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Peter Genge
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Biographical informationReginald ‘Peter’ Genge was born near Keynsham in Somerset, England on the 23rd January 1925 to Reginald George Redvers Genge (Dec. 1930), a Leading Telegraphist in the Royal Navy and May Genge (nee Spencer, Dec. 1954).
At the time of his father’s death, Peter and his mother were living in Poole, Dorset. In 1937, as the son of a deceased RN sailor, he was awarded a bursary to attend the Royal Hospital School, (usually shortened as "RHS" and historically nicknamed "The Cradle of the Navy”) near Ipswich in Suffolk. He said he enjoyed his time there and that his favourite subjects were maths and navigation. War broke out whilst he was still at RHS, and in 1940, at the age of 15, he and his classmates were sent to serve as ‘Boys’ on HMS Hood. The Hood was an older battlecruiser in the Royal Navy and had been in service since 1920. It remained the largest warship in the world for 20 years after her commissioning, and her prestige was reflected in her nickname, "The Mighty Hood". Tragically, The Hood was sunk by the Bismarck in May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. She sank within three minutes and all but three on board were killed.
Peter had a fortunate escape, he and a classmate were isolated in hospital with the mumps at the time of the sinking. He often commented about the guilt he felt that he had survived when nearly all his classmates had perished. Due to the Hood’s perceived invincibility, the loss affected British morale and also altered RN practices by raising the age at which boys could do active service to 18. Thus, instead of joining another ship, Peter was instructed to attend the nearest naval establishment to his home - the munitions factory at Holton Heath (The Royal Naval Cordite Factory). While there he commenced an apprenticeship as a coppersmith. He expected to join a ship on reaching age 18 but discovered he was now classed as being in a reserved occupation and was refused permission to commence active naval service. Refusing to accept this, he ran away and was subsequently conscripted into the army as one of its first navigators. He was placed in command of a landing craft on D-Day, however another encounter with fate led to his craft being blown off course and he survived the initial onslaught. He was then sent to Palestine where he commanded a motor torpedo boat on Lake Galilee. Following this, Peter commanded a motor torpedo boat in the Mediterranean. He told his son, Roger, tales of how he only had cheese to eat for long periods of time - leading to a hatred of cheese in later life. Peter left the army in about 1947 and returned to the Poole area where he initially obtained work as a blacksmith/welder/metal worker. He eventually joined the Poole Fire Brigade and worked his way up through the ranks.
Peter married May Bevan on 12 December 1947 and they had four children: Roger, Jennifer, Susan (now Sarah) and Ruth. They lived at Hampreston, near Poole. Dorset. His son, Roger, remembers at age 8 or 9 walking former Roman roads with his dad and chatting about history and Sarah vividly remembers him telling bed-time stories about Egyptian ancient history. In 1959, Peter bought a river boat and planned a family adventure on the River Stour, however when Peter was promoted to Fire Station Officer, the family relocated to the coastal town of Weymouth in December 1959, and he was unable to complete this dream. During his service in Weymouth, he was promoted to be in charge of the UK's South West "Green Goddesses", simple fire engines that could be used by untrained civilians in the wake of a nuclear war. He was also an active member of the Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE).
In the 50s, while still in Hampreston, Peter volunteered for Fire Service stints in Cyprus - a place he grew to love. He received the Queen’s Medal for his fire services in Cyprus and this earned him an invitation to attend Princess Margaret's wedding in 1960. Peter enjoyed long walks in the country and took his children on many of these walks. He and May loved ballroom dancing, especially Latin American dancing, indeed this was how they met. They won many competitions together. Peter was a strong swimmer and represented the fire brigade in swimming competitions. Being a committed swimmer, he assisted the community by helping dig the hole for a swimming pool at Sarah’s primary school in Weymouth. She remembers him purposefully striding off, shovel over the shoulder of his black donkey jacket.
In 1966 Peter was offered a three-year placement (with permission from the Dorset Fire Brigade) in Kitwe, Zambia, first as Deputy Chief Fire Officer and then from 1969 as Chief Fire Officer (taking over from John Zaktrager). May, Jenny (16), Sarah (14) and Ruth (6) moved out to join him in October 1966. Roger chose to remain in UK. During Peter’s spare time in Kitwe, and being an expert sub aqua diver, he partnered in a gold mining expedition to Malawi where they excavated a river and discovered a small amount of gold. In 1968 Peter drove the family on a return trip from Kitwe to Cape Town to pick up Roger who had come out by ship for a holiday. The route back to Kitwe followed the Garden Route - Port Elizabeth, Durban and up through Mozambique to Beira where the Indian Ocean felt like bath water. Peter was a great problem solver. He combined this skill with his military training, to get the family out of some dicey situations including digging trenches and dams around the huge family tent to stop further flooding in a torrential downpour and reversing up an incredibly steep hill on the other side of a dam because the old Rover couldn’t make it in first gear. He inched the car around and then shoved it in reverse and chugged up backwards. It taught everyone about the power of determination, creative problem solving and…reverse gear!
Peter and May remained in Kitwe until 1971. In 1969 the family made a holiday trip to the UK by ship on the Windsor Castle. Peter flew to Germany to buy a revolutionary designed car - a bright orange NSU Ro80 - with an innovative Wankel rotary engine. It had been voted car of the year in 1968. He freighted the car back to Africa where it was the first of its kind. He later sold it and used the proceeds to buy a bright orange VW Kombi which lasted him for many years, and many trips into the bush.
In 1971 the family transferred to Bulawayo, Rhodesia where Peter became Chief of the Rescue Services for Southern Rhodesia. He did voluntary work for the Museum Service in his spare time. In 1972 he was appointed monuments inspector at Khami Ruins and he began to record rock art in the Matobo Hills (Matopos). To learn more about archaeology, he spent his leave time attending courses at the University of the Witwatersrand. He retired from the Fire Service in 1975 and then dedicated almost all of his spare time to archaeology. His passion was the rock art of the Matobo Hills and he searched out and recorded sites. He continued to do this despite the dangers posed by ZIPRA soldiers who roamed Matobo during the fight for Independence. Peter never carried a gun, only a machete, and he usually worked with an African assistant. He was challenged by ZIPRA soldiers several times but manage to survive and was allowed to continue his work. The soldiers knew him as the ‘museum man’ and seemed to respect him and his work. After Zimbabwean Independence, from 1980 until 2002, he conducted systematic surveys of rock art in and around the Matobo Hills. From 1985, he did this in the formal capacity of Regional Inspector of National Monuments. He had an office in the Bulawayo Museum. His predecessor, Nicholas Walker, concentrated his work in the National Park. Peter expanded surveys into the surrounding rural areas. “He undertook many years of personal research marked by immaculate recording of sites, hitherto unmatched by other researchers in the area. Genge’s infectious enthusiasm swept along a small band of recorders, including John Moger, David Erwee, and Elspeth Parry, all addicted to the pursuit, appreciation, documentation, and interpretation of the art of the Hills. Except for Elspeth Parry (2000), these other researchers published very little and their work remains largely unknown outside Zimbabwe” (Hubbard 2018: 82). In the 1990s he was the curator of the Historic Reference Collection of the Bulawayo Public Library and in the 2000s spent much of his time assisting Susan Woodhouse with her biography on Sir Garfield Todd.
Peter’s daughter Sarah has vivid memories of being led out to archaeological sites on almost every visit to see her father: “My first husband and I visited in April 1975 and Dad took us on a road trip to Great Zimbabwe…he walked us through the ruins in single file on a pitch-black night, my hand on dad’s shoulder and Geoff’s on mine. It was a thrilling experience. I’m pretty sure he was still CFO at this point because we visited Dad at work. My next visit was with Katie in September 1982, I was pregnant with Simon and Katie had her 3rd birthday there. We didn’t travel around much, but visited Dad several times at the Museum as well as visiting Khami Ruins. Katie, Simon and visited again for a short visit en-route to South Africa (medical conference) in 1990 but Dad was unwell with what appeared to be Legionnaire’s disease or similar and we didn't get into the Matobo Hills. Simon and I visited again in 1995…and Dad took us on lots of trips to the Matobo Hills - visiting Snake Cave - Dad said the sun hit the eye of the snake at a certain time of the year. He said he’d taken a National Geographic crew to that particular cave and they had filmed it. He also showed us a red ochre burnished rock that dad said had been polished by thousands of bottoms over millennia - girls being taught ‘women’s business’. He showed us blackened rocks from ancient fire places. He showed us where ancient beehives had covered paintings and could help date the rock art. Dad was a great storyteller and brought history alive. I remember this as a child and as a grown up when he told similar stories to Katie and Simon. He was an artist too…he loved to draw and was still doing this well into his 80s. He was always trying to perfect drawing his left hand! His artistry stood him in good stead when he would draw some of the rock art - I remember seeing a whole frieze of running hunters he had drawn and stuck up on the wall. I’m sure his site notes reflect this”. Peter was also interested in languages. He could speak and write a bit of Arabic as well as Spanish.
In 2000 Peter moved back to England taking most of his collection with him. Peter lived with his son Roger and daughter-in-law Sue for several months in Weymouth before moving to his own apartment in Littlemoor. He chose this location specially for the view from his window. To the east he could see the famous Ridgeway Bincombe Bumps – a prehistoric site dating from 4000 to 2400 BC, and to the south on a fine day, he could see the White Nothe, part of the World Heritage listed Jurassic Coast, plus a glimpse of glittering Weymouth Bay. While living in Weymouth in the 60s, Peter and son, Roger had walked the entire length of Chesil Beach from Portland to Lyme Regis, camping under the stars at Golden Cap on the way. Peter had always relished living along the Jurassic Coast and it gave him great comfort to live there again on his return to the UK at the turn of the century.
Peter was always super fit and used to plough up and down the public swimming pool in Bulawayo near enough every day well into his 70s. He walked everywhere - his research in Matobo took him on arduous climbs and hikes, and on his return to the UK he continued this habit. He was a familiar site around Littlemoor and Weymouth as he strode off into the distance, clambering over styles, following old grassy footpaths and disused railways, backpack in place, clad in waterproof jacket, multi-pocketed trousers stuffed with notebooks, pencil and compass, walking boots and floppy hat. He always preferred walking cross country and along hedgerows.
His interest in rock art never faltered. In 2001, Roger remembers accompanying him on a visit to meet Dr Eva Crane, author of The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting (1999). Her book had piqued his interest in relation to rock paintings at Toghwana Dam, Zimbabwe, which showed a figure possibly smoking a beehive. After ‘retiring’ to England at the age of 75, Peter continued to pursue his love of history and travel, visiting amongst other countries, Greece, Malta and Egypt. At other times he travelled with Roger to the Continent, visiting the famous rock art at Lascaux and Rouffignac in the Dordogne, France. He was relieved to find that his status in the rock art world was sufficient to allow him to privately view the caves and their beautiful pre-historic paintings. Peter was also fascinated with Australian Aboriginal history and rock art and had several books on the subject. He was a member of Australian Rock Art Research Association and kept all its journals.
Among Peter’s words of wisdom to his grandchildren were these: be curious; never stop learning; walk…and walk some more; look closely at everything around you, there is so much to be noticed; even a walk to the shops can be an adventure; and there are layers upon layers of history and knowledge wherever you go.
Peter lived his life using these tenets. He was forever curious and kept his eyes peeled for anything unusual…a piece of flint, a stone arrow head, an interesting rock, a possible rock art site or an ancient fossil. He kept on exploring well into his 90s. One of his favourite places was a disused quarry on Portland Bill where he took his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren fossil spotting.
Peter made regular trips back to Zimbabwe for as long as his health allowed. He continued recording rock art and working on the cataloguing and organisation of his rock art field recordings until he passed away in England on the 3rd May 2021.
References
Hubbard, P. 2018. The rock art of the Matobo Hills World Heritage Area, Zimbabwe: management and use, c 1800 to 2016. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 20 (2): 76-88.
Date of birth23rd January 1925Date of death3rd May 2021
At the time of his father’s death, Peter and his mother were living in Poole, Dorset. In 1937, as the son of a deceased RN sailor, he was awarded a bursary to attend the Royal Hospital School, (usually shortened as "RHS" and historically nicknamed "The Cradle of the Navy”) near Ipswich in Suffolk. He said he enjoyed his time there and that his favourite subjects were maths and navigation. War broke out whilst he was still at RHS, and in 1940, at the age of 15, he and his classmates were sent to serve as ‘Boys’ on HMS Hood. The Hood was an older battlecruiser in the Royal Navy and had been in service since 1920. It remained the largest warship in the world for 20 years after her commissioning, and her prestige was reflected in her nickname, "The Mighty Hood". Tragically, The Hood was sunk by the Bismarck in May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. She sank within three minutes and all but three on board were killed.
Peter had a fortunate escape, he and a classmate were isolated in hospital with the mumps at the time of the sinking. He often commented about the guilt he felt that he had survived when nearly all his classmates had perished. Due to the Hood’s perceived invincibility, the loss affected British morale and also altered RN practices by raising the age at which boys could do active service to 18. Thus, instead of joining another ship, Peter was instructed to attend the nearest naval establishment to his home - the munitions factory at Holton Heath (The Royal Naval Cordite Factory). While there he commenced an apprenticeship as a coppersmith. He expected to join a ship on reaching age 18 but discovered he was now classed as being in a reserved occupation and was refused permission to commence active naval service. Refusing to accept this, he ran away and was subsequently conscripted into the army as one of its first navigators. He was placed in command of a landing craft on D-Day, however another encounter with fate led to his craft being blown off course and he survived the initial onslaught. He was then sent to Palestine where he commanded a motor torpedo boat on Lake Galilee. Following this, Peter commanded a motor torpedo boat in the Mediterranean. He told his son, Roger, tales of how he only had cheese to eat for long periods of time - leading to a hatred of cheese in later life. Peter left the army in about 1947 and returned to the Poole area where he initially obtained work as a blacksmith/welder/metal worker. He eventually joined the Poole Fire Brigade and worked his way up through the ranks.
Peter married May Bevan on 12 December 1947 and they had four children: Roger, Jennifer, Susan (now Sarah) and Ruth. They lived at Hampreston, near Poole. Dorset. His son, Roger, remembers at age 8 or 9 walking former Roman roads with his dad and chatting about history and Sarah vividly remembers him telling bed-time stories about Egyptian ancient history. In 1959, Peter bought a river boat and planned a family adventure on the River Stour, however when Peter was promoted to Fire Station Officer, the family relocated to the coastal town of Weymouth in December 1959, and he was unable to complete this dream. During his service in Weymouth, he was promoted to be in charge of the UK's South West "Green Goddesses", simple fire engines that could be used by untrained civilians in the wake of a nuclear war. He was also an active member of the Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE).
In the 50s, while still in Hampreston, Peter volunteered for Fire Service stints in Cyprus - a place he grew to love. He received the Queen’s Medal for his fire services in Cyprus and this earned him an invitation to attend Princess Margaret's wedding in 1960. Peter enjoyed long walks in the country and took his children on many of these walks. He and May loved ballroom dancing, especially Latin American dancing, indeed this was how they met. They won many competitions together. Peter was a strong swimmer and represented the fire brigade in swimming competitions. Being a committed swimmer, he assisted the community by helping dig the hole for a swimming pool at Sarah’s primary school in Weymouth. She remembers him purposefully striding off, shovel over the shoulder of his black donkey jacket.
In 1966 Peter was offered a three-year placement (with permission from the Dorset Fire Brigade) in Kitwe, Zambia, first as Deputy Chief Fire Officer and then from 1969 as Chief Fire Officer (taking over from John Zaktrager). May, Jenny (16), Sarah (14) and Ruth (6) moved out to join him in October 1966. Roger chose to remain in UK. During Peter’s spare time in Kitwe, and being an expert sub aqua diver, he partnered in a gold mining expedition to Malawi where they excavated a river and discovered a small amount of gold. In 1968 Peter drove the family on a return trip from Kitwe to Cape Town to pick up Roger who had come out by ship for a holiday. The route back to Kitwe followed the Garden Route - Port Elizabeth, Durban and up through Mozambique to Beira where the Indian Ocean felt like bath water. Peter was a great problem solver. He combined this skill with his military training, to get the family out of some dicey situations including digging trenches and dams around the huge family tent to stop further flooding in a torrential downpour and reversing up an incredibly steep hill on the other side of a dam because the old Rover couldn’t make it in first gear. He inched the car around and then shoved it in reverse and chugged up backwards. It taught everyone about the power of determination, creative problem solving and…reverse gear!
Peter and May remained in Kitwe until 1971. In 1969 the family made a holiday trip to the UK by ship on the Windsor Castle. Peter flew to Germany to buy a revolutionary designed car - a bright orange NSU Ro80 - with an innovative Wankel rotary engine. It had been voted car of the year in 1968. He freighted the car back to Africa where it was the first of its kind. He later sold it and used the proceeds to buy a bright orange VW Kombi which lasted him for many years, and many trips into the bush.
In 1971 the family transferred to Bulawayo, Rhodesia where Peter became Chief of the Rescue Services for Southern Rhodesia. He did voluntary work for the Museum Service in his spare time. In 1972 he was appointed monuments inspector at Khami Ruins and he began to record rock art in the Matobo Hills (Matopos). To learn more about archaeology, he spent his leave time attending courses at the University of the Witwatersrand. He retired from the Fire Service in 1975 and then dedicated almost all of his spare time to archaeology. His passion was the rock art of the Matobo Hills and he searched out and recorded sites. He continued to do this despite the dangers posed by ZIPRA soldiers who roamed Matobo during the fight for Independence. Peter never carried a gun, only a machete, and he usually worked with an African assistant. He was challenged by ZIPRA soldiers several times but manage to survive and was allowed to continue his work. The soldiers knew him as the ‘museum man’ and seemed to respect him and his work. After Zimbabwean Independence, from 1980 until 2002, he conducted systematic surveys of rock art in and around the Matobo Hills. From 1985, he did this in the formal capacity of Regional Inspector of National Monuments. He had an office in the Bulawayo Museum. His predecessor, Nicholas Walker, concentrated his work in the National Park. Peter expanded surveys into the surrounding rural areas. “He undertook many years of personal research marked by immaculate recording of sites, hitherto unmatched by other researchers in the area. Genge’s infectious enthusiasm swept along a small band of recorders, including John Moger, David Erwee, and Elspeth Parry, all addicted to the pursuit, appreciation, documentation, and interpretation of the art of the Hills. Except for Elspeth Parry (2000), these other researchers published very little and their work remains largely unknown outside Zimbabwe” (Hubbard 2018: 82). In the 1990s he was the curator of the Historic Reference Collection of the Bulawayo Public Library and in the 2000s spent much of his time assisting Susan Woodhouse with her biography on Sir Garfield Todd.
Peter’s daughter Sarah has vivid memories of being led out to archaeological sites on almost every visit to see her father: “My first husband and I visited in April 1975 and Dad took us on a road trip to Great Zimbabwe…he walked us through the ruins in single file on a pitch-black night, my hand on dad’s shoulder and Geoff’s on mine. It was a thrilling experience. I’m pretty sure he was still CFO at this point because we visited Dad at work. My next visit was with Katie in September 1982, I was pregnant with Simon and Katie had her 3rd birthday there. We didn’t travel around much, but visited Dad several times at the Museum as well as visiting Khami Ruins. Katie, Simon and visited again for a short visit en-route to South Africa (medical conference) in 1990 but Dad was unwell with what appeared to be Legionnaire’s disease or similar and we didn't get into the Matobo Hills. Simon and I visited again in 1995…and Dad took us on lots of trips to the Matobo Hills - visiting Snake Cave - Dad said the sun hit the eye of the snake at a certain time of the year. He said he’d taken a National Geographic crew to that particular cave and they had filmed it. He also showed us a red ochre burnished rock that dad said had been polished by thousands of bottoms over millennia - girls being taught ‘women’s business’. He showed us blackened rocks from ancient fire places. He showed us where ancient beehives had covered paintings and could help date the rock art. Dad was a great storyteller and brought history alive. I remember this as a child and as a grown up when he told similar stories to Katie and Simon. He was an artist too…he loved to draw and was still doing this well into his 80s. He was always trying to perfect drawing his left hand! His artistry stood him in good stead when he would draw some of the rock art - I remember seeing a whole frieze of running hunters he had drawn and stuck up on the wall. I’m sure his site notes reflect this”. Peter was also interested in languages. He could speak and write a bit of Arabic as well as Spanish.
In 2000 Peter moved back to England taking most of his collection with him. Peter lived with his son Roger and daughter-in-law Sue for several months in Weymouth before moving to his own apartment in Littlemoor. He chose this location specially for the view from his window. To the east he could see the famous Ridgeway Bincombe Bumps – a prehistoric site dating from 4000 to 2400 BC, and to the south on a fine day, he could see the White Nothe, part of the World Heritage listed Jurassic Coast, plus a glimpse of glittering Weymouth Bay. While living in Weymouth in the 60s, Peter and son, Roger had walked the entire length of Chesil Beach from Portland to Lyme Regis, camping under the stars at Golden Cap on the way. Peter had always relished living along the Jurassic Coast and it gave him great comfort to live there again on his return to the UK at the turn of the century.
Peter was always super fit and used to plough up and down the public swimming pool in Bulawayo near enough every day well into his 70s. He walked everywhere - his research in Matobo took him on arduous climbs and hikes, and on his return to the UK he continued this habit. He was a familiar site around Littlemoor and Weymouth as he strode off into the distance, clambering over styles, following old grassy footpaths and disused railways, backpack in place, clad in waterproof jacket, multi-pocketed trousers stuffed with notebooks, pencil and compass, walking boots and floppy hat. He always preferred walking cross country and along hedgerows.
His interest in rock art never faltered. In 2001, Roger remembers accompanying him on a visit to meet Dr Eva Crane, author of The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting (1999). Her book had piqued his interest in relation to rock paintings at Toghwana Dam, Zimbabwe, which showed a figure possibly smoking a beehive. After ‘retiring’ to England at the age of 75, Peter continued to pursue his love of history and travel, visiting amongst other countries, Greece, Malta and Egypt. At other times he travelled with Roger to the Continent, visiting the famous rock art at Lascaux and Rouffignac in the Dordogne, France. He was relieved to find that his status in the rock art world was sufficient to allow him to privately view the caves and their beautiful pre-historic paintings. Peter was also fascinated with Australian Aboriginal history and rock art and had several books on the subject. He was a member of Australian Rock Art Research Association and kept all its journals.
Among Peter’s words of wisdom to his grandchildren were these: be curious; never stop learning; walk…and walk some more; look closely at everything around you, there is so much to be noticed; even a walk to the shops can be an adventure; and there are layers upon layers of history and knowledge wherever you go.
Peter lived his life using these tenets. He was forever curious and kept his eyes peeled for anything unusual…a piece of flint, a stone arrow head, an interesting rock, a possible rock art site or an ancient fossil. He kept on exploring well into his 90s. One of his favourite places was a disused quarry on Portland Bill where he took his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren fossil spotting.
Peter made regular trips back to Zimbabwe for as long as his health allowed. He continued recording rock art and working on the cataloguing and organisation of his rock art field recordings until he passed away in England on the 3rd May 2021.
References
Hubbard, P. 2018. The rock art of the Matobo Hills World Heritage Area, Zimbabwe: management and use, c 1800 to 2016. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 20 (2): 76-88.
Date of birth23rd January 1925Date of death3rd May 2021
Document
![John Moger letter, to Peter Genge, [2012] October 19](/img/placeholder.gif?1735518749 "John Moger letter, to Peter Genge, [2012] October 19")
Collection
Peter Genge. UWA Collected, accessed 16/03/2025, https://collected.uwa.edu.au/nodes/view/39941