JIM CORBETT Tribute

In the past 50 years, I came in contact with a number of relatives and friends closely associated with Jim Corbett. All of them offered great stories while recalling their friendship with him. F.W. Champion (author of With a Camera in Tigerland, and Jungle in Sunlight & Shadow) and his brother Sir Harry Champion (scholar and author of books on Forestry) were the first to help. F.W. Champion died in Scotland in 1970. Ramsay Tainish OBE, a veteran doctor who served the war in Burma was a close friend of Corbett, so was his father- died in Sweden in 1998; Eric Risley former DC of Tanganyika and later Kenya had spent considerable time with Corbett - died in 1995, a year after I had lunch with him at his home in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi, and his wife Bridget Risley died shortly after. Jennifer Stutchbury,( wife of Brian Stutchbury -the great nephew of Jim Corbett) passed away just a few years ago. She accompanied me with her husband during a safari in 1994. Joy Adamson (of Born Free fame) with whom I corresponded and exchanged ideas about African wildlife was murdered in 1980, her husband George too was killed by Somali bandits (shifta) in 1989. George Adamson had a small library and I was able to acquire five of them with his signature, and a complete set of Joy Adamson's books signed by her. British tea planter and author of Wild Life of India, Mr. E.P. Gee was also very helpful while I was a Forester in India. Gee died in 1968 while I was in Canada. Another colorful character I came across was Dr. J.B.S. Haldane, an outspoken British scientist who ran Orissa's Biometry Lab in the 1960s, He used to inject cobra vemom on himself and studied the reaction firsthand. The day he died, he announced his death on television by recording it previously. Geoffrey Cumberlege was Corbett's publisher at the Oxford University Press (UK), who also was a friend. After his death, Cumberlege met with Maggie in Kenya and collected a large number of photos, letters, telegrams and other biographical material on Corbett. He used it in the introduction to the worlds classic edition of Man eaters of Kumaon and Temple Tiger (1960). Cumberlege died in 1979. Roy Hawkins was not only was Corbett's editor, he was a close friend of Jim and Maggie. When Jim died, he flew to Kenya and spent sometime with Maggie and made biographical notes which he used in his book Jim Corbett's India (1979). I corresponded with Hawkins, who was living in Bombay at the time, several times until his death in 1989.
Brig. Gen.Geoffrey Beyts who ran a farm in Mweiga, near Nyeri, Kenya with Jim Corbett and his nephew Thomas Corbett. Geoffrey and his wife Ruby Beyts were close to Jim and Maggie. They left Kenya when the country gained freedom in 1963, eventually settling in Spain. They too passed away some years ago. Sir William Ibbotson (Ibbie) and his wife Jean were also good friends with Corbett in India and again in Kenya. They met occasionally for lunch and tea. Corbett and Ibbotson were also served as directors for Safariland - hunting outfitters- for a time. They too left Kenya by 1963 settling in South Africa where they died. Maurice Nestor was a relative of Corbett and knew him during his Kumaon days. Maurice was very helpful while I was preparing the book on Jim Corbett (Under the Shadow of Man eaters). He died at the age of 98 in England.
There are many others I have personally met or corresponded with, primarily discussing Jim Corbett. Although they are long gone, I have fond memories of them.