PicoBlog

Wilson is one of the few public facilities in Kenya named in honor of a colonial settler.

This is the story of Florence Wilson – a millionaire widow – and a young British pilot, Captain Thomas Campbell Black. It is also a story of passion and love.

Florrie Wilson inherited a fortune from her husband – Major Wilson, and was deemed one of the richest women in the then Kenya colony. She also came from a wealthy family of shipowners in London. How she would become the founder of an airport in Nairobi is a story of a woman's effort within a colony. An entrepreneurial spirit, determination, and love.

But Kenya's aviation industry did not start with her in Nairobi. Nay. Records show that it started in Rumuruti when a wealthy cattle rancher and playboy, John Carberry (below), imported the country's first airplane, Miss Africa. This was after he saw the great business potential in flying the wealthy aristocrats who had invaded the Kenyan colony.

As business boomed, Carberry purchased a second aircraft, Miss Kenya, and registered the first airline company - the Kenya Aircraft Company Ltd. Miss Kenya, the aircraft, was registered on September 10, 1928, and was flown by Captain Thomas Campbell Black. Tom was an adventurous man in the colony. He was always in the good company of pretty English girls in Nairobi. As one of the pioneer pilots, Tom was a celebrity. He had good looks, too. Tom was known to thrill women with the Fokker Universal and was always taking them on his trips.

The story of Wilson Airport started when Florrie Wilson hired one of John Carberry's aircraft for a London trip in 1928 following her husband's death. Florrie, like John Carberry, had a farm in Timau, near Nanyuki, where she had settled with her late husband, Major Herbert Wilson. On records, it was Farm 925, but they used to call it "Runnymeade" in memory of the place the British Magna Carta was sealed.

Florrie and Major Herbert had settled in Timau near Nanyuki as farmers, and they were the first to build a stone house in the area. But following Major Herbert's death in November 1928, Florrie Wilson had to return to England on business. For the trip, she hired John Carberry's 3-engine Fokker Universal "Miss Africa." It was to be flown by Tom Campbell Black with Archie Watkins as the flight engineer. In those days, this was a long journey. The flight took four days, and the three minds discussed business. They had one love. Aeroplanes. The thought of starting an airline crossed their minds. Mrs. Wilson, then 50, had the money. The two youngsters had the expertise. When personal business matters were concluded in England, the trio visited aircraft manufacturers to select suitable aircraft for Wilson Airways. Mrs. Wilson paid 50,000 pounds – and they left.

And that is how they bought the first Gypsy Moth, with Tom Campbell-Black as the pilot and Archie Watkins as the engineer. 

At the Junction of Ngong Road and Naivasha Road, near what is now The Junction Shopping Mall, Mrs. Wilson opened her Wilson Airways office. The land was plain and had a grazing field. It was in this field that her first plane, a single-engine De Havilland –- known as The Moth— landed. It also had a nickname —Knight of the Mist.

After the arrival of this plane, Tom resigned from Carberry's company and joined Wilson Airways. Tom was not only the chief pilot but also the new company's managing director. He delivered mail all over East Africa and, at times, watched over his brother's farm in Rongai, Nakuru. 

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wilson took her pilot's license, and in 1930, she started flying with Captain Mostert. She is today credited with surveying the route from Johannesburg via today's Zimbabwe to Nairobi. In 1931, she and Capt. Mostert made the first flight across Africa flying a Puss Moth, VP-KAH, from Zanzibar via Nairobi, Entebbe, Stanleyville, Bangui, Fort Lamy, Kano to Bathurst and then on to Croydon, London.

Wilson Airways grew big. In the meantime, and this was not awkward in the then colony, Campbell fell in love with a Nairobi socialite, Beryl Markham. Beryl was one of the beauties in the colony. She also loved flying. Tom not only taught Beryl how to fly, but the two would become the talk of Nairobi. Beryl would later write her experiences in the book West with the Night.

"Tom taught me in Gipsy Moth," wrote Beryl Markham in her book. "We swung over the hills and over the town and back again, and I saw how a man can be master of a craft, and how a craft can be master of an element."

It was a thrill. Beryl was the first person that Tom had taught to fly. The Nairobi talk was that the two were dating. "We used to meet in the evenings over a drink or dinner and talk of our flying or of a thousand other things. I was freelancing then, carrying mail, passengers, supplies to safaris, or whatever had to be carried, and Tom still worked and sweated away as Ambassador of Progress to the hinterland."

 Tom then fell in love with another woman and ended the romantic relationship with Beryl. Tom then left Wilson Airways. Why? Nobody knows. What is known is that in 1933 he left Nairobi and became the personal pilot for a UK horse breeder, Lord Marmaduke Furness. He was also flying the Princess of Wales. 

Having been left with an airline business to run alone, Mrs. Wilson started struggling to maintain it. Meanwhile, Campbell became a big name, participated in various international air races, and married a famous English actress, Florence Desmond, in 1936. A year later, Campbell died in an air race crash. 

Back in Nairobi, Wilson Airways grew and shifted from Ngong Road to Nairobi West Aerodrome. The fleet had grown to 17 aircraft, including the first air ambulance. There was also a training school. Her clientele included wealthy personalities such as William Kissam Vanderbilt, a New York railroad millionaire, and the British Royal family. 

The other story is that after World War II started, the colonial government confiscated all her aircraft and incorporated the pilots within the Kenya Auxiliary Air Unit. 

Mrs. Wilson, who had a home in Karen, Nairobi, watched as her dream was taken over. Wilson Airways was not only closed but became part of the Royal Air Force, which operated next to the military base in Lang'ata, Nairobi.

In 1962, on the grounds where Mrs. Wilson's dreams were cut short, the minister for Commerce and Communications, Masinde Muliro, invited her to the Nairobi West Aerodrome. It was renamed Wilson Airport. Six years later, in September 1968, she died in Karen. Today, for her contribution to Kenya's aviation industry, her legacy lives on at Wilson Airport.

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