Eldoret - His mother and he opened the first licenced bakery in "64" with an open Dutch oven, and this was the original shop before "Duncans" as we know it today [1967]. Someone bought the shop from them, then that grand old Scot, Mr Wilson, and afterwards Norrie Duncan. Source - H.V. Sparrow - I farmed with my father for a while after being educated, first at home, later at school in Kenya and finally at SACS college in SA. As a child my nearest white children were about 3 miles away and so my playmates were African children - I spoke Kalenjin better than English and this stood me in good stead in later years. In 1932 I married Ida Billes of S. Africa. She became the first international telephone operator in Eldoret about 1937/38. We had 2 boys, Raymond who lives in SA and Richard who lived and worked in Kenya but is now in England. As I was a qualified engineer (mainly on agricultural machinery) I gave up farming to open my own garage in Eldoret. This was later sold out to Cooper Motors, with whom I then worked until 1980. I served on the Eldoret Council and was Mayor of Eldoret in 1937. I was involved in the organisation of the EA Motor Rally when first started and manned control points for a number of years.

Curtis - p. 105 - 'Memsahib versus Mpishi' ' ....... Bertie Sparrow recalls arriving for dinner at the Londiani Station Bungalow by the back way, and seeing through the lighted kitchen window the cook rolling the rissoles into neat shapes between the palm of his hand and his bare and sweaty chest. He said 'I went back to camp for my supper.' One memsahib, after hearing this and other horror stories, including that of the cook who was seen straining the soup through his loin cloth, and the kitchen toto who, when making the toast, stuck the pieces between his toes to keep them warm before the fire, said, 'That could never happen in my kitchen.' 'I know my kitchen toto does not keep the toast warm in that way - he has no toes!'

Curtis - p. 110 - 'A Lessos Childhood' - as told by Mr H.B.[sic] Sparrow to a Karen/Langata EAWL meeting - 'This is how my family came to Kenya. My mother went to a dentist in Cape Town where we lived, a Dr. Bridgeman, and as he treated her he told her  that he had just bought some land in BEA and was looking for someone to go up and develop it for him. Next day my father went round to see him and, as a result, 3 months later the whole family was bound for Mombasa. This was in 1905 and I was 3 years old. We took the train to Nairobi, which in those days took 2 days to do the journey, travelling by day and parked by night, because of the danger of animals on the line. At Nairobi we all stayed at the Norfolk Hotel, and then my father travelled on up-country to look at the farm we were going to, while my mother and we children (I had one sister, 10 years older than myself) waited at the hotel. The farm was at Lessos, overlooking where the Lessos Dam now is, which of course was built much later. It was well known later for the Lessos cheeses. My father started the farm - cleared the land and imported the stock. The journey up to the farm was by rail as far as Londiani and from there by ox-cart. The cart we used is now in the Norfolk Hotel on display, loaned by us. .......... Mine was a lonely childhood. My sister was 10 years older and so no companion. We had, of course no near neighbours. My childhood friends were all African children on the farm and I could speak Kalenjin before I could speak English. Some of my friends of those days are still living and we meet occasionally.

He told of how the trains only travelled in the daytime when they had to depend on oil lamps because they were afraid of game on the line and derailments.