A person of great charm, he enriched the lives of all who knew him. In May 1931, he was killed in a flying accident and was buried on the Ngong Hills

Best - F-H was one of those remarkable people who are both exceedingly clever and exceedingly good at sport - he had been in Pop at Eton - who always glitter in their surroundings without ever actually achieving very much. A white hunter by vocation, he is said to have once been deep on safari, hundreds of miles from anywhere, when a telegram reached him all the way from London. It had been carried in a cleft stick from Nairobi by relays of sweating natives who had strained every nerve to get to him. It consisted of just one sentence: 'Do you know Gervase Pippin-Linpole's address?' Finch-Hatton thought hard, then scribbled a reply for the runner to carry through the bush back to civilization. 'Yes,' he wrote. When not on safari, he spent long evenings with Karen at her house, teaching her Latin and how to appreciate Greek poetry, striking a chord that was to inspire her in later years to write what is still one of the great classics of African literature, 'Out of Africa'.

Markham - owned a string of dukas to trade with the Masai; owned a farm in partnership with A.C. Hoey beyond Eldoret; owned an estate agency - Kipliget Ltd.; and was director of the Anglo-Baltic Timber Co. ........... 6 ft. 3 ins., brown eyes, slow rakish smile, Wore dark blue narrow rimmed bowler hat from Lock's of St. James's. In 1923 he was 34 and bald. At age 19 at Brasenose College, Oxford he and his brother had all their hair shaved off to promote growth. They allowed the barber to apply ammonia - Denys's hair never grew back. He was a fine left hand bowler - played cricket for Eton. He bought land in BEA in 1910. Served as a Captain in the KAR in BEA during WW1 and with the Royal Flying Corps in Mesopotamia. ............... in 1929 Denys's fidelity to Karen von Blixen was waning, an impression reinforced by news from Nairobi that Denys had fathered the child of an Indian girl living there.     

Safari Trail - reminded me of Chaucer's Knight. An American visitor once asked the late Paul Whetham, manager of the first firm to organise safaris, what type of men he employed as white hunters: were they English gentlemen, white trash or what? ... Paul said: "We've got all sorts. There's only two in at present. One's an ex railway guard, the others an Earl's son. Both are tops. Take your choice." ...... Like so many of the old timers Denys was physically strong and tall. He was what in those days was called a lion man; he understood the King of Beasts to say nothing of his mate, and he did not kill for fun. ....... Capt. Monty Moore, VC, game warden of Tanganyika, used to tell of the day he and Denys encountered a pride of lions, most of which were lionesses with cubs. Moore halted. Denys walked right through the pride, paying no attention to their snarls and the threatening switching of tails that signals approaching trouble: "It was the bravest thing I ever saw in the bush," Moore used to end. ......... He was one of the very few lion men who had never been mauled. His physique stood him in good stead at times. Crossing a flooded river in his car with his African tracker, the machine overturned; he extricated himself from the driving seat and lifted the car above water whilst the tracker scrambled out. News of the feat leaked out but Denys made light of it.   

Cranworth - WW1 - Cole's Scouts - Denys Finch-Hatton was another of my new brother officers, and I think the man with about the most impressive personality I have ever known. He had had a very remarkable career at Eton. Having been 2 years in the XI and 3 years in the Field, as well as being President of Pop, he was naturally a hero in the eyes of his school contemporaries. What, however, was more astonishing was the unique, and I believe that this is for once the correct adjective, position he attained among the masters. The Head Master used to, and not infrequently did, consult him on matters concerning the conduct and well-being of the school, and it is even a fact that during his last summer he gave a supper party on a houseboat on the river, naturally contrary to every known rule, and that more than one master actually accepted and enjoyed his hospitality. At Oxford the same ascendancy over his fellows continued. He gave up serious cricket and football, but played golf more than once for the University with success, though his attitude to games may be sensed by the following incident. He gave his opponent in the Varsity match a yard putt, and when an ardent partisan remonstrated with the remark, "Remember you are playing not for yourself but for your University," he rejoined, "And perhaps you might remember that you are playing for neither." He acquired an equal measure of skill at shooting and riding, yet found time for a considerable amount of reading even if of a desultory kind. Undoubtedly when I knew him he was well read on many subjects. With his grand physique and slow, crooked smile he was enormously attractive to women. Indeed Nature had presented him with more gifts than were the fair share of one man. Denys came out to Kenya a year or two before the war and that country became his love until his death. ....... just previously to the War he had been entirely by himself on a six months cattle trading trip into Italian Somaliland, and he told me that he never enjoyed 6 months more. He made no secret of the fact that warfare bored him to distraction, but, needless to say, made a success of it. After the disbandment of Cole's Scouts he became ADC to General Hoskins ......... such was his charm that I never heard a grumble at his ascendancy. He received an MC and later, when Gen. van Deventer became C in C, followed Sir Reginald Hoskins to Mesopotamia. After the War, Finch-Hatton resumed his old roving life and added flying to the thrills he got from living. Elephant hunting, cinema and other photography of wild animal life, and the safari work of the big game hunter occupied much of his time. In the latter capacity he took out the Duke of Windsor when Prince of Wales with conspicuous success. .... (more)  

Debrett - formerly Captain British East Africa Protectorate Forces (MC); Lieut. RAF

Hut - partner with Pixley at Eldalet, partner with Wreford Smith at PO

Macmillan - 1930 - The Anglo-Baltic Timber Co. Ltd., Importers of Building Materials, Saw-Millers - Directors:- Sir John Ramsden Bart., Lord Egerton of Tatton, The Hon. D.G. Finch Hatton, MC, Major J.W. Milligan, DSO (Chairman), and Mr Donald F. Seth Smith, MC. The General Manager at Nairobi is Mr L.P. Robinson

Web - Linda Donelson - Denys Finch Hatton was born in England on April 24, 1887, the son of Henry Stormont Finch Hatton, Earl of Winchelsea, and Anne Coddrington (Nan) Finch Hatton, daughter of a former Admiral of the British Fleet. Denys's father had invested in mines in Australia and lived there for a few years, but Denys himself never went there. He was reared at Haverholme, the family seat in Lincolnshire. The second son and third child, Denys was his mother's favourite and the darling of everyone he met. He was especially popular at Eton, where he impressed his friends with his sense of humour and wit. He excelled in cricket, football (soccer) and golf; in singing drawing and mimicry; and in poetry and story-telling. Still, he was not a dedicated scholar. He entered Balliol College, Oxford [wrong], and finished with a poor Fourth. During this period he shaved his head as a prank, and his hair is said never to have really grown back. He was bald at age 40 (captured in a photo taken on safari in 1927). Despite this he was good-looking, with full lips and the well-defined features of an aristocrat. He was 6 feet 3 inches tall and had the fair complexion of his mother, a strawberry blond. Many have chronicled his cat-like grace of movement and unusual talent as a hunter. In 1911, after a trip to South Africa with some relatives, Denys, age 24, travelled to British East Africa (BEA) with money left to him by his deceased uncle. He bought some land there, on the western side of the Rift Valley near what is now Eldoret. He did not farm it, but turned over the investment to a partner, while Denys spent his spare time hunting. He began what would be a life-long pattern of spending fall and winter in Africa and spring and summer in England. Denys's brother had married Margaretta Drexel, the daughter of an American banker, but Denys himself is not known to have had any romances before he met Karen Blixen (two years older than him) at age 31. The two were first introduced at the Muthaiga Club on the evening of April 5, 1918. Prior to their meeting Denys had received orders for continuing his military service in Egypt. In the early part of the Great War he had been ADC to Major-General Hoskins in East Africa. After his transfer to the Middle East he planned to become a pilot but a foot injury prevented him from taking flying lessons. Upon his return to Africa after the armistice he developed a strong friendship with Karen Blixen and her husband Bror. He had many friends among the African settlers but, after leaving Africa in 1920, it appears that he did not return to Africa for over a year because of economic conditions. He sold his African farm. However, in 1922 he returned, and invested in a land development company, Kiptiget Ltd. His friendship progressed with Karen Blixen, who had separated from her husband. Denys lived in a cottage at the Muthaiga Club when he was not on safari, but after her divorce in 1925 he moved into Karen Blixen's house. Twice, in 1923 and in 1926, Karen Blixen believed she was pregnant with Finvh Hatton's child, but she miscarried. In 1925, Denys took up hunting professionally and began leading safaris for wealthy sportsmen. Among Finch Hatton's clients were Marshall Fields, the Chicago department store magnate; Frederick B. Patterson, an American vending machine tycoon; and in 1928 and 1930, the Prince of Wales (later Duke of Windsor). From the war years when they met in Mesopotamia, Finch Hatton maintained a friendship with Teddy Roosevelt's son, Kermit, but Denys never travelled to the U.S. He is known to have visited countries bordering the route to Africa - Tunisia, Somaliland and Abyssinia - but never went to India or the Orient. Denys took up flying lessons in 1929 and in the summer of 1930 bought a Gypsy Moth airplane. In England he crashed into the tops of some trees on his brother's estate and slightly damaged the plane, but he had it repaired before sending it out to Africa by boat. Later he entertained Karen Blixen and many friends in Kenya, including Beryl Markham, with plane rides. In May 1931 Denys flew to his cottage at the sea near Mombasa for a few days, then returned via Voi, where he scouted for elephants from the air. With him was his Somali servant Hamisi. Shortly after his plane lifted off the ground the next day, May 14 1931, the plane unexpectedly stalled. In a fiery crash both Denys and his servant were killed. Denys had lived with Karen Blixen until a few weeks before this final flight, and his remains were turned over to her. She buried him in the Ngong Hills, where he had said he'd like to be buried. Later it was rumoured that lions frequently sunned themselves on the grave. An obelisk was erected at the site which you can still see today.

From The Eton College Chronicle, May 21 1931 - In Memoriam: The Hon. Denys Finch Hatton - Denys Finch Hatton was: "At Mr Tatham's House, 1900-06. Eton Eleven. Keeper of the Field. Keeper of the wall. President of 'Pop'. Secretary of the Musical Society. Did the sun always shine at Eton in those days? Or was it only that, when Denys was there, it seemed to shine? Anyway, that is how one always sees him - in full sunshine, crossing the street to the wall, with his peculiar slouching, rolling gait, half gamin and half seraph. His hat is tilted back, forehead quizzically wrinkled, eyebrows raised, eyes dancing with amusement, and his queer, wide flexible mouth curling at the corners in that enchanting smile! …… those long limbs, those superb good looks ….. His real Eton life was in his friends, his mock antipathies, his laughter and his jokes, his catchwords ("not a fool at all of course") and his escapades. …. And underneath it all, one always knew there was something fine and spacious. How else could he have dominated the School as few boys can ever have dominated it, before or since? Nor was there any need to go deep to discover his love of beauty, or his reverence for heroes. Music and poetry touched him dearly; he hankered after literary excellence …… recklessnesses and buccaneerings always stopped short of doing any living creature hurt ." -- Ed.

The Times - Obituary - Captain Finch Hatton - A correspondent writes:- To many of every type and station in life in many parts of the world the death of Denys Finch Hatton means the loss of something that can never be replaced. All through his life he had an amazingly attrractive personality; no one who ever met him, whether man or woman, old or young, white or black, failed to come under his spell, and one and all were proud to know him. He was different from every one else. Always and everywhere absolutely himself, he was neither selfish nor self-centred, yet he seemed always to do everything that he wanted to do and never to do anything that he did not want. Anyone else, leading such a life, would have deteriorated; he remained considerate, sympathetic, humorous, cultured, and always had time somehow to spend in small acts of kindness for most unlikely people of any age or type. He was an ideal companion at the Russian Ballet or at a game of chess while, of course, in times of difficulty or danger in the open air he was obviuosly supreme, the direct, ready master of the situation. What in others might seem odd, even swagger, in him was absolutely natural, simple, and genuine. From some unpronounceable and possibly illegible address in the wilds of Africa he wrote long letters, chiefly about the books he was reading. He was a skilful mechanic and a lover of poetry and music; he had a wide and first-hand knowledge of birds and animals, and he was a shrewd observer of his fellow men and women. He could talk for hours of native life and customs, in which he was deeply interested, and his knowledge and experience of the people and country and his intensely practical schemes have already been of great service to the Government. He always left an impression of greatness - there is no other word - and aroused interest as no one else could. It was not only his magnificent physique and striking features; there was the ready intuition and sympathy with every type of character, a wonderful sense of humour, determination; and yet behind it all, indefinite but ever present, a feeling of waste. Something more must come from one so strong and gifted; and in a way it did, for no one inspired more love and admiration, truer or deeper confidence or friendship. He died, as he would have chosen, in the open air, amid the wide spaces that he loved, fearless and free to the end; and the charm of his wonderful personality and companionship is something which those who knew him will treasure throughout their lives.

Into Africa - Denys Finch Hatton ….. [Bunny] Allen called him 'one of the first "great" white hunters', but surely he was thinking of Finch Hatton's reputation and not his achievement. One client asked him how he became a white hunter and he answered with studied casualness that it had 'just happened, if you know what I mean', but in fact his decision was a very deliberate one, to make money, as a letter to Kermit Roosevelt shows. Finch Hatton was an aristocrat; he asked that 'if you know of any pleasant people who want a shoot put them in touch with me. You know the sort of people I should get on with and the ones I should not', and in another letter he mocked his forthcoming client, the same Patterson who would laud him as 'fearless … popular with everybody, hard working, well educated'. Beryl Markham, who was briefly his lover, implied that he was bisexual and thought him 'brilliant …… intelligent and very well educated. He was a great hunter and a great, a tremendous personality.' One gets a picture from these varied sources of a much romanticized figure, a man able to seem different things to different people, with, at the centre, a boyish exploiter …….. We know him now mostly as Karen Blixen's and Beryl Markham's lover, in which roles he may well have been that same boyish exploiter. (When Blixen got pregnant and sent him a cable to tell him so, calling the yet unborn child Daniel, he cabled back brutally, 'Suggest you cancel Daniel's visit.') He was killed in 1931.

Elephant - The Hon Denis [sic] Finch Hatton, who in 1931 was most unfortunately killed in a flying accident near Voi, Kenya, was a man with a most astonishing personality. By those who knew him best he has been described as a superman. Even when he was a boy at Eton the masters would ask him for his advice when they were in a quandary on some question involving the whole school. Then, and ever afterwards, he had a consuming love of literature and music, and it has been said that he sometimes left Africa for Europe for a short spell in order that he might hear a good singer or player again. He was also a good conversationalist, when he allowed himself to be drawn out, but he was innately modest, and, despite the advantages of ability and means, had no ambition to do anything except revel in the Africa he loved. He was a very keen game preservationist, a good amateur photographer, wielded a powerful pen when he chose to write (which was seldom), and was a crack shot, who took the Prince of Wales out on his hunting trips during his second East African visit, the greatest honour for which any white hunter could hope. He could do anything he turned his hand to superlatively well if he liked.

Aero - [1910] ……. He sailed with the Pagets to South Africa but it did not attract him as aplace to live and he went on to Kenya arriving to stay at the Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi in March 1911. Within weeks he had fallen in love with the country. In his conviction that his future lay in Kenya, he bought land in Eldoret and Naivasha and a house belonging to Lord MacMillan in Parklands. In 1912 he returned to Kenya to settle - though the word is hardly appropriate to a man whose longing for space and freedom to wander became prerequisites to his way of life. An aristocratic vagabond whose restlessness kept him on the move he turned to trading; he opened a series of stores in the Masai Reserve and spent 6 months in Somalia herding cattle, and driving them down to Nairobi to sell, just before the outbreak of War. Though he is better known as a hunter, he did not take up this profession until 1925 and as a keen photographer preferred to shoot with a camera than a gun. In the EA Campaign he became ADC to Brigadier-General Reginald Hoskins who for a time was C in C. But it was in May 1917 that Denys seized his opportunity to train as a pilot when they were transferred to Mesopotamia. He applied at once for a post with the Royal Flying Corps in Egypt. By the time he met Karen Blixen in 1918 he was fully fledged. However he did not purchase his De Havilland Gipsy Moth until 1929.

Gazette - 23/9/1914 - Appt. - To be Lieutenant, East Africa Volunteer Forces - The Honourable D. Finch Hatton [sic]

Nairobi Forest Road Cemetery - Denys Finch Hatton, British, age 44, died 14/5/31

Eton (1909) - Eton XI 1905-6; Field XI 1903-05; Keeper of the Field 1905; Opp. and Mixed Wall 1903-5, Keeper 1904-5, President of Eton Society 1905-6; Sec. of Musical Society 1904-6; BNC Oxford, BA, 4th cl. Mod. Hist 1910; Played Golf Oxf. v Camb 1909-10; settled in BEA; served as Lieut. N. Lancs Regt. and Staff in E. Africa, Egypt and Mesopotamia in WW1 (MC) Llewellin - NFD 1914 - "I reached my camels to find another shape coming towards me from the opposite direction who turned out to be Denys Finch-Hatton, last seen at Oxford three years before. We had a chat, and I found he had been buying cattle in Italian Somaliland and was bringing them down to sell to farmers. The cattle were some days behind with his partner, a Baron Blanco. He proceeded on his way …….. "

Mills - Born 24 Apr 1887 ……… The second son and third child, Denys was his mother's favourite and the darling of everyone he met. He was especially popular at Eton, where he impressed his friends with his sense of humour and wit. He excelled in singing, drawing and mimicry; in poetry and story-telling; and in cricket, football and golf. He was bald at age 40. Despite this he was good-looking, with full lips and the well defined features of an aristocrat. He was 6 feet 3 inches tall and had the fair complexion of his mother, a strawberry blond. In 1911, after a trip to South Africa with some relatives, Denys, age 24, travelled to British East Africa with money left to him by his deceased uncle. He bought some land there, on the western side of the Rift Valley near what is now Eldoret. He did not farm it, but turned over the investment to a partner, while Denys spent his spare time hunting. Denys was not known to have had any romances before he met Karen Blixen (two years older than him) at age 31. …………………….. In 1922 he returned and invested in a land development company, Kiptiget Ltd. His friendship progressed with Karen Blixen, who had now separated from her husband. Denys lived in a cottage at the Muthaiga Club when he was not on safari, but after her divorce in 1925 he moved into Karen Blixen's house. Twice, in 1923 and in 1926, Karen Blixen believed she was pregnant with Finch Hatton's child, but she is said to have miscarried on both occasions.

Chandler - ……….. Finch Hatton was an unusual man, wealthy, witty, highly educated, and magnificently connected. His ephemeral charm especially captivated females. His appearance helped - he was tall (six feet, three inches), well-proportioned, exceptionally fit, and had a dazzling smile. Much has been made of his baldness, which was supposedly self-inflicted (a late Victorian recipe for thick hair was to shave the head and rub the scalp with ammonia - Denys tried it and his hair never grew back) but he covered that up by always wearing a hat. Above all, he gave an impression of intelligence and physical vitality that awed his contemporaries and left future generations wondering what all the fuss was about.

Air - Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate No. 8798 dated 14 Sept 1929 - DH Moth 30 hp Cirrus, Bristol & Wessex Aeroplane Club, Filton

Gazette 15/5/1912 - Liquor Licence application by D.G. Finch Hatton, L. Bury and S.W.F. Pixley and Co. for an Hotel Liquor Licence at Nyeri

Old Public School-Boys Who's Who - Educated at Eton 1900-06; played in the field XI 1903.1904 and 1905 (keeper of the field), in the oppidan and the mixed wall XI 1903, 1904 (keeper of the wall) and 1905 (keeper of the wall), and in the Eton XI 1905 and 1906, and was secretary of the Musical Society 1904, 1905 and 1906, and president of the Eton Society ('Pop') 1905 and 1906) and at Brasenose College, Oxford (played golf for Oxford against Cambridge 1907, 1908, 1909, and 1910 (captain), and graduated  with a fourth class in the honour school of modern history 1910); after leaving the university he settled in British East Africa, where he devoted his energies to farming and big-game-hunting

Land - 1911 - D.F. Hatton - Grazing and agricultural, 2760 acres (Farm No. 112) - Uasin Gishu - 2/12/10 - Leasehold under Occupation Licence for 2 to 99 years from 1/12/10 - Registered 11/11/11