Biography of Malcolm Archbald SMITH
[Ref. S.1]
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Lesser Building Systems |
Malcolm was out of the office visiting clients one day late in 1976. He arrived at the premises of Bowaters in South London and, upon his arrival, was passed a message to say that he had to return to his office immediately as he was to be sent abroad. When he did get back to his office he was told that the trip would not be for some weeks and there was no urgency! In fact, he did not go until February the next year.
In preparation, Malcolm purchased some suitable clothing from the generous allowance but it was sometime before the trip actually took place.
On 23 February 1977 Malcolm flew from Heathrow to Abidjan, changing planes at Geneva. The following day he flew on to Korhogo where he spent six weeks, returning home on 5 April.
Malcolm's trip to Sudan took place over a period of two and a half weeks from the end of August 1977. He was sent as a Technical Advisor to Capper Neil who were erecting some Supacom buildings as part of their construction camp for a sugar project in Surfeyia.
In the middle of January 1978 Malcolm was posted to Nigeria. He was to be a Technical Advisor to IMEG for the erection of Supalite buildings. Much of his time was spent travelling in and out of Lagos after initially awaiting the arrival of the ship carrying the goods. He returned home early in February.
Malcolm's next posting in Nigeria was to Lafia . He flew out to Lagos on British Caledonian DC10 Sir Alexander Fleming on 4 March 1978. Two days later he went by road to Enugu where he spent the night then continued to Lafia the following day. He returned home via Jos airport at the end of the month having suffered a broken elbow in a fall on site.
At the beginning of June 1978, Malcolm flew to Lagos again. Before going on to his post he made a detour to Port Harcourt to investigate a problem reported with some Supaskid buildings. Thereafter, he was driven up to Enugu then on to the camp at Lafia. The job lasted just 2½ weeks after which Malcolm flew home from Enugu, having suffered some complications at the airport. However, whilst in Nigeria, he had been able to meet up with an old friend and colleague, Dave Johnson.
This was a three week trip early in 1979 to Abong in Eastern Nigeria, close to the border with Cameroon. Malcolm was sent as a Technical Advisor on the erection of some Supalite buildings in connection with a road project through the mountains.
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