Context (CMS Context)
(Bio) Lieutenant Samuel Pasfield Oliver, (Captain: 1871), Royal Artillery, visited Madagascar during 1861-2, and witnessed King Radama II’s coronation at Antananarivo (23 Sept 1861), and returned later in 1863 on HMS Rapid following the King’s presumed assassination, (12 May 1863).

Annual Report for 1893 notes that Captain S. Pasfield Oliver, late R.A., gave a collection of "fifty-nine sketches and finished drawings in pencil, in;, and water colours, of prehistoric stone monuments, tumuli, and burial places, sketched by the donor in England, the Channel Islands, Brittany, Etruria, Sardinia, Greece, the Troad, Madagasgar, Japan and" as well as a number of books to the library". It is likely that the Madagascan material here accessioned as 2011.96-232 is part of this donation. Transferred from the Haddon library in a card folio in 2010.
Event Date 21/9/2011
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Watercolour painting of a fort beside coast with wooden stockade. Men and animals outside. Inscription in pencil on reverse: Fort of Tamatave bombarded by French and English 1845". Amended below in ink: "+ by French in June 1883". Written in pencil on front of image is the number "24".
Event Date 21/9/2011
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
See also the Annual Report for 1888, p. 10 notes that Captain S. P Oliver, Anglesey, Hants gave 'thirty-one water-colour sketches of native life in Madagascar, taken in 1862 by the Donor'.
Event Date 10/3/2015
Author: Rachel Hand