Lorimer, Lieutenant-Colonel David Lockhart Robertson

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 PP MS 66
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	: Lorimer, Lieutenant-Colonel David Lockhart Robertson
Date(s)	: Created c1906-1948
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 44 boxes, 27 small cigar boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Lorimer | David Lockhart Robertson | 1876-1962 | Lieutenant-Colonel | civil servant and linguist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer was born on 24 December 1876. He entered the Indian Army in 1896. From 1898 to 1903 he served with the QVO Corps of Guides, and was seconded with the Khalibar Rifles from 1901 to 1903. He entered the Indian Political Service in 1903, serving with them until 1924. His posts included HBMS Vice-Consul for Arabistan (1903-1909); Political Agent, Bahrein (1911-1912); HM Consul, Kerman and Persian Baluchistan, and ex-officio Assistant to the Political Resident, Persian Gulf (1912-1914); Assistant Political Agent, Chitral (1915); on field service with the IEFD, Mesopotamia, and Civil Governor Amara (1915-1916); HM Consul Kerman and Persian Baluchistan (1916-1917); Political Agent, Loralai, Baluchistan (1920); and Political Agent, Gilgit (1920-1924). Lorimer was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for 1933-1935. He also received an honorary fellowship of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1953.

Lorimer's publications included Syntax of Colloquial Pashtu (1915); Persian Tales (1919); The Phonology of the Bakhtiari, Badakshani, and Madaglashti Dialects of Modern Persian (1922); The Burushaski Language, volumes I and II (1935), and volume III (1938); The Dumaki Language (1939); The Wakhi Language (1958).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Lt-Col David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer, c1906-1948, comprising linguistic papers relating to his work on Burushaski, Khowar, Shina, Bakhtiari, Kermani Persian, and Gabri; photographs and 22 reels of cinefilm of a field trip to the Hunza Valley (north west Pakistan), 1934-1935; other photographs and glass plate negatives, including Persia, among them images of people, buildings and places; Hunza rock and seed samples.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English, also Burushaski, Khowar, Shina, Bakhtiari, Kermani Persian, and Gabri

System of arrangement:

The bulk of the material has been arranged into groups according to dialect/language.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted. The cinefilms are not for consultation: readers should view the VHS copies.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Formerly MS 181247.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Bequeathed to SOAS in 1962.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies Library (Art and Archaeology section) holds Lorimer material, comprising c400 3/4-inch slides, mainly of Hunza in Kashmir and Iran in the 1920s and 1930s. A catalogue of the collection, Annotations to the late Col David L R Lorimer's list of captions in his catalogue of slides for Hunza in the 1920s and 1930s, prepared by Julie Flowerday, is available from the Art and Archaeology section.

The British Library, Oriental and India Office Collections, holds family correspondence, 1919-1933 (Ref: MSS Eur F 177), and correspondence and papers, 1921-1957 (Ref: MSS Eur D 1168).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Revised by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
15 May 2000, revised Jan 2002