Preface...By D.L.Sharman

PREFACE

Last night as I watched a BBC film of the historic river Nile I was impressed by a remark of Stanley after meeting Dr. Livingstone. So impressed was he with the doctors dedication that he felt a deep urge to continue the great work of discovering this wonderful part of creation. It made me realise the tremendous importance of Africa and the need for its resources to be nurtured and cared for; so much of life there is dependent on the tropical rain forests that are responsible for feeding the ground with essential nutrients, and are also a huge factor in the rainfall that fills the great lakes, Victoria, Tanganyika, and Prince Albert and Edward which in turn supply the Congo and Nile rivers. In the case of the Nile, it runs through nearly four thousand miles of desert yet never runs dry!

To view the Nile as a whole it can readily be seen that this four thousand mile monster crosses man made borders wily nilly as if to emphasise to us humans to share this bounty of life. Even now are we not seeking for water on faraway planets? This film brought home to me that there is useful work for everyone. We have (as yet) only this one planet and if only we can work with nature our future comfort is assured. Surely it would be blasphemous to say we can improve on the works of the creator! We can easily adapt ourselves.

A passing thought- with so much worthwhile tasks ahead and all around us how can we accept that in Britain alone we have 100,000 men locked up in prisons? What a waste of life!

Thus it becomes obvious to me what I have to do. Our way of life has changed so much in the last half century that sometimes it is good to pause for thought. Until the 50’s most people did not own a car. We all had bicycles and we had no need of motor ways. Travel by air was almost nonexistent, and the alternative sea travel was leisurely and beneficial to all. In those days the church played a vital role with its work in the parishes, organising youth clubs and social events such as the monthly dance. Youngsters were not allowed build new friendships unless the parents were known. Today such formality sounds odd, but it made for a sound community and the Police courts were not over worked.

Yes the 1939 war thrust many changes upon us, and even more so in Africa. I landed in Africa at Freetown in 1945. Just eighty five years since Speke discovered that the Nile flowed out of Lake Victoria. I was not until two years later that I stood in the footprints of Speke, at Jinja, Uganda. By comparison the British Police was formed in the 1880’s. Until 1939 Africa had very few roads, and traffic was mainly by bullock cart. Government Officers made their safaris on foot with up to fifty porters for supplies and equipment.

I was one of a dozen pilots forming West African Transport and Communication Sqdn, and it was out job to take advantage of the landing strips that had been constructed during the war, so that short range aircrafts could fly from the port of assembly right across Africa to the war zone starting from Alamein Westwards. The intention was to inaugurate an up and running Air Service which could then be handed over to West African Airways. During this time I flew the first Air ambulance, from Ibadan to Lagos using the latest version of the Avro Anson, the Mark 12. This trip was necessitated by the fact that Ibadan, Africa’s second largest city, did not have a hospital equipped to deal with a seniors officials wife in the late stages of child birth, neither was the road suitable, nor even an ambulance for the 100 mile journey...Some 30 years later I flew regularly with Nigerian Airways as a passengers and I was familiarly called the ‘Father of Nigerian Airways’.

·         Human memory really is a remarkable thing. Little is known about it, perhaps because the conscious memory dealing with our everyday lives tends to block out the subconscious because it seems unreal. Yet strangely as we mature what we thought were long forgotten memories of childhood; return as though of yesterday.

My birth I do not remember although I do recall some events even of eighty years ago. They said I was born with a caul; and they added that it was said to be ‘lucky’. I was glad I was told for otherwise I might have remained in ignorance. Obviously in having it from birth, I could not have known how I would have fared without it!