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Name: BIRD, Charles Edward Francis 'Dickie' (Lieut.-Col.)

Birth Date: 9 Oct 1909 St. Briavels, Monmouth

Death Date: 15 June 1979 Ringwood, Hampshire

First Date: 1930

Last Date: 1968

Profession: Farmer and coffee planter, Thika

Area: Thika, Timau, Ruiru, Makuyu

Married: 1. 1942 Moira C. Price; 2. 1948 Felicity Rosemary Leslie Ferguson b. 29 Oct 1920 Willaston, Wirral, d. 4 Oct 2016 Market Harborough (she went to Kenya in 1946)

Children: 1. Michael; Anthony. 2. Richard Charles Hugh (28 Nov 1948 Kenya-26 Jan 1993 Kensington); John Edward Francis (20 Sep 1950); Francis (1951); Rosemary; Eleanor Mary Jane (bapt 9 May 1954 Ruiru)

Book Reference: EAWL, Sitrep 2, Bap

War Service: Kenya Regt. Then KAR with service in Somaliland. Later OC Troops, Kisumu

School: The Crypt School, Gloucester

General Information:

Went to Kenya in 1930 to be tutor to Tim Barnley, son of Arthur Barnley of Thika. In return he was taught coffee planting and in the hungry 30's, when coffee prices were plummeting, stayed on and worked for his keep until the war came, and as one of the first members of the Kenya Regiment went off to fight the Italians in Ethiopia. After the war he took up mixed farming at Timau, on the slopes of Mt. Kenya, where he met Felicity Ferguson. They could not get a farm of their own where they wanted one, and were putting everything into developing someone else's! So, in 1950 they joined Socfinaf, a newly formed French Company which eventually became the biggest coffee concern in East Africa, where they stayed until his retirement in 1967. Returned home to England in 1968. Mrs Bird took his ashes back to Kenya to scatter in the Chania River, where he had been a trout warden before the war. Source: Mrs F.R.L. Bird
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Ukamba Voters List
One of the original '500' men in the Kenya Regt. in 1937. (KR 131)

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