John Henry Patterson

Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson DSO (10 November 1867 – 18 June 1947) was a British Army officer, hunter, and author best known for his book The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907), which details Patterson's experiences during the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in the East Africa Protectorate from 1898 to 1899. The book went on to inspire three films: Bwana Devil (1952), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959), and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). During World War I, Patterson served as the commander of the Jewish Legion, which has been described as the first precursor to the Israel Defense Forces.

Patterson was born in 1867 in Forgney, Ballymahon, County Longford, Ireland, to a Protestant father and Roman Catholic mother. He joined the British Army in 1885 at the age of seventeen and eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). He retired from the army in 1920. He married Frances Helena Gray of Belfast in 1...