Travel - Dec 2012 - Juliet Barnes - Soysambu - 1921 - Mrs Kathleen Tatham-Warter visited her sister and brother in the new Kenya Colony [CN - actually her son}. She met, stayed with and had an affair with Jim Elkington and the following year had his baby back in England - her 8th child. An ex-nanny of the Tatham-Warters, safe from the eye of scandal brought up Ann. Back in Elmenteita Elkington was drinking heavily - often with the hard-drug dealer Frank Greswolde-Williams who co-habited with Beryl Markham for a time.

Kathleen revisited Elmenteita in 1924. Elkington allegedly now off the booze tried but failed to persuade her to leave her husband. On 22 January 1925 the shooting incident occurred and Jim died at Kijabe hospital. There were murmurs of suicide even murder but a court of inquiry exonerated Kathleen.…

After Kathleen's husband died in 1928 Ann was brought up with the Tatham-Warter children. She was never validated as half-sister by Margaret Elkington and only saw her real name - Ann Meredith Warter on her birth certificate when later working for MI5. Her father's full name had been James Llewellyn Meredith Elkington.

Tom Lawrence: About 1921 Kathleen Tatham-Warter came to visit her sister Millicent Smith in Eldama Ravine, and brother Phil Dearlove up at Ainabkoi. In her travels she met the charming and resplendent Jim Elkington, who was obviously very taken by such a beautiful and lively woman. Jim’s charm obviously had not wavered at all with time, for in early 1922 Kathleen became painfully aware that she was pregnant. She stayed in Kenya for the duration of the pregnancy, and managed to get back to England with a week or so to spare, before giving birth to her eighth child Ann at a nursing home in Reigate. It was most unfortunate that the matron of the nursing home happened to know her husband’s Aunt Gertrude, who, as her name might suggest, was mortified and the cat was out the bag. Whether as a result of this, or otherwise, Ann was brought up not too far away from her mother, by the sister of one of the nannies in the Tatham-Warter household who provided a loving household. Ann can just remember going to the Tatham-Warter house and being put on a pony and led by Kathleen’s husband Henry, whom she remembers as a very kind man. One can but surmise he was very accepting of her, but was bound by the social conformities of the time. Kathleen returned to Kenya in 1924, presumably to see her sister and brother again. She also spent time with Jim at his house in Elementeita. Jim was doing his best to persuade Kathleen to leave Henry Tatham-Warter and marry him, however she would have nothing to do with the idea. Whilst there may have been some infidelity she was devoted to her husband Henry. He eventually died in 1928 from damage to his lungs, having been gassed in the trenches, and Kathleen never remarried. It was during this period of discussion that Jim was cleaning his gun, and accidentally shot himself on 22 January 1925. He was taken to Kijabe Hospital where he died of his wounds five days later, and was buried at 9.00am in Naivasha on 28 February some six weeks short of his fiftieth birthday. There was a court of enquiry into his death. Kathleen was cleared of any misdemeanour.
After Henry Tatham-Warter’s death Ann was absorbed into the household and grew up with the Tatham-Warter children, assuming that Kathleen was her Aunty Kay. She knew some little bits about her father, but when she went to join MI5 early on in WW II she had to see the Director. As she walked in the door, she was greeted as Miss Warter, to which she indignantly replied she was Miss Meredith. The Director duly produced her birth certificate which read Ann Meredith-Warter, and that was the first that she knew of ‘Aunty Kay’ actually being her mother.