Like the phases of the moon, fortunes wax & wane. From humble beginnings in Lacock; from hard-working agricultural labourer stock in Avon, to mining and engineering, the Fortune family flourished as it spread throughout the globe. From gold digging in NZ, to administration in Hong Kong, the Fortunes worked far & wide. The inevitability of war sorted the men from the boys & the Fortunes were there; but sometimes at a terrible price. Not only did great-grandfather, John Alfred Fortune, lose cousins though; his own mother was to disappear in very mysterious circumstances. Was it murder? Did she run off with Sailor Sam to the antipodes, or was she just not able to deal with family life? But what she left behind was an urge to travel in John Alfred Fortune, an urge to help others and a benevolent attitude to those who worked for him. In his short life he served the aorta of England, the River Thames as Conservancy Engineer, but did the River serve him? However one views it, his legacy, his monument, is that River.