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Call 020-7247 7900 for details or log on to l.hodges independent.co.uk. Edward Charles Goss, game conservationist: born Mbeya, Tanzania 1 May 1936; manager, Meru National Park 1962-66; Assistant Warden, Nairobi National Park 1966-67; Assistant Warden, Malindi /Watamu National Parks 1968-69; Warden, Tsavo West National Park 1969-78; Head of Anti- Poaching Unit, Wildlife Conservation and Management Department, Kenya 1978-86; Executive Officer, Eden Wildlife Trust 1986-2002; married 1965 Else Thomsen (one son, two daughters), 1985 Ann Hamilton (one son); died Mombasa, Kenya 17 June 2002. Ted Goss was one of the visionaries of game conservation in eastern Africa in the post-colonial era, one of a small group of “wazungu” – white men – who adjusted rapidly to the end of colonial days. Goss renounced his British citizenship and proudly became a Kenyan upon independence in 1963.

He constantly had to battle with corruption in high places as much as with poachers; and always kept the welfare of the local people in mind, for Goss knew that unless people eventually benefited from conservation, both habitat and wildlife alike would be doomed.The greatest testament to his life’s work is the Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary on the slopes of the Shimba Hills. This is Kenya’s first community-based game reserve, where the local landowners benefit from a share of the fees raised at the entrance gates. Goss was the driving force in setting up the sanctuary; he fought for it, defended it and prevailed with the “fatinas” or problems, so that building began in 1994 and the sanctuary was opened officially in 1996.
Edward Charles Goss was born in Mbeya in southern Tanzania, in 1936, the son of Charles Goss, one of the original “white hunters” from Tanzania and Congo. Charles Goss left his wife and young family for medical treatment in South Africa in 1940 never to be seen again. Ted was raised by his mother in Mbeya where he went to primary school and learnt to speak fluent Kiswahili, unlike the kitchen Swahili spoken by white settlers.He came to Nairobi in 1949 to attend the Prince of Wales School. Having completed his military service, Goss joined the Kenya Forest Department. But he regarded his first “real” job as the establishment in 1962 of the Meru Game Reserve (now Meru National Park), while working for the Meru County Council.

He was 26 years old, full of energy, ideas and self-confidence, Kenya was newly independent and a career spanning 40 years in the service of the republic began.In 1966, while he was darting a bull elephant in order to remove a poacher’s poisoned arrow, Goss was charged. The elephant stood on his right thigh and crushed the femur, resulting in a permanent limp. As soon as he could walk again he joined the Kenya National Parks as assistant warden of the Mountain Parks under the tutelage of Bill Woodley, another pioneer of conservation in East Africa. Apart from the opportunity to learn from Woodley, who knew the secrets of the Aberdares as well as the native Kikuyu, this assignment served as an excellent continuous physiotherapy session for the mangled leg.The next posting took Goss to Tsavo East where his tutor was another Kenyan legend, David Sheldrick. From 1969 until 1978, as warden of Tsavo East, Goss transformed the undeveloped park into a fully functional game park of world renown. He built the tourist attraction and observation tank at Mzima Springs, and expanded the murram road networks, developing the southern half of the Tsavo East Park. Goss was the first warden in Kenya to become a fixed-wing and helicopter pilot, taught by the British air corps under their Commanding Officer Stuart Whitehead.The notorious “ivory wars” in Tsavo intensified during the 1970s, and Goss risked his life daily fighting the poaching gangs.

Poachers were responsible for the slaughter of thousands of elephants, using AK47s, G3 rifles and even rifle- propelled grenades. Bleached elephant bones are still visible today around Tsavo, standing as a testament to the decade-long, grisly carnage. Goss was able to raise enough funding in America to obtain his helicopter licence and acquire a chopper, which was essential to the success of the operations against the militarised poachers. He subsequently became one of Kenya’s best bush chopper pilots, logging over 4,000 helicopter hours.Ted Goss, who spent most of his days and many of his nights in the bush, needed, just like his charges, the great tusked and horned pachyderms, a safe and familiar watering place His cherished watering hole was the Aeroclub in Nairobi.