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Name: BOWKER, William Russell

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Nee: older brother of Gordon Cross, Alexander and Bertram Egerton Bowker, son of Bertram Egerton Bowker

Birth Date: 1855 Grahamstown, S. Africa

Death Date: 17.7.1916 pneumonia, Mt. Margaret, Kedong Valley

First Date: 1902

Last Date: July 1916

Profession: Farmer

Area: Kedong Valley, Mount Margaret Estates

Married: In King William's Town 24 Feb 1881 Helena Elizabeth Birt b.1854, d. 4 May 1926 Kampala

Children: Margaret M. (1882 King William's Town) (Douglass); Russell Francis (18.2.1909); Mary Mitford Russell (7 Jan 1884 East London, S. Africa)

Book Reference: Gillett, EAWL, SE, HBEA, Cuckoo, Best, KFA, Sorrenson, Joelson, Adventurers, Vulture, Breath, Hut, FMcC, EAMR, North, Playne, Land, Advertiser, EAHB 1906, AJ, Gazette, Leader14, Bowkers, Red Book 1912, Mills Norfolk

War Service: Commanded Bowker's Horse in WW1, EAMR - B Sqdn. 5/8/14 - 29/10/14 - Capt. 5/8/14

General Information:

Was so impressed with the country, its attractions and advantages, that he decided he would take up land and start farming. First he returned to the land of his birth, and through his enthusiasm was responsible for many early immigrants from SA to EA.
Built Baharini House
SE - R. Bowker - Nbi. - Jul 1907
He acquired a large estate in the Kedong Valley which he farmed until his death. He was buried on Mt. Margaret, a large hill that stood on a portion of his farm.       
The third son of 12 children, came to Kenya with his two elder brothers after seeing active service in the Boer War. His father arrived in S.A. at the age of ten with his grandparents who were 1820 settlers and became well known in the Grahamstown area where they settled and developed a large estate. On arrival in Kenya he was so impressed with what he saw that he managed to persuade a further 20 prospective settlers to come to Kenya and take up farms being granted by the Government to genuine settlers who were prepared to work the land. As a result of Russell's efforts the Government made a special grant to him of 20,000 acres in the Kedong Valley. This farm became known as Mount Margaret Estates, being named after Mount Margaret a prominent hill on the farm which in turn was named after his only child. He built a nice stone house at what is today the foot of the tarmac escarpment road and a few hundred yards from the Church built by the Italian POW's during the 2nd World War. Before the 1st World War broke out Russell directed his boundless energies to developing the farm and imported many head of stock and farm implements. In developing the farm it became necessary for him to shoot many lions and several leopards and rhino which were plentiful on his farm in those early days. He later became well known as a big-game hunter and was often seen wearing a felt hat on which was mounted a stuffed leopard's head. On the outbreak of WW1 Russell Bowker got together a squadron of volunteers, known as Bowker's Horse, which did good work on the border with GEA before being incorporated into the EAMR in which unit he held the rank of Captain. After the war he returned to his farm where he died in 1920. He was buried on his farm at the top of Mount Margaret under a large cairn of stones which could be seen for many miles around.    Source: Mr John B.R. Allen.
Best - a South African built along the lines of Mount Kilimanjaro, recruited all his drinking companions into Bowker's Horse. Like the Afrikaner citizen army of the Boer war, his men wore whatever clothes came to hand - bush jackets, khaki trousers, any kind of hat, boots, gaiters, hunting knives, neck cloths and home-made bandoleros. Bowker was proud of them. They were the sort of men who would gallop into battle with the reins between their teeth and their brains between their legs. He himself proposed to fight the Germans in a slouch hat on which he had mounted a leopard's head, complete with bared fangs. (As it happened, Bowker's Horse came to an untimely end when a four man German patrol crept up on them when they were not looking and rustled 57 of their horses. After that, they became known as Bowker's Foot.)  
KFA - 'a vigorous, bold and handsome member of a well-known South African family, looked round the Protectorate and returned to the Union full of enthusiasm. The climate of EA, he said, was that of "a perpetual European summer"; cabbages as big as bicycle wheels turned the scales at thirty pounds; ostriches could be had for the trouble of catching them; there was "a comparative absence of stock diseases". His enthusiasm, backed by official propoganda, had an immediate effect.' ....... 'In 1908 brought 200,000 sisal plants from German territory to his farm in Kedong and this so alarmed the Germans that they slapped on a prohibitive export duty of £4 a 100 bulbils to stop future competition.'  
Sorrenson - Russell Bowker obtained just over 30,000 acres in the Kedong Valley by applying for it in the names of his wife and children - and thus avoided the long battle that Chamberlain and Flemmer had with the Foreign and Colonial offices to obtain similar areas in their own names.
Adventurers - 1909 - to the Congo for gold - '... during the next two days, still following the Hoima road, we caught up with Mr Russell Bowker, Mr Bailey, and two brothers named Brittlebank - all from Kenya - bound for the Congo on the same errand as myself .….
Hut - Jailed 15  days with Grogan for whipping rickshaw boys. Bowker's Horse in WW1
Letter from Fergus McCartney - April 1998 - 'I climbed all the way up to the top of Mount Margaret to find his grave some years ago. The grave was desecrated years ago but a large headstone lies nearby. It was made in Cape Province of granite and it bears the initials of the maker in the r. hand lower corner. The inscription reads:- In memory of Russell Bowker FRGS died July 1916. His daughter Margaret was buried (ashes I believe?) alongside him but no trace.'
North - Arr. EA from SA on shooting trip with daughter (Margaret M.) 1902; At Mombasa 23-5-1903; dep. Mombasa up-country with 'party' (EAS) 8-7-1903; at Nairobi with R. Chamberlain and A.S. Flemmer claiming to be representatives of a South African entrepreneur named Pullinger, Oct 1903. Land Grant application with wife and daughter, 22-10-1903, Kedong Valley
Playne - Mr Russell Bowker has a very large farm of 33000 acres in the Kedong Valley, and about 1 mile from Kijabe Station. Mr Bowker, when this work was being compiled, was in the Congo District. ...……
Land - Leased 9779 acres at Kedong, passed to Mrs Greswolde Williams and later sub-divided
Land - 1908 - W.R. Bowker - Grazing, 9779.5 acres, Kedong Valley, 22-10-03, Registered 11-9-08
Land 1909 - Mrs H.E. Bowker - Agricultural and grazing, 1111 acres - Kijabe - 22/10/03 - Leasehold for 99 years from 1/5/08 - Registered 1/11/09
Land 1909 - W.R. Bowker - Agricultural and grazing, 1000 acres - Kedong Valley - 22/10/03 - Leasehold for 99 years from 1/1/05 - Registered 18/4/10
Land - 1911 - W.R. Bowker - Buildings, 19.08 acres - Kijabe - 31/3/08 - Leasehold for 99 years from 1/1/11 - Registered 30/8/11
Advertiser - 9/4/1909 - Mr Russell Bowker has returned from the Lado Enclave and is in town. Mr F. Baillie, who accompanied him has also returned.
Agricultural Journal 1908 - Brands allotted and registered - R. Bowker, Kedong, via Escarpment - Naivasha V2B
Gazette - 19/7/16 - Obituary - Capt. W. Russell Bowker died at the European Hospital, Nairobi 16/7/16. One of the earliest settlers in the Protectorate he arrived from South Africa in 1903 and ever since has taken the keenest interest in the development of the country of his adoption. ……….. [more]
Gazette - 6/9/16 - Probate & Admin. - William Russel [sic] Bowker. Applied for by Helen Elizabeth Bowker and G.G. Bompas Gazette - 26/8/1914 - Appt. - Russell Bowker, Volunteer Forces, East Africa Mounted Rifles, to be Captain, to date August 5th 1914
Gazette - 4/11/1914 - Appt. - Permitted to resign his appointment - Bowkers Horse - Captain R. Bowker to date 29th October 1914
North - Quarrelled with Chamberlain and pulled out of joint land enterprise April 1904; in Uganda with wife and daughter Sept 1904;
mini-Sitrep XVIII - William Russell Bowker was born in the Eastern Cape in 1855, the 11th of 12 children, the 4th of 5 sons, born to the Hon Bertram Egerton Bowker. Bertram Bowker arrived with his parents, as a child of 10, with the 1820 settlers to South Africa, who settled in the Grahamstown area of the Eastern Cape and took up large tracts of land to raise cattle. In due time Russell Bowker married Helena Birt and they had one daughter, Margaret. Russell Bowker, after serving with some distinction in the Boer War, visited Kenya in late 1901, and was so impressed with the farming/ranching possibilities he vowed that as soon as he had sorted out his affairs and estates in South Africa, he would return to take up land being offered to settlers by the Kenya Government of the day. In 1904, Russell returned to Kenya, bringing with him some 30-odd aspirant farmers, with their families, from various parts of South Africa. The Kenya Government was so impressed with Bowker's efforts to bring in potential new settler family units, as they were desperately needed to develop the farmin/ranching potential of the new Colony, that they offered him 6 5,000 acre concessional farm properties, as opposed to the normal 5,000 acres at the time. Bowker took up 30,000 acres in the kedong Valley, below the Kijabe escarpment, naming his new ranch Mount Margaret Estate, after his daughter. A prominent hill on the estate was named Mount Margaret, as Mount Longonot has already been bespoken for! Bowker died in 1920 and was buried on the top of Mount Margaret, on his estate which he had come to love. Bowker's daughter Margaret had some years previous to his death, married Frank William Douglass who was a large estate owner in the Trans Nzoia, where he ranched cattle, and also introduced the cultivation of flax. His estate later became known as Flax Limited. Frank and Margaret had a son, Russell Bowker Douglass, who became a noted white hunter in Tanganyika and who ran a very successful safari-cum-hunting business from his home in Arusha - 'Tanganyika Tours and Safaris'. They had one daughter, Margaret Frances Douglass, who married Cecil William Allen in 1925, at that time farming in the Solai area. John Allen is the only son of this union. It is of interest that Russell Bowker, Frank Douglass, Cecil Allen and Jock Cleverly - John Allen's great grandfather, grandfather, father and father-in-law, respectively - all served with the East African Mounted Rifles in 1915. Possibly a unique family combination in Regimental service.   [article written by John Allen]
Red Book 1912 - R. Bowker - Naivasha
Red Book 1912 - President - South African Association of BEA
Mills Norfolk - Russell Bowker, one of the 9 grandsons of Miles Bowker who settled in South Africa in 1820, was so impressed with the country when he arrived in Kenya in 1904 that he settled and farmed in the Kedong Valley until his death. He was buried on Mount Margaret which stood on a portion of his farm. It was he who raised Bowker's Horse in Kenya in 1914. His brother Gordon Cross Bowker, who had commanded Bowker's Rovers in the Gaika War of 1877 and in the South African Wars, in the 1914-18 war in East Africa was in the East African Transport Corps.
Gazette - 8-7-1914 - Dissolution of Partnership between William Russell Bowker andf William Boyce Aggett trading as 'The AB Trading Company' by mutual consent as from 30/6/1914
 

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