Source: Frederick Keith Campling

Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Nairobi District - C.W.K. Campling, Carlton Lounge

Campling - " engaged in a number of business activities, including the taking of hunting safaris, running a taxi service and dealing in land & estate, and he also had an auctioneering business in Nairobi … [1913] an uncle of the family, whose name is now forgotten, bought the Carlton Lounge in Nairobi. …….. Mary Anne and her son Charles helped with the running of this establishment and took it over completely when the uncle left for South Africa during WW1. They managed this until 1918 when the property was sold to the two Todd brothers …….. Campling & Co. had established a business in Court Square, Nairobi. They advertised that they held weekly auctions, would receive and sell all classes of produce for cash and that they ran daily transport to the railway station - for which they owned a T-model Ford and later a newly imported Oldsmobile. The taxi service was prepared to go anywhere in the country. They also advertised land and farms for sale in  all parts of BEA. …….. [1918] "Charles was too weak to attend his wife's funeral and, being at death's door himself, he was considered to be too ill to be told of her death. It was only later that the truth was told him and he took the news badly, finding solace in the bottle. For a time he wanted little to do with his baby daughter or with his 3 small sons, blaming them as being the cause of his wife's death …….. It was Charles' mother, Mary Anne, the children's grandmother - always known to them as Nana - who picked up the remnants of that shattered first family …. By 1924 Nana was beginning to feel the strain, and the cancer that was eventually to cause her death was already taking a hold. Worried as to her future and that of the children, she tried to persuade her son Charles to take an interest and responsibility for his family and he finally agreed to offer a home to his 3 sons. The 3 boys joined their father, who was then living in Eldoret in Western Kenya together with his second wife, Irene ………. Charles was now making his living by transporting cotton from Uganda. The house in which the Camplings lived was of the usual wood and iron construction and was on the Kaimosi road not far from the Pioneer Hotel, a mile or so out of the town of Eldoret. ………… Old Charles Campling was a heavy drinker and of an evening often disappeared into a local bar, Eddy's Bar in Eldoret being the favourite …… One night in Tororo Charles Campling met with an accident which put an end to his transport business. It was his custom to walk at night from his camp to the local bar, and to do this necessitated crossing a deep ditch over which he had placed a plank to make a bridge. One dark night when he was returning to camp after having had one too many, he missed the plank and fell heavily into the ditch, breaking 4 ribs, one of which punctured a lung. He was taken to the hospital in Eldoret, but his chest filled with pus and fluid, and when he showed no sign of recovery his wife, an experienced nurse, decided it was time to take matters into her own hands: she punctured his chest, inserted a tube and drained the fluid. This saved Charles' life and he made a complete recovery, though he was loath to admit it, as the idea of life as an invalid rather appealed to him. He sold off his truck and the car and moved with his wife and the baby Bill to a smallholding he had in Londiani, and after this Keith never knew his father work again. [1926] …….. ever searching for an easier means to make a living, opened a fishing business in Kisumu. … The Camplings took up residence in the old Kisumu Hotel, which was not in use at the time and Keith was sent for ……….. [back to Londiani after fishing business failed]

Nairobi South cemetery - Mabel Annie Campling, died Nov 1918

Gazette 28/1/1914 - Application for General retail Liquor Licence - Carlton Lounge Nairobi

Gazette 28/12/1921 - Petition for Insolvency - Charles William Keith Campling of Nairobi

Gazette - 12/11/1919 - Register of Voters - Nairobi, North Area - Charles William Keith Campling - Auctioneer, Land and Estate Agent, Kikuyu Road, Parklands

Red Book 1919 - C K Campling - Auctioneer - Nairobi