View entry
Name: RAINEY, Paul James
![image of individual](/_site/data/files/images/people/F0-1/SF1-2/1635/2nityvpe.jpg)
![image of individual](/_site/data/files/images/people/F0-1/SF1-2/1635/uqfkx3ca.jpg)
Nee: son of William J. Rainey
Birth Date: 16.9.1877 Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio
Death Date: 18.9.1923 at sea, cerebral haemorrhage
Nationality: American
First Date: 1900
Last Date: 1913?
Profession: Professional hunter, farmed at Naivasha. Bred ridge-backed lion dogs and also had a gift for training chimpanzees. Hunted down lions with a pack of hounds
Area: 'Forest Glenn' Nairobi, Naivasha
Married: Mary S. Peters b. 26 Feb 1885 Tennessee, d. 1958 Mississippi (she later m. Frank Graham)
Book Reference: Gillett, Best, Kill, Binks, Rundgren, Percival, Breath, White Man, Brightest, Hut, North, Into Africa, Pioneers, Naivasha, Leader14, Web, Chandler, Mills Norfolk
General Information:
Binks - 'Paul Rainey walked into his shop - a huge man 6 ft. 4 ins. tall - Binks was only 5 ft. 8 ins.
Rundgren - Riding down lions he shot over 100 lions in a couple of months.
Percival - killed 13 lions in one day - the heaviest one day bag of lions ever made.
White Man - 1912 - Paul Rainey, with F.O'B. Wilson and Lord Stafford came to Delamere's ranch at Soysambu to try to reduce the lion population. He camped on Soysambu for 15 days and killed 12 lions and several leopard. ........ (death of Fritz Schindler) ....... shortly after this Paul Rainey went home, and then came the war ..…..
Brightest - had a ranch on the West shore of Lake Naivasha
Into Africa - Stunt begat stunt. No sooner had Roosevelt returned home and Jones publicized his feats than a wealthy Mississippian decided that dogs were just the things with which to hunt lions. Paul J. Rainey was already known as the man who had captured a polar bear with a lasso; a fawning journalist called him a 'big game hunter, naturalist, millionaire, and sportsman extraordinary' who had hunted 'ever since he was in short dresses'. A less admiring R.J. Cuninghame - Roosevelt's 'steel and whip-cord old boy' - didn't like him and 'despised his hunting methods', referring to Rainey in 1924 as 'this person …… His methods did not appeal to the sporting instinct of the Briton'.
Pioneers - Naivasha - One of the lake farms was sold to an American millionaire, Paul Rainey, who imported coon dogs to hunt lion. The followers were on horseback, and I became his whipper-in. We also chased and captured cheetah, to be sold to Indian rajahs for hunting buck. Paul Rainey had a chimpanzee called Dooley. When he grew older, Dooley was measured for a suit of clothes. He used to sit on the front seat of Rainey's car, dressed in his suit and smoking a cigarette. But when he grew up, he was chained most of the time to a tree; it was said to keep him out of mischief. He became adept at loosening his chain, and even learned to pick the lock of a padlock, if he could get hold of a nail. In later life he grew savage and had to be destroyed.
Naivasha - The lake farm was then sold to an American millionaire, Paul Rainey, who imported Coon doigs from the Southern States for hunting lion. His pack was in great demand to track down lion in the settled areas, and it was my [son of G.M. Harvey] fortune to become his whipper-in. Full-grown cheetah were also captured and presented to Indian Rajahs for hunting game. At this time Paul Rainey came into possession of a baby chimpanzee whom he named 'Dooley'. When he grew older, Dooley was measured for a suit of clothes. He presented a very comical figure sitting on the front seat of Rainey's car, dressed in his suit and smoking a cigarette. There were many tricks that Dooley learnt and when he grew up he was chained to a tree for a good deal of the time to keep him out of mischief. However, he became adept at loosening his chain and a padlock had to be used, but he even learnt to pick the lock if given a nail. Unfortunately as he grew older he became savage and eventually had to be destroyed. He was so large that many people thought he was a gorilla. His skin was mounted by the famous taxidermist A.J. Klein and presented to the New York Museum.
Leader14 - 1913 - At a meeting of the Pastoralists Association, it was decided that a letter be addressed to Mr Paul Rainey, thanking him for ridding the country of so many lions, and asking him to continue until the pest is exterminated.
Chandler - ……… Rainey, who stood 6 feet, 4 inches tall, was an expert car racer, polo player, steeplechaser, and yachtsman, as well as a hunter and photographer. He volunteered for active service when the United States entered the Great War in 1917 but was rejected due to his health. Undaunted, he purchased an ambulance and, at his own expense, began to operate a medical service on the Western Front. The Red Cross soon appointed him its official photographer in France. There is an interesting story concerning Rainey's death in 1923. He was returning to the States from Europe on a passenger liner when one night he observed an Asian man dancing with a Caucasian woman in the ship's lounge. Rainey, born and raised in old Mississippi and long habituated to British Africa, was offended and ordered the man to leave. As the story goes, the Asian man complied but stopped at the lounge doorway and said, "You will not see the sunset on your next birthday." Rainey scoffed at the curse (or challenge) and remarked that the next day was his birthday and he damn well intended to see it through.. Toward late afternoon of the following day he collapsed and died of a heart attack.
Mills Norfolk - Paul Rainey was a Norfolk faithful, who hunted lions with hounds, employing the Hill cousins as his 'white hunters' and 'Pop' to help with the photography. 'A great hunk of a man' was how Rainey described himself, he was nearly two metres tall, but 'casual and careless' was Pop's verdict on him when it came to pig-sticking.
Rainey always returned to the hotel, after collecting specimens in Kenya for American zoos and, with his cumbersome, pneumatically-operated cameras, followed in Cherry Kearton's footsteps in pioneering wildlife movie photography. The first time he arrived with a pack of hounds with which he hunted lions.
When out on safari an 18ft python of 5-in diameter hid out among some rocks. Rainey was determined to get it for New York Zoo and tried to pull it out of its hiding by passing his arms round a convenient loop in its body. In the end, he threaded the lariat from his saddle round the body and, with five helpers, pulled the python out. But none of his film of the drama came out, so next day the whole episode, live python and all, was staged for the sake of the film, an epic 'studio' piece.