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Name: BRITTLEBANK, William

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Nee: bro of Herbert and son of Andrew Brittlebank, solicitor

Birth Date: 23.7.1852 Winster, Derbyshire

Death Date: 7.8.1921 Mombasa

Nationality: British

First Date: 1897

Last Date: 1921

Profession: Chief Transport Officer, Uganda Railway, 1898, he was an eminent Geologist, and it has been recorded that he discovered Lake Magadi. He donated a collection of mineral samples to the Coryndon Museum.

Area: Voi, Hut has H.W. Brittlebank 1909 Nakuru

Book Reference: Gillett, Permanent Way, Bell, Adventurers, Hut, North, Playne, Land, Gazette, Barnes, Chandler

School: Eton

General Information:

Permanent Way - Took over in charge of Railway Transport Dept. from Veterinary-Captain J.A. Haslam who was killed by the Kikuyu in July 1898
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 .….       
Adventurers - Selland camping with the Brittlebanks ......... went to the goldfields only to find that, although there was certainly gold there, it was not in payable quantities. They had consequently taken to hunting, but Bowker and Bailey ....... had returned to Nairobi. ..... The two Brittlebanks, inseparable brothers in later years, were men much liked and trusted by all who knew them. They were Old Etonians. The powerful personality of William, the younger, almost entirely overshadowed his elder brother, and I have never known a finer, stauncher, more dauntless, or more honourable type of the true English adventurer. William was a very early arrival in Kenya, and his banking account was, I believe, the first opened in the National Bank of India, Mombasa. Before coming to EA he had ranged the earth, prospecting in many of the most difficult and dangerous parts of the world; but on arrival here he took up transport for the Uganda railway operations, and at the time of my first appearance was W.D.M. Bell's boss in this business. ........ While attempting to cross a glacier he fell down a crevasse and broke both his ankles. Owing to the difficulty of getting skilled attention and the hardships he underwent at the time of, and subsequent to, this accident, the bones never knit properly. For the rest of his immensely active life this great-hearted Englishman tramped the world, participating in tasks or sport as laborious as any known to man, with his feet imprisoned by boots specially made to hold together his shattered members. ......... he also went out prospecting for the EA Syndicate Ltd., and in their employ ranged as far as the Abyssinian border. ....... to the Congo, where he came very near to finding the Kilo goldfields ........ elephant hunting .......... he was a somewhat worn-out old man by this time ........ was the most notable and respected figure in my memory of those days. ....... Great War ..... transport work between Voi and Taveta -  a pretty hot, fairly dangerous and decidedly man-exhausting though highly important link in the EA Campaign. Since the war both Brittlebanks have died; the younger as a result of a prospecting trip in the coastal area, and the elder probably from dejection ....... losing his brother ... (more)
Manual - 1927 - Uganda - In the Bunyoro district, Mr W. Brittlebank applied for a mineral oil concession option over 898 sq. miles in Nov. 1913. This option expired in 1922, but the concessionaire died at Nairobi in 1921. The concession lay largely in the Rift Valley.
North - Appt. Transport Officer 1897; Nr. Makindu 20-9-1898; Appt. Supt. of Railway Transport Dept. after death of Capt. A.J. Haslem 19-7-1898 until post was abolished in June 1902; Transport Officer based at Railhead 23-2-1899; Arr. Durban from Mombasa to sell redundant mules & wagons to the British Army 18-4-1902; Issued with Public Officer's Game Licence, Nairobi 12-6-1902. In Ankole, Uganda for the EA Syndicate and to return to Entebbe, ill 17-3-1903.
Playne - Transport Officer on Railway during construction
Land - 1906 - W. Brittlebank - Grazing, 5000 acres, Rift Valley, 13-3-04, Registered 27-12-06
Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Nairobi District - William Brittlebank, The Hill
Gazette 15/7/1902 - Issued with Public Officer's Game Licence - 12/6/02
North - Prospector's Licence (Mining) Jinja April 1905
Barnes - Mombasa Cemetery - William Brittlebank, died 7 Aug 1921, age 66, European Hospital, Endocarditis - Heart Failure Chandler - A graduate of both Eton and the Klondike Gold Rush, Brittlebank was one of the 'gentleman poachers' of the Lado Enclave. His older brother accompanied him on most of his travels, but William was the acknowledged leader in their affairs. He was a successful elephant hunter, despite having to wear special metal boots due to ankle injuries he had sustained in Alaska. Brittlebank prospected for many years in Australia, Siberia, Baluchistan, Rhodesia and the Klondike before coming to Kenya. An 1873 book he wrote on a famine in Persia is still considered a classic. He arrived in East Africa early enough to open the first account in the Mombasa branch of the National Bank of India. He took a job conducting transport for the Uganda Railway ……… worked as a geologist amnd prospector for F.R. Burnham's East African Syndicate for a short time until he was captured by the Abyssinians. Upon his release from captivity he went to the Kilo gold fields in the Belgian Congo. Later he was joined once again by his brother and started hunting elephant in the Lado Enclave.
Gazette 3/5/1922 - Probate and Administration in respect of Capt. W. Brittlebank
Mills Railway - 189 - The Transport Department did more than carry supplies ahead of the rails; it saved uncounted lives. Whitehouse had especially asked William Brittlebank, the officer in charge, to employ as many Wakamba porters as possible. In June Brittlebank reported: "I cannot let this opportunity pass of expressing my gratitude  for the opportunity we have been afforded of assisting the Wakamba, through whose country we have for many months been passing.
By utilising them as porters, we have in a marked degree been able to alleviate their sorry condition, suffering, as they have been for a long period from famine. It is no exaggeration to say that scores have been preserved from absolute starvation and hundreds from extreme distress.

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