David Ambrose (local history researcher)

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David Percy Ambrose MBE (* 1939 in the United Kingdom ) is a British mathematician and local history researcher who mainly deals with Lesotho .

Life

Ambrose grew up in Woodford , Essex . He attended Chigwell School and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Hertford College , Oxford in 1962 . He received a Fulbright Scholarship and graduated from the University of Colorado with a Masters in Mathematics .

In 1965 he moved to Roma in what was then Basutoland to take a lectureship as a mathematician at the University of Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland , which later operated as the National University of Lesotho (NUL). Among other things, he was Senior Lecturer and Head of the Mathematics Department.

From 1968 onwards he put together a bibliography of all works relating to Basutoland and Lesotho with the librarian Shelagh Willet for twelve years. Since then Ambrose has continuously expanded the bibliography. To date it comprises around 12,600 works. In 1974 the first edition of his travel guide The Guide to Lesotho was published. In 1982 he left the Mathematics Department and founded the Documentation and Publication Division of the NUL Institute of Southern African Studies (ISAS). Until 1985 he was head and senior research fellow of the department. In 1985 he was appointed Associate Professor of Mathematics and from then on he was mainly involved in the training of mathematics teachers in secondary schools. So he worked on the creation of math curricula. From 1990 to around 2010 he worked as an associate professor in numerous research projects. His book Maseru: an illustrated history was also published.

Ambrose was often employed as a consultant and appraiser due to his extensive knowledge. When planning the Lesotho Highland Water Project , he was asked about archaeological sites and possible social and environmental pollution. He worked as an expert on place names in the creation of several maps and wrote a catalog of the fragments of the Thuathe meteorite, which fell in 2002. He translated the book Excursion missionnaire dans les Montagnes bleues; suivie d'une Notice sur les Zoulas by the missionary Thomas Arbousset , one of the earliest testimonies in the history of Lesotho, from the French and published the translated version in 1991. Ambrose also successfully campaigned for Lesotho's stamp motifs to be limited to domestic themes. He himself created some designs.

From 1994 to 2006 Ambrose published a quarterly summary of the most important events in Lesotho, the Quarterly summary of events in Lesotho, published by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in Maseru .

Ambrose is married to the biologist Sumitra Talukdar, who has occasionally appeared as his co-author. You have a son. The couple have lived in Ladybrand , South Africa , near the Lesotho border , since Ambrose's retirement . There Ambrose founded the Mohokare Trust in 2008 , which, among other things, has a library with books about Lesotho. Ambrose is fluent in Sesotho .

Awards

  • In 1994 Ambrose was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire .
  • In 2001 he received an award from the Association of Southern African Indexers and Bibliographers for “Most Outstanding Bibliography in Southern Africa”.
  • In 2006 he was born on King Letsie III's birthday . beaten by him to Knight Commander of the Most Meritorious Order of Mohlomi .

Fonts

  • The Guide to Lesotho. Winchester Press, Johannesburg / Maseru 1974, ISBN 0-620-02190-X .
  • Lesotho: a comprehensive bibliography. The Clio Press, Oxford 1981 (with Shelagh M. Willet)
  • Maseru: an illustrated history. Morija Museum & Archives, Morija 1993, ISBN 999117935-6 .
  • Guide to the birds at Roma Campus, National University of Lesotho. NUL Publishing House, Roma 1999, ISBN 999114000-X .
  • A note on fossil trackways at Roma Lesotho. House 9 publications, Roma, ISBN 999116464-2 .

As a translator and editor

  • Thomas Arbousset : Missionary Excursion into the Blue Mountains: Being an account of King Moshoeshoe's Expedition from Thaba-Bosiu to the Sources of the Malibamatso River in the Year 1840. Morija Museum & Archives, Morija 1991 (with Albert Brutsch)

literature

  • Scott Rosenberg, Richard F. Weisfelder: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. 2nd, expanded edition. Scarecrow Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-7982-9 , pp. 37-39. Digitized

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b David Ambrose: The Guide to Lesotho. Winchester Press, Johannesburg / Maseru 1976, ISBN 0-620-02190-X .
  2. a b c d e f g Scott Rosenberg, Richard F. Weisfelder: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. 2nd, expanded edition. Scarecrow Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-7982-9 , pp. 37-39. Digitized
  3. Archive of the Quarterly summary of events in Lesotho ( Memento of April 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on December 29, 2014
  4. ^ Trust website , accessed March 7, 2017
  5. Brief description at afraf.oxfordjournals.org (English), accessed on December 29, 2014