Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: COLLYER, Olive Eleanor, Miss

image of individualimage of individual

Nee: sister of Arthur John Morice and Margaret Agnes Collyer

Birth Date: 22 Jan 1876 Petworth, Sussex

Death Date: 4 Jan 1949 Kabete, Nairobi

First Date: 1908 went to EA to join her brother. He died in 1912

Last Date: 1949

Profession: After her brother's death in 1912, she established a coffee farm at Kabete. She took a prominent part in public and charitable work, being especially interested in the EAWL and the Kenya Horticultural Society

Area: Kabete, Rumuruti, Nyeri, 1930 Ndomboini Estate, Kabete

Married: Unmarried

Book Reference: Gillett, Joelson, Empire, KAD, EAWL, Red 31, Hut, Kiambu Scrapbook, F. McCartney, Bur, Barnes, Gazette

General Information:

Joelson - 1928 - Kabete - ... the most successful lady coffee planter in the Colony, Miss Olive Collyer.  
Empire - Miss Collyer at Kabete has some useful horses. .......... trains her own horses most successfully and wins in her turn.
Mrs V. Bellers - Letter Nov. 1996 - She went out to Kenya in 1908 to look after her brother Arthur. (He 'worshipped the ground she trod on'). She made a beautiful garden round the DC's house at Rumuruti which lasted right the way through the colonial period. As Arthur neared his death she took over as DC; unofficially; there would probably have been eyebrows raised at the very least had it been known. She took over as DC as he became weaker and was out on a tax collecting safari when he died. Olive then bought a small farm at Kabete. In the early days she grew flowers and vegetables for the Nairobi market and later she grew coffee. According to Lady Muriel Jex Blake, she founded the Kenya Horticultural Society which Lady Muriel took over and made it the success it was. Olive was a fearless horsewoman. She was also extremely kind. A friend of hers remembers noting how thin she had become in World War I and discovered that she was giving her bread ration to the African children. But she had a forthright manner and on the day she was buried, a friend who was tamping down her grave remarked, 'This must be the first time anybody has stamped on Olive.' She was considered by Harry Leakey (the first Leakey to go out to Kenya) to be 'a lady'. He told his wife, in England, about a tea party he had given. He had rushed about for some days getting it ready. Then the guests all arrived and things seemed to be going well. Suddenly he saw Olive galloping off down the drive, shortly to come galloping back with some kindling under her arm. He had forgotten to light the fire to boil the water. She was instrumental in giving a Kikuyu neighbour his opportunity to become Kenya's first African train driver.
Red 22 - Committee Member, Kabete District Association - Miss V. Collyer
Kiambu Scrapbook - For many years, the only Bombax tree in Kenya was in Miss Olive Collyer's garden at Kabete, grown from seed from Madeira brought to her by her sister Margaret, the artist. She could never propogate it by cuttings or by any other method she could devise, and it never formed seed.
Fergus McCartney - photo of grave
Nairobi City Park Burial Register - Olive Collyer, age 73, died 4/1/49
Barnes - St. Mary's Church Kabete Cemetery - "write her as one who loved her fellow men"
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Kikuyu - Olive Collyer, Farmer, Ndombonu, Kabete, Kikuyu
Red 31 has Mrs O. Collyer
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Kiambu Voters List

Back to search results