Lost Lion of Empire: The Life of 'Cape-to-Cairo’ Grogan (Life of Ewart Grogan Dso (1876-1976))

An African Younghusband – the compelling life of a great adventurer.Ewart Grogan the baddest and boldest of a bad bold gang of settlers in Kenya was one of the most brilliant and controversial figures of African colonial history.When he proposed to a young heiress Gertrude Coleman he needed to prove himself a ‘somebody’ to her father in order to win her hand. He did so in inimitable style announcing that he intended to accomplish the first south-to-north traverse of Africa. In 1900 after two years of illness and extreme hardship he arrived triumphantly in Cairo.He became an instant celebrity and on returning to England at last married Gertrude. Now with a considerable fortune at his disposal after a short but successful spell in South Africa he arrived in British East Africa. He quickly became a leader among the settlers and embarked on a lifetime of grand projects forced through despite government inertia enormous natural obstacles and the looming threat of bankruptcy. Time after time he proved the doubters wrong as he pulled off the seemingly impossible. Despite this frenetic activity and despite his love for Gertrude he still managed to find the time to run two separate families and father numerous children by various mothers.The abrasive and glamorous Grogan with Delamere was one of the founding fathers of Kenya – ‘Lost Lion of Empire’ is a brilliant and powerful account both of the life of an exceptional man and the birth of a country.