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.[1]

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.[1] During World War II, he served with Somali and British Somaliland soldiers during the Burma Campaign and Singapore.[1] 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.[1] He served in the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) and the former Italian Somaliland, which was administered by the British after World War II.[1]

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.[1] Drysdale, who spoke fluent Somali, was widely regarded as an expert on Somali culture, history, literature and society.[1] 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.[1]

Drysdale, who was also a businessman and publisher, wrote extensively on the politics and history of Africa and Southeast Asia.[1] He founded the Africa Research Bulletin, based in the United Kingdom in 1964, as well as the Asia Research Bulletin, which was published in Singapore in a partnership with the Straits Times Group.[1] His book, Singapore Struggle for Success, a history of modern Singaporean society, is still studied by the country's students.[1]

John Drysdale returned to Somaliland during the mid-1990s as an advisor to then-President Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal.[1] He established a land survey NGO, called Cadastral Surveys, which mapped and established farm boundaries in Gabiley and Dilla in the country's west.[1]

Drysdale died in Somaliland on 10 July 2016 following a short illness. A state funeral was held at the Maslah Muslim burial grounds in Hargeisa on 12 July 2016.[1] Dignitaries in attendance at his funeral included President of Somaliland Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud, other leading politicians, as well as hundreds of mourners.[1]