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Name: LYNE-WATT, William 'Bill' MBE
Birth Date: 12 Aug 1890 Lyne of Skene, Aberdeenshire
Death Date: 18 Nov 1951 Nyeri
First Date: 1919 BEADOC
Last Date: 1951
Profession: Agrarian Development Officer
Area: Nairobi, Kericho, Kisumu, 1931 Bukura Ag. School Mumias, Nyeri
Married: 25 Sep 1919 Hilda Louise Hay b. 1893, d. 15 Feb 1962 Nyeri
Children: James Robertson (10 Oct 1923 Nairobi-15 Aug 1964 Lulaba, Sudan); Louise
Book Reference: Red 25, Hut, EA & Rhodesia, Red 22, Barnes, Colonial, Golf, Dominion, KAD, Red 31, Gazette
War Service: Scottish Horse and the RFC in WW1, Flt. Lieut
School: Robert Gordon's Aberdeen, Marishall Coll., Aberdeen Univ., and Eberswalde Forest Coll. Germany
General Information:
East Africa & Rhodesia - 17/1/52 - Mr William Lyne-Watt, MBE, who has died in Kenya had been Agrarian Development Officer in that Colony since 1947. After education at Aberdeen University and in Germany, he served in World War I in the Scottish Horse and the RFC. Appointed an agricultural supervisor in Kenya in 1923, he became a senior agricultural officer. Keenly interested in forestry, he did much valuable work for the wattle industry and also for the lake fisheries. For many years he was an elder of two Kenya churches; he was also a past chieftain of the Mt. Kenya and Nyanza Caledonian Societies, and a Freemason.
Mr C.T. Davenport writes:- "Bill Lyne-Watt came to Kenya originally with BEADOC in 1919, when he and his wife settled down to farm at Kericho. When that disabled ex-Servicemen's colony broke up he joined the Agricultural Dept., and was for many years on the staff of the Scott Laboratories at Kabete. Later in the native areas he found his real metier in teaching and gently persuading the African to save his soil and change his life-long habit of growing only sufficient crops to keep starvation at bay from his family. It was due to Lyne-Watt that the cultivation of cotton in the Nyanza Province reached such remarkable proportions in the 1930s.
He was likewise the instigator of the cultivation of rice on the shores of Lake Victoria. He had an unfailing sense of duty, and his very Scottish humour was often the means of enforcing attention to his teaching. Lyne-Watt never spared himself in spite of a physical disability, the result of a crash when in the RAF on a training flight in England in the first war. He was much beloved, and he will long remain in the memory of the many district officers who owe him a great debt of gratitude for his unfailing help in the furtherance of their aims for better soil conditions.
Nairobi City Park cemetery - William Lyne Watt, died 18 Nov 1951 aged 61, buried at Nyeri
St. Peter's Nyeri cemetery - William 'Bill' Lyne-Watt, born 12 August 1890, died 8 November 1951 AND Hilda Lyne-Watt, died 15 February 1962
Colonial - Agricultural Supervisor Kenya 1923; Senr. Agric. Officer 1937; Agrarian Dev. Officer 1947.
Golf - One of the "Roaring Forties" who were well known on Kisumu Golf Course in the early 30's for their highly coloured shirts and not their golf!
Dominion - Agricultural Department - Agricultural Officer - 1930
Red 31 - Bukura Agric. School, Kakamega.
Hut - 1919 - BEADOC then to Forestry Dept.
Gazette - 11 May 1937 - MBE - William Lyne Watt, Esq., Colonial Agricultural Service, Agricultural Officer, Kenya
Red 25 - Agricultural Supervisor, Divison of Native Agric., Agricultural Dept. Hut has Lynn-Watt
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Nyanza Voters List
Gazette 3 Apr 1962 wife Hilda's probate