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Name: COVERDALE, John Creighton
Photo Source: East African Standard 24 Mar 1934
Birth Date: 3 Nov 1867 Belvoir, Victoria, Australia
Death Date: 13 Sep 1938 Mombasa
First Date: 1911
Last Date: 1938
Profession: Surveyor. 1916-19 member of Nairobi Municipal Board. 1919 member of Legislative Council. Also served on many committees and commissions including Military Expenditure Commission in 1921, Land Tenure Commission, Native Trust Board
Area: Nairobi, Mombasa, Thika, 1930 Box 288, Nairobi, Hut - 1917 Muirosi Est. Kiambu
Married: In Victoria 23 Nov 1893 Emily Constance May Cavanagh b. 16 Oct 1869 Yackandandah, Victoria, d. 23 June 1945 Nairobi
Children: dau. Laurence (1898); Raymond 'Bill' (1899); Joyce (1907). One of the dau marr. R. H. James of Prince of Wales School and later of Duke of York School
Book Reference: Gillett, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Red 22, Bur, Barnes, Gazette, Red 19
School: Gippsland College, Melbourne University
General Information:
Works Enquiry Commission and on moving to Mombasa became a member of Municipal Board 1933-37. Retired to farm in Thika which was inherited by his son Bill and later by his grandson Miles Coverdale who is still in Kenya with family. Practised as a surveyor for 48 years.
Red 25 - Surveyor; qualified as Land Surveyor 1888; elected Rosedale Shire Council, Australia 1898; President 1902; Frankfort Town Council 1904, Mayor 1910-11; elected Member, Nairobi Municipal Committee 1917-18
Hut has John C. Coverdale died 1938 married to Emily who died 1948, 1911, Parklands surveyor, partner with Grogan, injured leg, sleep walking
Nairobi City Park Burial Register - Constance Coverdale, age 76, died 23/6/45
Mombasa Mbaraki cemetery - J.C. Coverdale, died 13 Sep 1938 age 72, European Hospital, Nephritis
Gazette - 12/11/1919 - Register of Voters - Nairobi, North Area - John Creighton Coverdale - Surveyor, Kyambu and Mrs Emily Constance May Coverdale - Kyambu
Red Book 1919 - Nairobi Political Association - President - J.C. Coverdale
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Ukamba Voters List expunged
EAS 14 Sep 1938 He had a record of 20 years of service in the public life of Kenya. He was trained at the Melbourne Observatory and qualified as a land surveyor in 1888. Ten years later he was elected to the Rosedale Town Council in Australia and became president in 1902. Later he went to South Africa and became a member of the Frankfort Town Council in 1904 and mayor in the year 1910-11. He came to Kenya from South Africa in 1911 and was elected a member of the Nairobi Municipal Committee in 1917. In 1919-20 he was an unofficial nominated member of the Kenya Legislative Council, and it was chiefly as a result of his efforts that votes for women were recorded in Kenya, for it was he who moved the amendment to the existing bill. Was elected a member of the Mombasa Municipal Board in 1933 and in 1936 he was asked and agreed to serve for an extra half year. He also stood for the Legislative Council for the Coast and for Nairobi North but on both occasions he was defeated. He had held many public positions. He had been a member of the Military Expenditure Commission, the Land Tenure Commission, the Native Trust Board, the PWD Inquiry Commission, and he was a member of the Surveyors' Board for five years. He retired at the end of May 1936 from Coverdale and Partners he had a coffee farm at Thika which is managed by his son.
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