I have ordered a book about David Drummond who was awarded the George Medal for gallantry during his service with the Kenya police. I want to read it because I met him long ago.

He oversaw security for East African Airways when I met him in Benghazi. He came to find out if air crew were smuggling diamonds. It was not improbable. A young co-pilot working for another airline told me that he lived in fear of arrest because he had been paid to smuggle African diamonds. A rich Swiss passenger who had broken his journey home from Ruanda offered me money to go there and bribe government officials to produce certificates of origin for blood diamonds. He had, he said, been hunting gorillas in Ruanda. He was a sinister character. The money would have been welcome. It would have eased my conscience but not guarantee my safety.

David Drummond won the George Medal during the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya. The Mau Mau emergency was essentially a war between fighters from the Kikuyu people and the British settlers who had taken tribal land for their farms. The Mau Mau were also known as the Kenya Land and Freedom Army.  It was also about the about independence – Uhuru in Swahili. The British military were engaged in the war and many young white colonialists were drafted into the King’s African Rifles and the Kenya police. Mau Mau fighters were recruited from the Kikuyu and took an oath which was said to be powerful, binding and terrifying. It was also used to prevent betrayal by the wider Kikuyu population. Both men and women took the oath.  It was one of the most influential factors in the battle for independence in Kenya.

Mau Mau campaign lasted from 1952 to 1960 and was to haunt the British who conducted it with ungentlemanly ruthlessness and disregard for the truth. Despite their efforts Kenya became independent. It was argued at the time that harsh measures were necessary to match the ruthlessness of the Mau Mau.

Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya’s first prime minister and then president. He had been imprisoned by the colonial power, wrongly so many believe, for his role in the agitation which finally led to independence. Kenyatta was suspected of supporting the Mau Mau. Some say he was the most powerful administrator of the oath which members of the Mau Mau were required to take. This was probably false, but many colonialists believed it. I met Kenyatta when his aircraft staged through Benina on his way to meet the Queen in London and go on to the United Nations in New York.

David Drummond, who spoke fluent Swahili and was a skilled hunter, had joined the Kenya police in 1952, He killed around 40 terrorists. He was awarded a George Medal for conspicuous gallantry against the Mau Mau gangs in the Aberdare region. I see from his obituaries that died at the age of 74 having come to regret taking so many lives.

Whilst we sat on the terrace of the Berenice Hotel in Benghazi, David Drummond told me that he had been to Buckingham Palace and received his gallantry medal from the Queen. Whilst he was in the UK, he took the precaution of visiting the famous Lloyds of London and buying an insurance policy to cover his future life. He explained that as he had killed 40 Mau Mau he constituted an unusual risk. Lloyds of London is still a specialised insurance broker. It gained some notoriety for insuring lady film stars legs and the hairs on the chest of a famous Welsh singer.

He also told me an ironic story.

There was a great deal of tension amongst white residents in Kenya in the early days of independence. Many believed that Kenyatta was dangerous. Drummond had earned a reputation as a ruthless killer of Mau Mau gang members. He told me how surprised he was to receive a summons to meet Kenyatta. He told friends that if he attended and did not return, they should report his demise to the British High Commission.

Drummond kept his appointment. Kenyatta offered him the job as his personal bodyguard. He politely refused the privilege.