Vikings to West Africa

[Frogmore]

Argonauts, Vikings, Stratocruisers and William Boyd etc at Accra

In 1955 my father and mother whisked my sister (6months) and myself (3yrs) off to the Gold Coast where my father had been appointed as a technician in the physics department of Legon University. This meant air travel and that has left a huge impression on me ever since.

We lived in a university bungalow in Achimota and I went to a nursery run by Miss Pittam who still wore a pith helmet. After I graduated I went to the Achimota Infant School with William Boyd as one of my classmates. His dad Sandy was the university doctor and once lanced a nasty abcess behind my ear. William published a "Protobiography" in 2005 one of the chapters of which was devoted to his Gold Coast childhood. When I read it I realised that for 3 years or so we lived virtually the same lifestyle. I wrote to him via his publisher Penguin and sent a photo of us sitting outside our bungalow at my fourth birthday party. He replied with a very kind letter. His father, who featured in his "A good man in Africa", died relatively young in Nigeria from a fever but his mother was still alive and well.

One of the most evocative parts of his "Protobiography" was his description of travelling to and from the UK and the aircraft on which we flew. On Sundays a regular haunt was the Lisbon Hotel next to Accra Airport where I would drink Coca Cola and watch the aircraft come and go. My father is an inveterate airspotter so there were two of us putting pressure on to go there. There were the regular BOAC Argonauts and Stratocruisers and, possibly Hunting Clan Vikings with their red tail planes although my father doesnt recall them. I also seem to remember Avro Yorks but this may not be so. There were DeHavilland Herons and we used to wait in our garden during the short tropical evenings for the "6 o'clock Heron" to fly over on its way to Nswam. Now and again there were Constellations and military aircraft like a Lockheed Neptune and a Vickers Valiant. Every week I would go to the BOAC desk in the terminal to collect a timetable - not something which could be done today.

When annual leave came we actually went onto a plane!! To start with they were Argonauts flying via Kano, Tripoli, Rome to London. Later they were Stratocruisers with a downstairs bar where I was taught by a steward to throw peanuts up and then catch them in my mouth. The long trans Sahara leg was at low altitude so you could see dunes and abandoned outposts. Occasionally there was severe turbulence and I have a vague memory of a stewardess nearer the ceiling than the floor next to my seat. My father stays she spilt champagne in his lap as she levitated. The aircraft were usually reliable but on one occasion engine problems necessitated a return to Accra after jettisoning fuel and an oil leak once required an engine to be feathered. Even when we were on leave we would visit London Airport to stand on the roof of the Queen's Building for hours spotting aircraft. My father, now 85 with failing eyesight, lives near Brize Norton and he can still identify all the aircraft using it just by their sound. Once it gets you it never lets go!!