IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0102 PP MS 28
Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies
Title: Blatch, Gledhill Stanley
Date(s): Created 1927-1986
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 13 boxes
Name of creator(s): Blatch | Gledhill Stanley | 1916-1987 | archaeologist
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Gledhill Stanley Blatch was born in 1916. He worked for Unilever in the cocoa trade on the Gold Coast between 1937-1938, and then during World War II served the British Government as an intelligence officer. He remained in Germany after the War, attached to the British Forces, until his retirement in 1979. He died in 1987.
From the early 1960s, Gledhill Blatch developed an active interest in Ethiopian affairs, visiting Eritrea regularly before the fighting became too intense and his own health began to fail. His original interest was in the history and archaeology of the country, but as his knowledge and circle of acquaintances grew, he developed an interest in its socio-political affairs.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers, 1927-1986, of Gledhill Stanley Blatch, comprising correspondence, press cuttings, reports and political propaganda material collected by him. The material relates largely to the Ethiopian situation in the 1970s and 1980s and covers topics such as the famine and refugee situation, questions of religious discrimination and the Mengistu regime.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English and German
System of arrangement:
The collection is divided into 5 main sections: personal correspondence; Ethiopia; Somalia; Sudan; miscellaneous. Within each section, material has been arranged chronologically. The Ethiopian material, comprising the bulk of the collection, has been further sub-divided into Ethiopian history and socio-political.
Conditions governing access:
Unrestricted.
Conditions governing reproduction:
No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Unpublished handlist.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The material was bequeathed to the School by Gledhill Blatch, and deposited following his death in 1987.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Collection of books on Ethiopia also donated to SOAS Library.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: 15 May 2000