' ..... He gave wonderful yachting parties with small yachts provided and exciting races on his lake. He and his wife Gloria would cater for about 25 of us any Sunday we chose to go. ..... ' Extract from a letter from Mrs Connie Whitfield Oct 1995 

Mischief - 'Commander' Jack Soames at Burgeret. At school with Broughton and travelled out with him in 1923. Soames had divorced Nina Drury some 10 years before the Broughtons' arrival ..... he had developed a sinister and morbid imagination, and had become a voyeur with an alarming style. He would drill holes in the roof above the guest bedrooms and peer down at them. He had also become bad-tempered and tyrannical towards his servants ........ when Gloria, his mistress, and later his wife, told the servant who brought the tea to take the remainder of the chocolate cake for himself, Soames said, "You're not going to give the cake to those baboons, are you?" ..................... According to Cyril Connolly he had had affairs with - Nina, Gloria and Alice de Janzé ............. Duska Repton (1979, living in London) - the beautiful Russian exile who had been a neighbour of Jack Soames in the late 1920s and the 1930s. said that Soames was extremely handsome, a wonderful dancer, with broad shoulders. 'But', said Mrs Repton, 'he was a compulsive, pathological liar. He told me in great detail how he had been tortured by the Bolsheviks in the Caucasus. I was completely taken in and then, by an odd chance, I discovered that he had never been to the Caucasus .......….

He and Carberry were great friends, and well suited to each other. They loved to sit around talking and planning murder. Carberry even boasted that he had committed two murders, and I wouldn't be surprised. Poor Gloria, his wife, died a complete alcoholic. ............ There was a suggestion that Soames was involved in illegal arms dealing at the time of the murder of Lord Erroll. ....... Soames had a partner at that time, Jack Band, a priest turned dairyman who lived with him at Burguret, whom Trench knew to be smuggling military equipment and arms to Abyssinia.

Land - N.E. Webb leased 7832 acres at Kenia, passed to J.B. Soames

EA Stud Book 1954 - Brood Mares - Thoroughbred - Breeders - Capt. J.B. Soames (1938)

Racing - Owner of 'Blackbird' by 'Wise Dove' - 'Collarcelle' - 1929 - Capt. J.B. Soames - Winner of the Nakuru Breeders Plate in 1930; Winner of The Prince of Wales Cup in 1930

Racing - Owner of 'Burguret' by 'Wise Dove' - 'Collarcelle' - 1929

Malcolmson - Jack Soames at Burgeret …. a man of great charm, had a very good cattle ranch. He preserved the game which ranged on the plains and had made a great dam and on the lake there were innumerable water fowl and we would go sailing in the heat of the sun and look up at the snow-capped Mount Kenya.

Barnes - Nairobi City Park Cemetery - John Beecroft Soames, died 7 May 1951 aged 60. He is also in Nanyuki cem.

First Wheel - Jack was a very good looking man and a great charmer. He was over six feet tall, but had a slight stoop. I later learned that he had been gassed in the Great War and for this reason he was not always feeling entirely well. However, this did not appear to interfere with the life he led. He was a great "party man"; in fact he was usually the life and soul of any party he attended. Naturally, with his life and his associates, he drank quite a bit.

Web - National Probate Calendar - John Beecroft Soames of Nanyuki Nairobi Kenya died 7 May 1951 Administration (with Will) (limited) London 2 October to Allen Aldwin Soames retired lieutenant colonel H.M. army attorney of Patrick Gascoigne. Effects £51928 3s 5d in England

Web - Oxford dnb - Happy Valley - Jack Soames was a voyeur who drilled holes in the ceilings of his bedrooms to watch his copulating guests.

Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Voters Register - Kenya Province - John Beecroft Soames, Settler PO Nanyuki

Gazette - 5/8/1925 - Voters Register - Kenya - Delete - John Beecroft Soames, Settler PO Nanyuki

Settler - designed armoured car for WW2 - manufactured by Railways - heavy and clumsy and called 'Susies'. They did good work as the first armoured fighting vehicles available in EA.

Wheel of Life - "After Jack Soames and the guests had gone back to England, I [Bunny Allen] thought it a good idea to move over to Mervyn Soames's farm ….. … Jack Soames had often said that he must take me down to Nairobi to meet the chief game warden, Archie Ritchie

Burke - Mrs Valerie Nina Ryder only dau. of James Beecroft Soames and Mrs N.H. Drury

First Wheel - 1927 - Sagana …….. Where I would catch the train to Naro Moru, which at that time was railhead. There my eldest brother, Denys, would meet me and drive to his house. That was going to be my first base in Kenya. ………. On Denys' return we breakfasted and for the rest of the day he explained to me the whole setup of the farm. It belonged to Jack Soames, an Etonian, and the brother of Mervyn Soames who had been on the boat. Denys pointed out that, without a doubt, they were both now at Muthaiga Country Club, for the New Year celebrations. After a few days, they would come to Jack's house, which was on the other side of the farm, on another river.

First Wheel - Jack Soames - His wife, Gloria, whom he had married during the war years. ……….. She was a very sweet charming woman.

Second Wheel - "I [Bunny Allen] had news, bad news, of my old friend and mentor, Jack Soames, who was in the Nairobi Hospital. I immediately went to see him. He was ill, indeed. He had been living down at the coast for some time. (The doctor had told him that the altitude at his farm was too much for him). Within 3 days Jack was dead. He had been a most splendid help and friend to me over all the years - always ready with that little bit of help and encouragement at the right time. I was to miss him a great deal.

Garden - 'sailing on Jack Soames's lake ..'

Gazette 12 June 1951 - death at Nbi of John Beecroft Soames

Mrs Soames ran the Nanyuki branch of the EAWL in 1927-28.

Markham - Lover of Beryl Markham in 1930s

An old Eton friend of Sir Delves Broughton.