General Manager - Magadi Soda

Gazette - 13/5/14 - Guy Symonds - appt. JP Magadi

Gazette - 26/8/1914 - Appt. - Guy Symonds, Commandant, Magadi Railway Volunteers, to be Captain, to date August 5th 1914

London Gazette - 4 June 1917 - Companion of the Distinguished Service Order - For distinguished service in the field - Symonds, Guy - Temporary Lieut.-Colonel, Royal Field Artillery.

Tom Lawrence: On the outbreak of war the GM (Guy Symonds) went up to meet with Lt. Col. N.E.S. Ward, the officer commanding the troops in British East Africa and the Uganda Protectorate. He persuaded him that the Europeans were to be withdrawn to Kajiado where there was their hospital, houses and sufficient rations for ‘whites; for two to three months (included in this number were the Europeans working for Pauling & Co). He was the officer commanding Magadi District. Symonds was also asked by Lt. Col. N.E.S. Ward to raise a Defence Force for the defence of the line, and for the purposes of gathering information. Under Martial law, he was also authorised to commandeer any stores. He reported this by letter dated 12 Aug 1914 to the company chairman, Mr. Samuel Samuel. The original batch were eight in total –“…a small and mixed gathered together haphazard.” They included a railway guard, a chemist, an accountant, a builder and farmers and big game hunters” as well (Magadi, by M.F. Hill, p. 58)..They were headed up by Mr. Guy Symonds, the then General Manager who was made a Captain. They were mounted on mules, and had a wide range of firearms –everything except the standard issue. They would set out from the Manga River at dusk to the base of Longido mountain, and would climb the mountain in darkness to a spot where they could overlook the German Camp. They would stay there for the day observing the enemy, and at dusk would pull out. This ‘…peaceful form of war’ continued until the Germans pulled out of Longido after the first battle (Magadi, by M.F. Hill, p. 61).