It is believed that a tunnel was built to the temple from the castle. In return for his generosity, they built a statue of him beside the other deities on the lord murugan temple wall. When his workmen approached him to build a temple nearby, Kellie-Smith readily agreed. Included in the plan for the 6-storey tower was Malaysia's first elevator, an indoor tennis court and a rooftop courtyard for entertaining.ĭuring construction, a virulent strain of Spanish flu struck his workmen. All the bricks and marble were imported from India, too. Kellie-Smith brought in 70 craftsmen Tamilvanan from Madras, India. In 1915, with the birth of his son and heir Anthony, Kellie-Smith started planning for a huge castle with Scottish, Moorish, and Tamilvanan Indian architecture. (Kellie-Smith's mansion is accessible from the main road across a bridge over a stream.) Ī ruined section of Kellie's Castle. In 1909 Kellie-Smith built his first mansion, "Kellas House", which was so unique that it was even mentioned in the London Financier newspaper on 15 September 1911. They had a daughter named Helen the following year. With his fortune made, he returned home to marry his Scottish sweetheart, Agnes, and brought her over to Malaya in 1903. Kellie-Smith went on to own the Kinta Kellas Tin Dredging Company as well. In time, he named his estate "Kinta Kellas" after his home farm "Easter Kellas". With the substantial profits made from his business venture with Baker, Kellie-Smith bought 1,000 acres (405 ha) of jungle land in the district of Kinta and started planting rubber trees and dabbled in the tin mining industry. He joined Charles Alma Baker's survey firm, who had won concessions from the state government to clear 9,000 hectares of forests in Batu Gajah, Perak. In 1890, at the age of 20, he arrived in Malaya as a civil engineer. William Kellie-Smith (1870-1926) was born in 1870 in Kellas, Moray Firth, Scotland.