Hobbies - Boxing, fencing and big game hunting. Shot an elephant with 100 lb. tusks each side. Played in Stan Daly's dance band in 1937/38 with Ron Stephens.

Pre-war volunteer to the Kenya Regiment (KR 662). No birthdate in KR records.

Letter from Len Young 8 May 1996 I went out to Kenya with Ron Stevens who was going to join as a chemist the firm of A.H. Wardle. Our impression of Nairobi when we first arrived was that it was a shanty town of corrugated buildings and dirt roads. I knew old man Pop Binks quite well. I was commissioned to photograph the old Aga Khan during the ceremony of receiving his weight in gold, donated by his followers and my camera was set up on a stand to photograph the occasion at the vital moment, and who should appear suddenly in front of my camera was Binks with a handheld camera.  I booted him out of the way so after that we were not very good friends. I got my picture. The other professional photographer in Kenya during the early days was Arthur Firmin (ex-photographic officer of the Kenya Police), who opened a business in the street that ran parallel to Government Road behind Barclays Bank. He was a great friend of mine. A talented first-class photographer. I have met the Happy Valley crowd when I was a member of a dance band (drums), led by Stan Daly, which played at the  Muthaiga Club a number of times during the festive season and after race meetings. They were hectic nights. On occasion they asked us to play overtime up to 5 and 6:00 o'clock in the morning and then join them on the golf course for a round of golf complete with all the instruments we could carry to play them on their way complete in dinner jackets and long dresses. Incidentally Billy Legg our pianist worked in Barclays Bank before he joined the railways.

Just prior to the outbreak of war we purchased an 8 acre plot on the Karen Estate only a short way from Karen Blixen's cottage. Whilst I was away during the early stage of the war my dear wife built a cottage with the assistance of two African stone masons. Her transport was only an old A-model two-seater Ford with a dicky seat, in which she carried all the sand and cement to the site. After a cement foundation was laid the stone walls were built of blue granite stone blocks about 18 inches long six inches wide, and eight inches deep. These very heavy blocks were carried by African women from the quarry across the border in the Kikuyu Reserve. The weight of the blocks were carried on their backs supported by leather straps suspended from their forehead. Freda, my wife, lived in the cottage for many months with the minimum of furniture, including a camp bed and a blue flame paraffin cooker, minus ceilings and floor coverings. This was rectified when I returned on leave after 12 months' absence not a substantial amount of cash due to me on back pay for a couple of promotions. At the end of the war we put on extensions with extra bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and garage. That was our home which we loved and it was our intention to retire there, with a cottage down at the coast. Which of course was not to be because of independence. We also purchased a flat in a block of ten in the city which we lived in during the Maru Mau, because I couldn't leave my wife and daughter alone at Karen while I was on safari. We had to sell our properties at a very low figure compared to the true value. We had to do this to get what we could get out before the date of restrictions of money leaving the country. We built a villa in Malta where we lived for a few years, taking a trip back through Europe to the UK almost every year to recharge our batteries. Eventually we sold our villa and went to live in Henley on Thames and then followed our daughter and family to Australia where we have been very happy.