Bovill, Edward William

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 MS 282539
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	: Bovill, Edward William
Date(s)	: (c1800-1829), 1963-1971
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 4 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Bovill | Edward William | 1892-1966 | historian

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Edward William Bovill was born on 25 December 1892. He was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, and served in the First World War with the 10th Royal Hussars and the W.A.F.F. He was Director of Matheson & Co. Ltd. from 1936-1945 and Chairman of R.C. Treat & Co. Ltd. from 1942-1961. He was a medallist at the Royal Society of Arts in 1935 and became Vice-President of the Hakluyt Society in 1964. Between 1962 and 1966 he researched and wrote the four volume Missions to the Niger (published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press). He died on 19 December 1966.

Other publications included Caravans of the Old Sahara, 1930; East African Agriculture, 1950; The Battle of Alcazar, 1952; The Golden Trade of the Moors, 1958; The England of Nimrod and Surtees, 1959; English Country Life, 1780-1830, 1962; The Bornu Mission (ed.), 1965.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1963-1971 and undated, of and relating to Edward William Bovill, comprising notebooks and files and research material for the book Missions to the Niger, Vols I-IV (Hakluyt Society, 1962-1966). The papers are mainly xerox copies of correspondence in the Public Record Office relating to the explorations of Friedrich Hornemann, Mungo Park, Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton, Alexander Gordon Laing and Walter Oudney in Africa during the period c1800-1829. There are also several notebooks, which contain notes of the progress of Bovill's work.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The papers have been arranged into: notebooks; files of xeroxed materials; and correspondence relating to Bovill's papers. The original number of the files appears in square brackets at the end of each entry.

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Unpublished handlist.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:

Donated through the Royal Geographic Society in 1973.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies Library holds E W Bovill's Missions to the Niger, Vols 1-4 (Hakluyt Society, 1962-1966).

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