After the First World War, Florence Kerr Wilson, fondly known as Florrie, came to Kenya with her husband, Major WH Wilson. The couple settled in Timau and took up farming until Major Wilson’s death in 1928. It took a four-day business trip in John Carberry’s Fokker Universal plane dubbed ‘Miss Africa’ to convince Wilson to start an airline business in Kenya. Carberry had a newly-registered company, Kenya Aircraft Company Limited. Also on the Kenya-to England trip was Captain Tom Campbell Black – a prolific pilot who flew in the war.

In 1928, Wilson proceeded to set up Kenya’s first commercial airline, Wilson Airways Limited, which was the first of its kind. She started out with a Gypsy Moth biplane that carried just one passenger. The company was located at the airfield named Ngong Landing Field, then located in Dagoretti (near present-day Junction Mall) in Nairobi. It moved to Lang’ata in 1929 and is today known as Wilson Airport.

Wilson took Black on as her chief pilot and managing director. It was Black who introduced her to flying and he also became her flight instructor. They initially focused on mail delivery across East Africa, although he would eventually leave the airline for a new opportunity in England. To her advantage, Wilson had inherited a fortune from her husband. She also came from a family of shipping magnates in England. Despite some challenges, her fleet of aircraft grew to 17. She had the first air ambulance and an aviation training school. With the onset of the Second World
War, the government took control of Wilson Airways and turned it into a Royal Air Force base and later the Nairobi West Aerodrome. This left Wilson without the dream she had so diligently nurtured.

However, her legacy was not entirely lost. While it was common for colonial names to be replaced with African ones as Kenya’s independence drew near, in her case, the Minister of Commerce and Communications made an exception and renamed the Nairobi West Aerodrome Wilson Airport as a tribute to her pioneering spirit.

She had the privilege of witnessing the unveiling of the plaque bearing her name, and died in September 1968, in Karen, six years later. Today, Wilson Airport is one of the busiest airstrips in East and Central Africa.