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Name: SMITH, Thorold Murray 'Nimrod' MC

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Birth Date: 18 Dec 1886 Sandown, Isle of Wight

Death Date: 27 Apr 1972 Stotfold, Bedfordshire

First Date: 1920

Profession: Well known professional big-game hunter. Foundation Member EA Professional Hunters' Ass. President 1959/60. Retired to Lewes in Sussex

Married: 1. Barbara 'Babs' d. of leukaemia 2. Ida Violet Clifton b. 14 Sep 1906 Southampton, d. 1 Aug 1939 Southampton 3. In Cardigan 12 Feb 1945 Mrs Annie Gwendoline Wetherall née Lethbridge b. 1894, d. 13 Dec 1978 (dau. of John Acland Musgrave Lethbridge)

Author: Alan Wykes, 'Nimrod Smith', 1961

Book Reference: Ker, Ruark, Nature, Nimrod, Sundown, Who's Who, Chandler

War Service: Served in France in WW1 - wounded. Awarded MC in 1915. WW2 with Intelligence in Abyssinia

School: Marlborough

General Information:

Ruark - Old timer Murray Smith, who once dived into the bush with his client after a wounded rhino. The old rhino boiled out from behind a thron tree, and as old Murray squared away to face it, he went tail over tip into a pig hole and sprawled flat. The faro came at him, and all Smith could do was seize its horn with both hands and hang on for dear life, with the faro bouncing him up and down. The client, who, I expect, wasn't a coward, ran up and stuck his gun in the rhino's ear, and saved old Murray from a very sticky finish. Later somebody asked him what he thought of when the rhino had him down. "All I could think of," Murray said "was that now I had hold of it, the horn seemed longer than I thought it was when I told the client to shoot."  
Nature - 'I heard him snort furiously and turned to meet him in full charge. He was like a tank pelting down a mountainside. I aimed, sure that I would stop him in the next instant. I put my foot into a hidden ant-bear hole, fell flat on my back, pulling the trigger as I fell: and the killer was on me. The bullet was found later, lodged in the base of the horn. He thrust his horn under me and flung me into the air. I came down in front of him and grabbed his horn and hung onto it while he shook his head and rattled every bone in my body. One's thoughts bolt in such cases. I vividly remember thinking: 'This horn's a damn sight longer than I believed when I told Pete to shoot.' Then he shook my grip loose; I thudded to earth; he threw me heavenwards again. This time I came down on the back of my neck. He drew back to charge just as Kioko arrived, and the little man, with splendid courage, rushed forward and tried to drag me away. I am six feet tall and I must have been nearly twice his weight. The attempt failed, but his bravery was none the less conspicuous. The beast was about to finish me off - Kioko had dodged - when Pete arrived and put an end to him with a bullet through the neck. I was badly hurt, too knocked about to travel 40 miles in a motor truck to Mbulu, the nearest Govt. station. ........ Involved in the film 'Mogambo' in 1956 on 'protection'. In fact I was the camp butcher, I kept the African staff supplied with meat. (more about film set and stars Clark Gable and Grace Kelly) ..…..  
Nimrod - one of the oldest friends of T. Murray Smith was Cherry Kearton. He had known him since 1899 when he came to Marlborough to give a lecture on bird photography.  
Sundown - A very superior professional hunter, Capt. Murray Smith, was having a whisky and soda at a table in Mac's Inn, smoking his pipe.
Chandler - He was the brother-in-law of district commissioner Geoffrey Rimington and the son-in-law of Kenya pioneer Jackie Lethbridge. …………….[more]

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