Cranworth - 1906 - bought land adjoining Pundamilia, the farm of Swift & Rutherfoord. Uganda -  1906 - met Mr Michael Moses, with whom I had later many business relations. He had been one of the very earliest Govt. servants in Uganda. ........... 1907 - returned to Kenya to inaugurate his farming efforts. Obtained grants of land, of roughly 15,000 acres ... along and into the Ithanga Hills. Formed a little company - Sisal Ltd. - original members Lord Cranworth, Alan Tompson and his cousin Ronald Tompson, Mervyn Ridley and Donald Seth-Smith. Mervyn and Seth-Smith to be joint managers. We owned between us some 25,000 acres and christened our new home 'Makuyu', the native name for fig tree. Michael Moses persuaded me to join him in a trading and transport venture. The essence of this project was to trade for ivory up to and across the boundary of the Belgian Congo. .... reasonably successful ....... operated for 3 or 4 years. 1908 - moved into a bungalow prior to acquiring lease of Major Grogan's charming house 'Chiromo' which later, for many years, was owned and occupied by Sir Northrupp Macmillan ......... 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. .................... Bought 2 5 ton Commer lorries to transport passengers and luggage between Nairobi and Fort Hall. Two things killed us, the roads and bad debts. ........ spent some of the happiest years of our lives at Chiromo, and never before or since have I been so rich. ...... Coffee growing in Uganda with Michael Moses - did well until disease struck! ....... In 1910, an old friend, Major Gerard Buxton wanted a stake in EA - took up shares in Sisal Ltd. Also put up money for Cranworth to buy land - eventually bought 14,000 acres at Londiani - brought more disappointment than cash - basically a disaster. ......... Timber - bought land 20 miles beyond Nyeri with Berkeley Cole --- got out of this venture while going was good. ........ Hotel business - built small timber hotel at Londiani - good bar profits but noise problems in timber building. Sold this at a good price. ...... Built "White Rhino" hotel at Nyeri (about 20 white residents). Some problems of noise in wooden building and Bad Debts! Battled for 2 years and sold at no profit. ......... Shortly before the War joined the board of Newland and Tarlton ...... their downfall was not, as cobblers, sticking to their last; ill luck; and Newland's absence during the great War. After the War they stocked up for anticipated boom which never came. ......... then a venture into the newspaper world with articles for the EA Standard and then, after a bust up with Anderson, with the "Leader". ....... Sold the paper because there was too much work involved in filling it. ........ Sisal - when, after the War, the great slump set in and sisal actually touched bottom at £12 a ton, we sold our electric plant at Maragua to the local power company for far more than it cost to erect. ........ Rubber boom - Mr Hugh Barclay, a very eminent banker, bought a plantation some 10 miles from the coast and asked Cranworth to supervise it for him - a very poor proposition - it struck Cranworth as a most curious purchase to be effected by a business man of experience and repute. ........... In 1910 travelled through Abyssinia with Col. Robert J. Stordy ......... WW1 served in EA with Norfolk Yeomanry with Colonel Kitchener, brother of the great Lord Kitchener.

Mischief - "Take plenty of wine after sunfall more especially Burgundy and Port. These enrich the blood and are an excellent prophylactic."

Hut - Built Londiani Hotel in partnership with Berkeley Cole. 1920 Partner with Cara Buxton

Land - 1908 - Lord Cranworth - Grazing, 5000 acres, Thara River, 22-9-06, Registered 4-6-08

Land - 1908 - Lady Cranworth - Grazing, 5050 acres, Thara River, 2-10-06, Registered 4-6-08

Rhodesia - served in the South African War after leaving Trinity College, Cambridge, and farmed in Kenya for 6 years from 1906. During the 1914-18 war he was in France and East Africa with the Royal Artillery and on the Staff. For 30 years he was President of the Kenya Sisal Growers Association. He is a past president of the White Hunters Association of Kenya, and he was a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of 1931 on closer union of Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda.

Mills - On his arrival in British East Africa in 1906 Lord Cranworth established Sisal Ltd. At Makuyu, with his brother-in-law Mervyn Ridley and Martin and Donald Seth-Smith. He was also a founder, with Berkeley Cole, of the White Rhino Hotel in Nyeri and the Londiani Hotel in Londiani. Neither hotel made any money and both closed within 2 years of opening as most patrons used the notorious 'chit-system' so cash flow was negligible and in any event, at that time Londiani only had 3 inhabitants, who could not be expected to support the hotel on their own! When he lived at Chiromo, which he leased from Grogan for £1200 per annum, Lord Cranworth owned one of the first motor cars in Nairobi, a 15hp Napier. Once, when it was being driven by Berkeley Cole down the hill from Nairobi Club with 10 passengers aboard, it overturned. Fortunately none of the passengers was the worse for wear and the vehicle was still being used as a taxi in Mombasa some 10 years later. He also started, in 1910, the Nairobi Motor Transport Company Ltd. To provide transport services out to the Thika/Punda Milia area. ……………… Lord and Lady Cranworth had one son, Robert Brampton Gurdon, who was born on 21st June 1904. He married Daisy Yoskyl Consuelo Pearson, daughter of Weetman Harold Miller Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray and Agnes Beryl Spencer-Churchill on 20th January 1932 but was killed in action during WW2 in July 1942 whilst serving in the Middle East. Lord Cranworth was an excellent horseman, excelling especially at polo, a sport in which he invested heavily in its development in Kenya. He was a founding member of the Makuyu Polo Club. Extremely intelligent, witty and unassuming, Bertie Cranworth's favourite piece of advice to settlers arriving in Kenya was to 'Keep their spirits up, bowels open and wear flannel next to the skin.'

Sportsmen - Son of the first Baron Cranworth, Bertram Francis Gurdon, of Grundisburgh Hall, Woodbridge, Suffolk, was born on 13th June 1877, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. From the University he read for the Bar at the Inner Temple and was 'called' in due course. Lord Cranworth has always been a keen sportsman and taken an active interest in outdoor games; his present tastes incline towards hunting, fishing and shooting as his favourite sports, with a decided preference for big game shooting. This he has experienced in many parts of the world, including South Africa, India, Kashmir, British East Africa, Portuguese and German East Africa, Uganda and Rhodesia. Lord Cranworth resided in British East Africa from 1906 to 1912, and during 1909-10 he made an expedition from Nairobi to Djibouti, via Marsabit, Moyabe [sic], Lake Stephanie, South Abyssinia and Addis Ababa, enjoying good sport among the many varieties of big game that inhabit that country. Included in his lordship's collection of trophies are specimens of lion, tiger, buffalo, rhino, hippo, leopard, cheetah, sable antelope, greater kudu, lesser kudu, sitatunga, roan antelope, oryx and all the commoner African antelopes. The result of his experiences in British East Africa is interestingly told in his book "A Colony in the Making", which was published in 1912. Lord Cranworth served through the South African Campaign and, upon his return, married in 1903, Vera, daughter of Mr Arthur W. Ridley, of Eaton Place, SW., and has one son. At the time of going to press [1914] his lordship is undertaking a further trip into British East Africa, to look after his various properties. It is probable that he will go further afield to shoot.

Red Book 1912 - B.F. Cranworth - Nairobi

Obituary - East Africa and Rhodesia 9 Jan 1964, pp.394,413

KAD 1922 - Vice President, Makuyu Hunt Club

Gazette - 18/11/1914 - Application for Liquor Licence by The Nyeri Development Syndicate Ltd (Applicant Mrs W C Hunter, secretary; Partners, Lord Cranworth, England, Hon R B Cole, Nyeri and Mr Alexander Herd, Nyeri) for a General Retail Liquor Licencefor the premises known as "White Rhino" Hotel in Nyeri Township

A Farmer/Settler in EA, he was at one stage, in partnership with Denys Finch Hatton, the owner of the White Rhino Hotel. He also engaged in trading in various commodities including, in the Congo, exchanging top hats and mouth organs for ivory

In 1918 he returned from EA to farm at Woodbridge, Suffolk. Appointed KG in 1948

Gazette 8 Dec 1964 probate