Lord Gowrie to Lady Gowrie, c. 1907-45
- Component identifier:
- Subseries 7_1
- Content Summary:
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Correspondence from Lord Gowrie to Lady Gowrie, from approximately the time of their engagement to his death in 1955. The material varies in format, and includes cables, personal letters and affectionate notes from Gowrie ('Sandy') to his wife ('Zara'). Many were penned during his long absences on military service, and give personal descriptions of the events at the front, such as his experiences at Gallipoli. The early years of their marriage are particularly well documented, and there are letters recording their wedding and voyage to Australia in 1908 and period at Quetta Staff College from 1911 to 1914.
The files sometimes include letters from relatives and associates, which the Gowrie's filed in situ with their own letters. The placement of these has not been disturbed in sorting.
- Immediate source of acquisition:
- The papers were donated to the National Library in seven instalments: by Gowrie's grandson, the Honourable Malise Hore-Ruthven, in 1970, 1981 (two instalments), 1983, 1986 and 1993, and; in 1999 by Barbara Blanch, widow of Gowrie's biographer, John Blanch. In addition, in 1969 the Library received a collection of books acquired by Lord Gowrie, which had been housed at Australia House since 1955. Most of the volumes were presentation copies inscribed by the authors. Those books not already held were added to the Library's general book collection, whilst duplicate titles were offered to other libraries through the Clearing Centre.
- Names:
- Hore-Ruthven, Malise
Access and use
- Parent Restrictions:
- The collection is partly available for reference and partly closed. Files 1, 11, 12 and 15 in Series 6 and Folder 17 in Series 8 are subject to Royal Copyright and access restrictions, and remain closed for 60 years from the date of creation; all other papers are available for reference.
- Parent Terms of Access:
- Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
- Location of this collection:
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Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: