SE - R. Barton Wright - Feb 1909

HBEA 1912 - Land Officer  

Cranworth - 1908 - 'brought out a motor car, a 15 h.p. Napier with a special body and a high clearance. Not first car in the country. That was, I think, a small runabout owned by Mr Barton-Wright, the popular Land Officer. I can claim. however, that ours was the first car to leave the outskirts of Nairobi ...... sold car after 3 years to Berkeley Cole, who never pampered it. Last seen 10 years later operating most efficaciously as a taxi in Mombasa. .......... the overworked head of the newly formed Land Dept. Conducting his administration in the miserable tin hovel which did duty for a Land Office, he dealt with the utmost cheerfulness with the flood of applications for grants of land.

Kenya Diary - 1902 - Meanwhile a Land Office under my friend Barton-Wright has been started with a view to parcelling out land to settlers. ....….   

EAHB 1905 - Assistant of City Guilds Central Institution Engineering; Late Asst. Surveyor, Trigonometrical Survey Perak, Malay Peninsula; late Asst. Engineer, Uganda Railway; Chief Surveyor, EAP, April 1st 1903; Land Officer May 1903.

The African Standard - 26-2-1903 - Invited to the wedding of H.R. Phelips & Miss Jacquette Edith Lambe in Mombasa

North - Formerly surveying in Malaya; Uganda Railway - UK appt. Junior Asst. Engineer 29/12/1897; Asst. Engineer; on leave Feb 1899; Senior Asst. Engineer; joined UP as Chief Surveyor Land Office; Appt. Chief Surveyor, EAP, 1/4/1903; Acting Land Officer EAP, 1903, Nairobi; issued with Public Officers Game Licence 1/9/1903 Nairobi as Land Officer

Curtis - p. 41 - Bartoon - by William Hale - Reginald Barton-Wright, or Bartoon, as his contemporaries called him, arrived in EA from Malaysia in 1897. He was attached to the railway construction parties, and one of his tasks was to manage foot safaris to Lake Victoria taking up, in small loads, pieces of Lake Steamers. These steamers were assembled at Kisumu, but en route trouble was encountered from raids by the Nandi. Such raids later led to the Nandi Expedition described by Colonel E. Meinertzhagen.  In 1902 the Governor, Sir Charles Eliot, established the Lands Department, and Barton-Wright was put in charge to administer the Crown Lands Ordinance, involving the distribution of farming land to European settlers. He retired in 1919. Barton-Wright married my mother's sister Helen Muriel Holden, and their three children were among the first Europeans to be born in Nairobi. My uncle had the first privately owned motor-car in Nairobi, a chain-driven DKW. He told me he used to get stuck on Secretariat Hill, then a track through the bush. J.E. Carberry later also had a car, and the two of them used to race from the Nairobi Club to Ngong Corner and back. Barton-Wright constructed the first tennis court in Nairobi, beside his bungalow almost opposite the Club, which he often visited. His house was not demolished till the late 1920's. My uncle was a very restless person and could seldom sit still, even when at work in his office. When in session with the Governor he was permitted to pace up and down while in discussion. After his retirement I used to stay with him, and in the evening he used to pace up and down in front of the drawing-room fire with a glass of whisky in his hand. I sat at his feet fascinated by his yarns of EA, and what he said did much to determine me to follow in his footsteps.

Playne - Mr Wright, Land Officer, EAP, was born in London on March 13, 1870 and educated at Harborne, Germany, Manchester Grammar School, and City Guilds Central Institution, London. He was appointed Asst. Surveyor, Trigonometrical Survey, Perak, Malay States in Dec. 1893, but invalided home in August, 1896. Appointed Asst. Engineer, Uganda Railway, in Dec. 1897, he arrived in BEA the following month, and was promoted to be Senior Asst April 1, 1900. He was transferred to the Protectorate service on April 1, 1903, as Chief Surveyor, and became Acting Land Officer from May 1, 1903. His appointment as Land Officer was confirmed on April 1, 1906. He is an Associate (Engineering) of the City Guilds Central Institution.

Drumkey 1909 - Land Dept. - Land Officer

Advertiser - 20/8/1909 - Mr Barton-Wright had a serious mishap the other night. He was riding his motor bike and ran into a night soil cart but escaped with a few bruises.

The Globe Trotter - 6/3/07 - Article by J.T. Oulton entitled 'The Wanandi and the Wire' about the early days of the telegraph line. " ….. Mention of the "Sir William Mackinnon" {lake steamer} recalls the endless trials and apparently insurmountable difficulties connected with its transport. One after another had essayed the task year after year only to be beaten until Mr Barton Wright, the present Land Officer took it in hand. Where others had failed he succeeded." …

Nicholls - Unfortunately the tiny Lands & Survey Department hastily set up in April 1903 under the former Uganda Railway employee Reginald Barton Wright, assisted by one surveyor and an Indian clerk, could not cope with the influx. But Barton Wright was an enthusiast, keen to help all newcomers 

Gazette - 17/12/1902 - Plague compensation after bubonic plague in March 1902 - R.B. Wright - Rs 30

Leader14 - Land Officer, Land Office

Red Book 1912 - Land Dept. - Land Officer

Red Book 1919 - Land Dept - Land Officer

1939 England and Wales Register living in Romsey with wife