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Name: BLACK, Alan Lindsay

image of individual

Birth Date: 14.8.1881 Edmonton, London

Death Date: 31.5.1963 Mombasa, buried at Kisauni

Nationality: British

First Date: 1902

Profession: Hunter

Area: Nairobi, Hut - Soysambu Elmenteita, EAHB 1906 - A.L. Black, Naivasha

Book Reference: Ker, McCutcheon, Safari Trail, Cranworth, Sundown, Rundgren, Elephant People, Brightest, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, North, Red 22, Into Africa, Elephant, EAHB 1906, Sutton, Medals, EAHB 1904, Leader14, Chandler, Red Book 1912

War Service: 25th Batt. Royal Fusiliers (Legion of Frontiersmen)

General Information:

From a wealthy family. Believed to be the first hunter to operate professionally in Kenya
Safari Trail - the late Alan Black, one of the most famous hunters who
ever lived and, of course, a character. Black was a man of considerable independent means; it was said he was the original of Rider Haggard's Alan Quartermain: he might well have been but, although he died a short time ago well over 80, he was still too young to have done much when that grand book was written. Black was shy and lived the life of a recluse on his farm on the south coast of Mombasa. You never saw him in the bar of the Norfolk where the wilder spirits gathered. So retiring was he that, so gossip said, on his rare visits to England he always engaged a whole passage-way of cabins on the ship in order to be sure of privacy, and he never flung a burnt match on deck after lighting his pipe, he did not like to risk being spoored up! He gave up active work more than 20 years ago; his last safari was with the Duke of Gloucester in Abyssinia. In his retirement he amused himself with big game fishing. A lady reporter once descended on him. Her first question was: "What is your opinion of modern hunting, Mr Black?" Alan grunted: "There isn't any" and the interview terminated.
Sundown - Athi Plains - There was Alan Black, a grizzled old professional hunter, whom the Sands allowed to live in an old stone barn with a corrugated iron roof at the back of their estate. In his day Black had been one of the greatest hunters who walked the face of Africa, and I don't think there are many old-timers in the hunting world who would disagree. The barn had a large door and Black just drove his hunting truck into it, and slept in the back of the truck with his gear scattered on the floor all around.   
Rundgren - hunted elephant in French Equatorial Africa where licences allowed him to kill any number of elephant .......... looked as though he had been carved out of a block of granite and was about as talkative. He was so deeply tanned that Eric [Rundgren] wondered if this was why he got his name, and one day pulled up the back of his shirt to investigate his colouring. The skin under it, untouched by the sun, was milky white. Black had made a lot of money ivory hunting, but lived a hermit's existence in a squalid stone shack on the Athi plains outside Nairobi. It was said he so hated meeting strangers that on one of his rare trips to England he booked every room in a small hotel to avoid having to meet and make small-talk with other residents.
Elephant People - A man who had done much to stimulate Woodley's early interest in wild life was another of their neighbours on the Athi plains, a strange eccentric named Alan Black. Black was one of the pioneers of professional white hunting in EA, from which he was reputed to have made a fortune, though he lived a hermits existence in a squalid stone shack; he actually slept in the back of his old hunting car which he drove into the shack. There were frightening stories of how he kept his eye in, shooting the hats off people who strayed too near ……
Into Africa - Another man who would become legendary among hunters was Alan Black. Only 20 when the first white hunters came into being, he was a Newland & Tarlton employee and 'guide' by 1907, and he was mentioned as 'a hunter friend of Judd's' who went north with a party, but he was refused entry into Laikipia because his name was not on the official permit. He was a white hunter with Rainey before 1912, and Stewart Edward White said that 'his name might as well have been Quatermain'. [sic]
Elephant - Alan Black, the well-known white hunter of Kenya, is one of the very few white men who is in the true meaning of the term a "lone hunter". He goes off "on his own" without even a single Native guide. A first-class bushman and a keen naturalist, where the majority of hunters employ a Native tracker he relies on his own bush lore to follow his quarry. Lucky is the man whom Black will agree to take out.
Sutton - 1924 - As white hunter we selected an old and experienced guide, Alan L. Black, of Nairobi. Twenty years experience in BEA, Tanganyika and the Congo had rendered him well-nigh infallible in the pursuit of big game. He was an expert with the rifle, and 20 or 30 native staff men and porters were always ready at his call. His salary closely approximated that of the President of the United States, but when it comes to employing skilled labor, I have always found the question of expense a minor one.
Medals - East African Intelligence Department - Alan L. Black, Agent
EAHB 1904 - Masai-Land District Residents - Black, A.L.- Waweru
Red Book 1912 - A.L. Black - Nairobi
KAD 1922 - c/o Newland Tarlton & Co.
North - Issued with Bird Licence, Nairobi 29-12-1902; Land Grant application with F.S. Bagnall, Kikuyu 1-1-1903
Gazette 18 Jan 1963 probate
Nat Probate Calendar

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