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Name: SARGENT, Donald Frederick

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Birth Date: 2 May 1897 Nunhead St Silas

Death Date: 13 Feb 1979 S. Africa

First Date: 1919

Profession: Joined Colonial Service in 1919 as chauffeur & in charge transport, Uganda for Sir Robert Coryndon the Governor & moved to Nairobi with him in 1921

Area: Entebbe, Nairobi

Married: 1. In Mombasa 6 Feb 1923 Dorothy Sarah Moore b. 2 June 1898 Gibraltar, d. 17 Dec 1954 Tanganyika, road accident 2. 1956 Ruth Thuma

Children: Dinah Pamela (Owen-Thomas) (9 Dec 1923 Nairobi-2011); Elizabeth Maureen (Milburn) (16 Apr 1926-2012); Barbara Christine Rhona (Moon) (14 Dec 1931-2014)

Book Reference: EAWL, Red 25

War Service: Served with UK Forces in WW1 - Tanganyika & Kenya

General Information:

Left service with the Governor of Kenya, Sir Robert Coryndon having taught Africans to drive the cars. During the visit of the 'Yorks' to Kenya in 1924, drove them on safari, carrying the Duchess from one car to another when it got stuck in a huge muddy puddle on the plains. He was thrilled when presented to her, now Queen Mother, on her visit in the late 50s, to Mombasa. She remembered him! Also drove the Prince of Wales from Nakuru to attend the funeral of Sir Robert Coryndon at the Cathedral in Nairobi. He left that service, then in 1925 and joined the Agricultural Dept. and was posted to Mombasa where he oversaw and built a Maize conditioning plant to dry & de-weevil the maize for export. Then also designed & built the first refrigeration plant or 'Cold Store' as it was known, for the Govt., alongside it and ran both, pioneering the safe temperature storage of Kenya butter for export on the B.I. ships monthly service; also fish rooms, meat rooms, the right temperatures for storage of apples & pears imported etc. Also experimented with import of Walls Ice Cream.
Naval ships were victualled during the war and he opened up the cold store to do this at all hours of the day and night. Also designed for the maize conditioning plant special trays for passing through grains of several different kinds to export these during the war years & after. He retired in 1948 from Govt. service & did several other jobs moving to live & run a transport business for a short while in Lushoto in Tanganyika where he had built a fine house he'd designed with the help of his wife who sadly died in a road accident there in 1954. It was later taken over by the Tanzanian Govt. after he left & returned to Mombasa & then emigrated to S. Africa where he died in 1979. He had remarried in 1956 in Mombasa - a Miss Ruth Thuma who was working as secretary to commissioner of customs. She is now (1994) in a sheltered housing in Wartburg in S. Africa aged 83.
Donald & Dorothy were long time members of the Railway Club and played golf. Also the tennis club. In later years the Mombasa Yacht Club & competed in the weekly races. Also played snooker & just before the war buying an old hull he rebuilt it into a cabin cruiser with 6 berths, 32 ft long with a converted Ford engine in it and as a family they had many pleasant hours & nights in the harbour, fishing & swimming from it. The Navy requisitioned it during the war & it was damaged  & so he bought a dinghy to sail instead.   Source: Mrs D. Owen-Thomas
Mrs Sargent went out to marry him from UK in 1923.
Blue Book 1931 appt. Superintendent, Maize Conditioning Plant and Cool Stores, appt. 12.6.11926, current appt. 1.1.1929
Dominion - Agricultural Department - Superintendent, Maize Conditioning Plant and Cool Stores - 1930
Gazette - 22/7/1925 - Arrived on 1st Appointment - Foreman Mechanic, Agricultural - D.F. Sargeant

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