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Name: MATHEWS, Denis Owen CMG, OBE, FRGS

image of individualimage of individual

Photo Source: For those with baby Old Africa magazine 105

Birth Date: 21 Feb 1901 Hammersmith, London

Death Date: 24 Jan 1984 East Dereham

First Date: 1921

Profession: Sec. and Gen. Manager EA Tourist Travel Ass.; 25 years with Uganda Survey Dept. Retired 1946

Area: Entebbe, Kiambu, Nairobi

Married: In Crayford, Kent 21 Jan 1928 Violet Morgan b. 1906 Greenwich

Children: Terence (1931)

Book Reference: Who's Who, Colonial, Red 22, Rhodesia, Uganda Staff

War Service: Served as Cadet in RAF in WW1, Commissioned RE in WW2

School: Latymer School and Varndean School

General Information:

Colonial - Survey Dept. Uganda 1921-46
Rhodesia - general manager of the East Africa Tourist Travel Association since 1954, had been its secretary and deputy general manager since its inception. Before he settled in Nairobi in 1947 he had spent 26 years in the Survey Dept. of Uganda, broken only by war service with the Survey Section of the Royal Engineers. He has travelled widely throughout East, Central and South Africa Uganda
Staff 1938 - Chief Draughtsman, Entebbe, originally Draughtsman 1921
Colonial - Dir. of Tourism Seychelles 1965
Old Africa magazine 105 Feb-Mar 2023: 1930- worked in mapping office of Uganda Survey Dept. When WW2 broke out he was transferred to Nairobi to work with the Royal Engineers mapping the North Africa campaign. They flew air photos to Nairobi every day. Turned out maps that were printed and sent off at dawn to N. Africa. Worked at night and lost use of one eye because of strain of working under angle-poised light. He was able to put two maps side by side and draw contours. He could judge height from photos. After losing sight in on eye he was transferred back to Entebbe, where he ran an Italian internment camp on site of later Entebbe airport. His son Terence became a sculptor.

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