mini-SITREP XLVI Published by the Kenya Regiment Association (KwaZulu-Natal) – June 2015 DIARY OF EVENTS: 2015/2016 AUSTRALIA Brisbane: Sunday Curry Lunch, Oxley Golf Club 19.07.2015 Brisbane: Sunday Curry Lunch, Oxley Golf Club 22.11.2015 Sunshine Coast: Sunday Curry Lunch, Caloundra Power Boat Club 20.03.2016 Contact: Alastair Napier Bax. Tel: 07-3372 7278 <[email protected]> Perth: Bayswater Hotel (?) Sep/Oct (TBA) Contact: Aylwin Halligan-Jolley <[email protected]> EA Schools: Picnic, Lane Cove River National Park, Sydney 25.10.2015 Contact: Dave Lichtenstein. 041-259 9939 <[email protected]> 23.10.2016 ENGLAND Royal Logistic Corps Officers Mess, Deepcut, Surrey. Curry lunch Wed 22.07.2015 Contact: John Harman <[email protected]> Tel: (0044) 1635 551182. Mob: 078-032 81357. 47 Enborne Road, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 6AG KENYA Nairobi Clubhouse: Remembrance Sunday and Curry Lunch 08.11.2015 Contact: Dennis Leete <[email protected]> NEW ZEALAND Auckland: Lunch at Soljans Winery, Kumeu 17/09/2015 Contact: Mike Innes-Walker <[email protected]> SOUTH AFRICA Cape Town: Lunch at Mowbray Golf Club Jul 2015 (TBA) Contact: Geoff Trollope. Tel: 021-855 2734 <[email protected]> Johannesburg: Sunday Curry lunch, Morningside Sports Club 25.10.2015 Contact: Keith Elliot. Tel: 011-802 6054 <[email protected]> KwaZulu-Natal: Sunday Carveries: Fern Hill Hotel, nr Midmar Dam 2015 - 14/6; 13/9; 15/11 Contact: Anne Smith. Tel: 033-330 7614 <[email protected]> or Jenny/Bruce Rooken-Smith. Tel: 033-330 4012 <[email protected]> Editor: Bruce Rooken-Smith, Box 48 Merrivale, 3291, South Africa Tel/Fax: 033-330 4012. <[email protected]> Kenya Regiment Website <www.Kenyaregiment.org> is now run by Iain Morrison’s, son Graeme. [Ed. My thanks to readers who continue to supply me with material for m-S, and to Graham & Betty Bales and Jenny for proofreading.] Front cover: Mount Kenya with Ngare Ndare forest in the middle ground. Photo first appeared in Africa Geograpic Oct 2013, and is reproduced with kind permission of photographer Dale R. Morris. Taken near Lewa Downs Back cover: Absolute bliss! The views expressed in mini-SITREP XLVI are solely those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Editor, nor those of the Association SEVENTY [Sean O'Kelly] No cliché-ridden rhyme is this About the passing of the years; No catalogue of greying hairs Or creaking bones, or failing ears. (Once I had a kind of yen To reach my three-score-years-and-ten, But now I've done it, I aver, That half of that's what I prefer). I've few regrets for years gone by, I don't resent the way they've flown. I did a lot of crazy things Thank God not all of them are known. (Once I had a kind of yen To reach my three-score-years-and-ten, But now I've got there I'll reveal Believe me, mate, it's no big deal). So now, when humped upon my chair And Tempus Fugits like a bird I'll not complain of chances missed Or plead for re-runs long deferred. (Once I had a kind of yen To reach my three-score-years-and-ten, But now I'm there I must admit That I don't think too much of it!). Printed by Pmb Drawing, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa FOREWORD In this edition, readers will note a definite shift in content from earlier mini-SITREPS; there are fewer articles about the Emergency and war and more about the Kenya we knew and loved. Articles by members are becoming fewer but I feel that eulogies, sadly, of which there are many, achieve the same result, and remind us of the sacrifices made by members and their families because of military service. Some years ago, Margaret Lead (née McKenzie) dropped off a carton of Blackwood’s magazines (Maga) at the Howick SPCA where my wife Jenny works as a volunteer. Over a period of time I scanned all articles about East Africa, some of which appear in this edition. Under its fifth editor, William Blackwood III, Maga became strongly identified as an essential part of the British colonial social life, found in every backwater club and station, the type of magazine George Orwell in the early 1940s characterised as being read by "the 'service' middle class", military service members and colonial civil servants, from whose ranks authors were drawn; professional writers who were very conscious of the fact that its readership was drawn from those who served or lived in the Colonies. During WWI, sales of the magazine rose from an average of 9200 a month in 1914 to a wartime high of 26,000 in 1916. Likewise, WWII saw an equivalent jump from 9600 a month in 1939 to a post war high of 30,000 in 1946. But by the 1950s, the Magazine was in decline, due in part to changes in British society, tastes, and readership abroad. The death of the British Empire also signalled the slow demise of Blackwood's Magazine, which had become identified so much with the activities of those who had once run British territories. As British colonies became independent, journalists, readers and contributors to the magazine could now only reminisce nostalgically about Britain's vanished empire, and of Maga's place in it. Despite the best efforts of its last two editors, the magazine folded in December 1980. The firm followed soon after, losing its independent status under an amalgamation with the equally long lived firm Pillans & Wilson (P&W); thus ended a distinguished record of almost 180 consecutive years as one of Edinburgh's best known publishing firms. In this modern technical age, my efforts to contact P&W have been in vain, and as all the authors of articles I will reproduce are long gone, I will publish in good faith. I can only assume that P&W suffered the same fate as Blackwoods? The late Venn Fey’s wife Beth, lives in Underberg and has approved my using some of Venn’s articles from ‘Wide Horizons – Tales of a Kenya that has Passed into History’, with illustrations by Beth. My thanks to Dennis Leete, Tim Hutchinson, Tom Lawrence et al for ongoing research, and to Billy Coulson and Mark Barrah for distributing unnamed photos in the hope that the missing details will be forthcoming. Dennis Leete located Maj J.J. Drought’s diaries, has had then photographed and hopefully, excerpts will appear in future editions of m-S. Lastly, my thanks to John Davis and his Committee, and to Ian Parker for having the foresight to photograph ledgers and albums before they were archived with the Imperial War Museum 1 CORRESPONDENCE John Pembridge [KR7429] <[email protected]>. In response to the request for photos (inside cover m-S XLV), John very kindly sent many photos of well known, and some not all that well known, geographical features of East Africa. He also mentioned that Jim Pirie’s regimental number (p41) should read KR7248, and not KR7428 which was the late-Alan Price’s number. ***** Brian Carr Hartley [sKR215] <[email protected]> mentions that some pundits are sure to pick up the incorrect reference (page 3, 2nd para) to the Kenya Hartebeest. (Newman) should in fact read (Neumann). [Ed: Inadequate reference library and too much reliance on the program’s automatic spell-check!] ***** Nigel Bulley <[email protected]> [03/12/2014]: m-S XLV p1 – the Terry Coulson [KR3618] photo at Fort Jericho. Number 13 (extreme right) is Monty Brown [KR3902]. Responses from Brian Ennis [KR4257], Norman Adams [KR4254] et al indicate that twelve of the thirteen are: 1- George McKnight [KR4246]; 2-Derek Brunner [KR3954]; 3-John Waldron [KR4784]; 4- Unknown; 5-Charles Hummer [KR4115]; 6-Nigel Bulley [KR3630]; 7-Tony Pritchard [KR4263]; 8-John Hudson [KR4236]; 9-Bombay Barrett [KR3978] or Jim Matheson [KR4224]; 10-Norman Adams [KR4254]; 11-Brian Turner [KR4011]; 12-Neville Millican [KR4268]; 13-Monty Brown [KR3902] [Ed: In the hope that we can finalise names, have enlarged the in-the-tent, below Charles Hummer’s tea mug, smoking #4]. ***** Brian Ennis [KR4257] responds to Billy Coulson’s request for names of the Fort Jericho men in the photo on page 1 of m-S XLV. I spent my two years with ‘B’ Coy and knew your Dad quite well. Our OC was Major Ray Nightingale. ‘B’ Coy finished up as part of ‘O’ Coy also commanded by Ray. I managed to get out in November 1955. 2 Re: the Photo. #10 is Norman Adams; # 1 could be Mike Tucker; #2 could be Derek Brunner; # 11 is Brian Turner; #13 I think is Monty Brown, and I think #9 is Bombay John Barrett. Correct are : Hudson #8, Bulley #6, Pritchard #7 and Hummer #5. I am sure about Adams and Turner. I still keep in touch with Tony Pritchard in Tasmania, Nigel Bulley now in the Cape. My good friend Peter Reynolds [KR3963], sadly died last year. It seems most of those special people I spent such special times with, are passing on to more peaceful situations, your Dad included. ** Billy Coulson <[email protected]>16.01.2015 responds: Yes I am Terry's son and I am sure that you got to know him well in ‘B’ Company. Thanks for the feedback re: the photos which I have passed onto Dennis Leete and George McKnight for comment; the latter is #1 in the photo. I often met Ray Nightingale [KR1342] as a youngster and again later when I was an Officer in The British Army.