View entry
Name: MITFORD-BARBERTON, Raymond Berners
Nee: son of Henry Barber (later Mitford-Barberton)
Birth Date: 1 Aug 1897 Grahamstown, SA
Death Date: 10 July 1985 Bunbury, W. Australia
First Date: 1925
Profession: Farmer, genealogist and writer
Area: P.O. Kitale, 1930 Caverndale Estate, Kitale; 'Dunbryonne'
Married: In Kitale 25 July 1923 Norah Millicent 'Peggy' Flemming-Nisbet b. 3 Feb 1904 Cala, Transkei. d. 1986
Children: Gareth de Bohun (1926 Kenya-2011); Hazel Valerie MCSP (O'Grady) (1929)
Book Reference: Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Curtis, Web, Burke, Bowkers, Gazette, Pioneer Spirit
School: St Andrews College, Grahamstown
General Information:
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Trans Nzoia Voters List
Curtis - p. 118 - 'Trans Nzoia: The Mitford Barberton Family'
Web - Raymond Berners Mitford-Barberton, b. 1897, Grahamstown, SA, married 1923, Norah Millicent Nisbet at Kitale
Burke - SBStJ, formerly of Dean Estate, Kitale, which he sold 1962; served in WW1 in EA Campaign 1915-18 and in WW2 1939-45 in Abyssinia, Middle East etc and in Mau Mau Rebellion
Bowkers - Raymond is a farmer and lives at 'Dunbryonne', near Kitale. He served in the German East Africa Campaign 1915-18. Prospecting in 1937, he discovered two rich gold reefs for Kenya Consolidated Goldfields Ltd. In the Nyarombo Hills, Kitere. He was again on active service 1939-45, went with the Kenya Armoured Car Regiment to Addis Ababa, and took part in the Gondar operations. Commissioned in the Pioneer Corps, he went to the Middle East and Palestine. In 1943 he was posted to the UK and had a detachment in Essex until his repatriation to Kenya in November 1945.
His wife, Peggy, was in the Women's Voluntary Service of which she was secretary and later Centre Organizer at Paignton. Gazette 12/4/1922 - Brands Registered during quarter ending 31/3/1922 - R.B. Mitford Barberton, Merrowdown, PO Soy - GB7
Pioneer Spirit - 1923 - Mrs Nisbet [senior] said that if she had known what conditions were like in East Africa she would never have agreed to her daughter's marriage. Peggy, however, was a girl of spirit and determination, for her the future held no fears. A hard, rough life lay ahead and it was many years before prosperity came our way. It had to be a civil wedding as there was no registered parish in the district then but we had arranged with the Reverend O.H. Knight, an itinerant Church of England padre, to marry us properly immediately after the civil ceremony, at which we said a few words before the DC Mr la Fontaine, and signed our names before witnesses.
Pioneer Spirit - Was a farmer in Kenya and a genealogist who spent a lifetime researching our ancestors and family connections. He traced the family in the direct male line back to the 17th century to yeoman farmers from the High Peak of Derbyshire.
Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Voters Register - Plateau North - Raymond Berners Mitford Barberton, Farmer, PO Kitale