Papers of Sir John Pestell

Diary, 1966-1969, with introduction, 1988; notes, correspondence, press releases, newspaper cuttings, British Government acts, orders and regulations, etc., relating to the unilateral declaration of independence, 1965-1975; photographs of Sir Humphrey Gibbs, 1963-1969; post-Rhodesia papers, including letters from Sir Humphrey Gibbs, Gibbs' 1988 memoirs of life in Rhodesia before independence, obituaries, and correspondence relating to Pestell's papers, 1969-1994.

John Pestell served in the British South Africa Police 1939-1965 and as Secretary Comptroller to Sir Humphrey Gibbs, the Governor of Southern Rhodesia, 1965-1969. During this latter period the Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith declared unilateral independence. Sir Humphrey Gibbs refused to recognise the authority of the new regime and continued to occupy Government House, Salisbury in defiance of Smith's Rhodesian Front government. At the same time, Sir Humphrey and remaining staff worked to keep the channels of communication between Rhodesia and Great Britain open. After Rhodesia declared itself a republic in 1969, Pestell returned to England, where he was made a Knight Commander of the Victorian Order, and worked from 1970 to 1988 as an Immigration Appeals Adjudicator at Harmondsworth near Heathrow Airport.

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Collection level description created by Paul Davidson, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

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