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Name: STRANGE, Thomas 'Tom'
Birth Date: 1872 Calne, Wiltshire, bapt. 3 Dec
Death Date: 8 Aug 1951 Mombasa
First Date: 1912
Last Date: 1951
Profession: Bacon factory
Area: Limuru, 1930 Escarpment
Married: In Corsham, Wilts. 3 Feb 1900 Mary Ann Archer b. 1876 Calne, d. 23 Dec 1963 Nairobi
Children: Nancy Evelyn (Rainbow) (1918)
Book Reference: KFA, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Curtis, Red 22, Gazette, Barnes, Leader14
General Information:
Curtis - p. 72 - 'The Uplands Connection' - East African Estates Ltd. were granted one of the early concessions on the condition that they gave practical help to the European settlers in the highlands. They decided to start a pig-breeding industry, and in 1907 on a block of 2000 acres the first buildings of Uplands Bacon Factory were put up by Messrs Prosser and Rainbow. Cured bacon and ham were on sale by 1909.
Rainbow had come up to Kenya from South Africa after the Boer War and joined the Police. Tom Strange with his family arrived at Uplands in January 1912. He had been trained at Calne in Wiltshire, his birthplace, and later that year the factory produced the first Wiltshire sides of bacon and Wiltshire sausages.
In 1923 Strange resigned from the job of factory manager at Uplands and then set up his own Globe Bacon Factory at Escarpment in competition. The Globe factory continued in business until 1950.
After the discovery of gold at Lolgorien in the Twenties Rainbow moved there. He mined at Lolgorien and Kihancha. Rainbow's son Bill worked in a sawmill for a while after leaving school. Then in 1950 he went to help his father on the mine. He later married the Stranges' daughter Nancy.
Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Dagoretti - T. Strange
Barnes - Nairobi City Park Cemetery - Thomas Strange, died 8 Aug 1951 aged 78
Barnes - Mombasa Cemetery - Thomas Strange, died 8 Aug 1951 age 77, European Hospital, Coronary Thrombosis - Diabetes, Body removed to Nairobi
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Kikuyu - Thomas Strange, Bacon Factory, Uplands
KFA - Managed the technical side of Uplands bacon factory with George Drew - 1919 - both Taunton curers.
Hut - 1912 Uplands Bacon factory
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Kiambu Voters List
Gazette 17 Mar 1964 wife's probate