Philip Hope Percival (1886–1966) was a renowned white hunter and early

safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an impor ...

guide in colonial

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. During his career, he guided

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

Baron Rothschild Baron Rothschild, of Tring in the County of Hertfordshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for Sir Nathan Rothschild, 2nd Baronet, a member of the Rothschild banking family. He was the first Jewish memb ...

, and

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

on African hunts. Hemingway modelled the fictional hunter Robert Wilson in his story "

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. Set in Africa, it was published in the September 1936 issue of ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine concurrently with " The Snows of Kilimanjaro". The story was eventually adap ...

" after Percival. Percival also worked with well-known white hunters like

Bror von Blixen-Finecke Baron Bror Fredrik von Blixen-Finecke (25 July 1886 – 4 March 1946) was a Swedish nobleman, writer, and African professional hunter and guide on big-game hunts. He was married to Karen Blixen (née Dinesen) from 1914 to 1925. Personal li ...

and mentored Sydney Downey and Harry Selby, and was known in African hunting circles as the "Dean of Hunters".

Early life

Percival was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in Northern England, at the tail end of the 19th century. When Philip was still quite young, his older brother Blaney (born 1875) went off to East Africa, and proceeded to send Philip several exciting accounts of his life as a game warden there. When Philip turned 21 he inherited a small sum of money and struck out to join his brother in Africa, sailing to

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town ...

. Percival settled in

Limuru Limuru is a town in central Kenya. It is also the name of a parliamentary constituency and an administrative division. The population of the town, as of 2004, was about 4,800. In a census taken in 2019 the population had increased to 159,314. Loc ...

, where he grew coffee and wheat and bred ostriches, cattle and horses.

Hunting life

Upon reaching Africa, Percival was quick to pick up hunting with his brother, and Harold and Clifford Hill, who were also ostrich farmers. The ostriches they raised were used as bait to lure lion and other big game. At first, Percival mainly hunted lion with the Hills, but in time he started to lead hunting trips of his own. Initially he charged clients a fee of ten pounds per week and an additional twenty-five pounds per lion and in those days guides like Percival only provided the wagon, pack animals and a couple of assistants, leaving the clients to provide their own food, drink, tents and bedding.

Theodore Roosevelt safari

In 1909, Philip's brother Blaney had been instrumental in bringing then Colonel Theodore Roosevelt to East Africa for a safari and Philip was given the opportunity to work as an assistant hunter on the trip. Roosevelt remembered Percival well, writing about him: :"At Bondoni was Percival, a tall, sinewy man, a fine rider and shot—like so many other men whom I met, he wore merely a helmet, a flannel shirt, short breeches or trunks, and puttees and boots. I shall not forget seeing him one day as he walked beside his twelve-ox team, cracking his long whip, while in the big wagon sat pretty Mrs. Percival with a puppy, and little cheetah cub, which we had found and presented to her and which she was taming." After the Roosevelt safari, Percival decided to become a full-time white hunter and one of his first solo clients was

, but he also conducted safaris for other royals like the Duke and Duchess of Connaught.

Company man

As he became more ingrained into the hunting life, Percival joined the safari company Newland and Tarlton, along with other hunters like Alan Black. When Newland and Tarlton dissolved in 1919, and Safariland was created out of its ashes, he stayed on with that outfit as well. During this time, he mentored a new generation of hunters like Sydney Downey and Harry Selby. Percival also went on to become the first president of the

East African Professional Hunter's Association The East African Professional Hunter's Association (EAPHA) was an organization of East African white hunters founded in Nairobi, Kenya in 1934. Well known members included Philip Percival, Harry Selby, Sydney Downey and Donald Ker. Their motto wa ...

, a position he served in for 15 years. In 1930, before his tenure as EAPHA president, Percival left Safariland to team up with

in the joint venture Tanganyika Guides Ltd., of which he was the Kenya director, with Bror heading up the

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

operation.

Ernest Hemingway

During his partnership with von Blixen, Percival guided Ernest Hemingway on both of Hemingway's African safaris, the first coming in 1934. Hemingway struck up a friendship with Percival, affectionately calling him "Pop", a name they used for each other, and also one of the monikers Hemingway gave to Jackson Philips in ''

Green Hills of Africa ''Green Hills of Africa'' is a 1935 work of nonfiction by American writer Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway's second work of nonfiction, ''Green Hills of Africa'' is an account of a month on safari he and his wife, Pauline Marie Pfeiffer, took in East ...

'', a character modelled on Percival. Hemingway also considered Percival a great teacher, and most notably molded the Percival he knew into the character of Robert Wilson, in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". Yet Percival was not the only model for Wilson, and indeed critics have identified Bror von Blixen as another influence, especially in terms of Wilson's "cynicism and womanizing".

Legacy

The legacy of Philip Percival, the "Dean of Hunters", runs deeper than his influence on Hemingway. Percival also mentored a new generation of African hunters, including Sydney Downey, who called him "the greatest white hunter of all time", and Harry Selby, who himself went on to captivate a new generation of foreigners through the travel writings of Robert Ruark. His autobiography ''Hunting, Settling & Remembering'' was published in 1997, with a foreword by his younger daughter Joy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Percival, Philip People from Newcastle upon Tyne Settlers of Kenya British emigrants to Kenya British hunters 1966 deaths 1886 births Autobiographers