DOWSON, Valentine Hugh Wilfred (d 1980)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Dowson
Held at	: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma ›
Full title	: DOWSON, Valentine Hugh Wilfred (d 1980)
Date(s)	: 1915-1944
Level of description	: Collection (Fonds)
Extent	: 9 boxes (0.9 cubic metres)
Name of creator(s)	: Dowson | Valentine Hugh Wilfred | Army Intelligence Officer and authority on date cultivation

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Served with 5 (Weald of Kent) Bn, The Buffs (East Kent Regt), Mesopotamia, 1915; wounded, 1915; working for Hills Brothers Company, Basra, Iraq, in the date trade, 1925-1927; emergency commission, Indian Army, 1941; acting Major, 1944.
Publications: Dates and date cultivation of Iraq (Agricultural Directorate of Mesopotamia Memoir No. 3, published Cambridge, 1921); co-editor with Albert Aten, Dates: handling, processing and packing (Food and Agriculture Organisation Agricultural Development Paper No 72, Rome, 1962)

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Bound volume of weekly intelligence reports by Valentine Hugh Wilfred Dowson, Basra, 1 Jan - 23 Dec 1944, including comment on: Iraqi politics and political appointments, propaganda, Iraqi economics, commodity prices, attitudes towards Britain, exports and supplies. Reference material relating to Iraq and the Middle East comprising: Extract from the geographical and statistical gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia (Superintendent, Government Printing, India, 1915); `Brief notes on tribes of the Tigris below Kut', Government Press, Simla, 1917; Extract from the Persian Gulf Gazetteer (Superintendent, Government Printing, India, 1917); `Administrative report, Amarah Division', 1918; `Administrative report of the Muntafiq Division', 1919; `Review of the civil administration of Mesopotamia', 1920; `Personalities: Iraq (exclusive of Baghdad and Kadhimain)', nd [c 1922]; `Military report on Mesopotamia (Iraq), area 1 (Northern Jazirah)', General Staff, British Forces in Iraq, 1922; `Military report on Iraq, area 2 (Upper Euphrates)', General Staff, British Forces in Iraq, 1922; `Military report on Mesopotamia (Iraq), area 7 (Tigris)', General Staff, British Forces in Iraq, 1923; `Military report on Mesopotamia (Iraq), area 8 (Western Kurdistan)', General Staff, British Forces in Iraq, 1923; `Personalities: Mosul, Arbil, Kirkuk, Sulaimani and frontiers. Note on Mosul Town', Government Press, Baghdad, 1923; `Military report on Arabistan', 1923; `Military report on Iraq, Chapter 3: population', Sep 1933; A gazetteer of the place names which appear in the small scale maps of Palestine and Transjordan, Departments of Lands and Surveys, Government of Palestine, nd [c 1935]; `Military report on Iraq, Vol 2 (routes)', Air Ministry, 1936; `Military report on Iraq, Vol 1 (general)', Air Ministry, 1941; `MT routes in Syria, Vol 2', GHQ Middle East Forces, Feb 1942; `MT routes in Iraq, Vols 1 and 2', GHQ PAIFORCE, 1943; `Iraq: index gazetteer', PAIFORCE, Baghdad, 1943; `Iraq and the Persian Gulf', Naval Intelligence Division, 1944. Copies of the King-Hall Newsletter, 1936-1944.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following sections: Dowson's reports; Iraq and Middle East reference material; King-Hall Newsletters

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of a letter of introduction.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archives and Corporate Records Services.

Finding aids:

Collection level description

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented to the Centre by the family in 2002

Allied Materials

Related material:

The papers of Cdr (William) Stephen (Richard) King-Hall, Baron King-Hall of Headley, include further copies of the King-Hall Newsletter

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Kate O'Brien, Oct 2003

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Oct 2003