William Francis Bamphilde

The shaded, peaceful German graveyard at Bagamoyo contains the graves of German soldiers killed in a rebellion and this one - a British District Commissioner called William Francis Bamphilde.

Bagamoyo is a port on the coast of Tanzania to the north of Dar-es-Salaam. It's a rather run-down, sleepy place and, in the early 20th century, must have been a sweaty and malarial posting for a British civil servant.  Most survived the experience but Bamphilde's death was particularly sad.

The plaque gives no indication of the tragedy but Bamphilde shot himself after discovering that his wife was having an affair. This was bad enough but for it to be publicly known, back in 1939, that the liason was with their black servant was too much for a man of Bamphilde's background.

Bagamoyo is about to be developed by the Tanzanian government as a major port with some $10 billion of Chinese money. I do hope they respect the peace of this little graveyard.