View entry
Name: SWANN, Alfred James (Capt.)
Birth Date: 1855 Shoreham, Sussex
Death Date: 28 Dec 1928 Goring-on-Sea, Sussex
First Date: 1882
Last Date: 1909
Profession: Trained for the sea on which he spent his early years and then went to Africa in connection with transport from Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika of the sections of the mission steamer 'Morning Star' which was to be put together on the lake
Area: Nyasaland, Tanganyika
Married: 1887 Jane Emmelar b. 1866 Bow, London
Children: Winifred Louise (1894 Sudbury); Marjorie Rose (1903 Hackney)
Author: 'Fighting the Slave Hunters in Central Africa'
Book Reference: Gillett, Swann, Hut, Chandler
General Information:
In those days this was a tremendous journey, fraught with danger. He had been warned by Sir John Kirk and others of the risks he would take in this venture but he persevered through many tribulations and had the satisfaction of being the first man to navigate a steam vessel on the great inland sea. He had many other adventures in E. & C. Africa. A friend and colleague of Sir Harry Johnston and Lord Lugard he lived to see the natives saved from slavery and become independent.
Swann - Late Senior resident magistrate of the Nyasaland Protectorate. Spent 26 years in EA. In Tanganyika met Harry Johnston in 1889 on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.
Nat Probate Calendar
1911 England Census living in Worthing
Masters and Mates Certficate 23 Dec 1876 London.
Apprenticed to Merchant Navy 16 Aug 1871, aged 16 for 4 years