Frederick Selous Frederick Courteney Selous DSO ( ; 31 December 1851 – 4 January 1917 ) was a British explorer , officer , hunter , and conservationist , famous for his exploits in South - East Africa . His real - life adventures inspired Sir H . Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character . Selous was also a friend of Theodore Roosevelt , Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham . He was pre - eminent within a select group of big game hunters that included Abel Chapman and Arthur Henry Neumann . He was the older brother of ornithologist and writer Edmund Selous . Early life and exploration . Frederick Courteney Selous was born on 31 December 1851 at Regents Park , London , as one of the five children of an aristocratic family , third generation of part French - Huguenot heritage . His father , Frederick Lokes Slous ( original spelling ) ( 1802 – 1892 ) , was notably Chairman of the London Stock Exchange and his mother , Ann Holgate Sherborn ( 1827 – 1913 ) , was a published poet . One of his uncles was the painter Henry Courtney Selous . Frederick had three sisters , Florence ( born 1850 ) , Annie Berryman ( born 1853 ) , and Sybil Jane ( born 1862 ) , and one brother , Edmund Selous ( 1857 – 1934 ) , who became a famous ornithologist . Frederick ' s love for the outdoors and wildlife was shared only by his brother ; however , all of the family members were artistically inclined , beside being successful in business . At 42 , Selous settled in Worplesdon , England and married 20 - year - old Marie Catherine Gladys Maddy ( born 1874 ) , daughter of a clergyman Canon Henry William Maddy , and had two sons , Frederick Hatherley Bruce Selous ( 1898 – 1918 ) and Harold Sherborn Selous . He also had three children with various African wives . Youth . From a young age , Selous was drawn by stories of explorers and their adventures . Furthermore , while in school , he started establishing personal collections of various bird eggs and butterflies and studied natural history . One account , recalled by his school master at Northamptonshire when Selous was 10 years old , relates : On 15 January 1867 , Selous , at 17 , was one of the survivors of the Regent ' s Park tragedy , well documented in " The Times " , when the ice covering the local lake broke with around 200 skaters on it , leaving 40 dead by drowning and freezing . He escaped by crawling on broken ice slabs to the shore . He was educated at Bruce Castle School , Tottenham , then at Rugby , and finally abroad in Germany and Austria — his parents hoped he would become a doctor . However , his love for natural history led him to want to study the ways of wild animals in their native habitat . His imagination was strongly fuelled by the literature of African exploration and hunting , Dr . David Livingstone , and William Charles Baldwin in particular . He would eventually become as great a hero and fictional character himself . African exploration . Going to South Africa when he was 19 , he travelled from the Cape of Good Hope to Matabeleland , which he reached early in 1872 , and where he was granted permission by Lobengula , King of the Ndebele , to shoot game anywhere in his dominions . From then until 1890 , with a few brief intervals spent in England , Selous hunted and explored over the then little - known regions north of the Transvaal and south of the Congo Basin , shooting elephants and collecting specimens of all kinds for museums and private collections . His travels added greatly to the knowledge of the country now known as Zimbabwe . He made valuable ethnological investigations , and throughout his wanderings — often among people who had never previously seen a white man — he maintained cordial relations with the chiefs and tribes , winning their confidence and esteem , notably so in the case of Lobengula . In 1890 , Selous entered the service of the British South Africa Company , at the request of magnate Cecil Rhodes , acting as guide to the pioneer expedition to Mashonaland . Over 400 miles of road were constructed through a country of forest , mountain and swamp , and in two and a half months Selous took the column safely to its destination . He then went east to Manica , concluding arrangements which brought the country there under British control . Coming to England in December 1892 , he was awarded the Founder ' s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in recognition of his extensive explorations and surveys , of which he gave a summary in a journal article entitled " Twenty Years in Zambesia " . Military career . Rhodesia and World War I . He returned to Africa to take part in the First Matabele War ( 1893 ) , and was wounded during the advance on Bulawayo . It was during this advance that he first met fellow scout Frederick Russell Burnham , who had only just arrived in Africa and who continued on with the small scouting party to Bulawayo and observed the self - destruction of the Ndebele settlement as ordered by King Lobengula . Selous returned to England , married , and in 1896 the couple settled on an estate in Essexvale , Matabeleland , when the Second Matabele War broke out . The outline of the foundations of this house can be viewed on Google Earth map reference approximately 5 metres north of the track perched 80 feet above the Ncema River . He took a prominent part in the fighting which followed , serving as a leader in the Bulawayo Field Force , and published an account of the campaign entitled " Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia " ( 1896 ) . It was during this time that he met and fought alongside Robert Baden - Powell who was then a Major and newly appointed to the British Army headquarters staff in Matabeleland . In World War I , at the age of 64 , Selous participated in the fighting in East Africa , rejoining the British Army . He was promoted to Captain in the uniquely composed 25th ( Frontiersmen ) Battalion , Royal Fusiliers on 23 August 1915 , he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 26 September 1916 , the citation read : Death and legacy . On 4 January 1917 , Selous was fighting a bush war on the banks of the Rufiji River , against German colonial Schutztruppe n , outnumbered five - to - one . That morning , in combat during a minor engagement , while creeping forward , he raised his head and binoculars to locate the enemy and was shot in the head by a German sniper . He was killed instantly . Upon getting the news , his close friend , American president Theodore Roosevelt , wrote : He was buried under a tamarind tree , near the place of his death , in today ' s Selous Game Reserve , Tanzania , in a modest , flat stone grave with a simple bronze plaque reading : " CAPTAIN F . C . SELOUS D . S . O . , 25TH ROYAL FUSILIERS , KILLED IN ACTION 4 . 1 . 17 . " Exactly a year later , on 4 January 1918 , his son , Captain Frederick Hatherley Bruce MC , was killed . He was a pilot with Royal Flying Corps , in a flight over Menin Road , Belgium . Reportedly , the German commander in the theater , Paul von Lettow - Vorbeck , sent a letter of condolence to the British after learning of his death . Exactly a year later , on 4 January 1918 , his son , Captain Frederick Hatherley Bruce MC , was killed . He was a pilot with Royal Flying Corps , in a flight over Menin Road , Belgium . Selous as a hunter , naturalist and conservationist . Hunting icon . Beside his powerful ties , like the ones with Theodore Roosevelt and Cecil Rhodes , military achievements , and books he left behind , Selous is mostly remembered as one of world ’ s most revered hunters , as he pursued big - game hunting not only in his southern African homelands but in reputed wildernesses worldwide , subsequently . Accounts of his youth are filled with stories of trespassing , poaching , and brawling , almost all within romanticised and humorous portrayals , but one in particular , in 1870 , stands out as more serious : when in Wiesbaden , Prussia , he knocked unconscious a Prussian game warden who tackled him while stealing buzzard eggs for his collection , and had to leave the country at once in order to avoid imprisonment . Then he moved to Austria , and when in Salzburg he went big game hunting for the first time , in the nearby Alps , he shot two chamois . On 4 September 1871 , at the age of 19 , he left England with £400 in his pocket , determined to earn his living as a professional elephant hunter , and by the age of 25 he was known far and wide in South Africa as one of the most successful ivory hunters of the day . Selous journeyed in pursuit of big game to Europe ( Bavaria , Germany in 1870 , Transylvania , then Hungary but now Romania in 1899 , Mull Island , Scotland in 1894 , Sardinia in 1902 , Norway in 1907 ) , Asia ( Turkey , Persia , Caucasus in 1894 - 95 , 1897 , 1907 ) , North America ( Wyoming , Rocky Mountains in 1897 and 1898 , Eastern Canada in 1900 - 1901 , 1905 , Alaska and Yukon in 1904 , 1905 ) and the " dark continent " in a territory that extends from today ’ s South Africa and Namibia all the way up into central Sudan where he collected virtually every specimen of all medium and large African mammal species . In 1909 - 1910 , Selous accompanied American ex - president Teddy Roosevelt in his famous African safari . Contrary to popular belief , Selous did not lead Roosevelt ’ s 1909 expedition to British East Africa , the Congo , and Egypt . While Selous was a member of this expedition from time to time and helped organize the safari ' s logistics , the excursion was in fact led by R . J . Cunninghame . Roosevelt wrote of Selous : In 1909 , Selous co - founded the Shikar Club , a big - game hunters ' association , with two other British Army Captains , Charles Edward Radclyffe and P . B . Vanderbyl , and regularly met at the Savoy Hotel in London . The association ' s President was the Earl of Lonsdale ; another founding member included the artist , explorer , and Selous biographer John Guille Millais . He was a rifleman icon and a valued expert in firearms . Early in his hunting career , in the mid - 1870s , Selous favoured a four bore black powder muzzleloader for killing elephant , a 13 lb short - barreled musket firing a quarter - pound bullet at with as much as 20 dram s ( 540 grain s ) of black powder , one of the largest hunting caliber fabricated , literally a small hand cannon . He could wield it even from horseback . Between 1874 and 1876 he slew exactly seventy - eight elephants with that gun , but eventually there was a double loading incident together with other recoil problems from it , and he finally gave it up as too " upsetting my nerve " . He used a ten bore muzzleloader to hunt lions . After black powder muzzleloader behemoths became obsolete and metal - cased cartridges and smokeless gunpowder came into use , despite the fact that he was bombarded with gifts from the finest London gunmakers in hopes of advertisement ( indeed he tried many ) , he was to be found accompanied in his hunt by two rifles , single shot , falling block Farquharson action , Metford - barelled rifles in the two calibers he loved best : a Romanian . 256 Mannlicher for smaller game and a . 450 Nitro Express for larger game . His favorite gun makers were Gibbs of Bristol and Holland & Holland of London . There are quotes as to how Selous was in fact not a crack shot , but a rather ordinary marksman , yet most agree that was just another personal statement of modesty from Selous himself . Regardless , he remains an iconic rifleman figure and , following in the tradition of others , the German gunmaker Blaser and the Italian gunmaker Perugini Visini chose to name their top line safari rifles the Selous after him . Naturalist and conservationist . Many of the Selous trophies entered into museums and international taxidermy and natural - history collections , notably that of the Natural History Museum in London . In their " Selous Collection " they have 524 mammals from three continents , all shot by him , including nineteen African lions . In the last year of his life , while in combat in 1916 , he was known to carry his butterfly net in the evening and collect specimens , for the same institution . Overall , more than five thousand plants and animal specimens were donated by him to the Natural History section of the British Museum . This collection was held from 1881 in the new Natural History Museum in South Kensington ( which became an independent institution in 1963 ) . Here , posthumously in 1920 , they unveiled a bronze bust of him in the Main Hall , where it stands to this day . He is mentioned widely in foremost taxidermist Rowland Ward s catalogues for world ' s largest animal specimens hunted , where Selous is ranked in many trophy categories , including rhinoceros , elephant and many ungulates . He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society ' s Founders Medal in 1893 " in recognition of twenty years ' exploration and surveys in South Africa " . In 1896 , British zoologist William Edward de Winton ( 1856 – 1922 ) , named a new African small Carnivora , " Paracynictis selousi " , or the Selous mongoose , in his honor . Also , a subspecies of the African Sitatunga antelope , ( " Tragelaphus spekii selousi " ) , bears his name . Selous was one of the first conservationists . In none of his expeditions was his object the taking of a big bag , but as a hunter - naturalist and slayer of great game he ranked with the most famous of the world ' s sportsmen . In leading so many hunting expeditions , Selous noticed over time how the impact of European hunters was leading to a significant reduction in the amount of game available in Africa . In 1881 he returned to Britain for a while , saying ; The Selous Game Reserve in southeastern Tanzania is a hunting reserve named in his honour . Established in 1922 , it covers an area of more than 17 000 m² ( 44 800 km² ) along the rivers Kilombero , Ruaha , and Rufiji . The area first became a hunting reserve in 1905 , although it is rarely visited by humans due to the strong presence of the Tsetse fly . In 1982 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the diversity of its wildlife and undisturbed nature . Selous as man and character . Portrait in literature . Frederick Courteney Selous image remains a classic , romantic portrait of a proper Victorian period English gentleman of the colonies , one whose real life adventures and exploits of almost epic proportions generated successful Lost World and Steampunk genre fictional characters like Allan Quatermain , to a large extent an embodiment of the popular " white hunter " concept of the times ; yet he remained a modest and stoic pillar in personality all throughout his life . As himself he was featured in the " Young Indiana Jones " and " Rhodes " series . He was widely remembered in real tales of war , exploration and big game hunting as a balanced blend between gentleman officer and epic wild man . Appearance and character . Bestowed with exceptional qualities in a man , he excelled at the English sports of the day : cricket , rugby , cycling , swimming and tennis , he loved outdoors the best developing a rugged and robust physique by trekking , packing , marching and hunting for so long . He was also known as an accomplished rider , he waged war and hunted much on horses . To the African locals he was the " best white runner " ( in the endurance aspect , similar as to native bushmen ' s concept ) . While in England , all his life he played sports , he still did half - day 100 - mile bicycle races when almost sixty years old . Millais , friend and biographer , wrote : " As sport he loved cricket most , and played regularly for his club at Worplesdon taking part in all their matches until 1915 … ' Big Game Hunters ' vs . ' Worplesdon ' was always a great and solemn occasion . " Accounts on Miles biography read : " He ate less than most men , and never drank anything but tea , which he enjoyed at every meal . Sometimes he drank champagne at big dinners , but rich wines and high feeding had no attractions to him . Occasional accounts of whisky deeds upon meeting old friends exist however . Also , he was fond of his pipe and tobacco . All these never amounted to excess , except for tea , a fact that further promoted him as the Englishman ideal . Chronology of works . By Frederick Courteney Selous : Selous also wrote the foreword to world ' s most popular man - eater story : " The man - eaters of Tsavo and other East African Adventures . BY Lieut . - Col . J . H . Patterson , D . S . O . . With a foreword by Frederick Courteney Selous " first published in London , 1907 Besides the works mentioned , Selous made numerous contributions to " The Geographical Journal " , " the Field " and other journals . Literature about or with solid mentions of Frederick Courtenay Selous written by others :