Sometime in the early 1890s Johnnie Butterworth disappeared from his Rochdale home after a family quarrel. He was not heard of again for months, probably several years. Then, in 1896, a letter arrived at 32 Yorkshire Street from 'Corporal John Butterworth, Kings Royal Rifles, Jullundur, NW India'. For the next four years regular correspondence between Johnnie and his family would reunite the family. By 1896 Johnnie had become Corporal John Butterworth, an 'Uncommission Officer' in Queen Victoria's army, serving with the King's Royal Rifles in post-Mutiny Imperial India. At first Johnnie would...

To Go or Not to Go? To support my husband in his life's work in a country far away? Or to stay in our own country to care for our children? This was the dilemma facing many twentieth century Congo missionaries who were both wives and mothers. There would usually be little choice as to their decision. A wife was expected, and she herself expected, to support her husband wherever his career or vocation took him. Missionaries' own children would generally have to be found alternative homes or be sent to boarding school. The mothers would not only have to endure the consequent family separation...

Lady Winifred Chesterman, wife of the renowned missionary doctor, Sir Clement Chesterman, was in her own right a superb Froebel-trained infant teacher and a highly respected missionary to the people of Yakusu, in what was then the Belgian Congo. From 1920 until 1936 Winifred loved, taught and mothered hundreds of Congolese children. Yet she also had five children of her own, five children who were always central to her heart, and for whom after 1936 she would successfully build a happy united family. Here Hazel Phillips, Winifred's fifth and youngest child, writes of what she knows of her...

Harry Tweedale's war years would see their share of drama, excitement, horror and loss. Conscripted into the RAF in 1940, Harry trained as a signalman and was posted to the Far East theatre of war. Here he would witness the withdrawal from Malaya, the loss of Singapore and the chaos that ensued. His perspective of these historic events would be experienced from amongst the lowest ranks. Harry had attended a prestigious grammar school but the depression years had meant leaving education early, without final academic qualifications, in order to take up paid employment. This would mean he would...

The achievement of independence in former British colonies in Africa did not mean it was the end of the road for so-called 'mission' schools and hospitals. Far from it. This book follows the eventful career of an Englishman who served for twenty years as a secondary school Headmaster (4 times) and senior administrator in Zambia, and shorter spells in Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania. It is a fascinating story of twists and turns in the life of an expatriate in Africa.