A SECOND WORLD WAR GROUP OF FIVE WITH COMMANDO REGALIA AND F...

Hammer

£2,200

A SECOND WORLD WAR GROUP OF FIVE WITH COMMANDO REGALIA AND FAIRBAIRN SYKES KNIFE TO AN OFFICER WITH THE DUKE OF CORNWALL's LIGHT INFANTRY WHO WENT ON TO BE AN INFLUENTIAL KENYAN CONSERVATIONIST. A Second World War and later group of five comprising 1939-45 and Africa Star with 1st Army bar, Defence and War Medal with Mentioned in Despatches Oak leaf and Africa Medal with Kenya clasp named to Major R.T. Elliot Kenya Regt. Mounted court style for display. With two VI Commando shoulder titles and 's aint Louis' and US flag patches with a further shoulder title to the reverse of the frame, a photograph of the recipient in uniform, a First World War compass and the recipient's Fariburn Sykes second pattern fighting knife in leather scabbard. Also Kenya National Park and Samburu Game Reserve car badges and a copy of his obituary.
Rodney Thomas Elliott was born into a military family in 1921. Following education at Ampelforth he took a Regular Army Emergency Commission with his Father's regiment and was appointed 2nd Lieutenant with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry from 29th March 1941. Promoted to War Substantive Lieutenant on the 19th September 1942 and Temporary Captain from 15th February 1944. Transferring to 6 Commando his obituary tells of his time with this battalion sized British Army Commando unit formed in July of 1940:
'He recalled knowing the landing was real when they were handed raw carrots to eat during the sea journey towards North Africa. On November 8th 1942, wearing US patches on their shoulders to confuse the enemy, he landed near Algiers. As they stepped off the landing craft his senior officer disappeared under the waves, weighed down by his kit and was never seen again. Elliott, a lieutenant, now took charge. The enemy was engaged immediately and his Commando knife saw close quarter action within minutes of landing. The next few months saw constant action and he was mentioned in dispatches. A few months on, he set off a land mine with a trip wire which cut short his combat career. The resulting injuries relegated him to base training duties with his parent regiment'.
Indeed records confirm that he was reported as wounded on the 7th April 1943 whilst fighting in North Africa. Post War service saw his first encounter with the role of conservationist in the forests of Germany where one of his duties was to bring to an end the rampant poaching by bored US and British soldiers. Following the war he became a soldier-settler in Kenya from 1947 where he worked as a regular game warden. Amongst other highlights he accompanied the young Princess Elizabeth and Duke of Edinburgh on their visit to Kenya spending her last day as a Princess with her inspecting elephants.
Enrolled in the Kenyan Police Force at the outbreak of the Mau Mau rebellion his skills were ideally suited to teaching soldiers the arts of bush craft and tracking, later remembered by General Frank Kitson as 'one of the finest soldiers I ever knew'. Following the Mau Mau conflict he became Game Warden of Maralal District where he worked with many well known conservationists including George and Joy Adamson who established the Born Free foundation. He once came close to shooting Elsa the Lion as he felt she was too dangerous to have at close quarters, he was left in no doubt of seriousness of the Adamson's commitment to the Lion's when Joy promised to shoot Elliott if he shot Elsa.
Known by all as The Major, Elliott had a reputation as a fierce enforcer of game law allied with support for the local communities and animals under his care. Playing a significant role in anti-poaching wars in Kenya's Tsavo Parks his many contacts with the enemy were unreported and his influence on the conflict unrecorded.
Following independence Elliott made few friends amongst the local authorities, prosecuting senior police and military personnel who poached 'enthusiastically'. Later, when moved to the post of Divisional Warden at Nyeri to take him away from such controversy he continued with his determined work exposing the Department's own staff as some of the worst poachers. He spent the rest of his working life attempting to end poaching and corruption, as well as introducing conservation measures that were often widely copied. From 1978 as a Superintendent of Police he was tasked with ending the endemic corruption in the government's conservation services. After less than a year in post he had created chaos in government ranks with every one of the forty wardens he investigated from the staff of seventy being guilty of some crime.
Elliott's was a fascinating life which encompassed active combat with the Commandos in North Africa during the Second World War and life in colonial and post colonial Kenya attempting to reduce corruption and protect the wildlife that he was responsible for, truly a life of it's time in which 'The Major' attempted to uphold the rule of law in all he encountered.
Provenance: A direct descendant of the recipient. *CR Note only one T on Eliott on the Africa Medal. Medals nicely remounted, other items showing expected surface marks and wear, elastic to scabbard stretched.