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Name: KEELING, Harriet Mary, Mrs
Nee: Wilcox
Birth Date: 1875 Staffordshire
Death Date: 27.3.1945 Nairobi
First Date: 1904
Area: Nakuru, Elmenteita
Married: At Mombasa Cathedral 15 Nov 1906 William Henry Keeling (1865-1931)
Children: Eric Charles (11.1.1909 Nairobi-3.2.1909 Naivasha); and all leading sportswomen: Dorothy Mary (Wood) (17 July 1910 Bridgnorth, Shropshire-5 Mar 1983 Nairobi); Hilda Kitson (Robb) (17 Mar 1912 Elmenteita-1989 Johannesburg); Helen Masfen (Allardice) (18 Apr 1914 Elmenteita-18 July 1991 Cape Town); Mollie (Goldhawk) (19.3.1919-Aug 2008 Oxfordshire); Phyllis (5 Sep 1920 Nakuru)
Book Reference: Pioneers, SKP, Barnes
General Information:
SKP - 1938 - Society of Kenya Pioneers - over 30 years in Colony - arrived 1906 - Elmenteita
Nakuru North cemetery - Harriet Mary Keeling (Molly) who died at Nairobi on 27/3/1945 aged 69 years, of 'Congreve' Elmenteita where they settled in 1904, wife of William Keeling
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Rift Valley Voters List
The daughters were all leading sportswomen.
Info from a relative: He found farming at Elmenteita very hard, and very different from what he was used to in England. He brought cows out to Kenya - obviously by sea in those days - which were not strong enough to endure the conditions. He records "no rain", seemingly for ever, added to which he had to deal with all the local diseases - rinderpest etc. He built bomas for the cattle, which his wife would defend from lion and rustlers at night - with a hurricane lamp in one hand and a rifle in the other. Here was this lovely English rose with no previous experience of Africa, and apparently she never got used to the life.The nearest 'neighbouring' farms were located many miles away, so the couple seldom met up with other people and she was very lonely. She lost her first son at childbirth, so she returned to the UK for the birth of her next child. In the end there were five Keeling daughters. A second son unfortunately died at a young age. Keeling had sent a little African 'toto' runner to Nakuru with a note in a cleft stick to call the doctor. The doctor arrived in due course, by ox cart, but was sadly unable to save the child, When they grew up, the five girls left the farm and went to work in Nairobi.They all indulged in every sport possible at Parklands Club. Harry Keeling died suddenly in his early sixties, having been in Kenya all told for only about twenty years. After his death the farmhouse burnt down, so his wife re-located to Nairobi to live out her final days near her daughters. Having been purchased for a song, the land was sold for a song.
UK Foreign and Overseas Registers The other son was Arthur Hugh, who died14 May 1918 aged one and a half, at Elmenteita