"My mother has often told me how deeply lonely and at times very difficult life was for my grandfather (Capt. Wm Barton), and also my grandmother, especially at times when she was all on her own in places like Pakwach. Exciting, fascinating lives, but also faceted in some stations with loneliness and extremely difficult living conditions & debilitating health facets.

"There were also appalling tragedies. For example, paddles [of the sternwheelers sometimes] got blocked with water reeds and / or papyrus. Men had to get overboard to clear the paddles, and sometimes men were lost to crocodiles which attacked them. Sometimes, the sternwheelers were blocked by enormous floating 'islands' of reeds, that moved about during bad storms on the lakes. Apparently, the men tried to shoot the crocodiles ,to protect the men, but apparently sometimes there were so many [crocodiles} that there were tragedies.

"When I was about 13/14 my grandfather, Capt Barton, dragged out an entire tin trunk ... brimming with his old photos... and I was given the rather stern instruction to sort through and take all the ones I wanted. There were so many, and my Mother was not particularly charmed at the idea of coping with a whole pile of photos back on train all the way home to Jinja, Uganda ..."

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