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The Society of Malaŵi Journal

MEMORIES OF PROFESSOR GEORGE SHEPPERSON
Terry Barringer

Terry Barringer with George Shepperson in his book-lined sitting room.

I first met George, though in those days I would not have dared to call him by
his given name, in the early 1980s. I was a newly qualified librarian, starting my
professional life in the old Royal Commonwealth Society Library in Northumberland
Avenue, London, mentored by the then librarian, Donald Simpson, author of the
pioneering Dark Companions: The African contributions to the European exploration
of East Africa (1975). George is thanked in the foreword to that book and was
instrumental in securing Donald an honorary M.A. at Edinburgh. I think to the end of
his days, George regarded me as ‘that promising young girl who Donald was training
up’. He was one of the select group of favoured library users who was always invited
to take tea with the staff in the ‘back office’.
I succeeded Donald as Librarian in 1988 at the outset of the RCS Library’s
‘Time of Troubles’. During the period of tribulations and fund raising leading up to
the library’s transfer to Cambridge University Library in 1993, George was a loyal
and encouraging supporter. He was living in Peterborough by the time I arrived in
Cambridge. Visits and correspondence continued for the rest of his life, first at his
book-lined bungalow and then at Longueville Court. I was always amazed by the
breadth and depth of his knowledge, his ability to keep up with the latest scholarship
and current affairs and by much personal kindness.

Terry Barringer worked with the Royal Commonwealth Collections, first at
London and then at Cambridge from 1980 to 2000. She has published on the
history of missions and the British Colonial Service and is editor of African
Research and Documentation, the Journal of SCOLMA, the UK Library and
Archives Group on Africa.

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