Jack Soames came to Kenya, aged 32 years in 1920, and bought many thousands of acres in the Burguret area near Nanyuki. Jack was a part of the wild Happy Valley set that kicked off in the 1920’s when British aristocrats, with power and privilege, settled in Kenya’s Rift Valley.  The shocking and unresolved high society murder of Josslyn Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, occurred in 1941. Jack Soames stood as a prosecution witness in the trial against the accused – Sir Henry John Delves Broughton, the 11th Baronet,  who was later acquitted at trial for lack of evidence.

In 1932, Jack Soames sold his farm – called Ol Loigululu – to Fowler, and in 1964 it again changed hands to Danish farmer Ole Jacobsen.  In the 1990’s, after Jacobsen died, the farm was subdivide and sold, and Jamie Roberts bought the original farm house, which remains as it was, together with 100 acres of land, on which today stands Soames Hotel & Jack’s Bar.