Barnes - Early player for Kericho Rugby Club - 1930s - (Birkenhead Park pre 1914)

Mountains - Shortly before buying the land at Sotik he [H.W. Tilman] had gone into partnership with his friend Richard Royston, whose home in England was not far from Wallasey. When he decided to move to Sotik Royston was formally appointed manager of the Kericho plantation at a salary of £200 a year ….

It was envisaged from the start that Royston might become a partner in the enterprise at Sotik, and this he eventually did, acquiring a half share in the land. Tilman's original settlement near Kericho was eventually sold, but he owned some of the land until the second World War. The whole area is now one of flourishing tea plantations. ………..

The Sotik estate was a continuous strip, but it consisted of two areas of good land divided by a swamp. The good land became two farms, Kibore and Soymet. When their joint farming venture was in full swing Royston lived at Kibore, Tilman at Soymet. Even with the competent Royston as his partner, Tilman's share of the Sotik estate could scarcely be left to run itself. Coffee was their main crop, but they also had a dairy herd producing milk and butter for the local market, and they had some land under maize, again for local consumption. All this required a lot of work, since the Sotik estate was really two farms, Kibore and Soymet; Royston, who lived at Kibore, could keep an eye on Soymet temporarily, but not all the time. Tilman's adventures with Shipton had given him at last a passionate interest in life, but they had also made him even more restless. He decided to sell Soymet to Horace Dawson, the farming friend with whom he had gone elephant chasing in the Lumbwa valley. With the money from the sale he paid off whatever he still owed his father, and had enough left to go back to England. ….

Gazette 24 Nov 1959 probate