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George Rushby - hunter |
George Gilman Rushby was
born in February 1900, the son of Police
Constable John Henry Payling Rushby of Eastwood and Catherine Rushby (nee
Purdy).
When John Payling married Catherine he retired from the police to run The Three Tuns Public House at Eastwood. The Three Tuns was a favourite haunt of D.H. Lawrence and much of his book, 'Sons & Lovers' was written in the pub. In his book he calls the pub 'The Moon and Stars' and actually mentions Catherine, though not by name. In 1901 when George was only one year old, his father John died of peritonitis after a rupture sustained when showing off his strength by lifting an oak barrel of beer above his head. His widow Catherine, or Kate as she was called, later married James Gregory-Simpson, who had managed The Queen's Head at Riddings and together they bought The Portland Arms in Jacksdale. Kate and James later lived at 'The Beeches' on Selston Road, Jacksdale. |
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George as a boy. |
His father John Payling Rushby |
George as a boy. |
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George Rushby |
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Young George had been very impressed as a lad by two game keepers from the estate of the Duke of Portland, who had frequented his mother's pub and taken George on hunting trips with them. George took up employment at James Oakes & Co. at Pye Bridge as an electrical engineer but the wander lust was in his veins and he moved out to Africa as a shift engineer at the power plant supplying electricity to Louerenco Marques, the capital of Mozambique. |
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It seems that within no time at all
George had taken up a life of hunting and had become quite famous. A
Derbyshire Times article of the day reports of George's marriage to Miss
Eleanor Leslie of Cape Town, South Africa with the heading:-
" A HUNTING ROMANCE - JACKSDALE MAN MARRIED IN AFRICA". |
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| ........In boyhood days, Mr. Rushby lived with his parents at the Queen's Head Hotel, Riddings and at the age of 20, he went abroad to prospect for gold and hunt elephant. He has travelled in the Sudan, French Equatorial and Belgian Congo and succeeded in his quest for gold. Elephant hunting however, attracted Mr. Rushby's adventurous nature and he could recount some thrilling experiences in East Africa, where he helped to quell a native uprising. | |||
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George Rushby
His mother Kate Gregory-Simpson |
During the Winter Mr. Rushby
visited his mother and sisters at Jacksdale, but was the victim of a serious
attack of black water fever, which necessitated his removal to the London
overseas hospital for tropical diseases, where his life was despaired
of. He was under the care of a Harley Street specialist and it was only
his indomitable spirit that carried him through to convalescence and finally
recovery. Representatives of national newspapers sought interviews during his
convalescence in hospital, concerning his game hunting exploits. He was
able to reveal that he had hunted throughout the country covered by the Prince
of Wales during his Royal Highness's recent African tour.
Although only 30 years of age, Mr. Rushby is regarded as a veteran big game hunter and looked upon abroad as an authority in elephant hunting. He was in England about six months of the Winter and Spring, and almost every day, practiced shooting to 'keep his eye in'. His unfortunate illness made his return to East Africa imperative as his medical advisers found the English climate detrimental to his health. Of a charming but modest disposition, Mr. Rushby, in the course of a chat with the Derbyshire Times representative during his stay in England, recounted a thrilling experience with a bull elephant which he had shot but did not kill. As Mr. Rushby turned to take a gun from his "boy" in order to finish the elephant, it charged him and he was tossed over its back into a swamp. Mr. Rushby was lucky to escape with a grazed cheek and other injuries. When he recovered sufficiently to look round for the maddened beast he found it glaring at him knee deep in the swamp. He cautiously approached, but the elephant had died on all fours. Mr. Rushby has also had much experience of lion hunting. Mr. Rushby met his bride two years ago, when she was a member of a party which he conducted through the jungle. She shares with him, his love of adventure, ....riding, yachting, swimming, climbing and camping.......... Mr. & Mrs. Rushby will be settling in Tanganyika .. he has purchased land for a coffee plantation and his nearest neighbour, who is several miles away, has given two litters of pigs and two cows as a wedding present. ......When a Derbyshire Times representative called on Mr. Rushby's mother, Mrs. Gregory-Simpson was happily occupied packing household linen, a wedding present from the family of Mrs. Giles who is Mr. Rushby's sister. |
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Lottie Rushby sister of George and wife of Arthur Giles. Posing in Arthur's great coat and cap.
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George was to become the Senior Game
Warden for the Tanganyika Game Department. He has also been the subject
of many books such as "The Hunter is Death" and
"Maneaters" in which he is referred to as 'that great man George
Rushby'.
You can find out more about George on the following website. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rushby If you are not already a member of YAHOO you will be invited to join in order to access the information. However, the Rushby's connections with Jacksdale did not end with George's marriage in Africa. George's two children Mike and Ann Rushby spent the majority of the second world war years in Jacksdale, looked after by their grandmother Kate Gregory-Simpson. In 1937, when Mike was four years old and convalescing from a bout of Typhoid fever, he was collected by his grandmother Kate and taken back to England with his older sister Ann to recuperate. Mike and Ann did not see their parents for another nine years as war had broken out and they could not get back to Africa. Mike attended Jacksdale School and later Nottingham High School. He remembers the forge which then manufactured weapons and munitions and the frequent night time bombing raids on the forge. |
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Grandma Kate Gregory-Simpson with Mike Rushby's cousin Jack Giles. |
Lottie Rushby sister of George Rushby |
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