Fonds AR325 - Peggy Abkhazi fonds

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Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Peggy Abkhazi fonds

General material designation

  • Textual record
  • Graphic material

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Title notes

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

CA UVICARCH AR325

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 189?-1989 (Creation)
    Creator
    Abkhazi, Peggy, 1902-1994

Physical description area

Physical description

65 cm of textual records;ca. 1200 photographs

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1902-1994)

Biographical history

Peggy Abkhazi (1902-1994) was born Marjorie Mabel Jane Carter in Shanghai, China, on December 12, 1902, the daughter of Mabel and William Carter. Her mother returned to England in 1906 with Peggy. Mabel died there that summer and Peggy’s father died shortly afterwards in China. Peggy lived for a time with relatives in England before being adopted by a well off couple, Thomas and Florence Pemberton, who had returned to England from Shanghai. She took the surname Pemberton.

Thomas Pemberton died in 1918. In 1920, Peggy and Florence Pemberton went to Shanghai where they lived intermittently until Florence‘s death in 1938. They returned to Europe in 1922, living in England and Paris then went back to Shanghai in 1923 and 1924, via Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. Between 1927 and 1938 they traveled between Shanghai and Europe. During that time, about 1930, Peggy was married for a short time in Shanghai, and subsequently divorced. Florence Pemberton died in China in 1938 leaving Peggy financially independent.

After her adoptive mother’s death, Peggy took the surname Pemberton-Carter. She continued to live in Shanghai. In 1940, she visited Shanghai friends, the Mackenzie, in Victoria, where they had retired, but returned to Shanghai. She was interned there by the Japanese from 1943 to 1945. This experience forms the basis of her book A Curious Cage, published in 1981. At the end of the war Muriel Mackenzie established contact with her and Peggy came to Victoria and in early 1946 bought property on Fairfield Road.

Custodial history

Scope and content

Fonds consists of manuscripts, correspondence, family documents, photographs, memorabilia about Georgia and Abkhazi family, and miscellaneous pamphlets. The manuscripts include a typescript of "Manuscript of (Mrs.) Peggy Pemberton-Carter written during internment in Lunghua Prison Camp, Shanghai", accompanying watercolours by Deirdre Fee and Lilian Schlee; typescript of "Dragon Aunt Remembers, 1900-1980", unpublished; photocopy of typescript "The Curious Cage", and an extensive photograph collection of the development of the Abkhazi garden.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Arrangement

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Script of material

Location of originals

Availability of other formats

Selected documents have been digitized and are available online: Curious lives, harmonious gardens: the Peggy and Nicholas Abkhazi archives: http://www.uvic.ca/library/featured/collections/about/abkhazi.php

Restrictions on access

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Finding aids

Finding level available with item level control.

Associated materials

Related materials

Accruals

1990-068, 2005-006

Alternative identifier(s)

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Control area

Description record identifier

peggy-abkhazi-fonds

Institution identifier

Rules or conventions

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

2013-02-05

Language of description

  • English

Script of description

Sources

Digital content (Master) rights area

Digital content (Reference) rights area

Digital content (Thumbnail) rights area

Accession area

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