Desmond Stephen - KR 1550

Gazette 11 Sep 1956 additions to Nairobi South voters

Ancestry Passenger List 1958 Mombasa-London

Info from Stephen Faulconer: Born :17/3/1919 Poona, India The family moved from India to East Africa in 1926. Des attended Primary School at Nairobi Primary School and later secondary school at the Prince of Wales in Nairobi Kenya.  It was at Nairobi Primary School the des became a choir boy at All Saints Cathedral Nairobi, until his voice broke and he was left the choir. Each school holiday Des and his older brother, Ted, had to travel from Nairobi by train to Mombasa, ship to Dar-es-Salaam and then train up to Morogoro Tanganyika to be with their parents.  This long one week process was repeated when it was time to return to school again.

During the second world war Des joined up with the Kings African Rifles, Kenya Regiment Mechanised Corp.  This took him up through Abyssinia (Ethiopia) then over to India, joined up with the 14th Army (the forgotten army) and moved into the jungles of Burma fighting back the Japanese.  Des was wounded by a bomb exploding nearby. Though this had not outward wounds it did break his ribs and puncture his right lung.  After the war he studied as a mechanical engineer through Ford Motor company in Dagenham.  On Qualifying he was offered two African postings Kenya or Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).  He chose Kenya.
Just before his final qualification he suffered a relapse with his lung damage and was kept in St Mary's Hospital for one year. During his studies he banked his month salary cheque with the nearby National Provincial Bank (Nat West). Fell in love with the bank manager's young daughter who was a cashier at the bank and asked her to marry him.  After some deliberation Jean Dorothy Calder agreed, and the couple where married at St Martin's church Dagenham  on 9-7-1949.  Desmond continued to work in England and their first child was born on the 7/9/1951.

When Desmond received the offer of an overseas posting to Fords Nairobi Kenya he and his young wife jumped at it. They arrived in Kenya on the 20-7-52.  Bear in mind that Kenya was a part of the British Empire at this time. 
The couple with their son purchased a home 2 miles outside Nairobi centre.  Desmond had 3 different positions before starting his own business assessing damaged engineering products for various insurance companies, until his departure from Kenya on 4th September 1969.

In 1954 Jean became pregnant with their second child Elizabeth Anne.  Jean went back to England by ship to have her daughter in her parents home on the 8/4/1955.  Desmond remain in Kenya and built an extension onto his late Father's home in Spring Valley Nairobi.
The Family finally left Kenya on 4/9/1969, by road with his son to Rhodesia and six months later to South Africa.  Desmond worked for Feroda Friction materials until his retirement at the end of 1984. 

Desmond sadly passed away in Johannesburg on 8/3/1993 just before his 74th birthday.  In his last several months he was fighting Duodenal cancer, towards the end he was unable to swallow any food and he withered away, he weighed less than 50kg at the time of his passing.