Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere with the rank of captain. The young baron inherited a sizeable estate in the North of England, including land that had been in the Cholmondeley family since 1615 – and the ancestral seat at Vale Royal in the county of Cheshire. The young Lord Delamere made his first trip to Africa in 1891 to hunt lion in British Somaliland, and returned yearly to resume the hunt. In 1894 he was severely mauled by an attacking lion, and was only saved when his Somali gunbearer, Abdullah Ashur, leaped on the lion, giving Delamere time to retrieve his rifle. As a result
Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere was the Rhodes of Kenya and the settlers followed him both politically and spiritually.” Another contemporary and former colonist said more or less the same: “(His) ascendancy over the settlers of Kenya has been enjoyed long enough for him to expect all men – and women – to do his bidding, and do it promptly. He is their Moses. For 25 years he has been their guide.” Beryl Markham, the aviator and author, was close with Delamere and his wife, who served for a few years as Markham's surrogate mother. She summed Delamere up thus: "Delamere had two great loves