Robert Arthur Briggs Chamberlain

In June 1903 Chamberlain visited the East Africa Protectorate with a scheme to re-settle 100 South African farmers and with a guarantee of 500,000 acres in the White Highlands.^[2] Whilst there, with his colleague A.S. Flemmer, he applied for his own 32,000 acre land grant in the Rift Valley. The grant was initially approved by Sir Charles Eliot, Commissioner of the Protectorate, but was later cancelled by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne.^[1] The controversy surrounding to the grant ultimately led to Eliot's resignation in June 1904. Despite this setback Chamberlain pressed his claim, appealing first to Viscount Milner, then High Commissioner for Southern Africa, and subsequently the Colonial Office. In November 1907, Winston Churchill, as Colonial Under-Secretary, advised his superior Lord Elgin, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the grant should be carried out according to Eliot's terms.^[1] Chamberlain therefore acquired 32,000 acres. He became a prominent farmer and voice amongst the early European settler community and played a key role encouraging European farmers into Kenya, particularly from South Africa. He was also active in politics, and instrumental in establishing the Convention of Associations in 1911.^[1] His wife Lavinia died in 1920, and he continued to farm his vast acreage until the late 1920s when he sold most of his holding.

Chamberlain died at his Oldobeye Estate in Elmenteita on 4 February 1948. He was survived by his second wife Janet and is buried at Nakuru North Cemetery.^[3]