Office work at Kasenji Estate, Mubendi, Uganda.

1922 manager at Kiamara Estate, Fort Portal (coffee), where he started a duka.

To UK for 5 months March 1924.

1924 started new job at Kabete Lodge Estate, Kabete - £8 a month. Then 1925 job at Koru with Dr Gordon (?Lawrence Gordon's father)

Apr 1926 at Fort Ternan looking for another job. Staying with Crawfords.

July 1926 new job managing 2 farms -Kipchui Fram at Fort Ternan owned by Eric Percy Firth and Fort Estate 4 miles away. - £29 a month, Coffee, maize, fruit, onions, sisal, sugar, wheat, tea, stock.

21.11.27 given 3 months' notice by Firth

26.2.28 has a job at Taito Estate, Senghor - £30 a month.

16.11.28 At Sonamerg, Songhor at £35 a month

18.12.1929 at Sukari, Nakuru, as mechanic

25.4.30 has left Ruiru. Manager at Gonongween, Lumbwa (£30 a month, owned by Cardale Luck)

1.9.30 clerk at Texaco, Nairobi, job got for him by his friend Laurie Gordon. Lived in boarding house.

1.12.1931 at Nakuru establishing new Texaco branch.

20.1.32 Texaco let him go because of retrenchment. Looked after house and dogs in Nairobi of some friends going on leave. Many social engagements.

Nairobi Forest Road cemetery - Mark Arnold Napier Stark, British, age 36, died 28/11/32

Gazette - 14/3/1933 - Probate and Administration - Mark Arnold Napier Stark late of Nairobi who died at Nairobi on 28 November 1932. Applied for by Lilian Emily Frances Overton of Nairobi
Provided by Maggie Buchanan (relative): East African Standard newspaper cutting about the death of Napier Stark.  1932, according to handwritten note:
KILIMANI FIRE ENQUIRY
Death From Causes Unknown
Magistrate’s Finding
“Several Peculiar Circumstances”
The finding of the Senior Resident Magistrate, yesterday, on the death of Mr M.A.N. Stark on November 27 in a detached house, in Kilimani, which was gutted by fire, was to the effect that the late Mr Stark died from causes unknown.
The remains of a male body were found in the bed in a bedroom in the house among the debris, and the Magistrate said it had not been possible to identify the remains.
“There are several peculiar circumstances with regard to this case,” His Honour said.  “1, That the body should be found on the bed.  It would appear probable that in a case of fire of this nature a sleeper would have been aroused and would have been able at least to struggle from the bed and have made some attempt to save himself.
“2, The lamp, Mr Stark was accustomed to take to his bedroom was a Dietz lantern.  The remains however of not only the Dietz lantern but also of his sitting room lamp were found in the bedroom.  According to the evidence, the lamp was never taken into the bedroom.
“3, The body was found lying on the bed in the opposite direction from that in which he was in the habit of sleeping.
The Automatic
“4, The automatic which it was in his custom to keep on a table by his bedside showed on examination that the cartridge in the breach had been fired.  According to the expert evidences this might have been fired either by pulling the trigger or by heat.
“Mr Stark did not sleep with his lamp burning.  Had an accident happened to the lamp before Mr Stark went to sleep it would appear improbable that the body would have been found lying in the bed.  As Mr Stark did not sleep with his lamp burning, it would also appear equally improbable that the cause of the fire was due to the lamp after he had retired.
“Mr Stark did not use a mosquito curtain and nothing of an inflammable nature was kept in the bedroom.  It would also appear improbable that the fire should have obtained such a hold from a smouldering cigarette without rousing Mr Stark.  It is reasonable to assume that the remains were those of Mr Stark.
“There is not an iota of evidence to show that Mr Stark had financial or other anxieties, or that he was in anything but a normal state of mind.  It is reasonable to assume that the remains were those of Mr Stark, but there is not sufficient evidence to show that his death was caused by the fire.
“I accordingly find that Mr Stark met his death on the night of November 27, but the evidence is not sufficiently clear to show what was the actual cause of death.”
Notes by MHB
Nan said (31 August 2006) Napier was her favourite uncle and it was a blow to her when he died (she was born in January 1918 and must therefore have been 14 at the time).  She said he lived in a hut in Africa and there was thought to be something scandalous about his relationship with a woman.

Letter from Mark Arnold Napier Stark to his bro 26.2.1928 (Stark had just become the Lowe's manager at Taito, Songhor) : Taito is 3000 acres and belongs to Mrs Lowe. She has – or had - plenty of money which a dreamy, finicky architect-engineering husband has wasted for her. He bought this place for her without her seeing it and dragged her up here paying an absurd price for - in those days  - ungetatable land with no road up the Escarpment. That was 7 years ago, during which time, though he has scarcely ever left the place, he has pottered about and frittered away her money. He never went near the coffee except an occasional walk round on Sundays - he hates natives - but seems to have spent most of his time designing and building an enormous house. £5000 pounds has already been spent on it and it is not nearly finished yet. A few months ago Mrs Lowe decided she couldn’t go on like this and packed her husband off home and told him to look for a job. He used to earn £2000 a year as an engineer in the Argentine. She has had two managers in the last 12 months - neither any good - and now they have got me to come and make the place pay while they go away and economise.[Mrs Lowe's sister and her husband F.O. Ward lived with the Lowes] Lowe is a comfortable, jovial sort of fellow who likes his little stories and jokes (oft repeated) and his wine we invariably have beer, shandy or cider for lunch, sundowners on the tray and wine and port for dinner. Sometimes a gin sling in the middle of the morning which is a most welcome and refreshing drink when buried in the bowels of a tractor out in the sun, and the feeding is the best I have ever had. Mrs Ward is the clever one of the two sisters. She it is who does the housekeeping. She is dark, tubby, untidy and not very prepossessing but makes up for it by her capability. Mrs Lowe on the other hand was the frivolous one (vain, in the past, of her good figure and (possibly) good looks, and slightly neurotic but not by any means a fool. So far I have found her very easy to get on with. It was rather pathetic the nervous tentative way in which at first she talked about the shamba. After all, it is her property, and she’s entitled to know what is going on and to suggest how things might be done!. Indeed, I have found them almost extraordinary kind and helpful. For instance, Ward would take me down the 74 miles to Fort Ternan and and back just to fetch my dog who had had to be left behind and has spent a lot of time helping me do repairs to my car.

I have been tremendously busy during the month I have been here as the shamba has been rather neglected and labour was out of hand. Things are just beginning to go a bit smoothly but I haven’t started any office work yet. I have been out on the shamba from sunrise to sunset very often. And by the time I have finished discussing various shauris [bothers], and the next day’s work with my headman I have scarcely any time for a sundowner (often not) before rushing off to bath and change for dinner. And by the time that evening ceremony with its 1796 sherry, it’s vintage Burgundy or Bordeaux and port is over about 10:00 pm, I am too sleepy to do anything but roll into bed. I have just been promoted to the house from a guest house outside and have been busy settling in. I have got splendid quarters - the finished wing of the house -  and they have furnished it most cosily for me. What a comfort it is to have a good house with solid walls and roof and big bath and fireplaces. And then, if I ever want to give a dance, I have the whole of the great centre room and accommodation for a vast assemblage.