Joan Pawsey Shoucair - An English Woman in the 20th Century Vortex of Change....Part 4

by Glenn N. Holliman

Joan goes to Africa....

She was just five years old in July 1927 when with her mother, Elsie Ward Pawsey, Joan left England and moved to her new home in Uganda.  Her father, Henry 'Herb' Pawsey, former salesman for the famous John Lewis department store in Liverpool, took a position with Mengo Planters in Kampalo, Uganda.

Mangos were and are still a major export of  Uganda and Kenya. The sweet taste and nutritional value of this breadfruit makes it a popular food throughout the world.

 

The journey by sea was from London, England to Mombassa, Kenya, a British colony at the time.  In addition to her mother, her one year old cousin, Terence Francis Sheldrake, accompanied them.  As with her father, Terence's parents, Bert's sister and brother-in-law, had traveled ahead also to establish a new home and occupation.  During the month at sea, the children were closely looked after by Lahsa stewards and spoiled quite a bit. The stewards of Arab descent were believed to be from the island of Luma off the coast of Kenya.

 The Modasa

The ship was the Modasa, a P and O passenger liner launched in 1921 of 9,000 tons.  During its life time, it served mainly on the East Africa and India sea lanes.  The Prince of Wales on his journey to East Africa in 1928 sailed on the Modasa.  After service in World War II, the ship was scrapped in 1954.

After docking in Mombasa, Kenya, Joan's family traveled most of the way by train, the Kenya and Uganda Railroad, for the two and a half day journey to Kampala, Uganda.  The railroad began construction in 1895 in order to provide 20th Century transportation to the heart of East Africa.  Although traveling in luxury, Joan remembers walking beside the under powered train as it climbed slowly up the Kenya Escarpment.   

Below, a photograph from the current Riff Valley Railroad, the inheriting company of the original Uganda Railroad.  

 

The Kenya-Uganda Railroad which began construction in the middle 1890s was not finished until 1931, when it extended to Kampala.  The line was built by the Imperial East Africa Company which administered the territories of Kenya and Uganda until 1920.  That year, the British government took over Kenya as a colony and Uganda as a Protectorate.

Next more life in Uganda....

Joan Pawsey Shoucair - An English Woman in the 20th Century Vortex of Change....Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

We continue our series on the fascinating life of Joan Shoucair whose father was a colonial administrator in the Uganda Protectorate, and whose husband was a published photographer in post World War II Egypt.  Below, on her 92nd birthday, Joan shares memorabilia and pictures with the writer of this blog.  This photograph was taken in Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire, U.K., Boxing Day 2013.

In an earlier article, we looked at the World War I experiences of Joan's father, Henry Herbert Pawsey, who entered the Great War as a private and emerged an officer.  Undoubtedly his gifts for administration and leadership emerged during the stress and destruction of the war in which so many of his contemporaries perished.

In 1919, Henry married Elsie Ward Newton ( the engagement picture of the couple below). After further service in France in 1919, he was discharged in 1920.  

 He took his young bride to his new civilian occupation as a salesman for the famous Liverpool, England department store, John Lewis (pictured below).  In Liverpool on 26 December 1921, their first and only child, Joan, was born.

 Undoubtedly,  looking for economic advancement, in 1926 Henry accepted a position with the Mengo Planters, Ltd, and was posted with this corporation to Uganda, a British Protectorate in East Africa. He would serve with this company and Uganda Stores in Kampala, the capitol, until 1940 when he joined British Colonial Service.

 

Passengers records indicate Henry "Bert" sailed September 1926 on the German ship, Wangoni, without this family, who would follow later.  The port city was Mombasa, Kenya.  From Mombasa, Henry would have taken the train to Kampala, Uganda on the shore of Lake Victoria.

The Wangoni was launched in 1921, 7,700 tons, by the Woemann Company, a German shipping firm from 1881 to 1941 that specialized in the African trade.  The German Navy requisitioned the Wangonia in World War II, and the ship finished her life as the USSR ship the Chukatka.

Next posting, Joan and Elsie join 'Bert' in Uganda....

 

Joan Pawsey Shoucair - An English Woman in the 20th Century Vortex of Change....Part 1

by Glenn N. Holliman

A Chance Meeting and a Door Opens to History....

 

In 2012 my wife Barbara and I met Joan Shoucair on a Rhine River cruise.  We became good companions, and I began to learn of Joan's fascinating story.

Right, Joan in November 1944 on leave in Cyprus from the British Army.  Her parents probably would have been appalled if they had known their daughter was wearing trousers!  Said Joan, "How could I climb a mountain in a dress?"

When Joan came into this world 26 December 1921, the British King-Emperor George V, reigned over one-fourth of the globe's population. She and millions of other school children were taught that the sun never set on the Empire which circled the planet.

As a child in 1927, she and her mother, Elsie Newton Pawsey, traveled from England to Kampala, Uganda to join her father, Henry Herbert Pawsey, a businessman, soon to be colonial administrator.  In 1934, she went back to England for boarding school and returned in 1938 to employment with the Uganda Protectorate.

Left, Joan stands between her two parents at their home in Kampala around the year 1932.  Alas the family dog was eaten later by a leopard!

In early 1944, she flew from Uganda on a Imperial Airways flying boat to Cairo to serve with the British Special Operations Executive in Force 133.  After the war, she helped establish the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Agency.  Later, she married an Lebanese businessman with an artistic flair.  Albert Shoucair wrote poetry in French and English and his professional photographs grace several works of Egyptian archaeological treasures.   

Her mother is buried in Kampala, her husband in Egypt and her father in England.  Joan served in a World War, observed the rise of African nationalism, dodged death in an Arab uprising and the raging of Islamic fundamentalism.  She survives in the 21st Century having lived a long and complex life...in a world of constant change.

 I am indebted to Joan for many hours of sharing memories and photographs.  Below in her flat in Greater London in December 2013, she identifies pictures from her large collection of memorabilia of the Uganda Protectorate and Egypt from 1926 to 1989, the year she returned to England.

  Next posting, we begin our exploration of the adventurous life of Joan Shoucair!