MEPS MEMORIES

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Thank you to everyone who gave it a go.

Jon Haylett

Sports Days

Tony Chetham seems to have an inexhaustible supply of mementoes of MEPS sporting events dated back to the 1950s and 60s. This is a report from the Mombasa Times on the 1950 Sports Day which raised the princely sum of just over 173 shillings for the EASPCA, the local equivalent of our RSPCA.

One spectator at the event was a Mrs Katherine Bibby who was so taken with it that she wrote to the head, Mrs Foat, congratulating her on "the excellence discipline displayed by the children, and the splendid organisation of the whole proceeding."

The date of this picture isn't certain but it shows Mike Chetham announcing the results while....

....this clipping from the Mombasa Times is of the sports in September 1957. The results were Livingstone 103, Wavell 82, Mackinnon, 78. This was Livingstone's first cup win. Martin Wilson and Susan Cottenham received the Cup from Provincial Education Officer A V Hatfield.

MEPS pupils travelled to Arusha to take part in a swimming gala in 1962.

All clippings courtesy Tony Chetham.

Sports Day 1952

Tony Chetham has kindly sent in this cover from the programme for Sports Day 1952 and has highlighted that my mother was involved with the teas. This is no surprise - my mother was a great one for becoming involved in events and good works - so....

....this grainy picture, of my father at one of the MEPS sports days, is far more unusual. He preferred to spend his leisure moments propping up the bar with his friends at the Sports Club.

Sports Day 1953

Pictures from Jill Hayden, nee Parris:

Sports Day 1953 was on 27th June and was the first to feature the new houses. Picture shows the three house captains, Martin Attwood of Mackinnon, left, Tom Illidge of Wavell, centre, and Jill Parris of Livingstone, right. The winners were Mackinnon, with 177 points, followed by Wavell, with 115 points, and Livingstone, with 84 points.

Mrs Kennaway, wife of the Provincial Commissioner, presented the prizes. Individual prizes were for Shs 7/50, Shs 5/- and Shs 3/-, redeemable at Mombasa Times Ltd or at Badruddin’s Sports Store in Salim Road.

At the end of proceedings, Mrs Kennaway was presented with a bouquet by Livingstone captain, Jill Parris.

SS Defender in Mombasa

From Jon Haylett:

My father worked for the African Mercantile which, amongst other things, was a ships' agency. Although he became general manager for the whole of the African Mercantile's operation in East Africa, this was the side of the business which most interested him as it was what he had specialised in from the time he first came to the African coast, to Port Sudan in 1922. His father, a captain in the Harrison Line, had found him the job. Captain Haylett later died at sea on the Defender - seen here entering Durban.

So Defender's visit to Mombasa in 1952 must have been a moving one for my father as it was the last time she came in before she was sold for scrap. He took his two sons with him for the occasion - my brother Richard is on the right. We were quite used to going on board ship as my parents very much enjoyed having 'their' captains ashore, usually for a drink at the club followed by lunch but sometimes for an overnight stay, and the captains reciprocated by entertaining the whole family aboard.

The last house we lived in was towards the end of Cliff Avenue, overlooking the golf course. It had a superb view out to sea, and was an ideal place to watch ships come in to Kilindini. This is one of my father's ships, again a Harrison Line boat. She's high in the water, and it would have been his pride to have sent her on her way loaded 'down to her marks'.

The Mbaraki Pillar

From Tony Chetham:

After my parents married they moved into a bungalow at Mbaraki, not too far from the Moorings Hotel close to Liwatoni. Mombasa in those days was blessed with very little traffic and father always used his bicycle. My parents often joked about “Piglet” which somebody offloaded on him. It resulted in father driving it everywhere much to his enjoyment. A lot of Austin export cars had a box end construction ~ not sure why, could have been for the military?

The bungalow was in the shadow of Mbaraki Pillar. Almost 50 feet tall, the 300-year-old pillar stands about 50ft tall and is believed to have been an early form of lighthouse although close by is a slightly older mosque with which it may have been associated.

It is the second oldest monument after Fort Jesus. Made of coral stone and still in its original form, the pillar leans at a slight angle like the leaning tower of Pisa.

Left Swinging in a Baobab

From Christine Nicholls, née Metcalfe:

My father, C.J. Metcalfe, was the headmaster of MEPs. In the evenings we were press-ganged into helping to raise funds for a school hall at the primary school, at various events or at cocktail parties in our house, which were torture for my naturally shy mother.

At a fund-raising dance for the school my father, Revd Jupp, and another notable did a skit on the three witches from Macbeth. Jupp, as one of the witches, was to swing Tarzan-like from a baobab tree down to the cauldron. A rope was attached to his waist, looped over a branch, and held by my father, who was going to let him down gently. He proved to be too heavy and fell down fast, landing flat on his back. My father, still loyally clutching the rope, was hoisted high into the baobab and left swinging. This caused hilarity among the schoolchildren, who tied the rope to the tree and left him there, though only for a while because his wrath was mighty.

Christine's book, A Kenya Childhood, is available from Amazon - link here.