by Christine Nicholls | Jul 26, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
A Most Unusual Missionary Charles Henry Stokes was far from being your traditional missionary. Irish, excitable, easily swayed, unreliable, passionate, he regarded the making of money as a most important aspect of life. To this end he deviated from his missionary...
by Shel Arensen | Jul 26, 2019 | Shel Arensen
Issue 84 of Old Africa has a story about Martin and Osa Johnson and their first safaris to Kenya to film Africa’s wildlife. This blog gives some of the background on Martin and Osa’s life before coming to Africa. Movie poster from the film Trailing African Wild...
by admin | Jul 8, 2019 | Judy Aldrick
Sharing Northrup’s Millions by Judy Aldrick I always enjoy receiving feedback and discovering new information. It makes writing about East African history all the more worthwhile for me. Imagine my surprise when several years after my book about Sir Northrup...
by Christine Nicholls | Jul 1, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
They were eccentrics and drunkards, adventurers and sober engineers – people who were recruited to run the brand new railway snaking from Mombasa to Lake Victoria before the start of the twentieth century. One such character was Benjamin Eastwood, born in Weymouth on...
by Christine Nicholls | May 31, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
An Enterprising Female Pioneer Who remembers their parents buying their school uniforms from Hudsons Ltd in Nairobi? You probably never wondered who Hudson was. In fact, the name belonged to a very enterprising woman who came to East Africa in August 1899 – Ann...
by Christine Nicholls | May 3, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
Charles Cottar The name Cottar is well known in Kenya, but who was the first Cottar to arrive? An American born in 1874 in Cedar County, Iowa, went to East Africa on an exploratory safari in 1912. This man, Charles Cottar, returned with his father in...
by Christine Nicholls | Apr 3, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
The Wild ‘Uncle Charles’ Charles William Lloyd Bulpett, known to all as ‘Uncle Charles’, arrived in East Africa from Sudan with Sir Northrup McMmillan on a shooting safari in 1904. He had already had a wild, eventful youth. As a young man in the 1880s he swam the...
by Shel Arensen | Mar 13, 2019 | Shel Arensen
Peter Ayre’s Books Greenham Hall, Greenham, Wellington, UK. TA21 OJJ O1823 672603 peterjayre@aol.com Africana Books – Pre 1900. Sadly, my husband Peter passed away in June 2018, and I have decided to take on his book business, which is why I am contacting his past...
by Christine Nicholls | Mar 6, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
The Chimp who Typed his Name Many Colonial Service staff could be described as eccentric, but one who surpassed others in this respect was Geoffrey Brisco Rimington, variously known as ‘Rim’. He had originally been a ‘Mountie’ in Canada before the First World War...
by Christine Nicholls | Feb 13, 2019 | Christine Nicholls
Corkscrew Edwards Whether Charlie Edwards was nicknamed ‘Corkscrew’ because of his bandy legs, or whether the name referred to his erratic flying technique, is a moot point. Charles Hugh Edwards first came to East Africa in the late 1920s and he soon established...
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