Memories of Libya 1956 to 1959

Contributed by Trevor STUBBERFIELD 52A

Libyan Scenes Part 2a.

A very pleasant surprise to receive an e-mail from Alan Ward of Sydney, Australia, which contained information with which I could update some of my own experiences.

Trevor 52A a.k.a. The Editor.

Alan Ward writes……

‘I was recently told of this site by an old school friend of mine. I was particularly interested in Trevor Stubberfield’s memories of Libya as I lived in Tripoli when my father was in the British army. He was in the REME for the most part except for the war years. Particularly interesting was that Trevor and my family lived in the same building in No.1 Old Miaet Block, Sciara Zavia, Tripoli, from 1960 until 1964.

In his memories of Libya Trevor show’s a photo of some workers getting off a bus outside of a church which he was not sure of it’s location. The caption of the photo was “A picture of civilian labour turning up for work, or maybe going home. At first I thought it was located at Sabratha, where there is a very similar church, but having recently looked at photos from that area I’m now sure it isn’t Sabratha so perhaps a reader may be able to give a location.”

I can tell him that it is in fact, the Wheelus Air base chapel, the workers were local civilians employed by the US air force base.

I have attached a photo of the block of flats in Sciara Zavia that I had taken about 1963. My family’s flat was in fact on the ground floor just to the left of the main entrance to the building. It would have been opposite to where Trevor lived. I have several other photos taken of the area and in particular the girls school across the road during one of the riot days, they still had them during my time there. I would appreciate if you could pass this information on to Trevor Stubberfield as I am sure he would be interested to know this.

My family moved to Australia in 1964 after my father retired from the army

Alan Ward

Old Miaet Block, Sciara Zavia, Tripoli.

The girls start their protest in the school grounds.

The military gather but can do nothing as they cannot enter the girls’ school.

Hi Trevor, It’s so nice to get a prompt reply from you. I have been doing some more research on the chapel at Wheelus Air Base and am now in some doubt if that photo was of the Chapel in Wheelus. As I have found another photo looking much different and much bigger than the photo in your Libya memories. Although the new photo was said to be taken in 1969, I wonder if it had correct description. My memories of the chapel were of a smaller building, but they are almost 50 years older now. So far I have found two different buildings both described as the base chapel. As it was a non denominational chapel, I can’t imagine that there was more than one of them and it seems doubtful that it would have been rebuilt in the latter part of the 60s.

I have attached some more photos of the Scenes from the Miaet block, two are taken just as the annual riots were due to start as you can see the area was full of police. A day later the road was impassable due to the rubble and other rubbish on the road. Besides the police ended up using tear gas to quell the riot as the girls, from the school, and egged on by their Egyptian teachers, were in full throttle mode. Police with their pick axe handle batons did not work this time. But it got me and my sister a couple of days off school. The other two photos are of the New Miaet block, diagonally across the road from the old block that we lived in, and also of the road up to Garian. As all of these were taken by me, please feel free to use them in any way you think will help your website. All of the photos were taken in 1963 or possibly 1964. But as I left Tripoli in May 1964 I think they were taken in 1963.

The link to the thinking that this was the Base chapel is:

www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ihl4_wheelus-air-base-tripoli-libya_news

It’s about 45 seconds in from the start of the video

Alan Ward.

N.B. For me, the video identifies the Chapel as the one on Wheelus Air Base, even just by looking at the relative sizes of the two palm trees either side of the entrance, so my thanks to Alan for the information.

The Editor.

New Miaet Block, Sciara Zavia, Tripoli.

I sent my photo below to Alan and received more information from him.

C 1958-59.The cart was ramshackle but the produce was first class, and my wife got to pat the donkey for free.

Hello Trevor,

I remember that man and his donkey cart selling the fruit and vegetables. He used to let my younger brother and sister sit on the donkey while my mother bought his produce. From the looks of the photo, it is the same man too. The road that you refer to in front of the girls school was built while I was there, maybe 1961 or 1962. I think it is named An Nasr Street, at least that is what Google maps calls it. I remember being very impressed with the way they built that road. First of all they took away all loose sand and then graded the soft sand down to hard bed rock. They laid large cut rock, sort of like huge cubes of rock that might have been about 2 or so, feet on each side. After that they placed loose chunky gravel on top and used a road roller to pack it down hard. When that was done they used a layer of smaller gravel to make the base for the asphalt. Here in Australia and that includes Sydney where I live, they simply grade away the loose soil until they get to some firm subsoil, lay what they call blue mettle which is a road base gravel, roll it firm and pour the asphalt on top of that. So every time we get prolonged rain we end up with pot hole 6 inches deep because there is no real foundation for the roads.

My father was stationed for a time at Blandford Camp in Dorset which, in the late 50s, had two camps, one REME and across the fields in between, an RASC camp. Dad was in the LAD with the RASC at Blandford. Before we left I remember the RASC leaving and an Artillery unit from Gibraltar moved in. Soon after, we left Blandford for Tripoli again. Ten years later I was on a plane from New York to London and sitting next to me was a man who used to work for an electronics company that was doing some work for the Signal Corp. He told me that they had taken over the REME camp at Blandford. He had spent some time working at Blandford Camp. It only goes to show what a small world we lived in then. It's even smaller now with the internet.

Alan

The road up to Garian.

First Published: 1st May 2011.

Latest Update: 1st June 2018.

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Libyan Scenes Continued