Lord Cole’s Place
The Honourable Galbraith Lowry Egerton Cole (1881-1929) was a pioneer settler and farmer of the East Africa Protectorate. Part of his Kekopey Ranch on Lake Elementaita, Kenya, where he is buried, is preserved today as the Lake Elementaita Lodge.
He was from a prominent aristocratic Ulster family, the third son of The 4th Earl of Enniskillen. He joined the 10th Royal Hussars as a lieutenant in 1900, at age 19, and went to South Africa for the Second Boer War. After being injured in the war, in 1903 he went to Kenya where his sister Florence had preceded him and in 1899 had married the prominent settler Hugh Cholmondeley, the third Baron Delamere, a notoriously short-tempered man who would become a legend in his lifetime, particularly because of his outlandish stunts, which included shooting out the lights at the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi on his frequent carousing forays there. (see here for more information on this remarkable man)
Cole first tried farming beyond Thomson's Falls in 1905, but eventually moved to the Lake Elementaita area
where his wealthy brother-in-law gave him 30,000 acres of land (120 sq.km.) next to Delamere's own 100,000 acre (400 sq.km) farm, Soysambu, on the western side of the lake, between Lakes Naivasha and Nakuru. Cole named his farm ‘Kekopey Ranch supposedly from a Masaai word meaning ‘place where green turns white’ - a reference to the soda (sodium salts) and diatomite around the hot springs near the lake.
In 1917, he married Lady Eleanor (‘Nell’) Balfour, daughter of the first Earl of Balfour and niece of Lord Balfour, the former British Prime Minister. The couple soon settled at their Kikopey ranch and had to contend with devastating locust swarms, drought and stock diseases.
Livestock theft was such a thorn in the flesh that in 1911, Lord Galbraith found himself on trial and facing deportation after taking the law into his hands and fatally wounding a Kikuyu rustler he had surprised skinning one of his favourite merino rams imported from New Zealand (see here for radically differing accounts of this incident). Admitting his guilt he was deported to German East Africa (now Tanzania). He returned secretly to Kekopey disguised as a Somali and was somehow rehabilitated and allowed to resettle whilst his mother, the Countess of Enniskillen, pleaded his case with the British Government.
Lord Galbraith was badly affected by the death of his brother Berkeley in 1925 and his last few years were spent in increasing misery. He was blind in one eye, confined to a wheelchair from 1927, and in constant pain owing to his chronic rheumatoid arthritis. Eventually becoming totally frustrated he decided to end it all – which he did in style. One day he asked his wife to load his revolver and take a long walk with their dogs, leaving him in the sprawling house with the Somali servant, who witnessed Lord Cole’s final gesture, he shot himself in 1929 at age 48, at his favourite spot, the viewpoint overlooking the lake.
A large cairn in the shape of an obelisk was erected by Cole's widow at this spot and it is believed that his remains were buried nearby. Family members still revisit this place each year on 10 October to remember him.
Cole’s son David (the 6th Earl of Iniskillen who died in 1989) continued to farm Kikopey till 1977, when the estate was sold off to a cooperative society and subsequently divided into smaller plots. See here for more information on David and his active involvement in Kenya politics.
An imposing sprawling red brick farmhouse, the main building of Kekopey Ranch built during 1917-18, is one of the best-preserved early settler homes in Kenya and now serves as the reception and dining area of the Lake Elementaita Lodge. Looking around the house today, one can feel the colonial atmosphere and refined aristocratic taste of the man who built it: the terraces overlooking Lake Elementaita, the panelled walls, the internal courtyard and spacious living room, complete with a fireplace and a library.
(for more information, see here)
To Reach the Cache Location:
Turn off the main Nairobi-Nakuru highway at the signed access road for Lake Elementaita Lodge at S 00 27.787 E 036 16.907 and make your way through the security gate to the parking area of the Lodge.
To find the Cache:
Head across the front lawn or verandah of the main building to the northern end where you will find an old ox-wagon which is apparently sometimes used for rides, although at the time of placing the cache it was full of firewood. The cache, a small magnetic key container, is attached to the underside of this.
Note: Depending upon the time of day and year, there may be numerous muggles and/or staff around the area, so do take suitable anti-muggle precautions when seeking, retrieving and replacing the cache! Binoculars & camera would be useful props to use here.
Thanks are due to the Manager of the Lodge for kind permission to place the cache.