11 December 1972

4 Croft Lodge,
Crowbrough,
Sussex

Dear Astbury

I had hoped that the editor of the Sudan Diocesan Autumn Review would include the following in an account I wrote for him re the birth of the Gezira Irrigation Scheme in the Sudan, and that I could then send you a copy. However, he couldn't manage it, so I now write it. When in 1925 Mr. Tottenham retired from service in Egypt he was the last of the senior British Civil Engineers trained mainly at Roorkee and Coopers Hill and most with experience of Irrigation in India, who have served the Egyptian Gov't from 1885-1925 when Egypt obtained independence. Over these 40 years their fame rests mainly on the beneficial Irrigation works for control and distribution of the waters of the Nile in Egypt and the Sudan and the sapient prosperity of the two countries.

You will see from the enclosure what a useful contribution Coopers Hill men made to the welfare of Egypt and the Sudan. As a matter of fact Depuis and I were the only Coopers Hill men who were responsible for irrigation developments in the Sudan but Garstin, a Roorkee man, reported on its possibilities.

Yours as ever P.M. Tottenham