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Name: CANE, Violet Marian

Nee: dau of Henry Drake Cane

Birth Date: 17 Apr 1872 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

Death Date: 21 Aug 1959 Kiambu

First Date: 1921

Last Date: 1959

Profession: In 1921 Mrs Cane built cottages to house convalescent missionaries and this was the beginning of Brackenhurst Hotel where accommodation was provided for stranded travellers at Shs. 7/- a day

Area: Brackenhurst, Limuru

Married: In Scarborough 1902 Charles Hudson Boileau Cane (1867-1943)

Children: Alicia Margaret Violet 'Margot' (Howard) (22 May 1903 Rydal, Westmorland-1990 Limuru)

Book Reference: Seventy, Garden, Curtis, Barnes

General Information:

Seventy - In early times Brackenhurst Hotel, owned by Mr & Mrs Hudson Cane, was the social centre where Limuru met and played its tennis and golf. It was here that one of the bigger voluntary efforts of the 1920's took place, the fete called Limuru Day, advertised by a procession of donkey carts in Nairobi, carrying members of Limuru in fancy dress, from the Norfolk to the New Stanley. On this day, the district, with the firm backing of members of the EAWL, raised enough money through a Hill Climb, a baby show, raffles, coconut shies and entertainments of all kinds to enable the little tin All Saints' Church to be replaced by the present stone structure.
Garden - 'Brackenhurst ..... a great refectory, that reminded me of Penshurst; the lofty roof was thatched with Kavirondo matting; or was it papyrus cane? Grass of sorts and very beautiful. Huge carved wooden arches carried the grass ceiling along the hundred feet of its length ("This was once the orchard," they said) at the ends were the proper huge open fireplaces to go with such architecture; all very mediaeval and familiar to an English eye. In that cool great room we had the best curry ever tasted! Mrs Hudson Cane with her warm, stately charm, presently took us round the garden; her daughter is a keen gardener and brings a lively sense of humour to invigorate their horticulture. "We expected rain and feverishly manured the whole garden; all that happened was a plague of flies!" They have 300 acres, tennis, a nine-hole golf-course, electric light on the main and she told me they had "prolific" water. I liked the word; I suppose water might be called prolific. Brackenhurst makes a nice motor ride from Nairobi, and is a popular fashionable Hotel .......….'
Curtis - p. 74 - 'Home on the Farm' - from Memories of 1914 written by the late Mrs Hudson Cane.
Barnes - Limuru Cemetery - Violet Marian Hudson Cane, formerly of Brackenhurst, 1872 - 1959, one is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth
Gazette 19 Jan 1960 probate

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