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Visit with WDM Bell
05 August 2016, 18:18
Carlsen HighwayVisit with WDM Bell
I always was disappointed there were not any interviews or accounts from people who may have visited with the man in later life in Scotland, then I found this in a magazine called the Uganda Journal, published in 1954, written by a man named Kinloch, also an ex British officer,and a friend through correspondence it seemed. He wrote it as part of an obituary they printed, about a visit to Corriemolie.
I wish he said more about what they talked about, but he does say that Bell was reticent when talking about his exploits.
(I transcribe it here)
After recapping Bells career and general points of his life story which are commonly known, he writes: I had the privilege of visiting Bell and his charming wife when I visited Scotland in 1951...my wife and I visited Bell's home Corriemollie, and were welcomed by an elderly, white haired man of soldierly bearing, great charm of manner and remarkably blue eyes. It was not long before the ice was broken and we were poring over maps and reliving Bells travels in Uganda. Our brief call ended with an invitation to stay for several days which we gladly accepted and the time passed all too quickly. Reticent as he was about his accomplishments, he was intensely interesting when persuaded to talk about his travels and his hobbies. I recollect him saying ""You know when you first called, I wondered what sort of person you expected Karamojo Bell to be, probably a tough swashbuckling old ivory-poacher, and I felt that you would be surprised to be met by someone who looked like a retired country parson." He was not far from the truth.
Apart from his other accomplishments Bell had a great artistic ability. I well remember his pictures hung round the house in particular a magnificent one painted by himself of a pride of lions and a lone old bull elephant drinking on opposite sides of a waterhole in the moonlight. His gun room contained a variety of weapons and he showed me a take down model .318 in a special light case*, saying wistfully that he had planned to visit Uganda by air in 1939 for a last elephant hunt but that the war had intervened and that he now felt he was too old. He was then nearly 75
(actually 71), but was still stalking red deer.
I said goodbye to him with regret and for the last time, for he died at his home at the end of June 1954.
The death of Karamojo Bell marks the ending of an era of professional elephant hunting in Africa which will never again be known and brings to a close the colourful career of a very great hunter sailor and gentleman.
(He closes with the lines from Stevenson's Requiem - hunter home from the hill etc.) *This take down .318 was built on a Springfield rifle, bought from Rigby. These pictures (from another source) I believe, were taken on this visit:
05 August 2016, 18:36
Bill/OregonThank you so much for taking the time to post this.
There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.
– John Green, author
05 August 2016, 18:51
AilsaWheelsThanks for the interesting post.
05 August 2016, 19:19
WowoThanks for Posting!
05 August 2016, 19:26
CumbrianBruce Kinloch was also a wildlife ranger and culled many an elephant, he was also instrumental in setting up the parks in east Africa.
He wrote a book called Shamba Raiders
06 August 2016, 05:47
Carlsen HighwayThat must be him - the full byline was Major B.G Kinloch.
Thank you for taking the time to post this!
If you own a gun and you are not a member of the NRA and other pro 2nd amendment organizations then YOU are part of the problem.
09 August 2016, 02:23
spike.thave a couple of kinlochs books. here is some info on him and his time in east africa
Bruce Kinloch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bruce Kinloch
Born 27 August 1919
India
Died 21 June 2011 (aged 91)
Herefordshire, England
Allegiance British
Service/branch British Army
Years of service 1939–1947
Rank Major
Unit 3rd Gurkha Rifles
Battles/wars Battle of Sittang River Bridge
Awards Military Cross
Other work Game warden and author
Bruce Kinloch MC (27 August 1919 – 21 June 2011)[1]was a British army officer, wildlife conservation leader and author.
He was born at Saharanpur in India and educated at Berkhamsted School in England.
Contents [hide]
1 Military career
2 Conservation career
3 Later life
4 Bibliography
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
Military career[edit]
Kinloch was commissioned into the 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles after leaving Sandhurst in 1939, fought with them in Burma and on the Northwest Frontier, and won the Military Cross for his part in Battle of Sittang River Bridge in 1942. At the age of twenty-five, he commanded a battalion.
Conservation career[edit]
In 1947, Kinloch joined the Colonial Administrative Service, first as a Game Ranger on the Kilifi Coast of Kenya. He was Chief Game Warden in the Uganda Game and Fisheries Department for ten years; in 1960 he became Chief Game Warden of Tanganyika, a post he held until 1964. Later, he became the Chief Game Warden in Malawi.[2]
Kinloch also founded the College of African Wildlife Management on the slopes of Kilimanjaro which has trained thousands of game wardens. [3]
Later life[edit]
Kinloch wrote several non fiction books. Among these are Sauce for the Mongoose 1965 and The Shamba Raiders 1972, which was reprinted in 1988 and again in 2004. Major Kinloch lived with his wife Elizabeth at Scotch Firs in Fownhope, Herefordshire.
Bibliography[edit]
Sauce for the Mongoose (1964)
Shamba Raiders: Memories of a Game Warden. (1972)
Game wardens in Africa (1981)
Tales from a Crowded Life (2009)
09 August 2016, 20:15
Dave FulsonA wonderful post, a great read, and a tribute to the type of man that is gone, and never to return. Thank you for posting this!
Dave Fulson
11 August 2016, 14:57
Barry GroulxThank you!
12 August 2016, 04:24
L. David Keith
Thank you for posting
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Took the wife the Eastern Cape for her first hunt:
http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6881000262Hunting in the Stormberg, Winterberg and Hankey Mountains of the Eastern Cape 2018
http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/4801073142Hunting the Eastern Cape, RSA May 22nd - June 15th 2007
http://forums.accuratereloadin...=810104007#810104007 16 Days in Zimbabwe: Leopard, plains game, fowl and more:
http://forums.accuratereloadin...=212108409#212108409Natal: Rhino, Croc, Nyala, Bushbuck and more
http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6341092311 Recent hunt in the Eastern Cape, August 2010: Pics added
http://forums.accuratereloadin...261039941#926103994110 days in the Stormberg Mountains
http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/7781081322Back in the Stormberg Mountains with friends: May-June 2017
http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6001078232"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading" - Thomas Jefferson
Every morning the Zebra wakes up knowing it must outrun the fastest Lion if it wants to stay alive. Every morning the Lion wakes up knowing it must outrun the slowest Zebra or it will starve. It makes no difference if you are a Zebra or a Lion; when the Sun comes up in Africa, you must wake up running......
"If you're being chased by a Lion, you don't have to be faster than the Lion, you just have to be faster than the person next to you."
13 August 2016, 00:03
Ludo WurfbainSome years back, around 2002, I was set for a holiday in Scotland and a friend of ours in Inverness mentioned she knew the owners of the house Bell used to live in. We made arrangements and visited. Place was rather modest as I recall and had gotten a modern aluminum-framed glass veranda added. Nothing was left of Bell although the rooms still had the servant push button ringers the knobs of which were said to be of the ivory Bell shot. I could not see that they were made of ivory. I made a lot of photos. The then occupants of the house were the second owners after bell’s widow as I recall. Lovely location in the highlands, we were told every few years a person knocked on the door to ask if Bell had lived there. There was a large carved piece of wood that that contained an inscription to the effect that the person was bored while waiting. We were told this was carved by Bell while he waited for his wife to come back from her once every few weeks shopping tip to Inverness.
I will see if I can find the photos and scan them.
In the meantime (blatant self-promotion here!) you all know Safari Press is going to come out with two new Bell books over the next year and a bit right?
Bell book13 August 2016, 00:18
breezyHere is an excerpt from the new W. D. M. Bell book, Incidents from an Elephant Hunter's Diary.
http://www.safaripress.com/book_excerpts/BELL94Z.pdfThere are 38 new stories the publisher found from Bell's original manuscript.