Gypsies

Donald Kenrick took a first-class honours degree in Arabic from London University, followed by a Master's on the image of the Jew in Scandinavian literature, for which he was required to master all the nordic languages as well as Hebrew and Yiddish. An enthusiast for the rights of small language groups, he was at one time active in the Cornish revivalist movement. An enthusiasm for Bulgarian folkdance led him to a job teaching in Bulgaria, where he came into contact with the Romani language, eventually completing a PhD on the Drindari dialect. He has made a lasting contribution to Romani linguistics and was the first secretary of the WRC Language Commission in 1971. He also wrote with Gratton Puxon the first full-length study of the Romani Holocaust, and served for a while as secretary of the early Gypsy Council. Later he worked voluntarily for the National Gypsy Education Council, and the Romany Guild. He is the author of: Moving on: the Gypsies and Travellers of Britain (University of Hertfordshire Press, 1999), Gypsies under the Swastika (University of Hertfordshire Press, 1999) and with Gillian Taylor of the Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies). He also translated From 'Race Science' to the Camps and edited In the Shadow of the Swastika, the first two volumes of Gypsies during the Second World War.