SE - Captain H.H. Cowie - Jan 1908

At one time Treasurer of the Nairobi Club.

Vulture - My father, who had originally been attracted to BEA to hunt game, was a fine shot and a keen naturalist. He too was a sufferer from war, and he carried with him the scars and wounds of the Boer War, which in later years caused him to be a cripple, and eventually an invalid. ..... his safari partner was Russell Bowker.

Red 25 - Retired Captain, King's Own Yorkshire Regt. (51st); King's medal, 2 bars; Queen's medal 3 bars and General Service medal; served as Magistrate in S.A. after Anglo-Boer War; retired and came to EA to settle in 1905.

Playne - Mr Cowie has a long career of service in Africa. He entered the Cape Govt. sevrice in 1888 as clerk to the Attorney-General, Cape Town; acted as Civil Commissioner and Resident Magistrate, Hope Town, and was appointed Justice of the Peace, 1894; transferred to Namaqualand, and acted as Commissioner and Magistrate, 1895;  HM Commissioner (special duty) for the relief of distress Namaqualand and Bushmanland (South West Africa), 1897; Justice of the Peace in various districts, 1897; served in Langberg campaign; Asst. Resident Magistrate at Mafeking, 1897; qualified at Law Examination (with honours), 1897; acted as Civil Commissioner and Chief Magistrate, British Bechuanaland, on various dates; commissioned officer in Bechuanaland Rifles, Sept. 1898; acted as Civil Commissioner and Magistrate, Knysna, 1898; Port Captain, same date; in South African War; attached to and served with (Kings Own) Yorkshire Light Infantry (mounted section) and seriously wounded four times; mentioned in despatches and transferred to above Regiment as Second Lieutenant; on 8 months sick leave, and rejoined forces in SA attached to the staff of Lieut.-Col. Sir Percy Girouard, August 1900; appointed Military Justice, Johannesburg, same date; promoted to the rank of Captain, Lines of Communication, November 1900; received King's and Queen's medals with 5 bars, and General service medal; appointed to the Transvaal Civil Service, March 1902; Asst. Resident Magistrate, Vereeniging, Transvaal, and Justice of the Peace for the District, March 1902; Commissioner for the Administration o9f Oaths of Allegience to King Edward for Transvaal Burghers, March 1902; transferred as Criminal Magistrate to Pretoria, April 1904; resigned the Government service, June 1, 1905. Mr Cowie arrived in BEA the following month as a settler, and is now Hon. Treasurer of the Nairobi Club, Secretary to the Brokers' Association, Visiting Justice to HM Gaol, Visiting Justice to the Reformatory for Juvenile Offenders, member of the Nairobi Municipal Council, and Member of Legco. He was born on September 8, 1870, and educated at St. Andrews College

Playne - Captain the Hon. H.H. Cowie, Land and Estate Agent and Financier, Nairobi, acts as agent for people abroad, and will supply free to any one writing from England full information about the prospects of farming etc. ..…..…

Drumkey - Cattle Brand - A1C

Drumkey 1909 - Member of Municipal Committee, Nairobi

Drumkey 1909 - Auctioneer, (Real Estate only) - Nairobi

Land - H. James and H.H. Cowie granted two lots of 64000 acres at Voi as Fibre Concession

Land - 1906 - H.H. Cowie - Grazing, 5000 acres, Chania, 8-5-04, Registered 9-8-06

Land - 1907 - H.H. Cowie - Fibre, 100 square miles, Between Tsavo and Voi, 7-7-05, Registered 8-1-07

Advertiser - 16/4/1909 - Capt. & Mrs Cowie - birth of a son

Agricultural Journal 1908 - Brands allotted and registered - H.H. Cowie, Nairobi - Nairobi A1C

Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Nairobi District - H.H. Cowie, Government Road

Nairobi Forest Road Cemetery - Herbert Hugh Cowie, British, age 67, died 31/7/37

Red Book 1912 - H.H. Cowie - Nairobi

Nicholls Old Africa blog May 2017:

On 9 July 1902, at St Mary’s church in Johannesburg, Captain Herbert Hugh Cowie (born in South Africa on 8 September 1870) married Ada Evelyn Harries, the eldest of the nine children of Charles and Olivia Mary Ann Harries. She was born in Maseru, Basutoland, on 5 October 1877 and had grown up there and learned the native language. The couple lived for several years in Vereeniging, while Captain Cowie, who had earned his rank fighting in the Boer War, particularly in the Langberg Campaign, pursued his legal career. He had begun as clerk to the Attorney-General in Cape Town, and as Civil Commissioner and Resident Magistrate, Hope Town. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1894, when he transferred to Namaqualand, where he became commissioner for the relief of distress in Namaqualand and Bushmanland (South West Africa) in 1897. He was Civil Commissioner and Chief Magistrate in Bechuanaland, and joined the Bechuanaland Rifles. In the Boer War he served with the Yorkshire Light Infantry (mounted section) and was seriously wounded four times. After eight months’ sick leave, in 1900 he was attached to the staff of Lt.-Col. Percy Girouard, in charge of South African military railways.  

Cowie heard about British East Africa from his wife’s family members who had already gone there. Attracted by big game hunting, in June 1905 he decided to resign his important appointment as criminal magistrate in Pretoria. He and his wife sailed for Mombasa in May 1905.  Their first home was a

Top picture: Herbert Cowie’s  game trophies

rented shack in Victoria Street, Nairobi, where their first son, Dudley Hugh, was born.  They later moved to a house in Parklands. In 1908 Herbert Hugh became a member of the Legislative Council and also became honorary secretary of the Nairobi Club. By 1909 he was treasurer of the Nairobi Club, Secretary of the Brokers’ Association, Visiting Justice to the Gaol and to the Reformatory for Juvenile Offenders, a member of the Nairobi Municipal Council and a member of the Legislative Council. In the same year his second son Mervyn Hugh was born on 13th of April.  The following year Ada and the children went to South Africa for a few months and were joined later by Herbert.  When the First World War began Ada and Mervyn moved to a farm named Melrose, 30 miles from near Nairobi, near Thika.  Dudley was at the government school in Nairobi and Herbert had gone down to Cape Town needing specialist treatment for wounds sustained in the Boer War.

Melrose was the usual grass huts with walls plastered with cowdung. There was no mains water or electricity and the farm was remote, with no neighbours for miles.  The kitchen was flattened oil drums covering three stones on the ground.  Water was carried in cans from a spring about a mile away.  Everything had to be put away at night, out of the reach of hyenas. Lions circled the huts at night. Suppliers came by train from Nairobi along the Thika tramway and were dropped off along the line.  Herbert returned from South Africa in 1916 and the family moved back to Nairobi to a large house called Daraja overlooking the Ainsworth Bridge, equipped with electric light and piped water.  Since the war continued, Ada welcomed into her house men back from the front and it became a sort of hostel, with camp beds in garages and tents in the garden. In 1921 the boys were sent to England for their education.

Towards the end of 1926 the family moved out to Mbagathi, Langata, living in a grass hut while their new house, Kikenni, was built. Dudley worked in the Treasury in Nairobi and Mervyn was articled to a firm of chartered accountants. The two sons were both keen fliers, at the airstrip on the Ngong Road. On 12 March 1928 Maia Carberry, who had completed an epic flight from Mombasa to Nairobi, invited the boys to join her in her plane. Mervyn flew first, without incident, but when Dudley went up with Maia the aircraft went into a spin and crashed, killing them both. Ada was devastated at the loss of her twenty-two-year-old son and Mervyn did not fly again until both his parents had died. Ada suffered a second blow when Herbert died on 31 July 1937, at the age of sixty-seven. He had suffered from his Boer War wounds for many years, latterly becoming disabled and eventually an invalid. He was buried at Forest Road Cemetery, Nairobi, and Ada continued to live at Kikenni, dying on 17 October 1955, when she joined her husband and son in Forest Road. Her son Mervyn was to win international recognition as the founder of Kenya’s National Parks.