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Name: McDONALD, Eric Wallace Fraser
Short Name: cousin of Donald Stewart McDonald
Birth Date: 8.11.1877 Queenstown, Cape Province, S. Africa
Death Date: 26.7.1931 Esomuth Farm, Eldoret
Nationality: Scottish
First Date: 1917
Last Date: 1931
Profession: Farmer. Red 25 - Vice-President, Kipkarren Farmers' Association
Area: Eldoret, 'Esomuth' Kitale, Karen, Box25 Eldoret, 1920 Eldalat Esomuth Kipkarren
Married: In Queenstown, Cape Province 1903 May Maude Edwards b. 17 May 1880 Cape Province, d. 5 Apr 1970
Children: Flora May (1904-1999); George Alexander (8 June 1906 S. Africa-1945); Wallace de Montmorency (19 Apr 1909 S. Africa-1932); Jean Eleanor (17 May 1912 S. Africa-11 Jan 1993 Nairobi); Douglas Gordon Haig (20 Jan 1915 Queenstown-1951); Jessie Elaine (17 May 1917 S. Africa-1998); Angus Morris (1921 Kenya-2011)
Book Reference: KAD, Hut, Red 22, Ingwe, Angus McDonald, Gazette, KFA, Red 25, Hut
War Service: served in Boer war and WW1
General Information:
Red 22 - President, Uasin Gishu Farmers' Association, Sergoit
Letter from Angus McDonald - "…. My father, Eric, was born and farmed in the Eastern Cape area, and was a veteran of both the Boer War and WW1. What attracted him to Kenya I don’t know, but that is where he went in 1917 and settled with his family on a farm named "ESOMUTH", some 12 miles west of Eldoret. In common with many other farmers of the time on the Uasin Gishu, he started off with flax, but the bottom fell out of the market for that commodity, and he turned to maize. Times were tough, what with malaria and poor prices.
By 1930, the Depression had set in, the Rupee went out and the Kenya Shilling replaced it. Somehow this left those that had overdrafts with a considerably higher debt, and with devastation by locusts, the good old Standard Bank foreclosed, but the farm continued to be run for the bank by 2 of my brothers until about 1933, when it was sold to the Tweedie family, who had earlier bought an adjoining farm, "ELDALAT" from the UK owners, Messrs. Hill & Rennie. Constant attacks of malaria finally brought on blackwater fever, from which Eric died in 1931."
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Plateau South - Eric W.F. McDonald, Farmer, Eldoret
Eldoret cemetery - in memory / of Eric and Wallace McDonald [no dates]
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