Diaries of safaris made by K.M. Cowley, W.F.P. Kelly, and G.C.M. Dowson

Personal diaries of safaris made by Kenneth Martin Cowley, Wallace F.P. Kelly, and G.C.M. Dowson as consecutive commissioners, in Southern Province, Kenya, 1956-1962; with provisional agreement between the commissioner for the East Africa Protectorate and the Masai tribe, 1910.

Kenneth Martin Cowley, OBE (1956), CMG (1963), was born in 1912 and educated at Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby, and Exeter College, Oxford. His career in Kenya began in 1935 when he entered the Kenyan Government service as a district officer. He later held the posts of assistant secretary (1944-1946), district commissioner (1946-1949), acting Native Courts Officer (1949-1953), and secretary for African affairs (1953-1956). Between 1956 and 1963, Cowley held the post of provincial commissioner, Southern Province; in 1962 he was also secretary to the Kenya Regional Boundaries and Constituencies Commissions. In 1963, Cowley joined the Express Transport Company Limited as senior Administrative Manager (1963-1970) and in 1971 became secretary of the Overseas Service Pensioners' Association (1971-1979).

Wallace F.P. Kelly was born in 1912 and educated at St. John's in Leatherhead, and Christ Church, Oxford. His career in Kenya began in 1936 when he entered the Kenyan Government service as a district officer. In 1952 he joined the African Land Development Board as executive officer (1952-1955) and in 1955 was appointed senior district commissioner (1955-1963).

G.C.M. Dowson was born in 1913 and educated at Haileybury, and Pembroke College, Cambridge. His career in Kenya began in 1936 when he entered the Kenyan Government service as a district officer. In 1954 he was appointed to the post of senior district commissioner (1954-1963).

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Collection level description created by Marion Lowman, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

Administrative/Biographical History compiled with reference to Who's Whoand A Biographical Dictionary of the British Colonial Service 1939-1966 by A.H.M. Kirk-Greene (1991).

The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room.

Listed as no. 966 in Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford, Accessions 1978-1994 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996).

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