Railway Goan Institute Centenary - 2009 -Memories I - By Millie Correia

[John Joseph]

MEMORIES OF MY GRANDFATHER, CAJETAN FRANCIS XAVIER D'SOUZA

By Millie Corriea

My maternal grandfather, Cajetan,Francis,Xavier D'Souza, an only
child, was born in Porvorim, Goa. He finished his Premer Grau in Goa,
went to Poona (British India) to study Engineering at the Wadia
College. After he obtained his degree he went to Karachi, married a
beautiful lady - named Flavia. They had a family of thirteen children,
of which only ten survived. Of his two sons, one became a Lawyer, Joe
D'Souza in Poona, and the other Alu D'Souza, an Engineer, who resided
in Singapore, and experienced the second World War and the Japanese
occupation. He and his wife fled to the jungle for three years hiding
from the Japs. His wife - Lydia, is the sister of Dr. Jules De Mello
(Nairobi).

When Cajetan lived in Karachi, he was offered a job by the British
Government in 1899 to work as an engineer for Uganda Railway. They
started laying the railway tracks from Mombasa to Nairobi.
Construction work was constantly plagued by man-eating lions. One
night when the construction train was stationed at Tsavo for the night
a man-eater crossed the tents of the Indian workers, and went straight
into the caboose of the train, and stood on the chest of my
grandfather, who was saying his last prayers. But the lion reached out
to the top bunk instead and snatched the British Officer fast asleep
there.

My grandfather was later to remark, rather sanguinely, "I suppose the
lion preferred white meat to brown".
My grandfather Caveat's picture hangs at the Railway Office in
Nairobi. He was the first Goan Engineer from India to have worked in
Kenya.

He went back with his family to Poona, and later he passed away from
cancer probably from pipe smoking which he loved. He was a well-known
bridge player at the Poona Goan Institute.

I thank God for having one of these fond memories of my grandfather.
My mother, the late Annie Menezes, was one of his daughters, married
to Norbert Menezes, and I am their daughter - Milly Correa

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures by J. H. ...
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