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Oliver L. Zangwill Personal Correspondence

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0012/MS Add.9762

Scope and Contents

The following letters were written to the young Oliver Zangwill while an undergraduate and a postgraduate researcher at King’s College, Cambridge, and a psychologist in the brain injuries unit of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Almost all are from Olive (or Olave) Fraser and Annie Patricia Rawdon-Smith , both of whom met Zangwill and fell in love with him as students at Girton College . After his wartime service in Edinburgh, Zangwill worked at the Institute of Experimental Psychology in Oxford, before returning to Cambridge as Professor of Experimental Psychology in 1952.

Dates

  • Creation: 1934 - 1943

Conditions Governing Access

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Biographical / Historical

Olive Fraser (1909-77). Scottish poet; read English at Girton 1933-36 (BA 1936); Chancellor’s Medal for English verse 1935. Although Olive was her baptismal name, in all her letters to Zangwill except the first she signed herself ‘Olave’

Born Annie Patricia Parry; married A.F. Rawdon-Smith 1934; Girton 1934-36 (left without taking a degree); career in the Civil Service 1940-51; married Richard Llewelyn-Davies 1943; stood as a Labour parliamentary candidate 1951, 1955, 1959; created a life peer 1967; a Labour whip in the House of Lords 1969-82. She was generally known as ‘Pat’, but her letters to Zangwill (with the exception of the first) are signed ‘Anne’ or a pet-name such as ‘Kitten’. It seems likely that the earliest surviving letter had been preceded by others.

Extent

0.01 cubic metre(s)

Language of Materials

English

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The letters were presented to Cambridge University Library in 2007 by Professor Zangwill’s widow, Mrs Shirley Zangwill.

Language of description
Uncoded languages
Script of description
Code for uncoded script

Repository Details

Part of the Cambridge University Library Repository

Contact:
Cambridge University Library
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Cambridge CB3 9DR United Kingdom