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| A rubber plantation in Malaya in the 1920s |
What do we know of the life of Alfred St Alban Smith, a rubber planter in the Malay States who generated such praise for his efforts to send animals, particularly reptiles, to London zoo in the 1920s and 30s?
By searching genealogical sites, including a family tree, and newspapers available online I have managed to build up a timeline of Alfred St Alban Smth’s life, albeit with some gaps. Although there is information that he kept reptiles at what must have been his various homes on the rubber estates he worked on, I have failed to uncover what stimulated his great and abiding interest in reptiles and why he developed into such a major donor of reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals to London. As always in wading through material these searches comes up one finds errors which need to be followed up together, though, with surprises in family connexions—as will become evident below.
Smith and his family were often referred to as ‘St Alban Smith’. They lived in an era when a double-barrelled surname, even when unhyphenated, was thought to bring a social cachet. It also distinguished the family from the many other Smiths that were around. In official registration documents and the like the surname is usually simply ‘Smith’.
Alfred St Alban Smith was a son of the Raj. He was born on 11 June 1880 in Calcutta to the Rev Alfred William Lewis Smith and Clara Virgina Pyne (née Armour). His father was River Chaplain to the Port of Calcutta at the time.
Aged 11 he appears in a newspaper report of a concert held in February 1892 at Christ Church Girls' School in Nellore (now in Andhra Pradesh). He performed an ‘instrumental duet’ with his mother. ‘The little man's touch and precision promise well for his musical future’, the reporter concluded. And it those musical abilities which were being celebrated in 1893, not in India but in Cornwall, passing the piano test in the primary division in the Trinity College London’s examinations at Truro under the tutelage of a Miss F. Clyma. His presence at Truro suggests he was a boarder at one of the schools there.
We then jump to the late 1890s. in 1898-99 when he was 18-19 Alfred seems to have held a junior teaching posts at schools in the south of England. At Woolston College, Southampton in 1898, he was a steward at a sports day. He was also at Castle College, Guilford, Surrey in 1898. At a concert to raise funds for a hospital, St Alban Smith sang ‘Cock of the Walk’ which ‘was vociferously encored, and in response he gave 'He didn't go to work next morning’’. A similar concert was held in Aldershot in April 1899: ‘Mr. St Alban Smith's song was a very up-to-date one indeed, and was received with many hearty rounds of applause. It was a song which told England's foreign affairs in a nutshell, and it brought forth many a laugh as well’.
Surrey newspapers show him playing football, the round ball variety, for Guildford in 1888-99.
The next records I have found show he was back in India by 1902 and aged 21.
On 19 April 1902 St Alban Smith (5’ 9¾”, 144lb, brown hair, pale complexion, hazel eyes, scarred on both cheeks and above the left eye) enlisted in the British Army for the Boer War. He did so in Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and joined the Ceylon Volunteer Company, Gloucestershire Regiment. I can only think that this unit of volunteers was attached to the Glosters was because the 1st Battalion of that Regiment was in Colombo guarding Boer prisoners who had been shipped there. Newspaper reports show a number of expats in India had sailed to Colombo in order to join up. Amongst his contingent to travel south at their own expense, St Alban Smith was shown as from Tundla a railway town now in Uttar Pradesh. His father had been Chaplain there since 1901. He departed for South Africa on 21 April but only stayed until 22 June. By the time he arrived the war was in its last days. Back in Colombo Private Smith was discharged on 12 August. His service before the end of the war on 31 May qualified him for the Queen’s South Africa Medal.
Later in 1902 he was installed as a teacher at La Martiniere College, Lucknow. The headmaster reported: ‘…his place was taken at the beginning of Christmas Term by Mr. St. Alban Smith. who, in addition to some previous experience as a teacher, had gained experience of another kind in the late war in South Africa, where he served as a volunteer in the Ceylon Contingent’.
In 1905 , the year of his father’s death, his job and location had changed again. In Trichinopoly (Tiruchirappalli) then in the Madras Presidency St Alban Smith became a Freemason in the Lodge of the Rock. He was also playing cricket for the town side.
In December 1905 the Madras Weekly Mail reported:
Princess Janaky of the Chinna Aramsnai, Pudukottha, gave a delightful Garden Party on Monday, the 27th, in honour of her brother H. H. the Rajah of Pudukottha's birthday. The Band of the 86th C.I. played a charming selection of music during the evening, and games were arranged for the guests. In the potato and bucket race, instead of Jill madly clutching at potatoes, whilst Jack looked on, a new element was introduced. Jill held the pail whilst Jack tried to get the potatoes up from the ground on a little tea spoon, a most difficult accomplishment, was won by Miss Savage and Mr. St Alban Smith…
Later that year, in August, was the report:
I regret to state that Mr. St, Alban Smith had a nasty fall from his horse last week, but the injuries are not so bad as was at first feared and he is expected to be able to get about before long.
On 14 February 1906 he married Lena Margaret Cicely Savage in Trichinopoly. Lena Savage (she of the potato and bucket race) was from Boscombe, Bournemouth. At the time Smith was employed in the traffic department of the South India Railway Company which had its headquarters in Trichinopoly.
Prowess at hunting Blackbuck, that gorgeous Indian antelope, was next in the Madras Weekly Mail in May 1906:
Messrs. Smythe and St. Alban Smith went out shooting on Saturday morning and returned before breakfast time with three black buck, which I am informed were dropped with one shot each. One of the buck was the famous one-horned buck that we have all been after for several years now, and I hear on examination no less than eleven scars, the results of old bullet, wounds, were found on its body. An air of mystery is lent to the whole proceeding by the persistent way in which these sportsmen refuse to give any information as to where their happy hunting ground is, and as I understand this is the third time they have gone on an "after chota hari, will return to breakfast" shoot, and have returned with two or more buck, I think we should have their movements watched so that we may be able to stock our larders with venison on the third Saturday in each month, as they regularly do.
And yet more venison later that month:
Again has venison been scattered broadcast all over the station, but this time an additional charm was added to it, inasmuch as a lady shot some of it. Mr. and Mrs. St, Alban Smith were out shooting on Sunday morning and each of them bagged a buck. Mrs St. Alban Smith's was a particularly fine one and was, I understand, dropped with a single shot at 150 yards. It is seldom one hears of a lady shooting black buck in Southern India in the month of May.
In 1907 the Madras Weekly reported a move from ‘Assistant Secretary to the Agent of the South Indian Railway’ to the ‘Assam-Bengal Railway as Senior Assistant Traffic Superintendent’.
A daughter, Mercy Stella Margaret, was born in Chittagong in 1907.
Shipping records show that in 1909 St Alban Smith travelled from London to Lagos. The London Evening Standard of 13 May show that he had been appointed ‘traffic inspector’ for the Lagos Railway. He cannot have been in Nigeria for more than a few months because in 1910, aged 30, Smith moved to Malaya to work for Malacca Rubber Plantations. There he was member of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles. In 1914 he was on leave in Britain. On 31 August, 27 days after the declaration of war, and giving his address as Manor Hotel, Lydford, Devon, he joined the Honourable Artillery Company, that renowned ‘gentlemen of the City of London’ regiment. There he served in the 1st Battalion which was despatched to France on 16 September. There he would have fought in the First Battle of Ypres which began on 19 October. However, he was back in Britain on Christmas Day and then medically discharged on 25 March 2015. The reason is given as ‘trench foot’ in his obituary in the Straits Times; his army records show ‘cardiac dilatation and emphysema’ of unknown date of origin. ‘Condition probably aggravated by frostbite in trenches. Is still very feeble nervous and shaky’. On his pay and disability pension (7 shillings per week for one year) Smith wrote to point out the Army’s calculations did not include the bounty he was due. He also pointed out that he ‘purchased all my own uniform and kit except rifle, webbing equipment and waterproof sheet’. The HAC records, separately from the Army, all former members of the regiment. Smith’s address is shown as 92 Paisley Road, Bournemouth.
His discharge papers noted that he was returning to the New Amherst Estate, Kuala Lumpur, and that he had a snake bite scar on his left calf. Was the latter gained through his work in the field or was it an indication of pursuit of his herpetological interest?
His commanding officer signed off his papers with:
This man’s character during his service with the colours has been exemplary.
Alfred St Alban Smith lost no time in returning to Malaya. He left on the Japanese ship Hirano Maru on 3 April 1915 to disembark at Penang.
His return to Malaya was marked by a acrimony. In September he had Mr E.H. Scott before the police court in Kuala Lumpur charged with ‘criminal breach of trust’ over $100 (about £12). The prosecutor ‘said that at first sight it might appear that $100 was too trivial a sum on which to bring Mr. Scott into court, thus making the charge out to be one of a vindictive nature. Counsel mentioned that discrepancies had been discovered when Mr. St Alban Smith, the manager of New Amherst Estate, had returned from leave, and referred to accused's adopting a defiant attitude. That was why the charge was pressed'. Scott was acquitted but then had St Alban Smith prosecuted. On 11 October:
Mr. Scott prosecuted Mr. St Alban Smith, manager of the New Amherst Rubber Estate, for having, as he stated, (I) attempted to screen an offence (criminal breach of trust), and (2) used criminal intimidation towards him (Mr. Scott). These proceedings were the outcome of the recent prosecution of Mr. Scott by Mr. Smith for criminal breach of trust, which resulted in an acquittal. In the course of the trial it was shown that Mr. Smith had threatened the prosecution unless Mr. Scott resigned and joined the army, in which contingency there was to be no prosecution. Mr. Robinson, for the defence, at the outset took the point that as no offence had been committed, as was subsequently shown by the acquittal, there could be no screening. The magistrate adopted this view, and Mr. Pooley, prosecuting, had nothing to say against it. Mr. Pooley then announced that he would withdraw the charge of criminal intimidation, although he contended that there had been some attempt to intimidate. Mr. Robinson did not want a withdrawal. He demanded an acquittal, and this the Court allowed. The accused was found not guilty of both charges, and discharged. This, counsel observed, would be the end of the litigation between the parties.
With that the invalided-out St Alban Smith was soon back in the Army—this time with a commission. The London Gazette announced that Smith was to a temporary (i.e. wartime) Second Lieutenant in the Royal Irish Regiment with effect from 27 November 1915. I can find no army records for this period but the Straits Times reported that he was present at the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. Records indicate that St Alban Smith must have been in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, and to have been part of the initial response since they were stationed in the city, at Richmond Barracks. Only a few weeks later, on 4 May, St Alban Smith relinquished his commission ‘on account of ill-health’.
The Financial News of 2 October 1917 recorded that at a general meeting of the Mengkibol (Central Johore) Rubber Co Ltd at Winchester House, Old Broad Street, London, the chairman spoke:
To turn now to the report, you will. I know, share the deep concern with which we heard of the murder of our much esteemed manager (Mr. Willson), and our sympathy with his family. It is at least satisfactory to know that the murderer paid the penalty of his life. Mr. St. Alban Smith was appointed on probation to succeed Mr. Willson as manager, and it is now proposed to confirm him in his appointment. I am glad to say he was very successful in his recruiting mission to India, and thus solved the labour problem that for a time caused us all some anxiety.
I do not know when Smith’s first marriage ended in divorce. However the 1921 Census in England shows Lena St Alban Smith was ‘divorced’ and working as a ‘nurse (domestic)’ in the house of the American manager of the Palmolive Soap Company at 11 Hoop Lane, Golders Green. The daughter, Mercy, was with her and in full-time education.
Alfred St Alban Smith’s second marriage was on 15 November 1923 at the Kensington Register Office in London. He was shown on the marriage certificate as the divorced husband of Lena Cicely Margaret Smith and aged 43. The bride was a spinster, aged 39, Olive Winifred Easby*, the daughter of William Easby MD (deceased). The address of both was given as 88 Queens Gate, London SW7.
Olive was born in Wandsworth in 1884. In the 1901 Census she was a ‘copyist’ in London while In 1911 she was a ‘masseuse’, living in Hemel Hempstead. Hertfordshire. In both censuses she was living with her widowed mother. I cannot find her in the 1921 Census and it would seem that she was in India living as ‘Mrs Smith’ in India. Indeed on 20 September 1923 the London and China Express informed its readers that Mr and Mrs St Alban Smith had left for ‘home’ but that while in England he intended to visit Munich for ‘medical treatment for a trouble resulting from his war experience’. This return ‘home’ matches the marriage of Alfred and Olive in London after the voyage.
A reminder: if you are reading this other than on the Zoology Jottings site, it has been stolen.
In 1925 British newspapers show that St Alban Smith was involved in the launch of new rubber plantations. In one prospectus he was the agent reporting on the prospects of a new plantation in Borneo. Nearly all rubber plantation companies in the Straits Settlements were registered in London or Glasgow. From the late 1920s until 1941 he can be found in the rubber trade directories, first as manager of a particular estate in Singapore or in other Malay states nearby, then as general manager and finally, from 1935, as proprietor of two estates in Sungei Tiram, Johore.
In the years from 1920 shipping records and newspaper reports show that St Alban Smith was in Britain in 1923, 1925, 1926, 1931, 1932, 1937 and 1938. Those dates do not mean he travelled in other years since not all routes into or out of UK are covered. Foreign ships could come from the Far east to Mediterranean ports with the passenger travelling quickly onwards by rail to a channel ferry. His second wife sometimes travelled with him, sometimes not with her travelling back to Singapore later than him. My guess is that some of these long voyages were for business, with the companies registered in London, and others for long leave.
Two of his stays in England on leave brought the attention of the police. On 27 May 1932 he was ordered to pay costs after having been found driving an unlicensed motor vehicle. His address was Brook Cottage, Poulner (Ringwood, Hampshire). In October 1937 he was staying at The Mount, Redlynch, at the north of the New Forest. In Salisbury he was fined £1 with 5 shillings costs; his licence was endorsed. According a constable on the beat Smith ‘came in his car at a high speed from the Canal, and out in front of the lorry into High Street, missing it only by inches. The lorry driver, in order to avoid a collision, had to brake hard and pull hard to the near side. The car gave no warning of its approach and continued into Bridge Street at the same speed’.
The last collection of animals for London Zoo was in 1936 when, as noted above, St Alban Smith was the proprietor of two rubber plantation in Johore. In 1937 he was in London and the Daily Herald had a short piece:
In sparsely-furnished bachelor quarters in the heart of the Malayan jungle, a rubber planter sat at a table writing furiously; writing against time and describing the feelings experienced by a man apparently dying of snake bite.
Half an hour previously he had been bitten by a 13 feet hamadryad, the deadly King Cobra,
The only antidote he took was whisky—a means to allay the slow poison creeping through his body. and to stay the pain and feeling of numbness enveloping his system.
That was in February. A week or so ago that man, Mr. A. St. Alban Smith, pioneer in the study of snake venom in its relation to medicine, walked into London unknown, unheralded.
He is convinced now that he must be immune from the harmful properties contained in snake venom.
On 12 March 1939 The Straits Times reported that St Alban Smith had decided to retire in this country (i.e. Malaya) ‘owing to war injuries’. He had clearly changed his mind because in the report on his taking a shipment of animals to London in 1936, he had indicated in February 1937 he was considering returning to England to ‘settle down permanently’. Another article followed up with:
Last week, the veteran planter and zoological collector took over Pangkor House, a holiday bungalow on lovely Pangkor Island. The island is one of the beauty spots of Malaya, with bathing from the kind of beach that one sees in the films about the South Seas but rarely finds on the west coast of the Peninsula. There are, however, some lovely beaches on the east coast, but they are too far off the Malayan beaten track to be known to the Singaporean who wants a real seaside local leave.
Pangkor's bays provide good fishing and sailing and there are some delightful walks, with the ruins of an old Dutch fort for those who are historically inclined.
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| Blue Funnel Line's Glaucus |
In June 1940 St Alban Smith set off from Singapore ‘with the object of trying to serve in some capacity during the present war’ as The Straits Times put it. He reached Liverpool on 13 August on board Blue Funnel Line’s cargo ship Glaucus. He gave his address as the East India & Sports Club, St James’s Square, London and his occupation as ‘Retired Army Officer’. The Straits Times reported: ‘But he was far from fit and soon after arrival he had to enter a nursing home where he died last Sunday at the age of 60’.
The nursing home was the Victoria Institute in Bournemouth. Alfred died on 15 September 1940, a month after he disembarked in Liverpool. Alfred’s address was that of his brother-in-law, Frederick Samuel Wilkinson (1890-1978), 54 Pearce Avenue, Poole, Dorset, who informed the registry office of his death. Wilkinson was married to Alfred’s sister, Violet Muriel Smith (1891-1959). The certified cause of death was 1a Cirrhosis of the liver, 1b Recurrent malaria.
Siblings
Smith’s mother died in 1916. Thereafter all his siblings, four brothers and a sister according to an online family tree, left India at some stage in their lives. One settled in Australia, the others in England. Several served as members of volunteer regiments in India before they left. One of the brothers, Wilfred Arthur Smith (1881-1972), had a son, Group Captain Wilfred George Gerald Duncan Smith DSO & Bar, DFC & Two Bars, AE (1914 –1996) an RAF flying ace of the Second World War. His son is Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP and former leader of the Conservative Party—and Alfred St Alban Smith was his great-uncle.
Aftermath
In the announcement of Alfred’s death The Straits Times of 20 September 1940 noted: ‘Mrs St Alban Smith is at present in Singapore’. 1941 was not a good year to be left in the Malay peninsula. I can find no mention of her in available passenger lists in or after 1940. I also found no mention of Olive Winifred after that time other than the record of her death at the age of 84. She died as Olive Winifred St Alban Smith (St Alban Smith as the surname on her death certificate) on 19 October 1968 at Rush Court Nursing Home, Brightwell cum Sotwell, near Wallingford, then in Berkshire but now South Oxfordshire. The ‘widow of Alfred St Alban Smith, rubber planter’, the cause of death was: 1a Bronchopneumonia, 1b Arteriosclerosis.
Alfred’s first wife, Lena Margaret Cicely Savage died on 19 October 1942, aged 67 and exactly 26 years before Olive Winifred, of ‘coronary occlusion’ at Lighthouse View, Highcliffe-on-Sea, Hampshire, the house of her daughter and husband. Her death certificate had the same wording as that Olive Winifred, ‘widow of Alfred St Alban Smith, rubber planter’. At the time of the 1939 Register, the emergency census taken in anticipation of war, she had a house at 27 Hamilton Road, Bournemouth. With her were seven other occupants including her grand-daughter, born in 1930, and three probable relations, possibly siblings or cousins. Earlier in the 1930s the first Mrs St Alban Smith lived in Woolmer Green, Hertfordshire, as did her daughter and son-in-law. Mother and daughter were successive chairmen of the local Women’s Conservative Association.
The Smiths’ daughter, Mercy Stella Margaret (1930-1970), married Herbert Rossiter-Angell (1884-1962) in 1929. Their daughter, Charlotte Anne Margaret, was born in 1930 and died in 2001). Mercy married, secondly, Allan Pratt in 1963. Alfred St Alban Smith has living descendants from Mercy and Herbert Rossiter-Angell.
Any more information?
Thus far I have been unable to locate a photograph of Alfred St Alban Smith and have found no reference to letters or articles he might have written which would go some way to explaining how his interest was sparked, how his activities developed and of what he did to study reptiles in the field and in captivity. If anyone has such information I would be very please to hear from them.
*A family tree gives the name of his second wife as Olive Winifred Lascelles without further details.
NOTE: There is another St Alban Smith in the records. A Canadian family with one, Henry Denne St Alban Smith DSO, serving as an engineer in the First World War. I have not looked for a family connexion but it is easy to imagine there is one.
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