Lord Lugard's 'Rise of our East African Empire' so fired his imagination that at the age of 20 he left New Zealand and landed at Mombasa in 1895. (The first sleeper of the Uganda Railway had not yet been laid). With a safari he did the journey on foot from Mombasa to Lake Victoria. After Uganda Mutiny & Uganda Rebellion he was appointed DC in Kampala. Later he resigned and divided his activities between ivory hunting, planting and transport work in the Belgian Congo. Though almost stone deaf, he killed some 970 elephants in the course of his duties as a Game Ranger of the Uganda Game Department. While involved in shooting raiding elephants he had many narrow escapes, but perhaps the most miraculous were from buffalo.

Jordan - When Banks was tossed by that buffalo he clung to a mimosa tree and stayed there until the bull went away. He was badly gored and deaf for ever. It did not stop his poaching. His gun-bearer became his ears, keeping beside Banks and signalling with his hands.

Safari Trail - One of the most famous professional hunters, the New Zealander, "Deaf" Banks, so called because he was in fact nearly stone deaf. He was working on elephant control for the Uganda Govt. ....... followed an elephant into 10 ft. high grass. "I fired one shot," he said. "How was that?" ... "I wanted the bull but when I got up to him, he had his back to me. I couldn't kill him like that - hell, no. So I slapped him on the backside with the butt of my rifle and when he turned I slipped a bullet into his brain". "Deaf" Banks was an individual and died in his bed over 78 years old.

Adventurers - 'Banks, another knight of the rifle, was one of the best liked men in the Congo and Nilotic Africa. He was either an Australian or a New Zealander, and came originally to EA as a Govt. official, returning to his "cake and ale" once more when the hectic times of the Lado Enclave were past and the palmy days of elephant hunting gone for ever. Banks, who was known as "Deaf Banks" owing to being hard of hearing, was a contemporary of mine in the Congo and was a successful man at the game. The last time I met him was just as I was leaving for my trip to England. He had come into Koba badly mauled by a buffalo, and had a wound in his side that one could put both fists into. Yet he was as jolly and full of fun as ever, and one could not help wondering how he kept up his spirits in spite of his dreadful injury. But he knew better than most men how to take care of himself, and he actually kept his wound clean without medical aid for over a month by constantly washing it out and dressing it with permanganate of potash. When at length he got into a doctor's hands at Hoima he was really convalescent. He is, I am glad to say, still alive in Uganda ......... (more).  

Scobie - many of the greatest game wardens started their game careers as poachers. Dear old 'Deaf' Banks, of Uganda, one of the greatest thorns in the poacher's flesh, told me, "I can catch them because I know all the tricks. Learned'em the hard way." And he had - he had over a thousand elephant to his credit.  

Breath - ... F.G. ('Deaf') Banks and Quentin O. Grogan, could both claim to share a unique distinction - having ridden for a short time on the back of a part-grown square-lipped rhinoceros. I know of no other similar episodes. For some years they were members of the small and select band of ivory poachers in the Belgian Lado Enclave on the West bank of the Nile. Both set out to capture a youngster of the species. 'Deaf' Banks rode his calf for a short distance before being thrown off, and the post-captured small beast escaped from him. Quentin Grogan had been commissioned to capture two calves of this species for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Although he saw literally dozens of them in the Lado Enclave, his enterprise was not successful. This was not through lack of effort on his part. Once only did he come upon a calf small enough to be manageable ....... (story pp. 57 on)

North - Arr. Mombasa March 1896; Joined Smith, Mackenzie & Co. to work in Uganda; active in Uganda with military during Sudanese mutiny 1897-98; Temp. appt. as Asst. Director of Botany & Agriculture 1898; Agricultural Dept. Asst. UP Jan. 1899; based at Kampala July 1900; resigned, due to leave UP at end of appt. 17-8-1900; '…. Of the Bukonge Estate, Busoga' (EAS), ill in Govt. hospital Jinja, measles, Feb 1903, due to be moved to Entebbe 17-3-1903; '…. Almost stone deaf' (FO2)later DC Kampala

East Africa & Rhodesia - 3/6/54 - Mr Frederick Grant Banks, of Munobo, Fort Portal, Uganda has died in this country 10/6/54 - '… a well known elephant hunter in Ugand afor many years, although he had been deaf for the greater part of his life. Born in this country and educated in New Zealand, he arrived in Mombasa in 1895, before work had started on the Uganda railway. His imagination had been fired by Lord Lugard's "Rise of Our East African Colonies. [sic]" Having served through the Uganda Mutiny of 1897-98 and the Uganda Rebellion, he was appointed district commissioner in Kampala by Sir Harry Johnson [sic], but 18 months later he resigned, and for many years divided his time between ivory hunting, planting and transport work with the Belgian Congo. Asked by Sir Robert Coryndon to report on elephant raiding in Uganda, Mr Banks suggested the formation of an elephant control branch of the Game Dept., which he was invited to join as a game ranger. In that capacity it was his duty to shoot garden raiders, usually 50 or more a year. He had several miraculous escapes from buffalo.

Red 22 - F.G. Banks, Munobo Estate, Fort Portal

Elephant - F.G. Banks, who has been hunting elephant in Central Africa for a quarter of a century, is so deaf that many people have asked him how he manages to locate and shoot the animals. His reply - quite characteristic of the man - is that when surrounded by an invisible herd the very fact that he cannot hear them assists him to concentrate on the one he is after; with him it is a case of unheard, unthought of, and therefore not to be worried about! In the Toro district of Uganda he once killed three elephants with one round of his .256, surely a world's record; he shot one, which fell against two others, and all three crashed down a cliff. A typical story about "Deaf" Banks is told by Captain Tracy Philipps. In November, 1914, the British forces from Uganda, then on the northern bank of the Kagera River (shown in old maps as the Alexander Nile), which formed the frontier between Uganda and German East Africa, succeeded in taking the southern bank, on which they camped until they were pushed back by superior forces a week later. Banks, who was covering the retirement, was in a banana grove under heavy German machine-gun fire, with a perfect rain of bullet-severed leaves and bananas falling on him. Recharging his rifle, he remarked amiably to Philipps that there appeared to be "a strong wind today!"

John Boyes …… described Banks as one of the best liked men in the Congo and Nilotic Africa, and what was true of the old Lado Enclave days is so today. Most of Banks's contemporaries who hunted with him in the Lado are dead, but still he lives and continues to hunt the raiders in Uganda. In the old days he hunted for ivory; latterly his job has been to teach elephant how to behave. It is some little time since he brought down his one thousand and fiftieth elephant, so that he must be numbered among the select few who have reached four figures.

Thurston - Unofficial Records - Royal Commonwealth Society - Private Papers - MSS 45 - Frederick Grant Banks - 1896-1905

Uganda Journal - Vol 24, p. 217 - Ivory Poaching in the Lado Enclave by R.O. Collins - ……Through the efforts of the Intelligence Department of the Sudan Government the more flagrant poachers were well known to the Sudan authorities. ………  Banks, like Macqueen, was another quiet man. Being hard of hearing he was known as 'Deaf Banks', but he hunted successfully in the Enclave until a bad mauling by a buffalo forced him to settle down to a quiet life in Uganda.

Uganda Staff 1938 - Game Ranger, appointed 1924

Red Book 1919 - F G Banks - Settler - Fort Portal

Jordan - one of the few men I knew who were tossed by a buffalo and lived.

Breath - did very well out of ivory found on his estate near Fort Portal in Uganda in the early years.

Gazette - 15-2-1906 - Dissolution of Partnership between L. Campbell and F.G. Banks under the name of Campbell Dowse and Coy - firm taken over by L. Campbell under the name of Campbell and Coy