Little Gaddesden Parish Church, internet: His mother had tuberculosis and died when Philip was one year old. As a young child, Philip was brought up at Ashurst near Plumpton in Sussex by his French nurse Hilarie Cornélie Solerean, known as Marie. His father worked mainly in London and Philip then saw him at weekends.  Philip was a delicate child who had two severe illnesses and “went from one private school to another”. The 1881 Census shows him as an 11 year old pupil at Woburn Park School in Chertsey, Surrey. He was destined for the Army. However, he had some trouble getting in and failed the exam in 1888. He then enrolled in the Eastern Division Militia. Hart’s Army Lists show him as a Second Lieutenant in the Suffolk Artillery from 19th January 1889, then as a Lieutenant from 12th February 1890. On 16th May 1891 he was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. Three years later, on 16th May 1894, he was promoted to Lieutenant. He served in the 2nd Anglo-Boer War with the 1st Maxims (Pom Poms) Royal Artillery, the 3rd Royal Horse Artillery Ammunition Column and O Battery Royal Horse Artillery. He was promoted to Captain on 12th February 1900 and then to Brevet Major on 29th November 1900. The 1911 Census records him as a Major and in command of Y Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, which was then at Mhow, India. The Battery remained there until after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.
The battery was ordered home and then became part of 15 Brigade RHA in the 29th Division. In November 1914 Wheatley briefly left that Battery to take 173rd Brigade Royal Field Artillery to France. Then, five months later, he returned to command Y Battery, Royal Horse Artillery. From 10th April 1915, he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Y Battery landed at Gallipoli on 27th April 1915 and he then commanded them from landing until 2nd July 1915. However, after being mauled by a dog, he then left for Cairo for Pasteur treatment. He re-joined the Battery on 4th August 1915 but did not reassume command. He left Gallipoli on 12th August 1915 and subsequently served on the Western Front. On 22nd August 1916 he was promoted to Temporary Brigadier General in the Royal Horse Artillery and attached to Headquarters Units. The following year he was awarded the DSO and Mentioned in Despatches twice. On 16th August 1919 Wheatley retired from the Royal Artillery with the Honorary Rank of Brigadier General. He was then aged 48 and had completed 28 years of service.

He took advantage of the Imperial Government’s “soldier settler” scheme to move to Kenya, where he had a 4306 acre farm, Erith Estate, in Nanyuki. However, his letters home showed that he found his new life dull and lonely. He built a house, tried to put in irrigation for his crops, ran a transport company and leased areas of farmland to Somali cattle traders. Unfortunately, however, he had no farming experience and soon started to lose money. He persevered with the farming enterprise until 1924 when he sold the farm. In 1924 he moved to the newly founded township of Nanyuki. There he took on a new lease of life and became involved in civic affairs. He was a member of the Township Committee, the District Committee and the Road Board. He was also President for the King George V Silver Jubilee celebrations. In addition, he helped to found the Nanyuki Cottage Hospital. He also became local correspondent of the East African Standard. He was Secretary of the Nanyuki Sports Club and responsible for the building of the township’s race course and polo ground. However, in 1934 he began to suffer heart trouble and, on 11th April 1935 aged nearly 65, he died in the Cottage Hospital he had helped to found. He was then buried in the local graveyard.

Foster - Brig.-Gen. Wheatley and Major Lionel Gascoigne had worked together as secretary and Steward of the Jubbulpore Polo and Race Club in India in 1909 and by 1923 had achieved the same at Nanyuki ........... he considered electricity on his farm but at £900 it was too expensive even for him to install.

Debrett - formerly Lieut.-Col. RHA (retired as Hon. Brig.-Gen. 1919); S. Africa 1899-1901 (Queen's medal with 7 clasps, despatches, Brevet Major), European War 1914-19 as a Brig.-Gen. (wounded, despatches, DSO, CB)  

Red 25 - President, Nanyuki Sports Club

Nicholls - General Philip Wheatley, a fiery former Indian army officer with a soldier-settler farm at Nanyuki …… Wheatley was told by a government official that they had got him as a marked man, and the intelligence department scrutinised his mail - 'I couldn't even order a dozen of whisky without the latter being considerably delayed, or even suppressed altogether, by some B.F. who in his muddled mind conceived that an order to enable me to alleviate my thirst conveyed some cryptic information which might possibly be subversive of law and order.' The highlands were divided into 27 mustering districts under 7 group leaders who reported to Wheatley, the Commander-in-Chief. In fact Wheatley was dangerously indiscreet, as was his colleague J.E. Coney at Kitale who said hostilities would begin in a fortnight, giving a 'wild and harmful distortion of the facts'.

Nicholls - Nanyuki - a race course and polo ground. The two sports facilities were built on 70 acres of ground 'commandeered' by Major-General Philip Wheatley, the soldier-settler in comand of the rebellion of 1922-23 against Indian immigration.

Soldier Settlement Scheme after WW1 - Class B - Brig.-Gen. P. Wheatley, CB, CMG, DSO, The Manor House, Little Gaddesden, Berkhamsted - Farm 831

Nanyuki cemetery - Plot D5 - Brig.-General P. Wheatley - Philip Wheatley / C.B. C.M.G. D.S.O. / Brig General R.A. Retired / died 10th April 1935 / in affectionate memory

Paice's Place - Brigadier Generals seem to have made especially bad farmers. Philip Wheatley sank much of his capital into an utterly uneconomic fruit orchard, somehow imagining Nanyuki to be England. He sold out in 1924 and pursued a more successful career simply as a retired officer in the township.

Red 25 - Member, Kenya Land Settlement Advisory Board

Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Voters Register - Kenya Province - Brig.-General Philip Wheatley, Farmer PO Nanyuki

Gazette 14 May 1935 probate

KFA - Opened a butchery at Nanyuki with Mr Gascoigne