Gazette 6 Apr 1965 probate

Hut - letter from JGS Norman - RC Sneyd had a brother George, also Indian PWD, who did not serve in the War but went to Kenya after it.

Hut - letter from Richard Sneyd - George Sneyd travelled to British East Africa in 1919. He wrote to his brother Captain Ralph Sneyd DSO RN at Bray that he had made an offer of £7,000 for a farm near Nakuru between the Rongai and Molo rivers which "I know as a sound investment if I can get it". The 1000 acre property belongs to Mrs Drake, a widow whose husband was killed at Longido, in the German East African War. "I am relying on you and Robin to put up £4,000. I will pay 8% on whatever you put up as that is the present bank rate." There is apparently no doubt whatever that the Government will give us the land which I have chosen South of Kericho between the Kiptiget and Dare rivers, Latitude 0 degrees 35 south; Longitude 35 degrees 17' south.  

George reckoned that the Kericho land was very good and very well watered and would do very well for coffee, flax and tea. This was a British Re-Settlement Scheme under the Discharged Soldier Settlers Scheme of 1919 by which they got 640 acres of native bush each. The purchase price was to be a maximum of £1 an acre, on a deferred payment basis. George, Robin Sneyd and their first cousin Ron Gray-Buchanan had all been accepted for the scheme.  An Agreement was made on 14 Aug 1919 for the Chapswarata Syndicate between R.G. Buchanan, C.R. Davidson, E.E. Grant, E.C. Hudson, R.T.S. Sneyd, G.S. Sneyd, H.L. Stevens and H.W. Tilman.

Bill Tilman arrived on his 640 acres at Chapswarata in October 1919. His land adjoined the Sneyd and Buchanan lands. The 'main' road to Jericho was an un-surfaced earth track.  George had put 4599 rupees into Chapswarata in carts, oxen, tools, tents and other things. £4,500 had been borrowed from his mother Bessie Sneyd at 8%. Ron Buchanan had put in about 2500 rupees. The bridge across the river Dare built by Ron Buchanan and Bill Tilman had been finished but only lasted a year. George wrote in July 1919 to his brother Robin, a Captain in the Indian Army with the 3 Faridkot Sappers and Miners as a senior Civil Engineer.

The Nakuru farm was to be called Blackscythe after the black scythe of the Sneyd coat of arms, and was 18 miles North West of Nakuru and 14 miles due north from Njoro. It was about 8 miles from the proposed site of the first station out of Nakuru on the proposed railway to the Uasin Gishu plateau. "It is undoubtedly one of the best freehold farms round the place, 400 acres of the 1000 acres are in crops (maize) 114 head of cattle, mostly trained oxen, on the place. In fact at present prices the farm and moveable assets without the crop are worth what we are giving." George reported that the farm house at Blackscythe was built of stone and not bad by BEA standards. Three small rooms about 12 x 12 with a bit of a verandah and a tin roof thatched over which is watertight. George proposed a new site for the house. George was ploughing land across the two big paddocks of 153 acres each and had 4 ploughs working. The only trees which count at present are just near to the house where there is about 3 acres of coffee. The small fields near the house along the Rongai to be planted with coffee in the 21, 10 and 5 acre fields. ……………….

George Sneyd wrote a letter on 16 Jan 1920 to his brother Robin Sneyd, Executive engineer, PWD Hydro-Electric Surveys, Madras. George was still on long leave from the Indian Public Works Dept. "I am not yet pushed out of the service." The cost of Chapswarata including George's personal expenses was 7611 rupees. Expenditure at Blackscythe was 20587 rupees. "I hope we shall make more money here than in India.  ……………….

Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 8 Nov 1919 - G.S. Sneyd

KAD 1922 - Hon. Sec. & Treasurer, Rongai-Lower Molo Farmers' Association

Gazette 6 Apr 1965 probate