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Name: COLLINGS-WELLS, Leonard Collings

Nee: bro of Russell Primrose Colling-Wells, cousin of Hugh Thompson Wells

Birth Date: 5 Apr 1889 Mill Hill, Middlesex

Death Date: 14 Feb 1977 Reading

First Date: 1912

Last Date: 1927

Profession: Coffee planter at Kiambu. Member for Kikuyu of Executive & Legislative Councils 1920/22.

Area: 'Kamundu', Kiambu

Married: In Wycombe, Bucks. 1921 Phyllis Cooper b. 31 Oct 1893 Reading, d. 1963 Salisbury, nurse

Children: John Arthur (6 June 1922 Kiambu-12 Feb 2009 Lymington); Leonard James (3 Oct 1926 Kiambu-23 Aug 2016 Lymington); Peter Darroll (24 Apr 1928 Reading-2000)

Book Reference: Gillett, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Kiambu Scrapbook, BECM, Gazette, Leader14, Red 19, Red 22, Hut

War Service: KAR in WW1 - severely wounded at Mbuyuni in 1915

School: Winchester College, Trinity Hall Cambridge

General Information:

Kiambu Scrapbook - Mr H.T. Wells - his cousin, Lt-Col. L. Collings Wells followed him to Kenya and bought Kamundu, now owned by Sasini; he from time to time represented Kiambu on the Coffee Planters' Union Committee.
BECM - Interview with Mr Collings-Wells on 16/3/1993 - ' ….. My uncle Russell was the first member of our family to become interested in Africa. ….. Apparently he wrote a letter to my father round about 1909 or 1910 telling him what a marvellous country this East Africa appeared to be, miles and miles of open country very thinly inhabited, wonderful soil which would grow anything you would like to name, with the result that my father at that time - he had left University and he was wondering what kind of work he was going to do - and he was very much taken with the thought of possibly settling in East Africa. His father also became interested in it. He himself was too old to be able to come and become a settler but he encouraged both my uncle and my father to give it more thought with the result that first my uncle went out about 1910-1911, in partnership with others started various farms and estates including a rubber estate on the coast north of Mombasa, and a coffee farm near the shore of Lake Victoria. Then in 1912 my father, Leonard Collings-Wells took the plunge and travelled out accompanied by my grandfather and they headed for the coffee farm at Koru near Lake Victoria …… My father did his apprenticeship at the coffee farm at Koru. He was there for a few months but he badly wanted to have his own place where he could be his own boss and so later on in 1912 he took over charge of the coffee farm at Kiambu, just about 12 miles north of Nairobi which his father had by that time paid for, bought, and my father then became very active in developing the coffee plantation at this 'Kamundu Estate' at Kiambu. He was right in the throes of that when the first war broke out in 1914 ….. My father at this stage was not yet married but he continued to run the farm until either 1915 or 1916 when he was able to make arrangements for the running of the coffee farm in his absence. He at that stage joined up in the 1st Battalion of the King's African Rifles. ……. My father, his unit, they were almost immediately posted down to the Voi district ….. And the Germans were pushing in over the border into Kenya from Tanganyika in that theatre of the war, and my father's unit, they had had very little training before they were sent into action, and sadly my father was seriously wounded in the very first engagement. He got a bullet straight through his right elbow. It was right out in the bush, very hot dry conditions and he had an African orderly, gun-bearer, with him fortunately because that African really saved my father's life. My father lost a lot of blood, in this terrible heat and all, thirst, he was able eventually to crawl back on his hands and knees to the British line and safety through the encouragement of his African orderly who just kept on encouraging him, come on Bwana, not much further, you can easily do it. My father rarely spoke of that experience but it seems quite clear that that African saved my father's life. My father was put straight on the train and sent up to the hospital at Nairobi where he was treated for some weeks and then he was invalided home to this country and he wasn't able to see any further active service during the war. He made a good recovery from that wound but he did more or less lose all the feeling in his lower right arm so he couldn't see any further active service in the war. That meant that he was able to return to Kenya to the coffee farm while the war was still on, I think it was 1917, towards the end of the year, when he went back to Kenya and resumed coffee planting. ………… He came back to this country for a short time in 1921 and he got married to my mother and they both went back together to Kenya in 1921. My mother at once threw herself into the life of a settler's wife and in a remarkable way. It can't have been at all easy for her. She had never been overseas at all before, completely new kind of life. But that was all the settler's wives, a great majority of them …….. 1920 ….. In that year my father was persuaded by his neighbours and friends in the district to stand for the first free elections to be held for the Kenya Legislative Council. …. He campaigned very vigorously ….. My father received 89 votes and Maclennan Wilson who'd been the previous member for that constituency, as a Government nominated minister of course, received only 54 votes and the great Ewart Grogan who hadn't bothered to campaign at all, he only got 38 votes. My father had a majority of 35. It is interesting - those numbers give an idea of how small the total electorate was in a typical electoral district at that time. …. As the elected member for the Kikuyu District my father threw himself into the responsibilities of that work. He kept in close touch with the needs and the concerns of all the electors, all the settlers and families in his district. …… he was a member for 2 years, 1920-22…… In 1922 my father had to withdraw from both those big commitments on Legislative Council and Executive Council due to the time he was having to spend away from his farm which in itself was really a full time job. ……… One other factor … was the birth of my elder brother in 1922 born on the coffee farm at Kamundu, Kiambu 6 June 1922. ………… I was born on the farm at Kiambu on 3 October 1926. ……. the year after I was born we returned to this country due to various personal family reasons, the principle one of which seems to have been that my brother started showing signs of a heart complaint which obviously couldn't be properly diagnosed or attended to in Kenya so very sadly for both my parents and us as a family we had to return to Britain in 1927. ……… [more] …… So coming home in 1927 as a family my father still kept a great interest and a large financial stake in the coffee farm although he ceased to actually run it himself. Growing up in this country, we lived in Devon from the early 1930s onwards.
Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Kiambu - L. Collings Wells, Kamundu, Kiambu
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Kikuyu - Leonard Collings Collings Wells, Planter, Kiambu
Red Book 1919 - Coffee Planters' Union of BEA, Nairobi - Hon. Secretary - Kyambu - L. Collings-Wells
KAD 1922 - Elected Member of Legco for Kikuyu.
KAD 1922 - Committee Member, REAAA
1939 England and Wales Register living with wife in Crediton, as 'fruit grower, secretary'

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