Kenneth Gandar-Dower

Aviator In June 1932, with minimal flying experience, Gandar-Dower entered the King's Cup Air Race and "soon became one of the most colourful aviators of his era".

The flight was made in a second-hand Puss Moth, registration G-AAVA (see entry 2002 for details of the plane). The sequence of events were Gandar-Dower passed his flying tests in May, flew the King's Cup in June, and in October left for Madras with Irwin. Both men were promised "a free month in the jungle hunting tigers" by Irwin's father as an incentive to arrive intact In 1937, Gandar-Dower authored a book on the subject, The Spotted Lion.

He spent 1935 and 1936 in the Belgian Congo and Kenya, where he climbed active volcanoes and produced a definitive map of Mount Sattima. After six months' quarantine and six months' adapting themselves to the changed climatic conditions at Harringay and Staines stadia, the cheetahs first raced at Romford Greyhound Stadium on Saturday 11 December 1937. Specially timed trials had taken place where the cheetahs clipped seconds off almost every greyhound record. On 13 December a cheetah by the name of Helen covered the distance of 265 yards in a record time of 15.86sec but in the second race won by Gussie, the second cheetah James stopped and refused to chase the hare. Helen had previously covered 355 yards in 19.8secs. and could not negotiate tight bends.

Writing career Gandar-Dower was also a successful author, writing about his adventures. His titles include: Amateur Adventure, based on his flight to India. It was published in hardback by Rich & Cowan, Limited in 1934, and in paperback by Penguin in 1939 (no. 198). In a contemporary book review, Flight Magazine wrote that Gandar-Dower "produced an amusing record of his adventures ... that nearly everyone will recommend their friends to read." The Spotted Lion, published in 1937 by Heinemann and in paperback in 1940 by Evergreen Books, recorded Gandar-Dower's search for the marozi through Kenya. The Spotted Lion has been credited with bringing the marozi to the attention of the world. Inside Britain and Outside Britain were co-written in 1938 with James Riddell. Satires, they are described as having "much gentle irony and are occasionally clairvoyant in their political speculation." Abyssinian Patchwork: An Anthology, written and compiled by Gandar-Dower when attached to the East African Command during the Abyssinian Campaign in 1940–41. While he wrote the introduction in Nairobi in 1943 the book was published posthumously by Frederick Muller Ltd in 1949. It contained essays by various participants in the campaign and covered, amongst many subjects, the mistreatment of Ethiopians under Italian Fascism.

In addition he wrote The King’s African Rifles in Madagascar (Privately printed, East Africa Command, Kenya, 1943), Askaris at War in Abyssinia (His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1943) and The First to be Freed (His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1944). Returning to England, he then worked on the Mass-Observation project with Tom Harrisson Later he acted as a war correspondent, covering campaigns in Abyssinia and Madagascar, travelling vast distances by bicycle and canoe. During the unresisted assault on Tamatave in eastern Madagascar he leapt from an amphibious vessel wearing a 'Bombay Bowler' hat (a type of pith helmet), carrying a camera in one hand and typewriter in the other. Struck by two torpedoes, the Khedive Ismail sank in two minutes, with a death toll of 1297, Gandar-Dower among them. A wealthy man, Gandar-Dower left over £75,000 in his will.