Winner of the Ronald Marshall Golf Competition at Njoro in 1934. Runner-up in the Ronald Marshall Golf Competition at Njoro in 1932, 1938. President of the Golf Union of EA in 1937. President of Gilgil Golf Club from 1934-36 and 1946/47. Captain of Gilgil Golf Club in 1927, 1934. Winner of the Rift Valley Championship in 1929, 1932, 1934.

Police - When the Adjutant of the EA Police Service Battalion, Capt. Thom, [sic] was incapacitated after a bad motor-cycle accident, Lieut G. Le Blanc [sic] assumed those duties in January 1915, and was then promoted to Captain.

Pembroke - Judge at Pembroke House Sports 1932

Njoro - The Gooding Cup 1932 - G. Le Blanc Smith & A.K. Gibson; The Ronald Marshall Cup 1934

Gazette - 11/8/1915 - Appt. - EA Police (Military Service Battalion) - To be Lieutenant - Lance-Corpl. Geoffrey le Blanc Smith, EAMR

Gazette - 11/8/1915 - Appt. - EA Police (Military Service Battalion) - To be Captain - Lieut. Geoffrey le Blanc Smith, in his capacity of Adjutant and Quartermaster, vice Captain Maurice St. Clair Thom.

Naivasha - Among the first soldier settlers was Captain Le Blanc Smith - quote from him - "In 1914 Gilgil township consisted of one Indian shop, the railway station and quarters, one private house and a hotel. Settlers were few and far between. The headquarters of the East African Lands and Development Company were three miles from the township. There an English manager and several assistants were surveying for settlement and developing an enormous concession extending more than 40 miles North from Naivasha township to beyond Ol'Bolossat Lake. My partner and I did not take up any of their land, but I bought a 5,000 acre farm in Upper Gilgil, 12 miles north of Gilgil, but we had 2 families of neighbours living within a couple of miles of us. Communications were not easy, roads were mere earth tracks and in wet weather ox waggons often needed double teams to pull them through the mud. Farmers and their families rode on horses or mules, or just walked! A chair on a waggon was a rare luxury and very slow. We had been but a short month on our farm when war broke out. Our first information of this (several days late) came in a letter from the Indian shopkeeper at Gilgil, saying 'There is war (battle) between England and Germany!' A small contingent of Gilgil volunteers, myself included, was formed and we all set off to join up on our farm mules. My partner joined up later but was unfortunately killed in the fighting as were four of the first dozen Gilgil men who joined up. It was 5 years before I saw Gilgil again ………. Local medical services were non-existent, the nearest available being in Nakuru, where a few Army huts formed the nucleus of what became the War Memorial Hospital. One Gilgil wife rode down to Nakuru, some 20 miles, to have her first baby; her path was down the steep, rocky Dundori escarpment, the haunt of buffalo and many other wild animals. Escorted by her husband with a rifle and a Masai with a spear, she arrived safely and the baby was a fine boy! …….. {more}

Soldier Settlement Scheme after WW1 - Class B - Capt. G. Le Blanc-Smith, DCM, MC, Wrydelands, Leatherhead, Surrey - Farm 1053

mini-Sitrep XXIX - Obituary by Roland Hill MBE - There is something rather special about Geoffrey Le Blanc Smith as a person, apart from his East African medal group, that needs to be recorded. The circumstances which dictated his arrival in the East African Protectorate was quite simply  a broken heart. He had fallen in love with a certain Irene Ram, the daughter of J. Ram, a distinguished King's Counsel with connections to the Inchiguin [sic] family in County Wexford. She had turned him down on more than one occasion; he decided to emigrate. In December 1913, at the age of 30, he borrowed £1000 from one of his aunts and worked his passage to Mombasa. He bought a farm in the Gilgil area west of Nairobi just prior to the outbreak of the First World War. Geoffrey previously had an outstanding scholastic and athletic career at Radley College. He represented the school in every sporting activity, including 4 years in the cricket XI and 3 in the Racquets pair. At University College, Oxford, he read classics, and was awarded blues for athletics at both the long jump and the hurdles, over 3 years. On coming down he had joined the family firm of stockbrokers.

In 1909 he was commissioned into the 5th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, and at the outbreak of war he was still on leave of absence, with his Colonel's permission. He did not return home to the UK, but instead enlisted in the East African Mounted Rifles as a Trooper. All the officer vacancies were filled by more senior men, the majority of whom had served in the Boer War. He was thus serving at the same time, in 2 separate units, as a Lieutenant and as a Trooper! ………… [much on his service in WW1]

When the War was over Geoffrey returned on leave to the UK after 55 months on active service, with only 2 leaves of a fortnight (one on sick leave). To his surprise he found out that Irene Ram, his first and only true love, was still unmarried (though not from want of other suitors including one to whome she was engaged but who had been killed on the Western Front). He proposed once again and was accepted! They returned as a married couple to Kenya where they had 3 children - 2 girls and a boy. The son became a regular Captain, RN, and died last year (2004). Geoffrey continued to farm. His amazing sporting prowess in past years was now rechannelled. He became a crack shot and a scratch golfer, and in later years was appointed President of the East African Golfing Association. ……… [more] ……… Geoffrey was a man of the highest integrity with a strong sense of duty. He took life very seriously, but Rayne writes of him that he would roar with laughter when insurmountable difficulties faced him and he was completely unflappable. There is no doubt that with his exceptional abilities he could have risen to the very highest reaches of the public service. ……………[more regarding his medals]. Geoffrey died in 1968 and his wife in 1970. They are both buried in Nakuru cemetery in Kenya, alongside Mr Ferguson, Geoffrey's murdered partner

Red 25 - Honorary Permit Issuer

Edinburgh Gazette - 4/5/1920 - To be Brevet Major in the Territorial Force as reward for distinguished service in connection with operations against the Northern Turkana and kindred tribes - dated 3/6/1919 - Capt. G. Le B. Smith, MC, 5th Bn E. Surrey Regt. Attd. E Afr. Prot. Force.

Gazette - 18/7/1917 - Honours - Bar to MC - Captain G. Le Blanc Smith, Police Service Battalion

Web - Geoffrey Le Blanc Smith was born in 1884. He fought in East Africa in the First World War and continued his military service as Brevet Major in Africa. He had the nick name of “Blanco”. He died in Kenya in 1968. He married Irene Montagu Ram. She had many aristocratic ancestors in Britain and Ireland. Her father was Barrister and Priest. Her family is littered with Knights, Earls, Lords and Ladies. They had 3 children:-

John, 1921-2002. He was a Captain in the Navy and married Patricia Sheriden. He was Commodore in Malta during the 1970s. Local historian Lt. Colonel Oliver Wyn Hughes was based in Malta at that time and can remember film nights that he hosted for officers. John’s three children, Sally Ann, Wendy and Michael are living today.

Kathleen, 1923-2001, married Mr Gee. She died in Capetown. Their children Penelope, Sandra and Susan (twins) and Rosalind are living today in South Africa.

Margaret (Meg), 1925-2003. She married Frederick Peter Byrne Derrick (1948, Nairobi). He was in the Colonial Service in Africa and died during a heart operation at Harefield Hospital in 1970. She then married Clyde Fairbanks (known as Peter) in 1973 in Chelsea and died in a Sussex nursing home. Her first daughter died at childbirth, and third child, Clare, died at 18 months, but Julia, Liz and Hugh are living today.

Web - The Soldier's Burden - Another interesting officer in the East Africa Police Service Battalion was Geoffrey Le Blanc Smith. As a Trooper in the East Africa Mounted Rifles he gained a DCM ("For gallant conduct on 3rd November, 1914, during the engagement at Longido (East Africa), when he assisted to carry a wounded comrade into cover, whilst subjected to a very severe close range rifle fire.") during the abortive Tanga diversionary attack.

Commissioned and appointed Adjutant and Quartermaster in the East Africa Police Service Battalion Geoffrey received a MC for the Turkana operation. He stayed on the Kagera Line as a staff officer when the Battalion went to Wajir and was recommended for a DSO, but this was reduced to a bar to his MC. He returned to Turkana as Supplies and Transport Officer attached to the KAR during the Northern Turkana Expedition 1918, for which he received a promotion to Brevet Major and the clasp "East Africa 1918" to his East Africa General Service Medal.

Gazette 18 Apr 1969 probate

Gazette 20 Feb 1970 wife's probate