peter heath
Peter Heath

Off to Africa


In about 1949 or 50 mother and I followed my grandparents and my sister Loretta out to Africa on a Douglas DC-4 Skymaster. It must have been quite a trip. Thundering through the African skies with propellors whirring and having to land to refuel all the time, in what must have been sweltering heat, with a five-year-old in tow can't have been much fun. Dorothy had been to India in 1935 and spent a few years there so she wasn't entirely unprepared for Africa. She spoke Hindi.

Her first job was as a dental nurse working for a Dr Howe in Greyville, Durban. The violent Zulu clash with the Indian population was in full swing so the Hindi might have come in handy.