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.
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....