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Name: POWELL-COTTON, Percy Horace Gordon FZS, FRGS, FRAI (Major)

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Birth Date: 20 Sep 1866 Garlinge, Margate

Death Date: 2 June 1940 Midhurst, Sussex

Nationality: British

First Date: 1902

Profession: Well known big-game hunter in EA & Uganda. He nevertheless had a deep love and understanding of wild animals and was also a keen ornithologist.

Married: 1905 Hannah Brayton Slater b. 4 Apr 1881 Bassenthwaite, Cumberland, d. 27 Dec 1964 Kent

Children: Diana (12 Apr 1908 Lowestoft; Mary (21 July 1910 Birchington); Antoinette (20 July 1913 Thanet)

Author: 'In Unknown Africa' 1904

Book Reference: Gillett, Nimrod, North, Kingsley-Heath, Sportsmen, Who's Who

War Service: Northumberland Fusiliers, Retd.

General Information:

Nimrod - The biggest pair of elephant tusks ever bagged by a white man weighed 190 and 188 pounds. That was shot by Major Powell-Cotton just before the turn of the century. He got it near Lake Albert ....... He used 14 bullets to kill it, following it up. The second biggest tusks obtained by a white man were just over 190 lbs. These were the achievement of a man called Pickering who got them in the Lado Enclave; but they didn't do him much good, because the next elephant he met charged him and ripped his head from his shoulders.
Kingsley-Heath - Shot an elephant that had tusks of 198 pounds and 174 pounds, the second largest ever recorded, in the Lado Enclave. There is a museum of his name in Kent, England, where the tusks reside together with those obtained by Sandy Field.
North - Returned to UK via River Nile & Cairo after spending 21 months travelling around BEA & Uganda.  Overshot his Game Licence & ' ……. did a bolt up north …… everyone did all they could for him & he behaved like a cad' (F.J. Jackson, FO 2)
Sportsmen -  … born at Margate on 20th September 1866, the eldest son of Mr Henry Horace Powell-Cotton. Serving for some years in the 5th Batt Northumberland Fusiliers, Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton has travelled extensively in the old world, having made 3 trips to Thibet; one through Somaliland to Webi Shebeli; another from Zeila through Abyssinia to Massowah; from Mombasa to the White Nile via Mounts Kenia and Elgon, Turkana and Latuka; Lado Enclave to Lake Edward via the Ituri Forest; and across Portuguese Guinea. Among his most interesting trophies, secured on these journeys, are the Lado White Rhinoceros, Abyssinian ibex, Beira antelope, and the largest pair of elephant tusks killed by a white man, the measurements being as follows:- Length outside curve 9 ft. And 8 ft. 11 ins; greatest circumference 25 ins. And 23 1/2 ins.; weight 198 lbs and 174 lbs …………… [more]
Major Powell-Cotton, who is a Justice of the Peace for the County of Kent, succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father in 1894. To his residence at Quex Park, Birchington, he has added a zoological museum, with a unique African jungle and groups of animals in their natural surroundings, from the largest elephant and giraffe yet mounted, lions and white rhino, down to jackal and dik-dik.  …………… Major Powell-Cotton married in 1905, Hannah Brayton, youngest daughter of Mr William Slater, and has 3 daughters. He is a member of the Royal Societies Club.
North - 21 months travelling and hunting around BEA & Uganda; Nimule June 1903, Gondokoro Aug 1903
1939 England and Wales Register living in Margate with wife

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