Nation Building, British Style

Amongst the more sensible "compare and contrast" discussions of the British Empire and the new American doctrine of more aggressive foreign interventions has been the point that the British typically displayed far more patience with the experience of actually living in their overseas acquisitions, with all the resulting hardships. No "round up the usual exiles" for these guys. As a fine example, check out this amazing obituary from Tuesday's London Times for the gloriously named Leader Stirling. As usual, we think that you should read the whole thing, but be warned -- some of the diseases that Dr. Stirling dealt with in East Africa are painful just to read about. But here are some of the key points about his life:

born in Essex...

a cable from the Universities Mission to Central Africa: “A doctor is urgently needed at Masasi: can you come?” There would be no salary, a suit of clothes every four years, and pocket money of one shilling a day...He spent the next 14 years in mud huts. In the wards -- mud huts -- cooking pots and stores of food, live hens, spears and bows and arrows were stowed under the beds. The operating theatre was an "openwork bamboo building with a grass roof, and every gust of wind filled it with dust and dead leaves. A hen had also found its way in between the bamboos and was nesting quietly in the corner. There was no running water in the hospital, and no lighting except for oil lamps." Nevertheless, with meticulous asepsis he achieved a post-operative infection rate of almost nil....

He devised instruments from simple materials: screwdrivers made ideal supracondylar traction-pins, sewing cotton was perfect for ligatures. Thomas splints were contrived from bamboo, extension cord from plaited palm leaves with stones as traction weights. For intravenous infusions he used triple-distilled water to which he added salt and glucose. ...

When independence was agreed in 1961 he became a Tanzanian citizen. In 1973 Julius Nyerere made him Health Minister and he strove to bring tuberculosis and leprosy under control, closing the leprosaria. He dealt with an outbreak of cholera (brought into the country by air) and reformed the treatment of psychiatric disease.

His funeral was attended by thousands of admirers, and many members of the Tanzanian Scouting organisation, of which he was Chief Scout. It rained in buckets for more than two hours, the first rain for five months: in Tanzanian folklore, it rains only on the funeral of a truly great man.