SE - H.H. Heatley - Nov 1909

Cuckoo - 1906 - Hugh Heatley's ranch on the Kamiti River was another farm where I was ever cordially welcomed and afforded splendid sport with big game. He was rapidly making strides forward and already enjoyed a profitable dairy business, supplying much of Nairobi's milk and butter requirements. As a joke, when in Nairobi one morning on duty, I spread abroad a rumour that Heatley was expecting a bevy of beautiful dairymaids from England and they were due at noon on the mail-train from the coast. The story spread like a veldt-fire, losing nothing in its passage from mouth to mouth. When the "up-mixed" steamed into the station, the European male population of Nairobi crowded the platform to greet Heatley's dairymaids. They were bitterly disappointed when no beautiful damsels stepped blithely out of the train. All had been badly stung, for the 'dairymaids' were some pedigree cows imported from his father's farm in Suffolk. I retired in good order upon Kiambu to escape the wrath of the men of Nairobi.  

Kamiti Ranch was famed for a herd of wild buffalo which inhabited an extensive papyrus swamp on the estate. It was here that Col. Theodore Roosevelt, when his guest in 1909, shot his first buffalo.

Hugh Heatley came of good yeoman stock in Suffolk; and served with the Suffolk Imperial Yeomanry during the Boer War before going to BEA to farm. Some years after I left the country he sold the estate to a syndicate, and went back to England to live.  

Footsteps - 12 miles away [from McMillan's Juja Farm] was the famous Kamiti Farm of Heatly [sic], where Roosevelt killed his buffalo; and once or twice Heatly himself a fine chap, came to see us.

Percival - trapped a black leopard in the Kikuyu Forest in Kamiti Swamp, 14 miles from Nairobi on his land.

Roosevelt - moved to Kamiti Ranch, the neighbouring farm owned by Mr Hugh H. Heatley, who had asked  me to visit him for a buffalo hunt. Heatley's ranch comprises 20,000 acres lying between the Rewero and Kamiti rivers. It is 17 miles long, and four across at the widest place ...... Heatley, a thorough farmer and the son and grandson of farmers, was making it a successful farm ....... a Boer farmer working for him.

Playne - Kamiti Ranch - ......... Mr H.H. Heatley, came from England in 1904 and took up an estate of 20000 acres. Kamiti Ranch as it is called, is about 14 miles from Nairobi, and has a river frontage of about 33 miles. Besides the Kamiti River, which runs through it, there is also an irrigation trench - with a natural fall - which commands 10 miles of the property. The dwelling-house is built of wood and iron, and is approached through an avenue of blue gums, which now tower high overhead. ..............…..

Mr Heatley, who employs 3 other Europeans, intends to make a feature of the milk business, and to go in largely for bacon-curing, ostriches, and mixed farming. .....…

Drumkey 1909 - Cattle Brand - E3H - Kamiti Ranch, Kiambu

Land - H.H. Heatley leased 5527 acres at Muhoroni Advertiser - 12/6/1908 - Advert - Butter from H.H. Heatley, Kamiti Ranch

Advertiser - 28/8/1908 - Best man at wedding of G.L. Langridge and Miss L.M. Coldham in place of M. Ridley

Agricultural Journal 1908 - Brands allotted and registered - H.H. Heatley, Kamiti Ranch, Kiambu - Kiambu E3H

North - Arr. Nairobi to stay with Lord Delamere, Jan 1904; Settler's Game Licence 20-6-1904; Firearms registered at Nairobi April-June 1905; Member of the jury in the Max Wehner trial, Niarobi 8-5-1905; Landholders Game Licence, Nairobi April-June 1905

Chandler - He was a Kenya settler who owned a 68 square mile ranch called Kamiti. Kamiti ranch contained large herds of cattle, a dairy, and hundreds of acres under cultivation. About 1910 Heatley captured an all-black leopard in a trap. Keeping the animal alive, he donated it to the Zoological Society at the Regents Park Zoo in London, where it was displayed for several years. Theodore Roosevelt later hunted buffalo with Heatley at Kamiti during his great safari.

Red Book 1912 - H.H. Heatley - Kyambu

Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Kikuyu - Hugh Henry Heatley, Farmer, Kamiti Ranch, Kiambu and Muriel Heatley, Kamiti Ranch, Kiambu

Red Book 1919 - District Committees - Nandi - H.H. Heatley

Gazette - 24/10/1923 - 5 Notices regarding non payment of rent. One month or land will be recovered

Gazette - 3/9/1924 - Notice - Mr H.H. Heatley of Kamiti Ranch, has by an assignment dated 6 day of August 1924 conveyed and assigned the whole of his real and personal estate whatsoever and wheresoever situated to Arthur Hornby of Nairobi as Trustee acting on behalf of the creditors.

Cuckoo - Came up from S. Africa. Later sold the ranch to a syndicate and returned to England.

Kill - Caught a handsome male black leopard in a trap