Charles Helm

Charles Daniel Helm (28 September 1844 – 14 September 1915) was a Protestant missionary and trusted confident of King Lobengula of Matabeleland who played a controversial role as an interpreter during the drafting and signing of the Rudd Concession with agents of Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company in 1888.

Family life Helm was born in Suurbraak, Cape Colony on 28 September 1844, the son of Daniel Helm, the missionary there. His maternal grandfather was William Anderson. He trained as a missionary at New College, London where he met Baroness Elizabeth von Puttkamer whom he married in 1873.

Career He became a missionary with the London Missionary Society. He then returned briefly to Suurbraak, running the mission there following his father's death. However, in 1875 he established a mission at Hope Fountain near Lobengula's capital Bulawayo.

Rhodesian Ridgeback Helm is credited with bringing two rough coated and grey-black bitches from Kimberley, South Africa, which were then bred, by Cornelius van Rooyen, to finally produce the Rhodesian Ridgeback breed of dog.

He died on 14 September 1915 in Bulawayo.