'Madame Louise Coroneo, went to BEA just before the outbreak of war in 1914 from Egypt. She was born in Lyon in France in 1864 and joined an Italian Franciscan order of Roman Catholic nuns in the 1880's. After training as a teacher and a chorister, she was sent to a missionary convent in the Lebanon where she worked for some years. Sometime during the 1890's she requested permission to leave the Convent - I am not sure of the reasons, but one could be her health as she had suffered a serious fall off a donkey on one of her missionary journeys and had great trouble ever afterwards with one leg which did not heal properly. At any rate my grandmother then went to Egypt and found work as a teacher of French. She married a Greek businessman by the name of Pelopidas Coroneo and had two daughters, the youngest being my mother, both born when she was well over 40 years of age. Sadly her husband died while the children were young and she then opened a small school in Cairo to keep the family going. One of her teachers in the school was engaged to marry a Greek who went to BEA to try his fortune (a Mr Scordoulis) and she decided to accompany this lady teacher to Nairobi in 1914. She found conditions very primitive, she couldn't speak much English, and all her papers, passport and money were stolen in Mombasa soon after they arrived. Disaster! Especially as war was soon declared and she couldn't return to Egypt or Europe. She eked out a living giving a few French lessons to the Governor's children and taking in sewing, but the position was saved by my father who fell in love with her youngest daughter. I don't think my father realised how young my mother was at the time as her age was given as 16 instead of 14 on the marriage certificate. However, he had a wood-and-iron house on hospital hill, a rickshaw and £300 in the bank, so was considered a good catch. Grandmother Louise Coroneo and her other daughter Cecile, lived with my parents in Nairobi until the war ended but then she returned to Egypt with Cecile in 1919 and opened another school which she ran successfully until she was well into her 70's. She received recognition from the French Government for her contribution to French teaching and culture and we have a certificate to this effect.  Source:- Mrs R. Bullingham