Sir Gerald Kennedy Nicholas Trevaskis entered the colonial service as an administrative cadet, Northern Rhodesia in 1938. During the Second World War he enlisted with the Northern Rhodesian Regiment, was captured by Italian forces at Tug Aqan, British Somaliland in 1940, was seconded to British Military Administration, Eritrea, 1941-1948, and was made Senior Divisional Officer, Assab, 1943. After the war, he served as a member of the British delegation to the Four Power Commission of Investigation into ex-Italian Colonies, 1947-1948. He worked as District Commissioner at Ndola, Northern Rhodesia and Liaison Officer for the United Nations Commission, Eritrea, 1950. He served as Political Officer, Western Aden Protectorate, 1951, Deputy British Agent from 1952 and British Agent to Western Aden Protectorate from 1954. In 1957 he was a member of the British Delegation at the Anglo-Yemeni meeting in London. He held the post of High Commissioner for Aden and the Protectorate of South Arabia, 1963-1965. Awarded the OBE and KCMG, he published Eritrea: A Colony in Transition, 1941-52 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1960) and Shades of Amber: A South Arabian Episode (London, Hutchinson, 1968). In 1945 he married Sheila James Harrington.

• Typescript social survey of the Hamasien, Eritrea, 1944
• Notes, survey, report, etc. on Eritrea's history, inhabitants, etc., [1940s?]
• Photographs of Trevaskis and family, [1940s?]
• Papers concerning the Four Power Commission of Investigation of the Former Italian Colonies (Eritrea), 1947
• Papers concerning the appointment of the United Nations Commissioner in Eritrea, 1950
• Papers mostly concerning the accession of Aden to the Federation of South Arabia, 1962-1964
• Papers relating to the Western Aden Protectorate, including a typescript list of numbers of men in each tribe, typescript report on the country, draft estimates of revenue and expenditure, and development plan, [1955-1966]
• Official correspondence, 1954-1963
• High Commissioner's file of typescript items concerning the threat from the Yemen, counter measures and the future of Aden and the Federation

Bodleian reader's ticket required: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/admissions/.

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

A microfilm copy of the Hamasien social survey (Bodleian stock number 5411) is held by the library.

Listed as no. 24 in Manuscript Collections of Africana in Rhodes House Library Oxford (Supplement) , compiled by Louis B. Frewer (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1971). A handlist is also available in the library reading room.

Diaries, etc., and material relating to the publication of Eritrea: A Colony in Transition, 1941-1952 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1960) (ref. MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 546); letters to Dr. Rita Hinden regarding developments in Eritrea, 1945-1948 (ref. MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 365, box 180/3); diaries of Peter Davey, 1932-1947 (ref. MSS. Ind. Ocn. s. 214); letters from Eritrea, 1941-1944 (ref. MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 27, vol. 2: ff 1-140, 228-245).

Trevaskis | Gerald Kennedy Nicholas | 1915-1990 | Sir | Knight and Colonial Administrator

Eritrea | History

Aden (Yemen) | History | 20th century

Ethnology | Eritrea

Four Power Commission of Investigation for the Former Italian Colonies | Eritrea | 1947

United Nations Commission for Eritrea | 1950