The Geology Collection

My geological collection has been spread across the bed in the spare room. It's the first time in years that I've looked at it like this, and it's quite impressive. Most of the specimens are fairly mundane but there are a few which are very unusual and would grace a university's collection. However, they matter less to me than those with which I associate special memories, like....

....this Silurian fossil, a coral from the Wenlock Limestone, collected during one of the happiest of my times in teaching, when I was at Ludlow Grammar School and some of the students were sufficiently enthused by the subject that they would come out with me for a day on a weekend just to hunt for interesting specimens.

Then there are the Jurassic fossils from the Great Oolite which I associate with my days courting Gill at her home at Cranham, and....

....fossils we collected later as a growing family on picnics at Walton-on-the-Naze when we lived in Maldon.

There are some too which are a little bit special because they have unusual features. This is zinc blende, or sphalerite, which is common in the tailings from old lead mines, but this specimen has some crystals. These are unusual enough, except....

....some of them have curved faces, a feature which is very unusual in crystals.

The specimens are out on the bed so I can number and catalogue them because I'm giving the collection away. I might feel sad about this but I'm not as it's going to a young member of the family who I hope will, over the years, enjoy it and, perhaps, add to it.

Helen's Returns to Zanzibar

After she had returned to England in 1961 my mother was continually drawn back to Zanzibar. Her first return was in 1970, after she and my father had travelled out to visit us at Bernard Mizeki College in what was then Mr Ian Smith's Rhodesia.

She returned again in 1975 when she travelled to the island in the company of her old friend from her Zanzibar days, Bunch Jones (by then Bunch Crook), a difficult and somewhat depressing visit described in an earlier post here. By this time the building in which they had both had flats, Paradise Mansions, had been demolished so all they could do was take photographs of the site (above).

I had completely forgotten that my mother returned one final time to East Africa in 1994, some years after my father's death in 1988. I only 'rediscovered' this when, in going through the file which contains much of her paperwork, I found these sheets of typed paper sandwiched between two other documents.

A Sutherland Beach

We've been up to Golspie in Sutherland in the last few days to collect the keys to our new, very wee house, and to spend a few days settling in. The picture shows the town's Main Street, our cottage being just off it.

Not everything went smoothly - there appears to be a fault with the underfloor heating - but I don't think we've ever moved anywhere without there being problems, with the worst being when we first moved to Ardnamurchan.

What helped us cope with them was that the weather was beautiful and we were able to spend many hours out in the fresh air. I lost track of how many times we walked along the beach to the south of the town, at low tide....

....and at high, and I can't see us ever tiring of that walk. The largely sandy beach runs for over four kilometres until it ends at Loch Fleet and the tiny settlement of Littleferry.

The beach is home to a wealth of birds, everything from oystercatchers to curlews to wheatears and, along Loch Fleet, ospreys. Look carefully at the picture above and you can find eleven small waders, perhaps turnstones.

At the risk of sounding very antisocial, it was wonderful to walk for hours along a beautiful beach with hardly another soul in sight, and to be back in a place where the wildlife still thrives.

To Dar-es-Salaam

There was no chance of leave in the UK once war started so when Helen and Cecil were able to get away from Zanzibar for a break they flew to Durban. By that time the Japanese were in the war and were operating submarines down the coast so the flying boat in which they travelled was also used to spot any ships in trouble in the Mocambique Channel.

The African Mercantile was very short of staff as many of the younger men had been called up. Cecil's job was a reserved occupation so, although he wanted to join up, permission was refused. So AMCo moved him to the busier port of Dar-es-Salaam and he ran the Tanganyika office almost single-handed. Helen joined him in Dar at the beginning of February, 1943, and they lived in the big bungalow in Upanga Road, above. Within three weeks of her arrival Helen had become secretary to the Governor, Sir Wilfrid Jackson.

All the Europeans were involved in the local Defence Force. Because Cecil had a big Mercedes car he had to report at headquarters and be ready to drive people around. It couldn't have been a worse choice as he had no sense of direction and driving in the dark with hooded headlights made things even worse. Despite this, he was a sergeant. I have his insignia - see earlier post here.

Cecil was deeply moved by the loss of many ships and captains he knew. Helen's work at Government House included the decoding and typing of the weekly review of the war's progress sent out by cable from the Colonial Office. This gave news of ships' losses, the effect of the bombing raids on the UK, and, at that time, details of the progress of the war in the desert in North Africa.

Helen became pregnant shortly after arriving in Dar but went down with malaria. The Government doctor came to see her and, although she told him she thought she was pregnant, he was adamant that she wasn't and injected her with quinine. As a result she had a miscarriage and lost the baby. In her 'Life' she wrote, "I always feel that first pregnancy was the daughter Cecil always wanted."

Jean Laborde

Jean Laborde (1805 - 1878) was the son of a blacksmith who emigrated from France to India where he learned how to recover treasure from ships, a calling which took him to Madagascar. There he worked for the island's queen, amongst other things manufacturing muskets and gunpowder. Later he became the French consul, helping the government of Napoleon III to establish its influence in the country.

I only know of Jean Laborde because my father's firm in East Africa was agents for Messageries Maritimes, the French national shipping line, which ran three very beautiful passenger liners between Marseilles and Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion, one of which was the Jean Laborde, the other two being the Ferdinand de Lesseps and the Pierre Loti. At the end of their time in East Africa the company gave my parents a trip on the Ferdinand de Lesseps to the three islands. They had a wonderful time, my father's only complaint being that the chef persisted in serving him with runny fried eggs.

I recall my father having three of these paperweights in his office, one for each ship, and my memory is that, while I was given the Jean Laborde weight, my brother had the Ferdinand de Lesseps one.

The 1953 date may relate to the foundation of the company. Although it was started in 1851 as a transport company, it wasn't until 1853 that the shipping side was split off as the Compagnie des Services Maritimes Imperiales.

Leaving Zanzibar

When Helen left Zanzibar in 1943, to accompany my father to his new posting in Dar-es-Salaam, she received several very complimentary letters of thanks for the work she had done since her arrival on the island in 1935.

The first is from the government. It's an interesting letter, not least because it was signed by Bill Addis, who was a great friend of my parents. He had taken over as acting chief secretary when SBB McElderry left and went on to become governor of the Seychelles. While he was there his sons used to stay with us in Mombasa on their way to and from the islands for their summer holidays. In those days the islands were so remote that a 'plane could only reach them from the nearest bit of land.

Helen also worked for the Clove Growers Association which dealt with all aspects of Zanzibar's very valuable clove growing industry. Again, the writer is fulsome in praise of her work.

She also worked for the Economic Control Board which oversaw all aspects of Zanzibar's commercial life through the war years, right down to ordering all the imported food the islands needed and supervising their distribution.

These letters must have been very heartening to her for she had arrived in Zanzibar under the cloud of the Daily Express article yet she had gone on to prove her worth.

BOAC Luggage Labels

I found this luggage label in the little brown suitcase the other day. NBO is Nairobi, so this would have been from one of Richard and my outbound flights from Heathrow. I have no idea what the scribblings at the top are, nor what the 192-788 meant but....

....the flight number indicates that this is probably a souvenir of our last flight out to East Africa in 1961, and the aircraft which served that route would have been a de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4.

The Highlands

So we're returning to the Scottish Highlands but we're going further north than Ardnamurchan, to a town which is north of Inverness and not too far from John o' Groats. We're going in winter, to an east coast which will be bitterly cold at times, and dark, and wet. Winter will not be easy but in the little town of Golspie we have a Co-op round the corner from the cottage, a doctor's surgery and a small hospital, a chemist, a dentist, a library, a couple of pubs, and a fish-and-chip shop on the other side of the road. But it isn't the town we're going north for, its....

....the rushing burns, the walks in the heather-covered hills, the wildflowers and the fungi and the lichen....

....the red deer that come down in the colder weather into the ancient oak woodlands along the straths, the....

....bird life along the miles of deserted shoreline and also....

....to walk along the beaches and see what wind and waves and tide have brought in each day. All these are the things we have missed so much over the past two years.

We have no illusions. Settling in to a strange place, to a very different environment, while living in a small cottage, won't be easy, but we have to try something different, something that will bring us excitement again.

SBB McElderry

Few people can have had a greater influence on the course of my mother, Helen Wilson's life than this man, SBB McElderry, Chief Secretary to the Zanzibar Government. It was he who insisted that the Zanzibar secretariat needed a confidential secretary from England, who appointed Helen, and who stood by her when she was involved in the scandal over the interview with the Daily Express.

Samuel Burnside Boyd McElderry (1885-1984) was born in Ballymoney, Antrim, Ireland, in 1885 and started his colonial career in the Hong Kong Administrative Service, before transferring to the post of Deputy Chief Secretary, Tanganyika, where he served from 1929 to 1933. In that year he became Chief Secretary, Zanzibar, where he stayed until 1940, when the above picture was taken.

The medal he is wearing at his neck is the Order of St Michael and St George, which he was awarded in 1935.

From Zanzibar he went to the office of the High Commissioner for Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland, and for the last year of his career he worked in London, retiring in 1946. Thereafter, for reasons I do not know, he was closely involved with the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind and the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

McElderry married Mildred Orme (always known as Molly) in 1913. She was Anglo-Welsh and they had three daughters, the youngest of whom, Margaret, was Helen's bridesmaid at her wedding, Mr McElderry gave her away, my parents' wedding reception was at the McElderry's house, and it was their daughter Ruth who first suggested to her father that Helen might like to take the job in Zanzibar - see post here.

Late Summer Dragonflies

Each dragonfly or damselfly species has its season: so, for example, the chasers and skimmers are long gone, as are most of the blue damselflies. Of the hawkers, the most common at the moment is the migrant hawker (above) - but males only, we haven't seen a female in weeks. There are also some notable absentees this year: we haven't seen a single red damselfly.

This is the season of the common darter. They're everywhere, along the hedgerows, sunning themselves in the dust of the farm tracks, sitting in 'wheels' on bushes, and in tandem, ovipositing on every available piece of water.

The willow emerald damselfly is relatively new to this country but is the most common of the damselflies now. We counted a dozen or more by a woodland ditch - there had obviously just been a hatching. This species is fairly easy to identify, with a small 'spur' on the side of its thorax, but....

....others are much more difficult: I think this is a female common blue damselfly.

As well as the dragonflies we have found on the road, murdered by passing vehicles, we also found this one, with its abdomen missing. Minutes before we had seen a hawk, possibly a kestrel, veering in its flight high above us, obviously catching dragonflies.

Another Adventure?

We're moving away from Suffolk. Perhaps we should have known that the change from the spectacular Ardnamurchan peninsula, with its rich wildlife, magnificent scenery and challenging lifestyle, to the controlled environment of an English seaside resort would have been too severe a culture shock. For all the happy times we've had here, we need something a little more interesting, a little more exciting; and we would like to go back to Scotland.

So we looked at houses along the northeast coast of Scotland while we were on holiday in Helmsdale in August. There were some very tempting properties, many of which, like this shepherd's cottage, were too remote for us at our advancing age so, because it is practically impossible to rent a house in the area, we bought a tiny, one bedroom, one living room stone-built cottage in Golspie, Sutherland, to use as a base to find something manageable and appropriate to our declining years.

I feel as excited as I did when we first decamped to Scotland, back in 1996, taking an eighteen-year old son and a seven-year old daughter to one of its most remote locations, a decision which we never regretted. We don't want to return to Ardnamurchan and it had to be somewhere a little closer to Inverness. Golspie is just over an hour away, along the A9, and it has a train station.

So we've sold the beach hut, the English bungalow in its neat little cul-de-sac is sold STC, and next week we set off to take possession of our new wee house. We shouldn't be doing this, not sensibly; but life would be a dull experience if one didn't, every now and then, do something a little adventurous.

Garden Birds

Small birds are a scarce commodity in our garden even though every effort is made to attract them, from copious amounts of seed and peanuts through to bird baths and protected feeders. Their absence is probably down to two main factors, of which the depredations of the local sparrow hawk is a major factor, along with the hunting habits of a neighbour's ginger tom.

After a summer in which the main visitors have been a few dunnocks and blackbirds, with one of the latter having a terrible fright from a sparrow hawk the other day, we now have a robin. He's seen here waiting patiently for a very greedy blackbird to finish at the bird table so he can have his turn.

To add to our excitement, we had a house sparrow visit twice the other day, and then a small brown bird which may have been one of the flycatchers. Neither have reappeared, so either they heard about the hawk and the cat and took themselves elsewhere, or they didn't and ended up as a predator's snack.

A Zanzibar Marriage

My parents were married on Friday 18th January, 1940 in Christ Church Cathedral, Zanzibar, by Father Weigall of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, standing right. The others are, from left, Mr Boyd McElderry who, as Chief Secretary, was Helen's boss and gave Helen away; Margaret McElderry, Boyd and Molly's youngest daughter, who was the bridesmaid; John McClellan of Smith MacKenzie, one of the rival ships' agencies, who was Cecil's best man; Helen; Cecil; and Molly McElderry. The man standing between Mrs McElderry and Father Weigall may be Sir John Hall who, as Resident, was in charge of the colonial administration in Zanzibar. *

I love this picture of my parents. Of the first time my mother saw my father, standing on the steps of the English Club four years before, she wrote, "Dad was standing on the step, in his smart shantung suit, with his hand on his back."

The McElderrys held the reception at Mnazi Mmoja House. These wedding pictures weren't taken at the cathedral so I assume they were taken at Mnazi Mmoja, which means 'one coconut'. The wedding cake was made in Dar-es-Salaam by someone Mildred McElderry knew, Cecil provided the champagne, a Mr. Miller, Director of Agriculture, gave Helen some very special pink lilies for her bouquet, and Helen's dress was made by Mrs de Lord, a local seamstress.

In her 'Life' Helen wrote, "I remember having my wedding ring made by Ranti da Silva, and paying for it myself."

They had to spend their wedding night in the Zanzibar house which Cecil's firm had refurbished for them because, as Helen wrote, "Cecil had a Japanese ship arriving on the Saturday." However, when they left their reception they first drove to Fumba beach with a picnic basket and watched the sun set and the moon rise, before driving back to Zanzibar.

* I am grateful to Mark Gimson. Mr McElderry's grandson,  for correcting this part of the entry.

Picture of inside of Zanzibar cathedral taken in 2012.

'Guide to Mombasa'

It's in a bit of a sad state, dog-eared and with both covers loose, but this little guide to Mombasa is full of information, from the history of the island through to taxi cab tariffs. At the time it was bought it cost 2/25, two shillings and twenty-five cents or, in modern terms, just over 10p.

It was written by a Beatrix Bellingham and printed and published by the Mombasa Times Ltd, who produced the town's weekly paper - which was read by everyone in the European population. It had in it, for example, gems such as a list of the ships due in Mombasa that week.

However, my favourite part of this booklet is the map. As an ex-geography teacher, it looses a mark straight away for a lack of scale and it doesn't get many for accuracy - things are little better than in relatively the right position. All one can add is that it does follow in the footsteps of many of the early maps of Africa, about which the Irish writer Jonathan Swift said:

      So Geographers in Afric-maps

      With Savage-Pictures fill their Gaps;
      And o'er uninhabitable Downs
      Place Elephants for want of Towns.

To be fair, the booklet is firmly aimed at tourists so I suppose the map might be designed to whet their appetites - though my memory suggest that they were unlikely to see any camels, I can't remember men pulling rickshaws, and I would venture to suggest that a few dhows might have been more appropriate than a clipper ship.

However, whoever drew it did know their Mombasa. Witness the ladies carrying baskets on their heads, the palm tree swept by the trade winds, and the cars parked on the sea front off Azania Road

Beer and Cashews

After a good walk in the countryside on a late summer's Sunday morning there are few greater pleasures than a glass or two of Suffolk beer, in this case a Greene King IPA served in an Adnams 'Ghost Ship' glass.

The accompaniment is a small bowl of salted roasted cashews, a snack which goes back in my life to the days in Mombasa when my mother always had a large bag of locally-grown raw cashews which were great when mixed with raisins but which Ouma the cook would also roast and salt.

A Long Engagement

Helen and Cecil became engaged the evening before he embarked for home leave, the 12th October 1936, even though he was determined they should not to do so until he had met Helen's parents.  They exchanged rings: Cecil gave Helen the signet ring which was his 21st birthday present, and Helen gave him a ring with the Wilson crest which she had always worn on her little finger. Cecil was very upset when he lost it on the return voyage, but she continued to wear his ring for the rest of her life.

Cecil's leave was an unhappy one. He felt he was ill-treated by Helen's family, particularly her mother and older sister Christian, both of whom, he felt, had been very rude to him. Helen's mother also wrote to Mr. McElderry, Helen’s boss in Zanzibar, demanding why he had allowed her to get engaged. Cecil was furious.

Cecil returned from home leave in February 1937 and spent a couple of days in Zanzibar with Helen before starting work in Mombasa. He brought with him an engagement ring which he had purchased with his brother-in-law, Dick's help, two diamonds on a twisted white gold band, known as a 'kiss ring'. In her turn, Helen lost this while on the beach: she always suspected that a crab had taken it.

By June Cecil was ill with malaria. It was the first time he had contracted the disease, and the doctors were worried about his chest. X-rays showed a patch on his lungs and the doctors advised Cecil's boss, Arthur Crisp, that he probably had TB and should be sent home for treatment. About the same time Helen received a letter from her mother saying that her father was very ill and Noel had managed to get him into University College Hospital, where she was doing her medical training. Helen's mother insisted that she needed to come home, so they decided that Helen should give in her notice and she sailed on the Llanstephan Castle in August. Cecil followed her on the Jaggersfontein, a Dutch ship on which he formed a life-long love of Bols gin. When Helen met the ship in Dover Roads Cecil was busy drinking in the bar and, as she described it, "saying farewell to his lady friends."

Cecil saw three specialists who all said he had not got TB so in November he returned to Zanzibar on the Malda while Helen stayed in England helping to nurse her father until his death on the 8th December, 1937, after which she travelled back to Zanzibar on the Llangibby Castle.

In late 1938 Helen's mother announced that she and Christian were coming out to Zanzibar, arriving just before Christmas, to see her married. Cecil said that nothing would induce him to marry Helen while her mother and Christian were in Zanzibar. Despite this, they sailed out on the Llangibby Castle via Cape Town. Fortunately Christian met Micky Vigne on the voyage and by the time they reached Cape Town they were engaged. Despite this, the two women continued on the ship to Zanzibar so they could get Christian’s trousseau together. In order to accommodate them Helen arranged to sleep in a friend's flat leaving her flat free for her mother and Christian. They stayed in Zanzibar over Christmas while Christian's trousseau was made and finally, to Cecil's great relief, went south to Beira and from there to Bulawayo where Christian was married.

In November 1939 Helen went on local leave with two friends, and when she returned Helen and Cecil decided that, as he was now perfectly fit, they should get married.