Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere
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Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere (28 April 1870-13 November 1931), was a British peer and one of the first British settlers in Kenya.
Delamere, the son of Hugh Cholmondeley, 2nd Baron Delamere, and Augusta Emily Seymour, moved to Kenya in 1901 and acquired a 100,000-acre estate in the Rift Valley Region of the Kenyan Highlands. This was to be the first in an extensive collection of property he would acquire. Over the years, he became the unofficial leader of the colony’s European community and was an active member of the Legislative Council of Kenya.
Lord Delamere married, firstly, Lady Florence Anne Cole, daughter of Lowry Egerton Cole, 4th Earl of Enniskillen, in 1899. After his first wife's death in 1914 he married, secondly, Gwladys Helen Beckett, daughter of Hon. Rupert Eveleyn Beckett, in 1928. He died in November 1931, aged 61, and was succeeded in the barony by his son from his first marriage, Thomas. Lady Delamere died in 1943.
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[edit] The Early Years
Lord Delamere left Eton at the age of sixteen with the intention of entering the army, but gave up his military pursuits after inheriting his title at seventeen.1 He inherited a sizable estate, including the family home in Cheshire.2 In 1891, Lord Delamere made his first trip to Africa, hunting lion in Somaliland; he would return yearly to hunt, until 1894 when his leg was mauled in a lion attack, saved by his Somali tracker (who jumped on the lion) and his rifle.3 As a result of the attack, Lord Delamere would have a painful limp for the rest of his life and an increasing respect for African peoples.4
In 1896, Lord Delamere, along with a doctor, taxidermist, photographer, and 200 camels, crossed the desert of southern Somaliland, intending to enter northern British East Africa.5 At age twenty-seven, in 1897, he arrived in the highlands of central Kenya.6 His reputation as an elite African hunter, specifically of lions, was solidified after this journey. It would also be the first time Delamere would set his eyes on the land he would eventually call home.
[edit] Colonial Kenya
Delamere originally applied for a land grant in May 1903 but was denied because then governor, Sir Charles Eliot, thought the land was too far from any population center.7 His next request for 100,000-acres near Naivasha was denied because the government felt there would be conflicts with Maasai ownership.8 The local community had not forgotten the Kedong Massacre of 1896 when a man named Thompson killed 100 Maasai before eventually being speared to death.9 Delamere’s third attempt at land acquisition was successful. He received a 99-year lease on 100,000-acres of land that would be named “Equator Ranch,” requiring him to pay a £200 annual rent and to spend £5000 on the land over the first five years of occupancy.10 In 1906, he acquired a large farm, eventually of over 200,000-acres, located between the Molo River and Njoro town named Soysambu.11 Determined to build a successful life in Kenya, Delamere was quoted: “I am going to prove to you all that this is a white man’s country,” later adding, “the black man will benefit and co-operate.”12
[edit] Farming
Over the next twenty years Delamere would accrue an invaluable stockpile of knowledge that would later serve as the foundation for the agricultural economy of the colony.13 By 1905, Delamere was a pioneer of the East African dairy industry, and eventually formed the Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) which kept Africans from selling their milk to hotels and households without first joining.14 Delamere was also a pioneer at crossbreeding animals, beginning with sheep and chicken, then moving to cattle; most of his imported animals, however, succumbed to diseases such as foot and mouth and Red water disease.15 For example, Delamere purchased Ryeland Rams from England to mate with 11,000 Maasai ewes, and in 1904, imported 500 pure-bred merino ewes from New Zealand.16 Four-fifths of the merino ewes quickly died, and the remaining stock were moved to Delamere’s Soysamba farm, as well as the remaining stock of 1500 imported cattle that suffered from pleuro-pneumonia.17
Eventually, Delamere decided to grow wheat. This too would be plagued by disease: specifically rust.18 By 1909, Delamere was out of money, resting his last hopes on a 1200-acre wheat crop that eventually failed.19 He is quoted as saying, “I started to grow wheat in East Africa to prove that though I lived on the equator I was not in an equatorial country.”20 Delamere eventually created a “wheat laboratory” on his farm, employing scientists to manufacture hardy wheat varieties for the Kenyan highlands.21 To supplement his income, he even tried raising ostriches for their feathers, importing incubators from Europe; this venture also failed with the advent on the motor car and the decline in fashion of feathered hats.22 To his credit, Delamere was the first European to start a maize farm, Florida Farm in the Rongai Valley, and established the first flour mill in Kenya.23 By 1914, however, all his working had begun to pay off.24
[edit] Government
Delamere was the unofficially leader of Kenya’s white colonists for 30 years. He was a member of the Legislative Council, the Executive Council, and in 1907, became president of the Colonists’ Association.25 Politically active, he tried to force segregation in Kenya, prompting the British government, in 1923, to issue the Devonshire White Paper, declaring Kenya an African country.26 In reality, the White Papers were an attempt to keep Indians out of East Africa, and stated that the “British governments trust on behalf of the African was one which could not be delegated or shared.”27 A former colonist wrote of Delamere: “(His) ascendancy over the settlers of Kenya has been enjoyed long enough for him to expect all men – and women – to do his bidding, and do it promptly. He is their Moses. For 25 years he has been their guide.”28
Delamere entertained official visitors to Kenya, including then Under-Secretary for the Colonies, Winston Churchill.29 He was also the first president of the East African Turf Club.30 He was active in recruiting settlers to the region, promising new colonists 640 acres, with 200 people eventually responding.31 At the outbreak of WWI, Delamere was placed in charge of Intelligence on the Maasai border, monitoring the movements of German units in present day Tanzania.32
[edit] Legacy
Delamere died in 1931 at the ago of 61.33 He left unpaid bank loans totally £500,000.34 An eight-foot statute was erected on Delamere Street to commemorate his many great accomplishments; at Kenyan independence, however, the street was renamed Kenyatta Avenue and the statute was removed.35 “Delamere was the Rhodes of Kenya and the settlers followed him both politically and spiritually.”36
It is believed that Delamere coined the term “white hunter” – a term used to describe the professional safari hunter in colonial East Africa.37 Delamere hired a Somali man to hunt game for his employees, and also employed a white hunter, Alan Black.38 To avoid confusion, he would refer the Alan Black as “the white hunter” – a term which became linked to many men in the colony.39 Although a successful hunter himself, Delamere grew tired of the practice and attempted to protect not only the animals of Kenya, but also the Maasai, supporting the creation of game preserves that included inalienable Maasai land.40
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Hugh Cholmondeley |
Baron Delamere | Succeeded by Thomas Cholmondeley |
[edit] References
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- The introduction, written by a separate author, suggests the following citations:
- Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. - Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page - www.thepeerage.com
1 - Nicholas Best, Happy Valley 39 (1996). 2 - Id. 3 - Bartle Bull, Safari: A Chronicle of Adventure 188 (1988). 4 - Id. 5 - Id. 6 - Id. 7 - Happy Valley at 41. 8 - Dahuti Kahura, How the landed class came into property, The Standard, Oct. 3, 2004, available at http://www.eastandard.net/archives/sunday/hm_news/news.php?articleid=2089. 9 - Id. 10 - Happy Valley at 41. 11 - Safari at 190, and Dahuti Kahura, available at http://www.eastandard.net/archives/sunday/hm_news/news.php?articleid=2089 12 - Rick Ridgeway, The Shadow of Kilimanjaro 194 (1998). 13 - Happy Valley at 43. 14 - John Kamau, Who was Lord Delamere?, The Standard, May 22, 2005, available at http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=21034. 15 - Id. 16 - Elspeth Huxley, Settlers of Kenya 30 (1975). 17 - Id. at 29. 18 - John Kamau, available at http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=21034. 19 - Happy Valley at 43. 20 - Settlers at 25. 21 - Id. at 27. 22 - Happy Valley at 45. 23 - Major Archibald Church, East Africa: A New Dominion 287-8 (1970). 24 - Settlers at 30. 25 - Errol Trzebinski, The Kenya Pioneers 129 (1986) and Bruce Berman, Control and Crisis in Colonial Kenya 140 (1990). 26 - John Kamau, available at http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=21034. 27 - A.J. Hughes, East Africa 94 (1969). 28 - Id. at 275. 29 - Brian Herne, White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris 33 (1999). 30 - Id. at 21. 31 - East Africa at 275. 32 - White Hunters at 99. 33 - John Kamau, available at http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=21034. 34 - Id. 35 - Id. 36 - Kenya Pioneers at 23. 37 - White Hunters at 6. 38 - Id. 39 - Id. 40 - Safari at 192.
