This is later, but may be the kind of thing that took him out to Africa.
Southern Echo, 13-9-1897:
PLATELAYERS FOR AFRICA
The locomotive staff of the London, Chatham,
and Dover Company, are furnishing some forty or
fifty picked men guards, drivers, firemen, and
platelayers - for service on the line opened up from
B[ ]ra to Salisbury, and which is ultimately to be
carried on to Bulawayo. A reporter ................
....... was informed .......... "We are constantly approached ....
by Colonial and foreign agents to find
men we think would be useful as instructors in the
initiating of railway traffic in distant parts. Par-
ticularly, the London and Chatham has been applied to
for platelayers, our platelayers being con-
sidered as amongst the best to be found."
