Terry Owen Mathews

"I was bom in England in 1931, brought up in Uganda, and educated in Kenya and England. My life as a child in Uganda was enriched by my close association with my next door neighbour, Captain Charles Pitman, the renowned Chief Game Warden of that country. After I left school,which due to the war, and the lack of educational facilitities in Uganda was a mixture of schools in Uganda,Kenya and England. I too wanted to be a game warden, but when I applied to the Kenya Game Department after working for theSurvey of Kenya it was decided that I was too young and married.

"So in 1956 I joined Ker & Downey Safaris Ltd. as an apprentice under Syd Downey, completing my training in 1958. After working with them for some 11 years I left in 1967 to form with my wife Jean a company"MathewsSafaris" which is now run by our son Rick's widow Clair and her new husband Jared Crawford, with occasional help from our eldest son Glenn who was one of the last to get a professional hunters licence in Kenya, and who holds a Silver guides rating with the Kenya Professional Safari Guides Assocation, and Phil, our third son, fixed wing and helicopter pilot, who was cheif pilot for the Kenya Wildlife Service for many years, after flying for the Flying Doctors Service all over East Africa. Our other two sons Denis and Lorne are both knowledgable Safari Guides though their primary occupation is Sculpture.Jean too has a guides rating as she has spent many years in the bush and was in fact born in Kenya, and accompanied me on many trips and had a reputation as the cateress on a number of Film Productions in addition to running the Safari Company...

"Terry is a strong supporter of conservation organizations, having contributed many bronzes to a number of conservation organizations including: Game Conservation International (contributed ten bronzes), Friends of Conservation, Kuki Gallmann's Ranch, The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Rhino Rescue, Rhino Ark, Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi National Park, East African Wildlife Society, Cullman & Hurt Community Wildlife Project (Terry was Vice Chairman for a number of years and contributed three bronzes ) and, World Wide Fund for Nature.

"In addition he is on the Advisory Committee of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and in 1990 donated a full size Rhino Cow and Calf to act as a begging bowl for the Rhino Conservation Movement which now stands at the entrance to the Nairobi National Park.

"Later Terry was commissioned by the WWF and the East Africa Wildlife Society to build a monument to the burning of the ivory. The bronze was cast by Terry's son Denis in Nairobi and provided at cost. It now stands at the site of the original burning of the 12 tons of ivory."