He was a past President of the Mombasa Chamber of Commerce and the Zanzibar Chamber of Commerce, was on the Mombasa Harbour Advisory Board and was a member of the Mombasa Municipal Board for many years. He was a keen golfer and tennis player. Captain of Mombasa GC in 1938.

Macmillan - 1930 - General Manager, The African Mercantile Co. Ltd., Mombasa

Gazette, 6 Dec 1938 Mombasa Voters List

Gazette 17 May 1949 probate

Tony Wright (grandson): He went to East Africa in 1912 or 13 and his first job was with the East Africa Trading Company in Zanzibar. He learnt and spoke fluent Swahili. He became General Manager in Mombasa (Head Office) in 1923 at an unusually young age. The company by then having changed its name to 'The African Mercantile Co Ltd'. His work and his war work were to be rewarded with a knighthood in 1949. Sadly he was taken ill with appendicitis prior to leaving for the UK, infection set in (no antibiotics then) and he died on 23rd April 1949. My mother said to me 'Had he lived all our lives would have been different'.

FindaGrave Major Arthur Frederick Crisp Birth 20 Nov 1894 Dagenham, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, Greater London, England Death 23 Apr 1949 (aged 54) Nairobi, Kenya Burial City Park Cemetery Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya  Plot Section 2 Lot 37 Memorial ID 184474717

Joan Elizabeth Wright (dau.), My Father (booklet) Arthur got a job with the Royal Insurance Company, but after a year or so answered an advertisement for a job with the East Africa Trading Company. In 1912 or 1913 he went to Zanzibar as manager. In his time there he learned to speak Swahili fluently, and made a great success of the job. His brother John became manager of the Nairobi branch of the African Mercantile Co. In 1920 my mother Gertrude Elizabeth Lewis arrived in Zanzibar as a Sister with the Colonial Nursing Service. My father and mother were married in Zanzibar Cathedral on 11 March 1922. The couple went on leave to England in the summer of 1923. 

In London Arthur made such an impression on the chairman, Sir John Davidson, that he announced that he would have nothing further to do with the company unless Arthur, aged 29, was appointed general manager and given the power to turn the company round and make it a successful concern because it had been stagnating for some time. Arthur was duly appointed general manager and returned to Mombasa later in 1923. My father was extremely busy reorganizing the company of which he was made a director in 1926. From time to time he was Deputy Chairman of the Mombasa Municipal Board. A road in Mombasa was named after him. He went to England in 1939 as East African delegate to the International Chamber of Commerce. He was awarded a Jubilee medal in 1935 and a Coronation medal in 1937. During the war he was appointed East African representative of the Ministry of War Transport, and also asked to be Hides Controller for East Africa which entailed a vast amount of work and meetings. Hides were a very large export from all over East Africa, and the company was involved in this trade.

At the beginning of the war he joined the Home Guard in Mombasa. The Eastern Fleet was moved from Ceylon to Mombasa, the Army poured in and the Royal Air Force had a coastal command station nearby. Arthur was then asked to set up a canteen for other ranks in Mombasa which he did with his well known efficiency and common sense. He was also quite a sportsman, playing golf and tennis, and he was a good swimmer.

He had an operation for a grumbling appendix in the Maia Carberry Nursing Home in Nairobi in 1949 but complications set in and he died on 23 April at the age of 54. My mother and sister packed up and returned to England.

Some people considered him a hard man. He was straightforward and expected the same from others. Like most of his generation, he had a strong sense of duty and of right and wrong, and was very patriotic. He mostly read official publications and the local newspapers. For pleasure it was Surtees, Shakespeare and PG Wodehouse. He had a pleasant tenor voice and in earlier years he enjoyed singing duets around the piano. In 1949 he had been offered a knighthood to take effect in the June birthday honours but died before this could take effect.

Edward Rodwell He refused to let any member of his staff outside between 8 am and 4 pm unless wearing a solar topee.