Accompanied Hobley on caravan to Uganda in 1894

Fitzgerald - Observations of the variations in the level of Victoria Nyanza. Observations begun in Jan 1896 by direction of Mr Ernest J.L. Berkeley, H.M.'s Commissioner who placed this work under the charge of Mr R.J.D. Macallister.

Matson - 1895 - Company official at Port Victoria

EAHB 1905 - Sub-Commissioner, Fort Portal, Uganda.

IBEA Co. General Africa Staff - appointed 5th July 1890. Served until 1893. Laid tramway across Mombasa Island and narrow gauge railway to Mazeras; Discovered argentiferous galena lodes near the coast at Mazeras and elsewhere; appointed one of the three first class administrative officers, Uganda 1894; Vice-Consul (Queen's Commission) 1895; First Sub-Commissioner, Nile Province.

North - Appt. Executive Engineer IBEA Co. 5/7/1890; In charge of construction of Mombasa to Mazaras light railway; Appt. 1st Class Asst. UP 31/8/1894; dep. Mombasa for Uganda 13/10/1894; arr. Mumia's 5/2/1895; Sub-Commissioner Nile Province 1895; Based Port Victoria Dec 1895; home leave 1897; arr. Port Victoria 24/2/1898; First Collector in Ankole, set up base at Muti (Mbarara) 1898; Sub-Comm. Ankole June 1899; at Wadelai May 1901; leave 1901; arr. Mombasa and dep. for Uganda 7/1/1902; dep. Mombasa for SA on four months' leave 26/10/1903; d. 10/4/1909

Land - R.J.D. McAllister and R. Diespecker leased 128000 acres at Mwale passed to C.S. Goldman Syndicate, Protectorate: Exchange considered

Land - 1908 - R.J.D. Macallister - Grazing, 5038 acres, Naivasha Lake, 19-3-06, Registered 15-6-08

IBEA Co. - Nominal List of British Born Subjects resident in IBEA Territories within the Sultan's Domain, 30 April 1891 - J.R.P. Macallister, England, Railway

BEA Vol. 1 p.24 - Throughout 1891 Macallister was surveying in the service of the IBEA, but he left Mombasa for the UK at the end of January 1893. He returned having taken service with the Uganda Protectorate with effect from 31 August 1894, and in October was in Mombasa fitting out a caravan for Uganda. He remained in East Africa until his death in 1909.

BEA - Vol. 1 p.39 - ….. This leads us to the question of Macallister's personality, and here philately has provided the key to more certain historical information. The Dictionary of East African Biography reveals scant details about Macallister: the dates of his life, 1862-1909; his training as an engineer; his appointment to the service of the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1890, and something of his later career in the Uganda Administration, but nothing of his social background. Some years ago I described him as an elusive character.

BEA Vol 1 p. 40 - ……. R.J.D. Macallister's only son, The Revd. B.R. McAllister (1902-78). Unfortunately he was able to give little more information, having been less than two when his father was last in Britain and only 7 when he died in distant Africa, but he produced photographs and copies of the IBEA Company contract and the commission as Vice-Consul in Uganda. He also stated that his paternal grandfather was an "impecunious and over productive" clergyman who found the education of his 13 children a problem. I find that his eldest son was 7 years at Christ's Hospital, the third was briefly at Merchant Taylors, and the youngest at Bury St. Edmunds Grammar and Corpus Cambridge. It is no surprise therefore that some of the sons "sought to make their fortunes in the newly developed colonies" ……. Macallister's own place of education has not come to light, but his middle class, imperial and clerical background are clearly apparent and he went to East Africa as one of the establishment, unlike James Martin, though something of an adventurer also. As for his personality, he must have been tough, resilient and effective in his work, for he was selected to pioneer at Port Victoria (Kisumu), in Ankole, and later in the Nile Province. In 1896 a mechanic at Port Victoria, John Anderson Macdonald, charged him with assault, but it is doubtful whether this was anything more than the expression of a personality clash, common enough when one or two Europeans were thrown together in trying circumstances. A certain stubbornness is also apparent perhaps in Macallister's refusal to be re-examined for the Language allowance - 'As I passed an examination in Kiswahili by Mr James Martin ….. Early in 1895, but was afterwards informed that it could not be accepted because "Mr James Martin could not read or write".' - and his resolve to stay on in East Africa in 1905 after his retirement from Government service on medical grounds. His death from dysentery in the Semliki Valley "where he had been prospecting for some time" was perhaps the result of a rather desperate venture, for his son was reared on the story that he "retired from the Government service to make his fortune speculating in land in Uganda." Later "his partner defrauded him and the transaction fell through …… My mother got nothing back from Africa, everything was stolen after his death." The conclusion on Macallister must be that he was an effective administrator who was aware of the mineral potential of the country but who lost his life in this vain attempt to make a significant discovery, and thus to restore and improve his fortunes. How far he was guilty of using his official position for personal gain through philately could only be assessed through an exhaustive enquiry into the surviving evidence.

Uganda Journal - Vol. 37, p. 34 - [RJD Macallister] …… Richard Baile, his assistant in Ankole, paid a considerable tribute to him when, after 18 months together in their pioneer situation he wrote "I have not the slightest desire to be transferred to another district. Everything goes along smoothly and I have never had the slightest friction with Mr Macallister …….. " Locally he was given a name in Runyankole which has been explained in this way: "Mr Macallister was a tall and stout figure, so huge that the natives feared and nicknamed him the 'Thicket' or the 'Bush' or 'Shrub' in vernacular 'Kisaka'. ………. [lots more about Macallister's work]

Hobley - Surveyor for narrow gauge railway through arid zone and past the tsetse fly belt.