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Name: LEYS, Norman Maclean (Dr.)

Birth Date: 25.6.1875 Liverpool

Death Date: 15 Aug 1944 Yalding, Kent

First Date: 1908 - Previous service in British Central Africa

Last Date: 1913

Profession: Medical Officer EA and Uganda.

Area: Mombasa, 1909 Nakuru

Married: In Johnstone, Scotland 9.8.1904 Jane Reid Donald b. 21 Apr 1880 Johnstone, Scotland, d. 1956 Greenwich

Children: Agnes Mary Karponga (1905 Nyasaland)

Author: 'Kenya' 1924

Book Reference: Gillett, HBEA, Cuckoo, Oscar, Tignor, Kenyatta, White Man, Hut, Drumkey, Carman, Cell, Advertiser, EAHB 1906, North, EAHB 1907, Hughes, Leader14, Anderson Church, Red Book 1912

School: Glasgow University, MB, ChB(Glasgow)

General Information:

Tignor - a medical officer in Kenya, but transferred because of his strong opposition to Kenya governmental policy. .............. Leys identified 4 classes of African women in Nakuru. First were the prostitutes, who charged 1 to 3 rupees and earned, in Leys estimation, as much as an artisan in Europe. In 1900 most of the prostitutes were Masai women, but a decade later more than half were Lumbwa and Nandi. Prostitution was especially rife along the railway, and prostitutes were reported to arrive at a railway camp a few days before workers got paid and to leave a few days later. The second class of women were concubines. Leys estimated that two thirds of the women in the district were concubines, who agreed to live with a man for money. These alliances were invariably short-lived, and the concubines also spread venereal disease from one mate to another.
Kenyatta - Sir Percy Girouard - Governor 1909-12, began with high hopes and ended with having to resign through what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to mislead his superiors at Whitehall ..... Masai ..... Girouard, it transpired, promised their (Masai) land to prospective settlers, and then denied having done so. The scandal was broken to interested parties in London by a government medical officer, Norman Leys, who went on to become one of the strongest critics of Britain's settler policy in Kenya.  
White Man - Land dummying - the dummying charge against Delamere was first made by a fellow-settler, Mr Robert Chamberlain in a letter to the EA Standard, written in 1920 but referring to events of 10 or 15 years before. Delamere and Mr Chamberlain were political opponents of long standing who disagreed on almost every issue of importance. They had often attacked each other's views. ...…
The substance of the letter was that Delamere had used his position as a public man to amass land. "As long as the Land Office would yield juice, his Lordship was there with insatiable powers of suction." it said. No concrete examples of dummying, however, were given.
In 1924 part of this letter was published in a book written by a doctor who had retired from the Kenya medical service in 1918 - Dr Leys. Permission to quote from the letter was never asked. Mr Chamberlain was dismayed to find his remarks reproduced in a context which gave them a far more damaging significance than he had ever intended. Only those parts of the letter most derogatory to Delamere were quoted. This gave a false impression.
Drumkey 1909 - Medical Dept. - Medical Officer, Nakuru
Cell - he went out in 1902 to the port of Chinde in Portuguese East Africa to begin a career that would take him to Nyasaland (1904), to the East Africa Protectorate (1908), and back to Nyasaland (1913), before a lung disease later diagnosed as tuberculosis ended it in 1918.
Advertiser - 4/9/1908 - Subscribers for St. Andrew's Church Building Fund - Norman Leys - Rs. 75
Advertiser - 27/11/08 - Nakuru Agricultural Show - donation from - Dr. Leys
EAHB 1906 - MBChB 1900 (distinction Midwifery); Cert. Liverpool School Tropical Medicine 1901; Medical Officer, British Central Africa September 1904; EA and Uganda Protectorates September 1905.
Anderson Church - Another fearless and vocal champion of African rights was Dr. Norman Leys, who worked in the veterinary department. He resorted to legal action in an attempt to prevent the deportation of the Maasai from Laikipia. This resulted in his being transferred in 1913 to Nyasaland but he continued to write books and articles exposing injustice in Kenya.
Red Book 1912 - N.M. Leys - Fort Hall
Red Book 1912 - Medical Dept - Medical Officer - N.M. Leys - Mombasa
Red Book 1912 - Registered Medical Practitioner
HBEA 1912 - Medical Officer, Mombasa.
Cuckoo - 1908 - Kisii punitive Expedition. Gave evidence to Labour Commission in 1913

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