Lost Lion of Empire

by Edward Paice

An African Younghusband – the compelling life of a great adventurer.

Ewart Grogan, 'the baddest and boldest of a bad bold gang' of settlers in Kenya, was one of the most brilliant and controversial figures of African colonial history.
When he proposed to a young heiress, Gertrude Coleman, he needed to prove himself a ‘somebody’ to her father in order to win her hand. He did so in inimitable style, announcing that he intended to accomplish the first south-to-north traverse of Africa. In 1900, after two years of illness and extreme hardship, he arrived triumphantly in Cairo.
He became an instant celebrity, and, on returning to England, at last married Gertrude. Now with a considerable fortune at his disposal, after a short but successful spell in South Africa he arrived in British East Africa. He quickly became a leader among the settlers, and embarked on a lifetime of grand projects, forced through despite government inertia, enormous natural obstacles and the looming threat of bankruptcy. Time after time he proved the doubters wrong, as he pulled off the seemingly impossible. Despite this frenetic activity, and despite his love for Gertrude, he still managed to find the time to run two separate families and father numerous children by various mothers.
The abrasive and glamorous Grogan, with Delamere, was one of the founding fathers of Kenya – ‘Lost Lion of Empire’ is a brilliant and powerful account both of the life of an exceptional man and the birth of a country.

Genres: Biography, Africa, Kenya

470 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2002

Reviews

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed biography gives you a great sense of being an explorer in Africa at that time in history. The British politics in the book sometimes was a bit dense, but author Edward Paice manages to convey to the reader all they need to know. The personality of Grogan drives the book and the his larger-then-life persona, as well as those of Rhodes dominate the book. This book is of surefire interest to anyone who enjoyed books like River of Doubt by Candice Millard or Desert Queen by Janet Wallach.

[David Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. A story of someone I wish all colonials were like, and a sad tale how Britain's lack of proper leadership in Africa has lead to the state of the continent now. Despite Grogan's best efforts!

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a very interesting account both of the life of Grogan, and the development of South Africa and Kenya in the early 20th Century. A bit too much focus was spent on the administrative wrangles with the Colonial Office, but otherwise an interesting read.

[Crt · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too long winded and detailed,
Especially the chapters after his more adventurous journey from the cape to Cairo. It read as largely administrative, but I do admire the man’s achievements

[Terry Grigg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip Ziegler of the Daily Telegraph mentioned in his review that meeting Grogan in the pages of the book was a delight, but would not have wanted to know him. I think that just about sums up the book; an epic tale of the British Ernest Hemingway, but not a pleasant fellow. You could throw in Winston Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia and some swashbuckling early Hollywood hero as well. Grogan really was the embodiment of all the British Empire stood for. Born in 1874 and one of 21 children, Grogan is mainly known as being the first person to undertake the south to north traverse of Africa. It took him two and a half years to reach Cairo from Cape Town in 1900. Edward Paice goes into great detail on how Grogan encountered cannibalism, lions, hippos and crocodiles, collected elephant tusks, survived fever, walked through a corpse strewn valley and had jiggers laying eggs in his small toe.
The rest of the book tells of his illustrious career as a property developer, farmer, politician and general Empire ‘fixer’. As his pal Cecil Rhodes had told him he had given himself to Africa. In later life he flew on the first trans-African commercial mail-carrying flight in 1932, but going in the opposite direction. So he had completed the double. During WWII he carried out both reconnaissance in the Congo and put in charge of prisoner of war camps in Kenya. Grogan’s adventures ended where they had begun 71 years earlier in Cape Town, where he died in 1967 at the age of 92. On his death he converted to Catholicism, like Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited. He was the classic arch imperialist and entrepreneur at a time of Colonial exploitation. He was one of the few involved in both the scramble for Africa and witnessed the scramble out of Africa. In his life he was a very divisive figure, but his death, outside of South Africa and Kenya, went largely unnoticed. He was not remembered. His era had passed; he was an anachronism in the modern age. Paice really does bring him back to life in this book, to make an extremely enlightening and illuminating read.

[Morningstartranslations · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating book about a pioneer of Kenya.