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Name: PAICE, Arnold

Birth Date: 3.8.1879 Egham, Surrey

Death Date: 31 Aug 1963 Nanyuki

First Date: 1907

Last Date: 1963

Profession: Took up land near Naivasha. 1910 he trekked over the Aberdares and became the first settler-farmer in Nanyuki

Area: Nanyuki

Married: unmarried

Book Reference: Gillett, Midday Sun, KFA, Foster, Joelson, Verandah, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Drumkey, Red 22, Land, Gazette, Leader14, Web, Paice's Place, Red Book 1912, Barnes

General Information:

It was fortunate that he was a first class shot as predators took a heavy toll of his stock. Joelson - pioneer in the Nanyuki area
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Aberdare Voters List
Rejected for military service in WW1 he became a 'caretaker' gratuitously for many farms in the district. He gave considerable public service on various boards and associations. Eventually disposed of his farm at Rotherwick, Nanyuki. Pensioned off most of his labour. A President of the Club and a JP. His sister Muriel was his companion at Rotherwick for many years.                        
Midday Sun - 'He sent his pigs to market on foot over the top of the Aberdares. The journey took ten days and the pigs, he claimed, lost no more than 12 pounds each by the time they reached Naivasha station, and fetched £2 a head.                                                                               KFA - Formerly a tea-taster in London and a farmer in Natal. He reached the Protectorate in 1907 and in 1910 walked across the Aberdares from Naivasha with four dogs and thirteen fowls, his sole possessions, to take up the first farm in Western Kenya on the Nanyuki River, 4 miles from the present township. There were no settlers north of Nyeri then.  ..... (story of his beginnings pp. 38/40) .........…
'In January 1912, I was over at Naivasha and on the way back stopped at "Long" Ayres' farm on the Kinangop. They had a dance, and there were about 4 couples. We started dancing at 8 p.m. and danced solidly until 4 a.m. and then went to bed. I got up again at 6 a.m. and rode on to Nyeri, about 30 miles away. I should like to mention that this dance was entirely T.T.!'
Foster - Old hands like Arnold Paice and Old Man Bastard, frequently gave much help to the soldier settlers. Paice earned extra income for himself by baking bricks, 10,000 at a time, in a self-made kiln. The bricks were sold at the rate of 1000 for £5 and Paice charged out his own labour at £1 a day to build fireplaces, and chimneys for the  wooden shacks that the new settlers were building. ........ Went as a soldier to the Boer War in 1900 and stayed on in S. Africa after the war. ... a Paice letter Sept. 1924 recounts how a Lumbwa shepherd, a brave man who had single handed killed a leopard with his spear - started stealing Paice's sheep. As Paice owed the shepherd £5.12.0 in back wages, and as the shepherd had three squatter cattle on the farm, Paice dismissed the man for theft and took both the back wages and the cattle in compensation.
Paice was, however, basically a good and kindly employer who kept his labour for many years and, when he finally sold off the farm in 1958, Paice gave a pension to all his old labour, some of whom had been with him for over 30 years. ...............…
Paice hired out a 4 wheeled waggon which covered 15 miles per day and he charged £1 per bale of wool from Nanyuki to Thika (125 miles) ........... In Sept. 1923 Paice received from the UK, and started using for the first time, sheets, pillowcases and a tablecloth. .... he commented on the smart English clothes and ties of the first soldier settlers. Paice had his boots made out of hide by a Dutchman, he comments that they were loose at the ankles and not too waterproof. ..... he tells his mother that he bought tea, coffee, sugar, jam, rice, salt, pepper and mustard; everything else came off the farm or was shot by him.   
KAD 1922 - Committee Member, Nanyuki Farmers' Association
Red 22 - Honorary Permit Issuer
Land - 1910 - Arnold Paice - Grazing and agricultural, 3083 acres - Nyeri District - 27/6/10 - Leasehold under Occupation Licence for 2 to 99 years from 1/9/10 - Registered 14/11/10
Pioneers - Nanyuki - The first European settler in the district was Arnold Paice, who arrived at Mombasa on 25 April 1907. On 29 October 1910 he set off from Naivasha for the farm he had applied for with two friends, Nat Barry and Vaughan Kenealy, his kit, 13 fowls, and 4 dogs - his only possessions. The trio were on horseback and followed native tracks or game paths over the Aberdare Range. They arrived at Nyeri on 1 November. Five days later they found the beacons marking the land, which contained several old Maasai manyattas, a great deal of game and nothing else.
Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Nyeri -  - A. Paice (British) Settler
Web -  Arnold Paice was born at Egham, Surrey on 3 August 1879 and entered the tea trade after leaving school. From early 1900 to 1901 he served with the Berkshire Yeomanry in the South African War. After the War he returned to South Africa and worked on farms until 1907, when he moved to Kenya.
Paice's Place - Arnold Paice was a working farmer with a 3,000 acre farm. Although a product of English 'society', Hampshire farming and preparatory school, Paice had to work off-farm to survive. He was a jack-of-all-trades: sheep-trader, wainwright, transport-rider, brick-maker, market-gardener, and builder of houses, cattle-dips and race-track rails. He was also part of the political arm of unofficialdom, serving in the mid-1920s as Justice of the Peace and Attesting Officer for labour tenancy contracts, positions which involved substantial interchange with African 'subjects', a difficult task given Paice's lack of knowledge of either Kikuyu or Swahili. ……………. The gangly six foot four inch lifelong bachelor who had originally eked out a living as an odd-job man and white sharecropper, and who had to borrow £400 to 'prove' that he had the capital for land ownership, had been a farmer in Nanyuki for a decade. …………..
Red Book 1912 - A. Paice - Nyeri
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Kenya Area - Arnold Paice - Farmer, West Kenya
Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Voters Register - Kenya Province - Arnold Paice, Farmer PO Naro Moru
Nanyuki cemetery - stone for Arnold Paice, born 3 Aug 1879, died 31 Aug 1963
Gazette 15 Aug 1964 probate

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