City Park cemetery, Nairobi - Alice Elizabeth Collett

Gazette 4 July 1944 probate

Gazette 3 July 1951 lists Capt. I.M. Collett as hon game warden

Gazette 15 Sep 1912 has G. Collett getting game licence

Agnes Shaw: Ma Collett’s early life had been spent in a barrack square in India where presumably her husband was a sergeant major although her only reference to him was ‘I ‘ates my ‘usband with an un’oly ‘atred.’  Most of us had some sympathy with Mr. Collett, for Ma was an expert in the use of invective and it was more than your life was worth to use your parcel slips, for to commit any such crime might mean that your mail was withheld for several posts.  She lived in a witch’s hovel which did duty as a post office, village store, and her living quarters.  She shared the dark and musty interior with a pack of half-starved mongrel dogs, several cats and some hens, who found the post boxes made most convenient nests.  She was a holy terror and we were all more than a little afraid of her but at least our letters were secure, for she slept with the keys under her mattress and no one dared beard her in her den, let alone in her bed.