Egypt

Gran's Story - Egypt

When Esther, was 11 years old in 1923 she passed an examination giving her entrance to a Higher School Education. However, she could not really avail herself of this privilege as her Father was given a posting to Egypt in 1924 and the whole family went with him.

They sailed from Southampton in the S.S. Marglen on December 19th. 1924 and the journey took two weeks. For five days they saw no land but on the way they called at Gibraltar and Malta.

S.S. Marglen - Image from Norway Heritage

The soldiers had cabins separated from their families but each day Harry took his family up on deck to get some fresh air. Isabella never got undressed at night - as she said - “just in case” - she was very nervous for the whole two weeks. The children had games organised for them to keep them occupied and my Mother recalled leaning over the edge of the boat and watching the ‘flying fish’ leap out of the water.

When they passed through the Bay of Biscay nearly everyone was sea-sick and my Mother recalled this vividly.

Christmas was celebrated during the journey and my Mother said the Army provided a wonderful day for the families. She could remember Father Christmas climbing up over the side of the ship onto the deck with a sack full of gifts for all the children.

Finally they docked at Port Said and were transferred onto small boats to be taken to the shore. Esther remembered small boys swimming out to the boat and passengers throwing coins into the sea for the boys to dive in and pick up. They then boarded a train and took what seemed to Esther, as a child, a long journey. They were met off the train by Army horses and wagons which took them to a wooden house which was to be their temporary accommodation for the first six months in Egypt.

After these first six months they were allocated a flat - No. 1 Talbot Block at Abbassia - 3 miles from Cairo. There were 52 flats in all on two floors - the ground floor being used for storage. Here they had flush toilets, showers and electric lights - a new experience and a luxury for the family!

Because of the hot climate Isabella had a lead casket and each morning she filled this with ice to keep the food cool. Water was kept cool in a ‘chatty’ an earthenware vessel of a design unchanged since Bible times.

My mother recalled that the legs of their tables and chairs had to stand in tins of paraffin oil because of the cockroaches.

School for the children started at 8 o’clock in the morning and finished at 11 o’clock - it was too hot to work in the afternoons. My Mother had to walk across a desert to get to her school and she told me on one occasion when she was walking home, an Egyptian man spoke to her and she felt uneasy about this so she took off her big straw hat and began to run. The Egyptian caught hold of the hat and kept running just behind her. The hat began to unravel and by the time she reached the safety of her home area, the hat was in tatters and completely ruined.

One night about 10.30 p.m. suddenly the block of flats began to sway - her father said “quick, get out on to the veranda”. My Mother helped her parents pick up the younger children and rushed outside. She remembered the veranda was full of women screaming and praying - they were experiencing their first earthquake and it was very frightening. Pictures fell off the walls and the furniture moved around but there was no real damage. It was a different story in Cairo three miles away where the effect of the earthquake was much worse.

Every two weeks the flats were visited by a very smart Egyptian selling goods - mostly items made in brass. He owned a local shop which he called ‘Harrods of London’. Isabella bought several pieces from him from time to time including a gong - this eventually became my Mother’s, who in turn gave it to my daughter Jane because she loved to polish it when she was a child. (This gong is now hanging on the wall in Jane’s home in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, U.S.A.).

Each time he called, this Egyptian trader used to say “I am getting my palace ready for Esther”. One day he announced - “my palace is ready for Esther” and offered Esther’s father Harry £1,000 for her hand in marriage. £1,000 was a large sum of money in those days but fortunately for all of us the offer was refused!!!!

My mother told us of her visits to Heliopolis, near Alexandria and how she sometimes swam in the Red Sea. On one or two occasions Isabella and the children went for a brief holiday at Sidi Bish, this was arranged and provided by the Army.

My mother told of the ride she had on a camel and how when the camel stood up both she and her brother Harry fell over it’s head onto the sand.

She never forgot the sad sight of small children in rags begging in the streets, apparently orphans with no home and no family.

Harry, Esther’s father, continued working as a blacksmith shoeing the horses of army officers and military policemen. He obtained permission to shoe the officer’s polo ponies in his spare time and he employed two Arabs to help him. He also became the official farrier at Gezira racecourse. He sometimes travelled to the Mena Home Hotel where he was employed to shoe the ponies which took tourists to view the pyramids.

My Mother remembered sometimes her father would take her with him on these occasions. They once watched at least one hundred local boys working as a human chain carrying buckets of sand from the base of the Sphinx at Giza to reveal the feet which had been covered for thousands of years.

World attention was focused on Egypt during the 20’s because of the archaeological work being carried out by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings. The first of the treasures from Tutankhamen’s tomb, which had remained hidden and air-tight for 3,000 years, were transferred to a special room reserved for them in Cairo museum. Harry took his family to see the exhibition, anxious that they should not miss this opportunity.

My Mother always said she could not find words to describe what she saw. She remembered the floor was made of rubber, there were coffins of gold and enamel, and a death mask made of pure gold. There were seven coffins ranging from large to small all inside each other and the coffins contained food, jewellery, models of servants and many precious items. She spoke of seeing wonderful paintings and a large stone coffin called a sarcophagus.

In 1927 the family was posted back to England and Harry retired from the Army having completed 21 years service. His decorations included the Mons medal and bar and the silver medal for Long Service and Good Conduct.

The journey home was less stressful for Isabella and the family of eight children (two were born in Egypt) and they arrived in Southampton on Good Friday, April 16th, 1927 when my Mother was fourteen and a half years old.

Back - Next