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Name: BENBOW, Dorothy Laura, Mrs
Nee: Matters
Birth Date: 4 May 1910 Bere Ferrers, Devon
Death Date: 2 Sep 1980 Depwade, Norfolk
First Date: 1949
Last Date: 1972
Profession: Hotelier
Area: Arusha, Nairobi
Married: In Westminster 25 June 1931 Arthur Reginald Benbow (1905-1989)
Children: Michael C. (1935 Hendon-1937); Valerie (Letham) (1932); Susan (20.1.1939 Paddington-2003); Patricia (1942)
Book Reference: EAWL
General Information:
Valerie Letham: Her husband decided to return to the hotel business after serving in the RAF and in April 1950 moved to the new Arusha Hotel in Arusha, where the younger girls attended Arusha School. They stayed in Arusha until 1955 when they moved to Nairobi to take over Torrs Hotel and stayed there until 1960 when they returned to Arusha to run the Safari Hotel until 1964 when again they went back to Nairobi and ran the New Avenue and Ambassadors Hotels until they left Kenya in 1972. They were first in Exmouth owning a restaurant called Clapps then went to Fenny Drayton in Warwickshire to run the Royal Haven and finally to the Doric in Norfolk which they had until the death of Benbow in 1980.