In August I am visiting The Gambia.

The country contains three cemeteries or memorials, namely:
(1) The Gambia Memorial in the capital Banjul;
(2) The Fajara War Cemetery:
(3) The R.W.A.F.F. Memorial Tablet, Fajara War Cemetery.

I am likely to visit all three and, in the unlikely event that anybody requires any photographs of any aspect of these Memorials, I am more than happy to take some.

Regards,

Simon Bull.

Simon

You are wrong! I need a pic.

Would you be able to get the following pic for me at Fajara. It would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Name: STILWELL, ERIC CHARLES
Initials: E C
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant (W.Op./Air Gnr.)
Regiment: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: 204 Sqdn.
Age: 35
Date of Death: 13/07/1944
Service No: 1286652
Additional information: Son of Charles and Elsie Lisaura Stilwell; husband of Winifred Gertrude Stilwell, of Hillingdon, London.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 3. A. 3.
Cemetery: FAJARA WAR CEMETERY

Also at Fajara please.

MONTGOMERY, Staff Serjeant (Mechanic), E F C, CR/1240. Rhodesia Regiment attd. 3rd Bn. Gold Coast Regiment, R.W.A.F.F.. 20th January 1943. 4. B. 1.


Roop for SAWGP

Simon
I'd be most grateful for specifically the following, but the whole Essex panel if there is one & a general view of the Memorial, please,
Gratefully,
Bob Pike

MARKHAM-ROSE, KENNETH
Initials: K
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Lieutenant
Regiment: Essex Regiment
Secondary Regiment: Royal West African Frontier Force
Secondary Unit Text: and Gambia Coy.
Date of Death: 03/05/1916
Additional information: (Buried at Jaunde Rd., Cameroons).
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Cemetery: GAMBIA MEMORIAL

Simon if you have a chance could you take pics of these 2 Australian graves please?

EVANS, BRUCE SYDNEY
Initials: B S
Nationality:Australian
Rank: Flight Sergeant
Regiment: Royal Australian Air Force
Age: 20
Date of Death: 22/09/1943
Service No: 413751
Additional information:Son of Edward Henry and Amy Geraldine Evans, of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 3. E. 1.
Cemetery: FAJARA WAR CEMETERY

SYMONS, FREDERICK LLOYD
Initials: F L
Nationality:Australian
Rank: Pilot Officer
Regiment: Royal Australian Air Force
Age: 22
Date of Death: 13/07/1944
Service No: 409251
Additional information:Son of Percy and Violet Symons; husband of Agnes Annie Symons of Werneth, Victoria, Australia.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 3. C. 1.
Cemetery: FAJARA WAR CEMETERY

Thanks
Robbie

Hi Simon

I went to Fajara when I went to the Gambia, primed to get Terry's shot of Stillwell.
If you are staying on the coast, Fajara is a short taxi ride from the hotels (the name of the one we stayed at will come back to me shortly). However, it is off the normal taxi rat runs for which there are fixed prices. So you will get charged a price which seems higher than for a similar distance going down the coast to another area or hotel. Having said that, its not expensive - I think it was £2-50 sterling or thereabouts. Fajara is mainly under shade trees, three sides of a square. Its on red soil, which can be muddy if you visit immediately after watering. (Told you it would - the Kombo Beach Hotel!). What startled me was that the CWGC chargehand sidled up to us and requested a tip - undertones of its worth a few bob to ensure that the work goes on.
As you probably know, the majority of Gambians near the tourist areas seem to live on tips, provided by the Europeans holidaying there. I have to say that it got very wearing. I had 800-odd units of the local currency (the dalasi, roughly 50 to the pound) left on the final day, with just the trip to the airport to worry about. So IIRC, I tipped the hotel porter who took our bags from the room to the waiting area, the guy who loaded the bags on to the coach, the coach driver, a collection basket on the coach ostensibly for a local charity, the guy who off-loaded our bags at the airport, a porter from the coach to the check-in desk, a guy (in uniform) who was organising the queue, and finally the guy who lifted the bags off the customs inspection table on to the belt to be taken away to load (well are you going to risk your bag getting split open wile being flung on to a lorry?). Result? Zero Gambian dalasis and we bought our refreshments using sterling. I hope your experience is more positive, Simon.

Glad that Terry's getting a second chance at Stilwell - I went with a new digital camera, and despite two visits to the cemetery, couldn't master its quirks sufficiently well to get Terry's photo. I did get some, but despite thinking I had taken several of Stilwell, not Terry's! Enjoy it Simon - sure to be pretty hot in August!

Amazed by the response - I nearly did not say I was going as I did not think there would be any requests!

Will try to fulfill all requests.

Thanks for the help Greenwoodman. This is in fact my fourth visit to The Gambia and I have traveled elsewhere in Africa, so I know things can sometimes be difficult there. Being used to Africa, I have passed finding the people in The Gambia wearing - usually I find a firm refusal does not offend and often leads to an interesting conversation with people whose interest in our culture is greater than our interest in theirs. That said I do not blame Gambians for trying to get money from tourists when they can, most of them are living on amounts of money that we could not hope to survive on and we are wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

Despite getting malaria on my second visit (yes I was taking the pills as well), our experience has been very positive, but one has to travel bearing in mind that this is a very poor country totally lacking in natural resources whose only source of revenue is tourism. Resources are insufficient to offer services of the standard that we are used to, and if the Gambians do not make money from tourism they risk starvation - it is that simple.

We have always been treated with courtesy and kindness and now have friends in The Gambia with whom we have traveled right up country away from the tourist resorts on the coast, where we have met unfailing courtesy and a good welcome. Even when I was very ill, I was cared for and treated with great consideration and my experience of the only hospital up-country in The Gambia was an eye opener as to what life is like for most people living in underdeveloped countries, where there is virtually no infrastructure for health care. When I was unwell my wife traveled on further up country with our Gambian friends and was treated with courtesy and friendship throughout, even if she was sometimes treated as something of a curiosity, being the first white person some people she met had ever seen.

I really do think that one has to approach The Gambia (and Africa in general) with a different mindset. These are countries which do not and cannot operate in the way that we do, they simply lack the natural resources. Despite the poverty in The Gambia, in my experience, crime is virtually non-existent, and I have gone to very poor areas with expensive cameras and telescopes for birdwatching, where the temptation to steal from me must have been very great. Furthermore, despite their poverty, the Gambians have received tens of thousands (probably hundred of thousands) of refugees from West Africa's brutal and savage civil wars into their country without complaint and made them welcome. Imagine the uproar if people in the UK (all wealthy beyond the widest dreams of most Gambians) were asked to welcome refugees from a War in continental Europe in the manner that The Gambia has received refugees from wars in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal and other places.

The people are, within their economic capabilities, in my experience, the most welcoming I have ever met and they are justifiably proud of their country's climate, welcoming people and beautiful coastline. T

It will be apparent from the above that I love the place. Always feel safe, welcome and comfortable. My wife feels the same, even when she has traveled as the only white face in what is entirely black Africa and would be seen by some as a place to be feared. Would that I could say that black visitors would be met with so little prejudice in all parts of Britain! That said, I would not encourage people to visit if they are looking for western standards of comfort or facilities, or cannot live with service which, though kind and affable, is not always quick by European standards. Nor, in my opinion, is it worth visiting if (as most tourist do) you are not gong to leave the narrow area around the beaches inhabited by the coastal hotels. On our second visit a British family staying in our hotel did not leave the grounds of the hotel until the last day of their holiday - scarcely the way to experience Africa.

Finally, I would add that (particularly for those not constrained by school holidays who can visit in the UK winter) The Gambia is one of the best birdwatching locations in the world.

The bird-watching was fantastic, I must admit. We visited in February 2004, but a short visit only, which didn't give us an opportunity to get away from the coast, apart from Abuko. Despite being well-travelled, I didn't find it pleasant, and my wife has said that she wouldn't go back, she found the hassle distracted from the holiday. A different experience to yours.

Sorry you didn't like it Greenwoodman - I know some don't as my father-in-law who is well-traveled went there and did not like it.

Hope you don't mind me posting these Simon. For Robbie - I took these (some of the few to make it!) for the Australian War Grave Site (proper name I can't remember).

And Symons

And the cemetery

Very kind of you thanks Richard. The red dirt/dust reminds me of cnetral Australia.

Robbie

I also have, photographed as an interesting stone, Roop's Montgomery!

Greenwoodman - feel free to post any that you have.

I will bump this topic up again nearer to my departure to see if there are any other "takers".

That was lucky!! Thanks Greenwoodman.

Have sent an email

Roop

Just bumping this up as my departure gets nearer.

Hi Simon,

If you wanted to take ALL the graves in these cemeteries I know that the British and Indian (soon to be online) versions of the war grave projects would be ecstatic. Gamibia isn't exactly easy to get to and it isn't every day that one can complete a country and a hard one to get to at that.

I know there is a lot to do there, but if you buckle down you'll have a heck of an accomplishment at the end. I recently did Thailand (ALL) in a couple of days time. This way if we (the projects) ever did need a stone we'd have them courtesy of your hard effort. Trust me when I say it is all worth it when you can give that photo to a loved one after so many years, then have them cry on your shoulder and thank you and then being able to say that it was nothing and that you were happy to help. I just did this for a girl in Australia, got her great-grandfather's grave in Argentina.

Ralph McLean

Hi,

Forgot to mention that there is only the one burial ground and then the memorials. Total including the memorials is only 269. An easy hour or two of snapping pix. Do them all if you can including the non-CWGC graves in CWGC care.

It would be appreciated.

R.

Just to mention that I have taken the photographs, but it may be a little while before I get around to sending them as I am snowed at work. Feel free to chase me if I have not done anything in say 3 weeks.

Apologies to those who are still waiting for me. I have not forgotten this, but a combination of computer problems and pressure of work has stopped me getting it done. Until problem on computer fixed I cannot get on with it.

Will eventually do it.

Simon<
No problem, when you can,
Thanks,
Bob

Just to say that I have now at last got around to forwarding photographs to all those who Greenwoodman had not assisted.

For future searchers I think I have photographs of all names on the Gambia Memorial in Banjul (formerly Bathurst) and I have random photographs from the Fajara War Cemetery.

Feel free to ask if you are looking for a commemoration from The Gambia

Simon,
Great photos despite the rain & an interesting memorial. I'd be very interested in any further information Pals might have on Lt. K Markham-Rose, Essex Regt, who is on the memorial?
Bob