Just received this and find it approprate to let many who new Ian Lennox.. A fine gentleman and of the first order...

It is with great saddness that I have to inform you of the sudden demise of Ian Lennox, a professional hunter associated with Johan Calitz Safaris...
He passed away in his sleep while visiting friends Monday night the 6th of February and put to rest yesterday.
Ian has been known to the hunting industry in Tanzania, Zambia, RSA, and Botswana for many years...
We will miss him and hold his memory dear to our hearts...
Our sympathy and prayers are with thise he left behind...

Mike

Ian was a truly enjoyable person, as is his brother Clive.

Did Ian also guide in Zimbabwe ?

The year was 1989. It was August and my wife and I were hunting tuskless and buffalo in the Chete Concession with Mike Bunce. Sharing the camp was some fellow from Virgina named Russ and his Ph was ,,, Ian Lennox. Shared a campfire for about a week and man, but he was a colorful chap !! He had hair down to his shoulders and a beard longer than that. He wore shorts, of course, and his heavily tanned legs looked like they could walk to Cairo if needed ! Someone told me that he was a tracker for the Selous Scouts during the bush war ... and being the only outfit that could wear beards and long hair .. he continued the tradition. It was also mentioned that sometimes in bars someone would hassle him over the long hair and beard ! Not sure of the end result of those confrontations might have been - but I would have wagered a decent hunting rifle on who would walk away later. His wife was a very fancy blonde lady. He told me that she was living in Alberta .. I think that it was Drayton Valley if I remember correctly .. and her marriage had gone to hell so she contacted him. Ian told me that he showed up at her door, told her husband that he was there for his wife and daughter !!! I approached her one day and mentioned that I had heard that she was originally from Canada? She gave me a look dripping with contempt at The Great White North and muttered, ' Yes! Drayton Valley!' she sneered at the mere mention of the Hell Hole. I live in the same province so said nothing. Ian was a very fine man and got Russ a juicy leopard, a buff, a chance at a black maned lion that Russ never did spot in time .. and a few other varmints. He also was very understanding when my PH got so drunk at Binga that I had to drive him home!!! Of that original cast of very colorful men ... within a couple of years or less we lost Dave Masson the outfitter, Neils Campbell the camp manager, also a brother in law of Dave whose name escapes me for the moment .. Mike is still around as of about a year ago .... When I return to Africa as I must this year and every year .. I'll sit around the campfire .. look above at the zillions of stars overhead and drink a toast to Ian Lennox .. one of the most interesting men that I have ever met .. I only wish that I could have known him better ..

On behalf of Balla-Balla Safaris we all pass on our sincere condolances to the family and all his friends worldwide whom knew the man ... He was also a Selous Scout apart from other extinguished qualifications ..

My brother Alan Bird our ranch owner operater in SA/Zambia actually went to Northlea school ( Bulawayo) with both Ian and Clive.

Sincere condolanaces ..

Peter, Alan and Dene Bird ...

Great story Scruffy. Thanks for sharing it with us. Puts a lot of things into perspective.

Ian hunted my two sons in Lukwati in 2000. He was absolutely first rate. There are undoubtly many who knew Ian better than I did but apparently he was a Selous Scout and a serious bad ass. I was told by another PH that he caught another PH hunting on his concession, pulled him out of his truck whipped his ass then apologized to the clients for having to do so, because this was a second offense with that particular PH. Ernst Scholz, who was on Dangerous Game last night, said Lennox was the best lion man in Africa. They PH'd together when they were both at Wengart Safaris. He will be missed by many.

Here are pictures of Ian Lennox and my sons Mance and Paul in Lukwati in 2000.

Does anyone know how old Ian was ?

Many years ago I spent a night drinking with Ian Lennox in Arusha. He told me an interesting story. I have no idea if it is true. He said that he was in the Selous Scouts and that near the end of the war he had been given the job of killing all the Canadian Peace keeping troops in the country.

The Liberal Party in Canada had apparently sent people to help prop of the Mugabe regime. Both Trudeau and Mugabe went to Jesuit schools in Quebec.

Trudeau always helped prop up Marxist regimes. Trudeau personally brought in all the uneducated drug dealers now causing all the murders in Toronto in order to prop up his Marxist buddy Michael Manley, then Prime Minister, in Jamaica who could not control the rioting. They just sent the trouble makers to Toronto. I guess Trudeau thought they were going to get an education.

At any rate Ian said that the Selous Scouts had all of the Canadian peacekeepers located and were within hours of killing all of them when he was given to order to stop the operation. Some kind of deal had been made between Ian Smith and Mugabe.

Another professional hunter told me he was at the SCI convention in either Reno or Las Vegas when Ian and another ex-Selous Scout decided to pick a fight with several dozen Hell's Angel's cruising the town on their bikes. The Ph said if the police had not arrived and broken the thing up they would have all been dead.

Its difficult to believe that Ian Lennox died in his sleep.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Horsefeathers !

Some good friends of Lennox have told me some stories about him that would peel paint.

Thanks scruffy for sharing with us this intersting history ,as a former army scout im an admirer of the selous scouts ,and its a pitty that these great warriors-hunters are disapearing without recognition ,we need more books and investigation about these units and these heroes i believe the only book written is the book of peter stiff and ron red daily.juan

I had the pleasure of drinking a few too many with Ian in Arusha. He was, indeed, a colorful character. It is sad to see the pasing of yet another "old school" PH.

Another extraordinary character (former Selous scout) leaves us ... my prayers for his soul ....