{"id":475,"date":"2021-05-14T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/?p=475"},"modified":"2021-05-13T17:26:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T16:26:21","slug":"well-meet-again-or-how-i-gambled-away-vera-lynns-autograph-and-ended-up-in-a-zambian-jungle-with-a-bunch-of-hippies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/05\/14\/well-meet-again-or-how-i-gambled-away-vera-lynns-autograph-and-ended-up-in-a-zambian-jungle-with-a-bunch-of-hippies\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019ll meet again \u2013 or how I gambled away Vera Lynn\u2019s autograph and ended up in a Zambian jungle with a bunch of hippies\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#003b49\"><strong>By Danny Millum &#8211; BLDS Metadata and Discovery Officer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#003b49\">Normally when you tell your family \/ friends about what you do, unless you\u2019re a fireman or a nurse they just zone out (especially when your job title is Metadata Discovery Officer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#003b49\">But it really seems as if the BLDS was actually my genetic destiny, as it turned out that not only was my dad interested in the project but it turns out that collecting African pamphlets runs in the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buried in our loft were the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>East African Annual 1934-35 \u2013 Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar<\/li><li>Table Talk Annual Review 1935 (Melbourne) \u2013 incl sections on Australia\u2019s Overseas Territories<\/li><li>Holiday 1947 (Philadelphia)<\/li><li>Times of Ceylon Annual 1958<\/li><li>Zambia 1964-74 \u2013 celebrating ten years of independence<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#003b49\">The East African Annual is just one of a set inherited from one of my great uncles, either Owen or Edward. Owen was in the Royal Navy and travelled out to New Zealand via East Africa more than once. He died when his ship was torpedoed in 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"385\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-great-uncle-e1620922642918.png?resize=385%2C380\" alt=\"Black and white image of Danny's Great uncle in Burma in\" class=\"wp-image-477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-great-uncle-e1620922642918.png?w=385&amp;ssl=1 385w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-great-uncle-e1620922642918.png?resize=300%2C296&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-great-uncle-e1620922642918.png?resize=100%2C99&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-great-uncle-e1620922642918.png?resize=150%2C148&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-great-uncle-e1620922642918.png?resize=200%2C197&amp;ssl=1 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 385px) 100vw, 385px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption><strong>Danny&#8217;s great uncle in Burma <\/strong><br><strong>Credit: The Millum family<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#003b49\">Those from 1947 and 1958 would be brought by Edward, who was in the Merchant Navy but served in the RAF during the war. During his time in the Navy he was memorably entertained by Vera Lynn in Burma. She apparently sang from the wing of the aircraft she\u2019d arrived in and he got her autograph but subsequently gambled it away \u2013 certainly the picture of him hungover suggests that such dissolute behaviour (so atypical for a Millum) may not have been a one-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#003b49\">The Zambian materials are more recent \u2013 my parents taught out there in the early 1970s when the newly independent country was clearly so desperate for teachers that it was prepared to hire any old hippie that walked out of the jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"290\" height=\"292\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-parents-e1620922667536.png?resize=290%2C292\" alt=\"Colour photograph of Dannys parents in the Zambian jungle\" class=\"wp-image-478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-parents-e1620922667536.png?w=290&amp;ssl=1 290w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-parents-e1620922667536.png?resize=150%2C151&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-parents-e1620922667536.png?resize=100%2C101&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/05\/Dannys-parents-e1620922667536.png?resize=200%2C201&amp;ssl=1 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption><strong>Danny&#8217;s parents in Zambia <br>Credit: The Millum family<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#003b49\">Anyway, my dad\u2019s now threatening to donate all these boxes of material to the BLDS Legacy collection \u2013 really hope he doesn\u2019t find much more buried in the attic or at this rate this project is never going to end\u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#003b49\">(First posted on The University of Sussex Library staff blog May 2020)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Danny Millum &#8211; BLDS Metadata and Discovery Officer Normally when you tell your family \/ friends about what you do, unless you\u2019re a fireman or a nurse they just zone out (especially when your job title is Metadata Discovery<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/05\/14\/well-meet-again-or-how-i-gambled-away-vera-lynns-autograph-and-ended-up-in-a-zambian-jungle-with-a-bunch-of-hippies\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":339,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[151104,181237,4491],"tags":[202399,123632,202165,202021],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":433,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/04\/30\/well-thats-a-lot-of-pamphlets\/","url_meta":{"origin":475,"position":0},"title":"Well that's a lot of pamphlets....","date":"30 April 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"BLDS Legacy Collection By Caroline Marchant-Wallis - BLDS Metadata and Discovery Officer I was chatting to my Librarian mentor recently about how we approached starting the BLDS Legacy Collection project, and I realised it was a good question. What did we do? Having been caught up in the whirlwind of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"2 shelves on wall containing pamphlets above a card catalogue","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/04\/Shelving-along-store-2-wall-right-hand-side-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":647,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2022\/04\/27\/freedom-day-new-perspectives-on-apartheid-from-the-blds-legacy-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":475,"position":1},"title":"Freedom Day - new perspectives on apartheid from the BLDS Legacy Collection","date":"27 April 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Today marks the 28th anniversary of South Africa\u2019s first post-apartheid elections, now commemorated as Freedom Day. Previously, under the apartheid regime, non-whites in general had only limited voting rights, while black South Africans were unable to vote at all. The 1994 elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2022\/04\/SAfrica_GuineaA-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":290,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/01\/15\/football-poetry-and-fables-the-surprising-features-in-blds-african-port-harbour-magazines\/","url_meta":{"origin":475,"position":2},"title":"Football, poetry and fables -the surprising features in BLDS African port harbour magazines","date":"15 January 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"By Danny Millum - BLDS Metadata and discovery officer There are many fascinating rabbit holes to explore in the BLDS Legacy Collection, and you often come across them in the most unexpected places. Perhaps this just shows our limited imagination, but when we first came across a run of journals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Front cover of Cameroon inter-ports magazine - black and white image of a harbour in Cameroon","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/01\/BLDS-Cameroon-Inter-Ports-Cameroon-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":328,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/01\/28\/for-security-reasons-it-may-not-be-prudent-to-unfold-where-i-am-ghanas-1978-electoral-commissioners-letter-from-hiding-surfaces-in-the-blds-legacy-collect\/","url_meta":{"origin":475,"position":3},"title":"\u2018For security reasons it may not be prudent to unfold where I am\u2019 \u2013 Ghana\u2019s 1978 electoral commissioner\u2019s letter from hiding surfaces in the BLDS Legacy collection","date":"28 January 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"By Danny Millum - BLDS Metadata and Discovery Officer Cataloguing on the BLDS Legacy Collection project has now reached Ghana, and we\u2019ve just unearthed a fascinating letter from a dramatic time in that country\u2019s political history. On 30 March 1978 the country\u2019s Supreme Military Council, led by Col. Ignatius Kutu\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Image of letter written on a typewriter from I.K. Abban to I.K Acheampong","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/01\/Ghana-Annan-letter-.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":398,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/04\/02\/not-as-boring-as-they-sound-reading-the-history-of-zimbabwean-independence-from-airline-annual-reports-in-the-blds-legacy-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":475,"position":4},"title":"Not as boring as they sound \u2013 reading the history of Zimbabwean independence from airline annual reports in the BLDS Legacy Collection","date":"2 April 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"By Danny Millum - BLDS metadata and discovery officer One of the many strengths of the BLDS Legacy Collection lies in its holdings of annual reports, from both government departments and public and private companies. While obviously vital source material for business and economic historians, these might appear a little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Cover of 1968 Annual report image shows a female air steward in a blue uniform in front of an aeroplane","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/03\/Zimbabwe-Air-Zimbabwe-1-Annual-report-1968.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":550,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/10\/08\/public-opinion-and-conflict-in-south-asia\/","url_meta":{"origin":475,"position":5},"title":"Public opinion and conflict in South Asia","date":"8 October 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A brief look at the Bangladesh Liberation War through the holdings of the BLDS Legacy Collection One of the main aims of the British Library for Development Studies Legacy Collection (BLDS) project is outreach and promotion. As part of this we are assisting with some teaching sessions at Sussex in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Front page of Pakistan News Vol. XXIII No.14 July 15, 1991","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/10\/Pakistan-Pakistan-News-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/339"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}