Cedric Owen Oates was born in 1905 and educated at King's College in Taunton, Seale Hayne Agricultural College, and Oxford University. He served in the Colonial Service as an Agricultural Officer in Kenya (from 1927), and was also Chairman of the Convention of Associations.
The Convention of Associations was established in 1910 to combine a number of associations that had already formed in Kenya to make the needs and interests of the colonists known to the Colonial Office. After a meeting in 1938 the Convention seems not to have met for some time, and after the Election in 1943 its original work was taken over by the Electors' Union. There was an attempt to revive the Convention in November 1943, but it was not until 1957 that the real revival took place; the first meeting was held on the 8 May 1958 and the first Conference on the 27 June. The Convention of Associations continued its activities until April 1963 when it was finally wound up.
From the guide to the Papers of Cedric Owen Oates, 1950-1972, (The Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House)
