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{{short description|British hunter}}
{{EngvarB|date=December 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = George P. Sanderson
| image = File:Wagon_sanderson.jpg
| alt = Sanderson and Prince Albert Victor in Mysore, 1890
| caption = Sanderson and Prince Albert Victor in Mysore (1890) on a cart drawn by [[Amrit Mahal]] bullocks
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{start date|1848}} 
| birth_place = [[India]]
| death_date = {{End date|1892}} (Aged {{Age in years|1848|1892}})
| death_place = [[Chennai]], [[India]]
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = {{Hlist|British naturalist|Author}}
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = {{unbulleted list|
* Sanderson, G. P. (George P.). (1879). ''Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India: their haunts and habits from personal observations; with an account of the modes and capturing and taming elephants.'' 2d ed. London: W. H. Allen.}}
}}

'''George Peress Sanderson''' (1848– 5 May 1892, Madras<ref name=":0">{{cite news|newspaper=The Bombay Gazette|date=26 May 1892|title=Death of Mr G.P. Sanderson|page=5}}</ref>) was a British naturalist who worked in the public works department in the princely state of [[Kingdom of Mysore#Princely state|Mysore]]. He began a system for capturing wild elephants that were destructive to agriculture so as to use them in captivity. He was known in the popular press as the "Elephant King" and wrote a book on his life in the forests of India. [[Rudyard Kipling]] is believed to have modelled the character "Petersen Sahib" in his ''Toomai of the elephants'' after him.
==Biography==
Sanderson was born in [[India]] in 1848, the son of Rev. Daniel Sanderson, who was a [[Methodist]] missionary in India from 1842 to 1867. George Sanderson was sent home for schooling to his father's family in [[Cockermouth]], Cumbria. He was at the Wesley (Methodist) [[Kingswood School]], Bath, from 1859 to 1863, returning to India in 1864 at the age of 16.
[[File:Sanderson Kheddah.jpg|thumb|left|Sanderson with Prince Albert Victor and the Maharaja of Mysore at an elephant capture (1890)]]
During his employment in the irrigation department of Mysore with the British Government in India he found time for big game hunting which included tigers, elephants and the [[Gaur|Indian Bison]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Sanderson, G.P. |title=Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India. |url=https://archive.org/details/thirteenyearsamo00sandrich |year=1879|publisher=W.H.Allen and Co.|place=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/thirteenyearsamo00sandrich/page/n28 3]}}</ref> His work involved the maintenance of 150 miles of canals around Hunsur as Assistant Channel Superintendent. Over the years he rose to become head of the irrigation department and was in charge of 716 miles of canals that went through the forests. He encountered elephants and tigers during this period and saw that some roving herds were destructive and suggested that they be captured. In September 1875, he was put in temporary charge of an elephant catching team of Bengal and worked in the Garo and Chittagong hills. They captured 85 elephants before he returned to Mysore.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000206/18920820/122/0014|work=Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser|title=Elephant Catching|date=20 August 1892|page=14|via = [[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He introduced a novel way of catching wild elephants for subsequent taming and training in forestry work. Instead of trapping elephants in pits, he tried a method of driving herds into a ''[[kheddah]]'', a fenced, ditched enclosure. In some cases he had sweet sorghum planted to attract the elephants.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser| date=25 July 1874| page=6| title=A large capture of elephants|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000206/18740725/034/0006|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref> His techniques were a spectacular success and in 1889 he organised a demonstration to entertain [[Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence|Prince Albert, Duke of Clarence & Avondale]], when he visited India. The press referred to Sanderson as the elephant (or hathee) king.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sport and Adventure in the Indian Jungle|author=Smith, A. Mervyn|year=1904|publisher=Hurst and Blackett|place=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/sportadventurein00smitrich/page/n167 1]|url=https://archive.org/details/sportadventurein00smitrich}}</ref><ref name=death /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/hrhtheprinceofwa029890mbp#page/n325/mode/2up/|title=H.R.H. The Prince of Wales's Sport in India|year=1925|author=Ellison, Bernard C.|publisher=William Heinemann|place=London}}</ref>

Sanderson wrote a book, ''Thirteen Years Among the Wild Beasts of India'',<ref>{{cite book|author=Sanderson, G. P.|title=Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India|year=1879|edition=2nd|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006105453}} (1st ed. 1878)</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Thirteen Years among the Wild Beasts of India'' by G. P. Sanderson|journal=The Quarterly Journal|volume=146|date=October 1878|pages=361–384|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924065563961;view=1up;seq=375}}</ref> based to a large extent on his life at Morlay in the Biligirirangan Hills.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sea and Land. An Illustrated History. |author=Buel, J.W.|year=1887|publisher=J.S. Robertson & Brothers|place=Toronto|url=https://archive.org/stream/cihm_92985#page/n565/mode/2up/|pages=545–551}}</ref> He died of [[Tuberculosis|pulmonary phthisis]] in [[Chennai]] at the home of his brother-in-law Dr (later Sir) [[Arthur Mudge Branfoot|Arthur M. Branfoot]] in 1892 shortly after marriage and on the way back for a long leave in England.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=death>{{cite news |title=Death of the Elephant King |work=Aberdeen Journal |date=18 June 1892 |accessdate=1 October 2014 |page=7|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000575/18920618/087/0007| via = [[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref> An obituary noted that he was a vegetarian<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000453/18920621/013/0002|title=A mighty hunter dead| newspaper=Dundee Evening Telegraph| date=21 June 1892| via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]|page=2}}</ref> while another noted his refusal to accept an invitation to dine with Prince Albert Victor who was visiting Mysore.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Elephant hunter and the prince| newspaper=Cornubian and Redruth Times| date=24 June 1892|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001498/18920624/054/0006|page=6| via = [[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref>
[[File:The_Bombay_Gazette,_26_May_1892_p5.jpg|thumb]]
An 1899 newspaper correspondent<ref>{{cite news|newspaper= Otago Witness| date=21 September 1899| page=54| title=An Elephant Fight| url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW18990921.2.191}}</ref> and Sir [[Theodore James Tasker]], in an article published by the [[Kipling Society]] in 1971 suggested that "''Petersen Sahib, the man who caught all the elephants for the Government of India''" in the Jungle Book story, ''Toomai of the Elephants'' by [[Rudyard Kipling]], was a reference to George Peress Sanderson.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.johnradcliffe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/textfiles/KJ180.txt |author=Tasker, Sir Theodore |title=Petersen sahib |journal=The Kipling Journal |year=1971 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120124213/http://www.johnradcliffe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/textfiles/KJ180.txt |archivedate=20 November 2007 }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://archive.org/details/thirteenyearsamo00sandrich Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India: their haunts and habits from personal observations; with an account of the modes and capturing and taming elephants (1879)]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanderson, George P.}}
[[Category:1848 births]]
[[Category:1892 deaths]]
[[Category:British hunters]]
[[Category:People from Cockermouth]]
[[Category:People of the Kingdom of Mysore]]
[[Category:People educated at Kingswood School, Bath]]
[[Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in India]]

George P. Sanderson - Revision history

CleanupBot at 08:22, 11 December 2022