Finally there are scrapbooks, photograph albums and news cuttings, 1847 to 1931, and proofs of his articles, including those published in the Naval Review between 1917 and 1924 entitled 'Admiralty and Command of the Sea'. In the Royal United Service Institution collection, now in this Museum, are some of Henderson's watch bills, a notebook, 1870 to 1880, and an order book for the (Conquest, 1889 to 1891.

Administrative / biographical background
Henderson entered the Navy in 1859, served on the North America and West Indies Station, 1860 to 1864, in the Nile and the Styx and then joined the Channel Squadron in the Prince Consort. He became a lieutenant in 1866 and was at Portsmouth in the Crocodile from 1867 until he took part in the voyage round the world of the Flying Squadron in the Liverpool, flagship of Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby (q.v.). From 1872 to 1875 he was in the Peterel, Pacific Station, in the Eclipse in 1877 on the North America and West Indies Station, and was on 'particular service' in the Hydra, 1878. He was promoted to commander in 1879 and to captain in 1886, after having been in Australia for four years, 1881 to 1885. Going to the East Indies in command of the Conquest, 1889 to 1892, Henderson was in the Naval Brigade under Sir Edmund Fremantle (q.v.) in the punitive expedition against the Sultan of Vitu, 1890. He then went out to the Mediterranean and later to China in the Edgar, 1894 to 1896, when he returned to Devonport to command the Fleet Reserve. From 1898 to 1900 he was Commodore and Naval Officer in command at Jamaica and was Admiral Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard, 1902 to 1906. At the end of this appointment he retired and occupied himself with voluntary work such as his service for the Metropolitan Asylums Board, 1909 to 1921. Always much interested in the professional education of naval officers, in 1913 he was one of those who founded the Naval Review, which he edited for several years.