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Name: RAYNER, John Merrick (Major)
Birth Date: 9 June 1873 Dublin
Death Date: 21 July 1949 Kisumu
First Date: 1919
Profession: Farmer, 'Bubbling Springs' farm
Area: Gilgil, Maji Chemka Ol Joro Orok
Married: In Nottingham 1902 Margaret Christie Forbes Black b. 7 July 1871 Kirkcaldy, Fife
Children: Margaret Forbes Kilgour 'Madge' (m. Douglas Onslow) (19 July 1903 Burton on Trent-1985); John Merrick (21 June 1905 Glanford Brigg-1982); Thomas Benson (1907 Mill Hill)
Book Reference: Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Phil Sykes, Pioneers, Jambo
General Information:
Letter from Phil Sykes - '…. Only other settler in the area was Major Raynor and his wife on Maji Chemka farm - Ol Joro Orok (1919). I am in contact with Maj. Raynor's grandson Richard Onslow - now in Yorkshire - but hoping soon to move to S. Africa.
Pioneers - Ol Joro Orok - …. Said to have lain on the Queen of Sheba's route to her silver mines at Zimbabwe. This at least was the story told by the travelling Habash (Abyssinian) and Somali traders who used to camp on Major Raynor's farm, 'Maji Chemka' (Bubbling Springs) with their caravans of donkeys, camels, ponies and goats. Major Raynor's daughter, Mrs Madge Onslow, recalls that the first Africans who arrived on Maji Chemka looking for work were 3 Meru, in about 1919.
Red 31 has J.M. Rayner, 'Maji Chemka', Lesirko