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Name: SPARKS, Herbert James
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:
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.