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Name: DE SMIDT, Frank Philip Gilbert (Dr.)
Birth Date: 1890 Rondebosch, Cape, SA
Death Date: 19.5.1948 Nairobi
First Date: 1930
Profession: Medical Dept. bacteriologist
Area: Box 141, Nairobi
Married: In Paddington 29 June 1919 Eulalie 'Pearl' Marblette Herzog Jeffcoat b. 5 Feb 1899 Kampster, India, d. 1972 Northampton
Children: Dr. Adeline Esme (Ruck) (1920 Chesterton, Cambs.-24 Jan 1953 north Kinangop, killed by Mau Mau)
Book Reference: Red 31, KGF, Gazette, Bur, Dominion, Web
School: Brighton College
General Information:
KGF - Esme Ruck née De Smidt who was murdered by Mau Mau with her husband and son Michael obtained a medical degree in Cape Town and was the daughter of a mother and doctor-father who lived in Nairobi
Gazette 1929 - F.P.G. de Schmidt - Laboratory Division
Nairobi City Park Burial Register - Dr. Frank Phillip Gilbert De Smidt, Dutch, age 68, died 19/5/48
Dominion - Medical Department - Assistant Bacteriologist - 1930 - F.P.G. De Smidt
Web - British Medical Journal - 5 Mar 1949 - Dr. Frank Philip Gilbert de Smidt, who was 58 years of age, died at his home in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 19, 1948 after a long illness bravely borne. He was formerly officer in charge of the bacteriological section of the Medical Research Laboratory, Nairobi, and bacteriologist to Kenya. He was born near Capetown, and was educated in England at Brighton College and then at the London hospital, where he qualified in 1916. After a period of active service in the first world war he took the DPH and became a research worker in bacteriology for the Food Investigation Board of the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research. Later he held the post of assistant director of the clinical laboratory at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and subsequently that of pathologist to the Brompton Hospital for Consumption. He then joined the Colonial Medical Service and went to Kenya in 1926 to take up his appointment at the Medical Research Laboratory, Nairobi. There he carried out research on many subjects, notably on plague, pneumonia and rabies. The vaccines which he prepared were used throughout East and Central Africa. He was the author of a number of papers on bacteriological subjects, and he was widely esteemed by his co-workers in the same field. After 10 years in Kenya he was invalided out of the service, and during his remaining years he occupied himself as a member of the Rationalist Press Association of Great Britain and the Rationalist Association of Australia. Dr de Smidt leaves a widow and a daughter, who is also a doctor.