Correspondence, articles, memoranda etc. as a member of the United Country Party in Kenya and of the Nairobi City Council. Thompson wrote frequent letters to the press, both in Kenya and England, chiefly in defence of the opinions of settlers in Kenya; copies of such letters can be found in the collection.
There are no papers in the collection relating to Thompson's work for the Railway Service (1925-1952).
Frederick Taylor Thompson was born in England in 1898. In 1925 he went to Kenya where he worked for the Railway Service for 27 years until his retirement in 1952. On retiring Thompson returned to England and became actively engaged in public service. He became the London Regional Organiser to the Voice of Kenya(a public relations organisation sponsored by the European Elected Members of the Kenya Legislative Council) and he also acted as liaison officer with the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress.
In 1954 Thompson returned to Kenya where he became a foundation member of the United Country Party under Michael Blundell; he served on the Executive Committee until the party's dissolution in January 1957. When the Convention of Associations was revived in 1958 he became a member of the Steering Committee and eventually Secretary until he finally left Kenya in 1960.
Thompson acted as a City Councillor in Nairobi and twice as an acting Alderman, he also served on the councils of the Rugby Union, the Football Association and the Hockey Union. His involvement with the Railway Service included being a foundation member of the European Staff Association and also being Honorary Secretary, later Secretary-Manager, of the Nairobi Railway Club.
Bodleian reader's ticket required.
Collection level description created by Marion Lowman, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.
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. 125 in Manuscript Collections (excluding Africana) in Rhodes House Library, Oxford, Supplement, compiled by Louis B. Frewer (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1971).
No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.
Deposited with the Oxford Colonial Records Project.
