He and his brother W.D.C.L. Purves each won several International Rugby Caps for Scotland. Captain of Njoro Golf Club in 1925, 1927

Markham - Beryl Markham's first husband - a brawny Scotsman, rugger blue, freckle faced 29 year old - Beryl was 15. The marriage arrangement was entered into by Clutterbuck. He ran Clutterbuck's sawmill. In the soldier settlement scheme he drew 600 acres adjoining Clutterbuck's Ndimu Farm. The wedding reception was held at the Norfolk not Muthaiga because Emma Orchardson and Clutterbuck were living in sin! ............ They spent the first night of their honeymoon at Muthaiga, then to India. It was a disaster. Jock drank heavily. Neighbours thought Jock 'too coarse' for her. He could not face her in bed without alcohol and she quickly tired of him. None was surprised that the marriage barely lasted 6 months. She finally left Jock in 1922.  Jock's house was bought by Patience and 'Mackinlay Mac' who took on Jock's posho mill. The house had a hand carved Arab Lamu door with brass nails - hand forged by Purves - one for each of Beryl's indiscretions. .....…..

In Dec. 1923 he had a fight outside Delamere's Nakuru Hotel. Jock hit Lord Delamere and broke his neck, for going off with his girl - Jock was plastered and intended to hit Tom. Injured Lord Delamere quite seriously, 6 months in bed.  

KAD 1922 - Njoro ..... 'Further up the railway is the old Clutterbuck Stud Farm. This was taken over by Mr Purves, who runs the large posho mills, and carries on the training of a very large number of horses.'

KAD 1922 - Committee Member, Njoro European Association;

KAD 1922 - Committee Member, Rift Valley Sports Club  

Red 25 - Nakuru Representative on Rugby Football Union of Kenya

Red 22 - E.L. Purvis, Njoro

Njoro - Captain of Golf 1925, 1927 - A.L. Purves

Gazette - 11/8/1915 - Appt. - KAR - Temporary Commission - To be Lieutenant - Corpl. Alexander Laidlaw Purves, No 31 Divisional Signal Company, Sappers and Miners

Web - Scrum.com - Played Rugby 10 times for Scotland 1906-1908

Rift Valley - May 1925 - Suggested 'That a smokeable brand of cigar be stocked, price not too high.'

Rift Valley - May 1925 - 'Suggest that a certain number of tables to seat two persons be put in the dining room. At present tables for four, occupied by two persons only leads to considerable delay & inconvenience.

Rift Valley - Dec 1926 - 'That Crabbe's ginger wine be stocked instead of present brand. Crabbe's is obtainable at Duncans, Nairobi.'

Rift Valley - 24 Dec 1927 - 'Last Wednesday after waiting one and a half hours for seating accommodation at lunch was informed no hot food was available. There certainly was a rush on but might this not have been foreseen?'

Rift Valley - Dec 1927 - Member of the Wine Committee with W.J. Beeston.

Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 21 Aug 1919 - A.L. Purves

Web - Oxford dnb - Happy Valley - Adultery was the most notorious characteristic of Happy Valley life. Beryl Markham was first married at 16 to Alexander (Jock) Purves (d. 1945); each time she took a new lover he hammered a 6 inch nail into the wooden frame of their front door.

Red 25 has Capt. A.L. Purvis

Web - The eldest of four brothers, Jock was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh. In 1905, at the age of eighteen, Jock joined the London Scottish regiment. In 1906 he played in his first rugby international, and during the following two years he was capped ten times as a Scottish International. In 1908 he left the regiment and went to Madras to seek his fortune. At the outset of war he joined the Madras Volunteers and shipped to Kenya, where he later transferred to the King's African Rifles where he served as a Captain in the 3rd King's African Rifles in the First World War. At the end of the war he managed, with the help of his family, to buy 600 acres of land at Njoro. In 1919, at the age of 33, he married sixteen year old Beryl Clutterbuck. They divorced, date unknown, and he eventually remarried and returned to England. At the outbreak of the Second World War he rejoined the London Scottish Regiment and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He served in the Ethiopian, North African and Italian campaigns until he was invalided home in 1944. He died in 1945 as a result of the wounds he had received.