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Name: HASLEHURST, Theodore Edmund 'Ted'

Birth Date: 1 Mar 1879 Walthamstow

Death Date: 18 July 1949 Sotik

First Date: 1912

Last Date: 1949

Profession: Farmer, one of earliest settlers in Sotik region

Area: Kericho, 1925 'Monieri', Sotik (partner with Tannahill Keldet Estate), Buret

Married: In Finchley 5 June 1907 Alice Dorothy Tannahill b. 1882 Stroud, Glos., d. 22 Sep 1953 Sotik (sister of Arthur Walter Alfred Claude Tannahill and may also have m. Arthur Augustus Hart)

Children: Lavender (4 Nov 1915 Barnet-18 July 1980 Nakuru). She ran the farm after her parents' death

Book Reference: Red Book 1912, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Red 22, Land, Leader14, Gazette

War Service: County of London Artists

General Information:

Land - 1912 - T.E. Haslehurst and C.D. Tannahill - Building and agricultural, 10.06 acres - Kericho - 21/11/11 - Leasehold for 99 years from 1/1/12 - Registered 20/5/12
Hut - Pre WW1 Monieri, partner of Tannahill, Keldet Sett Est.
Gazette - 20/7/1921 - Register of Voters - Lake Area - Theodore Edmund Haslehurst - Farmer, Monferi - Sotik, PO Kericho
Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Dissolution of Partnership between Theodore Edmund Haslehurst and Charles Douglas Tannahill carrying on business at Monieri, Sotik under the style of Haslehurst and Tannahill will be dissolved by mutual consent as from 30 September 1923
Gazette 26 July 1955 wife's probate
Gazette 27 Mar 1980 daughter's probate
On marriage cert he was 'shipowner'.
Red Book 1912 - F.E. Haselhurst - Sotik & Buret
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Nyanza Voters list Theodore Edmund, farmer, Sotik and Alice Dorothy, married w. and Lavender, spinster
1911 Census - he is shipbroker, living in Finchley
Agnes Shaw: Perhaps the North end of Sotik, where we lived, earned the name Snobbery because our tiny community, consisting of ten families all told, was led by the 'Duke and Duchess'. This elderly couple, two of the earliest settlers in Sotik, arrived to take up their 5000-acre farm 'Moneiri' before World War I, in 1910. He was dubbed Duke because he told everyone that he ran his estate on the feudal system — although they both lived up to their titles, for our gracious Duchess was undoubtedly the doyenne of our district. 'Mrs Moneiri', as she liked to be known, was kindness itself, taking all newcomers under her wing, although one was apt to feel rather like a cottager's wife being visited by the local grande-dame when, on arrival, she uncovered her basket and said, "Just a little butter and some home-baked bread, my dear." She came of a generation who were inclined to gush, and to describe everything in the superlative, which until I got used to it had a paralysing effect on me.

But this couple's most tiresome trait was their belief that they had every right to know what was going on, which made everyone else equally determined that they should not. Such is the perversity of human nature. We all went to the greatest pains to prevent them from finding out even the simplest and most unimportant of happenings; but had we only known, we could have saved ourselves many prevarications, for their intelligence service was as well organised as MI5.

As there were no telephones then, the only method of communication between farms was by runner, and many were the notes which flew back and forward between our farm and the Moneiri estate. I was forever answering these effusions, and thanking the good lady for some kind thought. The masterpiece of blessings and good wishes arrived one day shortly after Ann was born, in the form of a little heifer calf with beribboned neck whose label bore the words, "To start the baby daughter's dairy herd." We found such a handsome gift embarrassing, But I hope my reply made up for what it lacked in effusiveness with very real gratitude.

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