Papers and photographs of Fergus Wilson

Fergus Brunswick Wilson (1908-1999) was born in Camberwell and educated at Berkhampstead School, Hertfordshire Institute of Agriculture and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He joined the Colonial Service in 1933, and was Agricultural Officer in Zanzibar and Kenya, 1933-1950. After spending the first part of World War II serving in the King's African Rifles in East Africa, Wilson was assigned to organising an emergency food production campaign in Zanzibar. He returned to England in the spring of 1950, and was sent on a two-year secondment from the Colonial Service as Lecturer in Tropical Agriculture and Land Use at Cambridge University. He was Professor of Agriculture and Dean of the Faculty at Makerere University College, Uganda, 1952-1964, during which time he developed the Department of Agriculture and the University's Kabanyoro Farm and helped to establish the department's degree course in agriculture. In 1964 he joined the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and moved to Rome, where he was Branch Chief of Agricultural Education, then Chief of the Agricultural Education, Extension and Rural Youth Service. During this time he worked with U.N.E.S.C.O. and the I.L.O. to develop agricultural education in countries throughout the world. Wilson retired in 1971 after the World Conference on Agricultural Education in Copenhagen.

A memoir and photographs of Fergus Wilson's time in East Africa, papers concerning agricultural education, material relating to Makerere University College, the Food and Agriculture Organization and other organisations, and miscellaneous items. A file of papers regarding the collection is with RCMS 162/1.

Presented by Fergus and Jennifer Wilson, 1993-2000.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Papers and photographs of Fergus Wilson, RCMS 162

MSS Addenda, vol. II. Indexed

This collection level description was created by RAS using information from the original typescript catalogue.