Letter from William Wallace Pettigrew to Andrew Alexander Pettigrew, 6 January 1933

[Address from envelope]

A.A. Pettigrew
The House
Roath Park
Cardiff
England

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P&O.S.N.Co.
S.S. Viceroy of India

6/1/33

Dear Andrew,

Here we are somewhere in the Caribbean Sea with the weather much warmer than ever we find it at home. So far as I am concerned I quite enjoy the heat, but poor Ruth [William's wife, Ruth Pettigrew nee McConochie] is finding it too much and I fear she will never venture on another cruise in the tropics. We have had a delightful time - that is apart from the heat - and I shall never forget my visit to Jamaica. The weather was so rough when we left England that we were delayed about 16 hours so were unable to call at the Azores. We gained the time before we reached Bermuda and had our allotted time on shore. Mr Naime was at the wharf meeting us and very kindly showed us over the Agricultural Station and after lunch took us for a drive over the island. This was very interesting to us being the first tropical

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country we have ever visited. Of course it was very much less interesting than Jamaica where the vegetation is of greater variety and the country considerably greater in extent. Mr Cradwick [William Cradwick (c.1862-1937)] was on board meeting us and after various formalities with the Customs he took us out to Hope Bot[anic] Gardens and put us in charge of Mr Downs [Edward John Downes (1893-1957)] his successor. We stayed the night in an hotel as it was too hot on board while the ship was in port. Mr Downs had us to tea & dinner the first day and then on the following morning he and his wife (a beautiful young Jamaican lady) called at our hotel with a motor and drove us some thirty or forty miles into the interior to visit the Castleton Bot[anic] Gardens which is also under his charge. Needless to say we had a most delightful time and were shown the utmost kindness both by Mr Downs and Mr Cradwick. The latter I am sorry to say lost his wife about two months ago and I am afraid he himself is not long for this world. He is over 70 years of age so that is not bad for the tropics.

Our next call - that is tomorrow - is Antigua and on Sunday we arrive at Dominica where I hope to see J. Jones who was at Kew at the same time as myself.

Kind remembrances to all,

Your affectionate brother,

Willie

(Doc Ref: 2008.038)