There was a young man called Purves
Who joined the Colonial Service.
After a month in the bush
He was given the push
- Africans made him feel nervous.
An elegant candidate nurse
Appeared before Major Ralph Furse.
When offered a post
In Fiji or Gold Coast,
She said ‘I can't think of anywhere worse’.

I have been invited to talk about a Colonial Service (CS) retrieval project undertaken with the anointment of John Pinfold at Rhodes House Library and the blessing of Terry Barringer of the Royal Commonwealth Society Library (despite her emigration lock, stock and barrel to Cambridge). I launched it in October 1996 in the pages of the Overseas pensioner (giving me immediate access to some 5,000 readers). The collection closed in March 1998.