John Henry Patterson (author) family name Patterson
Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson  (10 November 1867 – 18 June 1947) was an Anglo-Irish military officer, hunter and author best known for his book The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907), which details Patterson's experiences during the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in the East Africa Protectorate from 1898 to 1899. The book went on to inspire three films: Bwana Devil (1952), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959) and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). During World War I, Patterson served as the commander of the British Army's Jewish Legion, which has been described as the first precursor to the Israel Defense Forces.Biography
Youth and Army service
Patterson was born in 1867 in Forgney, Ballymahon, County Longford, Ireland, to a Protestant father and Roman Catholic mother.He joined the British Army in 1885 at the age of seventeen and eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). He retired from the army in 1920.East African adventures
In 1898, Patterson was commissioned by the Uganda Railway committee in London to oversee the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in present-day Kenya.  He arrived at the site in March of that year.
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