Christmas Eve Battle | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Mau Mau Uprising | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Mau Mau | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Maj. Earl Wavell † | Dedan Kimathi | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Kenyan Police | unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
unknown | 60 insurgents | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 Europeans killed 1 African police killed 6 wounded Total: 9 | 5 killed 4 captured Total: 9 insurgents |
The Christmas Eve Battle took place during the Mau Mau Uprising on the 24 December 1953 between British Empire and rebel Mau Mau forces and resulted in the death of Earl Wavell, the only son of Archibald Wavell.
It took place around 25 miles north of Nairobi. Wavell was leading a patrol of British troops and African police pursuing from Mau Mau who had beheaded a loyal Kikuyu tribesman in the Thaika area. They tracked down about 20 of the Mau Mau who opened fire, killing Wavell immediately. [1] The battle went for ten hours. [2]
Wavell had lost his left hand in Burma during World War II. He had no heirs so his death meant the end of the Wavell line. [3]
Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, was a senior officer of the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign and the First World War, during which he was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres. In the Second World War, he served initially as Commander-in-Chief Middle East, in which role he led British forces to victory over the Italian Army in Eritrea-Abyssinia, western Egypt and eastern Libya during Operation Compass in December 1940, only to be defeated by Erwin Rommel's Panzer Army Africa in the Western Desert in April 1941. He served as Commander-in-Chief, India, from July 1941 until June 1943 and then served as Viceroy of India until his retirement in February 1947.
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Major Archibald John Arthur Wavell, 2nd Earl Wavell, MC was a British Army officer and peer. He was educated at Winchester College and succeeded his father as Earl Wavell and Viscount Keren of Eritrea in 1950. Wavell was killed in the Mau Mau Uprising, and the titles became extinct on his death.
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The Lari massacre was an incident during the Mau Mau Uprising in which the Mau Mau massacred approximately 74 people, including some members of the loyalist Home Guard, but mostly their families: women, children and elderly relatives. Those murdered included prominent local loyalist Luka Kangara. A total of 309 rebels were prosecuted for the massacre, of which 136 were convicted. Seventy-one of those convicted were executed by hanging.
The Capture of Kimathi was the arrest of noted Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi during the Mau Mau Uprising in October 1956. Kimathi had been the field commander of the Mau Mau. He was captured by British police officer Ian Henderson who used intelligence gathered from disgruntled former Mau Mau.
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