The Double Rifle of Dennis Finch-Hatton

.450 3 1/4" Nitro Express by Charles Lancaster

Charles Lancaster .450 NE (3 1/4) Back action non-ejector (formerly ejector) double barreled big game rifle
Double Barreled .450 NE Big Game Rifle which was the personal weapon of Hon. Denys Finch Hatton, Big game hunter and lover of Karen Blixen (Out of Africa).

Completed in 1911 and re-barreled in 1928. Silver escutcheon with D.F.H initials and the date 1925.

In its original leather red beige lined case with initials D.F.H. This rifle is extremely accurate and a target is available.

Denys Finch Hatton was born in England on April 24th 1887, the son of Henry Stormont Finch Hatton, Earl of Winchelsea and Anne Finch Hatton (nee Coddrington), a daughter of a former Admiral of the British Fleet. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, Denys was a natural sportsman and scholar of the arts. In 1911 the 24 year old Denys bought land in British East Africa as an investment which would give him the freedom to spend his time hunting. He would spend every Autumn and Winter in Africa doing just that.

In 1925 he became a professional big game hunter and took numerous wealthy and distinguished clients on safari - including H.R.H. the Duke of Windsor (the then Prince of Wales). His taste for adventure led him to learn to fly, and it was on May 14th 1931 that he died in a fatal plane crash in his Gypsy Moth near what is now the Tsave National Park, Kenya. He is buried in the Ngong Hills and an obelisk marks his grave to this day.

The story of Denys Finch Hatton and his love affair with Karen Blixen (his only known romance) is immortalised by Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in the Academy Award winning film "Out of Africa" (1985).

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Thanks to Phil for finding this double rifle on the 'net. A discussion thread exists here.

(information reproduced here for archival purposes)

added as a fb link, and also added to fb doubles of day - 201007