Juanita Carberry obituary

 

Juanita Carberry obituary

This article is more than 12 years old

Felicia Ruperti

Mon 2 Sep 2013 13.39 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/sep/02/juanita-carberry-obituary

 

My friend Juanita Carberry grew up in Kenya among wild animals and domesticated creatures that included tame mongooses, cheetahs and a chimpanzee. Her human playmates taught her their language and games, and she spoke fluent Swahili until she died, aged 88. Juanita's meticulously kept photograph albums and diaries told the story of an astonishing woman who loved adventure and the natural world.

 

Her mother was Maia Carberry (nee Anderson) and whether Maia's husband, John Carberry, really was Juanita's father is somewhat contentious. Juanita said: "To me it doesn't matter a jot." The Carberrys were part of the "Happy Valley" set of Kenyan white settlers notorious for their decadent lifestyle. Her mother died in a plane crash when Juanita was three and John remarried. Alongside the memories of a beautifully wild Africa, Juanita's childhood recollections included regular cruelty.

 

In 1941, one of the members of the Happy Valley set, the Earl of Erroll, who was having an affair with Diana, the young wife of Sir Jock Delves Broughton, was shot dead. Delves Broughton was acquitted of the murder and soon afterwards killed himself. Years later, Juanita told journalists that Broughton had confessed his guilt to her, which resulted in a great deal of media attention and gossip.

 

Juanita often told me how bored she was with people's incessant interest in the unpleasant aristocrats of her childhood. A film in which these events were recounted from Juanita's point of view, The Happy Valley, was produced by the BBC in 1987 (with Holly Aird as Juanita), and she co-authored a memoir, Child of Happy Valley (1991).

 

At the age of 15 she ran away from home to live with a maternal uncle, and in 1942 she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, then the Royal Corps of Signals. In 1951 Juanita signed up with the merchant navy, at a time when only two British cargo ships took on women. She loved being at sea and worked in that profession for some 17 years. She also worked as a safari guide and joined a circus.

 

Juanita was a keen gardener and conservationist, worked as advisory director for the World Society for the Protection of Animals, planted trees and created beautiful gardens at the Mission to Seafarers in Mombasa. She supported many charities, and among her favourites were the Brook Hospital for Animals, the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the Born Free Foundation, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and Survival International.

 

In later life, Juanita settled in London. A staunch supporter of the Campaign for Dignity and Dying, she was sad not to have witnessed a change in the law on assisted dying. Her only criticism of the wonderful Trinity Hospice, where she spent the last weeks of her life, was that they could not "put her down" when she was ready. She made many people laugh until the day she could no longer speak. Juanita left her body to the anatomical exhibition run by Gunther von Hagens.