Arthur Henry Neumann

Arthur Henry Neumann (12 June 1850 – 29 May 1907) was an English explorer, hunter, soldier, farmer and travel writer famous for his exploits in Equatorial East Africa. In 1898 he published Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa.

Early life and exploration

Neumann was born in Hockliffe, Bedfordshire, a village four miles east from Leighton Buzzard, the youngest child of seven of the Reverend John Stubbs Neumann and his wife (née) Annie Mary Formby. His father was rector of a rural parish, and the young retiring Neumann would recall 'an attempt I remember to have made to get out of the sight of houses in a secluded part of the common and fancy myself in an uninhabited country' Although it is known that Neumann's brother Formby attended Wadham College, Oxford, Arthur's education is not known and most likely he was educated at home with private tutors.

In 1869 his father who was from a wealthy family of Liverpool salt merchants, retired from his living in Bedfordshire and departed for Italy, a country with a sizeable flock of wealthy British expatriates, for the next five years. This was the spur for his son Arthur to depart to South Africa to begin a life of wanderlust. Neumann declared in later life that life for him had really only begun in 1868: what had gone before, in his opinion, hardly counted. This mode of life enabled him to learn wagon driving, the skills required to survive in the bush and to understand the peoples of South Africa by learning to speak several native languages.

Hunter and soldier

In 1877 Neumann took a sabbatical from his life as a merchant and trader to pursue his passion for hunting. He headed for the big game grounds of Swaziland and the low veldt of eastern Transvaal apparently content to lead a solitary life aiming and firing his rifles at the wildlife. Overhunting was already taking its toll in the area and gradually Neumann moved further afield to his ultimate goal of East Africa.

As Neumann continued his quest for big game the uneasy political situation between the Zulus and the British and their Swazi allies began to unravel and a violent uprising was in the offing in Zululand. Neumann with his fluency in the native language, friendship with the Swazi leaders and an intimate knowledge of the terrain was well placed to act on behalf of a reconnoitring party and accepted a government offer of the rank of captain and command of a detachment of scouts in one of the Swazi contingents. an experience that he found exhilarating and led to the decision to become a professional elephant hunter. On his return trip to Mombasa on 25 May 1891 the returning party was attacked by the Maasai in retribution for the confiscation of Maasai cattle by a previous expedition led by Neumann's hunter friend Frederick Jackson. Neumann was wounded in the wrist in the mêlée that saw thirty-eight of his men dead. Once again tiring of his prosaic duties he resigned to fill the post of a magistrate in Zululand.

Elephant hunter

At the end of 1893 Neumann returned to Mombasa to begin a career as an ivory trader. The aim of his fifty strong expedition was to travel to Ndorobo where it was believed large herds of elephants awaited. In late December 1893 at a leisurely pace he set out on a voyage of serendipity lasting fourteen months. Initially he followed the old caravan route through Kibwezi before traversing Ukambani, crossing the Tana river valley and then descending the foothills of the Nyambeni Range, a distance of 450 miles from Mombasa and nine weeks by foot. One such arduous journey in August 1896 witnessed the destruction by Neumann of fourteen elephants, his largest bag. Revealingly he was disappointed with his performance: "I did not consider I had done as well as I ought.... But I excused myself, to a certain extent in that I was out of health". He returned to Mombasa with the ivory and the specimens in October 1896 in poor physical health and sporting an injured and withered arm.

Publication of Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa Neumann returned to Britain in 1897 where he recuperated and enjoyed his notoriety for the following two years. As was in his nature he pursued a peripatetic existence. He visited the Macleod stronghold of Dunvegan Castle, where he wrote of his exploits and published them as Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa, Neumann was not one to play down his exploits and his memoirs were widely read by a public more than willing to lap up tales of derring-do from the Empire. The book is enhanced by the work of three eminent wildlife artists, his friend John Guille Millais, Edmund Caldwell and George Edward Lodge and was a lavish publication. It secured Neumann's name as an elephant hunter and establishment figure. That this reputation was based on a modest score of elephants made no difference. Neumann also cultivated a reputation as an author of articles on wildlife and an authority on the wildlife of Africa. Supported by the scientific studies included in his book he was acknowledged as a serious zoologist.

Boer War In October 1899 the start of the Boer War between the Boer Republics and Great Britain witnessed Neumann returning to South Africa where he enlisted in the newly formed South African Light Horse. His knowledge of Africa and in particular his experience in the Zulu War meant that he was given the rank of lieutenant under the command of Colonel Julian Byng. Neumann served as part of the Mounted Brigade of the Natal Field Force under Lieutenant-General Douglas Cochrane, taking part in the relief of the besieged town of Ladysmith. He was also present at the Battle of the Tugela Heights and at a skirmish on Bastion Hill where according to J.G. Millais he was at the head of his troop. Neumann did not see out the end of the South African War returning to Britain sometime in 1901.

Final years in East Africa After an unsatisfactory period in South Africa where he was thwarted in his attempt to obtain a government post in Transvaal he returned to East Africa where he intended to resume his elephant hunting activities. In August 1901 he is recorded as visiting his old friend Frederick Jackson, now Acting Commissioner of Uganda in Entebbe, Neumann who by this time was in poor shape was also receiving criticism from the growing lobby in the colony that were against the uncontrolled hunting of big game. Neumann began to feel embattled and bitter that he was a pariah to the 'Game Preserving Society' as he called his opponents. He responded by publishing a pamphlet in which he put forward his ideas on how the ivory trade and illegitimate elephant hunting could be controlled. He also offered his services once again as a government border agent in return for a salary that included his right to collect ivory. It was to no avail and after a final hunting trip to Lake Rudolf in 1906 it became clear that his days as an elephant hunter were over.

Death in London In September 1906 Neumann sailed for the UK. On board was his stockpile of ivory that he sold for the reasonable sum of £4,500 retaining a few choice pieces for friends, including Millais, with whom he stayed at Horsham in April 1907. Millais' son Raoul Millais, later also an artist and hunter, remembered him as 'a jolly little man, lots of fun and very good with children'.

The solitary Neumann had intent to return to East Africa and held a meeting with James Hayes Sadler, the senior diplomat in East Africa at the Colonial Office in London with the intention of negotiating the grant of land and a government post in the Guaso Nyiro River area of the Protectorate. This was agreed at the end of May, but the grant was never enacted as on 29 May after writing a brief note Neumann committed suicide by gunshot at his lodgings in central London.