Bowkers - Never married and spent many years of his life farming on 'Tharfield' and looking after his parents. Old Holden was a survivor of the old pioneer days; he disliked houses and all the comforts they provided and he was happiest sitting beside a camp-fire, with his wagon outspanned under shady trees and his oxen grazing on the valley below. He avoided the company of visitors and strangers whenever possible, and if he ever made any money invariably gave it away or spent it on someone else. …………… Holden was always poor, for he was perfectly happy with a few cows or ostriches and never farmed seriously. …………. When Henry Mitford-Barberton was a young man, he and Holden went on several hunting expeditions together and they were together when Henry discovered gold in the de Kaap valley at the place which later became Barberton. Eventually Holden emigrated to Kenya Colony and lived there with various members of the family. He had  a wagon and oxen and generally moved from one relative to another doing transport, ploughing, and of course always keeping the house well supplied with meat. He was excellent at breying reims and strops and making karosses. Making yoke skeys was a favourite occupation of his; whenever he had nothing else to do he would make skeys. He used to chop them out with an axe and saw the notches and he was so quick at it that he always had several bags full ready for sale. In a farming community there was always a ready sale for them. When our family was living in the Trans Nzoia, Kenya, Holden went up there and lived with Dennis Bowker for a few years, but when Dennis went back to 'Craigie Burn' and abandoned his farm, Holden came to us. At about 4 a.m. he would get up and make coffee over a campfire. He made very nice coffee, with lots of sugar and cream in it, but it was generally so strong that 'the spoon stood up in it'. One day when R.B. M-B. was staying with him Uncle Holden got up as usual at about 4 am and said, "Now I will show you how to make some real coffee. You chaps don't know how to make coffee but your Uncle Holden will give you a free demonstration. It will be so nice that you will want some more and then you will feel so strong that you will go out and work twice as hard. That's what I do. When I work I work so hard that the sweat flies and when I play I play so hard that the sweat flies. I never do anything by halves. But just you wait a minute till this coffee is ready. I'll show you what good coffee is. He sat over the fire in the dark, holding his gnarled old hands out towards the flames and the light of the fire lit up his weatherbeaten features. Soon the kettle began to sing, so he took a liberal supply of ground coffee from a tin and added it to the kettle and boiled it up a couple of times to settle the grounds and then poured it into two enamel mugs, adding cream and sugar - certainly it should have been good coffee. But when they tasted it they nearly died, it tasted so utterly foul. "Hell!" said Uncle Holden, "you know what I have done? I had two tins exactly alike and one was filled with coffee and the other with Kikuyu snuff; I have used the snuff by mistake! But never mind, I'll make a fresh start. I'll show you how to make good coffee." From the Barbertons he went to Deckham, near Kitale, and was staying there with Henry Mitford Bowker until he died. One day Mit found poor old Holden lying dead in his room beside his bed. He had not been ill, but he was over 75 years of age and may have had a heart attack. He was buried at Deckham, and we all missed him very much, for despite his eccentricities, he was always full of interesting yarns of the early days, hunting adventures, and folklore. Those who knew him will never forget him.

He was the brother of Katherine Mitford Bowker.