|
|
Recollections of the Colonial Service in West Africa
| Title |
Recollections of the Colonial Service in West Africa |
| Reference |
GBR/0115/RCMS 317 |
| Creator |
Sly, John Michael Alfred, b 1931, agronomist |
| Covering Dates |
2000–2003 |
| Extent and Medium |
1 box; disk/paper/photograph; Wordprocessed |
| Repository |
Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library |
|
| Content and context |
|
John Michael Alfred Sly was born on 22 March 1931. He attended the Colonial Service Course at Cambridge University, October 1953 - July 1954, and the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, September 1954 - July 1955. Thereafter, he worked as an agronomist for the West African Institute for Oil Palm Research, 1955-1966, from which he retired as Deputy Director. Sly's work took him to places throughout Nigeria and to other countries in West Africa. He became a biometrician at M.A.F.F. Plant Pathology Laboratory, Hatching Green, Harpenden, in 1966, where he was leader of the Pesticides Survey Group, designing surveys of the use of pesticides in agriculture and analysing the results. He took early retirement in 1986.
John Sly's father, Alfred Gordon Edward Sly (1897-1974), was born on 25 January 1897. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School, Southampton, 1909-1912, and became an engraver with the Ordnance Survey. He joined the Territorial Army in 1914, then enlisted in the 5th Hampshire Regiment. Sly spent the war in India, Palestine and Egypt before rejoining the Ordnance Survey at Southampton in 1919. In 1920 he joined the Colonial Service as a surveyor in the Land and Survey Department of the Gambia, where his main task was marking out the international boundary with Senegal. He married Doris Evelyn Millard (1900-1999) in 1924, and was transferred to Nigeria in 1927. He was forced to retire after his post was removed in 1931, and lived in West Norwood until he rejoined the Ordnance Survey as a draughtsman in 1934. Sly worked at Southampton before moving to Chessington in 1943, and was promoted successively before retiring in 1964. During the Second World War he was a Fire Officer at the Ordnance Survey, and was trained to work with poison gas. He died on 17 August 1974.
Photographs and memoirs of J.M.A. Sly's training and employment in the Colonial Service in West Africa and a record of his father's time in the service.
Presented by J.M.A. Sly, 2003.
|
Access and Use
|
Please cite as Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Recollections of the Colonial Service in West Africa, RCMS 317 |
| Further information |
|
Indexed
This collection level description was created by RAS.
Rhodes House Library, Oxford, holds another copy of RCMS 317/1a and 317/2a. J.M.A. Sly presented copies of the photographs in RCMS 317/1 to the Gambian National Museum.
|
| Index Terms |
| Africa |
| Gambia |
| Nigeria |
| Sly, Alfred Gordon Edward (1897-1974) surveyor |
| Sly, John Michael Alfred (b 1931) agronomist |
| RCS/RCMS 317 contains: |
|
1a
|
A West African record: The Gambia and Nigeria, 1920-1931. A collection of around 230 labelled photographs and maps relating to A.G.E. Sly's eleven years in the Colonial Service, compiled by J.M.A. Sly from his father's photograph album. Each section begins with the relevent year from the Colonial Office List for the Gambia, 1920-1931, and includes memories and references to Sly's colleagues. The postscript includes a biography of Sly and an obituary of his wife Doris. These are followed by indexes of people and places. There is a foreword by A.G.E. Sly explaining the background to the document.
1 volume (179 pages); paper/photograph. |
2000 |
|
1b
|
A West African record: The Gambia and Nigeria, 1920-1931. A collection of around 230 labelled photographs and maps relating to A.G.E. Sly's eleven years in the Colonial Service, compiled by J.M.A. Sly from his father's photograph album. Each section begins with the relevent year from the Colonial Office List for the Gambia, 1920-1931, and includes memories and references to Sly's colleagues. The postscript includes a biography of Sly and an obituary of his wife Doris. These are followed by indexes of people and places. There is an introduction by A.G.E. Sly explaining the background to the document.
1 disk; disk. |
Nov. 2003 |
|
2a
|
A pictorial record of life in the Colonial Service in West Africa, 1953-1966. A collection of nearly 900 labelled photographs and maps compiled by J.M.A. Sly, relating to his years on Colonial Service Courses and in the Colonial Service in West Africa. The text lists events month by month. It is mostly concerned with southern Nigeria, but also covers tours to the Cameroons, Dahomey, Togoland, Ghana, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. There are indexes of persons, places and events, animals and plants. There is an introduction by A.G.E. Sly explaining the background to the document.
2 volumes (384 pages); paper/photograph. |
2001 |
|
2b
|
A pictorial record of life in the Colonial Service in West Africa, 1953-1966. A collection of nearly 900 labelled photographs and maps compiled by J.M.A. Sly, relating to his years on Colonial Service Courses and in the Colonial Service in West Africa. The text lists events month by month. It is mostly concerned with southern Nigeria, but also covers tours to the Cameroons, Dahomey, Togoland, Ghana, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. There are indexes of persons, places and events, animals and plants. There is an introduction by A.G.E. Sly explaining the background to the document.
1 disk; disk. |
Mar. 2001 |
|
3a
|
Colonial Office probationers: Cambridge 1954-54 & Trinidad 1954-55. The volume consists of two sections: 'Illustrated memories' by J.M.A. Sly, with contributions from K.M. Harris and M.H.D.F. Fyfe, a collection of around 260 photographs taken by Sly and his colleagues relating to their years in Cambridge and Trinidad, including memories of events; and 'What happened to them all', a collection edited by A.J. Pritchard of what happened to the nearly 40 expatriates who attended the courses, with most of the contributions written by the persons concerned. There is a foreword by A.G.E. Sly explaining the background to the document.
1 volume (130 pages); paper/photograph. |
Nov. 2003 |
|
3b
|
Colonial Office probationers: Cambridge 1954-54 & Trinidad 1954-55. The contents of the disk are divided into two sections: 'Illustrated memories' by J.M.A. Sly, with contributions from K.M. Harris and M.H.D.F. Fyfe, a collection of around 260 photographs taken by Sly and his colleagues relating to their years in Cambridge and Trinidad, including memories of events; and 'What happened to them all', a collection edited by A.J. Pritchard of what happened to the nearly 40 expatriates who attended the courses, with most of the contributions written by the persons concerned. There is a foreword by A.G.E. Sly explaining the background to the document.
1 disk; disk. |
Nov. 2003 |
|
![[Home]](/images/logo.gif){kind=logo}
