David Hines was responsible for the development of cooperatives in Tanganyika and Uganda improving the living standards of farmers in their transition from subsistence farming to cash crops In Uganda some  farmers joined these cooperatives  From  to  he was employed in Dar es Salaam Tanganyika now Tanzania by the British Colonial Office to develop farming cooperatives throughout Tanganyika Previously farmers had sold their produce to Indian traders at poor prices The farmers gained more favourable prices for their crops by banding together and selling their produce in bulk  In  David Hines became Commissioner of Cooperatives for Uganda reporting to the Governor He and his staff of  advised groups of about  to  farmers on how best to establish a cooperative defining the constitution and accounting At meetings Hines who spoke fluent Swahili would listen to the farmers problems and give speeches to encourage progress With government money the cooperatives built cotton ginneries tobacco dryers and maize mills  and successfully exported coffee and cotton from this landlocked country In the three years after independence David Hines reported to the Uganda Government Minister Mr Ngobi From  to  he advised the Kenya Minister of Agriculture particularly about the millionacre scheme to buy expatriate farms mostly in the Kenya highlands  David Hines was born in Staffordshire England on  February  His parents lived in Margherita Assam India where his father managed coal mines Davids grandfather founded with his brother the Hines Pottery in StokeonTrent After a childhood largely in Barnstaple and at Blundells School in Tiverton both in Devon David was articled to Cooper Brothers the accountants in London In  he sailed to Kenya to start work with accountants in Kisumu only to find that his new firm had just been taken over by his old employers Cooper Brothers  During the Second World War David Hines served in northern Kenya Somalia Ethiopia Eritrea and Madagascar   In the Kings African Rifles he commanded a squadron of  light armoured cars which was assigned the task of defending  miles of the northern border of Kenya against a possible Italian invasion from neighbouring Ethiopia He spent six months eating with his African crews and sleeping under tarpaulins as there were no tents The working language was Swahili  At the Outspan Hotel in Kenya his wife Bertha Beb Hines helped Lady Baden Powell reply to the thousands of letters sent to her on the death of her husband who had founded the worldwide scout movement  In early  Hines then a captain was in the van of General Cunninghams swift mile advance from Kenya to Addis Ababa via Kisimaio and Mogadishu in Somalia and up the one good road through Harar Diredawa and Awash With iron rations while advancing in light armoured cars they captured thousands of Italian troops They confiscated their arms and many supplies and left the prisoners for other troops who followed behind In Addis Ababa Hines helped rescue numerous Italians and Germans who had surrendered  he saw many others beside the roads who had been crucified by the local Shifta people  On one occasion while crossing the River Kolito in Eritrea Hines witnessed one of the Leakey family famous for anthropological discoveries in East Africa win the Victoria Cross the highest British medal for valour   On another occasion one night on the Eritrean border an elephant lost a leg after walking on a landmine defending the camp At first light Hines and two askaris tracked the elephant for  miles before putting it out of its misery   After taking part in the allied invasion of Madagascar and being transferred to Burma David Hines was made the accountant on the Kenya Wheat Scheme set up to help feed warravaged Europe He eventually retired to Kingsdown near Deal in Kent England and died of prostate cancer on  March  leaving two daughters and one sonWork by the writer of this page W D Ogilvie a twohour  taped interview of David Hines b the private biography for his family and c the obituary in the London Daily Telegraph  April