Sir Wilfrid Bowen Havelock was a Kenyan politician, described in a 2003 obituary in the Daily Telegraph as "the last of the white leaders responsible for ensuring the smooth African accession to power".
14 Facts About Wilfrid Havelock
1.
2.
Wilfrid Havelock's father was killed in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, and after his mother remarried, the family moved to East Africa when he was eight years old.
3.
Wilfrid Havelock then moved into the civil service, becoming the senior officer in Nairobi jail.
4.
Wilfrid Havelock later joined the Kenya Regiment, seeing action in Abyssinia with the King's African Rifles.
5.
Wilfrid Havelock moved into raising Jersey cattle and then bought a coffee farm.
6.
Wilfrid Havelock's move into politics started after he became the unofficial election agent for Olga Watkins, the Member of the Legislative Council for Kiambu.
7.
Wilfrid Havelock died in 1948, and Havelock won the by-election to become an MLC.
8.
Wilfrid Havelock retained the seat in the May 1948 general elections, in which he was returned unopposed.
9.
Wilfrid Havelock became the chairman of the elected members in 1950, and was returned unopposed in the 1952 elections.
10.
Wilfrid Havelock was appointed Minister of Local Government in 1954, and was narrowly re-elected in 1956 when he beat his opponent Richard Thompson by 23 votes.
11.
Wilfrid Havelock subsequently joined the New Kenya Group, Kenya's first multi-racial political party.
12.
Wilfrid Havelock was re-elected again in the 1961 elections, and the following year he was appointed Minister of Agriculture, a position he held until 1963.
13.
Wilfrid Havelock was knighted in 1963, and after independence, he was a member of the Coastal Regional Assembly until it was abolished.
14.
Wilfrid Havelock later worked for the agricultural finance corporation, and acquired a number of hotels.