by Shel Arensen | Jul 1, 2020 | Shel Arensen
For Love of Soysambu In this new book Juliet Barnes traces the history of the Delamere family in Kenya. She starts the story over 100 years ago when Lord Delamere, Hugh Cholmondeley, the Third Baron, went on a hunting expedition in Somaliland in 1891, followed by more...
by Christine Nicholls | Jun 29, 2020 | Christine Nicholls
Nakuru Township in 1930 Nakuru became a township originally because in 1900 it was a stopping place for the railway on the floor of the Rift Valley after the difficult descent into the valley. How had it fared thirty years after a station was built there just after...
by Christine Nicholls | Jun 4, 2020 | Christine Nicholls
Sir Charles Eliot ‘His pet hobby is the study of nudibranchs or sea slugs. Never more closely did a man resemble the objects of his hobby.’ Who could this be describing? Surprisingly, it was the first Governor, or Commissioner as it was called then, of the East Africa...
by Christine Nicholls | May 6, 2020 | Christine Nicholls
From Company to Colony: the 1890s in Kenya When it became clear that a commercial company could no longer control Kenya and Uganda (called British East Africa before 1920), the British government took over the administration of the area. In the mid 1890s they...
by Christine Nicholls | Mar 30, 2020 | Christine Nicholls
www.christinenicholls.co.ukwww.europeansineastafrica.co.uk Born in 1866 in Leyton, Sussex, Claude Vernon aspired to be a doctor. After training in London and Cambridge he landed a job as Medical Officer of Health in Ashford, Kent, where he stayed until...
by Christine Nicholls | Mar 2, 2020 | Christine Nicholls
Talbot Mundy Everyone has heard of Rider-Haggard, but there was a contemporary novelist of almost as great renown who spent years of his life in Kenya – Talbot Mundy. His most famous book is King of the Khyber Rifles, and he also wrote 47 bestsellers and scores of...
by Shel Arensen | Feb 10, 2020 | Shel Arensen
In Old Africa issue 86 (December 2019-January 2020) our History Mystery Contest generated many correct responses. We could only publish the winning answer from Morag Urquhart from Scotland. But we have sent book prizes to the 11 runners up. Here are their answers I...
by Christine Nicholls | Dec 30, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
A Maverick Politician – Shirley Victor Cooke In the very early days of colonial Kenya it was rare for officials to assume that the welfare of the native population should be paramount. One such man was SV Cooke. Born at Ennistimon, County Clare, in 1888, he was the...
by Christine Nicholls | Dec 17, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
Database of Europeans in East Africa 1880-1939 A database prepared by Peter Ayre and Christine Nicholls is now on the internet at http://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk It features 25,000 Europeans who were in East Africa (mainly in Kenya) before 1939 and provides...
by Christine Nicholls | Dec 8, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
Nairobi in the 1920s After the end of World War I Nairobi started to develop as a town. It had a population of 8,000 Europeans, 8,000 Asians and an indeterminate number of Africans. Lying at mile 327 of the Uganda Railway, it was at an altitude of 5,575 feet,...
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