Derek Davis was born on 3 May 1945 and educated at Clifton College, a school renowned for its excellence in classical and modern language teaching. By 1962 he had a Russian A level, had visited Russia and, armed with Hindi-Russian dictionaries and conversational phrasebook, was at Scindia School, Gwalior, where he taught Shakespeare, Dickens and Gerald Durrell to 13-year-olds who would go on to become public servants, generals, admirals, businessmen and academics. He then went up to Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Greats.
During the Oxford long vacation of 1965, he embarked on an overland trek to India via Erzurum and back with his Balliol friend, Christopher Bayly. An unexpected consequence was that the latter changed his proposed research subject from Russian and Eastern European history to work instead (with Professor Sarvepalli Gopal) on South Asia.
His career in the civil service left little time for Pushkin, but on his retirement, he continued to work on his translations of the History of Pugachev and the Journey to Arzrum which was published by the Royal Asiatic Society as a supplement to their Journal in 2022. He also served on the Society's Council and its Finance and Investment Committee.
He died on 8 July 2023.
Published
The papers are mainly concerned with Derek Davis' interest in Russian history and, in particular, research for his translation of Pushkin’s ‘A Journey to Arzrum during the Campaign of 1829’.
The papers arrived in five folders. These have become the series for cataloguing this archive, the titles for each series being taken from the original folders.
The papers were received from Davis' widow, Diana, on 02/04/2024.
The papers were in the custody of Derek Davis until his death.
Books from the library of Derek Davis were donated at the same time as this collection. The archival material relates to the special supplement to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 32 (2022), S3–S117 ‘A Journey to Arzrum during the 1829 Campaign by A. S. Pushkin: Translation with Commentary’, by Derek Davis.
Open. Please contact the archivist. Details can be found here : https://royalasiaticarchives.org/. The archive is open on Tuesdays and Fridays 10-5, and Thursdays 2-5. Access is to any researcher without appointment but it will help if an appointment is made via phone or email. Please bring photo ID.
Digital photography (without flash) for research purposes may be permitted upon completion of a copyright declaration form, and with respect to current UK copyright law.
Published
Two draft translations into English of Pushkin's 'A History of the Pugachev Revolt'. Pugachev's Rebellion of 1773–1775 was the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in the Russian Empire after Catherine II seized power in 1762.
Published
Notes and drafts concerning Pushkin. These are:
* 'Introduction' - an introduction to Pushkin's 'History of the Pugachev revolt'.
* 'Pushkin in the Archives'
* Pushkin biographical notes in English and Russian
* Drafts for a section called 'The revolt'.
* 'Pushkin and Pugachev' - typed draft
* 'The Pugachev File' - typed draft
* 'Introduction' - typed draft of biographical details of Pushkin.
* 'Introduction' - typed draft concerning Pugachev.
* 'Glossary' - typed glossary and bibliography
* Photocopied articles in Russian.
Published
Drafts of the translation into English of 'A Journey to Arzrum'. The original was written by Pushkin and recounts the poet's travels to the Caucasus, Armenia, and Arzrum (modern Erzurum) in eastern Turkey at the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1828–29).
Published
Three notebooks containing research notes:
* Spiral bound Silvine exercise book containing handwritten notes on viewed archive source material.
* Silvine exercise book with handwritten notes of viewed source material including one item from the RAS archive.
* Spiral bound Tellus exercise book containing excerpts from consulted texts.
Published
Notes and lists of references for Davis' commentary on 'The Journey to Arzrum' and the 'History of Pugachev', including a collection of British Library request slips showing the books consulted in research.