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Name: SWIFT, Thomas Randall

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Birth Date: 22 Feb 1871 Mile End, London, bapt. 18 May

Death Date: 9 Aug 1955 Nyeri

First Date: 1904

Last Date: 1955

Profession: With his friend and partner, Ernest Rutherfoord he developed a large farm at Punda Milia. After numerous farming experiments they were most successful in growing sisal, maize, wattle, wheat, groundnuts, potatoes and beans.

Area: Punda Milia, 1925 Karingalee, Chania Bridge. Red 25 - JP, Fort Hall, 1930 Nyeri, partner with Rutherfoord at Mogera

Married: In Pimlico 14 Oct 1916 Edith Lucy Barwell b. 25 Oct 1876 London, d. 9 Apr 1956 Nyeri

Author: book ref. cont.- Foster, Red Book 1912

Book Reference: Gillett, SE, HBEA, Cuckoo, Nellie, KFA, Permanent Way, Joelson, Empire, Cranworth, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, EAMR, Curtis, Playne, EA & Rhodesia, Drumkey, Year Book, Red 22, Land, Advertiser, Pioneers, AJ, Gazette, North, EAHB 1907, Leader14, Barnes

War Service: Served with EAMR during WW1 - A Sqdn. 27/10/14 - 17/11/14

General Information:

Reared a fine herd of cattle and pigs. He took a keen interest in horse racing and in his younger days was a very successful gentleman rider at Nbi. race course.
Nellie - 'a cheerful young Irishman who had left the war because he considered, quite rightly, that it was being badly run, and spent a few months on his sisal plantation before rejoining the war in Gallipoli.'
KFA - By 1908 Messrs Randall Swift and Ernest Rutherfoord, sisal pioneers, were well established on 6000 acres at Punda Milia, below Fort Hall and the rich Kikuyu country. These two gay and energetic young Irishmen, who had been brewers together at Mortlake and remained friends and partners for 60 years, came to EA in 1904 with Campbell Hausberg, who, with Sir Halford Mackinder, had been the first to climb Mt. Kenya in 1897.'   (more pp. 11-12) ...…
Later on they bought a bicycle, which they shared. To get to Nairobi, Mr Swift would start on foot at daybreak and Mr Rutherfoord some hours later, on the bicycle. When he caught up his partner they changed places; Mr Swift, going on ahead, left his machine by the pathside about 15 miles farther on and continued on foot; and so it went on until they reached the capital. Once Ernest Rutherfoord rode the push-bike in by himself and brought back a pulley-wheel weighing 30 lb. on his back against a strong head-wind, all in the day. Later still, they imported a large steam-driven tractor, with a maximum speed of 4 miles an hour, which broke all the bridges it traversed, and with which they hauled goods on contract between Nairobi and Fort Hall to strengthen their frail exchequer. "We were very poor", Randall Swift wrote of those days, "but very happy".
Empire - There is now another pack of hounds, the Makuyu Hunt, some 30 miles from Nairobi, which hunts the jackal and duiker ..... hunted by Mr Mervyn Ridley as Master and Mr Randall Swift is his very efficient aid ..... Polo .... at Makuyu, about 30 miles away from Nairobi, under the energetic control of Messrs. Swift and Mervyn Ridley  
Cranworth - 1906 - between Fort Hall and Nairobi we stayed with 2 remarkable young settlers, Messrs. Swift and Rutherfoord, at their farm at Pundamilia. They were pioneers in the truest and best sense ......... for 2 years had been experimenting as to what was the most likely line in which to make good .... They lived rough ..... by Jove they worked! ........ It is good to think that the War spared them and that they still carry on, happy and respected. These two struck us as the right sort of neighbours to have ........ (3rd partner Campbell B. Hausberg) who also remains a tower of strength to the sisal industry at the present day.
KAD 1922 - Steward, Jockey Club of Kenya.  
KAD 1922 - Committee Member, Makuyu Hunt Club
Curtis - p. 57 - 'Makuyu' from 'The Story of Punda Milia' by Randall Swift. - 'A great friend of my father's, Campbell B. Hausburg, to be referred to as 'Cam', went out to Kenya in 1899, taking an expedition to the top of Mt. Kenya with Mackinder. He returned to England having acquired about 4,000 acres of land at Punda Milia. Early in 1904 Cam asked me if I would like to go out to Kenya with him and develop the farm, and this I gladly agreed to do. Then my very good friend, Ernest Rutherfoord, who had been brewing with me at Mortlake Brewery and also living with me for 7 or 8 years, said that he would like to come out too. In August 1904 the 3 of us started off for our new home. Cam had engaged a man named Elder just to live on the farm and build some grass huts for us. ...... [more of life on the farm and Churchill's visit to Kenya]
Playne - Punda Melia - An important point in favour of the Fort Hall District of BEA is that, owing to the regularity of the seasons, 2 crops of everything, except groundnuts, can be reaped. This fact has been taken full advantage of by Messrs T.R. Swift and E.D. Rutherfoord, who came from England in 1904 and settled at Punda Melia, 14 miles from Fort Hall and 45 miles from Nairobi. The 6000 acre farm has a river frontage of two and a half miles and there are water holes of permanent water for one and a half miles, while there are also about 500 acres of timber for fuel and boma-building purposes. ........ The partners do all the work on the farm without any other European help. Mr Swift takes a keen interest in racing, and is well known as a local jockey.
East Africa & Rhodesia - 8/9/55 - Mr Thomas Randall Swift who has died in hospital in Nyeri, at the age of about 80, arrived in East Africa in 1904 with his friend Ernest Rutherfoord and took up an area of some 4,000 acres of land. In 1907 they  started the first sisal plantation in the country …  "Swifty" as he was know to many Kenyans for half a century, was widely admired and respected by Europeans and Africans, for he had high standards in all things. He was one of the early non-official members of the Legislative Council ……….  Mr Swift served in Italy and the Middle East during the 1914-18 war with the Norfolk Yeomanry, and on returning to Kenya began farming on his own account, first at Makuyu and then at Mweiga, being compulsorily evacuated from that property last year by Government order on account of its exposure to Mau Mau terrorist raids. He had remained a director of Swither, Rutherfoord & Co. Ltd., until 1948. For many years he was one of Kenya's best horsemen. He was still playing polo to the age of 76; he won the jumping championship of the Colony at 61; from 1925 to 1947 he was master of the Gwath Foxhounds at Mweiga, and then for another two years joint master. Not many of the 1904 pioneers are still alive. None of them was more affectionately regarded than this devoted Kenyan. Drumkey - Member of Land Board
Year Book - 1953 - The Gwath Hunt, kennelled at Mweiga, not far from Nyeri, lays claim to be the Colony's oldest pack. One of its founders, Mr T.R. Swift, and now in his 83rd year, is still with us, and it was he who gave the pack the title "Gwath" after a hill close to his home.  After a long period Mr Swift was joined in Mastership by Mrs Charles Fernandes (a great sportswoman) in 1947 and today she is in sole charge. Of all the nice-looking hounds in Kenya, the Gwath are probably the levellest and nicest.
Red 22 - Justice of the Peace - Fort Hall
Red 22 - President, Thika District Association
Red 22 - Steward, The Jockey Club of Kenya
Land - 1908 - C.B. Hauseburg, T.R. Swift, E.D. Rutherford and J.E. Cowen - Grazing, 4000 acres, Thara River, 19-4-04, Registered 19-2-08
Land - 1907 - T.R. Swift - Grazing, 5000 acres, Kiboko River, 15-8-06, Registered 27-9-07
Land 1909 - B. Hausberg, J.E. Cowen, T.R. Swift and E.D. Rutherford - Grazing and agricultural, 2000 acres - Fort Hall District - 25/8/08 - Leasehold for 99 years from 1/3/09 - Registered 28/10/09
Advertiser - 12/6/1908 - Appointments - To be unofficial members of the Road Board in their respective Provinces - Kenya - J. MacDougall, T.R. Swift
Agricultural Journal - Brands Allotted and Registered, September 1908 - Swift and Rutherford, Punda Milia - Fort Hall J1H Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Fort Hall - T.R. Swift, Punda Milia, Chania Bridge
North - Arr. Mombasa from England 24/9/1905
Barnes - St. Peters Nyeri Cemetery - T. Randall Swift, died 9 August 1955 aged 84 (and Edith Lucy d.9 Apr 1956)
Red Book 1912 - T.R. Swift - Kyambu
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Ukamba Area - Thomas Randall Swift - Planter, Punda Milia, Chania Bridge
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Aberdare Voters List

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