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Sir Geoffrey Colby and the ‘Solent’ Flying-Boat Service to Nyasaland, 1949–50

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Colin Baker
Colin Baker
Affiliation:
Professor of Business and Administrative Studies, Polytechnic of Wales, Pontypridd
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Extract

In the history of Malawi's transport and communications, few modes of travel can be more unusual or fascinating than the flying-boat service from November 1949 to October 1950 between Southampton in Britain and Vaaldam near Johannesburg in South Africa, via Cape Maclear, a somewhat isolated and inaccessible spot on the south-west shore of Lake Malawi, 150 miles from the then administrative capital of Zomba and a further 50 miles from the main commercial centre of Blantyre. Although short-lived and of limited immediate practical importance, its long-term significance was considerable, whilst the details of how the service came about add to our knowledge of the early post-World War II history of colonial Nyasaland, and tell us a good deal about the Governor of the time, Geoffrey Colby.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 1988 , pp. 165 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

Page 165 note 1 Except where otherwise indicated, the information in this short article has come from the National Archives of Malawi, Zomba, File No. 11379, 1, Folios 33–5, 41–5, 48–9, 55, 77, 80, 82, 89, and 91.

Page 165 note 2 Interview with Colby, Lady, 15 March 1983.Google Scholar

Page 166 note 1 The Nyasaland Times (Blantyre), 26 07 1948, p. 5.Google Scholar

Page 166 note 2 Governor to Colonial Secretary, n.d., probably 26 August 1949.

Page 166 note 3 The above two paragraphs are based on correspondence with Hannah, Donald M.; also Lane, Sidney, ‘Operation Ploughshare’, in The Log (Hayes), 41, 2, 03 1980, pp. 12–13,Google Scholarand interview with Lane, Captain, 4 August 1984.Google Scholar

Page 167 note 1 Governor to Chief Secretary, n.d., probably 26 August 1949.

Page 167 note 2 F. H. X. Gwynne to Chief Secretary, 16 August 1949.

Page 167 note 3 Governor's minute of 16 October 1949.

Page 167 note 4 The application for this licence was announced in the Nyasaland Government Gazette (Zomba), 15 09 1949.Google Scholar

Page 168 note 1 Governor's coded telgram to Colonial Secretary, 21 September 1949.

Page 168 note 2 The Nyasaland times, 7 November 1949. The three-month experiment proved a success, and even when the B.O.A.C. service between South Africa and Britian was reduced from three to two flights a week, that via Nyasaland continued, according to BOAC Annual Report and Accounts, 1951–51 (London, 1952), p. 10.Google Scholar

Page 168 note 3 The Nyasaland Times, 27 October 1949.

Page 169 note 1 Interview with SirDodds-Parker, Douglas, 27 November 1983.Google Scholar

Page 169 note 2 Nyasaland Government Gazette, 1949–1950, passim.

Page 169 note 3 Nyasaland Executive Government Minute 129 of 27 February 1950.

Page 169 note 4 Brelsford, W. V. (ed.), Handbook to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Salisbury, 1960), p. 346.Google Scholar