View entry
Name: BLUMFIELD, Henry Roy
Birth Date: Sep 1893 Wandsworth
Death Date: 14 Aug 1914 Mombasa, blackwater fever
Last Date: 1914
Profession: Clerk, Hotel Metropole
Area: Mombasa
Book Reference: Barnes
General Information:
UK Foreign and Overseas Registers for death
Mombasa Mbaraki cemetery - Henry Roy Blumfield, Hotel Metropole, died 14 Aug 1914, age 23, European Hospital, Blackwater
1891 census - gives his occup as 'literary author', aged 17
Web posting in Ancestry Henry Roy Blumfield, Cyril's older brother was born in 1893 in Putney. In 1911 when he was 18 he was still living at home but unlike Cyril who later went on to higher education, he was already working as a "Literary author". From 1911 I could find no trace of him in the UK which I thought was really odd. But then I found a passenger manifest, attached, for the SS Malta, picture attached, which sailed from London on June 7th 1913 bound for Calcutta but stopping on the way at Malta, Port Said and Colombo. On board was a certain "Blumfield Mr H R", bound for South Africa but disembarking from the ship at Port Said. His age is shown as 24. Henry would have been 20. Maybe he lied about his age, maybe a mistake? His profession is shown as "Journalist" which is similar to "Literary author". Maybe he was in search of adventure, maybe he was going to visit relatives in South Africa (there are Blumfields there, although I don't know yet if any are within our tree), or maybe it was a journalistic trip. Who knows?
The next clue is a game licence, attached, issued to "H R Blumfield" on Aug 2nd 1913. That date fits in with when he must have arrived at Port Said. The licence was issued at Ukamba District which is now Nairobi, Kenya. In 1913 it was the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate. On Sep 2nd 2013 a second game licence was issued to him, attached, with his residence listed as "Parkland", a district of Nairobi. A year later he died in Mombasa, Kenya on 14 Aug 1914. A record from Mbaraki Cemetery shows that he died in the European Hospital from Blackwater fever. Henry is buried in Lot 121. There is a note on his record for the Metropole Hotel in Mombasa. I guess he was staying there. The hospital was only 5 minutes away from the cemetery. The Metropole Hotel no longer exists but was also in the same vicinity.
Gazette - 2/9/14 - Probate & Admin. - H.R. Blomfield [sic] who died at Mombasa 14/8/14