Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Aberdare Voters List

Daughters Marie married in SA, Iris married M. Rankin, Marjorie married Duirs of Hoey's Bridge, Emily married Mousley of Kiu. Source:- Mrs Ira Roberts [this doesn't tally with above - CN]

RS - Alick while dipping cattle was badly injured when an ox tossed its head and its horn went into his temple. Dr Tennent came from Nakuru, well over 100 miles over wet and bad roads. He operated a couple of days later on the kitchen table with hurricane lamps for illumination. Alick did not speak for 6 months and when he did his first word was 'Damn'. Story has it that the herdboy saved Alick's life by immediately covering the wound with a fresh cowpat. Alick originally worked for Dr. Doering at Waterloo Farm, between Gilgil and Naivasha. Elizabeth May was allotted a soldier settlement farm at Nanyuki at the end of the war to whence they moved from Waterloo. Alick was a great shot, winning many Bisley trophies

Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Naivasha - A.O. Roberts (British), Manager, Waterloo Farm, Naivasha

Nanyuki cemetery - Plot M17 AND Plot M16, Alick plus wife, and son Boyce. In loving memory / of / Alick Oswald Roberts / Dec 8th 1889 / Aug 15th 1960 / and / his wife / Elizabeth May Roberts / (née Aggett) Oct 3rd 1888 / May 3rd 1971

Gazette - 23/1/1918 - Registration of Brands - A.O. Roberts, Gilgil, Naivasha - Brand V9R - 19 Oct 1917

Gazette - 3/12/1919 - Register of Voters - Rift Valley Area - A.O. Roberts - Farmer - Gilgil and E. May Roberts - Married - Gilgil

Red Book 1919 - District Committees - Naivasha - A.O. Roberts

Joelson - 1928 - has imported 5 pedigree rams from S. Africa. Red 25 - Honorary Permit Issuer

Gazette - 5/8/1925 - Voters Register - Kenya Province - Alick Oswald Roberts, Settler PO Nanyuki and Elizabeth May Roberts, PO Nanyuki

Old Africa - 6-2-12 - Heather Rooken-Smith - My uncle Alec Roberts’s accident is well documented in both the Lancet and in our family history records. In those days when cattle were long horned, they had to be dipped every week against East Coast Fever, a deadly parasitic disease for which there was no inoculation.

A cattle dipping tank is a long narrow deep concrete structure, which is filled with water and into which they add a chemical mixture to kill ticks that carry the East Coast Fever. The cattle plunge into the tank and swim to the other end, by which time the chemical has affected any ticks. Once the cattle are out of the tank, there are concrete paths at angles from the tank, with strong upright poles and beams in which the cattle stand giving time for the dip mixture to run off their bodies and return down the channels to the main tank.

Uncle Alec stood alongside one of these cattle races branding his oxen and his Maasai herders worked alongside him. An ox with very long horns shook itself to get rid of the water, tossing its head at the same time. One of its horns pierced uncle Alec’s temple and went into his brain. The horn came out with a piece of brain hanging down his face. A Maasai standing nearest Uncle Alec picked up a clump of new cattle dung and clapped it on to the side of Uncle Alec’s temple, thereby ensuring no more brain could come out. He was then carried to the kitchen and laid out on a table, where he lay awaiting the arrival of Dr Tennant of Nakuru, who had been sent for. The roads were quite awful and it was several days before the doctor operated on Uncle Alec, using hurricane lamps for illumination. In the meantime his wife, Aunty May Roberts, my mother’s sister, who was a nurse, took care of Uncle Alec.  Eventually they sent Uncle Alec to England where the doctors said the quick action of the Maasai and the fresh cowpat had saved his life.

In England the doctors said no more could possibly have been done for him. He was away for a very long time being taught to walk and talk again. We are told the first word he said was ‘damn.’ Returning to Kenya by ship, he went back to all that he previously did on his farm ‘Aggetton’ in Nanyuki.

Bruce Rooken-Smith May, having been a matron during the GEA campaign, was entitled to purchase land under the Soldier Settlement Scheme - Aggetton, where a junior school was established and run by Preto Shepherd - she was later to marry May's younger bro George.