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Name: HARRIS, Percy Wyn KCMG, MBE, Sir
Birth Date: 24 Aug 1903 Acton, London
Death Date: 25 Feb 1979 Petersfield
First Date: 1926
Profession: PC
Area: Kericho, 1930 Kakamega
Married: 1. In Kensington 22 Dec 1932 Mary Moata Macdonald b. Christchurch, N. Zealand 1898, d. 6 Apr 1976 Waipukurau, N. Zealand; 2. In Petersfield 1976 Jacoba Julie Daniela Van Putten, née Gunning-Scheltema
Children: Timothy (4 July 1934 London)
Book Reference: Police, Staff 39, Sundown, Red 31, Hut, Debrett, Colonial, EA & Rhodesia, Mountains, Dominion, Nicholls, ODNB
School: Gresham's School, Holt; Gonville & Caius College Cambridge
General Information:
Debrett - PC Kenya 1945-47; Ch. Native Commr. 1947-49; and Gov. and Cdr.-in-Ch. of Gambia 1949-58; Administrator N. Cameroons 1960-61; Special Rep. Overseas Duke of Edinburgh's Award 1962-63; a KStJ
East Africa & Rhodesia - 3/1/52 - KCMG - Entered the Colonial Service in 1926 as a District Officer in Kenya, where he became Labour Commissioner in 1944 and Chief Native Commissioner three years later. Made the first ascent of Nelion, the second highest peak of Mt. Kenya, and was a member of the Mt. Everest expeditions in 1933 and 1936. Cambridge half blue for cross-country running
Mountains - Eric Shipton - "In 1928, when he was 21, he went to Kenya to learn the business of coffee-planting. He worked on a farm north of Nairobi, and only about 20 miles from the base of Mount Kenya. Naturally, his thoughts turned towards the mountain, and he was fortunate in knowing two fellow-climbers in Kenya, his old Norwegian friend, Gustav Sommerfelt, and Percy Wyn Harris …….. Batian [peak of Mt. Kenya] was climbed by Sir Halford Mackinder in 1899, but in the next 30 years no one made a second ascent, and Nelion had never been climbed. In 1929 Shipton, Wyn Harris and Gustav Sommerfelt decided to attempt them both. They succeeded, climbing Nelion first and then Batian.
Dominion - District Officer - 1930
Nicholls - The best-known sportsman was Percy Wyn-Harris, DC at Nyeri, who participated in the two expeditions up Mt. Everest in 1933 and 1936, as well as climbing the Batian peak of Mt Kenya, only the second man to do so.
Police - DO at Kericho in 1934, Appointed as a DO in 1926. Seconded for special duty in 1939. Great mountain climber. Climbed Batian with Eric Shipton in 1929.
Hut - partner with Eric Shipton
Terence Gavaghan, Of Lions and Dungbeetles, 1999 He was short of neck, thick of skin with dark graying, bristly hair, double-crowned, and so restlessly mobile that the Kikuyu called him 'the chicken that runs about with his head cut off'.
Charles Chenevix Trench, Men Who Ruled Kenya, 1993 Taking over Nyeri in 1939, Wyn Harris found over 400 appeals against native tribunal judgments awaiting his attention. They had been left undone by the outgoing DC Freddie Jennings, coasting through the last months of his 20-year contract. He was a powerful Welshman full of energy and of keen intelligence. In 1933 and 1935 he had got nearer to the peak of Mount Everest than any since Mallory and Irvine, returning with Mallory's ice-axe. But even he was defeated by the sheer volume of his predecessor's backlog. He and his DO Robin Wainwright devised an ingenious plan of offering plaintiff and defendant in each case the alternatives of waiting until the DC or DO could hear their cases or admitting them to arbitration by a panel of three elders. This proved to be popular.