James H. Sutherland

Sutherland arrived in Cape Town in 1896 at the age of 24, with no fixed ideas of a career. Initially he engaged in various occupations in Johannesburg, Mafeking, Matabeleland, Lake Tanganyika and the Congo, including professional boxing, running African trading stores, and working as a labour overseer on the construction of the Beira-Mashonaland railway. On the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War in 1899, he moved into the African hinterland to hunt elephant professionally.[1][2][3]

In 1904 Sutherland moved into German East Africa, where he hunted for the next decade. From 1905 to 1906 he became involved in the Maji Maji Rebellion, fought with German colonial forces, and was awarded the Iron Cross for his conduct. In 1912, Sutherland met his lifelong friend Major G.H. "Andy" Anderson, who Sutherland introduced to elephant hunting. The same year, Sutherland published an account of his exploits to that date, The Adventures Of An Elephant Hunter. Upon his arrival in London in 1913, he was feted as the "World's Greatest Elephant Hunter".[1][2][3][4]

In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Sutherland was hunting in German East Africa. The German authorities attempted to detain him but, by making a detour of 500 miles (800 km), Sutherland made his way through Portuguese East Africa to Nyasaland, where upon arrival he was engaged by the governor as an intelligence officer.[3][5]

Sutherland with Major G.H. "Andy" Anderson.

In June 1915, Sutherland was severely wounded by a German sniper who shot him in the abdomen with an explosive bullet. After the conquest of German East Africa, Sutherland was made chief intelligence officer and provost marshal on Brigadier-General Norley's staff with the rank of lieutenant, and in 1916 he was promoted to captain. Sutherland was mentioned in dispatches on several occasions and was awarded the Légion d'Honneur for his services as a special guide to the Nyasaland Field Force.[5][6]

After the war, Sutherland hunted in Uganda, the Belgian Congo, and the French Congo. In 1929, Sutherland fell victim to a conspiracy by the Azande tribe against white people, and was poisoned. He recovered and continued to hunt, despite being partially paralyzed.[7] Eventually Sutherland died from the poison's effects in the Yubo Sleeping Sickness Camp on 26 June 1932, and in his will he bequeathed all of his property to Major Anderson. Sutherland was buried near Yubo, and his friends later erected a bronze tablet on the spot, engraved with two elephants standing beneath a palm tree, which reads in part:[2][8][7]

To the Memory of that great elephant Hunter – JIM SUTHERLAND.[7]