Askwith 1 - 1937 Malindi - I suppose George Bateson was not very old for he told me he had retired prematurely. He could have been anything from 45 to 60. He was bald and his skin was a sallow, grey colour covered with beads of sweat. He spoke with a stammer and seemed to find difficulty in expressing himself. But he was friendly and asked me along for a drink at his bungalow on the other side of the town. It was built in a clearing of thorn scrub and faced out towards the sea. It caught what there was of the cool monsoon breeze. It was interesting to hear him talk about the days when he had first come out to Kenya soon after the First World War. District Commissioners in those days had still got to build up their outstations with whatever materials happened to be available - sun-dried bricks, mud and wattle or coral rag near the sea. After spending many years in malarious areas George had told me that he came to regard his frequent bouts of malaria as we would a cold, and the treatment became rule of thumb. Two tablets of quinine, two of aspirin and two sets of tennis repeated as often as possible was the treatment recommended by any pioneer. But in George's case, he only succeeded in bottling up the sickness until, eventually, after becoming virtually pickled in quinine, he contracted the usually deadly cerebral malaria. Being very tough, he survived, but it left his speech slurred and his powers of concentration limited and he had no alternative but to retire on a very meagre pension. ………. His small income seemed to be spent mainly on his two passions, music and cats, of which he had four. He used to walk the mile or so to the post office once a week to see if his order for a particular Mozart Concerto or Bach Cantata had arrived by the mail lorry. If it hadn't he consoled himself by putting on an old record on his wind-up gramophone and fondled the latest kitten on his knee.

1939 England and Wales Register living with wife and dau in Bradford, as 'technically trained .... clerk'.