1948 Nov 16
Typed memorandum by Robin Hodgkin, on “the initiation of the Dueim Literacy Campaign”, for the Director of Education [C.W. Williams], Khartoum. Details the preparation carried out by Shaykh Mahjub Abasher, Awad Effendi Satti and Shaykh Babikr, and the cooperation of the Boys Club. Describes the 'Halagas' or literary circles and administrative problems encountered.

[n.d.]
Rough typescript estimates of budgets for a boarding elementary school and a day school. Details covered include staff required, salaries, costs of transport, building maintenance, light and water, furniture and repairs.

1953 Jul 29 – 1955 Dec 6
File of correspondence chiefly relating to the running of Bakht er Ruda, the staffing of the school, the appointment of Robin Hodgkin's successor as Principal, and a number of letters of testimonial by Robin Hodgkin on behalf of staff seeking jobs in England and Nigeria in the wake of Sudanese independence. Some letters, especially from V.S. 'Taffy' Griffiths and Basil [B.W. Lee, Deputy Director of Education] contain more personal information. Includes a letter from Muhammad al-Arabi on the staff and running of the school at Dilling (SAD.896/11/5-7); Robin Hodgkin to Awad Effendi Satti on a recent visit of the Minister for Education to Bakht er Ruda (SAD.896/11/12-13); and Robin Hodgkin to T. Shillingford, Education Department, Kaduna, Nigeria, about staff leaving Sudan who may seek work in Nigeria (SAD.896/11/39); certificate of service with the Sudan Government in respect of Robin Hodgkin (SAD.896/11/40)

1969 Jul 4
Minutes of the annual general meeting of the Sudan Government British Pensioners' Association held in St. Andrew's Hall, Park Place, St. James's, London. Includes a report by the Chairman, Sir William Luce, on recent delays in the payment of pensions and on a visit to Sudan in February; and a report by Sir Angus Gillan, Chairman of the Trustees, on the finances of the Society.

1969 Jul 28
Circular letter from the Chairman of the Sudan Government British Pensioner's Association concerning the financial difficulties of the Association

1939 Nov 18 – 1940 Dec 26
Letters home from Robin Hodgkin in the Sudan to family, chiefly his mother (Mrs Mary Smith), arranged by Robin Hodgkin in 1995, with interleaved notes entitled “A teacher in the Sudan: wartime letters”, supplying brief biographical details and explanatory material. The letters cover a wide variety of subjects, including Robin Hodgkin's first days in Sudan, the impact of the Second World War, his work and personal life throughout the period, as well as treks, school-trips and excursions taken around the Sudan. Includes descriptions of Gordon College (SAD.896/13/4); an annual tribal gathering of the Hadanduwah in Kassala Province (SAD.896/13/6-8); visit to Suakin (SAD.896/13/9); excursions with Jean Pierre Greenlaw and others to Sabaloka (SAD.896/13/20,22); work as temporary ADC in Western Kordofan (SAD.896/13/30-33,38-43); trip to Darfur including a walk over Jabal Marra (SAD.896/13/34-37); the move to new college buildings in Omdurman (SAD.896/13/44-45); air-raids over Khartoum (SAD.896/13/46); photograph from a magazine of Jabal Kassala, taken from the town (SAD.896/13/49)

1941 Mar 11 – 1945 Nov 23
Continuation of letters home from Robin Hodgkin, mainly to his mother arranged by Robin Hodgkin in 1995, with interleaved notes. Content is chiefly personal, with details of social excursions, and some observations on his work and on news of the war, including period of leave in Kenya and Uganda, spent climbing (SAD.896/14/4-8); period of leave in Erkowit (SAD.896/14/11-12); further spell of duty in western Kordofan (SAD.896/14/13-20); opening of El Obeid town council (SAD.896/14/15-16); relations between Political Service and Education staff (SAD.896/14/22); writing “The Sudan town and the future” [q.v. SAD.904/5/7-14 below] (SAD.896/14/23-24); meeting to plan a geography syllabus (SAD.896/14/25); reports of the Erkowit Study Camps (SAD.896/14/27,29,31); account of the Sudan Cotton Syndicate and work for a sub-committee of Omdurman Town Council (SAD.896/14/30); exploring Meroitic ruins at Sabaloka (SAD.896/14/32); description of Bakht er Ruda and Umm Gerr alternative scheme, and plans for a publications bureau (SAD.896/14/33-35); discussions with Albert Hourani (SAD.896/14/36); the death of Douglas Newbold (SAD.896/14/38); conference to discuss the reorganisation of post-primary education (SAD.896/14/40-41); visit to Sayyid `Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi on Aba Island (SAD.896/13/52); locust control work near Shendi (SAD.896/14/43-55); Sudanese opinion with regard to the future of the Sudan (SAD.896/14/50)

1946 Jan 9 – Dec 17
Letters home from Robin Hodgkin, mainly to his mother. Includes descriptions of a journey by air to Egypt and back (SAD.904/1/1); his work on publications with Jean Pierre Greenlaw (SAD.904/1/3); a discussion at the Public Relations Advisory Committee on “the unofficial colour-bar which maintains at many official functions” (SAD.904/1/5); student demonstrations at Gordon College (SAD.904/1/8); the Erkowit study camp (SAD.904/1/9-10); discussion with students on Sudanisation (SAD.904/1/11); views on a Congress party delegation to Cairo (SAD.904/1/13); several letters written while in England on leave (SAD.904/1/15-21); work preparing magazines and pamphlets (SAD.904/1/23,25); a letter with a sketch map by Robin Hodgkin of Bakht er Ruda school (SAD.904/1/24); reaction to the Bevin-Sidki talks (SAD.904/1/25); production of the first edition of El Sibyan magazine (SAD.904/1/28-29).

1947 Jan 2 – 1948 May 4
Letters home from Robin Hodgkin, mainly to his mother, with some letters from Elizabeth Hodgkin (née Hodgson). Covers the period of Robin Hodgkin's and Elizabeth's engagement and wedding, and these letters are more personal and less concerned with work-related matters than the earlier files. Includes reflections on Jungian psychology and Eastern philosophy (SAD.904/2/1,3); descriptions of the problem of newsprint supply for El Sibyan (SAD.904/2/2); accident in the Alps when two of his climbing companions were killed (SAD.904/2/6); Elizabeth, from the Girls' Training College, Omdurman re preparations for the wedding and personal contacts with Sudanese (SAD.904/2/18-20); news of the wedding, enclosing a copy of the Order of the Marriage Service (SAD.904/2/23-24); honeymoon in Suakin (SAD.904/2/25-26); early married days in their house at Omdurman (SAD.904/2/27-31); inspection trip by Elizabeth to Berber and Atbara (SAD.904/2/32-34); trip to Rufa'a, Hantoub and Wad Medani (SAD.904/2/40); the railway strike in Atbara and production of the first issue of El Nur (SAD.904/2/44); and a tea party for the Sudanese teachers (SAD.904/2/46-47).

1949 Feb 19 – 1954 Jan 8
Letters home from Elizabeth and Robin Hodgkin to his mother. Coverage is sparser for this period; there are no letters at all from 1950. Includes a description of an inspection visit to Dilling Training Section (SAD.904/3/1); reports on the progress of their children Adam, Christopher and Catherine (passim); rock paintings at Jebel Arashkol (SAD.904/3/10); a visit from Herington from Nigeria, advising about rural education and trip to the Gezira including a description of Henry Wellcome's boulder house at Jabal Moya (SAD.904/3/12); Robin Hodgkin's visit to Nigeria to visit teacher training centres and other schools (SAD.904/3/14); Robin Hodgkin's garden hut burnt down by lightning, with loss of Bakht er Ruda files and papers (SAD.904/3/15); humorous poem by Robin Hodgkin entitled “Lament for a boat, named by lottery” (SAD.904/3/18)

1934 Apr 17 – 1985 Mar 27
Assorted personal and family letters:

1942 Nov
“Sudan towns and the future. (A brief study in local geography)” : corrected typescript of an article by Robin Hodgkin on Sudanese towns, with a note written 1987 to the effect that the paper was written for the Omdurman Graduates' Club, with a shortened version submitted to The Sudan Star. Outlines the general population and distribution, the growth of the large central cities, the need for planned development of the small country towns, and the progress of local government within towns

[ca. 1950s]
“Draft for part of Sudan broadcast” by Robin Hodgkin: a short account of his feelings after Sudanese independence

1954
Typescript article by Robin Hodgkin entitled “From dependence to independence”, written at Bakht er Ruda, with related note by Robin Hodgkin in 1988. Treats in a general manner the effects of colonialism on the Sudanese people, and the nature of the emerging society of independent Sudan. Possibly printed in the Quaker magazine Friends Quarterly.

[1993 Jun - Nov]
Typescript article by Robin Hodgkin entitled “A national curriculum for the Northern Sudan: the attempt by British and Sudanese teachers at Bakht er Ruda to reform education in the years before independence”. A reflective piece on education in the last years of the Condominium, covering the background to reform, book-production by the Publications Bureau in the 1940s, and efforts to spread the reforms, with an evaluation of the successes and weaknesses of the move to reform.

1986 Oct
Article by Robin Hodgkin entitled “A memory of Jamal Mohammed Ahmed and the early days of the Sudan's Publications Bureau”. A brief memoir of the years from 1946, covering the foundation of the Publications Bureau (an offshoot of the Bakht er Ruda school) and the publication of El Sibyan magazine, with a character sketch of Jamal, who died in 1986. Prepared at the request of Sirr el Khatim Abdel Karim (formerly an artist at the Publications Bureau) for an intended publication.

[ca. 1944 Sep – Nov]
Selected prints taken from an album of b/w photographs which is still in the possession of the Hodgkin family. Photographs are arranged here in the same order as in the album. Caption information supplemented by Robin Hodgkin in interview with L. Forbes.

1994
Photocopy of original photograph album SAD.899/6/1-80 above, showing the position of the photographs

1944 Dec – late 1946
Selected prints taken from an album of photographs which is still in the possession of the Hodgkin family. Photographs are arranged here in the same order as in the album. Caption information supplemented by Robin Hodgkin in interview with L. Forbes.

1994
Photocopy of original photograph album SAD.899/7/1-118 above, showing the position of the photographs

[ca. 1945]
Selected prints taken from an album of photographs which is still in the possession of the Hodgkin family. Photographs are arranged here in the same order as in the album. Caption information supplemented by Robin Hodgkin in interview with L. Forbes.

1994
Photocopy of original photograph album SAD.900/1/1-138 above, showing the position of the photographs

[ca. 1946-1948]
Selected prints taken from an album of photographs which is still in the possession of the Hodgkin family. Photographs are arranged here in the same order as in the album. Caption information supplemented by Robin Hodgkin in interview with L. Forbes.

1994
Photocopy of original photograph album SAD.900/2/1-95 above, showing the position of the photographs

[ca. 1947]
Selected prints taken from an album of photographs which is still in the possession of the Hodgkin family. Photographs are arranged here in the same order as in the album. Caption information supplemented by Robin Hodgkin in interview with L. Forbes.

1994
Photocopy of original photograph album SAD.900/3/1-28 above, showing the position of the photographs

[ca. 1947-1952]
Selected prints taken from an album of photographs which is still in the possession of the Hodgkin family. Photographs are arranged here in the same order as in the album. Caption information supplemented by Robin Hodgkin in interview with L. Forbes.

1994
Photocopy of original photograph album SAD.900/4/1-34 above, showing the position of the photographs

1994
Rough notes on the contents of the photograph albums above, and on some of the museum objects, taken by Lesley Forbes in conversation with Robin and Elizabeth Hodgkin

[1947?]
Loose b/w photograph of a boy reading the Sibyan, taken at Umm Gir Agriculture Show

[ca. 1946-1947]
Large mounted b/w photograph of the Publication Bureau staff, L. to R. seated: Babikr (?), unnamed, Awad Satti, Robin Hodgkin, Beshir Muhammad Ahmad, Jamal Muhammad Ahmad and standing Shaykh Jamal Muhammad (?), Sir al-Khatim `Abd al-Kharim, 2 unnamed, Alam Eilsr, Omar Remikh, Shaykh Mustafa

1945
Large photograph of the staff of Khartoum Higher Schools, with certain members identified on the reverse: J. Donaghy, G. Wood, Robin Hodgkin, Juliana Hill, J.D. Tothill, G. C. Scott

[ca. 1940s]
A safarog, or hunting stick, carved from a single piece of wood. From Darfur or the Nuba Mountains. Used for killing small mammals.
(46 x 20cm)

[ca. 1943-1944]
Watercolour painting of Bakht er Ruda, by Sir al Khatim `Abd al-Karim, student teacher at Bakht er Ruda and pupil of Jean Pierre Greenlaw. Owned by V.L. Griffiths, who died in 1984, and given by him to Robin Hodgkin
Size: 54 x 79cm

[ca. 1951]
Ingessana beer strainer, fabricated from woven straw or dried rushes. Bought near Roseires.
Size: 31cm long, 10cm diameter

1989
Burnished earthenware bowl by Siddiq el Nigoumi, a former student at Bakht er Ruda. Decorated with images similar to those on traditional earthenware pots.
Size: 21cm diameter, 5cm deep

[1942]
“Jebel Kassala climbed at last”, a report from a Sudanese newspaper of a successful climb by Robin Hodgkin and L.W. Brown of the Education Department

1996 Oct
Obituary for Siddig El Nigoumi, ceramicist

[ca. 1951]
Typescript of humorous piece by J.A. Bright and G.C. Scott at Bakht er Ruda, dedicated to Robin Hodgkin on his birthday: “Bow-wow!”

[ca. 1940s-1950s]
Bakht er Ruda Christmas card

[ca. 1940s-1950s]
Postcard, printed in Arabic, probably at Bakht er Ruda
Language: Arabic

Printed material deposited with collection; now integrated into the library's printed collections and catalogued on the Open Public Access Catalogue