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.

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.

With his fortune made, he returned home to marry his Scottish sweetheart, Agnes, and brought her over to Malaya in 1903.

With the birth of Kellie-Smith's son in 1915, he started planning for a huge castle with Moorish, Indo-Saracenic and Roman designs.

In return for his generosity, they built a statue of him beside the other deities on the lord murugan temple wall.

[citation needed] William Kellie-Smith died at the age of 56 of pneumonia during a short trip to Lisbon, Portugal in 1926.