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Name: BENNETT, Philip Alfred 'Pa' (Rev.)

Birth Date: 1861 Nether Stowey, Somerset

Death Date: 31.7.1934 Wincanton, Somerset UK

Nationality: British

First Date: 1901 after being with CMS on West Coast

Last Date: 1932

Profession: First Chaplain to be appointed in Nbi., St. Stephen's Church. 1904 he moved to Ruiru where he farmed during the week and conducted services on Sunday. Later Chaplain at Kiambu. One of earliest members of KFA. 1920 to Joburg

Area: Nairobi, later Kiambu, Meadowfield Ruiru - over 20 years in EA, EAHB 1905 - Kamiti Post Office

Married: 1. In Hampstead 22 July 1895 Grace Rhoda Hill (Canadian) b. 1870 Halifax, Nova Scotia, d. 28-8-1919 Mombasa; 2. In Elham, Kent 1923 Mabel Sophia Grimes b. 1866 West Norwood, d. 11 Aug 1952 Eastbourne

Children: Henry Hugh William (Kiambu 5.2.1906-15.5.1989); Philip Sidney (28.4.1897 Pontefract); Emma Violet (Norman) (1901 Gravesend)

Book Reference: Land 1903 ,Gillett, SE, HBEA, Cuckoo, KFA, Irish, Binks, Land 1903, EAHB 1905, EAS, Hut, North, Curtis, Playne, EA & Rhodesia, Drumkey, Land, Kiambu Scrapbook, EAHB 1906, AJ, Nicholls, EAHB 1904, EAHB 1907, Leader14, Barnes, Foster, Red Book 1912, Red 19

General Information:

The African Standard - 26-2-1903 - Invited to the wedding of H.R. Phelips & Miss Jacquette Edith Lambe in Mombasa (Rev. Mr & Mrs Bennett)
SE - Rev P.A. Bennett - Kamiti - Aug 1909
HBEA - went out under the auspices of the Colonial and Continental Church Society and began, in 1902, the 'spade work' of the Nairobi Chaplaincy. The response was immediate and good. After two and a half years' worship in the Railway Institute the Church of St. Stephen's was consecrated after the retirement of the chaplain. In 1908 a Chaplaincy was opened for Kyambu and District, the Rev. P.A. Bennett again doing the pioneer work, which resulted in the opening of St. Paul's, Kyambu in 1911.    
Cuckoo - 1904 - has Rev W. Bennett, the first Anglican Chaplain of Nairobi. Provided a camping site for new settlers at "The Manse". The camping area was rather overcrowded.
KFA - 'On January 26th 1903, 26 settlers met at Mr T.A. Wood's house in Nairobi to found a Planters' and Farmers' Association , and decided to send one of their members to the Union to open up a market for potatoes. Soon afterwards, Mr W.J. King left for Lourenco Marques with a collection of samples which he sold successfully in the Transvaal for about £12 a ton. ........ The Association appointed him as agent to organize an export trade and everyone believed his fortune to be as good as made. Nairobi's first parson, the Rev. P.A. Bennett, was voted to the chair of the Association, W.J. King became the first secretary and T.A. Wood the treasurer. ............ In 1904 when prospective settlers were arriving "by hundreds", quite swamping Nairobi's meagre hotel accommodation. The Rev P.A. Bennett organized a camp in his garden and soon "Tentfontein", as it became known had sprung up.'  
Binks - 'Talking of churches reminds me of the Rev. P.A. Bennett. He was the Nairobi representative of the Church of England - there was a bishop of Mombasa. "Pa" Bennett, as we called him, was one of those human dynamos who would hold a service in the cookhouse if no other place was available, and he was the proud possessor of a tonga - a vehicle that was a cross between a milk float and a governess's car, hauled by two trotting bullocks. ..... There were heroes in those days and Pa Bennett was one of them. ..... I well remember calling on the Rev. P.A. B. and his wife. She collected up an armful of cotton cuttings, which I could see were dismembered flour bags. "I am making the children some underthings" she told me with a smile. …  
Land Grant 1903 - P.A. Bennett - Agricultural, 640 acres - Beyond Kiambu - Dec. 19 - Freehold - Homestead
Curtis - p. 44 - ' ...... In early 1902 the Rev P.A. ('Pa') Bennett was appointed Chaplain to the by now fast growing, though not necessarily pious, congregation which met in the Railway Institute. Finances were precarious and Pa Bennett supplemented the church's income by working for six days of the week running a fuel contractor's business at Kijabe and on the 7th day he preached. Before Bennett resigned in 1904 he saw the building of the first church in Nairobi, which was consecrated on St. Stephen's day 1904 by Bishop Peel ........ It was situated in the CMS compound where the Parliament buildings now stand, and was made of wood and iron, mostly iron, and dubbed the Tin Tabernacle. ..…..…
East Africa & Rhodesia - 13/6/57 - A Mayoral reception for Kenya Pioneers of all races has been held in Nairobi. Mr H.K. Binks, Nairobi's oldest continuous resident, recalled that the Rev. P.A. Bennett, a pioneer clergyman, at one time spent six days in every week cutting fuel for the railway in order to keep his church solvent.
Drumkey - Cattle Brand - E1B
Drumkey 1909 - Committee Member, The Colonists' Association of BEA
Land - 1906 - P.A. Bennett - Agricultural, 640 acres, Reweru and Makuyu River, 18-6-04, Homestead, Registered 25-9-06 Land - 1906 - P.A. Bennett - Grazing, 1659 acres, Reweru and Makuyu River, 18-6-04, Registered 25-9-06
Land - 1907 - P.A. Bennett - Building, 5 acres, Ngong Road, 8-5-05, Registered 10-6-07
Kiambu Scrapbook - The Rev. P.A. Bennet a missionary, affectionately known as "Pa" Bennet, used to bicycle over from Ruiru sometimes to help out. He was one of the earliest Ruiru coffee planters.
Kiambu Scrapbook - Ruiru - A very early planter was the Rev. P.A. Bennet, generally known as "Pa", an ex-missionary who gave his name to Bennet's Ridge Road. His farm, Meadowfield, lies between the Makuyu and Ruiru Rivers.
EAS - 29/1/1903 - Rev. P.A. Bennett, Chaplain of Nairobi has succeeded in raising £18 towards the proposed new church in that town by undertaking a small fuel contract for the Railway.
Agricultural Journal 1908 - Brands allotted and registered - P.A. Bennett, Kiambu - Kiambu E1B
Nicholls - There were as yet no stone quarries, though the Anglican minister Revd Philip Alfred (Pa) Bennett, a CMS missionary from West Africa who became the first resident chaplain to the white community in Nairobi, managed to cut sufficient stone to build himself the first, and for quite a while the only, stone house in Nairobi. This did not go unnoticed among the white inhabitants, always inclined to criticise the missionaries for seeking their own comfort before anything else. Nicholls - Since his stipend, paid by the Colonial and Continental Church Society, was a mere £100 a year, he supplemented his income by spending six days a week running a fuel contractor's business at the Rift Valley escarpment. In 1904 he was succeeded by the Revd W. Marcus Falloon, nominated by the Colonial and Continental, who remained until 1916.
North - Dep. London for Mombasa with wife and daughter 7-12-1901; On list of 'Principal Inhabitants of Nairobi …. The Parsonage' (EAM) with wife 20-9-1903
EAHB 1904 - Nairobi Residents - Bennett, Revd. P.A. - The Parsonage
Mombasa Mbaraki cemetery - Mrs Grace  R Bennett, died 28 Aug 1919 age 49, European Hospital, Malaria Heart Failure Foster - Rev Bennett also ran a fuel contractor's business on the edge of the escarpment. He was a businessman for 6 days and a preacher for one. He remained the Chaplain until 1904. He continued to live in East Africa until 1915.
Red Book 1912 - Committee Member - Ruiru Farmers' Association
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Kikuyu - Philip Alfred Bennett, Chaplain, C of E, The Chaplaincy, Kiambu
Red Book 1919 - Rev P A Bennett - Settler - Ruiru
Red Book 1919 - YMCA, Nairobi - President - Rev. P.A. Bennet
Gazette - 26/6/1918 - Notice - P.A. Bennett, Ruiru will not be responsible for any debts incurred by his wife Grace Rhoda Bennett after the date hereof - 19th June 1918
Land Grant 1903 - P.A. Burnett - Building plot for church, 2 acres - Kiambu - June 2 - Leasehold

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