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Name: LEAKEY, Arundell Gray Arundell
Nee: nephew of Canon Harry Leakey
Birth Date: 31 Mar 1885 Acton, Suffolk
Death Date: 13 Oct 1954 murdered by Mau Mau supporters near Nyeri
First Date: 1906 November
Profession: Farmer
Area: Nyeri, HBEA 1912 - Limoru, 1922 - Rumuruti, Hut 1922 Gilgil
Married: 1. In Bamburgh 24 Aug 1911 Dorothy Elizabeth Laing - governess to Harry Leakey family b. 28 Apr 1873 Burton, Bamburgh, d. 5 Mar 1925 Mbagathi; 2. In 1926 Bessie Allen Bull b. 1882 Cambridgeshire, d. 22 Jan 1946 Nairobi; 3. In S. Rhodesia 1948 Mary Elizabeth Harriet 'Bessie' Becher b. 5 Aug 1898 Waterford, Ireland , d. 13 Oct 1954 Nyeri, murdered by Mau Mau. She was prev. m. to Hugh Alexander Littleton and was a schoolteacher in Rhodesia
Children: 1. Nigel Gray (1 Jan 1913 Kiganjo-1941 Colito, Abyssinia, awarded VC in WW2); Agnes Florence (Hoffmeyr) (8 May 1917 Limuru-1 Dec 2006 Randburg), Robert Dove (23 June 1914 Limuru-22 Apr 1913 Giggleswick); Arundell Rea (30 Dec 1915 Limuru-6 Oct 1999 Romsey). Stepdau Diana Rosalind Littleton (1919 Bantry, Co. Cork-1 Nov 1960 Arusha, Tanganyika, killed by a lion while filming)
Book Reference: Gillett, HBEA, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Curtis, Playne, Pioneers, Drumkey, Red 22, Gazette, Nicholls, EAHB 1907, SKP, Barnes, Leader14, Red Book 1912, Red 19
General Information:
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Aberdare Voters List
Curtis - p. 62 - 'Trials of the Twenties and Thirties' - 'Gray Leakey came out to Kenya in 1906. For about 6 months he lived at Kabete and helped his uncle, Harry Leakey of the CMS, build the wood and iron mother church there. It was brought out from England in pieces, and still stands today near the Mary Leakey Girls' School.
Gray learned a certain amount of the Kikuyu language there and then took up a post as assistant manager on Sir Victor Buxton's land at Limuru, Kabuku Farm. By 1911 Leakey had taken over the managership of the farm, and in that year he married Elizabeth Laing, whom he met while she was governess to the Harry Leakey family at Kabete.
Gray's nickname among the Kikuyu was Murungaru, which means 'straight'; this referred both to his physical appearance and to his character. Gray Leakey served in WW1 and after it drew a 2000 acre Soldier Settler farm in Laikipia. 1922 was a drought year. Their river ran dry and they had to leave the farm. Leakey went to consult Berkeley Cole about a job, and Cole suggested that he and Elizabeth should take on the management of the White Rhino Hotel in Nyeri.
Leakey wrote - 'Hotel life with a lot of office work and staying up late was not congenial. Both Elizabeth and I had to serve drinks over the bar which was supposed to make a profit and cover all other expenses. Being a teetotaller myself didn't help matters although it was the only hotel with the only bar in Nyeri to start with ...... The agent for the hotel visited us after the first 6 months and then when the year was nearly up. He was profoundly dissatisfied with the bar account and said, "Leakey, you're a damn bad barman, what about it?" I replied that I thought it was about time I went back to the land, and he agreed.
In order to raise some capital, Leakey then took a number of farm jobs, while Elizabeth and their children lived on land he owned at Mbagathi. He worked first on a coffee plantation at Ruiru and then was appointed manager of another coffee estate at Kiambu. Meanwhile he had applied to the Governor for permission to exchange his Laikipia land for 5 small farms at Kiganjo, near Nyeri, which had not been taken up. Eventually the request was granted and the 5 farms were consolidated into a single holding of 936 acres to which he was given title. He was required to start developing it within 3 years. Elizabeth meanwhile managed the Mbagathi farm, but was not in good health. Suddenly, in March 1925, she suffered a burst appendix and died.
Leakey was left with the children to look after. He managed to arrange for his son Nigel and daughter Agnes to go to England with the Harry Leakeys and live there with relatives while they went to school. Robert and Rae stayed in Kenya and went to the European School in Nairobi. Leakey then settled down to raising funds again by taking another job as manager of a coffee farm near his own land at Mbagathi.
In 1926 he married again. His second wife was Bessie Bull, who had been teaching at a Government School in Rhodesia. 'Just about this time my father died and left me a bit of capital with which to start the farm at Nyeri. In November of 1926 we went to Nyeri by rail as far as Karatina ......... [more - farming problems] ..... in 1930 Nigel returned to Kenya and came to live with us. ......... During 1935 Nigel was working at first on the Govt. soil erosion scheme in the Machakos reserve. Later he was on his own. He went on a visit to England in 1936.
In 1937 it became evident that coffee was not a paying proposition for a number of reasons. The price had gone still lower, the rainfall was insufficient and the acreage too small ...... We gradually pulled out most of the coffee and used it for fuel.' Gray Leakey continued to farm at Kiganjo. His son Nigel was killed in action during the EA Campaign in 1941; he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Playne - Kabuku Farm - There are 2 specially interesting facts about this farm. The first is that Mr T.F.V. Buxton, the owner, is one of the directors of the CMS, and started a school for native children on the farm in 1907. There are some Swahili tenants on the property of several years standing. The second is that 14 leopards have been caught during the same number of months. About 80 acres of land out of the 1280 are cultivated with maize, oats, barley, and potatoes, and there are 700 mixed English fruit trees. ............... The homestead is built of wood and iron, and is three-quarters of a mile from Limoru Station. The labour employed is Kikuyu, and there is no trouble with them. Mr A.G.A. Leakey manages for Mr Buxton
Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Dagoretti - A.G.A. Leakey
Nicholls - It was the good employers, such as Gray Leakey, who were reluctant to accept that their trusted employees could be implicated in Mau Mau (most of them were, such was the intimidation), and they would fight hard to stop them being removed and detained. Leakey paid the price for his naivete, or charity, according to which way you look at it. He and his second wife Mary Littleton were attacked in their farm at Kiganjo, outside Nyeri, while Mary's adult daughter Diana Hartley was visiting.
Leakey was carried by 10 men to 'a place of sacrifice' in the forest 5 miles from his farm, where they placed him face downwards in a shallow grave and buried him alive. Mary managed to push her daughter into the loft before being strangled in the farmhouse. Diana Hartley escaped after the raiders had gone, only to die later during the making of a film in Kenya.
EAHB 1907 - Lieut. A.G.H. Leakey - Uganda ?
SKP - 1938 - Society of Kenya Pioneers - over 30 years in Colony - arrived Nov 1906 - Nyeri
Nairobi City Park cemetery - Bessie Leakey, died 22 Jan 1946 aged 63
Nairobi Forest Road cemetery Elizabeth Laing Leakey 1873-5 Mar 1925
St Peter's cemetery, Nyeri In memory of Gray and Mary Leakey who loved Kenya and its people/ October 1954
Red Book 1912 - A.S.A. Leakey - Limuru
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Kikuyu - Arundell Gray Arundell Leakey, Farmer, Limoru and Elizabeth Leakey, Married, Limoru
Red Book 1919 - Limuru Farmers' Association - Vice-President - A.G.A. Leakey
Hut - 1908 CMS Kabuku, Mgr. Buxton
Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Voters Register - Kenya Province - Arundell Gray Arundell Leakey, Farmer PO Rumuruti and Elizabeth Leakey, Married woman PO Rumuruti
Peerage says his 2nd wife was Elizabeth Harriet Littleton née Becher
Gazette 8 Nov 1955 probate for 3rd wife