Oscar from Africa

Oscar Watkins was a Bisley shot and a hockey "Blue" for Oxford University; a cavalry trooper in the Boer War; a magistrate on the Kenya Slave Courts which freed the slaves early in this century; Commandant of the 400,000-strong Carrier Corps in the East Africa Campaign in World War I; acting Kenya Chief Native Commissioner and Provincial Commissioner; and the first editor of a Swahilli newspaper which, under his editorship, gained the largest circulation of any paper in Africa. He strove unceasingly to protect the interests of the African peoples. Resisting the pressures from European settlers for more labour to be made available to work on their farms, and for more land to be made available for European settlement, he found himself on a collision course with the settlers and their fiery leader Lord Delamere, and a Governor who was inclined to take their part. This tribute to Oscar Watkins is written by his daughter.