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Name: CUNNINGHAM, Edward Allan 'Teddy'
Nee: son of Dr. Robert Allan Cunningham, bro of Kenneth Windsor Cunningham
Birth Date: 1908 Weymouth, bapt. 20 Aug
Death Date: 26.6.1936 near Rumuruti, killed by elephant
First Date: 26.6.1936
Profession: Honey hunter
Area: Rumuruti
Book Reference: Nature, Mrs Mary Hoey, Hoey, Rundgren, Kenton, Red 31, Hut, Barnes, Chandler
School: Kenton College
General Information:
Ambushed by a cow elephant. He was actually aiming at the herd bull when she charged him from behind and killed him. First class tennis player.
Hoey - a honey hunter - he would walk 60 miles a day without problem. Took out safaris with clients and also did game warden work. Kenya's champion tennis player.
Rundgren - Teddy Cunningham and his elder brother Kenneth were brought up on a farm in the Laikipia country and hunted from the time they were old enough to hold a gun. Teddy learnt his hunting from a tribe of Kalisa Dorobo from up near Sugota Marmar, which is north of Rumuruti, and by the time he 'graduated' he could teach any of his teachers. He was one of those rare people capable of tracking leopards. People who have hunted with him have told me that it was uncanny the way he could read clues invisible to anyone else ....... Not only could Teddy out-track the Dorobo, he once took on their three best athletes in a race from Suguta Marmar to the DC's home at Rumuruti, a distance of 37 miles. ........ Teddy beat the fastest of them by 3/4 of an hour. A girl turned him down and the next day he was killed by an elephant.
Nairobi Forest Road cemetery - Edward Alan Cunningham, British, age 28, died 26/6/36
Chandler - In 1920 Cunningham, who had a reputation for wild behaviour, placed a pebble on the back of a sleeping rhino and then dared his friend to go and get it. Cunningham was later attached to the game department as an honorary warden, shooting elephant on control. One night at a party his long-term girlfriend told him their relationship was over. Perhaps he was distracted, perhaps he drank too much, but the next morning Cunningham was not himself when he went to shoot some elephant that were raiding a farm near Rumuruti. With him was Engerua, a Wanderobo tracker who had been his friend since boyhood. Engerua had his head down, watching the trail, and Cunningham was distracted, as noted above. Suddenly a cow elephant burst from nearby brush. Cunningham had not spotted the animal. She grabbed him around the waist with her trunk and beat him against a tree. Engerua managed to frighten the elephant off and ran to get help for the fallen hunter, who was severely hurt and haemorrhaging. Cunningham was still alive when he was finally brought into the hospital but died a short time later.
Hut - killed by elephant Marmanet Forest