Archive of the Royal West African Frontier Force

Collection

Papers relating to the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) collected by the Oxford Development Records Project (ODRP). Correspondence, diaries, commissioned memoranda, etc., of officers serving in West Africa, 1921-1984. Including the aide-mémoires/data sheets that the ODRP sent out from c. 1977 to 1983 to record the memories and preserve the original papers of the RWAFF. They were answered with varying degrees of detail.

Dates

Creation: 1921-1983; 1992

Extent

1.2 linear metres (12 boxes)

Language of Materials

English
Hausa

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MSS. Afr. s. 1734 (7), fol. 1].

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Full range of shelfmarks:

MSS. Afr. s. 1734 (1-406)

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 4038

Additional Description

Abstract

Papers collected by the University of Oxford Development Records Project to record and preserve memories and papers of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF).

Biographical / Historical

the Oxford Development Records Project (ODRP), which set out to record the memories and preserve the original papers of British officers who had served with the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF). An aide-mémoire was sent out to the officers, which they answered with widely varying degrees of detail. They were also invited to contribute any original papers, which as reports, letters, or photographs, that they might have kept.

The officers contacted had served in the various regiments of the RWAFF, based in Nigeria, the Gambia, the Gold Coast (Ghana), and Sierra Leone. Only a few women contributed: a few wives added their reminiscences to their husbands' memoranda, and one woman (Mrs Jean Herbert, MSS. Afr. s. 1734 (195)), who was a Nursing Sister, answered in her own right.

Biographical details for 97 of the 405 contributors (education, ranks, service history) are included.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Acquired through the Oxford Colonial Development Records Project.

Separated Materials

The papers of THOMAS, Lt.-Col. I.G., which were initially included in this collection as MSS. Afr. s. 1734 (383), were transferred to the Oxford Development Records Project relating to the King's African Rifles, MSS. Afr. s. 1715 (271A).