RODD, Francis James Rennell (1895-1978)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0402 FJR
Held at	: Royal Geographical Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Collections/Collections.htm ›
Full title	: RODD, Francis James Rennell (1895-1978)
Date(s)	: 1921-1945
Level of description	: Collection level
Extent	: 9 boxes, 17 files
Name of creator(s)	: Rodd | Francis James Rennell | 1895-1978 | 2nd Baron | merchant banker and geographer

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1895; formally educated at Eton College and, for a year, at Balliol College, Oxford, which he left in Sep 1914 to join the Royal Field Artillery; served in France, 1914-1915; seconded to intelligence duties in Italy, 1916; staff officer in the Middle East and served in Libya, Sinai, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria; staff captain, Arab bureau, Damascus; joined the diplomatic service, 1919-1924; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1921-1978; journey in the southern Sahara, 1922; worked on the Stock Exchange, 1926-1929; journey in the southern Sahara, 1927; RGS's Cuthbert Peek award, 1927; RGS founder's medal, 1929; Bank of England, 1929-1932, (two years of which he was seconded to the Bank for International Settlements at Basel); merchant bank Morgan, Grenfell and Co.,1933-1967; Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1939; civil affairs administration, for the Middle East, east Africa, and Italy, 1942; President of the RGS, 1945-1948; member of the board of the British Overseas Airways Corporation, 1954-1965; RGS Honorary Member, 1971; died, 1978.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Francis Rodd, including typescript copies of journals and astronomical and hypsometric records on expeditions to Air and the southern Sahara, 1922 and 1927. Seven folders of notes and correspondence relating to the same expeditions: notes on the Sahara from authorities of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; journal of route in 1927, with geographical and meteorological notes; drawings, unused chapters of Rodd's book People of the veil; copies of rock drawings, drafts for book lectures; diary, 1927; correspondence concerning the planning and conclusion of the expedition; papers on special subjects arising out of the 1927 expedition including botanical, anthropological and archaeological; survey notes; notes on instruments and chronometer ratings and letters from Francis and Peter Rodd to their parents, May-Jun 1927.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Accessed via the Foyle Reading Room. Free of charge for Fellows, Members and those with valid academic identification. All other users pay a charge and must bring identification in order to register on arrival.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopying at the discretion of the Archivist, and subject completion of 'application for copies' form. No publication or reproduction without the permission of the RGS-IBG Archivist

Finding aids:

Detailed box list available in the Foyle Reading Room.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Probably bequeathed to the RGS by Rodd.

Allied Materials

Related material:

RGS Correspondence Files, 1921-1945, Rodd, Francis Rennell.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Prepared by an archives volunteer using existing RGS card indexing system. Revised by Sarah Drewery.
Sources: Oxford DNB.

Rules or conventions:
ISAD(G) ed. 2, name authority NRA.

Date(s) of descriptions:
26 April 2001; Jul 2008.