Cyril Redfearn

Lovely site! Well done indeed. My grandfather, A.G. de Villiers (known far and wide as DV), was an officer in the Tanganyika Territory Police and spent time in Northern Tanganyika.

Can you help me with some info.?

I am researching the life and times of Cyril Redfearn. He settled and commenced farming in Tanganyika Territory between c. 1922-24, being listed in the 1925 edition of the 'East African Red Book' as a planter at Moshi.

Thereafter he moved to 'Arusha' - probably Mbulu (he is listed as a resident of Arusha in the 1931 edition of the 'East African Red Book'.)

After War broke out he was appointed by the Custodian of Enemy Property, Tanganyika Territory, to manage the Oldeani Estates. (He was created an MBE in the New Year’s Honours of 1945 for this work.)

After the war he continued farming for his own account at Mbulu, and was elected as a committee member of the Mbulu Farmers’ Association in 1950 (see 'East Africa and Rhodesia' (24 August 1950), p. 1557.) At some stage thereafter (when?) he retired to live in Kenya - being listed in the Kenya Telephone Directory for July 1961 as a resident at Hema Estate in Kabete near Nairobi.

I don't know when he died.

Could you possibly help flesh out this story a little ?

Many thanks indeed

William de Villiers

Update: Together with N. R. Fuggles-Couchman, in October 1945 Cyril Redfearn published “Large-scale wheat production at Oldeani, Tanganyika Territory in 1943 and 1944” in The East African Agricultural Journal (vol. 11, no. 2)