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Name: WATCHAM, Dora Margaret 'Doris', Miss
Nee: dau of Sarah Watcham
Birth Date: 7 Nov 1863 Bangalore, India
Death Date: after 23 Feb 1951
First Date: 1902
Profession: Settler - Land Grant applications Nairobi 10/7/1902 & 7/9/1903, Karuru with P.E. Watcham
Area: Nairobi
Married: No
Book Reference: North, Gazette
General Information:
North - At Nairobi with sisters Ida & May 27/8/1902; At Nairobi having built house 'Riverside' on plot without agreeing terms of lease & in dispute with Protectorate March-June 1903; Land Grant application with brother P.E. Watcham, Karuru 7/9/1903
Gazette - 12/11/1919 - Register of Voters - Nairobi, South Area - Miss Doris Watcham - Coffee Planter - Riverside
Patricia Lott Page - The Watcham family were in Kenya, first arriving in Mombasa in 1899 from the Straits Settlements, originally from Bangalore. They were variously coffee planters and farmers, at the 'Riverside' plantation in Nairobi (the subject of the famous law case, which is often quoted in boundary disputes), Gilgil and Thomson's Falls.
Dora Margaret Watcham - someitimes known as Doris - did not marry
Info from Noel Clark: died sometime after 23rd February 1951 (when she witnessed her sister Mary’s will in Bremersdorp, Swaziland) probably in Nairobi, Kenya. She was sometimes referred to as Doris Watcham. She did not marry and is assumed to have had no issue. The records indicate that she was close to her brother Patrick and to her sister Ida. On 7th September 1903 she was granted 160 acres of freehold agricultural land ‘between Rua Raka and Karura’ for the purposes of constructing a homestead, and in 1904 she may have leased “Riverside” from Patrick Edgar Watcham. In the Gazette she is usually listed, with Patrick and Ida, as a ‘Coffee Planter, Riverside’, with listings in 1930, 1934 and 1936 as a ‘Farmer, Gilgil’ and lastly in 1938 as a ‘Spinster, Assistant on Farm, Thomson’s Falls.’ There is one court case definitely involving her (212/1908 Huebner & Coy. vs. Miss D. Watcham) and two more that I believe to be against her and but subject to spelling errors (762/1909 J.A. Nazareth & Bro. vs. Mrs. P. Watcham, and 338/1910 Suleman Virji & Sons vs. Mrs. D. Watcham). She was an Associate Member of the Royal Colonial Society from 1913. Dora made three visits to the United Kingdom; in 1912 with brother Patrick and sister May, in 1923 or 1924 with Patrick and Ida, and in 1930/31 with Patrick.