Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: HURST, George Henry Russell

Nee: bro of Charles William Hurst

Birth Date: 1879 Cardiff

Death Date: 25 Aug 1923 killed by an elephant near Arusha

First Date: Before 1911

Last Date: 1923

Profession: Farmer. Went to EA to trap animals for zoos but was killed by a she elephant whose offspring he had attempted to catch

Area: Arusha district, Hut 1920 Eldoret, 1911 Soy

Book Reference: Gillett, Habari 26, Brewery, Nature, Clark, Safari Trail, Manual, Hut, EAMR, Red 22, Gazette, Nicholls, Chandler

War Service: Thorneycroft Mounted Infantry in Boer War. Served with EAMR in WW1 - C Sqdn. 10/9/14 - Cpl. 14/9/14; Sergt. 10/11/14; Lieut. 25/11/14; to Gen. Staff as Captain. MC 1918

School: Isle of Wight College

General Information:

Habari 26 - 'My father, when he first reached Kenya in 1911, joined the Hurst brothers' hunting safaris. However, both Charles (better known as "Will") and my father, Q.H. Brown, soon settled down to farming in Uasin Gishu District. George was the brother killed by an elephant.' (Source: letter from Shirley Heriz-Smith).   Also quoted in the letter is .... 'In Dec. 1992 Kenya Breweries celebrated their 70th Birthday at which Will's eldest daughter, Barbara Phillips (married to a Nairobi architect) was guest of honour.  "At the time of his death in August 1923 he was heading a party charged by the Tanganyika Government to thin out herds of elephants that had been killing villagers. The official telegram reads "Wounded bull with 470 at 11 am with 5 rounds came up with him at noon and put 5 more in him. Elephant made off. 2 pm elephant charged out of long grass at close quarters Hurst fired 2 rounds elephant seized Hurst and dashed him against tree. Death instantaneous. My uncle had a small farm in the Ngorongoro crater."
Brewery - Charles Hurst communicated his thoughts to his brother and to a friend named H.A. Dowding, who was connected with the Edme Malt Extract Company. The three men examined possible sites on the outskirts of Nairobi and chose Ruaraka because here was a permanent stream to supply water for their brewery ..... they discovered that they were only one of three groups of people who were looking at Ruaraka with the idea of starting a brewery. There was no time to lose. Charles Hurst went down to the Coast, boarded a ship, travelled to England and paid cash for brewery equipment (at least equipment such as the three partners could afford). He had the plant loaded in a vessel that promised a fast passage to Mombasa and so returned to Kenya. The die was cast. Charles and George Hurst and H.A. Dowding had subscribed £2,500 each towards the venture. While Charles was away the other partners lived in a tent, dug a well near to the river's edge, cleared the land and built the brewery. The building of cut stone and corrugated iron was ugly but functional. The plant arrived and was installed. A company known as Kenya Breweries Limited was formally registered on 8 December and production began on 14th December 1922. Charles Hurst was the first brewer. Going by the manual he followed the instructions implicitly, boiled the resultant solution in a small copper vessel over a kuni fire, bottled the brew and carried ten cases, the first order, to Mr Waterman, the manager of the Stanley Hotel. Those who remember Mr Waterman can imagine the kindliness with which he would have accepoted the crates, have extracted the cork from the first bottle of local beer, tasted the brew and raised his eyes to that high roof of the Stanley lounge.
Charles Hurst was no brewer so Mr Hector Money was appointed acting secretary of Kenya Breweries Ltd. The first official meeting took place at the factory on 6 March 1923. Charles Hurst was in the Chair, George Hurst and H.A. Dowding were present. The three men elected themselves directors with Charles as Managing Director. A brewer was engaged - Mr Spurrier and arrived at the beginning of 1923 and it was at this time that Mr J.C. Aronson joined the company as a director. He took the place of George Hurst, who sadly enough, had been killed by an elephant in a hunting accident. In memory of the sad occasion it was decided to call the products of Kenya Breweries "Tusker".
Nature - 'A white hunter who was said to be the bravest and most reckless man who ever hunted elephants. He had been known to go in amongst a herd and shoo the cows away in order to reach the bull. I accompanied him once or twice in my youth and a more hair-raising experience I cannot imagine. But I learnt a lot. He was killed by a bull elephant that had been wounded by an African hunter; it took Hurst by surprise in heavy bush and killed him within seconds.    
Clark - 'one professional hunter named Hurst, with whom I was at one time in the field, sometimes went very far indeed in his familiarities with animals. On several occasions he actually walked up to lions and "booed" at them in order to get them to run. .............. 1923 - Capt. Hurst was not a man to enlarge particularly about his adventures, but I did get him to tell me about the lion that mauled him. It had happened only a few weeks before he joined our party, and I thought that he would not be able to come on account of his injuries, but he insisted that he was all right, though he still wore some bandages. He had come upon a lion in the open, and the beast started off. Hurst shot and missed, and the lion made a flying leap to get into some bush. Hurst let go again and hit the beast while it was in mid-air. At that the animal actually turned before it struck the ground, and the moment it lit, it came for the hunter. Hurst was using a typical elephant gun - a double barreled rifle - and of course, both shots had been fired. So sudden was the attack that he had no time to reload. So, realizing the seriousness of the situation, he thrust the muzzle into the lion's mouth. The force behind the lion's charge was so great, however, that Hurst was borne over backwards on to the ground; the rifle stock snapped in two, the lion spit the gun barrel out of its mouth and stood above him for a moment. Then it stooped, seized him by the hip in its teeth, and started off with him. it took two or three steps, dropped him to the ground, coughed and fell dead directly beside the hunter. When he dragged himself away and looked to his own wounds, Hurst examined the lion and learned that the one bullet that had struck the beast had cut through one side of its heart, and yet the animal had strength enough left to almost kill the hunter. After Hurst left us, I am sorry to say, he was charged by a wounded elephant and killed. So vast is the difference between the courage of such men as Hurst and the actions of some men who take the field in Africa, that it is doubly tragic when men of his kind are killed.
Safari Trail - George Hirst [sic] was a terrifying person to accompany on a hunt. Most people went once and swore fervently that they would never go again. My own Manda often brought my heart into my mouth by the contemptuous way in which he treated elephants but, as you watched him, you came to realise that he might be familiar but he was never over confident. George Hirst would walk into a herd as a farmer's wife might walk into a poultry yard after the bird she proposed to kill and cook for luncheon. When George spotted a fine bull elephant in a herd he would shoo the cows out of the way and shoot the bull. One might think that this sort of behaviour could only have one end. He was killed by an elephant that had been previously wounded by a native hunter.
Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Uasin Gishu Plateau - G.R. Hurst, Farm No. 214
Gazette - 4/11/1914 - Appt. - EAMR - To be Lieutenant - Sergeant G.W.R. Hurst
Nicholls - G.H.R. Hurst, a photographer who started the production of Tusker beer, still going strong today, was killed by a charging elephant when attempting to photograph it. Chandler - A professional hunter from Arusha, Hurst hoped to obtain the lease rights to Ngorongoro Crater after WW1, made available when the British Government confiscated all German property in Tanganyika. He squatted for a year on property formerly owned by the Siedentopf brothers, and estimated the herds of zebra and wildebeest in the crater at some 50,000 animals. His efforts were in vain, however, for the Enemy Property Commission finally sold a 99 year lease to Sir Charles Ross. Hurst guided the American taxidermist James L. Clark on several of his collecting hunts. He was later killed by an elephant near Dar es Salaam in 1923.
Gazette - 29/10/1919 - Register of Voters - Plateau
North - George Henry Russell Hurst - Farmer, 3 Rivers, Trans Nzoia
Gazette - 21/11/1923 - Probate and Administration - Capt. G.H.R. Hurst, late of Eldoret who died in Kilwa District in Tanganyika Territory on 25 August 1923. Applied for by Charles William Hurst of Eldoret
Gazette - 26/9/1923 - Voters Register - Plateau North - George Henry Russell Hurst, Farmer, Soy
c. 1913 Hurst took Kenyon Painter on safari and camped on the western slopes of Mt. Meru. They tracked rhino for many hours and eventually shot one -a world record trophy with horns 53½” and 18¼” (White Hunters, by Brian Herne, p. 49).{This record was set by Painter in 1902 and Hurst was not in Kenya then, so this disputed].
?1920 was granted a 99-year lease of Ngorongoro Crater post-WWI. Pre-war the lease had been held by Adolf Siedentopf and his brother. At some point Adolf was killed by a Masai spear. After George’s death, the lease was taken over by Sir Charles Ross, manufacturer of the Ross bolt-action rifle. He initially was impressed by the amount and variety of game, but once he was proprietor, he took on much more of a conservationist role (White Hunters, by Brian Herne, p. 123). Capt G.H.R. Hurst M.C. lived in the ruins of W.F. Seidentopf's farm at Lerai. Killed by an elephant near Dar es Salaam by 1923. Squatting at Ngorongoro in the hopes of buying Adolph Siedentopf's farm from the Custodian of Enemy Property, but outbid by Ross (Ngorongoro: The Eighth Wonder, by Henry Fosbrooke).
 

Back to search results