My Father, Sandy: A Son's Memoir

by Nicholas Wollaston

Nicholas Wollaston was four years old when his father Sandy was killed in 1934—shot dead by one of his Cambridge students. In this memoir, 70 years on, Nicholas finally confronts his loss and goes in search of the father whom he hardly knew. Sandy Wollaston, doctor, botanist, explorer, lived in the last great age of discovery. On extraordinarily tough expeditions to New Guinea, the Sahara, and the Himalayas, he collected new flora and fauna of lasting importance; and in 1924, in tweeds and leather shoes, he accompanied Mallory on his first trip to Everest. My Father, Sandy is a son's tribute and a voyage of discovery—part memoir, part travel history, but above all a moving love story.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[Hester Maree]

Nicholas Wollaston wrote this tribute to his father, who died when Nicholas was only six. The book starts as a biography about Sandy Wollaston - intrepid explorer, doctor, botanist, entomologist, academic - from the late 1890s until his murder by an undergraduate student in 1930.
Most of the book is a record of Wollaston senior’s travels in central Africa and as a naval doctor during the First World War, at a time when travel was slower and more difficult. There are interesting descriptions of his treks, getting to know the locals and his consuming hunger for discovering new sites, birds and insects. Most of the anecdotes were gleaned from Wollaston senior’s acquaintances, friends, his own notes and diaries, archivists and librarians at Clifton and King’s College, Cambridge, as well as societies and clubs to which he belonged. This would explain the detailed, but phlegmatic, travelogue-style chapters, but I particularly enjoyed Sandy’s list of things to take on an African journey.
I gained the impression that this memoir was as much a tribute to the writer’s father as a son’s touching attempt at getting to know him better, as he had only vague memories of him. Perhaps this explains why the last chapter becomes an autobiography of the writer himself.

[Dora]

An interesting read from the son of Sandy Wollaston - doctor, biologist, explorer and late in life, a family man.

Nicholas was only 4 years old when his father was murdered by a student at King’s College, Cambridge. He relates his story of explorations mainly from diaries and correspondence from his father’s friends and colleagues. Quite a lot of it would not be considered very PC now and he did sound a bit of a snob to be truthful but it was a good read.