IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0102 MS 380451
Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies
Title: Alabaster, Sir Chaloner
Date(s): Created 1845-1898
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1 box
Name of creator(s): Alabaster | Sir | Chaloner Grenville | 1838-1898 | Knight | Consul-General at Canton
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Chaloner Alabaster was born in 1838 at Barcombe in Bournemouth, and educated at King's College, London. In 1855 he was appointed student interpreter in China and served through the Opium wars and the Taiping Rebellion. He was Vice-Consul at Shanghai (1869-1873), and went on to become Consul General at Hankow (Wuhan) (1880-1886) and Canton (1886-1891). In 1892, the year of his retirement, he was knighted. He died in 1898. Sir Chaloner Alabaster was married in 1875, to Laura, daughter of Dr. D. J. MacGowan of New York.
His elder brother was a member of the China Consular Service from 1856 and his son became Attorney General in Hong Kong.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers, 1845-1898, of Sir Chaloner Alabaster, including nine diaries, 1854-1875, which give accounts of his time in China. The later diaries are incomplete and contain far less detail than earlier volumes. Additional material, 1868-1898, includes papers and correspondence detailing his military service, accounts, obituaries and copies of 'A Chapter from the Chinese Gospel', by Alabaster, from Occasional Papers on Chinese Philosophy.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The diaries and additional material are arranged in chronological order.
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Unpublished handlist.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:
Donated in 1987.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
Material used in P D Coates, The China Consuls (OUP, 1988).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: 15 May 2000