Mabelreign
In 1892 Edward Walter Kermode claimed a farm and registered it as “Spring Valley Range”. He arrived in the country…
In 1892 Edward Walter Kermode claimed a farm and registered it as “Spring Valley Range”. He arrived in the country from the Isle of Man with the pioneer column as a personal servant of Archibald Calqhoun, the country’s first administrator. Shortly after registering the farm, in 1895, Kermode returned to the Isle of Man where he married. Mabelreign was named after Miss Mabel Mann, who was a fiancee of a surveyor named Swatheral. Miss Mann laid claim to the land despite the fact that the title was already held, and apparently she got away with it.
Kermode went back to the Isle of Man never to return but in 1929 his son came out and subdivided the farm into Meyrick (his mother maiden name) Monavale (derived from Mona Isle), Sentosa (a Malayan word meaning ‘peaceful’) and Greencroft.
