Eric Sherbrooke Walker Major Eric George Sherbrooke Walker , MC ( 1887 – 1976 ) was hotelier and founder of the Outspan Hotel and Treetops Hotel in Kenya , as well as a decorated military officer . He is remembered as the host of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip when they visited Treetops in 1952 , shortly before receiving news of the death of King George VI and Elizabeth ' s accession to the throne . Early life . The son of Reverend George Sherbrooke Walker and his wife , Jessie Elizabeth Carter , Eric Walker was born in Edgbaston , Birmingham in Warwickshire on 4 July 1887 , and brought up in March , Cambridgeshire where his father was Rector . He was educated at Oxford University . Walker was associated with the Scouting movement , and was a personal secretary to Baden - Powell , the founder of the movement . He was one of the first two Scout inspectors , overseeing all of Wales and the South of England . He was present at Baden - Powell ' s first Scout camp in Humshaugh in 1908 , and toured Canada with sixteen Scouts in 1910 to demonstrate Scouting . Walker joined the Royal Flying Corps during World War I , but was shot down and held as a prisoner of war in Germany . He is said to have made 36 attempts to escape . Apparently , on one occasion , a German girlfriend from before the war helped him by supplying him with wire cutter s provided by Baden - Powell hidden inside a piece of ham . After the War ' s end he was employed as a temporary Captain on the General List , fighting against the Bolsheviks with the British Military Mission in South Russia alongside the White Army in the Russian Civil War . He was awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry at Ushun in the Crimea on 8 and 10 March 1920 , where he attached himself to the Police Regiment and remained with them throughout the two days of counter - attacks , during which they sustained heavy casualties . By his personal example and coolness , under heavy machine - gun fire , he was largely responsible for the decisive success gained . In addition , he received the Order of St . Anne and the Order of St . Stanislaus from the grateful White Russian authorities . Walker returned to England after the war , and became engaged and ultimately married to Lady Elizabeth Mary " Bettie " Feilding ( 22 August 1899 – ? ) , the daughter of Rudolph Feilding , 9th Earl of Denbigh , on 26 July 1926 . Needing money to finance his marriage , he ran a bootlegging business , smuggling liquor into America during the Prohibition era , while his fiancée Lady Bettie worked as Social Secretary in the British Embassy in Washington DC . When Walker shot and wounded a corrupt state trooper who had tried to steal his cache of whiskey , the couple fled to Canada . Walker later wrote " The Confessions of a Rum - Runner " under the pseudonym of " James Barbican " about his life during this period . Life in Kenya . The couple finally emigrated to Kenya , where Walker purchased approximately of Crown Land in Nyeri and - in 1928 - opened the Outspan Hotel , overlooking the gorge of the Chania River in the Aberdare Range ( near the present day Aberdare National Park ) . In 1932 , he opened the adjunct Treetops Hotel as a night - viewing station for wildlife . These business ventures may well have been based on profits made during his bootlegging days in America . He saw further military service during World War II , first enlisting in the Royal Air Force , and then going on to serve with the South African forces in Abyssinia and in the Western Desert during the North African campaign , narrowly avoiding capture at Sidi Rezegh . He was host to Princess Elizabeth and her husband , the Duke of Edinburgh , during their February 1952 visit to Kenya . The couple had accepted an invitation to spend a night at Treetops , and arrived there on the afternoon of 5 February 1952 . During the night , unknowingly , the Princess succeeded to the throne of England . Her father , King George VI , died in his sleep at Sandringham in England in the early hours of 6 February , and the Princess received the news later that day , after leaving Treetops , at the Royal Lodge , Sagana . Walker was again employed on military duties during the Mau Mau Uprising in the early 1950s . Treetops was offered as a lookout point for the King ' s African Rifles , but it was burned down by Mau Mau fighters on 27 May 1954 . Walker built a bigger hotel at the same location in 1957 , and business prospered - encouraged by public interest in the accession of Elizabeth II some years earlier . His hotel business was even featured in National Geographic Magazine , and famous celebrities , including Charles Chaplin and Paul McCartney , visited the hotel . Walker also wrote a book about his life in Kenya and Treetops , named " Treetops Hotel " . His former employer Lord Baden - Powell retired to the Outspan Hotel ( Baden - Powell once remarked " closer to Nyeri , closer to bliss " ) , bought a share of Walker ' s hotel business to pay for his cottage ( named " Paxtu " and now home to a Scouting museum ) in the hotel grounds , and died there in 1941 . The famous hunter Jim Corbett moved to Kenya after the Independence of India , took up residence at the Outspan , and became a resident hunter at Treetops . A house on the Walkers ' farm was used during the shooting of the film version of Born Free . An avid hunter during his younger days , Walker , like many others , became an advocate of wildlife conservation in his final years in Kenya . He retired to live in Majorca , Spain , and died there at his home , " Cás Fidavé " , on 13 May 1976 .