Midday Sun - Daphne Moore, wife of the new Chief Secretary in 1929 wrote that Sir Edward Grigg was universally distrusted and ran the country in cahoots with two scoundrelly accomplices, Hugh Martin, the Commissioner for Lands, heavily in debt, of dubious honesty and seldom sober, and Grigg's private secretary, Eric Dutton, a devious plotter. ............ Later even the Governor earned words of praise. He was informal and unpompous, and 'I have never before met a Governor who neither walked first into a room nor was served first at meals. He is most genial and easy to talk to.'     When Sir Edward Grigg, Governor from 1925 to 1930, invited Britain's great imperial architect, Sir Herbert Baker, to design a new Government House in Nairobi, a smaller version in Mombasa and other public buildings elsewhere, Eric Dutton sat at Baker's feet and acquired a good working knowledge of the trade, as well as the friendship of the brilliant but erratic Hollander, Jan Hoogterp, whom Baker put in charge of his EA building programme. ......The Griggs made a notable impact on the raw Colony. 'They raised the tone' I [Elspeth Huxley] was told.

Permanent Way - He had an unusual training for a colonial Governor. Born in 1879, he was a scholar of Winchester and of New College, Oxford, where he won the Gaisford Greek Verse Prize in 1902. Before WW1 he was on the editorial staff of 'The Times' and the 'Outlook'. In 1914 he joined the Grenadier Guards, and rose to be GSO1 of the Guards Division. During the War he was awarded the DSO and the MC, and in 1919 he became Military Secretary to HRH the Prince of Wales during the visits to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. For his services towards the great success of the Prince of Wales' tour Grigg was appointed a CMG, a CVO in 1919 and a KCVO in the following year.

In 1921 Sir Edward resigned his commission with the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and became Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr Lloyd-George. A year later he was elected to Parliament as the National Liberal Member for Oldham, and in 1923 he was appointed secretary to the Rhodes Trustees. Journalist, soldier, courtier and politician, already adorned by the glamour of success, he had remarkable energy and initiative. A good speaker, he had, too, a charm of manner and a youthful zest for life and work which gained him many friends. He also made enemies, for sometimes he was autocratic and apt to deal hardly with opinions which conflicted with his own. There were those who sometimes doubted Sir Edward's sincerity and altruism, but he proved himself to be a very good and genuine friend of Kenya, where he met grave disappointment. Political and economic factors combined to frustrate the mission of federation on which he set out with such high hopes of success in 1925. Nevertheless, Sir Edward's term of office was the most significant period in Kenya's story between the two German Wars, for it was marked by many measures which greatly influenced the design and pattern of the colony's way of life.

Oscar - 'From the moment he arrived in Kenya, Grigg's masters in the Colonial Office recorded, in minute after minute, his extravagance, his lack of tact, his inability to obtain the best from his subordinates or to win the cooperation of his fellow governors. Subordinates, in letters home and in memoirs, described his misuse of power, his persecution of the principled and his extravagance, so one wonders if there was some reason why he was not recalled. There was, however, one group who approved of him, the settlers, although even they expressed frequent doubts about his extravagance.' ........ 'With his love of high living, and his disregard for hard work, Grigg probably felt more at ease in their [settlers'] carefree company than with the hard-up, hard-working, shop-talking officials.' ......…  

Perham - 1929 - Grigg talks to me with the utmost friendliness and trust. While Cameron condemns him to me, Grigg never says a word in criticism of Cameron in spite of the deep temperamental and political disagreements between them.

White Man - came to Kenya as the prophet of federation. He had had an unusual training for a Governorship - journalist, soldier, private secretary to Mr Lloyd George, Liberal MP ......... departed in Aug 1930  

Debrett - Lieut.-Col. Army Special Reserve, and a DL for Gloucestershire; European War 1915-19 (despatches, MC, DSO, CMG); was Mil. Sec. to H.R.H. Prince of Wales during visits to Canada 1919 and Australia and New Zealand 1920, and Private Sec. to Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George) 1921-2, Sec. to Rhodes Trust, and a Director of Reuters (Limited) 1923-5, and Gov. and Com.-in-Ch., Kenya Colony 1925-30; attended Colonial Conference 1927; Chm. Milk Reorganisation Commn. 1932; appointed Parliamentary Sec. to Min of Information Sept. 1939, and Financial Sec. to War Office, April 1940; Joint Under-Sec. of State for War May 1940 to March 1942, and Min. Resident in Middle East Nov. 1944 to July 1945; sometime a Member of Council of Roy. Empire Soc.; sat as MP for Oldham (NL) Nov. 1922 to May 1925, and for Altrincham Div. of Cheshire (C) June 1933 to June 1945.

East Africa & Rhodesia - 8/12/55 - Obituary Njoro - Captain of Golf 1926

Nicholls - Coryndon was succeeded as Governor by Sir Edward Grigg, once military secretary to the Prince of Wales, and former parliamentary private secretary to Lloyd George after being a General Staff officer in the Guards, a man who rejoiced in ceremony. There were changings of the guard twice a week and tailcoats had to be worn at garden parties. On state occasions the Governor held a levée after dinner and all members of the civil service with 'first-class appointments' were obliged to attend in full evening dress with white kid gloves and decorations. ………………

Government House, which looked like a small seaside hotel or a Swiss chalet, was exchanged for a Palladian mansion designed by Sir Herbert Baker at a cost of £60,000. On account of the cost, and because the settlers suspected Grigg's eagerness to achieve was to promote his own future not theirs, the Governor was not popular with the settlers, although Lord Delamere tried to get along with him. The trouble was, said Delamere, that Grigg changed his mind so often that it was difficult to bear, and his incessant cables home to Britain ruined any course he espoused - 'he certainly is the worst diplomat possible'. ……….

Tall and good-looking, with charming gracious manners, Grigg was possessed of imagination and enterprise. He and his wife did much for Kenya. Apart from Government House, Grigg approved the construction of the law courts, railway headquarters and offices.  …………. He was also more pro-settler than the settlers suspected. Izuakor - Lord Altrincham, in his justification of British salvage mission in Kenya, expressed satisfacton that they brought order and sanity into an anarchic situation. "Into this empty paradise", he claimed, "only at the beginning of this century, there enters a British Government and British colonists", and there was light.

Markham - competed with Beryl Markham for the attention of Edward, Prince of Wales in 1928

Captain of Njoro Golf Club in 1926.