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 thorn 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]

Tom Lawrence: Born 18“ Dec 1886 in Sandown, Isle of Wight. He attended two Prep Schools, followed by an unremarkable time at Marlborough, and the University of Reading which he didn't complete (Nimrod Smith, by Alan Wykes, p. 20). He had two brothers, Haigh (who became the president of the Barbarians Rugby Football Club) and Neville who became a doctor and won a DSC whilst with the Royal Navy in WWI (Nimrod Smith, by Alan Wykes, pp. 28-9). Cherry Kearton came to his school to do a presentation, and Murray was the only one who stayed behind to ask questions (ibid., pp. 194-5). 
He was a decorated WWI veteran (White Hunters, by Brian Herne, p. 172). At the outbreak of war. he joined up immediately and was commissioned into the Hampshire Regiment and was on the front within two weeks; he was gassed at Ypres. but otherwise was uninjured. He won his MC in April 1915 for doing an intelligence gathering raid on German trenches, whilst attached to the 2“ Border Regt. (Nimrod Smith, by Alan Wykes, pp. 34-5).
In the summer or 1919 he was working in Bristol Zoo, and was nearly killed by an elephant, but for the prompt action of a boy who was later to become his biographer, Alan Wykes (Nimrod Smith by Alan Wykes, pp. 18-19).
He arrived in East Africa in early 1920, and met up with Philip Percival who was on safari with the Duke of Orleans with which he helped out (ibid. pp 46-7). Sometime between 1921 and 1938 he worked for Safariland (lWhite Hunters, by Brian Herne, p. 175). He did a long safari for Newland & Tarlton in 1921 for two Americans coming down the Nile from Juba. He also hunted with the Duke of Aosta on the same trip. (Nimrod Smith by Alan Wykes, pp. 45-62. 62). He also took the Maharajahs of Jodhpur and Bikanir out on safari, albeit separately. (ibid, p.141) 
In 1925. he sold some tusks in London for what he believed was the highest price then (30/- per lb.) —it was for a pair of particularly thick tusks that a sculptor called Walker wanted for a particular sculpture which he made, a carving of the Virgin & Child (ibid. p. 174)
President of the EAPHA in 1958 and 1959 (Men for All Seasons, by A. Dyer p. 347).  Included amongst the East African hunters (1903-1977) (Tony 'Maxtone-Mailer’s List March 1990).
Early on in WW11 he was in the NFD doing much gathering of intelligence with respect to the lie of the land (Nimrod Smith, by Alan Wykes, p. 193). After the fall of Addis Ababa in April 1941, he coincidentally met up with Philip Percival, Syd Downey, Vivian Ward, and Pip Beverley at the offcers’ mess. With Philip Percival presiding they held a meeting of the EAPHA. They held a second meeting at the White Eagle Hotel about a month later, which ended up with a boisterous party enlivened by much captured enemy booze (White Hunters by Brian Herne, p. 175).
His gunbearer, friend and companion was a man called ‘Manda Koka’ who was with him for 35 years and his hunting partner was ‘Mwalimu Manza’ (White Hunters, by Brian Herne, p. 176).
In 1945 he was called to M'pulungu at the southern end of Lake Tanganyika to hunt meat for several hundred Polish refugees (Nimrod Smith, p. 98). He had a client in 1948 called Dean Witter from San Francisco, who wrote and published his experiences (ibid. p. 261).
He became friendly with Grace Kelly during the filming of ‘Mogambo'. He shot a giant python and gave her the skin which she later made into a suitcase. Even when she became Princess Grace of Monaco, she still remembered him and always sent a note with her Christmas card. He also gave Clark Gable his lion-skin cap and in return was given a pearl-handled .38 revolver, which Gable had smuggled in (White Hunters, by Brian Herne, pp. 192 & 195).
Bill Jenvey said that “...he was always adamant that clients developed a sportsmanlike conception of wildlife and hunting” (ibid. p. 179). He hated cars when they arrived in BEA, and once was found beating the front of his car with a kiboko shouting ‘If you were a bloody ox wagon I would know what to do with you." (A Man for All Seasons, by A. Dyer, p. 317). He suffered from an acute coronary thrombosis in 1957, which pushed him to retire to Greatworth, near Banbury in England (Nlmrod Smlth, by Alan Wykes, p. 22). 
His first wife was Barbara, the daughter of a Southampton businessman. ‘Babs’ contracted a wasting illness, and eventually died (ibid p.71). His second wife was Gwendoline Lethbridge, daughter of the colourful Nairobi settler, Jack Lethbridge. She was born in Canada and lived with her father from 1906 (ibid p. 22). He was son-in-law to Capt. Jackie Lethbridge. Jackie was a tough old war veteran who fought the Boers before arriving in BEA in 1902. Although he was never a hunter, he liked to hunt lions (White Hunters, by Brian Herne, pp. 23-4).
He died in 1964 (Ker & Downey by Jan Hemming, p. 38). He wrote The Nature of the Beast and Safari Trail.