Chafing at the monotony of
regimental life, he got seconded, and went out to the Nigerian
Frontier Field Force. Here that young fellow of twenty-two, who had
hitherto confined his energies to playing football and boxing, proved
himself not only a natural leader of men, but a born administrator as
well. He quickly gained the confidence of his Haussa troops, and then
set to work to improve the sanitary conditions of Jebba, where he was
stationed. He equipped the town with a good water-supply, as well as
with a system of drainage, and planted large vegetable gardens, so
that the European residents need no longer be entirely dependent on
tinned foods. It was Ronald Buxton, too, who first had the idea of
building houses on tripods of railway metals, to raise them above the
deadly ground-mists. Thanks to him, the place became reasonably
healthy, and his powers of organisation being quickly recognised, he
was transferred from the Military to the Administrative side. His
whole heart was in his work. Like young Kemp, Buxton always stayed in
my house when on leave. Though the most tempting invitations to shoot
and to hunt rained in on him whilst in England, he was always fretting
and chafing to be back at work in his pestilential West African swamp,
where he lived on a perpetual diet of bully beef and yams in a leaky
native grass-built hut.
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