Catalogue description Sir Norman King KCMG

Microfilm copy of an informative and well-written ts diary (127pp) kept during his work with the Consular Service in East Africa, July 1914 - December 1916, referring to the confusion which the declaration of war brought to the colonies; his hazardous journey with other British subjects from Dar-es-Salaam, where he had served as British Consul, to British-held Zanzibar; his trip to the British East Africa Expeditionary Force headquarters in Simla, India, where he briefly acted in an advisory capacity before returning to British East Africa and gazetted Political Officer to the Expeditionary Force (September 1914); his irritation with the vagaries of his position and series of stop-gap appointments; his involvement in the disastrous British landing at Tanga, just within the border of German East Africa (November 1914), as interpreter on board HMS FOX, whose mission was to make a reconnaissance of Dar-es-Salaam (November 1914), and as part of the successful expedition to take Mafia Island (January 1915), the first German territory in East Africa to be captured by the British; returning there the following month to take up the post of Political Officer, he describes his handling of native disputes, the monotonous routine of life on the island and his leisure activities of hunting and fishing, eventually returning to the United Kingdom on medical leave (September 1916). The diary incorporates a large number of photographs, taken by Sir Norman and relating to events described in the text.

See 1WM Photograph Archive, Rets Q 107246-271 and DOC 644

King, Norman, Vice Admiral

Unrestricted

• East Africa
• Zanzibar
• Simla, India
• Diplomacy
• First World War, 1914-1918