Frederick Courteney Selous was born in London in the year 1851. He came of a family who were considered to be intellectuals and who had among their many interests the love of natural history. He received his education at Rugby and in Europe. At the age of 19 he left for Africa to become an elephant hunter and arrived at Port Elizabeth on 4th September, 1871. After a brief spell on the Diamond Fields and a short trip across Griqualand he joined Viljoen, a big game hunter, in Matabeleland in 1872. The next eighteen or so years were spent in the country lying between the Limpopo River and the Congo Basin, hunting, trading, and exploring.
Selous became known as one of the most daring and successful ivory hunters in Africa. His fame as a hunter was complemented by his ability to write and speak of what he saw on his expeditions and hunting trips in a simple and accurate manner; a missionary friend, Isaac Shimmin, wrote of him: “His word could be taken for every trivial detail”, and an old hunter once remarked: “Whatever Fred Selous says is absolutely true.” He left a rich heritage of written works on the fauna of Rhodesia and contributed several major papers to the Journals of the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was a Gold Medallist. Selous was also much sought after as a lecturer. President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States of America was an admirer and intimate friend of Selous and corresponded with him for many years. The President once said: “He never boasted. He related his experiences simply, but very vividly and with the attention to minute detail which marks the born observer and narrator.
Details
- Date of Issue: 1 March 1971
- Date Withdrawn: 13 August 1971
- Date Invalidated: 1 September 1974
- Designer: From painting by L. C. Dickinson
- Printer: Mardon Printers (Pvt.) Ltd., Salisbury, Rhodesia
- Process: Lithography
- Paper: Chromo with brown gum
- Watermark: None
- Perf: 14.5 (comb)
- Cylinders:
- 1A (Black) 1A (Magenta) 1A (Cyan) 1A (Yellow)
- 1B (Black) 1B (Magenta) 1B (Cyan) 1B (Yellow)
- Sheet: R10 x 5 (50)
- Quantity: 400,000
Sheet Numbers
