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Name: RISLEY, Crescent Gebhard DSO (Lieut.-Col.)

Birth Date: 8 Oct 1881 Hazaribagh, Bengal

Death Date: 20 July 1947 Mitubiri

First Date: 1919

Last Date: 1947

Profession: Coffee farmer

Area: Matunguru Estate, Chania Bridge

Married: In Axbridge 1913 Gladys Mary Genevieve Smyth-Pigott b. 1886 Weston super Mare, d. 13 July 1964 Limuru

Children: Eric Herbert (1914); Robert Crescent Holford (2 Sep 1917 Clifton); Sarah Jane (d. aged 7 mths 4 Mar 1949 Thika cem.)

Book Reference: Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Barnes, Pioneers, Debrett, Barnes, DSO, SS

War Service: Indian Army

School: Winchester and at RMA

General Information:

Debrett - Major (retired) Indian Cavalry with rank of Lieut.-Col. in the Army; European War 1914-18 with R.F.A. (despatches, DSO, Order of Leopold of Belgium, Belgian Croix de Guerre)
Pioneers - Kitito Catholic Mission - Fr. R. Bruno - Lt.-Col. And Mrs Risley came to settle in the district after the First World War and bought a coffee farm between Kitito and Kakuzi. Mrs Risley, being a practising Catholic, was unhappy at being able to attend Mass no more than two or three times a year. In 1923 she wrote to Rome and asked if something could be done. As a result a Father from Fort Hall started to visit the surrounding estates to say Mass more frequently. He also opened a primary school on each estate.
In 1927 Major Heard proposed that a mission dispensary should be built and run by a nurse nun. Father Bosca came from Nyeri to implement this idea, and within a year all buildings were completed: chapel, dispensary and staff houses. In 1945 Father Pezzoni was appointed to Kitito and under his guidance the dispensary became a hospital with a resident doctor. The primary school became an intermediate boarding school.
Nairobi Forest Road Cemetery - Crescent Gebhardt Risley, British, age 65, died 20/7/47 - buried at Thika
Barnes - Thika Anglican Cemetery - Crescent Gebbardt [sic] Risley DSO, died 20 Jul 1947
Soldier Settlement Scheme after WW1 - Class B - Major C.G. Risley, DSO, Draycott, Berrow Road, Burnham-on-Sea - Farm 557
Red 25 - Honorary Permit Issuer
Gazette - 6/2/1924 - Voters Register - Ukamba - Crescent Gebhard Risley, Settler, Chania Bridge and Gladys Mary Genevieve Risley, Married, Chania Bridge
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Ukamba Voters List has Gephard
Gazette 23 Mar 1965 wife's probate

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