Gazette - 12/5/15 - Probate and Admin. - J.M. Smith who died at Nairobi 15/2/15

Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Nairobi District - J.M. Smith, Unga Ltd.

Barnes - Nairobi South Cemetery - J McKay Smith, died Feb 1915, buried 15 Feb 1915

Leader14 - J.M. Smith - Nairobi

KFA - 'Jimmy Smith, the miller, was a cheerful character with a penchant for practical jokes. His best known concerned a meeting of the Convention of Associations, which had been founded in 1911, largely by Mr Robert Chamberlain and Delamere, to express the opinions of the settlers on the issues of the day. It soon acquired a reputation, which it was never to lose, for rousing oratory, hot-blooded resolutions and a generally intemperate opinion of the Government. One day towards the end of a stormy session the secretary received a message from (as he thought) the aide-de-camp to the Governor inviting delegates to tea. Surprised, but expecting a political discussion, they trooped up to Government House in their everyday clothes. (Among the delegates was Russell Bowker with his leopard's head hat) Sir Henry Belfield and his wife were startled by the arrival of this posse of settlers, who had been breathing fire and brimstone for several days; concealing this emotion, however, they offered everyone tea. The domestic staff rose to the occasion and the joke, which fell rather flat, ended with an amiable party on the lawn.

As with most practical jokers, Jimmy Smith's humour was often of a schoolroom type. He taught his African messenger that, in order to show respect to a 'bwana', he should cock a snook. When an occasion arose to send a note to Delamere he explained that, as this 'bwana' was a man of rank, both hands should be used to render a respectful salutation. Congestion at the Nairobi post office was often severe before the days of post office boxes, and Africans were sometimes kept waiting for the mail for most of the day. When Jimmy Smith's messenger, sent down at 8 o'clock, returned at noon empty-handed, his master sent him back with a deck chair and told him to sit in it until the clerk attended to him. He got the mail immediately. When surveyors were working on the branch line to Lake Magadi, Jimmy Smith is said to have salted the route with lumps of coal, spread rumours in Nairobi and started, among the geologically ignorant, a coal rush to that unpromising part of the world.' .......... [WW1] ...... The first post war meeting of Unga Ltd was held on Feb. 17th 1919. Shortly before, tragedy had visited the Sadler Street mill. Bubonic plague was endemic in Nairobi and an outbreak swept through the Indian bazaar and carried off Mr Jimmy Smith, then in sole charge of the mill. Operations came to a standstill.

Red Book 1912 - J. Smith - Mombasa

Playne - Mr White and Mr J. Smith, with the aid of 6 natives, run the mill.

UK Foreign and Overseas Registers 'natural cause' for death