A gunshot and a scream shatter the still African morning air.
A hunter is dead in his tent from a massive head wound; a gun in his hand. A white hunter and his gun-bearers rush to the tent followed by a sobbing woman close behind. It is the start of what will become one of Africa’s most controversial scandals — one that to this day is still unresolved.
The year was 1908. The man in the painting is John Henry Patterson who became famous through his own story of remarkable bravery, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo. The woman is Ethel Jane Brunner Blyth, the recent widow of James Audley Blyth, one of the heirs to the Gilbey liquor fortune. In fact, she is a very recent widow, under suspicious circumstances, as this story will reveal.
Patterson, who had created his own legendary background, was in fact of lowlier beginnings than he claimed. He was not a graduate of Sandhurst nor was he an English aristocrat or gentleman sportsman. But in those days, if one looked and talked like an officer and a gentleman, then you were regarded as such. However, there is no doubt that he showed extreme bravery in ridding the Uganda Railway of the man-eating lions at Tsavo.
Patterson left the Uganda Railway in 1899, was married in England and then returned to Africa in 1907 when he took over from Blayney Percival as senior game warden of the British East Africa Protectorate. By now his self-made legend had grown exponentially and he had a firm foothold in the door of EastAfrican society.
In 1908, Patterson invited a couple of his English chums, James and Ethel Blyth, to join him on safari in BEA’s Northern Game Reserve. Apparently the couple was having some marital problems and it was thought the safari would help them regain what they once enjoyed.
The threesome got on well at the beginning, but as the safari continued their relationship began to sour. Ethel Blyth (Effie) turned out to be an excellent shot and she was impressing Patterson in other ways as well — she was both beautiful and rich. As the safari progressed Effie became more and more attractive to Patterson.
James Blyth, meanwhile, had frozen with an elephant in his gunsights and Patterson, disgusted by his friend’s inability to shoot, had sent him back to camp. Patterson headed out on horseback after the elephant and though he killed the huge bull, he lost his horse in the process. Annoyed by what had happened, Patterson argued that he should get the ivory as repayment for the loss of his mount. But perhaps the argument had other undertones.
The incident was not discussed again, but the uneasy silence began to push the two men further apart and Effie closer to Patterson.
Things came to a head in Samburu when the Blyths took ill; first James, then Effie. Patterson nursed both of them and while Effie got better, James continued to be sick. His illness worsened (probably malaria) and some days he had to be carried on a litter. He also had a foot injury, which was turning septic. Consequently, Patterson and Effie were growing closer and closer.
By the time they reached Laisamis, there was a great deal of tension in camp. Perhaps to prove something after the elephant incident, but more likely to reestablish himself in his wife’s eyes, James decided to go hunting on his own. His fever got the better of him, however, and he collapsed and had to be carried back to camp by the porters. Effie put him to bed in their tent and then joined Patterson to spend the night in his.
Around sunrise the next morning the camp was awakened to the sound of a single gunshot and a scream. Which came first remains in dispute. Apparently Effie arose before daybreak, left Patterson’s tent and went to see her husband. Soon came the shot and the scream, or the scream and the shot, and the sight of Effie running from their tent. Patterson and the headman raced to the Blyth’s tent where they found James dead with a bullet hole in his head.
At that point Patterson apparently picked up the .450 revolver and handed it to the headman. But by the time the rest of the safari staff got to the tent, the gun was mysteriously back in Blyth’s hand, with the muzzle in his mouth. Patterson made a big show of pointing out the exact position of the gun.
Patterson’s subsequent actions would raise eyebrows on even the most novice sleuths. He arranged for his friend’s corpse to be buried in a shallow grave and made sure that all of Blyth’s clothes, journals and other belongings were burned. Then, and this is perhaps the most damming of his actions, he and Effie continued on safari, sharing a tent as if nothing had happened. Hence the title of my painting: Rogue.
Adultery and murder were on everyone’s mind and tongues, but legally the whole affair was brushed over at the short hearing in Nairobi. John Henry Patterson slipped into obscurity, at least out of gossip-shot of the British, and Effie’s family managed to organize a successful cover-up for her.
The case was eventually ruled a suicide. The truth may never be known.
Published in 2009, this immensely popular first volume in the Legends series depicts the greatest sportsmen and explorers between the years 1849 and 1933. The late John Seerey-Lester’s riveting stories and images bring to life these legendary adventures, from life-and-death encounters with dangerous game to bizarre happenings that defy explanations. Buy Now
