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Name: DUNDAS, Kenneth Robert, Hon.
Nee: 4th son of 6th Viscount Melville, bro of Sir Charles Dundas
Birth Date: 10.5.1882 Tenerife
Death Date: 7.8.1915 on active service, killed at Gallipoli
First Date: 1904
Last Date: 1915
Profession: Asst. Collector EAP, then DC in 1911 and Senior Administration Officer in 1912
Area: HBEA 1912 DC Machakos, Hut - 1913 Kiambu, 1909 Solai, EAHB 1906 Naivasha
Married: In Brighton 8 Dec 1909 Anne Claudia Whalley Foot b. 1880 London, d. 11 June 1943 Uckfield, Sussex) (later Mrs Kennard)
Children: Claud Kenneth Melville (6 July 1911 Kenya-13 Jan 1993)
Book Reference: North, Gillett, Cuckoo, Ainsworth, Kenya Diary, Tignor, EAHB 1905, Hut, CWGC, Debrett, Drumkey, Forbes Munro, Cashmore, EAHB 1906, Burke, North, EAHB 1907, Leader14, Red Book 1912
School: Germany, studied engineering in Norway
General Information:
Ainsworth - 1910 DC at Mumias with Stocker and Deacon as assistants
Kenya Diary - Oct. 1905 - Nandi expedition - Hon K. Dundas attached to No 4 column as Political Officer ...... Young Dundas is a very charming boy but without any experience of Africa or knowledge of his duties.
EAHB 1905 - Asst. Collector, EAP, May 6th 1904.
CWGC - The Hon. K.R. Dundas, Lieutenant, Anson Bn. R.N. Div., Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who died on Saturday, 7th August 1915. Age 33. Son of 6th Viscount Melville. Lala Baba Cemetery, Turkey
Forbes Munro - K.R. Dundas's enthusiasm for indirect rule extended to a willingness to use Kamba judicial practices. In 1911 he criticized the solemn declaration used in the magistrates' courts on the grounds that it did not prevent lying and advocated the use of the kithitu oath in the local colonial courts. In line with his thinking he used the ordeal of the knife (in which suspects licked a hot knife) while investigating a case of sheep stealing on a European farm. His superiors, hearing of the incident, condemned his actions as 'repugnant' and severely censured him (Girouard to Harcourt, 27 June 1911, CO 533/88). Dundas, it seems had fallen foul of some of the local settlers, who pursued the matter further. During the meetings of the Labour Commission of 1912 Dundas was accused of torturing an African, and on 5 May 1914 Sir William Pyles, acting on behalf off the Aborigines' Protection Society, put a question on the allegation to the Colonial Secretary in the House of Commons. Harcourt, in his reply, stated that in his opinion the severe censure passed on Dundas was sufficient to meet the case. The incident was apparently responsible for ending a promising career. Kenneth Dundas's subsequent obscurity contrasts sharply with the eminence of his younger brother Charles, who, appointed to the colonial service because Churchill had been impressed by Kenneth Dundas on his visit to Kenya in 1907, eventually became Secretary of Native Affairs in Tanganyika and Governor of Uganda. A final postscript on Kenneth Dundas is provided by Harry Thuku's account of his deportation to Kismayu in 1922: ' …. For the Europeans it had a very bad name indeed; if ever a DC annoyed his senior officers, he might find himself in Kismayu. My first DC there was Dundas ….. ' [ this I think was Capt. L.M. Dundas as Kenneth had already died]
Cashmore - Kenneth Dundas remarked to John Ainsworth: 'I cannot expect to gain the confidence of my people except I am prepared to listen to their complaints'.
Gazette - 18/8/15 - Obituary - Hon. Kenneth Dundas - District Commissioner in the Protectorate service who was killed in action in the Dardanelles on 7/8/15. Mr Dundas was first appointed in 1904, he was an accomplished and versatile officer with a keen interest in his work, particularly native administration. Great sympathy will be felt with his wife and child in their sad loss.
North - from Lymington, Hants
EAHB 1907 - Sub-Collector - Malindi, Seyidie
Red Book 1912 - K.R. Dundas - Machakos - Ukamba Province - DC at Machakos
Cuckoo - A.D.C. at Baringo. Killed with the RNVR at Gallipoli in 1915.
Tignor - DC Machakos in 1911
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