Oscar Watkins

Background

He was the son of Rev Oscar Dan Watkins (1848–1926) - Archdeacon of Lucknow, and Elizabeth Martha née Ferris (1846–1928) born in Allahabad.

Education

All Souls College.

Career

After the war he was acting Kenya Chief Native Commissioner and a Provincial Commissioner, and first editor of a Swahili newspaper Baraza. In 1907 he moved to Kenya and as a junior District Commissioner in Kenya he was a magistrate in the Kenya Slave courts, freeing slaves from Arab slavers on the East African coast and developing a lasting interest in Swahili culture. During the First World War Watkins set up the Carrier Corps and strove to organise an effective force while at the same time protecting the hundreds of thousands of African porters conscripted into the force from the excessive demands of the British Military.

After the war, as acting Kenya Chief Native Commissioner his active stance in protecting the land rights of the native Kenya tribes against the encroachments of white Kenya Settler interests earned him the enmity of the governor Sir Edward Denham.

They had three daughters:

Olga Penelope Ferris "Pella" Watkins (1917–1992) who married Oliver Montgomery

Grace Veronica Ferris "Ronnie" Watkins (1920–2011) who married Brigadier Patrick Malcolm Hughes Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire (1911–1996)

Elizabeth June Ferris Watkins (1923–2012) who married Oliver Staniforth Knowles (1920–2008). She wrote biographies of both Olga and Oscar.

Achievements

• Educated at Marlborough and a postgraduate at All Souls College, Oxford, by virtue of being a Founder"s Kin, Watkins enlisted in ranks of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in the Second Boer War subsequently joining the South African Police.