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Name: JOHANSON, Duncan Hilton

image of individualimage of individual

Nee: brother of Theodor Lancelot Johanson

Birth Date: 16 Dec 1904 Glasgow

Death Date: 25 Sep 1949 shot by Maureen Murphy

First Date: 1930

Profession: Farmer

Area: Naivasha, Munyu Estate Kinangop

Married: In Darlington 1930 Nancy Hethcote b. 15 Dec 1904 Newsham, Yorks., d. 1973 Naivasha

Children: James Hilton (1931 Kenya-1935 Kenya); Fay Graham (twin 23 Mar 1934 Kenya-2007 Kenya) (Carnelley); Jean Charmain (twin 23 Mar 1934 Kenya-11 Jan 1935 Kenya); Derek Heathcote (9 July 1932-22 Jun 2002 Cheshire); Michael Todd (8 Oct 1942 Kenya-16 Apr 2015 Healesville, Vic., Australia)

Book Reference: Red 31, Hut, Old Africa, Carnelley, Rugby

General Information:

Old Africa 2 - Article by Fay Carnelly - The Saturday night before leaving to go back to school in England my parents held a good-bye party in our honour at the Lake Hotel [Naivasha]. I enjoyed the party until our neighbour, Maureen Murphy, a young mother of 3 children, came in and pulled my mother and I aside. "I've just shot Duncan!" Maureen said. She had left the party early to give my father a ride home. "I think he's still alive," Maureen went on. "He's in the car. Won't you come have a look. Maybe you can help him." ……. Mum insisted Maureen take my father to the police station if she'd shot him. By the time Maureen got my father to the Naivasha police station, he had died. ……… I never heard the details of the court case until years later as an adult. No one really knows what happened in the car that night. We kids always thought of Maureen as a rich but mad Irishwoman. I still remember her wearing some sort of bikini outfit and riding her horse at Munyu when she was very pregnant with one of her children. Mum told me Maureen had wanted my father to sleep with her and when he refused she shot him. But the lawyer for Maureen's defence, Sir Humphrey Slade, claimed in court that my father tried to attack Maureen in the car that fateful night and she had drawn the pistol from under the dashboard and shot him through the heart. After hearing the facts of the case the jury decided Maureen had acted in self-defence and found her not guilty of the charge of manslaughter. Mum wanted to protect Derek and I and our younger brother Michael from the scandal so she brushed things under the carpet. To this day I don't know when or where they buried my father. Maureen and her husband Spud moved to the Aberdares and later to South Africa.
Carnelley - Nancy was a great character, great fun and loved her bridge parties with all the older girls around the lake {Naivasha}. She died in 1975
Rugby - Played for Kenya against Combined South African Universities December 1929-30 - D. Johansen
FindaGrave Jean Charmian JOHANSON BIRTH 23 Mar 1934 DEATH 11 Jan 1936 (aged 1) BURIAL Nairobi Forest Road Cemetery Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

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