Getting the extra degree

[dieseltaylor]

Following Affy's tribulations I thought this was quite funny:

Louis matriculated at his father's alma mater, Cambridge University, in 1922, intent on becoming a missionary to British East Africa.

For the rest of his life he would dine out on the story of his finals. When he had arrived in Britain he had notified the register of people with a knowledge of rare languages that he was fluent in Swahili. When he came to his finals he asked to be examined in this and after some hesitation the authorities agreed. Then one day he received two letters. One instructed him to report at a certain time and place for a viva-voce examination in Swahili. The other asked if, at the same time and place, he would examine a candidate in Swahili.

and then

In 1926 he graduated from there with "double firsts", or high honors, in anthropology and archaeology. He had used some of his existing qualifications; for example, Kikuyu was offered and accepted as the second modern language in which he was required to be proficient, even though no one there could test him on it. The university accepted an affidavit from a Kikuyu chief signed with a thumbprint.

Th reason I was looking at Leakey was because a Leakey cousin was a long serving tank officer who had nine tanks shot from under him and his diary/life have been edited into a book by George Forty. "Leakey's Luck" from Sutton Publishing originally £7.99 but now £3.99 at my local garden centre. Another cousin won the VC fighting the Italians in East Africa.

Quite a family, and quite a life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Leakey