View entry
Name: WREFORD SMITH, Herbert
Birth Date: 1890 Brixton, London
Death Date: 9 Apr 1962 Gulu, Uganda
First Date: 1910
Profession: Farm 122. Started first 'duka' in Eldoret with McNab Mundell in about 1912
Area: Uasin Gishu, Eldoret, Kipkarren, 1930 Kipkutkut Est., Kitale, 1907 Machakos
Married: In Eldoret 1923 Dorothy Pattison Gowans b. 1886 Broughty Ferry, d. June 1959, nurse (sister of Stanley Bate Gowans and Dr. William Harvey Gowans)
Children: John Herbert (23 Mar 1930 Kitale); Dorothy May (31 Jan 1926 Kenya-2018)
Book Reference: HBEA, KFA, Eldoret, Joelson, Red 25, Red 31, EAMR, Hut, EAMR, Curtis, Land, Red 22, Nicholls, Web, Barnes, Red 1912
War Service: C Sqdn EAMR 7/8/14 - Cpl. 10/8/14; Sergt. 18/11/14; Lieut.; to I.D.
General Information:
Land - 1911 - H.W. Smith and G.H. Lovemore - Grazing and agricultural, 2264 acres (Farm No. 121) and 2970 acres (Farm No. 122) - Uasin Gishu - 7/11/10 - Under Occupation Licence for 2 to 99 years from 1/12/10 - Registered 22/2/11 and 24/2/11
Red Book 1912 - H.W. Smith - Uasin Gishu
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Trans Nzoia Voters List
KFA - In 1922, on behalf of the infant Plateau Maize Growers' Association he went to kamasia and Suk country and managed to buy a thousand oxen for Shs. 20/- to Shs. 25/- apiece.
Eldoret - With a partner, Jim Robinson, Selby built a large 'barrack-like' mud and wattle building with an iron roof near the post office. Hardly had they started business when it was sold to H. Wreford-Smith and McNab Mundell. Smith Mundell, general dealers, undertook the first major marketing deal recorded on the Plateau when in 1911-12 they exported 10,000 lb. of wool of all grades at prices ranging from 10 to 37 cents a lb.
Curtis - p.111 - 'Leighton Farm, Turbo' by Mavis Birdsey - ' ........ At last we arrived at "64" and camped on the outskirts of the little village, at the edge where the game still grazed. There was only one European shop. We camped overnight to replenish stores, so many things had to be bought, but Smith, Mundell and Stredling seemed to have all our needs. How they kept up their supplies in the little shop was a miracle, for the paraffin oil, the flour and the tinned foods were all there. ....... we arrived at Mr Wreford Smith's farm, one of the partners in the little shop in Eldoret. We knew him well as he had been a neighbour in South Africa. When the wagons pulled up Wreford came out to see who the travellers were. How surprised he was to see Mother, with her 5 children in this wagon. "We have come to take up our farm next door," she said, "and we hoped it would be all right to stay the night." ......... a worried expression passed over Mr Smith's face. "But there is no house on your farm," he said, "The manager certainly built himself a grass hut down in the valley, but you and your children can never live there, and as for improvements, nothing has been done." ........ Wreford suggested we make use of his house until ours could be built. How kind he was! A woman with 5 children suddenly arriving out of the blue and finding nowhere to stay! He put aside his own comfort to move into a small rondavel and place his large banda at our disposal.
Land - H.W. Smith leased 4452 and 8646 acres and 2000 acres freehold at Molo of which 5542 later subdivided and 9646 reverted to Crown and became Native Reserve
Red 22 - Committee Member, Uasin Gishu Gymkhana Club, Eldoret
EAMR - Final days of the EAMR - ' …. The first man to leap ashore from the naval boat and salute the remnants of his old Regiment was one-time Trooper, Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant and now Captain Wreford Smith, temporarily attached for service in East African waters with the Royal Navy.'
EAMR - Steward at Military Sports - Christmas 1915
Nicholls - 1910 - two British businessmen, Herbert Wreford Smith and John McNab Mundell, left their mining interests in the Orange Free State and built a hotel and bar of wattle and daub. Social life centred on this bar, known colloquially as the 'Rat Pt'.
Nicholls - Mavis Birdsey's family lived 18 miles beyond Eldoret before WW1, next door to the Van Rensburgs and to Herbert Wreford Smith, formerly the Birdsey's neighbour in South Africa.
Gazette 5/4/2938 - Honorary Game Warden
Barnes - Kitale Cemetery - Dorothy Pattison Wreford-Smith - born 1886, died Jun 1959
Joelson - 1928 - Kipkarren - the pioneer settlers were Messrs Wreford Smith and L.A. Johnson in 1911.
Hut has 1910 Farm No 1
Gazette - 30/5/1923 - Dissolution of partnership between James Graham Moffitt, Thomas Alfred Ernest Hall and Herbert Wreford Smith under the style of Moffitt and Coy at Eldoret and Londiani in the trade or business of Contractors, Transport and General Agents dissolved by mutual consent on 31 March 1923. Business disposed of to John Goring of Londiani
Gazette 21 Aug 1962 probate
Barnes Kitale cem in loving memory / of / Dorothy Pattison / Wreford-Smith / born 1886 / died 1959 / R.I.P.