Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: HARTLEY, Diana Rosalind, Mrs

image of individual

Nee: Littleton, dau. of Hugh Alexander Littleton

Birth Date: 1919 Bantry, Co. Cork

Death Date: 1 Nov 1960 Arusha, mauled by a lion during filming of 'Hatari'

Profession: Lion trainer, killed by a captive lion during the filming of 'Hatari'

Area: Limuru

Married: 1. 1942 Lionel Hugh Holmes 'Rhino' Hartley (1914-1950); 2. Eddie Knodi, chef

Children: Lionel Alexander Holmes (8 May 1944 Nairobi-1998); Jennifer Elizabeth Holmes (7 Sep 1940)

Book Reference: Couffer, Hut, Kingsley-Heath, Web, Chandler

General Information:

Kingsley-Heath - Diana Hartley - Killed by a 'tame' lion whilst filming on the set of Hatari
Chandler - During WW2 Diana Hartley served in the British Army in Kenya where she met and married her husband, white hunter Lionel Hartley. The couple had 2 children, a boy (professional hunter Lionel Jr.) and a girl. After Lionel's death in a 1950 plane crash (there was a vicious and unfounded rumor that Diana had been having an affair with the pilot Bob Astles who survived the crash with a broken back) Diana went into the animal trapping business with a man named Heini Demmer. She was a guest at the farm owned by her mother and stepfather Gray Leakey on the night of 13 October 1954 when the Leakey farm was attacked by Mau Mau terrorists. Both of the Leakeys were murdered but Diana escaped by hiding in the attic and was able to raise the alarm after the raiders had left. Diana married Eddie Knodi, a prominent hotel chef in Nairobi and continued her animal capture business. In November 1960 she was killed by a tame lion during the filming of the John Wayne movie 'Hatari'
After Lionel's [Hartley] death, Diana took her two young children and stayed for a while with Carr Hartley's family at Rumuruti. There she met one of Carr's employees, an Austrian named Heini Demmer. Diana promptly went into an animal-trapping partnership with Demmer - to supply zoos - in direct competition with Carr Hartley, Diana's brother-in-law. Later still, Diana Hartley married Eddie Knodi, a chef at Nairobi's Norfolk Hotel.
 

Back to search results