View entry
Name: MARTIN, William James
Birth Date: 8 Jan 1900 Cornwall
Death Date: 1980 Camborne-Redruth, Cornwall
Profession: Farm manager for Gilbert Colvile for 22 years
Area: Ndabibi, Naivasha
Married: 1. Jessie (died) 2. Frances Gwen b. 1898
Book Reference: Mrs Mary Hoey, Hoey
War Service: Royal Navy
General Information:
Cornish - Bill's wife Jessie and baby daughter died shortly after baby's birth - Bill so upset he took to the Cornish bush - was eventually persuaded to go to Kenya and start again. He joined a cheese making factory and stayed there for several years before going on leave to visit the family farm. Here he married Gwen, a nurse who was an old family friend and they returned to Kenya where he got the job of managing Ndabibi with Gilbert Colvile where he stayed for 22 years.
Retired to Cornwall where they bought a cottage at Bissoe near Truro after a shot at running a Post Office stores on the edge of the moor which they found did not pay. Gwen got diabetes and Bill nursed her for some years as she was very sick ........... He was very tough and wiry with red hair. He was a very kind man who would do anything for anybody.