coastweek.com

WHY ARTHUR WAVELL GOT
HIS MEMORIAL GARDEN

WAVELL AND HIS SMALL BAND WERE
HAILED AS 'SAVIOURS OF MOMBASA'

Coastweek - - Who was Wavell that he should have the honour of a memorial and garden erected to com-memorate his bravery ?

In fact it is no mean feat that he has achieved many years after his death, for his memorial has survived the immediate post independence enthusiasm for removing all such traces of the former colonialists.

It saddens me that so little is done in Kenya to preserve the fascinating deeds of some of the early Colonial "dare-devils".

The Kenya we know today is the end product of our combined history, whatever our station in life now or in the past.

Without a past, we can have no future.

Arthur Wavell was born in London on 27th. May, 1882 into a typical Victorian age British Officer Class family.

His was educated at Winchester and The Royal Military College, Sandhurst and at the early age of 18 he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Welsh Regiment.

He was then stationed in South Africa and fought in the South African War probably better known as the Boer War.

He seems to have been a loner and after only two years we find him in a "special services" unit making military reports on Bechuanaland Protectorate, Swaziland, Tongaland and Northern Zululand.

In May of 1905, he resigned from the army and we find him in Mombasa.
He spent the next year or so "big game hunting", the past-time of the moneyed gentry, at a time when the supply of large "game" animals seemed inexhaustible.

He seems to have found a fascination for things Islamic and Arabic, which he must have encountered for the first time on the Swahili Coast.

We next hear of him going off to The Hejaz (now part of Saudi Arabia), where he visited Makkah during the Hajj season.

Later we find him in The Yemen where he was arrested by the Turkish authorities.

He was back in Mombasa by 1910 where he purchased the land, which was later to become the "up market" Nyali Estate from the Wanyali clan and established Nyali Sisal Estate.

When war broke out in Europe in August, 1914, he organised a force, which later became known as "The Arab Rifles".

The purpose of this force was to defend Mombasa and the Uganda Railway from attacks by German forces based on German East Africa, which was renamed Tanganyika after the war's conclusion.

They were soon engaged in skirmishes with German led forces near Vanga and Wavell was wounded in the leg.

In September, 1915 the German forces made a determined thrust Northwards up the Coast and Wavell with his two hundred strong force, rushed down the Coast road to meet them.

They managed to delay the German advance until a stronger force of K.A.R could be brought up.

Wavell was wounded in this action.

He was eventually killed on the 9th. January, 1916, together with his second in command, Lieut. John Mackintosh.

They were both buried where they died at Mkongani, where their graves can still be seen.

The Germans were finally driven from Tanga and the Northern Railway line in mid 1916, but Wavell and his small band were hailed as the saviours of Mombasa, hence Wavell Garden and Memorial, which were erected with funds donated by the grateful citizens of Mombasa.

Just a small page from the book of our collective past, but well worth remembering for all that.

My thanks to Mr. James Willson, Mr. Peter Frankl and Mrs. Judy Aldrick for the information used here.

- Mahmud Welton, Mombasa.