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Name: SCHWENTAFSKY, Charles Frederick Hugo
Nee: son of Carl Schwentafsy
Birth Date: 10.5.1914 Banya Luka, Yugoslavia
Death Date: 18.6.1974 Durban
Profession: Hotel keeper, Avenue Hotel, Nairobi
Area: Nairobi
Married: In Milan 8 Feb 1940 Herta Maria Feldkirchner b. 25 Dec 1912 Vienna, d. 5 June 2006 Medicine Hat, Canada
Children: Alfred Charles (31 Mar 1943 Nairobi); Ronald J. (12 May 1947 Zurich)
Book Reference: Ronald Schwentafsky
War Service: Kenya Regt.
General Information:
KR 1139
Ronald Schwentafsky: Carl and Pauline initially arrived in Durban around 1900 and established a rooming house for sailors who stopped over in Durban. This seemed to be a very successful enterprise especially from a financial point of view. I can only think that their success in Durban encouraged them to try to repeat this in Mombassa (also being a port). My father was Charles Schwentafsky and he married my mother Herta Maria (Feldkirchner) in 1940 in Milan, Italy. My mother was born on December 25, 1912 in Vienna, Austria and her parents moved to Innsbruck when she was young (not sure exactly when). She lived in Innsbruck until my parents married in 1940 in Milan, Italy (due to the political situation in Austria). From Milan they went to Nairobi and when they arrived in Mombassa they were informed that Charles’s father had just passed away. So my mother never met him personally. At that time the family owned the Avenue Hotel in Nairobi. My parents spent the war years in Kenya. In early 1947 she went to Austria to see how her family had survived the war and on May 12 1947 I was born in Zurich, Switzerland. There are some interesting stories my mother used to tell me about some of the “high society” people she had interactions with, but that is a separate story.
Anyway from Switzerland my parents moved to Durban, S A. and in 1963 my parents separated and my mother and I returned to Innsbruck where I went to school and completed my education. My father returned to Kenya with my older brother Fred (Alfred) who was born on March 31, 1943 in Nairobi.
In J. Wedekind's book Keith Campling and the Story of Aviation in East Africa. Charles is mentioned a few times as one of the persons who was also quite involved from a financial aspect. He apparently was an excellent pilot and he shared a plane that he purchased and Keith re-built (being an expert mechanic). However they both wanted to fly on weekends so this did not work out too well. I believe that Charles (or Charlie as he was commonly known) then sold his share to Keith. In the book there is also a reference Norah Schwentafsky (Charles' sister) who had been in a car accident somewhere in the country and was flown to a hospital.
Also Carl/Charles owned a part share in the “Eden Rock Hotel” in Malindi.