Searching for something totally unrelated (well, not exactly... I was looking for the provenance of a rifle from the late 20's), I made some interesting finds.

Bell's appearance in firearms records in Mombasa on 26 January 1905, and later dates - he was just 25 at the time (also, check the name just above his...):











Years later, it seems he was leasing an estate in Kenya, but just left it at that (he was probably long gone from East Africa then):





And during WWII, he still had untended money in a bank in Nairobi (equivalent to $280 of the day, which would be $4,500-$5,000 in today's value):

What an amazing historically important find. It is interesting to see what others brought to hunt with.
Thanks so much for posting this.
Cal

Pretty cool. I just got the book "The Last of the Few" by Tony Sanchez-Arino. I am saving it to read, just before my Sept trip to Zim.

I really admire the grit of those "good old boys" back in the heyday of African hunting.

BH63

Lots of Mannlichers in .256 and lots of .303s. This was the era of the new, small bore, high velocity (for the day), smokeless powder rifles. Very interesting.

It was a small community back then. The most fascinating time and place in history in my opinion.

As a guy who has nerded out on some deep research, I love this stuff. Nice find!

neat love reading this old stuff. i remember years ago when paul still owned Rigbys him showing me the old ledgers of gun deliveries, some interesting names in them from the early 1900`s

Safari Press found a collection of journals and manuscripts of Karamojo Bell. There is a picture of it on their facebook page. I read a couple of the handwritten stories and can confirm these are new, not published. Along with these new stories, there are a cache of drawings.

Ha! another WDM Bell fan. Good on you - I found these a couple of years ago - its interesting to see that I cant find anything earlier than 1905 and the rifles registered were .303's, I think a 7mm Mauser is not mentioned until 1906/07.
I think he got a later start than many people have surmised, he didn't get straight into it after the Boer war the way it reads in many of the biographies, and may have travelled back to England and returned for his first real safari around 1905. (The registereing of the .450 xpress rifle above sort of backs that up also, he wrote in a letter that he only used his .450/400 double rifle on his first proper safari and never used it again after he had a scare with a buffalo.)
The safari written of in Karamojo Safari took place in 1906 I believe, since he mentions that the year after he went on Safari with Harry Rayne,and that happened in 1907.

I also found the property mentioned in the Gazette - it looks like a farm of some kind, he leased the land together with his friend Harry Rayne after WW1, (and he does mention that he had some land in Nairobi in one article.)

I have assumed that the farm may have been to keep the many donkeys and cattle that he owned.
Interestingly, they failed to keep up the lease and it seems they abandoned it by 1924, his last safari was in 1922/23.

The bank was advertising the untouched money in that account in the Kenya Gazette periodically up to 1941. After that I guess they just kept it. Banks huh.

Check out also the RAF/RFC flight magazine - he is mentioned in there several times for his decorations, promotions and some general stuff.

In the RFC FLIGHT magazine he has a short bio written in 1916 - where he is described as the famous African big game hunter - I wonder in what way he was well known prior to WW1? Did he write any articles or anything prior to WW1? I havnt found any mention of it.

It also says that he returned to England to learn how to fly after asking his family to send him a flying machine to Africa so he could use it to spot elephants.
They wrote back saying that flying apparently required some sort of training. He went back to England and spent three months at flying school, sometime around 1909/1910 I believe, but he said that they spent most of the time taxiing around on the ground and only flew a few minutes the whole time, and he dropped out and went back to Africa.
(This forshadows his joining the RFC on the outbreak of the war, he already had some small experience with flying and they would have grabbed him.)

It is interesting that Richard Meinertzhagen was there at the same time. Nairobi is that small its impossible the two young British men virtually the same age and with an interest in big game hunting, would not have met socially, at the club, as it were...

quote:

It is interesting that Richard Meinertzhagen was there at the same time. Nairobi is that small its impossible the two young British men virtually the same age and with an interest in big game hunting, would not have met socially, at the club, as it were...

Exactly... Knowing Meinertzhagen general record, and reading carefully between the lines in Bell's writings, I'd be surprised if they did not share a few drinks containing more than hot water and a cloud of milk. What happens in Nairobi by night stays in Nairobi...

Mr J Patterson with a 303 Lee Speed in Mombasa also. Wonder if it is The John Henry Patterson?

This is fascinating. I appreciate it. Sometimes my wife and I spend a month after a hunt, looking through museums and battle fields in South Africa. I am very impressed to find this nugget on AR.
Brian

Cool!