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   Group at Lake Nakuru - July 1931

  
Photogallery
Group at Lake Nakuru - July 1931

Photo supplied by Cynthia McCrae (née Astley) and Alastair McCrae (Rhodes 1943-1946)
- originating from the photo albums of Bernard Astley (Headmaster 1937-1945)

Group at Lake Nakuru - July 1931

Old School Badge & Prefect's braid - July 1931

Webmaster's comment:
This is a fascinating photo if for no other reason than it may start to answer what the old school badge was before it became the Impala head and Prince of Wales feathers at the end of 1931. This photo would have been taken just a few months before Captain Nicholson changed the school badge at the time of the school's move to the Kabete site, and clearly shows the school badge as an lion rampant ........... and this then explains where the lion in the Old Cambrian Society badge came from!! (not from the Kenya High School as some 'romantic' old boys might like to think!!)

Also, this photo shows that the Prefect's braid was being used in July 1931, and we all believe that this was introduced by Captain Nicholson when he took over as Headmaster in 1925.

In July 1931, House and School colours were obviously being presented in the familiar "V-shape" badge form that were proudly worn beneath the school badge, acting as a form of recognition for outstanding achievement.

Comments:
  • Ron Bullock (Scott 1948-53) e-mailed on 7th Nov 2005:
    The lion on the OC badge clearly has the Boma's chevron, absent from the Nairobi School badge in the photograph (or is it?).
    Regarding the prefect's badge, see this cut from an 1892 photograph of cadets at HMS Britannia, where Captain Nicholson trained. The credit (if offered), would go to "Pat Paskiewicz pro Miss D. Kemp".
        HMS Britannia Braid
  • Christopher Collier-Wright (Hawke 1954-9) e-mailed on 10th Nov 2005:
    With regard to the lion rampant badge as featured on the blazer of the guy at Lake Nakuru and in the OC badge; Christine Nicholls in Red Strangers: The White Tribe of Kenya states that this badge and the motto Servire est Regnare (To serve is to rule) was designed by W.A. Berkeley of Nyeri for the co-educational Nairobi European School. The chap in the photo was presumably one of those who moved from the Nairobi European School to the Kabete School (soon to be known as the Prince of Wales) in 1931. This badge continued in use with the High School girls, who remained at the Nairobi School until they moved to the Kilaleshwa buildings in 1951, and I think at some juncture it acquired a chevron. Presumably the OC badge incorporated the lion as well as the impala because some of the members of the Old Cambrians Society had been exclusively or initially at the Nairobi European School. By the same token, the red stripe in the OC tie echoes the red background in the lion badge. The Kenya High School tie was principally red, and it is probably safe to assume the same was true of the Nairobi European School tie.