He settled in Nairobi and founded a practice there. He had deep religious principles and his influence for good was felt over a wide area of EA. 'Kill or Cure' Burkitt.

Midday Sun - (1933) - 'Dr Burkitt I knew. He was one of Kenya's characters and a great doctor in his way, but his way was rough and ready and I was thankful that I had never been his patient. Had I been suffering from malaria, I would have been made to sit naked in a tub in the draughtiest place available, such as a veranda, and sponged continuously with cold water - teeth chattering, blue with cold - until I either expired or my temperature sank to normal. This was Dr Burkitt's famous cold-water cure, based on the theory that the parasites which cause malaria and other fevers thrive only at high body temperatures, and perish at normal ones, so that if you can only get the temperature down, you overcome the disease. Apparently the theory worked, and Dr Burkitt cured many sufferers; if he also killed some, they would probably have died anyway. The theory was extended to horses, and became the standard treatment for the disease known as horse-sickness for which no other cure or antidote was known ......... Dr Roland Burkitt had arrived from Ireland in 1911 to start the first private practice in Nairobi. He was a surgeon, not a physician, but in Africa medicine couldn't be shut into compartments. Many Burkitt stories were in circulation, such as that describing how he had driven 100 miles or so to a sick woman - he would drive any distance, anywhere, by day or night, in an old rattle trap of a car, to answer a call - and had stripped her naked, bundled her into the back of his jalopy and driven furiously over bumps, potholes, rocks and rivers to the hospital, stopping at intervals to take her temperature. As they proceeded, the woman's temperature fell and Dr Burkitt removed first his jacket, then his shirt and finally his trousers to clothe his patient. When they arrived at the hospital, Dr Burkitt was naked and the woman fully clothed. That, at any rate, was the story. Another related how a patient, loaded into the doctor's car while in a coma, came round to find that he was sharing the back seat with a dead antelope. The doctor always carried a rifle in his car and would now and then alight to shoot something for the pot when on his errands of mercy. Snakes were a favourite in his diet. Another of his favourite cures was bleeding. Chief among his enemies were the ultra-violet rays of the tropical sun, which he considered lethal. Sun helmets of cork or pith, double terais  (two thicknesses of felt with red flannel in between) and spine-pads, also lined with red material and covering the back, were to him essential armour against these ever-threatening rays.'......................... When Galbraith Cole had dysentery and was very ill Dr Burkitt was sent for. Although there was little he could do, he had (Nell Cole wrote) a 'life-giving personality' and his mere presence did Galbraith good.   

Irish - retained his pronounced Irish brogue all his life. For many years Dr. Burkitt was the only private practitioner in Nairobi. He was later to be joined by Drs. McCaldin, Gregory, Nevill and Mark. He met with a car accident in 1937 and sustained severe chest injuries. This led to his retirement in 1938 but he was restless for Africa and wandered back and forth from Ireland until eventually he died in Dublin in 1946 aged 74 - a truly remarkable man.   

Verandah - Many were the tales told of Dr. Burkitt's bedside manner. It was alleged that if he didn't like somebody, or suspected them of malingering, he would make them run round his surgery naked to see how fit they were. One unfortunate newcomer to Kenya had a badly infected foot from a neglected jigger. He took it to Dr. Burkitt who took a large sharp instrument and jabbed it into the swollen and septic member making the poor man yell and nearly hit the roof. "Well, you haven't got gangrene, anyway" said the doctor. .....…..  

Vulture - [Mervyn Cowie] - I remember going to Bowker's farm once, just after a young friend of mine had broken his neck in a mule buggy accident ... A day elapsed before Dr Burkitt, the amazing Irish doctor who never shunned any opportunity to save life, was summoned from Nairobi. On arrival, the doctor assessed that the lad's neck, but not the spinal cord, was broken. In a brusque, practical way, he turned to the boy's parents and said "If I twist his neck he will be dead or alive; if I leave him as he is he will be paralysed. Which way do you want it?" What a difficult decision for any parent to make! But in harsh conditions there is no time to dither. They answered "Twist," and Dr Burkitt restored the boy to normality.     

Red 25 - President, British Medical Association, Kenya Branch

Curtis - p. 45 - '........ "My God, it's Burkitt!" - Lady Howard de Walden, in bed with fever at Muthaiga Club, on waking to see all the windows being opened and the bedclothes removed. - Roland Wilks Burkitt, FRCSI, was widely celebrated for his drastic treatment of fevers by cold water and fresh air. One of his patients recalled, no doubt with some exaggeration, how she was lying in bed with a high temperature on her farm. Burkitt was summoned and drove out. He put her in his open car with a minimum of covering for the journey to hospital in Nairobi. As her temperature fell she needed to have more on, and Burkitt took off some of his own clothes to keep her warm. By the time they arrived the lady was fully dressed in the doctor's clothes and Burkitt was bare. The Burkitt legend which flourished between the two world wars has obscured some of his achievements. In 1911, when he moved from Assam and set up his practice in Nairobi, he was the only private doctor in the place and was thus a true pioneer. (The Medical Dept. of course employed doctors, and they were allowed to treat private patients in their spare time.) ......... [more, including Burkitt's interviewing and employing Dr Gregory] .......  John Drury, who was Lord Delamere's trainer at one time, was once invited by Burkitt to go for an afternoon ride. Drury agreed, welcoming some gentle exercise, and went off in his normal working trousers without troubling to change. A hyena got up in front of them quite soon. Burkitt pulled out a revolver and started firing busily. The hyena raced off with the two men in full cry after it. The long gallop left Drury extremely sore for some days.

Carman - General practitioners in Nairobi - Dr Burkitt, whose nephew achieved such distinction for his work on the tumour which bears his name.

Carman - Dr Burkitt who could be described as a foundation member of the Profession in Kenya was a man of decidedly unorthodox ideas, one of which was to treat pneumonia patients by laying them on a mackintosh sheet and drenching them with cold water; some of these unfortunates actually survived this heroic therapeutic measure, but as may be imagined others did not. Burkitt held an English FRCS, but although his knowledge of surgery was encyclopaedic I would not say he was a very good operator. He belonged to the old-fashioned school which believed that to examine a patient one should see the body as a whole and those who consulted him were required to remove all their clothing; this led to  …. amusing ….. Incident. Nicholls - a Dublin graduate and son of the vicar of Athenry, he was in religion a low-church evangelical. He rented a small hall in Nairobi where he conducted a service for Africans every Sunday. That was acceptable though peculiar in settler eyes, but he was also an earnest follower of the British Israelites and believed explicitly in the 'Prophecies of the Pyramids', being convinced that the end of the world was due in 1921. Though charitable, he would never let anyone who could afford it escape payment, for settlers were notorious for reneging on their doctors' bills.

Hut has Burkitt as being BEADOC 1919 - 1911 partner with Butterfield at Buret. 1st Estate sold to Lord Egerton

mini-SITREP XXXIII - Legion of Frontiersmen - 1912 - Medical Officer

Red Book 1919 - Dr. R W Burkitt - Exchange Buildings - Nairobi

Gazette - 6/2/1924 - Voters Register - Nairobi South - Mrs Annie Louisa Burkitt, Married, Bishops Road

Gazette - Voters List 1936 - Roland Wilks Burkitt, Surgeon, Bishops Rd., Nbi

Gazette 20 Jan 1949 probate rquired by Harold Hamilton Burkitt for Ronald [sic] Wilks Burkitt

Retired to Ballycastle, Co. Antrim