My mother Christine Sandford and my father Daniel Sandford lived in Ethiopia for many years.
Daniel Sandford had travelled across Ethiopia when he was in Aden at that time to meet up with his brother who was working in the Sudan at that time. This he did and found the country so beautiful and the people so friendly that when a chance came for him to work there, took the post of setting up a hides and skin business there.
He and Christine had not been married for long, but his description of the country and the friendliness of the people amazed her and she joined Daniel there.
When the Italians first invaded Ethiopia,it was with the idea of setting up a colony there. But Ethiopia and its people were proud of their country and its people and fought against the Italians and stopped them from making a colony of it. The year passed by, but my family stayed there and found a beautiful place about 50 Kilometres from Addis Ababa called Mulu Sayu where they built a house and rented some land to farm. Foreigners were not allowed to buy land but they could rent it. So, they built a mud and thatched house there.
The oldest four children were born in the UK: Christine, Eleanor, Audrey and Dick but Stephen and I were born in Ethiopia.
My mother would come in from Mulu to have the children born in Addis Ababa, in case of any complications.
When we got to school age, she would teach us, using the help of the P.N.E.U parents national education union which had been set up for people living overseas who could not find a school there. It was an amazing organisation that would set up a curriculum to follow and also provide the books. (This had to be paid for but at a very reasonable rate) So my mother taught us all and various other families heard she was doing this and their children joined Stephen and me. Eventually, the numbers grew to about thirty and there was not enough room in the house. So Christine asked Henry Littler if she could use a room in the British Institute. He said she could and she had two large rooms to use. But the numbers grew and grew and eventually, she had to rent a much larger place to cope with all the children who came. This was the beginning of the English school but everyone called it the Sandford school.
The children were taught up to the end of the primary section—but then the children had to go elsewhere for their secondary education.
I am not sure of the status now but eighty years ago that is how it all started.
I am so proud of my parents for starting it all up and for being the first pupils there.