East Africa & Rhodesia - 12/2/53 - …… who died a few days ago in Kenya at the age of 59, served in France with the Royal Sussex Regiment from 1914 to 1916, when he was wounded and invalided out of the Army. Joining the Colonial Administrative Service in 1919, he was an administrative officer in Kenya until 1935, when he went to Zanzibar as a provincial commissioner.

Two years later he was transferred to Tanganyika, and when war broke out in 1939 he was Resident Commissioner in the British Solomon Islands. During the war in the Pacific he played a gallant role, and when the tide of Japanese agression was flowing steadily forward, he and a few other officials kept the flag flying by their resolution.

Sir Philip Mitchell testified while Governor of Kenya, that on the battlefield of Guadalcanal he had seen Marchant in a forward position while in a very poor state of health, and had to compel him to take a short rest, but soon afterwards he had insisted on returning. There he remained until two United States Generals sent a joint signal saying: "This gallant officer's health is such that our medical adviser tells us that his sick body can no longer carry his great heart, and that if he stays here he will die." Even then, Sir Philip Mitchell said he would not leave until he had been given a direct order.

In 1943 he became Chief Native Commissioner of Kenya and an official member of the Executive and Legislative Councils. He resigned in 1946 to join the Overseas Food Corporation as their labour adviser on the groundnut scheme in Tanganyika; from that post he retired in 1950. Settling in Kenya, he was one of the non-officials nominated last year to sit on the Government benches in the Legislative Council. He was chairman of the Immigration Control Board.

Mr C.T. Davenport writes:- "Marchant was one of the best known administrators of the Coast Province, where the greater part of his early service was spent. He spoke Swahili unusually well, and seemed to be able to identify himself very closely with the thoughts and habits of the coast tribes. He had been severely wounded in the throat in the first war, and this had left his voice weak and liable to give out in the colder climate of the Highlands; it proved to be a handicap to him in speaking in debates in the Legislature. He was a man of restless energy, and was always happier on safari in his district than behind an office desk. He was never really happy in the post of Chief Native Commissioner, to which he was appointed after he returned from the Solomons, where he had performed prodigious feats of endurance in the bush during the occupation of the islands by the Japanese. The sympathy of all his team of district officers goes out to his wife and son now in Kenya. Dominion - District Officer - 1930

Barnes - Nairobi City Park Cemetery - William Sydney Marchant, died 1 Feb 1953 aged 58

Gazette 16/4/1919 - Arrived on 1st Appointment - Asst. District Commissioner - 4/4/1919

KAD 1922 - Asst. District and Resident Commissioner.

Colonial - Asst. DC EAP 1919; DO Kenya 1926; Dep. PC and Asst. Sec. Zanzibar 1935; Dep. PC Tanganyika 1937; Res. Comsnr. Br. Solomon Islands 1939