Alexander M Glasgow

18/06/2026

Could any of my Kenyan comment on the authenticity of this? No audio. It appears to show Ian Henderson, the Mzungu Kikuyu aka Kinyanjui, being given his marching orders in 1964 by the Home Affairs minister, Jaramogi Odinga.

Born in Aberdeenshire in 1927, his father soon got a job as a farm manager near Nyeri; and as one of the few Mzungu children for miles around, he grew up speaking Kikuyu and even undergoing local initiation ceremonies with a by-name "Kinyanjui".

This made him a prime asset when he joined the Colonial Police in 1945.

When the Kenya Emergency started, he became obsessive in caputuring a main leader of the Mau Mau, Dedan Kimathi who he saw as corrupting Kikuyu culture and even displaying an opportunism similar to Hi**er (in comments); during which he [Henderson] had led 'pseudo-gangs' of captured Mau Mau who had been turned which required him to disguise himself as an African with wool wigs and blackface including eyeballs stained with boot polish (also in comments).

(Other British soldiers used similar disguises. I read one account of one who had caused alarm amongst his unit when he stopped to urinate, and showed a clearly White p***s!)

He succeeded in personally capturing Kimathi on 21 October 1956 in the Bush, before changing clothes and rushing back to Nairobi to welcome Princess Margaret on her World Tour.

For this and more he was awarded the George Medal and Bar.

Post Independence, he attempted to melt into the background against with Nairobi CID before Odinga smoked him out and ordered him to leave without involving Jomo Kenyatta.

He went on to Bahrain in the employ of the Sultan as Head of Security

18/06/2026

The Last Queen of Kenya (and what was then east Pakistan).

On 10 November 1983, Queen Elizabeth II arrived in the Kenyan capit...

14/06/2026

One for my Kenyan . The Kenyan Emergency led by the Kenyan Land and Freedom Army - aka Mau Mau - in which my grandparents sat in quiet but firm opposition to the Colonial response, was a grim time.

Although there was an element of African animist religion - which was used to effect in later psy-ops campaigns by the Army including the Major Frank Kitson who went on to sample similar now as a Brigadier in 1970s Ulster - far more was theft of prime agricultural land in the Kikuyu territories by European farmers.

One British Loyalist was Senior Chieftan Warūhiu Kung'u who benefited considerably including an MBE in 1951. His assassination in his Sedan on the Kiambu road on 7 October 1952 was the spark for the Declaration of a State of Emergency which lasted until 1960; and represented the first time the British Army, as opposed to the Colonial Police or Home Guard, had been deployed.

See here his funeral on 9 October 1952. I recognize the two Europeans at top left as George Calderwood, later moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, and possibly Hugh Watt previously Moderator of the Church of Scotland. The clergyman at the front looks like an Anglican.

The next wedding photograph was a couple of months previously at Warūhiu's with his fourth bride, Njeri. Note everyone in the British Suits.

The next photograph is one some may not have seen. Him and his first bride, Wanjirū wa Gathenge some 30 or even more years ago; in the typical garb of a Kikuyu bride.

08/06/2026

From before 3-D printing was a thing.

Mau Mau Home Made Guns at the Nairobi National Museam,Kenya.

05/06/2026

Looks as if West Lothian Council is proposing seclusion huts for female pupils during menstruation.

05/06/2026

Different age cohorts remember Anthony Stewart Head for different reasons.

Gospell. Then the Gold Blend - or Taster's Choice - Couple (damn sight better than the soaps, and more alluring romance than Twilight).

Then many British viewers were startled to see him Buffy. This was when the suave and all-knowing but emotionally restrained Englishman still was a powerful cultural marker. It still is but with more Indian middle-class than the population of London alone, has less impact.

Little Britain and Merlin (as the vain Uther whose flaws left him wandering the Afterlife as an outraged shade).

Good singer, of course.

I never had heard of Ted Lasso. Or VR.5 which just looks weird.

Different age cohorts remember Anthony Stewart Head for different r...

05/06/2026

Hope there's a good cup of coffee waiting for you.

The British actor, who also appeared in Merlin and Little Britain, died of complications from pneumonia.

04/06/2026

And the 1400s ended at matins time following sunset on 31 December 1409.

One of the many hours upon which I am prepared to die.

(Fun fact, the OpEd here has delieved a talk at the Joint Services Command and Staff College on the use of magic in British warfare which, understandably, few believe. I wonder if it include that used during 1970s Ulster which, again, few also believe when I tell them.)

03/06/2026

The first time I consciously remember hearing the word infatuated was in relation to the deaths of Sue and Danny Sullivan.

What Brookside Close Murders stick in your mind?

It was later revealed to be Barry years later:I own nothing at as...

01/06/2026

I'd make him a Sir Keir for that alone.