Peter Neal was born in London, on the 25th of April 1927. The year after Peter was born, in 1928, he remembers people saying that the sun didn’t shine for ninety days straight due to the smog!
His father was a Methodist Minister and the family moved approximately every three years. In 1945, when Peter was eighteen, he was called up for three years of war service.
Following his service in the war, Peter went on to Kings College London to study Geography and Maths. The careers advisor suggested that Peter apply to the Colonial Service, which he did and was offered the post of Surveyor in Uganda.
Peter met, and married his wife Honor and they had their first son, David. Peter set out from Liverpool Street Station on the Boat Train to board the ship called the ‘Durban Castle.’ He remembers it as being a “ghastly voyage!’ He was on only half salary until he reached Uganda and thus could only afford a tourist class ticket. He remembers sharing a small cabin with strangers and walking up the corridor to use the lavatory.
Honor followed on with David three months later and shortly after arriving in Africa, they had their second son, Paul.
Peter was busy working for twenty years in Africa. He set up proper titles for land, which previously didn’t exist, put boundaries in the ground and made maps of the area. He found time to play the organ in church and remembers having to repair it after it was damaged in an earthquake!
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