BLACKLEY, Brig Travers Robert (1899-1982)

Scope and Content

Texts of lectures and related letters on military government in Tripolitania, Eritrea and Ethiopia, given at the School of Military Government, University of Virginia, 1943; papers relating to the 50th Annual and 2nd War Conference, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Detroit, 9-11 Aug 1943, including lecture notes on military government in Tripolitania; lecture notes dated 1943 relating to pre-World War Two administration in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Copy out-letter book kept by Blackley as Area Intelligence Officer, 5 Indian Division, Ethiopia, 1941.

Administrative / Biographical History

Born in Cavan, Ireland in 1899; educated at Charterhouse School, 1912-1917 and Worcester College, Oxford University, 1919-1922. Served during World War One in the Royal Artillery, and joined the Sudan Political Service as Assistant District Commissioner in 1922; promoted to District Commissioner in 1932 and Deputy Governor in 1940; Lt Col, 1940-1914; active service with the Sudan Defence Force in 1940 and in invasion of Eritrea, Jan 1941; appointed Secretary to the Occupied Territory Administration in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1941 and promoted Deputy Chief Political Officer, Ethiopia, 1942; Col, 1942; Brig, 1943; accompanied 8 Army, 51 Division during the invasion of Tripolitania and was appointed Senior Civil Affairs Officer, Central Province, Tripolitania; Chief Administrator in Tripolitania, 1943-1951, and appointed British Resident, 1951; died in 1982.

Arrangement

The papers are arranged chronologically in sections according to lectures on military government given in Virginia and at the conference in Detroit. The lecture notes relating to service in Sudan are grouped separately, as is the out-letter book which was deposited in 1993.

Access Information

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Acquisition Information

Placed in the Centre by the family in 1990 and 1993.

Other Finding Aids

Summary guide available on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

Conditions Governing Use

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.