![]() ![]() He became a lieutenant-colonel, with decorations including the Croix de Guerre and the Ordre du Lion. His awkward escape from a crumbling France in 1940 was the prelude to his war service and postings for intelligence work in the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and the Congo. In outlook he had become an internationalist, fitting him for work in the International Labour Office in Geneva for six years from 1934, but his internationalism became clouded by pessimism as fascism rose in Europe. Joining the British Colonial Service in 1930, he went to Northern Nigeria, discovering ‘the wonderful world of Africa’ and loving it. He visited Japan and wrote The Japanese Population Problem. Later, at Stanford University, California, his interest in demography quickened. At the University of Adelaide he changed to an arts course, after which, with a sound classical education and fine results, he entered Balliol College, Oxford, to read history and law. He attended school in Peterborough and then, planning to become an engineer, Adelaide’s Junior Technical College. ![]() Much of his own life, however, has been lived in cities, including several of the world’s largest. Born at Silverton, New South Wales, on 25th March 1902, the son of grazier and farmer Robert Crocker and his wife Alma (née Bray), Walter Russell Crocker had a happy childhood in the Peterborough district, where he began a life-long love of the South Australian countryside and people. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |