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Name: BOWKER, Henry Mitford Barber 'Mit' 'Bicycle Bowker'

Nee: only son of Miles Egerton Bowker

Birth Date: 16 June 1897 Somerset East, SA

Death Date: 14 Apr 1972 Mombasa

First Date: 1915 from South Africa

Profession: Farmer, Kitale

Area: Hoey's Bridge, 1925 Deckham Estate, Machungwa P.O. Kitale

Married: In Kenya July 1941 Ida May Eaton 'Maisie' b. 1910 Cradock, Eastern Cape, d. 14 Sep 1973 Mombasa

Children: Norman Mitford (1943); Marjorie Ann (1945) (both adopted)

Book Reference: KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Red 22, Web, Who's Who 63, Bowkers, Gazette, Pioneer Spirit

War Service: Military Service German East Africa 1917-19

School: Gill College, Somerset Cape

General Information:

Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Trans Nzoia Voters List
Who's Who 63 - citrus and dairy farmer, Kitale
Bowkers - His early youth was spent at 'Tharfield', where his mother (Aunt Kate) was looking after grandmother Bowker (Mrs Thomas Holden Bowker). Later they lived at Karega, part of 'Hartfell', Somerset East, where Miles Egerton Bowker farmed with his brother Septimus. In 1916 the family emigrated to Kenya and they bought a farm which they called 'Deckham', seven miles from Kitale. During the First World War Mit served with the Military Labour Corps, attached to the Belgian Supply Coluumns, in German East Africa from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma and down to Mahenge. In Portuguese East Africa he was attached to the 3rd KAR and carted ammunition almost to the Nyasaland border. Mit is one of the few people who has been round the world on £200. In 1925 he started as a trimmer (stoker) on the Llanstephan Castle and worked his passage from Mombasa to England, shovelling coal. He had a bunk with the crew in the forecastle, just under the hole where the anchor chain went through. Every time the anchor went down all the cockroaches hanging on the chain would let go and drop on to their beds. While in England he visited the Wembley Empire Exhibition and saw the sights of London. …………. [more on world tour] After travelling round the world Mit decided that Kenya was as good a place as any of the places he had seen, so he remained there. He is still farming at 'Deckham', where at one time he had the largest pineapple plantation in Kenya. His parents went back to South Africa in 1926 and did not return to Kenya. ………….. Mit was with the Mitford-Barberton party which climbed Mount Elgon in 1917; the mountain had never previously been ascended by any of the Trans Nzoia settlers. Mit holds the record for the climb from Sunde's Old Saw Mills to the top of the Kwoittobbos Peak. Mit goes there and back in one day, a distance of 34 miles and very stiff going. He also climbed the volcano Nyamulagira in the Congo, taking cine-photos of the active crater. In July 1941 he married Ida May Eaton. They have two adopted children. ………….
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Plateau North - Henry M. B. Bowker - Farmer, Soy
Pioneer Spirit - Gareth Mitford-Barberton - my father's cousin Mitford Bowker. He was known to my sister and myself as uncle Mit and was a great favourite. He was for many years a bachelor and lavished on us the affection he would no doubt have bestowed on his own children but, sadly, when he did marry he and his wife remained childless. His farming speciality was pineapples and he grew the biggest, sweetest, juiciest and tatsiest pineapples in the world - so we thought and so he said. He described himself as the Pineapple King and certainly his fruit travelled throughout the land. ……. Ronny Macdonald and I once stayed with him on his farm for a week, free from parental discipline and discovered to our chagrin that he expected us to join in daily prayers. Swimming in his dam on one accasion he dived in and came up minus his upper plate of false teeth. We laughed our heads off but, in truth, it was no laughing matter for there was no dentist in Kitale and new teeth could only be obtained in Nairobi, a days journey away. Despite much diving the teeth could not be retrieved and Mit ended up by opening the sluice to empty the dam and the teeth were then recovered. On another occasion one tooth broke off the plate and he skilfully repaired it with a tiny screw.
Gazette - 23/8/1927 - Probate and Administration - Katherine Mitford Bowker late of Kitale who died at Durban on 25 February 1927. Applied for by Henry Mitford Barber Bowker of Kitale
Gazette 5 Jan 1973 probate
Gazette 26 Apr 1974 wife's probate

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