The collection includes nine of Alabaster's diaries (1854-1875), which give accounts of his time in China. The later diaries are incomplete and contain far less detail than earlier volumes. Additional material (1868-1898) includes papers and correspondence detailing his military service, accounts, obituaries and copies of A Chapter from the Chinese Gospel , by Alabaster, from Occasional papers on Chinese Philosophy . Material used in The China Consuls , P. D. Coates, OUP, 1988.
Diaries of Sir Chaloner Alabaster
This material is held atSchool of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Archives, University of London
- Reference
- GB 102 MS 380451
- Dates of Creation
- 1854-1898
- Name of Creator
- Language of Material
- English
- Physical Description
- 1 box
Scope and Content
Administrative / Biographical History
Chaloner Alabaster was born in 1838 at Barcombe in Bournemouth, and educated at King's College, London. In 1855 he was appointed student interpreter in China and served through the Opium wars and the Taiping Rebellion. He was Vice-Consul at Shanghai (1869-1873), and went on to become Consul General at Hankow (Wuhan) (1880-1886) and Canton (1886-1891). In 1892, the year of his retirement, he was knighted. He died in 1898. Sir Chaloner Alabaster was married in 1875, to Laura, daughter of Dr. D. J. MacGowan of New York. His elder brother was a member of the China Consular Service from 1856 and his son became Attorney General in Hong Kong.
Arrangement
The diaries and additional material are arranged in chronological order.
Access Information
Open
Acquisition Information
Donated in 1987. The material was presented by Dr. C. A. Curwen, Lecturer in the History of the Far East at the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1987.
Other Finding Aids
Unpublished handlist
Conditions Governing Use
For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance