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Name: HOOK, Logan FRGS, FZS (Commander, RN) 'Boat Hook'
Nee: son of Bryan Hook
Birth Date: 15 Feb 1888 Churt, Farnham, Surrey
Death Date: 6 Apr 1976 Nanyuki
First Date: 1921
Last Date: 1976
Profession: Designed his Silverbeck Hotel so that the equator ran right through the bar. You could have one drink in the northern and the next in the southern hemisphere, or one drink in both at once, a foot on each side of the line.
Area: Nanyuki, Moseley Farm Nanyuki
Married: In Portsmouth 1915 Fenella Mabel Wyndham-Jones b. 1895 Burnham, Somerset, d. 28.6.1966 Nanyuki
Children: Sonia (1917 Farnham-12 Feb 1944 sinking of Khedive Ismael); Anne Myvia (25.2.1924 Nairobi); Catherine (Hart); Francesca (Marshall); Susan (Norris)
Book Reference: Midday Sun, EAWL, Stoneham, Who's Who, Verandah, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Garden, Legion, Chandler, mini-SITREP XXXIII, Childhood, Paice's Place, Barnes
War Service: Commander, Royal Navy, 1903; joined Kenya British Legion c. 1931
School: Bognor, Sussex & HMS Britannia
General Information:
' .......... I knew Logan and Fenella Hook very well as I worked at the Silverbeck as Secretary when I first went out to Kenya. They were wonderful to work for and never interfered with what I did. I was trained in Domestic Science but they needed a secretary so secretary I became and kept an eye on the kitchen. There was a walk-out strike in 1948 but it turned into a farce in the end. It was pre Mau Mau days & the Hotel staff weren't interested in politics but were intimidated into going on strike. The guests were magnificent and one and all turned out to do what they could to cook and clean and it turned into a fun time. The Kikuyu staff sat on the lawn most of the time and watched our efforts until the mpishi came and said he wanted to come back to work. I never heard either Logan or Fenella say an unkind word about anyone. Logan of course was keen on the Legion of Frontiersmen, but I can't remember what that entailed .......….
Logan was a British Israelite, whatever that is and he had a notice saying that the world would end on a certain day and he was quite convinced that it would. Fenella on the other hand just told me Logan did get funny ideas from time to time and to take no notice and just carry on decorating the new part of the Hotel that I was helping with. That day came and went and Logan excused his error by saying that he had misinterpreted the date and it was a hundred years out! .....' Extract from a letter from Mrs Connie Whitfield.
Who's Who - Joined HMS Britannia 1903, 1915 HM Submarine C2, 1916 D8, 1919 commanded HMS Hibiscus and HMS Gardenia in Black Sea. Senior Officer Eastern Africa and OC Mt. Kenya Sqdn., Legion of Frontiersmen, Nanyuki; Asst. Inspector and OC Silverbeck Fortress, Kenya Police Reserve. Founder Member of Nanyuki Sports Club.
Letter from Mrs Anthea Venning - " ..... My grandfather Bryan Hook the artist, who painted many Kenya scenes, took 3 of his sons - Logan, Raymond and Valentine, to Kenya in 1913. They went on a walking safari (Bryan was quite old so he was on horseback) with ox wagons to carry their luggage. He (Bryan) promised to buy land for each of his sons but Valentine was killed in WW1. Logan was a Commander in submarines during that war. After that Logan and Raymond had their land in Nanyuki.
Logan and Fenella had 5 daughters - the eldest, Sonia, who was in the Fanys was torpedoed and killed in WW2 [sinking of the Khedive Isnail]. Daughter No. 2 - Miss Anne Hook. ...... Daughter No. 4 Mrs Catherine Hart ..….."
Letter from Jack Wright - Logan Hook being an ex British Naval Officer was the owner of the Silverbeck Hotel, and firmly believed that the world would come to an end within the present year. He did not visit the Club on a regular basis. He attended the horse racing meetings 3 times a year. He was a member of the Royal Wajir Yacht Club also the Flotilla which he commanded on the Burguret Estate dam where Shrub Littlewood's father was the manager. This sailing event took place every Sunday morning, ending with a pink gin session and cold buffet at the farm house and a very good time was had by all who attended.
KAD 1922 - Hon. Sec., Nanyuki Farmers' Association
Garden - Silverbeck Hotel - 'After dinner the attractive chatelaine came in to see if we were "all right" and we said how jolly everything had been. "We have our own farm," she said, "and grow everything. You could not get it fresher anywhere!" We talked on, and presently discovered her husband is Commander Hook, R.N., son of my old friend Bryan Hook the artist, whose house at Churt was called Silverbeck ...... I looked at her bewildered. Surely this young woman had no grown children? .......... Commander Hook, tall, handsome with an enormous laugh ..... organises parties from the hotel up to the snow-fields of the mountain, to "Hook Tarn and the Brigands' Cave" forsooth ....... He takes parties on safari in his motor-lorry to the place where part of Martin Johnson's "Baboona" was filmed. The Hooks enjoy their country.
Mrs Catherine Hart - …… In the 1930s when Francesca, Catherine and Susan were born another hotel was started in the town, this time built of brick. This affected trade and to diversify, Logan and Fenella bought Moseley Farm 5 miles north of the town, and Fenella started a dress shop, Madame Mabel of Nanyuki. Fenella and Miss Kirkup made the first dress themselves. ……. Fenella, an accomplished pianist, inherited a baby grand piano from England, and after arrival at Mombasa, it was transported by rail and delivered to the house for a total of 10/6d. It was delightful to come back from the farm to hear the strains of Beethoven and Chopin flowing out over the plains. Many memorable occasions were spent listening to her wide repertoire whilst sitting in front of the fire in the evenings ….
Fenella tried a Golf Course at the Hotel but Logan never played, he was always looking at the Hoopoe.
Who's Who 1956 - Joined HMS Britannia 6 May 1903; June 1915 Commanded HM Submarine "C" 2; 1916 HM Sub. "D" 8; 1919 commanded HMS Hibiscus and HMS Gardenia in Black Sea; Senior Officer Eastern Africa and OC Mt. Kenya Sqdn., Legion of Frontiersmen, Nanyuki, Asst. Inspector and OC Silverbeck Fortress, Kenya Police Reserve.
mini-SITREP XXXIII - Legion of Frontiersmen - 1940 - C Squadron - Officer Commanding
Paice's Place - Occasionally the tensions turned violent, as when C.T. Stoneham and Commander Hook, owner of the Silverbeck Hotel, once settled a personal quarrel with their fists, in an encounter famous in the annals of settler Kenya.
Szechenyi - Land of Elephants - Nanyuki - 'Here I have been put into the 'hotel'. Such an hotel of the wilds is the ne plus ultra of luxury. Every guest has a separate house. Twelve earthen, reed-roofed huts, of one room each, arranged one beside the other in a semicircle; these are the hotel rooms. They are fairly comfortably fitted out and even have electric light. In the middle of the semicircle of huts rises a reed-roofed bungalow, the "main building" considerably more spacious than the rest. On its open veranda, seated in cheerful check-covered arm chairs, some passing hunters are having tea. Inside it is one long room of which one half is the dining room and the other the smoking room with a vast fireplace and a crackling fire in it. Outside and inside on the walls hang trophies, buffalo heads, lion skins; by the fireplace some last years numbers of English illustrated papers. The innkeeper is a retired English naval officer.
On one of the little huts is written "Bar". Besides drinks the naval innkeeper sells tobacco, ammunition, quinine, torch batteries and suchlike necessities for the hunters. Comic hunting drawings, poems and sayings adorn the walls of the bar. On the counter is painted a red line indicating the "Equator". Every child in Kenya knows that the Equator runs slap through the counter of the Nanyuki pub.
Gazette - 23/12/1925 - General Retail and Hotel Liquor Licence for Silverbeck Hotel, Nanyuki, Com. L Hook
Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Voters Register - Kenya Province - Lt.-Commdr Logan Hook RN, Farmer & Hotel Proprietor PO Nanyuki and Fenella Mabel Hook, Married woman PO Nanyuki
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Aberdare Voters List
Nanyuki cemetery - both Logan and Fenella, with dates
Gazette 21 Feb 1969 wife's probate
Gazette 20 Aug 1976 probate