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Name: MacNAGHTEN, Hilda Mary Ethelina, Mrs

image of individual

Nee: Barnes

Birth Date: 27.2.1884 North Huish, Devon

Death Date: 11.12.1973 Truro

Married: In Mombasa 27 Mar 1906 Leslie Hay MacNaghten (1875-1950)

Children: Phyllis Eileen and Millicent, twins (5.1.1907 lived only a few hours, buried in Nairobi South cem.); Cyril Jocelyn Gilchrist 'Ian' (Fort Hall 31.10.1907-1973); Geoffrey Leslie (Kisumu 22.6.1909-1999); Douglas Melville (14 Mar 1911 Falmouth-2007)

Book Reference: North

General Information:

Nicholls - The wedding of Hilda and Leslie Macnaghten, of the Public Works Dept., was typical. In 1906 the bride arrived in Mombasa by ship in the morning, and was taken to a bungalow by 2 ladies she did not know. She was helped to dress in a wedding gown and veil she had brought with her, and was given a bunch of oleander picked from the garden as a bouquet. From the bungalow she went straight to the cathedral in a trolley pushed by 2 Africans and decorated with white flowers - oleander, jasmine and frangipani. William McGregor Ross, of the PWD, whom she had never met, gave her away before a small congregation lacking any of her relatives. On the same day she and her husband embarked on the overnight train to Nakuru. On arrival there she was seated on a white Muscat donkey and rode 80 miles to Turkana country, to find her new home was a banda with no doors or windows. She played the gramophone in the evenings for a touch of home, but found herself surrounded by Suk and Turkana tribespeople mystified by Harry Lauder's laughing song. Just over 9 months later she lost her new-born twins in Nairobi. Such was pioneering life.
 

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