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Name: BELL, Christopher Richard Vincent OBE
Photo Source: Phil Toye
Birth Date: 6 Oct 1911 Brighton, Sussex
Death Date: 20 Sep 2006 Haywards Heath
First Date: 1935
Last Date: 1961
Profession: Education Officer
Area: Kakamega, Narok, Kapsabet, Mombasa (Shimo-la-Tewa)
Married: 1. In Nakuru 4 Sep 1937 Violet Irene Edith Lorna Clutterbuck b. 9 Sep 1909 Steyning, d. 1989 Haywards Heath; 2. In Haywards Heath 1990 Rosamund Helen Salusbury-Trelawny née Ropes b. 9 Nov 1912 Kensington, d. 2002 Mendip, Somerset (prev. m. to John William Robin Maurice Salusbury-Trelawny 1908-1956)
Children: Michael (1944); another son
Book Reference: EAWL, Staff 39, Colonial
War Service: 1/6 KAR 1940-41. Dar es Salaam 1941, Language School, Kabete 1941-43
School: Winchester; Brasenose College, Oxford (BA Hons) and London University
General Information:
Education Officer, Kenya 1935-40, Director of Education, Somaliland 1943-51. Deputy Director & then Director, Uganda 1951-61. Education Officer, African, Educ Dept. in 1939, appointed 1935.
CRV Bell, Letters Home, Bodleian Library Mss Afr.s.1113. 9 Apr 1935 1935 sent to run Govt. school at Kakamega. Difficulty in sorting out who is living with whom. Wives of Europeans work in other people's shops and would not in England be keeping a shop . Probably be living at home on two and a half d.a. struggling to keep up appearances. Here they don't worry. Democratic. You raise your hat to the woman behind the counter because you played bridge with her the evening before. Golden Hope dance saloon. Stan Daly, an insurance agent, is very good on the saxophone and trumpet. Reggie Taylor plays the harmonium. He plays cricket a lot. Evening costume is pyjamas, sweater, dressing gown and mosquito boots.
5 Jan 1937 Narok. Went to the old Wykehamist's dinner at the Muthaiga Club. Golf at Brackenhurst. Average female here seems to regard mental inertia and physical provocation as the end all of existence. The women wear green, blue or brown corduroy slacks and either shorts or skirts for tennis.
Lorna to Nesta Clutterbuck Kapsabet 6 June 1938. Hard to believe Buxton sighted as co-respondent in a Nairobi divorce case a man with wife and family like his, who seemed perfectly happy and was doing such excellent work. The Africa inland mission and Middle Hill fathers and other missionaries hate each other like poison chris keeps out of it. You're better when Bryson left. [The letters end in 1939, except for one in 1944, written on bright pink paper, masses of which was captured from the Italians and was used for official military business.]