Kenneth Carr

Kenneth Charles Carr was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire in 1888 the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Charles Carr of Brereton, Rugeley, England. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Dr. Bowlan of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and he had a sister, Constance. A talented musician, he played cello in his teenage years. At the age of 21 his father bought him a ticket on a Union Castle ship bound for Cape Town, South Africa which began several years exploring South Africa and Kenya in search of adventure and opportunity. In 1912, he bought a tract of land in the Masaka district of Uganda, where he built a house and planted coffee. He joined the British colonial army during World War I, enlisting initially in the Uganda Training Corp (Regiment No.8) as a Sergeant and then as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Uganda Carrier Corps and was engaged in minor skirmishes with the Germans along the southwestern Uganda frontier in 1916. Kenneth then built up a reputation as a "White Hunter" and was so highly regarded the he was chosen as the guide for the great expedition in 1921 of Prince Vilhelm of Sweden, who had come to Africa to collect specimens for the Stockholm Museum. Prince William's expedition killed scores of animals, among them fourteen of the now endangered mountain gorillas, which are still on display at the Stockholm Museum. A documentary film of the expedition was released in 1922 titled 'Med prins Wilhelm på afrikanska jaktstigar' and know in the United Kingdom as "The Cradle of the World". In 1927 he returned to England for a period and then went back to Africa.In 1938 he made a series of extraordinary colour films of Africa taken during a year-long safari from Uganda to the African west coast. Kenneth travelled to the United States in 1939 , bringing with him his film "Africa In Color", one of the earliest colour films made on that continent.The films were first screened in the USA at a dinner at The River Club, New York on the 25th March 1941 for the benefit of the British War Relief Society. On April 1st of that year in the auditorium of the Haven School he presented his film for The Young Woman's Community Club in Chicago. These were virtually the first color films of Africa to be shown in the United States. He had filmed the 1938 eruption of Nyamulagira volcano, the Bambutti pygmies, the Mangbetu, the women of the Congolese Babira tribe, and Nigerian horsemen wearing medieval-style armor. In the autumn of 1941 at the Art Students League, New York, Patrick Putnam, son of Dr. Charles Lowell Putnam, introduced Kenneth Carr to Rosamond Hasley.Rosamond, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Gurden Halsey, of Orange were engaged on October 8th, 1941 and married in May 1942. They lived in New York for a time in Rosamond's apartment (Owned by the son of J.P.Morgan) and she continued to work as a fashion illustrator. When the United States entered the war, Kenneth was recommended for a post in Washington with the Board of Economic Warfare and they moved to Alexandria, Virginia. It was Kenneth's role to provide information and expertise on Central Africa, when it became apparent that the war would not reach the region his position at the B.E.W. ended. After his time with the B.E.W., Kenneth's knowledge of mining landed him a position as a field engineer for mica production with the U.S. Metals Reserve Project in western North Carolina, and the Carr's moved to Spruce Pine where they lived for three years. Eventually, they bought a small property in Skyland, near Ashville. Kenneth and Rosamond eventually traveled to Africa.The couple spent two weeks in Leopoldville (Kinshasa), twelve days on the Congo River, then Stanleyville (Kisangani) and finally they settled in Gisenyi, Western Rwanda, close to the Congalese border. Kenneth and Rosamond divorced in 1953. Rosamund Carr remained in Gisenyi until her death in 2006 aged 93. In 1961 Kenneth Carr sailed from Mombassa back to the United Kingdom. He never returned to Africa and ended his days in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands in 1981.