June was born in Britain but was raised in Kenya. During the Second World War she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) serving as a Cipher Officer in Kenya, Egypt, Italy, Britain and the Seychelles. She returned to Kenya in 1949 and was able to observe the effects of decolonisation.
June was born in Britain in 1923. She grew up in Kenya where her father was a colonial administrator. When she was nine, she left Kenya for school in England. She came back in 1939 when she was sixteen, following the outbreak of the Second World War.
Just before she turned eighteen, June joined the WAAF in Nairobi and served as a Cipher Officer, working with secret codes in Kenya, Egypt, Italy, Britain and the Seychelles. After the war, she went to study at Oxford University.
‘Now it’s always shown as white against black…but it wasn’t…it was [also between] those who wanted change and those who wanted to go back.’
June returned to Kenya in September 1949. She married Oliver, who had just joined the Kenya Administrative Service as a District Officer. They were married in Nairobi on 26 September 1949.
But she found Kenya was changing.
‘After the Second World War lots of people came out there because it was the last place left where gentlemen could live like a gentleman, i.e. he could get a lot of servants to do his dirty work for him. And they came out without due understanding of the country.’
June lived in Kenya during the last years of British colonial rule, including the 1952-1960 Kenya Emergency, or the Mau Mau Uprising.
June believes that the press exaggerated the threat posed by the Mau Mau to white civilians.
‘There were very few attacks on whites, they were so blown up by the press…I think there were 35 civilian whites killed in the whole period.’
June taught at the University of Nairobi from 1956 to 1964, where she observed; ‘…you could see the cultural and gender differences very clearly…’
Kenya became independent in 1963. Six years later, June, Oliver and their children returned to live in Britain. But June continues to visit members of her family who are still in Kenya.
‘I am proud of my parents’ and my husband's work, and my own contribution to the development of Kenya. I can remember when the country had only 5% literacy. When we left it was up to 70%.’
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