Papers of Major Robert R. Keal, MBE

Mss. autobiographical notes, History of Major R. Keal MBE 1916-1976, with related letters, telegrams, reports, photographs, maps, printed material, etc., arranged as follows

• Autobiographical notes, Somalia bibliography and personal name index to all files
• School; East Riding Constabulary, [1928]-1942
• Coldstream Guards, 1935-1940; Sandhurst, 1940
• 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 1940-1941; Somaliland Gendarmerie, [1940s]
• Somalia, 1942-1945, 1947-1948
• Ogaden disarmament, Somalia, 1944-1945
• Situation reports and operational signals of Ogaden disarmament operations, [c1945]
• Leave, demobilisation, Somali social life, reunions and related personal correspondence 1941-1956
• Civil Affairs Staff Centre (No. 6 Far East Course), 1945-1946; Singapore, 1945-1946; British North Borneo, 1946; Staff Captain P.A. Mid West District, U.K., 1946-1947
• Photocopies of testimonials issued 1935-1976
• Printed materials on British administration of Somalia, [1940s]; various military gazettes, pamphlets, periodicals, handouts, newspapers and maps, also box of films, 20th century

Major Robert R. Keal (b 1916), MBE (1946) matriculated from the Municipal Technical College, Hull in 1935 and joined the Coldstream Guards, 1935-1939, with a brief period in the East Riding Constabulary, 1939. A further period at Sandhurst, 1940 was followed by a commission in the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, 1940-1941. He served in the Somaliland Gendarmerie, Italian Somaliland, 1941-1945. He held a civil position in British North Borneo as part of the East Yorkshire Regiment, 1946, serving for part of that period as shipping officer. He returned to Britain in the same year as part of the 6th Infantry Holding Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, was posted as Staff Captain P.A., Headquarters, Mid West District, Shrewsbury, 1946-1947, then served again in the Somalia Gendarmerie till his demobilisation in 1948. In the same year he joined Ruddock & Sons, beer bottlers and wine and spirit merchants of Hull as Sales Manager. He held the same position at J. Peters Ltd., Hull, Carlsberg Lager importers (later Carlsberg Sales Ltd., Goole) from 1956 till his retirement in 1976. In 1949 he married Brenda Mary Hall, with whom he had one son and one daughter.

Listed as no. 920 (151) in Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford, Accessions 1978-1994 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996).