Captain John Barry Shenton

Abstract

Barry Shenton was born on 30th April 1929 in Eshowe, Zululand and died the 21st of March, 2007, Mkushi. He worked as a mining engineer up to the Great War where he rose to the rank of captain and came back from service in Europe to a cattle/cotton farm in Zululand. By 1936 the cattle had been decimated by nagana, the often fatal tsetse disease, so Shenton joined the Parks Board, and the family moved to Hluhluwe Game Reserve where Shenton headed the Tsetse Control Department for Mukuzi, Umfolozi and Hluhluwe. The conflict between game and livestock escalated because of nagana and at one time the Parks Board was given orders to shoot all game to prevent further spread. Barry and his younger brother Bob both joined the Tsetse Control Unit and became good hunters until Shenton organised six Martins bombers to spray DDT up to the boundaries of the reserves and this ended the tsetse conflict. Photographer H. Brinkman. (Source: Shenton Safaris https://www.shentonsafaris.com/blog/the-final-touches/)