Faughs in Kenya

The active four-year period of the Mau Mau Rebellion in British Colonial Kenya wrapped up 70 years ago this week on 21 October 1956 with the capture of wounded Kenya Land and Freedom Army Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi. The 36-year-old revolutionary, whose formal military training amounted to a month “taking the King’s shilling” in 1940 before being discharged for drunkenness, was subsequently tried and hanged. Speaking of taking the schilling… Official period caption: “At the Naivasha Rifle Range, the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Fusiliers give members of the Rift Valley Home Guard the chance to handle modern weapons including a Vickers machine gun.” Dig those windproofs! IWM (MAU 867) As detailed by the Royal Irish: The 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Fusiliers, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel G J Hamilton DSO, landed in Mombasa on 30 January 1955. The Battalion deployed A Company to North Kinangop and B Company to South Kinangop in the West Aberdares. The rest of the Battalion…