Robert Fitzgibbon Young Archive

Scope and Content

6 press cutting albums containing press cuttings from 1917 - 1957 relating to the career of Robert Fitzgibbon Young. Topics relate to Czech Republic including correspondence with 2 presidents of Czechoslovakia (Benes and Masaryk). Contains press cuttings, photos (some signed), correspondence, items relating to Education and Comenius. Also publications and papers written by Young.

Administrative / Biographical History

Robert Fitzgibbon Young 1879-1960 was the only son of an Architect from Belfast. He was nephew to Lord Bryce who was Chief Secretary to Ireland and British Ambassador in Washington. Young studied history at Oxford and later worked at Leeds University. When World War I started, he became Lieutenant for the Royal Navy Reserve. After the war he helped with English-Czech relations acting as Secretary to the diplomatic mission to Czechoslovakia. He spoke fluent French, German, Czech, Italian and Latin. At Prague he saw the shaping of the new Republic and became friends with presidents Masaryk and Benes. He wrote various publications on the history of European scholarship and was an expert in Comenius. Young was Secretary of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education from 1920-1940. He was also Honorary Secretary of the Czech Society of Great Britain. He was given a doctorate degree in 1936 at the Masaryk University of Brno

Arrangement

  • Publications
  • Publication reviews
  • Papers
  • Press cuttings 6 volumes

Access Information

By appointment. Usually available weekdays between 10am-2pm but to contact Special Collections at Lancaster University Library to organise access. There is no listing of this collection. The collection has not been digitised or available online. To book an appointment email Special Collections

Physical Characteristics and/or Technical Requirements

Many of the items are arranged in albums, however some of the pages of the albums are loose and some items are loose within the albums. There are photographs and letters that are attached in amongst the press cuttings. They do not always run chronologically so may be difficult to locate certain items.

Conditions Governing Use

Any use of the collection should credit "with permission from Lancaster University Library" For referencing please consult the Special Collections contact.

Appraisal Information

The collection has been added to the library system, however the contents have not been listed, so only a crude overview of the collection provided and only certain publications catalogued in full.

Custodial History

It is believed this collection came to the University when we had a Eastern European Department and there were studies on Comenius. We no longer have this department here at the University.

Accruals

As far as we know this collection is complete but we would welcome items that complement the collection or are related.

Bibliography

  • Robert Fitzgibbon Young - Comenius in England (1933)
  • Robert Fitzgibbon Young - Comenius and the Indians of New England (1929)
  • Robert Fitzgibbon Young - A Czech humanist in London in the 17th century: Jan Sictor Rokycansky (1926)
  • Robert Fitzgibbon Young - A Bohemian philosopher at Oxford in the 17th century: George Ritschel (1924)

Geographical Names