Edward Carey Francis

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, (13 September 1897 – 27 July 1966) was a British mathematician and Anglican missionary to Kenya, where he became "arguably the most influential educationist in Kenya's modern history". He was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, London. He was educated first at William Ellis School, becoming head-boy of the school and captain of the

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

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, tennis and athletics teams. After school he enlisted in the British Army, serving in the First World War with the Royal Artillery and being

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

.Robert M. Maxon, Thomas P. Ofcansky, Historical Dictionary of Kenya, Rowman & Littlefield, 9 Sep 2014, p.75 On completion of the war he took up a scholarship to read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduating, in 1922 he became a fellow of

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

and Director of Studies in Mathematics. He left Cambridge in 1928 when he joined the Church Missionary Society. He was posted to Kenya and became firstly a teacher and later Headmaster of Maseno School in Nyanza between 1928 and 1940. He shortly served as Mathematics teacher at Duke of York School (

Lenana School Lenana School is a secondary school in Nairobi, Kenya. It was formed in 1949 by colonial governor Philip Euen Mitchell, known then as the Duke of York School, named after a British World War II 1939 King George V-class battleship. The bell fr ...

). He then served as Headmaster at Alliance High School between 1940 and 1962. During his time at Alliance he developed a mythical-like reputation as an inspiring teacher, educating many future politicians. In later years, between 1962 and 1966 he was Assistant Master at Pumwani High School. In Jomo Kenyatta's first cabinet, nine out of the fifteen members had studied under Francis at Alliance. Francis died in Nairobi on 27 July 1966 and was buried within the grounds of Alliance High School. On his death, a silence was held in the House of Representatives, an honour usually reserved for Heads of State.

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