Papers of Alexander Mair Wilkie

Scope and Content

Correspondence, memoranda etc. of service in Kenya, the British Solomon Islands and as British Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides.

Administrative / Biographical History

Alexander Mair Wilkie, CMG (1962), was born in Scotland on the 24 May 1917. He was educated at Hillhead High School in Glasgow, Glasgow University, and Christ's College, Cambridge.

In 1940 Wilkie joined the Colonial Administrative Service and was posted to Kenya as a Cadet. In September of the same year he was released for military service and served in the East African Forces until 1943. After military service, he returned to Kenya where he held the posts of District Officer in Kilifi (1943-1947), Clerk to the Executive and Legislative Councils (1947-1950) and Assistant Financial Secretary (1950-1953).

After a short period on secondment to the British Treasury in London (1953-1955) Wilkie returned overseas. He was appointed Development Secretary to the British Solomon Islands (1955-1957), Financial Secretary to the Western Pacific High Commission (1957-1962) and in 1962 became British Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides. Wilkie died on the 13 August 1966.

Access Information

Bodleian reader's ticket required.

Note

Collection level description created by Marion Lowman, 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 and a handlist is also available for this collection.

Listed as no. 171 and 277 in Manuscript Collections (Africana and non-Africana) in Rhodes House Library, Oxford, Supplementary accessions to the end of 1977 and Cumulative Index, compiled by Wendy S. Byrne (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1978).

Conditions Governing Use

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

Custodial History

Deposited with the Oxford Colonial Records Project in 1969.