Jim Corbett

Jim Corbett (1875–1955) was born in Naini Tal, northern India, the eighth child of Christopher and Mary Corbett. His father was postmaster there. Jim as a youth spent all his spare time in the surrounding jungle, mesmerised by its rich flora and funa.

Few local people owned guns and were helpless in the face of the occasional man-eating tigers which marauded at intervals across miles of mountainous jungle in what is today Uttarakhand, killing hundreds of poor land-workers.

Jim devoted three decades to stalking and despatching these tigers on their behalf. He later established India’s first tiger sanctuary at Naini Tal.

On retirement he moved with his sister Maggie to Kenya where he died at the age of 79.