Correspondence of Sir John Robert Chancellor

This material is held atBodleian Library, University of Oxford

  • Reference
    • GB 161 MSS.Brit.Emp.s.562
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1909-1929
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
    • English.
  • Physical Description
    • 37 items (107 ff.)

Scope and Content

37 letters written by, or to, Sir John Chancellor, including letters about India, Mauritius, Palestine, Cyprus and South Africa.

Administrative / Biographical History

Sir John Robert Chancellor was born in 1870 and educated at Blair Lodge Academy, Polmont and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1890 and served in India with the Dongola (1896) and Tirah (1897-1898) expeditions before returning to England and entering the Staff College. In 1904 he was appointed Assistant Military Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence and from 1906-1911 served as Secretary of the Colonial Defence Committee. Chancellor went on to serve as Governor of Mauritius (1911-1916), Governor of Trinidad and Tobago (1916-1921) and Governor of Southern Rhodesia (1923-1928) before serving as High Commissioner for Palestine and Trans-Jordan (1928-1931).

Chancellor was awarded the DSO (1898), CMG (1909), KCMG (1913), GCMG (1922), GCVO (1925) and GBE (1947). He died on the 31 July 1952 at the family estate in Shieldhill, Lanarkshire.

Access Information

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Note

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

Administrative/Biographical History compiled with reference to the Dictionary of National Biography (1951-1960).

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