Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton, FZS,

FRGS The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

, FRAI, JP (20 September 1866 – 26 June 1940)Thanet Gazette, 'Obituary of Major Percy Powell-Cotton', 28 June 1940 was an English explorer, hunter, most noted for the creation of the Powell-Cotton Museum in the grounds of his home,

Quex Park Quex Park itself is of parkland and gardens plus a further 1500 acres of farmed land, with Quex House and other buildings situated just south-east from Birchington-on-Sea near Margate in Kent, England. It houses the Powell-Cotton Museum, and t ...

Birchington-on-Sea Birchington-on-Sea is a village in the Thanet district in Kent, England, with a population of 9,961. The village forms part of the civil parish of Birchington. It lies on the coast facing the North Sea, east of the Thames Estuary, between th ...

, Kent, England. Powell-Cotton is noted for bringing an extraordinary number of animal specimens back from his travels across

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, potentially creating the largest collection of game ever shot by one man. Despite this, Powell-Cotton was an early conservationist, helping categorise a wide number of species across the globe. His two daughters, Antoinette Powell-Cotton and Diana Powell-Cotton shared his passion for conservation, pursuing archaeology and anthropology respectively. Powell-Cotton made a large number of films ( Powell-Cotton filmography) including ethnographic, documentary and wildlife films ( Powell-Cotton Ethnographic Films).

Early life

Percy Powell-Cotton was born on 20 September 1866, in

Garlinge Garlinge is a village in the suburbs of Margate in Kent, United Kingdom, situated southwest of the centre of the town. It is in the Thanet local government district. Amenities There is a small selection of shops in the village: newsagent/off-l ...

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

, to Henry Horace Powell-Cotton and Matilda Christina (née Gordon). Powell-Cotton had two siblings: a sister, Ida and a brother, Gerald. Most of Powell-Cotton’s early life was spent in London, although he joined his family on many weekend and summer trips to their home in Margate. Aged fifteen, Powell-Cotton helped his father modernise Quex House, before the family returned to live there. Whilst living there, Powell-Cotton began breeding chickens, hunting rabbits and photographing wildlife. He kept meticulous records of these endeavours, a habit that would follow him into later life.'Major Percy Powell-Cotton' Entrance Hall: Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex Park, Birchington

Military career

Powell-Cotton joined the Militia Battalion of

Northumberland Fusiliers The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution ...

in 1885, and attended the Hythe School of Musketry for training. During the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, Powell-Cotton served in the Volunteer Regiment of the 5th Battalion, who were stationed in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. In July 1901, he retired from military service. However, at the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in July 1914, Powell-Cotton offered himself up for military service. He was turned away as, at 48, he was considered too old to serve. In lieu of serving in the war, Powell-Cotton offered his home, Quex House, to the Birchington Volunteer Aid Detachment to use as an Auxiliary Military Hospital.

Expeditions

Powell-Cotton embarked on over 28 expeditions between 1887 and 1939, across Africa and Asia, gathering various zoological and ethnographical specimens In 1900, Powell-Cotton met with

Emperor Menelik II , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Menelik II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ ; horse name Abba Dagnew (Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 ...

, who granted him permission to hunt across Ethiopia. Powell-Cotton's subsequent expedition across Ethiopia formed the basis of his first book, ''A Sporting Trip Through Abyssinia''. In 1902 he was in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

and

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

, visiting

Lake Baringo Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, with a surface area of and an elevation of . The lake is fed by several rivers: the Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel. It has no obvious outlet; the waters ar ...

. In November 1905, whilst on an expedition in Kenya, Powell-Cotton married Hannah Brayton Slater in Nairobi Cathedral. To save interrupting his ninth expedition, his new wife chose to join him on his expedition, for a honeymoon that lasted two years. In 1907, still on his honeymoon expedition, Powell-Cotton was badly mauled by a lion he had thought incapacitated by a precious shot. As he approached it, the lion leapt up and attacked with its claws and jaw. Powell-Cotton escaped relatively unharmed due to a rolled up copy of ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' magazine in his breast pocket protecting him from the majority of the lion's attacks. The lion, the suit that Powell-Cotton was wearing and the copy of ''Punch'' are now all on display at the Powell-Cotton Museum. Powell-Cotton's expeditions directly led into the creation of the Powell-Cotton Museum. After bringing back a range of zoological specimens from his early travels, Powell-Cotton contracted

Rowland Ward James Rowland Ward (1848–1912) was a British taxidermist and founder of the firm Rowland Ward Limited of Piccadilly, London. The company specialised in and was renowned for its taxidermy work on birds and big-game trophies, but it did other t ...

to prepare the animals for display. Whilst on an expedition through India in 1896, Powell-Cotton enlisted his brother Gerald to oversee the construction of the Powell Cotton Museum in the grounds of Quex House. Whilst on his expeditions, Powell-Cotton created a wide range of ethnographic films documentary the peoples and animals of the countries. In later life, he collaborated with his daughter Diana, who further added to the filmography after Powell-Cotton died. The wide range of animal specimens that Powell-Cotton returned with from his travels have proved to be a valuable resource in taxonomic research, even in the present day. Consequentially, Powell-Cotton has several species named in honour of him.

Bibliography

* *

Publications

* Major Powell-Cotton, ''Notes on a Journey through East Africa and Northern Uganda'' Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 3, No. 12 (Jul. 1904), pp. 315–324 * P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, ''A Journey Through Northern Uganda'' The Geographical Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jul. 1904), pp. 56–65 * P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, ''A Journey Through the Eastern Portion of the Congo State'' The Geographical Journal, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Oct. 1907), pp. 371–382 * P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, ''Notes on a Journey through the Great Ituri Forest'' Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 7, No. 25 (Oct. 1907), pp. 1–12 * P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, ''1. Notes on Crossbows and Arrows from French Equatorial Africa'' Man Vol. 29, (Jan. 1929), pp. 1–3 * P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, ''H. J. Braunholtz 132. A Mancala Board Called "Songo."'' Man, Vol. 31, (Jul. 1931), p. 123 * P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, ''329. Benin Brass Castings and Handicrafts in the Cameroons.'' Man, Vol. 32, (Dec. 1932), p. 284 * P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, ''4. Note on the Native Custom of Carrying Stones in the Mouth, Collected Feb.-March 1932, French Cameroons.'' Man, Vol. 33, (Jan. 1933), pp. 9–10

References