Langlands Ephemera Collection: Home

Bryan Langlands was born in Eastbourne, Sussex in 1928. He graduated with honours in 1952 from the London School Economics. In 1953 he was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer in Geography in Mackerere University Kampala, Uganda.

In 1968, Bryan Langlands became Professor and Head of the Department of Geography. He was Editor of the Uganda Journal in from 1966 – 1975.

Langlands was interested in many aspects of Geography especially those relating to Uganda and Africa and his writings and library reflect these interests. Much of his work was published in the Mackerere Department of Geography Series of Occasional Papers and in the Ugandan Journal. He had a particular interest in the spread of the tsetse fly and associated illnesses, and in Uganda maps.

He was to stay in Mackerere for the next twenty-three years until he was ordered to leave Uganda in 1976 by the Ugandan President, Ide Amin.

In 1977, Bryan Langlands became Director of Studies and Head of Department with the title Professor in the newly created School of Environmental Sciences, at Ulster Polytechnic. In 1978, he was awarded an OBE for services to Higher Education Overseas.

Professor Bryan Langlands was killed in the British Midland air disaster at Kegworth, Leicestershire in January 1989.

The Langlands Ephemera Collection is made up of items such as newspaper and journal article cuttings, research and teaching notes, and a few letters relating to research and personal friendships and book reviews. Subjects covered include many aspects of Geography including the historical, political and social geography of Africa, in particular East Africa, South America, Europe, and Great Britain. Other subjects include geology, archaeology, education, energy and environmental issues.

The ephemera items were removed from the printed collection during the Cataloguing process and each ephemera item has been listed with details of the item including date, content and the location of item in the printed collection.

The Collection has been arranged into two sections;

Items BL/E/L/1-21 being found in known publications and the details of the publications have been recorded including author, title, library call number and the persistent link.

Items BL/E/L/22 – 41 have been arranged in date order as their locations in the collection were not recorded during cataloguing.

The letters in the collection shed light on Langlands career as a Geographer, his research interests, and personal friendships. There are three from Stan Stanford and his wife Yvonne (BL/E/L/8 & 16). They mainly relate to research in archaeology, history, publishing, recreational activities and a reference to Langland’s lifelong interest in the “Tsetse fly”.

Stan Stanford (1927-2007) was a friend and fellow graduate of Langlands in Geography in 1952 from the London School of Economics. Stanford in the ensuing years became an Archaeologist and published articles and books on the subject.

There is a draft letter from Langland to Prof. W. D. Foster (BL/E/L/36/3) and mss research notes by Langlands (BL/E/L/36/2) which relate to medical history in Uganda. Prof. William Derek Foster (1924-81) had worked in the Medical Department of Makerere University College Kampala and as a Reader in Microbiology at King’s College Hospital. He published The Early History of Scientific Medicine in Uganda in 1970 and he acknowledges in the preface of Langlands’ “extensive knowledge of the medical history of Uganda”.

There is also a letter from Colin Turnbull, Associate Curator of African Ethnology, The American Museum of Natural History, New York relating to the IK people in Uganda.
 

Bibliography:

Obituaries:

Graham, Brian Bryan Wooleston Langlands Irish Geography Vol. 22 (1989)

McMasters, David N. Bryan Wooleston Langlands 1928-1989 O.B.E. B.A. Transactions – Institute of British Geographers Vol. 14 Issue 3 (1989)

Griffiths, L. L.I. Bryan Wooleston Langlands OBE, FRGS, 1928 -1989 The Geographical Journal Vol. 155, No. 2. (July 1989)

Foster, W.D. The Early History of Scientific Medicine in Uganda (Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1970)