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Name: COWHAM, Walter Bilton

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Birth Date: 30 May 1875 Raneegunge, Bengal

Nationality: British

First Date: 1897

Profession: Appt. as engineer of the stern wheeler Kenia; Kenia lost, stayed to work for Boustead, Ridley & Co. on steam launch Ruwenzori on Lake Victoria. Volunteered to help troops during Sudanese mutiny, dep. Kampala for Luba's 22.10.1897

Area: Lake Victoria, Kampala

Married: In Durban 27 Oct 1920 Mary Constance Morgan b. 1893

Book Reference: North, Globe

General Information:

North - Joined UP 30/5/1898; Joined Uganda Railway 25/9/1899; Member of erection team of s.s. Wm. Mackinnon at Ugowe Bay; arr. Nairobi from Port Alice 14/11/1900 on way to coast & UK
The Globe Trotter - 6/3/07 - Article by J.T. Oulton entitled 'The Wanandi and the Wire' about the early days of the telegraph line. " …… I accompanied Mr Cowham who was transporting the finishing loads for the steamer "Sir William Mackinnon" from Molo to Kisumu. When two marches out we dug up the cable for the "Sir Wm. Mackinnon" which Cowham had been compelled to drop on the previous trip owing to the warnings of the officer in charge of Fort Ternan who declined to be responsible for the safety of the caravan unless they reached Fort Ternan that night. Cowham and his men did the 34 miles into Fort Ternan before darkness fell. …"
[He appears to have taken his father's middle name - he was probably named Walter Victor Cowham. His father, b. 1836, would have been too old to take the EA job.]

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