About this blog...

I am in the process of preparing a blog of letters and photographs from Kenya and India in the 1920´s and early 1930´s. My grandparents, Allan and Annie Thackeray sent them back to their daughter Joyce who was living in Scotland while her parents were travelling. My grandfather was an engineer for John Fowler of Leeds and was working with the steam ploughs in both Africa and India. The letters are to a young girl, my mother was 8 at the start of the letters, so are not so much about the trials and tribulations of the work but more about general life and of course fond questions about her well being etc but there are some fascinating glimpses of the countries and people.


The first post will be about the journey from Southampton to Mombasa on the SS Wangoni which set sail 26th October 1925 incidentally with Carl Jung on board too.
Should anyone stumble across this first page and have any interesting information re the John Fowler Co, the Thackeray family or agriculture in Kenya and India in the 1920's and 1930's please don't hesitate to contact me. I have many missing gaps. I never knew my grandfather, was too young to ask my grandmother much before she died and my mother died 3 years ago...I don't even know if we have any relations alive on the Thackeray side.
My email is val.littlewood@gmail.com
I would love to hear from you.