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Name: GROGAN, Ewart Scott DSO (Col.)

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Nee: bro of Quentin Grogan

Birth Date: 12.12.1874 London

Death Date: 16.8.1967 Cape Town

Nationality: British

First Date: 1896 then 1903

Last Date: 1967

Profession: Explorer, politician, and farmer, he walked from the Cape to Cairo in 1896, and was closely associated with the history and development of EA. Much has been written of this veteran.. Emigrated from Kenya in 1967

Area: SE - Parklands July 1907

Married: In Paddington 11.10.1900 Gertrude Edith Watt b. 1877 Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, d. 5.7.1943 Nairobi

Children: Dorothy Gertrude (Slater) (3 May 1902 London-1 May 1989 Oxford); Joyce Eldama (1905 London-1973, became a nun); Cynthia Meriale (Crawford) (27 Aug 1908 London-2 Nov 1988 Wantage); Ursula Jane (Elliot) (22 Dec 1911 London-23 Oct 1996 Wantage)

Author: 'From the Cape to Cairo' 1900 Further Bookref:- KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, North, Legion, Playne, Drumkey, Red 22, O&C, Land, Elephant, EAHB 1906, Gazette, DSO, Dominion, Alumni, Medals, Peacocks, EAHB 1907, Leader14, Chandler, Rift Valley, Red 19

Book Reference: Gillett, SE, HBEA, Cuckoo, Leys, Best, Passions, Last Chance, Nellie, Midday Sun, Over my Shoulder, Permanent Way, Oscar, O&C, Sorrenson, Cobbold, Who's Who, Cranworth, Campbell, Kenya Diary, Wymer, Precarious, Mischief, White Man, Debrett, EAHB 1905

War Service: Capt. 4th Batn. Roy. Munster Fusiliers. European War 1914-18 (despatches, DSO)

School: Boxgrove prep school, Winchester & Jesus College Cambridge 1893-95

General Information:

SE - Capt. E.S. Grogan - Parklands - July 1907
Mr Humphrey Slade once summed up his praise of this outstanding pioneer as follows: 'A man of greatness, brave and gentle, able and wise, who can combine relentless attack on enemies and hostile conditions with an equally relentless love of little children'.
Cuckoo - Shortly after Foran's arrival in 1904 Grogan bought the "Manse" property from the Rev. W. Bennett and erected a splendid residence there.
Best - He was largely instrumental in stocking the Aberdare streams with brown and rainbow trout imported as ova from Dumfries in Scotland. ..... He was actually Anglo-Irish - was obviously an arrogant young man and very full of himself. But the early pioneers had little beside their own self-respect to sustain them.
Passions - recipe for dealing with Mau Mau in 1952 - take 100 captives to the northern desert and hang 25 of them. Give the rest starvation rations and leave them to walk back to the Kikuyu with the news! Story of flogging of rickshaw boy - p.114
Last Chance - (1948) - He is like a cat among the pigeons with some of the slower-witted Kenyans.
Nellie - (1934) - 'Grogan is having a terrific walk-out with a very young man. Dolly Miles was staying nearby with the Jexes and said she was going over late one night to use G.'s telephone. Muriel Jex said she'd be sure to find G. in bed with a poached egg, but it wasn't a poached egg.'             
Midday Sun - (1933) - 'creator and proprietor of Torr's Hotel, who was discoursing to a circle of admirers, mostly female, at his favourite table in a sort of palm court. He was a handsome Irishman, then in his 60th year, tall and upright with remarkable blue and penetrating eyes, dark arched eyebrows, greying hair and an inexhaustible flow of talk. Words poured from his lips like wine at some Bacchic orgy, intoxicating at the time but, when the orgy was over, you wondered what he had actually said. The usual starting point was some idiotic blunder on the part of the government or the crass ineptitude of bureaucracy in general. He was an expert, in his own way, on economics and finance and also, one gathered, on seduction, taking little or no trouble to conceal his infidelities (in more than one instance blessed with issue) from a long-suffering wife whom everyone liked and respected.
Grogs, as he was generally known, had wit, intelligence and eloquence as well as a measure of flamboyance, but there was something about him I personally found unattractive, perhaps a certain cruelty in his humour and outlook, a streak (as it were) of the battering-ram. Without question he was courageous; several of his exploits had become legendary, notably his famous walk from the Cape to Cairo to win the hand of his bride by proving to her father that although without financial assets, he had resources of another kind. This was in 1899, when central Africa was no place to approach with a butterfly-net. Actually the walk was not from the Cape to Cairo, although that was the title he gave his book, but from the northern tip of Lake Nyassa (now Malawi) to Sobat on the Upper Nile, but it was gruelling enough, taking him among ferocious cannibals and almost ruining his health.
He had got his girl and, in 1903, arrived in the EA Protectorate, just two years after the Uganda Railway had reached its terminus on Lake Victoria. In EA he was to make his somewhat chequered career. There was nothing he liked better than to find a vulnerable spot in the government's hide and, like a hornet, puncture it with his sting. A flaw he discovered in the mining laws prompted him to peg claims all round Nairobi and threaten to dig up Government Road, a threat only averted by the hasty summoning of the Legislative Council which passed an amendment within 24 hours. Ewart Grogan was a charmer, a cynic, a swashbuckler, a buccaneer born out of time; generous with money, bold in his commercial ventures; when it came to fortune-seeking his scruples weighed, I should guess, about as much as a grain of sand..'   .............   'When Delamere died at the end of 1931, the obvious leader to succeed him was Ewart Grogan. He was experienced in local politics, well versed in finance and economics - he had at one time been the financial correspondent of The Times - and a fluent public speaker. Grogan himself expected to be chosen, but the elcted members of Legco preferred Lord Francis Scott ......... Grogan had made himself enemies, in part through his cavalier treatment of his wife, and was never really trusted by his fellows, who thought him too clever by half and with eyes too firmly fixed upon the main chance.'
President of the Oxford & Cambridge Society - 1953
Sorrenson - In June 1904 E.S. Grogan proposed to form a special settlement of New Zealand stockmen. He wanted the Government to reserve 500,000 acres in the highlands on the assumption that his brother-in-law, E.J. Watt, and other New Zealanders, might, on visiting the country, decide to settle. It was considered sufficient to allow those who arrived in the Protectorate to apply for land under the ordinary land regulations. The result was that few New Zealanders, or Australians and Canadians settled in the Protectorate. .......... Eliot promised Grogan and a Canadian timber merchant F.R. Lingham, a 50 year lease over 128,000 acres of the Eldama Ravine forest and 50 acres of valuable waterfront land at Kilindini harbour. ........... Grogan, Lingham and C.S. Gooldmann for land concessions on the Plateau. This application was refused. Cranworth - 'was gifted by nature far beyond the ordinary - Good looking with a fine physique and an impelling eye, he had a presence in full keeping with his reputation. Well read and with a gifted pen, he possessed, and still no doubt possesses, the power of oratory to a degree unequalled in Kenya, and unexcelled in my experience elsewhere. ...... a 2 hour after-dinner speech in Nairobi - audience enthralled ....... his name has been and is a byword in connection with timber development and forestry - the opening up of Kilindini harbour and the land adjoining - sisal industry etc. .'
Campbell - 'I spoke to Col. Ewart Grogan, the oldest member of Kenya's legislative body ....... When I asked him what should be done about the Mau Mau, he answered cheerfully: "It will be a bit of a rat-hunt, I suppose. But we'll come out on top all right." He had the air of a man who thought life was not complete without a bit of trouble from the Natives now and then ...…'
Kenya Diary - May 1904 - Nakuru - On meeting Grogan I was immediately attracted to him; he has great charm, a brain as clear as crystal and a strong character. He not only means what he says but says what he thinks. .......
Wymer - One of a family of 21 children - has been described as " a survival of the buccaneer into modern times". ...... Winchester - at age 16 he had reached the Sixth Book (the top academic section of the school), had won both his cricket and football colours and shot the highest individual score in the Ashburton Shield at Bisley. ...... to Jesus College, Cambridge in 1893 to read Law - he became the ringleader of a series of escapades ....... He attended some of the classes for medical students, showing considerable aptitude for medicine and he became both a fluewnt French linguist and a brilliant mathematician. ..... eventually he was sent down for leaving a goat in a don's rooms. Filled in time by studying at Slade Art School - sketches showed unusual promise. .....…..
In 1896 he went as a volunteer to help quell 2nd Matabele uprising. At the end of the rebellion he went buffalo hunting. Went down with severe blackwater fever at Fontesvilla. An abscess burst in his lung and he was given up for dead - and very nearly buried. ... he was tossed into a truck for transport to Beira. By luck a Mr Lawley, the owner of the truck, lifted the blanket from Grogan's white, motionless body, took a deep sniff and exclaimed: "Good Lord, this lads not dead! He'd be stinking by now!". Lawley nursed him like a mother and so began years of friendship. ........ Went to New Zealand to stay with his Cambridge friend, Eddie Watt and fell passionately in love with his sister Gertrude - a shy attractive girl with blue eyes, brown hair, a fresh complexion and sensitive white hands. Not perhaps pretty, she had a serene dignity and a most captivating social manner. .... so arose the bet with Gertrude's father to walk from the Cape to Cairo. ...........
In 1900 he married Gertrude. ...... went to S. Africa and met an old Canadian friend Edward Lingham, who persuaded him to go to BEA and work a timber concession ......... Eliot gave Grogan and Lingham a concession of 64,000 acres of Mau Forest ....... At first they camped in Nairobi but then he built 'Chiromo' on a 113 acre plot ............. great friends with Meinertzhagen during WW1. Meinertzhagen personally recommended him for his DSO - "This was the only award that I reccommended throughout the war, and this in itself shows how richly it was deserved. Grogan's service was by far the most distinguished under my command. Brilliantly intelligent as well as courageous, he displayed exceptional powers of detection, worked things out twice as quickly as anybody else, was always sharp off the mark, whatever the personal risk, and knew how to express himself: his reports were masterpieces. It would be hard to oversing his praises." .....…..
Between 1928 and 1930 he bought for 4/- an acre 100,000 acres of waterless semi arid desert at Taveta, Ziwani and Jipe, on the Tanganyika border ...... he had financial partners in the early days, but he has bought them all out except for Sir John Ramsden who still holds an interest in Ziwani. ...... he has also developed a further 100,000 acres to the west of Lake Victoria and built rice mills at Mwanza to the south of the lake..........  
Precarious - I recall the gallant Colonel (Grog) saying that some German expedition towards the Congo, collected its guides and porters, but ran out of the latter when but half way to their destination, having all but eaten the lot. In their turn they were soon at the mercy of a hungry hundred who had trailed behind in the hopes of "hommes blancs de pot".
Debrett - Officer of Order of Leopold of Belgium, unsuccessfully contested Newcastle-under-Lyme (LU) Jan and Dec. 1910
Red 25 - Hon. Vice-President, Rugby Football Union of Kenya
Playne - Group photograph of the Colonists' Association of British East Africa (not present)
Playne - The first Englishman to walk from the Cape to Cairo was Mr E.S. Grogan, whose book "Cape to Cairo" was the result. Mr Grogan came to BEA about 1903, although he had passed through it some years previously during his celebrated journey. He now has personal property of 113 acres in Nairobi, near the European Hospital, 17 acres of township stands, and a concession of 64000 acres of forest in Eldama Ravine, as well as 2 farms in the Limoru District - now being planted with wattle. He is largely interested in Longonot Ltd. and also in land on the coast. Formerly President of the Colonists' Association (1906), Mr Grogan is a representative of the Legion of Frontiersmen and a member of the Central Committee Land 1909 - E. Scott Grogan - Grazing and agriculture, 4751 acres - E. Ravine - 19/11/04 - Leasehold for 99 years from 1/1/10 - Registered 14/4/10
Land - 1912 - Ewart Scott Grogan - Buildings, 28500 sq.ft. - Nairobi - 2/3/11 - Leasehold for 25 years from 1/12/11 - Registered 11/1/12
Elephant - Major Ewart S. Grogan, whose epic walk from the Cape to Cairo will never be forgotten, found himself in a terrible predicament when in the sudd region; his party was starving in a country abounding with fish, which he had no bait to catch, and his ammunition was reduced to one single round. Then he sighted two animals - an elephant and a bird. If he could shoot straight enough to hit the bird he would have the necessary bait to catch all the fish he wanted, but if he could kill the elephant with one round he would have sufficient food for weeks. He killed the elephant.
Gazette - 11/8/1915 - Appt. - Intelligence Department - To be Captain - Lieut. Ewart Scott Grogan
Dominion - 1930 - European Elected member of Legco
Medals - East African Intelligence Department - Captain
Peacocks - Lord Howard de Walden's Kenya farming - It was one of my father's visits in the early 1920s that he made friends with the celebrated Ewart Grogan. Grogan owned a lot of things in Kenya and had actually settled in the country after his walk from the Cape to Cairo in 1897. He had lived with cannibals and many splendid stories are told of this very ebullient Irish character. When he was electioneering in Kenya, on one occasion he was being heckled by the local Africans. His reply to them was, 'I've eaten you lot, pickled, and you are nasty.' This was greeted with loud applause, because his audience knew it to be at least partly true. My father and Grogan became partners, which was not a good idea and lasted a very short time. There was never any animosity between them, but Grogan was the sort of man who was on top of the world one moment and broke the next. The long and short of their parting was that my father found himself with much more land, including the whole ridge above Nakuru as well as Elburgon, and Molo, and various other things such as shares in a newspaper. He had to either cut his losses or try and make a go in the country. He decided on the latter course and so our association with Kenya began. The newspaper shares became a controlling interest in the 'East African Standard' which was the major newspaper in the country and of course the new land had to be managed. My father soon found out that the biggest danger was dishonesty. An owner who, when there were no telephones, could only reach you at a pinch in 3 weeks, was a sitting duck.
He decided to ask a young cousin of ours, Buster Powles, who was then in the Army of Occupation in Cologne, if he would like to take the chance and go out to Kenya. Luckily for our family he agreed and eventually became in charge of everything, a job which he carried out with great success and total integrity until Kenyan Independence in 1963
Mills - A founder member of the Muthaiga Country Club, Grogan became Kenya's largest landowner, owning at one stage over half a million acres whilst also starting the country's timber industry, laying the foundations of Nairobi, owning the country's finest hotel, Torrs, and building the docks at Mombasa.
Whilst suffering from blackwater fever during the Great War, Grogan had a relationship with a nurse 26 years his junior who bore him an illegitimate daughter. He later had another illegitimate  daughter through another extramarital affair. ……………….. With Lord Delamere, Ewart Grogan is recognized as one of the founding fathers of the British East African Protectorate. He died on 16 August 1967 and is buried in Cape Town, South Africa
Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 12 Nov 1915 - Maj. E.S. Grogan
Gazette - 12/11/1919 - Register of Voters - Nairobi, North Area - Ewart Scott Grogan - Gentleman, Muthaiga
Red Book 1919 - Ulu Settlers' Association, Machakos - President - E.S. Grogan, DSO
Gazette - Voters List 1936 - Ewart Scott Grogan, Gentleman, Box 863, Muthaiga

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