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Name: GEDGE, Ernest
Nee: son of Rev. Augustus Gedge, of Ludborough, Lincolnshire
Birth Date: 29.10.1862 Ludborough, Lincolnshire
Death Date: 1.8.1935 Amersham
Nationality: British
First Date: 1888
Last Date: 1903
Profession: Journalist. Accompanied Freferick J. Jackson on his safari from the Coast to Lake Victoria Nyanza in 1889-90. He was left in Uganda when Jackson returned to the coast. Mentioned in Permanent Way as correspondent of 'The Times'
Area: Uganda
Married: In Whickham, Durham 19 July 1894 Caroline Susan Alice Carr b.1 July 1858 Whickham, d. 28 Feb 1940 Mitcham
Children: Cuthbert Ernest (12 Dec 1904 Kensington-1987)
Author: Papers at Bodleian Library
Book Reference: Gillett, Hobley, Permanent Way, Tucker, EAHB 1905, EAS, Ashe, Curtis, IBEA, Kiewiet, EAHB 1906, Thurston, UJ, Nicholls, North, EAHB 1904, Chandler
School: Queen Elizabeth College Guernsey, Queen Elizabeth School, Ipswich; Rossall School; HMS Worcester
General Information:
Permanent Way - '... of great value to Macdonald [J.R.L.] during the crisis' [in Uganda - 1893]
Tucker - Dec. 1890 - Uganda was like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Mr Jackson had left for the coast some months previously and left a representative behind - Mr Gedge who was hardly the man to deal with the complicated condition of affairs with which he was confronted.
EAHB 1905 - IBEA Co. General Africa Staff - appointed 13th September 1888
The African Standard - 26-2-1903 - Mr E.A. Gedge, of the EA Company, and Mrs Gedge left for Home by the s.s. Carinthia on Monday. Mr Gedge does not expect to be in London more than a fortnight. Mrs Gedge, we regret to hear, was but little better when she reached Mombasa, and stayed in the hospital the few days she was waiting for the boat.
Ashe - '..... At Christmas time {1892} Bishop Tucker and a new party of English missionaries arrived in Uganda, and shortly afterwards the 'Times' special correspondent, who, like Herr Eugene Wolf, had certain theories of his own to maintain. He was not and could not have been quite an unbiased inquirer after truth, since he himself had tried his 'prentice hand in Uganda affairs as an agent of the Imperial British East Africa Company before Captain Lugard's arrival in Uganda; and in a state of affairs already far from settled had proved rather a disturbing element than otherwise. His position of 'Times' correspondent, coupled with a graphic and interesting style of writing, have perhaps given his opinions a weight which they cannot claim on their own merits.......….'
North - IBEA Co. representative in Kampala between the dep. of F.J. Jackson & the arr. of Capt. F. Lugard, 18/12/1890, sent back to coast, ill; dep. Uganda for England 14/1/1891; returned to Uganda as correspondent for "The Times", dep. London 7/10/1892; arr. Kampala 21/3/1893; Entebbe 5/5/1893; dep. Zanzibar for Beira 1/10/1893; Visited EA again early in 1903 Curtis - p. 22 - Gedge, having served for a year in Uganda, returned to the United Kingdom, but in 1892 he was tracked down in Scotland and offered the job of Uganda corresponednt for The Times. He recorded his second crossing of the Taru in a dispatch from Kibwezi dated the 2 December 1892: ....….[more]
IBEA Co. - Nominal List of British Born Subjects resident in IBEA Territories outside the Sultans Domain, 30 April 1891 - E. Gedge, England, Asst.
IBEA Co. EAS - 29/1/1903 - Mrs E.A. Gedge ill in Nairobi hospital suffering from abscess on the liver ……. Miss Malone, one of the Mission ladies, has gone to attend her. Mrs Gedge made a host of friends during her stay in Mombasa
Thurston - Unofficial Records - Royal Commonwealth Society - Private Papers - MSS - Ernest Gedge 1888-1909
Uganda Journal - Vol 23, p.146 - Captain Smith's Expedition to Lake Victoria - 1888-91 with IBEA Company; 1889-91 with Jackson's expedition to Uganda; 1892-3 Correspondent of The Times in Uganda.
Uganda Journal - Vol 23, p.173 - George Wilson and Dagoretti Fort by H.B. Thomas - On 14 May 1890 F.J. (later Sir Frederick) Jackson, having failed to conclude a treaty with Kabaka Mwanga, left Mengo for the Coast. Ernest Gedge remained to represent the Imperial British East Africa Company. Lugard reached Mengo on the following 18 December. Gedge who was a very sick man laft to return to the Coast on 14 January 1891. He was delayed by illness in Kyagwe where he was found by Captain W.H. Williams who was coming up to join Lugard. Auburn, an assistant with Williams, was detached to travel with Gedge who was at last fit enough to cross the Nile on 10 February. Passing through Kavirondo and Kabras, Gedge struck due east by the recognized route over the Elgeyo and Kamasia escarpments to Lake Baringo (Njemps) and thence southwards by Lake Naivasha to Dagoretti. ….. [extracts from Gedge's diary whilst at Dagoretti] ……
Gedge reached Mombasa on 21st and sailed for England on 27 April 1891.
Nicholls - Ernest Gedge, a former tea-planter in Assam and now an IBEAC employee, the son of the Revd Augustus Gedge of Ludborough, Lincolnshire.
North - Visiting EA as member of the EA Syndicate at Mombasa with wife staying with J.H. Wilson 4-12-1902; with wife in camp some 3 miles from Nairobi Dec 1902-Jan 1903; Mrs Gedge ill in hospital 15-1-1903 - 18-2-1903; Gedge and wife left Mombasa for Aden refusing to pay bill for wife's stay in hospital 23-2-1903; At Mombasa waiting to work the Arabuku Forest lease for the East Africa Estates Co. July 1904; at the Arabuku Forest 14-8-1904; Firearm registered at Mombasa 28-1-1905; Bird Licence Nairobi Oct-Dec 1905; 'He has an unfortunate knack of rubbing everyone up the wrong way' (F.J. Jackson, FO 2)
Chandler - Ernest Gedge graduated from university in 1879 and took a job as an assistant manager of a tea estate in Assam. After 9 years in that position, he tired of the drudgery and joined the IBEA Co. His first African adventure was a safari into Uganda with Frederick L. Jackson to inspect the chartered Company's interests in that country. Gedge remained in Uganda as a company official when Jackson returned to the coast. He worked with the Gerald Portal expedition when that party reached Uganda in 1893. In addition to his Company duties, Gedge got a commission to report for the London Times.
He filed numerous articles from Uganda in 1892-93 and from Matabeleland in 1893. An enthusiastic hunter, Gedge is mentioned several times in Portal's diary, almost always in a hunting context: 21 March 1893 - In the evening Mr Gedge arrived from Buddu. He and Williams had shot 24 Speke's antelopes. 11 April - Gedge accompanied [Berkeley] shooting elephants at Chagwe 27 April - Gedge returned from Chagwe; got 9 elephants. Asked leave to accompany us to coast. In August Gedge was sent ahead to Kenya with Portal's official despatches. Portal and his men were suffering from jiggers, hunger, and general depression, and it was thought Gedge would get the letters out more quickly. He spent so much time hunting on the return trip, however, that he reached the British posts in Kenya only 2 days ahead of Portal.
In 1898-99 Gedge joined the throngs of eager outdoorsmen searching for gold in the Klondike. By 1900 he was back in Africa, prospecting for gold in Rhodesia. During most of his journeys he was able to defray costs by making them part of a journalistic venture. Every man who has ever tried to put a hunting trip on an expense account owes a debt to Mr Gedge.