One of the original '500' men in the Kenya Regt. in 1937. (KR 298)

Daphne Ewings - became the Warden of the Nairobi National Park when it was set up very soon after the end of the last war. He embarked on his assignment with great energy and enthusiasm and it was not long before evidence of his work was apparent. Attractive rustic entrance gateways were set up and Parks Askari were on duty to collect entrance fees and assist and advise visitors as desired. Tracks were cut through the bush and roads traversed the plains to give the public as much opportunity as possible to view the game inhabiting the area. Much was done to localise the game by providing salt-licks and waterholes and thereby obviate their wandering considerable distances at times - when the rains failed for instance. K. de P. also started to contribute a column each week to the local newspaper - the EA Standard. This feature was instantly popular. The Beatons were a long standing Kenya Church Missionary family and in consequence Ken was fluent in KiSwahili and had knowledge of other native dialects In his youth he was accustomed to listening to native Africans recounting stories of their ancestors, tales of encounters with wild beasts, witch doctors etc. and he recorded these in English and so his African tales became part of Kenya history. Regrettably he died relatively young. Kinloch - was a great character and a most able man, a former settler farmer and a keen naturalist who had done wonders in building up the tiny Nairobi National Park - a great showman as well as a great charmer. Eulogised by the author for what he did for Kenya/Uganda game parks.

Hut - Game Warden Nairobi, YMCA, YWCA

East Africa & Rhodesia - 28/10/54 - Mr Kenneth De Planta Beaton, director and chief warden of Uganda's National Parks, died in Entebbe last week. He was 49. The news of the death at so early an age of one of Africa's most valuable workers for game preservation came as a shock to many who knew him, although his entry into hospital with an internal complaint earlier this month had aroused grave fears. No visitor to the thatched Mwey Lodge and safari bungalows of the Queen Elizabeth National Park could have been unconscious of the dedicated zeal of "Ken" Beaton. That he was a "wonderful type" was a remark common among journalists when earlier this year the Queen visited the park which Beaton had done so much to create. How close to his heart was this great equatorial area - and its northern companion the Murchison Falls Park - was evocatively expressed in his article "Uganda To-Day and To-morrow," published by this journal last June.- "The lodge commands superb views over lakes, parklands, and mountains, and on clear days the snow peaks and glaciers of the Mountains of the Moon - of which the line by John Keats, 'Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,' might well have been written - tower to the north." He had been officially connected with game preservation only since the war, first becoming chief warden of Nairobi National Park. In that capacity he conducted the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, through it during her visit to Kenya in 1952. Beaton had farmed in Kenya before the war, having gone there from his birthplace, Blantyre, Nyasaland. He transferred to Uganda in 1952. One of his hopes was that parts of the virtually unexplored region bordering the Congo might be opened up to reveal "creatures perhaps still unknown to science." In the Murchison Fals Park, too, with its superb river, lake, and land possibilities, he had unbounded faith. These two immense sanctuaries, rich in African wild life, will remain tributes to his endeavours. Barnes - Early player for Kericho Rugby Club - 1930s

Web - Rekero - Chief Game Warden (Kenya) and first Director of Uganda's National Parks was a great man. His ideas on what a park should be and how it should be run were possibly more progressive than any in Africa at the time. The great thing about Beaton was that he was not hidebound by out-dated colonial attitudes to the Africans - 'The Enormous Zoo' Colin Wilcox

Entebbe European cemetery - Kenneth De Planta Beaton, born 30th May 1905, died 22nd October 1954

Red Book 1912 - K. de P. Beaton - Nairobi
Mervyn Cowie: Beaton returned to Kenya at the age of 19 to be apprenticed to Major Dunbar of Sotik, on a coffee farm,. Here was a life which Ken really enjoyed for it gave him sufficient leisure to pursue his great interest in wildlife, to learn the ways of the big beasts of the Chepalunga forest, and to go on many a safari. Ken's father then purchased a farm in Sotik, and imported a couple of hounds and a hunter, which enabled him to become a great enthusiast of the Sotik Hunt. The war period saw him at once in the KAR, where he took part in the Abyssinian campaign and the Battle of Gondar, later to be stationed in Madagascar, and finally as OC Troops, Zanzibar. On demobilization he found that his farm had been ruined by lack of adequate supervision and in 1946 he joined the Kenya National Parks as Warden of the Nairobi National Park. His great love and knowledge of wild animals shone through his delightful weekly articles in the East African Standard and enabled so many readers to know some of the denizens of the Nairobi National Park almost personally and by name. Having so successfully completed the initial development of the Nairobi National Park, particularly through its difficult stages, he was then seconded to the Uganda Government to undertake the development of the Uganda National Parks, where he later became Director and Chief Warden. With his great knowledge and resourcefulness, in a remarkably short time he brought the Queen Elizabeth National Park forward to a point where in 1954, he had the honour of entertaining Her Majesty the Queen and his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, as guests of the park.
It was indeed a tragedy that even before 1954 was out, Ken Beaton was no longer spared to fulfill further plans he had in mind for the development of the Murchison Falls Park.... He was a man with a charming smile, a friendly disposition, and good company under any conditions. His work, both in Kenya and Uganda, will stand as a memorial to one who devoted so much zeal to the protection of wild animals.