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Tor Allan
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Tor Allan
| House: |
Rhodes |
| Years: |
1960-1962 |
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Left: Tor Allan with little brother, Finn Allan, at Nyeri Primary School in 1956
Right: Tor Allan at the Prince of Wales School in 1960
After some tough times mixed with good times at Nyeri Primary, I arrived at the Prince of Wales School, Nairobi in
January, 1960. This was a school I did enjoy, but I was older then. I skipped Junior and Intermediate and went
straight into Rhodes House.
That Thirteenth Piece of Toast
Did not some of the twelve of us at table in the dining hall look forward to the second piece of toast that came
round every two weeks at breakfast? Oh yes, I did for sure!
Did some us become Confirmed just for the food at the party at the end and the extra days of exeat? Oh yes I did!
Did some of us dread the possibility of bumping in to the Baronet boys as we came out from the flicks at the Kenya
Cinema on Sundays? You bet I did!
After Prinso
I joined the Norwegian Merchant Navy in 1963, working on tankers for two years between South America and western
Europe, and then returned to East Africa to spend several years on wildlife management in Uganda.
On game control at Murchison Falls, 1966
1970 saw the start of Tor Allan Safaris and many trips during the 1970’s and 80’s were spent camping with American
clients in the Aberdares where bomb craters could still be seen from RAF raids in the 1950s. I’m sure the old
beehives in the trees were put there by the Mickies. On clear days I could look down on my old primary school at Nyeri.
I have two sons who live in Nairobi. Jan is thirty and is married to a lovely San Franciscan. They have two
children, Nina aged two and little Tor, six months. Jan is a master builder/home designer and is in partnership
with his mother, Sue, in a luxury tented camp in the Mara Game Reserve. Andrew, twenty-seven, trained at Flight
Safety in Florida, where he became an instructor. This was very soon after 9/11 and some of his students were removed,
as reported in Time Magazine. He spent a year with Kenya Airways flying 767’s but found the life of an airline pilot
not to his liking and is now with Boskovic Air Charters at Wilson Airport.
I left Kenya for Tanzania in the year 2000. I’m semi-retired and live at Usa River looking up to Mt. Meru to the
north and Kilimanjaro to the east. I still enjoy taking some of my old clients on safari – often further afield now
to Namibia and Botswana.
Postscript
At Usa River in 2007 with my vintage Land-Rover
Would you believe that after all these years I am the proud owner of the Webb family’s old Series-One Land-Rover
which I rode in decades ago on school exeats to their farm?! Fifty-one years old it is now, and it’s here with
me in Tanzania.
When I bought it twenty-five years ago from Guy Bromley, it still had the Webbs’ name on the door and
“Cedar Vale Ranch” written beneath. I have entered it in the 2007 Concours d’Elegance in Nairobi, and its
part in my own life is mentioned in my brief history of the vehicle which will be read out during the event.
So far, it’s the only Tanzania entry.
After the Concours I shall drive it back via the Masai Mara, through the Serengeti, over the Ngorongoro
Crater and home to Usa River.
Easter 2007, with my partner, Sarah Henderson
For more pictures of my Landrover, see
Arusha, June 2007, in the Reunions section of this website’s Photos section.
(Registered - 16th July 2007)
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If anyone wishes to contact Tor, please e-mail webmaster@oldcambrians.com
to obtain his contact details
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