John Black Templer - KR 2726

Foster - 1946 joined Prison Service; on staff of Kabete Approved School; set up Borstal unit at Shikusha, Kakamega; married daughter of Mr R.D.G. Ryland; 1965 retired as Deputy Commissioner of Prisons; worked with Bank of England

Childhood - John Cowan - "My parents and sister arrived in Kenya in 1921 and I was born in Nairobi a year later. We lived on a coffee estate at Kabete, where my father was the manager, in a wood and corrugated iron bungalow with no running water and no inside sanitation. It was our home for 14 years …….. I had been at Kenton for 2 years when, during the holidays, my mother told me I would not be returning next term. My father, more in tune with academic life than farming, had financial difficulties ……… for 6 months I lived with my parents on a farm in Sotik, where my father was estate manager. ………… Church of Scotland mission at Kikuyu, where my father was again a locum, this time as a teacher. ………. My father was developing a golf course, (still in existence as Sigona Golf Club) ………. Eventually my parents moved to Kakamega and I became a boarder at the Prince of Wales School ….." "On leaving school I enlisted in the army, serving for 5 and a half years during the war, in East Africa and the Far East. On discharge I joined the Kenya Prisons Service, retiring after 19 years with the rank of Deputy Commissioner. Later with a complete change of course I worked for a further 19 years in the Bank of England in the City of London.