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Cheetah Racing Remembered: an exploration through the sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

John Pinfold
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Extract

On the last four pages of Nigel Pavitt's photographic history of Kenya: a country in the making (reviewed in ARD , pp.55-56) are a series of pictures of Kenyan settler Raymond Hook catching and training cheetahs before bringing them to England in 1937 to race against greyhounds at the White City track in London. Never having come across this story before (although I subsequently discovered it briefly featured in a recent edition of the BBC television programme Inside Out), my curiosity was aroused, and what follows is my attempt to reconstruct the full story behind those remarkable images in Pavitt's book.

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Articles
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African Research and Documentation , Volume 111 , 2009 , pp. 3 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © African Research & Documentation 2009

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References

Notes

1 A full page of photographs can be found in Life, 18 October 1937, p.70, and there are also photographs in the Romford Times, 15 December and 19 December 1937, for example.

2 Pollard, J. (1963) African zoo man: the life-story of Raymond Hook, pp. 50ff.,London: Robert HaleGoogle Scholar; Hook, B. In Western Kenya and Laikipia: being an account of a second visit to Africa … 1914, Rhodes House Library (hereafter RHL) Micr. Afr. 600, ff.19, 25Google Scholar;

3 Hazel Holmes to Elspeth Huxley, 26 November 1984, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2154, box 15, file 5, ff.60-62

4 Pollard, J. (1957) Adventure begins in Kenya, pp.10-18, London: Robert HaleGoogle Scholar; Pollard, J. (1961) Africa for adventure, p.58, London: Robert HaleGoogle Scholar

5 , Divyabhanusinh (2nd ed, 2002) The end of a trail: the cheetah in India, pp.115, 153, 155, New Delhi: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar; Huxley, E and Curtis, A. (1980) Pioneers’ scrapbook: reminiscences of Kenya, 1890-1968, p.150 London:Evans Brothers.Google Scholar

6 Pollard, J. (1957) op. cit., pp.100-101

7 Denis, A. (1964) My life with the animals of Africa, p.14, London: Collins; Information from Mrs. Hazel HolmesGoogle Scholar

8 Holman, D. (1969) Inside safari hunting with Eric Rundgreen, p.78, London: W.H. AllenGoogle Scholar

9 Ellison, B.C. (1925) The Prince of Wales's sport in India, p.142, London: HeinemannGoogle Scholar

10 Malies, J. (2004) ‘Dower, Kenneth Cecil Gandar- (1908-1944)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: OUP: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/65062(accessed 26.11.09); RHL Meinertzhagen diaries, vol. 39, f.24 (2 February 1936)Google Scholar

11 Gandar Dower, K.C., (1937) The spotted lion, pp.28-29, London: HeinemannGoogle Scholar

12 Hook to John Pollard, 30 April 1961, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2458, f.129; Pollard, J. (1963), op. cit., p.98; The Times, 11 December 1937

13 Gandar Dower, K.C. (1937) op. cit., pp.33, 286. It is worth noting that Gandar Dower also records, without apparent irony, that Ali believed in the existence of the spotted lion.Google Scholar

14 Letter in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes

15 Pollard, J. (1963) op. cit, pp.100-101Google Scholar

16 The Guardian, 5 February 1937

17 Daily Mail, 11 May 2007

18 RHL. Meinertzhagen diaries, vol. 41, f.112 (25 June 1937)

19 ibid, vol. 41, f.114 (2 July 1937)

20 Gandar Dower, K.C. (ca.1938) ‘Racing cheetahs: the greyhounds of the east’, Indian Wild Life, vol. 3, no.2, p.63.1 am grateful to Mr. Ramesh Mittal for sending me a copy of this article.Google Scholar

21 Interview with Roy Pembrooke, 17 July 2009

22 Gandar Dower, K.C. (ca.1938) op. cit, p.63.Google Scholar

23 Romford Times, 8 December 1937

24 Letter of 1 June 1937 in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes

25 Undated letter in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes

26 Clapson, M. (2004) ‘Critchley, Alfred Cecil (1890-1963)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: OUP: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46854 (accessed 26.11.09)Google Scholar

27 Critchley, A.C. (1961), Critch: the memoirs of Brigadier-General A.C. Critchley, pp.145-146, London: HutchinsonGoogle Scholar

28 Hook to John Pollard, 1 December 1960, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2458, f.114

29 ibid, 17 April 1961, f.127

30 ibid, 9 April 1961, f.125

31 Letter in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes

32 ibid

33 RHL Meinertzhagen diaries, vol. 42, f.10 (28 November 1937)

34 Hook to Stewart, 29 November 1937, copy in the possession of Mrs. Hazel Holmes

35 There are almost identical reports in The Observer, 12 December 1937, and The Manchester Guardian and The Times, both 13 December 1937.

36 Daily Mail, 13 December 1937

37 New York Times, 2 January 1938

38 The Times, 11 December 1937

39 Romford Times, 15 December 1937

40 ibid, 22 and 29 December 1937; Romford Recorder, 24 December 1937; The Scotsman 20 December 1937

41 The Scotsman, 24 December 1937

42 Hook to John Pollard, 25 February 1961, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2458, f.121

43 The Times, 30 June 1939

44 Hazel Holmes to Elspeth Huxley, 26 November 1984, RHL Mss. Afr. s.2154, box 15, file 5, ff.63-64; Pollard, J. (1957) op. cit., p.21; Pollard, J. (1961) op. cit., pp.58-59

45 Holman, op. cit., p.78; RHL Meinertzhagen diaries, vol. 40, f.98 (14 January 1937)

46 ‘Cheetah racing’, British Movietone story no. 36934 (6 July 1939), viewable through http://www.movietone.com (accessed 24.11.09)