Lost Lion of Empire: The Life of Cape-to-Cairo Grogan
by Edward Paice
Category: Biography & Autobiography

Ewarr Grogan, a gentleman adventurer dubbed 'the boldest and baddest of a bold, bad gang' of pioneering settlers in Kenya, was gifted far beyond the ordinary. Possessed of disarmingly good looks, magnetic charm, a formidable intellect and a near boundless ego, he was famed throughout the British Empire as one of the most brilliant - and controversial - figures of African colonial history. By the age of twenty-two Grogan had been elected the youngest ever member of the Alpine Club and was a Matabele War veteran. But his prospects were far from certain when he fell in love with a young heiress and was required by her stepfather to prove himself a 'somebody' in order to win her hand. Grogan's response was typically unequivocal: he announced that he intended to be the first man to complete a south-to-north traverse of the African continent. In 1900, after almost three years of adventure and unimaginable hardship, he arrived triumphantly in Cairo, thus completing one of the most astonishing feats in the history of the African exploration. He became an instant celebrity and returned to London to marry his beloved Gertrude.