John Drysdale (historian)

John Gordon Stewart Drysdale (21 May 1925 – 10 July 2016), also known as Abbas Idriss, was a British-born army officer, diplomat, writer, historian, publisher, and businessman. Drysdale, who spent much of his career in Singapore, Somalia and Somaliland, founded several important academic journals and publications, including the Africa Research Bulletin, the Asia Research Bulletin, and the Asean Economic Quarterly.

Drysdale served in the British Army during World War II and later became an army officer. He first visited the then-protectorate of British Somaliland in 1943 as a teenage member of the British Army. During World War II, he served with Somali and British Somaliland soldiers during the Burma Campaign and Singapore. Drysdale joined the British Colonial Service and its successor, the Foreign Service, following the end of World War II, which allowed him to return to postings in Africa. He served in the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) and the former Italian Somaliland, which was administered by the British after World War II.

Somalia became an independent country in 1960, following the union of the former British Somaliland and the Trust Territory of Somaliland. John Drysdale served as an advisor to three Prime Ministers of Somalia following independence. Drysdale, who spoke fluent Somali, was widely regarded as an expert on Somali culture, history, literature and society. He authored several books on Somalia, including The Somali Dispute in 1964 and a landmark reference book focusing on Somali people and politics, Whatever Happened to Somalia, which was published in 1994.

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