Blatch, Gledhill Stanley

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 PP MS 28
Held at	: School of Oriental and African Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full 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 & 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.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

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

Related material:

Collection of books on Ethiopia also donated to SOAS Library.

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
15 May 2000