James Stevenson-Hamilton

Busts of the founders at Skukuza Camp , Kruger National Park (Stevenson-Hamilton in the picture on the right)

Entrance to Skukuza Camp

James Stevenson-Hamilton (born October 2, 1867 in Dublin , Ireland , † December 10, 1957 in White River , Transvaal ) was a South African soldier and later animal rights activist.

Beginning of his work in the Kruger National Park

After the Second Boer War , in July 1902, he became the first game park ranger of the Sabie Game Reserve , an area that had been declared to protect nature before the war, but where initially no change occurred. When Stevenson-Hamilton banned hunting in the area, he encountered opposition from hunters, farmers, poachers, politicians and seasoned mining companies. But when a group of high-ranking police officers successfully pursued the protection goal after 1903, his opponents realized that he was determined to preserve the area as a protected area. In the same year he stopped the cattle drive and the exploration of coal and other mineral deposits in the nature reserve of that time.

The natives gave him the nickname "Skukuza" in the Tsonga language (German for example: the man who turns everything upside down or the one who sweeps everything out ). The name of the main camp , originally called Sabie Bridge , was named after him in 1936 : Skukuza Camp .

At first Stevenson-Hamilton had no employees, it wasn't until 1903 that he employed five whites and fifty blacks as guards to support his work. In 1904 he succeeded in expanding the park (based on the area between the Crocodile River and Sabie River ) and the area between the Letabarivier and Sabie River was added. The reserve was later extended to the Limpopo river .

Honors

The Stevenson Hamilton Memorial and Library is located in one building in Skukuza Camp .

Selected Works

Animal Life in Africa . London 1912
South African Eden. From Sabi Game Reserve to Kruger National Park . London 1937
Our South African national parks . Cape Town (?) 1940
Wild Life in South Africa . London 1947

James Stevenson-Hamilton, Jan Christiaan Smuts : The Low-veld . London 1929
James Stevenson-Hamilton, Paul Selby: Kruger National Park. handbook and guide . Pretoria 1930

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Stevenson-Hamilton, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	South African wildlife and nature conservationist
DATE OF BIRTH	October 2, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dublin , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH	December 10, 1957
Place of death	White River (South Africa) , Transvaal