Barnes - Langata cem, Nairobi d.25 Nov 1967 Given Name: Miles  Edward Wentworth Birth: Death: 25 Nov 1967 , Place of Death: Nairobi AGED: Inscriptions: Myles E W North / ... - 1967

Obituary - As a district officer and later as district commissioner, Mr Myles E.W. North had a distinguished career in the colonial Government of Kenya. During these years his various duty assignments gave him a unique opportunity to pursue his lifelong interest in the rich bird life of East Africa. Upon his retirement several years ago it became possible for him to devote even more of his time to his work in ornithology. In 1958 Witherby's Sound-Guide to British Birds was published by him and Eric Sims. Later as a research collaborator with the laboratory of ornithology at Cornell University, Mr North made tape recordings of hundreds of African bird sounds. The North collection is now an important part of the bio-acoustics library at Cornell. In 1962 his gramophone record, "Voices of African Birds," was produced in collaboration with Marian and Donald S. McChesney. At the time of his death Mr North was working on his very extensive collection of tape recordings which were being edited for transmittal to Cornell University. He leaves a rich legacy to all who know and love the wild life of East Africa.

Burke - ornithologist

Colonial - Senior DC 1955; Registr. Co-op Societies 1957; Commissioner Community Development 1960

Web: He was in charge of a district in 1939 but spent most of the war years as a Civil Affairs officer (1941-1944) in Southern Abyssinia and the very trying conditions of north-east Somalia. For the last few years of his colonial service he was in charge of the Co-operative Department of the Kenya Government. When he felt his work for the Co-operatives was complete, Myles retired from Government service and about this time acquired the attractive house at Muthaiga in Nairobi, which became a “ Mecca ” for visiting ornithologists. Myles was extremely sociable and a marvellously considerate and attentive host. Everything he undertook was organized to perfection and he would spare no effort over arranging excursions for friends and for visiting ornithologists with serious interests and objectives in the study of East African birds. He had innumerable friends in East Africa and was enthusiastically in favour of the new regime-extremely understanding of its faults and optimistic for its future. There are many stories told about him in East Africa. Perhaps the most attractive of these concerns the occasion when he held up the invasion of Abyssinia by climbing to a raptor’s nest which he discovered en route. Apparently his General arrived just at the wrong moment.

Gazette 15 Dec 1967 probate