Fortuna Favet Fortibus. The words are Latin, and even as you say them, you feel like you are speaking something into existence. Fortuna Favet Fortibus. In English, this means Fortune Favors the Brave, and these are the words of Pembroke House.
Pembroke House was named after Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The #KeSchool’s founding headmaster, Harold Turner, was a proud alumnus of Pembroke College and we imagine that his time on campus must have been such a life-changing moment that he named his own school after the college. But by now you’re probably wondering where Pembroke House is. The growing school has been sitting quietly on a 100-acre farm in Gilgil for almost a century, and in true hadithi style, we want to take you several steps back to the early 1920s.
During that period, some adventurers and aristocrats from England had settled in Kenya, but because of their restless nature, they explored the hinterland. Most settled in the Rift Valley, finding the dusty area (Gilgil) an ideal location to unwind and relax. By the 1930s the settlers had increased and the more people came, the merrier the little township became. The area came to be known for the people’s enjoyment and debauchery. You may have heard of it in Kenya’s history as Happy Valley.
Harold Turner arrived in Kenya shortly after World War I ended. He served within the colonial administration for some time before transitioning to work at The East African Standard. An ambitious Turner soon quit his job and tried his luck at farming. But the results were nothing short of disastrous; Turner lost all his money. Despite this failure, the English-settler was relentless. He developed an interest in education and steered his pursuits towards that avenue.
In 1924, another Englishman, Finlay Cramb, set up Kenton College prep school in Kijabe. The following year, Turner joined Cramb and the two oversaw Kenton College. However, they didn’t quite get along on a number of things, and Turner ventured out yet again. Luck was possibly on his side because shortly after he met Gerald Pink who helped Turner set up Pembroke House. Turner purchased an old farmhouse and plot in Gilgil and together, the two men started building their school.
On 15th September 1927, Pembroke House, a European boys’ preparatory school, was opened. The school was modeled on the British preparatory curriculum and the motto was ‘Anglus in Africa Sto’, which translated to ‘I Stand as an Englishman in Africa’. Pembroke House’s emblem was the martlet bird that was then (and still is) known to signify nobility acquired through bravery, prowess or intelligence. In the school’s second year, 37 students had enrolled, and by 1933, the total student population was at 67.
At the end of the 1940s, Turner retired. He sold the school to Christopher Hazard, who ran the school as headmaster until 1967. In his time as head of school, Hazard designed a chapel for the school. The entire student body spent the next eight years constructing the school’s church – which is still in use today. In 1959, the Kenya Educational Trust Limited took over the school.
In 1970, David Opie was employed as the school’s headmaster, and one of his first implementations was the change in the motto. As the school became inclusive to Africans, it was only necessary that the school’s words were inclusive. Pembroke House’s motto was re-edited and became Fortuna Favet Fortibus: Fortune Favors the Brave. In 1988, another change was undertaken by Opie. Pembroke House ceased to be an all-boys school and started enrolling girls. Today, the school still sits on the large farm in Gilgil. The old farmhouse that stood when Turner purchased the land is still on site albeit surrounded by other school buildings. Indeed, fortune does favor the brave. And though Turner isn’t here to see the growth of his dream, the school motto defines his act of bravery and Pembroke’s excellence shines through and through.
