Best - Evelyn Waugh's diary - at Muthaiga - 10 pink gins before lunch. Well known golfer at Njoro in 30's.

Best - Waugh's diary "Returned to find Raymond arrived. He got very drunk and brought a sluttish girl back to the house (Delamere's at Elmenteita). He woke me up later in the night to tell me he had just rogered her and her mama too."  [Duckworth 1931]   

Mischief - epitome of the remittance man. Came from a grand English family from Lancs., and had been in the Colstream Guards before coming to Kenya. He was devilishly attractive, quick-witted, original, cultivated, hopelessly indiscreet, a heavy gambler and drinker. To women, he could be delightfully attentive when he felt like it, and a great relief to talk to. Evelyn Waugh called him 'a fine desperado', took a great liking to him when he met him in Kenya in 1931 ..... 'Something of a handful', he observed, 'v. nice but so BAD, and he fights and fucks and gambles and gets DD [disgustingly drunk] all the time'. They stayed together with the Delameres at Elmenteita. ............ Alice de Janzé started a stormy romance with Raymond de Trafford and eloped with him to a cottage on Idina [Sackville]'s estate ........... asked Frederic for a divorce. ........ Raymond's devout Catholic family refused to let him marry her and threatened to cut him off if he did so. ........ Alice fired a gun at him and then herself. Both were badly wounded, Raymond near the heart, and Alice in the stomach ...... she was charged with attempted murder .... she had already made 4 attempts to kill herself ....... she went back to Kenya but was told to leave by Government House. ...... she was allowed to return to Kenya and, in 1932 made the mistake of marrying Raymond de Trafford 5 years after the shooting at the Gare du Nord. Barely 3 months after their marriage, at Neuilly, they were separated. Paula Long remembers their incessant fighting and they never met again. ........... In 1939 Raymond was jailed for manslaughter for 3 years - he killed a pedestrian driving in an advanced state of drunkenness. ........ In 1941 he was in court charged with bankruptcy.

Alice - Memories - A character who was undeniably responsible for giving Kenya some of its reputation was Raymond de Trafford - a remarkable individual who was known to most people as 'the Borstal Boy'. He had suffered the indignity of being shot by his wife. Before I left for Africa everybody said, 'Beware of the Borstal Boy. Be sure to lock your door if he's around!' I never thought any more about this till one night, when staying with friends, a car drove up unexpectedly and in he walked. Having been waylaid by a sudden deluge, he was looking for some dinner and a bed for the night. The visitors' bedrooms were in a guest-house across the garden from the main building, as is normally the case in Kenya, and my hostess, while finding herself obliged to put Raymond up, clearly felt somewhat uneasy on my behalf. I guessed that she had warned him to behave like a gentleman. When bedtime arrived the two of us crossed the garden to our little guest-house. Sure enough, after a pause he called to me from his side of the hut, 'It's awfully cold, isn't it!' I called back, 'I've got a rug in my car. Would you like it?' 'No thanks,' came the disappointed reply. I was slightly unnerved by this so I crept to the door and tried to turn the key without him hearing, but it would not turn. 'It's no use trying to lock your door,' he said, 'because I know it doesn't work. Would you like me to come and push the chest-of-drawers up against it?' Over the following years I got to know Raymond reasonably well and found he had a good side to him and was a well-read and amusing companion. He was one of those people who could not bring himself to stop gambling, but he was not in the least embarrassed at the resulting failure to pay his debts.

Habari - 1989 - Raymond de Trafford, a leading member of that crowd, was a playboy and womaniser whose constant money problems were of ever-increasing concern to his family in the UK. His brother was despatched to Nairobi to make Raymond an offer - the family would pay his debts and give him £10,000, provided he was prepared to be castrated. Raymond thought about it for a few moments and said, "I just can't accept that, but I tell you what I will do. For £5,000 I'll have one ball removed." No deal was done. Raymond's problems continued and he was jailed for three years for manslaughter in 1939.

Racing - Owner of 'Berkeley Square' by 'Sir Berkeley' - 'Solemn Silence' - 1929

Aschan - [Blixen home at Bahati] - Another visitor, but an unlikely Tanganyika-bound traveller, came in the demon form of Raymond de Trafford, a member of the Happy Valley social set ………….. When the writer Evelyn Waugh visited Kenya in 1931, he and Raymond struck up a cosy friendship and corresponded afterwards. Raymond's brother Humphrey, despairing of his younger brother's wayward appetites, proposed a "final solution"; "If you agree to be castrated I'll give you £10,000." Raymond considered a moment and replied, "For £5,000 I'll have one ball removed." The offer was turned down.

Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 27 Jun 1928 - R. De Trafford

Red 31 has R. De Trafford, Njoro

Web - Oxford dnb - Happy Valley - When Evelyn Waugh stayed with that 'fine desperado' de Trafford at Njoro in 1931 the latter was trying to organise a scheme to capture gorillas which he believed he could sell at £2000 a head to Berlin zoo: 

CO533/376/14 - De Trafford and Janzi - 4/2/1928 - Reports action taken in case of the Comtesse Janzi who has been allowed a month in Kenya to settle her affairs and suggests De Trafford be warned not to attempt to enter Colony.

Comtesse - deemed a prohibited immigrant because she has been convicted of an offence for which a sentence for imprisonment has been passed for any term … (after shooting at Gare du Nord)

See also Alice de Trafford entry