INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF VETERINARY AND ANIMAL MEDICINE (ISSN:2517-7362)

Robert Starmer Audas served in Sudan in various capacities with several military and civil entities between 1909 and 1935. Along with Claud Percy Fisher (1918-1944), the tenth of the twelve veterinarians who served as Directors of Veterinary Services, and with 26 years of residence, he was the longest serving soldier of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in the country. Audas worked in several of the more remote provinces in the early years of his time in Sudan. His “home”, however, was Darfur where he worked as Veterinary Inspector during two main periods. The first of these was before, and the other after his stint in Khartoum as Assistant Director of Veterinary Services until that post was abolished. In the context of RAVC officers in Sudan Audas was somewhat unusual. He was not retransferred to the British from the Egyptian Army on the outbreak of World War I. He was not awarded either of the two Turkish Orders of the Osmanieh or Medjidie although he did achieve the Order of the Nile, first in the Fourth Class then later in the Third. He was awarded the Military Cross in the King’s New Year Honours in 1919 along with several hundred others but without a particular citation. He contrived to see a lot of military action in “punitive” expeditions against both the “negroes” of southern Sudan and the Arabs in the west and garnered five clasps (only one other British officer achieved as many) to his Khedive’s Sudan Medal between 1910 and 1921. In the British Army he was never promoted from Captain but in the Egyptian Army progressed from Bimbashi to Kaimakan with the honorary title of Bey. For just over one year in 1926 and 1927 he carried the rank of Major whilst serving as the Principal Veterinary Officer of the Sudan Defence Force. After retirement in 1935 he was again in Sudan for six months at the end of 1936 and beginning of 1937 on special (but publicly unspecified) duties. During this period, however, he was in Darfur on a private hunting trip with a former British Army officer with whom he had a long friendship. He appears to have done little of note after this period and spent a quiet period in retirement. His health deteriorated during the 1960s and he was almost blind when he died in 1966.

Royal Army Veterinary Corps; Darfur Province; Military campaigns; Army transport; Horse breeding

In the final 20 years of the 19th Century the Sudanese, under a charismatic religious leader, rebelled against the Egyptians who were governing the country. The British General Gordon, sent to assist the Egyptians, was besieged in Khartoum. A British relief force fought its way up the River Nile in 1884/1885 but Gordon was killed before it arrived. Pressure from the British public resulted in a second expedition being sent to recapture the Sudan in 1898. This reconquest of the country culminated in the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898. Unrest by the Sudanese continued, however, and resulted in continued British presence. The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, nominally a joint administration by the two countries but essentially a British enterprise, was established as a Condominium shortly afterwards. Continuing unrest and civil disturbance by the Sudanese necessitated a large military presence. Maintenance of law and order required enormous numbers of cavalry and transport animals (horses, mules, donkeys and camels) to govern and control the turbulent population. Health care of these animals was a major consideration and a fledgling veterinary service was established. In all,12 people served as Principal Veterinary Officers (to 1910) or as Directors of Veterinary Services (from 1910 to 1956) in the 55- year period from the setting up of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1901 to the achievement of independence by the Republic of Sudan on 1 January 1956. During the early years the veterinarians were military officers who were seconded, usually for short periods, from the British to the Egyptian Army which in turn employed them directly or seconded them to the Sudan. Robert Starmer Audas served as Assistant Director for seven years in the period 1925 to 1932.

1884-1905

Robert Starmer Audas was born at 12 Trinity Square, Carr Lane, in Hull on 23 January 1884 [1]. He was the son of Thomas Audas, a Dental Surgeon Duly Registered and his wife Emma Alice (née Hickling). A photograph of Robert, taken probably in 1886 when he was two years old shows him with a mass of curly hair and dressed in a child’s costume of the time (Figure 1).

The Audas family was living at 18 Regency Terrace, Carr Lane, Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1891. Robert’s father was aged 39, his mother 34, he was the third son of his parents, 6 years old and a Scholar. Also in the household were a younger brother and sister, a Nurse and a Cook. The Audas house in 1901 was situated at 46 Carr Lane but it almost certainly the same as in 1891 following a renumbering exercise. The family now comprised Mr and Mrs Audas, one older brother, Robert aged 17, younger brother Frederick, younger sister Dorothy, Mrs Audas’ father who was a Widower aged 79 and working on his own account as an Agent in Sanitary Goods, and two female servants1 .

Following a course of study at the Royal Veterinary College in London he was admitted to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as a Member (MRCVS) on 14 July 1905. He showed an early tendency to be a writer when shortly afterwards he published a short article describing how he and three companions out on a walk on the coast came across and killed a Rorqual whale over 20 feet long and weighing two tons (2036 kg). They accomplished this admittedly unusual feat by bashing its brains out with an axe and then stripping the jaw bones to keep as souvenirs [2].

1906-1909

Audas was commissioned into the Army Veterinary Corps as a Subaltern on 3 February 1906 [3]:

ARMY VETERINARY DEPARTMENT.

The undermentioned Gentlemen to be Lieutenants.

Dated 3rd February, 1906 :— Robert Starmer Audas, in succession to Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. Nuthall, promoted.

He was shortly posted to South Africa where he served with the Army Veterinary Corps at Roberts Heights near Pretoria in Transvaal from November 1907 to October 1909. This large military establishment was named after Field Marshall Lord Roberts and was the Headquarters of the British Army in South Africa. Attached to the 3rd (King’s Own) Hussars in South Africa, Lieutenant Audas won Army Middleweight and Heavyweight boxing championships and was captain of a regimental team [4]. 

1909-1912

After leaving South Africa in mid-1909 Audas was attached to the Egyptian Army [5] and arrived in Sudan on 6 October of that year. In Sudan, whilst an officer of the Army Veterinary Corps, he first served with the Camel Corps in Kordofan (Table 1). At a very early stage of his career in Sudan Audas bought a horse, the foal of a roan mare owned by a Messeriya Arab, at a horse fair in El Obeid. This animal he named Gamil (lovely or pretty in Arabic) and it was his mount of choice, carrying him for thousands of miles on patrols and treks, until he left Sudan 26 years later. In addition to being a work horse Gamil had a good turn of speed as Audas retired to England with at least two pieces of silverware won with the horse in Khartoum in 1919 (when the horse was 10 years old) and in Nyala in 1922 when the animal was 13 years old (Figure 2). He also carried with him a piece of the horse’s anatomy in the form of a hoof which was later mounted in silver to serve as an ink well. An attempt to have a short biography of Gamil published after his retirement in 1935 appears to have come to nought (Appendix A [7])² .

Audas was in action for the first time with the Camel Corps unit during the Rahad Patrol of 10-19 November 1910. Another action at this time was the Dilling Patrol of 27 November to 19 December 1910. These actions in the mountains of South Kordofan were mounted to subdue the rebellious Mek (King) Gedeil of the Jebel TagoiNuba. For his service at one or both of these Kordofan actions he was awarded the Khedive’s Sudan Medal 1910-1921 – authorised by a Special Army Order of 25 January 1912 – with the Clasp for Southern Kordofan (Table 2; Figure 3) [8]. The Southern Kordofan Clasp – the second to be awarded to the Medal -- is rare as only 19 were awarded to British officers (one other of which was to Frederick Ulysses Carr who is the subject of another article in this series [9]³ .

Having completed the statutory five years service as a Lieutenant the standard promotion to Captain took place [10,11]:

ARMY VETERINARY SERVIC E. . . . :

Army Veterinary Corps, The under mentioned Lieutenants to be Captains. Dated 3rd February, 1911:-Robert S Audas (seconded for service with the Egyptian Army).

1912-1915

The official return of staff for 1 March 1914 says that Audas arrived in Sudan on 1 August 1912 [6]. This was, however, the date he was transferred from the Camel Corps to the Sudan Veterinary Service.

From 1912 to the end of 1915 Captain Audas was employed as a Veterinary Inspector, based in El Obeid, the administrative capital of Kordofan Province. He did, however, make short visits to other provinces and notably Blue Nile, for example from 1-3 January 1913, 2-5 May 1913 and 27 July to 3 August 1915 and Kassala from 9 August to 19 November 1915. Throughout this period and indeed up to 1918 his local designation was Bimbashi. In the Turkish and Egyptian armies of the period this rank was equivalent to the British one of Major but it was usual to accord seconded British officers a local rank one grade higher than their substantive one.

Paradoxically he was still listed in the Dublin Directory in 1914 although his name was now in italic font and his address given as “e.a.” (Egyptian Army) [12].

1916-1917 

From early in 1916 and up to 15 January 1917 his official posting was Red Sea Province but he had sick leave during this period and was due back on duty on 26 November 1916. He was in Darfur, however, for some time between 16 March and 23 November 1916 in support of the military operations against the Sultan Ali Dinar who had come out in open revolt against the Anglo-Egyptian authorities. He was responsible for looking after the hundreds of animals, mostly camels, carrying supplies to the fighting front. His services were obviously well received as he was Mentioned in Despatches by General Wingate and added a second Clasp “Nyala 1916” (under Special Army Order dated 8 September 1916) to his Khedive’s campaign medal [13]:

The following Despatch has been received by the Secretary of State for War from General Sir Reginald Wingate, G.C.B., Sirdar and Governor-General of the Sudan: -

Khartoum,

8th August, 1916.

SIR,-I have the honour to forward for the information of the Secretary of State for War my Despatch on the military operations in Darfur, together with a brief report on the services of the Egyptian Army and the Sudan Administration since the outbreak of war in Europe.

~ ~ ~

The great bulk of the transport service and all transport with the troops in Darfur, however, was carried out by camel; and very great credit is due to Major S. E. H. Giles, Army Service Corps, and his subordinates as well as to Major J. J. B. Tapley, D.S.O., and Captain R. S. Audas, Army Veterinary Corps, whose powers of organisation and improvisation were put to a high test.

~ ~ ~

Finally, I have the honour to append a list of names of officers, officials and others whose work in connection with military operations and the situation in the Sudan created by the war is deserving of special notice and commendation (i.e. Mention in Despatches).

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your Obedient Servant,

REGINALD WINGATE, General,

Sirdar and Governor-General of the Sudan.

No. 1.

Darfur Operations

Lines of Communication 

Audas, Capt. A., Army Veterinary Corps.

Shortly afterwards it was announced in the London Gazette that, amongst several hundred others and in the King’s New Year Honours, he was to be awarded the Military Cross [14,15]. There is no individual citation for this award and he is not (yet) listed in the historical awards lists of the Ministry of Defence. Some two and a half years later, however, he received a note from Winston S Churchill, Secretary of State for War, who had been commanded by His Majesty the King to express his high appreciation for Audas Mention in Despatches for Gallant and Distinguished Service in the Field (Figure 4).

From 11 February to 16 June 1917 he was in Upper Nile as Staff Officer, Transport and took part in the patrol to suppress the Lau Nuer of that Province. This tribe was continually raiding the Dinka people who inhabited Bor district of Mongalla. Subsequent to this action, the Clasp “Lau Nuer” (again under Special Army Order dated 8 September 1916) was added to his Khedive’s Medal.

1917-1920 

Officially posted in Darfur in 1917 and 1918 (see Table 1) he was in Kordofan from 7 July until 31 December 1917. His MOD service document says “Sudan 1917, operations against the...”(with a blank as indicated). The operations referred to were in the Nyima Hills in Nuba Mountains Province. These activities took place because the Nuba tribe of Jebel Sultan in the Nyima Hills were becoming truculent, refusing to pay their taxes and harbouring criminals. The local people indicated to the authorities that Agabria wad Ahauga, the leader of one faction, was spoiling for a confrontation with the Government. It very soon obliged him. A large force was sent out in November 1917 and after considerable fighting Agabria and the kujurkilkun (chief medicine man) were captured, tried and hanged. Audas now added the Clasp “Nyima Hills 1917-18” (under Special Army Order dated 22 January 1919) to his Khedive’s Medal, one of 52 awarded to British officers and 15 to other ranks [8].

From 1 January 1918 until 6 November 1918 according to his MOD record he was in Kordofan and then there again from 21 November until 31 December. He was not, however, physically there all the time and his service record is at odds with Sudan government records which have him in Darfur in January 1918 (see Table 1). He was certainly in Darfur in early March 1918 when he made the first (European) ascent of Jebel Marra, reaching the top on 13 March. He did this climb in the company of J. A. Gillan, then an Inspector in the Sudan Political Service in Nyala, and Captain H. F. C. Hobbs of the West Yorkshire Regiment [16]4 . Audas was eventually awarded the British War Medal (Figure 5) for his service in the military during World War I but it was not actually despatched to him until 21 January 1923. There was a note on one source indicating that Audas was on the Reserve of Officers⁵

By 1 January 1919 Veterinary Inspector R. S.Audas had been promoted locally to the rank of Kaimakan which also entitled him to the honorary title of Bey⁶ . The Sudan Quarterly List for 1 January 1919 also indicates he has the Fourth Class of the Order of the Nile but this award was not promulgated until three months later [17,18]:

Whitehall, April 5, 1919.

The KING has been pleased to give and grant unto the undermentioned Officers His Majesty’s Royal licence and authority to wear the Insignia of the Order of the Nile of the Classes indicated against their respective names, which Decorations have been conferred upon them by His Highness the Sultan of Egypt in recognition of valuable services rendered by them :-

Fourth Class. 

Captain Robert Starmer Audas, M.C., Royal Army Veterinary Corps.

Once again nominally posted in Darfur – where it is known he was present from 1 January to 19 July 1919 – he was in Kordofan for five weeks from 20 July until 27 August 1919. He was then back in Darfur until 5 October 1919 when he left the service of the British Army[20]:

ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE.

E.A.V.S.— Capt. R. S. Audas, M..C., retires on .ret. pay. 6th Oct. 1919.

Audas left the British Army but not the Sudan. His services were taken up by the Egyptian Government and he continued his work in the Sudan Veterinary Service. Audas’ literary tendencies came to the fore again at this time. Unlike his earlier description of wantonly killing a whale he now writes an article describing the hunting of Scimitar-horned Oryx (Oryx dammah) by local tribes and makes a plea for regulated hunting of this beautiful antelope [21]. One of his hobbies was painting water colours of which an example is the Oryx (Figure 6). Like many other expatriates in Sudan, however, he was an avid big (and little) game hunter and he had a large collection of trophies. Some of these he took home when he retired, including a lion skull (Figure 7), lion skin cushions and a military drum of the 12th Sudanese Battalion which was later donated to the National Army Museum by his granddaughter (Figure 8). His living relatives have a collection of game artefacts he also took home including small horns and teeth of various species including one of an elephant (Simon Robinson, Personal Communication, 20 February 2018). In 1920 he became a Fellow of the Zoological Society (of London) when his UK home address was Trematon, Cardigan Road, Bridlington, Yorkshire.

1920-1923 

El Kaimakan R. S. Audas was an Inspector in the Veterinary Department in Upper Nile Province from 1920 to 1923. Yet, as for earlier postings, he was not there all the time. In September 1921, Abdullahi el Suheina declared himself to be the Prophet Isa and as such gathered a large following of Masalat, Baggara and Fellata tribesmen in Southern Darfur. It soon became clear that he was going to attack Nyala, the District headquarters where, in addition to the District Commissioner and civil administration staff there were 37 police. Some 64 Mounted Infantry of the Western Arab Corps left El Fasher for Nyala on 23 September where they arrived after a forced march on 25 September. These were followed by a second force of 52 men with two machine guns. Abdullahi began his attack in the morning of 26 September with an estimated 5,000 men. The defenders fought gallantly but were overrun. Eventually, however, the garrison took the enemy in the rear and drove them out. Abdullahi, who believed himself invulnerable to bullets, was killed in the fighting. Audas garnered his fifth Clasp “Nyala” for this engagement⁷ . It can undoubtedly be said of Audas that he went looking for trouble!

Audas, as all expatriate personnel in Sudan, continued to benefit every year from long leaves in the United Kingdom. On 2 November 1922, for example, Captain R Audas a Civil servant aged 38, of Trematon, Cardigan Road, Bridlington, left London bound for Port Sudan travelling First Class on board the SS Llanstephan Castle [21]. On some of these leaves he “rode to hounds”, hunting foxes with the Middleton East pack, or judged Hunter classes at local agricultural shows .

1923-1932

Posted to Darfur early in 1923, Audas was there until the middle of 1924 as Inspector in the Veterinary Department. He was then transferred to Khartoum in mid 1924 where he was to become Assistant Director of Veterinary Services. One can imagine that he went kicking and screaming in protest at the restrictions this exalted position, with its rounds of formal dinners and other social activities, must have imposed on his preferred life style. Assistant Director Captain El Kaimakan R. S. Audas Bey M.C., 4th Class Order of the Nile, was mainly in Khartoum during 1925, 1926 and 1927. On 6 December 1926 he was granted the Local Rank of Major whilst serving with the Sudan Defence Force as Principal Veterinary Officer. During this tenure he was based in Kordofan and Darfur but had again been on home leave as he travelled First Class from his English address at Trematon, 18 Cardigan Road, Bridlington (Figure 9) as a Sudan Government Servant aged 43 on the SS Herefordshire of the Bibby Line on 30 September 1927 bound for Port Sudan [22]. He relinquished his Sudan Defence Force appointment on 15 December 1927, returned to Khartoum and was again placed on the Reserve List of the British Army. Audas was discharged from the Army on 23 January 1929, having attained the age for cessation of liability.

Undoubtedly he returned to Darfur as often as possible. He was there, for example, early in 1925 when he attended horseshows with C. G. Dupuis, then Deputy Governor of Darfur at Sibdu (Rizayqat tribe), Buram (Habbaniyah tribe), Idd el Ghanem and Nyala. [23]. He was again in Darfur at the beginning of 1927 and then once more early in 1928. In February 1929 he was back in Darfur. His interest in the fauna and flora and the natural environment of Darfur in particular is evident in his submission to the British Museum (Natural History) of a bee he had collected. Although this was not a new species it was one of very few specimens from Sudan and was collected at Dissa in Northern Darfur [24]: 

Seladonialucidipennis (Smith 1853): Halictus (Seladonia) dissensis COCKERELL, 1945 : 353, FFF. Holotype FFF : Sudan, Dissa, 24.ii.1929, R.S. Audas Bey leg., C.10998 (BMNH, London). Examined. 

Audas continued as Deputy Director until early 1932 when he was on a tour of Darfur. In April 1932 he reverted to the position of Veterinary Inspector and then left on leave. He arrived back from leave on 13 July but remained on duty in Khartoum until later in the year. By 1 January 1933 he was back in Darfur as Veterinary Inspector and remained there until he retired from Government service in 1935. It is possible - indeed it is probable - that Audas used his position as Assistant Director in Khartoum to promote a pet project. This was a scheme for breeding horses largely driven by Audas and centred on Nyala, the provincial administrative centre, which was instituted in Southern Darfur (and to a lesser extent in Kordofan) in 1925. It was then estimated that about 80 per cent of national horse numbers were located in Southern Darfur and in nearby Southern Kordofan [25,26]. Imported Arab and English Thoroughbred stallions were crossed with the local Kordofani horse, also known as the Western Sudan pony, in an attempt to up-grade them to meet the needs of the military and the administrative personnel of the country [27,28]. The scheme was in operation with some gaps and more policy changes for over 50 years. At least during the latter part of this period the scheme had little effect on the horse population in general but was used to some extent to maintain police horses at an acceptable standard. Audas provided a description of the scheme in a typescript, written probably in the early 1930s (Appendix B [29]). He later published a formal version of this document in the Journal of the Arab Horse Society but allowed Charles Dupuis, Governor of Darfur at the time the paper was written, to be first author [30]⁸ .

1932-1935

In 1932 he reverted to the role of Inspector, Veterinary Department, Khartoum but received an up-grade from Fourth to Third Class of the Order of the Nile [31]:

Whitehall, June 8, 1932.

The KING has been pleased to give and grant unto the undermentioned gentlemen His Majesty’s Royal licence and authority to wear Decorations conferred upon them by His Majesty the King of Egypt, in recognition of valuable service rendered by them while in the employment of the Sudan Government:-

ORDER OF THE NILE.

Insignia of the Third Class.

Captain Robert Starmer Audas, M.C.

Robert Audas had proceeded on leave in 1932 earlier in the year than usual and arrived in London on 22 April aboard the SS Strathnaver from Port Sudan and, described as a Civil Servant aged 48 resident in Sudan gave his next destination as the Royal Societies Club, Wellington House, Buckingham Gate [32]. On his return to Sudan he was again in Darfur as an Inspector in the Veterinary Department from 1933 to 1935. He was based in El Fasher, the capital of Darfur Province, lived in a 3-room mud hut and slept on the roof. Although this was the regional capital there was only a small number of expatriates in residence. Work dominated the lifestyle and conversation at the “Club” was dominated by work related themes. There was some social life, however, with opportunities to play polo, hunt birds with the aid of horse and dog and get dressed up for formal receptions of visiting dignitaries from Khartoum or even overseas. Audas was made responsible for a herd of 18 tame giraffe which came in to the town for water. Like so many other expatriates living in the drier areas of Africa he also kept couple of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) cubs as pets. In 1934 he had an extended leave of four months. The Sudan Government Quarterly List for 1 January 1935 has Veterinary Inspector Captain R S Audas, M.C. M.R.C.V.S, Nile 3rd Class listed as being in Darfur but due for retirement. Robert Starmer Audas aged 51 arrived in London on 22 July 1935 on board the SS Oxfordshire from Port Sudan with his profession listed as Retired from Sudan Government Service and going to c/o Holt & Co Kirkland House, Whitehall [33]9 . (Figure10-12)

1936-1937

After his return from Sudan it is possible that Audas toured parts of Europe. On 9 March 1936, for example, he arrived in London from Gibraltar on board the SS Viceroy of India. He was aged 52, retired, and going to 18 Cardigan Road, Bridlington [34]. The fact that he travelled 2nd Class makes it unlikely that it was an official trip. The call of Sudan was strong, however, whither he returned at the end of 1936, departing Liverpool on 4 December on board the SS Derbyshire of the Bibby Line. His home address was 18 Cardigan Lane, he was aged 52 and his occupation was Government Official [35]. Government Official he may have been but he spent almost all if not entirely all his time hunting in Darfur.

Some two months after his arrival in El Fasher Audas was joined by Mrs Vivien Henriques who had sailed from Birkenhead to Port Sudan on board the SS Yuma of the Bibby Line on 5 February 1937 [36]. She then continued overland and by air to El Fasher. Robert Henriques arrived in El Fasher soon afterwards¹⁰. The apparent main objective of this reunion and the hunting safari that followed was for Audas to “shoot just one more lion” [37].

Henriques had served in the Royal Artillery for several years in Sudan but he was a debutant in big game hunting. He remarks several times in his book that lion (Panthera leo) are “pure vermin” and during his six weeks sojourn in Darfur he shot, from hides, two as well as two leopard (Panthers pardus). During his time in Darfur, Henriques notes that “Game was profuse”. He saw, for example, gazelle (Red-fronted gazelle Gazella rufifrons), tiang (Topi, Damaliscus lunatus tiang), hartebeest (Lelwel hartebeest, Alcelaphus bucelaphus lelwel), duiker (Grimm’s duiker Silvicapra grimmi), roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus), water buck (Defassa waterbuck Kobus defassa), greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) and buffalo (Syncerus caffer) in one morning near the Darfur-Central African Republic border11. Henriques really wanted to obtain trophy heads of various antelope species and especially of greater kudu but failed to do so.

Audas was no debutant and he was not interested – at least no longer interested – in trophy heads. By this time he was “rated the world’s greatest authority on animals in the Sudan”, was said “to possess the finest collection of head and trophies ever shot by one man” and had “shot 100 elephants, 51 lions and 27 leopards in addition to innumerable small bag” (Appendix C). According to Henriques [37] he was greeted with delight wherever they went on this last journey. He had recruited many of his former staff for the trip and lived in the style to which he was accustomed, sleeping in a large tent, his meals served by his former butler and drinking gin and whisky at sundown (Figure 13). It is not surprising that he as welcomed on this jaunt. During his service shooting elephants prevented them from destroying crops and provided meat, shooting lion and leopard prevented them from killing livestock. His vaccination campaigns and general veterinary duties prevented the deaths of thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of cattle. On this last trip Audas and Henriques did further service to the locals by providing employment to locals and injecting cash into the local economy. They also reduced the depredations of predatory carnivores by killing 14 lions and 19 leopards. Audas shot two leopards and three lions - bringing his total for this latter species to 63 - in one night. He abhorred the use of poison but shot from a hide in a tree situated over a pool of water where the animals came to drink and did not risk stalking and killing in the open.

After a short period of six weeks or so in the bush of Darfur, Audas, accompanied by Vivien Henriques (her husband had already left by air), arrived in London from Port Sudan on 21 May 1937 aboard the SS Derbyshire of the Bibby Line. He was aged 53, travelled First Class, worked for the Sudan Government and gave his forwarding address as c/o Holt & Co., Kirkland House, Whitehall, London. Mrs Henriques was 29 years old and was going to Windsor Hill Farm, Bibury in Gloucestershire [41].

1939-1951

After completing his service in Sudan, Audas lived with his sister Dorothy at 18 Cardigan Road, Bridlington. He continued his association with the Henriques family, however, and on 29 September 1939 – just after World War II had started and when a kind of census (known as the 1939 Register) was undertaken - he was a visitor at the Henriques home at Mill Farm, Winston, Northleach in Gloucestershire. The household comprised Robert Q E Henriques, a Regular Army Officer, his wife Vivien, two children, a French Governess and three other live-in servants as well as Audas who was aged 55 and a Captain retired from the RAVC [42]. He had been removed from the Reserve of Officers earlier in the year as he had reached the age limit for the liability to recall [43]:

REGULAR ARMY RESERVE OF OFFICERS.

The under-mentioned having attained the age limit of liability to recall cease to belong to the Res. of Off.: —

GENERAL LIST.

ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS.

Capt. R. S. Audas, M.C. 23rd Jan. 1939

In October 1946 Audas took exception to what he called the “ruthless destruction of Africa’s big game” and penned a fulminating memo which he probably thought to publish but which never was (Appendix D). This destruction was being carried out - or was going to be carried out - in an attempt to eradicate the tsetse fly. Some five years later, in 1951, he wrote a synthesis of eight trips through Northern Darfur and Northern Kordofan over a 24-year period. His conclusion was that the large herds of Scimitar-horned Oryx and Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) had been considerably reduced. By 1937 their numbers were dangerously low due in the main to increased numbers of firearms acquired by nomads following World War I and the trade in their dried meat (sharmoot) and hides which were used to make ropes and grain bags. He was more positive about Barbary sheep (Aoudad, Ammotraguslervia) which received some protection through the cooperation of the Governor, Charles Dupuis, the tribal chief s and the appointment of a well-known hunter and his son as wardens [44]. These two documents seem somewhat at odds with his own personal history and could be part of the well known syndrome of poachers becoming gamekeepers.

1950-1966

Audas never married. When asked about this he said he felt it would not have been fair for a wife to have had to put up with army life abroad. He and his sister Dorothy (whose older farming husband had died in and who had taken on the job of Audas’ “housekeeper” and helpmeet) moved from their previous house at 18 Cardigan Road to a bungalow at 11 Fortyfoot, Bridlington about 1950. His family recall much of his hunting trophy collection kept in the garage and being brought out and cleaned annually. He also had a quantity of African hardwood which he carved into tea spoons (often given away to visitors) and letter racks. He also had a local joiners turn some into a blanket chest. On at least one occasion he was delighted to receive visitors from Sudan at this home (Figure 14) and continued to receive Christmas cards from the Sudanese Government for very many years.

It was at this time also that his health began to decline and he became a semi-invalid. On 17 March 1950 he wrote his Last Will and Testament in which he left his Bridlington Estate to Dorothy Holtby, who was also appointed as executrix. His eyesight also degenerated and he was nearly blind for the last two years of his life. Dorothy later persuaded him to give a brief account of his life in Sudan, which she wrote down longhand, only seven weeks before his death (Appendix E). Robert Starmer Audas died aged 81 on 5 January1966 [44]. He was buried three days later in the graveyard of St Andrew’s church, Boynton, about three miles west of Hull (Figure 15)¹². Sister Dorothy mixed some of Audas’ collection of pebbles from Jebel Marra in the soil that covered him: she later donated some pebbles to the Durham Archives [45]. Probate of his personal estate valued at £27 329 was granted to Dorothy Holtby, widow, of 11 Fortyfoot, Bridlington, on 9 March 1966 [46].

An obituary written by a former colleague - the one with whom the first ascent of Jebel Marra was made - provides a deeper insight of Audas than could be gathered from the official documents cited in this paper (Appendix F) [47]. We learn, for example that he was known by his middle name of Starmer. That he was a “character”

probably has come through already, that he went looking for trouble in tribal disturbances – he could not have been awarded five Clasps to his Khedive’s Medal by being opportunely in the place where the disturbances took place - is also evident from the official sources. That he was a blunt Yorkshireman will come as no surprise to those of us who also hail from that County. He was clearly no respecter of persons – he probably went looking for fools so that he would not suffer them gladly - and this may have been partly the reason that he was never promoted above Captain although it is probable that he made it clear he did not want promotion. A more aesthetic side comes through in the obituary in the reference to his artistic capabilities. That he loved the Sudan and its people is clear and that he was instrumental in its economic progress through his veterinary field work should not be forgotten and is an important facet of his legacy