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Name: HARRIES, Colin Wentworth Percival 'Bobs'

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Nee: son of Allen Charles Harries

Birth Date: 20 Aug 1900 Johannesburg, South Africa

Death Date: 19 March 1970 Nairobi

First Date: 1904

Last Date: 1970

Profession: Continued to develop Karamaini Estate

Area: Thika, 1925 Karamaini Estate, Ruiru, Kyhuria Estate

Married: In Nairobi 21 Jan 1928 Doris May Waterman who arrived EA 1916 with her father Albert Waterman, b. 4 Jan 1904 Southampton, d. 8 Nov 1991 Nairobi

Children: Michael A. A. (1938); Moira (Lincoln-Gordon) (1933)

Book Reference: Gillett, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Legion, Harries, Pioneers, Wed, Ruiru, EAHB 1907, SKP, Mills

War Service: Served with EASC in 1918 and with EAOC from 1940/45, Major

General Information:

Pioneers - Thika - A long walk to Karamaini - Early in 1904 Father, my brother Cecil, Uncle Willy and a friend set out on foot to inspect the various areas in which land for settlement was being offered by the Protectorate Government. …. They had to carry all their requirements and had no horses. ……
SKP - 1938 - Society of Kenya Pioneers - over 30 years in Colony - arrived July 1904 - Ruiru
Mills - On the 20th August [1900] Allen Charles and Olivia Harries had their 5th son and christened him Colin Wentworth Percival Harries. Apparently at the christening when the padre asked for the child's names and Allen Charles read them out, Olivia objected and said that he would never be actually called by any of those names, but would be called Bobs, which was the nickname for General Roberts who later became known as Lord Bobs.
Sometime in 1903, Russell Bowker, as a representative from the newly constructed railway from Mombasa to Kisumu travelled to South Africa to try and encourage people to come and settle in Kenya. Allen Charles obviously liked what he heard, and in April 1904, he and son Cecil arrived in Nairobi and as there was no hotel accommodation available pitched their tent opposite what is now the area close to the Norfolk Hotel towards Chiromo. Quite a few would-be settlers had also come there and as there was a spring nearby it was called 'Tentfontein'.
Then followed a 6 week recce by foot and train that took them north to Nanyuki via Kiambu, over the Aberdares to Naivasha and then by train to Lumbwa, walking through Kericho and Sotik, but finally they decided to settle between the Theririka and Chania rivers, in the area later to be called Thika. Before setting out they were instructed by the Land Dept. that they only could select land where no Africans were living or cultivating. He bought two 5,000 acre farms for the cost of the survey fee which was equivalent to 56 pounds. Later in July he was joined by Olivia and 3 other of their children including Bobs ………… [more]
Initial construction was just mud and thatched huts which did not offer too much protection from the lions that were roaming about. The story is told that Bobs at the age of 12, shot the last lion on the farm which had by then been named Karamaini …………….
Later Bobs went to the Government School which was in the Upper Hill area. He then spent a year as an apprentice with an engineering firm  called Lamberts and then joined up after his 18th birthday towards the very end of the 1914-18 war. He served a brief stint with the East African Supply Corps, but his exploits there are not recorded apart from a serious  motor bike smash near the Norfolk. His brother Ivan was severely wounded at the battle of Longido on the 3rd November 1914 and spent 18 months in hospital in England. The motorcycle accident had resulted in severe concussion and for some reason the doctor advised him to travel to South Africa, where although he had already passed his matric at the Government School, he enrolled for a year at Hilton College, and as the oldest and largest boy in the school did well in their rugger team. He then came back to help his dad on the farm, but Allen Charles died in South Africa on 5th September 1921 …………..
On 21st January 1928 Bobs married Doris, the eldest daughter of Albert and Florence Waterman who ran the New Stanley Hotel for the Tate family from 1916 until it was sold to the Block family for one million shillings in 1946. ……………………… Bobs and Doris had two children, Moira born in 1933 and Michael in 1938 …………. [lots more - farming and canning, macadamia nuts & flowers] …………….. Died 19th March 1970
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Ukamba Voters List
Barnes - buried in Forest Road cem, Nairobi

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