Committees, Councils, and Commissions: The Beit Railway Trust, 1933-1939

File

Shelfmark: MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 284/28

Held at the Weston Library

This charitable trust was constituted under the Will of Alfred Beit, who died in 1906; a memorandum in folder 3 (item 2) gives its history and aims. Chancellor was appointed a trustee on 6 Feb 1934. At that date the other trustees were the Duke of Abercorn, Sir James McDonald, Baron Frederic d'Erlanger, Sir Alfred Beit, and Lady Beit.

Folder 1: 11 Dec 1933-Apr 1935:

spring-back file, entitled in gold on cover, 'The Beit Railway Trust /Lt. Col. Sir John Chancellor/ Private', containing correspondence and memoranda, and a printed extract from the Will of Alfred Beit giving the relevant clauses.
the letters are chiefly from H.H. Hitchcock, Secretary to the Trust. There are many annotations by Chancellor.

Volume 2: 'Report on aviation facilities in Northern and Southern Rhodesia', by Nigel Norman, technical adviser on aviation to the Trustees, 1933:

Folder 3: 6 Feb 1934-7 Mar 1939:

minutes of meetings of the Trustees, filed in reverse chronological order.
fourteen items inserted loosely: notes, accounts, and minutes, and a map of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and the adjoining territories.

Folder 4: 31 Dec 1936-23 May 1939:

balance sheets and Secretary's reports (ten items).

Folder 5 (fols. 1-35) Papers concerning the opening by Lady Beit of the Otto Beit Bridge, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), 11 Mar-26 May 1939:

correspondence between McDonald and Hitchcock about arrangements for the ceremony on 24 May, which Chancellor attended
two copies of his speech, given in Salisbury (Harare) the previous day when, on behalf of the Beit Railway Trustees, he handed over to Sir Herbert Stanley, Governor of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), the deed of gift of the bridge
eleven cuttings from the Rhodesia Herald, Bulawayo Chronicle, Cape Times, and Le Mauricien (a Mauritius paper)
a photograph of the bridge.

Dates

Creation: 1933-1939

Extent

5 folders

Language of Materials

English

Shelfmark

MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 284/28

Additional Description

Related Materials

See also MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 284/8 (2), folder 3, fols. 104-105; MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 284/5, folder 4, fols. 126-129 and 136-139; and MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 284/10, folder 1, fols. 52-53.