Foran, W. Robert.

A Cuckoo in Kenya – The Reminiscences of a [Irish] Pioneer Police Officer in British East Africa. Illustrated with Photographs by the Author and Others.

London, Hutchinson & Co, no year (c.1936). 15.5 cm x 23.5 cm. Frontispiece, 360 pages. 119 monochrome photographs on 47 plates, including frontispiece. Maps of Kenya on pastedowns and endpapers. Hardcover [publisher’s original green cloth] with gilt lettering on spine. Very good condition with some clear signs of external wear. Slightly bumped and rubbed. Very minor staining to front board. Binding still firm and strong. Minor foxing to edges. Interior very bright and clean. Very Rare, rather scarce publication !

Irishman’s account of life as a colonial police officer in British East Africa between 1904-1910.
Includes, for example, the following chapters: Nairobi – The Pioneer Town / A Pseudo-Settler / North-West to Kidumu / Bubonic Plague / Wars, and Rumours of Wars / Myita – The “Isle of War” / Mombasa Days / Kiambu / The Kisii Rebellion.

William Robert Foran (1881–1968) was a British Army officer, big game hunter and travel writer. Foran trained at Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and achieved the rank of Major during the Second Boer War. He travelled from Johannesburg to Mombasa, Kenya in 1904, and then to the newly founded city of Nairobi to buy land for farming. While in Nairobi, Foran was recruited by the British East Africa Police, becoming one of its six original officers. Foran distinguished himself as a Big Game hunter and wrote many articles and books about his adventures and travels. He worked as a travel writer for the National Geographic Society. As a noted hunter and writer, Foran was attached to visiting dignitaries such as Theodore Roosevelt and the Duke and Duchess of York, on their highly publicised hunting safaris. (Edward Steinhart, ‘Black Poachers, White Hunters: A Social History of Hunting in Colonial Kenya’ p.82)

• Keywords: Africa · Africa – Rare · Africa, British East · Africa, East · Africa, Eastern · Africana Collection of Rare Books · anti-colonialist · British Colonial Administration · British Colonial History · British East Africa · British Empire · British Imperial · colonial · Colonial administrators · Colonial History · Colonial History – Rare · Colonialism · Irish Colonial History · Irish History – Rare · Kenya · Kenya Colony and Protectorate · Memoirs · Native, Rituals and Customs · Natives · Police · Police administration · Settlers · Travel Africa – Rare
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 120087AB

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