Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Rift Valley Voters List

KFA - Towards the end of WW1, the Pig Breeders' Association decided to run their own factory on a co-operative basis and bought an existing plant at Londiani from Messrs Ben Garland and A.J. Simpson.

Eldoret - Notes on the Old Days in Eldoret - p. 31/32 - "I arrived in Eldoret on my third birthday, having travelled by ox wagon from Londiani with my parents. I believe the man who took us up was A.J. Simpson who still lives at Subukia. He certainly drove us up on many occasions, and once it took us three weeks to do the 60 miles from Londiani owing to the terrible state of the roads. The mud was so deep that the span of oxen could only travel a few miles at a time, and then when things got so bad that they had to light fires under their noses to get them to rise.

Bob Simpson - "Dad arrived in Kenya 1912. He started an ox-wagon transport business from Londiani which was the end of the rail head to Eldoret. Londiani {Londianna as he called it}. That was 64 miles. Hence the coined name of Eldoret being called "64". A.J. also became very friendly with Archie Shaw - the bank manager who told him that a nice property in Nakuru was for sale going for a song! A.J. bought it and as you may know this building was called 'Speke's'. He rebuilt it in 1937 when he had some money. The architect was a Mrs J.J. Hughes of Hughes' fame Ford Motor Co.

The war came and A.J. joined up in the East African Mounted Rifles, fought on Kilimanjaro against Von Lettow Vorbeck in that campaign. After the war, by chance he buys a farm "Elbonwala" from a Mr Edmondson [vet officer]. This farm adjoins Ben Garland's "Comlands". Eventually this is where A.J. meets his future wife Grace Garland. They marry in 1927, and despite a 21 year age gap between them it was a long and loving relationship.

A.J. was full of energy and drive. In 1928 to 1932 he leased land from the Kamasia and with some 40 spans of oxen grew some 1500 acres of maize - had 2 good years and 2 bad ones in the form of locusts swarms and drought. He had some 40 spans of oxen working - can you imagine the logistics of this enterprise?  A.J. sure was born with a whip in his hand. At one point he was harvesting shelling and loading on rail 750 bags of maize a day. The railway siding was on his leased land. Because of adverse conditions in his area he also moved up to higher altitude and bought "Crater Stream" again alongside Ben Garland. Here he made a name for himself as a top maize grower. Ben Garland died in 1944 and he took over using a manager to run the farm.

We, the next generation were growing up and in 1952 A.J. gave me the job of running Ben's farm now renamed 'Benmore'. As you know I did really well here - coffee - maize - wheat - dairy and won the Bellingham Bowl for my efforts. It was a terrible shattering day to have to give this lovely farm up to Blacks who carved it up into 4 acre squares.

Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 4 Nov 1919 - A.J. Simpson

Gazette - 3/12/1919 - Register of Voters - Rift Valley Area - A.J. Simpson - Farmer - Londiani

Nakuru North cemetery - Alfred James Simpson, "A.J.", a dearly beloved husband and father, died 10/11/1971 aged 89

Red Book 1919 - District Committees - Ravine - A.J. Simpson

Hut - 1919 Forwarding Agent, Londiani

Gazette 9 June 1972 probate

Kenya Weekly News 26 Apr 1963 After moving in 1918 to the better maize district of Solai, he set about producing a record type of heavy yielding maize by a process of careful selection each year of deep grained and closely lined cobs. Within eight years he was producing such a high standard of cob that his maize was selected to represent the colony in the agricultural section of Kenya's display at the Wembley Exhibition of 1924. He continued to improve his maize and in the 1920s won all the cups for maize that were presented at Kenya's agricultural shows. So renowned did his cobs become that he was increasingly asked to provide seed to many districts in Kenya and Tanganyika and this he did to such an extent that much of the maize grown in the two countries was based on seed from his farm. In the late 1920s he had 2200 acres of maize under cultivation, 1100 on his Elbonwala estate and 1100 on Kisinana estate, adjoining the Kamasia Reserve. Daily he had to sort out over 30 ox teams for ploughing and 10 teams for harrowing. In the 1930s slump maize prices fell and this brought maize growing on a large scale to an end.