Memoirs - Left school in 1903 and was offered a commission in the Army direct from school, but finance was the difficulty, as in those days an officer required at least £200 p.a. private means. Eventually joined the 3rd North Stafford Regiment as a Second Lieutenant and spent 3 years at Litchfield. Then decided this was not leading anywhere and decided to leave the Army and go abroad to one of the Colonies or Dominions. Heard from a cousin (Percy Gethin, who was an artist in London, joined the Devon Regt. on outbreak of WW1 and was killed in the battle of Loos) that he could get me a job in BEA with a friend of his by name Powys Cobb. Left Tilbury for Mombasa in Dec. 1908. .......... At Mombasa, introduced to Cobb at Mombasa Club and took the train for Molo ... arrived at Molo station at about 3 a.m. on Xmas Day 1908. ...... worked cutting fence posts, then took 4000 sheep from Molo to Cobb's farm at Naivasha on the Endibibi plains. ..... then on safari to NFD to buy sheep - disaster! ..... 'When I got back to Kerenget I found things were not too good between Cobb and Drury. It seems Cobb now claimed Drury's farm at Molo, whereas Drury claimed Cobb had not fulfilled the purchase conditions and refused to hand over the deeds. Drury had left Kerenget and gone to Naivasha where he was living on Loydien with Frank Hobson. Loydien belonged to Hobson who had sold to Cobb but there again there was some hitch over the sale. Cobb now asked me to go to Loydien as Manager on a salary of 300 rupees a month. I was not too keen on the job, as I felt that if Hobson was still the owner, I would be managing his farm and not Cobb's.! Left Cobb in 1912 and went on home leave.  On return in 1912, employed as a Stock Inspector on the Masai move from Laikipia to the Southern Reserve. After the Masai move Rupert Hemsted suggested Gethin should set up in business in Kisii with a power mill and some transport donkeys and trade with the Masai who would need food due to an epidemic of rinderpest. Next he went to work for B.F. Webb at Songhor whilst Webb went to UK on leave. Left there for UK himself on leave and, on his return went to Kisii. 1914 - On arrival in Kisii, Gethin was shown into the DC's wife's, Mrs Spencer's,  bedroom as he was mistaken for the ADC, Gasper Evans whom she had asked to call as she was very bored. 'On offering to retire, they would not hear of it, the boy was called to bring drinks and we all had a most pleasant evening. Mrs Spencer recovered an hour later from her bout of malaria and suggested we should all go to Gasper Evans' house for dinner. The party ended at about 1 a.m. with myself sleeping on a sofa in Gasper's sitting room as I hadn't the faintest idea where my tent was and if I would ever find it. .......... trading in Kisii until WW1 came ..... Sept. 11th 1914 ............. Started transport business in a very small way during Feb. 1914 with 25 pack donkeys and a Scotch cart. ....... Joined the EA Veterinary Corps later transferring to the KAR and was demobbed in June 1919 when he went to England on leave ...... returned to Kisii in 1920 and during the next years was helped by Dawson to develop the transport business. ..... went on leave again in 1927.  In 1926 Dawson and his brother Dawson-Curry, became partners and as Dawson was at Voi shooting elephant, his brother took over charge of the business. ...... In 1927 Gethin decided to buy the Dawson's out of the business but finding the payments over the next years was very difficult and eventually they had to be suspended indefinitely .........In about 1933, after some bad luck with losing two motor launches on the lake, uninsured and the banks pressing things looked very bleak and the Dawsons were considering taking over the assets of the Company. ......... a friend [Bond] came to the rescue' guaranteeing £2000 to the Bank. The Dawsons were paid off and the overdraft reduced. ........ Again went on leave in 1933 and returned to find the gold rush in full swing. ......... 1938/39 intense competition from Roadways Ltd who tried to put Gethin out of business but they were financially unsound and, in the end, failed. Business went well until the outbreak of WW2 when Gethin joined up again and went to Abyssinia with the 1st SA Division. Gethin's assistant Mr de Souza kept the business going through WW2 with great difficulties due to vehicles and launches being commandeered. ......... Gethin was released from the Army in 1944 and returned to Kisii.
Norden - 1923 - coffee planter, ivory hunter, transport man, labour recruiter ....... 40 probably and certainly Irish, we found him delightful. Organised porters and supplies for them ..

Curtis - p. 66 - The Maasai Move of 1911-12 - Gethin's description of the move

Curtis - p. 86 - 'To Naivasha Across the Mau' by Richard Gethin

Curtis - p. 137 - 'Starting in Business in Kisii' by Richard Gethin - 'When work on the Maasai move from Laikipia to the Southern Reserve ended early in 1913, Richard Gethin's temporary service with the Administration also came to an end. Rupert Hemsted, the officer in charge of the Maasai Reserve, suggested to him that he might form a small company, buy a power mill (to grind flour) and a few transport donkeys, and then set up in business in Kisii to trade with the Maasai, who would be only 30 -40 miles away at the nearest point. After some leave, Gethin followed this advice, ordering his equipment from America. Until it arrived he took another temporary job running a farm for B.F. Webb at Songhor. ......... [much more]

Interview with Morna and Willie Hale -  …. Winifred came to Kisii to visit her brother who was a DC. Met Dick at a drinks party and he sort of proposed. ……  Winifred & Dick had 10 happy years with the children's home ….. Dick very ill and Dr. Beryl Lake thought he was going to die …… crawling from long drop … pulse very weak. Winifred couldn't go to Kisumu hospital with him because she had 5 babies in the house to look after. ….. Beryl got a nurse to look after the babies …. Dick kept coming to and then going unconscious again … very strange as they could find nothing wrong. Dick was a very fine looking man with a great physique. He had a pet wart hog at the time of the First World War but it was bayonetted by the Germans when they attacked Kisii. Winifred was a Norland nanny. She went to South Africa when she was about 20 but did not like it at all and so came up to Kenya. Worked as a nanny for the Rawson Shaw's for 9 months in North Kenya at Moiben. Very nice people; he was a forester. Someone suggested she go to Kisii as there were lots of DOs there and she would have a good time. Go to Gethin's; you'll like Capt. Gethin. She fell for Dick the first time she saw him.

Smeaton - Night had fallen before we reached Kisii. Acting on Roger's suggestion, we made immediately for the house of the only white trader in the town. Being an extremely hospitable man, he invited us in to spend the night at his home. Mr Gethin, our host, is the typical story-book pioneer. Standing over six feet two inches in his socks, with a hard vigorous frame gained from the energetic life he leads in the Native Reserve, he might be the prototype for the pioneering figures drawn by Helen McKie. Were he to favour civilized countries I imagine he would break many hearts, but he prefers peace and solitude, and wisely (in the circumstances) stays where he knows it is to be found. If the home into which we were so hospitably invited (and we could not have appeared particularly nice people to welcome, being travel-stained, covered in dust and grime, dirty and with fierce sun-scorched faces) is any criterion, he has made his solitary life in the back-blocks happy and prosperous. Like all houses in these parts it was built by its owner. …… Gethin's main living-room was a colossal size, about forty square feet, surrounded on three sides by red cedar verandas and filled with native-made furniture. Lion, leopard and antelope skins decorated the walls; between them was a fine collection of native ornaments. It was amid this rare luxury that we ate the excellent dinner he prepared for us, a meal which could easily be placed alongside anything the Ritz can offer: in white outposts in Africa an extra meal for 6 or 7 people can be gained with greater ease than a sandwich in a London hotel after ten o'clock. We proved very popular. After dinner the Assistant District Commissioner and the Medical Officer joined us for coffee and liqueurs. The conversation proved so enjoyable that we sat yarning until the small hours.

Medals - East Africa Veterinary Corps - R. Gethin, No. 5018, Corporal

Hut - 1920 Kisumu Labour Recruiting, Mgr. Powys Cobb, Molo