COLUMN
My grandfather, George Watson, was a prolific writer of letters, especially when he was courting my grandmother, Elizabeth Ralls, known as “Ray” to all her friends. Reading the newsy, passionate, and sometimes spicy letters he sent her, you get a real sense of Bechuanaland in the 1930s and an appreciation for dispatch-dependent romance.
George was born in 1900 in the Bamangwato village of Old Palapye. Two years later, he moved with his parents and the rest of the settlement to Serowe, about 60 km away, when a new water source needed to be secured for the community.
He was employed by the Bechuanaland government as a livestock inspector when he was
