The story of Wilson Airport

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*WILSON AIRPORT*

The airport was established as _Nairobi West Aerodrome_ in 1929, by *Florence Kerr Wilson*, a wealthy widow. Built at a cost of *£50,000* _( *£3.2 million in 2020*)_, Mrs Wilson hired *Tom Campbell Black*, a pilot to run the airport.

After the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939, the airport, its aircraft fleet and its pilots were taken over by the then colonial government and made a Royal Air Force base until after the war where it continued functioning as a civilian airport. In 1962, it was named _Wilson Airport_ in honor of its founder who died in 1968.

The story of Nairobi’s _Wilson Airport_ cannot be told without looking at the short love affair that blossomed between millionaire farmer *Florence Kerr Wilson* —whose husband had died — and a handsome twenty-something British pilot, *Captain Thomas Campbell Black*.

Mrs Wilson had inherited a fortune from her husband and also came from a wealthy family of ship owners in London.Unknown to many, the story of Kenya’s aviation industry did not start in Nairobi —but in _Rumuruti_ where a rancher had imported country’s first aeroplane nicknamed _Miss Kenya_. This plane was piloted by Campbell, which now explains his dalliance with all the pretty English girls in Nairobi.

Owned by *John Carberry*, _Miss Kenya_ was registered on September 10, 1928 _(This particular plane is currently on display in a British aircraft museum). _Seeing the great potential there was in flying the wealthy around, Carberry registered a new company, _Kenya Aircraft Company Ltd_, and bought a second aircraft, which he christened Miss Africa.

It was aboard Miss Africa, a Fokker Universal, that Campbell and Mrs Wilson met on a four-day journey from London to Nanyuki. Campbell was known to thrill women with the Fokker Universal — and was always willing to train them how to fly. A few months after this flight from London, he resigned from Carberry’s company and went to start an aircraft company with Mrs Wilson who had injected 50,000 pounds into the new start-up, a colossal amount at the time.

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._

Campbell was the Chief Pilot and the Managing Director of the new company. It was both out of his love for Mrs Wilson and the thrill of flying. He delivered mail all over East Africa, and at times watched over his brother’s farm in Rongai, which the duo had started after Campbell abandoned law studies in the UK.

Wilson Airways grew big. And in the meantime, Campbell fell in love with another Nairobi socialite known as *Beryl Markham*. He 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, which critics always claimed was ghost written for her.

Whether it was as a result of this romance that Campbell left _Wilson Airways_ is not clear. What is known is that in 1933 he left Nairobi and ended the romantic relationship with Beryl to become the personal pilot for a UK horse breeder, *Lord Marmaduke Furness*.Having been left with an airline which she had no idea to run, Mrs Wilson started struggling to maintain it.

Meanwhile, Campbell became a big name and participated in various international air races and ended up marrying a famous English actress, *Florence Desmond*, in 1936. A year later, Campbell died in an air race crash.

Back in Nairobi, _Wilson Airways_ was struggling — though still returning profits. By this time, it had shifted to what would become _Nairobi West Aerodrome_ as a pioneer. The fleet had grown to *17* aircraft, the first air ambulance and a training school. Her clientele included wealthy personalities such as *William Kissam Vanderbilt*, a New York railroad millionaire, and the British Royal family. Then the _World War II_ started and the government confiscated all her aircraft, and incorporated the pilots within the _Kenya Auxiliary Air Unit_.

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

It is on the grounds it stood that the self-government in 1962 sent its minister for Commerce and Communications, *Mr Masinde Muliro*, to go and perform one last rite— renaming the _Nairobi West Aerodrome_ as _Wilson Airport_.

Mrs Wilson was present when the plaque was unveiled. Six years, later in September 1968, she died in Karen.

*But Wilson Airport lives on*
 
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