White Hunters - Ewart Grogan, Adventurer, Big Game Hunter, British Explorer and the first European to traverse the distance of the African continent...

....  from the South in Cape Town to Cairo in the North. A veteran of the 1896 Matabele War, during which he served in Cecil Rhodes personal escort.

During the Matabele War Grogan had walked the first leg from Cape Town to Beira, Rhodesia.  He returned and was accompanied to Beira by Arthur "Harry" Sharp two years after the war and in February 1898 they started the 4,000-mile second leg to Cairo. Sharp never finished as he decided not to continue into the deadly swamps south of Dinka. In early 1900 Grogan returned to London a hero. Grogan became one of the pioneer white settlers in British East Africa at this time another great man had settled there as well his name was Lord Delamere. - This was the new white man's country for any man and women with a spirit of adventure. He later served with distinction in World War I. Another great man who took a different path and followed it to the end of his days - He died in "silence and unnoticed" in Cape Town - the year was 1967, aged 92. 

White Hunters - Jim Corbett (1875 - 1955) Officer, Author and White Hunter...

Jim Corbett (Edward James Corbett) British, born in India in 1875 in the foothills and jungles of the Himalayas which he explored from an early age,he killed his first leopard at the age of eighth. His jungle experience would later be practiced in his hunts for game, he was a man with a strong independent personality.  – Could we call him eccentric? 

A hunter of India’s many man-eating tigers for over a thirty year period. Tigers were his most sought-after prey and in 1906 he started receiving requests to assist where tiger attacks had taken place. Both the Indian villagers themselves and the government of the Indian state of Uttarakhand would petition for his assistance. His best-known book about his adventures is "Man-eaters of Kumaon.” In his books (he wrote a total of six books, three of them man-eater stories) he explains the skills how he tracked the man-eaters down.

Jim Corbett was known to never kill a tiger where he felt the animal was not a proven habitual killer. He was part of establishing the first Indian Tiger reserve in 1936. Corbett was a colonel in the British Indian Army. He served in both World Wars in the battlefields of Europe in First World War and as a jungle expert training soldiers in jungle warfare in the Second World War.

 India gained its independence and Jim Corbett settled in British East Africa in 1947. He died on 19th April 1955 and is buried at the base of Mount Kenya, Kenya, Africa

Books - White Hunters - John Howard "Pondoro" Taylor (1904 - 1969)....born in Dublin, Ireland...

Cape Town - His port of entry to the African Continent...Here is a well written biography about "Pondoro" by Peter Hathaway Capstick.....

"Pondoro"  experimented with calibers and different types of rifles which made him an expert in big game rifles...

He wrote African Rifles and Cartridges which, is considered one of the classic books on African Big Game Hunting....

A few more books written by "Pondoro"....

Maneaters and Marauders

 

"Pondoro" -  Last of the Ivory Hunters

White Hunters of the "Dark Continent".......Harry Selby...and writer Robert Ruark...

Selby with a Greater Kudu

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Born in South Africa in 1925 - For 50 years he hunted on the African continent - At the age of 43 in 1968 - he left Kenya and moved to Botswana - this was the White Hunter, who shot his first antelope at 8, and his first elephant at 14. He become one of Africa's most recognized and respected White Hunters.

.Selby and Ruark

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Writer Robert Ruark first hunting expedition was lead by Selby.(Selby meet Ernest Hemingway briefly in East Africa in 1953.) - Selby's expedition changed Ruarks life and he come to be part of many more safaris in his life. The result of the Safari - Ruark wrote "Horn of the Hunter" one of the most famous books written about safari life - Selby retired from being a White Hunter as late as year 2000.

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The Greateast African Hunter of All Times - Frederick Courtney Selous - Southern Africa

Frederick Courtney Selous

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Colonial Gentleman - Frederick Courtney Selous - Explorer, Big Game Hunter, and Naturalist.

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Born in London 1851. The Dark Continent and Southern Africa (Rhodesia - Sorry, I still call it Rhodesia- and Botswana)- his hunting grounds from late 1871/72 to 1888.

He was the hunter who stood by Cecil Rhodes when Rhodesia opened, friend of President Theodor Roosevelt (He made several visits to the President at the White House).

. Theodor and his son Kermit...

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Roosevelt's Safari/Expedition(British East Africa,Congo and Egypt) between 1909 to 1910 - The logistics as well as the organization of the expedition was done by Selous. R.J. Cunningham (See above photo) was "the White Hunter" for the Expedition and Selous would participate now and then in the expedition.

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A special section of the British Museum of Natural History is dedicated to his trophies (there is a memorial bust of him in the main hall). I leave his day and year of leaving the hunting grounds of Africa and this earth to regroup to new adventures open as he will live on in all African Hunters memories forever.......

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Rhodesia's Special Forces Unit was named after him Selous Scouts (1974 - 1980) - A Counter-Insurgency Unit of the Rhodesian Army -a combat reconnaissance force which, accounted for 68% of all terrorists killed in the Rhodesian War - extremely efficient and one of the best Units you could find around in Africa.

.."White Hunters" ....J.A. Hunter (1887 - 1963)

Hunter was one of the first ”White Hunters”. Born in Scotland, he arrived in East Africa in 1908. Hunter came to spend his entire life as a Professional Hunter in East Africa. He brought with him his old Purdey shotgun which, had been a present from his father in Scotland before he departed for Africa (For all of us who like Purdey). Some of his Big Game rifles were a 416 Rigby, 500 Nitro Express and a 505 Gibbs. He owned Hunters Lodge hotel in Makindu. He bought the Lodge in 1958 and it became his final resting place in 1963.

He wrote several books: African Bush Adventures, African Hunter, Hunter’s Tracks and White Hunter.