Home Leave 1952/53

My father's contract with the African Mercantile entitled him to three months 'home' leave every three years, and my parents decided that we should 'enjoy' the experience of a winter leave at the end of 1952. We sailed southbound on the Durban Castle, with my mother and Richard getting off at Beira and proceeding by rail to....

....Southern Rhodesia, to Bulawayo where my mother's sister, Christian Vigne, lived with her two daughters, whom my mother had never seen, while my father and I continued on the ship. At Durban I was impressed by the huge shark that swam alongside the ship while it was docked, and by the Zulus pulling rickshaws. My mother and Richard rejoined us at Cape Town, after which we called at St Helena, Ascension and the Canaries before arriving in England.

My parents took part of a flat in Fulham, in Hurlingham Court, overlooking the Thames close to Putney Bridge. The leave was extended into 1953 when a problem was identified on one of my father's lungs which required treatment by a London specialist. When the spring term started, Richard and I walked across Putney Bridge to attend a small private school as day boys.

While we were there my parents took me down to visit a school in Sussex. At the time I didn't understand the significance of this. Soon after, we returned to East Africa by air, using a service run by Hunting-Clan. The flight was by Viking, a 27-seat 'plane which was not particularly good for long-distance flights - it took three days to Nairobi via Malta, Wadi Halfa, Khartoum, Juba and Entebbe.