IDNO

P.7664.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: R. Gordon Cumming. The African Lion Hunter. Hair, reddish yellow, eyes blue.

Place

Europe British Isles; United Kingdom; Scotland

Cultural Affliation

Scottish

Named Person

R. Gordon Cumming

Photographer

Collector / Expedition

Beddoe, John (Dr)

Date

pre 1866

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

The accompanying notebook for these prints is stored a cardboard box numbered 136 in the photo archive in Bay N/ Shelf 3/ Box 2/. [JD 27/10/2008]

Publication: Beddoe, John, 1885. The Races of Britain: A Contribution to the Anthropology of Western Europe, Bristol and London (J. W. Arrowsmith, Bristol & Trübnermm, London). [JD 4/10/2013]

Named Person: Cumming, Roualeyn George Gordon- (1820–1866), lion hunter. The travel writer Constance Gordon-Cumming was his sister. He was educated at Eton College, but even in his boyhood was distinguished more for his love of sport, especially salmon fishing and deerstalking, than for anything else. He entered the East India Company's service as a cornet in the 4th Madras cavalry in 1838, and on his way to India had his first experience of hunting in South Africa; but the Indian climate did not agree with him, and in 1840 he resigned his commission. Unsuited to military life, he resigned his commission at the end of the year, and after purchasing a wagon and collecting a few followers he spent the next five years hunting, travelling widely, and exploring the interior of South Africa. In 1848 he returned to Britain, and in 1850 he published his Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Far Interior of South Africa, a book which had immense success and was published in many editions; it made him the lion of the season. In 1851 Gordon-Cumming exhibited his trophies at the Great Exhibition.
[Source: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6899, JD 31/10/2013]