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Name: GASCOIGNE, Lionel DSO (Major)

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Nee: bro of Brian George Gascoigne

Birth Date: 29.10.1880 Ashford, Kent

Death Date: 2.8.1929 Nairobi

First Date: 1919

Last Date: 1929

Profession: Put up a rough wooden post-office-cum-store in Nanyuki

Area: Nairobi, Nanyuki, Red 25 - Honorary Permit Issuer. Red 25 - JP, Nyeri

Married: In Pachmarhi, Bengal, 28 June 1906 Irene Dening 'Renie' b. 1884, d. 27 Sep 1974 St Leonards on Sea, Founder member of the EAWL in Nanyuki in 1926

Children: Nancy Aileen (27 Oct 1912 India-1998) (Coryndon, son of the Kenya Governor); Patrick (1 Aug 1914 Sherborne-14 Jan1996 Nanyuki)

Author: Mrs Gascoigne's memoirs

Book Reference: Midday Sun, KFA, Seventy, Police, Foster, Stoneham, Joelson, Verandah, Debrett, KAD, Red 25, Hut, Red 22, Barnes, DSO, Nicholls, SS

War Service: Major, B/170th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

School: Bedford

General Information:

Midday Sun - 'His wife Renie was a masterful and energetic lady said to be eccentric. ....... The only instance of Renie Gascoigne's eccentricity I heard of was related by a friend of hers who met her walking along Nanyuki's single dusty street at 10 o'clock in the morning in an elegant blue velvet evening dress. When her startled friend enquired the reason, Mrs Gascoigne replied: 'There's a dance this evening at the club, and it's always such a nuisance changing one's clothes.'                   
Police - In 1928 the Prince of Wales visited Kenya and he dined with Major and Mrs R. Gascoigne at Nanyuki, and later attended a dance at the Nanyuki Sports Club.
Foster - Lionel Gascoigne went to India as a Gunner Officer in 1907 and met and married his wife, the daughter of a General in the Indian Army in 1908. In 1912 he left the Army and retired to Sherborne, Dorset, to train polo ponies. In 1914 he rejoined the Army and served throughout the War in the Royal Horse Artillery.
Gascoigne's daughter, Nancy, married in 1934 the son of Sir Robert Coryndon, the Governor of Kenya, who died in office in 1925. ........…..
Mrs Renie Gascoigne and her husband Maj. Lionel Gascoigne camped in an 80lb. tent, for the first six months, before moving into a grass hut. ........... set up a Post Office and store in the unsurveyed Nanyuki Township in May 1920, but then had to move out to Raymond Hook's farm until 1924 when they returned to Nanyuki Township.
Later they started the Royal Frontier Mail replacing the runners by lorries, which also carried cream, and, later still, by buses. ......... Brig.-Gen. Wheatley and Major Lionel Gascoigne had worked together as secretary and Steward of the Jubbulpore Polo and Race Club in India in 1909 and by 1923 had achieved the same at Nanyuki  
Joelson - 1928 - Nanyuki - Wheat growing - first tried in 1920 by Major Gascoigne but not developed until 1927.
Debrett - Major RA retired; S. Africa 1901-02 (Queen's medal with 5 clasps) European War 1914-19 (despatches, DSO, Belgian Croix de Guerre)  
KAD 1922 - Committee Member, Nanyuki Farmers' Association  
Red 25 - Farm 885, Gunners Venture, Nanyuki, Honorary Permit Issuer. Treasurer & Secretary, Nanyuki Sports Club
Red 22 - EA Produce Syndicate, West Kenya
Red 22 - Honorary Permit Issuer
Nairobi Forest Road Cemetery - Major Lionel Gascoigne, British, age 49, died 2/8/29
Nicholls - Nanyuki - in 1920 Major and Mrs L.R. Gascoigne erected the first shack there and opened a post office and store (previously mail had come by runner from the Naro Moru post office on Berkeley Cole's land)
Soldier Settlement Scheme after WW1 - Class B - Major L. Gascoigne, DSO, c/o Lady Dening, Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex - Farm 620
KFA - Opened a butchery at Nanyuki with Mr Wheatley .One of those 'Garth Castle' soldier-settlers who started the 'Gunners Venture'. Original Soldier-settler after WW1
Gazette - 11/3/1930 - Probate and Administration - Lionel Gascoigne late of Nanyuki who died at Nairobi on 2 August 1929. Applied for by Renie Gascoigne of Nanyuki.
Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Voters Register - Kenya Province - Major Lionel Gascoigne, Settler PO Nanyuki and Renie Gascoigne, Storekeeper PO Nanyuki
Gazette 20 Dec 1974 wife's probate required by Patrick Gascoigne
 

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