Frederick Selous
Encyclopedia
Frederick Courteney Selous səˈluː DSO
(31 December 1851 - 4 January 1917) was a British explorer, officer
, hunter, and conservationist
, famous for his exploits in south and east of Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir H. Rider Haggard
to create the fictional Allan Quatermain
character. Selous was also a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt
, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham
. He was the older brother of ornithologist
and writer Edmund Selous
.
heritage. His father, Frederick Lokes Slous (original spelling) (1802–1892), was notably Chairman of the London Stock Exchange
and his mother, Ann Holgate Sherborn (1827–1913), was a published poetess. One of his uncles was the painter Henry Courtney Selous
. Frederick had three sisters, Florence (b. 1850), Annie Berryman (b. 1853), Sybil Jane (b. 1862), and one brother, Edmund Selous
(1857–1934), who became a famous ornithologist
. The love for the outdoors and wildlife was shared only by his brother; however all of the family members were artistically inclined, beside being successful in business.
At 42, Selous settled in Worplesdon
, England, and married 20 year old Marie Catherine Gladys Maddy (b. 1874), daughter of a clergyman Canon Henry William Maddy, and had two sons, Frederick Hatherley Bruce Selous (1898–1918) and Harold Sherborn Selous.
when Selous was ten years old, relates:
On 15 January 1867, Selous, at seventeen, was one of the fortunate survivors of the grim Regents Park tragedy, well documented in The Times
, when the ice covering the local lake broke with around two hundred skaters on it, leaving forty dead by drowning and freezing. He escaped by crawling on broken ice slabs to the shore.
He was educated at Bruce Castle School
, Tottenham, then at Rugby
, and finally abroad in Germany
and Austria
—his parents hoped he would become a doctor. However, his love for natural history him to want to study the ways of wild animals in their native habitat. His imagination was strongly fuelled by the literature of African exploration and hunting, Dr. David Livingstone
and William Charles Baldwin in particular. He would eventually become as great a hero and fictional character himself.
when he was nineteen, he travelled from the Cape of Good Hope
to Matabeleland
, which he reached early in 1872, and where he was granted permission by Lobengula
, King of the Ndebele, to shoot game anywhere in his dominions.
From then until 1890, with a few brief intervals spent in England, Selous hunted and explored over the then little-known regions north of the Transvaal
and south of the Congo Basin
, shooting elephants, and collecting specimens of all kinds for museums and private collections. His travels added greatly to the knowledge of the country now known as Zimbabwe
. He made valuable ethnological
investigations, and throughout his wanderings—often among people who had never previously seen a white man—he maintained cordial relations with the chiefs and tribes, winning their confidence and esteem, notably so in the case of Lobengula.
In 1890, Selous entered the service of the British South Africa Company
, at the request of magnate Cecil Rhodes, acting as guide to the pioneer
expedition to Mashonaland
. Over 400 miles of road were constructed through a country of forest, mountain and swamp, and in two and a half months Selous took the column safely to its destination. He then went east to Manica
, concluding arrangements which brought the country there under British control. Coming to England in December 1892, he was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society
in recognition of his extensive explorations and surveys, of which he gave a summary in a journal article entitled "Twenty Years in Zambesia".
(1893), and was wounded during the advance on Bulawayo
. It was during this advance that he first met fellow scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who had only just arrived in Africa and who continued on with the small scouting party to Bulawayo and observed the self-destruction of the Ndebele settlement as ordered by King Lobengula
. Selous returned to England, married, and in 1896 the couple settled on an estate in Essexvale, Matabeleland
, when the Second Matabele War
broke out. The outline of the foundations of this house can be viewed on Google Earth
map reference 20°11′27.49"S 28°55′53.18"E approximately 5 metres north of the track perched 80 feet above the Ncema River. He took a prominent part in the fighting which followed, serving as a leader in the Bulawayo Field Force, and published an account of the campaign entitled Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia (1896). It was during this time that he met and fought along side Robert Baden-Powell who was then a Major and newly appointed to the British Army headquarters staff in Matabeleland.
In World War I, at the age of 64, Selous participated in the fighting in East Africa, rejoining the British Army. He was promoted Captain in the uniquely composed 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers on 23 August 1915, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
on 26 September 1916, the citation read:
, against German colonial Schutztruppe
n, outnumbered five-to-one. That morning, in combat, during a minor engagement, while creeping forward, he raised his head and binoculars to locate the enemy, and was shot in the head by a German sniper. He was killed instantly.
His close friend, American president Theodore Roosevelt, upon getting the news, wrote:
He was buried under a tamarind
tree, nearby the place of his death, in today's Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania
, in a modest, flat stone grave with a simple bronze plaque reading: "CAPTAIN F.C. SELOUS D.S.O., 25TH ROYAL FUSILIERS, KILLED IN ACTION 4.1.17."
Exactly a year later, on 4 January 1918, his son, Captain Frederick Hatherley Bruce MC
, was killed as pilot with Royal Flying Corps
, in a flight over Menin Road
, France.
As part of his African military legacy, an elite Rhodesia
n military unit, the Selous Scouts
, was named in his honour.
Accounts of his youth are filled with stories of trespassing, poaching and brawling, almost all within romanticised and humorous portrayal, but one in particular, in 1870, stands out as more serious: when in Wiesbaden
, Prussia
, he knocked unconscious a Prussian game warden who tackled him while stealing buzzard
eggs for his collection, and had to leave the country at once in order to avoid imprisonment. Then he moved to Austria
, and when in Salzburg
he went big game hunting for the first time, in the nearby Alps, he shot two chamois
.
On 4 September 1871, at the age of nineteen, he left England with £400 in his pocket, determined to earn his living as a professional elephant hunter, and by the age of twenty five he was known far and wide in South Africa as one of the most successful ivory hunters of the day.
Selous journeyed in pursuit of big game to Europe (Bavaria
, Germany in 1870, Transylvania
, then Hungary
but now Romania
in 1899, Mull
Island, Scotland
in 1894, Sardinia
in 1902, Norway
in 1907), Asia (Turkey
, Persia, Caucasus
in 1894-95, 1897, 1907), North America (Wyoming
, Rocky Mountains
in 1897 and 1898, Eastern Canada
in 1900-1901, 1905, Alaska
and Yukon
in 1904, 1905) and the "dark continent" in a territory that extends from today’s South Africa
and Namibia
all the way up into central Sudan
where he collected virtually every specimen of all medium and large African mammal species. He never hunted in India
, a very popular destination with British sportsmen of the day, even more so when in fact at the given time it was the golden age of tiger hunting
and shikari
s.
In 1909-1910, Selous accompanied American ex-president Teddy Roosevelt in his famous African safari. Contrary to popular belief, Selous did not lead Theodore Roosevelt’s 1909 expedition to British East Africa, the Congo
and Egypt
. While Selous was a member of this expedition from time to time and helped organize the logistics of the safari, it was in fact led by R. J. Cunninghame. Roosevelt wrote of Selous:
In 1907, Selous founded The Shikar Club, a big-game hunters association, together with two other British Army Captains, Charles Edward Radclyffe and P. B. Vanderbyl, and regularly met at the Savoy Hotel
in London. President was the Earl of Lonsdale
. Another founding member was the artist, explorer and biographer of Selous John Guille Millais
.
He was a rifleman icon and a valued expert in firearms. Early in his hunting career, in the mid 1870s, Selous favoured a four bore black powder muzzleloader
for killing elephant, a 13 lbs short barreled musket firing a quarter pound bullet at with as much as 20 dram
s (540 grain
s) of black powder, one of the largest hunting caliber fabricated, literally a small hand cannon. He could wield it even from horseback. Between 1874 and 1876 he slew exactly seventy-eight elephants with that gun, but eventually there was a double loading incident together with other recoil problems from it, and he finally gave it up as too "upsetting my nerve". He used a ten bore muzzleloader to hunt lions. After black powder muzzleloader behemoths became obsolete and metal cased cartridges and smokeless gun powder came into use, despite the fact that he was bombarded with gifts from the finest London gunmakers in hopes of advertisement (indeed he tried many), he was to be found accompanied in his hunt by two rifles, single shot, falling block Farquharson action
, Metford barelled rifles in the two calibers he loved best: a Romanian .256 Mannlicher
for smaller game and a .450 Nitro Express
for larger game. His favorite gun makers were Gibbs of Bristol
and Holland & Holland
of London. There are quotes as to how Selous was in fact not a crack shot, but a rather ordinary marksman, yet most agree that was just another personal statement of modesty from Selous himself. Regardless, he remains an iconic rifleman figure and, following in the tradition of others, the German gunmaker Blaser and the Italian gunmaker Perugini Visini chose to name their top line safari rifles the Selous after him.
in London. In their Selous Collection they have 524 mammals from three continents, all shot by him, including nineteen African lions. In the last year of his life, while in combat in 1916, he was known to carry his butterfly net in the evening and collect specimens, for the same institution. Overall, more than five thousand plants and animal specimens were donated by him to the Natural History section of the British Museum
. This collection was held from 1881 in the new Natural History Museum in South Kensington (which became an independent institution in 1963). Here, posthumously in 1920, they unveiled a bronze bust of him in the Main Hall, where it stands to this day. He is mentioned widely in foremost taxidermist Rowland Ward
s catalogues for world's largest animal specimens hunted, where Selous is ranked in many trophy categories, including rhinoceros
, elephant and many ungulates. He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society
's Founders Medal in 1893 "in recognition of twenty years' exploration and surveys in South Africa".
In 1896, British zoologist William Edward de Winton
(1856–1922), named a new African small Carnivora
, Paracynictis selousi, or the Selous mongoose, in his honor. Also, a subspecies of the African Sitatunga
antelope
, (Tragelaphus spekii selousi), bears his name.
Selous was one of the first conservationists. In none of his expeditions was his object the taking of a big bag, but as a hunter-naturalist and slayer of great game he ranked with the most famous of the world's sportsmen. In leading so many hunting expeditions, Selous noticed over time how the impact of European hunters was leading to a significant reduction in the amount of game available in Africa. In 1881 he returned to Britain for a while, saying;
The Selous Game Reserve
in southeastern Tanzania
is a hunting reserve named in his honour. Established in 1922, it covers an area of more than 17 000 m² (44 800 km²) along the rivers Kilombero
, Ruaha, and Rufiji. The area first became a hunting reserve in 1905, although it is rarely visited by humans due to the strong presence of the Tsetse fly
. In 1982 it was designated a UNESCO
World Heritage Site
due to the diversity of its wildlife and undisturbed nature.
English gentleman of the colonies, one whose real life adventures and exploits of almost epic proportions generated successful Lost World
and Steampunk
genre fictional characters like Allan Quatermain
, to a large extent an embodiment of the popular "white hunter" concept of the times; yet he remained a modest and stoic pillar in personality all throughout his life. As himself he was featured in the "Young Indiana Jones" and "Rhodes" series. He was widely remembered in real tales of war, exploration and big game hunting as balanced blend between a gentleman officer and epic wild man.
While in England, all his life he played sports, he still did half day 100 mile bicycle races when almost sixty years old. Millais, friend and biographer, wrote: "As sport he loved cricket most, and played regularly for his club at Worplesdon taking part in all their matches until 1915…'Big Game Hunters' vs. 'Worplesdon' was always a great and solemn occasion."
Accounts on Miles biography read: "He ate less than most men, and never drank anything but tea, which he enjoyed at every meal. Sometimes he drank champagne at big dinners, but rich wines and high feeding had no attractions to him. Occasional accounts of whisky deeds upon meeting old friends exist however. Also, he was fond of his pipe and tobacco. All these never amounted to excess, except for tea, a fact that further promoted him as the Englishman ideal.
Rhodes (TV Mini-Series, 1996) ; played by Paul Slabolepszy
Selous also wrote the foreword to world's most popular man-eater story: The man-eaters of Tsavo and other East African Adventures. BY Lieut.-Col. J. H. Patterson, D.S.O.. With a foreword by Frederick Courteney Selous first published in London, 1907
Besides the works mentioned, Selous made numerous contributions to The Geographical Journal
, the Field
and other journals.
Literature about or with solid mentions of Frederick Courtenay Selous written by others:
Records of Big Game ... - fifth edition" - Rowland Ward F.Z.S., London, 1907.
The life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O. - John Guille Millais
, London, 1919. Catalogue of the Selous Collection of Big Game in the British Museum (Natural History) - J. G. Dollman
, London, 1921. Big Game Shooting Records - Edgar N. Barclay, London, 1932.
Frederick C. Selous, A Hunting Legend: Recollections By And About The Great Hunter - Dr. James A. Casada, Safari Press, 2000.
The Gun At Home And Abroad, vol.3: Big Game Of Africa And...- London, 1912-1915
The African Adventurers, ch. 1, pp. 3-62, - Peter Hathaway Capstick, St. Martins Press, NY, 1992.
The British Big-Game Hunting Tradition, Masculinity And Fraternalism With Particular Reference to "The Shikar Club" - Callum McKenzie, British Society Of Sports History, May 2000.
The Mighty Nimrod - Stephen Taylor
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(31 December 1851 - 4 January 1917) was a British explorer, officer
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, hunter, and conservationist
Conservationist
Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...
, famous for his exploits in south and east of Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir H. Rider Haggard
H. Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire...
to create the fictional Allan Quatermain
Allan Quatermain
Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various prequels and sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence.- History :...
character. Selous was also a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham
Frederick Russell Burnham
Frederick Russell Burnham, DSO was an American scout and world traveling adventurer known for his service to the British Army in colonial Africa and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell, thus becoming one of the inspirations for the founding of the international Scouting Movement.Burnham...
. He was the older brother of ornithologist
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
and writer Edmund Selous
Edmund Selous
Edmund Selous was a British ornithologist and writer. He was the younger brother of big-game hunter Frederick Selous.Selous was a strong proponent of non-destructive bird-study as opposed to the collection of skins and eggs...
.
Early life and exploration
Frederick Courteney Selous was born on 31 December 1851 at Regents Park, London, as one of the five children of an aristocratic family, third generation of French-HuguenotHuguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
heritage. His father, Frederick Lokes Slous (original spelling) (1802–1892), was notably Chairman of the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and his mother, Ann Holgate Sherborn (1827–1913), was a published poetess. One of his uncles was the painter Henry Courtney Selous
Henry Courtney Selous
Henry Courtney Selous , was an English painter, illustrator and lithographer. He was the son of Gideon "George" Slous , a Flemish portrait and miniature painter, and a pupil of John Martin who was an important and influential English painter of the 19th century...
. Frederick had three sisters, Florence (b. 1850), Annie Berryman (b. 1853), Sybil Jane (b. 1862), and one brother, Edmund Selous
Edmund Selous
Edmund Selous was a British ornithologist and writer. He was the younger brother of big-game hunter Frederick Selous.Selous was a strong proponent of non-destructive bird-study as opposed to the collection of skins and eggs...
(1857–1934), who became a famous ornithologist
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
. The love for the outdoors and wildlife was shared only by his brother; however all of the family members were artistically inclined, beside being successful in business.
At 42, Selous settled in Worplesdon
Worplesdon
Worplesdon is a village in Surrey, England, located three miles north of Guildford. Worplesdon is also the name of the parish that also includes the settlements of Fairlands, Jacobs Well, Perry Hill, and Wood Street Village. Nearby villages include Pirbright and Deepcut, with significant military...
, England, and married 20 year old Marie Catherine Gladys Maddy (b. 1874), daughter of a clergyman Canon Henry William Maddy, and had two sons, Frederick Hatherley Bruce Selous (1898–1918) and Harold Sherborn Selous.
Youth
From a young age, Selous was drawn by stories of explorers and their adventures. Furthermore, while in school, he started establishing personal collections of various bird eggs and butterflies and studied natural history. One account, recalled by his school master at NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
when Selous was ten years old, relates:
On 15 January 1867, Selous, at seventeen, was one of the fortunate survivors of the grim Regents Park tragedy, well documented in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, when the ice covering the local lake broke with around two hundred skaters on it, leaving forty dead by drowning and freezing. He escaped by crawling on broken ice slabs to the shore.
He was educated at Bruce Castle School
Bruce Castle School
Bruce Castle School, at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, was a progressive school for boys established in 1827 as an extension of Rowland Hill's Hazelwood School at Edgbaston...
, Tottenham, then at Rugby
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
, and finally abroad in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
—his parents hoped he would become a doctor. However, his love for natural history him to want to study the ways of wild animals in their native habitat. His imagination was strongly fuelled by the literature of African exploration and hunting, Dr. David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
and William Charles Baldwin in particular. He would eventually become as great a hero and fictional character himself.
African exploration
Going to South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
when he was nineteen, he travelled from the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
to Matabeleland
Matabeleland
Modern day Matabeleland is a region in Zimbabwe divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. The region is named after its inhabitants, the Ndebele people...
, which he reached early in 1872, and where he was granted permission by Lobengula
Lobengula
Lobengula Khumalo was the second and last king of the Ndebele people, usually pronounced Matabele in English. Both names, in the Sindebele language, mean "The men of the long shields", a reference to the Matabele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.- Background :The Matabele were related to...
, King of the Ndebele, to shoot game anywhere in his dominions.
From then until 1890, with a few brief intervals spent in England, Selous hunted and explored over the then little-known regions north of the Transvaal
South African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
and south of the Congo Basin
Congo Basin
The Congo Basin is the sedimentary basin that is the drainage of the Congo River of west equatorial Africa. The basin begins in the highlands of the East African Rift system with input from the Chambeshi River, the Uele and Ubangi Rivers in the upper reaches and the Lualaba River draining wetlands...
, shooting elephants, and collecting specimens of all kinds for museums and private collections. His travels added greatly to the knowledge of the country now known as Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
. He made valuable ethnological
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
investigations, and throughout his wanderings—often among people who had never previously seen a white man—he maintained cordial relations with the chiefs and tribes, winning their confidence and esteem, notably so in the case of Lobengula.
In 1890, Selous entered the service of the British South Africa Company
British South Africa Company
The British South Africa Company was established by Cecil Rhodes through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Ltd., receiving a royal charter in 1889...
, at the request of magnate Cecil Rhodes, acting as guide to the pioneer
Pioneer Column
The Pioneer Column was a force raised by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 and used in his efforts to annex the territory of Mashonaland, later part of Southern Rhodesia ....
expedition to Mashonaland
Mashonaland
Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. It is the home of the Shona people.Currently, Mashonaland is divided into three provinces, with a total population of about 3 million:* Mashonaland West* Mashonaland Central* Mashonaland East...
. Over 400 miles of road were constructed through a country of forest, mountain and swamp, and in two and a half months Selous took the column safely to its destination. He then went east to Manica
Manica
Manica may refer to:* Manica Province, a province of Mozambique** Manica, Mozambique, a town* Manica, a part of the male Lepidoptera genitalia near the aedeagus* Manica , armguards used by the Roman legionaries and gladiators...
, concluding arrangements which brought the country there under British control. Coming to England in December 1892, he was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
in recognition of his extensive explorations and surveys, of which he gave a summary in a journal article entitled "Twenty Years in Zambesia".
Military career
Rhodesia and World War I
He returned to Africa to take part in the First Matabele WarFirst Matabele War
The First Matabele War was fought in 1893-1894 between the British South Africa Company military forces and the Ndebele people. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, avoided outright war with the British settlers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of the European weapons...
(1893), and was wounded during the advance on Bulawayo
Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
. It was during this advance that he first met fellow scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who had only just arrived in Africa and who continued on with the small scouting party to Bulawayo and observed the self-destruction of the Ndebele settlement as ordered by King Lobengula
Lobengula
Lobengula Khumalo was the second and last king of the Ndebele people, usually pronounced Matabele in English. Both names, in the Sindebele language, mean "The men of the long shields", a reference to the Matabele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.- Background :The Matabele were related to...
. Selous returned to England, married, and in 1896 the couple settled on an estate in Essexvale, Matabeleland
Matabeleland
Modern day Matabeleland is a region in Zimbabwe divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. The region is named after its inhabitants, the Ndebele people...
, when the Second Matabele War
Second Matabele War
The Second Matabele War, also known as the Matabeleland Rebellion and in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga, was fought in 1896–97 between the British troops and the Ndebele people....
broke out. The outline of the foundations of this house can be viewed on Google Earth
Google Earth
Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
map reference 20°11′27.49"S 28°55′53.18"E approximately 5 metres north of the track perched 80 feet above the Ncema River. He took a prominent part in the fighting which followed, serving as a leader in the Bulawayo Field Force, and published an account of the campaign entitled Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia (1896). It was during this time that he met and fought along side Robert Baden-Powell who was then a Major and newly appointed to the British Army headquarters staff in Matabeleland.
In World War I, at the age of 64, Selous participated in the fighting in East Africa, rejoining the British Army. He was promoted Captain in the uniquely composed 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers on 23 August 1915, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
on 26 September 1916, the citation read:
Death and legacy
On 4 January 1917, Selous was fighting a bush-war on the banks of the Rufiji RiverRufiji River
The Rufiji River lies entirely within the African nation of Tanzania. The river is formed by the convergence of the Kilombero and Luwegu rivers. It is approximately 600 km long, with its source in southwestern Tanzania and its mouth on the Indian Ocean at a point between Mafia Island called Mafia...
, against German colonial Schutztruppe
Schutztruppe
Schutztruppe was the African colonial armed force of Imperial Germany from the late 19th century to 1918, when Germany lost its colonies. Similar to other colonial forces, the Schutztruppe consisted of volunteer European commissioned and non-commissioned officers, medical and veterinary officers. ...
n, outnumbered five-to-one. That morning, in combat, during a minor engagement, while creeping forward, he raised his head and binoculars to locate the enemy, and was shot in the head by a German sniper. He was killed instantly.
His close friend, American president Theodore Roosevelt, upon getting the news, wrote:
He was buried under a tamarind
Tamarind
Tamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .-Origin:...
tree, nearby the place of his death, in today's Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, in a modest, flat stone grave with a simple bronze plaque reading: "CAPTAIN F.C. SELOUS D.S.O., 25TH ROYAL FUSILIERS, KILLED IN ACTION 4.1.17."
Exactly a year later, on 4 January 1918, his son, Captain Frederick Hatherley Bruce MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
, was killed as pilot with Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
, in a flight over Menin Road
Menen
Menen is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Menen proper and the towns of Lauwe and Rekkem. The city is situated on the French/Belgian border. On January 1, 2006, Menen had a total population of 32,413...
, France.
As part of his African military legacy, an elite Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
n military unit, the Selous Scouts
Selous Scouts
The Selous Scouts was a special forces regiment of the Rhodesian Army, which operated from 1973 until the introduction of majority rule in 1980. It was named after British explorer Frederick Courteney Selous , and their motto was pamwe chete, which, in the Shona language, roughly means "all...
, was named in his honour.
Selous as a hunter, naturalist and conservationist
Hunting icon
Beside his powerful ties, like the ones with Theodore Roosevelt and Cecil Rhodes, military achievements or books he left behind, he is mostly remembered as one of world’s most revered hunters, as he went in pursuit of big game hunting not only into his southern African homelands but also reputed wildernesses worldwide, subsequently.Accounts of his youth are filled with stories of trespassing, poaching and brawling, almost all within romanticised and humorous portrayal, but one in particular, in 1870, stands out as more serious: when in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
, Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, he knocked unconscious a Prussian game warden who tackled him while stealing buzzard
Buzzard
A buzzard is one of several large birds, but there are a number of meanings as detailed below.-Old World:In the Old World Buzzard can mean:* One of several medium-sized, wide-ranging raptors with a robust body and broad wings....
eggs for his collection, and had to leave the country at once in order to avoid imprisonment. Then he moved to Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and when in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
he went big game hunting for the first time, in the nearby Alps, he shot two chamois
Chamois
The chamois, Rupicapra rupicapra, is a goat-antelope species native to mountains in Europe, including the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, the European Alps, the Tatra Mountains, the Balkans, parts of Turkey, and the Caucasus. The chamois has also been introduced to the South Island of New Zealand...
.
On 4 September 1871, at the age of nineteen, he left England with £400 in his pocket, determined to earn his living as a professional elephant hunter, and by the age of twenty five he was known far and wide in South Africa as one of the most successful ivory hunters of the day.
Selous journeyed in pursuit of big game to Europe (Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Germany in 1870, Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, then Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
but now Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
in 1899, Mull
Mull
-Places:*Isle of Mull, Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides*Sound of Mull, between the island and the rest of Scotland*Mull , Anglicisation of Gaelic Maol, hill or promontory**Mull of Galloway, Scotland**Mull of Kintyre, Scotland...
Island, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1894, Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
in 1902, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
in 1907), Asia (Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Persia, Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
in 1894-95, 1897, 1907), North America (Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
in 1897 and 1898, Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces:* New Brunswick* Newfoundland and Labrador* Nova Scotia* Ontario* Prince Edward Island* Quebec...
in 1900-1901, 1905, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
in 1904, 1905) and the "dark continent" in a territory that extends from today’s South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
all the way up into central Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
where he collected virtually every specimen of all medium and large African mammal species. He never hunted in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, a very popular destination with British sportsmen of the day, even more so when in fact at the given time it was the golden age of tiger hunting
Tiger hunting
Tiger hunting is the capture and kill of tigers. Humans are the tiger's most significant predator, and illegal poaching is a major threat to the tiger. The Bengal Tiger is the most common subspecies of tiger, constituting approximately 80% of the entire tiger population, and is found in Bangladesh,...
and shikari
Shikari
A Shikari is a big game hunter, especially in India, a native hunter who serves as a guide. The word is derived from Persian Shikar + Persian suffix i...
s.
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. While Selous was a member of this expedition from time to time and helped organize the logistics of the safari, it was in fact led by R. J. Cunninghame. Roosevelt wrote of Selous:
In 1907, Selous founded The Shikar Club, a big-game hunters association, together with two other British Army Captains, Charles Edward Radclyffe and P. B. Vanderbyl, and regularly met at the Savoy Hotel
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by...
in London. President was the Earl of Lonsdale
Earl of Lonsdale
Earl of Lonsdale is a title that has been created twice in British history, firstly in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784 , and then in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1807, both times for members of the Lowther family....
. Another founding member was the artist, explorer and biographer of Selous John Guille Millais
John Guille Millais
John Guille Millais , known as "Johnny" Millais, was an English artist, naturalist, gardener and travel writer who specialised in wildlife and flower portraiture. He travelled extensively around the world in the late Victorian period detailing wildlife often for the first time...
.
He was a rifleman icon and a valued expert in firearms. Early in his hunting career, in the mid 1870s, Selous favoured a four bore black powder muzzleloader
Muzzleloader
A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun . This is distinct from the more popular modern designs of breech-loading firearms...
for killing elephant, a 13 lbs short barreled musket firing a quarter pound bullet at with as much as 20 dram
Dram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
s (540 grain
Avoirdupois
The avoirdupois system is a system of weights based on a pound of 16 ounces. It is the everyday system of weight used in the United States and is still widely used to varying degrees by many people in Canada, the United Kingdom, and some other former British colonies despite the official adoption...
s) of black powder, one of the largest hunting caliber fabricated, literally a small hand cannon. He could wield it even from horseback. Between 1874 and 1876 he slew exactly seventy-eight elephants with that gun, but eventually there was a double loading incident together with other recoil problems from it, and he finally gave it up as too "upsetting my nerve". He used a ten bore muzzleloader to hunt lions. After black powder muzzleloader behemoths became obsolete and metal cased cartridges and smokeless gun powder came into use, despite the fact that he was bombarded with gifts from the finest London gunmakers in hopes of advertisement (indeed he tried many), he was to be found accompanied in his hunt by two rifles, single shot, falling block Farquharson action
Farquharson rifle
The Farquharson Rifle is a single shot hammerless falling block action rifle designed and patented by John Farquharson, of Daldhu, Scotland in 1872. George Gibbs, a gun maker in Bristol, became a co-owner of the Farquharson patent in 1875 and was the sole maker of Farquharson rifles until the...
, Metford barelled rifles in the two calibers he loved best: a Romanian .256 Mannlicher
6.5x54mm Mannlicher-Schönauer
The 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schönauer also known as 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schönauer Greek is a 6.5 mm rifle cartridge used in the Mannlicher-Schönauer rifle...
for smaller game and a .450 Nitro Express
.450 Nitro Express
.450 Nitro Express designed for the purpose of hunting large game such as elephant. This cartridge is used almost exclusively in single shot and double express rifles for hunting at the Tropics or hot climates in general and is a cartridge associated with the Golden Age of African safaris and...
for larger game. His favorite gun makers were Gibbs of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and Holland & Holland
Holland & Holland
Holland & Holland is a British gun-maker based in London, England. They offer hand-made sporting rifles and shotguns. H&H holds two Royal Warrants.-History:Holland & Holland was founded by Harris Holland in the year 1835....
of London. There are quotes as to how Selous was in fact not a crack shot, but a rather ordinary marksman, yet most agree that was just another personal statement of modesty from Selous himself. Regardless, he remains an iconic rifleman figure and, following in the tradition of others, the German gunmaker Blaser and the Italian gunmaker Perugini Visini chose to name their top line safari rifles the Selous after him.
Naturalist and conservationist
Many of the Selous trophies entered into museums and international taxidermy and natural-history collections, notably that of the Natural History MuseumNatural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
in London. In their Selous Collection they have 524 mammals from three continents, all shot by him, including nineteen African lions. In the last year of his life, while in combat in 1916, he was known to carry his butterfly net in the evening and collect specimens, for the same institution. Overall, more than five thousand plants and animal specimens were donated by him to the Natural History section of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. This collection was held from 1881 in the new Natural History Museum in South Kensington (which became an independent institution in 1963). Here, posthumously in 1920, they unveiled a bronze bust of him in the Main Hall, where it stands to this day. He is mentioned widely in foremost taxidermist Rowland Ward
Rowland Ward
Rowland Ward was a British taxidermist and founder of the taxidermy firm Rowland Ward Ltd. of Piccadilly. The company specialized in, and was renowned for, their work on big game trophies, but their output covered all aspects of taxidermy...
s catalogues for world's largest animal specimens hunted, where Selous is ranked in many trophy categories, including rhinoceros
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....
, elephant and many ungulates. He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
's Founders Medal in 1893 "in recognition of twenty years' exploration and surveys in South Africa".
In 1896, British zoologist William Edward de Winton
William Edward de Winton
William Edward de Winton was a British zoologist. He traveled widely, and discovered a number of previously undescribed cricetid species. His East Africa photo collection, from the late 1890s, is kept at the London Natural History Museum.-Notes:...
(1856–1922), named a new African small Carnivora
Carnivora
The diverse order Carnivora |Latin]] carō "flesh", + vorāre "to devour") includes over 260 species of placental mammals. Its members are formally referred to as carnivorans, while the word "carnivore" can refer to any meat-eating animal...
, Paracynictis selousi, or the Selous mongoose, in his honor. Also, a subspecies of the African Sitatunga
Sitatunga
The situtunga or marshbuck is a swamp-dwelling antelope found throughout Central Africa, centering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and parts of Southern Sudan as well as in Ghana, Botswana, Zambia, Gabon, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.-Description:Situtunga stand about one and a...
antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
, (Tragelaphus spekii selousi), bears his name.
Selous was one of the first conservationists. In none of his expeditions was his object the taking of a big bag, but as a hunter-naturalist and slayer of great game he ranked with the most famous of the world's sportsmen. In leading so many hunting expeditions, Selous noticed over time how the impact of European hunters was leading to a significant reduction in the amount of game available in Africa. In 1881 he returned to Britain for a while, saying;
The Selous Game Reserve
Selous Game Reserve
The Selous Game Reserve is one of the largest faunal reserves of the world, located in the south of Tanzania. It was named after Englishman Sir Frederick Selous, a famous big game hunter and early conservationist, who died at Beho Beho in this territory in 1917 while fighting against the Germans...
in southeastern Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
is a hunting reserve named in his honour. Established in 1922, it covers an area of more than 17 000 m² (44 800 km²) along the rivers Kilombero
Kilombero
Kilombero is the name of a river and a district in Morogoro Region, south-western Tanzania.The district is situated in a vast floodplain, between the Kilombero river in the south-east and the Udzungwa-Mountains in the north-west...
, Ruaha, and Rufiji. The area first became a hunting reserve in 1905, although it is rarely visited by humans due to the strong presence of the Tsetse fly
Tsetse fly
Tsetse , sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals and are the primary biological vectors of trypanosomes, which...
. In 1982 it was designated a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
due to the diversity of its wildlife and undisturbed nature.
Portrait in literature
Frederick Courteney Selous image remains a classic, romantic portrait of a proper Victorian periodVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
English gentleman of the colonies, one whose real life adventures and exploits of almost epic proportions generated successful Lost World
Lost World (genre)
The Lost World literary genre is a fantasy or science fiction genre that involves the discovery of a new world out of time, place, or both. It began as a subgenre of the late-Victorian imperial romance and remains popular to this day....
and Steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
genre fictional characters like Allan Quatermain
Allan Quatermain
Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various prequels and sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence.- History :...
, to a large extent an embodiment of the popular "white hunter" concept of the times; yet he remained a modest and stoic pillar in personality all throughout his life. As himself he was featured in the "Young Indiana Jones" and "Rhodes" series. He was widely remembered in real tales of war, exploration and big game hunting as balanced blend between a gentleman officer and epic wild man.
Appearance and character
Bestowed with exceptional qualities in a man, he excelled at the English sports of the day: cricket, rugby, cycling, swimming and tennis, he loved outdoors the best developing a rugged and robust physique by trekking, packing, marching and hunting for so long. He was also known as an accomplished rider, he waged war and hunted much on horses. To the African locals he was the "best white runner" (in the endurance aspect, similar as to native bushmen's concept).While in England, all his life he played sports, he still did half day 100 mile bicycle races when almost sixty years old. Millais, friend and biographer, wrote: "As sport he loved cricket most, and played regularly for his club at Worplesdon taking part in all their matches until 1915…'Big Game Hunters' vs. 'Worplesdon' was always a great and solemn occasion."
Accounts on Miles biography read: "He ate less than most men, and never drank anything but tea, which he enjoyed at every meal. Sometimes he drank champagne at big dinners, but rich wines and high feeding had no attractions to him. Occasional accounts of whisky deeds upon meeting old friends exist however. Also, he was fond of his pipe and tobacco. All these never amounted to excess, except for tea, a fact that further promoted him as the Englishman ideal.
Television accounts
- The Young Indiana Jones ChroniclesThe Young Indiana Jones ChroniclesThe Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 4, 1992, to July 24, 1993. The series explores the childhood and youth of the fictional character Indiana Jones and primarily stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Corey Carrier as the title character, with...
(TV-Series, 1992–1993) ; played by Paul Freeman - Young Indiana Jones and the Phantom Train of Doom, German East Africa, November 1916 (1993)
Paul Slabolepszy
Paul Slabolepszy , or Paul "Slab", is a South African actor and playwright.-Overview:Slabolepszy was born in Bolton, England. His mother was English and his father was a Polish refugee. The family then emigrated to South Africa....
Chronology of works
By Frederick Courteney Selous:- A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa: Being a Narrative of Nine Years Spent Amongst the Game of the Far Interior of South Africa (1881)
- Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa: Being the Narrative of the Last Eleven Years Spent By the Author on the Zambesi and Its Tributaries; With an Account of the Colonisation of Mashunaland and the Progress of the Gold Industry in That Country (1893)
- Sunshine & Storm in Rhodesia: Being a Narrative of Events in Matabeleland Both Before and During the Recent Native Insurrection Up to the Date of the Disbandment of the Bulawayo Field Force. (1896), ISBN 978-1-60355-059-8
- Sport & Travel East and West (1900)
- Living Animals Of The World; A Popular Natural History With One Thousand Illustrations (1902)
- Newfoundland Guide Book (1905)
- Recent Hunting Trips in British North America (1907)
- African Nature Notes and Reminiscences. Foreword By Theodore Roosevelt (1908)
- Africa's Greatest Hunter: the Lost Writings of Frederick C Selous, Edited by Casada, James A Dr (1998)
Selous also wrote the foreword to world's most popular man-eater story: The man-eaters of Tsavo and other East African Adventures. BY Lieut.-Col. J. H. Patterson, D.S.O.. With a foreword by Frederick Courteney Selous first published in London, 1907
Besides the works mentioned, Selous made numerous contributions to The Geographical Journal
The Geographical Journal
The Geographical Journal is a journal of the Royal Geographical Society and has been published since 1831. Its original title was Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. The journal publishes original research papers and review articles across geography, and has the highest...
, the Field
The Field (magazine)
The Field is the world's oldest country and field sports magazine, having been published continuously since 1853.The famous sportsman Robert Smith Surtees, the creator of Jorrocks, was the driving force behind the initial publication...
and other journals.
Literature about or with solid mentions of Frederick Courtenay Selous written by others:
John Guille Millais
John Guille Millais , known as "Johnny" Millais, was an English artist, naturalist, gardener and travel writer who specialised in wildlife and flower portraiture. He travelled extensively around the world in the late Victorian period detailing wildlife often for the first time...
, London, 1919.
Guy Dollman
Captain John Guy Dollman BA, FLS , known as Guy Dollman, was a British zoologist and taxonomist. Dollman's Tree Mouse Dollman's Vlei Rat are named after him.-Life and work:...
, London, 1921.
See also
- Selous ScoutsSelous ScoutsThe Selous Scouts was a special forces regiment of the Rhodesian Army, which operated from 1973 until the introduction of majority rule in 1980. It was named after British explorer Frederick Courteney Selous , and their motto was pamwe chete, which, in the Shona language, roughly means "all...
- Pioneer ColumnPioneer ColumnThe Pioneer Column was a force raised by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 and used in his efforts to annex the territory of Mashonaland, later part of Southern Rhodesia ....
- Shangani PatrolShangani PatrolThe Shangani Patrol was a group of white Rhodesian pioneer police officers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Matabeleland in 1893. The incident achieved a lasting, prominent place in Rhodesian colonial history.-Setting and Battle:...
- Frederick Russell BurnhamFrederick Russell BurnhamFrederick Russell Burnham, DSO was an American scout and world traveling adventurer known for his service to the British Army in colonial Africa and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell, thus becoming one of the inspirations for the founding of the international Scouting Movement.Burnham...
- Second Matabele WarSecond Matabele WarThe Second Matabele War, also known as the Matabeleland Rebellion and in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga, was fought in 1896–97 between the British troops and the Ndebele people....
Further reading
- Roosevelt’s quest for wilderness: a comparison of Roosevelt’s visits to Yellowstone and Africa
- Taps for the Great Selous, essay by Major Frederick Russell BurnhamFrederick Russell BurnhamFrederick Russell Burnham, DSO was an American scout and world traveling adventurer known for his service to the British Army in colonial Africa and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell, thus becoming one of the inspirations for the founding of the international Scouting Movement.Burnham...
, D.S.O., and published in Hunting Trails on Three Continents, Grinnell, George BirdGeorge Bird GrinnellGeorge Bird Grinnell was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1870 and a Ph.D. in 1880. Originally specializing in zoology, he became a prominent early conservationist and student...
, Kermit RooseveltKermit RooseveltKermit Roosevelt I MC was a son of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. He was an explorer on two continents with his father, a graduate of Harvard University, a soldier serving in two world wars, with both the British and U.S. Armies, a businessman, and a writer...
, W. Redmond Cross, and Prentiss N. Gray (editors). A Book of the Boone and Crockett ClubBoone and Crockett ClubThe Boone and Crockett Club conservationist organization, founded in the United States in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt. The club was named in honor of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, whom the club's founders viewed as ethical hunters and honest men who loved the outdoors and earthly pursuits...
. New York: The Derrydale Press, (1933)