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Name: SETH-SMITH, Donald Farquharson MC
Nee: son of Martin Seth Smith of Colwood Sussex, nephew of Leslie, bro of Martin
Birth Date: 1.10.1884 Bolney, Sussex
Death Date: 25.1.1959 Salisbury
First Date: 1906 October
Profession: Farmer, particularly interested in raising sheep and also established Sisal Ltd. Makuyu with Mr Ridley and Lord Cranworth. KFA - Purchaser of lease on the Trans Nzoia 1913. Red 31 - c/o Dalgety & Co. Ltd., Nairobi
Area: Rotharini Farm Njoro, Makuyu, Box 96, Nairobi, Drumkey - Fort Hall
Married: 1. 1920 Janet Elizabeth Monro (div.) 2. In Savoy Hotel, London 27 Aug 1932 Mrs Kathleen McKenzie Bailey née Wilson b. 1897 Newton Abbot
Children: Anne Garden Farquharson (Pleydell-Bouverie, Cox) (firstly wife of Earl of Radnor) (26 Mar 1934 Nairobi-11 Nov 2020 UK); Anthony Martin Donald (5 Feb 1937 Nairobi)
Book Reference: Gillett, Nellie, KFA, Cranworth, Wymer, White Man, KAD, Red 31, Hut, Curtis, Pioneers, Drumkey, Land, Red 22, Gazette, Burke, SKP, Leader14, Chandler
War Service: served in WW1 with 2nd KAR
School: Charterhouse and Oriel College Oxford
General Information:
Nellie - (1935) - 'we went over to Donald Seth-Smith's to photograph his dairy herd and stayed to dinner ...' ....... (1940) 'I have decided, rightly or wrongly, to let Donald Seth-Smith buy 300 acres at the top of the farm..…..'
Cranworth - 1907 - An original partner in Sisal Ltd with Lord Cranworth and others. ..... He had just left Oxford where he had been a distinguished athlete. ........... [White Hunters] There was another who might well have been the equal of the best of them had he cared to undertake the work. That was one of my partners at Makuyu Donald Seth-Smith, whom as a shooter I have always regarded as, in the best sense of the word, the complete sportsman.
Hut - partner with Ridley/Cranworth
Curtis - p. 133 - 'Ten Years Later' - On board the Clement Hill on Lake Victoria in 1912 - ' ..... Mr Seth-Smith was on board with his two sons, and they asked us to visit them at their farm near Fort Hall, 45 miles from Nairobi. .….…
Macmillan - 1930 - The Anglo-Baltic Timber Co. Ltd., Importers of Building Materials, Saw-Millers - Directors:- Sir John Ramsden Bart., Lord Egerton of Tatton, The Hon. D.G. Finch Hatton, MC, Major J.W. Milligan, DSO (Chairman), and Mr Donald F. Seth Smith, MC. The General Manager at Nairobi is Mr L.P. Robinson
Land - Leased 8230 acres at Punda Milia with R.F.C. Thompson
Land - 1909 - D.F. Seth-Smith - Buildings, 1 acre, Parklands, Nairobi, 1-10-07, Registered 15-4-09
Land - 1909 - D.F. Seth-Smith and R.F.C. Tompson - 8230 and 1896 acres, Punda Milia, 13-11-06, Registered 3-3-09
Land 1909 - D.F. Seth-Smith - Buildings, 0.114 acre - Nairobi - 11/10/09 - Leasehold for 99 years from 4/8/09 - Registered 11/3/10
Land - 1911 - D.F. Seth-Smith - Grazing and agricultural, 4150 acres (Farm No. 1456) - Londiani - 25/2/10 - Under Occupation Licence for 2 to 99 years from 1/9/11 - Registered 29/9/11
Land - 1912 - D.F. Seth-Smith - Buildings, 4.10 acres and 3.33 acres and 1.10 acres - Nairobi - 15/8/07 - Freehold - Granted in exchange for area re-acquired for road purposes. Original grant registered in the name of B.O. Roberts - Registered 19/1/12
Gazette - 4/11/1914 - Appt. - East Africa Supply Corps - To be Lieutenant - D.F. Seth Smith
Gazette - 11/8/1915 - Appt. - EA Supply Corps - Resignation - Lieut. Donald Farquharson Seth Smith
SKP - 1938 - Society of Kenya Pioneers - over 30 years in Colony - arrived Oct 1906 - Njoro
Mills - Tony Seth-Smith - My father Donald Seth-Smith came out to British East Africa in 1904, following his brother Martin who had come out a year earlier. ………. Donald purchased several plots in what was to become the country's capital Nairobi. One plot was the local blacksmith's shop where the New Stanley is today. Donald took up land out at Makuyu as did Lord Cranworth and Mervyn Ridley. The three of them pooled the land into one estate called Sisal Ltd (now Kakuzi Ltd) and my father and Mervyn Ridley ran the operation. …………… After experimenting with many different crops, including rubber, Donald and Mervyn Ridley settled on sisal, a good choice at that time as there was a huge demand during the 1914-18 War and indeed again during the Second World War. To break the land more quickly, Donald imported what was to be one of the first steam tractors and persuaded his father to send out the under keeper from their Essex to drive it. ………………
Donald, a keen sportsman, won the Muthaiga squash championship on many occasions and, together with Mervyn Ridley and the Swift brothers, hosted polo tournaments out at Makuyu. ……….[more WW1 with KAR] Sisal Ltd, like all the farms and ranches, was badly run down during the war and on his return from fighting Donald had to virtually start again. This meant recruiting labour to work on the estate. Embu was the nearest potential source but there was as yet no road so Donald had to walk there. The terrible flu epidemic of 1918 was in full swing and he recalls the appalling sight of dead all along the footpath as far as Embu. Later Donald moved to Njoro and took up more land there where he had several projects with Lord Delamere ….. And with Grogan ………. The property stayed in our hands until 1974 ………………
By the Second World War he was too old to join up, but chaired the KFA as his war effort. Still dogged by ill health resulting from his German East Africa Campaign days, he bought a small farm under the Mau Forest next to Nellie Grant, Elspeth Huxley's mother, to which he retired. Donald was born in Sussex on 1st October 1883. He went to Charterhouse School and Oriel College Oxford, after which he came to Kenya. He died in England in February 1957.
Gazette - 4/7/1917 - Birthday Honours - MC - Temp. Lieut D F Seth-Smith, 1/2 KAR