EA Stud Book 1954 - Arabian Stallions - Owners - Lady Wilson, Ulu

Women in Kenya - A memoir by Billy Blunt - To me the very name Elizabeth Wilson conjures up a host of wonderful memories grave and gay. Gay, for she had one of the most lively and easily triggeredd-off sense of humour that it has been my good fortune to encounter, only exceeded by her husband and happily, inherited by her family. She had known hardship and lean times and none of this would have had any meaning had it not been for her own peerless qualities of truth and uprightness; views fiercely held and fiercely carried out. Her standards of behaviour were high and strictly observed, any breach of which would not easily pass unremarked upon where necessary to the person concerned, sometimes sternly, sometimes compassionately. She was particularly loved by children, who knew exactly where they stood with her, and what was expected of them, confident of her love and understanding.

Elizabeth would go on safari 'at the drop of a hat', often at the very appearance of a new-comer on her threshold; for she was a great lover of the beauty and enchantment of being out in the bush with all nature around her and she wished everyone to share it. A Memorial Fund has been started by the East African Natural History Society, of which she was a staunch member. Meals in her home were almost always on the verandah - even in the garden, and sometimes in pretty cold weather with a well-laden bird table in sight and field glasses ever by her side and accompanied by beautiful music of the world's great composers. Thus surrounded by lovely, simple and joyous things of life, she brought peace and serenity to many a visitor who happened through her welcoming portals. It was on this same verandah that she spent many hours embroidering the Machakos panel and editing 'Women in Kenya'.

Elizabeth and her husband were both natives of Yorkshire, she was a Pease, and had served in France during the First World War as a VAD and as a FANY. Frank O'Brien Wilson raised a mounted patrol, known as Wilson's scouts in the 1914-18 campaign in East Africa for which he was awarded the DSO. They married after his return from East Africa, and Frank took her back to Kenya, to what in these days would be considered utterly primitive conditions, to live in a mud hut on the huge tract of land farmed in partnership with Frank Joyce. In 1920 they marketed their first gallon of pasteurised milk to Voi hospital, some 170 miles daily by slow train, the manner of pasteurising having been found in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In 1930, it was agreed that this huge tract of waterless land should be divided. The Wilsons moved and built their next home, a cedar hut, while they dug earth from the hillside, with their African labour and made bricks with which to build a small cottage, followed later by the first stages of the present house. Later another kiln was built where thousands more bricks were burnt to build the dairy, workshops, stores, cattle dips and staff houses which made up the thriving complex which was to produce nearly 2,000 gallons of milk a day. Water was obtained in the first instance from rain catchment off roofs, and a single dam, afterwards from boreholes, 8 in all, over the 24,000 acres and some 30 dams, nearly all of which were made with teams of oxen dragging scoops. Two hundred miles of fencing enclosed the huge pastures and the methodical, discriminative clearance of bush left the beautiful, park-like paddocks which became one of the show places of Kenya. Starting with very little capital and an overdraft, success came through sound farming practices over many years of difficulties, and the Wilsons were a shining example of the toughness and dedication of their type of pioneer to their self-imposed tasks and vision. With a family of four to bring up, these were hard times indeed between the wars, but in 1933 Frank was awarded the CMG for his services on the Carter Land Commission.

During the Second World War and after, 'the F.O'Bs' as they were affectionately known, alongside their farming, devoted themselves to much public service. Frank was deservedly awarded a knighthood in 1949 for his unstinted services to Agriculture, and meanwhile Elizabeth became a champion of the cause of women, was President of the EAWL and served on many committees, and attended Conferences of the ACWW in Denmark (with her elder daughter Theresa) In 1950, three years later in Canada and the United States, with her younger daughter, Vivien, and made many lasting friendships, as she did later in Ceylon, Australia, Edinburgh and Dublin.

Among Elizabeth's great loves were horses and she built up from their earliest pioneering days a very good Arabian stud, for of course in those early days horse and mule transport, and the bullock wagon, were the only means of getting about. She imported a fine Arab stallion, and much later another one, and later still a mare from Lady Wentworth's Crabbet Park stud. Elizabeth was a water diviner of repute and she was particularly interested in Radiasthesis (alleviating pain and healing by means of the pendulum and rays). Not least by the power of God and prayer, for she was deeply religious.

I remember one of the things which struck me most as a "refugee" from 1940 to 1943 with our small son and soon afterwards our daughter when my husband was recalled to the Admiralty that the only things which were not produced on Kilima Kiu were salt, manufactured clothing and machinery. All food stuffs were produced on the farm, flour for our bread and yeast to leaven it. We spun wool from the sheep and Elizabeth had a loom installed to weave the yarns which were given beautiful soft colouring by the use of natural dyes.

All in all, a romantic, splendid and full life which has shone in partnership with that other brilliant but equally humble and unassuming one until Frank died nearly 13 years ago. But both will glow warmly for all who knew and loved them and Kenya was the better for people like these.

Barnes Langata cem, Nairobi Elizabeth Frances / Wilson / 2.8.94 - 2.9.74 / wife of F O'B Wilson / of Kilima Kiu - Ulu