I am trying to harvest information on the company ‘Chas. A Heyer & Co, Nairobi’, whose name is engraved on some Mauser sporting rifles, however information is scarce.

I managed to find from internet sources that Charles A. (aka ’Chas.’) Heyer, a German national born in 1870 and deceased on 1st October 1931 in Nairobi, was buried at the Forest Road Cementery in Nairobi (Kenya).

From ‘The Official Gazette of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya’ (available online) I also found that :
• Chas. A Heyer was issued a game licence in Nairobi in June 1912 (Official Gazette dated October 1st, 1912).
• The company ‘Chas. A Heyer & Company, Limited’ was still active in 1941 (Official Gazette dated September 2, 1941).
• The company ‘Chas. A Heyer & Company, Limited’ was voluntarily wound-up in 1949 (Official Gazette dated November 1st, 1949).

I recently purchased by chance in Austria an old commercial booklet, ‘Jagd un wissenschaftliche Expeditionen in Ost-Afrika’ (see cover page below ; I will scan one day the 100 pages in German) drafted in 1911 by Chas. A Heyer for teaching potential German customers on big game hunting opportunities in British East Africa and for advertising his company’s experience at organising hunting expeditions.

Although the Chas. A Heyer name is often linked to the import of Mauser sporting rifles to British East Africa, I could not find the mere reference (unless I missed something) to him neither on any of the Mauser commercial adverts that were shared on the NE Forum nor on the Mauser Archive book published in 2007 by Jon Speed.

Would any Forum Member have more information to share, mainly in the form of pre-WW2 Mauser documentation mentioning the Chas. A Heyer company as their agent (or other form of commercial relationship) in British East Africa and over which period of time ?

Thank you.

Louis