St. Paul's Church, Kiambu cemetery - John Nordlinger, 1883-1939

Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Kiambu Voters Roll

Gazette 18 Sep 1970 wife's probate

Was in S. Africa before he went to Kenya.

EAS 25 Jan 1939 Born in Manchester, the son of Mr S Nordlinger, a leading figure in the cotton trade. At the age of 16 he went to South Africa where he remained for 20 years. He was at one time a partner in the Port Elizabeth firm of Rugeley and Nordinger, merchants. At the beginning of the war he happened to be in Germany on business and was interned in the Ruhlebon concentration camp. After some time he was invalided out and returned to Manchester by way of Holland. He came to Kenya in 1926 and took over a coffee farm which had belonged to Sir Northrop Macmillan. Very soon after his arrival he began to take an active interest in public affairs and played a prominent part in the political life of his district. His principle in life was always to be on the side of the underdog and he brought to his public interests both intelligence and unbounded energy. At the time of his death he was a member of the executive of the Ruiru Planters Association and at many sessions of the Convention he vigorously represented his fellow planters. His main interest was centred in financial and economic questions. He was appointed by government as a Convention nominee to be a member of the Agricultural Indebtedness Committee but disagreed with its findings and submitted a minority report favouring compulsory arbitration of indebtedness as the only method that he could see, borrowed from New Zealand, to solve the then pressing issue. His views were the subject of considerable controversy and on many occasions he used the correspondence columns of the East African standard to emphasise his point. At the end of 1937, despairing of the committee achieving anything at all in the direction of recommending a solution of the long term agricultural credit question, he resigned in a vigorously phrased letter. His resignation called public attention to the anomalous position of the committee, which had been inactive for two years after publishing its interim report, and as a consequence it was wound up. Was a keen Freemason and was secretary of Lodge Donyo Sabuk.