Family Histories by Mary Isabel Smith

This material is held atBodleian Library, University of Oxford

  • Reference
    • GB 161 MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 553
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1995
  • Language of Material
    • English.
  • Physical Description
    • c103 pp.

Scope and Content

Two Family Histories by Mary Isabel Smith, chs. 7-34 dealing with her married life and travels in the Western Pacific.

Administrative / Biographical History

Mary Isabel Smith was the wife of Trafford Smith, whom she married in 1937 and with whom she travelled through the Western Pacific as well as Malta and Burma; they had two daughters.

Trafford Smith (1912-1975), civil servant and diplomat, began work in the Colonial Office in 1935 before being seconded to Fiji in 1938. He was made Assistant British Resident Commissioner, New Hebrides in 1940, served in the British Solomon Islands from the same year and in the Gilbert and Ellis Islands from 1941. He was Secretary of the Soulbury Commission on Constitutional Reform, Ceylon, 1944-1945 and Assistant Secretary, Colonial Office, 1945. He was attached to the British delegation to the United Nations, New York, for the Special General Assembly on Palestine, 1948. From 1953 to 1959 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Malta, and Acting Governor May-September 1953 and July-September 1954. He was made Assistant Under-Secretary of State, Commonwealth Office, 1959-1967 and Ambassador to Burma, 1967-1970. He was awarded a CMG and the Cross of St. John.

Access Information

Bodleian reader's ticket required.

Note

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

Other Finding Aids

The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room.

Conditions Governing Use

No reproduction or publication of papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.

Related Material

Papers of Trafford Smith, comprising letters, programmes of tours, texts of talks and printed material relating to service as an administrator in Fiji (1938-1939), and tours made of the Caribbean and Western Pacific territories as Assistant Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies - 1938-1966 (ref. MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 490); papers of Trafford Smith, relating to his tours of duty in the Western Pacific, Ceylon and Palestine, his period as Lieutenant-Governor of Malta, 1953-1959, and as Ambassador to Burma, 1967-1970 (ref. MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 530).

Subjects