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Name: MAXWELL, Geoffrey Archibald Prentice DSO, MVO, MC (Col.)

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Nee: son of W.F. Maxwell, Capt. RN

Birth Date: 1885 Charlotte Town, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Death Date: 25 Apr 1953 Nanyuki

First Date: 1912 Official with Northern Nigeria Railway 1908/11

Last Date: 1953

Profession: Gen. Manager Tanganyika Railways 1920. A Canadian who had served in the RE in WW1. At one time the youngest Colonel in the British Army

Area: Tanganyika

Married: 1918 Agnes Duncan Ruthven b. 1885, d. 20 May 1955 Mombasa

Book Reference: Gillett, Debrett, Red 25, EA & Rhodesia, Red 22, DSO, Leader14, Barnes, Gazette

War Service: WW1 mentioned in despatches 7 times, highly decorated, RE

School: St. Andrew's School Tenby, Cheltenham College & RMA Woolwich

General Information:

He had been in charge of a light railway company moving ammunition and stores up to the front line.  
Debrett - entered RE 1904, and became Capt. and Brevet Major; retired with rank of Col. in the Army 1922; European War 1914-19 as Dep. Assist. Director of Railway Transport, with rank of Major, Assist. Director-Gen. of Transportation, with rank of Lieut.-Col., and Assist. Inspector-Gen. of Transportation, with rank of Col. (despatches 7 times, MC, MVO, DSO, Brevet Major, Officer of Legion of Honour and of Order of Leopold of Belgium, French and Belgian Croix de Guerre); employed on Railway construction N. Nigeria 1908-11, and Assist. Director of Surveys, EA protectorate 1912-14; Gen. Manager Tanganyika Railways 1920
East Africa & Rhodesia - 7/5/53 - Colonel Geoffrey Archibald Prentice Maxwell, CMG, DSO, MVO, MC, chairman of the Railway Commission of Rhodesia in 1939, and general manager of Tanganyika Railways from 1920 to 1935, who has died in Nanyuki, Kenya, at the age of 67, went to East Africa in 1912 to work on the East African Survey. In the 1914-18 war he was successively Assistant Director of Railway Transport and Assistant Inspector-General of Transportation, being mentioned in despatches 6 times. In addition to his British decorations he held the Order of the Legion of Honour, the Croix de Guerre with palms, and the Order of Leopold.
Leader14 - Assistant Director, Trigonometrical and Topographical Dept.
Mombasa Mbaraki cemetery - Agnes Maxwell, died 20 May 1955 age 69, European Hospital, Malaria, body exhumed for reburial at Nanyuki.
Gazette 1/8/1912 - Arrived on 1st Appointment - T & T Branch Survey - 15/7/1912

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