Papers of Sir Percy Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke

Scope and Content

  • Correspondence and papers relating mostly to Hong Kong and the Seychelles, 1929-1950
  • Correspondence, press cuttings and printed material, 1929-1972
  • Speeches and certificates, 1921-1972
  • Typescript of memoirs, [?1970s]
  • Photographs, including Malaya and Hong Kong, 20th century
  • Cassettes and taperecording, mostly of lectures, 20th century
  • Printed material, 1921-1975

Administrative / Biographical History

Sir Percy Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke (1893-1976), medical official and colonial officer, joined the Medical Service after the First World War and was postedto the Gold Coast. There he served successively as Medical Officer of Health, 1919-1923,Senior Health Officer, 1924-1928 and Assistant Director of Health, 1929. In 1930he was posted to Malaya as Chief Health Officer. In 1932 he returned to theGold Coast as Assistant Director of Medical Services as well as Director ofthe Gold Coast Central Council Branch of the British Red Cross Society. In 1933he was promoted to Deputy Director of the Gold Coast Health Service. Afterthree years he moved to Nigeria, where he held the same post. In 1937 hebecame Director of Medical Services in Hong Kong, where he was later imprisonedand tortured by the Japanese during the Second World War. After leaving HongKong, he was made Governor of the Seychelles, where he remained for three yearstill his retirement in 1951. After his retirement, he remained actively involvedin the field of medicine, becoming Principal Medical Officer at the Ministryof Health, 1951-1956 and Medical Secretary to the Society of Medical Officersof Health, 1956-1961. He was in charge of the medical care of the King's Troopof the Royal Horse Artillery, 1962-1969 and in 1969 he became a prison visitor.He was awarded the CMG and KBE. In 1935 he married Hilda Browning, with whom hehad one daughter.

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

Listed as no. 613 in Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford,Accessions 1978-1994 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996). A handlist is also available in the library reading room.

Conditions Governing Use

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

Related Material

  • Photographs relating to medical service in the Gold Coast and Hong Kong, withan atlas of the Gold Coast, 1915-1945 (ref. MSS. Brit. Emp. t. 4)
  • Under the Japanese, a talk given to the annual dinnerof the Isle of Wight division of the British Medical Association about hisexperiences of wartime internment in Hong Kong, c1946 (ref. MSS. Ind. Ocn. s. 318)
  • Personal letters to Hilda Selwyn-Clarke in the papers of the Fabian Colonial Bureau, [20th century], held by the library