Mervyn Cowie
Encyclopedia
Mervyn Hugh Cowie was a conservationist
who pioneered wildlife protection and the development of tourism throughout East Africa
.
farmers who migrated to South Africa
. Cowie's father resigned as Chief Magistrate
of Johannesburg
, South Africa
in order to settle in Kenya
. Cowie was born in Nairobi
on 13 April 1909. He grew up in a thatched
mud hut 30 miles from Nairobi. He had one brother. He was first educated in Nairobi, then moved to England
to study at Brighton College
and the University of Oxford
. He qualified as a chartered accountant
and returned to Kenya in 1932.
Cowie married Molly Beaty in 1934. They had two sons and one daughter. Beaty died in 1956. He married Valori Hare Duke in 1957. They had one son and one daughter. He retired to Suffolk
in England in 1979. Cowie died on 19 July 1996.
s and an efficiently run system for the preservation of game. However, the governments of the British colonial territories opposed the establishment of national park
s.
Between 1932 and the start of World War II
in 1939, Cowie was a district councillor in Nairobi and trained as a reserve with the King's African Rifles
. He also campaigned tirelessly for the protection of wildlife. He was frustrated by the government's lack of action on these issue, so he used the ploy of anonymously advocating the destruction of all East Africa
's wildlife in order to improve agriculture. Playing devil's advocate
in order to push public opinion against hunting, he wrote a letter to the East African Standard signed "Old Settler" which proposed the slaughter of all of Kenya's wild animals. There was public outcry against this suggestion, and the government was forced to act. The government formed a committee to examine the matter. A national parks board was eventually established with Cowie as its chairman. Nairobi National Park
, Kenya's first national park, was opened in 1946. Cowie was its executive director. He opened a series of parks throughout East Africa. He assisted and advised on the formation of parks in Tanganyika
and Uganda
. Serengeti National Park
in Tanganyika was gazetted in 1951. Queen Elizabeth National Park
and Murchison Falls National Park
were established in Uganda in 1952. He was a hands-on administrator. He learned how to fly an aircraft so that he could patrol the parks he was responsible for. His aircraft was once chased by a rhinoceros
when he attempted to land it at a park outpost. He chased an elephant
away from Princess Elizabeth
's party when they visited the Treetops Hotel
in Aberdare National Park
in 1952.
Cowie sat on the Kenya Legislative Council for ten years. He was Director of Manpower during the 1953 Mau Mau Uprising
. He was the East African representative for the Alliance Internationale de Turisme. He organised and managed extensive anti-poaching operations. Cowie was the founder of Royal National Parks of Kenya. He was director of Royal National Parks of Kenya from 1946 to 1966. He was vice president of the East African Tourist Travel Association from 1950 to 1965. He became a CBE
in 1960. He resigned from the Royal National Parks of Kenya in 1966. By 1970 he was a Senior Consultant to the World Wildlife Fund. In 1972 he joined the African Medical and Research Foundation in Nairobi as the financial director.
Cowie wrote the books Fly Vulture (1961), I Walk with Lions (1964), and African Lion (1965). The 1951 British-made film Where No Vultures Fly
(renamed Ivory Hunter in the United States
) was a fictionalised account of Cowie's work.
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
who pioneered wildlife protection and the development of tourism throughout East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
.
Personal life
Cowie was a descendant of ScottishScotland
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...
farmers who migrated to 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...
. Cowie's father resigned as Chief Magistrate
Chief Magistrate
Chief Magistrate is a generic designation for a public official whose office—individual or collegial—is the highest in his or her class, in either of the fundamental meanings of Magistrate : as a major political and administrative office , and/or as a judge Chief Magistrate is a generic designation...
of Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, 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...
in order to settle in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. Cowie was born in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
on 13 April 1909. He grew up in a thatched
Thatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge , rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates...
mud hut 30 miles from Nairobi. He had one brother. He was first educated in Nairobi, then moved to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to study at Brighton College
Brighton College
Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for...
and the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. He qualified as a chartered accountant
Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional body, initially established in Britain in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants , the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants were each granted a royal charter almost from...
and returned to Kenya in 1932.
Cowie married Molly Beaty in 1934. They had two sons and one daughter. Beaty died in 1956. He married Valori Hare Duke in 1957. They had one son and one daughter. He retired to Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
in England in 1979. Cowie died on 19 July 1996.
Career
On his return to Kenya in 1932, Cowie was alarmed how the amount of game animals had depleted during his nine year absence. The complete lack of government policies on conservation was the principal cause of this depletion. Cowie was concerned about human pressure on wilderness areas. He thought that there should be special areas where wild animals could exist without interference from people. He realised that only tourism could generate the revenues needed to establish the infrastructure, including parks, needed to protect animals. He envisioned a series of national parkNational park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
s and an efficiently run system for the preservation of game. However, the governments of the British colonial territories opposed the establishment of national park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
s.
Between 1932 and the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1939, Cowie was a district councillor in Nairobi and trained as a reserve with the King's African Rifles
King's African Rifles
The King's African Rifles was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from the various British possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within the East African colonies as well as external service as...
. He also campaigned tirelessly for the protection of wildlife. He was frustrated by the government's lack of action on these issue, so he used the ploy of anonymously advocating the destruction of all East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
's wildlife in order to improve agriculture. Playing devil's advocate
Devil's advocate
In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, just for the sake of argument. In taking such position, the individual taking on the devil's advocate role seeks to engage others in an argumentative...
in order to push public opinion against hunting, he wrote a letter to the East African Standard signed "Old Settler" which proposed the slaughter of all of Kenya's wild animals. There was public outcry against this suggestion, and the government was forced to act. The government formed a committee to examine the matter. A national parks board was eventually established with Cowie as its chairman. Nairobi National Park
Nairobi National Park
Nairobi National Park is a national park in Kenya. Established in 1946, the national park was Kenya's first. It is located approximately 7 kilometres south of the centre of Nairobi, Kenya's capital city, with only a fence separating the park's wildlife from the metropolis. Nairobi's skyscrapers...
, Kenya's first national park, was opened in 1946. Cowie was its executive director. He opened a series of parks throughout East Africa. He assisted and advised on the formation of parks in Tanganyika
Tanganyika
Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...
and Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
. Serengeti National Park
Serengeti National Park
The Serengeti National Park is a large national park in Serengeti area, Tanzania. It is most famous for its annual migration of over one and a half million white bearded wildebeest and 250,000 zebra...
in Tanganyika was gazetted in 1951. Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth National Park
-Location:The national park is located in western Uganda, spanning the districts of Kasese, Kamwenge, Bushenyi and Rukungiri. Its location is approximately , by road, southwest of Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city. The town of Kasese lies just outside the northeastern edge of the park,...
and Murchison Falls National Park
Murchison Falls National Park
Murchison Falls National Park is a national park in Uganda. The park lies in north western Uganda, spreading inland from the shore of Lake Albert around the Victoria Nile. It is named for the Murchison Falls waterfall, itself named for a president of the Royal Geographical Society...
were established in Uganda in 1952. He was a hands-on administrator. He learned how to fly an aircraft so that he could patrol the parks he was responsible for. His aircraft was once chased by a 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....
when he attempted to land it at a park outpost. He chased an elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
away from Princess Elizabeth
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
's party when they visited the Treetops Hotel
Treetops Hotel
Treetops Hotel is a hotel in Aberdare National Park in Kenya near the township of Nyeri, 1,966 m above sea level on the Aberdare Range and in sight of Mount Kenya...
in Aberdare National Park
Aberdare National Park
- External links :* * * *...
in 1952.
Cowie sat on the Kenya Legislative Council for ten years. He was Director of Manpower during the 1953 Mau Mau Uprising
Mau Mau Uprising
The Mau Mau Uprising was a military conflict that took place in Kenya between 1952 and 1960...
. He was the East African representative for the Alliance Internationale de Turisme. He organised and managed extensive anti-poaching operations. Cowie was the founder of Royal National Parks of Kenya. He was director of Royal National Parks of Kenya from 1946 to 1966. He was vice president of the East African Tourist Travel Association from 1950 to 1965. He became a CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
in 1960. He resigned from the Royal National Parks of Kenya in 1966. By 1970 he was a Senior Consultant to the World Wildlife Fund. In 1972 he joined the African Medical and Research Foundation in Nairobi as the financial director.
Cowie wrote the books Fly Vulture (1961), I Walk with Lions (1964), and African Lion (1965). The 1951 British-made film Where No Vultures Fly
Where No Vultures Fly
Where No Vultures Fly is a 1951 British film. It was released under the title Ivory Hunter in the United States. It was directed by Harry Watt and starred Anthony Steel and Dinah Sheridan. The film was inspired by the work of the conservationist Mervyn Cowie...
(renamed Ivory Hunter in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) was a fictionalised account of Cowie's work.