Home | Ezine | Forums | Links | Contact
NitroExpress.com: Jim Corbett

View recent messages : 24 hours | 48 hours | 7 days | 14 days | 30 days | 60 days | More Smilies


*** Enjoy NitroExpress.com? Participate and join in. ***

Hunting >> Hunting in Africa & hunting dangerous game

Pages: 1
mckinney
.400 member


Reged: 29/01/09
Posts: 1212
Loc: usa
Jim Corbett
      #311813 - 07/02/18 03:10 AM

I was re-reading The Maneating Leopard of Rudraprayag and noticed that Corbett mentions, toward the end of the story when he was about to give up on the leopard and return home, that he was due in Africa soon. This in 1926. Did he go to Africa around that time and, if so, is there any account of what he did there?

Also, it had somehow escaped me that Corbett was 50 years old in 1926 when he was walking 18 miles a day over very rough and mountainous terrain, sitting up for many nights on end in trees, etc. I had always assumed, without ever thinking about it, that he was a man of 30 or 35 - for whom these feats would have been extraordinary enough!


Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
twobobbwana
.333 member


Reged: 25/11/11
Posts: 299
Loc: Queensland, Australia
Re: Jim Corbett [Re: mckinney]
      #311838 - 07/02/18 11:39 AM

McKinney,

I have read in different places that Corbett had property in Africa..........so perhaps he was going there on business.

I have also read that he had shares in one of the big safari firms in Kenya, that he left India in 1947 (??) upon independence (selling his Jeffrey 450/400 to an American plantation manager) and that he managed Tree Tops resort when Princess Elizabeth "climbed a tree a princess and came down a Queen" due to her father dying thereby making her queen.


Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Ripp
.577 member


Reged: 19/02/07
Posts: 16072
Loc: Montana, USA
Re: Jim Corbett [Re: twobobbwana]
      #311878 - 08/02/18 12:53 AM

Quote:

McKinney,

I have read in different places that Corbett had property in Africa..........so perhaps he was going there on business.

I have also read that he had shares in one of the big safari firms in Kenya, that he left India in 1947 (??) upon independence (selling his Jeffrey 450/400 to an American plantation manager) and that he managed Tree Tops resort when Princess Elizabeth "climbed a tree a princess and came down a Queen" due to her father dying thereby making her queen.




Interesting...what I found on the net..

Updated: July 25, 2013, 12:03 PM IST facebook Twitter google skype
Today (July 25) is Jim Corbett's 138th birthday. Yes the same Jim Corbett, author of 'Man eaters of Kumaon' and world famous conservationist. Born on July 25, 1875, Corbett was brought up in Kaladhungi and Nainital. After his early schooling, he went to Mokameh Ghat, Bihar, and worked in the railways for several years. He saw action during the First World War in France and other places and after the war was over, he settled down in Nainital where he lived till 1947.

While living in Nainital, Jim spent most of his time in the jungles saving the locals from leopards and tigers who had turned man eaters. These exploits of shikar are well known to most of us as they are comprehensively featured in well documented books including in Corbett's autobiography.

What is perhaps not so well known is Jim Corbett's Kenya connection. Immediately after our Independence on August 15, 1947, serving Englishmen left first, then the well-to-do domiciled ones and the Anglo Indians. Sensing threat to his existence as a Briton, Corbett decided to leave India and on November 30, 1947, he left Nainital, accompanied by his sister Maggie and sailed for Mombasa (Kenya) aboard SS Aronda on December 11, 1947. He recorded: "Our regret at leaving our old house is very great and the further we get from India, the worse we feel at leaving our good and faithful friends". Such was his love for Nainital.

From Mombasa, the Corbetts moved to Nyeri near Nairobi and joined with other Englishmen like Col Wyndham and EP Gee who had already left India and now settled in Kenya, still under the British rule and considered a safer haven for the whites. Corbett became one of he directors of 'Safari-land', a tour company to guide the visitors through the forests of Kenya. The high point of his stay in Kenya came on 5th February, 1952 when he received an invitation from Princess Elizabeth and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh who were staying during their holiday in hotel Treetops in Kenya to meet them. It was the finest hour for Jim to meet the Royalty as he felt proud as a British loyalist. Duke discussed the Abominable Snowman with Jim among other topics of environmental interest. The old Shikari was honored that night with a seat between the two Royals at the dinner.

The night the Princess spent in Treetops, her father King George VI died. Jim Corbett wrote for the posterity in the logbook of Treetops: "For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess, and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience, she climbed down from the tree the next day a Queen-God bless her".

On April 19, 1955, following a massive heart attack, Jim Corbett breathed his last. He is buried in the Cemetery of St Peter's Anglican Church at Nyeri. Corbett's grave is the only one with an epitaph. Jim and sister Maggie had both desired in their wills that they be cremated "if practicable". Jim, however, was not cremated. Two days before his death he told a young visitor: "Live everyday as if it were your last".

A day before, on April 18, 1955, Albert Einstein died at Princeton, New Jersey. Though Einstein hit the front page of Indian newspapers the next day, Corbett's death was reported 48 hours late. DC Kala, an authority on Corbett's life and times, writes: "They both were unpretentious wizards, one of mathematics and physics and the other of junglecraft. They both spent a life time studying the laws of nature in their own right. Alas, even after that there were just bare reports in the Indian press on the hunter's death".

Other than visits to the Corbett National Park, Jim Corbett is hardly spoken of. This generation ought to know his contribution to the flora and fauna and for his efforts on conservation of wild life. Here is our tribute to him on his birthday. Much material is available on him and his lifetime. 'Jim Corbett of Kumaon' by DC Kala, 'Carpet Sahib' by Martin Booth, 'Jungle Lore' by Jim Corbett and 'My India', again by Jim Corbett, are must read for young wildlife enthusiasts.


--------------------
ALL MEN DIE, BUT FEW MEN TRULY LIVE..

Edited by Ripp (08/02/18 12:56 AM)


Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
mckinney
.400 member


Reged: 29/01/09
Posts: 1212
Loc: usa
Re: Jim Corbett [Re: Ripp]
      #311882 - 08/02/18 01:07 AM

Thanks guys for the responses. I still wonder if Corbett was in Africa before 1947. His comments in Maneating Leopard of Rudraprayag certainly hint that he was. There is the comment about needing to get to Africa (in 1926) that I mentioned. There is another comment in the same story where he speaks of the beauty of Himalayan sunsets and agrees that they are the most beautiful in the world. He then goes on to say that Tanzania sunsets are a close second and mentions Kilimanjaro. Surely he wouldn't have said that if he hadn't been there.

It's a pity he had to leave India. I am sure it shortened his life.


Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
NitroXAdministrator
.700 member


Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 39063
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
Re: Jim Corbett [Re: mckinney]
      #311936 - 08/02/18 11:51 AM

Corbett did not 'voluntarily' leave India. Like many other British and presumably other nationality foreign landowners, the new Indian government confiscated their land holdings and refused citizenship to them. I remember reading the village where Corbett owned land petitioned for his land not to be confiscated but it was denied.

British officers and civil servants serving in India, often holiudayed on safari in East Africa. It is very possible Corbett did as well. Especially if he writes comments as described.

As he served in WW2 in France as also is mentioned above, not doubt he travelled to other places, not detailed in his 'maneater' books. I'll have to dig out his biography to re-read again one day.

--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"


Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
500Boswell
.400 member


Reged: 21/07/06
Posts: 1274
Loc: Queensland
Re: Jim Corbett [Re: NitroX]
      #311952 - 08/02/18 04:27 PM

Met an Indian lady ,when I went to Tibet in 2016 ,like most Tours, talk turns to food ,vegetarians etc ,then you get the pompous spiel by the Anti snow flake type, which there was as usual several including the dominated groveling yes man to his missus ,anyway after getting to know her ,I realized she was not the usual brain washed loopy ,grew up in India, but lives and works in the U.S ,quite a good lady ,she told me how she had been to the Jim Corbett Museum years ago, and met the man who knew and hunted with him, and told me she got to hold and handle Jim Corbetts ,Mauser rifle .

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Pages: 1



Extra information
0 registered and 152 anonymous users are browsing this forum.

Moderator:   

Print Topic

Forum Permissions
      You cannot start new topics
      You cannot reply to topics
      HTML is disabled
      UBBCode is enabled

Rating:
Topic views: 2184

Rate this topic

Jump to

Contact Us NitroExpress.com

Powered by UBB.threads™ 6.5.5


Home | Ezine | Forums | Links | Contact


Copyright 2003 to 2011 - all rights reserved