EPILOGUE

Heather met Jake Wilson, who was to become my father, in Burma sometime in 1946. Jake had taken up the post of Economic Botanist with the Agricultural Branch of Agriculture and Rural Economy Departments (Burma) and had sailed for India in June 1945. He was based in Mahlaing, from November 1945, which is some 20 miles from Meiktila. I recall Heather saying they met at the tennis club, Jake was on the court and my mother was likely on duty at the time_[1].

Heather having left Burma and spent time in Ceylon, sailed from Bombay, India in September 1946 aboard the "Khandalla" for Cape Town where she was reunited with her family and friends that she had not seen for 18 months.

Life must have felt somewhat dull after all the adventure but that would soon fade as she got back into the old routine. It was only when she wrote to Jake in the latter part of 1947 to say that she was had become 'unofficially' engaged to someone that things livened up. Jake was furious, writing back to say that he was the one for her and wanted to know why was she marrying someone different. Heather's fiancee, a school inspector, was soon to be sent on a 3 month tour of schools and as the weeks passed, the letters from him became less and less frequent until she wrote suggesting they call off the engagement. She got his reply and immediately sent a telegram to Jake asking if she 'could exercise a woman's prerogative and change her mind'.

By now Jake had returned to England and had accepted a post as a lecturer at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in St Augustine (Trinidad) so Heather found herself once again aboard a ship, "City of Exeter" _[2], with a new wedding cake and trousseau, sailing for Plymouth and onto Trinidad.

The wedding was held on the 24 August 1948 at Christ Church, Cascade, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

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FOOTNOTE

[1] Where my parents actually met will no doubt elude me (and it now has gone full circle) but I suspect it must have been Meiktila. The army base would no doubt have had tennis courts which Jake would have made use of as he was only 20 miles away and still in the Army.

[2] "City of Exeter" gross tonnage 13,350, 514ft long, 100 first class passengers

Link to website: "City of Exeter"