Early in 1900? (1901?) he was tossed by a rhino near Lake Baringo and amputated his own arm with a penknife [not true - Dr L. Falkener amputated it]. In spite of this infirmity he later became General Manager of the Uganda Railway.  

HBEA 1912 - Chief Accountant - Railways.  

Cuckoo - 1904 - Race Week - The amateur dramatic performances generally took the form of pantomime with a strong flavour of topical scenes and songs. Mostly these were the joint work of Benjamin Eastwood and H. Black-Barnes. They made a splendid team. He and Black-Barnes also operated an excellent totalisator during race week.

Permanent Way - 1915 - Appointed General Manager of the Railway. He had first joined the Uganda Railway in 1897 as Chief Accountant on the construction staff. In 1902 he was severely tossed by a rhino near Baringo and lost his right arm. Mr Eastwood was generally regarded as a competent accountant, but he hardly possessed the qualities required of a General Manager during the exceptionally difficult years of the war. .......... Left EA for leave in England in 1918 and retired on October 27th after 21 years service with the railway, on a pension which he lived to enjoy for another 25 years. During his years in EA, Mr Eastwood had done much besides serving the railway. In April 1915, he had been appointed a member of the Governor's Council. He was also a member of the War Council and Chairman of the local Priority Committee. At various times he had acted as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Mombasa and Nairobi Clubs, of the Nairobi Hunt and the Uganda Railway Officers' Club. He was also Honorary Treasurer and a Steward of the EA Turf Club, the editor of the East Africa Quarterly, and a member of the Nairobi Municipal Council and of the School Board.  

Kill - I [Foran] have only met 3 men who have been injured at all seriously by rhino - Major Stigand, Benjamin Eastwood and Col. Eric Smith. They all survived to relate their experiences but two of them Eastwood and Col. Smith lost an arm.  

Kenya Diary - Nov 8th 1902 - About a fortnight ago news came into Nairobi that Eastwood, a Uganda Railway Official, had been charged and smashed up by a rhino near Baringo .............. Dr Falkener started off from Nakuru ....... amputated Eastwood's left arm half an hour after his arrival ..... still critical. .............. June 1903  - Nairobi - the traffic manager of the railway is Eastwood, a quiet unassuming man. The auditor of the railway is a man called Barnes, known as Black Barnes, as he has a thick crop of black hair and is usually unshaved. I went down to the station to meet Eastwood. Barnes was on the platform and in a furious temper with Eastwood about something. He said to me: "Just you watch me meet the swine - he's not going to like it!" So I watched. On Eastwood alighting, Barnes went up to him and said: "Eastwood, you're a bastard, and if you don't know what that means it implies that your mother was a whore!" Barnes, having delivered himself, marched off. Eastwood said nothing.  

Percival - In 1902 Mr B. Eastwood killed the last elephant that has been shot within 6 miles of Nairobi.  

Debrett - is a Fellow of Roy. Colonial Institute; was Ch. Accountant, Uganda Railway 1897-1914 (Director of Railways EA and Uganda, British Expeditionary Force 1914), and Gen. Manager 1914-18; was a member of War Council in BEA; became MLC Sept 1914, and a MEC Oct 1914, and Col. EA Transport Depart. (despatches, medals), cr. CMG 1918  - retired 1918 EAHB 1905 - with John Aird and Sons (now Sir John Aird & Co.) from 1877; Chief Accountant, Uganda Railway, 1897; special duty in India 1899.  

Red 25 - Manager of Uganda Railway 1915-18

The African Standard - 26-2-1903 - Invited to the wedding of H.R. Phelips & Miss Jacquette Edith Lambe in Mombasa North - One of eight officials named by the 'Railway Strike Committee' as treating their subordinates with 'extreme discourtesy & tyranny' (CO 573) 31-3-1900 ' ….. makes no pretence at being a gentleman ….. I should not be sorry to see him go but he must be upheld at present' (Rawson, CO 537), April 1900.  Injured by rhino near Baringo mid Oct. 1902, (he is alleged to have amputated his own arm with a penknife but in a report on the incident Dr. L. Falkener states that when he arrived from Nakuru eight days after the attack he found the wound gangrenous & amputated above the right elbow), 19-10-1902. 'A good accountant but a bad mannered man' (Sir Clement Hill, FO 2) ' ….. a quiet unassuming man' (Meinertzhagen 1957)

Playne - Mr Eastwood, who had the misfortune to lose his right arm while rhino shooting, was born at Weymouth March 19, 1863, and educated at Fleetwood. He arrived in EA on October 29, 1897, to become Chief Accountant of the Uganda Railway. He was in the service of John Aird & Sons. (now Sir John Aird & Co.) from 1877 to 1897. The article on the Uganda Railway in this book gives an idea of his services. He is Hon. Secretary, Mombasa Club; Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, Uganda Railway Officers' Club; Hon. Secretary Nairobi Club; Hon. Treasurer, Nairobi Club; and Hon. Treasurer, EA Turf Club; Steward EA Turf Club; Editor EA Quarterly; Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, Nairobi Hunt; member, Nairobi School Board; and member, Nairobi Municipality. ' ....... In the early days the railway officials were the pioneers of racing in EA, and for several years Mr A.S. Cooper as honorary secretary, and Mr B.G. Eastwood as honorary treasurer, were mainly responsible for the success of the meetings. About a year ago the Club lost the services of Mr Cooper, when he left the country on receiving promotion, but his services will always be remembered by those who have followed the fortunes of the Turf Club since its inception.

Playne - Chief Accountant of Railway during construction

Playne - Group Photograph - 'Officers of the Uganda Railway 1909'

Drumkey 1909 - Member of Municipal Committee, Nairobi

Drumkey 1909 - Railway Dept. - Accounts Dept. - Chief Accountant

Drumkey 1909 - Steward, East Africa Turf Club (Hon. Treasurer)

Chapman - It was at this spot - that is, on the first plateau of Laikipia - that, a year before, a terrible accident had befallen an English sportsman, Mr B. Eastwood of Nairobi, whom I afterwards had the pleasure of meeting, and who kindly allows me to reproduce his description of the event as follows - "On Sunday, the 19th of October …….. Hardly were we down before the group opened, and I saw there were 7 rhinos in a cluster. Two came rushing in my direction, and at 40 yards I fired and dropped one, finding afterwards that the bullet had splintered its nose, and I now have the huge splinter of bone, 18ins long, with the horns mounted on it. …… another rhino, that I marked  …….. The rhino turned round and walked slowly towards me, grazing. The man I had with me became frightened, and after creeping for some distance through the grass, jumped to his feet and ran. This aroused the beast, for it lifted its head and looked after the man, giving me the chance I wanted. I put a solid bullet in the centre of its chest, about 12 inches up; it took two or three short quick steps and went down heavily, head-first, its body slewing round as it fell. It made one futile effort to rise, but did not succeed in even lifting its head, and then lay motionless. I put in a second shot to make sure, but might as well have fired at a rock, as it did not move in any way. There seemed to be not the slightest breath of life left in it; so I walked up, wondering what its horns measured, and how I could get it skinned and reach camp before dark. All these conjectures were rudely knocked on the head. When less than 20 yards away the huge beast gave a roll and got on to its feet. My rifle was up at once, and I put a bullet into the shoulder; but before I could get in a second shot the brute was charging straight. I commenced to run at a right angle to its course, thinking the rhino would probably go on in a straight line, as they usually do; but the first step I took I tripped and fell, and before I could regain my feet it was on top of me. I was nearly on my feet when it struck me. It hit me first with its nose, dropped with both knees on me, then, drawing back for the blow, threw me clean over its back, the horn entering the back of my left thigh, and I saw the animal well underneath me as I was flying through the air. It threw me a second time, but I cannot recollect that throw clearly: and then came on a third time. I was lying on my right side when the great black snout was pushed against me. Then I found myself upon my feet - how, I do not know - and staggered off. As I went an inky darkness came upon me. After going perhaps 40 or 50 yards, expecting every moment to be charged again, I felt that I might as well lie down and let the beast finish its work without further trouble; so I lay down. The spot where the catastrophe occurred was 15 miles from his camp, and that camp a 12 hours march beyond Baringo. The nearest doctor was distant 136 miles - at Fort Ternan. There on the desert veld, a shattered wreck, with right arm smashed, ribs stove in and broken, and many minor injuries, lay Eastwood all alone, and exposed hour after hour to the fierce equatorial sun and with ghoulish vultures flapping close overhead. Not till late in the afternoon did his men find him, and it was near midnight ere they could carry him into camp. By indomitable pluck he reached Baringo, carried in a litter, on the second morning; but it was not till the eighth day after the accident that the doctor arrived and the necessary operations could be performed. Poor Eastwood lost his right arm, but otherwise bears no trace of his terrible experience.

EAS - 29/1/1903 - Nairobi Races - …….. Good old firm at the Totalisator Messrs Eastwood & Barnes, these popular, efficient and hardworking bookies as usual ran the official Tote and the Lotteries much to everyone's satisfaction. …. Mr Eastwood's unfortunate accident did not seem to impede his usual smart handling of the tickets and cash.

Gazette - 23/9/1914 - Appt. - Director of Railways - B. Eastwood Esq., Acting General Manager, Uganda Railway, to date September 3rd 1914

The Globe Trotter - 6/3/07 - Full story of Benjamin Eastwood's 'Battle with a Rhino' near Baringo in October 1902 written by B. Eastwood. Dr Falkener was the doctor who eventually came to his aid and amputated his right arm. He then stayed with Eastwood for a month until he was well enough to travel back to Nakuru. Mr E.L. Pearson, the Government representative at Baringo looked after Eastwood until the doctor arrived and probably saved his life.

Soldier Settlement Scheme after WW1 - Class B - Col. B. Eastwood, CMG, Royal Coloinial Institute, Northumberland Ave., London WC2 - Farm 1085

Red Book 1912 - B. Eastwood - Nairobi Nairobi Club - Chairman of Committee 1960

Mills Railway - 1900 - Railway strike - Eastwood against whom 13 personal complaints were made, dealt with most of them in such terms as "This I deny in toto", "This is most ridiculous" and "This is wholly untrue". But there was one complaint he did concede: "incrementes of merit are scarcely known" his reply being "I really cannot see how meritorious work can be expected of men, most of who have been picked up locally and know nothing of accounts works".

East wood was tough, in every way, and the events of March 1900 did not prevent him dismissing 2 clerks as "useless". The men had not been "picked up locally" but recruited from India. At the same time, he listed 8 clerks who were "very little use" and a ninth as "drunk and incompetent".

Just how tough he was became apparent in October 1901, when he took some local leave and went off on a hunting safari to Lake Baringo. He encountered a rhinoceros, which charged and tossed him, his right arm being dreadfully mangled. The nearest medical assistance was at the Government post at Eldama Ravine, over 50 miles away and there he was carried on an improvised stretcher. On arrival, the arm was amputated and he was again carried 30 miles to Nakuru where he was put on a train for Nairobi. Six weeks after the encounter he was back at work and, by January 1902 was writing with his left hand.

1939 England and Wales Register living with wife and children in Bristol
Elspeth Huxley, Memories of Kenya: On the Edge of the Rift ( 1962): 
Randall had found a one-armed acquaintance to whom he introduced us: the was Mr. Eastwood, a former general manager of the railway who was returning to Nairobi to retire.  The arm had been lost as a result of a charging rhino which had knocked him out; he had regained his wits just in time to drive away the vultures about to peck out his eyes.
"I 'eard 'em buzzing like great bluebottles in a meat safe," he sometimes remarked, when telling the story. Then he had shouted to his retinue, who cautiously returned and carried him on a stretcher for four days to the nearest doctor while gangrene rotted away a crushed arm.  Within six weeks he was back at his desk, writing with his left hand.  Mr. Eastwood was one of the old school.  He started as a builder's apprentice, took to ledgers and worked his way up to becoming chief accountant to the railway.  In this capacity, he had once demonstrated his system of accounts to a visiting Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Winston Churchill.  "On this side 'ere we 'ave the money coming in and on that side there we 'ave the money going out, and they 'as to agree." he began.  "Yes, yes, I know all about that," Mr. Churchill impatiently remarked.  "Yes, but you see, they don't" Mr. Eastwood had responded.