Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1989 (Creation)
- 1928-1933 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
6 diaries, one typed edition and 1 item, paper
Context area
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Biographical history
School - Charterhouse
Admitted to Magdalene in October 1928
November 1933 - Joined the India Civil Service and became a Judge in the Punjab until partition in 1947.
Moved to Canada where he owned a fruit farm in British Columbia before becoming a schoolmaster.
Moved to become a schoolmaster at Kings School, Wimbledon.
Joined the War Office (later the Ministry of Defence). Posted to East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zanzibar), and later Gibraltar.
Archival history
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Diaries of Robert Broadbent who was an undergraduate at Magdalene College between 1928 and 1933 (the diaries start just before his arrival in College (Jan 1928) and run on after he has left (Dec 1933) and there are further entries for May 1934).
The diaries are in six volumes, one per year. There is also a shortened and edited version entitled Myself when Young, 1928-1933 which Broadbent completed for the College in 1980. There are three appendices:
(1) Principal characters
(2) Last days in India, 1947 based on letters to his wife
(3) one term's accounts as an undergraduate
There is also a copy of the address given at his funeral in 1989.
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Archivist's note
Entry from the catalogue from Dr Hyam:
An undergraduate diary of any date would be interesting, but this is particularly so for the years covered, for which so little other material survives. There are sharp portraits of dons in classics and history; also accounts at the back of the volumes. It is written in good style, avoiding sentimentality, and reflecting an intelligent and cultivated mind. Among his friends was Andrew Cohen, destined for fame as a Colonial Office official and governor, of whom an interesting portrait emerges. The diary has value as indicating the attitudes, education and training of an Indian Civil Service officer.
Archivist's note
There is correspondence with the family in the 'Deposit of Archives Correspondence' box file