Jeffrey Lincoln-Gordon was born in India, and joined the Indian Postal Service and in 1914 was responsible for mail to Indian troops on the Western Front. After serving in Mesopotamia he joined the Royal Flying Corps flying BE2c and RE8 aircraft. After the Armistice he rejoined the Indian Postal Service with postings around India and Singapore where he was captured in WW2 and survived three years on the Death Railway after which he farmed in Kenya during the Mau Mau. His medal awards with an OBE and two genuine sets of WW1 trios make this possibly a unique group. This is his extraordinary life story.
Views: 288 | Enquiries: 0I grew up in Kenya and served in the Royal Air Force, who also taught me to dive. On leaving the service I completed a commercial diving course, returned to Mombasa and was involved in salvage operations on the Kenya coast. In 1976 I published my first book on East African railway history and in 1977 became a commercial diver in the Arabian Gulf based in Bahrain and later established a marine salvage company. In 1982 I was appointed MD of a Kenya diving company in Mombasa responsible for operations in East Africa and later returned to Bahrain and established a new diving company with contracts in the Gulf and East Africa. With an interest in military history I was involved in the restoration of British forces graves in Bahrain, and the recovery at sea of a propeller from a crashed Air France airliner as a memorial to those killed and was honoured by the French government. In the 1990s I published a number of books on the military and transport history of East Africa and an acclaimed study of the German cruiser ‘Königsberg’ sunk in East Africa in 1915. Later writing articles for a number of aviation, medal and railway journals. In recent years I co-organised steam train safaris in East Africa and led World War 1 Kenya battlefield tours. Now resident in the UK, writing and research continues, together with presenting talks on a variety of subjects.
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