My Father and the Toe Print

Unknown artist

I inherited a family scrapbook from my mother in 2006. Inside was a newspaper clipping from the Northern News from 1955 and several photos of my father. It was the story of how my father, Detective Inspector Patrick Greene, secured a conviction on a burglary case in the small Northern Rhodesian town of Kitwe. The main piece of forensic evidence was a footprint found at the scene. The thief sneaked in through the kitchen window of the flat, and left a foot print on the window sill. It was reputedly the first ever time a footprint cast had been used to secure a conviction anywhere in the world. It was even picked up by newspapers in Britain and Ireland. She returned to Ireland with the scrapbook (and me) in the late 1970s after the death of my father. To me, it represents the story of our family, our time in southern Africa and a connection to my father.