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Name: SPARKS, Herbert James

image of individual

Birth Date: 8 Nov 1891 Durban, SA

Death Date: 15 Oct 1937 Nakuru, peritonitis

First Date: 1922

Last Date: 1937

Profession: Seventh Day Adventist missionary, hotelier

Area: 'Sweetwaters' Turi, 1935 Island View Lake Hotel Naivasha

Married: 1. 1916 Alice Ellen Baron d. 1918, blackwater fever 2. 1919 Anna Edith Winship b. 1893 Kimberley, d. 1958 Durban 3. Elsie Inez Hollon

Children: 1. Dora Ellen (Vercoe) (18.11.1917 Kenya-2000) 2. Muriel (Merle) Anna (1920-2000); Joan Dulce (1921); Eileen (Tippett) (1924)

Book Reference: KAD, Red 25, Hut, Red 22, Nicholls, Carnelley, Ken Greathead, Gazette

General Information:

Red 22 - H.J. Sparks, Molo
Nicholls - Seventh Day Adventist missionary pastor (a South African with a Cockney accent) …………. he gave up being a missionary when the trade in ostrich feathers and buffalo hides came to an end and started the Lake View Hotel.
Ken Greathead - we are not sure of Herbert's early time in Kenya. He is thought to have been around Kisumu about 1915, he may have been in Kenya earlier as there are suggestions that he was involved in WW1 campaign in Tanganyika and his daughter (Dora) to his first marriage (to Alice Ellen Baron) was born on 18 Nov 1917 in Kenya. He and his second wife with family later owned land ("Sweetwaters") on the outskirts of Turi. Subsequently they built the Sparks Hotel on Lake Naivasha, a newer version of which still stands today.
Gazette - 23/1/1918 - Firearm registered at Nairobi in October 1917 - H. Sparks, Kisumu - 303 Winchester
Red 25 has H.J. Sparks, Molo.
Hut has Herbert J. Sparks, 1919 Hotel Kendu Bay, died of peritonitis, married to Anna Edith who died of blackwater, went to Naivasha.
Hut has H.J. Sparks 1922 Molo
Gazette 29 Mar 1938 probate
Gethin - 'I had not been in Kisii long when two people came to see me. They were both Missionaries and claimed  ownership to a religion I had never heard of before. They introduced themselves as Pastor Sparks and Pastor Cascallon of the S.D.A. Mission, which they informed me followed the Old Testament and kept Sunday on a Saturday. As far as I could see they were not very religious and were far more interested in trading buffalo hides for which they got five cows per hide from the Jaluo than they were in converting the native to their way of thinking. I went on a most interesting safari with them which lasted about a week. They were going to spread the Gospel while I was to help them shoot elephant or any other big game that got in the way.

We started from Kisii before daylight one morning and made our way to Kanyandoto and Kanyankala where we cut across to the Migori and Kuja Rivers. When we got to Kanyankala we came to an S.D.A. Mission house which appeared to be nothing more than a large store which was full of buffalo hides and trade goods. Preaching of the Gospel was conspicuous by its absence. Cascallon would see an old Jeluo native asleep in the shade of a tree. He would approach him and put his hand on his head. If he still slept he gave him a kick on the backside and say, "Son, you are saved and you can thank the Lord it is me who has saved you, if it was one of the others you would be condemned to terrible torture when you died". With this the convert would be roped in to carry a load on the next safari. Sparks was a keen trader and a good shot. We had no difficulty in getting two good tuskers and we returned to Kamagambo where they had a Mission, via Kadem and Suna. Cascallon was a Canadian and Sparks a South African. Cascallon tried to ape the Cockney accent and Sparks the American, so it gave one a bit of a headache when they were both talking at the same time. Sparks would talk Luo like a native ...........' (more p. 41)  ....... after WW1 he gave up being a Missionary when he found the trade in buffalo hides and ostrich feathers came to an end, and started the Lake View Hotel at Naivasha. Sparks died about 5 years ago [c. 1948] and I think his wife returned to SA. In charge of porters with the 4th KAR at the action at Kisii in Sept. 1914 but disappeared.

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