On Call in Africa: In War and Peace 1910 - 1932

A unique and fascinating combination of personal memoirs, corroborated by official war diaries, richly illustrated with personal photographs of events 1910-1932 in East Africa. These memoirs of Dr Norman Jewell provide an intriguing account of the life of a young doctor working for the Colonial Medical Services starting in the Seychelles in 1910. After four idyllic years, Norman joined WW1 in East Africa; he was posted to Kisumu on Lake Victoria as a Captain in the British Army and then to the Field Ambulance unit. This took him all over British and German East Africa via circuitous routes and battlefield skirmishes chasing the elusive, undefeated German commander General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Aside from the risk of injury and death from the battlefields, he faced hunger, recurrent malaria and dysentery attacks. The supply chain was fraught with difficulties due to the vast distances of walking it took to deliver goods. Mention is made of the Pike report which exposed the poor management of the Medical Service command. After a particularly bad bout of malaria in late1917, Norman spent six weeks convalescing in the Seychelles where he met his young daughter for the first time.Returning to East Africa he rejoined the Ambulance unit in the Lindi area where the pursuit of Von Lettow-Vorbek continued through the southern part of German East Africa (now Tanzania). He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in 1917 and continued to serve in the front line until the end of the war.He returned to civilian life as a doctor in the Colonial Medical services in Kisumu and was confronted by the Spanish Flu pandemic. The story also encompasses his escape, while on leave in 1920, from assassination during the Bloody Sunday events in Dublin. Norman recounts the development of medicine in the young colony, the management of epidemics and gives descriptions of the people and places he encountered while working in Mombasa, Nakuru and Nairobi until 1932.The third part of the book is a short biography of his wife, Sydney Auchinleck, a published poet at sixteen years and the first woman to graduate in chemistry from Trinity College, Dublin. It describes the early years of women's higher education in Ireland, her frustrated desire to become an engineer and follows what happened to their children.This memoir and the war diary transcripts are a timely contribution to the commemoration of the centenary of WW1. 


An absolutely fascinating memoir of a doctor's life in Africa and an evocative and wholly authentic account of the East African campaign, 1914-1918, in a forgotten corner of the Great War. William Boyd, author of An Ice Cream War; This book has wonderful photographs, and the Official Diary transcriptions have full National Archive transcriptions. The index of several hundred names is a boon to family historians and a must have book for the WW1 enthusiast. Ann Crichton-Harris, author of Seventeen letters to Tatham; A fascinating source that will be of great use to historians, as well as the general reader, interested in the complex interrelationships of colonialism, medicine and war. Anna Greenwood, author of Indian Doctors in Kenya 1895-1940; I confess it was the chapter on Norman's wife, Sydney Elise Auchinleck and Trinity's first female graduate in Chemistry that captured my interest. Donall MacDonaill, Trinity College, Dublin. 


PART ONE: The Beautiful Islands; The start of the East Africa Campaign; The War on the Lake; Into Action: Latema-Reata; The Campaign at Handeni and Morogoro; The Battle for Kibata; The Beginning of the End in German East Africa; Kisumu and Nakuru; The Big 'Flu Epidemic; Life as a District Medical Officer; Modern Medicine v Primitive Treatments; Mombasa and the Coast; Return to East Africa; Medical Work in Mombasa; Modern Steamers Replace Ancient Dhows; Nairobi and the Highlands; Memories of Nairobi; Development of Big-Game Hunting; Some Reminiscences of Life in the Highlands; End of an Era.