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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2022
On the last four pages of Nigel Pavitt's photographic history of Kenya: a country in the making (reviewed in ARD , pp.55-56) are a series of pictures of Kenyan settler Raymond Hook catching and training cheetahs before bringing them to England in 1937 to race against greyhounds at the White City track in London. Never having come across this story before (although I subsequently discovered it briefly featured in a recent edition of the BBC television programme Inside Out), my curiosity was aroused, and what follows is my attempt to reconstruct the full story behind those remarkable images in Pavitt's book.
1 A full page of photographs can be found in Life, 18 October 1937, p.70, and there are also photographs in the Romford Times, 15 December and 19 December 1937, for example.
2 Pollard, J. (1963) African zoo man: the life-story of Raymond Hook, pp. 50ff.,London: Robert HaleGoogle Scholar; Hook, B. In Western Kenya and Laikipia: being an account of a second visit to Africa … 1914, Rhodes House Library (hereafter RHL) Micr. Afr. 600, ff.19, 25Google Scholar;
3 Hazel Holmes to Elspeth Huxley, 26 November 1984, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2154, box 15, file 5, ff.60-62
4 Pollard, J. (1957) Adventure begins in Kenya, pp.10-18, London: Robert HaleGoogle Scholar; Pollard, J. (1961) Africa for adventure, p.58, London: Robert HaleGoogle Scholar
5 , Divyabhanusinh (2nd ed, 2002) The end of a trail: the cheetah in India, pp.115, 153, 155, New Delhi: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar; Huxley, E and Curtis, A. (1980) Pioneers’ scrapbook: reminiscences of Kenya, 1890-1968, p.150 London:Evans Brothers.Google Scholar
6 Pollard, J. (1957) op. cit., pp.100-101
7 Denis, A. (1964) My life with the animals of Africa, p.14, London: Collins; Information from Mrs. Hazel HolmesGoogle Scholar
8 Holman, D. (1969) Inside safari hunting with Eric Rundgreen, p.78, London: W.H. AllenGoogle Scholar
9 Ellison, B.C. (1925) The Prince of Wales's sport in India, p.142, London: HeinemannGoogle Scholar
10 Malies, J. (2004) ‘Dower, Kenneth Cecil Gandar- (1908-1944)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: OUP: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/65062(accessed 26.11.09); RHL Meinertzhagen diaries, vol. 39, f.24 (2 February 1936)Google Scholar
11 Gandar Dower, K.C., (1937) The spotted lion, pp.28-29, London: HeinemannGoogle Scholar
12 Hook to John Pollard, 30 April 1961, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2458, f.129; Pollard, J. (1963), op. cit., p.98; The Times, 11 December 1937
13 Gandar Dower, K.C. (1937) op. cit., pp.33, 286. It is worth noting that Gandar Dower also records, without apparent irony, that Ali believed in the existence of the spotted lion.Google Scholar
14 Letter in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes
15 Pollard, J. (1963) op. cit, pp.100-101Google Scholar
16 The Guardian, 5 February 1937
17 Daily Mail, 11 May 2007
18 RHL. Meinertzhagen diaries, vol. 41, f.112 (25 June 1937)
19 ibid, vol. 41, f.114 (2 July 1937)
20 Gandar Dower, K.C. (ca.1938) ‘Racing cheetahs: the greyhounds of the east’, Indian Wild Life, vol. 3, no.2, p.63.1 am grateful to Mr. Ramesh Mittal for sending me a copy of this article.Google Scholar
21 Interview with Roy Pembrooke, 17 July 2009
22 Gandar Dower, K.C. (ca.1938) op. cit, p.63.Google Scholar
23 Romford Times, 8 December 1937
24 Letter of 1 June 1937 in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes
25 Undated letter in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes
26 Clapson, M. (2004) ‘Critchley, Alfred Cecil (1890-1963)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: OUP: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46854 (accessed 26.11.09)Google Scholar
27 Critchley, A.C. (1961), Critch: the memoirs of Brigadier-General A.C. Critchley, pp.145-146, London: HutchinsonGoogle Scholar
28 Hook to John Pollard, 1 December 1960, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2458, f.114
29 ibid, 17 April 1961, f.127
30 ibid, 9 April 1961, f.125
31 Letter in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes
32 ibid
33 RHL Meinertzhagen diaries, vol. 42, f.10 (28 November 1937)
34 Hook to Stewart, 29 November 1937, copy in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes
35 There are almost identical reports in The Observer, 12 December 1937, and The Manchester Guardian and The Times, both 13 December 1937.
36 Daily Mail, 13 December 1937
37 New York Times, 2 January 1938
38 The Times, 11 December 1937
39 Romford Times, 15 December 1937
40 ibid, 22 and 29 December 1937; Romford Recorder, 24 December 1937; The Scotsman 20 December 1937
41 The Scotsman, 24 December 1937
42 Hook to John Pollard, 25 February 1961, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2458, f.121
43 The Times, 30 June 1939
44 Hazel Holmes to Elspeth Huxley, 26 November 1984, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2154, box 15, file 5, ff.63-64; Pollard, J. (1957) op. cit., p.21; Pollard, J. (1961) op. cit., pp.58-59
45 Holman, op. cit., p.78; RHL Meinertzhagen diaries, vol. 40, f.98 (14 January 1937)
46 ‘Cheetah racing’, British Movietone story no. 36934 (6 July 1939), viewable through http://www.movietone.com (accessed 24.11.09)