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Name: LLEWELLIN, John Lionel Bretherton Llewellyn FRGS (Lieut.-Col.) 'Long Lou'

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Birth Date: 8 Nov 1889 Westerleigh, Gloucs.

Death Date: 19 Jan 1974 Nanyuki

First Date: 1914

Profession: DO

Area: Nanyuki, 1930 Nyeri, Hut 1922 Kamorin, Mombasa

Married: 1. In Elham, Kent 1924 Helen McPherson Raven (later m. Ivor Wynne Yorke-Davies 1908-1977) b. 28 Sep 1904 Plymouth, d. 21 Dec 1976 Nairobi; 2. 1943 Mrs Inger Moore née Helst b. 9 Sep 1913, d. 18 Mar 1966 Nairobi

Children: John (d. as a baby of 3 months 18 July 1949 Nanyuki); one dau.

Book Reference: Midday Sun, Police, Jack Wright, Lillibullero, Alexander, Mischief, KAD, Red 25, John Carnegie, Red 31, Hut, Colonial, Red 22, O&C, Web, Gazette, Dominion, Who's Who, Red 19

School: Weymouth College and Lincoln College Oxford 1909-13

General Information:

Barnes Nanyuki cem - Lt Col John / Lionel Bretherton / Llewellyn Llewellin / beloved husband of Inger / and father of baby John
Resident Commissioner, Mombasa
Midday Sun - As a junior DO in the 1920s H. B. Sharpe had been posted to Wajir, where he took over from a tall and handsome officer called John Llewellin. Long Lew, as he was generally known, wore an eyeglass, travelled in some style - clean plates for each course, polished glasses, coffee cups - and had been encountered on the march, so I was told, wearing a hat and eyeglass and a pair of sandals, with nothing in between. The Somali shared with the Masai a talent for capturing the hearts of their white rulers to such an extent that the rulers almost became the ruled.
Long Lew steeped himself so deeply in Somali lore that he could even read their camel brands, a highly complex orthography by which every individual camel could be traced to its owner through his clan, sub-clan and family. The Somali were, and are, split into a number of clans, or tribes, nearly always at enmity and often at war with each other. One of the most powerful of these clans made Long Lew a blood brother and thereafter could twist him round their little fingers. He allowed them to move with all their livestock and hangers-on as far south as the Tana, where they had no right to be. Sharpie, taking a handful of 'gobbos', was sent to retrieve them. A great deal of nerve and diplomacy, and an extraordinary amount of bluff, were needed to accomplish this without bloodshed, and had blood been shed it would certainly have been Sharpie's. He marched 200 miles, rounded up about 1000 people and 10000 head of cattle, marched them back, and reinstated them in their proper ranges. 'A truly Herculean task' was how Turnbull described this achievement. 'It meant a good deal of hard trekking' was Sharpie's own comment.  
Police - 1916 - As a result of the disaster at Serenli, the DC at Wajir (John L.B. Llewellin) received orders to evacuate the post and meet the EA Police Service Battalion at Brusa on the Uaso Nyiro River.  
Letter from Jack Wright - "Long Lou" John Llewellin being a retired British Govt. Official, first went to run the Izaak Walton trout fishing lodge at Embu after his retirement along with his wife. When Mau Mau flared up they came to live in a guest house at Burguret.
After the death of his wife, John came and lived in a small cottage near to the Liki River quite near to the Club. The Club being so nice and handy it became part of his daily life, he being known by most of the locals was christened 'John Hollow Legs'. From the time he settled in Nanyuki to the time of his death he turned up sharp every morning at 11 o'clock, sat on his stool at the end of the long bar and ordered from the barman one bottle of Gilbeys gin and a small jar of Heinz pearl onions. On each fillup of his tumbler he flicked out from his left eye, his monocle, and proceeded to put four or five onions into the bottom of the tumbler, then the gin and soda. That procedure would continue till that last drop of gin went to the tumbler followed by the vinegar out of the onion jar, drank it and bade good day to all who were present.
He would then walk perfectly upright to his car and drive home for lunch followed by a short nap on his bed. At 5.30 he would reappear at the Club, take up his usual place, and order a bottle of John Haig Whisky which he would consume in his own time before he retired from the Club to drive himself home and to bed.
This was his daily routine and he kept quite fit and healthy right up to about three weeks before his death when he was hospitalized.  
Alexander - Col. John Llewellin, an ex-Provincial Commissioner at Isiolo around 1914, ..…..  
Mischief - At Muthaiga Club early on the night of Lord Erroll's murder with his wife, Gypsy someone ?
KAD 1922 - District Commissioner, Kamarin (in the Elgeyo District) - shown as J.L.B. Llewellyn.
Letter from John Carnegie, June 1996 - Long Lou Llewellyn was very tall (about 6'4") and must have been a very fine man. I never knew him personally but heard a lot of gossip about him. He farmed somewhere between Nanyuki and Thomson's Falls. I know he drank (underlined) at Barry's Hotel on the edge of the gorge below the waterfall. The road could be rather muddy and greasy and I knew a pleasant and sober and not very rich young man who once worked for the Soil conservation people and drove a black Chevrolet saloon in the post war days when American cars were hard to obtain because of a dearth of dollars.
He was quietly drinking and playing snooker or something at Barry's one night when some friend rushed up to him and said "I'm almost sure that Long Lou is in your precious car going in a series of wild loops on the brink of the gorge in an attempt to drive himself home! He must have got into the wrong car in the dark. You had better do something quickly!" After a hair-raising experience which involved running round in the dark, falling over frequently into the slippery mud while trying to leap into his car without getting run over, he managed to climb into it before it went over the cliff or into a substantial tree and drive the old man home. All this took place in the late 40s or early 50s.
Colonial - Asst. Dist. Commissioner EAP Apr. 1914; Ag. DC, N. Frontier Sept. 1915-Jun 1920; AGS med. "Jubaland 1917-18"; Ag. DC Jubaland Nov 1922-May 1924
Web - British Perspectives on Aulihan Somali Unrest in the East Africa Protectorate, 1915-18 by George L. Simpson Jr. - Much on Llewellin's activities in the NFD during this time of unrest.
Gazette - 28/6/16 - appt. ADC Wajir
Dominion - District Officer - 1930
Who's Who 1956 - Past Chmn. Nanyuki Sports Club; Capt. Intell. Service 1939, Lt.-Col. OETA 1941; Political Officer, Rebellion 1917
Gazette 3/6/1914 - Arrived on 1st Appointment - Asst. Dist. Commissioner - 15/5/1914
Gazette 28/9/1921 - Appointed Assistant District Commissioner, Naivasha wef 24/9/1921
Nairobi Club - Honorary Life Member
Lillibullero - Jack Llewellyn - beloved of fair ladies and a very Bayard in battle.
Mischief - at dinner at Muthaiga with Broughton etc on the night of Erroll's murder.
Red 25 has J.L.B.L. Llewellyn, Afmadu, via Kisumu
Gazette 8 Feb 1974 probate
Agnes Shaw: Well over 6 ft tall, broad-shouldered. He wore a monocle over one eye while his wife, half his size, wore another.

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