Langata cemetery, Nairobi Frank H de V / Joyce / C.B.E., M.C. / of / Kilima Kiu. Ulu / and also / County Galway / Ireland / 1888 / 1959. Also: Mary Early / Joyce / of / Kilima Kiu. Ulu / and also / Maryland USA / Death: 19 Mar 1962 , Place of Death: Nairobi. Also: Anne / Celestine / Burke / Joyce / of / Kilima Kiu: Ulu / 1917 / 1992 Death: 25 Mar 1992 , Place of Death: Cottage Hospital, Hawick

Last Chance - (1948)  'that remarkable young woman, Anne Joyce, ran her father's 20,000 acre dairy farm down at Ulu in the "brown country". She is still really the mainspring of that fine farm and gets up to do her day's work at sunrise every morning.' ........….. '

Frank Joyce is one of those Kenyans I have described earlier in this book, when I spoke of the oak timbers of Kenya in the Rift Valley, who would never have fulfilled themselves had they remained at home. Like many of the original Kenya settlers, he left a life of comfort and secure social position, knowing full well that he had renounced nothing when he came out to try his luck in Africa, simply because such security had never owned him. Like all the old settlers who gave this colony its delightful way of life, he had never renounced his free will, always preferring real freedom - even the freedom to fall in love with adversity - to mere personal well-being; though God alone can tell you, for they can't, what some of those early Kenyans must have paid to keep it. ...........

Frank Joyce, who had been for 3 years an officer in the regular British Army, came out to Kenya in 1912 and started ostrich farming on this same land he has now with a British regular Navy Captain, F.O.B. Wilson. Wilson had previously obtained a Government grant of 5000 acres. They took in another partner, a man named Lambert, who had been Captain of Cricket at Eton, who had secured another 5000 acre grant. Lambert died of enteric during WW1. WW1 came along and both Joyce and Wilson went off, serving the whole of it - both with distinction; Wilson sensationally so, though on land, in the EA fighting. Joyce saw 4 years of France and was badly wounded. When Major Joyce, MC, came back, he got a soldier's settlement of 3600 acres. Ostrich feathers had gone out, Joyce and Wilson switched to cattle. They made their own roads, built their own house (the one that Joyce lives in now) and Joyce, who was paying so much a month into the partnership to become a half-owner, including half of the dead Lambert's share, even ran a sisal farm for a time, the manager of which was dying of the D.T.s (He can tell you some weird stories about that!) They bought more land, and when this splendidly successful partnership broke up only a few years ago - for they had raised dairy farming to its highest perfection in EA - they each owned 20000 acres, where they now live side by side. (much more)

Midday Sun - 'My earliest memory of the Joyces is of their arrival at our farm at Thika, having ridden across the plains on their ponies because they were too broke to afford the petrol. Frank said that this year's budget had been thrown out of joint by breaking his watch-glass, which cost a shilling to replace. He was tall, good-looking, with crinkly, corn-coloured hair and blue eyes and, as a young man. he brimmed over with gaiety and charm. He was also hard-working and intelligent, not an Irish rattle .......... (more) ..........….

WW1 left Frank with a stiff leg and an American bride. Small and slender, Mary-Early had all the grace and vivacity, as well as the attractive drawl, one expects from Southern ladies, for whom the War Between the States and Ol' Black Joe never seem far away. They had one daughter, Anne. ............

Frank and F.O'B. Wilson ran Kilima Kiu together for some years and then they quarrelled. I was never clear as to just what the quarrel was about, but it was generally believed to have concerned butterfat. One of the partners was said to have accused the other of cheating. The quarrel grew almost to the proportions of pistols for two and coffee for one in the Machakos hills; the two men cut each other in public and so did their families. In 1934 the ranch and herds were divided in two. What was so absurd about the quarrel was that both protagonists were models of rectitude; it was impossible to imagine either of them cheating or doing anything remotely dishonourable. Frank had a quick temper, which might have had something to do with it.

Both men were to undertake much voluntary public work and were widely, and deservedly, respected. F.O'B was eventually knighted. At the time of their quarrel, their friends had to split into two camps. Jos and Nellie were in the Joyces' camp and so we never stayed with the Wilsons, or they with us. The feud gradually subsided, and their children finally buried the hatchet.

East Africa & Rhodesia - 6/1/55 - New Years Honours, CBE - for public services in Kenya. Has farmed in Kenya since 1912. Served in East Africa and France in the 1914-18 war. Member of the Legislative and Executive Councils, Kenya 1943-47; member African Settlement Board; Central Exemptions Tribunal for Compulsory National Service. Reported on agricultural conditions in Ethiopia 1942.

EA & Rhodesia - 16/4/59 - We deeply regret to record the death in Kenya of Major Frank de V. Joyce, CBE, MC, of Kilima Kiu, Ulu, who had farmed in that area since 1912 and developed one of the best dairy farms and ranches in the Colony. He served throughout the 1914-18 war, was a member of the Legislative Council from 1943 to 1947, and a member of the African Settlement Board from its establishment.

Red 22 - Honorary Permit Issuer

EA & Rhodesia - 23/4/59 - Obituary - '…….. Starting from scratch in the Ulu area, he overcame many difficulties and disappointments, but steadfastly persisted until he had made his estate into one of the best cattle farms in the Colony. A man of high principles and high courage, he was liked by everybody; and few Europeans, if any, can have been so highly regarded over so long a period by the Kamba tribe, whose affection he warmly reciprocated. The importance of the right relations with Africans was seldom far from his thoughts, or from his lips when he discussed African questions. When he stood for election to the Legislative Council in 1944, he opened his address to the constituency with the statement that Kenya's great problem was to adjust race relations so that fairness, harmony, and happiness would result, and he emphasised that it was the right and the duty of all Britons in Africa to share in the principle of trusteeship and to contribute to a rising standard of living for Africans. ………..  

In 1948, after he had been medically advised to reduce the strain of public life and to retire from the Kenya Legislature, he was an unsuccessful candidate for one of the Kenya seats in the East African Central Assembly. That he was defeated was a great regret to many of his friends, and probably to him also, for he had consistently argued the case for inter-territorial co-ordination and cohesion. ………..

Frank Joyce was enthusiastic in everything which he undertook, gay, witty, and dead straight. He was a most hospitable person, and again and again visitors from this country who were his guests at Kilima Kiu told the writer of this memoir on their return that they had been in no more happy home in Kenya. Born in Dublin, he was educated at Charterhouse and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, whence he was commissioned in the Royal Field Artillery in 1908. Unattracted by Army life, he retired three years later and went to Kenya.

As soon as war was declared in 1914 he joined the East African Mounted Rifles, and a few months later he was wounded. Then he rejoined his regiment in France, where he was again wounded and awarded the Military Cross.

EA Stud Book 1954 - Cattle - Ayrshires - F. de V. Joyce, Kilima Farm, Ulu

Gazette - 23/9/1914 - Appt. - To be Lieutenant, East Africa Mounted Rifles - Private F.H. De V. Joyce

Mills - Weekly News, April 1959 - I have never met anyone quite like Frank Joyce. There was something heroic about him, not merely about his looks, which were splendid, nor his charm, but about his character. Of course, being human, this must have had flaws; he had perhaps a quick temper; but then a temper that is never lost without cause, nor used to wound, nor allowed to fester, hardly seems much of a fault. His gaiety, his courage, his enthusiasm, his zest for life, his integrity, his wit and his ability all seemed beyond question, at least I have never heard anyone question them. When things went against him, he made the best of it; when at long last they went in his favour, he never allowed success to corrode his generosity nor dim his great gift for making friends. Nor is there anywhere quite like Kilima Kiu. The unforced friendliness, the open-handed hospitality, the sunshine and wide views, above all the great love and care which Frank and his family have poured into it, all these have united to create a feeling of purpose and happiness which the Joyces' many guests could share. ………… [lots more]

Childhood - Michael Hopkins - "Further on was Kilima Kiu, which was once a single farm owned by a partnership which famously broke up with some animosity, for unknown reasons. The western section became the Joyces' and the other the Wilsons'. Major Frank Joyce was a large and leonine man, described by Elspeth Huxley as 'the most handsome man I ever met' and he was prominent in local politics. Mrs Joyce, (Mary Early) was an American and already white-haired. ……….. They had a daughter some 12 years older than I: she too was very kind to me and gave me a splendid nature book which she had won as a school prize.

Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Ukamba Area - Frank H. de V. Joyce - Settler, Kilima Kiu, Ulu and Mary Early Joyce - Married woman, Kilima Kiu, Machakos

Milbank - F O'B Wilson - one of the very first settlers in the Machakos area. He had originally been in partnership with one Frank Joyce, and they had pegged out some 40,000 acres of bush and started developing it together. The first thing they tried was catching the wild ostriches, removing their feathers, and selling them to society ladies in England. The fashion changed and the First World War came along, so the venture was not a great moneyspinner. Instead they went in for milk, a rare commodity in Kenya in those days. However, a row developed over water found in some milk that was being sold, with each accusing the other of committing this heinous crime; also the question of their respective offsprings' education became an issue as Uncle Frank had 4 children and Frank Joyce only 1. The row was never resolved and the 40,000 acres split roughly in two, with a huge cleared swathe down the main hill ('Kilima', meaning hill) visible from the main road, denoting the divide. The 2 Franks never spoke to each other again and neither ever stepped on to the other's portion of their once jointly-owned farm.

Red 25 - Honorary Permit Issuer

Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Ukamba Voters List

Gazette 5 June 1962 wife's probate