Royal Commonwealth Society : British Cameroons 1937-42

Dalrymple, Thomas Hardie, b 1900, doctor

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>These photographs were taken by Dr Thomas Hardie Dalrymple, whilst serving as a medical officer in Nigeria. He had earlier worked as a medical officer in Sierra Leone, 1931-1933, Nigeria, 1933-1935, and Gambia, 1935-1937. He returned to Nigeria in 1937 where he worked until his retirement in 1950.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The R.C.S. collections also hold <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20113%2F25'>Dalrymple's West African collections</a> in which he describes many of the scenes captured in these photographs, and a <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20192'>report on Banso (a district of the Cameroons)</a>, including a map, dated 1933-1934.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This collection (Y3043BB) comprises his negatives, each of which was housed in brown paper annotated with his notes. They have been transcribed as he wrote them. Two essays were also filed with the negatives: Thomas Dalrymple 'A pagan wake' - the funeral celebrations for the father of the chief of Bande held in December 1937, and M.D. Jeffreys 'West African caps', which used Dalrymple's photographs as illustrations. These now form part of <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20113%2F25'>RCMS 113/25</a></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The collections were given by Thomas Dalrymple to his colleague Dr Rex Cheverton who presented them to the R.C.S. in 1983.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Thomas Hardie Dalrymple was born in Rangoon. He was taken to Scotland at the age of 5 and educated at the private school at Bridge-of-Allan and at Glasgow University. He worked as a doctor in Welsh coal mines before joining the Colonial Medical Service on 25th March 1931. He served in Sierra Leone (1931-33), Nigeria (1933-35), Gambia (1935-37) and finally in Nigeria again (1937-1950). He retired in 1950 and remained in Nigeria, opening a private practice at Jos. He finally left Nigeria in 1961 and settled on the Isle of Man.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Dalrymple was an amateur photographer and contributed photographs to various publications.</p>