Gordon Cundill 1934 – 2019

Safari outfitter and professional hunter Gordon Cundill passed away late in 2019 at the age of 85.

Gordon’s father, Vincent Stanley Cundill, served under Louis Botha in the South West Africa Campaign and later volunteered for the German East Africa campaign during which he served on the staff of General Jan Smuts. He knew both FC Selous and PJ Pretorius, and later, his stories about these famous hunters would fuel the imagination of his young son, Gordon.

On Stan’s return to SA after WWI, he was awarded a farm in Zululand near Hluhluwe, but little capital to get the farm going. He could buy the land for two shillings and sixpence per acre, loaned at 1% interest, repayable over 99 years. Hunting, particularly for ivory, was his main means of raising the capital needed to establish and develop the farm. This took him three years. In 1924, he married Elizabeth Thom; Gordon was born 10 years later in the midst of the Great Depression. Locust swarms and tsetse fly plagued the region. Ivory hunting was their sole reliable source of income; consequently Gordon’s father was away for long periods. It was left to young Gordon to provide meat for the family by hunting local game, and to protect the farm and homestead; he shot hippos that plundered the sugarcane and lions that threatened the livestock. As a child, Gordon’s first language was Zulu, rather than English, having played with Zulu children on the farm.

Gordon attended Merchiston Preparatory School in Pietermaritzburg and then Maritzburg College where he was head prefect, matriculating in 1952. During his 5th form year at Maritzburg College, he undertook his first professional hunting safari which was to set the path for his life. First, however, he studied law at Stellenbosch University.

During the 1950s, Gordon assisted as a guide during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, when he was shot in the leg by a man using a muzzle-loader charged with a ‘pot leg’ for a projectile.

During the 1960s, Gordon hunted in the Congo before moving to Rhodesia.

I first met Gordon in 1970 when hunting lions in Zululand. The 1970s and ’80s were a relatively peaceful time in his life. He joined hunting legend Harry Selby in the firm Kerr, Downey and Selby in Botswana, later purchasing and developing Hunters Africa. Operating from Hilton in South Africa and Kasani in Botswana, they primarily ran safaris in Botswana and some in East Africa.

In 1990, Gordon’s car hit a cow on the road just outside Maun, Botswana; the vehicle landed on its roof and Gordon sustained serious injuries. During the months he spent in hospital, he lost control of Hunters Africa. He spent the latter years of his life writing autobiographical books based on his experiences: A Hunters Africa, Fragments of Africa and Some Lions I have Met. He began writing a fourth book on elephant hunting, but before he could complete it he was called away on the eternal safari.

Gordon was a lifelong advocate of commercial hunting as a means to conserve wildlife in Africa. He loved the bush and he loved Africa, and said he would never leave it. He never did.

He leaves two sons, Petch and Kim, and a daughter Georgina. I thank Petch Cundill for supplying the background information on his father. Gordon was a colourful member of the African Safari Outfitters and professional hunting fraternity; may he rest in peace. – Paul Phelan