FIELD FACTS
OUT OF AFRICA
Gordon-Cumming wasn’t alone in his passion for hunting big game. Many other Victorian Scots made their way to Africa, determined to get a piece of the action.
DAVID LIVINGSTONE
Best known as an explorer and missionary, David Livingstone (1813-73) was also an avid hunter. He hunted with natives to provide meat for the parish and trophies to sell. He recalls in his diary that: ‘[I am] serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men or taking an observation, [even if some] will consider it not sufficiently or even at all missionary.’ His missions became a staging post for many hunting safaris and provided assistance to those that became bogged down – including Gordon-Cumming.
MUNGO MURRAY
‘A dashing young gentleman’ born in Forfar, Murray was regarded as a hardy explorer and excellent shot. He is credited, alongside William Oswell, as the man who taught David Livingstone how to get on in the bush during their great trek across the dreaded Kalahari desert and the discovery of Lake Ngami.
WALTER DALRYMPLE MAITLAND BELL
One of the most successful ivory hunters of the time, Walter Bell (1880-1954) was born into a wealthy Scottish family. He ran away from home at the age of 13 and within three years was hunting lions for the Uganda Railway. After a spell in North America panning for gold in the Yukon gold rush, he was so desperate to return to Africa that he joined the Canadian Mounted Rifles so he could fight with them in the Boer War. Captured when his horse was shot from under him, he escaped and managed to get back to British lines. After the war was over in 1902, he stayed in Africa as a professional ivory hunter.
JA HUNTER
JA Hunter (1887-1963) was the most prolific white hunter. Born in Dumfriesshire and sent out to Africa by his father at the age of 18, his career began as an armed guard on a Ugandan train, shooting lions from the moving carriages and splitting the profits with the conductor and driver. He went on to become a very successful guide for the safari tours of the 1920s, before eventually moving into conservation work to protect the animals he had once so relentlessly pursued.
RICHARD JOHN CUNINGHAME
RJ Cuninghame (1872-1925) became the top hunting guide in Africa. Famous for leading Theodore Roosevelt’s 1909 safari (and saving his life when he got in the way of a rampaging hippopotamus), Cuninghame was described by the president as ‘lean, sinewy, bearded and exactly the type of hunter and safari manger one would wish for’. Despite his age he served with valour during World War I, before retiring to the family home near Castle Douglas where he died aged just 53.