Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: THORNHILL, Christopher James 'Buster'

Nee: ?born as Charles Brown. Bro of Ernest George and Hugh John Taylor Thornhill, son of Ernest Alphonso Thornhill

Birth Date: 8 Sep 1893 Cradock, Eastern Cape, S. Africa

Death Date: 4 Dec 1974 Grahamstown, S. Africa

First Date: 1912

Profession: Soldier settler after WW1. Farmer

Area: 'Tuonongoi' Farm, Molo, Njoro

Married: In Bayswater, London 14 Dec 1927 Dorothy Evelyn Cotter b. 1901 Fulham, d. 4 Dec 1974 Grahamstown, S. Africa

Children: Evelyn Frances (1929-2021); Rosemary Ann Patricia (4 Sep 1932-2018)

Author: 'Taking Tanganyika', 'From Hobo to Cannibal King'

Book Reference: Over my Shoulder, KAD, Red 25, Hut, EA & Rhodesia, Red 22, Gazette

War Service: East African units

General Information:

Over my Shoulder - 'Buster was entirely uneducated in any formal sense, yet he was a brilliant artist, a splendid raconteur and a practical farmer of no mean order. As a youth, which must have been at the turn of the century, he had run away from his home in the Cape Province and had made his way on foot up to the Congo, where he established himself as king of a pigmy tribe. There he reigned supreme, totally living the life of the tribe.  ...... there he heard news of a big white man's war (WW1). Thereupon Buster, with all speed, packed up his few belongings and made his way into Kenya, where he immediately became involved in an exciting adventure which was beyond his wildest dreams. He spent the rest of the war as a spy behind the German lines, inside Tanganyika, and subsequently wrote a book called 'Taking Tanganyika'.
East Africa & Rhodesia - 14/12/50 - Mr C.T. Thornhill who is on his way back to Kenya, first went to that Colony in 1912, and served in the 1914-18 war with Wilson's Scouts (10 of them, mounted on the pick of the country's racehorses), the East African Mounted Rifles, and the East African Intelligence when that corps was formed later. After the war he began farming and writing, 4 of his books being published in London. Now he is engaged in mixed farming in the Nakuru area, having sold his pyrethrum farm near Molo. Born in South Africa, he spent his early years in the Marandellas district of Southern Rhodesia, where his father took up land soon after the turn of the century, and where two of his brothers still grow tobacco.
Gazette 16/3/1921 - Change of name by deed poll from Charles Brown of Molo to Christopher James Thornhill being my true names.
Gazette 16/3/1921 - Change of name by deed poll from Charles Brown of Molo to Christopher James Thornhill being my true names.
Gazette - 12/11/1919 - Register of Voters - Lake Area - Charles Brown - Trader - Muhoroni
Red Book 1919 - C. Brown - Njoro
Hut also has C. Brown 1919 Njoro
 

Back to search results