Jimmmy Sproule served as a senior RAMC / General Staff Officer in Cairo, Egypt from November 1935 to January 1942, with a home leave in August / September 1937 and a more curtailed leave in summer 1939 (WWII was declared on 3rd September 1939).  He was joined for all this time by his wife Clare, and for much of it by daughter Peggy.  Son Brian came out for some school holidays.   Clare and Peggy took all the opportunities available to travel widely and take photographs, and we will be taking the opportunity to run some of them in Ciaofamiglia.

NOVEMBER 1936 - CLARE'S PHOTO ALBUM OF HER EXPEDITION TO ST CATHERINE'S MONASTERY, MT SINAI

FEBRUARY - MARCH 1937 - CLARE'S HAND COLOURED PHOTOS FROM HER EXPEDITION TO PETRA

Just look at the meticulous detail of Clare's hand colouring

JERUSALEM - 1940

There are more light filled studies from Jerusalem in Clare's albums if we have time ....

Cairo

Off to work in Cairo c1937

British military technology on display at the Coronation Day Parade in Cairo, 12 May 1937, watched by Clare, Jimmy and Peggy Sproule.

Clare took some stunning river photos in Egypt - full of reflected drama

c1938 - Clare, Peggy & Brian visit a Pyramid

1938 - Clare surveys the world from the top of the Great Pyramid

Jimmy poses in the desert - c1940

1941 - Colonel J C Sproule awarded the CBE - link to the Citation

Jimmy & Clare's Cairo farewell November 1941 - Clare took the photos, Peggy wrote the captions !

There are several other photo albums of explorations, picnics etc, and just as many of army social life and the Gaziera Club, but our time ran out!

1941 December - Jimmy & Clare leave Cairo for UK via South Africa, though Clare may have ended up diverting via the USA after a swim in South Africa.

HOME LEAVES

There are lots of evocative photos of 1930s holiday visits to Cornwall & Devon, and N Ireland, not to mention some award winning photos like this one of Kyrenia, from a Cyprus stop off ....

and a hand coloured photo of a pre-war harvest in Ireland

Here is the family Sproule on UK leave in the late '30s, or on second thoughts more likely after they all came home in the early 1940s

and Clare gets in some war preparation 

Early 1940s - Fletchers in Cairo

1942 - el Alamein

The Second Battle of el-Alamein (23 October to 4 November 1942) was the first major allied victory of WWII.  Adrian's Dad Captain Michael Fletcher was the 8th Army's Chief Cipher Officer.  Earlier in June 1942 Capt Fletcher had flown in to the besieged City of Tobruk to sort a major cipher snafu.  This done, he bumped into a navy acquaintance and was offered a submarine lift back to Alexandria.  As it turned out this was the last warship to get out before the City was overrun by German forces and its 35,000 strong garrison became prisoners of war on 21 June 1942.  So without this kind act by the Senior Service, Adrian would not have joined the world in December 1943 !   In the months before the battle of el Alamein General Montgomery was particularly concerned about bolstering the severely bruised morale of his army by bringing "welfare amenities" such as ENSA concerts and cinema right up to front line areas.

Around the middle of Colonel F's medals, the Africa Star carries the bar of the 8th Army Clasp.

The 8th Army was created in October 1941, but the clasp was restricted to service in the "good times" - after 23 October 1942.

CITATION FOR CAPTAIN FLETCHER'S WARTIME MBE

Back in England - mid 1940s

Clare and Jimmy Sproule returned to England via Cape Town in November 1941.  Adrian was born in the Anglo American Hospital, Cairo, in December 1943, and by the Spring of '44 everyone except Jimmy Fletcher was back at Hurworth Grange (nr Darlington, Co Durham) where the southerners had been evacuated to.

Clare & Jimmy Sproule, Brian Sproule (Peggy's brother), Michael Peggy & Adrian Fletcher, Ethel Fletcher (Michael's mum)

at Hurworth Grange, nr Darlington.